I can assure you professor that the English public are every bit as gullible as the American public. We swallowed the lying spew from Tony Blair's mouth about the Iraq war, "hook, line and sinker" Our own members of parliament also fell for the fake stories that Blair and Bush were telling them. In Blair's defense, he did at least ask parliament for a vote which he won. As you rightly point out, Trump was adored when he fired missiles at Syria but treated with disdain when the media have put the story on the back burner. Trump needs another war boost and as it looks like the Syrian government are planning another chemical attack, so he can expect to be popular again any time now.
This announcement by Trump this morning is frankly farcical! Clearly, this is just a precursor to another missile attack on Assad's assets because he is gradually getting his country back which is starting to annoy the American military. The worst thing about this ludicrous announcement is that our own defense minister in the UK, that old fool Michael Fallon, has said on the radio this morning that he will support anything America does, even without knowing any of the facts or having any evidence whatsoever. No wonder we British are being targeted by terrorists!!
You apologize for the British people being dragged into the Iraq war, but as I recall Tony Blair and his government were all for it and the media here was completely on side and relished the prospect of war. I see that you don't even mention the more recent attack on Libya by the West, notwithstanding the fact that the Manchester terrorists were proven to be connected with this country and had visited there in recent times. Countries that aren't involved in regime change or otherwise attacking people in the middle East, are not being terrorized by jihads or any other Mid-East fanatics.
I don't doubt that just about every person in the middle East knows exactly what Trump thinks of Muslims, but when a man like Trump arrives with boat loads of dollars for the taking, its prudent to forget about things he said on the election campaign stump. Even the most extreme hate and loathing can be bought off with a fist full of dollars!
America has just approved arms sales to the Saudi regime of a hundred billion dollars and there is talk of the Saudi regime putting up 50 billion dollars for American infrastructure. Good relations and detente doesn't really come into it, because its about money.
Most dictators don't have elections they just take power with the support of the military. Trump and Erdogan were both elected , although by a small majority so I suppose they do have some legitimacy. Its within the gift of every new leader to make changes to his or her administration, if they couldn't, then the government would be static and without fresh blood. Why Trump left it so long to fire Comey is open to speculation. I would have thought he would have been one of the first people to go especially as he held such a sensitive post. Presumably Comey will be able to write his memoirs now that he's out of office. It should make a good read.
Your last sentence summed Macron's victory rather well. "his position seems broadly similar to Washington's " Yes, he's Washington's man alright. A former banker is but one of his many attributes that endear him to the French and EU establishment as well as to America. It seems the French voter was like the American voter with a choice of two candidates lacking in any real appeal or difference from whats gone before. Still, Macron did get 60% of the vote so he's entitled to say he has the confidence of the electorate. There is great relief in the EU and Mrs Merkel is probably feeling a bit more secure about her own forth coming election. Its business as usual. The more things change the more they stay the same.
Its true that Le Pen gets much of her support from the immigration /Muslim/ terrorists factor, but she also gets support from the the anti EU French people who yearn for the return of the French Franc. There was a poll done a while back which showed a sizable constituency for "Frexit" more than 30% in fact, so its not just the immigration issues but quite a bit of Nationalism as well. There is a general election in France later on in the year and Macron doesn't stand a chance in hell of getting any kind of unity government, so he will become a talking head and sit out his presidency for the next five years like his predecessor before him.
Its a pity that the production of electric cars hasn't been standardized from the beginning. When changing a gas bottle for a motor home, caravan or other use, one takes the empty bottle to a supplier who exchanges it for a full one. The cost of the bottle maintenance etc is reflected in the price of the exchange. An empty bottle has to be produced in order to get a refill. If electric car batteries had a similar arrangement the problem of long recharging times could be eliminated. Logically, there's no reason why this shouldn't work if motor manufactures could get their act together. They've done it with gas bottles which are pretty much the same the world over, so it can be done.
The plundering and laying waste to other nations by large nations is nothing new. The Romans, the crusades etc. I suppose we just have to except that man is a truly nasty beast and as the bible tells us, man will eventually destroy himself and the meek shall inherit the earth. The meek in this case is probably something like the common woodlouse which has been around since before the dinosaurs, lives underground and can live on dead and decaying matter. When man has finished with his wars there will be plenty of dead and decaying matter to go round.
Curious.: president Assad took similar powers for himself and we have never heard the last of it. I suppose its okay for a NATO member just as its okay for the Saudi royal family to be dictators. Erdogan will be alright as long as he continues to make his air bases available for NATO planes. However, if he steps out of line I suspect he will go the same way as Gadaffi or Saddam Husein.
I read somewhere that the bomb cost fifteen million dollars. A lot of money just to kill 30 odd terrorists! It will cost the replacement terrorists about fifty dollars for shovels to dig the caves out again and continue operations with barely a hiccup.
I can assure you professor that the English public are every bit as gullible as the American public. We swallowed the lying spew from Tony Blair's mouth about the Iraq war, "hook, line and sinker" Our own members of parliament also fell for the fake stories that Blair and Bush were telling them. In Blair's defense, he did at least ask parliament for a vote which he won. As you rightly point out, Trump was adored when he fired missiles at Syria but treated with disdain when the media have put the story on the back burner. Trump needs another war boost and as it looks like the Syrian government are planning another chemical attack, so he can expect to be popular again any time now.
This announcement by Trump this morning is frankly farcical! Clearly, this is just a precursor to another missile attack on Assad's assets because he is gradually getting his country back which is starting to annoy the American military. The worst thing about this ludicrous announcement is that our own defense minister in the UK, that old fool Michael Fallon, has said on the radio this morning that he will support anything America does, even without knowing any of the facts or having any evidence whatsoever. No wonder we British are being targeted by terrorists!!
You apologize for the British people being dragged into the Iraq war, but as I recall Tony Blair and his government were all for it and the media here was completely on side and relished the prospect of war. I see that you don't even mention the more recent attack on Libya by the West, notwithstanding the fact that the Manchester terrorists were proven to be connected with this country and had visited there in recent times. Countries that aren't involved in regime change or otherwise attacking people in the middle East, are not being terrorized by jihads or any other Mid-East fanatics.
I don't doubt that just about every person in the middle East knows exactly what Trump thinks of Muslims, but when a man like Trump arrives with boat loads of dollars for the taking, its prudent to forget about things he said on the election campaign stump. Even the most extreme hate and loathing can be bought off with a fist full of dollars!
America has just approved arms sales to the Saudi regime of a hundred billion dollars and there is talk of the Saudi regime putting up 50 billion dollars for American infrastructure. Good relations and detente doesn't really come into it, because its about money.
I seem to recall that it was the security services which did the leaking against Trump in the so called Russia gate affair?
Most dictators don't have elections they just take power with the support of the military. Trump and Erdogan were both elected , although by a small majority so I suppose they do have some legitimacy. Its within the gift of every new leader to make changes to his or her administration, if they couldn't, then the government would be static and without fresh blood. Why Trump left it so long to fire Comey is open to speculation. I would have thought he would have been one of the first people to go especially as he held such a sensitive post. Presumably Comey will be able to write his memoirs now that he's out of office. It should make a good read.
Your last sentence summed Macron's victory rather well. "his position seems broadly similar to Washington's " Yes, he's Washington's man alright. A former banker is but one of his many attributes that endear him to the French and EU establishment as well as to America. It seems the French voter was like the American voter with a choice of two candidates lacking in any real appeal or difference from whats gone before. Still, Macron did get 60% of the vote so he's entitled to say he has the confidence of the electorate. There is great relief in the EU and Mrs Merkel is probably feeling a bit more secure about her own forth coming election. Its business as usual. The more things change the more they stay the same.
Its true that Le Pen gets much of her support from the immigration /Muslim/ terrorists factor, but she also gets support from the the anti EU French people who yearn for the return of the French Franc. There was a poll done a while back which showed a sizable constituency for "Frexit" more than 30% in fact, so its not just the immigration issues but quite a bit of Nationalism as well. There is a general election in France later on in the year and Macron doesn't stand a chance in hell of getting any kind of unity government, so he will become a talking head and sit out his presidency for the next five years like his predecessor before him.
Its a pity that the production of electric cars hasn't been standardized from the beginning. When changing a gas bottle for a motor home, caravan or other use, one takes the empty bottle to a supplier who exchanges it for a full one. The cost of the bottle maintenance etc is reflected in the price of the exchange. An empty bottle has to be produced in order to get a refill. If electric car batteries had a similar arrangement the problem of long recharging times could be eliminated. Logically, there's no reason why this shouldn't work if motor manufactures could get their act together. They've done it with gas bottles which are pretty much the same the world over, so it can be done.
The plundering and laying waste to other nations by large nations is nothing new. The Romans, the crusades etc. I suppose we just have to except that man is a truly nasty beast and as the bible tells us, man will eventually destroy himself and the meek shall inherit the earth. The meek in this case is probably something like the common woodlouse which has been around since before the dinosaurs, lives underground and can live on dead and decaying matter. When man has finished with his wars there will be plenty of dead and decaying matter to go round.
Curious.: president Assad took similar powers for himself and we have never heard the last of it. I suppose its okay for a NATO member just as its okay for the Saudi royal family to be dictators. Erdogan will be alright as long as he continues to make his air bases available for NATO planes. However, if he steps out of line I suspect he will go the same way as Gadaffi or Saddam Husein.
I read somewhere that the bomb cost fifteen million dollars. A lot of money just to kill 30 odd terrorists! It will cost the replacement terrorists about fifty dollars for shovels to dig the caves out again and continue operations with barely a hiccup.