Well, looks like Ivanka's kids will be the only Americans to have one grandpa pardoned by the other grandpa.
travo said:Well, looks like Ivanka's kids will be the only Americans to have one grandpa pardoned by the other grandpa.
't is a jolly season.
After listening to the latest GUPodcast and it's section on Australian politics, I wanted to share a short tale of what's currently hot in national politics here. By doing this, I want to rebuke Foolz' comments on what you need to be rich and succesfull in your life.
currently hot is a 35-year old female liberal politician of marocan origin who lived in one of the poorest towns in our nation. Not because she is hot (she's not), but because of her non profit organization's bookkeeping. She has started, amongst others, a non-profit organization that gives youngsters with difficult home situations and limited opportunity a place to be themselves through the medium of urban dance. This organisation has, over the last few years, received over 5 million in funding from the government. Of which it now appears that a rather large sum has been used to cover stuff not at all related to the organization itself. As there are: a kitchen for a different building and personal cuttlery. It now also appears that she herself owns estates with a total worth of over 2.5 million, which she tried to sell off very fast once shit started to hit the fan.
So you see, being born into wealth and attending certain schools where the intention is more to build a network than to learn things aren't the only ways to become succesfull. You can also opt to start a non-profit organization and be extremely fraudulent the moment it gains traction.
Well my comments were specifically about America, however she doesn't sound rich and successful by the standards of ivy leaguers. 2.5 milion in property is a drop in the ocean. That being said, non-profits and NGOs as part of "philanthropy" are all important wealth growth strategies for ivy leaguers, and are each worthy of a podcast in and of themselves!
SupremeAC said:Might not be great by Ivy league standards, but I'm still saying it's pretty good. Let's agree on 'slightly above average'
Well that's the crazy thing about the rich and the successful these days, she's a total failure! Hell, she didn't even have the capital to lobby for the legalisation of her corruption. What a peasant!
She did however hire a former top polical figure-turned lawyer for her defence, who proclaimed that there was no fraud, just that the bookkeeping was a bit messy, as is apparently often the case with NGO's.
SupremeAC said:She did however hire a former top polical figure-turned lawyer for her defence, who proclaimed that there was no fraud, just that the bookkeeping was a bit messy, as is apparently often the case with NGO's.
He's not wrong there. 
Kim Jong-un declared 11 days of moarning to 'celebrate' the 10th anniversary of his father's passing. During these 11 days, it's forbidden to laugh. Which, of course, in and of itself, is hilarious.
: because we can.
I'm not sure what to believe. It felt like there was going to be an invasion any day now. I wonder if Putin backed down or if they media made it out to be more dire than it really was?
The warmongering of the press never fails to impress me.
I saw a headline along the lines of "Putin sends terrifying message to the world that nothing can stop Russia from invading the Ukraine".
Content of the article: US colonel whining that America doesn't have enough troops in Eastern Europe, and this could allow Putin to send this message (which the colonel came up with) to the world lol.
I think an invasion as we've seen in the Krim 8 years ago is possible, but only as a last resort for Russia. Putin has much more to win with guarantee's and being listened to and respected, than in open warfare. He'll keep threatening and might do some small scale interventions, but he'll be cautious to do anything that might trigger large scale military repercusions. He can't afford those. The US's military budget is about 12 times that of Russia. Even the EU's budget eclipses that of Russia by a factor of 5.
I attended a lecture on this exact topic a week or two ago in which a professor who studies international peace framed this whole situation. The main take-away is that the West hasn't been respectful of Russia ever since Putin came to power about 2 decades ago. Putin was originally even interested in joining tha NATO, but -surprise surprise- the US always blocked this untill Putin cooled on the subject and decided that he'd go at it himself. The NATO has been expanding up to and against Russian borders, with military installations positioned much closer to Russia than required to guarantee the safety of NATO lands. This despite promises about not expanding the NATO that were made by prominent leaders when the sovjet union fell. Basically the US has forced the NATO's hand a multitude of times in chosing paths that go against Russian interests.
Maybe public broadcasting television hosts should have more power in our country. Just saying.
There is no way there will be open conflict between Russia and the US, that would end us all. Hopefully it's a bunch of chest pounding that doesn't result in much. Sadly Ukraine will get the brunt of whatever happens.
Hmm