ITALY: A WHOLE US/NATO STRATEGIC BASE

Discussion in 'Latest US & World News' started by Striped Horse, Feb 13, 2019.

  1. Striped Horse

    Striped Horse Well-Known Member

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    I have to admit that I found the below short Youtube clip quite surprising given the number and important of US bases and facilities extent in Italy today.

    For me it underscores the US elite attitude that curses the American people today: the desire and financial imperative to engineer wars and engage in hostilities (ridiculously sold - and bought by the gullible - as "defence" obviously) and regime change around the world.



    There is also the below that reinforces this disgraceful elite need for blood money that was posted by film producer Oliver Stone on his Facebook page yesterday:

    https://www.facebook.com/TheOliverStone/photos/a.408698395821132/2328779170479702/?type=3&theater

    And:

    https://www.commondreams.org/views/...GyCYJX-KFg1af96UPwavlBGbNj1FH6v5TWpb4y1fIJqGE
     
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  2. scarlet witch

    scarlet witch Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Well it's fitting don't you think... Rome under tight control of the new Empire
     
  3. Poohbear

    Poohbear Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    "New Empire" ???
    You must be referring to China, no?
    China is expanding its "think tanks", artificial islands, nuclear capabilities,
    AI for military use, rail guns, space capabilities, more tighter control over
    its population, more influence over its 60 million expatriates, more Internet
    control, higher levels of foreign espionage, influence through failed states
    like Socialist Venezuela, more African and Pacific debt traps, more bases,
    more fake 'belt and road' initiatives and more Socialism with a Chinese
    face through the thoughts of Xi.

    This is a fair assessment of the new Empire from a guy who assesses
    China on a year by year basis.
    https://nationalinterest.org/feature/what-next-lunar-new-year-holds-china-44487?page=0,1
     
    Last edited: Feb 14, 2019
  4. scarlet witch

    scarlet witch Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    When China has over 800 military bases around the world then we'll call it the new empire... until then...America it is...
     
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  5. Poohbear

    Poohbear Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Okay, let's get rid of American influence in SE Asia. Taiwan, Sth Korea,
    Japan, Vietnam etc go nuclear overnight.
    That's a good start.
    The Thoughts of Xi are going to be troubled as these nations fear China
    (but strangely for the Left, they don't fear America)
    And let the Japanese go back to doing what they did before the America
    Empire appeared in 1945, ie Empire.
    And let Taiwan and China sort each other out. You know "One nation, two
    systems" (like what happened in Hong Kong)
    And Korea and Japan still harbor issues. Issues which slowly vanished
    under American influence.
    And let Japan and Russia sort out their territorial issues, and same too for
    Japan and China. And let China by default take possession of the South
    China Seas and the territorial waters of Vietnam, Brunie, the Phillipines etc..

    And let Israel do what it likes in the Middle East, and Russian do what it likes
    in Europe.
    I look forward to this world, ruled by the Socialist Chinese and their Russian
    puppets. Democracy, freedom, separation of powers, global trade etc do we
    really need these things if they haven't made us happy or given us power
    over others?

    I like what Jordan Peterson said about "fixing" things. There's not a lot of
    headroom for fixing things which essentially aren't that broken. But there's
    a long long way down to hell.
     
  6. scarlet witch

    scarlet witch Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    :lol: America caused the Koreas issue... if allowed to run its course like Vietnam the Koreas would have been united.

    I could probably go through each and every issue with similar results ^^^

    Israel does exactly what it wants in the Middle east... not sure how you think they are being "constrained" by America... that thought is rather amusing actually. If anything they tell America what to do.

    Much of China's aggression is probably also due to American aggression, the Chinese are by nature traders/exporters and likely feel extremely threatened by America... the Empire (snicker)

    America has put many a country in hell....then goes... "you're welcome"
     
    Last edited: Feb 14, 2019
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  7. Poohbear

    Poohbear Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Korea and Vietnam are wonderful examples of disingenuous Marxist Thought.
    Take half a country, ie the north half and give the south half to the "Capitalists"?
    (ie shop keepers, owner farmers, priests, monks, monasteries, private schools,
    merchants etc..) and then CLAMOR FOR RE-UNIFICATION, with extreme Chinese
    and Soviet backed violence.
    That's what the red flag of Communism is - violence. You can't take away people's
    property, political freedoms or religious beliefs without violence. Marx understood
    that well - he said to make your opponents "impossible." In the Western system your
    opponent's right to a voice is respected.
    That's why so many people want to go live in America rather than Cuba,
    Venezuela or North Korea.
     
  8. scarlet witch

    scarlet witch Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    America sanction, exclude, ostracise punish )and force allies to the same) until countries who do not agree or do what America tells them to, are isolated. No one country can survive in isolation. It's the equivalent of cutting both someone's legs off then saying ...." you should have listened to me then you would be have been able to walk".

    Americans still unable to see the forest for the trees is a credit to the brainwashing of the American media who echo and chant .... "yes it's true..see how poor they are....people who want to share their wealth will always fail because big bankers tell us so"

    Honestly it's childlike to not be able to connect the dots between all sanctions and isolation with poor performance of an economy.
     
    Last edited: Feb 14, 2019
  9. Striped Horse

    Striped Horse Well-Known Member

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    Yep, it's ironic 'tis true. Rome, Italy, under the control of Rome on the Potomac. :)

    This sort of suggests that at some point in the future, Russia and/or China and/or India will have dozens or even hundreds of military bases located in the United States.

    Can one foresee the days when there are MacBorscht and drive-thu Golubtsy outlets dotted across America...
     
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  10. Poohbear

    Poohbear Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Ah yes, sanctions.
    Kind of mild, isn't it, when you are dealing with narcos, oligarchs, terrorist financiers,
    spy masters, espionage agents, nuclear arms merchants - can I think of any other
    of your mates sanctions might apply to?
     
  11. Striped Horse

    Striped Horse Well-Known Member

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    Plenty of narcos, terrorist financiers and the like that the US have dealt with that didn't get sanctioned unless or until they stopped doing what they were told to do.

    Take Panama's Manuel Noriega (CIA), or Vietnam's Diem or Contra leader Danilo Blandon (CIA) as just three out of many, many other crooks the US has parleyed with and paid or otherwise supported. And as for nuclear arms merchants I suggest you read what former FBI gal, Sibel Edmonds, has to say on that matter (HERE).

    The point being that the lofty Western nations are in no position to point fingers at anyone.
     
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  12. Poohbear

    Poohbear Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Ah yes, it's the old "He might be a son of a bitch but he's our son of bitch"
    saying. Someone threw up Rasputin's name, of all people, once, to justify
    Lenin's murderous rule. I was speechless, and let him get away with that.

    Most countries have no tradition of liberal democracy, and little idea that
    Communism is not just another dictatorship. So you take your pick, ie a
    Sth Vietnamese govt that steals, or a Nth Vietnamese govt that takes the
    lot. Most Sth Vietnamese had that all figured out by the time Soviet and
    Chinese tanks crashed into Saigon.

    Do you chose the corrupt and stupid Tzar or a murderous and utterly evil
    Lenin?

    There's a good chance that Guaido becomes another Venezuelan dictator.
    But again, this son of a bitch might be preferable to the current son of a
    bitch.
     
    Last edited: Feb 14, 2019
  13. Striped Horse

    Striped Horse Well-Known Member

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    I don't "take" or "choose" any of them.

    In fact, I steer well clear of adopting or supporting any political ideology and always will while I'm still drawing breath. Imo, every ideology contains within it the seeds of its own self destruction -- because as one advances and become more successful it will swing to the extreme and become the opposite of what it probably started out to be. That's because humans are involved and few of them thar critters are even aware of their own Shadows let along able to confront them.

    And usually every political ideology / system sooner or later attracts the true power hungry pricks of the world who make it their life's aim to rise to the top of these systems.

    I notice you stayed well clear of both Noriega and Blandon - neither of them communist at any time, but both hearty capitalists. I could add Saddam who also had an eye for a dollar or two - and a bit of extra-judicial murder - and then got pissed off with the US and started selling his oil for the Euro.

    And there are others too.

    How do you explain them?

    Just curious...
     
  14. glloydd95

    glloydd95 Well-Known Member

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    Your depth of understanding of international politics and American foreign policy is...childlike.
     
  15. Poohbear

    Poohbear Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I love the American ideal.
    The founding fathers were not expecting much from anyone.
    They expected that anyone they elected would probably be
    no smarter or honest than themselves - that's why they
    plumbed for separation of powers.
    And wealth was best explained through Adam Smith - you
    create it, not take it from anybody.

    Communism is the complete opposite of these. It's astonishing
    that there are still people who loath the term "profit" or even
    "capitalist" despite living in countries which have given them
    obscene levels of wealth, freedom, public health etc..

    Americans who protest about the "one percenters" are themselves
    the one percent of the world today. And compared to history, they
    are the one thousand of one percenters. But they can't see that
    because the Left doesn't deal in numbers.

    The current crisis over vaccinations and the on-going deaths
    of many children shows what happens when people forget
    their foundations.
     
  16. Striped Horse

    Striped Horse Well-Known Member

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    Actually, it is your response that is childlike.

    If you care to debate the issue, debate it. Simply engaging in ad homs in the absence of an intelligent response is pitiful.
     
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  17. Striped Horse

    Striped Horse Well-Known Member

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    I would conclude that you don't much care for the Shadow side of American style capitalism and wealth creation (marketing cocaine, heroine and other drugs, selling weapons of mass destruction for profit, selling sex slaves for profit et al) as you have resolutely avoided answering my question about Noriega and Blandon etc., and keep on about Communism, which has been pretty much a busted flush for the last thirty years.

    I think your statement about the one percenters is, frankly, a nonsense - and I don't wish to be insulting when saying this - because you do debate the issues politely which I appreciate - but when you have 8 or 10 men who have accumulated the same volume of wealth as half the world's population, you'll perhaps understand why I say this. It's an obscenity of the first order.

    And this simply reflects what I said earlier about all ideological propositions on governance. Assuming they start out with good intentions, they all, sooner or later, end up bad and often worse than bad (Stalin's purges, Mao's massive bloodshed etc).

    Because of the human equation. As Jung observed all those years ago:

    "The only real danger that exists is man himself. He is the great danger. And we are pitifully unaware of it... we are the origin of all coming evil".



    And so we have been and are today.
     
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  18. scarlet witch

    scarlet witch Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Mohammed Bin Salman expropriated $113 Billion from his princes by hanging them upside down in the Ritz. This act of socialism collapsed the Saudi economy.... oh wait no it didn't. The Kingdom is stronger than ever because American sanctions and isolation didn't follow.

    I'm thinking Zuckerberg, Bezos and Musk will look good stacked upside down next to one another so the poorest of Americans can suffer less.
     
    Last edited: Feb 14, 2019
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  19. Jeannette

    Jeannette Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    But, but, but, doesn't China have a base in Africa, or is it Russia? :confuse:
     
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  20. Jeannette

    Jeannette Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    They also said without Christianity democracy could not survive. We're getting there. Anyway we are now a litigious society, and I don't see that as creating anything.

    Look I believe in free enterprise but free for who, other than those who put in the tax loopholes. Wake up, the billionaires don't pay taxes, only the working man does.
     
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  21. Poohbear

    Poohbear Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The problem with envy of the rich is that it can destroy not just
    the rich, but the poor as well. You have 100 years of experience
    to teach you that.
    Closing any particular tax "loophole" doesn't sate the envy and
    spite of the Hard Left. It doesn't want the wealth of the rich, it
    wants to own the entire nation.
    Bezos is worth about 110 billion. Good for him. Rockefeller
    owned four times that figure. That was about 1-2% of all the
    wealth in America. But he didn't "own" this money, he just
    controlled it circulation, and the nation grew enormously
    wealthy, particularly the middle class.

    And Rockefeller gave a lot of it away.

    Stalin and Mao, by comparison, essentially owned 100% of
    their nation. And it made everyone poor except the ruling
    class - the Communist Party.
    Marxism is the ultimate loophole - it creates its own rules.
     
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2019
  22. Poohbear

    Poohbear Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I am wary of this 800 bases business. That would send America broke.
    I understand that radar installations are even categorized as "bases."
     
  23. Poohbear

    Poohbear Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Don't know much about Saudi (but I plan to go there soon)
    but I imagine if we killed off Zuckergerg, Bezos and Musk I wonder
    if the poor in America would be better off. I follow Musk carefully, so I understand him best.

    Musk is not super rich - think he's only worth a few billion.
    If he was "made impossible" as Karl Marx suggested we do
    to those who are rich or disobedient then America would lose
    its lead in space technology - Musk was opening up space to
    the general population and undoing the aerospace monopolies.

    Musk has made electric cars doable and sexy. We would still
    be stuck with petrol engines and a few super-expensive hybrids.
    No-one would think much of a car running on a battery.

    And we have Solar City and Musk's gorgeous solar tiles that can
    put put on any house. Let's not forget his household solar battery
    "wall" and (in my state) his statewide energy backup system.

    And there's Musk's tunnel technology - creating new opportunities
    for cities to reduce gridlock (and of course, Musk's auto-pilot system)
    And Musk wants to create an electric airplane. Another impossibility
    that will benefit us all.

    And there's Musk's constellation of Internet satellites which will bring
    the Internet to everyone on earth, cheaply.

    SO LET'S GET RID OF MUSK BECAUSE HE'S RICH AND HE'S
    TAKING MONEY AWAY FROM THE POOR.

    No.

    Let's see your Marxist Five Year Plan, submitted by party hacks,
    come up with anything remotely resembling the social benefits
    Musk is bringing to the rich, middle class, poor and environment.
     
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2019
  24. scarlet witch

    scarlet witch Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    no said kill :rolleyes: those princes are still extremely wealthy... they just shared a bit...helped their country
     
  25. Steady Pie

    Steady Pie Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    China is the biggest threat to our freedom going forward. Not because they'll invade, but because it's like looking at what our countries will be like in 20 years.

    Repressive control of speech, social credit systems, cashless QR codes controlled by the state everywhere, money printing like nothing seen before in the history of man, centrally planned economies, whole cities even.
     

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