63 replies to this topic

[Lord Draculea]

http://www.cnbc.com/...haven-play.html

 

...just "a little bit pretty".

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

You would think that with a resurgent Russia that Eastern Europe would not look at all attractive to investors. Interesting.

[Lord Draculea]

We can"t close the shops every time the Russian bear has a little "personality" crisis.

[Lord Draculea]

 

Euronews: http://www.euronews....lt-del-protest/

 

BBC: http://www.bbc.com/n...europe-34726826

 

Sky News: http://news.sky.com/...-nightclub-fire

 

[Redezra]

Huh, cool

[Haflinger]

Resigned over a deadly nightclub fire?

 

I'm used to the Beeb giving strange reports from countries they don't understand very well (like my own, and probably Romania) but what did they mean by that?

 

Have to say I've never heard of a President of a country going "Well the administration was going well, but last night, some people died in a nightclub fire, so I'm gonna call it quits."

[*Anastasia]

Resigned over a deadly nightclub fire?
 
I'm used to the Beeb giving strange reports from countries they don't understand very well (like my own, and probably Romania) but what did they mean by that?
 
Have to say I've never heard of a President of a country going "Well the administration was going well, but last night, some people died in a nightclub fire, so I'm gonna call it quits."

Nightclubs such as the one that burned down have been allowed to get away with lax safety measures because of the draw they have for tourists. In this case, a band set off some fireworks, resulting in the fire. In the resulting fallout, protesters have rallied around the fire as a symbol of the corruption endemic to the Romanian state. The government's resignation was surprising, certainly, but for the reason that many expected more resistance to the public's demands: not because of what precipitated those demands.

[Haflinger]

Right, so it's just the usual Beeb misphrasing. What they mean is not "They resigned over a nightclub fire" but "They resigned over a corruption scandal which cost people's lives."

 

Right?

[Lord Draculea]

Right!

 

The event was just "the drop that filled the glass" of public anger. The PM Ponta has been charged for corruption for several months now, he even recently survived a non-confidence vote, but what happened at "Colectiv" was simply too much. And the protesters' demands go way beyond just the government resignation, they're aiming at a reset of the whole political class, and even at other institutions, like the mighty Orthodox Church. Ctrl+Alt+Del is the word for it! 

 

What I find as remarkable is that the protests were peaceful, and that they were not inspired or fuelled by any far right movement or sentiment, like there seems to be the case in many other parts of Europe.

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

Is Romania seeing any refugees from Syria?

[Lord Draculea]

Nope, not so far anyway. But it's quite amusing to watch the efforts of Mrs. Merkel and the EU bureaucracy to enforce permanent mandatory quotas of refugees for all EU countries. If something like that will pass, I'm curious how they think we're going to make ours stay inside the country. In two weeks after any relocation, they're going to be back in Germany. What can we do, put them in cages?

[Haflinger]

Merkel doesn't really want the quotas, they're being forced onto her by the EU bureaucracy. I agree that they seem ridiculous. I mean, here you have an enormous humanitarian crisis, and they're quibbling over these numbers.

 

... then again I also tend to think that someone should figure out a way of boating them to the people who are actually responsible for the situation, by which I mean the Americans.

[Lord Draculea]

What a great idea! I wish someone would put that on the agenda for the next year's presidential campaign.

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

Merkel doesn't really want the quotas, they're being forced onto her by the EU bureaucracy. I agree that they seem ridiculous. I mean, here you have an enormous humanitarian crisis, and they're quibbling over these numbers.

 

... then again I also tend to think that someone should figure out a way of boating them to the people who are actually responsible for the situation, by which I mean the Americans.

 

The United States bears a huge portion of the responsibility for the current state of the Middle East, but not all of it. If you really want to go back to the source maybe they should all be shipped to Britain; after all they started this whole "America" nonsense. 

[*Anastasia]

Merkel doesn't really want the quotas, they're being forced onto her by the EU bureaucracy. I agree that they seem ridiculous. I mean, here you have an enormous humanitarian crisis, and they're quibbling over these numbers.
 
... then again I also tend to think that someone should figure out a way of boating them to the people who are actually responsible for the situation, by which I mean the Americans.

 
The United States bears a huge portion of the responsibility for the current state of the Middle East, but not all of it. If you really want to go back to the source maybe they should all be shipped to Britain; after all they started this whole "America" nonsense. 
 

Hey, don't blame Mother Britain. It's Ethiopia's fault, they started this whole "homo sapien" nonsense.

[Haflinger]

... then again I also tend to think that someone should figure out a way of boating them to the people who are actually responsible for the situation, by which I mean the Americans.

The United States bears a huge portion of the responsibility for the current state of the Middle East, but not all of it. If you really want to go back to the source maybe they should all be shipped to Britain; after all they started this whole "America" nonsense. 

The invasion of Iraq is the direct primary cause of the current wretched state of security matters in Iraq and Syria.

[the rebel]

Merkel doesn't really want the quotas, they're being forced onto her by the EU bureaucracy. I agree that they seem ridiculous. I mean, here you have an enormous humanitarian crisis, and they're quibbling over these numbers.

... then again I also tend to think that someone should figure out a way of boating them to the people who are actually responsible for the situation, by which I mean the Americans.

The United States bears a huge portion of the responsibility for the current state of the Middle East, but not all of it. If you really want to go back to the source maybe they should all be shipped to Britain; after all they started this whole "America" nonsense.

Hey now don't be so hasty, first you should blame the colonists for treason against the crown, which started "America"

[ᗅᗺᗷᗅ]

Those bastards really do have a lot to answer for. I actually have an ancestor who fought in the Revolutionary War, qualifying me to be a Son of the American Revolution, but those guys are a bunch of assholes. I am a loyalist through and through. If it were up to me New England would secede and rejoin the Mother Country.

[Haflinger]

I'm with you as long as you stop at the word "secede."

[Lord Draculea]

As far as I've heard, plans are on the way to split Syria and create a Sunni autonomous region (once the Islamic "state" is removed from the map), besides the Kurdish autonomous entity (if Turkey agrees) and an Allawite entity (under Russian influence) but without Bashar. With a bit of luck, that could work. The ISIS can't be defeated without winning the support of the Sunnis first (without whom there's no point in fighting ISIS on the ground). And the Sunni state in Syria can't exist without a solid international guarantee of the great powers that the Iranians (Shiites) won't retaliate. Which is made possible by the Iranian nuclear agreement.

 

As I see it, the US knows exactly what they're doing, and they've known from the start. The invasion of Iraq and subsequent retreat was a tactical move to set the region on fire as a way to counter the Muslim revolutionary ferment by turning the Muslim world against themselves, rather than the exterior. The migrants crisis (a Turkish tactical move) and the terror wave in Europe are of course a side effect, but I don't think the Americans are too upset about it, as a way to remind the Europeans of their own responsibilities, and to make clear that they can't expect the US to provide an unconditional protection umbrella forever while incurring all the costs (and while Western Europe is busy enjoying the benefits of their welfare states). Moreover, if Western Europe is going to play the Russian card (as they seem to have started), they'll be doing so at the cost of losing the support of the Eastern EU states and the EU & NATO disintegration, with the US remaining the only power to provide the security umbrella for Eastern Europe against the Russian unrest and ambitions (which, from a security standpoint, has anyway been the case since the fall of the iron curtain).

 

As for the Russians, their late few tactical victories are not going to prevent them from losing the strategic battle in the end. We've seen that movie before.