Steve Posted September 14, 2018 Report Share Posted September 14, 2018 Pre Ayatollahs Iran was very tolerant and it was pretty secular .Women wore scarves over their heads...maybe. Same brand of Islam. I heard a guy on the BBC talk about a photo of a graduating class at major university in Cairo and maybe one of the women covered her head. These days nigabs. Same brand of Islam. Iraq pretty much the same. The culture changed in each example. Syrians are shia and the Syrians in America act very secular. Senegal has always been a matriarchal country to some extent. It was that way before Islam and stayed that way after Islam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coss Posted September 16, 2018 Report Share Posted September 16, 2018 Trump to test system that lets him send messages to every US cellphone. The Trump administration will send a test message to all US cellphones on Thursday for a new alert system intended to warn the public about national emergencies. The messages will bear the headline 'Presidential Alert', the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which will send the message, said in a statement earlier this week. Former President Barack Obama signed a law in 2016 requiring FEMA to create a system that lets US Presidents send cellphone alerts regarding public safety issues like natural disasters and "terrorism". https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2018/09/trump-to-test-system-that-lets-him-send-messages-to-every-us-cellphone.html _______ What could go wrong? Jeeze, I'm glad I don't have a US phone, constant txt storms giving himself 'A Pluses' ... 'Crooked Hillary'... 'Witch Hunt'... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted September 16, 2018 Report Share Posted September 16, 2018 21 minutes ago, Coss said: Trump to test system that lets him send messages to every US cellphone. The Trump administration will send a test message to all US cellphones on Thursday for a new alert system intended to warn the public about national emergencies. The messages will bear the headline 'Presidential Alert', the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which will send the message, said in a statement earlier this week. Former President Barack Obama signed a law in 2016 requiring FEMA to create a system that lets US Presidents send cellphone alerts regarding public safety issues like natural disasters and "terrorism". https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2018/09/trump-to-test-system-that-lets-him-send-messages-to-every-us-cellphone.html _______ What could go wrong? Jeeze, I'm glad I don't have a US phone, constant txt storms giving himself 'A Pluses' ... 'Crooked Hillary'... 'Witch Hunt'... I used to get government messages on my phone a few years ago. I think that was under Yingluck's government - weather warnings, election notices etc. They all came in Thai, so presumably they weren't meant for foreigners. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted September 19, 2018 Report Share Posted September 19, 2018 With regards to Trump and the tariffs and such, I actually applaud him for trying to get America to have a positive trade balance with China and others (Canada/Mexico, Europe, etc.). Its a good thing to try. It should be what every President should strive for. My big issue is HOW he is going about it. It's well known he doesn't do his research, he doesn't attack a problem or issue logically and he could (and I argue will) end up doing more harm than good. Trade imbalances are a very, very tricky thing to maneuver. The world is connected more than at any point in history. It's a truly global economy where everyone is 1 or 2 degrees from each other How would I approach it? You need a non political, completely apolitical group. Esteemed economists, and with regards to China, experts both Chinese as well as non Chinese. Everything is political to some extent and any trade strategy has to be long term and unchanging no matter who is president. So, you would need involvement from both parties. There are a few things that were always the same no matter who was in the White House. For example, in foreign policy, support for Israel and until Obama changed it, denigration of Cuba was a monolith issue, static, unchanging no matter who was in the White House. Same with a view of communism and the old USSR a few decades ago. You will need both parties to come up with an agreement for a long term policy because trade and trade imbalances with an economy of our size will take years to work. It's like an airplane turning. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coss Posted September 19, 2018 Report Share Posted September 19, 2018 CS, I have questions, with the recent Florence devastation, what if any, effect will the vast number of insurance claims have on the insurance industry, and are they prepared for it? Is the current state of the Insurance/Finance/Banking industry, robust enough to deal with Florence devastation? I suppose that's another way of asking, if the reforms that were put in place, after that last financial disaster, are completed and effective, or were they, a 'once over lightly', designed to boost the bonus levels of the few. What are the odds on, the Florence costs, putting the USA economy under more stress? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coss Posted September 19, 2018 Report Share Posted September 19, 2018 This following is too delicious to ignore: Hurricane Florence, "one of the wettest we have seen from the standpoint of water". "Some of the flooding is actually epic. Hard to believe," "We've done a real job, and we'll continue to do a real job," "there will be nothing left undone" "tremendously big and tremendously wet" Guess who? https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12128496 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted September 20, 2018 Report Share Posted September 20, 2018 Trump is just keeping a presidential tradition alive: "No, no. I have been practicing...I bowled a 129. It's like -- it was like Special Olympics, or something." "The Middle East is obviously an issue that has plagued the region for centuries." "We're the country that built the Intercontinental Railroad." "On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes -- and I see many of them in the audience here today -- our sense of patriotism is particularly strong." "In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died -- an entire town destroyed." (12 died) "The reforms we seek would bring greater competition, choice, savings and inefficiencies to our health care system." "One such translator was an American of Haitian descent, representative of the extraordinary work that our men and women in uniform do all around the world -- Navy Corpse-Man Christian Brossard." "I've now been in 57 states — I think one left to go." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted September 20, 2018 Report Share Posted September 20, 2018 I thought the Democrats were supposed to be the champions of the underdogs. Guess not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted September 20, 2018 Report Share Posted September 20, 2018 I never saw anything like this in California (or anywhere else) when I was growing up. Yet California, the Bluest state in the country, allows it to happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted September 20, 2018 Report Share Posted September 20, 2018 16 hours ago, Coss said: CS, I have questions, with the recent Florence devastation, what if any, effect will the vast number of insurance claims have on the insurance industry, and are they prepared for it? Is the current state of the Insurance/Finance/Banking industry, robust enough to deal with Florence devastation? I suppose that's another way of asking, if the reforms that were put in place, after that last financial disaster, are completed and effective, or were they, a 'once over lightly', designed to boost the bonus levels of the few. What are the odds on, the Florence costs, putting the USA economy under more stress? I'm no expert by any stretch but I know that insurance companies do offer coverage in areas that are prone to a certain type of natural disaster. Some of it depends on the state. Some states make certain types of insurance mandatory. In some states and the states involved could be one of them, is that the premiums for the insurance for this specific type of natural disaster is so high. [a day lapse in this writing]. I have a childhood friend in North Carolina and he said hurricane insurance is roughly $2,000 - $2,500 a year. but he said it could be much higher or even lower depending on how close you are to the coast. This is for a home about 150k or so. My parents said they pay about 2k for their Florida home. But they get some sort of elderly discount thing with AARP, a group for elderly people. America has all sorts of high probability natural disaster areas. Tornadoes in the midwest and south, snow storms in the northeast, north central states. Earthquakes in California. Hurricanes in the all along the states bordering the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic up to Virginia. It doesn't kill the whole economy. We have had some big ones and the economy keeps chugging along. Both state and the federal government born a lot of the pain. We spend 700 billion a year on the military. The cost of most hurricanes used to be a hundreds of millions to a few or several billion but these days we are talking tens of billions and the hurricane season (if there is more than one) will hit in the low 100s of billions if you total up everything. How you total it all up is up for debate. The price tag depends on how you price things. I don't think it will crush the economy and put us into a recession. Natural disasters don't really do that. There is money to be made in the clean up. So the money just gets recycled to someone else. FEMA hires a lot of temporary workers. Construction companies make out like bandits and construction is good for any economy. Tons of jobs are created with reconstructing homes. Appliances, lawn care, wood, cement, etc. Its kinda weird to look at it that way, but in some ways it sparks some industries. Who pays for it all? I guess we all do in taxes but (unless it gets raided in budget wars), there is a budget for such emergencies. The government, both state and local, carry it forward, and pay for it very imaginative ways in new taxes and fees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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