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Reports of protests are overblown. A few incidents around the country, but nothing major.

5 (45.5%)

A few major incidents in capitals, but nothing much in DC.

5 (45.5%)

A major incident in DC, but nothing much around the country.

0 (0%)

More than 10 capitals have major upheavals, but nothing much in DC.

0 (0%)

A major incident in DC plus more than 10 capitals with significant upheavals.

1 (9.1%)

More than half the capitals around the country have problems with protesters, but DC is quiet.

0 (0%)

DC has major problems, while more than half the capitals around the country also have considerable trouble with protesters.

0 (0%)

Huge disruption to the day.

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 9

Voting closed: January 19, 2021, 10:49:21 PM

[josh]

https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/16/opinions/election-2020-third-party-candidates-foley/index.html

[facilitatorn]

http://www.salon.com/2019/12/16/state-media-claims-that-president-donald-trump-is-an-agent-of-russia_partner/

[kiidcarter8]

Salon!!!!

[facilitatorn]

Rossiya-24!!!

Wake up Kid. Even Moose and Squirrel can figure this one out.

[bambu.]

Besides countries with on-going wars -- Yemen, Syria, etc -- or barely-there gov'ts (Iraq, Somalia) or both (Libya, Afghanistan), the only "stable" countries that come to mind where I would be wary of going are Pakistan, Mexico, probably Honduras and North Korea.  While I'm sure there are nice areas in these countries, they strike me as potentially violent and unsafe. 

Most countries go out of their way to be helpful to tourists.  Thailand, a land with many corruptions, even has a Tourist Police bureau operating throughout the country.  One of the best things about China is the safety level.  There aren't any bad or dangerous sections of Shanghai.  You can walk down any street past midnight alone.  Nobody has guns (except the poorly trained armored car guards and the People's Armed Police, a counter-riot agency you rarely see in public).  While crimes against foreigners are generally given a high priority, and criminals know that.  At most there is a pickpocket problems, but little violent crime.

Also, many countries have fairly well-trod tourist routes and tourist zones which tend to be well-policed and safe.  The worst I've experienced abroad is food poisoning (Kenya, Vietnam, Morocco) and minor hassles.  Can't really think of any significant problems.  Here and there someone might have been rude or tried to cheat us a bit on price.  Stuff you get over in a few minutes.

And often enough you run into unexpected hospitality such as when our Palestinian taxi driver/guide asked if it was okay if we stopped at his home.  And so we wound up hanging at his house for half an hour drinking tea and meeting his young sister, wife  and newborn baby.  Sometimes the informality is nicely refreshing, such as when our Jerusalem taxi driver asked if it would be okay if he stopped for 2 minutes to pick up a jacket from a tailor that happened to be near our hotel.  Hell, in Tbilisi Georgia our car rental company was a big fat wrestler looking dude with 5 vehicles on the street, who was amused when I wanted to add in the price per day on his one page Xerox contract.

No no no no no!
You should never do that...never, it's the no 1 rule of travel...never ever ever go inside the homes of strangers, whether cab drivers, friendly locals who start talking to you in malls etc and invite you to their homes to "experience the nicely refreshing hospitality of the locals".
Quickest way to get oneself bound, gagged, and hood over head whisked away to a remote location to be held hostage by terrorists and ransomed.
All shown on true series "Banged up abroad".

Also, never attend parties when invited to by friendly strangers, you could be held hostage, drugged and sold as a sex slave.
All shown in the movie "Taken".

The bad people lurk in the shadows, waiting to pounce...the moment you get security careless - bambu

[Yankguy1]

It appears to me that Bodiddley is a world traveler and Bambu has never left his basement.  So I'm not sure who's going to be more credible on the subject of travel. 

[facilitatorn]

http://thebulwark.com/impeach-and-withhold/

[bambu.]

It appears to me that Bodiddley is a world traveler and Bambu has never left his basement.  So I'm not sure who's going to be more credible on the subject of travel. 

bambu travelled...to NZ once...where mrs bambu was nearly killed on a glacier IMO we should never have been on.
Adventure/extreme travel...very bad idea.

Touring around the floor of an active volcano.
Another very bad idea.

Before that he travelled on a cruise ship to Tasmania from Sydney, on his honeymoon in 1969.
Cruise ship, the ocean...he spent the journey there and back on the high seas in his cabin...sea sick.
Never been on a cruise ship since, never want to.

Stuck on the high seas on a cruise ship with failed engines that is bobbing about like a cork...the announcement finally coming "lifejackets on, we're evacuating the ship by helicopters".
No thank you.

[bambu.]

It appears to me that Bodiddley is a world traveler and Bambu has never left his basement.  So I'm not sure who's going to be more credible on the subject of travel.

Tour the world...tours to most everywhere are available...including to lost cities.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/8103055/Face-to-face-with-his-kidnapper.html


Henderson’s first South American trip had been a way of marking a new chapter in his life. Not long before, Henderson, a television producer-director from Lincoln, then aged 31, had ended an eight-year relationship. He had spent nearly four months travelling, but was due to finish his adventure in Colombia where his cousin Kirsty was teaching.
 He wasn’t put off by the country’s reputation – Colombia was in the throes of civil war, with right-wing paramilitaries battling left-wing guerrillas fighting for control of land that produces 80 per cent of the world’s cocaine. Vast swaths of the country were off-limits to tourists. Kirsty warned Henderson against certain potentially dangerous expeditions, but she recommended a trip to Ciudad Perdida.

He reached the Lost City on September 11 2003 and spent the day wandering around the site, meeting up with a second group of tourists. That night he retired to bed, a mattress on the floor of a wooden hut, set on stilts on the mountainside.

At about 4.30 the next morning he was awoken by voices. At first he thought that some local children had climbed inside the hut. 'Then I felt the muzzle of a gun being pressed into my ribs,’ he says.

Days passed and became weeks. The hostages were constantly on the move. They slept under plastic sheeting and survived on rice, panela (sugar-cane extract), scraps of burnt meat and coffee.

#####

That food would not be to my liking... etc.

[facilitatorn]

How trump lost his trade war with China.

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5df6bde5e4b03aed50f043d0

Walking loudly and carrying a small stick...

[bambu.]

  i think the only two countries I didn't care for too much were Australia and Morocco.  Australia seemed remote and dull, though mainly I was in Tasmania, so maybe that explains it.   Sydney was fine, but more expensive than I expected, and that was 15 years ago.  The women of OZ act like guys, tough, rugged beerswilling outdoors types that.  I preferred the Chinese women there, but you get a fair amount of that in Shanghai as it is.  Australia was allright, nothing held my interest much either.  A place built by convict labor.[/I]

Some do, guess that comes with 'equality'...they don't seem to have any trouble "getting a man" though.
Think it's different in the corporate world.
Tasmania, world heritage natural beauty...not somewhere to go for massive excitement/wild partying etc.

[josh]

Rossiya-24!!!

Wake up Kid. Even Moose and Squirrel can figure this one out.

I had that exact thought when he so 'thoughtfully' exclaimed "Slate!"

[josh]

OMG, Giuliani!

https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/12/16/giuliani-yovanovitch-new-yorker-baldwin-newsroom-vpx.cnn

In an interview with the New Yorker, Rudy Giuilani said he needed former ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch "out of the way," and went on to say she was going to make investigations into President Donald Trump's political rival "difficult."

[REDSTATEWARD]

News Item
December 16, 2019


U.S. business activity improved to a five-month high in December, a new survey showed Monday, and China’s industrial output and consumer spending accelerated in November. Meanwhile, new data from Europe showed it remained mired in low growth.

The economic measurements came as the U.S. reached a limited trade deal with China and put the finishing touches on a new trade pact with Mexico and Canada. Lawmakers in Washington also reached a deal to keep the government operating through September, avoiding a repeat of the government shutdown in early 2019. The result of the U.K.’s election also eased some uncertainty about how and when the country would leave the European Union. Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Reserve said it would pause interest-rate cuts, suggesting the economy has found stability.

“We’re looking at moderate economic growth in 2020,” said Scott Brown, chief economist at investment firm Raymond James. “The downside risks look much less severe than they did back in August.”

Global stocks have risen on the developments, with markets heading higher on data signaling improvement in the Chinese economy.

[REDSTATEWARD]

News Item
December 16, 2019




Former FBI Director James Comey admitted on "Fox News Sunday" that the recently released Justice Department Inspector General’s report on the launch of the FBI’s Russia investigation and their use of the surveillance process showed that he was "overconfident" when he defended his former agency's use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).


This comes days after Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report and testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee detailed concerns that included 17 “significant errors and omissions” by the FBI’s investigative team when applying for a FISA warrant to monitor former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Horowitz referred “the entire chain of command” to the FBI and DOJ for “how to assess and address their performance failures” during the probe, which was conducted while Comey was in charge.
"He's right, I was wrong," Comey said about how the FBI used the FISA process, adding, "I was overconfident as director in our procedures," and that what happened "was not acceptable."