• Arab countries seek to overturn the century old Sykes-Picot agreement
  
• Syria: A victim of colonial politics
  
• Palestine: Sykes-Picot and Balfour Declaration left a 'savage legacy'
  
• Lebanon: Survived Sykes-Picot largely intact
  

• Azerbaijan celebrates the 'Days of Culture of Dagestan'
  
• Azerbaijan and Dagestan share Sunni Salafist insurgencies
  
• Nagorno-Karabakh issue still simmers
  

• England threatened with IRA terrorists from Northern Ireland
  
• The 'New IRA' recalls the 1916 Easter Rising against British rule
  

• EU-Turkey migrant deal unravels over brinksmanship on both sides
  
• More refugees now reaching Europe via Italy than via Greece
  
• Italy rescues 800 migrants from Mediterranean Sea, many of them from Syria
  

• Hezbollah suffers blow in death of top commander Mustafa Amine Badreddine
  
• Iran suffers disastrous losses in battle of Khan Tuman
  
• Offensive to recapture Aleppo may be near collapse
  

Quote:http://www.forbes.com/sites/oracle/2015/09/29/why-generational-theory-makes-no-sense/#3a5d1ef63611

… "We must begin to see generational theory for what it is: an opportunistic fad that exaggerates differences between generations to no real benefit except to the Gen-Experts themselves.
You can begin to make a difference by eliminating labels from your vocabulary and explaining to your colleagues why you’ve chosen to do so.”

• Venezuela's socialist economy close to a crash
  
• Maduro orders jailing of owners of closed factories
  
• Maduro recalls Brazil ambassador over Dilma Rousseff 'coup'
  

• Beer has become unavailable because the country's largest
  brewery shut down for lack of malted barley.
  
  
• Get this: Despite the highest inflation rate in the world,
  Venezuela can't print any more money because they can't
  pay the printing bill. Oh, the irony.
  
  
• In order to save power, Maduro ordered that all clocks be
  moved ahead one-half hour.
  
  
• Also to save energy, Maduro ordered that state employees
  work only two days per week.

• China says Pentagon report on China military 'severely damages' relations
  
• Pentagon documents massive China buildup, but omits 'Maritime Militia'
  

• In the South China Sea, China added more than 3,200 acres in
  artificial islands, used for military bases. China's Cost Guard has
  acquired more than 100 new, improved long-range ocean-going patrol
  ships, many capable of embarking helicopters.
  
  
• China's navy has been on a building binge, with quality improving
  even faster than quantity. China's navy "now possesses the largest
  number of vessels in Asia, with more than 300 surface ships,
  submarines, amphibious ships, and patrol craft, [many of them] larger,
  multi-mission ships equipped with advanced anti-ship, anti-air, and
  anti-submarine weapons and sensors. Submarine force modernization
  remains a leading priority."
  
  
• China's air force "is the largest air force in Asia and the third
  largest in the world, with more than 2,800 total aircraft (not
  including UAVs) and 2,100 combat aircraft (including fighters,
  bombers, fighter-attack and attack aircraft)," rapidly closing the gap
  vis-à-vis Western counterparts "across a broad spectrum of
  capabilities from aircraft and command-and-control (C2) to jammers,
  electronic warfare (EW), and datalinks."
  
  
• China's PLA Rocket Force has an extensive inventory of
  sub-strategic nuclear and conventional ballistic missiles—notably
  including 75-100 ICBMs, and is "developing and testing several new
  classes and variants of offensive missiles, including a hypersonic
  glide vehicle."
  
  
• In space, China launched 19 rockets bearing 45 spacecraft in 2015
  alone. Chinese counter-space capabilities under development include
  directed energy weapons, satellite jammers, and kinetic kill
  vehicles.

• Western nations agree to lift arms embargo on Libya to fight ISIS
  
• ISIS continues to grow in Libya in size and effectiveness
  

• Venezuela's Maduro accuses US of planning an imminent invasion
  
• Syria peace talks in Vienna collapse in farce - again
  

• Syria's president Bashar al-Assad started this war in 2011 by
  starting to exterminate peaceful demonstrators, including women and
  children. If there were some kind of cease-fire agreement, he would
  violate it as soon as another peaceful demonstration started.
  Al-Assad has been carrying out an extermination campaign on Syrian
  Sunni civilians, and he's going to continue until either they're all
  dead or he's dead.
  
  
• The Syrian opposition won't agree to a cease-fire if al-Assad is
  going to keep dropping barrel bombs on their women and children, which
  he is certainly going to do.
  
  
• The jihadist groups, so-called Islamic State (IS or ISIS or ISIL
  or Daesh) and the al-Qaeda linked Jabhat al-Nusra (al-Nusra Front).
  In fact, the peace plans have actually worsened the hostilities, are
  not going to agree to any cease-fire until al-Assad is overthrown, and
  a caliphate can be declared. ISIS and al-Nusra are specifically
  excluded from the "peace talks." This fact alone makes them a
  farce.
  
  
• Russia and Iran don't care how many innocent women and children
  al-Assad slaughters, if they can control Syria. In fact, the leaders
  of these countries are as guilty of war crimes and crimes against
  humanity as al-Assad, since they supplying the weapons and troops to
  allow him to continue is war crimes.

• Chinese official slams Hong Kong independence during 'inspection visit'
  
• Hong Kong's history and culture make it very different from China
  

(05-18-2016, 09:45 PM)Cynic Hero 86 Wrote: > JohnX, one problem with generational dynamics is that assumes the
> current policies remain in place through the onset of the crisis
> climax. Trump would not keep the current policies. Relations with
> both Russia and China would improve if trump becomes
> president.

• Netanyahu's selection of Avigdor Lieberman criticized in and out of Israel
  
• Lieberman's lack of experience compared to Amir Peretz
  

• Downed EgyptAir flight an economic disaster for Egypt
  
• A dark shadow looms over EU-Turkey refugee deal, as Turkey passes harsh anti-Kurdish law
  

• Kazakhstan farmers riot over fears of encroachment from China
  
• Afghan Taliban leader reportedly killed by US drone strike in Pakistan
  

• Austria deeply split between far-right and left-liberal candidates
  
• Austria's election part of a world-wide move to the right with deep polarization
  

• Death of Afghan Taliban leader complicates America's relationship with Pakistan
  
• Massive explosions in Syria target Bashar al-Assad's heartland
  

• This is the heartland of al-Assad's Alawite ethnic/religious
  group support, and it's been relatively peaceful until now. In fact,
  al-Assad has been withholding his army from the fight in Aleppo in
  order to keep them close by to protect his stronghold, and prevent
  exactly this kind of attack.
  
  
• The car bombs particularly required a large supply of explosive,
  and smuggling that much explosive into the region indicates a big hole
  in al-Assad's security. Furthermore, the coordination of the attacks
  indicates a great deal of sophistication.
  
  
• Al-Assad's strategy in fighting the war in Syria has been to
  target "moderate" Sunni Muslim rebels, and leave ISIS alone, since
  ISIS was also targeting "moderate" Sunni Muslim rebels. If Monday's
  attack is a sign that ISIS is now directly targeting al-Assad, then
  his whole strategy will have to change. Actually, the fact that his
  stronghold was so effectively attacked means that he'll have to change
  strategies anyway, irrespective of the perpetrators.

Quote:... "As I've written many, many times, it's a core principle of
generational theory that, even in a dictatorship, major decisions are
made by masses of people, by generations of people. The attitudes of
politicians are irrelevant, except insofar as they represent the
attitudes of the people. The Holocaust and World War II would have
occurred with or without Adolf Hitler."...

(05-23-2016, 10:31 PM)radind Wrote: > I agree that WWII likely to have occurred without Hitler( I think
> another dictator would have emerged). It is less clear on the
> Holocaust. That took a special kind of evil.

Quote:> On Tuesday, a mob of hundreds of Buddhists descended on a Muslim
> community in Okkan, Burma, hurled bricks and set hundreds of homes
> and mosques on fire. Terrified Muslims fled to fields to escape
> the attack, and came back to find that they'd lost all they had,
> with their homes in piles of rubble. Violent attacks of this sort
> began last year in Rakhine state in southwestern Burma, and have
> been spreading to other villages, with the worst happening about a
> month ago in central Burma. Tuesday's attack brings the violence
> very close to Rangoon (Yangon), Burma's largest commercial city.
> It's hard to see how this spreading violence can continue much
> longer without spiraling into a major war between Buddhists and
> Muslims that will spread beyond Burma.