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American politics

To be fair to him, Mohammed bin Salman's views are positively moderate and liberal compared to many of the rulers of places in and around that region!

But suspect that there are two faces to the man given what I hear from out the region. I urge caution from a man who authorised a journo to be chopped up and disposed with in a suitcase
 
That and to try and nip in the bud the burgeoning friendships it has with China and Russia.
That might be part of it, I read there are a few hundred Russians down there training the military, though he doesn't seem to mind Russians fudging around almost everywhere else. He even lets them write his 'peace' plans.

Needless to say, he has zero justification for any war, nor permission from Congress.
 
That might be part of it, I read there are a few hundred Russians down there training the military, though he doesn't seem to mind Russians fudging around almost everywhere else. He even lets them write his 'peace' plans.

Needless to say, he has zero justification for any war, nor permission from Congress.
I'd say removing dictators should be a moral imperative of any advanced nation - at least those that can be removed. Xi Jingping might be a little tough, but for each one removed, the world is better by one dictator.
 
I'd say removing dictators should be a moral imperative of any advanced nation - at least those that can be removed. Xi Jingping might be a little tough, but for each one removed, the world is better by one dictator.

Of course, you need more than a moral imperative to declare war, but yes, fewer dictators is good. Trump is a wannabe dictator. So is Netanyahoooo. Let's start with them before they go full dictator.
 
Of course, you need more than a moral imperative to declare war, but yes, fewer dictators is good. Trump is a wannabe dictator. So is Netanyahoooo. Let's start with them before they go full dictator.
Neither can become dictators as they have the checks and balances of a democracy to stop them.

Of course you know that, but sometimes it's easier to parrot the screeching lunatics on social media, right?
 
Neither can become dictators as they have the checks and balances of a democracy to stop them.

Of course you know that, but sometimes it's easier to parrot the screeching lunatics on social media, right?
Well it is better than the screeching lunatics that appear to live in your head ;)

Those checks and balances are looking weak as maidens tinkle these days. The Supreme Court has given Trump the power of a monarch, more or less. Congress has abdicated. The consitution is an afterthought. The FBI is a weapon to be used by the executive and masked federal agents are roaming the city streets, hoovering up anyone whose skin is darker than beige. And I expect tons of fudgery in the next few elections, if they even take place. They may come back from this, but I wouldn't bet on it.

So you're not against aspiring dictators, just the entrenched ones? Seems a bit of an inconsistent position.
 
Well it is better than the screeching lunatics that appear to live in your head ;)

Those checks and balances are looking weak as maidens tinkle these days. The Supreme Court has given Trump the power of a monarch, more or less. Congress has abdicated. The consitution is an afterthought. The FBI is a weapon to be used by the executive and masked federal agents are roaming the city streets, hoovering up anyone whose skin is darker than beige. And I expect tons of fudgery in the next few elections, if they even take place. They may come back from this, but I wouldn't bet on it.

So you're not against aspiring dictators, just the entrenched ones? Seems a bit of an inconsistent position.
Even Trump's not dumb enough to think he can become a dictator in the US.

He can't change the constitution without a supermajority and there's no way he's getting that.
 
It's always been that way I think re: tipping.
Interesting to know from a visiting perspective if you feel everything is as it always was.
Yeah, very little has changed for me at all in the 35 or so years I've been visiting.

But I am fully aware that I'm incredibly unlikely to see any change from hotels, golf courses, fishing boats, nice restaurants etc.

I've always been happy to tip well when served in a restaurant. But I went to a doughnut place to bring some breakfast in and the machine I was paying at offered me a 20% or 30% tip. The woman was perfectly pleasant, but all she did was pick some doughnuts from a shelf and put them in a box. I'd even used an automated machine for my coffee.
 
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