MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Trump praises Putin for waiting for his inauguration and not reacting to US sanctions
US President-elect Donald Trump on Friday praised Russian President Vladimir Putin for not reacting immediately to Washington's sanctions over alleged interference in his election. ”Great move (...) I always knew he was very smart, ”Trump wrote on Twitter. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesBoth Trump and Putin made Obama out to be a completely ineffectual and pissy little fool over this one.
Dec 31st, 2016 - 07:09 pm - Link - Report abuse +1Of course, that wasn't really much of a challenge.
Putin is not a fool. He knows that most everything coming from Washington is political, designed to leave Obama's successor as many problems to deal with as they can instigate in the time they have left. This will change in three weeks.
Dec 31st, 2016 - 10:50 pm - Link - Report abuse +1BO is no match for Putin; as BO was made fool of - time & time again - by Putin.
Jan 01st, 2017 - 10:39 am - Link - Report abuse +3As far as Trump vs Putin is concerned; actually both are on the SAME side - the side of making more money for themselves and for their empires. Hence BOTH stand an excellent chance and MANY opportunities for creating win-win situations on innumerable occasions.
It almost sounds like folk on here support and admire the pint sized dictator Putin....he is not clever, he is not admirable...he is ruthless and should be thwarted on every move...
Jan 01st, 2017 - 03:33 pm - Link - Report abuse +2Appeasement is a dangerous game that has never had the desired results....
@ Voice. You got that right. I am wondering how decades of Americans considering the Russians as enemies has been swept away in an instant.
Jan 01st, 2017 - 04:37 pm - Link - Report abuse 0If as voicey says, Putin is not clever, then his so easily making a monkey of Obama casts the latter as even more clueless.
Jan 01st, 2017 - 06:20 pm - Link - Report abuse +2The diplomacy (as well as other policies) of the BO administration has been nothing to write home about...not surprising when you look at his ex- Secretary of State. Besides, have to agree with Bisley, BO is just trying to create political factoids to embarass his successor...need examples ? BO's insistence, without the slightest bit of proof , that the Russians hacked the DNC and won the election for Trump (very feeble, but the sore loser democrats buy in to it) ; BO's claim that had be been allowed to run for a third term, he would have beaten Trump (at this point in his presidency, he lost a good opportunity to keep his mouth shut)....It's easy to make claims like those, just off the cuff, because there is virtually no practical way for the public to prove them wrong... which does not automatically make them correct, either.
Jan 01st, 2017 - 07:23 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Oh, Putin's clever enough, and has got exactly what he wanted in a lot of areas. Now he's likely to get a lot more. From what I heard Georgia may be next on the list after Ukraine.
Jan 01st, 2017 - 11:04 pm - Link - Report abuse +1I agree Obama was not good at diplomacy, it was one of his weak points. But it's disturbing that Americans are suddenly so sanguine about someone who clearly has anything but their best interests at heart. Not to mention Trump's total and obviously self interested dismissal of the hacking allegations from the various US agencies. We'll probably never know if they are true because Trump will shut down the investigations as soon as he takes power, just as he lost all interest in vote rigging once he found out he had won the elections.
Obama is displaying the same obstruction tactics as the Botox Queen, did prior to Macri taking over- shutting the door after the horse has bolted.
Jan 02nd, 2017 - 03:42 pm - Link - Report abuse -1@DT (Refers to 'Uruguay govt'...)
Jan 05th, 2017 - 04:45 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The tax system is chaos, 'n reform is difficult for two main reasons : 1) government is afraid they’ll lose income, officials will resist a transparent, easy to understand system, as corruption and extortion would be harder, and 2) the taxpayers never know what to expect, believing that sometimes, “better the devil you know, than the one you don’t”…but eventually they’ll have to get around to it -now it’s excessively bureaucratic, burdensome and a nightmare to understand.
Seeing the barbaric acts perpetrated in the Manaus prison - which have happened all over - gives you a good idea of what to expect from individuals who don’t respect life. They need to be treated with military discipline - step out of line, you’re screwed. But I’m sure that human-rights would like to see them accommodated in 5 star hotels, at the expense of the taxpayer.
On street kids, it is undeniable, that if they live long enough, they will be the hardened criminals of tomorrow, if they aren’t already. When people realize that 12, or 15 year olds, are well aware of the difference between right 'n wrong, and that they can be just as dangerous on the streets as any adult criminal, they’ll come around to agreeing they should be ‘locked’ up.…but as the reports points out, the Juvenile Justice Code protects them until they're 18…no matter what they do.
In civilized countries, these occurrences are the exception, here they are the rule. So, it’s understandable why people aren't too condescending...While the ‘bolsa família’ might solve the (food) problem for millions, it will do nothing for a kid, or an adult that has larger ‘ambitions’….or a penchant for crime.
On people being ‘soft’, it is a simple comparison between how discipline was handed out years ago (and worked), and the politically correct policies of today. Appears that society is constantly try to make excuses for bad behavior - it's never their fault, they're victims of the environment.
Who are these human rights people who want to put prisoners in 5 star hotels? I don't think I've ever met any of them. Some people think prison should be about reforming people, some that it's for punishing them, some that its main purpose is to keep people off the streets. I guess which is more important depends on the crime and why they committed it.
Jan 07th, 2017 - 03:42 pm - Link - Report abuse 0As for your street kids that can get away with anything, I don't understand why they haven't changed the law, unless it's because they don't want to pay to build more prisons/young offender institutions.
It's interesting you say the bolsa familia doesn't do anything for those with larger ambitions. It seems like the same skills that make someone successful at crime would also be useful in many legitimate businesses, but that crime is these people's only or most obvious 'career' path. How bad is unemployment in Rio or São Paulo?
@DT
Jan 07th, 2017 - 09:37 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Didn't mean it literally....it's just a figure of speech - to show how concerned HR are with the criminals, and not the victims. HR is making a mountain out of a molehill....for every inmate killed in prison - by other inmates - there are about 165 people killed outside...so where should the main focus be ?
But I think prison should be about all those things you mentioned - mainly to keep criminals off the streets, punishing them and then trying to re-socialize them... all three are essential to reducing the prison population....which increases at a far higher rate than it's reduced. Anyway, am pretty sure that the ideal situation is found in only a few societies, those that are 'truly' civilized, and where criminality is very low to start with. In Brazil, and I reckon in all Latin America, prisons are no more than training grounds for producing even more dangerous criminals.
In Brazil, where stats on crime are not the best, conservative estimates put the increase in incarceration over the past 20 years, at over 500%....70 to 80% of inmates go back to crime asa they are released, and over 40% of these are minors, or were, when they were first detained. The profile is usually a young male, with low level of education, with many having had some type of occupation (other than crime). Stats show that these repeat-offenders tend to continue in their life of crime.
It's difficult trying to change the laws, due to the lobby of the bleeding-heart human-rights activists and the RCC...no doubt the Brazilian is creative, but it's unfortunate that he'd rather use his talent for something illegal.
Considering that SP and Rio are where most job openings are - or were - and that unemployment, nationwide, averages 12%, I'd say it is higher in those two States. This might lead one to conclude that the increase in criminality would be higher in small crimes, but organized crime is becoming more and more serious (as seen in govt, and the prisons).
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