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Controversial subjects Geopolitics

The United States, national security, steel and Canada.

The American President Donald Trump likes to raise doubts and use inexact facts to try to gain advantages. His last invention is to say that the steel and aluminum coming from Canada could endanger the national security of the United States.

Donald Trump knows very well that the United States cannot actually produce all the steel and the aluminum required for the country’s growth. Instead of making irrelevant links between the United States, the national security, steel and Canada, I suggest that Mr Trump concentrate on the United States, national security, steel and the September 11th 2001 attacks.

It seems in fact that the american buildings are quite fragile and would benefit from a lot more steel during their construction. If not, how should we understand the fall of Building 7, known as WTC-7, a 47 floor tower that crashed on itself without having even been touched by a plane during the September 11th 2001 attacks. Medias have barely raised the subject, as they were asked to be « patriots ».

Donald Trump can also diminish the time alloted to his tweets and take more time to understand what happened with the New-York Twin Towers, known as WTC-1 and WTC-2, during the September 11th 2001 attacks. The best steel in the world would not have been able to stand against the nano-thermite that was found in the remnants of the towers.

Not understanding how two planes can destroy three towers, and also questioning the free fall of the towers, some Danish physicists analyzed a few pieces of the World Trade Center’s debris under microscope. They discovered nano-thermite. Nano-thermite liquifies steel (molten steel). The discovery was announced in the Open Physics Journal. Take a few minutes to understand what it is all about (the video quality is good, except for the first five seconds) :

The American President can also request from his associates, before they get fired, to find some pictures of the remains of the Boeing 757 that is said to have hit the Pentagon. Because 17 years later, there are still no credible photos available. Even some high ranking military questioned this lack of proof.

Controversial issues

The way steel is used can also have negative consequences on the national security of the United States. There is more than 450 million guns used in the USA. I do not know how many more crazy shooters will show up in american schools before the politicians take their responsability.

Instead of acting on serious internal matters, it is easier to invent  new threats coming from outside of the United States.

Categories
Terrorism

The Quebec Islamic community attacked by an unstable individual

The Quebec Islamic community has just lost six of its members. I want to offer them my sincere condolances as a Quebecer from Quebec City and as a Canadian.

It is hard for me to realize that in  my city, which is so beautiful and peaceful, such a tragedy can happen. But all the citizens who have lived the same tragedy in their city tell themselves the same thing. Talk about it to the French or the Berliners. Quebec is not different.

The Quebec City mayor, Régis Labeaume, was recently mentioning how good the statistics were in Quebec when it came to violent acts : there had been only one homicide in twenty-one months. And now, in full Quebec Carnival period, at a time where the City invites its citizens and tourists to get out and be together enjoying the winter season, one Quebecer attacks his peaceful compatriots.

The word « terrorism »

I do not know why exactly but it seems that the Sainte-Foy, January 29th 2017 murders that have just been commited will be classified as a « terrorist » act. Possibly because it targeted a specific community that has a different religion than the shooter. Or because the act is aimed at terrorizing people. Or both.

The word « terrorism » is popular. In United States, the Donald Trump government has just closed its boundaries to selected countries, in case a potential « terrorist » would arrive in USA.

It is easy to forget that there are American citizens already living in United States that are even more dangerous, those who kill tens of thousands of Americans yearly with all kinds of guns that they have the right to possess according to a Constitution that did not anticipate the consequences.

In spite of the blooshed that includes tens of children in schools, it is not « terrorism » so there are no drastic actions taken. Politicians talk and hesitate for weeks after a tragedy and then everything comes back to normal. The « terrorist » murder has obviously a much stronger social impact than any other murder. And it allows to disregard the widespread « laisser-faire » when it comes to the right of everybody in United States to acquire almost whatever he desires when it comes to guns and to use them at will. But if you come from Irak, now that’s dangerous!

A few nice Quebec City photos

I take the opportunity to post a few nice pictures of Quebec City, as I did for France after the terrorist acts. They have been taken with a Canon 5DSR. This is another way of saying to local citizens and tourists that Québec, as for Paris, Nice or Berlin, is a beautiful city, normally very peaceful and filled with happy people. And that we are not going to be told how to behave or think by the most violent and often mentally fragile individuals of our societies.

Bonhomme Carnaval and Château Frontenac, Québec 2017
Bonhomme Carnaval and Château Frontenac, Québec 2017
The Price building, Québec 2017
The Price building, Québec 2017
Dufferin Terrace slide, Québec 2017
Dufferin Terrace slide, Québec 2017
Snow, ice and wood creation made by a Sillery citizen in Quebec City in 2015.
Snow, ice and wood creation made by a Sillery citizen in Quebec City in 2015.

Categories
Geopolitics

Twenty reasons why Donald Trump cannot “make America great again”

Trump’s political sloganMake America great again” does not make any sense when analyzed against the nominee’s words and actions.

You cannot make America great again if your political platform does not present a clear plan of action for the American population. Formulas like “Look at this crowd!”, “We’re going to build a wall” and “I would have liked to punch him in the face” are not promises for a brighter future.

You cannot make America great again if your economic ideas involve isolating America from its long lasting commercial partners. America created 255,000 jobs in the sole month of July (2016). For a country that, according to Trump, loses everything to its commercial partners, it sounds somewhat contradictory. A populist platform will not help the American population grow up and understand how business thrives.

You cannot make America great again by building up tensions between ethnic groups within the United States.

You cannot make America great again by constantly lying. Numerous declarations by Trump have been found untrue.

You cannot make America great again if the few general proposals you put forward contradict each other. Trump promises to lower the American deficit ($23 trillion dollars) and, at the same time, repeats that he will spend billions and billions of dollars to refurbish and bring the military capacity back to what it used to be. This is totally contradictory. It implies that the American population will pay for the new expenses while having to deal with serious cuts in the nation’s budget. Since the rich American does not want to contribute more than he actually does, and that the poor American is already almost unable to survive, it implies that a disappearing middle class will foot the bill. This will not make America great again but instead create the worst internal crisis ever in the United States.

You cannot make America great again by being rude, bullying, insulting and mocking whoever does not agree with you. That attitude does not help to build a greater America.

You cannot make America great again by being condescending towards prisoners of war. While some Americans where being made prisoners of war, Donald Trump was enjoying a comfortable living in the security of his home.

You cannot make America great again by lowering the political debate to a level never seen before.

You cannot make America great again by considering that dictatorship is synonymous of strong leadership. Under this angle, Hitler would be a great leader and we all know the consequences of his actions. Give the presidency to a gigantic and uncontrolled ego and the Americans, as well as the rest of the world, will pay the price.

You cannot make America great again by ridiculing Mexico, an extremely important neighbour. This country is a major commercial partner of the United States and has also a fantastic culture, for whoever is curious enough to open a book and read about it. But it takes curiosity and the feeling that there are other important people around the world than oneself.

You cannot make America great again if the republican vice-president and president nominees contradict each other about very serious matters on national TV, and if the vice-president nominee finds himself unable to defend the presidential nominee’s positions.

You cannot make America great again if the republican presidential nominee does not understand the consequences of being a populist nationalist. The Germans went through that in the past. I have included a video that is worth taking the time to listen to:

Let’s just hope that the current resentment from having received over one million refugees in Germany in a very short time frame will not help the extreme right to gain momentum and repeat the mistakes of the past.

You cannot make America great again by governing on fear. That does not make for a great future. You then have a population who needs several guns per person in order to be able to sleep at night.

You cannot make America great again if you continue to push for the population to be armed like no other country in the world. The shootings among  Americans places the country in the top most violent country in the world. You can make America greater by reducing the number of guns in circulation and increasing the control on who can acquire guns.

You cannot make America great again if you do not understand, as a President, what is really going on in Syria in 2016. Summing it up to a simplistic description only adds to the confusion. In Syria, there are war crimes being perpetrated. The civil population and hospitals are deliberately targeted to protect and improve strategic military positions.

You cannot make America great again by stating that Hillary Clinton will be sent to jail if you are elected as President of the United States. This is done under authoritarian regimes around the world, and certainly is not a promise that will help the United States increase its credibility in the free world.

You cannot make America great again by destabilizing your NATO allies, or saying that you would use the nuclear bomb against Europe if necessary.

You cannot make America great again by promising that you will put forward tax reforms that will hurt your own businesses. Somebody who has fought to keep his hotels and casinos alive will not suddenly change his mind if elected President and start putting in place measures that will endanger what he has taken so much time to protect. It is nonsense. The person who is well positioned to modify a tax code that could hurt companies is someone who does not himself own the targeted companies.

You cannot make America great again by electing somebody who hates very frequent briefings. Being President of the United States requires being available, interested and able to listen to the frequent daily briefings. You must have the personality to cope with them, even if you would like to be somewhere else.

You cannot make America great again by staying silent on how to realistically lower the difference in revenues between Americans. I am not talking about equality between revenues, but lowering the extremes between the rich and the poor. This would certainly help to bring the American dream back to life, lower the social tensions and crime rate and give more sense to the theme “Make America great again…”. But I guess we are not there yet…

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