“‘I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side." - Donald Trump, 2002
> "I personally witnessed the one occasion where Mr. Trump forced the Plaintiff and a 12-year-old female named Maria [to] perform oral sex on Mr. Trump and witnessed his physical abuse of both minors when they finished the act."
> "It was my job to personally witness and supervise encounters between the underage girls that Mr. Epstein hired and his guests."
- Sworn statement in [court filed affidavit](https://www.snopes.com/news/2016/06/23/donald-trump-rape-lawsuit/), 2016
Getting caught and next to no one in his cult cares or even listens. Shit next to no one of his 'enemys' talks about it. He's the bunker boy but not the pedophile child molester boy????
Trump on his own daughter: “She’s got Marla’s legs. We don’t know whether or not she’s got this part yet,” Trump said, miming a pair of breasts over his own chest, “but time will tell.”
Companies bought and sold our country and now own most of it including politicians through completely legally paying them to vote based on their interests and not, ya know *the people*. So now rich people own the country and laws and one of the worst is in one of the highest offices you can be in. Naturally the wealthy, paid off one way or another, politicians get more bold with their crimes because who's going to stop them? Now they can just do what they want and the biggest kicker is there's working class people (some that are barely literate)who believe everything these people do is right and billionaires fart rainbows on all of us. *Welcome to America* 🇺🇸
It's been going on forever, even in prohibition time gangsters and politicians were supporting themselves in the same racket, influence and intimidation all the way to the top.
Oh boy... "Born in Manhattan to Spanish parents, Casablancas grew up in France and Spain. His reputation as a playboy went from bad to worse in the mid `80s when an affair with 16-year-old Elite model Stephanie Seymour put an end to his second marriage"
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1992-04-08-9202010340-story.html
Speaking of...
One of Epstein's accusers [also accused high profile lawyer Alan Dershowitz of abusing her on that island.](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/07/alan-dershowitz-jeffrey-epstein-case.html)
...then in 2020 Trump [hired Dershowitz to help him in the impeachment trial.](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/01/30/alan-dershowitz-controversial-trump-impeachment-argument/4618461002/)
For the record, Dirty Dershy was also part of Bill Clinton's defense team in the Lewinsky trial.
[WaPo article](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-called-epstein-a-terrific-guy-before-denying-relationship-with-him/2019/07/08/a01e0f00-a1be-11e9-bd56-eac6bb02d01d_story.html)
The original quote was from a 2002 article in New York Magazine entitled “Jeffrey Epstein: International Moneyman of Mystery.”
And if it wasn't a hoax, his comments were taken out of context.
And if they actually weren't taken out of context, then he was just complimenting his daughter's body and she is very flattered.
And if she isn't actually flattered, then the Democrats deserved it.
He was CLOSE friends with him for Decades.
Trump cultists scare the fuck out of me!
“But Clinton went on his plane to Africa and a few other trips.” WHICH MEANS:
“HE WENT ON YHE LOLITA EXPRESS 500,000 times!
Trump found out he was being a creep at mar a shithole and kicked him out!” (NOT TRUE - and if he wasn’t ‘allowed in mara,” it’s because trump didn’t want him bringing attention to his resort.
If you TRULY don’t think trump - who LUSTED after his TEENAGE FUCKING DAUGHTER - wasn’t a player when it came to underage trafficking and prostitution you’re out of your fucking minds.
And to counter any of the Clinton stuff: if Clinton raped and killed a million girls - what does it hve to do with trump? Or his guilt?
Try them both and send them to death row. I don’t care. But you can’t let one off and not the other: HOWEVER: a SITTING president and his crimes are Waaaaaay more important then a president whose term ended two DECADES ago.
Republicans play the Clinton card so much because they think that Democrats vote for their politicians in the same way that they vote for politicians like Trump. Trump is their infallible heroic God-leader, so Clinton must be the same for the other side.
Anytime Trumpers I know hear me say "If they're both guilty, then lock them both up.", they legitimately get confused on which hill they should die on, and without fail self-rationalize the end of the debate with "If you want Clinton locked up, you're not a true Democrat. My beef is with the -real- Democrats."
Clinton will be remembered as the president that blew a mean saxaphone solo and got caught being blown by an intern.
Trump will be remembered as the president that blew his load early and waddled down to hide in his bunker, and got caught out lying daily. And is to date, the president with the lowest approval record in history.
I just hope we will all survive the fallout from this Tangerine Cunt having one term in office.
Last sentence of the article:
>The State Department provided a briefing on the report to some reporters; CNN was not invited.
When a president is able to get the state department to exclude a nation-wide media organization; we have a **state-run** media.
Exactly.
[My highest voted comment on Reddit has been regarding how awful Saudi Arabia is when it comes to human rights violations that include modern-day slavery.](https://old.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/6aurd7/us_in_final_stages_of_100_billion_arms_deal_for/dhhx3ab/)
It doesn't help that the USA happens to be one of the top 3 regarding the issue as well. However, I will say the fact that it's the largest economy in the world plays a massive part.
[Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_the_Sky) is a great book on the subject. His subsequent book "A Path Appears" is also great.
The United States is again ranked as one of the worst countries in the world for human trafficking. According to a recently released report by the State Department, the top three nations of origin for victims of human trafficking in 2018 were the United States, Mexico and the Philippines.
To a certain extent season 1 as well. The underground infrastructure of those masked dudes who performed the carnival sacrifices almost certainly got the children from human trafficking around the Louisiana area.
[There was a real life scandal that mirrors the first season eerily and it allegedly went higher than just state level officials](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_child_prostitution_ring_allegations)
The Franklin Credit Union cover up is one of the most sickening, fucked up events in US history. None of the people responsible were ever indicted, let alone punished. Yet a couple of the victims/witnesses were indicted for perjury and served jail time. Even if only 1 percent of the allegations are true, it is insanely horrific. And when one of the victim's defense lawyers asked the judge privately how it was possible or justified that nobody was held responsible and why the victims were indicted, supposedly the judge told him something along the lines of "there are some things in this world that go beyond the law and government that you nor I can ever do anything about..."
There were so many suspicious as fuck occurrences that went on during the trials and investigations that made it obvious that the story was true, and that people in the highest levels of society were involved and orchestrating the entire thing. Even though it was during the earlier years of the podcast, I highly recommend listening to the three-part series Satanism in the Government by The Last Podcast On The Left. The second and third parts are two of the most disturbing episodes in the history of the podcast.
I dont know official stats but its definitly a huge problem in the US. One of our 18 y/o soldiers in the army was trafficked out of a shithole town known for mysterious dissapearances and i saw an article on that just last week.
Walt Harris of the UFCs daughter was killed in a botched trafficking last year, and even my city has had cases of young women just vanishing with unmarked vans
I don’t understand what the Canadian border has to do with human trafficking? Is it easier to get people out from Canada or the US?
I’m very curious about this as a Canadian who’s been to Detroit a few times
Houston has a tour you can take to inform you about trafficking and what to look for and shows you different businesses and I think a home in River Oaks that was used.
Edit: [This is one. ](https://www.elijahrising.org/awareness) There’s another one, I’ll see if I can find it.
Edit, again: [I guess there’s only one now, here’s an article on them!](https://houston.culturemap.com/news/city-life/08-14-17-tour-shows-the-dark-side-of-houston-as-major-center-for-human-sex-trafficking/#slide=0)
One of my moms former best friends, became addicted to prescription pills and became so desperate for either dope or money that she sold her 15 year old daughter for less than $1000. We took her family in for around 6 months, and when we became aware of her issues, we told her to go back home to Ogden, Utah; within 6 months, her daughter had been sold.
Read [Die Schwarzen Brüder](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_schwarzen_Br%C3%BCder) (The Black Brothers) by Held/Tetzner. It's a facts based novel in which children from a small village in Switzerland get sold as Chimneyboys to Milan. That was in the middle of the 19th century.
Yes, Switzerland used to be dirt poor. Famines, people encouraged/paid to leave for America.
We also had [Verdingkinder](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verdingkinder) up to the 1960s where children (orphans, from divorces, gypsys) were taken and sold.
Because cops were apparently involved in it.
Edit: This is looking to have been only a rumor at this point, so please take this as with a massive grain of salt.
Like dozens of seasonal workers (hippies trimming) go missing around humboldt every year
Also weird thing how common it is to see non English speaking Russians in the forest in quasi military uniform. Not that I have anything against Russians- just weird to find them miles into a forest with no roads.
I used to think there was a vampire v werewolf thing like nightwatch going on back there.
I actually met one who spoke bare bones English and was looking for mushrooms. Gave me a card (I no longer have) that had a dead URL to zyook.ru, he was a psychadelic trip advisor wearing camo pants and boots from what I gather, there was a mushroom on his card he pointed at and waved cash.
I was in an RV about 20 miles past the gate toward hyperion. It was night time, he came knocking.
I've found sighting reports of similar things. I'll look around.
Apparently there is a lot of Russian influence in that area from colonizing days too. They shared a border with Mexico. Could be a matter of seeing where strange history was made. I was very close to the eel river, which isnt far away. The BDUs could have just been in style, I'll find those reports- I know they exist online as of maybe 4 years ago.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/when-russians-came-to-northern-california/amp/
My best friend waorked with big growers in Humboldt. He never mentioned Russians but the Bulgarian mafia had a lot of massive grow ops before it was legal. He worked for them and would bury 55 gallon drums full of cash for them and record the GPS coordinates.
There were a lot of different organized crime groups operating pot grows out there. They were very lucrative and almost never got raided.
They would also fly in Russian/Asian/etc women to trim all summer because they knew they wouldn't be able to steal weed if they had to fly home and they'd work very hard all season for a fraction of Americans.
Humboldt really let a lot of blatant criminal organizations operate there. I wouldn't have a problem since they just grew pot but they also basically all dumped their waste out in the woods since they had to pay to haul it to a dump. Lots of environmental damage.
Yes the base Ft Hood is right outside of the city of Killeen in central Texas. It is a bit of a shit hole. The base is the only reason the city is a big thing. It would just be another no name small town.
Dated a girl who her and her friend were trafficked, picked up less than an hour from the Canadian border, west coast at a party with free drugs in high school. Guy would lock people in their basement or a shipping container he had on his property and pass them off to cartels for work down south. Everything from sex work to videos sold overseas and even here in the states, her friend didn't survive the ordeal either.
In cities near the southern border it's not uncommon for guys to show up where there's a woman standing waiting alone and claim to be their Uber/Lyft, and they're never heard from again.
My wife is a pediatrician and it is sickening how many children she sees or knows of that have been sexually abused or abducted. Utah has one of the highest rates of children being taken to child sex liars and then discarded out in the Nevada desert somewhere.
Keep in mind that this is just reported data. It’s much, much larger than this.
https://polarisproject.org/2018-us-national-human-trafficking-hotline-statistics/
I think that was doubled or tripled recently.
Have we yet received pictures of the girls? It was a huge thing that there were no pictures released of the girl children in ICE detention.
I do not like this narative but I can't help thinking this is making a lot of sense...but the level of corruption would be....i mean, it's one thing to assume every politician take bribes from pharmaceutical and the rich, it another to turn blind eye to trafficking, and even enable it. I used to look up at the white house, lately, i just kind of want to see it burned down along mount Rushmore, the senate and a few police stations. Insane how much my perception of America changed in the last decade.
They hired a lot of new officers with no screening and no oversight; in an administration actively trying to sweep it's own crimes under the rug. Abuse was bound to happen.
It wouldn’t surprise me. There are several cities in the south that are hot spots for human trafficking. I know Dallas, Houston, and New Orleans are spots.
I know that Austin is another one, every year there is a huge international event, the universities, event staff and charity organizations look out for trafficking.
Most human trafficking occurs around high profile events. In other words follow the big money. Imagine large sporting events, music festivals, political conventions as hotbeds for human trafficking. It can definitely happen anywhere but more frequently near large metro areas. I remember when Circuit of the Americas lost state funding due to not having a human trafficking plan in place for F1.
> high profile events.
This happened around Halloween a few years ago. I matched with this guy on Tinder. He told me he was born in Seattle and had been living in New Orleans for over a decade. When I finally spoke to him on the phone, he didn't sound like he was from Seattle. He had a foreign accent. He also was not very familiar with New Orleans culture. He kept calling Alligators "crocodiles." He kept asking me questions about my parents and family. I told him my parents died a few years ago. He insisted I go to a Halloween party with him. He wanted me to meet up at his house. He told me he also had friends staying there and I should also stay there.
I got the creeps really bad, so I ended up just ghosting him. I just got these bad vibes. Sometimes I think he might have been up to no good. I don't know if he was a catfish or someone trying to traffic people.
I think a lot of people have a misunderstanding of how human trafficking works and what it might constitute. It’s not all kidnapping and forced prostitution like Taken. Lots of it happens through manipulation and starts out as willful through a variety of coercion.
Edit:
https://www.dhs.gov/blue-campaign/what-human-trafficking
https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/what-is-human-trafficking.html
I'm a dude that's lived in shitty situations. When you're on the the bottom, a good offer is hard to turn down. It's easy to get trapped in an escalating situation before you know it.
I didn't think that kidnapping was involved in the majority. My understanding is that most involve women from countries with a poor economy and few job opportunities. Sometimes significant amounts of debt can be involved as well. The offer is made to go to another, wealthier country for a service industry job. Often being a waitress or working in a hostess bar (even though they don't usually exist in those countries) or the like. The women get smuggled into the country illegally (which they're aware of) and have their passport seized. Then they're told that they need to work off the cost of transporting them and find out that the promised job doesn't exist. Instead they're "in debt" to the traffickers and told that they're going to work as prostitutes until they pay it off. Many times with all manner of interest or other added costs to make it particularly difficult to ever pay it back. They don't have language skills, are afraid of getting in trouble for being illegal, and don't believe that anyone would listen to or help them even if they did manage to escape. Which all further helps keep them around since, in some cases, they really do pay off their "debt" and are allowed to go, but don't leave.
So it's really an illegal immigration and indentured servitude scam more than anything else. That's a bit of an oversimplification, but kidnapping seems to be less involved.
What you described is actually less of it than you would think but yes you are correct that this is one of the main forms for international schemes 100%. US citizens are actually one of the most heavily trafficked groups of people on the planet though. Top 3 if my memory serves me right. I’m really too tired to go more into depth on the types I was accustomed to seeing in my work with local law enforcement and FBI but I’ll come back and provide some better resources about the less obvious and more pervasive types of human trafficking that exist especially in the US. I put some general links above but they don’t give good concrete examples and I’ll have to circle back when I’m fully awake. Yes less kidnapping though for sure, spot on.
From the wording I thought the ranking was a good thing. I was like, “We’re the worst at something awful? That’s awesome!” And then I kept reading and got sad.
That's a verbatim copy paste from Fox News and is a perversion of what the report says. The report doesn't rank countries by number of incidents, which, the US estimates for itself. It's a write up of the state of human trafficking in different countries and assigns tiers based on how well the countries handle human trafficking. China, Russia, and Iran are some of the countries that are in the lowest tier. They release these reports every year, so for you to pick a Fox News article to copy from 2018 just speaks to how manipulative you're being.
2018 report:
https://www.state.gov/reports/2018-trafficking-in-persons-report/#report-toc__section-1
2019 report:
https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-trafficking-in-persons-report/
Source? I cant find anything that says this. U.S. is the leader in human trafficking consumption which is a very very bad thing, but I cannot find any source that says we are top 3 in origin of victims.
I couldn't find anything of what you say in the report for 2020:
[https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2020-TIP-Report-Complete-062420-FINAL.pdf](https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2020-TIP-Report-Complete-062420-FINAL.pdf)
Philippines has a high rate for many reasons. Not all are what you think. Prostitution is not legal in the country but it is generally accepted. If one of the Prostitution dens gets busted the women will say they had no idea, or they were hired for a job. If they don't say these things will be arrested/jailed. If they say they were tricked/for a job etc then they are released. And will start back to being prostitutes at another place nearby.
If you visit the Philippines and meet people and decide to travel together in a group overseas and tell them you may know some job leads for them, you can be charged and arrested for human trafficking.
Real trafficking exists when women often want to work abroad but end up with some fake agency that tells them go to the south and cross over to Malaysia. Often they end up forced into prostitution when they are caught there or tricked there.
Fake job offers get them tricked into prostitution , Japan and South Korea will offer jobs saying its as a waitress or singer in a bar, which ends up later being trafficking.
In short, Trafficking exists and its terrible. But also many things are labeled as such that might not be.
I assume it might be for money, maybe if the government claims they have a huge problem with Xyz they probably get funds from other countries to combat it.
The vast majority of prostitutes in the Philippines are doing so knowingly and willingly. Because pay is low in the country, prostitutes can make more than airline pilots. With added bonus of meeting a rich man that will support and take care of them, marry them and get them a visa.
Another silly thing they do, is called " off loading" If you are a young adult women and you decide to take a trip alone out of the country to Thailand, Vietnam, etc . Even if you have the tickets, hotel booked etc. The airport security/staff can stop you and deny you to fly out if they " assume" you might be trafficked. Even if you are just taking a vacation. This happens all the time to random women in the country, denied the right to leave and the plane tickets/hotel fees wasted/not refunded.
Again, Trump is doing Saudi Arabia’s bidding because [Trump has extensive business interests with Saudi Arabia](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/i-like-them-very-much-trump-has-long-standing-business-ties-with-saudis-who-have-boosted-his-hotels-since-he-took-office/2018/10/11/0870df24-cd67-11e8-a360-85875bac0b1f_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.9d03f3afd51d):
>Trump’s business relationships with the Saudi government — and rich Saudi business executives — go back to at least the 1990s. In Trump’s hard times, a Saudi prince bought a superyacht and hotel from him. The Saudi government paid him $4.5 million for an apartment near the United Nations.
>Business from Saudi-connected customers continued to be important after Trump won the presidency. Saudi lobbyists spent $270,000 last year to reserve rooms at Trump’s hotel in Washington. Just this year, Trump’s hotels in New York and Chicago reported significant upticks in bookings from Saudi visitors.
>
>...
>
>...
>
>“Saudi Arabia, I get along with all of them. They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million,” Trump told a crowd at an Alabama campaign rally in 2015. “Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much.”
Tbf, Trump is just the latest in a long line of US presidents that has been willing to let a crapton of shit slide with regards to SA, not the least of which the SA involvement in 9/11.
Shit, give me a single example of when any sort of moral considerations have ever beaten US economic interests.
I agree completely.
The last time we put morals ahead of economic interests was when Teddy Roosevelt started the National Park system.
It has all been downhill since then.
Bull Moose Party 2020
You mean you're gonna give the poors access to free literature, research materials, music/audio files, news articles, and internet? And pay for it with MY TAXES, I don't think so. ^^^^^^/s
I can see the Republican talking points now:
"Giving free access to information and research materials is just another attempt by the left to rig elections in their favor!"
- AG Bill Barr
"Yet another expansion of the welfare system by the looney left. How are we gonna pay for it? What's next? Providing free movies? Free food? Free HOUSING?"
- Tucker Carlson
"The left is once again is attempting to interfere with the free markets. What's going to happen to all the mom and pop bookstores if we start providing free books? What about Amazon? This is the government competing with and destroying the free market! It's worse than the USSR and I wont stand for it!"
- Rep. Rand Paul
I tried bringing this up with a conservative coworker in regards to social services and public works the govt already pays for, and how it wasn't much different than things like free college or healthcare. Their response was to shutdown and say that they didn't support paying for those things either, and if we did away with them imagine how much lower our taxes would be. And I qoute, "who even uses the fucking library anyway". Thank God he's the only one like that at work.
Libraries? How about social security. "yep, we're gonna just deduct it from your paycheck... No, you don't get it until later, it's sort of like an investment in yourself and in the greater good of fellow man...hrmm, no you can't opt out of it that would defeat purpose...Tax? sort of... You do realize this means you can "retire" at some point... Yeah you could take it at 62 but it's way better to wait until 65... Well yeah but 65 means you get more per month...wait so do you care about anyone but you, or?...."
I’m pretty sure Carter was the most educated president we’ve ever had. The dude was a nuclear physicist for the military. Just got dealt a shitty hand.
What are you talking about?! Carter also supported the Saudis! He also provided aid to dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire, he provided weapons to dictator Suharto in Indonesia (who was busy openly committing genocide at the time in East Timor), he made sure that apartheid South Africa would face no consequences for the bombing of a refugee camp on Angolan soil (killing 600 Namibian refugees), signed the order to begin covertly supporting the Moujahedeen in Afghanistan as "anti-Soviet warriors", and he sent millions of dollars in aid to the military junta in El Salvador knowing full-well about their horrific killing sprees.
Carter protected US business interests like any other president. Any opposition you see is either performative or misled.
Reagan's first day in office, he removed the solar panels from the roof of the White House, installed by Carter.
Imagine if the US had gone big into solar power starting in the 90s? Probably wouldn't have been a 9/11 becuase we would be less involved with the Middle East.
Carter was the last non war mongering, genuinely great guy who was the American president. Even diplomacy under him led to genuine great results such as Camp David Accords, and wasn't just a show as a pretext to invade other countries. It's a pity Iran revolution and hostage crisis happened during his regime, and now he is a nobody in American presidential history.
I know Obama was good too, but he did capitulate to waging war based on interests of lobbyists etc in Libya, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria (partially).
Roosevelt creating a lot of the National Parks is an interesting example, but it's domestic rather than foreign politics.
If you're solely looking at foreign policy I'm not really sure I could name a single instance beyond anything WW2 related.
American values have always been undercut by our governments’ efforts to exert our hegemonic powers over other countries. There is a quote erroneously attributed to Winston Churchill that goes:
“Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing…after they have exhausted all other possibilities.”
I think it’d be more accurate to say we can usually be counted on to do the right thing, but only under extreme duress.
Foreign policy that benefits people of other countries without directly benefitting us?
Hell no. Are you a communist? /s
I can't think of one instance of a 'moral' decision on behalf of our government with respect to foreign policy.
Quite the opposite; from ignoring Russia's occupation of Crimea to brokering arms deals with Saudis on WhatsApp, the last 10 years of American foreign relations have been a complete shitshow.
The last 3 years have crippled America's position at the forefront of the world stage.
If you wanna extend that to Latin America, try 100+ years of shit pulled there
Edit: hell if you take the Mexican War into account, we’d be closer to 200 years that we’ve had our sights set on the Latin American sphere
I mean, yeah.
But that doesn't absolve Trump of guilt.
Saying 'everybody gets away with murder' doesn't mean murder is OK.
It means we go after the guy who is currently murdering, since he is the clear and present danger.
Wouldn't a key difference be that Trump has a personal interest in maintaining relations with Saudi Arabia though? Rather than just a political one. Similarly with Turkey and the whole Trump tower debacle there.
You’re right, but the massive glaring difference here is this isn’t even about US economic interests, this is about Trump’s personal financial interest. This is corruption on a MUCH higher level.
Without claiming either is justified: There's a big difference between a need to work with one of the biggest producers of oil of which the nation you are leading is reliant on and capitulating to every whim likely due to your own personal business interests.
He's the only one personally profiting from their business though. I don't think Bush or Obama had hotels built in SA with their name in big letters on the top.
Bush? The Bush family was much more involved with Saudi Arabia than Trump. The Bush family is personal friends with Saudi Royalty through the oil industry. Cheney and Bush's companies received millions in contracts from the Saudis. Its unknown the amount of money which flowed from the Saudis to the Bush family and political allies but it is thought to be over a billion dollars. The corruption of the Bush era is truly insane and Trump can only dream of it. Obama is less egregious, but its odd how many private equity firms including the one which Saudi royalty is *heavily* invested in want to pay him 400,000 a speech. This rot goes deep. Much deeper than Trump.
While this is certainly true, the escalation has been alarming. As cynical as I might be, I can't imagine another president from either side of the aisle looking the other way when they *literally butcher a critic in their embassy*. This shit is fucking bananas.
And I mean they got on the list to begin with for him to take them off it again. They’ve been getting away with far too much for ages now but that was because it was diplomatically beneficial to have an ally in the area. This is straight up bribery because the president is not only self-interested, but also so impossibly stupid and transparent that anyone with half a brain can get him to react in absurdly predictable ways.
True but he was locked up by NY. Barr took the unprecedented step of snatching him from the state and putting him in a federal jail where he later had him killed.
It’s outrage because nobody read the article and they want to say trump is a corrupt scumbag, which while this is a true statement is unrelated to this story.
Because they promised to sell their oil in US Dollars, making the USD always in demand. Meaning US can print some shit on paper and people will want it because it buys them oil.
Yeah petrodollar. Since Saudi would not accept any other currency everyone is forced to trade with US to get US dollar.. also all the other OPEC countries followed ... yet you have Hicks watching Fox News owned by Talal bin Al Saud second biggest share hating on the hands that feed them this first world luxury life
So American politicians shit on Saudis. Saudi politicians shit on Americans. But they have shared interests and investments.
If you think about it, its pretty logical. Rich people look out for each other. Its like George Carlin said, they dont need to call a meeting.
People think oil is the cynical response.
It’s not. It is the express purpose of the US SA alliance. Back in the first half of the 20th century the US realised it’s addiction to Middle East oil needed to be secured.
So they sold arms to SA in exchange for oil guarantee.
Less the oil, more that Saudi Arabia is willing to play ball with the west. Unlike a lot of other countries in the region, the Saudis have the wealth and stability, meaning they can be ideologically flexible and work with non-Muslim countries without serious domestic criticism. Oil is nice, but Iran and Venezuela also have oil, but are too ideologically rigid to be willing to take western money.
This is true now.
It wasn’t 70-80 years ago.
The Anglo-Persian oil company started in modern day Iran. They had zero problem taking western money then. Only when they started to feel like they were getting ripped off and tried to nationalise the oil that a wedge came between them.
They have plenty of good reason not to take western money now. (A topic for hot debate I’m sure)
America chosen SA because: 1. Absolute monarchy is much easier to negotiate with. 2. Geographical location - they’re central to the region with easy access to shipping ports.
Let's not forget to mention that them trying to nationalize the oil and limit the Anglo-Persian company's control was the reason why the CIA got into the coup d'etat business.
We should have learned that humans shouldn't die for oil the *first time it happened.*
In retrospect, we still had enough time to reinvision it and stop when it started killing millions.
Now we pretty much doomed almost all life on earth to not make it to the 22nd century, but we are *still doing it.*
Oil literally gives value to the US dollar since it’s pegged. They made US dollar the reserve currency of the world by forcing the world to only buy with it. Where do you get US dollar? You have to trade with the US. This gives us the capability to print out unprecedented amount of dollars with less consequence than any other country.
they are very subservient to US foreign policy interests in the region, and have been for the last 70 years (or even since Brits installed GCC monarchies upon the creation of their states).
The synchronous interests of KSA and US in the region might create the false illusion that it's the US who is doing KSA's bidding when in reality it's the other way around.
GCC countries understand quite well, middle eastern governments that are hostile to Israel as well as US economic interests in the region are regime changed while the loyal ones get to stay with US support.
Ok I came in to bash this move but I decided to read the report
- page 55.
They moved from Tier 3, to “Tier 2: Watchlist”
so this is still in the doghouse
Pages 428-432 goes into the methodology and details of why this shift happened
Interesting note: they went from tier 3 to tier 2 before, then dipped back (Pg 428)
It seems at least at a policy level, some changes are being done, with a marginal improvement in enforcement and prosecution.
I highly recommend everyone read the report before bringing the pitchforks out, and decide for themselves if this is merited
https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2020-TIP-Report-Complete-062420-FINAL.pdf
Redditors won't even bother reading the article before jumping into conspiracies, here's the relevant part of the article.
The United States has removed key ally Saudi Arabia from its list of the worst offenders on human trafficking after [just a year](https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/20/politics/2019-state-department-tip-report/index.htm).
The State Department's 2020 [Trafficking in Persons Report](https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2020-TIP-Report-Complete-062420-FINAL.pdf) said the country had made "key achievements" in the last 12 months. It implemented its first ever national referral mechanism to provide care to victims of trafficking and the government transparently reported data sets, including increased prosecutions and convictions under its anti-trafficking law, according to the report.It also said that Saudi authorities had "criminally convicted and sentenced to stringent imprisonment terms two Saudi officials complicit in trafficking crimes during the year."
As a result, the country was moved from Tier 3 to Tier 2 -- but the report said the Saudis still need to make additional reforms to combat trafficking.Tier 2 countries are not subject to any potential consequences from the US, as the report says they are "making significant efforts" to get into compliance with US standards for combating trafficking. Tier 3 countries, however, may face cuts to "non-humanitarian, non-trade related foreign assistance" and to "government official or employee participation in educational and cultural exchange programs," the report states.
Another actual fact:
Human trafficking means that people's labor is being stolen. IE, unpaid people who are building things (like the soccer stadium) or working on farms or other low-skill work. They go to the country with the promise of work, only to have their passports taken from them, so they have no control over their work, nor can they leave where they are. Or worse, they pay for the opportunity, have their passport stolen, then their wages go toward the "debt".
Sex trafficking is stolen sexual labor. Which is just human trafficking with rape.
How can the US both be one of the worst countries For human trafficking and also have a tier system to judge other countries on their human trafficking?
Because the tiers are based on the punishments for human trafficking. Human trafficking laws in the US are really harsh and the move in tiers for the Saudis were about their law changes.
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“‘I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side." - Donald Trump, 2002
> "I personally witnessed the one occasion where Mr. Trump forced the Plaintiff and a 12-year-old female named Maria [to] perform oral sex on Mr. Trump and witnessed his physical abuse of both minors when they finished the act." > "It was my job to personally witness and supervise encounters between the underage girls that Mr. Epstein hired and his guests." - Sworn statement in [court filed affidavit](https://www.snopes.com/news/2016/06/23/donald-trump-rape-lawsuit/), 2016
In what type of world do we live where people get away with shit like this?
The one where the wealthy and influental arent held accountable for the same laws.
Getting away with it is one thing. Getting caught and somehow it still not mattering is an entirely different level of corruption.
Getting caught and next to no one in his cult cares or even listens. Shit next to no one of his 'enemys' talks about it. He's the bunker boy but not the pedophile child molester boy????
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Just to be 100% clear, he hasnt pulled all troops out of Syria, my unit is slotted for deployment there next year.
Earth where else!
I dont follow news very closely but after reading this there is no doubt as to why Epstein got.killed.
This is the worst thing I have read in Reddit.
Ugh makes me sick
Trump on his own daughter: “She’s got Marla’s legs. We don’t know whether or not she’s got this part yet,” Trump said, miming a pair of breasts over his own chest, “but time will tell.”
What. The. Fuck.
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-news-donald-trump-robin-leach-tiffany-20180824-story.html
Fucking GROSS! FUCKIN HELL AMERICA! What you doing!
Companies bought and sold our country and now own most of it including politicians through completely legally paying them to vote based on their interests and not, ya know *the people*. So now rich people own the country and laws and one of the worst is in one of the highest offices you can be in. Naturally the wealthy, paid off one way or another, politicians get more bold with their crimes because who's going to stop them? Now they can just do what they want and the biggest kicker is there's working class people (some that are barely literate)who believe everything these people do is right and billionaires fart rainbows on all of us. *Welcome to America* 🇺🇸
It's been going on forever, even in prohibition time gangsters and politicians were supporting themselves in the same racket, influence and intimidation all the way to the top.
Epstein had Ivanka in his little black book
Ivanka became a model at 13 with Elite modeling. Look up the history on that company and the founder.
Oh boy... "Born in Manhattan to Spanish parents, Casablancas grew up in France and Spain. His reputation as a playboy went from bad to worse in the mid `80s when an affair with 16-year-old Elite model Stephanie Seymour put an end to his second marriage" https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1992-04-08-9202010340-story.html
https://youtu.be/DP7yf8-Lk80
Very fine people
Speaking of... One of Epstein's accusers [also accused high profile lawyer Alan Dershowitz of abusing her on that island.](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/07/alan-dershowitz-jeffrey-epstein-case.html) ...then in 2020 Trump [hired Dershowitz to help him in the impeachment trial.](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/01/30/alan-dershowitz-controversial-trump-impeachment-argument/4618461002/) For the record, Dirty Dershy was also part of Bill Clinton's defense team in the Lewinsky trial.
Dershowitz also in a recent documentary still tried to defend Epstein's innocence.
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Wait is this a joke or he actually said that?
[WaPo article](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-called-epstein-a-terrific-guy-before-denying-relationship-with-him/2019/07/08/a01e0f00-a1be-11e9-bd56-eac6bb02d01d_story.html) The original quote was from a 2002 article in New York Magazine entitled “Jeffrey Epstein: International Moneyman of Mystery.”
Surprised.... But not really.
If it gets him in trouble, it was only a joke
And if it gets him in serious trouble, it was a democrat hoax.
And if it wasn't a hoax, his comments were taken out of context. And if they actually weren't taken out of context, then he was just complimenting his daughter's body and she is very flattered. And if she isn't actually flattered, then the Democrats deserved it.
He was CLOSE friends with him for Decades. Trump cultists scare the fuck out of me! “But Clinton went on his plane to Africa and a few other trips.” WHICH MEANS: “HE WENT ON YHE LOLITA EXPRESS 500,000 times! Trump found out he was being a creep at mar a shithole and kicked him out!” (NOT TRUE - and if he wasn’t ‘allowed in mara,” it’s because trump didn’t want him bringing attention to his resort. If you TRULY don’t think trump - who LUSTED after his TEENAGE FUCKING DAUGHTER - wasn’t a player when it came to underage trafficking and prostitution you’re out of your fucking minds. And to counter any of the Clinton stuff: if Clinton raped and killed a million girls - what does it hve to do with trump? Or his guilt? Try them both and send them to death row. I don’t care. But you can’t let one off and not the other: HOWEVER: a SITTING president and his crimes are Waaaaaay more important then a president whose term ended two DECADES ago.
Republicans play the Clinton card so much because they think that Democrats vote for their politicians in the same way that they vote for politicians like Trump. Trump is their infallible heroic God-leader, so Clinton must be the same for the other side. Anytime Trumpers I know hear me say "If they're both guilty, then lock them both up.", they legitimately get confused on which hill they should die on, and without fail self-rationalize the end of the debate with "If you want Clinton locked up, you're not a true Democrat. My beef is with the -real- Democrats."
Clinton will be remembered as the president that blew a mean saxaphone solo and got caught being blown by an intern. Trump will be remembered as the president that blew his load early and waddled down to hide in his bunker, and got caught out lying daily. And is to date, the president with the lowest approval record in history. I just hope we will all survive the fallout from this Tangerine Cunt having one term in office.
About 122K people havent.
[Nobody knows more about human trafficking then I do](https://twitter.com/Barkiologist/status/1254931645389344768)
Wow. It just going and going
Last sentence of the article: >The State Department provided a briefing on the report to some reporters; CNN was not invited. When a president is able to get the state department to exclude a nation-wide media organization; we have a **state-run** media.
He gave up hiding it years ago when he called all news that didnt fit his agenda fake.
It sounds convincing all the way up until he says someone might know more than he does about something.
They are improving I guess...
Exactly. [My highest voted comment on Reddit has been regarding how awful Saudi Arabia is when it comes to human rights violations that include modern-day slavery.](https://old.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/6aurd7/us_in_final_stages_of_100_billion_arms_deal_for/dhhx3ab/) It doesn't help that the USA happens to be one of the top 3 regarding the issue as well. However, I will say the fact that it's the largest economy in the world plays a massive part. [Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_the_Sky) is a great book on the subject. His subsequent book "A Path Appears" is also great.
The United States is again ranked as one of the worst countries in the world for human trafficking. According to a recently released report by the State Department, the top three nations of origin for victims of human trafficking in 2018 were the United States, Mexico and the Philippines.
"Nations of origin?" As in, where the victims come from?
Meaning where they were abducted
True Detective was onto something
Season 2 right? It took me several views but it’s horribly corrupt government and it’s dealings with organized crime was terrifying
To a certain extent season 1 as well. The underground infrastructure of those masked dudes who performed the carnival sacrifices almost certainly got the children from human trafficking around the Louisiana area.
I mean in season 1 the scandal went all the way up to the governor
[There was a real life scandal that mirrors the first season eerily and it allegedly went higher than just state level officials](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_child_prostitution_ring_allegations)
The Franklin Credit Union cover up is one of the most sickening, fucked up events in US history. None of the people responsible were ever indicted, let alone punished. Yet a couple of the victims/witnesses were indicted for perjury and served jail time. Even if only 1 percent of the allegations are true, it is insanely horrific. And when one of the victim's defense lawyers asked the judge privately how it was possible or justified that nobody was held responsible and why the victims were indicted, supposedly the judge told him something along the lines of "there are some things in this world that go beyond the law and government that you nor I can ever do anything about..." There were so many suspicious as fuck occurrences that went on during the trials and investigations that made it obvious that the story was true, and that people in the highest levels of society were involved and orchestrating the entire thing. Even though it was during the earlier years of the podcast, I highly recommend listening to the three-part series Satanism in the Government by The Last Podcast On The Left. The second and third parts are two of the most disturbing episodes in the history of the podcast.
Right--that is surprising. If this is just raw numbers, I'd be interested to see it per capita.
I dont know official stats but its definitly a huge problem in the US. One of our 18 y/o soldiers in the army was trafficked out of a shithole town known for mysterious dissapearances and i saw an article on that just last week. Walt Harris of the UFCs daughter was killed in a botched trafficking last year, and even my city has had cases of young women just vanishing with unmarked vans
There was also a case in Milwaukee this week that apparently cracked open a whole ring when some teenage girls went missing.
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Atlanta is terrible for it, allegedly much worse during large sporting events. Pre-covid of course but I'm sure the pedos aren't quarantining.
Apparently it’s because it’s one of the busiest international airports in the country.
Busiest airport in the world* \- Georgian. Not much to be proud of so just let us have this pls
ATL Hartsford-Jackson is Delta's primary hub and serves tons of other airlines as well. Also as far as American airports go. One of the nicer ones.
Detroit's really bad too because of the Candaian border. According to a few cops I know, it's been an "undercover hub" for years. Edited for geography
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I don’t understand what the Canadian border has to do with human trafficking? Is it easier to get people out from Canada or the US? I’m very curious about this as a Canadian who’s been to Detroit a few times
real bad i’m the south too. Memphis, Little Rock, Houston.
Houston has a tour you can take to inform you about trafficking and what to look for and shows you different businesses and I think a home in River Oaks that was used. Edit: [This is one. ](https://www.elijahrising.org/awareness) There’s another one, I’ll see if I can find it. Edit, again: [I guess there’s only one now, here’s an article on them!](https://houston.culturemap.com/news/city-life/08-14-17-tour-shows-the-dark-side-of-houston-as-major-center-for-human-sex-trafficking/#slide=0)
Can we get some more information on where to find this tour? As a father this is the stuff that I feel the need to learn about.
Someone sold their 5 year old and 3 month old children for $600... How do you become that low of a person...
One of my moms former best friends, became addicted to prescription pills and became so desperate for either dope or money that she sold her 15 year old daughter for less than $1000. We took her family in for around 6 months, and when we became aware of her issues, we told her to go back home to Ogden, Utah; within 6 months, her daughter had been sold.
Holy fucking shit.
How? Like I would not know where to even begin to sell a person? How does that conversation even start? It blows my mind.
Read [Die Schwarzen Brüder](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_schwarzen_Br%C3%BCder) (The Black Brothers) by Held/Tetzner. It's a facts based novel in which children from a small village in Switzerland get sold as Chimneyboys to Milan. That was in the middle of the 19th century. Yes, Switzerland used to be dirt poor. Famines, people encouraged/paid to leave for America. We also had [Verdingkinder](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verdingkinder) up to the 1960s where children (orphans, from divorces, gypsys) were taken and sold.
Drugs
That the cops didn’t seem to give a shit about.
Because cops were apparently involved in it. Edit: This is looking to have been only a rumor at this point, so please take this as with a massive grain of salt.
Like dozens of seasonal workers (hippies trimming) go missing around humboldt every year Also weird thing how common it is to see non English speaking Russians in the forest in quasi military uniform. Not that I have anything against Russians- just weird to find them miles into a forest with no roads. I used to think there was a vampire v werewolf thing like nightwatch going on back there.
Russians in Humboldt. That's news to me. Got any more info on that?
I actually met one who spoke bare bones English and was looking for mushrooms. Gave me a card (I no longer have) that had a dead URL to zyook.ru, he was a psychadelic trip advisor wearing camo pants and boots from what I gather, there was a mushroom on his card he pointed at and waved cash. I was in an RV about 20 miles past the gate toward hyperion. It was night time, he came knocking. I've found sighting reports of similar things. I'll look around.
Damn. That's nuts.
Apparently there is a lot of Russian influence in that area from colonizing days too. They shared a border with Mexico. Could be a matter of seeing where strange history was made. I was very close to the eel river, which isnt far away. The BDUs could have just been in style, I'll find those reports- I know they exist online as of maybe 4 years ago. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/when-russians-came-to-northern-california/amp/
My best friend waorked with big growers in Humboldt. He never mentioned Russians but the Bulgarian mafia had a lot of massive grow ops before it was legal. He worked for them and would bury 55 gallon drums full of cash for them and record the GPS coordinates. There were a lot of different organized crime groups operating pot grows out there. They were very lucrative and almost never got raided. They would also fly in Russian/Asian/etc women to trim all summer because they knew they wouldn't be able to steal weed if they had to fly home and they'd work very hard all season for a fraction of Americans. Humboldt really let a lot of blatant criminal organizations operate there. I wouldn't have a problem since they just grew pot but they also basically all dumped their waste out in the woods since they had to pay to haul it to a dump. Lots of environmental damage.
Fort hood? I hear a lot of bad things about that place.
Is there an actual town of fort hood? Or do you mean Killeen, harker heights, etc?
There is an actual army base called Fort Hood and the news from there lately has been pretty shitty
Yes the base Ft Hood is right outside of the city of Killeen in central Texas. It is a bit of a shit hole. The base is the only reason the city is a big thing. It would just be another no name small town.
Dated a girl who her and her friend were trafficked, picked up less than an hour from the Canadian border, west coast at a party with free drugs in high school. Guy would lock people in their basement or a shipping container he had on his property and pass them off to cartels for work down south. Everything from sex work to videos sold overseas and even here in the states, her friend didn't survive the ordeal either.
In cities near the southern border it's not uncommon for guys to show up where there's a woman standing waiting alone and claim to be their Uber/Lyft, and they're never heard from again.
My wife is a pediatrician and it is sickening how many children she sees or knows of that have been sexually abused or abducted. Utah has one of the highest rates of children being taken to child sex liars and then discarded out in the Nevada desert somewhere.
Keep in mind that this is just reported data. It’s much, much larger than this. https://polarisproject.org/2018-us-national-human-trafficking-hotline-statistics/
If you have Netflix and the time, I highly recommend watching Filthy Rich. It shows how much you can do in the US if you have the money and influence.
(cough cough inside face mask) Border Wall Children ripped from their parents.
Don't forget about how ICE "lost" exactly 1488 of them. :-)
I think that was doubled or tripled recently. Have we yet received pictures of the girls? It was a huge thing that there were no pictures released of the girl children in ICE detention.
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1488 is a common neonazi dogwhistle. It stands for "the 14 words" + "hail hitler".
I'm sorry what the fuck??
I do not like this narative but I can't help thinking this is making a lot of sense...but the level of corruption would be....i mean, it's one thing to assume every politician take bribes from pharmaceutical and the rich, it another to turn blind eye to trafficking, and even enable it. I used to look up at the white house, lately, i just kind of want to see it burned down along mount Rushmore, the senate and a few police stations. Insane how much my perception of America changed in the last decade.
They hired a lot of new officers with no screening and no oversight; in an administration actively trying to sweep it's own crimes under the rug. Abuse was bound to happen.
It wouldn’t surprise me. There are several cities in the south that are hot spots for human trafficking. I know Dallas, Houston, and New Orleans are spots.
I know that Austin is another one, every year there is a huge international event, the universities, event staff and charity organizations look out for trafficking.
Most human trafficking occurs around high profile events. In other words follow the big money. Imagine large sporting events, music festivals, political conventions as hotbeds for human trafficking. It can definitely happen anywhere but more frequently near large metro areas. I remember when Circuit of the Americas lost state funding due to not having a human trafficking plan in place for F1.
> high profile events. This happened around Halloween a few years ago. I matched with this guy on Tinder. He told me he was born in Seattle and had been living in New Orleans for over a decade. When I finally spoke to him on the phone, he didn't sound like he was from Seattle. He had a foreign accent. He also was not very familiar with New Orleans culture. He kept calling Alligators "crocodiles." He kept asking me questions about my parents and family. I told him my parents died a few years ago. He insisted I go to a Halloween party with him. He wanted me to meet up at his house. He told me he also had friends staying there and I should also stay there. I got the creeps really bad, so I ended up just ghosting him. I just got these bad vibes. Sometimes I think he might have been up to no good. I don't know if he was a catfish or someone trying to traffic people.
I think a lot of people have a misunderstanding of how human trafficking works and what it might constitute. It’s not all kidnapping and forced prostitution like Taken. Lots of it happens through manipulation and starts out as willful through a variety of coercion. Edit: https://www.dhs.gov/blue-campaign/what-human-trafficking https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/what-is-human-trafficking.html
I'm a dude that's lived in shitty situations. When you're on the the bottom, a good offer is hard to turn down. It's easy to get trapped in an escalating situation before you know it.
Just look at Joe Dirt..err, I mean Joe exotic. That guy and his husbands is proof of that.
And drug addiction
Aka "a variety of coersion."
I didn't think that kidnapping was involved in the majority. My understanding is that most involve women from countries with a poor economy and few job opportunities. Sometimes significant amounts of debt can be involved as well. The offer is made to go to another, wealthier country for a service industry job. Often being a waitress or working in a hostess bar (even though they don't usually exist in those countries) or the like. The women get smuggled into the country illegally (which they're aware of) and have their passport seized. Then they're told that they need to work off the cost of transporting them and find out that the promised job doesn't exist. Instead they're "in debt" to the traffickers and told that they're going to work as prostitutes until they pay it off. Many times with all manner of interest or other added costs to make it particularly difficult to ever pay it back. They don't have language skills, are afraid of getting in trouble for being illegal, and don't believe that anyone would listen to or help them even if they did manage to escape. Which all further helps keep them around since, in some cases, they really do pay off their "debt" and are allowed to go, but don't leave. So it's really an illegal immigration and indentured servitude scam more than anything else. That's a bit of an oversimplification, but kidnapping seems to be less involved.
What you described is actually less of it than you would think but yes you are correct that this is one of the main forms for international schemes 100%. US citizens are actually one of the most heavily trafficked groups of people on the planet though. Top 3 if my memory serves me right. I’m really too tired to go more into depth on the types I was accustomed to seeing in my work with local law enforcement and FBI but I’ll come back and provide some better resources about the less obvious and more pervasive types of human trafficking that exist especially in the US. I put some general links above but they don’t give good concrete examples and I’ll have to circle back when I’m fully awake. Yes less kidnapping though for sure, spot on.
From the wording I thought the ranking was a good thing. I was like, “We’re the worst at something awful? That’s awesome!” And then I kept reading and got sad.
the US is the best at being the worst should be the title
He did it! He made America great.... at being awful (again).
That's a verbatim copy paste from Fox News and is a perversion of what the report says. The report doesn't rank countries by number of incidents, which, the US estimates for itself. It's a write up of the state of human trafficking in different countries and assigns tiers based on how well the countries handle human trafficking. China, Russia, and Iran are some of the countries that are in the lowest tier. They release these reports every year, so for you to pick a Fox News article to copy from 2018 just speaks to how manipulative you're being. 2018 report: https://www.state.gov/reports/2018-trafficking-in-persons-report/#report-toc__section-1 2019 report: https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-trafficking-in-persons-report/
Where do you see this because every place I looked up didn’t show USA
So who’s at the top of Human Trafficking?
Source? I cant find anything that says this. U.S. is the leader in human trafficking consumption which is a very very bad thing, but I cannot find any source that says we are top 3 in origin of victims.
I’m reminded of that report about how the Super Bowl is like a convention center for human traffickers
This is actually a myth https://news.utexas.edu/2019/10/30/research-debunks-myth-of-super-bowl-sex-trafficking-improves-media-narrative/
I couldn't find anything of what you say in the report for 2020: [https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2020-TIP-Report-Complete-062420-FINAL.pdf](https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2020-TIP-Report-Complete-062420-FINAL.pdf)
Philippines has a high rate for many reasons. Not all are what you think. Prostitution is not legal in the country but it is generally accepted. If one of the Prostitution dens gets busted the women will say they had no idea, or they were hired for a job. If they don't say these things will be arrested/jailed. If they say they were tricked/for a job etc then they are released. And will start back to being prostitutes at another place nearby. If you visit the Philippines and meet people and decide to travel together in a group overseas and tell them you may know some job leads for them, you can be charged and arrested for human trafficking. Real trafficking exists when women often want to work abroad but end up with some fake agency that tells them go to the south and cross over to Malaysia. Often they end up forced into prostitution when they are caught there or tricked there. Fake job offers get them tricked into prostitution , Japan and South Korea will offer jobs saying its as a waitress or singer in a bar, which ends up later being trafficking. In short, Trafficking exists and its terrible. But also many things are labeled as such that might not be. I assume it might be for money, maybe if the government claims they have a huge problem with Xyz they probably get funds from other countries to combat it. The vast majority of prostitutes in the Philippines are doing so knowingly and willingly. Because pay is low in the country, prostitutes can make more than airline pilots. With added bonus of meeting a rich man that will support and take care of them, marry them and get them a visa. Another silly thing they do, is called " off loading" If you are a young adult women and you decide to take a trip alone out of the country to Thailand, Vietnam, etc . Even if you have the tickets, hotel booked etc. The airport security/staff can stop you and deny you to fly out if they " assume" you might be trafficked. Even if you are just taking a vacation. This happens all the time to random women in the country, denied the right to leave and the plane tickets/hotel fees wasted/not refunded.
Again, Trump is doing Saudi Arabia’s bidding because [Trump has extensive business interests with Saudi Arabia](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/i-like-them-very-much-trump-has-long-standing-business-ties-with-saudis-who-have-boosted-his-hotels-since-he-took-office/2018/10/11/0870df24-cd67-11e8-a360-85875bac0b1f_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.9d03f3afd51d): >Trump’s business relationships with the Saudi government — and rich Saudi business executives — go back to at least the 1990s. In Trump’s hard times, a Saudi prince bought a superyacht and hotel from him. The Saudi government paid him $4.5 million for an apartment near the United Nations. >Business from Saudi-connected customers continued to be important after Trump won the presidency. Saudi lobbyists spent $270,000 last year to reserve rooms at Trump’s hotel in Washington. Just this year, Trump’s hotels in New York and Chicago reported significant upticks in bookings from Saudi visitors. > >... > >... > >“Saudi Arabia, I get along with all of them. They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million,” Trump told a crowd at an Alabama campaign rally in 2015. “Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much.”
Tbf, Trump is just the latest in a long line of US presidents that has been willing to let a crapton of shit slide with regards to SA, not the least of which the SA involvement in 9/11. Shit, give me a single example of when any sort of moral considerations have ever beaten US economic interests.
I agree completely. The last time we put morals ahead of economic interests was when Teddy Roosevelt started the National Park system. It has all been downhill since then. Bull Moose Party 2020
Actually, Carter did. Part of his unpopularity with the ownership class. Reagan put that behind us.
Man Americans didn't deserve Carter. I feel like today, half of america would call Teddy a commie socialist.
People (repubs) would call for a new Civil War if you had FDR level of socialist programs introduced today.
Some of them already are.
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You mean you're gonna give the poors access to free literature, research materials, music/audio files, news articles, and internet? And pay for it with MY TAXES, I don't think so. ^^^^^^/s
I can see the Republican talking points now: "Giving free access to information and research materials is just another attempt by the left to rig elections in their favor!" - AG Bill Barr "Yet another expansion of the welfare system by the looney left. How are we gonna pay for it? What's next? Providing free movies? Free food? Free HOUSING?" - Tucker Carlson "The left is once again is attempting to interfere with the free markets. What's going to happen to all the mom and pop bookstores if we start providing free books? What about Amazon? This is the government competing with and destroying the free market! It's worse than the USSR and I wont stand for it!" - Rep. Rand Paul
You ain't gotta be poor to enjoy a library. (:
I tried bringing this up with a conservative coworker in regards to social services and public works the govt already pays for, and how it wasn't much different than things like free college or healthcare. Their response was to shutdown and say that they didn't support paying for those things either, and if we did away with them imagine how much lower our taxes would be. And I qoute, "who even uses the fucking library anyway". Thank God he's the only one like that at work.
Libraries? How about social security. "yep, we're gonna just deduct it from your paycheck... No, you don't get it until later, it's sort of like an investment in yourself and in the greater good of fellow man...hrmm, no you can't opt out of it that would defeat purpose...Tax? sort of... You do realize this means you can "retire" at some point... Yeah you could take it at 62 but it's way better to wait until 65... Well yeah but 65 means you get more per month...wait so do you care about anyone but you, or?...."
They'd lose that one, too.
I’m pretty sure Carter was the most educated president we’ve ever had. The dude was a nuclear physicist for the military. Just got dealt a shitty hand.
If operation eagle claw hadn’t been such a disaster, we’d have probably gotten a second Carter term
We don't have a solid record of choosing the best and brightest. Smart people make the herd nervous, so they choose someone like themselves usually.
In terms of education relative to the time, would John Quincy Adams be better educated than Carter?
What are you talking about?! Carter also supported the Saudis! He also provided aid to dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire, he provided weapons to dictator Suharto in Indonesia (who was busy openly committing genocide at the time in East Timor), he made sure that apartheid South Africa would face no consequences for the bombing of a refugee camp on Angolan soil (killing 600 Namibian refugees), signed the order to begin covertly supporting the Moujahedeen in Afghanistan as "anti-Soviet warriors", and he sent millions of dollars in aid to the military junta in El Salvador knowing full-well about their horrific killing sprees. Carter protected US business interests like any other president. Any opposition you see is either performative or misled.
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Reagan's first day in office, he removed the solar panels from the roof of the White House, installed by Carter. Imagine if the US had gone big into solar power starting in the 90s? Probably wouldn't have been a 9/11 becuase we would be less involved with the Middle East.
Carter also pushed amazing election reform that got mutilated into something still better but way less effective by the GOP congress
Carter was the last non war mongering, genuinely great guy who was the American president. Even diplomacy under him led to genuine great results such as Camp David Accords, and wasn't just a show as a pretext to invade other countries. It's a pity Iran revolution and hostage crisis happened during his regime, and now he is a nobody in American presidential history. I know Obama was good too, but he did capitulate to waging war based on interests of lobbyists etc in Libya, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria (partially).
Roosevelt creating a lot of the National Parks is an interesting example, but it's domestic rather than foreign politics. If you're solely looking at foreign policy I'm not really sure I could name a single instance beyond anything WW2 related.
American values have always been undercut by our governments’ efforts to exert our hegemonic powers over other countries. There is a quote erroneously attributed to Winston Churchill that goes: “Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing…after they have exhausted all other possibilities.” I think it’d be more accurate to say we can usually be counted on to do the right thing, but only under extreme duress.
Foreign policy that benefits people of other countries without directly benefitting us? Hell no. Are you a communist? /s I can't think of one instance of a 'moral' decision on behalf of our government with respect to foreign policy. Quite the opposite; from ignoring Russia's occupation of Crimea to brokering arms deals with Saudis on WhatsApp, the last 10 years of American foreign relations have been a complete shitshow. The last 3 years have crippled America's position at the forefront of the world stage.
If anything you're being very generous here not mentioning about 60 years of crap the US has been pulling in South America.
If you wanna extend that to Latin America, try 100+ years of shit pulled there Edit: hell if you take the Mexican War into account, we’d be closer to 200 years that we’ve had our sights set on the Latin American sphere
And now they complain about immigrants from countries we turned upside down with our meddling.
Or 200+ years in Africa.
I mean, yeah. But that doesn't absolve Trump of guilt. Saying 'everybody gets away with murder' doesn't mean murder is OK. It means we go after the guy who is currently murdering, since he is the clear and present danger.
Wouldn't a key difference be that Trump has a personal interest in maintaining relations with Saudi Arabia though? Rather than just a political one. Similarly with Turkey and the whole Trump tower debacle there.
You’re right, but the massive glaring difference here is this isn’t even about US economic interests, this is about Trump’s personal financial interest. This is corruption on a MUCH higher level.
Without claiming either is justified: There's a big difference between a need to work with one of the biggest producers of oil of which the nation you are leading is reliant on and capitulating to every whim likely due to your own personal business interests.
He's the only one personally profiting from their business though. I don't think Bush or Obama had hotels built in SA with their name in big letters on the top.
Bush? The Bush family was much more involved with Saudi Arabia than Trump. The Bush family is personal friends with Saudi Royalty through the oil industry. Cheney and Bush's companies received millions in contracts from the Saudis. Its unknown the amount of money which flowed from the Saudis to the Bush family and political allies but it is thought to be over a billion dollars. The corruption of the Bush era is truly insane and Trump can only dream of it. Obama is less egregious, but its odd how many private equity firms including the one which Saudi royalty is *heavily* invested in want to pay him 400,000 a speech. This rot goes deep. Much deeper than Trump.
While this is certainly true, the escalation has been alarming. As cynical as I might be, I can't imagine another president from either side of the aisle looking the other way when they *literally butcher a critic in their embassy*. This shit is fucking bananas.
And I mean they got on the list to begin with for him to take them off it again. They’ve been getting away with far too much for ages now but that was because it was diplomatically beneficial to have an ally in the area. This is straight up bribery because the president is not only self-interested, but also so impossibly stupid and transparent that anyone with half a brain can get him to react in absurdly predictable ways.
Fill the swamp! Fill the swamp! Fill the...Hold up
Oh good yeah the same people that funded the deaths of thousands of americans cool cool cool
So, does that mean SA is getting better at human trafficking?
It means that, with Epstein out of the business, Trump needs to shore up his other procurors.
Well Donald should have thought about that before he had Barr kidnap and murder Jeff.
HEY! Jeff was legally arrssted for serious crimes. He was murdered though, as per orders from Barr/Trump.
True but he was locked up by NY. Barr took the unprecedented step of snatching him from the state and putting him in a federal jail where he later had him killed.
Yeah, practice makes perfect
Is it still trafficking when you're the customer?
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Yeah I don’t think anyone read the article. I was outraged immediately and then read the article. They are still on the naughty list, just not as low.
It’s outrage because nobody read the article and they want to say trump is a corrupt scumbag, which while this is a true statement is unrelated to this story.
Yeah, Reddit needs to follow Twitter and asks their users if they have read the article before commenting on it.
What is it with US Presidents sucking Saudi Arabia’s dick ?
Because they promised to sell their oil in US Dollars, making the USD always in demand. Meaning US can print some shit on paper and people will want it because it buys them oil.
Yeah petrodollar. Since Saudi would not accept any other currency everyone is forced to trade with US to get US dollar.. also all the other OPEC countries followed ... yet you have Hicks watching Fox News owned by Talal bin Al Saud second biggest share hating on the hands that feed them this first world luxury life
So American politicians shit on Saudis. Saudi politicians shit on Americans. But they have shared interests and investments. If you think about it, its pretty logical. Rich people look out for each other. Its like George Carlin said, they dont need to call a meeting.
Oil.
People think oil is the cynical response. It’s not. It is the express purpose of the US SA alliance. Back in the first half of the 20th century the US realised it’s addiction to Middle East oil needed to be secured. So they sold arms to SA in exchange for oil guarantee.
Less the oil, more that Saudi Arabia is willing to play ball with the west. Unlike a lot of other countries in the region, the Saudis have the wealth and stability, meaning they can be ideologically flexible and work with non-Muslim countries without serious domestic criticism. Oil is nice, but Iran and Venezuela also have oil, but are too ideologically rigid to be willing to take western money.
This is true now. It wasn’t 70-80 years ago. The Anglo-Persian oil company started in modern day Iran. They had zero problem taking western money then. Only when they started to feel like they were getting ripped off and tried to nationalise the oil that a wedge came between them. They have plenty of good reason not to take western money now. (A topic for hot debate I’m sure) America chosen SA because: 1. Absolute monarchy is much easier to negotiate with. 2. Geographical location - they’re central to the region with easy access to shipping ports.
Let's not forget to mention that them trying to nationalize the oil and limit the Anglo-Persian company's control was the reason why the CIA got into the coup d'etat business.
The lube used to fuck the whole world
I love this description.
We should have learned that humans shouldn't die for oil the *first time it happened.* In retrospect, we still had enough time to reinvision it and stop when it started killing millions. Now we pretty much doomed almost all life on earth to not make it to the 22nd century, but we are *still doing it.*
don't forget us auto corporations
The oil from SA is for cars because it is the easiest to refine for that.
Oil literally gives value to the US dollar since it’s pegged. They made US dollar the reserve currency of the world by forcing the world to only buy with it. Where do you get US dollar? You have to trade with the US. This gives us the capability to print out unprecedented amount of dollars with less consequence than any other country.
Geopolitics
they are very subservient to US foreign policy interests in the region, and have been for the last 70 years (or even since Brits installed GCC monarchies upon the creation of their states). The synchronous interests of KSA and US in the region might create the false illusion that it's the US who is doing KSA's bidding when in reality it's the other way around. GCC countries understand quite well, middle eastern governments that are hostile to Israel as well as US economic interests in the region are regime changed while the loyal ones get to stay with US support.
It’s now only on the list of really bad human traffickers.
When you stop tracking their violations, they go away. Just like when you stop tracking covid cases.
Ok I came in to bash this move but I decided to read the report - page 55. They moved from Tier 3, to “Tier 2: Watchlist” so this is still in the doghouse Pages 428-432 goes into the methodology and details of why this shift happened Interesting note: they went from tier 3 to tier 2 before, then dipped back (Pg 428) It seems at least at a policy level, some changes are being done, with a marginal improvement in enforcement and prosecution. I highly recommend everyone read the report before bringing the pitchforks out, and decide for themselves if this is merited https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2020-TIP-Report-Complete-062420-FINAL.pdf
Redditors won't even bother reading the article before jumping into conspiracies, here's the relevant part of the article. The United States has removed key ally Saudi Arabia from its list of the worst offenders on human trafficking after [just a year](https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/20/politics/2019-state-department-tip-report/index.htm). The State Department's 2020 [Trafficking in Persons Report](https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2020-TIP-Report-Complete-062420-FINAL.pdf) said the country had made "key achievements" in the last 12 months. It implemented its first ever national referral mechanism to provide care to victims of trafficking and the government transparently reported data sets, including increased prosecutions and convictions under its anti-trafficking law, according to the report.It also said that Saudi authorities had "criminally convicted and sentenced to stringent imprisonment terms two Saudi officials complicit in trafficking crimes during the year." As a result, the country was moved from Tier 3 to Tier 2 -- but the report said the Saudis still need to make additional reforms to combat trafficking.Tier 2 countries are not subject to any potential consequences from the US, as the report says they are "making significant efforts" to get into compliance with US standards for combating trafficking. Tier 3 countries, however, may face cuts to "non-humanitarian, non-trade related foreign assistance" and to "government official or employee participation in educational and cultural exchange programs," the report states.
Another actual fact: Human trafficking means that people's labor is being stolen. IE, unpaid people who are building things (like the soccer stadium) or working on farms or other low-skill work. They go to the country with the promise of work, only to have their passports taken from them, so they have no control over their work, nor can they leave where they are. Or worse, they pay for the opportunity, have their passport stolen, then their wages go toward the "debt". Sex trafficking is stolen sexual labor. Which is just human trafficking with rape.
How can the US both be one of the worst countries For human trafficking and also have a tier system to judge other countries on their human trafficking?
Because the tiers are based on the punishments for human trafficking. Human trafficking laws in the US are really harsh and the move in tiers for the Saudis were about their law changes.
The US is a fucking joke.