Rich Plumber

I visited the Philippines once and had a great time. The cuisine was excellent, and the staff were incredibly friendly and hospitable. Additionally, I went to “Corregidor Island” and the historic part of “Intramuros in Manila” , which was fascinating, particularly for anyone interested in WWII history. Without a doubt, I hope to return someday.

@Curtmungus your honor of being more famous than me is quite deserved. I salute you.

Classic advice! Nothing says safety like a day of drinking and fireworks 😂 Stay safe out there! Fireworks are definitely a hot topic with the Holidays—Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year—coming up. I’ll be in France for Christmas and New Year, and I’ve heard New Year’s celebrations there are amazing with fireworks. Found this tourism statistics interesting too, https://gowithguide.com/blog/tourism-in-france-statistics-2023-all-you-need-to-know-5275. So excited!

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@barnee

🎄🎅

Seeing my older brother every Christmas after he left to go live with his dad. My older brother died about 9 years ago short one year of his 50th birthday. No Christmas gift can ever replace him.

A good series is Marshall Cavendish W.W.I series. This 12 volume set, is usually found in libraries, encyclopedia articles of the war, some written or based on people who lived during the war.

Rich in pictures, graphs, charts, illustrations, side stories of the Great War. If you cannot find what you want to read here, then it probably be a hard search for that particular subject.

Some libraries hace a duplicate set of books, letting you take a volume home. You can try the net, used book stores, good luck in getting a set, enjoy the read, thanks, Pellulo

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/10/27/oil.food.report/

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/03/01/politics/main275419.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Rich

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=295926&page=1

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/27/AR2005102700954.html

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/tobin022301.asp

http://www.israelinsider.com/general/frames.htm?israelinsider&http://www.jonathanpollard.org/2001/022301c.htm

In the final analysis, I find the pardon of Marc Rich to be a highly monetized assault on American values. Seems like much of the over $100 million he evaded in taxes and fines were paid back in charity and bribes to Israel, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Libya, and even the US (Clinton Library). Petty change for a billionare.

Oh yeah, he also got wealthy defying our trade embargo against Iran during and after the hostage crisis in 1979.

Rich’s agents made concerted efforts to gain that pardon, and if Clinton did not get it, they would have to wait for the next president and try again after 7-8 years, or 4 if the incumbent could not win reelection. Clinton always had a good eye for channeling advantageous donations. The Wikipedia link said that Al Gore tried to arrest Rich in the past, so no funding from the Rich organization if Gore won. In fact, it would have been risking millions in funding to the Republicans to unseat Gore if he won. GW might be offered bribes if Rich still needed a pardon and that amount of money was to much to give away to the Republicans. I think Clinton feared that amount of money would win even more Republican seats in Congress.