Politics First Contact

[Raithe]

[smjjames]

I wonder if anybody has actually attempted that kind of defense in court.

[Gfted1]

Prolly Obama would have if he didn't wield unlimited "executive order" power.

[Skarpen]

1 hour ago, Guard Dog said:

 

 

 

This is excellent news. Is there any chance Trump can be named Emperor and rule for life? Would be fantastic.

[ComradeYellow]

On 12/13/2019 at 12:05 AM, Zoraptor said:

They aren't fascinated with Russia though- indeed the country itself is almost totally irrelevant- they're fascinated with Putin himself and, effectively, want a scenario with (idealised) US President Putin, ie an effective leader who 'gets stuff done', isn't particularly bothered with the niceties and doesn't take any crap from anyone while doing it. They don't care about Russia having a bewildering array of minorities or about Chechnya because they don't know about that, and if they did they still wouldn't care. They care that Putin took a disintegrating bankrupt nation that was heading seemingly irremediably towards irrelevance- which is how they view the future of the US if things don't change- back to the diplomatic and geopolitical high table, and they aren't bothered by how he did it.

Most Trump supporters I know don't even like Russia or Putin so I don't even know where this whole thing started.  Just seems like a MSM fabrication.  Any hardline right wing American thinks "commie" when mentioning Russia and Putin.

 

As an American Lefty (we exist) I remain mixed on the Russia and Putin question.  For every cool thing Putin says/does he off balances it with something extremely bad/facepalm so my instinct is to just let Russia govern herself w/o interference of critical observation.  Mutual exclusivity is golden here.

Edited December 14, 2019 by ComradeMaster

[Raithe]

Where's the popcorn? Is there enough in the world?

 

Val Demings charges Mitch McConnel, he cannot take the Oath for impeachment and must withdraw

Edited December 13, 2019 by Raithe

[smjjames]

Doesn't that only apply to judicial trials though? Yes, the Senate are effectively jurors, but it's not a criminal legal trial, the entire thing is inherently political because impeachment is meant to be a political, not legal process.

[Guard Dog]

3 hours ago, Skarpen said:

This is excellent news. Is there any chance Trump can be named Emperor and rule for life? Would be fantastic.

 I know some people who were genuinely worried about this with Obama. The funny thing I don't think anyone was happier when his term ended than Barack Obama himself. The sad thing is those people who were afraid Obama would not leave office would likely be overjoyed if Trump did take power for life. The former is every bit as bad as the latter. 

[ComradeYellow]

7 minutes ago, Guard Dog said:

 I know some people who were genuinely worried about this with Obama. The funny thing I don't think anyone was happier when his term ended than Barack Obama himself. The sad thing is those people who were afraid Obama would not leave office would likely be overjoyed if Trump did take power for life. The former is every bit as bad as the latter. 

I remember some right wingers were afraid that Obama would declare "martial law" or something when his term ended, I don't know where they pulled these delusions out of other than their asses, but that didn't seem to stop them from electing a guy who would be more than happy to do this if given the chance.

And no, I was never a huge fan of Obama.  He seemed to pay lip service to the environment and his Iran deal was sound but all-in-all he was subject to the whim of his donors, having no strong grassroots backing getting elected.

[Guard Dog]

1 hour ago, ComradeMaster said:

I remember some right wingers were afraid that Obama would declare "martial law" or something when his term ended, I don't know where they pulled these delusions out of other than their asses, but that didn't seem to stop them from electing a guy who would be more than happy to do this if given the chance.

 

Best not to overthink it. Trying to follow that logic will hurt your brain.

[Guard Dog]

As if I needed another reason to turn by back on the Republican Party: https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/12/politics/deal-in-principle-on-2020-spending-bills-reached/index.html

[smjjames]

Would you rather have a shutdown (though I'm sure Trump would love one during the impeachment proceedings) and default? I'm as annoyed at them not dealing with the debt as you are. but I'd prefer not to go default.

[ComradeYellow]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/socialist-jeremy-corbyn-steps-down-leader-labour-party-after-crushing-n1101166

*gulp*

 

Should be a great lesson for over here.  Leftists *leave* the Democratic Party! 

[ktchong]

China returning to its rightful place in the world:

 

Edited December 14, 2019 by ktchong

[Volourn]

"China returning to its rightful place in the world: "

 

l0l Supporting one of the most evil, anti freedom, anti Chinese regimes in the world. LMAO

[HoonDing]

Belgium in front of Netherlands

 

looks liek fake news

[Bartimaeus]

Officially made by members of Trump's 2020 campaign.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

This is the hell timeline.

[Gromnir]

2 hours ago, ktchong said:

China returning to its rightful place in the world:

vid

 

https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/NGDPDPC@WEO/OEMDC/ADVEC/WEOWORLD

wake us when china per capita gdp breaks the mendoza line of world average, 'cause at the moment they are behind mexico. however, this year, thanks to an economic downturn in kazakhstan, china did final pass their closest economic rival on per capita gdp list.

*eye-roll*

HA! Good Fun!

[Zoraptor]

That video is using GDP/ capita PPP though- or at least the thumbnail is using that, and I ain't actually going to watch it- where China is still a stunning 20ish places behind relative powerhouse Kazakhstan and battling it out with African behemoth Botswana in the 70s.

Having said that, GDP in any form is and always has been an extremely limited measure for determining economic power

[smjjames]

What's PPP here, production per person? I'm also going to note the bad news, according to the projection, during the mid/late 2020's the Chinese economy starts slowing compared to the US and you can see the US one creeping steadily back up. It'd probably take another 20-30 years for the US to catch up.

Of course, this is only a projection, it'll get thrown off the second the actual growth changes from the projected and whenever events not predicted by the the projection happen (wars, economic turmoil, political turmoil, plague, meteor, what-have-you.). Also, as zoraptor said, using that doesn't look at the entire picture, just one set of data.

Edited December 14, 2019 by smjjames

[Zoraptor]

Purchasing Power Parity. It's a measure of what can practically be bought with the economic activity and takes food/ house prices and the like into account so places with cheap food and housing do better; and in most cases it's the best measure to use for that reason- after all someone in China doesn't have to buy a house or food in, say, the UK, Australia or the US they buy in China itself.

GDP nominal/ gross is a raw figure of economic activity that doesn't take purchasing power into account. The per person measure used for both nominal and PPP measures is 'per capita GDP'.

[Gromnir]

22 minutes ago, smjjames said:

What's PPP here, production per person? I'm also going to note the bad news, according to the projection, during the mid/late 2020's the Chinese economy starts slowing compared to the US and you can see the US one creeping steadily back up. It'd probably take another 20-30 years for the US to catch up.

biggest problem china faces is complete o' their own making and utter predictable. decades o' population control means their workforce is aging rapidly and unnatural. 2019 china is trying to make changes to reverse the idiocy o' the last three decades, but even in china, babies do not make for a viable workforce.  is a ~40 year problem china is just beginning to come to grips with. a seeming inexhaustible supply o' cheap labor is what made it possible for china to grow so quick. current, 15% o' china's population is 60 or older. even with new 2-child policy in place, short o' resorting to mass murder o' the aged, 39% o' the chinese population will be 60 or older in 2050. keep a billion people in squalor and work-em-to-death were china's solution to bootstrapping their economy, and it kinda/sorta worked. however, china is already facing labor shortages in some industries and regions.

'ccording to any measure o' per capita gdp from world bank, imf, cia or any source o' note outside o' china, has the chinese lagging behind mexico and maybe/possibly cracking top 70 nations insofar as per capita gdp is concerned. nothing to cheer 'bout.

now, is worth noting the soviet utilized a kinda/sorta similar model and were, for a period o' time, able to attain superpower status as well as being the world leader in any number o' scientific fields. Americans likes to pretend there were a space race 'tween US and soviets, but pretty much every significant first in space exploration went to the soviets... right up until the US started pouring ~3.5-4.5% o' total gdp into nasa. this were at a time when per capita gdp o' russia were 1/5 o' US. wasn't a meaningful race 'til late. stalin model o' atrocities were, in a limited sense, effective. 'course if you spent any time whatsoever in moscow in the 80s, you woulda' been shocked by continued western fears o' the soviet save for concerns o' their nuclear arsenal. reality were a dismal wakeup call. even so, pretend as if soviet were hapless and bumbling at 1/5 US gdp would be a mistake. current chinese per capita gdp, depending on measure, is 1/6-1/5 o' US.

'course the chinese face many o' the same problems as did soviets, not least which is rampant cronyism. however, to make matters worse, the chinese invented a self-immolating population control time bomb which were draconian enforced 28 years too long. 

HA! Good Fun!

[smjjames]

12 hours ago, ComradeMaster said:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/socialist-jeremy-corbyn-steps-down-leader-labour-party-after-crushing-n1101166

*gulp*

 

Should be a great lesson for over here.  Leftists *leave* the Democratic Party! 

He didn't leave the Labour party though, just stepped down as leader.  A loss in 2020 would definetly be a sign of a need for leadership change though.

Speaking of leaving the Democratic party, it's more likely that the losses will be at the left-right interface rather than at the extreme ends. https://thehill.com/homenews/house/474587-anti-impeachment-democrat-poised-to-switch-parties-reports

edit: Though this specific case looks far more political calculaty than it looks at first glance: https://www.vox.com/2019/12/14/21022160/jeff-van-drew-impeachment-democrat-republican-trump

@Gromnir China isn't the only one facing the population boom bottleneck though, everybody that went through the population boom of the 20th century is going to go through it, some later than others (yes, the developing countries will eventually pass through that phase), but they definetly made it worse for themselves than it otherwise might have been. A possible alternative for China is to go for broke on automation since it's already a force and the labor issues are only going to magnify that for them. Hopefully the US keeps pace if China tries that.

Edited December 14, 2019 by smjjames

[Gromnir]

as for other nations facing similar population problems, we have, more than once, mentioned just how serious is the aging population problem in japan. the japanese, counter-intuitive, has increased their workforce in recent years, which has been simultaneous good and bad for them. not surprising, have 5 people do the job o' one keeps folks employed, but leads to considerable inefficiency, yes? o' all the oecd member nations, japan ranks 19 for efficiency. 'course china's impending nightmare is many orders o' magnitude worse than the troubles japan is facing, and automation doesn't actual solve the short-term issues. 

compare japan to china population issues is illustrative, but only in the way compare a bunsen burner to thermobaric weapons is useful in showing how dangerous heat and fire can be.

HA! Good Fun!