[BastardSquad]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jenab', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('trespam', '
')I never heard the phrase "Mad Max" before I joined this forum. I'm still not completely certain about what it means. Survivalism will be necessary for survival, and those who did not prepare will die.
Jerry Abbott

[BastardSquad]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('bart', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BastardSquad', '
')I find it laughable when people start saying "we need to get Bush out of office,Kerry will save the day!"As if one would truely be any better than the other.

[bart]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BastardSquad', 'C')uba is a communist nation

[BastardSquad]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('bart', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BastardSquad', 'C')uba is a communist nation

[bart]

Thanks for the post, BastardSquad. If we're going to solve the problems of PO, somehow we have to find ways to work together even if we strongly disagree.

I suspect that many of the political systems and conflicts of the past will seem irrelevant in a PO future.

[Concerned]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')Cuba is a communist nation you piece of crap!

[BastardSquad]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Concerned', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')Cuba is a communist nation you piece of crap!

[Guest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')As far as the trading with China comment goes,I,like most Americans,am completely opposed to it.It costs us jobs along with billions of dollars that leave this country and will never come back.This is just another example of how we,the American citizens,have absolutely no control over our own government.Multinational conglomerates and international banking rule this country,voting doesn't mean $hit!!!!!!

[holmes]

hey bastard squad you are just another wana be american who has zero understanding of the histroy of this once great country. Neo cons and libs never do know the true history its a mish mash of wacked out partisan views. and bunk science.
DISEASES wiped out the Indians well before our ancestors ever stepped foot onto this continent. We didnt Kick any ass. 90,000,000 speculated died from diseases. Lying in there homes not fighting some made up european sensationalized war. It was no war. it was a genocide based on greed and religion.
300,000 were left when we got here. What a crock of lies the indian wars. we had 40 million against 300,000. More BS propaganda fed to the simple minds. Get used to the fact that most of our culture is based on lies and semi truths.
we kicked 300,000 on there way out tribes,that basicly surrended but had to fight becuase we kept pressuring them.
performed genocide on them. Exterminted their natural sustainable food sources and forced them into dependent welfare socialist state.
Burned their orchards and fields.
The gun and a culture of overpopulation helped as well. Most of the tribes culture did not allow overbreeding.
They had a free self sufficient system. And u know what they were handing our asses to us by the end of the indian wars and didnt have enough warriors and resources left. So lets get some perspective and truth into this fallacy of history that has been imbedded into the psyche.
Only the guilty feel guilty.
Oh and our society will not last past this century. Theirs lasted 8,000 years and had no sign of decline. Pure bred and strong. a code.
Read bury my heart at wounded knee.

[BastardSquad]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('holmes', 'h')ey bastard squad you are just another wana be american who has zero understanding of the histroy of this once great country. Neo cons and libs never do know the true history its a mish mash of wacked out partisan views. and bunk science.
DISEASES wiped out the Indians well before our ancestors ever stepped foot onto this continent. We didnt Kick any ass. 90,000,000 speculated died from diseases. Lying in there homes not fighting some made up european sensationalized war. It was no war. it was a genocide based on greed and religion.
300,000 were left when we got here. What a crock of lies the indian wars. we had 40 million against 300,000. More BS propaganda fed to the simple minds. Get used to the fact that most of our culture is based on lies and semi truths.
we kicked 300,000 on there way out tribes,that basicly surrended but had to fight becuase we kept pressuring them.
performed genocide on them. Exterminted their natural sustainable food sources and forced them into dependent welfare socialist state.
Burned their orchards and fields.
The gun and a culture of overpopulation helped as well. Most of the tribes culture did not allow overbreeding.
They had a free self sufficient system. And u know what they were handing our asses to us by the end of the indian wars and didnt have enough warriors and resources left. So lets get some perspective and truth into this fallacy of history that has been imbedded into the psyche.
Only the guilty feel guilty.
Oh and our society will not last past this century. Theirs lasted 8,000 years and had no sign of decline. Pure bred and strong. a code.
Read bury my heart at wounded knee.

[gg3]

The first task is to face facts objectively, and the second is to make choices rationally.

Guilt:

The question of guilt over historic genocide is a red herring. Yes, Americans genocided the Indians, and Germans genocided the Jews; to which we can add Cambodia, Rwanda, and all the other "never agains" that keep happening again and again. Much was done in each case that any rational person must conclude was abolute evil. BUT- we, ourselves, who are writing and reading this, didn't do those deeds. It's not even sane to feel guilty about a crime someone else commits. And if the criminal managed to get away (i.e. the perpetrators of those genocides are long since dead), the best we can do is try to set things right for the victims and their descendents, and put measures in place to prevent a repeat-performance. Witness modern Germany, with world-class democracy and free enterprise, and practically zero chance of ever getting taken over by tyranny again.

China:

Count me as another American who doesn't approve of America giving away the farm to a communist government in exchange for cheap consumer goods. Now THIS is an area where there is clear moral responsibility: anyone who, when confronted with the choice between cheap goods made by slaves, and slightly more expensive goods made by free people, chooses the former, is contributing in a concrete way toward communism and the oppression of labor, and toward the decline of their own country's economy. There are no two ways about this.

Personally I check the labels on *everything* I buy, and wherever possible, avoid buying goods made in countries that treat their citizens as little more than slaves.

Also the goods my company sells pass the same sniff test. I can prove that the excuse of needing slave labor to get a competitive price while earning a respectable profit, is pure unadulterated bull----.

Cuba:

To my mind, socialism is dull, gray, stifling, and represents the entropy of incentive and inventiveness. However the fact remains that Cuba managed to pull off its own PO transition without a social collapse or a die-off, something that the predominant theories here say is darn near impossible. So clearly there's something to learn from; and the place to start is by recognizing that one can choose: we don't need to go commie in order to learn from something a commie government actually managed to get right (same case with the new generation of Chinese nuclear reactors).

Our task is to adopt the best without getting the rest. What I find really interesting is the idea of making Cuban infrastructure (technologies & methods) work in a free enterprise democracy environment. It's almost like a design engineering challenge, and I think it should be undertaken in that spirit.

Econo-splat:

I can't imagine any way the debt load could keep growing without eventually causing an implosion. However, my experience of econo-splats over the past 20 years is that they aren't sudden catastrophes that manifest everywhere simultaneously to the same degree. They hit some people catastrophically, and the rest of us less to varying degrees.

If someone has a ton of debt but it's at a fixed interest rate and their cashflow holds up well enough that they can keep making payments, I don't think they're going to get trashed. It's the variable-rate debt that's the real risk, and the cases where cashflow takes a hit; people in those circumstances are going to get wiped out. Then of course there'll be a ripple effect through the system, but again, it will primarily knock out those who are in a precarious position to begin with. And those who are observant will see the wave coming and protect themselves as far as possible before it hits.

What that means presently is, reducing consumer debt to the absolute minimum, and assuring that you have the cashflow to cover those components that are truly necessary such as a mortgage. And then diversifying your assets in such a manner as to be less vulnerable to sectoral shocks. And simultaneously with the rest of this, diversifying your skill-set to enable a range of means of earning an income in the event of job loss. This isn't hard, it just takes using your free will.

[linlithgowoil]

Was just thinking - a lot of people on here seem to be rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of the amercian empire ending. Problem is, china and the communists would replace them - militarily and economically.

I wonder if you'd all be pretty happy to see the red flag of china flying in washington and mass murders of americans to clear space for all the chinese?

my point is that, although america has done many pretty terrible things in its history, what is the alternative?

And lets just forget all the pie in the sky pipe dream stuff of people all living in wonderful middle earth type towns with no central control. Wont happen. There will always be some form of 'leader' or control over people - always has been in history, and always will be. So which is best? A leader that at least attempts to stick to the rule of law, or a leader who has no rules except whatever they feel like doing is fine?

[reggieUK]

then we're all buggered.
China is the new empire

[Geology_Guy]

Can't wait for the dictatorship of the prolitariat!

Good point in that there is always some kind of leader. As in Animal Farm "all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others".

[Battle_Scarred_Galactico]

How are they going to do all this Galatic Empire stuff with no energy ?

[Leanan]

If there was unlimited oil, then China would definitely be the new empire.

But without oil, forget it. China may as well be on the moon (unless you're an immediate neighbor). China will not be able to maintain hegemony over the world, any more than Britain could maintain hegemony over the U.S. It just won't be worth the effort.

This doesn't mean we'll be living an idealistic, Shire-like existance. But I suspect "all politics is local" will have a whole new meaning.

[Doly]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('linlithgowoil', '
')And lets just forget all the pie in the sky pipe dream stuff of people all living in wonderful middle earth type towns with no central control. Wont happen. There will always be some form of 'leader' or control over people - always has been in history, and always will be.

[Permanently_Baffled]

Can someone explain how China will avoid crashing with the rest of us when the US goes pop?

After all, the reason why China is growing so quickly is the demand generated by the West. If all our economies are in recession , China has no demand, barely any resources per capita, and 1.3 billion angry , hungry unemployed people !

PB

[BiGG]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('reggieUK', 't')hen we're all buggered.
China is the new empire

[linlithgowoil]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')an someone explain how China will avoid crashing with the rest of us when the US goes pop