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Page added on September 12, 2016
America and the world
How should America use its influence in a world where being a superpower doesn’t get you what it once did? As instability and human tragedy in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria have shown, the U.S. alone cannot impose solutions or force the surrender of adversaries like the Islamic State group, which cannot be deterred by the threat of nuclear attack.
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WHERE THEY STAND
Donald Trump says his approach is defined by the phrase “America First.” He says, for example, that if allies in Europe and Asia won’t pay the full cost of U.S. contributions to their defense, then the U.S. should let them defend themselves. He is sour on “international unions that tie us up and bring America down.”
Hillary Clinton takes the view that America benefits from a wide network of alliances, both for security and for economic strength. She says she would work to widen and strengthen that network. She criticizes a “go-it-alone” approach for the U.S. and asserts that international partnerships are “a unique source of America’s strength.”
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WHY IT MATTERS
The way America wields its power around the world affects people in every walk of life, in every corner of the country. Going to war in Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003 profoundly changed the lives of tens of thousands of people whose loved ones were killed or grievously wounded. It also raised questions that confront Clinton and Trump: How can American influence be used most effectively to protect the homeland and prevent future wars?
In Iraq and Syria, President Barack Obama has chosen not to use the full force of the U.S. military against IS. Instead he has sent small numbers of troops to prod and coach local forces to do the main fighting, backed by U.S. airpower. He says this is more likely to create a durable success than fighting the Iraqis’ and Syrians’ wars for them. Trump says this is an abdication of a commander-in-chief’s responsibility to extinguish as quickly as possible the most immediate threat to the United States. Clinton supports the thrust of Obama’s approach to avoiding another U.S. war in the Mideast.
The Iran nuclear deal, which Trump trashes and Clinton praises, is an example of diplomacy with the potential to change the course of history, for better or worse. Critics like Trump say it opens the door for Iran to get its hands eventually on nuclear weapons, which would threaten America. Clinton says it blocks that path and provides possibilities for change in Iran that could reduce the chance of war.
At its core, the discussion about U.S. leadership gets down to this: How much can the U.S. accomplish acting alone, compared with allying itself with like-minded nations? The question applies not just on the military front but also in economics. Trump argues the U.S. gets too little out of current trade arrangements as well as decades-old security partnerships like NATO, which is anchored in Europe but traditionally led by the U.S. He has called NATO “obsolete” and a bad deal for America.
Clinton, by contrast, sees NATO and alliances with Japan and South Korea as a pillar of U.S. strategy for promoting peace and preventing war.
Trump is right when he says NATO was created to confront a threat – the Soviet Union – that no longer exists. The question is whether the alliance is capable of adapting to 21st century threats like a resurgent Russia, instability in the Middle East and the appeal of the Islamic State group. Whereas Trump suggests the U.S. can be better off going it alone, Clinton aligns herself with the more traditional notion that there is strength in numbers.
95 Comments on "America and the world"
onlooker on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 1:03 pm
The US has become a despised Empire around the world fast losing its power. It like all other countries have lost the ability to control events. Everyone is now at the mercy of the forces of overshoot consequences or Nature.
rockman on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 2:02 pm
“How should America use its influence in a world where being a superpower doesn’t get you what it once did?”
Same way it has been done for a very long time: old men decide to do it and you men die getting it down. The trick is finding enough young men AND having sufficient public support.
JuanP on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 2:06 pm
I think the USA should focus on its own domestic problems and stop interfering in other countries’ business. They are not welcome or wanted abroad and their interference is generating huge amounts of hatred and resentment all over the world. The USA is the most hated country in the world already and every day the situation gets worse. As a US resident and tax payer I wish we would invest our time, energy, and resources in slowing the deterioration of the USA and left the rest of the world to their own devices.
claman on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 4:11 pm
onlooker said: “The US has become a despised Empire around the world fast losing its power. It like all other countries have lost the ability to control events. Everyone is now at the mercy of the forces of overshoot consequences or Nature.”
Or maybe the US is aware that a global economical breakdown is on the coming, and the best policy is to hold back. America should not appear to be the savior of the world when the global economy irreparably goes south.
China, on the other hand is desperately. trying to make something out of their saved mattress money while they still have some value. That will stimulate the world economy for a while, but maybe not long enough for China’s growth to survive.
Cloggie on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 4:15 pm
Latest list of US initiated regime change since the end of WW2 [*]:
https://williamblum.org/essays/read/overthrowing-other-peoples-governments-the-master-list
Hilarious joke:
Q: Why will there never be a coup d’état in Washington?
A: Because there’s no American embassy there
[*] WW2 was of course the largest regime change of them all: all Eastern European countries became Soviet, all Western European countries became American colonies.
Attempts since 2003 to add most countries in the ME to the US empire (after organizing 9/11 first and blaming it on Arabs) failed miserably. Now not even Brzezinski (or our own ghung) believe that the US will be able to add new countries to the empire. It could happen that Turkey will be lost for the empire. Expect Germany and/or France to be next. Eastern Europe discretely disengaged itself earlier.
onlooker on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 4:33 pm
I would not call US intrusions into the Middle East holding back. What I see is China and Russia standing up to the US as never before. Oh and these countries I just mentioned can still exert some control but that control is of the most volatile kind. One or more can opt for military confrontation. But that would imply total loss of control as it would entail WWIII
Boat on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 4:55 pm
clog,
It could happen that Turkey will be lost for the empire. Expect Germany and/or France to be next. Eastern Europe discretely disengaged itself earlier.
Lol, if these countries can just vote to disengage doesn’t that by definition show there wasn’t much of American empire to begin with? Btw, I bet these disengaged countries will will all want to increase with the US.
Cloggie on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 5:14 pm
Eastern Europe is still part of the EU & NATO, meaning the US empire. But they refuse to take in “refugees”, clearly against what Washington wants. This is what I mean with “discretely disengaging”.
However, escaping from the US empire will require more robuste measures, like violently overthrowing Merkel and/or Hollande.
Impossible you think? The head of the French CIA thinks a civil war in France is immanent.
Who cares about peak oil, other than shortonoil?
Every week scenes like this in Dresden:
https://youtu.be/vg2I1GQRJyM
Today even a former head of NATO, Willy Claes has admitted that Erdogan wants to reestablish a neo-Ottoman empire:
https://youtu.be/XQqQKmYvZ9w
War is coming to Europe and war is coming to America and the old post-WW2 order will evaporate.
Boat on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 5:33 pm
Don’t empires collect taxes? Weird that the US doesn’t collect taxes. In Iraq, countries (some you would consider advisory to the US) were invited to develop oil. Is that traditional action for a conquering nation to take?
Truth Has A Liberal Bias on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 5:38 pm
I hear cops and police associations complaining that they feel like they have a target on their back. I guess the question I have for them is “who do you think put it there?”
Personally I can’t wait to see all the shit twist off. There’s some well deserved payback in the pipe.
https://youtu.be/Icg0HxO3RoA
Cloggie on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 5:43 pm
“Don’t empires collect taxes? Weird that the US doesn’t collect taxes”
Who needs taxes if you own the reserve currency?
ghung on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 5:48 pm
They’re going to miss us when we’re gone.
Apneaman on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 5:50 pm
Who cares about peak muslim refugees to euroland other than clogged?
Anonymous on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 5:52 pm
For our village idiot boats enlightenment(yea I know, not likely).
The uS empire does not collect taxes directly, fool. It does not have to. It has something much better, the petro-dollar, uS Not-actually-Federal, ‘Federal Reserve’. It uses its instruments of global financial control, iE WB, IMF, and so-called ‘free-trade agreements, to extract resources and wealth from its colonies at far-below market rates. No need for taxes, idiot.
And, despite trumps claims that the ‘Nato’ is a net drain on the uS(he only counts uS dollars, and imperfectly at that), the uS garrisoning the world is how it prevents rivals with far more level headed, rulers, workers, competent scientists and technicians etc, or ones with such potential, from competing on a level playing field in world markets. The fact that uS conjures dollars out of thin air to pay for these militaristic actions(of hindering ‘enemies’ economically and politically, is seldom mentioned in the homeland. Clearly, no has explained to trump that the uS is extortion, shakedown racket. Thats what brings in the scratch. The dollars spent, are immaterial. At least while the petro-dollar system remains intact. Once it collapses, so does the uS empire-and fast.
Trump can tell his idiot ‘followers’, that ‘amerika first’ will be their salvation all he wants. How exactly? Amerika first IS the current policy, for near a century now. His quaint notions, if implemented, would see amerika economically marginalized vs much more capable competitors. The neo-liberalism he makes noises against (and rightly so), is also an ‘amerika first’ policy. Well, its a corporate-zionist first policy really, but…close enough most people in the uS believe they are one and the same.
Cloggie on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 6:05 pm
“They’re going to miss us when we’re gone.”
Absolutely, there will be times we will remember Pax Americana as one of the easiest, most comfortable time in history.
But everything comes to an end. And the reason why the American empire won’t last for 1000 years like the Roman one, but instead say 80 years is because of the disastrous migration policies of the US deep state that will lead to the explosion of the US empire. Washington simply has no patience and can’t wait for 700 years to build something solid like the Romans did.
As soon as the US empire disintegrates, Europe, then including Russia, faces formidable new challanges: Islam en China.
Human rights will be mega-out en military matters all the rage.
makati1 on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 6:11 pm
All but Boat seem to have a correct picture of the Imperial Leech (US) and how it is received around the world. Perfect recent example at the G20 meeting:
Obama gets no reception or red carpet and must exit AF1 by the emergency exit.
Putin gets the red carpet treatment.
Will America go quietly into the night or take the world down in a nuclear exchange with Russia and China? THAT is the only question that matters.
makati1 on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 6:22 pm
Another example of distancing:
“President Rodrigo Duterte ratcheted up his feud with the United States on Monday, ordering all American special forces out of the southern Philippines where they have been advising local troops battling Muslim extremists. … Previously, about 500-600 US personnel rotated through the Mindanao region but in 2014, then-defence secretary Voltaire Gazmin said this would be cut back to 200.
Duterte did not specify when or how many Americans would be expelled but said the Philippines alignment with the West was at the root of the persistent Muslim insurgency. … The United States is Manila’s main military ally and the Philippines’ colonial ruler until 1946. In his speech, Duterte showed photographs and cited accounts of how US troops killed Muslims during America’s occupation of the Philippines in the early-1900s to explain his decision. …
The Filipino leader also hit out at Obama and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for criticizing his bloody crackdown on crime that has claimed 3,000 lives in a little over two months.
“This Obama, when you accuse me of killing… let he who is without sin, cast the first stone,” he said.”
“In a brief encounter in Laos, Obama urged the Filipino leader to conduct his crime war “the right way” and protect human rights, but Duterte has dismissed it as being none of America’s business.”
One by one countries are taking back their sovereignty and independence and about time.
Truth Has A Liberal Bias on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 6:23 pm
actually there are many other questions that matter. Idiot.
Truth Has A Liberal Bias on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 6:27 pm
Baltic eviction notice to USN
https://youtu.be/ylONaw4ODuk
Truth Has A Liberal Bias on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 6:29 pm
Next time you want to sail through the strait please call and ask first.
https://youtu.be/x-72ITPhlvI
That’s called a run in attack formation.
And what does the US do? They complain on Fox News.
Welcome to loserville. Population: You.
makati1 on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 6:31 pm
Truth, none that are important. Who cares about oil or the economy if the world no longer supports life? Idiot.
Truth Has A Liberal Bias on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 6:32 pm
China, Iran and Russia will easily kick the ever loving shit out of the USA anytime they want. The longer they wait the easier it will be due to the fact that USA gets fatter, lazier and more retarded by the minute.
Apneaman on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 6:32 pm
“They’re going to miss us when we’re gone.”
Not everyone. Many will see it as an opportunity of a lifetime, same as when the British Empire was gone from the US & India for example. Will there be consequences and blood spilled? Yeah, so what, there has been plenty of blood spilled by the empire itself directly and indirectly and they still droneing mama’s & babies everyday. The droning won’t stop and will probably increase to other countries if there is a big withdrawal. All perfectly legal for merica since a handful of old white dudes said yea to the NDAA and thus granted America power to kill anyone anywhere at anytime. You know fer security N stuff. The funnest part will be the increase in piracy when there is no more or less Naval presence on the sea lanes. I can’t wait to see the horrified reaction of the glassy eyed techno fanboys when they get the news that the big shipment of iphones, they have been waiting on with bated breath, just got jacked by pirates and are now in the hands of Africans at low low discount prices. Empires come and empires go – it’s nothing compared to the hangover the humans will be suffering from their once in a species industrial party N orgy.
US Has Killed More Than 20 Million People in 37 “Victim Nations” Since World War II
http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-has-killed-more-than-20-million-people-in-37-victim-nations-since-world-war-ii/5492051
Truth Has A Liberal Bias on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 6:34 pm
So as Mak sees it all we need to think about is nuclear war. Rid your mind of all other thoughts and consideration. There is nothing else to contemplate or occupy your mind with. Fuck are you a retard.
Cloggie on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 6:37 pm
“Who cares about peak muslim refugees to euroland other than clogged?”
https://youtu.be/pDHvwz0jRuw
makati1 on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 6:44 pm
So many examples … so little time.
“The Signs Of Desperation In A “Twilight Zone Of Ignorance”
“Tent Cities Full Of Homeless People Are Booming In Cities All Over America As Poverty Spikes”
“China, Russia naval drill in South China Sea to begin Monday”
“The War Economy – CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Warns About Job Loss if the U.S. Stops Arming Saudi Arabia”
“Greenwashing Wars and the US Military”
“Infrastructure Spending And America’s Ailing Power Grid”
“Ron Paul: Vote All You Want, the Secret Government Won’t Change”
“China, Myanmar strengthen trade, military ties”
“The Empire of Mediocrity and the End of the World
http://journal-neo.org/2016/09/12/the-empire-of-mediocrity-and-the-end-of-the-world/”
“Transforming a Country into “Collateral Damage”: US Cluster Bombs Killed Children for Decades in Laos, and Now Yemen”
“Welcome to Your Delusional Democracy”
And on and on…
Signs of the times.
Cloggie on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 6:45 pm
“Another example of distancing:”
This should worry you, makati.
Truth Has A Liberal Bias on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 6:51 pm
“THAT is the only question that matters.”
It seems Mak can draw do distinction between the most important question that matters and the only question that matters.
While it is true that nuclear war is the hazard to consider that has the highest impact, thus the highest risk and highest priority, it does not by this virtue become the only question that matters. Most important question that matters and only question that matters is a distinction that Mak can’t comprehend,
It’s like reading the words of fucking retards on the pathetic doom porn circle jerk echo chamber.
makati1 on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 6:52 pm
Truth, nuclear war is more likely our future than any other dream by deniers. I occupy my mind with a multitude of subjects, but I am also a realist. The real world is not often talked about here or anywhere because so many people are either stupid, brainwashed or in deep denial. We are closer to a nuclear war that ever in history and all anyone wants to talk about is population or their prejudices. They bury their denial in fluff TV and porn. Better to see ALL of the possibilities and try to prepare for them than to be in denial and suffer more than necessary when reality happens.
Cloggie on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 6:52 pm
“Ron Paul: Vote All You Want, the Secret Government Won’t Change””
Who is that secret government, mr Paul?
https://youtu.be/7o6VKD1Eg-8
What is neoconservatism:
http://www.kevinmacdonald.net/understandji-3.htm
It is American neo-bolshevism.
ghung on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 6:54 pm
Ap said; “Many will see it as an opportunity of a lifetime, same as when the British Empire was gone from the US & India for example….
….a handful of old white dudes said yea to the NDAA and thus granted America power to kill anyone anywhere at anytime.”
20 million, huh? That’s a lot of opportunity being created right there. When it comes to opportunity, humans are essentially sociopathic; plenty of proof for that.. Use a little disaster capitalism to create a vacuum, someone will fill the void. Gotta love those ‘mericans, eh?
makati1 on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 6:58 pm
Cloggie, you have no idea what living in the Philippines is like unless you live here. I am safer here than in the US where 100 people are murdered every day, some by the police. Another 100 are killed in car accidents. Where you will soon need government permission to shit and will be watched while you do it.
I made the correct decision 8 1/2 years ago when I sold my “stuff” and moved to the Ps. My experience here has confirmed that I made the correct decision. You are the one who should be :”concerned” about your own position.
taw on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 8:36 pm
Makati – do you know who is getting killed in Duterte’s “crackdown on crime?” In my visits to the Visayas and Manila the people I spoke with did not place much trust in the police and none in the politicians and generals.
makati1 on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 9:06 pm
taw, That is what he is trying to correct. The US brought corruption into the Ps when they colonized it over 100 years ago. 50 years of that propaganda and mismanagement, plus the US meddling since then, is difficult to get rid of. It will take time, and purging by any means is the right way to go. 3,000 dead is less than the number of murders in the US in a month.
The US is on the same road. Political corruption from the top down. Police that kill indiscriminately and are not punished. A military that is nothing more than corporate security or a means for weapons sales.
As Duterte told Obama last week. “”This Obama, when you accuse me of killing… let he who is without sin, cast the first stone,” he said.” I might remind you to do the same.
Apneaman on Mon, 12th Sep 2016 9:27 pm
ghung, many others before America had a turn at empire. It’s a “those who can will” kinda deal. There have been worse empires to live in or under, but it’s all relative to where and when one is born. Did you win the genetic lottery or not? I did (except for what is coming). Born a healthy white boy into a white middle class Canadian family in the later part of the 1960’s – Genetic Jackpot right there. Definitely could have been worse. Could have been born into one of those third world exploited countries. Even the most devout, over privileged, do gooder, liberal social justice warrior would not change birthplaces and races with a third worlder, someone in an inner city ghetto or trailer trash park, given the chance – not a chance. I’m a determinist and I just see the same thing happening again, except on a much bigger scale and with fancy gadgets. Our nature would need a very long period of time to evolve true sapience. As we are now the limbic system is still driving the bus and the neocortex is making the gadgets and nukes. We still are ruled by our paleolithic brains and the nukes are just a bigger and better spears. I wonder if some tribe will be throwing theirs at some other tribe as the great unwinding continues? It would fit the pattern wouldn’t it.
Apneaman on Tue, 13th Sep 2016 12:16 am
Mak, you might find this interesting to say the least.
An Accidental Nuclear Detonation “Will Happen”
Atomic weapons are just machines, as this harrowing new film demonstrates, and machines inevitably fail.
“It would be impossible to fully replicate the depth of dread and disbelief that Command and Control—Eric Schlosser’s 2013 book chronicling the Air Force’s history of nuclear weapons mishaps—bestows on its readers. This is not to say that the haunting new documentary of the same name, co-written by Schlosser and director Robert Kenner (Food, Inc.), doesn’t pack a punch. While the film’s producers were forced to simplify and trim from the book’s deeper content, any viewer who has not read the original or who, like most Americans, pays little heed to our modern nuclear arsenal, is due for a fine scare.”
more
http://www.motherjones.com/media/2016/09/eric-schlosser-command-control-movie-documentary-nuclear-weapons-accidents
makati1 on Tue, 13th Sep 2016 1:16 am
Ap, I will read it later when I have more time to reflect on what it says, but it only reinforces the possibility of an “accident” setting off WW3. It really is amazing that with over 20,000 nukes in the world today, some many years old, that there has not been an accident already.
As they are moved around the world like chess pieces by the Empire, sooner or later one is going to go off and maybe set off others nearby. Suppose this happens in say, Germany. Would it be blamed on Russia? How about if it happens in the US? Turkey? Japan? South Korea? On an aircraft carrier?
So many possibilities. So little time. Thanks for the ref.
Cloggie on Tue, 13th Sep 2016 2:28 am
@makati – I do not think neither you nor me will experience consequences of depletion of climate change anytime soon. You as a white American should worry howver about geopolitical developments and the Ps gradually choosing the side of China. You moved yourself into the focal point of likely future US-Chinese conflict, not unlike these British folks who end seventies, as a reaction to the Cruise missile/Pershing-SS20 story in Europe decided to flee to the Falklands only to be caught in the Falkland’s war.lol
theedrich on Tue, 13th Sep 2016 4:34 am
HRC is living in the past. The NATO system is worthless in an era of electronic warfare and true blitzkrieg. Historically, the strategy of American militarism has been to demonize a prey nation and its ruler, then use a trick of some type to provoke that nation into walking into a carefully laid trap planned as a casus belli. Hotflash imagines that she can use this same technique not only to win the election but to drive Russia into submission.
Today, however, the rest of the world has become wise to this ploy. The traditional practice of incrimination no longer works with China, North Korea, Russia, and certainly not with the Mohammedan suicide murderers. It works only in entrancing the already TV-hypnotized, oedipal masses of the U.S., along with the various liberal think tanks and academia, into voting leftward.
When a man is pointing a gun at you, it is unwise in the extreme to start telling him that he is violating some fantasized moral code he does not share with you. But this is exactly what the witch is doing vis-à-vis the Russian president, in order to score points against Trump. The spoiled brats, Negroes, other anti-Whites, parasites, and illegal aliens in America, however, could not care less about her dance of death. They will vote for a corpse rather than for Trump.
And that risks turning both them and everyone else into cadavers.
Cloggie on Tue, 13th Sep 2016 5:59 am
“I did (except for what is coming). Born a healthy white boy into a white middle class Canadian family in the later part of the 1960’s – Genetic Jackpot right there. Definitely could have been worse.”
Wow, lefty Apneaman outing himself in “racist” terms. Not that I am holding it against him, as you might have guessed, although “white Canadian” could mean anything between total IQ70 retard and IQ150 genius. Let’s skip the discussion where exactly our friend from Vancouver needs to placed on the scale.
That’s what all these spineless liberals do: telling everybody who cares to listen that “Muslims invented Algebra” (suggesting that we should drag as many as possible Allah bots and other third worlders into out lands) and yet at the same time ensure they themselves live in a Lilly-white neighborhood.
I’m looking back at a decade full of verbal battles with my friends from high school about the wisdom of mass migration to white lands and multiculturalism. After 9/11 in a few years time I turned from a liberal yuppie into what is now called a “populist”, Fortress Europe adherent, Merkel hater and Putin sympathizer.
And now at last, greatly helped by the rise of IS, several murderous suicide attacks in France as well as rapidly growing getho’s in Western Europe, I finally begin to win the battle with my old leftist 1968 friends, who begin to worry about the future of their own children.
When you are over 55, nothing becomes more important in the life of a man then being right.lol
Davy on Tue, 13th Sep 2016 6:06 am
Apeman, I would clarify your point by saying it is a big “third world” out there. We are in the same “genetic jackpot” in regards to growing up in good places in North America in the 60’s. I am rather unimpressed with what that turned into after that. The 70’s drug culture before we knew how dangerous drugs were then turned into the profit culture of the 80’s and 90’s. We are now in the insanity of the 21st century. These times are not all bad but the 60’s can’t be topped IMO. There are places and circumstances I can imagine in the third world where I would trade my luck sperm for. That trade would not be the mega cities and slums and or the overpopulated destitute rural locations. It would be for those subsistence cultures that avoided the worst of globalism and overpopulation. There are still great spots in the third world but they are being consumed by overpopulation, climate change, and the onslaught of globalism quickly. I would rather have not been rich in the developed world sense and rather be rich in the third world sense with location and culture. I would do this even with a shorter life and maybe more death around me. In the same breath I would have loved to live in Missouri in the mid to late 19th century. Wow, since this is fantasy, my genie in the bottle wish would be to be born an Osage Indian when their horse culture began and before the large scale intrusion of the white man.
Davy on Tue, 13th Sep 2016 6:19 am
I tend to avoid Bloomberg on political topics because of the US MSM slant. I am more often interested in their great financial analysis. This financial analysis is occasionally “bought off” but more often than not is hard hitting. That said I am referencing an interesting article on Putin appointments.
“Putin Promotes the Next Generation of Ideological Cronies”
http://tinyurl.com/jf4uzun
“President Vladimir Putin’s recent appointees to posts that handle the administration’s relations with civil society all have something in common: They embody the Russian autocrat’s version of conservative ideology. Some of them have highly unorthodox ideas, and all have little sympathy for Western-style intellectualism.”
“If Putin were a U.S. president, these appointments would have been the equivalent of drafting top officials from the most extreme church congregations and conspiracy theory websites. This is something new for Putin: For most of his reign, his regime was distinctly non-ideological. Its interactions with society were handled by career bureaucrats who were interested in efficiency and budgets and whose views were irrelevant or extremely flexible. The more recent appointments show that Putin’s embrace of what he calls conservative values — a mix of Orthodox moral principles, Russian mysticism and anti-Western convictions — is not just a ploy to distract Russians from recent economic difficulties.”
Cloggie on Tue, 13th Sep 2016 6:44 am
Again, thanks Davy for the Putin link.
“In the same breath I would have loved to live in Missouri in the mid to late 19th century.”
If you would have a say Czech passport, you would be a Putin fan too.
The 20th century was great in terms of material progress and I can still appreciate that while staring at my majestic brand new 34 inch Samsung 4k 3440×1440 screen.
But for the rest I have more affinity with the (European) late 19th century as well: no f* feminism, no f* “down wit us” multiculturalism, no car-infested cities, no f* people who say f* all the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rY-cHHUqc4
Amsterdam 1926
Apneaman on Tue, 13th Sep 2016 7:18 am
Fucking A, Clogged. Guess what changes societies faster than anything? Your beloved technology is what. Can’t have it both ways techno fanboy and I doubt your golden age will return since it only exists in your mind. You know who cheers technological progress, but bemoans societal progress/change in N America? Conservatards is who. You’d be on their team if you moved to merica fer sure. Not one of you brainiacs has clued into the fact that the technology changes things, often dramatically, in spite of the fact it’s been as plain as day for 200 years. What would you be doing with all the hours you spend every day on the internet if it never happened? You just bragged about buying a fucking $900 dollar computer monitor to enhance your electronic slavery – lmao. You’re not the only one who has been shackled by the tech. It would be impossible for TPTB to have concentrated their power and wealth to the degree they have in a world of 7.5 billion humans without the internet and computers.
It never was golden
‘The good old days’ is a virulent falsehood that infects those whose defences have been weakened by fear and insecurity
“Longing for the past is generally referred to as nostalgia – a gentle, tender feeling that might make these stories seem like nothing more than harmless sentimentality. But it is crucial to distinguish between wistful memories of grandma’s kitchen and belief in a prior state of cultural perfection. The latter form of nostalgia currently serves as the ideological foundation for political movements like Greece’s Golden Dawn, which calls for a return to Hellenic glory via radical right wing nationalism, and ISIS, which waxes rhapsodic about a distorted Islamic golden age.”
https://aeon.co/essays/nostalgia-exerts-a-strong-allure-and-extracts-a-steep-price
Apneaman on Tue, 13th Sep 2016 7:51 am
Davy, the drugs may be problematic, but they don’t even come close to all the death and destroyed lives that alcohol does. Not even when you combine them all. Regardless, all substance abuse (not use) and pathological behaviours (gambling, shopping, working,) are symptoms of familial and cultural decline rather than root causes. I would say that Moms going to work in the 1970’s and creating the first generation of “latchkey kids” lead to much loneliness, family dysfunction and substance abuse as anything. That too has a cause that you are well aware of. People who had a stable childhood and have meaningful adult lives tend not to let their recreational drugs and drinking take over. And as I mentioned to dreamer boy, the technology only made individual isolation and withdrawal easier. By the 1980’s you had the first generation of kids who could waste most of their free time/lives spending endless hours playing video games in the basement. There used to be a room in the home called “the family room” that has, by and large, gone the way of the horse and buggy. It got converted to the TV room which is where the old folks hang out now. Youngns have “personal devices” and no longer require much human contact. The young are usually only seen by their parents at feeding time or on their way out the door. Even then, many parents barely notice them because they too have personal devices and are electronically intoxicated as well.
Davy on Tue, 13th Sep 2016 8:15 am
Apeman, I should have clarified alcohol included as a drug. Of the two, alcohol caused me more issues than pot ever did. I was indoctrinated into a family of hard workers and drinkers and peers who were into pot. That was not a good mix. I then was sucked into the dopamine culture of the 80 and 90’s. I was always suspicious of that culture because in 85 in college I was very interested in peak oil and climate change issues. I was also concerned about population and pollution then. It was just then I thought development and technology had a chance to overcome these trends. By 2000 I was in rejection of this culture of decline and became a modernism reactionary. It appears you were too so in that respect we have a lot in common.
makati1 on Tue, 13th Sep 2016 8:19 am
Cloggie, again, if you only know what the Western press tells you, then you have no idea what is really happening in the world.
I am as safe here as you are in Europe or Americans are in the US. Maybe more so. If you believe that you will be spared the nukes and death, you are deluding yourself. When the SHTF, all of the world will be involved directly or indirectly. I hope some sanity manages to keep the nukes from flying, but we are closer now than anytime in history.
You keep blathering the same anti-Chinese bullshit that your masters spew when they talk. Or the anti-Russian/Putin propaganda from the same source. Until they openly dared to defy the empire, they were friends and trading partners. Now that that they are financially taking down that same empire, they are suddenly the cause of all of the empire’s problems. I have watched the pendulum swing back and forth since WW2. Now friends. Now enemies. We fought Vietnam. Now we want to open trade and be buddies again. Etc.
I would think you would be more concerned about YOUR precarious situation, not mine. As I have said before, I made a decision to move here about 9 years ago and have no reason to think it was not the correct one. I live here. I know what is happening in my neighborhood. Duterte is working to kick the US military out of the Ps. I say it is about time. I look for him to build stronger ties with China over the next few years. That too is a good thing. I don’t see him letting the US turn the Ps into another war zone like Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, etc.. As he said, what the Ps does is not the US’ business.
Cloggie on Tue, 13th Sep 2016 10:19 am
Apneaman says “pathological behaviours (gambling, shopping, working,)”
You’re from an white Canadian middle class family, you said?
makati says “You keep blathering the same anti-Chinese bullshit that your masters spew when they talk. Or the anti-Russian/Putin propaganda from the same source.”
I am not anti-Chinese, certainly not anti-Russian, heck not even anti-American.lol, although I have my reservations about western governments, the sanhedrin lording over them and their policy of trying to replace their own populations. I am glad that Russia and China combined are strong enough to block the empire.
“I would think you would be more concerned about YOUR precarious situation, not mine.”
Currently there are three (potential) war zones:
Ukraine
Syria
South China Sea
The latter is the only possibility where China and the US could clash directly. You yourself admit that Duterte is moving away from the US to China. It remains to be seen if the US will let the Ps go that easily. Moreover, the Ps has interests in the SCS as well.
What we are all waiting for is the moment when China feels strong enough to say that the SCS is no longer accessible to foreign (read: US) navies.
Then what? Expect that the US will send reinforcements to the Ps, without asking Manila for permission.
As a next move China will threaten US navy vessels, first with warning shots, next by sinking a smaller vessel.
The (sea) war will escalate. The Ps are the single most important base for the US in the region. China would want to take that base and eliminate the possibility for the US to resupply and attempt to invade.
That is the realistic scenario you should worry about as an American citizen.
Apneaman on Tue, 13th Sep 2016 10:54 am
Clogged – AKA Nostradumbass, thanks for sharing your crystal ball secrets with us. Now that you have bumped Mak hip to the future of the P’s he can plan accordingly.
And yes excessive working is but one more form of escapism from reality. If one cannot sit still and relax, then they have a problem. The problem is those voices in their head. Keeping busy soothes the anxiety. Same motivation as every addict; different strategy, but it has negative ramification on themselves and others. A child who has one or more workaholic parents is not all that different from a child with one or both alcoholic parents. Statistically speaking, those kids will have many more difficulties growing up and are more likely to mimic their parents addictive behaviours as adults. No worries they have a pill for that.
OldDane on Tue, 13th Sep 2016 11:30 am
-Donald Trump says his approach is defined by the phrase “America First.” He says, for example, that if allies in Europe and Asia won’t pay the full cost of U.S. contributions to their defense, then the U.S. should let them defend themselves. He is sour on “international unions that tie us up and bring America down.”-
It is about time someone tells EU to star pay their fair share in NATO. Denmark only spent around 1,3% of GDP we should pay 2% of GDP. US should give EU an offer they can not refuse: “pay or the deal is over and you are left to defend yourself!”