So the west is winning, is it? Only if you’re a delusional Trump toady, Mr Pompeo, by Simon Tisdall

[0R0 + 6,251]

3 hours ago, Marcin2 said:

Please be specific, I can defend each of the sentences about India.

This about invasion and occupation was just loud brainstorming about the options available to save human life in India.

Turn on out of the box thinking fr a moment.

30-40% of Indians are hungry or malnutritioned every day, including half of Indian kids.

If India would be a family it would be put under government custody by social care of any developed country, immediately.

There is probably some level of hopeless ineffectiveness of 1.4 billion people , that last already 60 years, that should cause international reaction, but due to sovereignty it never will.

 

You can say that India internalized the Raj and it weighs on India's development as local powers subvert growth to maintain their share of the pie. But the growth of births has stopped some years back so there is going to be more food per capita fairly soon. India is changing. Both good and bad. 

[Enthalpic + 1,496]

16 hours ago, Marcin2 said:

Hugs and kisses would not feed, educate, give decent life to the Indian population, even if made with Trump.

 

No certainly they need thoughts and prayers - it's clearly preventing gun violence in the the sates.

 

[ronwagn + 6,290]

On 2/23/2020 at 1:16 PM, 0R0 said:

Not that they would say it out loud, but yes, the Eurocrats want precisely that. They have no desire for democratic control over them. Germany did not join the EU with a plebiscite to make it legitimate. Legal loopholes were used to join the EU despite a popular militant resistance to it. The EU project aims to supersede the rights of self determination, maintenance of cultural identities, free speech. Merkel explicitly reprimands Germans for failure to become "multicultural".

There is nothing at all in the goals and governing structures of the EU project that would win a popular vote   It is a distinctly socialist project of a cartel of governments to overcome their people's choices.  

That is why Europeans are happier to go along with China and reap whatever short term rewards remain from the trade relationship regardless of the long term consequences. Not different from the gas lines built from Russia during the Soviet days. Short term benefit trumps any political lip service to Western Democratic values, processes, or geopolitical alignment. 

 

 

At the root of Eurocracy is the goal of globalism. Basically it means that technocrats (the wealth elites and their employees) should make all policy decisions. The people can agree to agree with them or suffer the consequences. Their speech will become illegal and they will be fined or thrown in jail. Knives will have blunt ends and cameras will be everywhere. No guns for the rabble. 

See Globalism AKA One World Government https://docs.google.com/document/d/1k8kNhtZJLuN66TpDuo67WBV1U2JhhZIvAefxeMNK0ls/edit

[ronwagn + 6,290]

On 2/23/2020 at 9:10 PM, Douglas Buckland said:

Isn’t the Guardian the British equivalent of the National Enquirer in the US?

I remember decades ago the front page of the National Enquirer stating that a B-17 WW2 bomber had been found on the moon...complete with photo!

Definitely the New York Times of Britain. 

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

3 minutes ago, ronwagn said:

Definitely the New York Times of Britain. 

I am still pissed off that the NYT bought, then brought down to their level, the International Herald Tribune.

[ronwagn + 6,290]

Just now, Douglas Buckland said:

I am still pissed off that the NYT bought, then brought down to their level, the International Herald Tribune.

I used to read that until they started charging for it. I now get a practically free NYT subscription online. They must be desperate. I have a similar deal from the L.A. Times. Just show an interest and keep waiting for a lowball deal. Still waiting for the Wall Street Journal, I had a deal with them years back. 

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

1 minute ago, ronwagn said:

I used to read that until they started charging for it. I now get a practically free NYT subscription online. They must be desperate. I have a similar deal from the L.A. Times. Just show an interest and keep waiting for a lowball deal. Still waiting for the Wall Street Journal, I had a deal with them years back. 

It’s just not the same Ron. The IHT tried to keep things unbiased and professional. I used to enjoy starting my days here in KL by getting a coffee and reading the IHT. Since the NYT bought IHT it simply became another liberal rag.

[ronwagn + 6,290]

Just now, Douglas Buckland said:

It’s just not the same Ron. The IHT tried to keep things unbiased and professional. I used to enjoy starting my days here in KL by getting a coffee and reading the IHT. Since the NYT bought IHT it simply became another liberal rag.

I know I liked it because of the international news. I have found other sources now. The Christian Science Monitor is free to read online last time I checked. It does a good job on worldwide news. https://www.csmonitor.com/

[ronwagn + 6,290]

8 minutes ago, Douglas Buckland said:

It’s just not the same Ron. The IHT tried to keep things unbiased and professional. I used to enjoy starting my days here in KL by getting a coffee and reading the IHT. Since the NYT bought IHT it simply became another liberal rag.

The Monitor is not free online anymore but worth a look. Left leaning, based in Boston. Here is an example of their work. https://www.csmonitor.com/

[ronwagn + 6,290]

On 2/24/2020 at 6:09 PM, Wombat said:

Except for Australia, we provide you with Rare Earth metals and are one of the very few countries that you have a trade surplus with. Also, you need the Pine Gap facility to communicate with your subs. Not to mention all the help we give you fighting various wars.

Yes, we need each other, and all the allies we can keep who are really allies and not hangers on that take advantage of our goodwill. 

[ronwagn + 6,290]

On 2/24/2020 at 6:45 PM, Hotone said:

One of my Indian ex-colleagues told me that there are plenty of Indians willing to work just for food and lodgings and no pay.  Give them each 5 dollars, a free T-shirt and free lunch and you can easily get a million fervent Trump supporters.

My understanding is that they are supporting their party leader by showing up for President Trump. Both are strong leaders. Trump did the same for him in Texas, although not the giant crowds. 

[ronwagn + 6,290]

20 hours ago, Hotone said:

5 million is actually a very small sum of money for geopolitical purposes.  Any trade deal between India and the US would be at least in the tens of billings. 

But that stadium can hold at most, what, 100 thousand people?  That would only cost 500 thousand dollars.

110,000. Plus throngs along the highway and a wall to hide the slums. 

[ronwagn + 6,290]

17 hours ago, Geoff Guenther said:

Now here's a guy who should never be in office.  It's good to see that about 90% of people disagree with him - I hope that's mainly his followers.

Now if Trump would stop the purges of everyone he views as disloyal ...

He has a right to fire employees in most higher leadership positions. It is a shame that he had to deal with so many people that opposed his policies. When Obama was elected he hired overseers for every department. Not actual positions that anyone had used before. He obviously found lots of very political hacks to do his evil deeds. 

Crossfire Hurricane was set up to stop any possibility of a President Trump succeeding in office. In actuality it has backfired and will assure his reelection. 

https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/abbreviated timeline horowitz.pdf

[ronwagn + 6,290]

10 hours ago, Marcin2 said:

I am sorry Ward the idea was totally crazy.

Within boundaries of international law it is perfectly OK, for a 1-2 million of Indian citizens to prematurely die each year due to direct and indirect effects of hunger or for 0.5 billion of them to loose chance for normal life due to childhood stunting.

My wandering mind sometimes notices such sublime and irrelevant irregularities.

Some facts about India and poverty. https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2019/07/12/report-india-lifted-271-million-people-out-of-poverty-in-a-decade-infographic/#64e32cfa2284

[frankfurter + 562]

uh winning what exactly?

consider; for the past 40 years, the median income level of citizens has not changed.  ponder that. 

[Dan Warnick + 6,100]

On 2/25/2020 at 3:04 AM, BLA said:

Don't these people have to go to work ?

Modi probably had it leaked that there would be free admission to a cricket match after the President's speech: first come, first seated, free food and drinks!

[0R0 + 6,251]

9 hours ago, frankfurter said:

uh winning what exactly?

consider; for the past 40 years, the median income level of citizens has not changed.  ponder that. 

Right.

The opening of China to trade by Deng Xiaoping nearly doubled the labor to capital relationship in the global market. There had to be an adjustment to the labor supply shock. But that was not the only factor. 

1. Mismanagement of monetary policy by the Western Central banks due to a subservience to the Phillips Curve theory, which does not apply to open economies. Thus they cut off growth whenever labor started making pay gains by raising interest rates. 

2. Persistent and ever heavier regulations in the West on business and the imposition of regulatory costs and environmental restrictions that made a physical business with employees nearly impossible to run profitably. This pushed automation beyond what was economically justified. Made businesses uncompetitive against China, where there were subsidies for SOEs and no regulations or legal restrictions for the private sector made offshoring to China the cheapest most efficient way for Western business to produce. 

3. The Chinese credit bubble that made capital costs in China insignificant, particularly for SOEs. China externalized its sharp monetary and credit growth through reserve accumulation and commodity acquisition strategies, thus distorting the Eurodollar market with excess liquidity and suppressed interest rates regardless of Western CB policy. Thus mirror credit bubbles formed in Western countries and collapsed in the great financial crisis.   

[Wombat + 1,028]

1 hour ago, 0R0 said:

Right.

The opening of China to trade by Deng Xiaoping nearly doubled the labor to capital relationship in the global market. There had to be an adjustment to the labor supply shock. But that was not the only factor. 

1. Mismanagement of monetary policy by the Western Central banks due to a subservience to the Phillips Curve theory, which does not apply to open economies. Thus they cut off growth whenever labor started making pay gains by raising interest rates. 

2. Persistent and ever heavier regulations in the West on business and the imposition of regulatory costs and environmental restrictions that made a physical business with employees nearly impossible to run profitably. This pushed automation beyond what was economically justified. Made businesses uncompetitive against China, where there were subsidies for SOEs and no regulations or legal restrictions for the private sector made offshoring to China the cheapest most efficient way for Western business to produce. 

3. The Chinese credit bubble that made capital costs in China insignificant, particularly for SOEs. China externalized its sharp monetary and credit growth through reserve accumulation and commodity acquisition strategies, thus distorting the Eurodollar market with excess liquidity and suppressed interest rates regardless of Western CB policy. Thus mirror credit bubbles formed in Western countries and collapsed in the great financial crisis.   

Median level of incomes for Murcans did not increase for 40 years either! Not till Trump came to power.

[frankfurter + 562]

8 hours ago, 0R0 said:

Right.

The opening of China to trade by Deng Xiaoping nearly doubled the labor to capital relationship in the global market. There had to be an adjustment to the labor supply shock. But that was not the only factor. 

1. Mismanagement of monetary policy by the Western Central banks due to a subservience to the Phillips Curve theory, which does not apply to open economies. Thus they cut off growth whenever labor started making pay gains by raising interest rates. 

2. Persistent and ever heavier regulations in the West on business and the imposition of regulatory costs and environmental restrictions that made a physical business with employees nearly impossible to run profitably. This pushed automation beyond what was economically justified. Made businesses uncompetitive against China, where there were subsidies for SOEs and no regulations or legal restrictions for the private sector made offshoring to China the cheapest most efficient way for Western business to produce. 

3. The Chinese credit bubble that made capital costs in China insignificant, particularly for SOEs. China externalized its sharp monetary and credit growth through reserve accumulation and commodity acquisition strategies, thus distorting the Eurodollar market with excess liquidity and suppressed interest rates regardless of Western CB policy. Thus mirror credit bubbles formed in Western countries and collapsed in the great financial crisis.   

valid points

[frankfurter + 562]

7 hours ago, Wombat said:

Median level of incomes for Murcans did not increase for 40 years either! Not till Trump came to power.

yes, my point pertains to Americans. I see I should have been explicit. noted. 

[Rykehaven + 6]

On 2/22/2020 at 7:56 PM, Tom Kirkman said:

Should I hazard a guess that some people would prefer China's CCP authoritarianism and EU's Socialism headquartered in Brussels to conquer Capitalism?

It should be laughable, but it's not.

We've got a Bolshevik who wants to do to the USA what his people did to Imperial Russia in 1917.

And yes, there are plenty of people who look enviously at the PRC and the EU.  We outnumber them in the USA, but they outnumber us worldwide, which is why the Democrats are always flooding our country with the latter.  We've both been overseas in capacities other than sight-seeing, so we both know that our "Allies" and "Working counterparts" in these supposedly friendly countries are arguably our worst enemies, especially when they link arms with the Left wing in our country.

On 2/22/2020 at 7:56 PM, Tom Kirkman said:

Thanks but no thanks.

And thank God for the US Military and 2A.

On 2/22/2020 at 7:56 PM, Tom Kirkman said:

CCP has bungled badly with its mishandled coverup and subsequent explosion of Coronavirus.

Regardless if it's induced or orchestrated, it gives the Chinese the chance to do some housecleaning and unwind their books - not an aspersion, just the facts.  The vast majority of companies were caught flat-footed in 2016 (The Koreans read the market best, and set financing and ground work in Indochina well ahead of changes in policy), but this coronavirus panic gives them some cover to downsize further. 

Anybody who's worked with the Chinese know they are predisposed with of loss of face - "Stability" they call it.

Besides, this gives me a chance to jump in and time the market - been a while since an opportunity this big came. 

On 2/22/2020 at 7:56 PM, Tom Kirkman said:

EU budget is now €75 billion in the hole after the UK extracted itself from the EU's Borg collective.

The fundamental flaw is that the EU has no cohesion, no military, and no leverage.  Lacking a host of competitive advantages like extensive agricultural plains and energy reserves also doesn't help.

It doesn't matter that Russia is "poorer" and "less dynamic" than "Europe" (Oi..) when the Russians have the cohesion and therefore the collective Will to use their military against EU interests on the Continent, in East Asia, in the Middle East, etc.  It also doesn't matter because Russia has its own natural resources and food supply; they don't need the EU, unless their cohesive culture breaks down, fracturing their negotiating power.

The "Europeans", of course, will fracture long before the Russians do.

And now you have the "Europeans" thinking they are playing the Chinese, when everybody else knows it's the Chinese playing the Germans.

Seriously, what's the German leverage against the Chinese?  Are they going to demand that the Americans put holds on the serial numbers of Chinese-held American Notes, or will they send US Aircraft carriers to the Gulf of Aden to "shut the tap" and stop Chinese oil tankers?

"You gotta ask nicely."

[Tomasz + 1,608]

Russia gepolitically withdrew from East Germany to the Bug River, giving away all of Central and Eastern Europe. Russia simply does not intend to go further back and hand over Syria or Ukraine, which has hitherto been in its sphere of influence.

Generally, throughout the history after the Mongol invasion, all invasions of Russia were from the West - Poles at the beginning of the 17th century, Charles XII at the beginning of the 18th century, Napoleon for another 100 years, Kaizer's Germany after another 100 years, Hitler in the 1940s. Hence the need to have buffers from both sides because in this region of the world between France and the Urals there are no natural obstacles in the form of high mountain ranges or countless rivers.

This is also the reason why Russia is not afraid of China - throughout the history there were virtually no Russian-Chinese wars. China is not an expansive country in its history, and northern China is relatively sparsely populated. Siberia is also separated from China by powerful mountain ranges to this day relatively very wild - such as the mighty Czerski Mountains is one of the wildest regions of the world to date.

If the West really thought that Russia would withdraw from Ukraine, then simply analysts in the West do not realize how important Ukraine is for Russia for historical, economic,, cultural reasons or even because the population is mixed and there are a lot of Russian-Ukrainian marriages , families spread all over the former USSR. There are situations such that the Ukrainian admiral in Crimea has a brother in the Russian army, SBU officers or goverment official have siblings in Russia.

Ukrainian generals and special services or the militia, government officials are colleagues with russian counterparts and they often graduate forom the some universities

There are also a lotof russian officials born in Ukraine because after collapse of USSR a very large amount of people had to decide which citizenship to obtain and it can be a completely different country from other part of former USRR.

Russia is still the largest trading partner and the most important foreign investor in Ukraine. And Ukraine is currently the poorest country in Europe.

Edited February 29, 2020 by Tomasz

[0R0 + 6,251]

19 hours ago, Rykehaven said:

The fundamental flaw is that the EU has no cohesion, no military, and no leverage.  Lacking a host of competitive advantages like extensive agricultural plains and energy reserves also doesn't help.

 

The plains stretch from the Urals in Russia to the Netherlands and Belgium. It is the second biggest agricultural plain. Ukraine and Poland, with modern agricultural practices, could come close to feeding all of Europe. Their agricultural disadvantage is that it is difficult to transport food inland as their major rivers don't connect and are too far apart for a commercially viable canal network. Thus transport is no cheap as it is in the US great plains with the Mississippi and its tributaries and the great lakes and their canals. To appreciate the significance of it, take the NYC price of wheat before and after the opening of the Erie canal. Prices fell 80% and continued to fall for a decade.

 

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

“...history there were virtually no Russian-Chinese wars. China is not an expansive country in its history,”

There may not have been any Sino-Soviet wars, but there have been many ‘altercations’.

Maybe you should tell Tibet, Taiwan and parts of Kashmir that the Chinese are not expansionist historically...just to avoid any misunderstanding.

[frankfurter + 562]

3 hours ago, Douglas Buckland said:

“...history there were virtually no Russian-Chinese wars. China is not an expansive country in its history,”

There may not have been any Sino-Soviet wars, but there have been many ‘altercations’.

Maybe you should tell Tibet, Taiwan and parts of Kashmir that the Chinese are not expansionist historically...just to avoid any misunderstanding.

Maybe you should study the histories of Tibet, ROC (akaTaiwan), Kashmir... just to avoid misunderstandings.