Prozac

What delightful corner of the internet have you found now?

Good luck with that. Hong Kong was handed to them, is connected to the mainland, and was never really self governing to begin with. Taiwan is an island, has a capable military, has governed itself for 70 plus years and has been a thriving democracy for a couple decades. The model the Chinese used in HK would only work with the express cooperation of the Taiwanese people and government and Xi’s aggression has all but assured that’s not going to happen anytime soon. Many of my Taiwanese acquaintances do believe there is only one China. A China that turns its back on the CCP and accepts Taiwanese style democracy and prosperity.

Yeah. And Republicans once touted themselves as the party of reason. Amazing how quick things can change.

Always nice when someone posts some outlandish shit with a tagline like “wouldn’t be surprised if this was true” or “CRAZY if true”. In other words: “I have zero proof to back this up but I’m more than happy to perpetuate my one sided narrative while taking zero responsibility for propagating lies and half truths”. Stay classy Sim.

Hmmm, what was happening in this country 18 months ago? It would’ve been decried as “political” then, just as it is now, just as it would be a year from now. By your rationale, we should never investigate any politician because there is ALWAYS something “political” going on.

Hillary WAS investigated by the FBI. You may not like it, but they decided not to charge her with a crime. Fishy? Yeah, probably. I think the reasoning was that a charge that close to the presidential election would undoubtedly be seen as a political move by the FBI. In the end, it lost her the election anyway. A better option would’ve probably been to wait until after the election. I think there is a very good chance we would’ve seen impeachment proceedings brought forward had Hillary won. But she didn’t. Her alleged crimes were investigated and she faded quietly away. Would re-litigating the episode have any consequential results for the country? I don’t know. I do know DJT continues to be active in politics and badly wants to be president again. Investigating his alleged crimes is FAR more consequential for this country than trying to send a shriveled old lady who lost an election to jail. WRT to Hunter, there is an ongoing FBI investigation, yes? Forgive me if I missed it, but AFIK the details of that investigation remain unreleased to the public and no actual evidence has been released that tie the current president to any wrongdoing. I sincerely hope and expect the FBI to conduct a thorough investigation. If it turns out that the president is involved in illegal activities, I support appropriate consequences. But it sure seems like a lot of people here have already convicted Joe Biden in their own heads. At the same time, they say raiding Mar-a-Lago was inappropriate when we KNOW there was classified material inappropriately stored there. It doesn’t matter if Trump himself walked out with the material or even knew about it (although I find it rather unbelievable that he didn’t). A crime was most definitely committed and to argue that is shouldn’t even be investigated is grade-A, 100% absurd and HIGHLY hypocritical (unless you believe the FBI planted evidence, in which case: look out for those black helos, chemtrails, and gay frogs guys, amirite?). Both parties need to do a better job of presenting us with candidates with vision, integrity, intelligence, common sense, and a litany of other desirable attributes. I’ve been deeply dissatisfied with candidates of all stripes as of late. But the Republican party really put up a softball when they nominated Trump & then basically accepted him as their deity. I’m sorry, but you can’t complain about Bill’s philandering, Hillary’s lawlessness, and Joe’s nepotism, and in the same breath express support for DJT who is all of those things on an order of magnitude worse. High profile politicians of all stripes have played by altered rules for a long time (news flash: Nancy Pelosi and Democratic lawmakers aren’t the only ones who’ve become stupid rich while in office) and I agree it’s wrong, but DJT has stuck his head so far out of the foxhole that nobody should be surprised he’s taking fire.

Look, I get it. Mostly. I think. There is a class of people in the West who feel left behind and forgotten by decision makers who have cast aside their concerns and ignored their plight. I don’t blame them. If I was a coal miner in West Virginia or a steel worker in Pennsylvania or a logger in Oregon I’d probably feel the same way. But this is one of those cases where two things can be true at the same time. Yeah, we did a shitty job taking care of those people & we need to do better. At the same time, a rules based world order has benefited every single American and a good chunk of the rest of the world’s population. No need to throw the baby out with the bath water here. Should we demand better from policymakers? Absofuckin’lutely. Is declaring war against some perceived evil global cabal going to help anyone or come to anything good? Of course not. Let’s shore up the house we’ve built, not burn it down. It’s still got good bones.

That’s one way to look at it. Another way would be that the FBI literally handed an election (and by happenstance, the U.S. Supreme Court) to Republicans in 2016 when they released the results of their investigation of Hillary Clinton. Remember that one? Didn’t hear too many Rs decrying the politicization of the FBI then. Sometimes timing’s a bitch. BTW, the argument is that this is the FBI trying to influence the midterms, right? So when would the timing be better? During the run up to the next presidential election perhaps? 🤣

You’re missing the forest for the trees. It’s not about the territory. It’s ALL about the idea that there are rules in the modern world and one of those rules is respecting sovereignty. If we throw that out the window, we go back to the biggest, baddest dude on the block takes whatever he wants. If we go back to that, things like global trade and financial systems collapse. That would be devastating for countries like S. Korea, Japan, and Italy and would literally plunge much of the world into poverty and despair. But even if you say “fuck’em, why should I care?” you’d be in for some rude surprises. Think energy prices are high now? That’s cute. Imagine what happens when somebody closes the Straights of Hormuz just because they can. Or: How do you feel about paying $300 for a pair of sneakers once production collapses in S.E. Asia? Or: What happens to your 401K when the European and Asian markets collapse (hint: your money is not insulated from those markets)? So, sure, you could say most Americans couldn’t find Crimea on a map and couldn’t care less about the plight of everyday Ukrainians until six months ago, and, callous and cynical as it is, you’d be mostly right. But it absolutely, positively IS in every American’s best interest to maintain and defend the global order that allows us (and much of the world) to enjoy the highest standard of living we’ve ever known along with the most peaceful era probably in history.

When’s the last time a president left office literally carrying boxes of classified out of the Oval Office? For that matter, when was the last time a sitting president fomented a riot/insurrection at the Capitol. When was the last time a sitting president threw his Vice to wolves who literally wanted him hanged? When was the last time a former president took the fifth (more than 400 times) in a deposition? (Oh yeah, since this is the hypocrisy thread remember when DJT said: “The mob takes the fifth.” And: “If you’re innocent, why are you taking the fifth?”?) Unprecedented you say? Trump is a master of unprecedented. If unprecedented things are happening to him, it’s because he set a whole bunch of unprecedented shit in motion with his own actions. Why people continue to defend this scumbag is beyond me. Somehow, there are Americans who believe we will better off with more of his buffoonery. Do (royal) you really believe that this country will be better off with another Trump presidency? If I’m a republican, I throw the book at this jack hole and make him disappear forever. He’s made a joke out of the party. If the Republicans continue to double down on Trumpworld, they’ll forever be known as the party of Rudy Giuliani standing in front of a dildo store with cheap hair dye dripping down his face. Pathetic. Him acting like a spectacularly dumb criminal is a gift. It’s like God and Mike Pence (I assume they know each other) are handing the party a way out. TAKE IT!

So you can do this?

I’ll bet the poor bastard that got seated next to her wants a refund too. I’d say they’re far more deserving of said refund as well! Here’s an idea: if you need the seatbelt extender, you buy two seats. No judgment. You simply pay for the space you take up.

It never fails to impress me how much credit is given to George Soros (and Bill Gates, the Clintons, & a few others). I guess boogeymen can be useful. Question for the believers/“awake”: did George replace the Rothschilds or Colonel Sanders in the Pentaverate?

Yeah, point taken. I was thinking more society in general though. Most of us aren’t as good as we think we are at stating our actual positions. Much easier to parrot a catchy slogan or post a witty meme than to articulate our actual views. I think it leads to a lot of misunderstanding and distrust when the fact of the matter is usually that most of us have more in common than we think.

Maybe we all need to get better at saying what we mean then. If you say “climate change is bullshit” I’m going to take you at your word. You’ve given me every reason to assume you don’t buy into that whole science thing. It’s the same vein as saying “defund the police”. Sure, some people might really mean “reform the police and re-think how and why police apply force when de-escalation might be a better tactic”, but some people really do mean get rid of all police. How can we distinguish between reasonable people and extremists when they’re all using the same language?

If Ukraine can emerge from this thing intact or relatively so, and maintain their western friendly government, a heavily armed, non NATO ally on Russia’s border could be rather useful. For instance, Russia knows it can execute a cyber attack on a country like Latvia effectively with impunity. Latvia is not going to start lobbing retaliatory missiles and shells into Russia for fear of dragging NATO into WWIII. The Ukrainians on the other hand? Well they just might do something crazy with all their new toys. Sometimes it’s a good tactic to have that one guy with the crazy eyes and the brass knuckles in your group that makes a potential adversary pause and think: do I really want to fuck with these guys? Of course, the “what-ifs” I posited at the beginning of this paragraph are far from givens and if the Ukrainian state fails, all that weaponry will create some issues. Is there a remote self destruct function on those HIMARS systems? /s

Wishing you guys the best. I enjoyed my time there & still have many friends on the property. Seems like there’s reason to be cautiously optimistic. If not& it all goes to shit, Brown & Purple (and everyone else for that matter) will likely be happy to leverage your experience.

Your position is reasonable except maybe the “most, if not all” part (otherwise I agree completely with your statement). Reference two posts later… Seems there is no shortage of citizens willing to flock to the fringes these days.

Side note: whoever had the idea to give Belushi a real katana on live television was either a comic genius, or homicidal. Or both.

While that kind of thing makes for good copy and it IS certainly frustrating to see western businesses kowtow to the CCP, I wouldn’t be so sure that the landscape isn’t shifting. Anecdotally, at my cargo operation we are seeing significant growth in places like Vietnam and India, while mainland Chinese ops have been continually disrupted and are shrinking. I believe FedEx is seeing a similar shift. Expats are leaving places like Shanghai and Hong Kong in droves, never to return, and many multinational corporations are following suit, moving regional headquarters to places like Singapore. The Chinese are making it very clear that they are no longer business friendly & while nothing happens overnight, I would expect those trends to continue & possibly accelerate depending on how entrenched the CCP continues to be with restrictions and how fast the Chinese economy contracts.

Decent article discussing Chinese food security: https://chinapower.csis.org/china-food-security/ TLDR: Chinese consumption has outstripped supply. They have plans to mitigate but if you’ve read Zeihan’s latest book, he brings up the very good point that mechanized agriculture in China will go away without energy. They would have to literally de-industrialize and resort to subsistence farming in order to feed themselves. No matter what, any potential conflict would be massively de-stabilizing for the CCP and I just can’t see an upside to starting a fight for them. That said, I would’ve thought the same thing about Russia/Ukraine six months ago, so never say never I guess.

Same. On the bright side, if the CCP wants to mount an actual invasion, the massing of forces will take months and be very, very obvious. Cutting off Chinese oil imports will be as simple as parking a few warships in the Straight of Malacca (there are a few pipelines, but they won’t come close to supplying Chinese needs). I’ve read that their domestic reserves would allow for roughly 90 days of wartime ops. That’s how long Taiwan has to hold out. Even if the invasion were successful, the Chinese will be effectively blockaded indefinitely. Energy and, more importantly, food imports will be a thing of the past and millions of Chinese citizens will starve or freeze (or both). Even if they could get access to some imports, their export industry will be toast and they won’t have money to pay for food. The carrier killer missiles might make life difficult within a couple hundred miles of Formosa but they won’t have much effect down by Singapore or out in the Indian Ocean or the Persian Gulf. The Chinese lack the reach to protect their supply lines. If we wanted to, we could turn China into North Korea in a matter of months and there’s fuck all they could do about it. Xi and the gang know this. There won’t be an intentional conflict any time soon. Unintentional? Maybe a bigger threat. Hope the air defense guys on their boats don’t have itchy trigger fingers like the Russians.

Boomer being escorted out of Hood Canal West of Seattle.

It’s bizarre. Last couple races it’s like they’ve been trying (hard) to get themselves OFF the podium. Maybe Binotto has some sort of behind the scenes super secret squirrel Euro deal with Toto or something. 🤔