Hard News: The Long, Strange Trip
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Rich of Observationz, in reply to
teach people, in something like a civics course in school,
Yeah, but what about the guys at the back watching pr0n under the desk?
Maybe introduce votes at 16, but make it conditional on passing a short answer and essay paper covering history, constitution and critical thinking.
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mark taslov, in reply to
Trump won’t hurt the rich people or indeed New Zealanders who are most fastidious about these thing
If only the stigmatisation surrounding mental disorders and the required fastidiousness to combat that were limited to New Zealanders.
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Strewth is Stranger than Fiction... -
mark taslov, in reply to
Thanks for some perspective there Steven, you’d have hoped that Hillary Clinton would be as aware of this kind of thing as anyone.
In other news Kim Jong Un. -
The problem isn't that Trump snorts too much coke and plays russian roulette with The Button. It's more subtle than that:
- Trump gives his bestie, Putin, the idea that invading Ukraine/Estonia/Poland would not spoil their friendship
- Putin goes rolling in, hoping to bolster his position as the new Ivan The Quite Bad
- However, the general view in NATO is that invading Poland *is* going too far, apart from anything else there's a treaty of mutual assistance, so NATO forces intervene and start battling Russians
- As in Afghanistan (etc) Russian troops and tech don't perform as advertised and NATO rolls over them into the motherland
- Rather than lose St Petersburg, Putin tries a few nukes
- Taking out a French division
- The French fire everything they have and take out Moscow
- The Russians blow up the worldThis is how wars happen. Look at Kuwait - the US gave Saddam the impression that his invasion would meet with no more than protestation, he invaded on that basis, and then the US (encouraged by Maggie and the Saudis) felt they had to retaliate.
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The United Shakes of America has a bad case of the DTs...
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mark taslov, in reply to
What the Chinese have said is that because people behave that way they’ll reject democracy as an option
Most Chinese people don't ever get a sniff at democracy, it's not on the cards, George W. Bush was similarly ridiculed. Working to hundred year plans this stuff must be a blip. The Party will use the opportunity to rally and maintain public confidence amid economic downturn and hopefully continue to improve the standards of living for millions in its domestic population in order to reach the goal outlined in the first hundred year plan of eliminating extreme poverty by 2020.
And of course the threat to the Taiwan, because The People's Republic of China's threat to The Republic of China always gets the media spotlight during every global event.
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mark taslov, in reply to
Without doubt a fascinating game of RISK®. The unlikely event that The US military industrial complex acquiesces to Trump gifting Russia its Polish missile sites, the miracle that is NATO making it to St Petersburg. Then the itchy trigger finger of that recklessly impulsive rogue Vladimir Putin, the prevailing emotion will be one of nostalgia for those left behind, combined with a spirit of bold curiosity for the adventure ahead.
And the French! Mon Dieu.
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Instant collectors' item:
Newsweek recalls 125,000 copies of its souvenir Madam President issue
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11746242
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Simon Grigg, in reply to
Or Donald trump gets impeached for something or another. Then it’s business as usual for the Republican Party. And we start a new thread about John Key being a dickhead.
That assumes that the democratic processes and checks are allowed to continue as is. Paranoia perhaps, but we already have promises to tighten the first amendment. And protesters are being tagged today, from the orange twitter account, as "Professional Protestors" (incited by, of course, "the media").
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tussock, in reply to
I get not diagnosing people. I do, it's unfair and improper in general and it's unfair to Trump, but it helps me understand the world, so here it is.
When people say that Trump is just a bad person and racist and misogynistic and so on, that he's a failed businessman or all sorts of things, but to me that's like saying people with Asperger's are rude and deliberately offensive. You're missing the point. It's also failing to be predictive, understanding Hitler as a megalomaniac helped other nations prepare for War against him, and helped defeat him in very specific ways (like at the battle of Minsc).
Like with Trump, to say he's gone bankrupt a lot, and so is bad at business. Clinical narcissism makes life a different experience for people, Trump's business don't go bad because he makes mistakes, it just lets him rip off his investors, who are suckers, it completes that social transaction for him where he took all their money and kept it. That's how Narcissists relate to people, when he says "when your wife gets old you get a new one", like she's a piece of furniture, he's not kidding.
Because everyone is furniture. Just things to be shuffled around and used, unless they challenge him, and then they may be like him and see the world the way he does and must be removed as a threat. Narcissists in positions of great power are very dangerous. Trump is now very dangerous, for real.
When he says he's going to do something and get someone else to pay for it, he's not kidding, at all, because he is awesome and everyone must do what he says (and when they do he will rip them off). He will economically punish any nation on earth that fails to follow his demands, with tariffs and mass visa cancellations and monetary restrictions, like he said he will already. US cities and states that fail to comply at their own cost with him whims will have all federal funding cut for everything. He has said that and is not kidding at all. That will ruin economies the world over and he will love that shit because he did that.
He's not blustering, this isn't fake. It is helpful for people to understand that. Everyone to him is a threat to him, or something to be used for his personal aggrandisement. To hear people cheering his name is why he became President, and now everyone will have to do what he says, or he will ruin them.
He's not a failed businessman who says mean things because he's a cool anti-establishment guy. He's an extremely skilled manipulator of investors and lawmakers and the wider population who likes to completely screw people, both those who support him and those who oppose him, just to prove to himself how great he is. And now he's going to be the President of the United States and he will not listen to anyone about anything ever again.
This is a very bad thing. He's not just a bad guy.
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Rob Stowell, in reply to
This is a very bad thing.
We seem to be watching (in slow motion, because history isn't a racing car - until it hits the powerpole) the end of the US dominated world. The constitution, the electoral system, the tiers of government, many of the institutions were set up in the 18th century. There have been times they served well, but they seem broken now. The politicisation of the supreme court, the filibuster in the senate, partisan gridlock. The electoral college, the senate which are barely democratic. The 2nd amendment, designed (hahaha) to prevent ever having a 'standing army'.
There have been times when the united states were united- at least enough to change some of these things. Now an amendment to the constitution is impossible, because there isn't the unity. Gotta wonder if it will ever come back. -
Kumara Republic, in reply to
Or Donald trump gets impeached for something or another. Then it’s business as usual for the Republican Party. And we start a new thread about John Key being a dickhead.
Apparently there's a statutory rape trial in the works.
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Rich Lock, in reply to
That article was published on the 2nd. The case was withdrawn on the 6th.
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The Guardian has a lovely piece from Margaret Atwood - Just like the Wizard of Oz, Donald Trump has no magic powers
And if you haven't done it yet, bung in a Google search on wankpuffin
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