US Politics

[Wisbech Eagle]

Evil.

When faced by evidence provided by your own preferred source, a source known for its lack of objectivity on subjects such as this, your only response is, once again, to allow your emotions to overwhelm any attempt at reasoning.

We all have emotions. Some of us can though control them.

Not being able to maintain control of your emotions can be a very serious issue.

 

[Mark B]

The pre-penultimate words of every empire as it grinds to an ignominious end. But a view widely shared by many of your countrymen.

You can't imagine an end to US hegemony because dominance and being the biggest has become embedded in your political consciousness - “imperialist realism.” I see that in your casual indifference to your unserviceable debt.

We had that as late as the 1930s in spades and elements live on (see some of the posts by our older posters).

The end is not imminent. It is a slow painful degrading masked by spikes of apparently healthy economic performance. There is international competition that will erode your power, but empires never crumble due to external forces. It is always internal dysfunction and overreach... you have plenty of both... and they are getting worse.

I suspect the process is reversible, but only through a great deal of pain. However, any regime that tries faces a nation fed on imperialist realism unwilling to both face the task or pay the price.

Our generation will sigh and say - at least not in my lifetime.

You and I will be long dead before this happens. It probably won't happen today and tomorrow isn't very likely either.

You remind me of Native American rain dancers. If you do it long enough, eventually it comes true. Will it happen eventually? More the likely it will, unless it morphs as the basis for something even greater.

Luckily for the US we will get to see that fall of other nations across Asia and Europe and hopefully we can learn from your mistakes as we have done in the past.

 

[Mark B]

Terminator movies never even thought about AI replacing all the office-workers. No need for a killer robot. Not when you can just as easily make everybody redundant. And then allow Darwin to take effect.

I tend to find that WALL-E as the most likely scenario for what happens to us as humans after the robots take all of the jobs.

 

[Mark B]

Like most of us in the UK I am largely, thankfully, unfamiliar with guns. I have never held one, let alone fired one. I was once in a theatre production in which one of the cast used an imitation weapon and the controls over even that were extreme. Nevertheless, having lived in the Philippines where one of my friends murdered by a gun, and a site employee shot and killed a few minutes after I was talking to him I am extremely nervous. I know what they can do.

The Philippines is the absolute wild wild west, beautiful place, super nice people (most of the time) and insanely dangerous in certain areas.

In all seriousness, I would love to take you to the range for a day and let you try them out. You'll get an appreciation for how safe the majority of firearms owners store, transport and utilize their weapons. The majority of the time I come across someone acting like an a-hole with a weapon it is because they have never been properly taught how to be around firearms.

Guns are not evil, but guns can be an enabler to evil people to do bad things.

 

[Mark B]

Having never asked them I don’t know. What I do know is that by far the majority of the people I have met all have much more in common than they have which separates them. That includes many in the US and in SE Asia, as well as Europe. Family, safety, friends and colleagues, good health, kindness to others. These things are valued everywhere.

We don’t hate you. Increasingly we pity you. You have got yourselves into a self defeating downwards spiral, yet many don’t even realise it.

I do agree that most people around the world have more in common and that Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs tends to be as true in all corners of the globe. What I would add to Maslow is that most people just want to be left alone and not be bothered. That is why most of the people in South America, Africa and Asia just don't care, they have better things to worry about.

 

[chris123]

Like most of us in the UK I am largely, thankfully, unfamiliar with guns. I have never held one, let alone fired one. I was once in a theatre production in which one of the cast used an imitation weapon and the controls over even that were extreme. Nevertheless, having lived in the Philippines where one of my friends murdered by a gun, and a site employee shot and killed a few minutes after I was talking to him I am extremely nervous. I know what they can do.

Same with our boss in the 70s shot in Maydown, the security afterwards was huge, but meant you couldn't really enjoy the work. Even with a ridiculously subsidised bar.

 

[silvertop]

The Philippines is the absolute wild wild west, beautiful place, super nice people (most of the time) and insanely dangerous in certain areas.

In all seriousness, I would love to take you to the range for a day and let you try them out. You'll get an appreciation for how safe the majority of firearms owners store, transport and utilize their weapons. The majority of the time I come across someone acting like an a-hole with a weapon it is because they have never been properly taught how to be around firearms.

Guns are not evil, but guns can be an enabler to evil people to do bad things.

That it is.

 

[silvertop]

Hegseth attacking allies' lack of effort in Afghanistan again.

They know how to schmooze their allies.

 

[Mark B]

Hegseth attacking allies' lack of effort in Afghanistan again.

They know how to schmooze their allies.

Pete is the human embodiment of a p****.

I can rationalize most of Trump's cabinet picks in some manner, even RFK, with Pete the best I can come up with is that he probably doesn't have a gag reflex.

 

[chris123]

Pete is the human embodiment of a p****.

I can rationalize most of Trump's cabinet picks in some manner, even RFK, with Pete the best I can come up with is that he probably doesn't have a gag reflex.

And measles out breaks, a killer that I thought had been sorted but it seems not.

 

[georgenorman]

When faced by evidence provided by your own preferred source, a source known for its lack of objectivity on subjects such as this, your only response is, once again, to allow your emotions to overwhelm any attempt at reasoning.

We all have emotions. Some of us can though control them.

Not being able to maintain control of your emotions can be a very serious issue.

You do seem able to control the emotion of shame well.

 

[Stirlingsays]

You and just about everyone reading this has a Western centric-bias of what it means to be civilized. You are looking at the world through the lens of your education and experiences and mirror those views on the rest of the world. The majority of the people in this world do not share your opinions.

National reputation is essentially irrelevant. The US doesn't care what the rest of the world has to say because your opinions simply don't matter because of how two-faced you are in what you say publicly and what you do privately. Europeans have hated Americans for the last 250 years and only appreciate them when they need something from them.

Europe's two faced?

I have to say that's kind of rich.....American independence (at least at that time) would have been just a rebellion crushed without the French's help.....though I recognise that distance meant that independence would have eventually been inevitable.

Regardless, I have to say history shows that the Americans were working against the British Empire all the time, even though they were an out growth of it and genetically cousins. This didn't stop them siding against it economically and structuring deals that disadvanced us post world wars with the direct intent to replace the British Empire with the American version.

Which is exactly what happened and deliberately so.

So to say that Europe hates America.....it amazes me.....Real 'Americans' are frigging Europeans in the Americas.

 

[Putitout]

Europe's two faced?

I have to say that's kind of rich.....American independence (at least at that time) would have been just a rebellion crushed without the French's help.....though I recognise that distance meant that independence would have eventually been inevitable.

Regardless, I have to say history shows that the Americans were working against the British Empire all the time, even though they were an out growth of it and genetically cousins. This didn't stop them siding against it economically and structuring deals that disadvanced us post world wars with the direct intent to replace the British Empire with the American version.

Which is exactly what happened and deliberately so.

So to say that Europe hates America.....it amazes me.....Real 'Americans' are frigging Europeans in the Americas.

Mainly disaffected Brits that turned against the Crown. The British were not coming they were there all along on both sides of the argument.

 

[Stirlingsays]

Mainly disaffected Brits that turned against the Crown. The British were not coming they were there all along on both sides of the argument.

Yep, when you look into Washington he was calling himself an Englishman in letters just a couple of years before the rebellion.

 

[Mark B]

Europe's two faced?

I have to say that's kind of rich.....American independence (at least at that time) would have been just a rebellion crushed without the French's help.....though I recognise that distance meant that independence would have eventually been inevitable.

Regardless, I have to say history shows that the Americans were working against the British Empire all the time, even though they were an out growth of it and genetically cousins. This didn't stop them siding against it economically and structuring deals that disadvanced us post world wars with the direct intent to replace the British Empire with the American version.

Which is exactly what happened and deliberately so.

So to say that Europe hates America.....it amazes me.....Real 'Americans' are frigging Europeans in the Americas.

Yup, Europe has been two faced since the Romans decided to walk back to Italy. I even love that you put up statues to the hypocrisy such as Boadicea who killed drastically more Britons then she did Romans. To be fair, Southern war memorials do the same thing in the US, celebrating not great people that people have decided to glorify. If you can find me a society that isn't two faced, especially multi-national organizations, I'd love to hear about it.

I agree, the US rebellion struggles mightily without French assistance and would have gone on for much longer. Of course, that would have left the English economy in even more of a dire situation then it was. It also would have severely limited the English response to that Napoleon chap who shows up a few years later and then we get the fun what if whether England could have defeated Napoleon if the Hapsburgs, Prussia and Russia are wiped out while England is still dealing with future Rednecks.

The challenge with running an empire over the thousands of miles, and to be fair, you are the best in world history at ever doing it, is that if the population becomes self sustainable enough they start to wonder why they need you. The beauty for you is that the majority of your territories were lacking something that made them require your support to thrive so almost none of them try to actually leave except us ungrateful peasants (and the Irish, but come on, its what they do).

Yes, absolutely there are a fair number of Europeans who hate America. A hundred years ago it was those who looked down at the US for not joining WW1 sooner as well as the Socialists. The Socialists are still around and spewing their hatred. They have been joined by left leaning Academics and their followers. They were primarily ignored (except for France) until the Soviet Union fell and then they've picked up speed since with the former East Germans declaring that the US wasn't needed in Europe because the Russians were super nice and kind and they will never to do anything mean and that Thatcher and Reagan just made up all of those mean things about them.

So yes, there are a fair amount of Europeans who hate the US. Now are there just as many and if not more who are good with the US? Absolutely. But like online communities, the haters are the loudest so that is who gets shown on the news/social media in the US. Just like the loudest the Europeans hear are MAGA isolationists who believe that every European lives in a castle and have a title like "His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular." (Bonus points if you know who claims that title).

 

[Stirlingsays]

Yup, Europe has been two faced since the Romans decided to walk back to Italy. I even love that you put up statues to the hypocrisy such as Boadicea who killed drastically more Britons then she did Romans. To be fair, Southern war memorials do the same thing in the US, celebrating not great people that people have decided to glorify. If you can find me a society that isn't two faced, especially multi-national organizations, I'd love to hear about it.

I agree, the US rebellion struggles mightily without French assistance and would have gone on for much longer. Of course, that would have left the English economy in even more of a dire situation then it was. It also would have severely limited the English response to that Napoleon chap who shows up a few years later and then we get the fun what if whether England could have defeated Napoleon if the Hapsburgs, Prussia and Russia are wiped out while England is still dealing with future Rednecks.

The challenge with running an empire over the thousands of miles, and to be far, you are the best in world history at ever doing it, is that if the population becomes self sustainable enough they start to wonder why they need you. The beauty for you is that the majority of your territories were lacking something that made them require your support to thrive so almost none of them try to actually leave except us ungrateful peasants (and the Irish, but come on, its what they do).

Yes, absolutely there are a fair number of Europeans who hate America. A hundred years ago it was those who looked down at the US for not joining WW1 sooner as well as the Socialists. The Socialists are still around and spewing their hatred. They have been joined by left leaning Academics and their followers. They were primarily ignored (except for France) until the Soviet Union fell and then they've picked up speed since with the former East Germans declaring that the US wasn't needed in Europe because the Russians were super nice and kind and they will never to do anything mean and that Thatcher and Reagan just made up all of those mean things about them.

So yes, there are a fair amount of Europeans who hate the US. Now are there just as many and if not more who are good with the US? Absolutely. But like online communities, the haters are the loudest so that is who gets shown on the news/social media in the US. Just like the loudest the Europeans hear are MAGA isolationists who believe that every European lives in a castle and have a title like "His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular." (Bonus points if you know who claims that title).

I must admit, there's not an awful lot to argue with there.

To answer the highlighted, I think the Ugandan reference kind of gives it away, so it has to be our old fruitcake despot friend Idi Amin.

I rather suspect you were just checking that I reading down to the last paragraph. 😀

 

[Stirlingsays]

I tend to find that WALL-E as the most likely scenario for what happens to us as humans after the robots take all of the jobs.

View attachment 4462

I like the optimism.

More likely it's how the rich will go.

My cynicism rather suspects that they would like to do away with the rest of us plebs.

 

[Wisbech Eagle]

The Philippines is the absolute wild wild west, beautiful place, super nice people (most of the time) and insanely dangerous in certain areas.

In all seriousness, I would love to take you to the range for a day and let you try them out. You'll get an appreciation for how safe the majority of firearms owners store, transport and utilize their weapons. The majority of the time I come across someone acting like an a-hole with a weapon it is because they have never been properly taught how to be around firearms.

Guns are not evil, but guns can be an enabler to evil people to do bad things.

Standard justification by a gun apologist! Which always misses the point. I have had plenty of opportunities to use a gun at a range. I have a friend who owns one. In the Philippines. Somewhere where you can pay £100 for get someone murdered with no prospect of any come back. You don’t need to be evil to use a gun. You can teach safe use to as many as you like but you cannot eliminate anger, jealousy or mental illness. Without guns, as we are, such problems remain largely contained. With guns they may not. I know which is safer and which I prefer.

 

[Mark B]

I like the optimism.

More likely it's how the rich will go.

My cynicism rather suspects that they would like to do away with the rest of us plebs.

If they could, I think they would.

I think our existence will continue because they will need someone to consume their robot made goods. Very much like the Matrix, we become the battery that their machines feed on except we get to be fat and happy instead of being bald in fluids.

 

[Mark B]

Standard justification by a gun apologist! Which always misses the point. I have had plenty of opportunities to use a gun at a range. I have a friend who owns one. In the Philippines. Somewhere where you can pay £100 for get someone murdered with no prospect of any come back. You don’t need to be evil to use a gun. You can teach safe use to as many as you like but you cannot eliminate anger, jealousy or mental illness. Without guns, as we are, such problems remain largely contained. With guns they may not. I know which is safer and which I prefer.

You have made it perfectly clear that you want to live in a bubble and have your government take away anything that is harmful. Basically, you want to be a zoo animal that is kept safe and sound and lives to a ripe old age of boring. But hey, maybe a moron will jump into your cage with you and you'll get a special needs snack to chew on.

Personally, I'd rather live in free country where I can do what I want but I'm susceptible to gun violence then live in a place where I don't have the same freedoms but roughly the same number of people die between drinking themselves to death and lack of AC that are killed in gun related homicides in the US despite the US having 4.7 times as many people in it.