Donald Trump Is Gonna Get Us Killed......LIHOP

[82_28]

Unless it does happen! While I may have speculated that trump wasn't going anywhere as in sticking around, I thought no way. If this is "real" now, think of what else will become, in turn, real. What are the contracts for secret service agents like, I wonder? Could they go on strike for a day? All call in sick? Because, I for one would not mind if someone ceased to exist. I am not saying anything, but even this certain someone's supporters I doubt will give a fuck either.

Say the certain someone goes bye bye, we will have so much motherfucking "fake news" to deal with for the rest of our fucking lives. Cockroaches I tell you. On the shortest day of the year for the northern hemisphere they come out at night.

[justdrew]

Mr. Trump has said he will persuade Beijing to change its policies by applying pressure, including designating China a currency manipulator; enforcing existing trade laws more vigorously; and, if necessary, imposing a 45 percent tariff on Chinese imports.

I seriously doubt he'll do anything at all to imperil the purchasing power of the American upper and middle class - the fight for whose support has been the point of US politics for some decades now. For the same reason he can't do anything substantial about illegal immigration. Suburban Americans have got used to low-wage gardeners and housemaids, and cheap shit from China. I can't imagine government trying to change that.

but what if China decides it doesn't need to collect little green pieces of paper from america anymore? What if China decided to sanction the US? Which society has a better chance of weathering out that storm?

[stefano]

but what if China decides it doesn't need to collect little green pieces of paper from america anymore? What if China decided to sanction the US? Which society has a better chance of weathering out that storm?

China certainly has the better long-term chance, but they really do need to collect those little green pieces of paper. The US is their biggest single client, buying 18% of their exports - $411bn in 2015. If that number drops by a lot, there wouldn't be anyone to pick up the slack. They'd see factory closures in the big coastal cities, that's the last thing they want. I think they'll just do what they've been doing all along, carry on quietly outcompeting and outsaving the US, and accepting that insulting China is just what American politicians do.

[stillrobertpaulsen]

We are at war with Eastasia. We have always been at war with Eastasia.

Orwell got the texture and emotional mix of the society all wrong -- Huxley had that straight -- but he had a grasp of the geopolitics, where the wars would be, what the major power blocs would be. Of course, 1984 is a sub-set within Brave New World, no contradiction necessarily.

That pretty much narrows down my take on those magnificent two since I read them back-to-back when I was a junior in high school. Huxley definitely understood that the broadest way for a government to elicit sustained compliance was to narcotize them into believing their world is wonderful, exactly as it should. Orwell got what happens to the minority that refused to comply - as well as the geopolitical elements you mention - and spelled out a 'shock doctrine' years before Klein did. I should probably read BNW and 1984 again. I'm just afraid it might hit too close to home.

[stillrobertpaulsen]

It irritated me because I thought he was making a visual reference to this:

(Huh. Part of the filename is 'blacksNewOrleans'.)

Seriously you don't find anything remotely annoying about him calling his show 'The Resistance'? Like he's John Connor fighting SkyNet, by getting paid well to record a bit of video every other day or whatever? Looks to me like he had a spontaneous orgasm when the results came in, because he knew there was a gig in it for him. I wonder how long he waited before he called his agent.

I don't recall seeing that picture before. But yeah, I can see the resemblance and understand why it's irritating.

Honestly, I find him more funny than annoying. I'm sure beneath that mountain of hyperbole there probably is a whole pile of money - not as much as during his MSNBC heyday, but a good amount. But since ESPN broadcasting is probably far more lucrative than hosting a youtube show for GQ (my guess, I have no stats), I think his overriding motive is probably that he hates, hates, HATES Donald Trump.

[Searcher08]

but what if China decides it doesn't need to collect little green pieces of paper from america anymore? What if China decided to sanction the US? Which society has a better chance of weathering out that storm?

China certainly has the better long-term chance, but they really do need to collect those little green pieces of paper. The US is their biggest single client, buying 18% of their exports - $411bn in 2015. If that number drops by a lot, there wouldn't be anyone to pick up the slack. They'd see factory closures in the big coastal cities, that's the last thing they want. I think they'll just do what they've been doing all along, carry on quietly outcompeting and outsaving the US, and accepting that insulting China is just what American politicians do.

That is my take as well. I think the saber rattling around China is just that.
I think there is a danger regarding the territory in the South China Seas; the Chinese are generally very pragmatic and reasonable except when it comes to what I call their "Blue Suede Shoes" issues - things like Tibet, the Paracel Islands and some bits of the high altitude border with India, with which China has had quite a few spats since the Sixties. I think the economics are such that at the moment, a war with the US would be an insane choice for both parties. I cant see the US making that decision.

[seemslikeadream]

yes he is

and now I believe it is MIHOP

The Ban is going to make something happen

[stefano]

Brump