Politics thread (USA Elections 2016) - Page 209

It is not obvious to me that a weakened cartel is the best thing for humanity. Imo it weakens the middle east against hegemonic influence from the US, NATO.

The real problem is that they (and the US, and others) are producing oil in the first place, when there is an environmental crisis going on. Actually hunger levels are going up once again thanks to the environmental crisis. Oil cannot be allowed to 'run out', if all the oil in the world was used that would essentially lead to cataclysmic level environmental crisis.

Once again people are talking about things like the stock market crashing rather than things that matter.

Well yeah that's why I'm asking
there's a lot going on behind the scenes
I didn't know there's a new OPEC, opec+ till couple days ago etc.

And no cartel at all would lead to huge volatility
like before Standard Oil swooped in

I can't imagine a weak OPEC cartel tbh, cause its so tightly connected with things like arms deals with the west including the transfer of mercenary military and etc... I dont think anyone can say how things would progress, but generally I also don't see how a cartel is ever good for the end-consumer

On March 11 2020 08:33 Spitfiree wrote: Also @ Baal, I'd say Corona is actually not a good thing for Trump, depending on how fast it spreads it might push Sanders to the win. Trump was quite safe before the corona happening, since Dems are practically fucking themselves (again), corona spreading fast could change the mind of people of how important universal healthcare is

Couldn't disagree more.

Conservative's xenophobic tendencies come precisely from these ancient fear of invaders and disease, they are the bunker builders, this would have stoked the isolationist feeling, phisical and economical self suficiency, it would also help him with his anti-chinese rethoric.


But it does indeed throw a wrench into the elections and if Trump were a lock vs Biden then you dont want this increased variance but nonetheless pandemics are a very good thing for right wing and authoritarian leaders... unless they fuck up badly and Trump was on its way, it seems that today he backpedaled a lot on the issue and is concerned.

Trump's huge edge was the state of the economy
Corona is clearly bad for him, the bookies agree

I'm really curious what DNC's strategy will be when it comes to debates though
Are they really going to let Joe loose in debates? 6 months from now no less when his mental state can worsen?

On March 11 2020 21:14 Spitfiree wrote: I can't imagine a weak OPEC cartel tbh, cause its so tightly connected with things like arms deals with the west including the transfer of mercenary military and etc... I dont think anyone can say how things would progress, but generally I also don't see how a cartel is ever good for the end-consumer

the cartel is much weaker than it used to be. America has gained significant energy independence over the last two decades. Furthermore there is a significant amount of oil for grabs under the arctic, hopefully no one drills into that, but at the very least OPEC will get none of it. Go back to 1973 and look at the oil shock then, when OPEC decided to attack america because of their support for israel's wars. That attack was quite successful in that it triggered stagflation in the US and a global recession. It prompted a strategy by the US and G7 to try and break up alliances in the third world:

"Many of [the developing countries] have to depend on one single crop. We must find a way to break up the unholy alliance between the LDCs and OPEC. But we cannot say so in so many words. We should do this in the CIEC [the Paris process] by discussing the balance of payments problems of the LDCs and showing how they are being damaged by this situation. We can make the point that the newly rich countries have to take part in new developmental aid in accordance with their new riches. We will also have to convince the LDCs of our genuine interest in their well-being, by helping them in the area of raw materials.

“Our object,” Helmut Schmidt said, “should be to sever [the LDCs] from OPEC.” This is what Schmidt called the “dialogue strategy.” The US secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, was in the room. Invited to comment, he provided an equally forthright statement: “We agree on the need for cooperation with producers. With cooperation we can separate the moderates from the radicals within OPEC, the LDCs from the OPEC countries, and prevent a lot of other ‘pecs.’ ” If the NAM states persisted and did not accept the G7 offerings, then “they will pay a price in terms of cooperation, or military exports.” "

Saudi Arabia's political regime is very weak atm, i wouldn't be suprised if there was a revolution in the not too distant future.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_energy_independence
Source: The Poorer Nations; Vijay Prashad

On March 11 2020 22:23 LemOn[5thF] wrote: Trump's huge edge was the state of the economy Corona is clearly bad for him, the bookies agree I'm really curious what DNC's strategy will be when it comes to debates though Are they really going to let Joe loose in debates? 6 months from now no less when his mental state can worsen?

His presidency has been timed with the boom in a business cycle, but there is serious rot in the economy that underlies those nice looking statistics like a low unemployment rate.

Trumps edge was the democratic establishment faithfully serving him, by critiqueing him on things he wasn't even wrong on (peace talks with north korea, close friendship with Russia), or on his personality. And the farcical impeachment trial which again stuck to issues that wern't of significance, instead of his crimes on the environment or in foreign policy. Trump enjoyed his highest approval rating from that trial, and predictably so. It really looks as if the democratic establishment is trying as hard as they can to get trump re-elected.

agreed with Stroggoz.

Nobody would blame Trump if the economy slowed down in the midsts of a serious pandemic, but he handled it poorly, but apparently today he made a 180 and is concerned about it, I suppose better late than ever.

On March 11 2020 05:49 Baalim wrote: im back, I've been absent because my dad was 1 month in the ICU and pulled a 2 outer and survived and in a few days he'll be back home, yay. I'm sure Loco missed me in the kind of way batman misses the joker, I'm sure he has posted a lot of ridiculous crap as usual and that I'll happily refute soon, I already saw him posting on the MMA threads... didn't you used to mock me for liking violent MMA and you felt superior because you liked non-violent Taekwondo? lol hipocrite... awww yiss i missed this. BTW how is there not a fucking Coronavirus thread yet?

I did not miss any of this simplistic black and white thinking and instigative arguing, no. I find it vulgar and boring. I wonder if you would have been in the mood to come back with this kind of attitude if your father had died?

What I dislike about MMA is the culture and business around it. I respect martial arts and true dedicated martial artists, so I necessarily have a complex relationship with MMA. I got into it because of GSP, obviously, since I'm from Montreal, many years ago. But I have never paid to encourage it, I don't share news about it, and I don't post about it usually, but like I said before, I can like a few specific individuals and root for them.

In this case I couldn't help but root for Weili. My girlfriend is Chinese and I am all too aware of the struggles she has gone through and the type of dedicated person that she is, and how this fight was much more than just an ego thing to her. Joanna's racism was an added reason why I was excited for her to learn a lesson. I know of Joanna as well because this fight was connected to Namajunas who is another person I really like. If you notice there is a pattern there of me liking fighters who don't even want to really be fighting at this point. It's just what they do to make a living. GSP has explained this a number of times now and it seems to apply to Namajunas as well.

I mocked you for playing the role of this paragon of non-violence, when you said shit like "if you think that I am Gandhi then lol thanks for the compliment I guess". You're not Gandhi; your violence is just recuperated by capitalism. It shows in the way you present yourself, argue with others, and your non-complex relationship with things like MMA.

I grew up in the same broader culture as you and was a victim of its egoistic competitiveness like you and it's certainly still a part of me but at least I made an effort to branch out and didn't remain an infant who can only be stimulated by it. Welcome back.

Keep this stuff in Mma threads nobody cares champ.

Btw what's the voting system in US? I assume remote voting via post is possible, but not electronic?

On March 13 2020 00:59 LemOn[5thF] wrote: Keep this stuff in Mma threads nobody cares champ. Btw what's the voting system in US? I assume remote voting via post is possible, but not electronic?

There's like 5 people who post on this site regularly. We can all probably agree that it doesn't really matter at this point to organize things by thread, especially when things end up being connected to the subject of politics anyway. The MMA topic was brought on by Baal due to its previous connection to the topic of 'political violence' and he's using it as argument against my political beliefs, so yes, it fits here better.

But here, I'll also take the opportunity to reply to you.

On March 13 2020 00:59 LemOn[5thF] wrote: Btw what's the voting system in US? I assume remote voting via post is possible, but not electronic?

Doesn't matter, it's a one party system anyway. Yes, they will let loose Joe, because Joe's the establishment, like Trump, and that's all that matters.

On March 11 2020 17:35 Stroggoz wrote: welcome back baal. a recent study at MIT discredited allegations (made by the OAS), of election fraud in the bolivian election

yeah gotta love these Bolivian, Venezuelan, Russian democracies

On March 12 2020 17:43 Loco wrote: I wonder if you would have been in the mood to come back with this kind of attitude if your father had died?

Probably not, what is the point?

What I dislike about MMA is the culture and business around it. I respect martial arts and true dedicated martial artists, so I necessarily have a complex relationship with MMA. I got into it because of GSP, obviously, since I'm from Montreal, many years ago. But I have never paid to encourage it, I don't share news about it, and I don't post about it usually, but like I said before, I can like a few specific individuals and root for them.

In this case I couldn't help but root for Weili. My girlfriend is Chinese and I am all too aware of the struggles she has gone through and the type of dedicated person that she is, and how this fight was much more than just an ego thing to her. Joanna's racism was an added reason why I was excited for her to learn a lesson. I know of Joanna as well because this fight was connected to Namajunas who is another person I really like. If you notice there is a pattern there of me liking fighters who don't even want to really be fighting at this point. It's just what they do to make a living. GSP has explained this a number of times now and it seems to apply to Namajunas as well.

I mocked you for playing the role of this paragon of non-violence, when you said shit like "if you think that I am Gandhi then lol thanks for the compliment I guess". You're not Gandhi; your violence is just recuperated by capitalism. It shows in the way you present yourself, argue with others, and your non-complex relationship with things like MMA.

I grew up in the same broader culture as you and was a victim of its egoistic competitiveness like you and it's certainly still a part of me but at least I made an effort to branch out and didn't remain an infant who can only be stimulated by it. Welcome back.[/QUOTE]

Loco: "I enjoy MMA as a superior being, you see its a complex relationship because I root for fighters who don't want to be fighters, also GSP.. and my chinese GF, and also like when racist fighters get smashed... unlike you who just like violence with your non-complex liking of MMA"

LOL you clown just take the loss, you like MMA, nothing wrong with it, dont double down in this hypocritical retarded sanctimonious rant.

Calling someone a hypocrite is what you lazily revert to when you don't have a counter-argument, just like your guru Molyneux. You learned from the best in the business at pretending like you care about debate and logic when it's all about your fee fees in the end.

If I just 'liked MMA' I'd probably be interested in more than 2% of the fights, but whatever you say. There is no hypocrisy in saying that I can like martial arts and martial artists who have made it into the UFC without liking the commercialized spectacle around MMA and most of its fighters that I don't relate to or care for.

You know as well as I do that it doesn't matter that you think there is nothing wrong with it, since it has nothing to do with your beliefs, but whether or not enjoying violent sport is compatible with a worldview that opposes hierarchy and dominance. But clearly that's too much of a nuanced discussion for you to be able to have, that's why you claim to have "won" before the discussion even started.

"Probably not, what is the point?"

The point is that it becomes harder to be a shitty human being and to be interested in trivial matters in the face of tragedy. For me tragedy has been ongoing for a long time, and it prevents me from being able to be as uncaring and glib as you; it doesn't just affect me when it relates to my close family.

Put it another way: if your dad had just died from the corona virus, would you have come back here all excited and giddy to share this Corona-chan meme that comes out of internet's worst cesspool of right-wing extremism? No, because shit doesn't matter to you until it affects you. The proper right-wing mentality.

On March 13 2020 07:36 Baalim wrote: Show nested quote + On March 11 2020 17:35 Stroggoz wrote: welcome back baal. a recent study at MIT discredited allegations (made by the OAS), of election fraud in the bolivian election yeah gotta love these Bolivian, Venezuelan, Russian democracies

False equivilence, russia and venezuela are tyrannical regimes. Morales was democratically elected. That's what the evidence shows, from credible institutions like MIT and not the word of the OAS which has clearly shown itself to be an arm of US imperialistic interests in the region.

>election year
>trump orders his best friend xi jinping to "accidentally" release a pandemic level virus biological weapon from a research lab in wuhan
>bans travel from china and european countries
>coronavirus is spreading
>ban large groups of people, close concerts, movie theaters, schools
>polling places
>president emeritus for life

4d chess

On March 13 2020 19:17 Loco wrote: Calling someone a hypocrite is what you lazily revert to when you don't have a counter-argument, just like your guru Molyneux. You learned from the best in the business at pretending like you care about debate and logic when it's all about your fee fees in the end. If I just 'liked MMA' I'd probably be interested in more than 2% of the fights, but whatever you say. There is no hypocrisy in saying that I can like martial arts and martial artists who have made it into the UFC without liking the commercialized spectacle around MMA and most of its fighters that I don't relate to or care for. You know as well as I do that it doesn't matter that you think there is nothing wrong with it, since it has nothing to do with your beliefs, but whether or not enjoying violent sport is compatible with a worldview that opposes hierarchy and dominance. But clearly that's too much of a nuanced discussion for you to be able to have, that's why you claim to have "won" before the discussion even started. "Probably not, what is the point?" The point is that it becomes harder to be a shitty human being and to be interested in trivial matters in the face of tragedy. For me tragedy has been ongoing for a long time, and it prevents me from being able to be as uncaring and glib as you; it doesn't just affect me when it relates to my close family. Put it another way: if your dad had just died from the corona virus, would you have come back here all excited and giddy to share this Corona-chan meme that comes out of internet's worst cesspool of right-wing extremism? No, because shit doesn't matter to you until it affects you. The proper right-wing mentality.

What kind of small minded pretentious asshole thinks that they like a sport because of these complex issues, and the rest are uneducated brutes who only like the commercialized aspect of it.

Do you also think you watch porn because you empathize with the struggle of the harlot, the commodification of the bodies and the rest of the people who watch ir are disgusting pigs ?



A few months ago I told rick not to listen somebody who describes himself as miserable, and you said you were happy, so I guess you were lying because according to you tragedy is an ongoing thing for a long time, you absorb all the pains in the world, oh poor pariah lol.

If my dad died of Coronavirus I would mourn him and after that I would absolutely 100% joke about Corona-chan taking him, thats what emotionally healthy tend to do, I guess you wouldn't know.

so Corona-chan is a nazi too... ok.

On March 13 2020 21:02 Stroggoz wrote: False equivilence, russia and venezuela are tyrannical regimes. Morales was democratically elected. That's what the evidence shows, from credible institutions like MIT and not the word of the OAS which has clearly shown itself to be an arm of US imperialistic interests in the region.

He changed the constitution to relect himself for a 2nd term, on the 3rd term he argued it was a new constitution so his 1st term was invalid... he attempted a 4th time.

If you don't think that violates the spirit of a new frail democracy then I dont know what would.

On March 14 2020 04:26 Baalim wrote: Show nested quote + On March 13 2020 19:17 Loco wrote: Calling someone a hypocrite is what you lazily revert to when you don't have a counter-argument, just like your guru Molyneux. You learned from the best in the business at pretending like you care about debate and logic when it's all about your fee fees in the end. If I just 'liked MMA' I'd probably be interested in more than 2% of the fights, but whatever you say. There is no hypocrisy in saying that I can like martial arts and martial artists who have made it into the UFC without liking the commercialized spectacle around MMA and most of its fighters that I don't relate to or care for. You know as well as I do that it doesn't matter that you think there is nothing wrong with it, since it has nothing to do with your beliefs, but whether or not enjoying violent sport is compatible with a worldview that opposes hierarchy and dominance. But clearly that's too much of a nuanced discussion for you to be able to have, that's why you claim to have "won" before the discussion even started. "Probably not, what is the point?" The point is that it becomes harder to be a shitty human being and to be interested in trivial matters in the face of tragedy. For me tragedy has been ongoing for a long time, and it prevents me from being able to be as uncaring and glib as you; it doesn't just affect me when it relates to my close family. Put it another way: if your dad had just died from the corona virus, would you have come back here all excited and giddy to share this Corona-chan meme that comes out of internet's worst cesspool of right-wing extremism? No, because shit doesn't matter to you until it affects you. The proper right-wing mentality. What kind of small minded pretentious asshole thinks that they like a sport because of these complex issues, and the rest are uneducated brutes who only like the commercialized aspect of it. Do you also think you watch porn because you empathize with the struggle of the harlot, the commodification of the bodies and the rest of the people who watch ir are disgusting pigs ? A few months ago I told rick not to listen somebody who describes himself as miserable, and you said you were happy, so I guess you were lying because according to you tragedy is an ongoing thing for a long time, you absorb all the pains in the world, oh poor pariah lol. If my dad died of Coronavirus I would mourn him and after that I would absolutely 100% joke about Corona-chan taking him, thats what emotionally healthy tend to do, I guess you wouldn't know. so Corona-chan is a nazi too... ok.

Loco and I are certainly outcasts and of a lower caste. Why would I not listen to Loco when he has consistently given me great suggestions? I can't speak for Loco but I can speak for myself: some may classify me as miserable. I can't really ever classify myself as blanket-ly happy. Like right now I'm not particularly happy nor sad but as I posted in a blog there is always kind of an underlying sadness and dissatisfaction. Can you honestly say that happiness is some binary state that can be sustained for long periods? Or, even living in tragedy there are bright spots typically. Sometimes there aren't. Sometimes there are seasons that are tough. Tougher than one could even imagine. We live in tragedy every day. Life is tragedy, life is comedy. I don't believe for a second that there is anyone in some blissful state all of the time. Not even Mathieu Ricard.

Not that it has anything to do with anything, but I never said "I am happy." I said "I am happier". Tutz is probably happier than me and you Baal, so I guess RiKD should listen to him instead of you too. What an argument.

On March 14 2020 04:28 Baalim wrote: If my dad died of Coronavirus I would mourn him and after that I would absolutely 100% joke about Corona-chan taking him, thats what emotionally healthy tend to do

Well, let's find out. Anyone wants to chime in? If you lost a close relative to the coronavirus, would you act like Baal?


Poll: Would you act like Baal after mourning your dead relative?
(Vote): Yes, it's emotionally healthy.
(Vote): No.
(Vote): I don't know.