March 30, 20232 yr 15 hours ago, Cult Icon said: The Saudi Arabia-Iran reconciliation is a big Chinese success and move to reduce US influence in the region & replace it with China. This was huge and shows China's massive diplomatic capabilities. Many analysts thought it would be impossible. China's diplomacy has been ignored for years, but they have grown massively. 15 hours ago, Cult Icon said: As a whole (not individuals or parts) China is basically stomping US into the dirt right now economically. US deserves it TBH, for its many failures for the past 3 decades. We are the stagnating Roman Empire. Their manufacturing base is equal to US and EU combined and their real financial and economic wealth significantly exceeds the US. China put some capitalism in its inefficient communist economy and it worked marvellously. The USA has put socialism in its capitalism that was already weakened by oligopolies, and it's a huge mistake. Competition is key in economic success. The oligopolization of the US economy has started years ago and many US corporations are in bed with the government, which generates unwholesome behaviours. The examples are legion: the opioid crisis, big tech censorship, wokism in the entertainment industry, MIC pushing wars... all of these are corporations/government's offsprings. I'm sorry to bring politics one more time, but leftism is responsible for that. 15 hours ago, Cult Icon said: The only thing left is military and civilian tech, in which they are rapidly closing the gap. Their navy is undergoing one of the fastest expansions in human history and is trying to match and then surpass the US. The West is at a crossroads right now. There is de-dollarization going on too. Xinnie the Pooh is busy.. Yep, I agree. 15 hours ago, Cult Icon said: In foreign policy ours should be more like theirs- focusing on creating wealth and peace rather than starting or funding destructive wars. Definitely. 15 hours ago, Cult Icon said: What do you think of NATO and Ukraine? This war is showing how poor excess European nato ammunition and equipment stocks really are. US is better prepared but not relative to our 900 billion dollar/yr military budget. Western MICs comes across as extremely inefficient. A single ordinary 155mm artillery shell should cost many thousands of dollars to produce nor should one tank or self propelled artillery piece cost 20 million dollars. It is remarkably short-sighted and stupid that the Biden administration is doing its best to make the war as long and destructive as possible. They seem to be in a fantasy world of their own design. Even if NATO gets its desired results- and it is failing so far- Russia will never forget... NATO's behavior on Ukraine is based on their dreams. NATO thinks it's almighty like it was in the 90s. NATO (and the US) are drunk with power. They overestimate themselves and underestimated Russia. Their views were already dubious on paper, but Russia showed it has lots of ressources and China will be happy if it weakens NATO in this war. Russia's attacks are vicious and morally reprehensible, no doubt about that. Wagner are terrible and sadistic people. Helping the Ukrainians was probably a good thing from NATO's POV, but they overestimate themselves. Western MIC is too fancy. Russia's MIC was always low cost/high robustness, which is why the AK47 is the most popular assault rifle. It's the same for many gear. Russia has also done lots of technological breakthroughs in terms of military gear in the past years, but they keep being cost-efficient. Biden's admin is soaked in the Cold War spirit. It's funny because the US is becoming a neo-marxist power now, but they still hate Russia. It seems to me that for the people in charge ideas are less important than power itself.
March 31, 20232 yr Expanding their military to unsustainable levels is exactly what collapsed the Soviet Union. Percent of GDP is irrelevant, Russia’s economy is only just bigger than Italy’s and even with it taking up almost 10% of GDP their gross military spending is slightly higher than the UK’s. NATO could make all of its equipment out of solid gold and Russia would still run out of money first. Like obviously this isn’t good for Ukraine, but NATO is absolutely getting “its desired result.” NATO has several new members, the old members are reinvesting into their militaries, the Russian military has been exposed as a paper tiger and is bogged down in a border war that will go on for who knows how long, other NATO rivals are looking at the whole event and second guessing what ever dumb invasions they had planned. All in all the money spent on Ukraine has been a really good investment from the perspective of maintaining US geopolitical dominance (which is what American leaders care about).
March 31, 20232 yr Actually the Soviet Union/Russia functioned better as a paranoid military machine for much of its existence. The past 30 years has less than mixed results at best. "Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction needs seen reaching $411 bln - World Bank" Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction needs seen reaching $411 bln - World Bank (yahoo.com)
March 31, 20232 yr Except it collapsed in on itself because they misallocated resources to their military to such an extent that the people were starving and the government couldn’t function anymore. They didn’t have the resources to sanely act like a military superpower, it was all a giant bluff. What you’re pointing out, correctly, is that they never recovered. Russia the superpower died in 1991. This is a corpse walking.
April 1, 20232 yr Quote Boyfriend is left 'in tears' after his girlfriend pulled a 'cruel' prank she deemed hilarious at the beach - as critics argue over who is in the wrong https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/relationships/article-11909361/Aussie-boyfriend-tears-girlfriend-pulled-cruel-prank-wrong.html The woman who did that is a monster. He should've dumped this b*** right away. If it was the other way around, the guy would be in jail, but she isn't. That's internalised misandry.
April 1, 20232 yr Quote Nancy Pelosi mocked over major error in her tweet about Trump indictment “We don’t have to prove our innocence in America, Mrs. Pelosi,” https://nypost.com/2023/03/31/nancy-pelosi-mocked-over-major-error-in-her-tweet-about-trump-indictment/ Pelosi forgets the presumption of innocence. Whatever works to eliminate political opponents, right Mrs Pelosi... The USA has really become a banana republic.
April 4, 20232 yr The USA tried war in the Middle East (the 00s). They lost. (the final defeat being the retreat of Afghanistan in 2021) China tried peace in the Middle East (2023). They won. The USA tried war in Europe. We'll see what China will manage to get.
April 4, 20232 yr While the USA is weakened outside (discredited aura in most places outside the West), they also weaken themselves on the inside with their despicable politics. This ridiculous feud between right and left is making this country crazy. The lords who seat on the iron throne nowadays (the left) are getting more extreme and they're only crippling their country with their games. Not to mention their weird cult (aka wokism). The right/left opposition used to be a cornerstone of their democracy, with the idea that competition makes the best ideas emerge. But there's no competition anymore. The Left is a quasi-monopoly (in politics, in the mainstream media, in companies) and this country is deteriorating rapidly.
April 4, 20232 yr ^ But while the city burns, the scholar discuss the sex of angels... (literally) https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/03/veto-transgender-pronouns-north-dakota-schools-00090255 https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/31/politics/biden-transgender-day-of-visibility/index.html
April 4, 20232 yr ^ BTW, CNN is completely sold to the Left. The don't even hide it any more. It's funny that CNN criticizes the Russians, while their model is the Pravda...
April 4, 20232 yr Anyway, the big picture is that we're witnessing the end of the USA's leadership in the world right now. The fact that this ending happens during a "civil war" and the debauchery caused by Wokeness is not a coincidence.
April 6, 20232 yr Quote Male powerlifter enters women’s event, breaks record https://nypost.com/2023/03/30/male-powerlifter-enters-womens-event-breaks-record/
April 7, 20232 yr On 4/1/2023 at 10:46 PM, Enrico_sw said: The woman who did that is a monster. He should've dumped this b*** right away. If it was the other way around, the guy would be in jail, but she isn't. That's internalised misandry. Considering that the source is Reddit, did any of this even happen? I think like half the stories posted on there are total bullshit and that is probably a lowball number on my part.
April 7, 20232 yr I don't get the argument for allowing Russia to take even more of Ukraine, when there are reports of serious war crimes in almost every liberated area. So you want all of Ukraine to suffer the same treatment? The moral equivalencies trotted out by so many commentators in the West are frankly embarrassing.
April 7, 20232 yr 11 hours ago, SympathysSilhouette said: Considering that the source is Reddit, did any of this even happen? I think like half the stories posted on there are total bullshit and that is probably a lowball number on my part. This reminds me of what old conservatives used to say about women who got assaulted in the 1960s “Oh, she's exaggerating, she provoked it, it's her fault...” Neo-feminism is the new conservatism. It's impossible for them to recognise that men can suffer. Read the books about domestic violence against men. Denying their suffering is atrocious. Feminism make people behave like monsters. They have zero empathy. https://www.amazon.com/Abused-Men-Hidden-Domestic-Violence/dp/0313356718
April 7, 20232 yr Yes, men can be abused by women. Yes, it's a huge phenomenon. Yes, they're not believed by the doxa who think women are victims and men oppressors. Yes, statistics (despite the under-reporting bias) show huge numbers. Post-modernism lacks empathy. It needs to target entire groups of people as victims or oppressors. It makes people behave like monsters with no discernment.
April 7, 20232 yr The so-called patriarchy and the neo-feminism are the exact same thing. For both of those ideologies, men with lower status are treated like trash. Men, don't let yourself get convinced by monsters like neo-feminists that you are always an oppressor. If your wife or girlfriend is a monster, leave her.
April 8, 20232 yr On 4/4/2023 at 4:27 PM, Enrico_sw said: We'll see what China will manage to get. Not too impressed with China so far. The Xi, Macron, and von der Leyen meetings got nowhere. Wang Yi keeps on going with the aggressive anti-NATO & US rhetoric but hasn't done much either. Xi has a historic opportunity to become the next Teddy Roosevelt (speak softly and carry a big stick) in this matter and create a dawn of next 'China' century. China has leverage over everybody in various ways. Instead they ghost Biden & Zelensky and don't make more assertive moves. The biggest issue with the Ukraine war is that the demand from US/NATO/Ukr that Russia leave the occupied provinces is completely unrealistic. The only thing Russia will agree with is to carve up Ukraine, along current lines, like Korea. Also they will accept not achieving their primary goal, the full demilitarization of Ukraine. That is very significant.
April 10, 20232 yr I hate when I told I want to back with my ex Miguel, from High School, and some people treat to back to Peré B. The ingeniero. I was sad all that years, watching how all people was Happy, dating, travelling and doing what they want... Study, exercises sabe me. So Happy now, try to back to up class.
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