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Global Affairs Thread

27K views 178 replies 31 participants last post by  Phantasoman 
#1 · (Edited)
I've created this thread as an effort to organise the various topics scattered on multiple threads.

On this thread, anything can be discussed regarding global and national affairs on: politics, economy & finance, industry, energy, pollution, war, terrorism, etc.

When a unique thread is created about a specific issue, I will add the respective link in this post.


Global Issues

Overpopulation may lead to 3rd world war and the end of humanity

What is your opinion on Climate Change?

MTF Debate I: This House Would Frack, Teams Posted!

EU Commission: CETA should be approved by national parliaments

Canadian Government Introducing Legislation to Legalize Euthanasia

Canada plans to experiment with giving people unconditional free money

Panama Papers Leak

Is a worldwide total financial collapse inevitable?

Chris Kuertens WWII


US

2016 US Presidential Election

Post 2016 US Presidential Election

State Dept dismisses question from RT, says won’t treat it like other media

Amy Goodman Is Facing Prison for Reporting on the Dakota Access Pipeline


Russia

Russian politicians want to ban FIFA 17 - homophobic motive


UK

The United Kingdom Politics thread

"BREXIT" - decision day


India

The Indian Politics Thread


Ukraine

"Ukraine cancels trade pact with EU" and "thousands gather in Kyiv for pro-EU rally"

Malaysian airlines flight crashes in Ukraine

61.1% of Dutch voters reject EU association agreement with Ukraine in referendum


Syria

Syria Crisis: Obama warns Assad faces "consequences" if he uses chemical weapons

White Helmets: Syrian Heroes or Lobbyists for American military interventionism?

Turkey shot down Russian jet near Syrian border, Putin calls 'stab in the back'

US backed rebels behead child in Syria


Turkey

Coup in Turkey?


Cuba

Fidel Castro has died, aged 90

So what do you think of Che Guevara?

Obama admits ''USA policies towards Cuba failed''


Spain

2015 & 2016 Spanish General Election


Colombia

Did Human Rights Watch Sabotage Colombia's Peace Agreement?


Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

http://www.menstennisforums.com/3-n...rces-abduct-16-year-old-palestinian-girl.html


Mass Murder, Terrorism & False Flag Attacks

Multiple terrorist attacks in Paris! / 128 dead

Again terror in Europe - Brussels attacked

ISIS back in Europe: 41 killed in explosions at Istanbul Atatürk Airport

250+ people killed in one of deadliest attacks ISIS has carried out worldwide.

Bastille Day attack in Nice

Explosion in Germany

ISIS kills priest in France

Shooting In Munich

12 killed and 59 wounded in Denver shooting at a Batman showing

Shooting in Florida

Japan: Man kills 19 and wounds 45 in knife attack. Worst attack in Japan since WW2
 
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#76 ·
Some are reporting it's Trevor Brooks, aka Abu Izzadeen. Others are saying that this is impossible because he's still in prison. However, the photo of the downed attacker and Izzadeen do look a little alike, so it could indeed be him, though no confirmation has been made yet. The brother of Brooks, for instance, claims he is still in jail, as well as a bunch of other sources which say he isn't the attacker.
 
#78 ·
5 dead and they talk like it's world war 3. It's almost not even a headline news in todays cauldron where right wing views/wars create more deaths than that every hour of the year. Let wait to the right wingers say less for everyone, do they even know they are playing straight into the arms of people that oppose freedoms the most. 4 innocents have died, big deal, if you think it is you're their target market.
 
#79 ·
Yeah, around the same time as the attack Trump droned 30 civilians to death in Syria.
 
#81 ·
Just when France was about to lift the State of Emergency, more attacks in Europe. What a coincidence...
 
#83 ·
Opinions on Rojava? What outweighs the other, the righteous struggle of the Kurds and their pretty awesome revolution or it taking place on land that officially belongs to Syria?
 
#84 ·
Ref' the Arab Spring: yes it's been and continues to be pretty nuts. Four current civil wars raging, brutal suppression followed by simmering unrest in Bahrain, Egypt going backwards, Tunisia tottering, a high probability of Jordan and Lebanon failing too in the next few years.

The problems are structural throughout politics, society and the economy, they are not going away and won't be solved by outside intervention.

Focusing on the Yemen, I was in Sana'a back in 2011 when it all blew up. While there was a fair bit of fighting there was also moderation. Both sides had lots more in the tank but chose not to use it, in part because violence between Yemenis is usually carefully calibrated (the tribal blood feuds last generations) to achieve political ends.

President Saleh gets blown up and badly injured then the political process resumes.

Enter Saudi, the US and the U.K. trying to facilitate a return to the status quo, bad actors locally are supported and the people behind the revolution (youth movements, democracy activists and yes, the Houthis) are sidelined in favour of vested interests. This farce continues in the guise of a "National Dialogue" following a US/UK/KSA approved election with one candidate, until said President unilaterally decides the future federal structure of the country, against the wishes of most local groups and to great celebration in Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Washington and London.

The Houthis with considerable tribal and military support then take the capital and run "our man" out of town and into exile. Oman brokers multi-sided peace talks for ALL of the stakeholders in Yemen and before they can begin Saudi attacks the country with an alliance of other dictatorships supported by the US and U.K.

The Iranian bogeyman was up there with the Gulf of Tonkin as a reason to invade. It was a largely fabricated and vastly exaggerated "threat" to Saudi, manufactured to justify the regional strategy of counter revolution pursued by the petro-monarchies, namely:

Make the uprisings fail at all costs to protect their own positions. Democracy must be seen by their own subjects to be a foreign body, introduced by a perfidious West as an agent of chaos designed to destroy their societies, values and traditions.

That's why Saudi crushed the mass uprising in Bahrain, why they bank rolled al Sisi in Egypt, why they back hardline Islamists in Libya, Syria and Afghanistan and the list goes on and on.

Two nations have stood foursquare behind Saudi and their allies as this shitfest has unfolded, the US and the U.K.

I believe that is due to strategic commercial interest, fear that Saudi will eventually fall and what in that event the popular will of Saudis would translate to politically.

In truth there is likely good reason to fear that. It doesn't justify what we (UK) are now tacitly supporting in Yemen, the deliberate, savage, cowardly and vindictive destruction of the Arab world's oldest, poorest and formerly most socially promising country.

The various iterations of peace talks have been a deliberate farce. Politically Saudi cannot afford not to win and so cannot stop until they do, even if it means famine and death on a biblical scale. They'll carry on bombing for as long as it takes, or until we (US/UK) say 'no more', withdraw direct support and remove their means to continue.

I'd apologise for the length of post but this was the short version...
 
#86 ·
Viva la fascism!
 
#87 ·
 
#88 ·

Peculiar :lol:
 
#93 ·
Well, I am looking for a job at the moment...
 
#95 ·
China’s GDP Would Grow Faster Under Mao-Era Policies: Study

China’s GDP growth would grow faster between 2036 and 2050 if the former leader's economic plans were implemented.

A new economic study says that if Mao Tse-tung, the communist leader of Chinese independence, and his policies were in place today, China would see a greater surge in economic growth.

Maoist policies, including the total abolition of the private sector and the nationalization of the economy, the authors argue, would propel China’s GDP significantly later down the line.

"Our model is essentially an accounting exercise that allows us to uncover the key factors of growth in China during and after the Mao era," stated Aleh Tsyvinski, a professor of economics at Yale and a co-author of the report.

"The main point of our findings is that, contrary to common misconceptions, productivity growth under Mao, particularly in the non-agricultural sector, was actually pretty good."

The paper, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, uses the method of wedge accounting, which breaks the economy down into a number of parts, such as different measures of productivity and demographics.

Charting China’s economic growth from 2012 to 2050 under the current post-1978 reforms, which began shortly after Mao’s death, "China's economy can continue growing at 7-8 percent per year for another 10 to 15 years”, the authors argue.

But if the Mao-era policies were to return, an initial GDP growth slowdown, would actually speed up between 2036 and 2050.

Still, the authors stress that the trends predicted are not entirely guaranteed.

However, the study is being described as significant in that it subverts neoclassical economists’ line of reason, casting the Mao-era as one of financial catastrophe.

Mao’s legacy continues to resonate in China today.

A 2013 Global Times poll revealed that more than 85 percent of respondents see the merits of the communist leader as greatly outweighing his mistakes, with over 90 percent of respondents expressing reverence or respect to Mao.
China?s GDP Would Grow Faster Under Mao-Era Policies: Study | News | teleSUR English

:worship:
 
#96 · (Edited)
:lol: You can't really believe this?

The rise of China happened only because China used the liberal post WW2 US dominated system of free trade and rules. So they opened for foreign money while retaining a closed political system in the country, which is quite a feat. But without the capitalist global system China today would be a poor backward society. And their success is only measured by the extent they opened to foreign trade. No foreign investment and exports = no Chinese growth.

Socialism is the exact opposite of economy. It works like this: let's nationalize what exists and share it evenly. This is a picture of wealth as a zero sum game. It is basically theft. Of course in the long run it will stifle initiative, incentives and individualism and create an elite that doesn't want and doesn't know how to do anything except retaining power and suppressing dissent. And even when a change comes, years of mismanagement leave the country with crippled population in terms of deciding what to do and how to do it, so they end up with a new oligarchy. This is a vicious circle for nations that spend longer periods of time in collectivism without prior tradition of economic freedom and it takes long time. It is not like the Netherlands with 500 years of free trade :D And China actually has a truly great tradition of free trade, their only fault was the inability to cope with the western militarism and imperialism in the 19th century. They traditionally did not interfere in matters of their trade partners. This time they will probably not repeat the same mistake.

Free economy is not a zero sum game, it is focused on new values, trial and error, basically on continuous changes and problem solving. As the wealth increases there is more space to deal with social issues. This surplus also gives people more time, since most of them don't have to dedicate their entire time to making the ends meet like in socialism, so they can even produce art and actually live of it, or even spend time on the internet glorifying oppressive monstrosities like communism.
 
#124 · (Edited)
Chris, I am not sure whether you are just trolling or not. The paragraph you quoted, much biased as it is, tells us everything we need to know. There are two Koreas, one people, where one is a global economic powerhouse and the other is basically a neofascist hereditary monarchy with starved enslaved subjects. It is not even a communist country anymore, it is an abomination. We can talk about the USA whatever we want but it is enough just to look and compare the 'occupied South' and 'free, independent North'.

btw, no one is particularly in love with Americans there, no one in the region, including South Korea and Japan. No real sympathy and loyalty there. But they should absolutely love the US when they see North Korea.
 
#125 ·
You missed the point. It explains why the South is an economic powerhouse, their economy was artificially upgraded with aid and profited from imperialist warfare because the US didn't want the DPRK to outshine them. How is this a success of the system? If I give a broke man €100, does that provide evidence for that man's success? South Korea's success is built upon that which every successful capitalist country is built upon: theft, slavery, war and genocide. Initially the DPRK was a lot more successful, while being a lot more self-sufficient.
 
#128 ·
Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.

The situation prevailing in an economy based on the private ownership of capital is thus characterized by two main principles: first, means of production (capital) are privately owned and the owners dispose of them as they see fit; second, the labor contract is free. Of course, there is no such thing as a pure capitalist society in this sense. In particular, it should be noted that the workers, through long and bitter political struggles, have succeeded in securing a somewhat improved form of the “free labor contract” for certain categories of workers. But taken as a whole, the present day economy does not differ much from “pure” capitalism.

Production is carried on for profit, not for use. There is no provision that all those able and willing to work will always be in a position to find employment; an “army of unemployed” almost always exists. The worker is constantly in fear of losing his job. Since unemployed and poorly paid workers do not provide a profitable market, the production of consumers’ goods is restricted, and great hardship is the consequence. Technological progress frequently results in more unemployment rather than in an easing of the burden of work for all. The profit motive, in conjunction with competition among capitalists, is responsible for an instability in the accumulation and utilization of capital which leads to increasingly severe depressions. Unlimited competition leads to a huge waste of labor, and to that crippling of the social consciousness of individuals which I mentioned before.

This crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future career.

I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child. The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society.
Albert Einstein - Why Socialism?

https://monthlyreview.org/2009/05/01/why-socialism/
 
#130 ·
The DPRK does not face "empty" threats. This country was bombed to shit by American, British and Japanese imperialists in the 1950s — it is amazing that the DPRK managed to survive that onslaught. Their resilience is truly admirable. They know more than most how menacing liberal-bourgeois fuckers are. I'm very, very pleased that they have nuclear weapons and that they continue to developed refined weapons to defend themselves from predatory international capital.
 
#136 ·
 
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