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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2016 10:27:33 GMT -4
It's really entertaining listening to you talk politics, Rocky Because you haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about I know, right? It's like reading something Ben Carson would say! For the record, I thought ever candidate was shit this year |
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Post by Bannanachair on Oct 22, 2016 10:30:27 GMT -4
I know, right? It's like reading something Ben Carson would say! For the record, I thought ever candidate was shit this year There were some good ones on both sides of the aisle; it's just that most of them were ignored by the majority of people. I'd be a big fan of, say, a Jeb Bush vs Martin O'Malley race. Neither of them really stood much of a chance (they got about 1% of their respective parties support each) but by the standards of politicians there are people much worse than the moderates that were largely ignored. |
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Post by The Villa Strangiato on Oct 22, 2016 10:34:02 GMT -4
For the record, I thought ever candidate was shit this year There were some good ones on both sides of the aisle; it's just that most of them were ignored by the majority of people. I'd be a big fan of, say, a Jeb Bush vs Martin O'Malley race. Neither of them really stood much of a chance (they got about 1% of their respective parties support each) but by the standards of politicians there are people much worse than the moderates that were largely ignored. A lot of people I know really liked Kasich, and to some extent I do. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2016 10:34:18 GMT -4
Understandable, but once again, it scares me that the idea of a no-fly zone over Syria ever went through her head in the first place Even if she does threaten to go through with it and somehow congress backs her the same thing that saved us time and time again in the 20th century I trust will save us once more - mutually assured destruction. Here's the scenario as it would likely play out The no fly-zone is enacted in Syria, a hot-bed proxy war between Russia and the US A Russian plane flies over the no-fly zone, either accidentally or intentionally The plane get's shot down, which causes an international incident Russia has grounds to declare war, and likely do Everyone is fucked The problem we're facing with Russia is the same one that we faced back with the USSR. A rapidly declining Russia is being backed into a corner, and it's hard to predict what a wounded animal will do once it's cornered. If we can survive the second Cold War until China surpasses Russia in guns, then they loose they're only ally and only trade partner, and then they'll collapse completely. Until then, it's pretty spooky |
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Post by Bannanachair on Oct 22, 2016 10:35:24 GMT -4
There were some good ones on both sides of the aisle; it's just that most of them were ignored by the majority of people. I'd be a big fan of, say, a Jeb Bush vs Martin O'Malley race. Neither of them really stood much of a chance (they got about 1% of their respective parties support each) but by the standards of politicians there are people much worse than the moderates that were largely ignored. A lot of people I know really liked Kasich, and to some extent I do. Yeah, Kasich's not bad (compared to what we got). He's far from my first choice but I reckon he'd be significantly better than the options we're faced with now. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2016 10:37:53 GMT -4
There were some good ones on both sides of the aisle; it's just that most of them were ignored by the majority of people. I'd be a big fan of, say, a Jeb Bush vs Martin O'Malley race. Neither of them really stood much of a chance (they got about 1% of their respective parties support each) but by the standards of politicians there are people much worse than the moderates that were largely ignored. A lot of people I know really liked Kasich, and to some extent I do. Kasich was pretty alright, but I'm a wee bit biased because I live in Ohio |
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Post by Bannanachair on Oct 22, 2016 10:38:51 GMT -4
Even if she does threaten to go through with it and somehow congress backs her the same thing that saved us time and time again in the 20th century I trust will save us once more - mutually assured destruction. Here's the scenario as it would likely play out The no fly-zone is enacted in Syria, a hot-bed proxy war between Russia and the US A Russian plane flies over the no-fly zone, either accidentally or intentionally The plane get's shot down, which causes an international incident Russia has grounds to declare war, and likely do Everyone is fucked The problem we're facing with Russia is the same one that we faced back with the USSR. A rapidly declining Russia is being backed into a corner, and it's hard to predict what a wounded animal will do once it's cornered. If we can survive the second Cold War until China surpasses Russia in guns, then they'll loose they're only ally and only trade partner, and they'll collapse completely. Until then, it's pretty spooky Yeah, Russia's a dying state, but there's a difference between your country and government collapsing and all of the people in all of your major cities dying and Putin knows that. In that scenario I think that Putin knows what a USA-Russia war would do, he'd send over some ridiculous demands to America like what Austria did to Serbia in 1914 and America would have to accept those demands because America would have learned from history. Alternately, in that scenario, Russia could take that as an opportunity to destabilize America's position in global politics by offering America a chance to stand before the international courts. You have to take into consideration that these people have better temperaments than Trump and Kim Jong Un. Edit: The demands wouldn't be exactly like the ones sent by Austria to Serbia in 1914; that was just the first example that came to mind. The situation that caused the demands is clearly different and the desired outcome is the exact opposite (Austria wanted a casus belli to conquer Serbia, Russia in this situation wants reparations without war), but the nature of the demands (money to be sent, Russian officials involved in the investigation, etc.) would be largely similar. |
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Post by The Villa Strangiato on Oct 22, 2016 10:40:24 GMT -4
A lot of people I know really liked Kasich, and to some extent I do. Kasich was pretty alright, but I'm a wee bit biased because I live in Ohio O-hio! |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2016 10:41:48 GMT -4
Here's the scenario as it would likely play out The no fly-zone is enacted in Syria, a hot-bed proxy war between Russia and the US A Russian plane flies over the no-fly zone, either accidentally or intentionally The plane get's shot down, which causes an international incident Russia has grounds to declare war, and likely do Everyone is fucked The problem we're facing with Russia is the same one that we faced back with the USSR. A rapidly declining Russia is being backed into a corner, and it's hard to predict what a wounded animal will do once it's cornered. If we can survive the second Cold War until China surpasses Russia in guns, then they'll loose they're only ally and only trade partner, and they'll collapse completely. Until then, it's pretty spooky Yeah, Russia's a dying state, but there's a difference between your country and government collapsing and all of the people in all of your major cities dying and Putin knows that. In that scenario I think that Putin knows what a USA-Russia war would do, he'd send over some ridiculous demands to America like what Austria did to Serbia in 1914 and America would have to accept those demands because America would have learned from history. Alternately, in that scenario, Russia could take that as an opportunity to destabilize America's position in global politics by offering America a chance to stand before the international courts. You have to take into consideration that these people have better temperaments than Trump and Kim Jong Un. I'd agree with you if Putin weren't the one in charge. He's smart, but he's also fucking crazy, and thus it's hard to predict what he'll do. |
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Post by Bannanachair on Oct 22, 2016 10:43:17 GMT -4
Yeah, Russia's a dying state, but there's a difference between your country and government collapsing and all of the people in all of your major cities dying and Putin knows that. In that scenario I think that Putin knows what a USA-Russia war would do, he'd send over some ridiculous demands to America like what Austria did to Serbia in 1914 and America would have to accept those demands because America would have learned from history. Alternately, in that scenario, Russia could take that as an opportunity to destabilize America's position in global politics by offering America a chance to stand before the international courts. You have to take into consideration that these people have better temperaments than Trump and Kim Jong Un. I'd agree with you if Putin weren't the one in charge. He's smart, but he's also fucking crazy, and thus it's hard to predict what he'll do. You're thinking of those images of bare-chested Putin riding horses and whatnot, right? Those serve a valuable political purpose in Russia as explained by this video by Vox: The point is that even Putin's oddities are carefully calculated acts of political mastery. |
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Post by The Villa Strangiato on Oct 22, 2016 10:56:39 GMT -4
I'd agree with you if Putin weren't the one in charge. He's smart, but he's also fucking crazy, and thus it's hard to predict what he'll do. You're thinking of those images of bare-chested Putin riding horses and whatnot, right? Those serve a valuable political purpose in Russia as explained by this video by Vox: The point is that even Putin's oddities are carefully calculated acts of political mastery. If only Obama got the message. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2016 10:58:37 GMT -4
I'd agree with you if Putin weren't the one in charge. He's smart, but he's also fucking crazy, and thus it's hard to predict what he'll do. You're thinking of those images of bare-chested Putin riding horses and whatnot, right? That serves a valuable political purpose in Russia as explained by this video by Vox: The point is that even Putin's oddities are carefully calculated acts of political mastery. No, I'm thinking of how he silences dissenters, journalists, limits the Russian people's access to information, and has manipulated and outright done away with the system to keep himself in power He's crazy, and he's ruthless. I don't know how far he'd be willing to go if pushed Frankly, I'd feel much better about this whole thing if Putin weren't the one in power |
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Post by Bannanachair on Oct 22, 2016 11:12:00 GMT -4
You're thinking of those images of bare-chested Putin riding horses and whatnot, right? That serves a valuable political purpose in Russia as explained by this video by Vox: The point is that even Putin's oddities are carefully calculated acts of political mastery. No, I'm thinking of how he silences dissenters, journalists, limits the Russian people's access to information, and has manipulated and outright done away with the system to keep himself in power He's crazy, and he's ruthless. I don't know how far he'd be willing to go if pushed Frankly, I'd feel much better about this whole thing if Putin weren't the one in power Oh, that's just standard Russian government. Stalin did that and much, much worse and we're all here today. Speculating about the inner workings of Putin's head would be pointless and tangential - I'll take the slightly more optimistic route of Putin thinking that his tyranny is necessary to keep the otherwise utterly ineffective Russian government from collapsing and him caring about his people and recognizing that the collapse of his country would result in the deaths and economic destruction of millions of Russians (that is, Putin remains in power because Putin must remain in power to keep the people safe) while you'll take the slightly more pessimistic route of Putin just being a complete power hungry sociopath with not a care in the world for anyone else. The truth is likely a combination of the two. Yes, it is a possibility that Hillary changes her mind on the fact that she's fine with changing her mind, goes ahead with the Syria no-fly zone, Putin somehow doesn't know about it, makes some bad calls and then ignores all common sense and doesn't opt for one of quite a number of alternatives to war, but that possibility seems so remote and distinct that it makes Lex Luthor's plan to get Batman and Superman to fight seem more realistic than this hypothetical fight between America and Russia. |
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Post by The Jiggler on Oct 22, 2016 11:13:54 GMT -4
The statement regarding Donald Trump's American-Mexican border wall is false. Economists, architects and civil engineers under Donald Trump's staffing predict that the Wall will cost $8 billion to $12 billion USD. On the contrary, the Interstate Highway System constructed during the Eisenhower administration cost the United States $425 billion USD in 1956, which is equivalent to $511 billion USD in 2015. When Donald Trump's Wall is compared to the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways project, it's only a fraction of the costs. And according to The Richest on their Top 10 List of Most Expensive US Construction Projects, projects #9, #7, and #1 are all more expensive that Donald Trump's Wall (with #1 being the Interstate Highway System). #9 on The Richest's list is the Big Dig, which was rerouting major Bostonian highways which cost the State Government $23.1 billion USD without the addition of the $400 million USD that had to pay in restitution when it ultimately failed. And even with that, NASA's official budget is $17.77 billion USD according to Penny4NASA.org, which is still larger than the cost it would take for Donald Trump's wall. In the 144th Congress (2015-2017), there are 44 Democrats as 54 Republicans with 2 minor parties also being represented which in total is 100 Congressmen in the Senate and 188 Democrats and 246 Republicans seated in the House of Representatives, which brings a total of 400 members (with one vacant seat term). So yes, the Republicans outweigh the Democrats on Capitol Hill but the Democratic party is still able to push their agenda every so often. But the probability of Hillary Clinton making any major changes to the United States is just a bit far-fetched due to the strong opposition she'll receive in Congress. |
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Post by Bannanachair on Oct 22, 2016 11:17:44 GMT -4
The statement regarding Donald Trump's American-Mexican border wall is false. Economists, architects and civil engineers under Donald Trump's staffing predict that the Wall will cost $8 billion to $12 billion USD. On the contrary, the Interstate Highway System constructed during the Eisenhower administration cost the United States $425 billion USD in 1956, which is equivalent to $511 billion USD in 2015. When Donald Trump's Wall is compared to the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways project, it's only a fraction of the costs. And according to The Richest on their Top 10 List of Most Expensive US Construction Projects, projects #9, #7, and #1 are all more expensive that Donald Trump's Wall (with #1 being the Interstate Highway System). #9 on The Richest's list is the Big Dig, which was rerouting major Bostonian highways which cost the State Government $23.1 billion USD without the addition of the $400 million USD that had to pay in restitution when it ultimately failed. And even with that, NASA's official budget is $17.77 billion USD according to Penny4NASA.org, which is still larger than the cost it would take for Donald Trump's wall. In the 144th Congress (2015-2017), there are 44 Democrats as 54 Republicans with 2 minor parties also being represented which in total is 100 Congressmen in the Senate and 188 Democrats and 246 Republicans seated in the House of Representatives, which brings a total of 400 members (with one vacant seat term). So yes, the Republicans outweigh the Democrats on Capitol Hill but the Democratic party is still able to push their agenda every so often. But the probability of Hillary Clinton making any major changes to the United States is just a bit far-fetched due to the strong opposition she'll receive in Congress. You're forgetting the cost of regular maintenance of a project that large (about two to three billion per year according to a John Oliver segment I saw a few months ago and I don't know if he cited his sources because I can't find it) and also the disastrous effects of his method of raising that money (really Donald, you want to set up a Tariff and think that that won't have negative effects on our economy?). |
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Post by The Jiggler on Oct 22, 2016 11:28:55 GMT -4
According to ARTBA (American Road & Transportation Builders Association), the maintenance in 2014 for the IHS was $40.9 billion. Furthering this, engineering consultant CDM Smith says that the cost of maintenance is growing exponentially every year due to the aging system. As of 2013, the Federal Highway Administration expect each state to spend $25 billion per year on upgrades, maintenance, expansion, and reconstruction of faulted highways. If you can't do some simple math, if every state spends $25 billion on highways, it's a total of $1.25 trillion in the pot to manage the highways.
In short, it's really fucking expensive.
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Post by Bannanachair on Oct 22, 2016 11:46:50 GMT -4
According to ARTBA (American Road & Transportation Builders Association), the maintenance in 2014 for the IHS was $40.9 billion. Furthering this, engineering consultant CDM Smith says that the cost of maintenance is growing exponentially every year due to the aging system. As of 2013, the Federal Highway Administration expect each state to spend $25 billion per year on upgrades, maintenance, expansion, and reconstruction of faulted highways. If you can't do some simple math, if every state spends $25 billion on highways, it's a total of $1.25 trillion in the pot to manage the highways. In short, it's really fucking expensive. The interstate highways were a mistake and America should have invested in railroads. One thing being bad isn't excused by another thing being worse, though - if that's the case murderers and rapists shouldn't be convicted because they haven't performed a genocide. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2016 11:53:52 GMT -4
No, I'm thinking of how he silences dissenters, journalists, limits the Russian people's access to information, and has manipulated and outright done away with the system to keep himself in power He's crazy, and he's ruthless. I don't know how far he'd be willing to go if pushed Frankly, I'd feel much better about this whole thing if Putin weren't the one in power Oh, that's just standard Russian government. Stalin did that and much, much worse and we're all here today. Speculating about the inner workings of Putin's head would be pointless and tangential - I'll take the slightly more optimistic route of Putin thinking that his tyranny is necessary to keep the otherwise utterly ineffective Russian government from collapsing and him caring about his people and recognizing that the collapse of his country would result in the deaths and economic destruction of millions of Russians (that is, Putin remains in power because Putin must remain in power to keep the people safe) while you'll take the slightly more pessimistic route of Putin just being a complete power hungry sociopath with not a care in the world for anyone else. The truth is likely a combination of the two. Yes, it is a possibility that Hillary changes her mind on the fact that she's fine with changing her mind, goes ahead with the Syria no-fly zone, Putin somehow doesn't know about it, makes some bad calls and then ignores all common sense and doesn't opt for one of quite a number of alternatives to war, but that possibility seems so remote and distinct that it makes Lex Luthor's plan to get Batman and Superman to fight seem more realistic than this hypothetical fight between America and Russia. Hence why I call this the second cold war. It'll likely play out exactly the same, with Russia collapsing in on itself and everything being fine, but the different players this time around make it a wee bit harder to call. |
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Post by The Jiggler on Oct 22, 2016 12:27:59 GMT -4
According to ARTBA (American Road & Transportation Builders Association), the maintenance in 2014 for the IHS was $40.9 billion. Furthering this, engineering consultant CDM Smith says that the cost of maintenance is growing exponentially every year due to the aging system. As of 2013, the Federal Highway Administration expect each state to spend $25 billion per year on upgrades, maintenance, expansion, and reconstruction of faulted highways. If you can't do some simple math, if every state spends $25 billion on highways, it's a total of $1.25 trillion in the pot to manage the highways. In short, it's really fucking expensive. The interstate highways were a mistake and America should have invested in railroads. One thing being bad isn't excused by another thing being worse, though - if that's the case murderers and rapists shouldn't be convicted because they haven't performed a genocide. Railroads would be worse, Tim. Not only would it take longer for trains to transport soldiers, logistics, ammunition, weaponry, and artillery but it'd also be more expensive when trying to modernize the infrastructure to keep up with nations like Japan and the United Arab Emirates. If you didn't know, the initial thought for the interstate highways was to execute swift transcontinental evacuations. This was why Eisenhower signed the act to allow the construction, in the case of an atomic attack which would enable hasty evacuations in key cities. |
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Post by Bannanachair on Oct 22, 2016 20:09:28 GMT -4
Oh, that's just standard Russian government. Stalin did that and much, much worse and we're all here today. Speculating about the inner workings of Putin's head would be pointless and tangential - I'll take the slightly more optimistic route of Putin thinking that his tyranny is necessary to keep the otherwise utterly ineffective Russian government from collapsing and him caring about his people and recognizing that the collapse of his country would result in the deaths and economic destruction of millions of Russians (that is, Putin remains in power because Putin must remain in power to keep the people safe) while you'll take the slightly more pessimistic route of Putin just being a complete power hungry sociopath with not a care in the world for anyone else. The truth is likely a combination of the two. Yes, it is a possibility that Hillary changes her mind on the fact that she's fine with changing her mind, goes ahead with the Syria no-fly zone, Putin somehow doesn't know about it, makes some bad calls and then ignores all common sense and doesn't opt for one of quite a number of alternatives to war, but that possibility seems so remote and distinct that it makes Lex Luthor's plan to get Batman and Superman to fight seem more realistic than this hypothetical fight between America and Russia. Hence why I call this the second cold war. It'll likely play out exactly the same, with Russia collapsing in on itself and everything being fine, but the different players this time around make it a wee bit harder to call. Yeah, I'll agree to calling it a second cold war, but this one, as with the last one, won't ever become a hot war. |
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Post by eloos on Oct 22, 2016 23:03:46 GMT -4
if trump becomes president, we'd at least have better memes
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Post by hygenisthygenist on Oct 25, 2016 19:18:47 GMT -4
I want robot for president
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Post by Deleted on Oct 25, 2016 19:20:45 GMT -4
I want robot for president You're a silly boy |
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Post by The Villa Strangiato on Oct 25, 2016 19:21:58 GMT -4
I want robot for president I have a feeling we explained why this was a bad idea |
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Post by LNG257 on Oct 25, 2016 19:35:19 GMT -4
I want robot for president I for one welcome our new robot overlords. |
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