COVID-19 is the climax to this 4T

[pbrower2a]

(04-22-2020, 10:53 AM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(04-15-2020, 03:58 AM)Isoko Wrote: Eric, Eric, Eric,

You have a good heart but you are a naive optimist. You dream the dreams but cannot see the reality. I would be happy to engage you in a more spiritual debate at some point but I think for the sake of the forum I'll keep this to a private discussion.

Anyway, onto the discussion.

The current elites love war just as much as the elites of 1914. It is a good money maker for them and helps to reduce the population as they see fit. That is what power does. People at the top do not care but for their own wealth and are quite sociopathic about it too. Like I said before, they cannot have a war right now because of WMDs but if they did not exist, I could guarantee you we would have had a great war over Crimea by now or something major with Iran.

As for South Africa, where did I say I support apartheid? On the whole I am actually anti apartheid and pro Mandela. The reason? Because that whole system could not work and was oppressing people. When you have 20 percent ruling over the other 80, inevitably such a house cannot stand. I do not at all support the former government and I will say they were responsible very much for South Africa's problems.

However, America going further to the left, to the blue, will just destroy it as much as right wing apartheid did to South Africa. Reason? Because first of all, you have a declining economic base in America. You have no major manufacturing or agriculture of the future to employ the largest mass of humanity. Coming automation is going to make labour intensive jobs redundant.

You talk about programs to help people. Big question? Where is the money going to come from? You can keep printing all you want but eventually that dollar note is going to become worthless. Russia and China are going to try to get the dollar replaced as the world reserve currency in 10 years and when that happens, America is pretty much finished. More than likely there will be a default.

Then what are you gonna do? Millions of poor and uneducated people, mostly of immigrant origin, with no jobs, no access to basic services and no money? It's a huge disaster waiting to happen and will turn America into the next SA or Brazil.

Honestly, I just cannot see a way to turn around America at this point. You guys are going to get your USSR moment either this decade or a couple of decades from now. Hence why I believe the 4T is starting now.

That's exactly why we need to go blue, or better yet green.

Immigrants bring in more consumers as well as workers and skilled entreprenuers. Prudent immigration reform was proposed by moderate center-right Senators and was shot down by our looney republican right-wing Tea Party fanatic congress. It needs to be proposed and passed again.

Only a restored social safety net can work now, financed by the owners who have set up automation. Robots and high tech should be for the benefit of all, not just the owners as is the case now. They have no right to hog all the profits. Blue will make them pay taxes to support these programs. Reaganomics is not practical in the age of greater automation, although it was never practical at all anyway. Lower taxes and lax regulations on big companies and rich people just create a polluted banana republic and a horrible world climate. It is not workable; trickle-down does not trickle. We need social welfare programs and government investments in people and infrastructure, paid for by the wealthy and all of us.

I don't like debt either. But the USA is bankrupt beyond repair already, thanks to our right-wing governments that conducted huge wars and passed huge tax cuts. The only way to lower the debt is to raise taxes hugely on the wealthier people and somewhat on everybody. But there are limits to that approach too, practically speaking. No, I'm afraid that until the USA completely collapses, we are stuck with endless debt. Meanwhile we have to conduct our economy in the way that benefits everyone, not just a few. THAT is true populism.

Quote:As for Russia, actually Russia is playing the game correctly. The only reason people are protesting is down to they want more money. That's it. If Putin puts more money into the system, the people will be content with Putinism. No one per se actually is against Putinism, just they want more cash. Which is usually the case for Russia. Social agendas does not take a priority.

Even still, Russia has a great destiny ahead of her. When America does decline, Russia will move in to become the new policeman of Europe. The Europeans are now starting to do more business with Russia then America. Macron pretty much proved this when he called Putin first rather then Trump over the Soleimani affair. Same with Italy wanting great relations with Russia.

There is many potentials for Russia. She has problems but much great potential if she deals with those problems. If they get the birth rate sorted out, economise Siberia, taking a more leading role in Europe, Russia could potentially end up a superpower in the late 21st or 22nd century. Depends on how she plays her cards and who leads. Yes, yes I know you will disagree and question it but I'm just offering an opinion.

I'm happy living in Russia though. It's safe, the cities are mostly clean and I think the government is doing a better job of handling 21st century problems then the West so I cannot complain. I'd rather live here then in America.

Also Eric, just to let you know, I'm not actually far right or alt right, in case you are wondering. I'm more centre right with a more Russian/European point of view which to the American eye is very right wing but here is perfectly normal.

Russia is pathetic. It's people never have anything, and it's dependent on a declining and deadly resource. It is boring as hell, and has no freedom. Its tyrannical owner Putin kills people at will. Putin is playing foreign affairs well, but his policy is genocidal murder, and he's taking advantage of a hesitant and war-weary USA. That will not work in the long run. Putin has set himself up in power for life, and I don't know when it's people will rise up again. I guess about 80-plus years after 1990 when the cycle comes around again. And this movement will probably fail, as revolution always does there. The arc of history is especially long in Russia, longer than almost anywhere else, but I expect that sometime in the distant future it will bend towards justice there too. Meanwhile, the only workable policy toward Russia is to keep it in bounds.

It is up to the USA in the 2020s to get back on the right path again, if it ever hopes to prosper in the future. I predict that it will, but no-one really knows. It must dump the Republicans totally, and for good, if it has any hopes after 40 years of decline under them. It will be up to the Millennial Generation to empower the reforms needed.

Russia has made great achievements in science, mathematics, technology, linguistics,  music, literature, architecture, and in a few windows of opportunity (when censorship wasn't too bad) art. The Stanislavsky school of acting is the source of method acting that has come to dominate in American cinema.   What Russia has been bad at is commerce (it has rarely been truly capitalist) and politics. 

Of course the large number of achievements reflects to some extent (1) that there are so many Russians, and (2) Russia has so many Jews. Jews as a group do much well. 

I still tend to think that a Time of Troubles (World War I, the Russian Civil War, forced collectivization of the economy, Stalin's Great Purge, and finally the Great Patriotic War is itself an extreme Crisis protracted in length.Russia is not out of the Crisis of 2020... does anyone think Russia exempt from the COVID-19 plague?