Generational Dynamics World View

[David Horn]

(07-03-2018, 05:03 PM)John J. Xenakis Wrote:

(07-03-2018, 03:42 PM)David Horn Wrote: Whatever you're using to post, it sucks.  I haven't dealt with the hard per-line character limit in 20 years!

Well, it's a generational thing.  You kids use the new-fangled long lines, but I prefer the old-fashioned way, sticking to the 72 characters per line of text (to the left of the 8-digit sequence number) on IBM punch cards.

John, you are exactly one year my senior, to the day. How does that make me a 'kid'?

John X Wrote:

David H Wrote:Well, you can certainly hold a grudge if you want to look back 50 years.  Just fyi: most of that was political theater.

Really? Were Hitler's concentration camps just political theatre too?  You're an idiot.

I think Hitler was bit farther back than 50 years. You might look at what I write, not what you wish I had written.

John X Wrote:

David H Wrote:Since I've never been fond of Chavez either, and thought Stalin and Mao were as despicable as you do, what's your beef here?  You can't just assign political positions to others because it's convenient for you.

Well, I did assume that you're a left-winger.  Maybe you should drop the left-wing political theatre and start supporting MAGA.

I don't support authoritarians of any stripe -- particularly American ones.

John X Wrote:

David H Wrote:He's going after Merkel as hard as he can, and he's insulted just about every ally we have in Europe and the Far East.  Of course, he loves the Saudis, Erdogan and Duterte -- to say nothing of Putin.  He's even friendly with Kim Jong-un, for God's sake!

Merkel?  You love Merkel?

• Is she the one that just agreed to border migrant camps and fences -- just like Trump wants on our border?  Is that the one you mean?
  
  
• Or do you mean the Merkel who lectures everyone about climate change to fool left wing useful idiots, while Germany's CO2 emissions keep increasing, and the 2020 goals are a joke?
  
  
• Are you referring to Germany, the "dieselgate" country that sold emissions detection defeat devices for over ten years so that, once again, Germany could make fools out of useful idiot climate change activists?  Is that the Germany that you mean?  (I won't include you among the useful idiot climate change activists, since I don't want to "assign" to you the view that you support the climate change treaty nonsense.  It's all political theatre and a financial scam.)
  
  
• Or maybe you mean the Germany with the rising AfD neo-nazi party? Is it that Germany you're so in love with?
  
  
• Or do you mean the Germany that charges 10 times as much in tariffs for American imports as America charges for German imports,
  but still refuses to remove all tariffs as Trump suggested?  Is that the one you mean?
  

Which of those Germanies do you find so exciting that you've fallen in love with them?

Merkel and Germany are far from perfect, but they are allies of long standing. Putin and Russia, on the other hand, have no interest in anything other than hegemony, which they are ill equipped to manage. Assume their management style will involve their military, since they have nothing else to offer. Are you OK with Cold War 2.0?

John X Wrote:I'll go back and answer one more of your questions, the one about why Trump is friendly with Kim Jong-un.  Donald Trump is well aware that we're headed for war with China (Steve Bannon is an expert on Generational Dynamics), and is well aware that Kim Jong-un building an arsenal of nuclear weapons pointing at the United States -- leading to World War.  Trump is aware of all this, and by befriending Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un, he's desperately trying to prevent a world war, and befriending these two maniacs is a small price to pay to prevent a world war.  Trump is aware of the Generational Dynamics predictions, but like many people (probably including yourself), he probably believes the predictions can be prevented -- which they can't.  World war is coming with 100% certainty, but I can't blame Trump for trying the impossible - to prevent it.

As I've written in the past, everything that Trump does makes sense to me.  That doesn't mean he doesn't make mistakes, but it makes sense.

I have to wonder whether you're serious or just pulling my leg. What possible benefit is the ad hoc Trumpist foreign policy to the US or the world at large? We need leverage with the DPRK, and the only leverage available is Chin. Trump's solution: start at a trade war with them, and make it bitter. Of course, we can lean on our allies, except we're doing the exact same thing with all of them. Add-in the coziness with dictators in general and whole thing stinks to high heaven.

Come on John. We don't agree on much, but this is lunacy!