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Thread: RUSSIA - Will it be a superpower again?

  1. #31
    Quote Originally Posted by Two Utes View Post
    Use a few different words and you could be talking about the 60s and 70s.


    Can you imagine if we resurrected old old folks and told them we don't have a problem with starvation in this country or not enough food. We have an "epidemic" problem because people are too fat.
    From a material standpoint, today's homeless people are in better shape than the pioneers were. They get tons of hand-me-down clothes, nobody starves to death, there's no necessary risk for dying from the elements, etc. We have plenty of "urban campers" in the foothills above the U and near the Capitol on Victory Road, but they could be staying in shelters. I've seen some of their camps above the U - really good hardwaret, they have better equipment to deal with the winter than the Martin Handcart company had, without any doubt.

    But from a psychological / social esteem standpoint, who would compare today's homeless with the Mormon pioneers who settled Utah? Frankly, we all know the plight of the homeless is pretty bleak. There are a few who prefer that "lifestyle", but most are really, really hurting, it's not a situation anyone would trade places for.

    My point is we're finding that "poverty" is really a psycho-social phenomenon, very tough personal circumstances that historically led to early deaths, abandonment, clinging to a tough existence, children going to bed hungry, etc.

    So, why all the "despair" the D-News article talks about? Is it Hollywood's fault? Lack of school prayer? We never gave freed slaves "40 acres and a mule"? By any number of objective surveys, many Americans are not very happy people, compared to materially far more impoverished people in many third world nations.

    I have some theories, but it's a complicated question that probably defies any single theoretical explanation.

  2. #32
    Sam the Sheepdog LA Ute's Avatar
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    Not sure this sort of behavior helps Russia become a superpower. It tends instead to make Russia look more like a rogue state.

    Haley: 'Clarity and Undeniability' of UK Investigation Pinpointing Russian Poisoners 'Amazing'

    https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politic...oners-amazing/

    "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
    --Antoine de Saint-Exupery

    "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
    --Yeats

    “True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”

    --John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell

  3. #33
    Quote Originally Posted by LA Ute View Post
    Not sure this sort of behavior helps Russia become a superpower. It tends instead to make Russia look more like a rogue state.

    Haley: 'Clarity and Undeniability' of UK Investigation Pinpointing Russian Poisoners 'Amazing'

    https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politic...oners-amazing/
    This is Haley's way of contradicting / gently nudging aside Trump's thoughts/impulses regarding Putin & Russia, generally consistent with the accounts of aides hiding papers or not arranging meetings... essentially less dramatic measures of defiance than the Op-Ed piece.

    The transcript of the phone call between Woodward and Trump, when Kellyanne walks in was revealing in the same way Omarosa's phone call with Trump the day after she was fired pulled away the veneer. (In Woodward's recorded call - which he announced he was doing - it was an awkward situation where Woodward tells Trump Kellyanne was one he worked with to get an interview with DJT, and when asked on speaker phone, Kellyanne sort of dances around the topic and says she doesn't have the authority to set up meetings, to which Trump apparently agrees. Trump's basic reaction to Woodward: "Well, anyway...")

    Putin sought to use Trump as a loud mouthpiece to disrupt the US, damage the Western Alliance and be a pro-Russia advocate - which he's done the best job he's capable of - but besides social media destabilization campaigns in Europe, Putin's arsenal of weapons to diminish adversaries without resorting to military action is dissolving, especially as his primary lever, Trump, is having his own authority dismantled by insiders revealing what the "Wizard of Oz White House" is really like.

    The good news in the cumulative message of Wolff/Omarosa/Woodword and now "Anonymous" is it reassures the nation that adults are steering the ship, keeping the captain from the actual buttons that launch nuclear weapons.

    Trump is the same ole Trump on the campaign trail - except maybe struggling with the pronunciation of words - but the crowds are more subdued, as the reality of the Wizard of Oz act is more widely understood and people realize he's more just a symbol, not a functioning Executive.
    Last edited by Ma'ake; 09-08-2018 at 08:10 AM.

  4. #34
    Sam the Sheepdog LA Ute's Avatar
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    Interesting. I had no idea.

    Ukraine’s Spiritual Split From Russia Could Trigger a Global Schism

    https://www.theatlantic.com/internat...russia/571333/

    “This is a victory of good over evil, light over darkness.” That’s how Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko described the announcement Thursday that the Orthodox Church’s Istanbul-based leader, Patriarch Bartholomew, will grant Ukraine’s Church independence from Russia.

    "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
    --Antoine de Saint-Exupery

    "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
    --Yeats

    “True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”

    --John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell

  5. #35
    Twitter released a treasure trove of data regarding Russian & Iranian efforts to sway public opinion, or to just sow overall dissension. https://www.politico.com/story/2018/...rations-910005

    The Russians have been working on their "asymmetric warfare" game for awhile and have gotten quite good at it. The JAMA article detailing some of their early attempts to stir up emotion on both sides of the immunization debate was revealing. Iran appears to be far more clumsy, at this point.

    One thing is clear: the resources needed to politically destabilize a nation using troll bots - and probably AI in the future - is a lot cheaper than buying F-35 fighters.

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