International pondering

[Eamonn]

The day before Thanksgiving my oldies radio station stopped playing oldies and started playing Christmas music. After a day or so I'd had enough and changed stations, tuning into the BBC World Service.

So for 37 minutes each day I'm exposed to what's happening in the world.

This has at times got my little gray cells working and set me to some international pondering.

Iran:

I don't think that there is any getting away from it, Iran is a big pain in the neck.

What I fail to see or understand is what Iran really wants? What's their end game?

The Euro.

I posted some little time back, after returning from Ireland that I thought the Euro was in trouble and was just a bad idea.

Seems like there are a lot of German folks who are thinking the same way.

I think the Euro is doomed. Only thing is I'm not sure how long it will take till Europe sees it that way.

Greece.

Boy oh boy what a mess! How about we all agree to allow Greece to become the permanent home of the summer Olympics and help them out a bit?

China.

Not sure how the USA can make such a big fuss of the Chinese Vice President,while knowing the record they have abusing everything from their own people to the planet and the unfair trading practices that they have.

Ea.

[Kahuna]

Iran: They want either world Islamic domination or the Islamic equivalent of the End Times/Book of Revelation. 12th Imam stuff.

 

China: We owe them our souls. What else can we do?

 

Greece and Euro: Just hang on. We're going to end up just like those guys.

[perdidochas]

In terms of Greece and the Olympics, from what I've been hearing, the Olympic games are part of the reason for the crisis. They spent way too much money on it, and didn't recoop much of it.

[packsaddle]

Another view of Iran is just that they might like to pursue for themselves, whatever path and technology they choose, without meddling from everyone else. After all, they exist in an environment in which their neighbor bordering immediately to the west was invaded and occupied by a superpower, hostile to them. And their neighbor bordering immediately to the east was also invaded and is still occupied by that same hostile superpower. Could it be that they have reason to feel just a bit defensive?

[Cambridgeskip]

I think Iran will end up with a nuclear bomb and like the rest of us who have spent billions on it will find it's utterly useless and that the money could have been spent better elsewhere. I mean honestly, in what circumstances are they actually going to use it? Doing so would mean immediate and utter anialation at the hands of the USA. They may be very conservative and ultra Islamic but even then I don't think anyone is daft enough to actually push the button.

 

The Euro, I think, will survive but in a stripped down form, probably consisting of Germany, France and the BeNeLux countries. Germany's underlying economy is remarkably resiliant. Unlike the rest of the western world they are still fundamentally based on manufacturing. They make stuff that people want and need and export it. At the end of the day people need steel far more than they need insurance derivatives.

 

China - potentially the biggest economy ever if they play their cards right. 20% of world population, tons of natural resources. One day they will be the biggest kid on the block. The USA will become to China what the UK is to the USA now ie a significant player but forever playing second fiddle and keeping it's seat at the top table by keeping the new guy sweet. It will be a few decades yet, a country the size of China has quite some inertia to over come but it will happen before I plan on meeting my maker I'm convinced of it.

[BS-87]

packsaddle is quite obviously in the "blame America first" crowd.

 

Why do you hate America so much packsaddle? Don't you realize that any attempt at trying to understand how the enemy psychopaths view the situation is treason?

 

What's the point of having any power if you can't lord it over the rest of the world and use it to excuse hypocrisy and punish the victims of your actions for not being grateful that you graced them with your beatdown in the first place?

 

Somebody beat the drums of war louder to drown out packsaddle the apologist.

[Eamonn]

Cambridgeskip

From what the good people on the BBC World Service seem to be saying, the Germans feel that they really shouldn't be bailing everyone else out and everyone else feels that the Germans are a bunch of arrogant toe-rags.

The present situation is not doing anything for European harmony.

While all eyes are on China, India is doing what?

Ea.

[Trevorum]

500 years from now, we'll look back on all this and laugh.

 

(Remember the Armada and The Inquisition? What a riot!)

 

[packsaddle]

I think Ron Paul is correct about some things. His approach to Iran is one example. I doubt that he hates America...I know I don't.

[BS-87]

That's the thing packsaddle.

 

As you start to see that self-determination, the golden rule, and responsibility for one's own actions make sense on a global scale, you realize that those principles should be rigidly applied in all aspects of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

 

You're on a slippery slope packsaddle. Someday you might find that you're one of us Paulbots.

[packsaddle]

I think of them more as 'Paulistas' mostly because of the obvious Marxist sympathies.

[CalicoPenn]

"Paulbots", "Paulistas". I can't help but think of another personality driven political cult - the Birchers.

 

Iran? I believe they are trying to become the Middle East superpower. They poke at Israel because they think it makes them look stronger than the true Middle East powers like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and the Arab League which generally is at peace with Israel most of the time. They sabre rattle against the US because that was a successful strategy of the Soviet Union back in the day so they think that will work now. I think they're also trying to show that they're independent of Russia and China when many perceive them as easily swayed by those countries. Or we can see them in an irrational light, like BS-87 does (uness he's kidding - and I honestly doubt that) but that doesn't actually lead to anything but lunacy.

 

Greek? About 487 billion in debt. They borrowed heavily for the Olympics, and because they couldn't get their act together enough to prevent the wide=-spread corruption amongst the political class and tax cheating amongst the people. Greece is what you get when you get when you lower taxes and cut spending without regard to whether it's harmful or not - in other words, it's the very picture of what this country will look like if the tea party and neocons are successful. Let's just declare War on Greece, spend 487 billion in that war in one year by paying off their debt, without losing a single person in combat, then seize the 487 billion from the folks we paid off in order to pay for the war debt.

 

The Euro? I agree - it's doomed - and always has been. The European Union is an attempt to turn Europe into the United States of America by turning the countries of Europe into defacto states of a central government. The thing is, the US works because the original states agreed in the beginning to create a union with a division of powers between the federal government and the state government, and subsequent states voluntarily came into that model whereas the European Union consists of a number of countries that retain their individual identity in everything they do, including defense and general welfare, except for an allegedly consolidated currency that hasn't served to actually consolidate an economy of Europe. Everytime the European Union makes new rules governing things like cheese, fruit, wine, etc., they lose that much more support. I think that house of cards will collapse within the next 20 years.

 

China? China needs us as much as we borrow from them - they borrow from us to prop up and stabilize their own economy - they can't afford to demand repayment of our debt to them - and if we were to decide to just pay them, it would send their economy into an inflationary death spiral.

 

While the right wingers get their panties in a twist over North Korea and Iran, serious people worry more about a conflict between India and Pakistan, a much greater threat.

[BS-87]

Or we can see them in an irrational light, like BS-87 does (uness he's kidding - and I honestly doubt that)

 

What part of the post on Iran lends you to believe I actually think Iran is a plausible threat to the United States?

 

It was probably the first line.

 

Snooty liberals tend to dismiss things they don't agree with after they read the first line because they don't believe someone who disagrees with them could ever bring about a valid point.

 

That arrogance and dismissive attitude gets a lot of folks on the left and right in a lot of trouble.

 

I think we agree on more than we disagree on Calico, but the fact that I'm a right-wing libertarian Tea Party Paulbot would forbid you from ever acknowledging that.

 

 

[Cambridgeskip]

CalicoPenn - correct me if I am wrong but I am going to guess that you get most of your information regardimng the EU from the English speaking European (ie British) press eg The Times, The Daily Mail et al. Those elements of the media are incredibly biased and anti EU and try to make out that the UK are some kind of super power like we were a hundred years ago. And frankly they print nonsense.

 

What you write has some element of truth. I don't think the EU and the Euro can survive in its current diverse form because the likes of Greece are too different to Germany. But equally when you say the EU produces rules about fruit and cheese then you write nonsense. There are certain rules. eg certain foods have to be produced in certain regions but please don't tell me you believe nonsense that gets printed about bannanas having to be a certain length or similar. It's wrong. It's lies. It doesn't exist. Alas many of my country men believe such rules exist simply because we have gutter press like the Daily Mail.

[Eamonn]

"because we have gutter press like the Daily Mail."

No!

When we want a true unbiased report we read the Sun, least ways we do now that the News Of The World is no more.

Nothing beats a good hacked news story.