Senate The US Politics discussion

I've watched the video. I'm a social gaullist (that's leaning left of what most of the Democrats are in the USA) and still largely concur with that person's observations as to where things would go, with the caveats that he dismisses the only two other countries capable of complete force projection (France and the UK), does not realize the losing side is likely to lose even more cohesion due to pressure of its farthest leaning elements attempting to take over, and does not account for the possibility of desperation going nuclear. But that's lack of knowledge, not ideological bias.

 

It's 14-minutes-long, it's bound to oversimplify and circle around several critical issues, does not have time to get in any kind of depth and thus has to stay in very general considerations, but the man does get to a lot of correct conclusions, even if sometimes for the wrong reasons (ie. there would be no protracted isolated city sieges possible, but because those would logistically untenable, not because people wouldn't be so worried about atrocities they'd easily surrender).

 

Can we do a race war next?

That should be fun!

 

Much of Europe is dependant on Russian gas, that's hardly unique to Germany. The Baltic states, Finland and Bulgaria get all their gas from Russia, Slovakia and Czechia between 80 and 90% of their gas, Poland, Slovenia, Hungary and Austria around 60%. Germany only follows at one level with Italy at about 35%, with France at about 20% and the UK at 15%. The only areas that pretty much get none at all, are the Scandinavian countries and Portugal+Spain.
In fact, it isn't even a one-way street, as Russia can't afford to cut the gas to Europe either, as there is no one else they could sell it to, and they desperately need the money from it. Oil and gas imports of this type have been around since the late 60 and early 70s for much of western Europe. The Soviets didn't dare to touch that part even when the relationship between them and NATO cooled down considerably.

This isn't exactly something that was caused by the move away from nuclear power, it has been that way for a long time. Gas picked up with the reduction of brown coal use. Brown coal output got cut in half between 1990 and 2000, mostly due to shutting down old GDR power plants that ran with brown coal, since then the output has stayed pretty much flat. At the same time, use of gas jumped up by 1/3, before staying roughly flat since then as well. Gas may have taken over some of the role of base-energy output from nuclear, but the total amount of gas used hasn't drastically increased. There has been an increase over the last few years, but the total amount still isn't bigger than in 2005 or 2010.

 

It isn't, indeed, a case of Russia being able to afford to turn off the tap if they want. It's a rather different issue, and the reason the direct shift away from nuclear power plays into it and makes Germany seriously dependant on that Russian gas isn't because Germany would suddenly be using much more Russian gas, it's a question of reducing their energy production capacity in ways that can't be 1:1 compensated with wind power (their major refocus).

Electricity production is a very dynamic and complex matter - very little of it is stored, the grid basically has to produce the energy needed on the grid when it is needed in the quantity it's needed. Germany has being moving away from nuclear and largely investing into wind, and this creates a problem with running the grid simply owing to the fact you can't adjust wind-based electricity production upwards in unfavorable conditions and have to make any necessary adjusments to production with other sources - most often, it will be conventional energy sources.

Gas isn't the most important conventional electricity source in Germany, by the way, but it's the one conventional energy source which is still seeing increases in capacity - it's where Germany are increasingly finding their adjustment margins. The additionnal gas has to come from somewhere - and it is scheduled to keep coming from Russia. Hence the second Baltic stream being slated to open in 2020, a year which will correspond with the end of wind-power tax inducements already predicted to result in serious loss of production of capacity in that sector as well, leaving conventional energies with even more of the burden of keeping the grid together.

Note, finally, that gas power provides direct energy production for industries, used for self-supply (off the grid), representing nearly a third of that particular type of energy's current use.

If you're interested in looking at what energy production in Germany looks like today, here's a very comprehensive facts-report on the topic.

 

Do the hoods of the KKK count or are those different from masks?

 

There's a thread for that one?

If I have some time and the energy later today, might write down an "alternate timeline" leading to a second ACW which would start this summer. The early dynamics would likely be completely different from the actual ACW's (it was the states themselves going to war, where a plausible contemporary scenario would start with the populations), and closer to those of the Spanish Civil War.

They don't count, they're covered under the "Reasonable Anti-Antifa v. Uncivilized Antifa" Supreme Court ruling (in favor of the former )

 

Ok, never mind about that child separation stuff. Trump's spiritual adviser checked it out and of course we are all wrong

And you have to obey the laws. Had Jesus broke the law he would have not been the Messiah.

 

This is so bloody funny. Trump's spiritual advisor clearly has no clue of what she's talking about

 

It was just announced on the news....Dwayne The Rock Johnson will not be running for President in 2020.

 

Huh, Stormy Daniels got arrested for having let a client touch her during a strip-tease performance...

 

Wrong. He got arrested again this week

 

You silly, silly person. The law being broken says the person arrested can't be the Messiah, not that they can't be Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is now proven that Jesus Christ is not the Messiah, and Trump's spiritual adviser will, as a matter of course, immediately recommend that Trump repudiates the oath sworn on the Bible, since the irrefutable demonstration Jesus Christ is not the Messiah proves Christianism is fake news.

 

The muslims and jews claim this since ages.
Maybe it's the reason Trump feels so attached to Israel and Saudi Arabia

 

But... the Muslim ban!

... what do you mean, Trump said "mousseline ban"? What do puree'd potatoes have to do with this?

 

O.k. the jews won.

 

And he encouraged everyone else to follow him in breaking it, as well.

 

LOL

https://nypost.com/2018/07/11/russi...trumps-face-on-product/?utm_source=reddit.com

 

Also, as expected, Trump has threatened to pull out of NATO.

https://www.politico.eu/article/trump-threatens-to-pull-out-of-nato/

 

There are times I swear that if we went up to Trump and called him crazy, he would say, "No, I'm not. No, I'm not." The difference is that he's not smart like the character who said that.

If Trump seriously pulls out of NATO, it will be extremely difficult to repair the damage whenever he leaves office. Not that Pence would do that. I can only imagine a few politicians who would openly admit that Trump made a mistake, even if they are Democrats.

At any rate, I feel terribly for the children who don't remember their parents when they are reunited with them. That is a sign of trauma. The harm inflicted upon these kids may be generational. I can't imagine it.

Speaking of racism, a stupid man was harassing at a woman from Puerto Rico just for celebrating birthday in a park with family. Ugh. I think Trump encourages this conduct. I recall saying aloud to myself in November 2015: "This guy ought to be arrested." How I wish that had occurred.

 

Trump isn't crazy. He just doesn't care.

It was a given this would happen, unfortunately. And I'm certain, by mere virtue of statistics, that it has now happened to at least one child with American citizenship and at least one child of non-migrant tourists...

 

Actually, I don't watch MSNBC, at all. News are depressing on all outlets and who needs more than what I catch around the web or even in this thread.

To be fair, as I've stated elsewhere, the misery of Puerto Rico has been mostly made by generations of worthless local politicos - aided by the morons that have voted for them - that sunk the island in debt trying to create a first-world status for the upper and middle classes that never existed and was untenable. Of course, all this is mostly the consequence of the colonial status and trade limitations imposed by our stateside overlords.

But true enough, the system is thoroughly corrupt and broken. I surely hope upcoming generations that won't pummel helpless 90 year-old latino men on a sidewalk or harass a woman for wearing a Puertorrican flag on her shirt can try their hand at fixing it, but I sincerely doubt they'll ever get the power to truly topple the true movers and shakers that sway and alternate blue and red tides every four ******* years.

 

As far as I was aware, since 1993 (or for the last 24 years) the Democrats only controlled the House for 4 years?