Israel also does female conscription, and yet their military is no joke!
Yes, but as it's been said, War breeds war. What happens if America finds that they still can duke it out with other powers and be victorious? that results in more American pressure on China to stop it's own actions.Ukraine actually interfered with Chinese acquisitions, like a factory for turbines China really wanted.
They have no love for Zelensky, IMO.
made a little something, enjoy
after actually putting effort into it, here ya go, eat my ass.
This is what real courage looks like, not blocking roads and honking. Whiny pussies
That is the point... the past few years the west ceded the moral high ground, and thus the protests against these arrests seems comical to us much less how it seems to Russia and china
Could probably stand some reflection on how that 'blocking roads and honking' led to the same 'get arrested' result.
Russia and Canada pursuing the same arrests on the same principles (and with the same 'Covid!' and 'they're nazis!' excuse being deployed in both cases). Is Canada a more decent place to be arrested? Undoubtedly. That's not justification for ignoring the camel's nose under the tent and the fact such arrests shouldn't happen.
Because ignoring it is how you get Russia and the USSR, where your rights are enshrined only insofar as the government decides...And people don't speak out against such because their lives will be ruined by the people in charge of not just the government but the economy.
This. People were already saying that many times over other ideological conflicts, like freedom of speech or the rainbow flag controversies - namely, progressive's shenanigans and overt power trips are ruining the respect, authority and reputation of the western world, and dramatically undermining its ability to call itself the "free world" anymore.That is the point... the past few years the west ceded the moral high ground, and thus the protests against these arrests seems comical to us much less how it seems to Russia and china
I mean there is the entire Bush years and invading countries more blatantly for no reason (besides corporate profits and oil) than even Hitler marching into Poland. That did much more damage to our reputation and moral high ground (arguably the Balkan situation didn't help either) than modern progressive BS. Don't get me wrong, the modern restriction of freedoms and 'cry bullying' for the Woke religion is making everything worse, but the problems didn't start simply with the internal struggle session that has become the culture war.This. People were already saying that many times over other ideological conflicts, like freedom of speech or the rainbow flag controversies - namely, progressive's shenanigans and overt power trips are ruining the respect, authority and reputation of the western world, and dramatically undermining its ability to call itself the "free world" anymore.
Ironically, this also greatly sabotages the effectiveness mainstream US politician's efforts to bring democracy to the third world, by providing a not exactly flattering example of it.
LMAO.I mean there is the entire Bush years and invading countries more blatantly for no reason (besides corporate profits and oil) than even Hitler marching into Poland.
Nope. This stuff was at least making the west look at least a bit strong and dangerous.That did much more damage to our reputation and moral high ground (arguably the Balkan situation didn't help either) than modern progressive BS.
Nevertheless it is a weapon used in propaganda to some effect. Don't forget how badly it pissed off the rest of the world; I remember traveling abroad during that time and Americans were not treated all that well abroad.LMAO.
This is shit the people we are trying to impress would be doing themselves if they had the power to do it and get away with it.
The only people outraged by it are the targets, their friends, and leftists of the world.
Really? All it did was bankrupt us and make us vulnerable to moves like what Putin has done; the debt started spiraling out of control during the Bush years and hasn't been stopped since. Same with the economy never really recovering to pre-2008 levels thanks to the Republicans. Of course since then the Dems lost the plot and went full retard, but the spiral of the US out of control and becoming hated by the world started in 2000. That stolen election also didn't help.Nope. This stuff was at least making the west look at least a bit strong and dangerous.
Modern progressive bullshit is making the west look weak and ridiculous.
Obviously the former is more impressive than the latter.
By who? Leftists? Pan-Arabist fellow travelers of Saddam? Islamists?Nevertheless it is a weapon used in propaganda to some effect. Don't forget how badly it pissed off the rest of the world; I remember traveling abroad during that time and Americans were not treated all that well abroad.
But you said it was for profits and oil...Really? All it did was bankrupt us and make us vulnerable to moves like what Putin has done;
2008 crisis...the debt started spiraling out of control during the Bush years and hasn't been stopped since.
>thanks to RepublicansSame with the economy never really recovering to pre-2008 levels thanks to the Republicans. Of course since then the Dems lost the plot and went full retard, but the spiral of the US out of control and becoming hated by the world started in 2000. That stolen election also didn't help.
Europeans and Asians.By who? Leftists? Pan-Arabist fellow travelers of Saddam? Islamists?
Not the kind of people whose sympathy you want to reach for even if you could.
Corporate profits, not government ones; the US government paid the bill for Haliburton.But you said it was for profits and oil...
Even before then. He funding his wars on borrowing while cutting taxes. 2008 just put it all into overdrive.2008 crisis...
Bush blocked the Republican bill to regulate Freddie and Fannie:>thanks to Republicans
Leftist corruptocrats did it, and establishment GOP in form of Bush stood by complaining quietly at best, and rolling with it in the name of "bipartisan policy" at worst.Democratic Coverup for Fannie and Freddie Led to 2008 Meltdown | Human Events
Five years ago, the problems that led to todays crisis were covered up by Democrats.archive.humanevents.com
This story has become much more common since then.
In 2005, the Republican controlled House of Representatives passed a GSE reform bill (Federal Housing Finance Reform Act) which "would have created a stronger regulator with new powers to increase capital at Fannie and Freddie, to limit their portfolios and to deal with the possibility of receivership".[54] However, the Bush administration opposed the bill and it died in the Senate. Of the bill and its reception by the Bush White House, Ohio Republican Mike Oxley (the bill's author) said: "The critics have forgotten that the House passed a GSE reform bill in 2005 that could well have prevented the current crisis. All the handwringing and bedwetting is going on without remembering how the House stepped up on this. What did we get from the White House? We got a one-finger salute."[54]
After the bubble burst, Australian economist John Quiggin wrote, "And, unlike the Great Depression, this crisis was entirely the product of financial markets. There was nothing like the postwar turmoil of the 1920s, the struggles over gold convertibility and reparations, or the Smoot-Hawley tariff, all of which have shared the blame for the Great Depression." Instead, Quiggin lays the blame for the 2008 near-meltdown on financial markets, on political decisions to lightly regulate them, and on rating agencies which had self-interested incentives to give good ratings.[283]
President Bush and his economic experts did not adequately address fundamental changes in the banking sector which had taken place over the two decades prior to the crisis. The essentially unregulated shadow banking system (e.g., investment banks, mortgage companies, money market mutual funds, etc.) had grown to rival the traditional, regulated depository banking system but without equivalent safeguards. Nobel laureate Paul Krugman described the run on the shadow banking system as the "core of what happened" to cause the crisis. "As the shadow banking system expanded to rival or even surpass conventional banking in importance, politicians and government officials should have realized that they were re-creating the kind of financial vulnerability that made the Great Depression possible—and they should have responded by extending regulations and the financial safety net to cover these new institutions. Influential figures should have proclaimed a simple rule: anything that does what a bank does, anything that has to be rescued in crises the way banks are, should be regulated like a bank." He referred to this lack of controls as "malign neglect."[56]
President Bush stated in September 2008: "Once this crisis is resolved, there will be time to update our financial regulatory structures. Our 21st century global economy remains regulated largely by outdated 20th century laws."[57] The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Alan Greenspan conceded failure in allowing the self-regulation of investment banks, which proceeded to take on increasingly risky bets and leverage after a key 2004 decision.[58][59]
Instead when things like 2008 happened all the Bush admin did was give out free cash to banks:
Secret and Lies of the Bailout
The federal rescue of Wall Street didn’t fix the economy – it created a permanent bailout state based on a Ponzi-like confidence scheme. And the worstwww.rollingstone.com
This is all only part of the issues with the Bush admin.