xtian

Russia produces more container ships by tonnage than the US with a fraction of the population, to pick just one example of many. Before SpaceX, the US was dependent on them for rides to the ISS. They produce some of the most formidable and battle-tested military-technical systems in the world. How exactly is that a failed state? Seems like you want other people to make the same decision you did since maybe you’re unsure that it was the correct choice.

Where has it been documented? What is the evidence?

You’re right that’s what the media is saying now so we need to update our beliefs accordingly.

Sorry but I read many comments here over the past year saying that Russia will collapse soon and Ukraine will push all the way to Moscow

I didn’t make a claim, I asked how Western companies were blocked. But my evidence that Western companies are not blocked is that Apple and Microsoft operate in China. Uber operated there as well but lost to local competition. Phrenology was well known and documented also.

“Cut a deal” or maybe they followed local laws

Burden of proof would fall upon the person making the claim. Appealing to the cultivated state of general ignorance in the West does not absolve you of this. In fact, the article you reference supports my position since it cites “restrictive laws and regulations” as the reason these companies do not operate in China.

What’s a specific example?

So how does Microsoft manage it? Bing and other Microsoft properties are accessible in China.

How are western companies blocked from accessing China’s domestic market? Because they are obligated to follow local laws? That’s like saying GDPR blocks American companies from operating in Europe.

Demand for dollars will remain strong as long as they are the least onerous way to conduct international trade for essential goods. The US makes very few of these goods domestically. Eventually the mountains of sanctions, central bank asset seizures, endless debt and money printing, and foreign policy meddling will tip the scales.

Conjecture? https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/us-air-fo...

Is Ukraine free when the US is meddling in its internal politics and orchestrating coups to protect ‘American influence’? Where is the freedom and riches you promise in all the countries the US has bombed over the past 60 years?

Protecting ‘American influence’ = an unending payday for the corrupt military-industrial complex monopolies and nothing more.

Are you ok? Would you like to place a bet on China collapsing within two years? How about $10k?

They know something you don’t also: there’s going to be a war. Not because China is doomed or collapsing but because it’s not.

Do you know what ‘whatsboutism’ actually means or do you just reflexively invoke it whenever someone contradicts an establishment figure or narrative? I’m asking what makes her ideas good or worth listening to. What results does she have to show for them?

She’s a good person? She personally signed off on the US torture program.

What makes Condoleezza Rice a person worthy of respect? What have Americans gotten out of allowing deranged psychos like her wage bloody conflict all over the globe? She oversaw the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. I'd like you to please defend that utter waste of American resources and complete catastrophe of human immiseration.

As someone who lives in America, I would prefer if Europeans got their hands out of the America's pockets and figured out how to solve their own problems.

> what would life for Americans under those conditions be like?

We would have access to more trading partners for one. We could invest resources in productive development and rebuilt industry instead of wasting it on a network of satellite puppet states and far-flung military bases. We could build up a military force oriented around national defense instead of imperial conquest.

Belief in ideals like blind chance and isolated, rational actors is popular for a similar reason.

Don’t forget Iran and Venezuela. And Israel/Palestine conflict, along with other geoeconomic factors, puts Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations in play. New production coming online via projects such as EACOP as well.

Good thing there are no major geopolitical conflicts or realignments going on between the US and major oil producers

> There isn't invalidation of people who wish to express that opinion publicly and even on project hosted forums, chats, bug-lists, etc

This was and I believe still is disallowed on any communication venues controlled by the Elm core team. Any discussion of alternative designs or workarounds was shut down and deleted, regardless of tone.

It’s because the only people left in the Elm community are those who are content with its current state and aren’t interested in having a stake in the future direction of core components or in even knowing whether there is a direction.

So he stepped out of the airport and connected to WiFi? Why not use cellular data?

When you stepped out of the airport and swapped in a domestic SIM?

Without Google services your phone is a brick? You can use Apple services, Microsoft services, any number of other websites. People really like to dramatize the GFW.

Pay for an international roaming data plan if it's so important.

So if this is all accurate we should see a decline in new BRI projects and a preference for IMF and World Bank financing over institutions where China plays a larger role like the NDB. Let’s wait and see.

Victoria Nuland stated in testimony that Ukraine had “biological research facilities which we are now quite concerned that Russian troops may be seeking to gain control of”

The governing authority in Taiwan also considers it part of historical China. The goal was to eventually retake the mainland with foreign assistance, and the independent nation idea only emerged after that became obviously impossible.