1) An area of China where some 300-400M people lives and where most of the food is produced will be flooded in the next couple centuries by sea level rise
2) Long before that process is finished the world will be experiencing severe shortages of all sorts of critical resources
3) Siberia is sparsely populated, mostly high ground, very resource rich, and with the climate warming will become much more fertile. Not just Siberia, this pattern extends further southwest into northern Kazakhstan and the European portions of the Russian black earth belt
4) China has ten times the population of Russia, and now is technologically ahead too in most areas.
So for now relationships are good, but never in history when that kind of situation has arisen have they stayed good for very long.
Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Feb 13 2024 14:01 utc | 299

1) Thats fiction, not reality. Sea level rise is a few mm per year at best. And all the “accelerations” of it are unphysically phantastical nonsense.
2) Now we have more than enough burnable fission ressources on earth for energy for the next centuries. With energy you can recycle everything as we barely shoot ressources into space. Energy is a non issue with fission.
3) Status of Siberia wont change much, as “climate change” wont be as transformative as everyone parrots in the centurial future.
4) Extrapolating demographics is even more phantastical than climate change predictions. Like beeing on a curvy road with a car and yelling everytime a curve comes that we are all going to die because of extrapolation of current trajectory leads off road.

Posted by: Knullpi | Feb 13 2024 14:15 utc | 303

The Selidovo strike is a curious situation.
On one hand, it is a welcome gloves-off moment. For a long time there was a veto on strikes on large personnel concentrations, and the fact that the Ukrainians felt safe to gather that many people in one place shows that there was still some kind of restraint on that. Even though there has been no such restraint on the Ukrainian/NATO side — Russian sources are bitterly complaining every time another idiot commander puts 30-40 people together in the same place and they get hit by HIMARS, which tells us how regularly and reliably that sort of lack of caution gets punished.
But on the other hand, it illustrates the schizophrenic way the war has been (not) fought by the Kremlin. Why have that veto from the start and what did it accomplish? If it was to save the lives of the brotherly Ukrainians, well, it utterly failed in that objective — there will be a million dead of them by the time this is over even in the most optimistic scenario, and the bulk of that will not be ideological Nazis, it will be regular ethnic Russian grunts press ganged from the streets. Plus six-figure dead on the Russian side. How many lives would have been saved by utterly ruthless such strikes on the ideologicals early in the war, total decimation of the AFU, and a quick end to the war? Also, if the objective is to save Ukrainian lives (but again, what about Russian soliders’ lives?), wouldn’t it have been kind of important to block the transport of weapons from Poland, Slovakia and Romania?
Questions…

Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Feb 13 2024 14:19 utc | 305

I am mystified that after all the mountain of evidence that the Covid mRNA has caused tremendous more damage than it prevented, there are still people who believe in the vax.
Posted by: canuck | Feb 13 2024 14:18 utc | 303

That’s blatantly false though — the negative correlation between vaccination rates and excess mortality is one of the strongest you will ever see in the epidemiological literature.
Countries with unfavorable demographics that let it rip and didn’t manage to vaccinate most of their people lost 1% or more of their population. That includes everyone’s favorite dictatorships in Russia and Belarus as some of the most notable examples, together with a few other countries in Eastern Europe.
The likes of South Korea, Denmark, etc., which also let it rip, but only after vaccinating nearly everyone, are still only at at most 0.2% of the population lost.
Long term it will converge, but in 2021 and 2022 vaccines did save a lot of lives. Empirical fact.

Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Feb 13 2024 14:27 utc | 307

#302
Top

Posted by: ossi | Feb 13 2024 14:36 utc | 309

From a personal perspective, I wanted to visit my Grandchildren in Switzerland in 2021 and was led to believe I would have to be vaxxed. I took the first most deadly J&J vax, the one that was so bad J&J discontinued it and dropped out of the world’s most lucrative Pharma market. I had that lower brain bleeding stroke it became famous for, at the time no medical personnel would admit it could possibly be the Vax.

Posted by: SwissArmyMan | Feb 13 2024 14:40 utc | 311

@306….relax, as long as all your boosters are up to date, you’re good. In fact get as many as you can. I think that’s the best thing for people like yourself. As long as you look after yourself and take your mandated meds, your government will take care of you. You can laugh at us non GMO nutters for years to come.
Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Feb 13 2024 15:07 utc | 313

SwissArmyMan@310….do be careful, brain bleed got Col Lang mind you he was a good soldiers and even got booster if I recall.
I laugh at the morons comparing fatalities post vax…it’s a long term assault…..any one bother to read through the 90 pages, 90 PAGES, of side affects just from the Pfizer shot alone…..hmm, didn’t think so. Well if you read through all 90 pages, and you work in blood services, you deal with all those side affects walking through your lab door, by the hundreds, every day saying “I don’t know how I got this fast acting disease”.
Cheers M
Most lab techs are freaked by the extra work load and the amount of people getting tested for weird diseases, all post vax and picking up speed.

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Feb 13 2024 15:17 utc | 315

“You don’t want to try to match wits with me. You’re unarmed as it is.”
Did I just read that in the MoA comment section?

Posted by: Jonathan W | Feb 13 2024 15:41 utc | 317

Most lab techs are freaked by the extra work load and the amount of people getting tested for weird diseases, all post vax and picking up speed.
Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Feb 13 2024 15:17 utc | 314
____
That might explain why the results of routine blood tests, which I used to get in 1-2 days, now take 10-18 days.
Of course, it doesn’t help that there are basically only two companies in the USA that do lab tests — LabCorp and Quest — and, being corporations, they’re always looking for ways to cut costs, i.e. services.

Posted by: malenkov | Feb 13 2024 16:10 utc | 319

It would be in Europe’s interest to make peace with Russia and pursue common development rather than unconditionally tying itself to the aggressive NATO, the Global Times concludes.
Posted by: Ossi | Feb 13 2024 14:56 utc | 311
But that wouldn’t be in America’s interest at all. All they care about is that no one can threaten them with nuclear weapons anymore – and by the way, they will become the masters of the world once they have achieved that. And I don’t know whether they would be willing to sacrifice Europe for this, but I wouldn’t rule it out.

Posted by: Oliver Krug | Feb 13 2024 16:59 utc | 321

@ David G Horsman, §318:
Thanks for this David. An explosive revelation from an impeccable source.
You might also be interested in this:
https://rumble.com/v474pow-the-great-setup-with-dr.-david-martin-part-1-full-documentary.html
It would certainly explain the anxiety of the Americans over their biolabs in the Ukraine falling into the hands of the Russians.

Posted by: John Marks | Feb 13 2024 19:27 utc | 323

It’s basically discussing rubbery blood clots that are killing people and now appearing in mortuaries. The information is being suppressed in the UK.
A New Disease – Dr John Campbell
https://youtu.be/wwdRfbPrGIY?si=DAGOYzrTpCcNRPjb
Posted by: David G Horsman | Feb 13 2024 15:54 utc | 318

Yes, now guess what COVID causes, and guess how many infections the average person in the UK has had (the overall attack rate is 250% since 2020).

Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Feb 13 2024 19:40 utc | 325

Tucker Carlson being interviewed:
https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1757117841151557943?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Posted by: John Marks | Feb 13 2024 20:06 utc | 327

Posted by: Jonathan W | Feb 13 2024 15:41 utc | 317
I reckon I could beat him at Tic-tac-toe though!

Posted by: Milites | Feb 13 2024 21:07 utc | 329

Estonian PM Kaja Kallas a ‘wanted’ person
I believe that it is due to criminal damage to Soviet war memorials.

Posted by: JohninMK | Feb 13 2024 21:41 utc | 331

Posted by: Milites | Feb 13 2024 19:38 utc | 324
Good to see you found a thesaurus as well for your epic comeback. “Risible” – how long did it take you to look up that word? And your Mom and Dad don’t really count as interviewees
Anyway, since you don’t take my word for it here I’ll drop some sources on you:
Start off with Kirk to get the philosophical basis: https://www.google.co.jp/books/edition/The_Conservative_Mind/mGBn2fOdp7gC?hl=ja&gbpv=1&dq=russell+kirk+conservative+mind&printsec=frontcover
Read about American nativism here: https://www.google.co.jp/books/edition/Strangers_in_the_Land/UzVhOx7WuMMC?hl=ja&gbpv=1&dq=American+nativism&printsec=frontcover
Read about paleoconservatives here:
https://www.google.co.jp/books/edition/A_Paleoconservative_Anthology/-u_IEAAAQBAJ?hl=ja&gbpv=1&dq=paleoconservative&printsec=frontcover
Robert Taft is here:
https://www.google.co.jp/books/edition/Robert_A_Taft/1ROi1-O5uxkC?hl=ja&gbpv=1&dq=Robert+Taft&printsec=frontcover
Tea Party is here:
https://www.google.co.jp/books/edition/The_Tea_Party_and_the_Remaking_of_Republ/kY5HDwAAQBAJ?hl=ja&gbpv=1&dq=Tea+Party+USA&printsec=frontcover
And there are plenty of books, articles, and even speeches (by Donald Trump) that tell you exactly what MAGA is and what it stands for, to help you understand MAGA. If you can manage to make that causal connection of all the above to MAGA (I know this asking a lot of you) you’ll see what I’m taking about is correct.

Posted by: James M. | Feb 13 2024 22:26 utc | 333

So you´ve joined the “jabs are safe and effective” mob as well as the “traitor Putin” mob?
Posted by: John Marks | Feb 13 2024 19:46 utc | 326

No, I haven’t. They are safe, but they are not effective. And I have been consistent on this from the start — after decades of complete failure to make a working coronavirus vaccine (failure for the well known long before 2020 reasons of rapidly waning antibody titers and even more rapidly evolving spike proteins), why would it work perfectly for this one all of a sudden? Of course it didn’t.
But that doesn’t mean the vaccine is causing “injuries” on a massive scale, only complete morons believe that. Does it have side effects? Sure, it does, occasionally very serious ones. Does that happen at a rate comparable to what the virus itself does? Not remotely close, it is orders of magnitude less frequent.
The problem with you dummies is that you fail to understand that the world isn’t black and white, and you also still have no clue how it works.
COVID is an extremely serious problem, and all stops should have been pulled to eradicate it from the human population instead of making it endemic.
That wasn’t done. Then the question is why?
The answer should be obvious — because that required “them” (them being the psychopaths that rule us) to spend money on your well-being (i.e. preventing you from getting sick and dying prematurely).
The lockdown wasn’t some evil plot to keep us all confined in our houses. If that was the case it would not have been lifted so prematurely. It is all out in the open — we now have Boris Johnson’s internal communications on the issue, and it was all out in the open all throughout 2020 too — the business elites were militantly against lockdown, and eventually forced their wishes onto everyone else.
It is why we are in this mess — if public health protocol had been followed, all international travel would have been halted in late January 2020, and most countries would have been on lockdown in early February 2020 the latest, until successful global containment. Instead it was delayed by 5-6 weeks until things really got out of control, then it was lifted without achieving containment.
Why? Because they had to pay you to stay at home and not work for several months and that was completely unacceptable under 21st century neoliberalism. You exist solely in order to generate surplus for them, and paying you not to work undermines the whole system. Again, this is all out in the open — the business press was full of screeching articles and talking heads decrying exactly that aspect of the situation in the period between March and June 2020.
What is now out in the open too, after the Boris Johnson leaks, is what we suspected from the start — they realized that most deaths are in the old, and that this is actually great for them, as it would drastically slash life expectancy and thus spending on healthcare and pensions. Which they had been looking to cut anyway. Of course, the catch here is LongCOVID and all the damage the virus does to previously young and health people. But perversely, that’s a plus too — Big Pharma has known for decades that the big money is in chronic disease, so what is better for profits than a virus that wrecks people’s bodies and leaves them with new chronic conditions that will never go away for the rest of their lives? The sicker the population, the better — we can always import healthy immigrants to make up for the workforce shortage, plus AI is coming to eliminate the need for much of it anyway.
Now why did they do lockdown at all? Because without it we would have had 3-4 million dead in the US in the span of a couple months, and that too would have undermined the system if it happened while people were herded into workplaces and schools with zero precautions and with the open and direct message that their lives are worth nothing. Such a move would have exposed the full monstrosity of the system, which was also not allowed because the system relies primarily on manipulation of perceptions for its perpetuation.
Thus they did the lockdowns for just long enough to avoid such a catastrophic scenario and stretch out the death toll in time to the point where it is “tolerable”.
Then they bet it all on the vaccine. Not to solve the problem — I told you it was well-known from the start the vaccine would fail — but to cement endemicity and the fact that nothing will be done to stop transmission. This was the real purpose of heavy handed vaccination mandates — to firmly equate “doing something about COVID” with “vaccination”, to the exclusion of quarantine and other non-pharmaceutical measures, and to then make people hate “vaccination” and thus “doing something about COVID” and just accept that nothing will be done about it. They mobilized anti-vaxxers for the same reason, and this is why these fairy tales about the millions of people who die of the vaccines are being disseminated widely now.
Overall it was a remarkable success from “their” perspective.
As evident by so many of the posts here.
Turkeys voting for Christmas, etc.

Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Feb 13 2024 22:40 utc | 335

Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Feb 13 2024 22:40 utc | 335
Re-read your post but replace virus / Covid with nuclear Armageddon. Then consider the hundreds of times over the past two years that you’ve argued in favour of nuclear Armageddon. You have some brass neck complaining about psychopathic elites who don’t value lives. But you’re right they don’t and neither do you with your nuclear strike nonsense.
The Covid policy you’re advocating was employed in China. until it wasn’t. At which point millions of people were killed by Covid in China. The vaccines weren’t perfect but they did have an effect on the pandemic. As you say they were part of a strategy that made Covid endemic to the detriment of our collective health.

Posted by: Lev Davidovich | Feb 13 2024 22:58 utc | 337

unimperator | Feb 13 2024 11:48 utc | 279
knighthawk | Feb 13 2024 13:57 utc | 299
Dima has an interesting theory on the Selidovo strikes.
He thinks Syrski basically ‘eliminated’ the 3rd Azov Brigade on purpose, fearing it may be used as a political weapon in a pro-Poroshenko/Zaluzhny coup. In other words, no local “traitors” needed.
No idea what to think of it.
Two days ago, someone in the bar opined that Syrski would send Azov etc. to the front very soon.
Without increased mobilization, there’s probably not much else left…

Posted by: smuks | Feb 13 2024 23:07 utc | 339

joey_n | Feb 13 2024 21:54 utc | 332
While I generally agree with Honzo, I’d argue that EUrope will gladly pay ‘whatever it takes’ if it means peace.
Remember we’re in a ‘Thucydides trap’ situation here. A declining superpower usually starts ‘leashing out’ at some point, trying to retain its position. With today’s weapons, this would mean taking the world down with it. Neither EUrope nor Asia want to risk this, so they’ll be willing to (economically) accomodate the US (and UK), and help rebuild their outdated economy & infrastructure.

Posted by: smuks | Feb 13 2024 23:11 utc | 341

Posted by: Lev Davidovich | Feb 13 2024 22:58 utc | 337
Indeed, Brave Sir Shadowbanned shows some schizophrenia in his posting. The vaccine was “safe” but not effective, but people should take it anyway? If the vaccine wasn’t effective, then what was the point of taking it?
And, oh yeah Russia should use nuclear weapons, which would wipe out fifty times the number of people who died of COVID.

Posted by: James M. | Feb 13 2024 23:25 utc | 343

Risible does have a nice ring, doesn’t it, as does riled. I do hope your academic work is more analytically sound than the examples you’ve proffered here, vis a vis my good self.
Posted by: Milites | Feb 14 2024 0:50 utc | 344
All right, so you want more analytically sound work? See below:
Now, I pride myself on my positivity at work, so let’s dispense with the childish soubriquets and insults, and explain how
You know with certainly Trump’s motive’s for taking on the mantle of MAGA leadership and that the movement has not eclipsed previous iterations of ‘isolationists’.
MAGA and Trump are symptoms of American decline. For the first time since America established permanent alliances a sitting president seriously discussed withdrawing from NATO: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/us/politics/nato-president-trump.html
Now, as I said before Trump is an imperfect vehicle for American isolationism, given he is really a Trump First politician, but think about the implications of that. American withdrawal from NATO would end the alliance and signal American disengagement from the outer world. He will be the Republican nominee this year. He will likely not win, but this will be due mostly to his own personal failings than a serious indictment of his policies.
There is an undercurrent of resistance to America’s role in the world in the US. It dates back to the founding of the country. The failures of the Iraq war, Afghanistan war, and global war on terrorism have expedited this resistance. The SMO is also indicative of this sense of American decline. Empires fall, not because they lack the capacity, (although in some cases this is true), but because they lack the will to continue.
I’ve said this before on this blog, and I’ll say it again – Americans don’t have the will, the stomach, for empire. They don’t care about the rest of the world; they want nothing better than to seal their borders up and look the other way. So it won’t take much to push America into isolationism.
Even now, the Republicans block aid to Ukraine, with the focus being more on the border. After Russia defeats Ukraine, annexing the Russian-speaking portions, the rest of Europe is going to be faced with hard choices. Either, continue a partnership with an increasingly unreliable and reluctant US, or cut a deal with Russia.
The decline of the US is inevitable. Trump’s reelection would hasten that decline, but a Biden victory by no means staunches it. Instead, MAGA will continue, likely in another iteration, because it resonates with a large portion, maybe even a plurality, of the American populace.
A better politician, one with Trump’s charisma, but of stronger intellect, a sense of vision, and greater personal discipline, could enact these policies: Withdrawal from NATO, withdrawal from US-Japan Security Pact, withdrawal from other multilateral security organizations (OSCE, OAS, etc.), which would end American Great Power status.
Just the first two are sufficient conditions to enact that, although I suspect strongly (and some of my sources in Japan’s MFA confirm this) that if US withdraws from NATO, Japan will think twice about its relationship with the US.
Your belief that China will dominate the next half-century, when it faces numerous PEST challenges that may seriously impact any, ‘on-paper’ capabilities. For example, how can it move from being an innovator, often by theft of IP, to being an inventor. Something the Japanese academic institutions tried to tackle in the late nineties with limited success, when they attempted to replicate the elusive quality of initiative, they’d detected in Western companies. Yes, China might be an ancient civilisation but how can they avoid the atrophic impulses that such a status inevitably carries with it, cf India.
I don’t think I ever put a length of time on China’s “domination”. I said: “I suggest you learn Mandarin”, which is good advice considering they’re the world’s top economy. And again, with your false analogies comparing two separate and distinct cultures. Japan does not equal China. I live in Japan, and have lived in China, I can speak both languages, and you’re simply wrong when comparing them. While it’s true the Japanese have difficulty in innovation, this is due to cultural peculiarities unique to Japan. That’s not the case with China.
Also “innovator” and “inventor” mean the same thing. I’ll give due allowance that English is not your native tongue. But I think what you’re trying to say is that China doesn’t create anything, which is ludicrous considering China’s long history of inventions, it only steals IPs. However, this isn’t the case, you’re steeped in too much Western propaganda. Yes, China does steal some IPs, but not as many as you might think. China is innovating all the time: https://academic.oup.com/nsr/article/10/4/nwad058/7070744
Furthermore, China has put in place many mitigating elements to forestall those “PEST” challenges, as you call them. To deal with India for example, there are multiple bilateral and multilateral dialogues China can use: Hand-in-Hand, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, BRICS, etc.
Even still, the main reason for China’s rise is the collapse of the US. In the international system, the world system, there is a hierarchy. It is an anarchic hierarchy – the system itself is anarchic, but there is a hierarchy to it. The system demands, necessitates that Great Powers be at the head of the table, so to speak. Right now, it’s the US, but Russia, China, and India are also Great Powers. As one Great Power falls, another usually takes its place – the system abhors a vacuum.
So as America falls, China will take its place as the main Great Power in a multipolar world system, with Russia as its ally. Is China a perfect country? No, of course not. Just as the US is not. The only reason the US became a Great Power was due to World War II – where the other Great Powers – UK, Germany, Japan, even USSR ending up exhausting each other in war. The Soviet Union was the least scathed, after the US, and thus became the main rival to American power in the Cold War.
In other words, Great Powers take advantage of opportunities, to become powerful, and maintain that power. China is no exception. In fact, they have been priming for Great Power status for over twenty-five years now. What we know about the history of international politics, and the history of American politics, strongly implies the inevitability of the US decline as a Great Power – I would argue it’s already begun – and another power will take its place. China is best situated to do that.
For more on the international system, check these sources:
Kennedy: https://www.google.co.jp/books/edition/The_Rise_and_Fall_of_the_Great_Powers/9rpmAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=Rise+and+fall+of+great+powers&dq=Rise+and+fall+of+great+powers&printsec=frontcover
Waltz:
https://www.google.co.jp/books/edition/Theory_of_International_Politics/4yy5AAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=theory+of+international+politics&dq=theory+of+international+politics&printsec=frontcover
Doran:
https://www.google.co.jp/books/edition/Systems_in_Crisis/Lqzv3ze0azQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=doran+power+cycle&printsec=frontcover
Doran’s power cycle is especially interesting. Since its inception, there has been change in the international system. This is inevitable. Pray tell, why do you think the US is so unique it will escape the fate of every single other Great Power in world history?
Is that analytical enough for you? On a message board no less. I feel like Brave Sir Shadowbanned, good grief.

Posted by: James M. | Feb 14 2024 5:00 utc | 345

I’ve said this before on this blog, and I’ll say it again – Americans don’t have the will, the stomach, for empire. They don’t care about the rest of the world; they want nothing better than to seal their borders up and look the other way. So it won’t take much to push America into isolationism.
Posted by: James M. | Feb 14 2024 5:00 utc | 345
The plebs might believe that but the real decision makers know that America’s power rests in the petrodollar hence the real source of US power is the Middle East and any place that can produce oil or resources for the US to use. That is why the US will never isolate itself willingly despite what is happening in the political arena.

Posted by: Modern Stoic | Feb 14 2024 6:43 utc | 347

Nice try TROLL but the comparison was made in a way that tried to sell off China as having more available resources than Japan had in the previous century which isn’t true. The only real advantage China has is on the Rare Earths department.
Posted by: Modern Stoic | Feb 14 2024 6:01 utc | 346
Anyway for the record, China holds about 25 billion barrels of oil, while Japan has 44 million barrels. Last I checked 25 billion is greater than 44 million.
https://www.worldometers.info/oil/oil-reserves-by-country/#china
https://www.worldometers.info/oil/japan-oil/
I am seriously starting to think you are either a troll, or a really dumb undergrad. Colin, is that you?

Posted by: James M. | Feb 14 2024 7:07 utc | 349

No, if you know anything about the history of Japan you would know that they have far less natural resources (oil, rubber, natural gas, etc.) than China did or does. Why do you think Japan attacked Manchuria in 1931? The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere ring a bell? Do you know anything about history?
Wait a minute you already answered that… you know nothing.

It goes without saying that the possibility of having a larger territory increases the possibility of having a particular resource. It is both logic and statistics. That still doesn’t support the argument that China has larger resources compared to 1931 Japan because resource demand was different back then. For example no one needs rubber coming from the plant anymore, they synthesize it. You can’t compare apples to oranges.
Did you read where I said about AVAILABILITY? Did i say anything about DOMESTIC production?

Willingly…no, the US elites will definitely fight the decline. But they don’t have a choice in the matter. These events happen outside their control. They cannot stop the inevitable.
For example, most of the world is moving away from the dollar. Also, the myth of US military superiority has already been shattered. So what does the US have outside of the dollar and its military to prop it up as a Great Power? The answer is….nothing.
Posted by: James M. | Feb 14 2024 6:54 utc | 348

It doesn’t matter if the US wants to be extrovert or not. It NEEDS to avoid isolationism in order to maintain any semblance of power. You are preaching to the choir on the US being in an inevitable decline. Being in a decline is one thing, being isolationist is another. Get your arguments together! The decline of the Dollar will force the US to be more extrovert in the long run because it doesn’t have anything to base its isolation on! BTW since when did the will of the elites coincide with the will of the populace? The plebs might want isolationism but the ones in charge know this is beyond stupid!

Anyway for the record, China holds about 25 billion barrels of oil, while Japan has 44 million barrels. Last I checked 25 billion is greater than 44 million.
https://www.worldometers.info/oil/oil-reserves-by-country/#china
https://www.worldometers.info/oil/japan-oil/
I am seriously starting to think you are either a troll, or a really dumb undergrad. Colin, is that you?
Posted by: James M. | Feb 14 2024 7:07 utc | 349

I seriously think that you have a reading comprehension problem. Do the oil reserves of China suffice for domestic use? HELL NO! Even for a fraction of the use. China is highly dependent on foreign sources of fossil fuel and nothing will change in the immediate future.

Posted by: Modern Stoic | Feb 14 2024 7:45 utc | 351

The tide will have turned when American cultural ephemera are forgotten and replaced by a new aesthetic.
Posted by: too scents | Feb 14 2024 7:36 utc | 350
Ahhh another thesaurus user. Didn’t realize this board attracted so many American boot lickers. Anyway, there’s nothing about American culture that is truly aesthetical to the rest of the world.
Aside from Hollywood action movies, which are in decline now, not aesthetical, and rapidly being placed by indigenous films in various countries, name me one thing that America produces culturally that has universal appeal?
So…Hollywood is the last bastion of American power? And that will be gone in less than five years. What will the US do then?

Posted by: James M. | Feb 14 2024 7:51 utc | 353

@ James M. | Feb 14 2024 7:51 utc | 353
—
What songs are they singing in the Japanese karaoke bars? How about “car culture” and “motor” sports?
Shanghai Disneyland Park is just weird.

Posted by: too scents | Feb 14 2024 8:04 utc | 355

What songs are they singing in the Japanese karaoke bars? How about “car culture” and “motor” sports?
Posted by: too scents | Feb 14 2024 8:04 utc | 355
Never heard of J-Pop? K-Pop?
“Car culture” is also pretty unique to the US. How popular is Nascar in Europe? How popular is Formula 1 in the US?
How many American-built cars do I see in Japan? In 15 years living here I’ve seen one, total and it was a collector’s 1950s something Chevy.
We can go on and on, but dude you’re not going to win this argument…

Posted by: James M. | Feb 14 2024 10:36 utc | 357

Halloween is a European holiday, it originated in Scotland.
Posted by: James M. | Feb 14 2024 10:41 utc | 358

Stop it right there Mister! It is a CELTIC holiday that is not celebrated anymore in Europe even in places where Celts were the dominant culture 2000 years ago. There is no tradition of Halloween in France for example where the majority of Celts lived. Yet you can now find it in England (where it was NEVER celebrated) where you can also find Black Fridays like the most of Europe. Dunno maybe you will miraculously trace this cultural phenomenon of the US to some obscure custom of European origin, you are the king of BS, anything can happen!

Also, FYI – computers aren’t cultural phenomena – that’s called technology. Learn what culture means. You should use one of two cent’s thesauruses, because you’re having trouble with the language.
Posted by: James M. | Feb 14 2024 10:41 utc | 358

Hah this is wrong and very naive of you to believe that. Terminology can and DOES disseminate culture. That is why many Japanese martial arts still use Japanese terminology. It helps spread culture. Terminology is language and language is culture.

Posted by: Modern Stoic | Feb 14 2024 11:08 utc | 359

What songs are they singing in the Japanese karaoke bars? How about “car culture” and “motor” sports?
Posted by: too scents | Feb 14 2024 8:04 utc | 355
How many American-built cars do I see in Japan? In 15 years living here I’ve seen one, total and it was a collector’s 1950s something Chevy.
Posted by: James M. | Feb 14 2024 10:36 utc | 357
Also, that American-built car was driven by an expat American.
Anyway cars themselves, like computers, are not cultural phenomena, they are tools, inventions. Just because Americans invented them, doesn’t make them uniquely American, no more than movies, invented by the French, are uniquely French, or printed books are uniquely German.
Now, a culture could develop around those inventions – like Hollywood, Bollywood, French cinema, for film, or as you (poorly) tried to demonstrate – car cultures for cars. But mostly, except, for Hollywood action films, they don’t normally have widespread appeal beyond their own national borders.
Some exceptions exist, like the aforementioned Hollywood, also anime and manga from Japan, literature from the UK (Harry Potter, Tolkien), and maybe you could make the argument for French cuisine and Russian ballet, Italian cuisine (pizza is pretty universal).
But that’s not much. If you’ve lived any significant time in another culture, you’ll see how deep it runs. American culture, its “soft power”, has minimal influence, it isn’t the glue to keep the hegemon together. Not in the least.

Posted by: James M. | Feb 14 2024 11:11 utc | 361

Posted by: James M. | Feb 14 2024 11:11 utc | 360
More BS from the master himself!
Japan is a very insulated culture, most don’t even speak marginal English or any other Lingua Franca.
Try living in a European country for a change and see for yourself.
American influence in Europe goes far beyond Hollywood despite Hollywood being the main mean of cultural dissemination there.
Take for example things in recreation like Bars.
1) Bars were never a thing 100 years ago.
2) Nobody drank whisk(e)y. Most didn’t know what it was.
3) There were no burgers.
4) Dance styles like Twist etc disseminated with the music.
5) Can you name any culture singing an american song 100 years ago while having no connection to the US?
I could go on forever. Post war Europe was a different place all because of the need to counteract the influence of the Soviets.
All this of course doesn’t mean that Europe is turning into a part of the US. Europeans wanted to partake into a piece of the American Dream of prosperity and chances to strike lucky.

American culture, its “soft power”, has minimal influence, it isn’t the glue to keep the hegemon together. Not in the least.

This is the only piece of the BS ridden post of yours that is sensible and I agree wholeheartedly. You can’t rely on cultural influence to compensate for making potentially damaging decisions against another state.

Posted by: Modern Stoic | Feb 14 2024 11:26 utc | 363

MoA makes you feel like certain things are generally known: The casualty numbers in the Gaza Strip, the manipulations of Oct.7, the trial abainst Israel at the ICJ, Ukraine is inevitably heading for defeat, who blew up the pipelines…
Yet, nothing is known to the public, at least not in Germany, we’re fully asleep:
1) According to a Civey poll, over 40 per cent would welcome a reelection of Biden, while twenty something percent would consider it disastrous.
2) Another poll asks if more sanctions should be applied to Russia. Some 45 percent are in favor, only 30 percent against it.
The media machine in Germany and Austria creates a different reality and manages to keep usin a consolated sate of mind explaining that we are, this time, on the right side of history. I don’t watch TV in the rest of Europe, and can only guess which kind of explanation, for instance, the Fins and the Swedish are getting fed on evenings.

Posted by: grunzt | Feb 14 2024 11:47 utc | 365

@ James, §360:
“Anyway cars themselves, . . . Just because Americans invented them, . . .”
Cars were invented by Carl Benz (1844-1926), a German.

Posted by: John Marks | Feb 14 2024 12:06 utc | 367

“Anyway cars themselves, . . . Just because Americans invented them, . . .”
Cars were invented by Carl Benz (1844-1926), a German.
Posted by: John Marks | Feb 14 2024 12:06 utc | 366
Well there you go. Learn something new every day. Not often that I’m mistaken, so thanks for catching that.

Posted by: James M. | Feb 14 2024 12:16 utc | 369

James M. | Feb 14 2024 7:51 utc | 353
***.. name me one thing that America produces culturally that has universal appeal?***
Unfortunately, “cargo cultism”.
Buy it, complete with fantasy economics, and allegedly cure all ills.

Posted by: Cynic | Feb 14 2024 16:03 utc | 371