[AdamB]

Now, New Zealand, that gang could easily conquer Antartica, and probably knock off Australia just to get another forward operating base to do it from.

What nonsense.
You really need to but a better grade of weed so you can come back to something close to reality.

I don't do weed. I don't drink either. Or smoke. I've got other bad habits to make up for those shortcomings. And I still think New Zealand could knock off the Aussies, just like I think you and your fellow Vermonters could conquer Quebec and the Maritime provinces.

[vtsnowedin]

, just like I think you and your fellow Vermonters could conquer Quebec and the Maritime provinces.

We tried that once. Did not work.

[theluckycountry]

.....

What nonsense.
You really need to but a better grade of weed so you can come back to something close to reality.

Many British still had Adam's mindset in the early 1900's, sure they basically ruled the world up until then, but the Empire was spent and after WWI was a shell of it's former glory, the people impoverished. Imagine an English Prime minister going to Berlin to beg for peace with a dictator. Pathetic! If they had acted in time and tooled up for war they could have smashed Germany. The US is sort of at that point now, the President going to Saudi Arabia to plead for restraint with oil prices. Hell, 30 years ago they would have sent an CBG, and 30 years ago the Saudi's knew it and toed the line.

Weed. It rots the Brain.

[Shaved Monkey]

Looks like China got busy during Covid lockdown

China now has enough wind and solar to power every home
China’s National Energy Administration has reported that the country installed a combined 125GW of new wind and solar capacity in 2022, bringing its total cumulative renewable energy capacity to over 1,200GW.

Out of the new renewable energy capacity added was 37.6GW of new wind energy capacity and a whopping 87.4GW of newly installed solar power

https://reneweconomy.com.au/china-now-h ... very-home/

[Shaved Monkey]

‘Wake-up call’: China takes stunning lead in race for tech domination

China is pulling ahead in the race for global technological dominance far quicker than previously thought, positioning the authoritarian state to become the world’s undisputed science and technology superpower and gain a stranglehold over crucial supply chains.

A first-of-its-kind report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute finds China has established a sometimes “stunning” lead over the United States in high-impact research across domains including defence, space, robotics, energy, the environment, biotechnology and artificial intelligence.

China is the global leader in 37 of the 44 technologies tracked by the think tank, including advanced explosives, biological manufacturing, drone technology and critical minerals processing.

It is home to the world’s top-10 research institutions for some technologies and often produces five times as much high-impact research as its closest competitor.

The report’s authors argue their findings should be a “wake-up call” for democratic nations to dramatically increase their investment in research and development if they want to have any hope of catching up to China.
The report finds there is a “high risk” of China developing a monopoly over eight crucial technologies including electric batteries, synthetic biology and advanced radiofrequency communications, including 5G and 6G networks.

The report challenges the claim, often made by US politicians, that China’s technological advances are driven mostly by the theft of American intellectual property.
For example, China generated 49 per cent of high-impact research papers into advanced aircraft engines – including hypersonics – over the past five years and is home to seven of the world’s top-10 research institutions in this topic.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/fede ... 5conv.html

[Newfie]

It is funny how such radically divergent forecasts emerge from the “expert” community.

Other sources proclaim the near term demise of China as a world power. They have 10 to 20 years to play mischief and they quickly back slide.

The things I find consistent is the experts self assurance and their dismal track record.

Just think back 4 years ago, pre-Covid, pre-Ukraine, who accurately predicted todays world?

I don’t know if that is reassuring or terrifying.

My personal hope is some little green men to emerge to assist us. Mind you, that is not a prediction, its a hope.

[jato0072]

Chinese minister warns of conflict unless US changes course

“If the United States does not hit the brake, but continues to speed down the wrong path, no amount of guardrails can prevent derailing and there surely will be conflict and confrontation,” said Qin, whose new position is junior to the Communist Party’s senior foreign policy official, Wang Yi. “Such competition is a reckless gamble, with the stakes being the fundamental interests of the two peoples and even the future of humanity.”

Let's go Brandon! Maybe we can get into 2 wars in one presidential term!

[yellowcanoe]

Chinese minister warns of conflict unless US changes course

“If the United States does not hit the brake, but continues to speed down the wrong path, no amount of guardrails can prevent derailing and there surely will be conflict and confrontation,” said Qin, whose new position is junior to the Communist Party’s senior foreign policy official, Wang Yi. “Such competition is a reckless gamble, with the stakes being the fundamental interests of the two peoples and even the future of humanity.”

Let's go Brandon! Maybe we can get into 2 wars in one presidential term!

China's leadership want to believe it is the United States that is going down the wrong path when in reality they are ones going down the wrong path. Hard to negotiate with people who are so totally fucked up.

[jato0072]

Thucydides Trap

Thucydides Trap, or Thucydides' Trap, is a term popularized by American political scientist Graham T. Allison to describe an apparent tendency towards war when an emerging power threatens to displace an existing great power as a regional or international hegemon. It was coined and is primarily used to describe a potential conflict between the United States and the People's Republic of China.

Fucked up or not, the Earth's nuclear powers do not seem to be in a mood to negotiate.

[yellowcanoe]

Thucydides Trap

Thucydides Trap, or Thucydides' Trap, is a term popularized by American political scientist Graham T. Allison to describe an apparent tendency towards war when an emerging power threatens to displace an existing great power as a regional or international hegemon. It was coined and is primarily used to describe a potential conflict between the United States and the People's Republic of China.

Fucked up or not, the Earth's nuclear powers do not seem to be in a mood to negotiate.

Yes, I see that we are in a period of great uncertainty, perhaps the most challenging period since WW2. By mutual agreement, Russia was left in control of Eastern Europe at the end of WW2 and we did not attempt to intervene in the 1956 Hungarian uprising or Prague Spring in 1968. However, since the collapse of the Soviet Union many of those countries have joined the EU and NATO and we are heavily committed to supporting Ukraine in its goal of maintaining its independence and eventually joining the EU and possibly NATO. It puts us very much on a collision course with a Russian leadership who prefer an autocratic system and control over Eastern Europe.

It's a disappointment that the large and growing economic trade we have with China hasn't been enough to create a friendly relationship. China's tremendous economic growth has instead led to bullying of other Asian countries in the South China Sea and a growing threat of annexing Taiwan through force. China is well on its way to having the largest navy in the world and as they are also building aircraft carriers they are heading towards being able to apply force to any shore region in the world just as the US Navy has been able to do since WW2. Considering that Taiwan is the dominant source of computer chips in the world we are really caught between a rock and a hard place. Even if we ignore the fact that China is a nuclear power our dependency on them for manufacturing would make a war with them very problematic. However, if we stand by passively and allow them to annex Taiwan we become even more dependent on them.

A big topic in the Canadian media recently has been China's involvement in interfering with Canada's last Federal election.

[Plantagenet]

It's a disappointment that the large and growing economic trade we have with China hasn't been enough to create a friendly relationship.

Yup. Nixon's original China strategy was to open up China and then split China away from Russia....and that worked pretty well for almost 50 years.



But thanks to Joe Biden's incompetence those days are gone.....Biden has foolishly driven Russia into China's arms, and created a strong economic and military alliance between the two countries.

I expect Chinese military aid to start showing up in Russia very soon.

China is well on its way to having the largest navy in the world and as they are also building aircraft carriers they are heading towards being able to apply force to any shore region in the world just as the US Navy has been able to do since WW2. Considering that Taiwan is the dominant source of computer chips in the world we are really caught between a rock and a hard place. Even if we ignore the fact that China is a nuclear power our dependency on them for manufacturing would make a war with them very problematic. However, if we stand by passively and allow them to annex Taiwan we become even more dependent on them..

Yup. And it's not entirely up to us.

The Taiwanese have to decide for themselves whether or not they want to stand up to China, just as the Ukrainians had to decide to stand up to Russia.

Just two days ago the Taiwanese told the Speaker of the House not to visit, because they were afraid of a repeat of the Chinese blockade that followed Speaker Pelosi's visit last summer.

AND The latest news is that the Chinese Navy cut the submarine internet cables between Taiwan and one of its islands. No word yet on how the Taiwanese will respond to that.

Cheers!

[Serial_Worrier]

China's navy is a joke. They don't have a single aircraft carrier that is even Nimitz-class level, much less Gerald Ford-class. Much less a carrier strike force that is anything equivalent to the US Navy which has 11! China is deluded if they think they can conquer Taiwan.

[Shaved Monkey]

Former Australian Prime Minister on the US Australia UK and China
Suggests Chinas only interest is towards the East through the Stans for development
Suggests the only reason China is considered an enemy is because it will become economically more powerful than the US.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... sw-vic-qld

He is quite a clever guy a deep thinker and actually from the right faction within a Centre Left Government

[theluckycountry]

It's a disappointment that the large and growing economic trade we have with China hasn't been enough to create a friendly relationship. China's tremendous economic growth has instead led to bullying of other Asian countries in the South China Sea and a growing threat of annexing Taiwan through force.

I hope you're just pointing out the facts and it's consequences for the US and not making a statement that what China is doing is somehow inherently evil. The Philippine-American war back at the turn of last century was quite a radical step. The US had already smashed Mexico, a free nation, and then it was on the other side of the pacific enslaving a nation?

In light of what the US has done in it's past what the Chinese are doing today is like courting compared to rape. The simple fact is the world will always be at war, regardless of what some suburban liberals claim about peaceful coexistence. When our side is winning and we are reaping all the benefits it's never a problem. No one complains then. It's only when some other world power rises up that claims of "Injustice" abound.

https://daily.jstor.org/the-ugly-origin ... ilippines/

[theluckycountry]

Former Australian Prime Minister on the US Australia UK and China
Suggests Chinas only interest is towards the East through the Stans for development
Suggests the only reason China is considered an enemy is because it will become economically more powerful than the US.

I can see that too. Australian politicians though are no different that US politicians in that they are bought and paid for, controlled no doubt by European banking interests. it's not such a stretch of the imagination given the facts and the foreign policies of the two nations.

The world is going through a 4th turning again, the 4th Kondrateef cycle, and a changing of the guard as it were. From British Empire to American Empire, from American Empire to...

[Newfie]

Former Australian Prime Minister on the US Australia UK and China
Suggests Chinas only interest is towards the East through the Stans for development
Suggests the only reason China is considered an enemy is because it will become economically more powerful than the US.

I can see that too. Australian politicians though are no different that US politicians in that they are bought and paid for, controlled no doubt by European banking interests. it's not such a stretch of the imagination given the facts and the foreign policies of the two nations.

The world is going through a 4th turning again, the 4th Kondrateef cycle, and a changing of the guard as it were. From British Empire to American Empire, from American Empire to...

Kondrateef cycle
Had to look that up. I am familiar with the concept, read a book on it, but never heard this phrase.

The book I read had a bit of a more Empire centric base. With empires, based on some technology, go through a similar cycle.

My thought is this time is different. The British Empire only partially collapsed, in some ways it simply transfered it center from London to Washington.

Then DC did something new, globalization. Now that innovation has run its course and we will see a global retrenchment. It is just that not all areas will experience it the same way.

Call the retrenchment what you will, I call it degrowth. It will be a period where our modern financial assumptions l be proven no longer adequate, new modles based on sustainability will eventually emerge, but that will be a long and nasty fight. What those modles look like is beyond my imagination.

[theluckycountry]

The world is going through a 4th turning again, the 4th Kondrateef cycle, and a changing of the guard as it were. From British Empire to American Empire, from American Empire to...

Kondrateef cycle
Had to look that up. I am familiar with the concept, read a book on it, but never heard this phrase.

The book I read had a bit of a more Empire centric base. With empires, based on some technology, go through a similar cycle.

It's a capitalist cycle. Kondratieff Wave: A long-term cycle present in capitalist economies that represents long-term, high-growth and low-growth economic periods.

The Soviet economist Nikolai Kondratiev did the work for stalin and was reportedly sent to the Gulag when he didn't make the predictions stalin wanted to hear lol.

My thought is this time is different. The British Empire only partially collapsed, in some ways it simply transfered it center from London to Washington...
Call the retrenchment what you will, I call it degrowth. It will be a period where our modern financial assumptions l be proven no longer adequate, new modles based on sustainability will eventually emerge, but that will be a long and nasty fight. What those modles look like is beyond my imagination.

New models eh. Well since we will be coming off a low energy base I would suggest horses and carts. A big erroneous assumption the average person makes I believe is that this future will be egalitarian. There is no evidence for that, but there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The super wealthy are getting wealthier and the poorer poorer, all across the globe. This is because there is not enough cheap energy to let us all party like we did after 1945. In the future the energy will be even more expensive, more scarce, and the wealthy will not be giving up their share just so a bunch of working class people can invade their ski slopes and their waterways.

During the pandemic here the nation was locked down and the airlines grounded but hollywood actors like Natalie Portman, Matt Damon, and notably (because he was hospitalized for covid) Tom hanks, flew in on private jets and were exempted by the government from the covid laws.

Hollywood Down Under: stars flock from US to film in Covid-free Australia
March 2021
Here for the latest instalment of Marvel’s Thor franchise are Natalie Portman, Matt Damon, Tessa Thompson, Chris Pratt, Christian Bale, the New Zealand director Taika Waititi and the Australian star Chris Hemsworth. Fellow Australian Isla Fisher and her husband, Sacha Baron Cohen, have relocated their family to Sydney, where the pair first met 20 years ago. Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban came back too.
Many of the stars have quarantined in luxury mansions or rolling country estates, with special exemptions that let them skip the hotels and state police and instead hire private security to enforce their isolation. As of this month, Efron was living in a “luxurious yet dated” four-bedroom property in the “Spanish-mission style” in Sydney, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... -australia

That's how the world really works Newfie, and we had better get prepared for the future on that basis.

[Newfie]

In broad generalities we agree. But at 72 I have less to worry about.

Serious now, I don't know any details of where the world is headed and, outside a few places like here, I don't even hear discussion. I believe the few people who have some awareness are too scared of it to openly engage in the conversation.

That is why I never get invited to parties, I speak my mind, and it is bloody dark.

[jato0072]

That is why I never get invited to parties, I speak my mind, and it is bloody dark.

I can totally relate.

[Plantagenet]

That is why I never get invited to parties, I speak my mind, and it is bloody dark.

EXACTLY RIGHT.

Some years ago I made some "bloody dark" youtube videos about climate change and its consequences and they got about zero views on Youtube.

And then later I made a video of a moose wandering around my land and I entitled it something like FRIENDLY MOOSE and the video went viral and got thousands and thousands of views.

People don't want to hear about all that dark vision stuff.

People want friendly moose and cute puppy dogs and fat lovable cats.


Give the people what they want.....

Cheers!