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- Topics: Active | Unanswered
- Randall Flagg
- Rep: 139
Re: Current Events Thread
The central fact about the democratic world today is that it is leaderless.
Twenty-five years ago, we had the confident presences of Bill Clinton, Helmut Kohl and Tony Blair — and Alan Greenspan. Now we have a failing American president, a timorous German chancellor, a British prime minister about to skulk out of office in ignominy and a chairman of the Federal Reserve who last year flubbed the most important decision of his career. Elsewhere: the resignation of Italy’s prime minister, a caretaker government in Israel, the assassination of Japan’s dominant political figure.
This is bad in normal times. It is catastrophic in bad ones. We are stumbling, half-blind, into four distinct but mutually reinforcing crises, each compounding the other.
The first crisis is one of international credibility. The war in Ukraine is not merely a crisis unto itself. It is a symptom of a crisis, which began with a withdrawal from Afghanistan that telegraphed incompetence and weakness and whose consequences were easily predictable. Beyond Ukraine, in which President Biden has committed enough support to prevent outright defeat but not to secure a clear victory, there is an imminent nuclear crisis with Iran, in which the president seems to have no policy other than negotiations that are on the cusp of failure, and another looming crisis over Taiwan, in which he alternates between challenging Beijing and trying to mollify it.
Talented leaders turn proverbial lemons into lemonade. Biden seems to be mastering the trick of turning lemonade into lemons. He has risen just enough to the occasion in Ukraine — generating a moment of allied unity and resolve — to have that much more to lose if it loses. If the war is still raging in winter and Europe caves to Russian energy blackmail (by, for instance, demanding that Kyiv accept an armistice in some kind of humiliating Minsk 3 agreement), what conclusions will Tehran and Beijing draw?
The second crisis is one of economic credibility. This is distinct from a normal economic crisis, which can happen for reasons leaders do not control. The credibility crisis occurs when leaders make confident predictions, in the face of abundant contrary evidence, that turn out to be catastrophically wrong. Insisting that inflation was “temporary,” as Biden did last year, was one such prediction. His insistence on Monday that “God willing, I don’t think we’re going to see a recession” may be the next.
Economic credibility is vital when decisions are bound to be painful. At least Jimmy Carter had the guts to nominate Paul Volcker. Where is a similar confidence-inspiring move from Biden, who, remarkably, retains the same inept economic team that helped lead us into this mess? And how much graver are the consequences of economic incompetence if a U.S. recession aggravates a global recession, which the International Monetary Fund expects is coming soon?
The third crisis is in poorer countries. Sri Lanka’s political and economic collapse this month, spurred partly by the pandemic but mainly by domestic mismanagement, is a foretaste of what we can expect in other developing countries, from Pakistan to Mexico to much of Africa. But unlike in Sri Lanka, crises in those places aren’t likely to remain within their own borders. In Pakistan, economic crisis can quickly turn into a nuclear crisis. In African nations and Mexico, the risks are in the form of state collapse and mass migration.
The last time the world had a global recession (and spiking food prices), the result was the Arab Spring, civil wars in Syria and Libya, the rise of the Islamic State, migrant waves into Europe and populist revolts that included Brexit and the election of Donald Trump. Imagine all this but on a vastly greater scale, a year or two from today.
The fourth crisis is one of liberal democracy. Democracy is not its own justification. It justifies itself by what it delivers: security, stability, predictability, prosperity — and then consent, choice and freedom.
People who have spent their entire lives in stable democracies often assume that freedom is everyone’s supreme value. The depressing lesson of the past 20 years is that it isn’t. Illiberal democracy, on the Hungarian model, can be a successful form of government. Ditto for effective autocracies, like in Singapore and the United Arab Emirates. Democracies that fail at delivery — by letting prices or crime or control of borders or common understandings of right and wrong get out of hand — put the best of what they stand for at risk.
The free world will always retain formidable advantages over its antidemocratic adversaries because we are better able to acknowledge our mistakes and correct them. But the cascading crises we face would challenge even the most inspired leaders. Except for Volodymyr Zelensky, there are none.
The best thing Biden could do for the country is announce he won’t run for re-election — now, not after the midterms. Let his party sort out its own future. Appoint a confidence-inspiring Treasury secretary (if not Larry Summers, then Jamie Dimon). Ensure that Ukraine wins swiftly. Put fear and hesitation in the minds of dictators in Moscow, Tehran and Beijing.
It might be enough to rescue a floundering presidency in a sinking world.
- Randall Flagg
- Rep: 139
Re: Current Events Thread
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/whats- … hange-bill
I can’t find anything in there I’m uncomfortable with. Anything that encourages a movement to electric vehicles and nuclear power, I’m for. There’s no carbon restrictions in this bill.
Why shouldn’t the federal government negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies?
A 15% minimum tax on corporations seems like a great way to fund part of the previous trillion dollar packages.
Manchin got something useful put through and forced the progressives to drop 99% of their pork. I call this a win.
If this new political party making the news today runs Manchin in 24, that’s who I’ll be voting for.
- Randall Flagg
- Rep: 139
- Smoking Guns
- Rep: 330
Re: Current Events Thread
Totally looks up for the challenge of a presidential campaign
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FY9_Hh2akAE … ame=medium
Time for Big Dick Ron (BDR) De Santis. Enough of this shit.
- Randall Flagg
- Rep: 139
Re: Current Events Thread
China is stating they're going to launch a targeted military response since Pelosi needed a distraction from her husband's insider trading. Doesn't it feel good to have the adults in charge again? I for one know how excited I am that WW3 is inching closer since 2020 rather than becoming less likely from 2016-2020.
Re: Current Events Thread
Been watching coverage of this on various channels/platforms since waking up.
Some act like this is being a bit overblown. Bullshit. If anything... we're minimizing the seriousness of the crisis.
This is probably the Cuban Missile crisis of this generation...if not worse.
It was a tough spot for the US. I agree she had no business being there. It should've been nipped in the bud. Having said that...
The moment China ramped up the military threats guaranteed that she was going. I don't care who you are...China or Timbuktu...you don't tell the US what it can or cannot do. This goes back to the Cold War.... maybe earlier.
China should've had a different approach...maybe even laugh it off or mock the incident...maybe something like an official tweet from China saying "Welcome to China!".
This is really dangerous. Now they're going to look weak if they sit back and do nothing...but as Flagg just pointed out, shit is already happening....
A hack in Taiwan
China's Navy and Army have been mobilized and on alert
Their two carriers are on the verge of a game of chicken with the USS Reagan carrier group and USS Tripoli. As we all know, the US doesn't blink in these "games". So then what?
I always hated Pelosi and this is one more reason showing she's out of touch and has overstayed her welcome. She needs to ride off into the sunset with her hundreds of millions... probably deserved jail actually.
Now this 82 year old parasite is literally a flashpoint for WWIII.
Sickening.
I'm going shopping today and going to stock up on some essentials as well in the offchance a world war breaks out.
Most of the pieces are in place in Europe for a US/NATO intervention in Ukraine. If this Taiwan crisis spirals out of control, that region will heat up as well.
Scary times.
Re: Current Events Thread
Man....that Chinese buildup happening on the beaches is bat shit insane...the most ominous being that train loaded with tanks headed there.
Reminded me of that cell phone footage taken in Germany a couple months ago of that never ending train loaded with American tanks headed to Poland.
