Politics

[E. Gadd Industries]

I would agree except I don't think anyone should have to subject themselves to those textwalls to interpret them for us laypeople. Let E. Gadd live. He's done nothing wrong.

I just saw something about FDR, Hoover, and Obama skimming through and decided to read it more in-depth. Otherwise I would've continued skimming and wandered elsewhere

[Tobbeh99]

-American politics is finally calming down even though it took longer
-War with NoKo isn't as likely as you might think
-Various journalists of both sidedness of the political spectrum are talking about Trump, some are worried about the lack of "politicians" in the trump admin
-Tobbeh's take on the whole thing: this election is like the previous Swedish election because the winning right wing party sold itself on being the new worker's party, which ticked the left off (in Sweden), but the right government started becoming centrist/left leaning
-History is repeating itself: Hoover is Bush, FDR is Obama, and Trump is Truman.
-Bernie Sanders seems chill with the new budget plan, which is good because he traditionally opposes Trump. This means the nation isn't as divided: Also a good thing

-Tobbeh's changed his view on Swedish politics, feeling like the left has a good chance
-Swedish parties doing stuff
-Swedish parties not doing stuff
-The Swedish left was kinda becoming impersonal, making people not like them as much, which almost pushed Tobbeh to go to the right.

-This'll be Tobbeh's last politics post for a while (he thinks) because politics is becoming boring to him and he feels his analysis has summed up everything currently happening effectively

Wow! Greatly summarized! thanks

[Pianist Da Sootopolis]

can't wait until I have to pay 9.99 a month to be able to use this site

[E. Gadd Industries]

Wow! Greatly summarized! thanks

No problem mate!

can't wait until I have to pay 9.99 a month to be able to use this site

Ey, where'd you get the discount at?

[mikey]

I don't understand this.  net neutrality means that isps can't change your rates or speeds, but don't isps use contracts anyway, which means doing so would be a violation of contract?  eg we get 18 mbps of download speed for 10 a month.  will we all of a sudden not be getting 18/will they be able to raise the rate?  I can't imagine that's how that works

  the only stuff I can find on the internet explains how bad losing net neutrality is

[PlayfulPiano]

I don't understand this.  net neutrality means that isps can't change your rates or speeds, but don't isps use contracts anyway, which means doing so would be a violation of contract?  eg we get 18 mbps of download speed for 10 a month.  will we all of a sudden not be getting 18/will they be able to raise the rate?  I can't imagine that's how that works

  the only stuff I can find on the internet explains how bad losing net neutrality is

Many people even before NN was repealed had rates which weren't matched to their contract. Or, more likely, the rate 'legalese' was "Up to 18mbps for 10$ a month", allowing that data to be decreased legally.

[mikey]

if that's the case, how much does it change?

[Yug_Guy]

I don't understand this.  net neutrality means that isps can't change your rates or speeds, but don't isps use contracts anyway, which means doing so would be a violation of contract?

ISP's would likely try and find a loophole in order to charge their customers more, but that wold probably happen regardless of NN rules or not.

eg we get 18 mbps of download speed for 10 a month.  will we all of a sudden not be getting 18/will they be able to raise the rate?  I can't imagine that's how that works

What will likely happen is that 18 mbps will be your "premium" speed, where in order to use it, you will have to pay an added fee on top of your existing plan to use certain websites. Imagine something like a "streaming services" package, where you have to pay an additional $19.99 a month in order to get your 18 mbps speed for things like Netflix, Youtube, etc. Now think of how many packages you will have to buy in order to have every website available at the maximum download speed.

[mikey]

well it's a good thing internet isn't necessary for life then, jeez
and it's a good thing I have tracfone for internet browsing

[Zunawe]

TracFone piggybacks off the networks of the big telecom companies (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, etc...), so it's not immune.

[Tobbeh99]

Can't help but to think of politics. It just feels too important. But my focus now is on "diplomacy" and "foreign relations". And I'm looking at USA, Europe, UK, EU, and Russia. And I'm excluding China from this list because it doesn't feel as relevant (it's sort of like the "land far far away", both from Europe and from US (the sheer distance).

And I see an epic possibility for great peace between all these big nations and superpowers. But it's hard, like solving the millennium puzzle (or some other hard/impossible riddle). And the biggest problem the exist is "the logic". I think people can feel a sense of peace, but they don't understand that. So I'm going to try to explain this in an elegant and a bit poetic/visual way.

My pictures of all the countries (I'm from Sweden, so I'm in the middle of this crazy proxy war thing, so I see both to the west and to the east what's going on):

The US: When I think about the US with Trump's leadership, I immediately think of "the jazz music". And the next think I see is "the gambler" or "the person who owns the casinos where people gamble". Combine that and you pretty much get "Casino Night Zone". So it's like this dark picture, like Trump's has some "dark aura" and the place he is and maybe even want to in, is in a casino. So he's dark and the casino's dark, and it's pretty dark . He kind of feels like a madman and a genius, 2 sides of the same coin. Because gambling is bad as you can lose. But you can also win, so you can get the black side of the coin or the golden side of it. Which is what I think is happening to the US economy, "casino capitalism". Which may sound bad, but it can also be very powerful. And as a weapon in foreign relations, when dealing with "enemies" aka Russia, Iran and probably also China (it's not that hard tbh. to see how the foreign relations in the world looks like). Because even if Putin is a smart KJB agent who happen to rig the election and get Trump in place as a puppet. He'll never be able to control the free market, the capitalism, the "casino capitalism". Like how do you control the entire US? Nope it's impossible, because of all the people living there, being unique and making their own decisions. It's pretty much impossible or something you don't even want to try because it's costs so much energy doing it. So that's the "positive side" of the casino. That it's random, and hard/impossible to control. But the problem with kind of economy is that it will only last for a certain amount of time (like some time-bomb ticking down). Everything in the world both advantages and disadvantages, have an enemy and a friend, it's in nature. I talked about the advantage being it's unpredictability. But the disadvantage of the "casino capitalism" is all the people getting broke from gambling, it's basically "you lost. It's game over". And also the fact that it is a casino, so it only last as long as people have interest in the casino, if it get's boring, or if people have a "sound mind" and doesn't gamble, it all falls down. So that's the enemy. The friend is a mixture of different things like common sense, soundness, not only just having a casino but also a bank or something to store valuable assets in. So that's the economy of the US.

Russia: Russia has problems. When I think about Putin as Russia's president I immediately hear some old Russian hymn like "Song of Volga Boatmen", and Putin listing to it while drinking a fresh glass of vodka. Like he as president doesn't matter, but more so the country/ the land it self, The land and the vodka. Like the "Russian spirit" exist within the land itself! And why does the land sing? Because of how pale Putin has become. And that leads me to the problem Russia is facing.
The biggest problem they have is that they're are even communists. Seems stupid, but a good political analyst from Azerbaijan talked about how Russia tried liberalism during Yeltsin's presidency, which failed catastrophically. It lead to what is known as "the big bang" (they're version of "black [insert day when the stock market crashed]". Which followed what is known in Russia as "The great depression" (same name there as what happened in the US and Europe in the 30s). All that lead to that the Russians got panicky, when they saw how the economy was completely screwed. And when they get panicky, they go out and have a revolution (not really, more like uproar/riots in reality), which lead to that Putin became president. And funny enough, he was looked upon as hero, being a KJB agent, having strong roots in communism (like Lenin and Stalin). And I think he actually made Russia's economy better. But the problem now is that his time is "running out". If he was the man who came and fixed everything, now h's not that much needed. He erected a statue of Ivan IV "the terrible" (Which is symbolical of how cold he has become. And also how bad. But Ivan IV actually united Russia, so it's probably a historical symbolism, as Putin also did similar thing administratively, after Yeltsin divided the land). So Putin is really balancing on the edge. But as his time runs out, it probably is going to be some sort of revolution. Either that or he steps down, retiring, and then like hand picks a new leader with more energy and more "communism" within that leader. How Russia works 101, Tsars and Communism. xD

UK: UK has an annoying position between EU/Europe, and USA. May clearly want's to run the land with conservative politics (or maybe liberal-conservative). But she has both an issue with Trump and USA, and EU (which probably is headed by Merkel and Macron, or maybe Donald Tusk. Who knows? ). And she seem to have an issue with Trump, but also wanting to preserve some historical, cultural and political bonds. But it is hard as I think that she thinks that Trump is too rough and unpredictable. And it is possible that she also sees similarities to the 80s with Reagan and Thatcher getting along well. And she having the nickname "the steel lady", really makes that comparison very strong. I think that I'm a realist saying that she want's to have the brexit process done, before she can try to have deals and relations with USA and Trump. And I think that will leverage her and UK's situation, and become more calm.

EU/Europe: It's pretty similar tbh. I'd say EU is more an administrative platform, and Europe the geographical continent. Europe struggling with being positioned between 2 superpowers, Russia and USA. Which makes most countries confused, asking the question "should we chose liberalism, like USA, or communism, like Russia". And everyone probably have their own opinion about that. Some might say "aha, we chose conservatism", but I think that after a while becomes a pointless choice/not on the table. You immediately ask yourself then "what do you mean by conservatism? Europe has changed throughout the years, just read some history book.". So that isn't a viable choice, but more something some nostalgic person would say. And I'd say that EU and Europe lean towards Liberalism, like lean towards USA. But Trump being a complicated president, really does slow things down. As the EU knows that every piece have to be laid perfectly for the relations between US and Europe to work. So it is clear that Europe/EU really want's control, see all the ins and outs, so that they can calculate all the chances and the risks, so the can avoid like some economic disaster or other dumb political scandals. And I don't think Russia is any big problem. But just because it's a neighboring country to some EU countries, makes so that it just had to be taken into consideration (like Mexico for the USA). But otherwise it's isn't that dangerous as it isn't some "communistic war machine" like it was when Stalin was president (or actually dictator). So it's more of sleeping giant, like some bear, which if you just leave it alone, it'll be fine. Putin even endorsed some neighboring countries', Finland specifically, sovereignty. Which makes me feel that Putin and Russia isn't a real and immediate threat to Europe. Europe also don't want to deal with conservatism as of Europe's dark past during Nazi Germany (so looking back doesn't seem like an option.).

I could also talk about China. I think China will be weaker as a superpower. It is of lately that it has grown strong. But something tells me that I think that there will be an economic meltdown there, which also might trigger some revolution-esque thoughts. China also is an ally to Russia, maybe more "communistic" but Russia, China and North Korea (and maybe some smaller countries in southern Asia) is basically "the read field" or "the communistic countries". So Trump's attempt with saying that Russia and China are enemies is really a fake Trump card as, they're basically neighbors in every way imaginable, geographically and politically. But y, I think companies will leave China and go to Europe or US, as I think China's reputation will decrease. And if it does so, companies will leave, and the economy will drop.

I think it would be very well if USA, Europe and Russia had some meeting where they came to some agreement. Putin talks about how he want a reset of US-Russia relations. And Europe/EU clearly has something to say being in the middle. I think the best option is to have it as it used to be that Europe and US share a common ground, and Russia and China is on the other side. I think that that will make the situation in the world more stable. I think that will get rid of all the corruption, the lies and the tension. And if that happens I think that that can create better diplomatic relations, which creates peace. A reset with USA and Europe, and Russia and China, would be almost like some Nixon-Mao and Reagan-Gorbachev at the same time! Pretty epic I'd say. After that I think that there will be some sort of recession in Europe. But I think that will be nice as can empower people to do better rather than living in status quo. Which I'd appreciate, living in Europe.   

I've been having some dilemma with Trump as president, and him as a person. I think the thing that it boils down to are 2 things:
1) that he doesn't seem to have any fears, like no boundaries and
2) that he's to impulsive. And #1 is obviously is bad in every way possible as you could let bad stuff happen to you and also make bad stuff happen to other people. It can be good having little fear as it makes you courageous, but I think that most people can agree on that fear is actually a good emotion or a necessary emotion. And #2 is more of just a personal thing, that I have problems with him being so braggy and all that. But too be honest I think #2 isn't that bad, he's just an extrovert social guy. But #1 is more complicated. But I think it's physically impossible to not fear anything (actually it is possible if you literally have no amygdala, but that is a super rare disorder). I think that even the most wild or cold psychopath (which is something I've read a bit about to get stuff clear) will at some point get something that makes them fear, more or the less. Even reading something about Trump, he apparently fears stairs and slopes (god knows why.). And the reason I'm bringing this up is because I think that fear can help reduce braggyness (or whatever it is called) and improve humbleness, which is a characteristic that I think is desperately needed in today's world (with all kinds of leaders acting very coldly). To me, Pence, seem way more stable than Trump and I can even imagine that he'd make a more stable presidency (like father and child, lol...). But that isn't the case. And to reduce the sense of dictatorship I think that the administration has to increase it's humbleness, which I think can come through fear (which I think it's obvious that Pence have, being afraid of like gay people or pro-abortion people. But less obvious that Trump has). 


tl:dr:

Foreign relations:

USA: USA is a casino, who knows for how long that will last.

Russia: Doesn't has as much communism in it as it use to have.

UK: Tough spot in between USA and Europe.

Europe: Pretty divided ideologically between Liberalism and Communism. But will have to chose and wants to chose liberalism, leaving Russia as a sleeping bear/giant.

China: ...who knows, who cares. Might crash their economy as companies move to Europe and USA. More communistic that Russia, which is their neighbor and friend. But also kind of corrupt (crony-capitalism).

Would be epic if all these superpowers would meet and agree on some things and reset the situation. It would be like like some Nixon-Mao and Reagan-Gorbachev at the same time. Pretty epic!


I have 2 problems with Trump which I both think can be solved:
#1 he seem to have no fears, no boundaries/limits. But I think that he actually does as you have to have a rare disease to completely have no fears (even some crazy psycopaths have fears, but they just have way less/harder to feel it.). And I think it would be good if he had fears as I think that leads to a person being more humble (as you'll have to rely on other people to help you with your fears)
#2 He's to social and extrovert. Honestly more of a personal problem. Not a big issue. I like more calm people than "big suns".

[Olimar12345]

So how's that tumblr account coming along?

[Yug_Guy]

Okay, Tobbeh, we need to have a little chat:

I get it; you have a lot of thoughts and opinions rolling around in your mind, and you want to share them with the world. Like a public diary, if you will. I get that.

But, the way you're going about doing this isn't all that great. It's been said before that when users are greeted with a giant wall of text, that they usually ignore it. I can attest that I usually ignore it, and I'm sure many others would agree with me. I'm sorry to be the one to say that, but it's the truth. This creates a two-fold problem: no one pays attention to your posts, and they end up taking a lot of space. And because of this, I'm sorry to say you've built up a bit of a... reputation, for lack of a better word.

I know that we've been bugging you about taking these posts and moving them somewhere else, and I get it if you feel like you might feel personally attacked or offended by it. But if I'm speaking honestly, your long posts have really become a bit of a nuisance at this point.

So please, Tobbeh, if you want to share your thoughts the way you've been doing it, please find a better site to do so (be it your own personal website, Tumblr, etc.). We don't mind if you share a paragraph every now and again, but posting a 2300 word essay like you just did is not something the rest of us appreciate.

I'm sorry if this came off as mean-spirited or toxic, I don't mean for it to come off that way. I just would like this issue resolved as peacefully as possible.

[Altissimo]

To add to the above (all of which I agree with), another thing is that forums like this are usually a place for engaging in discussion with multiple people. I haven't seen many instances where you respond to a prompt by someone else. Communication is a two-way street that takes multiple people listening and speaking in turn, and sometimes it seems like you're not really interested in actually beginning - or continuing - a dialogue with other users. Most of the time your large posts tend to start a new topic rather than following up on something previously mentioned or discussed, so it's hard to respond to them since they seem more like "let me tell the world what I think" rather than "I am interested in talking about my views/opinions/life/etc with others and hearing them talk about the same things". That's another reason we are staging this uh... intervention I guess.

[swimswamit]

jesus tobbeh that's your magnum opus