chenGOD

I mean, the US still remains the largest total stock of foreign investment. But countries like South Korea, Japan, Australia, Vietnam etc. are not going to ignore their largest trading partner, especially in 2020 when the US was being run by a wannabe tinpot dictator. Once countries see some semblance of competence in the US, FDI will likely be renewed.

Getting people in positions of power who subscribe to the same political philosophy of the party in power? I'm sure giving it more than 30 seconds of thought it would be easy to come up with a few ways to abuse such a platform.

Speaking of state media: Palace not mine, Putin says.

Do you really think that under a regime like Trump's (I hate coming back to him) or Putin's, this wouldn't be abused? Canada has the CBC (state owned, but managed at arms' length), and people still accuse it of bias (both liberal and conservative, so they must be doing something right lol).

Fair enough re: propaganda. I think that public-sector social media should exist alongside well-regulated private sector. Not only one or the other. But imagine public-sector social media under *shudder* Trump.

I'm talking about social media. China censors the shit out of social media, never mind the state media. Russia censors their own homegrown social media services VK and Telegram: https://biztechclub.com/2018/09/12/blocking-telegram-will-russias-internet-take-another-hit-of-censorship/ I doubt removing propaganda ruins their business model, which is predicated on their ability to keep your eyeballs on the screen. You don't think they could keep users hooked with an algorithm showing NASCAR races/meth wars/IDM review channels? Also: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-politics-navalny-message-idUSKBN29R2BE Navalny says he has no thoughts of suicide. Someone's learning from Epstein.

Chinese social media is an absolute shitshow of censorship, I'd think strong regulation is more effective (i.e. allowing free speech until it is viewed as causing harm/seditious/racist/etc.) but it has be done early and it has to be consistent. It's a tough ask, you'd need huge amounts of resources to monitor effectively, and AI isn't there yet. Not absolving the social media companies of any wrongdoing, just pointing out a couple of the issues they would need to address. As well, they'd have to hire therapists for the content review teams, they see some truly horrific shit (much worse than two absolute munters going at it over grammar points).

He didn't get sacked, and Sarri probably didn't give a fuck about reading it anyway. Still not welcome back at the bridge though lol.

FLOL Chelsea and managers getting the sack: This is the first one for Mourinho: "Chelsea Football Club and José Mourinho have agreed to part company today (Thursday) by mutual consent.” ??? This after he'd won them their first title in 50 years, absolute disgrace of a club.

The UN vote map is pretty meaningless - the resolution was promoted by China and Russia, so obvious political games are afoot. The other story is more telling about the cultural influence of neo-nazism, and is more worrisome than I realized. Although I wonder if one can call it neo-nazism in the Ukraine, given their history with the Nazis. This is an interesting read on the current situation: http://www.radicalrightanalysis.com/2019/11/30/zelensky-struggles-to-contain-ukraines-neo-nazi-problem/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far-right_politics_in_Ukraine ??

As she's not running for office again, she won't be able to affect things one way or the other. Your original post said: "Russia becoming more and more authoritarian (not that it wasn't that before) is partly to blame on Merkel." Also, I disagree that more diplomatic engagement would have constrained Putin. He would have done largely the same as Hu and Xi in China, and built power under the guise of friendliness with the West. The end result would have been the same (though originating from different ideological positions). https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/24/russia-downplays-navalny-protests-as-it-dismisses-us-diktats Russian gov. speaks!

Yeah my bad, I misinterpreted your comments. I blame all the belgian ale!

Foreign reporters I meant by foreigners. Apologies for not being more clear. Didn't Merkel start out as being big on deregulation? Weird to hear her called left, but I suppose her policies on the migrants is very left of center. Tried to keep on topic but tangents are always such fun. Interesting to see the difference in reporting. Indian Express reports over 800 arrested BBC reports more than 3000 detained Deutsche Welle reports “thousands detained” (including 460 in St. Petersburg @ignatius, where Russians are also protesting ? ) and not to beat a dead horse but one can’t help but think the US govt response would have have been slightly different (if there was one at all) had Biden not won the election.

https://www.worldoil.com/news/2021/1/21/merkel-stands-by-nord-stream-2-but-is-open-to-discussing-russia-with-biden https://www.ft.com/content/a26cacdf-7238-4417-b0b7-696eeeeb239c So it’s the party and not her that opposes it? Or have the foreigners got it all wrong? Asking honestly - I know nothing about German politics. I do know that sanctions on Russia will do nothing to improve the lot of the people, not will they dissuade the Russian leaders from being corrupt as hell (for the same reason they won’t work in North Korea). I suppose the bit about Merkel is largely moot, as it appears she has said she won’t run again for Chancellor?

Ah ok that clears things up, cause I knew that Merkel opposed the US sanctions and pushed (is pushing?) for more Russian natural resources to flow to Germany. I think your last sentence here is likely accurate. Putin was still consolidating power during Schröder‘s terms in office. So much like China, it’s been a build up of power. Both have played a smart long game (China was arguably better at the deceit leading up to the present) but they are both showing their true colours as authoritarians out in the open now. The upholding of the elections in the US was a vital show of democracy and the power that the electorate has. It was also a very powerful reminder that those institutions we trust (in democratic countries) continue to be safeguarded and protected, as well as modernized where necessary to address the evolution of society.

Exactly what someone engaged in Russian psyops would say.

What parts of Merkels’ policy do you think contributed to Putin becoming more authoritarian?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-politics-navalny-kremlin-idUSKBN29R10S Russians in Moscow protesting against Putin's corruption. Surprise response from Russian authorities - they are arresting the hell out of protestors and actually suppressing their speech. Who could have seen that coming... Here's the documentary that Navalny produced on Putin and corruption, I haven't watched it all yet, but it looks like a blinder. Watch it with the CC (unless you speak Russian - there must be some Russian speakers on here?).

This is the truth. I remember years ago in some coffee shop in Seoul, there was a jazz standard playing, and the girl behind the counter was saying to her co-worker something along the lines of "how weird is it to have music without words". This was like, My Funny Valentine or Take Five or something like those easily recognizable classics, not some Stockhausen or Penderecki piece lol. Anyways - @headplastic as much as you'll want to avoid terminology, like Thanos, it is inevitable (linguistic determinism, strong or weak, will certainly impact a piece of work such as the one you're writing), so you may wish to lay out your own definitions for context throughout the paper. I'd be happy to talk with you on the phone or something, I'm also in Ottawa, and I write policy (not cultural but still) so I guess I could be considered part of your target audience. I've also been a moderator on here for wayyyy too many years.

Yay some Friday morning listening!

They do that to prevent fraud, among other reasons.

Yeah obsolete was maybe the wrong word, irrelevant (even more so) is probably better.

No, but they will make mainstream adoption of crypto obsolete. Your shilling happened upthread with your statement of crypto creating a new elite, and yet you still consider it a viable means of coordinating global economies. If anything, crypto (especially BTC with its limited supply) will create an even smaller group of elite, with satoshi the king of them all (if his wallet ever starts to move coins, it will be interesting to see what happens to the price of BTC). BTC down 21% on the 7 day average and those are some big red candles on the charts.

Lol when you transfer money digitally over INTERAC, M-pesa, Alipay etc. it happens instantly. No waiting around for 3 confirmations (which, if BTC doesn't solve the scaling problem, will only get worse if more people end up using it - and no, LN is not a solution), and if you're defrauded, the possibility exists of getting your money back (banks don't like to be victims of fraud, it makes them look bad). You have no possibility of that happening with BTC. I can't wait until you start quoting libertarian economists. It may come sooner than I initially thought!