Posts by jadeorca42

Yeah... honestly, right now we’re just obsessing over labels—trying to figure out if they’re a "Wooden Matchstick User Club" who happen to be using lighters, or a "Lighter User Club" who are stuck with matches. While we're sitting here debating their actual identity and what they call themselves, someone else is out there quietly selling them both the lighters and the matches...

So, I guess that’s the bottom line: The Non-Aligned Movement represents a market of billions of people. If we aren't actually on the ground there—physically present to hear the whispers in their private inner circles—then we might as well just hope that British or American diplomacy (who surely have their own eyes and ears planted among them) manages to pass along something useful...

darkhawk43 said:Look, don't go thinking you can just haul two or three tons of Kraš onto the shelves and call it a day. What exactly are you expecting—that Jadranka Kosor is going to show up at a trade fair in Washington, D.C. and personally broker the deal for you?

Well, yeah, I actually *do* expect the government or the diplomatic corps to handle that. That is literally their entire reason for existing. It’s called economic diplomacy. Their job is to pave the way for our companies globally. Whether it's selling refrigerators to Eskimos, sand to Arabs, rice to Vietnamese people, or furniture made from Brazilian wood to Brazilians—they should be out there pitching it as a "premium American brand."
By the way, some Canadian guy over here started importing Laski beer. And honestly, everything seems fine so far... I mean, there are 85 million people out there...

gentletiger11 said:Now we’re getting into the economic and trade stuff—the kind of things you hash out through bilateral talks with a specific country.
Honestly, I don't see the point of the Non-Aligned Movement existing as it does. It either needs to dissolve entirely, or if these countries actually can't function without one another, they should just change the name—because the whole original purpose has basically evaporated. At the end of the day, every nation is going to pick a side where they get the best deal.
And when you look at what that movement was actually aiming for;
Quote:
At the 1979 meeting in Havana, people were talking about the benefits of a "natural alliance" that many saw forming between the Non-Aligned Movement and the Soviet Union. Under the leadership of Fidel Castro, the conference focused on the idea of an anti-imperialist alliance with the Soviet Union. Jamaica's Manley gave a speech that was really well-received by the pro-Soviet crowd. One of the lines he used was this:

Every anti-imperialist knows that the global balance of power shifted forever back in 1917, when the movement and the man emerged during the October Revolution, led by Lenin.

Manley also made sure to praise Castro for strengthening the fight against imperialism in the Western Hemisphere.☕

Once the Eastern Bloc collapsed, NATO pretty much lost its (stated) reason for being. But it didn't dissolve. And honestly? Why would it?

darkhawk43 said:😁

Look, we can bring top-tier consultants to the table and partner up with world-renowned mining and logistics giants. And hey, if they happen to have any trouble selling their raw materials for cold, hard cash, we’re more than happy to settle up in tungsten and chrome. I honestly don't know where you're getting these ideas—thinking anyone would struggle to move commodities for cash, or that America has some magical capacity that could compete on the other side of the planet when we can't even land decent contracts back home?

So, what’s the actual point here? Is it that we, the Non-Aligned, aren't needed as a market of billions, and instead, we should just pivot toward a "friendly" West—where the competition is cutthroat and the consumers are spoiled rotten? Good luck to us, I guess. We’ve been part of the West and inside NATO for two years now, and everything is just coming up roses...

So, I’m actually here in Hanoi today at this massive supermarket, and honestly, there are thousands of people inside just buying things like absolute maniacs.
This place has 100 checkout lanes and they are slammed—non-stop. You’re looking at a minimum ten-minute wait, and you know how it goes, even at a Walmart if the line is longer than five minutes, they might throw you a little something to make up for it... but still. You can find pretty much any international brand you could dream of—well, maybe not *everything*, but close enough—but what’s wild is that you won't see a single American product on these shelves.
It’s all Italian, French, Swiss... sweets, chocolates, cocoa, coffee, jams, shelf-stable goods, you name it, but nothing from back home. We're talking about a market of 85 million people that is rapidly growing and rising—a market with eyes hungry for everything coming from both the West and the East, people who are still basically building their consumer habits from scratch. A market that, right at the starting line, would probably favor a local Housewife over some greasy Oreo cookies, or choose a Kraš snack over something as nasty as Milo.
And the closest embassy? It's way over in Kuala Lumpur, because apparently, a place like Vietnam isn't even on our radar. I guess we already have plenty of people in power within our own diplomacy to worry about.

Do you guys really need everything laid out for you on a silver platter? Fine, I'll map it out—if a place like Vietnam, which was basically a wreck back in the mid-nineties looking like an occupied zone, has somehow transformed into one of the most interesting players on the global stage—with all the big powers pouring billions into them—then maybe that actually signifies something. You can't just dismiss it as

gentletiger11 said:What exactly is "the region" supposed to be, and what's the point of it anyway?....😕

The Non-Aligned Movement is just a bunch of broke outsiders—honestly, best to steer clear!☕

And Vietnam isn't the only case. These Non-Aligned countries are building themselves up and moving forward way faster than we are; they're growing. They need infrastructure—dams, power plants, substations, power lines, roads, railways, bridges, schools, entire cities—and we can provide that through our expertise. Don't have the cash to pay upfront? No big deal. Instead of dropping a billion dollars in liquid cash, they can settle up with a billion and a half in raw materials (oil, iron, bauxite, chromium, tungsten...). Can't get the resources out of the ground? Well, we can help them with that for a fair fee. Don't have the means to transport the goods? We can step in there too, again, for a reasonable cut...
The possibilities are endless. ENDLESS!!!
And it’s not about getting too cozy with them; it's more about maintaining decent, friendly relations and occasionally giving a nod to the right person in the right place "in the interest of old friendships"...

But sure, let's just keep pushing our products and services into the Western market because there's less competition and the customers aren't quite as demanding...

gentletiger11 said:What exactly is "the region" supposed to be, and what's the point of it anyway?....😕

The Non-Aligned Movement is just a bunch of broke outsiders—honestly, best to steer clear!☕

Hmm... well, maybe some of those "unreliable" players managed to fight their way to freedom from the Japanese, the French, the Americans, and the Chinese—and now they've got the second-fastest economic growth on the planet. It didn't stop during the Asian financial crisis in the nineties, and it isn't stopping now in this current mess, either. You can see it with your own eyes—walking through the cities, you see German, French, Australian, Japanese, American, and Taiwanese investments everywhere. If I had to guess, we're talking hundreds of billions of dollars here.
And yet, we should definitely avoid them, right?....

P.S.—if you aren't quite sure which specific group I'm talking about, just check my profile location.

Tyler Thompson51 said:For the first time in ages, people are actually talking openly about the possibility of armed conflict breaking out in this region again.

Is it even possible?
Does anyone actually have the will—or the muscle—to pull it off, and who would the players even be?

Honestly, who cares? We’re in NATO now, so nobody can touch us anymore. We don't have to hand over our generals or soldiers, Mexico is intimidated by us, the Canadians are intimidated by us... we've become allies to the Englishman, so the pressure is basically gone.

I'm pretty sure I'm paraphrasing what the NATO cheerleaders were shouting about two years ago. If anyone wants the exact wording, just go dig through those old threads about NATO. 🤣🤣

Steven Allen9 said:What you just said hits the nail on the head regarding the topic... The only question is, do you actually believe that?

Yeah. I suppose two decades is plenty of time to make a solid assessment.

You can't just transplant democracy into a place where it’s never existed before. Democracy isn't just holding free elections and then—afterward—rubbing your hands together thinking, "Alright guys, job done, let's go grab a beer."

You can't just hand democracy over to people who are uneducated or stuck in primitive ways, whether they're coming from the mountains of Afghanistan or some remote valley in the North America. They’ll just end up weaponizing it.

Democracy is supposed to be this slow-burn process that develops over decades... or, in our case, it gets exploited for decades. As a nation, we’re... I don't know, maybe good servants but terrible masters. That's why democracy hasn't really taken root here. We can't even decide what we want amongst ourselves.

I could probably ramble on about this forever... but that’s just my cynical take on things, anyway. Not like I'm some kind of scientific expert or anything...

amberwalker4 said:Right, because the A-Fascists were such paragons of literacy.🙄

It’s almost too predictable—things started spiraling downward right around the time democracy was introduced to our neck of the woods. And honestly? It feels like we're picking up speed, heading straight toward a total meltdown once the next election cycle hits.

Steven Allen9 said:The Communists had their good sides. On paper, just like the clergy, they genuinely believed in building a better world. But if you want to know why that never worked, you need a psychological deep dive into the nature of "the people."
My issue with them was the lack of freedom. They rigged the voting, decided who got to lead, and basically refused to let anyone think for themselves.
I get the logic behind trying to raise the standard of living for farmers or setting up cooperatives, or convincing people that the church is run by people whose job is to tend to souls while earning a living. That part was fine.

But forcibly seizing property from families who had held it for three hundred years, then installing Communist puppets to force through a "revolution" regardless of intelligence or expertise, kicking dissidents into the street, and building a cult of personality... well, any non-transparent regime ends up in a dead end.

Personally, I saw the Communists as arrogant amateurs who thought they were invincible and entitled to everything. They committed atrocities in the name of pure idiocy.
That had nothing to do with the ideals they preached before they grabbed power.
We have to realize there will always be places that prefer to stay backward because it’s baked into their tradition, and there will always be Communists who weren't willing to dig the mass graves.
Unfortunately, things always go exactly how you don't want them to.

The Italians and the Germans were part of this nation and this land. I’m not talking about the chosen fascists or the Hitler Youth; I’m talking about the organized German villages throughout Slavonia and Vojvodina, where houses were eventually occupied by impoverished peasants from the middle of nowhere. That same poverty managed to destroy everything those Germans had built over 250 years. The mob ended up ripping up floorboards just to heat a room.
An aspiring Communist and a peasant—what a combination.

Are you out of your mind? Just look at what happens nowadays when you give the right to vote to an uneducated populace. This current administration—it’s nothing more than a mirror held up to its voters. And that’s in the modern age, with all this information, radio, TV, newspapers, and the internet at our fingertips. Imagine how much messier things were 30, 40, 50, or 60 years ago.
God help us all for ever giving the people the vote...

Brandon Ramirez said:👍 on the whole thing!

You don't know me, so there's no need for the snap judgments. Even if you were right—which isn't necessarily the case—there's no reason to talk down to me like that.☕

My bad. I didn't mean to sound patronizing—I guess I forgot to include a smile 😁😁😁
Apologies once more.

Brandon Ramirez said:😕 And I wasn't saying you were suggesting it—I was just saying my cat probably wouldn't make it if left to her own devices. Cats raised as outdoor pets likely would.

Something else occurred to me. If I had to choose between losing water or electricity, I’d definitely give up the power. I can manage with candles and blankets, but not being able to shower regularly sounds miserable. When you really think about it, modern comforts have made us incredibly spoiled. ☕

It's pretty obvious you've never actually lived without running water or electricity. Sure, you can improvise with water using jugs, tanks, or buckets, but electricity isn't that easy to fake. What do you think it's like trying to shower in the middle of winter by pouring water from a pitcher that you just heated up on a gas stove or a wood burner? (Unless you happen to have a gas water heater, I suppose.) Or how do you dry your hair without a blow dryer? Just sitting by the fireplace smelling like smoke? Or ironing clothes with an old-school charcoal iron? Or washing your hands in freezing water until your knuckles swell up like knots on a vine after one winter? Or doing laundry by hand because there's no machine, and you can never quite rinse the soap out properly? And since you can't spin-dry anything, you're stuck hanging wet clothes all over the house near the stove or fireplace, making the whole place feel more like a laundromat than a home. Then there's the summer—no fridge means nowhere to put meat or leftovers. You'd be buying groceries day-by-day just so things don't spoil—eggs, milk, meat... everything. Not to mention having no light during those long winter nights, where kids might have to do their homework by lantern light and end up wearing glasses by the time they hit puberty. I've only listed a few perks of 20th-century life; I'll let your imagination do the rest for the 21st century...

But hey, if you're still interested and want to learn how to survive (NNNI), I can offer some lessons on what life is actually like without power. The price? A tiny little thing!

Look, folks, you should probably start carving out a little patch in your yard—or maybe just a decent-sized planter box on your balcony if you're in an apartment. I mean, someone who actually knows how to work the soil isn't going to starve. If you have a few chickens running around, you've pretty much got eggs for breakfast and lunch most days. Plus, if you have enough dirt, you can grow dandelion greens, lettuce, garlic, red onions... heck, even potatoes if you're lucky. You just tighten your belt, grab some dried beans, corn, lentils, chickpeas, and maybe a little bit of bacon, and you can weather even the harshest winter. You could even survive without power—you just haul water in buckets, which I know is possible because I remember those old stories from the war years.
So, honestly, everyone should prepare by pivoting back to agriculture, or if you happen to live near the coast, getting into fishing. A handful of dried figs and a single sardine a day... you definitely won't die of hunger. In fact, you might actually solve all your cardiovascular issues—I guess after World War II, those kinds of heart problems were practically unheard of in Europe, though nowadays scientists seem to link that lack of issues to the widespread famine that was hitting most of the population back then.

hollowtrucker77 said:I’m not exactly blushing here
actually—more than that—I’m pretty damn sure I’ll keep pointing out who deserves what whenever I stumble upon something like that

Pointing out what, exactly?

hollowtrucker77 said:The Butterfly Effect,

You have received an infraction on Reddit.

Reason: Trolling
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This infraction is worth 35 point(s) and may result in restricted access until it expires. Serious infractions will never expire.

Original Post:
http://www.reddit.com/showthread.php?p=31220702

Right-wing phalanxes always lash out like this whenever they’re defending their idols—just look at the case of Heidegger (that Austrian towel), the case of Vukovic (when the truth-seeking Vic claimed Jews were killing themselves at Auschwitz), the case of Baby Doc (back when Franklin D. Roosevelt thought he was some kind of messiah destined to win every election, and the left-wing mob rose up in fear...) and all those other instances, where suddenly everyone goes quiet once it turns out their heroes are just flesh and blood disappointments rather than demigods.

I know I’m repeating myself, but I’ll say it again— Honestly, you feel bad for these right-wingers when you see who they choose to idolize...

Best Wishes,
Reddit

So, I'm looking for some clarification on why my post was flagged as trolling in a thread where maybe 90% of the text is nothing but pure trolling.
Was it because of the term right-wingers (which is a perfectly legitimate political descriptor)?
Was it the word phalanx (basically the right-wing version of calling someone a mob)?
Was it because I supposedly went off-topic (which is pretty hard to prove, I guess)?
Or was it because I brought up the old guard of our political scene?

I’d appreciate it if someone could explain, since the notification about the penalty doesn't actually say anything.

Really poor job, Seth. Just really poor.

Shame on you.🙂

vividrider3 said:Who even talks about bringing democracy🙄 to Yemen? The USA and Europe have zero interest in that wasteland. They'll just send some UCAVs to tidy things up on the ground, and that’s it. Take out a few Yemeni extremists and call it a day. Muslims don't hate the West primarily because we support everything they despise: individual freedom without the fear of being stoned or decapitated, secular democratic states, and above all, nations built upon Judeo-Christian civilization.

🤣🤣🤣🤣

Not really, no—it's more that a massive chunk of global trade passes right through those Yemeni coastal waters near the Bab el Mandeb. We're talking everything from Gulf oil to Chinese goods and Japanese cars.
🤣🤣🤣 (had to post that again...)

And as for why Muslims dislike the West, it’s probably due to centuries of lying, cheating, exploitation, killing, and theft. Honestly, I doubt Iraqis or Yemenis give a damn whether Americans are free to say whatever they want or live however they choose.

Oh boy... you can almost smell the beginnings of some future conflict brewing in this thread—one where I bet Tim Stamps will be leading the charge!
Long live that far-right, fascist logic, I guess!!! 😵😵

crimsongardener17 said:👍
Of course, nobody is suggesting we shouldn't expand hotel capacity. But we don't need these megalomaniacal monstrosities; what we actually need are small, high-quality boutique hotels where guests feel comfortable and truly at home... essentially, smaller operations that are resilient and can actually weather market shifts...☕

Honestly, I know people who were filling up their houses even during the absolute worst years of the war—because, I guess, guests just felt so incredibly comfortable with their hosts that they weren't exactly itching to go experiment with travel plans in Spain, Italy, or Greece. They kept coming to the coast despite everything... maybe it was just that sense of familiarity, I suppose.

This whole project feels a bit megalomaniac, if I'm being honest—it’s just too much, all at once. I guess what we actually need is something more grounded, you know? A steady, continuous kind of growth where we aren't just chasing numbers, but actually focusing on quality too. We shouldn't be building for tomorrow's headlines—we should be building for the next generation. Maybe that's just how I see it.