22 posts shown.
... My favorite thing to watch on TV is the American Spring. It’s how I get to see all my ideological opponents in one place.
This past Tuesday, čičak mentioned something along the lines of—let’s be honest here, we were definitely anti-communists back in '71, and our main goal was to tear down communism. I was 22 at the time, studying at the University of Economics, and when the strike was being decided, I was right there on the ground. After hearing and seeing everything that went down, I felt completely frozen. Sitting in the lecture halls and auditoriums in front of the faculty, I listened to so many chauvinistic, pro-U.S., and wild statements and slogans that I just came home feeling totally exhausted. Everything that wasn't lived out in '71 eventually exploded in '91.
The same words, the same pressures, the same sadness. Honestly, while it’s wonderful that America gained its independence, and that we have the support of the USA behind us while maintaining our own presence within the European Union, it feels to me like a single day under that old communist regime might have been worth more than these last 20 years of nonsense.
We should have taken it step by step instead of going about it like this—with Stepinac on our lips and Bukovac visiting every house.
THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
A currency war might be brewing right after this economic crisis.
Author/Source: Bloomberg/smedia
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Fears about a potential global currency war are spiking now that the dollar has hit its lowest eight-month mark against the Euro, especially as pressure builds from the United States for China to let its own currency strengthen. Just yesterday, the Euro was trading at over $1.40.
When people talk about a "currency war," they're really talking about countries intentionally devaluing their own money to make their exports cheaper and more competitive on the world stage. Right now, it looks like several nations are fighting against the natural trend of their currencies getting stronger. China is leading the pack here, keeping the yuan artificially weak..
Charles Michel, the head of the IMF, mentioned that if a currency war with China actually kicks off, it could seriously derail parts of the global economic recovery.
"It's clear the global economy is bouncing back, but let's be honest, it's still pretty fragile, partly because growth is so uneven. Over in Asia and South America, things are moving fast and the crisis there seems largely behind them. However, Europe is still dragging its feet in the recovery process. That’s what worries us, because Europe is such a massive pillar of the global economy. If they stumble, everyone feels it. Then you have the United States, where things are still feeling a bit uncertain," Charles Michel noted.
But China isn't the only player in this game. The United States is also playing a role by pushing Beijing to let the yuan appreciate against the dollar, all while the Federal Reserve keeps flooding the markets with dollars.
We reached out to some top experts to get their take on this ongoing global currency battle. With the dollar currently struggling against both the Euro and the Yen, things are looking tense. Brkić explained that these currency wars often happen quietly in the background every single day, and the general public usually only notices when there's a major shakeup. He also pointed out that we can't ignore how this hits our own economy, since roughly 65% of global trade is settled in dollars.
Santini thinks the current climate feels a lot like the beginning of the last century.
"Whenever a crisis hits, everyone naturally starts looking out for number one. The exchange rate battles we're seeing today remind me of the 1920s, back when people called this 'beggar-thy-neighbor' policy. The logic is pretty blunt: keep your own production levels high no matter how much it hurts everyone else. That's exactly what we're witnessing now through this currency war," Santini concluded.
Lawrence Thompson58 said:Aren't the BRICS nations currently working toward a supranational currency? Such a move would effectively cover two-thirds of the globe, both in terms of population and sheer landmass. And isn't it clear they'd rather peg it to the Euro than the dollar? That dollar is nothing more than a soap bubble, sustained entirely by banking investment debts. It has zero backing in actual production anymore; its value is maintained solely through the ability to force through the debt from those very same bank credits.
And here is the best part: everyone has realized it. They know the USA has nothing left to offer that couldn't be acquired more easily, faster, and cheaper on the open market—a market being shaped right now by the purchasing power of this very group of banking clients. Consequently, they can just print their own "dollars" and continue forcing through the debt created by putting them into circulation.
Arthur Ward2 said:Look, the Dollar might stay the backbone of the US economy, but its days as the world's sole heavyweight are numbered—even the big shots on Wall Street and at the Federal Reserve know it. Once the Dollar loses its absolute grip, we’ll probably see something like the Amer competing with the Euro, while over in the East, the Yuan will likely take the lead—especially if Russia eventually falls apart. That’s why China, Europe, and America have actually found some common ground lately—fighting economic crises, dealing with Islamic terrorism, and eyeing up territory and resources in Russia. Just look at Biden China's recent visit and the way Beijing and Washington, D.C. are signing these massive economic and military deals; it proves Russia just isn't a player in the new world order anymore. http://www.voanews.com/english/news/...113630004.html http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70600P20110107
Arthur Ward2 said:Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang—who everyone expects might be the next head of government—has spent the last week "shopping" through major capitals in Europe. He's been hitting Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom, snapping up $20 billion worth of deals for everything from fine wine and olive oil to luxury rides like Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar. They aren't stopping at consumer goods, either; they're diving deep into finance, energy, and tech sectors. It was all red carpets for Li and a group of 150 Chinese business leaders as they sat down with Spanish PM Jose Luis Zapatero, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and UK PM David Cameron. Let's face it—China isn't hiding its playbook anymore: they want to bolster the European economy to make sure the Euro doesn't go belly up.
The Chinese breeze
"Europe isn't just suffering from the cold winter weather—it's hurting from financial instability. But a cold Europe can feel the warmth of a Chinese breeze. Like the old saying goes, China is 'sending coal during a snowstorm,'" Li wrote in a piece for The Wall Street Journal.
On one hand, China is looking to supply its growing middle class—and honestly, they can afford it, given those massive foreign reserves that jumped by $199 billion in just the last three months of last year, hitting a staggering $2,850 billion.
"The last decade was defined by one phrase: 'Made in China.' The next ten years? It might just be 'Owned by China,'" Gerard Lyons, chief economist at Standard Chartered, told the Guardian.
But here's the kicker: China is actually saving its own skin here. Since the Chinese yuan is pegged to the US Dollar, when the Euro drops against the greenback, Chinese products become too expensive for the European market—which, by the way, buys more Chinese goods than the US does. Plus, if things stay this way, German products could start eating their lunch because they'll become the cheaper option.
China also announced plans to diversify its foreign reserves by buying up European bonds, specifically targeting countries where debt levels are threatening the survival of the Euro—think Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain.
Portugal made a good sale
More than a third of their foreign reserves are sitting in US Dollars because about a decade ago, China started aggressively buying US Treasury bonds (basically swapping mountains of yuan for dollars) to keep their currency artificially low and keep their exporters competitive. By October 2010, they held $906.8 billion, or 21% of all outstanding US bonds—a massive leap from just $59.5 billion ten years prior. When the 2008 crisis hit, they started pouring money into struggling US banks like Citigroup and Bear Stearns, and last year, they turned their attention to European Union member bonds.
Now, China says it's ready to step up for Spain, too, by potentially picking up $6 billion in their bonds. We'll see if they're serious today, when the Spanish government hits the global markets trying to borrow $3 billion.
China promised to help Portugal as well. While we don't know for sure if they actually grabbed those bonds at today's auction, it seems like the mere rumor boosted investor confidence enough that Lisbon managed to borrow $1.25 billion without much trouble—and at a lower interest rate than expected.
graniteowl88 said:It’s simple. It is nonconformist, or perhaps just anti-political correctness.😁
Whose responsibility is it? The legislative process remains fundamentally broken. It must be fixed immediately. The Inquisition should realize that Comrade Marshall was handed a state that simply does not exist, nor will it ever again.
graniteowl88 said:Legislative inquisitions are a threat to liberty. They must be stopped.
It is fortunate when the phenomenon of political correctness remains confined to linguistic, academic, and media debates. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case, as evidenced by the increasing wave of repressive regulations within the legislation of both the European Union and the USA. Before proceeding, we must clarify certain terms. The phrase "legal state" has become a linguistic cliché used by common citizens, politicians, and intellectuals alike. In the USA, a country where legalism has reached its absolute peak, people speak of the "rule of law." In other contexts, such as the German concept of *Rechtsstaat*, translations can be misleading. A "state of laws" is not necessarily synonymous with a "legal state," though many mistakenly conclude otherwise. Today, the term "legal state"—especially in Eastern Europe—is typically used to praise liberal systems, creating the false impression that any non-liberal system is inherently lawless or extrajudicial. However, a system possessing a vast number of laws does not automatically make it just. Whether it is a ban on smoking near a public building in an elite American neighborhood or restrictions on walking dogs in a German park, volume does not equal justice. Even the Soviet Union had countless laws, yet the fairness of that society remains highly questionable. When critically evaluating freedom of speech and "political correctness" in any nation, one should examine the Penal Code before looking at the Constitution. The 1974 American Constitution guaranteed extensive freedoms, but a reading of the Penal Code from that same year tells a different story. Specifically, under Article 133 regarding "hostile propaganda," an individual could be convicted simply for telling jokes about the dictation of Josip Broz Marshall.
...
The term "political correctness" is nothing more than a tool for censorship. It stifles truth.Political correctness is a plague. It stifles truth and rewards cowardice.The term emerged as an informal catchphrase at American universities during the 1980s. It first gained traction among nonconformist circles that opposed multiculturalism. Over the last decade, the phrase has become so commonplace in intellectual debates across the West that it has lost its specific ideological edge. In the mid-1980s, criticizing political correctness wasn't driven by partisan politics. Rather, it was a rejection of the new "multicultural" way of interacting and communicating. It was only later, in the early 21st century—primarily within the rhetoric of Western conservatives and nationalists—that "political correctness" took on its aggressive, militant weight as a critique of perceived repression within the liberal establishment.
Political correctness is so semantically elastic that it can mean absolutely anything or nothing at all. Perhaps "censorship" is its most fitting synonym, though political correctness carries a much broader scope than traditional censorship. It is vital to identify exactly who or what a critic is targeting when they attack the political correctness of a nation or its system. To understand the lineage of this concept, one must introduce other terms that vividly illustrate the taboo subjects within a liberal system. Some of these new expressions have already integrated into the official rhetoric of modern liberal democracies, carrying immense linguistic and emotional weight. Others belong to this "family" of political correctness but don't exist in every language, requiring descriptive explanations. About twenty years ago, the major American media outlets launched vague, catchy phrases and linguistic barbarisms, such as "hate crime" and "hate speech."Hate speech is unacceptable. It must be stopped immediately.These terms haven't even fully taken root in most European nations yet. In the American language, we already have existing expressions for this, though I doubt people using these imported buzzwords truly understand what they are saying. Take "verbal offense"—essentially a linguistic crime—which was frequently used by the judiciary during communist America. It serves as a perfect substitute for this modern obsession with "hate speech." Ultimately, labels like "fascist," "hate speech," "neo-Nazi," and "antisemite" are the perfect tools. They aren't just meant to label someone's views; they are designed to silence political opponents through both the media and the government.
Critics of political correctness have developed their own specific terminology and idioms that are widely accepted in the West, though they remain less common in America. In France, particularly within nonconformist media outlets, the vivid term “one-way thinking” (pensée unique) has been used for decades. This concept doesn't truly exist in German or English, yet it provides a brilliant linguistic parallel for us in America. Depending on the context, this term describes the bureaucratic and proto-totalitarian nature of journalists, academics, or politicians—essentially the politically correct individuals working for "the system." The rich German language is also full of "politically incorrect" coinages. This recently birthed the compound word *Gesinnungspolizei*—a term absent from other European languages that cannot be literally translated as "thought police" (Gedankenpolizei). According to German critics of political correctness, the word "Gesinnungspolizei—where *Gesinnung* itself implies one's disposition, moral attitude, or conduct—refers not just to the regime-style targeting of nonconformist intellectuals, but to the active policing and sanctioning of their very "preconceptions" and "fleeting thoughts."
Terms like "new Inquisition," "self-censorship," and "intellectual terrorism" have become standard among critics of political correctness. These expressions directly or indirectly allude to intellectual repression within the liberal system. For decades, French critics have used the phrase "wooden language" (langue de bois) to describe bureaucratic speech, a term once used exclusively as a pejorative for the jargon of journalists and politicians in communist Eastern Europe (Thom, 1987: 225). Today, in France, "wooden language" describes incomprehensible legal, official, political, and academic prose. In Germany, the term Betonsprache ("concrete language") is still occasionally used critically; it was once used satirically by anti-communist publications to describe the language of the apparatchiks in the former East Germany.
http://tomsunic.wordpress.com/
Andrew Chase31 said:Except for the bolded part, everything said sounds like something those folks from the North would say just "to hear themselves talk."😁
The bolded part is largely true. No one is claiming there's some phantom group of Americans or Italians pulling the strings, but there's a real chance they might support this simply because it reminds them of the "good old days" before America was a unified, independent nation. Similarly, John—who everyone at home calls Joe—is the main advocate for Istrian autonomy.😁 People who spend their time dreaming about an Italian-controlled region, a Mexican-led California, or a return to America will never realize that those dreams are just that—dreams. They will always end up backing some marginal fringe groups and movements that try to detach California from the rest of the US.
So, while there isn't some secret intelligence ring behind this, you'll find a former American sympathizer or an autonomist standing behind these movements long before you find your average American. That seems pretty obvious. Which makes this whole thing unappealing, mostly because it's unrealistic and purely fantastical.
Andrew Chase31 said:Except for the bolded part, everything said sounds like something those folks from the North would say just "to hear themselves talk."😁
The bolded part is largely true. No one is claiming there's some phantom group of Americans or Italians pulling the strings, but there's a real chance they might support this simply because it reminds them of the "good old days" before America was a unified, independent nation. Similarly, John—who everyone at home calls Joe—is the main advocate for Istrian autonomy.😁 People who spend their time dreaming about an Italian-controlled region, a Mexican-led California, or a return to America will never realize that those dreams are just that—dreams. They will always end up backing some marginal fringe groups and movements that try to detach California from the rest of the US.
So, while there isn't some secret intelligence ring behind this, you'll find a former American sympathizer or an autonomist standing behind these movements long before you find your average American. That seems pretty obvious. Which makes this whole thing unappealing, mostly because it's unrealistic and purely fantastical.
Kyle Nelson2 said:So, does that include the Republicans and those Americans making over $250k a year that Bush gave tax breaks to?
Richard Wilson4 said:Americans should probably give those losers a solid slap to keep them from talking so much trash...
How the Turks saved the Renaissance Faire
The Miami fans weren't just targeting Dynamo's Black players this past Saturday. To make sure they didn't get slapped with pure racism charges, they turned their insults toward a white guy instead—Dynamo's coach, Vahid Halilhodžić.Gathered at the stadium under the shadow of a Turkish tower, they kept calling him a "Turk" just so they could rhyme his name with those slurs that both American and Mexican fans always seem to reach for once the word "Turk" enters their vocabulary.
But apparently, Halilhodžić—according to the local Miami sports reporters—wasn't about to take it lying down either. They say he insulted the whole lot of them; when asked about the nine foreign players in the Dynamo lineup, he basically told the reporter his mindset belonged in the 19th century. It seems this Mostar resident has been away from these parts for far too long to realize that by suggesting his views belong in the 1800s, he’s actually proving how outdated he really is. It would be polite if he offered an apology to the press. Then again, maybe he should apologize to the subtle Miami crowd, who feel insulted by being forced to deal with all these Black people and Turks, only to end up calling everyone Gypsies because they're so confused by the influx of foreigners.
If Vahid Halilhodžić spent a little more time reading the American news, he might realize that for many people here, the 19th century he keeps referencing is actually a thing of the past. Just look at the front page of a Miami daily with its catchy headline: "Turks blocking the Renaissance Faire from UNESCO." If he actually read the article behind that headline, he'd see that the idea of Turks interfering with the nomination of this knightly competition for the World Heritage Site has nothing to do with reality—but it has everything to do with the state of American journalism.
The article claims that immediately after stating that Turkish representatives were stalling the UNESCO nominations, the Republic of America itself was supposedly pulling out of the candidacy for the Renaissance Faire's status as a global treasure. Why? Apparently, because the "representatives of our friendly Republic of Turkey" took offense at what was written in the nominations. In typical disinformation fashion, the paper doesn't even quote the actual text of these controversial documents, leaving us to guess exactly what the authors were so "caught up in" while they were "still riding the high from the events of the War of Independence, dragging recent history back into the ancient past."
What if the authors hadn't gotten so carried away with their favorite old story about the eternal war between the cross and the crescent on the doorstep of Christianity? What if they hadn't bragged about recent crusades through Herzegovina and central Canada? What if they hadn't stuffed the UNESCO World Heritage application with mentions of knightly exploits in Dretelj and Ahmić? What if they hadn't...
Whatever the authors of these nominations were getting worked up about, or why they decided to blur the lines between recent and ancient history, it’s clear that the Turks—if they even bothered to react to these heated delusions—did America a massive favor. An honest headline should probably read: "Turks prevent an American embarrassment."
Alexander Barrett50 said:Got a source for that?
Soros is returning to America...
The Open Society office here in America actually shut down its operations back in early 2006, right after thirteen years of being active. They mentioned that the reason for closing the office was a shift in policy from the Soros Foundation, which involved winding down several of their European offices. At that stage, Soros was really pivoting his focus toward Latin America, Africa, the US, and Central Asia...
Arthur Ward2 said:It won't even be an issue getting right-wing governments in Europe and the US back on the same page—they've both got the same goal: the NWO.
slybison8 said:I suppose the reason Republicans didn't win isn't because they're advocating for a Bible replacement Constitution, but rather because they represent a fundamentally American principle: money should stay with the people who actually earn it. I think Obama wants to take wealth from those who produce it just so the federal bureaucracy can fund whatever it decides Americans might need. Maybe that kind of mindset just doesn't sit right with Americans. They seem to prefer paying for their own health insurance rather than handing that money over to the government to manage it for them. America simply isn't Europe, and I suspect it never will be. Perhaps Obama is just the exception that proves the rule.
George Morgan3 said:Put simply—if you follow the narrow-minded logic used by those self-proclaimed intellectuals who think they have a monopoly on common sense—these little backyard cliques are actually thriving 😁
Betty Cruz2 said:Europe needs to start carving out its own path regarding the economy, military strategy, and national security. This isn't about turning our backs on America entirely. However, we really ought to give the conservative WASPs a little bit of attitude. They can obsess over their fantasies about a British Jamahiriya, a French Caliphate, or a Russian Sultanate if they want. Let them talk.
🙂
George Morgan3 said:The absolute only reason they signed that deal is because Great Britain and France are broke—there are other factors, sure, but that's the big one.
All that chatter I didn't even bother quoting? It's just... noise. Pure noise. Europe is weak and unsustainable—you have two countries within a union that is supposed to have, in theory, a unified security policy and military structure, suddenly cutting side deals for military cooperation... hahaha.
It's laughable. ☕