NationStates Jolt Archive

I hope the russians know Palin lives in Alaska. (http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2008/12/31/chance.russia.end.usa.cnn)

all hail atlanic america!

I think he's played a bit too much Shattered Union (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shattered_Union)...

I very much doubt that Idaho will want to be part of the California Repiblic.

Wow. It's like he hasn't studied US History at all. Pity. It's a short but violent read.

Anyhoo, our internal conflicts and disagreements seem more belligerent than they really are because we like drama. We always have. In reality, these are all very minor disagreements. Seriously, other than the economy, what's our biggest issues? Gay marriage? Psh. 50 years ago, different races couldn't get married in most states and 96% of white Americans liked it that way(actual statistic*). Within a decade, interracial marriage was legal. We never looked back. Abortion? Psh. Illegal immigration? Psh.

I'm sorry, but our differences are what keeps us together. It's not gonna break us apart. At least not in this century.

* From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-miscegenation_laws
A 1958 Gallup poll showed that 96 percent of white Americans dissapproved of interracial marriage. However, attitudes towards bans on interracial marriage quickly changed in the 1960s.

I think he's played a bit too much Shattered Union (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shattered_Union)...
I think I just found my first new game of 2009 :)

i don't plan on holding my breath, but i equally refuse to asume any past, present or future government anywhere is imortal.

alexander's greece was pretty hot stuff, and ceaser's rome.

i aggree its not our differences that'll do for us, and it might not be all that hostile a break up either, more like chainging environmental realities making existing scale no longer practical.

it's very marginal, the chance of seeing it MY lifetime, but in the next hundred or so i'd give it at least a 50/50. that or it will continue to exist in name more then reality, with regeonal political constructs holding the real power, but keeping the common name and playing lip service to it, more for nostelgia's sake then anything else.

Fergi America;14355279']I think I just found my first new game of 2009 :)
It's mostly good, but the fuel thing is a kick in the balls, and you can't take infantry around in APCs.

I very much doubt that Idaho will want to be part of the California Repiblic.

Or Nevada. We don't really want to be associated with those Hubbard-loving celebrities and possibly-gay hippies. It sends the wrong messages to our strippers and gamblers. And if California tries anything funny, they'll learn just what we keep in area 51, which does not exist and I did not mention. This conversation did not happen. There is no Nevada. You do not exist. Shut up.

Or Nevada. We don't really want to be associated with those Hubbard-loving celebrities and possibly-gay hippies. It sends the wrong messages to our strippers and gamblers. And if California tries anything funny, they'll learn just what we keep in area 51, which does not exist and I did not mention. This conversation did not happen. There is no Nevada. You do not exist. Shut up.

And a happy fnord to you, too.

Fergi America;14355279']I think I just found my first new game of 2009 :)

It's not bad, but if you're looking for hex-map, turn-based strategy, you can do better (http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/strategy/daisenryaku7/index.html).

It's mostly good, but the fuel thing is a kick in the balls, and you can't take infantry around in APCs.

Fuel has never once hindered me in that game...I have no idea what you could be doing that would make it an issue.

...I suppose if you're sending everything cross-country, but why? All cities are on roads.

As for infantry, they're useless. All you need to win that game is a bunch of bombers, a couple AA, LAVS, and a couple engineers near your airport. You're set.

[/threadjack]

If Palin had been in the Presidency, this guy might have been right. But now, better luck next time.

odd how the Russians lap this up when a world without America would look rather grim for them isn't it?

also the US isn't scheduled for E.U membership until after we conquer the moon (but before pirate parties pose a serious faction in elections)

Or Nevada. We don't really want to be associated with those Hubbard-loving celebrities and possibly-gay hippies. It sends the wrong messages to our strippers and gamblers. And if California tries anything funny, they'll learn just what we keep in area 51, which does not exist and I did not mention. This conversation did not happen. There is no Nevada. You do not exist. Shut up.

you... you mean... LIU SHAN'S DISEMBODIED HEAD, revived by science!?

I think a lot of people on this thread are in denial. Lets face it, America is falling apart Obama might buy it a few more years but I think the American Superpower is dieing. Thank God.

I think a lot of people on this thread are in denial. Lets face it, America is falling apart Obama might buy it a few more years but I think the American Superpower is dieing. Thank God.
Any proof for your bullshit claims?

I think a lot of people on this thread are in denial. Lets face it, America is falling apart Obama might buy it a few more years but I think the American Superpower is dieing. Thank God.

yes let all celebrate by getting some dominoes pizza...or maybe we could have some of my leftover chili...dammit :p

if the US died tomorrow so would the world (not that I would want to live in a world without McDonald's hash browns)

Any proof for your bullshit claims?

Jack and Coke is getting more expensive by the day whereas I can get Vodkat for like £5

you... you mean... LIU SHAN'S DISEMBODIED HEAD, revived by science!?

don't be silly everyone knows Liu Shan is dea

Jack and Coke is getting more expensive by the day whereas I can get Vodkat for like £5
Vodkat is for plebs.

I bet he also predicts Solar power will be cost effective in 2010 too.

The only way the US can get out of this cultural, moral, and economic downward spiral, would be a surge of nationalism, and genuine love for the US by all Americans.

Lets face it, once Europe is unified, they will be the US's most powerful adversaries. The United States will never loose its superpower status, but if it wants to be #1, it needs to buckle down now.

I think a lot of people on this thread are in denial. Lets face it, America is falling apart Obama might buy it a few more years but I think the American Superpower is dieing. Thank God.

Dying.

I hope the russians know Palin lives in Alaska. (http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2008/12/31/chance.russia.end.usa.cnn)

I'm going to copy my reply from another forum, which was based on a different link and included a map. (So the reply is based on the map, more or less. Here's the link:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123051100709638419.html )

And here's my reply:


This is ridiculous. And we all know why, so I won't go on ranting for twenty pages. But still, Alaska back to Russia? WHY?! Wouldn't Alaska go to Canada? For that matter, why is Canada's potential influence thrown about arbitrarily rather than focusing on all of the states along its borders?

Why is Utah not independent?

Why would Southern States join like that and let themselves fall under the name of Texas?

Why would everything divide on current state border lines instead of fully falling apart?

Just...just WHY?!

The only way the US can get out of this cultural, moral, and economic downward spiral, would be a surge of nationalism, and genuine love for the US by all Americans.

Lets face it, once Europe is unified, they will be the US's most powerful adversaries. The United States will never loose its superpower status, but if it wants to be #1, it needs to buckle down now.
There's enough rich white people in Europe for us to band together.

I think a lot of people on this thread are in denial. Lets face it, America is falling apart Obama might buy it a few more years but I think the American Superpower is dieing. Thank God.

Your young so you lack the perspective of time. Economic recessions always are followed by economic booms. In 5-10 years things will hum along again nicely and 15 years after that someone will find a way to topple it all down again and its a giant game of rinse and repeat.

i don't plan on holding my breath, but i equally refuse to asume any past, present or future government anywhere is imortal.

alexander's greece was pretty hot stuff, and ceaser's rome.

i aggree its not our differences that'll do for us, and it might not be all that hostile a break up either, more like chainging environmental realities making existing scale no longer practical.

it's very marginal, the chance of seeing it MY lifetime, but in the next hundred or so i'd give it at least a 50/50. that or it will continue to exist in name more then reality, with regeonal political constructs holding the real power, but keeping the common name and playing lip service to it, more for nostelgia's sake then anything else.
I don't know very much about the details of US government structure, but given the citing of examples from ancient history and the middle-grounded approach, I find this argument more appealing. Reminds me of my grade 10 history teacher saying all superpowers eventually fall, just like Britain used to be the world's main superpower, the US won't be the world's main superpower forever...

The guy's living in a fantasy land, I think.

Really?
Like the way the Soviet Union did?
Wishful thinking, no? Especially the part about Alaska going back to them....

Vodkat is for plebs.

well he doesn't seem to be saying the a world without the US would be a happy one ;) (I would just like to take this time to distance myself from Netto products)

The only way the US can get out of this cultural, moral, and economic downward spiral, would be a surge of nationalism, and genuine love for the US by all Americans.

meh Britain is still standing and all it does is bloody rain here maybe what you need is more tea?

There's enough rich white people in Europe for us to band together.

is that why we let Israel into Eurovision?

Wishful thinking, no? Especially the part about Alaska going back to them....

well I've seen some videos on the net where the governor seems to be very friendly with Russia...

Sounds like bullshit.

well he doesn't seem to be saying the a world without the US would be a happy one ;)
S'true.
(I would just like to take this time to distance myself from Netto products)
Distance yourself all you like, doesn't help your cause
is that why we let Israel into Eurovision?
Nah, that's guilt.

OK, I have a rant here on a variety of topics addressed in this thread.

So be forewarned: Rant incoming.

First, I think Europe COULD become America's most powerful economic competition. And I won't use the word adversaries because it implies a zero sum game in which everyone is scrapping over the same nickel, but in truth competition between the US and the EU and China and India and etc benefits everyone in the long term (creation of additional nickels). It's why they established the World Trade Organization: To regulate and control that which is beneficial to all. Now, whether the WTO has done so wisely or unwisely is another debate, but that's the purpose of it.

BUT ... good luck unifying Europe. A very active EU president didn't manage to get by with the Lisbon treaty, and the next EU president is going to be from the Czech republic. And he is fiercely opposed to even the very idea of an EU.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/25/europe/25klaus.php

So there's a major hurdle in the EU becoming that which they want to become, but I think they will over time, and it will help everyone when they do.

Second, the last time I checked the economic downturn was global. Not American. Economies have seasons. The world economy is just in the winter months now.

Like us or not, Americans are the Kings of Capitalism. 27 countries in Europe, combined, barely have a higher GDP than America does: No other conglomeration of nations even comes close.and no single country comes close.

America is, by far, the most powerful country in the world, in terms of traditional concepts of power (Economic and Military). But what we're seeing now is the changing nature of power in the information age.

Think about it this way: An entity with the traditional power level of Hamas would never stand a chance against an entity with the traditional power level of Israel in any age before the current one. Same goes with Iraq being as expensive and as long-term as it has been for the U.S. These things have never happened before in global politics. Historically in global politics the more powerful sides in both of the aforementioned conflicts would just obliterate the opposing side, convert them all to their religion, rape their women, pillage their towns and life would go on. Unhappily.

But the standards of human rights and human decency are higher now. The nature of the continuing struggle between vastly disproportionate powers like Hamas and Israel are evidence of improvement, like it or not. A more humane and just world. Not perfectly humane and just, but better than ever before. And that changes the dynamics of power in a major way.

The real question is...Will the U.S. adapt to the new concepts of power that it needs to implement throughout the world? Hopefully so. I could point to signs suggesting it, but I could also point to signs that suggest we won't. I think the election of Barack Obama is a big plus in the right direction (and vastly preferable to Bush) just in terms of how he views America's place in the world.

And as far as this Russian nitwit goes, think about it this way: The Russians hate that they've become as fragmented as they are. Russia hates that there are little upstart nations all around them, some of whom used to be incorporated into Russia, who are siding against what Russia sees as its interests. So what better way to make a country feel better about itself than by predicting that very same fate for the primary power source of one's opposition and irritation?

It's a shame Russia is so insecure. They could be a great regional power if they just had more of a feeling of adequacy.

I'm going to copy my reply from another forum, which was based on a different link and included a map. (So the reply is based on the map, more or less. Here's the link:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123051100709638419.html )

And here's my reply:

The video does include a map btw.

Also, I think this professor is really suggesting that, while the states would break apart, he also seems to be suggesting that there would be an active attempt by other nations to take some of that land-- Texas seems to control several states, probably by force, where as Alaska would, probably, be taken over by force, by the Russians.

I'd rather live in our country, where these issues actually are divisive and inspire political discussion than be in Russia, where they're slowly sinking in to neo-corporatist tyranny and the government forces conformity through censorship and extortion. These divisive issues are the sign of a vibrant political system where people are willing to actually take a stand, as right or wrong as they are in their thinking, as opposed to one where everyone is forced to conform to the party line. If anything, I am more confident in our country now that the American people are starting to once again show real interest in political issues.

Actually, come to think of it, it sounds a lot like the old Soviet propaganda that portrayed the US as an land of corruption, inequity, greed and immorality and Western democracy the source of instability and decay. The truth is, liberal democracy and capitalism are winning and Russia is afraid because it knows its system is dying. Their entire power base at present is based on a Third-world model of raw material export, and states that can outcompete them on the world market are inching ever closer to their borders on all sides. They are the ones who should be afraid of internal collapse, not us.

It could be a lot worse. Look around the world. Yes, we are learning a lesson the hard way but it is a good lesson and we are learning. Look for a different future not a bad future. Those who remember the Depresson in the 30's have mostly passed away but they learned the same lesson and looked how it eventually helped to change the world. Its their children who never had to suffer, received all the benefits who forgot that a penny saved is a penny earned.

I'd rather live in our country, where these issues actually are divisive and inspire political discussion than be in Russia, where they're slowly sinking in to neo-corporatist tyranny and the government forces conformity through censorship and extortion.
So war es und so wird es immer sein, as regards Russia.

It could be a lot worse. Look around the world. Yes, we are learning a lesson the hard way but it is a good lesson and we are learning. Look for a different future not a bad future. Those who remember the Depresson in the 30's have mostly passed away but they learned the same lesson and looked how it eventually helped to change the world. Its their children who never had to suffer, received all the benefits who forgot that a penny saved is a penny earned.
That was due to the Marshall Plan, really.

It's a bit laughable that the Chinese would get a puppet state in the US. The Chinese society differs vastly from the Western one, so I doubt the americans over there would accept chinese rule easily.

Also, WMDs, if there is a break up at all, we're in much more trouble since it will be unclear what those 4 or 5 nations will do with their nuclear weapons. It would definitely change the global power politics in the world, from unipolar/multipolar at this moment, to very multipolar, which in turn will cause quite some instability everywhere. In short, the EU, Russia, China, but also India, Brazil, and various other powers will be very scared and will probably make sure beforehand that the US doesn't just fall into chaos just like that.

Strange what passes for news in other countries. I don't think so. We see no signs of anyone wanting to succeed from the union or create new ones. We could use that map in football or baseball if you like?

Put down the pipe and do some real research.

Strange what passes for news in other countries. I don't think so. We see no signs of anyone wanting to succeed from the union or create new ones. We could use that map in football or baseball if you like?

Put down the pipe and do some real research.

If the country didn't dissolve during the great depression, it won't now.

He didn't happen to mention whether or not it was a Five Year Plan, did he?

It's a shame Russia is so insecure. They could be a great regional power if they just had more of a feeling of adequacy.

Read The Empire of the Czar by the Marquis de Custine. It was writeen around the same time as(and partially inspired by)de Tocqueville's books on America. It's amazing how very little has changed over there in the last two hundred-odd years

Any proof for your bullshit claims?

somebody hasnt been paying attention to the news.

Hahaha! i think the last line of the clip says it all really

I hope the russians know Palin lives in Alaska. (http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2008/12/31/chance.russia.end.usa.cnn)

Russian prof plays too much Shadowrun.

Dibs on S.Francisco and Napa Valley, anyway.