New from latest Manafort hearing: Govt. said explicitly that banker Stephen Calk knew Manafort submitted a fraudulent loan application but approved it anyway because he wanted a Trump job
— Rachel Weiner (@rachelweinerwp) July 23, 2018
Does Putin have kompromat on Trump?
It is WAY worse than that.
Trump is trapped in a massive system of compromise and corruption that he fears and barely understands. https://t.co/BX0EkefLPg pic.twitter.com/eXOgTJ3F76
— Adam Davidson (@adamdavidson) July 21, 2018
Our own Adam Silverman and other knowledgeable cynics have been long said this, but the working theory that financial failures might be more embarrassing than sexual peccadilloes to Trump — and his handlers — is finally getting some traction among the Very Serious People:
… There is no need to assume that Trump was a formal agent of Russian intelligence to make sense of Trump’s solicitousness toward Putin. Keith Darden, an international-relations professor at American University, has studied the Russian use of kompromat—compromising material—and told me that he thinks it is likely that the President believes the Russians have something on him. “He’s never said a bad word about Putin,” Darden said. “He’s exercised a degree of self-control with respect to Russia that he doesn’t with anything else.” Darden said that this is evidence that Trump isn’t uniformly reckless in his words: “He is capable of being strategic. He knows there are limits, there are bounds on what he can say and do with respect to Russia.”…
Trump has made a lot of money doing deals with businesspeople from the former Soviet Union, and at least some of these deals bear many of the warning signs of money laundering and other financial crimes. Deals in Toronto, Panama, New York, and Miami involved money from sources in the former Soviet Union who hid their identities through shell companies and exhibited other indications of money laundering. In the years before he became a political figure, Trump acted with impunity, conducting minimal corporate due diligence and working with people whom few other American businesspeople would consider fit partners. During that period, he may have felt protected by the fact that U.S. law-enforcement officials rarely investigate or prosecute Americans who engage in financial crimes overseas. Such cases are also maddeningly difficult to prove, and the F.B.I. has no subpoena power in other countries. If, however, someone had evidence that proved financial crimes and shared it with, say, the special counsel, Robert Mueller, other American law-enforcement officials, or the press, it could significantly damage Trump’s business, his family, and his Presidency.
Alena Ledeneva, a professor of politics at University College London and an expert on Russia’s political and business practices, describes kompromat as being more than a single powerful figure weaponizing damning evidence to blackmail a target. She explained that to make sense of kompromat it is essential to understand the weakness of formal legal institutions in Russia and other former Soviet states. Ledeneva argued that wealth and power are distributed through networks of political figures and businesspeople who follow unspoken rules, in an informal hierarchy that she calls sistema, or system. Sistema has a few clear rules—do not defy Putin being the most obvious one—and a toolkit for controlling potentially errant members. It is primarily a system of ambiguity. Each person in sistema wonders where he stands and monitors the relative positions of friends and rivals…
The scenario that, to my mind, makes the most sense of the given facts and requires the fewest fantastical leaps is that, a decade or so ago, Trump, naïve, covetous, and struggling for cash, may have laundered money for a business partner from the former Soviet Union or engaged in some other financial crime. This placed him, unawares, squarely within sistema, where he remained, conducting business with other members of a handful of overlapping Central Asian networks. Had he never sought the Presidency, he may never have had to come to terms with these decisions. But now he is much like everyone else in sistema. He fears there is kompromat out there—maybe a lot of it—but he doesn’t know precisely what it is, who has it, or what might set them off.
Trump and many of his defenders have declared his businesses, including those in the former Soviet Union, to be off-limits to the Mueller investigation. They argue that the special counsel should focus only on the possibility of explicit acts of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. This neatly avoids the reality of sistema. As Pavlovsky wrote, “Under Putin, sistema has become a method for making deals among businesses, powerful players, and the people. Business has not taken over the state, nor vice versa; the two have merged in a union of total and seamless corruption.”…
Additional reading, from Quartz — “The mystery of Russia’s missing wealth shows how Putin retains his power”:
… When nations and businesses run a surplus, they have to find something to do with all the foreign cash they earn. This is why running persistent trade surpluses is usually a surefire way to rack up wealth overseas, typically in the form of assets or loans to foreigners… Over time, those overseas riches accumulate, creating a steady stream of income.
So what about Russia? Add up its two-plus decades of fat export surpluses and it should have socked away investments abroad equal to about 230% of national income—and that’s not including the return earned on the gains on those investments, which should have yielded a heck of a lot more.
Most of that wealth, however, doesn’t turn up in Russia’s official ledgers. As of 2015, its official net foreign assets—the value of what a country owns overseas, minus the value of domestic assets owned by foreigners—totaled a mere 26% of national income, according to the economists’ calculations…
Simple math implies that a share of those accumulated surpluses worth more than 200% of Russia’s current national income has disappeared. Considering the steady annual returns that would likely have been earned on those investment, the economists put the total missing foreign wealth on the order 300% of Russia’s current national income, or more…
Putin, who has run the country since 2000, is in no small part responsible for keeping offshore and onshore wealth flowing into the hands of the few. Measured by his ability to sabotage liberal democracy, that heavy investment in the allegiance of Russia’s ultra-rich may be paying off. Russian oligarchs have been connected with many of his efforts to undermine elections, particularly in the US.
In terms of the Russian people’s wellbeing, though, Putin’s leadership has been disastrous. That includes not just his wealth distribution policies, but also the international sanctions his geopolitical machinations have provoked.
The Russian public has yet to demand a return on Putin’s plutocratic gamble. As the economists note, “extreme inequality seems acceptable in Russia, as long as billionaires and oligarchs appear to be loyal to the Russian state and perceived national interests.” But it is, they say, a “fragile equilibrium.”
One hand washes the other, tovarich! But keep in mind: Just as Trump’s shambling around frantically, trying to keep his scotch-tape-and-spirit-gum ’empire’ spinning for another day, his dear friend Putin’s got his own jury-rigged ‘superpower’ forever teetering on the edge of collapse.
Coda: Click on the tweets for the rest of this story…
Internet’s out. I check the little closet in the office. He’s standing over me. But he seems friendly. I tell him I need to get to the basement where all the connections are. He says no. I say okay, no internet then.
— Lauren Hough (@laurenthehough) July 19, 2018
I really didn’t see anything interesting, at the time. But the first time I heard pee tape rumors, motherfucker, those guys got blackmail fodder on the fucking cable guy.
— Lauren Hough (@laurenthehough) July 19, 2018
TenguPhule
This can’t be right. Trump never compromises.
MattF
Trump is a client of Putin’s. I.e., Trump needs and depends on Putin’s patronage and protection. Of course, since Trump is stupid, incompetent, and disloyal, that’s a serious and dangerous situation for Putin– but I have a feeling that he can deal with it.
TenguPhule
Wrong. He knows exactly what he did and Putin just gave him a refresher course.
zhena gogolia
@TenguPhule:
Yeah, this analysis is too clever by half. Academics trying to get in on the publicity.
Yarrow
GAH! Of course he’s not an agent. He’s an asset. There’s a difference. Has no one writing these things ever read John Le Carre or similar authors to understand how these things work? Or even talked to people that understand it?
Patricia Kayden
But her emails!!
This is what we can expect when we elect a sleazy bigot. The fact that he refused to release his tax returns was the dead giveaway.
opiejeanne
Calk is that small -potatoes banker from Chicago we heard about months ago whose bank was responsible for a Navy retirement pension. Manafort was dismissive of how damaging his behavior was in taking that loan, saying it had to be only a fraction of the bank’s assets. Well, yes, 25% is a fraction, that is true. $16 million. Calk put the entire bank at risk for a “promised” cabinet position. He wanted to be Secretary of the Army.
The Conster
The cable guy’s thread is amazing. the Russians compromised him, BEFORE HE COULD EVEN GO IN THE BASEMENT.
The traitor has 30 years of creepy kompromat collected on him. When it comes to him, it’s not even possible to imagine the width and the depth of his depravity.
TenguPhule
@opiejeanne:
I’m not sure what’s worse.
James E Powell
@Patricia Kayden:
That the press/media, not to mention the great mass of Americans, didn’t consider this immediately disqualifying shows that a very large percentage of Americans just don’t give a shit about right or wrong, good or bad government policies. They care about being entertained, flattered, assured in their delusions.
Jeffro
Oh great a Russian mob house just down the road from me … and nobody’s offering me any Coke !!
Schlemazel
When you have cancer you really do not care what caused it you just want it removed. WHile what motivates Dump is a subject of academic interest we just need to excise the cancer from our body politic.
germy
Is this legal?
I mean, if I said that to the asshole who lives across the street from me, I’m pretty sure my mugshot would be all over the local news.
trollhattan
The cable stories are funny as hell. “Waterboard me if it makes you feel better.”
MattF
@germy: It does seem to strain the limits of civility.
ken
My 2 roubles worth, based on decades as a transactional and tax attorney. Would-be borrowers are frequently required to submit copies of tax returns to potential lenders. Given that Trump lies about everything and likely isn’t as rich as he claims, it seems likely to me he submitted to some would-be lenders altered tax returns–maybe just a white out and replacement of a few numbers, maybe more. This type of fraudulent behavior isn’t common, but it definitely happens, and slimey Trump is exactly the sort who would do it. When the real tax returns appear, via Mueller, Dems after the midterms, disgruntled business partners, whatever, some of the would-be lenders will compare the real returns to the ones Trump gave them and realize Trump lied to them. Some will try to use the existence of Trump’s fraud to extort an advantage out of Trump–maybe that’s what has been happening with Russia–but some will publicly reveal the altered returns and Trump’s fraud will be evident.
TenguPhule
@germy:
The offer is acceptable.
Baud
@MattF: Not unless he’s registered as a Dem.
germy
@MattF:
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Patricia Kayden:
Nor did the Sage of Burlington.
trollhattan
@germy:
Mueller’s actual accomplishments vs. Alex Jones’ imaginary ones. I know who my money’s on.
Roger Moore
That’s because while the investigation is going on, nobody will want to use his businesses to launder money. He can’t handle the loss of cash flow, so he absolutely needs to stop the investigation to avoid financial ruin.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@TenguPhule:
Why hasn’t someone tried to take this dick out yet? Or the Maheur refuge dicks?
Chyron HR
@germy:
Maxine Waters started it.
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
Nobody good enough to do so wants to risk a prison term for removing those assholes for free.
Redshift
@Yarrow:
Tell me about it. A few days ago, I caught a few minutes of “1A”, the NPR morning show that replaced Diane Rehm when she retired. (I had my issues with her, but at least she challenged the guests sometimes. I checked out !A when it started, and it was just dreadful, because the host would have “both sides” guests on, and either didn’t want to challenge them at all, or wasn’t well-informed enough to, so inevitably the conservative guests would tell monstrous whoppers (like “Donald Trump has divested from his businesses”) with no pushback except from occasionally from other guests.
Anyway, on Friday, I guess, they were doing their news roundup panel and talking about Butina, and they were all just mystified about what her game was. She was openly for Russia, so how could she be spying?
GAH! She wasn’t spying on them, she was recruiting them! Your entire panel is officially too stupid to be commenting on the news!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Chyron HR: She’s so uncivil.
Major Major Major Major
That cable guy thread is great.
opiejeanne
People!!! Listen up: The cable guy is a woman. Lauren lists herself as she/her.
Yarrow
@germy: Alex Jones isn’t going to do squat. He does have batshit listeners and by his statements he’s encouraging them to go after Mueller. I would guess Mueller has good security but still, this is very wrong. Such incitements to violence need to have consequences.
Yarrow
@Redshift: I didn’t hear that show but I’ve seen and heard similar things. The media seems willfully naive. I’m guessing they’re, shall we say, encouraged to play dumb.
Redshift
@Yarrow: I finally switched it off when they were talking about the midterms. The host said “everyone is talking about a blue wave, but could it crash against a Republican firewall in Alabama?”
This was apparently a lead-in to talk about the Alabama primary, but you have to be willfully stupid about politics to utter those words.
Yarrow
@Redshift: That’s just sad.
Brachiator
I don’t recognize this naive Trump, nor do I think that he exists. I think it very plausible that he is involved in shady deals with criminals, but he jumped in eyes open, probably believing that he could always find a way out.
His deference to Putin also reeks of all kinds of daddy issues.
Major Major Major Major
@opiejeanne: I suppose I was thrown off by the usage of “cable guy.”
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Redshift:
Whenever anyone asks a question like that, I’ve learned the answer is always, “No”. Also, I find the “blue wave is going to crash against X” kind of word play to be cringy and annoying AF.
Mnemosyne
@opiejeanne:
So cable gal? ?
Major Major Major Major
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: I don’t mind it unless it’s a wave crashing against a *fire*wall.
Gvg
Romney started it. Somebody ought to be looking at him too. Probably doesn’t have the same exact crime, but I bet there is something. The point needs to be made hard and in law, turn in your taxes or don’t run, and not just for president.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Open thread, eh: Forty-three years ago my family took a month or so trip in the western US the summer after my dad retired. On the way back down the coast we stopped at Sacramento before the drive back to home in the the LA area. Our first night there I took this picture of the State Capitol. Last week I returned to Sacramento, but had to leave before I could take a picture at the same time in the evening, so I fired up Photoshop and came up with this picture.
JustRuss
Well, to be fair to the VSP, how could anyone have suspected financial shenanigans by Trump when he was so open and forthcoming about his finances?
And as Gvg notes above, Thanks Mittens!
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Gvg:
The funny thing about Romney is that in 2012 he correctly identified Russia as a threat. Everybody at the time laughed at him. It was just Cold War paranoia from a Republican. How wrong I was.
Brachiator
@James E Powell:
There is no law that requires that presidential candidates release their tax returns. It is a tradition, but I agree if you mean that Trump supporters were stupidly eager to set aside tradition, law and custom to get Trump. Absolutely foolish and short sighted.
Also, it is not up to the press/media to disqualify candidates. The GOP could have stopped Trump at the primary level. After that it was up to voters (and maybe the Russians).
ETA. Ultimately, the vast majority of newspapers endorsed Clinton, even conservative papers which had never endorsed a Democrat before. They warned about Trump, but were ignored.
Ah: Among the United States’ 100 largest newspapers by paid circulation, 57 endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, while only two endorsed Trump.
germy
I just found out about this:
NYMag
Major Major Major Major
@germy: ooh, good.
BlueGirlFromWyo
NRA headquarters is on Waples Mill Road in Fairfax too. What a coincidence!
Mary G
This is comforting poll news:
I know you guys talked about this a couple of threads back, but I was offline until now.
Cermet
@Gvg: romney did and it was documented – central amerikan thugs used a relative to channel their blood money through his company. Being a really religious guy, romney grabbed the money with both hands. That is how he got his business started. Ask the Toy’s R Us people how nice that blood sucker is.
efgoldman
@Brachiator:
I believe some states have passed laws requiring primary candidates to release tax returns in order to get ballot access.
NotMax
Anticipating the headlines:
Senate votes to replace long standing requirement for Navy bean soup in cafeteria with Borscht
:)
Cermet
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Russia is no threat militarily nor physically; it is a pest and can gum up our elections but putin is really more like a blow fly looking for a blood meal to poison this country.
Mnemosyne
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
It does make one wonder what Romney knew that he wasn’t willing to say, doesn’t it? Especially now that we know how long the Russians have been working this con.
Yarrow
@germy: That’s gotta be good news for Manchin.
Brachiator
@efgoldman: I think about 25 states have considered bills to require disclosure of tax information. Not sure whether any have been signed into law. And you know legal challenges will be coming.
We shall see what happens. But anyone who would vote for a candidate who did not disclose this info is a damned fool.
Major Major Major Major
@Cermet: they’re doing a bang-up job weakening the western alliance though.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Brachiator: A bill passed the Assembly and Senate here in CA, but Jerry vetoed it. He didn’t think it was Constitutional.
Chip Daniels
This kompromat reminds me of the writings I read during the Soviet period, where there wasn’t really any rule of law in the Soviet Union, and everyone essentially had to break the law just to survive, and everyone was implicated in informing on each other, double dealing, and corruption of all institutions at all levels.
So it isn’t surprising that the post-Communist Russia operates on the same order.
Roger Moore
@Cermet:
Except for the part where they have enough nukes aimed at us to obliterate the country.
Gravenstone
@germy: someone really wants a date with the FBI.
Schlemazel
@Major Major Major Major:
Having worked in IT security for the last 30 years and done a lot of work with various government and defense agencies I have ‘joked’ for the last 10-15 years that Russia is waging war against the US and China is winning.
The Chinese have been stealing intellectual property and that has hurt the West a lot but Russia is trying to destroy the West and that is worse and a huge help to China in their efforts to control the world.
Shana
@Jeffro: Yeah, I live pretty close to there too. Hmm.
Platonailedit
Shorter newyorker moron adam: Trump, the traitorous thug, is new to this.
Our Adam is way, way better than these journo dumbshits.
Major Major Major Major
@Schlemazel: this seems like a 110% good read on the situation.
Platonailedit
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
Baloney. For mittbot, it was just a Obama bashing talking point during a debate that fell on its face. He identified jacksquat.
B.B.A.
@germy: I have to say, I thought a coal baron who used to own the entire state government was a cinch to win both the nomination and the Senate seat, even if he killed a few dozen of his employees.
Then I saw one of his campaign ads and hoo boy. And here I thought I didn’t have any charisma, I’m Obama compared to that stiff.
efgoldman
@Brachiator:
And?
Jeffro
@BlueGirlFromWyo: Hey you’re right! At first I was thinking of the National Right to
Low WagesWork HQ, but that’s over on 236.I think Wayne LaPierre lives somewhere in Fairfax as well. Hmm. And here Halloween is coming up in just a few short months…
Jeffro
@Platonailedit:
Our Adam a) actually does his homework and b) follows the facts, wherever they may lead. Almost like a journalist (or really, any kind of professional) should.
sukabi
@The Conster: not just him. Ivanka and the 2 boobs as well.
Chyron HR
@Roger Moore:
That’s not really a military thing anymore, it’s just some James Bond villain shit.
Matt McIrvin
@Roger Moore: Only as an act of mutual suicide. So it constrains what we can do, but they can’t leverage the nukes to make just any demand. The old Cold War logic.
efgoldman
@sukabi:
Her two boobs go wherever she goes.
jake the antishoshul soshulist
All we really need to know is that 88 % of Republicans continue to support Trump.
They would rather see this country turn into a banana republic before they would admit they were wrong.
Trump is an “asset”. Nunes is. Carter Page and Manafort were. Who else is? And who are just useful idiots. Those are the only questions. My concern is that the taint is so widespread that it will never be totally eliminated. I have this bad feeling that Democrats weren’t immune to MAGA Hari and her Rubles.j
debbie
@MattF:
That’s Alex Jones all over.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: Just like Fox and Friends.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Schlemazel:
What would a world ruled by the PRC even look like? Would they interfere in western democracies like Russia has? Or worse, attempt regime change abroad like the US has tried?
David Fud
Holy Shit: “He says quietly, I am trying to say, is safe for you if you taste. You do not is maybe not safe for you now.
I take a bump. He smiles and says “okay. yes. This is smart decision you make.””
I have never had to choose between “taking a bump” of white powder as kompromat on myself or being killed by the Russian mob – in the United States. What a crazy freaking story. Who knew the adventures of a cable man were so out there.
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
Picture the worst, most mindnumbingly slow bureaucracy in the history of mankind. Add a decadent ancient culture of corruption and bribery and serious business etiquette, backed by the promise of official government violence and death for being caught breaking any of the many many many rules. A place where government censorship is official policy, money is king and if you’re not born Chinese, you’re a third class citizen and if you’re not a rich Chinese with ties to the inner regime, you’re a second class citizen. That’s what world domination by the PRC looks like.
Yarrow
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: One thing is that they would know exactly what everyone is doing. They’re already implementing facial recognition for everything. They’re piloting some sort of Facebook type thing where you are judged by the types of people in your circle. They’re making it mandatory in a year or so. If you have the “wrong sort” of people in your circle then it would affect your ability to get into good schools or get jobs. That sort of thing would be easy to scale up and make mandatory.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
Also, found this:
Could the world’s new superpower be on the verge of collapse?
The article also discusses ethnic and cultural divides in China that could tear the PRC apart, just as it did the Soviet Union.
VOR
@Brachiator:
There are initiatives in some states to require candidates to disclose their tax returns in order to run in that state. I thought at least one state actually passed such a law.
Matt McIrvin
@VOR: Yes, but it was a deep-blue state that would probably have no effect on Trump’s electoral fortunes if he were left off the ballot.
Anne Laurie
@BlueGirlFromWyo:
Do the locals call it ‘Murderers’ Row’?
Brachiator
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Could the world’s old superpower (the US) be on the verge of a collapse?
It might be a good time for film directors to start making dystopian movies based on Chinese domination.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Brachiator:
I don’t think Chinese “domination” would last much longer to be honest, for the reasons outlined in the article. I think the position of global hegemon is a curse in and of itself.
Gin & Tonic
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
Gosh, he makes ethnic cleansing sound almost benign.
Deep Southerner
@David Fud: I clicked on the Lauren Hough Twitter thread, and I’m just not able to get to what you guys are talking about.
Chetan Murthy
@Gvg:
Damn straight. You want a position of public trust? You wanna be anything more than dog-catcher? Show that you’re worthy of the public’s trust, dammit.
Zinsky
Paul’s letter to Timothy in the New Testament says that money is the root of all evil. Not some evil, not a little bit of evil but ALL evil. Donald Trump has made me seriously wonder whether Paul wasn’t right.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Gin & Tonic:
I think that’s why he had “modernize” in quotes. He was alluding to ethnic cleansing.
Omnes Omnibus
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Don’t fight with G&T about this.
Brachiator
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: The article you cite is remarkably superficial. One thing I found odd.
It might have made more sense to talk about the Great Leap forward, when the Communist Chinese leadership forced millions of people to relocate in an attempt to modernize the country and to disrupt the class system. This was a disaster which resulted in the deaths of a huge number of people, including the families of some of my friends since high school.
China may have learned from this terrible lesson. Instead of brutally suppressing business people, China is now home to the highest number of billionaires. From Forbes
By some measures, US GDP equalled or exceeded that of the UK by 1870, and the US did this coming out of the economic disruption of the Civil War. And yet Britain was still the official global superpower. No one quite realized that it was being overtaken by an upstart.
China is in the upstart position now. We have an idiot as president and one political party, the GOP which refuses to learn from past mistakes even as it tries to restore old glories.
Predicting the future based on the past is notoriously unreliable. Still, we are living in interesting times, and China is definitely on the move.
Forbes link
https://www.forbes.com/sites/pamelaambler/2017/10/30/where-young-chinese-billionaires-are-making-their-wealth-and-spending-it/
Anne Laurie
@Brachiator:
Hollywood blockbusters rely bigly on Chinese ticket sales. Nobody above the freelance-independent level is gonna risk pissing off the PRC censors, who are notoriously sensitive about such ‘slurs on our great culture’.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Omnes Omnibus:
I didn’t think I was? I was posting an article I found insightful and interesting.
Matt McIrvin
@Brachiator: Right now, while all this is happening, Xi Jinping is transitioning the country from its previous level of business-friendly authoritarianism to a much more extreme, quasi-totalitarian, personality-cult variety. I’m wondering if that will kill the golden goose or if business will just keep chugging along.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Brachiator:
I admit I noticed this a tad. I was submitting it here to see if my suspicions would be confirmed.
Ah, but the United Kingdom still exists today and continued long after 1870 to be important on the global stage.
Anne Laurie
@Zinsky:
Actually, Paul said the love of money is the root of all evil. He was an entrepreneur, looking to make a business out of a ragtag mystery cult, not some wide-eyed hippie like that Yeshua fella. But as a successful businessman, Paul understood that letting the local franchisees (congregations) hoard money-tokens instead of investing their profits would be a growth-killer.
I hate what the man did to the ‘Christian’ mythology, but Paul was smarter than many of our current ‘thought leaders’!
Omnes Omnibus
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Try to know your regulars. It’s like your local bar. Everyone has issues.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@TenguPhule:
What I wondering was whether the PRC would interfere with Western powers like the US or the EU.
mike in dc
@Anne Laurie: We’re more likely to see Taiwan produce their own “Red Dawn” film about a Chinese invasion and takeover. Even then, the Taiwan government would probably exert whatever pressure it could to stop the film.
David Fud
@Deep Southerner: Here’s the link to the exact exchange I am referring to. For good measure: “He says “stay, I asking for you.” Comes back with a gram bag of coke. Says “you must taste.” I tell him I can’t. I’m at work. I’ll gladly take it home though. He says no you taste. I say I get sinus infections every time. I explain sinus infections.” “He says stay. Comes back with a mirror and a little pile. Says this is better. No cuts. You taste. I’m just kinda standing there like a moron because it’s early and I really don’t want to be coked out all day.” He says quietly, I am trying to say, is safe for you if you taste. You do not is maybe not safe for you now.
I take a bump. He smiles and says “okay. yes. This is smart decision you make.”
The inside of people’s homes are sometimes very strange places.
Brachiator
@Anne Laurie: The Chinese box office is huge, but some of this is for bragging rights. Because of arcane financing rules, Hollywood gets a smaller share of the Chinese box office than it does from other foreign territories. And some film franchises (cough, Star Wars) are big flops in China. Chinese dystopian flicks could be big hits and skip China.
But yeah, Hollywood might not want to upset China. So, futuristic stories where China saves the world.
mike in dc
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: I don’t think the PRC is in the same desperate position that Putin’s Russia is in, and therefore such a high-risk operation would likely be frowned upon. China’s overt influence campaigns are already fairly successful. Interference ops carry a risk of backfiring and inflaming public opinion in the EU and the USA. Especially since the PRC is not set up as a white nationalist haven and “defender of Western civilization”.
Brachiator
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
When did the UK cease to be a global superpower? When was it displaced by the US?
Spider-Dan
@Matt McIrvin: The problem (and threat) is not a Republican being left off of CA’s ballot in the general election. The problem is a Republican candidate refusing to disclose his tax returns and being excluded from CA’s primary delegate votes. If Ted Cruz wins the primary delegates from CA, NY and IL because he’s on the primary ballot and Trump isn’t, the 2016 primary looks very different.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Brachiator:
The UK lost it’s place as a superpower sometime in the 1950s. The US, IIRC, emerged as the one of three (yes, three) superpowers after WW2. However, the US became a major world power sometime in the 1880s or 1890s. For when the US displaced the UK, I’m not sure.
mike in dc
@Brachiator: I would say sometime during WW2. 1942-1944. The US military production far outstripped the UK, and post war its economy dwarfed Britain’s. We have shifted back to a multipolar world of “great powers”, which, depending on how you view it, number between 5 and 8–the US, the PRC, France and Germany(or the EU), the UK, Japan, India and Russia. Russia is arguably the weakest great power economically.
NotMax
@mike in dc
As of only a few months ago, Mainland China Opens its Door to Taiwan Films.
Jeffro
@Anne Laurie: we do not.
Yet.
mad citizen
Cursory googling reveals CIA rankings of per capita GDP. Russia ranks #72. Hardly a world power from this basic measure. The U.S. is #19.
Brachiator
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
@mike in dc:
And during the Suez crisis, Ike laid down the law to both the UK and France, telling them that they were done and there was a new sheriff in town.
After this there was the long twilight struggle in which France and the UK dealt with losing the last of their colonies.
B.B.A.
@mad citizen: Does that make Liechtenstein the strongest power in the world? And here I thought it was just an overgrown ski lodge run by a Catholic nutter.
Calouste
@Brachiator: 1870 seems to be unlikely, considering that was just 5 years after the end of the Civil War. Wars tend to be a bit of a drag on the economy.
mad citizen
“Does that make Liechtenstein the strongest power in the world? And here I thought it was just an overgrown ski lodge run by a Catholic nutter.” As soon as the mainline nations hit rock bottom, Liechtenstein will take over the world
Calouste
@B.B.A.: That nutter has a rather large effect on the average income in Liechtenstein. Worth $2 billion or so.
burnspbesq
@germy:
My money’s on “die trying.”
Brachiator
@Calouste:
Brachiator
@Brachiator: Crap. Sorry for the bad formatting. Can’t edit on mobile.
NotMax
@Brachiator
While no longer having the status of colonies, there are still places over which the U.K. holds jurisdiction and are/were not “lost.” Same holds true for other countries. This list might be slightly out of date but is still a guide to those places:
Under Australian Jurisdiction (6)
Ashmore and Cartier Islands
Christmas Island
Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Coral Sea Islands
Heard Island and McDonald Islands
Norfolk Island
Under Danish Jurisdiction (2)
Faroe Islands
Greenland
Under Dutch Jurisdiction (2)
Aruba
Netherlands Antilles
Under French Jurisdiction (16)
Bassas da India
Clipperton Island
Europa Island
French Guiana
French Polynesia
French Southern and Antarctic Lands
Glorioso Islands
Guadeloupe
Juan de Nova Island
Martinique
Mayotte
New Caledonia
Réunion
Saint Pierre and Miquelon
Tromelin Island
Wallis and Futuna
Under New Zealand Jurisdiction (3)
Cook Islands
Niue
Tokelau
Under Norwegian Jurisdiction (3)
Bouvet Island
Jan Mayen
Svalbard
Under UK Jurisdiction (15)
Anguilla
Bermuda
British Indian Ocean Territory
British Virgin Islands
Cayman Islands
Falkland Islands
Gibraltar
Guernsey
Jersey
Isle of Man
Montserrat
Pitcairn Islands
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Chunha
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
Turks and Caicos Islands
Under U.S. Jurisdiction (14)
American Samoa
Baker Island
Guam
Howland Island
Jarvis Island
Johnston Atoll
Kingman Reef
Midway Islands
Navassa Island
Northern Mariana Islands
Palmyra Atoll
Puerto Rico
Virgin Islands
Wake Island
Disputed Territories (6): Antarctica, Bajo Nuevo Bank (Petrel Islands), Gaza Strip, Paracel Islands, Serranilla Bank, Spratly Islands, West Bank, Western Sahara.
Missing from the list are cases which were never colonies or to which colonial claims were applied per se, such as China’s claims in the South China Sea, Russia and Japan’s competing claims over the Kuril Islands, and a handful more, plus as well tribal and/or economic breakaway entities existing de facto but not internationally recognized (e.g., Somaliland, Puntland).
NotMax
@NotMax
Oh, list comes from an older edition of the C.I.A. Worldbook, editorial additions (the final paragraph) mine.
Sloane Ranger
Probably a dead thread but have to point out that Jersey and Guernsey are not colonies. In fact, Channel Islanders joke that the UK is a colony of the Channel Islands as they are the last remnants of the Duchy of Normandy and owe allegiance to the Queen as descending from William the Conqueror. Also completely self governing, they just sub contract Defence and Foreign Relations to the UK.
Think something similar with the Isle of Man but not currently able to research it’s status.
Nettoyeur
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Russia is a power player mainly because they own Trump and the GOP.
NotMax
@Sloane Ranger
Yup. The Channel Islands are a bizarre concatenation, neither fish nor fowl, not even consistent among themselves, with a strong to this day current of feudalism running through the ocean of internal governance.
rikyrah
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Love both of them.