Comments by "David Ford" (@davidford3115) on "VisualPolitik EN" channel.

  1. The irony is that Chinese Taipei has much affection for Japan, in stark contrast to many other Chinese populations. Even the Chinese Indonesian community has much better relations with Japan than mainland China.
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  2.  @nishantmaderna6295  Old biases die hard. You may have papered it over for the foreign audience to see, but internally when nobody is watching, those old bigotries reveal themselves. Some of us see what goes on when you think nobody is watching.
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  3. How about you actually debate the points instead of making an emotional outburst?
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  4.  @reubenong8728  Sounds to me more like that is an issue with racial/ethnic supremacy. Minority populations in Russia have ALWAYS been treated as second-class to the ethnic Russians. Very rarely has Moscow allowed the regions to enjoy autonomy. Yakutia is a notable exception because despite its large land area, the population is quite small; Moscow doesn't view them as a challenge to their dominance.
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  5.  @fturatti  Funny, because the most prosperous nations have always depended on their mercantile class. The most technologically innovative societies have had a robust merchant populace.
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  6. The reactions of Hu Jintao's protege on the other side of Xi is quite telling, as is the reaction of most of the other folks. The stone-face expression was just as much of shock as it was of horror and dread.
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  7.  @olderchin1558  The Russia-Chinese land-based supply lines are unreliable at best. How much actually transits the trans-Siberian Railway from European Russia to Manchuria? Not nearly as much as you think. And the energy pipelines that feed Europe do NOT have a direct link to the Russian pipelines that connect to China. They are two separate systems.
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  8.  @VisibilityFoggy  Basically the same argument AGAINST reparations in the US. And why Soviet collectivism never works. Workers, unless they came up through the ranks into management, don't necessarily understand WHY a factory or business runs the way it does. Without that wider perspective, you may make choices that adversely harm the company. In a similar vein, some folks should take a look at Indonesia and ask why the ethnic Chinese tended to have most of the wealth after the Dutch left following WW2. The Dutch used the Chinese as the mid-level managers and the local Javanese and Sumatrans as the labor. The anti-Chinese sentiment under Sukarno and Suharto threatened to do to Indonesia what Mugabe did to Zimbabwe.
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  9. What progress? The world is less safe and the economics, particularly inflation are worse than they were during the previous 4 years. Oh, but mean tweets are more important to you than the soaring cost of living, particularly energy and fuel costs.
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  10. Your first point blatantly ignores a truism that the Koreans know which you refuse to acknowledge: The strength of the nation comes from the integrity of the family as Confucius observed. It has been conclusively confirmed in multiple studies that children of single-parent families have lower rates of education, higher rates of crime, teen pregnancy, and a whole host of other problems. Do keep in mind that Confucius himself was born out of wedlock and grew up in a broken family. His experiences are empirical evidence supporting his contention that a traditional core family unit is the best situation and that all others fail to sustain a culture.
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  11. No, they just simply strip mine and rip the country off while leaving half-completed projects, flood the local economies with cheap goods and force local businesses belly-up with market domination. Yeah, China's tactics are much less overt than military conquest, but certainly not any better.
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  12. From whom? The Russian Bots or the people pointing out the holes in the arguments of Negative Nacy?
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  13.  @Spacedog79  I am all for more nuclear. And US Navy nuclear has proven that it IS the safest form of energy that we can use. Thank Admiral Hyman G. Rickover for that.
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  14.  @fooo2241  How about the rules governing mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania? How about the changed to voter ID requirements in Georgia and Arizona? How about last-minute approval of ballot harvesting? There are plenty of examples that people just brush off. I'm talking NOT about questionable practices during the counting, but the PROCESS, and chain of custody issues that the court refuse to even consider based on the merits. Those changes should NOT have taken effect until the NEXT election cycle. And the excuses used to rationalize them going into effect mid-election are typical of those trying to game the system.
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  15.  @jdw-616  Many wiser men than you have tried to predict the end of days. They ALL failed. You are just as foolish if you think you know the hour of judgement. It will occur when you least expect it, so why are you trying to use fear of it to compel others? THAT is where you have blasphemed.
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  16.  @alterkooper431  Yes they do. When you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas. That proverb is in ALL three Abrahamic faiths.
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  17. This, completely. Also, a tariff goes on any product subsidized by the government. Germany and France are notorious for propping up their local companies against foreign competition.
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  18.  @NewsGuyFred  You are ignoring that EU countries heavily subsidize their industries (particularly auto and aviation) that directly compete against Us businesses. THAT is protectionism under a different guise.
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  19. Then refute it with rational, coherent points. Otherwise, the argument stands uncontested.
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  20. It is interesting how the Japanese and South Koreans have become America's greatest advocates in Southeast Asia. It is something that American policy makers should NOT take for granted.
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  21. The irony is that since Ukraine is in the fight for its life, and existential crisis, corruption is viewed as helping the enemy. Where previously people could get away with it, now there is an incentive to put a stop to it.
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  22.  @MrWhitmen1981  Stalin and the Austrian painter micromanaged battlefield decisions just like LBJ would later do in Vietnam. When did Trump ever micromanage choices made on the battlefield? He didn't. Hel let his subordinates make the call and then held them to account if they screw up.
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  23.  @ImLure  Wow, I think that was one of the plot threads in the "children's book" by Lois Lowry: "The Giver".
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  24. That is exactly what it is. Since the UK is no longer top dog and has been replaced by the US, they still view it as sticking it to the Anglo-world.
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  25.  @sharwama992  Yup, foreign men can't resist the charms of Korean women. There is a reason why Chinese Emperors and Japanese noble lords often took Korean spouses. Though their descendants would never publicly admit it (and Akahito cause quite a stir when he admitted to being related to King Muryeong of Pakeje).
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  26. Other than tourism or seafood exports, I don't really see what industry many of these Island territories could develop.
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  27. Indeed. If Russia collapsed, the China would try to take back outer Manchuria. And if THAT happened, I could easily see the Japanese move into Sakhalin Island as well as the Kurils.
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  28. I tend to agree. This idea that they HAVE to be under one flag and one government is an 18th century chauvinistic conceit. Let them fracture into localized governments. If San Marino, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and Andorra can all be independent nations, why can the various localities of Bosnia do the same?
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  29. "Peaceful majority"? Tell me, what has happened to the Christan populations of the Middle East? What about the Jewish congregations? Ask the Chinese Christians of Indonesia what they think about their Muslim Neighbors. Ask the Dayaks of Borneo what they think of Islam. Ask the Hindus of India how "peaceful" their Muslim neighbors are. A country doesn't go to 98% of the population being Muslim without violence being a factor.
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  30. The Baltic States know first-hand not to trust the Russian Bear (who happens to be geriatric).
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  31. Ukraine is not a strategic asset that Taiwan is. There is little upside to the US supporting Ukraine beyond grinding the Russian war machine to dust. And the benefit of that is mixed at best. Yes, it sucks for Ukraine, but it is their fight, not ours. While I am all for giving our old and soon to be expired gear to them, there is no reason for pallets of cash to be laundered by companies such as Burisma.
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  32. Would not surprise me. And if the president/priemer of Moldova is smart, the response to those bills is "services not requested nor desired-refuse to pay".
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  33.  @sinoroman  The Finish and Swedes put that threat to bed. Joining NATO will not endanger Moldova any more than it did the Nordic countries.
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  34. I would assume you are referring to Formosa? It was the crown jewel in the Empire of Japan and was given preferential treatment over all of Japan's other possessions. My understanding is that the feeling of affection was and still is mutual
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  35. Or you are just refusing to address the points they bring up.
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  36. You have a point. Compare the Fentanyl crisis with the Opium crisis in China which lead to the devastating Opium Wars with the UK. The parallels are startling.
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  37. GDP does not accurately reflect the health of a country. When local businesses are being bankrupted by China flooding local markets with cheap goods while the Chinese strip-mine the country is not healthy for an economy. What good is infrastructure if there are no jobs to feed your family? Infrastructure does NOT put food on the table.
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  38. Kind of a similar thing with US Navy pilots in the Pacific. The carrier groups attached to the Akagi, Kaga, Souryuu, and Hiryuu were battle hardened fighting the Royal Navy in Southeast Asia by the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor. It took Coral Sea and development of tactical air combat skills such as the S-turn to pull off the victory at Midway and Santa Cruz Skies.
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  39. Never actually visited the Korean DMZ have you?
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  40.  @TK199999  If it worked so well, why did almost every power except the US blatantly violate it? In particular, both the Germans and the Japanese created Heavy cruisers (Admiral Hipper, and Mogami respectively) with light cruiser guns that could be easily retrofitted with bigger ones so as to get around the limits? Then you have the fact that the Japanese absolutely lied about the true displacement of their capital ships. In particular, the true displacement of their battleships was 50% greater than what they claimed. Also, it wasn't Dolittle, it was Billy Mitchell who demonstrated the feasibility of air power over capital ships. Dolittle was the Lt. Colonel who led the Tokyo Raid from the deck of the USS Hornet. Don't try lecturing me on military history when you can't even get your basic facts correct.
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  41.  @Homer-OJ-Simpson  "Furniture" in this case refers to the historic and cultural items and locations. Case in point: During the Korean war, Hwasong Fortress was pulverized with even the foundation turned to gravel. Bulguksa Temple burned to the ground from shelling during the desperate Pusan Defense Line. In both cases, the Koreans were able to rebuild them to exact replicas because detailed records of their original construction were found in local archives. Had those documents been lost, then those historic sites would never have been restored.
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  42. Not really. Vietnam, particularly the French disaster at Dien Bien Phu proved that the French Empire as an institution was finished. The others just haven't seen a need to emulate the folks in "French Indo-China". And considering their (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos) example, I don't really blame them (French Overseas) for rejecting that path.
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  43.  @rizkyadiyanto7922  No you did not confirm it. You failed to provide your source claim it is a hoax which means you didn't disprove anything. Hamas themselves were boasting about it.
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  44. hikikomori is Japanese, nor Korean. But you are correct about the alcoholism and suicide rates. But it isn't unique to Korea as it is also seen in many other Asian cultures.
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  45.  @JMM33RanMA  Indeed. When I was stationed over there from 2009-2011, I came to realize that while the deepest, darkest, most desperate desire of the older population was reunification, the younger generations were much less enthusiastic about that. They perceived it as a nice idea, but one with serious difficulties that could threaten to destabilize their society and culture.
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  46. The Greeks culturally conquered the Romans as Roman culture basically became a continuation of the Greeks after the Latins conquered the Near East. Why do i bring this up? I see Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan very easily being to the West what Greece and Greek culture was to the Roman Empire.
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  47. I agree. The best thing he could do after his term is fade into the background and only privately offer advice to political leaders when solicited. He could become Ukraine's version of George Washington.
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  48. Well, and she kept her opinions to herself, unlike Charles. The best thing he can do for the institution of the Monarchy is to keep his mouth shut and stay sequestered in Buckingham Palace as a recluse. Let his son William be "The People's Prince" and represent the crown in state functions. William has the class to emulate his grandmother and become beloved.
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  49.  @jaric82  Yeah, what is wrong with that? Take Japan for example. They are very resistant to naturalization of those who are not ethnically Japanese. But those Western gaijin they DO naturalize often become fluent speakers of Japanese as well as adopting distinctly Japanese names and identities as part of that naturalization process. It also helps that they have married a Japanese national so that the children will at least be part ethnic Japanese. Same situation applies to South Korea. So don't pretend that it is just an Euro-centric perspective. If anything, it is the typical and historic view on nationality.
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  50.  @kasper2970  You seem to forget that both Germany and France heavily subsidize their industries. Without that government assistance, they would not be anywhere near as competitive with US manufacturers.
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