Comments by "MarcosElMalo2" (@MarcosElMalo2) on "Zeihan on Geopolitics" channel.

  1.  @jghenry2967  OGG Beats is a Dutchman. What’s your excuse?
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  2. Like you, I also generalize from my personal experiences and anecdotal evidence and I WANT SOME ANSWERS. Paper towels are a good example. Why do people always put them on the shelf where they are out of reach? I WANT SOME ANSWERS. I also found the cost of fertilizer to be out of reach, so I decide to manufacture my own. And some nosy Karen in the neighborhood reported me to the Health Department and I’m getting evicted. I didn’t think I could afford to move because of gas prices, so I decided to create some biofuel (the same way I made fertilizer) by eating a ton of beans and exlax.
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  3. Piss. We just don’t have the infrastructure.
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  4. Daniel Plainview: I drink your boba tea.
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  5. A month would cover a section of it, no?
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  6.  @dominicsignorile9511  Snow is not unheard of in Hawaii. The factoid alone isn’t evidence of climate change. What is the trend? How many snow days does Hawaii get, at what elevations, and how long does the snow stay on the ground?
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  7.  @garedmorort  setting aside calling each other racist (we’ll get back to that in a moment), there is a large bloc on the U.S. right that claims that immigration is ruining the country—they’ve been making the claim for more than 40 years. There has been a continual push and pull within the right wing and within the GOP between the anti-immigrants and those that see immigration as a net positive. Over the last ten years, the anti-immigrationists have won. Here is something that might sound familiar to you. A lot of immigration from Central America is driven by conditions that America had a hand in creating, meddling in the politics and supporting authoritarian dictators. France has a similar situation, no? Many immigrants are coming from countries that were once colonial subjects of France or some other European power. The point is that our immigration problems are problems of our own making. I’m not anti-American or an “America is always wrong” type. U.S. meddling might have been a mistake but it was a counter to Soviet meddling in Latin America in the context of the Cold War. We didn’t want another Cuba in Latin America, especially not in Central America. That doesn’t excuse our mistakes, it just puts into context how we should be reckoning with immigration. And we should note that the U.S. conferred legal immigration status to those who were fleeing communist countries while making illegal those who were fleeing our brutal dictator allies. All that said, the anti-immigrant faction in the U.S. is mostly racist and part of larger racist authoritarian movement. They turn a blind eye to the majority of illegal immigration which comes from Europe and Asia, and freak out about the southern border.
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  8. You’re correct.
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  9.  @LordRykard9376  They’re listening. They might not profess agreement, but they are listening to what he has to say and filing it away. And as Trump talks crazier and more extreme, they’ll remember what Christie has been saying.
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  10.  @wisenber  That’s rich in iron.
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  11. You know what helps me sleep? I lie back, relax my body, and count divorces.
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  12. And that is well and good so long as relations between China and the U.S. remain friendly. If those relations become too strained, that U.S. pork might not make it to Chinese markets.
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  13. Hard to argue with the great wisdom of a libertarian comic artist. 😂
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  14. I would point you to study the air campaign component of the 1991 gulf war that lasted 5 weeks before coalition ground forces engaged Iraqi ground forces. Coalition air forces flew 100,000 sorties before a single coalition soldier stepped into Kuwait or Iraq. This broke the Iraqi Airforce and air defenses. They never recovered and consequently, the 2001 invasion faced very little in the way of opposition from the air or from air defenses. The sort of attack you’re thinking about would take considerably more time than a few hours of preparatory bombing. It would take more than a few days, but then you’d lose the element of surprise. The Special Operation relied on many things going right in addition to surprise. Most of those things did not go right. It’s unlikely that a bombing campaign of less than a week would have made a difference. A preparatory bombing campaign that ruined the element of surprise would also negate a major premise of Putin’s plan: to accomplish victory so quickly that the West would be forced to accept it. The war was supposed to be over before anyone realized what had happened. So I think either way, the original plan would have failed. There is nothing other than a shit ton of luck that would have brought Putin victory. And currently, even luck is not going to help Russia win. The best thing for Russia now would be to withdraw immediately, although that might not be so good for Putin holding onto power.
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  15. Your pork? As far as I know, the pork belongs to pig farmers, who then sell it to whomever they want. Are you a pig farmer? I suspect the only grasper of pork here is you.
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  16. 30 days from sentencing or 30 days from the verdict?
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  17. Too far to the left. I’ll say one thing in her favor: she and others of her ilk haven’t worked to cannibalize and destroy the Democratic Party, unlike how MAGA has been eating its own. She’s not a nutcase, just too far left.
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  18.  @masseymm  Not true. You icebacks have been invading for years, stealing jobs from Americans. You think we didn’t notice where Mike Myers came from? Celine Dion? Do you think we are stupid?
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  19. It is.
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  20.  @borisstanislav4560  Did you understand the basis of the complaint?
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  21.  @WolverineXOXO  But how do you guarantee due process for an innocent person swept up and thrown in this prison? I agree that the common people have a right to safety from the criminal gangs, but they also have a right to safety from a government with a bad historical record wrt human rights abuses (extrajudicial killings of priests, journalists, and dissidents, for example). Getting the scum off the street is important, but I want to know about what safeguards or processes are in place to prevent a return to the bad old days?
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  22.  @janobrien1936  See, you’re thinking like we’re still in a normal world, and that Trump wouldn’t be acting so irrationally unless he was getting blackmailed. The truth is that he thinks he knows what he’s doing. And maybe he does know what he’s doing, it’s just that the thing he is doing will destroy us.
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  23.  @andrewj4426  Why would the Russians blow up Kerch Bridge. That makes zero sense.
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  24.  @rh81454  Do you know what would put a real dent in the Cartels’ business? Go after the money launderers in the U.S. However, I’m not sure if there is the stomach or political will to go after banking executives and real estate moguls. Until we attack the money flows, your suggestion will fail.
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  25. You don’t need consuming robots to drain off surplus value and maintain or generate demand. You just need virtual/digital products and services. Which is already here in some form.
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  26.  @atomicshadowman9143  Google Translate gives me “pocketbook”. I don’t know Portuguese, but I speak Spanish. Bolsa is a bag in general, bolsita is plastic baggie (can you guess where I live?), bolsón can be a satchel or handbag. Bolsa can also be a pocket, but I usually see bolsillo for pocket. But here’s a funny one. Bolsón is also slang for a lazy person. 😂
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  27. Go home, you’re drunk.
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  28. Plenty of people are getting paid not to work. They just weren’t hired not to work. This isn’t anything new. There’s a common fundamental misunderstanding of “general” AI that Pete has fallen into. To understand the fallacy better, one should 1) take a look at the Turing Test to determine “AI-ness”, 2) examine the assumption that humans represent some sort of gold standard of decision making.
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  29. A few of the frigates might have something like Phalanx, but patrol boats will have heavy MGs and a larger caliber weapon or two (and it’s the larger calibers that have the problems targeting low approaches close in). So, what the the equivalent to a 50 cal? Is it 12.7 mm?
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  30.  @123sheag That’s what they said.
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  31. Nah. Biden is implementing some of the REPUBLICAN policies, but they weren’t Trump’s. Remember, he’s out of office and didn’t take an active hand in forming the policies that were hammered out in the Senate. Nor could he take credit for them. Go look at the history of the legislation, starting with the tying together of Border reform with Ukraine aid. That was the key moment, really. Once the two were linked, the Republicans could dictate the border bill. And they did. And Trump blew it up, because he needs unresolved border issues or he doesn’t have a major campaign issue.
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  32.  @thedukeofchutney468  The Maduro Regime feeds the poor, and that is why Maduro is “popular” among the poor. If you want to eat, you come to his rallies and show support for the United Socialist Party. The middle class is the biggest part of the population that is being starved (taking a cue from the Soviets of the 20s and 30s) and devastated. They are the largest part that is fleeing their country. (Economically they are now just as impoverished as any one else, but they are still considered members of an enemy class.) The political opposition is persecuted both officially by the government security apparatus, the military and unofficially by paramilitary gangs of thugs. Peter is right to talk about the famine, but it’s important to remember that the Venezuelans fleeing the criminal socialist dictatorship of Maduro are political asylum seekers, not economic immigrants. The Central Americans are a slightly different story. They endured decades of U.S. interference in their politics during the Cold War. I’m not one of the “blame America” contingent. There were serious concerns about Communism on our doorstep, and the Soviets were materially supporting rebellions. I just think we handled it badly on the whole. Long story short, we had a hand in creating instability in Central America, which allowed organized crime to gain a toe hold. The thousands of Central Americans fleeing the violent crime in their countries is what you call “blowback”, the unintended consequences of our foreign policy.
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  33.  @howardhowe3453  what does ASSumption cause? Consumption of the ASS?😮 Y’all need to get your pithy sayings right. 😂
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  34.  @deriznohappehquite  I know it doesn’t sound like how supply and demand is supposed to work, but this is one of those market distortions caused by a government program. The reason more is grown is because the government subsidizes its purchase by the biofuel companies from U.S. farmers. The biofuel demand and ready cash artificially raises prices so that it’s profitable to grow more. So the demand for biofuel corn gets met, but the prices have been nudged up in the U.S., the country which produces and exports the most corn, and this has an effect on world prices for the commodity. According to Wikipedia, 33% of U.S. corn production goes to feedstocks and 27% goes to ethanol production. 11% goes to export, and the rest is used for production of human food and non-biofuel distillation products. (This is higher than I thought for ethanol.)
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  35. Change your job title to “shade arbitragist”.
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  36.  @mikegoodie7905  AliceinWonderland wasn’t entirely clear about this, but the issue is this: the long range air to air missiles are only long range at high altitudes, where air density is very low. It is extremely dangerous for an F-16 to reach those altitudes, so they will be operating at much lower altitudes, trying to stay below the Russian radar. The air density is the limiting factor. I expect to see the F-16s used to steadily degrade Russian air defense assets and to suppress air defense for cruise missile strikes. Ukraine needs hundreds of F-16s and other specialized aircraft to use NATO combined arms tactics. So Pete is not listening to the right people. He’s probably listening to other generalists.
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  37.  @gardenersgraziers7261  LATE STAGE CAPITALIZATION
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  38. Unfortunately for Russia, they’ve spent the last 70+ years making the case for NATO expansion.
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  39. That wet sound you hear is thousands of YouTubers fapping away to financial collapse porn.
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  40. Agreed. There’s too many exasperating comments from overly optimistic video game players. Crimea is going to be a touch nut to crack. Russian logistics can be hampered, but I see no evidence that supply lines will be cut any time soon. Nor do I see evidence that Ukraine will be on Crimea’s doorstep anytime soon, meaning there are at least months to prepare for a siege. Pete is incorrect wrt control of the Black Sea. Ukraine doesn’t control the sea lanes. It threatens Russian control, which is not the same thing. He’s incorrect that Russia needs to feed the population, or will even treat them humanely. They don’t and won’t. They can evacuate the civilian population and target everyone who stays. It should be obvious by now that they don’t care about war crimes. I think the biggest potential blunder is to assume your adversary is going to make the same mistakes over and over again. I realize we’re talking about Russia here, but that assumption can have disastrous consequences the one time it is wrong. I do not think Russia can hold Crimea forever. But it’s they’re not going to lose it quickly or easily. This is the bit of Ukraine they are most determined to hold. I will be happily surprised if Ukraine can take it back in 2023.
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  41.  @aldofromsf  Because it’s a reasonable question to you when you are certain of the result. But don’t worry, I don’t expect a well thought answer from you.
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  42. What’s there to say about it?
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  43. It remains to be seen if the far left, the actual Marxists and anti-capitalist socialists, have made any real inroads into the Democratic Party. These are the people who voted for Jill Stein and the like. The only time they ever MAYBE moved the needle was in Florida in 2000 when they voted for Nader. Even that is debatable.
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  44. The name sounds like the job title of a pickpocket.
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  45. I think there’s a wait and see stance towards Peru. They just elected a Marxist for President. That doesn’t mean Peru will go the way of Venezuela, but it’s an open question as to what the election means. At a minimum we can read it as a rejection of the Fujimorists (which is a good thing, imho), but what else might we expect? Peruvian politics is not my specialty, but what I do know is confusing and weird to me. Perhaps you can cast some light on the subject.
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  46.  @johnschuh8616  You mean like the rail ports-of-entry at Laredo, Eagle Pass, and Brownsville? Also Presidio and El Paso? These all connect with Lazaro Cardenas which (iirc) is the main west coast seaport. There has been a proposed port at Punta Colonet in Baja (proposed in 2009, no construction as yet) and the port of Guaymas in Sonora is a candidate for expansion and modernization.
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  47. It’s been my understanding that Hamas is sponsored by Iran (or one of the ruling factions in Iran, such as the Revolutionary Guards). And as far as Iran is concerned, it’s already Mission Accomplished. There’s no need to stick their necks out as their goals have been mostly met: to stir up conflict between Israel and Palestine when there had been some movement towards peace and to make Israel look bad. The Iranians intent was to provoke a reaction. So it seems that the Iranians are hanging Hamas out to dry. Maybe they were hoping for a stronger reaction from Israel, i.e., indiscriminate bombing of civilians, but they’re settling for some civilian deaths because that’s what happens when war is waged in densely populated areas. Here’s the thing about conditions in Gaza and the West Bank: 1) the West Bank is governed by the Palestinian Authority, the moderate faction of the PLO when the PLO broke apart. And the PA and Israel have been cooperating, which has lead to improvement in the lives of those Palestinians. 2) Israel began some time ago to thaw relations with its former enemies (most notably Saudi Arabia) and changed their policy on Israeli settlement of the occupied West Bank. They’ve begun to dismantle the settlements and arresting those hardcore settlers who refuse to leave. They’ve done this as gestures of good faith as they seek to normalize diplomatic relations with their former enemies, and those former enemies have stopped supporting anti-Israel militants. That’s the larger context to remember here. Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, etc., recognize that Iran is the real threat. They’re moving towards formal diplomatic relations and perhaps a formal alliance. (And yes, the centuries old Sunni/Shiite split is in play here.) Iran is trying to break this up.
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  48. That last paragraph is an interesting idea, but does the local population have the wherewithal? The Russians have no scruples when it comes to genocide.
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  49.  @Chris-ji4iu  It sounds anecdotal and amplified by the rumor mill. Pretty soon you’ll be hearing conspiracy theories from both extremes, whether the original story is true or not. The free-range organic granola types will blame hormones and genetically modified feed. The off-the-grid paranoid survivalists will blame the secret world government. And hucksters will take advantage of both, enticing the public to raise their own laying hens and convincing them to buy the animals and accoutrements at inflated prices. The gullible will buy in, adding temporary demand for hens. This is already a fad and many of these people will find their hobby chickens too much work to maintain. Keeping chickens at home is paradoxically both a poverty thing and a hobby for eccentric rich people. Sorry, I went off on a bit of a rant.
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  50. Oh, France! Did you learn this from us or did we learn it from you?
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