[Non-US] News That Makes You laugh/cry/neither...

RobbyPants · Post by **RobbyPants** » Tue May 15, 2018 11:52 pm

North Korea postpones talks with the South due to joint South Korean/US drills. Is this Kim seeing Trump backing out of deals with Iran, trying to get a better deal?

angelfromanotherpin · Wed May 16, 2018 12:08 am

It's a twofer. First, he's using Trump's signature/only move against him, because Trump obviously has no idea how to counter it. Second, he's using Trump's narcissism against him. Trump has invested a lot of his ego in being 'the guy who solved Korea,' so he's going to be super-unwilling to give up on that, even if it means signing over Alaska or something.

Pariah Dog · Post by **Pariah Dog** » Wed May 16, 2018 12:58 am

Or he goes batshit(tier?) and pressed the big orange button (the big red button has been repainted orange)

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Wed May 16, 2018 3:08 am

1) This has happened before. NK is willing to talk, but wants to see actual progress, and we make sure that never actually happens. NK and SK signed agreements in the past that brought limited unification in joint economic zones and family reunification, but they were torpedoed by either or both of right wing shifts in the US and SK governments.

2) Wow, it's almost like it was the SK leftist peace party that ran on reunification reaching out to NK in good faith, and not military posturing from the US that brought him to the table and now NK is responding to continued US military provocation by signalling an unwillingness to cooperate while they continue.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Tue May 22, 2018 4:00 am

Went by Museum Siam in Bangkok last weekend. They had their LGBT rights gender illumination exhibit.

This is a mini-maze with walls that have gender roles and labels:

The museum also hosted Thailand's first big gathering of military history reeinactors, making for interesting photo composition lol

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sat Jun 02, 2018 4:38 pm

My wife wrote an article about food supply chains in the United Kingdom.

Breakfast After Brexit.

-Username17

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Sat Jun 02, 2018 9:08 pm

You know . .
I knew you were married.
I KNEW Trollman is your true name . .
I just . . somehow . . never put 1 and 1 together and arrived at MRS TROLLMAN! O.o

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Sun Jun 03, 2018 6:20 am

And we're still waiting for the UK government to explain how they're going to combat (or ideally avoid) the food shortages and price spikes and general crisis. Except we're not actually waiting because that would involve expecting anything. But they could at least accept that "Brexit" sounds like a breakfast biscuit bar and look into securing a deal to mass-import them from the US (largely made from corn and similar?) or something.

Seriously the only things I've heard from the pro-Brexit press on matters like this, given these should have been answered before people even voted on it, are "Free from EU shackles, we can now solve this via the free market!" Which is not an actual answer.

Though my favourite, from... I want to say the Telegraph? "Brexit will allow for the entrepreneur British Prometheus". So presumably the answer is to nail a guy to a mountain and have crows peck his liver out every day and feed his liver to the populace?

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sun Jun 03, 2018 7:08 am

The idea they keep coming back to is that freed from the EU, they can rescind the EU tarrifs designed to protect Spanish orange farms. And that prices on oranges might actually fall! This is contingent on the idea that supply and demand would generate a stable price for oranges that is less than what British people are paying, but because of exclusionary rules, non-Spanish suppliers have to charge a higher price and that Spanish suppliers can charge an amount that is higher than the "natural" price but still lower than the achievable price including tarriffs of the other suppliers. That might be true, but thinking they could get the theoretically lower stable price after Brexit is a fucking fantasy.

First of all, the theoretical lower price without the tarriffs exists with all currently available supply and demand. But if you leave the EU and increase bureaucratic burden on Spanish farmers, some non-zero amount of those oranges will be redirected to Germany or Poland or whatever and the theoretical lowest price Spanish suppliers could offer now won't be possible anymore because of the additional bureaucratic burden. So right away you know that the minimum possible price offerable by Spanish suppliers will be higher and the amount of imported Spanish oranges will be lower.

Secondly, the UK is a price taker in oranges. Producing essentially zero oranges, the UK has no real input into what price oranges are offered at - it can only choose to buy or not buy from any supplier. But all the suppliers are trying to charge the most the market will bear, and they already see the market bearing the price the Spanish suppliers are offering right now - freed from EU tarriffs to sell in the UK, they can just charge the current Spanish price and accept the market share given up by reduced Spanish presence.

The entire concept of lower orange prices requires Florida and Brazil to have a price war with each other and Spain in order to claim market share in Brexitted UK. But there's no reason to believe they will do that even if you believe that oranges are currently being overpriced by a sinister Spanish orange cartel. American distributors can simply take the current "cartel prices" because they know British people will pay them.

And that is all contingent on the UK being allowed to end the orange tarriffs in the first place. And yes, I said "allowed." Because the UK still has a land border with the Republic of Ireland and if they don't have regulatory harmony across that border there's going to need to be guards and customs agents on that border - and doing that would violate the Good Friday Agreement. If the UK managed to get cheaper oranges by eliminating the tarriffs and cutting a deal with Brazil, then cheap oranges could come into Belfast and then get driven into Dublin - neccessitating the guards and customs agents that are separately disallowed by treaty.

So the "cheap oranges" thing is a fantasy that requires both Brazil to not use its leverage as a price setter and for Spain to not use the UK's committments to the Northern Ireland border as leverage. These people think they have the biggest pants in the room and can't even imagine that other people also have leverage and might demand things to their own benefit.

-Username17

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Sun Jun 03, 2018 8:25 pm

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 57966.html

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Sun Jun 03, 2018 9:35 pm

first thing that came to mind:

Pariah Dog · Post by **Pariah Dog** » Sun Jun 03, 2018 10:59 pm

But Marvel said Captain America is a nazi. Deadpool is also Canadian and acting like Canadians is GoodThink so be like Deadpool I guess?

maglag · Post by **maglag** » Mon Jun 04, 2018 4:40 am

I'm pretty sure that earlier on captain America was also kicking Tony Stark's teeth in despite all the times that Tony Stark saved the planet.

Also I'm pretty sure that when Captain America finishes demolishing a base, he doesn't bother separating the recyclabe bits from the perishable ones.

Omegonthesane · Post by **Omegonthesane** » Mon Jun 04, 2018 6:35 am

I swear I remember the Captain Hydra debacle being resolved with a revelation that it was time travel mind control or some shit and not the "real" Cap.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Mon Jun 04, 2018 9:14 am

In other news:
I am at work.
I can see a building where, at the moment, a suspected Terror-Attack using Anthrax is being investigated . .
Joy . .

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Mon Jun 04, 2018 9:28 am

There's gotta be a drinking game for that...

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Tue Jun 05, 2018 12:31 pm

There really should be.
Because?
Because TODAY the Post Office in the Building where my MOTHER works got a letter with an as of yet to be determined white powdery substance . .
Quarantine, wait for the decontamination train of the fire brigade . .

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Tue Jun 05, 2018 2:51 pm

Stahlseele wrote:a letter with an as of yet to be determined white powdery substance

Man, remember back when that was a good thing?

nockermensch · Post by **nockermensch** » Tue Jun 05, 2018 4:31 pm

Koumei wrote:
Stahlseele wrote:a letter with an as of yet to be determined white powdery substance
Man, remember back when that was a good thing?

nockermensch · Post by **nockermensch** » Wed Jun 06, 2018 10:10 pm

Do you guys remember the "Cuban Sonic Weapon" that got some American diplomats sick some months ago? Because it's spreading:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/06/worl ... ttack.html

Leress · Post by **Leress** » Wed Jun 06, 2018 10:51 pm

Omegonthesane wrote:I swear I remember the Captain Hydra debacle being resolved with a revelation that it was time travel mind control or some shit and not the "real" Cap.

You would be correct.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Empire_(comics)

Josh_Kablack · Post by **Josh_Kablack** » Wed Jun 06, 2018 11:32 pm

nockermensch wrote:Do you guys remember the "Cuban Sonic Weapon" that got some American diplomats sick some months ago? Because it's spreading:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/06/worl ... ttack.html

Not sure if I should be terrified or excited about this real-world Bond villainy.

Iduno · Post by **Iduno** » Thu Jun 07, 2018 5:30 pm

Josh_Kablack wrote:
nockermensch wrote:Do you guys remember the "Cuban Sonic Weapon" that got some American diplomats sick some months ago? Because it's spreading:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/06/worl ... ttack.html
Not sure if I should be terrified or excited about this real-world Bond villainy.

What are the odds it's Bond Villainy, false flag stuff to push diplomatic issues we tried to deal with Cuba, but sonic weapons. Now China...), or some modern version of Ergotism?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergotism

nockermensch · Post by **nockermensch** » Thu Jun 07, 2018 7:30 pm

Iduno wrote:
Josh_Kablack wrote:
nockermensch wrote:Do you guys remember the "Cuban Sonic Weapon" that got some American diplomats sick some months ago? Because it's spreading:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/06/worl ... ttack.html
Not sure if I should be terrified or excited about this real-world Bond villainy.
What are the odds it's Bond Villainy, false flag stuff to push diplomatic issues we tried to deal with Cuba, but sonic weapons. Now China...), or some modern version of Ergotism?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergotism

If this is a real attack, you have to believe that some country/group developed a way to fuck up with people that the American military/alphabet agencies can't even detect, because hurting diplomats is a pretty good way to become an international pariah and I'm sure CIA and the like was all over that shit as soon as the first reports came in.

Again, for effect: If this is real, somebody is attacking highly sensitive targets in an undectable way, while the repercursions for getting caught are up to and including "America will now bomb you".

Meanwhile, the American diplomat corps are under a lot of pressure: Their president is a grifting asshole that actively undermines, understaffs and works to undo their life work. America's leadership position in the world is crumbling RIGHT AS WE SPEAK and diplomats are in the non-enviable position of experiencing that ruination first-hand.

So, in these conditions, I'd not consider too bizarre if somebody at first got psychosomatic symptoms, and then other people on the same situation started feeling sick as well.

Then again, this could actually be the work of an actual secret weapon. It was about time something cool happened in this stupid timeline.

Wiseman · Post by **Wiseman** » Sat Jun 09, 2018 6:34 am

FrankTrollman wrote:My wife wrote an article about food supply chains in the United Kingdom.

Breakfast After Brexit.

-Username17

Much kudos to your wife. After giving it a bit of thinking, we really do need more articles like this. Trying to explain this sort of thing is hard, so is understanding it yourself, even if it is correct. Articles on how these big political decisions and actions will affect your everyday life is very much a good way of helping people understand what's going on.