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You know, I imagine if you did a pole of the entire world, you would get roughly the same answer. In fact it seems only the U.S. might differ on this point.A BBC poll of 22 countries around the world on Wednesday showed that all would prefer to see Obama elected U.S. president ahead of McCain. In 17 of the 22, people expect relations between the United States and the rest of the world to improve if Obama wins.
I know, I'm still seeing ignorant cockbags on the forums, saying how they want the next president to declare "Mexico, we're building a wall and shooting anyone who tries to cross. Also, we're forcefully ejecting all illegal immigrants. You're on our blacklist. Same with you, Canada. Oh, and we're making a list of who sucked our collective dicks with our War on Terror. If you did, we'll continue to trade with you as long as you remember who's boss. If you didn't, you're blacklisted and we might randomly drop bombs on you or something.Absentminded_Wizard wrote:Actually, it would probably be better for Obama if news like this didn't come out. There are whole segments of the U.S. population who would use this as a reason to vote for McCain. You know, because "no damn foreigners are going to tell Americans who our leaders should be."
Because in the end (and this is not a bash on any one particular country, we do this in the United States as well) our decisions on foreign leaders is based mostly on personality. (We also base it on policy but that only applies after they have been in office for several years and has either directly helped us or directly pissed us off.) Obama has that personality.Maj wrote:It never ceases to amaze me to see Obama's foreign popularity. McCain couldn't pull the same stunt Obama did in Germany...
Most foreign leaders speak a different language, and the exposure they get to American audiences are likely clips less than a minute long. We don't know their hobbies, their interpersonal relationships, or how they act or handle themselves in any social setting besides speaking behind a podium.tzor wrote:Because in the end (and this is not a bash on any one particular country, we do this in the United States as well) our decisions on foreign leaders is based mostly on personality.
As PL said, we actually think about the policies, and how likely their decisions are to completely fuck the rest of us. Unfortunately, your country is so big that when it sneezes, the rest of us get a cold, except with people like Bush and McPalin, it's more a case of "when America gets a tummy ache, the rest of us get acute intermittent Porphyria".tzor wrote:Because in the end (and this is not a bash on any one particular country, we do this in the United States as well) our decisions on foreign leaders is based mostly on personality.
I can't speak for America here, but many aspects of his personality are fairly well known: he acts very aggressive and confident, walking with a swagger and outright saying things like "When an aggressor comes into your territory, you need to punch him in the face". He is a national champion of Sambo wrestling (similar to judo, but with more emphasis on "I break you.") and has been known to do things like a Bond villain.SphereOfFeetMan wrote: How much does America know about Putin's personality? I don't know anything at all about it.
O really? (Sorry but I can't bring myself to use the Internet slang ... it looks too much like that FOX news commentator and I don't want to enter that factor.)PhoneLobster wrote:No, maybe YOUR decisions on leaders are based on personality.
The rest of the world likes Obama primarily because he is a moderate democrat and not a war mongering loon who could die at any minute to be replaced by a right wing loon so much loonier and so christian she might decide to press the button and start the apocalypse.
O my, there you go again. Let's not try the blame game, that doesn't work outside the United States and there is certanly no economic crisis of "unheard of proportions" going on in the world. One can in fact see the seeds of this crisis all the way back in the Clinton administration.PhoneLobster wrote:Oh, and the whole American economy triggering world economic crisis of unheard of proportions reflects badly on the Republicans as well.
You know the old saying about the butterfly causing a hurricane? My job is to maintain a system that distibutes market closing information from all over the world so I keep an eye on what happens and how the "storms" of the financial world spread across the globe. You would be surprised at how a simple wave that starts in the Tokyo market can cause a major run of bears in Wall Street. The world is massively interconnected.Koumei wrote:As PL said, we actually think about the policies, and how likely their decisions are to completely fuck the rest of us. Unfortunately, your country is so big that when it sneezes, the rest of us get a cold, except with people like Bush and McPalin, it's more a case of "when America gets a tummy ache, the rest of us get acute intermittent Porphyria".
Except that the war in Afghanistan started off as a response to an attack on American soil. Saying that we should have limited our foreign incursions to Afghanistan in the absence of real proof that Saddam had WMDs, and that we should probably finish the job of stabilizing that country (which was sidetracked by the war in Iraq) hardly makes someone "just as much a war mongering loon" as Bush.tzor wrote:Second of all he is just as much a war mongering loon; it's only Afghanistan (and indirectly Pakistan) where he wants to war monger. He has stated several times that Bush's Iraq was an improper diversion against the greater war in Afghanistan. He has also said on several occasions (and also while in Europe) that Europeans have to share the burden of the war in Afghanistan.
Palin decides to crack the planet in half with nuclear fire
Considering you claim to be in the know on this and act like you are sufficiently informed to simply dismiss what is frankly common knowledge among experts AND the man on the street I am simply amazed at your total wilful ignorance.there is certanly no economic crisis of "unheard of proportions" going on in the world.
The Adventurer's Almanac wrote: ↑Fri Oct 01, 2021 10:25 pmNobody gives a flying fuck about Tordek and Regdar.
Could you elaborate on how said money "left the economy", or give a good source?FrankTrollman wrote:(...) the fact that it's a really stupid plan and destroyed a trillion dollars out of the economy was a predictable result.
Hans Freyer, s.b.u.h. wrote:A manly, a bold tone prevails in history. He who has the grip has the booty.
Huston Smith wrote:Life gives us no view of the whole. We see only snatches here and there, (...)
brotherfrancis75 wrote:Perhaps you imagine that Ayn Rand is our friend? And the Mont Pelerin Society? No, those are but the more subtle versions of the Bolshevik Communist Revolution you imagine you reject. (...) FOX NEWS IS ALSO COMMUNIST!
LDSChristian wrote:True. I do wonder which is worse: killing so many people like Hitler did or denying Christ 3 times like Peter did.
Banks don't actually physically hand people paper money when they loan it out. Indeed, in most instances they don't really have that kind of money in paper - or for that matter any solid format. They instead give people electronic IOUs representing an assumed amount of wealth, and they do this on the basis of an agreement that financial institutions can leverage their assets as if they were currency so that the grease on the economic wheels never runs out.Bigode wrote:Could you elaborate on how said money "left the economy", or give a good source?FrankTrollman wrote:(...) the fact that it's a really stupid plan and destroyed a trillion dollars out of the economy was a predictable result.
Don't look at me, I've been "cheating" the system since a long time. I think the last time I paid a real "market" rent was in Poughkeepsie in 1990. When I lived in Key West I rented a place owned by my boss and his rents were well below market. Now I'm renting a space from my parents.FrankTrollman wrote:Tzor, what is the rent like in the fantasy world that you live in?
It's been a part of both parties for a long time. As for Palin, she chopped so much off of the standard Governor expense package that it sounds like you are complaning about a person who saved dollars but wasted pennies.FrankTrollman wrote:What part of "restructuring the financial system such that more people own property and debt has been a Republican platform item for years" do you not understand? The Republican legislature has been working on the creation and maintenance of a housing bubble for a decade, the fact that it's a really stupid plan and destroyed a trillion dollars out of the economy was a predictable result. The last eight years have come with the slowest job expansion of any administration in the previous 75 years.
It's a really big deal. The Republicans have handled the economy the worst it has been handled in modern times. These guys are really really bad at this. And you have the gall to come in with a Palin quote! She's part of the machine that rips us off! She billed the state for 312 days of travel expenses for days she spent at home during her first 19 months in office. She's really corrupt, the administration we've had is really corrupt, and the consequences are billions, even trillions of dollars. People are dying of starvation and disease because these guys embezzle so much money.
And you Tzor, are helping them do it. You disgust me.
-Username17
