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I rarely watch posted videos, but this one was interesting as I have a Russian friend who still misses the Russian government support system. In the early 1990's, a few of my Polish relatives immigrated here. They expected daycare to be a government benefit like k-12.
A few things the video gets right.
First, all of Europe and Russia has more holidays and paid vacation time.
Second, some European countries and Russia has free college education.
That's propaganda and disinformation.
All Euro-States have "free" college education but it is only for the cream-of-the-cream-of-the crop.
If the US did it like Germany, Austria, France, Romania and the others did it:
1) Only students scoring 27+ on the ACT or 2100+ on the SAT would be allowed to go to a 4-year college for free
2) Students scoring 24-26 on the ACT or 1800-2100 on the SAT would only be allowed to attend a 2-year college or 2-year technical school for free
3) Students scoring 21-23 on the ACT or 1500-1799 on the SAT would only be allowed free vocational training.
For everyone else, it's have fun retreading tires or being a barrista.
With respect to Russia, while college education was free, your degree field was not free.
If your aptitude test said "accountant" you either major in accounting or you don't go to college. If your aptitude test said "mathematician" your choices are major in math or don't go.
Germany and Romania are two that operate similarly for 2-year colleges and 2-year technical schools: You have a choice of 4 majors, choose one or stay home.
Quote:
Originally Posted by YorktownGal
I'll add two things to the video's list.
First, In the 1970's, their education was far superior to the US. My middle school Polish cousins could speak Polish, Russian, and English while US middle schools didn't offer any foreign languages. I'm sure Russian/Polish education is still more advanced. As 90% of Russia's population is bilingual. Meanwhile, the US lowering its standards for racial equality.
All school systems in non-English-speaking countries are superior to US schools in every way, shape, and form.
Child psychology and science says prime-time language instruction is through the 4th grade Level.
US schools are stupid and while some do start foreign language instruction in middle school, most don't until high school, and even worse US schools can't even teach kids how to read and write English.
US schools are so pathetic they unnecessarily hold kids back resulting in psychological and social problems for the students.
US educators are so bereft of administrative, management, and teaching skills they can't wrap their brains around the fact that a student can certainly have 3rd grade reading skills, 5th grade science skills and 6th grade math skills but instead of advancing the student in science and math they keep them at the 3rd grade level.
In the rest of the world, it's not unusual to see a kid in a 3rd grade math class, 4th grade science class and 6th grade language class but that would totally freak out teachers and administrators in the US.
I went to school with a kid who was a math whiz but a slow learning in reading. They held him back twice and when he turned 16 he dropped out. If they had held him back for reading but advanced him in math he would have graduated.
Quote:
Originally Posted by YorktownGal
Second, community gardens. Those soviet apartments are awful like NYC public housing. The big difference is Russians farmed community gardens - basically like Victory Gardens - which continue on to this day. Russians value land, gardens and self sufficiency.
No, that is not why.
The government owned all the farms and the government only produced cash crops with long shelf lives and high profits on the global markets.
Tomatoes, cucumbers, and lettuce are not cash crops, have short shelf lives, and fetch practically nothing on global markets.
If you wanted tomatoes or cucumbers or lettuce or anything else you grew it yourself or you did without or you had a side hustle to trade for tomatoes, cucumbers, or lettuce.
You cut hair. After hours on your own time you cut your neighbor's hair in exchange for some lovely tomatoes.
That, is how it worked.
I brought extra Levi's with me on Druzba '86 to trade with the Soviets.
Don't you know, as soon as the Soviet officers saw my Wranglers, that's what they wanted. So I traded all my Levi's and both pair of Wranglers to the Soviets.
The Soviets didn't grow cotton because the market was too competitive with Indian, Egyptian, and US cotton so there was no such thing as blue jeans or denim jeans or denim jackets. You could only get those by being outside the Soviet Union and in contact with Westerners.
Quote:
Originally Posted by YorktownGal
Frankly, I couldn't like/live in Russia. It would be difficult to adjust to their culture.
Well, you had damn well better get used to it.
The only reason you don't live like Russians do now is because you've been raiding, looting, and plundering hapless 3rd and 4th World countries for the last 120 years.
The Chinese are about to put an end to your raiding, looting, and plundering.
The costs of not implementing this strategy are clear. Failure to meet our defense objectives will result in decreasing U.S. global influence, eroding cohesion among allies and partners, and reduced access to markets that will contribute to a decline in our prosperity and standard of living.
Make sure your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren enlist in the Army and Marines because it's not really cool to let other families sacrifice their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren so's you can be livin' large.
I'm wondering how many of you are prepared for the apocalypse we are currently experiencing?
Yes, currently experiencing.
No, we're not.
That you're Life-Style and Standard of Living is gonna be knocked down to where it always should have been is not an apocalypse.
I'm sure it will be traumatic to the weak, but that doesn't make it rise to the level of an Apocalypse.
Quote:
Originally Posted by roadrat
I think the majority of us have been planning for some "Black Swan" or sudden event that triggers the need for us to break into our preps, or bugout. A real Plague, or nuclear war, Zombies, spectacular market crash, etc.
Not gonna happen.
The only thing that will happen is a false flag event claiming Iran and the Taliban are responsible and working together so's you can invade Iran.
Quote:
Originally Posted by roadrat
But what if the "Apocalypse" is not sudden, but take years, or even decades to fully manifest?
There is a book called the "Soft Apocalypse" I have not read it, So I'm not clear if it deals with this topic exactly, But I thinks it does.
That is not an Apocalypse.
That's some no-name low-life looking to drum up money from suckers by playing the Orwellian Word Salad Game.
Quote:
Originally Posted by roadrat
The Chinese are making deals with other countries to buy oil with the local currencies instead of the US petro dollar. (The petro dollar is essential in allowing us to have this enormous national debt)
The horror. The horror.
My gosh, you won't be able to engage in murder, mayhem, looting, and plundering to support a livin' large grandiose Standard of Living. Whatever will the US do?
Quote:
Originally Posted by roadrat
The European continent is marching head long into another world war with Russia, and will once again drag the US into it.
No, they are not. They will do whatever it takes to avoid conflict.
Quote:
Originally Posted by roadrat
The last relevant country in Africa (So. Africa) is in collapse.
You can thank the British and their horrific foreign policy for that.
Too bad you didn't take the Intro to US Foreign Policy and US Foreign Policy courses I was teaching about 17-18 years ago.
I would have opened your eyes and you would have seen US foreign policy is disastrous and would result in disastrous consequences and end badly for the US because it was never sustainable.
You would also have seen that China's foreign policy is sustainable and learned why.
Quote:
Originally Posted by roadrat
Individual freedoms are being eroded everywhere, even so called 1st world nations like France, UK, Israel.
Why wouldn't they be eroded?
Do you not understand? Read Plato:
Every form of government tends to perish by excess of its basic principle. Aristocracy ruins itself by limiting too narrowly the circle within which power is confined; oligarchy ruins itself by the incautious scramble for immediate wealth. In either case the end is revolution. When revolution comes it may seem to arise from little causes and petty whims; but though it may spring from slight occasions it is the precipitate result of grave and accumulated wrongs; when a body is weakened by neglected ills, the merest exposure may bring serious disease.
Then democracy comes: the poor overcome their opponents, slaughtering some and banishing the rest; and give to the people an equal share of freedom and power.
But even democracy ruins itself by excess–of democracy.
Its basic principle is the equal right of all to hold office and determine public policy. This is at first glance a delightful arrangement; it becomes disastrous because the people are not properly equipped by education to select the best rulers and the wisest courses ---
"As to the people they have no understanding, and only repeat what their rulers are pleased to tell them" --- Protagoras
--- to get a doctrine accepted or rejected it is only necessary to have it praised or ridiculed in the Lame-Stream-Media or by Celebrities on Social Media. Mob-rule is a rough sea for the ship of state to ride; every wind of oratory stirs up the waters and deflects the course. The upshot of such a democracy is tyranny or autocracy; the crowd so loves flattery, it is so hungry for honey, that at last the wiliest and most unscrupulous flatterer, calling himself the "protector of the people" rises to supreme power. --- Plato (with some literary license by Mircea to update it to the 21st Century)
I'll give you the Cliff Notes version.
Government begets government.
Why? Because people in power crave power and not only that, they surround themselves with like-minded people who also crave power and that's true whether they're elected, appointed or government employees (and I don't mean the rank-and-file GS employees I mean the GM levels).
That's what bureaucracies do. That's why the US government has continually gotten bigger and will forever grow bigger and gain more control.
And helping it are the masses of whom 80% are just sheer ignorant about everything and even that wouldn't be so bad except they're also apathetic. They think they're heroic citizens because they go out and vote every 4 years but otherwise never get involved unless it is something that affects them personally and even then they have to be prodded to go to a school board meeting or city council meeting.
The Constitution is a great document but it's flawed and we know it's flawed because it didn't take a constitutional amendment to create Homeland Security or any of the other unnecessary cabinet offices and the many other offices and it allows the sovereignty of States to be routinely violated by the free flow of money during election time.
That can be fixed, but it will take a civil war to do it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by roadrat
Here in the US things are not much better, Inflation has wiped out decades of savings, and pay increases for most people. The age of easy money will shrivel and die along with the petro dollar.
There's nothing wrong with "inflation" and people are responsible for the existing "inflation" and not Congress or the Federal Reserve.
Are you as strong as the Cuban sugar cane field workers who got paid $0.30/day from 1898 to 1958 when Castro gave them a pay raise because National Sugar refused (even though National Sugar paid sugar cane field workers $0.90/day in other countries)?
I don't think you are. You're gonna want a pay raise and that pay raise isn't free. Someone has to pay for it and they pay for through higher prices for goods and services.
Even if you were a sole proprietor, you're gonna wanna make mo' money than you did the year before at some point which means you have to increase the prices of your goods and services. That's "inflation."
It naturally occurs and then when mo' people are demanding mo' goods and services than there are available --- which is what's been happening that last 2 years -- prices rise. Your Congress and Federal Reserve have nothing to do with that.
You are not entitled to anything and if you cannot afford something then you need to adjust your life-style even more so since your life-style and Standard of Living have been artificially inflated through your foreign policy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by roadrat
Homelessness and mental illness are running wild, and not just in major city's. We are divided like never before, In fact I believe we are already in the "warm" part of a civil war, The most fanatical on both sides are already engaging in acts of terrorism, Schools, and public spaces are there current targets. (The Nashville shooter was clearly mentally ill, but also politically motivated)
Our government is desperately buying off the mobs of disenfranchised with stimulus, welfare, and freebees. But that is not sustainable.
Between things like BLM, Antifa, Soro's backed DA's, Trumps arrest, its quite clear the US has dropped in Banana republic territory.
I could go on and on, we all know its happening, all the signs are there.
That is not an Apocalypse but it is indicative of societal changes which will ultimately be resolved through civil war which will certainly be traumatic but not apocalyptic.
I'm afraid that is the problem. My generation, born in the 1950's, practiced nuclear attack duck and cover exercises. As a result, we are the worse generation for prepping ever. In fact, I think some of the Woodstock generation nonsense was a reaction to the 1950's/early 60's (unfounded/unrealized) fear of nuclear war. Not all, but this is was a part of it the insanity.
A Happy Fourth of July to All.
When my daughter attended fifth grade, she was required to memorize the opening of the Declaration of Independence.
It's been nearly fifteen years since she was in fifth grade. Fast forward to 2023, fifth grade students are taught that the US is an evil country full of white supremacy with a debt to Blacks for reparations.
It's amazing how fast our country has turned on itself!
It is the same speed of the Russia 1917 Revolution. The start of the Revolution was not the Bolsheviks overthrowing the government. It was the generation before who spread the ideology of Marxism learned at the universities. The Russian 1917 Revolution was actually the end result.
The US's next dramatic changes will come ever faster!
Yes, speaking as someone from the generation who was still in school less than 20 years ago, I feel like an alien in a way.
Also, I don't know how we can survive literally or rebuild something from that event or if it happens it would have to be after my lifetime, and I am still young compared to a lot of the other audience and posters in this forum. If something is able to stop it from accelerating, unfortunately/fortunately it would have to be at the mercy of divine intervention or plagues, but I don't think that's likely going to happen before it is too late. In the Biblical Old Testament times, God actually sent plagues down on the corrupt governments for oppressing their people and here we are today our governments and the prominent modern cultural zeitgeist have already done a lot worse damage.
If I am stressed and angry about things happening right now, I am concerned for my own mental well-being and psychology to be able to cope mentally and physically with what is further ahead down the road.
Also, I don't know how we can survive literally or rebuild something from that event or if it happens it would have to be after my lifetime, and I am still young compared to a lot of the other audience and posters in this forum. If something is able to stop it from accelerating, unfortunately/fortunately it would have to be at the mercy of divine intervention or plagues, but I don't think that's likely going to happen before it is too late. In the Biblical Old Testament times, God actually sent plagues down on the corrupt governments for oppressing their people and here we are today our governments and the prominent modern cultural zeitgeist have already done a lot worse damage.
If I am stressed and angry about things happening right now, I am concerned for my own mental well-being and psychology to be able to cope mentally and physically with what is further ahead down the road.
I think it's will be less Biblical plagues and more Weimar Germany coming - if we aren't there already!
I don't subscribe to Netflix anymore, but when I did, there was a great series called Babylon Berlin. It shows the sociality breakdown of Germany from economic forces. Or you could read Joachim Fest's biography of Hitler - https://www.amazon.com/Hitler-Harves.../dp/0156027542. The first half is all about the Weimar Republic.
After the military failures of World War I, the Weimar Republic was from 9 November 1918 to 23 March 1933. The German government devalued the German Mark so money was worthless. It wasn't overnight but happened in slow stages. People took easy loans to invested in the US stock market which crashed in 1929. The political situation was unstable. There were outright socialists political parties with growing tensions as the country moved more right. While the voters moved right, the Berlin intellectuals demanded revolutionary changes on the cultural scenery. At the same time, sex were unhinged from marriage and family life. Families broke up as the divorce rate more than doubled. As people became financially desperate, prostitution increased.
So if you are younger than most here, my best piece of advice is to marry. It's the biggest decision in your life. In the old days, a spouse (male or female) was considered a helpmate. We don't use the term anymore, but it should be the first quality you look for in a spouse. Find someone who is frugal but not obsessive about it. Faithful in their relationships. Neither potential spouse should ever use porn (Pornographic photos in Weimar Germany were a big thing!). Talk about this stuff early on! Don't save your opinions until after wedding day.
All Euro-States have "free" college education but it is only for the cream-of-the-cream-of-the crop.
If the US did it like Germany, Austria, France, Romania and the others did it:
1) Only students scoring 27+ on the ACT or 2100+ on the SAT would be allowed to go to a 4-year college for free
2) Students scoring 24-26 on the ACT or 1800-2100 on the SAT would only be allowed to attend a 2-year college or 2-year technical school for free
3) Students scoring 21-23 on the ACT or 1500-1799 on the SAT would only be allowed free vocational training.
For everyone else, it's have fun retreading tires or being a barrista.
With respect to Russia, while college education was free, your degree field was not free.
If your aptitude test said "accountant" you either major in accounting or you don't go to college. If your aptitude test said "mathematician" your choices are major in math or don't go.
Germany and Romania are two that operate similarly for 2-year colleges and 2-year technical schools: You have a choice of 4 majors, choose one or stay home.
All school systems in non-English-speaking countries are superior to US schools in every way, shape, and form.
Child psychology and science says prime-time language instruction is through the 4th grade Level.
US schools are stupid and while some do start foreign language instruction in middle school, most don't until high school, and even worse US schools can't even teach kids how to read and write English.
US schools are so pathetic they unnecessarily hold kids back resulting in psychological and social problems for the students.
US educators are so bereft of administrative, management, and teaching skills they can't wrap their brains around the fact that a student can certainly have 3rd grade reading skills, 5th grade science skills and 6th grade math skills but instead of advancing the student in science and math they keep them at the 3rd grade level.
In the rest of the world, it's not unusual to see a kid in a 3rd grade math class, 4th grade science class and 6th grade language class but that would totally freak out teachers and administrators in the US.
I went to school with a kid who was a math whiz but a slow learning in reading. They held him back twice and when he turned 16 he dropped out. If they had held him back for reading but advanced him in math he would have graduated.
No, that is not why.
The government owned all the farms and the government only produced cash crops with long shelf lives and high profits on the global markets.
Tomatoes, cucumbers, and lettuce are not cash crops, have short shelf lives, and fetch practically nothing on global markets.
If you wanted tomatoes or cucumbers or lettuce or anything else you grew it yourself or you did without or you had a side hustle to trade for tomatoes, cucumbers, or lettuce.
You cut hair. After hours on your own time you cut your neighbor's hair in exchange for some lovely tomatoes.
That, is how it worked.
I brought extra Levi's with me on Druzba '86 to trade with the Soviets.
Don't you know, as soon as the Soviet officers saw my Wranglers, that's what they wanted. So I traded all my Levi's and both pair of Wranglers to the Soviets.
The Soviets didn't grow cotton because the market was too competitive with Indian, Egyptian, and US cotton so there was no such thing as blue jeans or denim jeans or denim jackets. You could only get those by being outside the Soviet Union and in contact with Westerners.
Well, you had damn well better get used to it.
The only reason you don't live like Russians do now is because you've been raiding, looting, and plundering hapless 3rd and 4th World countries for the last 120 years.
The Chinese are about to put an end to your raiding, looting, and plundering.
The costs of not implementing this strategy are clear. Failure to meet our defense objectives will result in decreasing U.S. global influence, eroding cohesion among allies and partners, and reduced access to markets that will contribute to a decline in our prosperity and standard of living.
Make sure your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren enlist in the Army and Marines because it's not really cool to let other families sacrifice their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren so's you can be livin' large.
I agree with most of your post but I'm questioning of your degree of hostility.
My disagreement is with "the raiding, looting and plundering of hapless 3rd or 4th world countries for the last 120 years."
China was a third world nation who certainly got the better end of the stick with us - same for many Asian counties and India. "Brunei Darussalam, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam -- collectively the United States' fourth-largest goods trading partner and together represent a market with a GDP of more than $3 trillion and a population of 667 million people." https://ustr.gov/countries-regions/s...llion%20people.
Really, I'm done with the corrupt governments of South America. The US didn't "break" these countries - the Spanish government's colonial policies "broke" them! I don't believe it can be fixed by anyone.
"The United States has long been a major contributor of foreign assistance to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Between FY1946 and FY2019, the United States provided $93.8 billion ($194.5 billion in constant 2019 dollars) of assistance to the region." https://sgp.fas.org/crs/row/R47028.pdf.
I'm afraid that is the problem. My generation, born in the 1950's, practiced nuclear attack duck and cover exercises. As a result, we are the worse generation for prepping ever. In fact, I think some of the Woodstock generation nonsense was a reaction to the 1950's/early 60's (unfounded/unrealized) fear of nuclear war. Not all, but this is was a part of it the insanity.
A Happy Fourth of July to All.
When my daughter attended fifth grade, she was required to memorize the opening of the Declaration of Independence.
It's been nearly fifteen years since she was in fifth grade. Fast forward to 2023, fifth grade students are taught that the US is an evil country full of white supremacy with a debt to Blacks for reparations.
It's amazing how fast our country has turned on itself!
It is the same speed of the Russia 1917 Revolution. The start of the Revolution was not the Bolsheviks overthrowing the government. It was the generation before who spread the ideology of Marxism learned at the universities. The Russian 1917 Revolution was actually the end result.
The US's next dramatic changes will come ever faster!
I am reading a book now called, The Psychology of Totalitarianism. The author{Desmet) says the end result is the concentration camp.
The concentration camp is not the begining, it is the final end. This is where it leads to.
Fear not, Though art a Child of the Living God. _ don't be afraid sister in Christ.
We as in , We the People, have rejected the Most High God. So now we get the tyrant, the man of SIN. Your only seeing the lawlessness increasing as it will eventually be the Law of the Jungle. The son of perdition will be a scientific dictator.
Aldous Huxley once said that we would eventually wind up in a Scientific dictatorship. He said this like in the 1950's.
The ending of a Nation comes gradually then suddenly. We are Living in a time like none other.
I have the Black Book of communism as well. When the communist took over Czeckslovakia, they took out 5k folks that night and executed them.
They had moles in all the bars, hair salons and other public gathering places. They had lists of folks that they knew were trouble makers, and killed them.
Aldous Huxley once said that we would eventually wind up in a Scientific dictatorship. He said this like in the 1950's.
They had moles in all the bars, hair salons and other public gathering places. They had lists of folks that they knew were trouble makers, and killed them.
I think Aldous Huxley was on to something. Although, he knew Nazi ideology so he had some clues.
If you go back to the origin of Nazi ideology, it began with the Swedish botanist, Carl Linnaeus:
Quote:
He is known as the "father of modern taxonomy." The Linnaean system classified nature within a nested hierarchy, starting with three kingdoms. Kingdoms were divided into classes and they, in turn, into orders, and thence into genera (singular: genus), which were divided into species (singular: species). Below the rank of species he sometimes recognised taxa of a lower (unnamed) rank; these have since acquired standardised names such as variety in botany and subspecies in zoology. Modern taxonomy includes a rank of family between order and genus and a rank of phylum between kingdom and class that were not present in Linnaeus's original system.
In the first edition of Systema Naturae, Linnaeus subdivided the human species into four varieties: "Europæus albesc[ens]" (whitish European), "Americanus rubesc[ens]" (reddish American), "Asiaticus fuscus" (tawny Asian) and "Africanus nigr[iculus]" (blackish African). In the tenth edition of Systema Naturae he further detailed phenotypical characteristics for each variety, based on the concept of the four temperaments from classical antiquity, and changed the description of Asians' skin tone to "luridus" (yellow). Additionally, Linnaeus created a wastebasket taxon "monstrosus" for "wild and monstrous humans, unknown groups, and more or less abnormal people
If I remember correctly, it began with his study on Sweet Peas and ended with his subdivisions of humans. His subdivisions were used to label each country's residents a race. So the Poles were a race, the Germans were another race, etc. After there, races were ranked into desirability. As a result, Northern Europeans and Germans were ranked higher and Southern and Eastern Europeans were ranked lower.
His ideas were widely studied and taught across Europe and the US. In fact, US emigration policies reflected his ideas when the US 1924 immigration act which blocked Southern and Eastern Europeans from entering the US. Most Americans believed the 1924 immigration law was important to the nation. It's how widespread these ideas became.
Hitler and Nazi ideology didn't come from nowhere, it came from the scientific facts of the early twentieth century taught in colleges. Nazi's made an immoral leap from scientific theory to government act.
Yeah, so now science is once again used against people with gender ideologies, creating a distinction between fetuses and babies, transplanting wombs into men, chemically producing breastmilk in men, and all sort of social dogmas enforced by limiting free speech. Again, taught in colleges and preached by intellectuals.
As for IVF - All women can access treatment in 10 European countries. In 10 other countries only heterosexual couples are eligible. Of women not in a heterosexual relationship, in Austria, only lesbian couples can benefit, and in 7 other countries, only single women. https://ivi-fertility.com/blog/regul...single%20women.
One of Hitler earlier projects was to reduce social spending in order to increased military spending. Hitler began euthanasia program of the elderly. Less old people, the less government pensions paid out each month. Can anyone honest tell me that Canada's present euthanasia law without limits is any different? What about the death a senior citizen who rather die than be homeless? https://apnews.com/article/covid-sci...d2b5cfd360a867
As for moles, my Polish relatives warned us about their neighbors on a visit in 1972.
Last edited by YorktownGal; 07-07-2023 at 10:05 AM..
I have been "preaching" this in many threads, but if you have not yet seen "The Great Awakening", I urge you to do so. It is free, and here is the link that provides it as well as some comments about it.
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