Most people think the government is inefficient, wasteful, and has been broken for decades regardless of party lines.
The Economy and Healthcare were the two biggest issues for both types of voters. In third place Republicans said Immigration, and Democrats said Climate Change.
Republicans think the most important issue for Democrats is LBGT rights. Democrats tied with abortion and state of democracy.
Democrats and Republicans agree that Immigration is the most important issue for Republicans.
Anyway - found this stuff interesting so figured I would share.
A excellent video from Ezra Klein explaining the current Trump administration's strategy, but also why it's important to see through it, and keep your hope. It's 13 minutes, but definitely worth the watch.
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I say let's team up with some European nations on a joint Artic initiative. Form an agreement and then split the cost of building infrastructure, manning, patrolling, and defending across multiple nations.
I’m not going to drop the European Union thing until they say explicitly we can’t join.
I say let's team up with some European nations on a joint Artic initiative. Form an agreement and then split the cost of building infrastructure, manning, patrolling, and defending across multiple nations.
Would be interesting to see a joint Arctic sphere of security and governance between Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland. US could have been in there, but they decided to pee in the sandbox and are now in timeout.
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Some of you would probably like the book Prisoners of Geography. I read it 6-7 years ago and it pretty much lays these things out as inevitabilities. Why Russia needs Crimea. Why the Arctic is important especially once climate change opens up permanent sea lanes. The future of water (and Canada's role as holder of 1/3 of the world's potable water). And many other fascinating things. I recommend it to basically anyone even vaguely interested in geopolitics.
Honestly, if you were starting a game of risk with the current world, Canada would be an OP place to start. All the resources any civilization needs, peaceful and educated workforce, powerful allies. We've bunked a lot of it up to be honest.
I haven’t read the book but the Water thing is often misstated.
Yes Canada has 1/3rds of the supply of fresh water. The problem is it’s in Canada not in California. It costs $10 a barrel to ship oil via pipeline to the southern US. Thats $62 per m^3. Let’s say it’s 10 times cheaper to ship water down to $6 per m^3. I can desalinate for $1 per m^3
The continental divides mean you can’t just dredge.
Some of you would probably like the book Prisoners of Geography. I read it 6-7 years ago and it pretty much lays these things out as inevitabilities. Why Russia needs Crimea. Why the Arctic is important especially once climate change opens up permanent sea lanes. The future of water (and Canada's role as holder of 1/3 of the world's potable water). And many other fascinating things. I recommend it to basically anyone even vaguely interested in geopolitics.
Honestly, if you were starting a game of risk with the current world, Canada would be an OP place to start. All the resources any civilization needs, peaceful and educated workforce, powerful allies. We've bunked a lot of it up to be honest.
I haven’t read the book but the Water thing is often misstated.
Yes Canada has 1/3rds of the supply of fresh water. The problem is it’s in Canada not in California. It costs $10 a barrel to ship oil via pipeline to the southern US. Thats $62 per m^3. Let’s say it’s 10 times cheaper to ship water down to $6 per m^3. I can desalinate for $1 per m^3
The continental divides mean you can’t just dredge.
Or, if you have the greatest military in human history...you can just take it....
The point is that many places have drought crisis on their hands, and water is a vital substance for life, it's not oil. When taps run dry s*** will go down fast. And we don't have a lot of means of protecting it, especially if the US is the one that decides they want it.
Hasn't Bill Gates done the Bond villain thing and purchased a bunch of aquifers in Bolivia? Taking fresh water stores isn't new in the last 20 years. Look at Nestle and Hope.
That being said the big corporation (U.S.A) would be a much different beast when it comes to fresh water procurement.
__________________ "Everybody's so desperate to look smart that nobody is having fun anymore" -Jackie Redmond
Half right. We all knew the GOP and Trump were going to be disasters, but we're still not at the end of humanity/western civilization level he was preaching.
we're not even 3 weeks into this ####. Talk to me 6 months from now.
Or, if you have the greatest military in human history...you can just take it....
The point is that many places have drought crisis on their hands, and water is a vital substance for life, it's not oil. When taps run dry s*** will go down fast. And we don't have a lot of means of protecting it, especially if the US is the one that decides they want it.
The US can get oil inside its own borders too, has that prevented them from invading foreign nations for it? De-salinization comes with its own challenges of energy production, environmental impact and waste. Is there enough plants to actually combat worsening conditions? It doesn't seem like there is or there wouldn't be drought problems. How long does it take to build enough to meet their long-term water needs? The thing about water is that it's something no one really worries about until it's a problem. It won't be "oh hey we got 10 years of water left, we should build more de-salinization plants." It will be millions of people running out of water at once. And then they all need water within 3 days. How expensive or convenient it is won't matter.
And the US isn't the only place on Earth with this problem. We can't afford to be naive about holding most of the world's most precious (and dwindling) resource.
The US can get oil inside its own borders too, has that prevented them from invading foreign nations for it? De-salinization comes with its own challenges of energy production, environmental impact and waste. Is there enough plants to actually combat worsening conditions? It doesn't seem like there is or there wouldn't be drought problems. How long does it take to build enough to meet their long-term water needs? The thing about water is that it's something no one really worries about until it's a problem. It won't be "oh hey we got 10 years of water left, we should build more de-salinization plants." It will be millions of people running out of water at once. And then they all need water within 3 days. How expensive or convenient it is won't matter.
And the US isn't the only place on Earth with this problem. We can't afford to be naive about holding most of the world's most precious (and dwindling) resource.
I think you're missing GGG's point. He is saying that the cost of building the infrastructure to move water from Canada's north, where the water is, to the USA is significantly higher than the cost of building infrastructure for desalination much closer to where the water is needed. Even if the water was needed in Arizona, the cost to build desalination plants in California or Oregon and then move the water to Arizona would still be cheaper than building a pipeline from Nunavut or the Yukon to Arizona.
To your point about people not caring about how expensive or convenient a solution is, I think you're really wrong about that. Time and time again, humans have proven that we would rather let people die than spend a lot of money on solving a problem (see Covid, climate change, famine, malaria, AIDS, etc)
we're not even 3 weeks into this ####. Talk to me 6 months from now.
