jbloggs777

Ha, mia samideano! Tre bon'!

25 or so years ago, I learnt Esperanto (my first second language) by chatting on the Internet. I'd have two windows open - one with the IRC client, and the other with a terminal and a shell script that would grep a txt file with consistent formatting. "esp esperantoVerbPrefix/" or "esp noun," or "esp affix-" would typically return the correct result in a split second. Thanks to the simple grammar (that I had quickly memorized), I could hold conversations in near real time as a result.

I wish I could have learnt my other languages as easily.

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Anki ?

The US benefited from the slavish dependence of european countries on it, and the good business conditions that came with it. This started to change with the EU and in particular with the introduction of the euro.

I guess that it's time for civilized Europe to become a military powerhouse once again.

Well fuck, it looks like trump will win. We are in for a rough decade or two, and our children will quite possibly be called up to fight in a few years. Let's hope putin is defenstrated before it gets that far, of course.

You see, peace in Europe is only maintained through the ability (or illusion thereof) of russia being able to invade and otherwise exert influence over former soviet and warsaw pact states at any point in time with little resistance.

The moment there is the credible threat of resistance, it is a clear provocation and justifies a response, possibly an invasion.

I trust I cleared that up for you.

edit: The sad part is, this is similar to US and Chinese policy. World and regional power politics is closer to schoolyard bully behaviour than we'd like. Vote for your favourite bully today!

Sure, ok. It's just odd to suggest that nazi germany was the first or has a claim to the word.

Fascism has a very long history, with many recognised variations. National Socialism (ie. Nazi state) is just one instance, and far from the first. Most people think of Mussolini's Italy when they think of fascism - also not the first though.

The word itself derives from the latin "fasces" (a bundle [of sticks]), and had political connotations back then.

Is there some pop culture reference that I'm unaware of, or why are you talking nonsense?

EU country, you mean. There is the UK too.

A new Trump presidency will plunge the world into something between WW3 and nuclear annihilation.

Europe will have to dust off its own nukes as a serious deterrent to moscow and majorly increase its security spending and preparations, and Ukraine will have to develop its own (which it is perfectly capable of doing), with unpredictable results. If russia tries its luck outside Ukraine, there will be western troops clashing with russians directly.

China will smell weakness and go full throttle on its regional domination plans, and the US will do squat.

Expect a few assassination attempts/successes and unexplained deaths along the way, on almost every continent.

edit: I don't even want to think about the middle east. Without the US acting as a "moderating force", hell will probably break loose there too.

Lock her up! Lock her uuuh...him? Uh, look over there, that pig has a curly tail!

Sure, their accountants will have a little more paperwork, on top of their current workload. There is a cost to that. But if the total is well under the wealth tax threshold, there's no tax and little risk of an audit that re-evaluates it's worth. And if they are above it, then a small % of the excess will incur a tax.

If it is ever discovered that they failed to declare wealth (owned or controlled), THAT is when a penalty tax comes in, and they might find themselves obliged to pay $2mil in the US for that painting in Switzerland.

There is of course much more complexity to implementing this well. International treaties would need to be changed, to align reporting requirements and to limit loopholes that enable foreigners to avoid reporting and tax obligations (eg. an automatic wealth tax on foreign held assets in the absence of a tax treaty). There's cost there too.

This kind of thing gets discussed occasionally, but so far hasn't gained traction. Realistically, I don't expect it to.