Funny, the most valuable thread I've been searching on the net, I find it in a dating site. All that you've listed, Tom, almost all is already happening in India; (and probably same in China and a few other Asian countries).

We were 0.7 billion in the seventies, we had a family welfare program: 2 kids per family - now we are almost double - over fifty years.

Compulsory Sterilization
In 70s, there was a campaign on compulsory sterilization - coincided with a brief period of Emergency (now infamous). The drive was against the bottom of the pyramid which had the highest growth rate. It is also the largest voter base. Predictably the party lost power in the ensuing elections. Now, no political party wants to touch this area.

Religious Constraint
2000 forward our Prime Minister (economist) theorized that rate would drop as our GDP rose. This surfaced a real problem. The minority religion here has the highest birth rate - and the government cannot take any corrective action since it goes against their religious edicts. The opposition is waiting in the wings.

Thanks Dust4Fun for the outrage; used to think that way but it's like stopping a runaway train; emotions don't work. Anyway, No1PhD's wonderful "calmness under crisis" analysis makes me think that it's high time we made a documentary on what's going on.

Been trying to source a large display that could be hooked to worldometers India section. May be this year.

Focus on Bankruptcies from previous conversation:
(Mainly because business / finance interest me)


Two notable facts are:
a. Trump did not file for personal bankruptcies
Considering how litigious US is and how a single law suit could cripple an individual this seems to be his mantra.

b. Chapter 11
India is not known to be investor friendly.

We don't have the equivalent of Chapter 11 to protect their companies. Even in a public limited company the MD & CEO are liable. For example an Airlines company (Kingfisher) went under and the government has seized the CEO's assets and a warrant is out for arrest. Banks have refused a compromise settlement.

Employees were not paid for months and there have been case of suicide

In US companies at the front of recession like hotels, airlines and casinos; and filing for Chapter 11 is reasonable. Investors / suppliers know that they are partnering high risk business which also means high returns.

Trump's cases seem to fit with this 'Chapter 11 - Business as Usual'
for each and all of his 5 companies.

In other words, it is the courts that are saying: Trump is following the Law of the Land.



This gives no reason for ordinary folks like his employees to 'dislike' him.

Is it his flamboyance the reason for media attack? Many reasons but I'm looking for the one that is the spear's tip. .

Used to watch CNN regularly but they seem to live within a wall.




You also referred to accountants / economists. You may have had Truman in mind who briefly studied book-keeping. From my experience they are good as experts. In India when our very successful finance minister became Prime Minister; he was from London School of Economics; it started off well but he could not stand up to the arm twisting by the corrupt heads within own party.

So if we leave them out, it leaves us with businessmen who have experience taking hard & visionary decisions.

Unlike Media, US voters sensed this. They seemed to think like the truck drivers interview; the one who had experienced the most crashes got selected.
This last line was meant lightheartedly but the fact is with all the trade wars, it is working!

If Trump decides to start a trade war with India, (IF), he will win!
I respect that, and I cannot hate him for it because it forces my countrymen to look within and improve for the long term.

The general feeling is the current leadership among Democrats are not being objective and the Media is further obscuring them from seeing reality.
The reality is world economy is actually shrinking!!
We all need a very serious game changer else I fear that Trump will leave a legacy of prosperity that will resonate right to the 2024 elections.

On 2 - It's a matter of interpretation like 'the buck stops here'.

Still if that's the general feeling then 2020 is around the corner and now with the hour closing in, Democrats need a person of Bill's caliber as an alternative to Trump. I don't see how the ballyhoo by the media is going to change anything at all. One doesn't need an opinion poll. It's all there in Fox and CNN ratings.

Not that I want to get into politics, but even from this distance, Kamala, Tulsi, Andrew; all first generation Americans. What do they know more than I?

Bertie, Hillary? Do you seriously think they can rally up to previous numbers?

I'm stopping here since I don't want this to turn to Indian Interference

Aha Michael,
No need to be mournful. I checked your profile, normally do before
responding and it says you are in Dubai so you may appreciate if
I add that more than politics, and political systems; it is the money trail
that people should focus on. Generally leads to the truer picture.

1. So when OP says Mr Trump has been associated with 5 bankruptcies
It is an absolutely stunning point.
Q. Why didn't Clinton bring it up during her campaign?

2. When Indiana Dave explains Medicare in dollars on the long term
and apparently Kamala Harris dismisses this kind of analyses / projections
Q. Is she qualified to run the worlds largest economy?

3. So it is when Trump declares National Emergency for a pithy wall
He does not explain why it cold not have been spread over next 2 years
and that leaves the bigger concern on how legislation would move on other economy areas (infra) over next 2 years.
Q. Did Trump walk into a gridlock?

So while accounting figures are common platform for all sides; I think the attention and transparency this Administration is getting is influencing the World. I can see a rethink happening in Indian media.

and yeah,
Welcome to Mingle2!

Spent time over the biographies of US Presidents but you are right, I could have avoided mentioning. thanks

Step back 10,000 miles, and we begin to see some shadows of answers

Debt The World is taking US National Debt seriously. It’s from a realization that if Antarctica melts the world would be flooded. A sign of this melt is gold making a comeback vis-à-vis the dollar.

In comparison of what can be, 2008 was a smaller melt when European banks took some of the brunt and had to be bailed out; Greece bailout and the Chinese subsequently devaluing their Yuan.

Solution in 2008 In 2008, Greenfield technology companies, Apple, Facebook, Google and many others revived the economy through sheer export to Europe, China, India ... just like Cloud revived Microsoft and MS pushed Win 10. I should know because Indian software services is what keeps the economy going here.

Now there are no more Greenfield technologies in the horizon. In his MAGA effort Trump has constrained India to buy 300 Boeing aircraft that our failing national carrier does not need. It was like either we did or Boeing would fold. My point is if US takes back all the manufacturing jobs world export to US falls. The Chinese economy is already in deep trouble.

Solution by example US is looking into developing Mag Lev technology as part of infra build-up. I see this as an example of the level of investment US needs to make if the world economy has to keep going.

Trump enjoys one advantage, the drive towards STEM education during Obama years and specific research grants during those hard times. So large under employed talent pool is already in place for new technologies.

Immigration Honduras has been the killing fields for quite some time and the Hondurans have been living in desperation. The unstated problem is allowing 5000 Hondurans sets a precedent. If the flow multiplies to 50000 (with other S.A. nationalities), then 500,000; the Law is constrained to allow them in.

Solution 2 by example Among all the Presidents, Trump is the only guy who traveled in South America (before presidency). He knows the need for investment and how to deal with them. Going by patterns, an oil pipeline from Venezuela in the near future should not surprise.

Trump is a Businessman President - is how the world sees

Well Counselor, allow for this explanation:
A soldier needs to know what the odds are of his returning home.
Patton explained how to improve the odds.
(a soldier does not look at his general for a hug or shoulder to cry on)

Trump stated the odds: 35,000 to 200
Then summarized it to 'very little'
(It also meant not to waste time over Beto)

As you rightly say, an eighth grader may speak in like manner, or anybody, you, me. If he does so with numbers; either he is talking about some homework / game - a frame that his friends are familiar with and by numbers he convinces them it as a game they are dominant in.

If it cheers you, Bill Clinton used similar semantics (campaign),

"It's the economy stupid"

Simple, easy; eight grade stuff. Wins wars, wins elections.

There are times when Trump's short speeches reminds one of ..

You all may recall General Patton's opening words after US troops landed in N. Africa; but you all didn't analyze. The men were 'green', mostly civilian recruits as US had not fought a single war outside of its borders.

Patton: “No dumb b ever won a war...,
by going out and dying for his country.
He won it...,
by making the other dumb b die for his country.”

Easy to understand; and therefore powerful. I also think President Trump took these words to heart and so sought deferment


I find that Trump speaks in a similar way. On Beto, he says:
"We have what, 35,000 people here?
He has less than 200
He has very little going for himself."

Note the last line, easy to understand;
the kind of words that wins any war before it's begun.

I don't understand why Russians cannot give up a remote village to the bears.





Particularly since the P Bear is their national animal.

"NATO has raised their spending by 100 billion" - President, State of Union Address



Correction:
Saudi Arabia is spending 10% of their GDP, or 10% of 800 Billion
A major part goes to buy hardware from US and maintenance
About a 100 Billion of this goes to Pakistan

But you are right, "most folks don't want Saudi Arabia's political climate and concerns". (The Royal family has a job managing their religious conservatives)
--xx--

The President said he may draw Putin and Xi to the negotiating table as far as nuclear missiles go. Depends on what sort of future these leaders see.

President Trump and President Xi’s meet in Vietnam on February 27 and 28

It’s going to be interesting to see how the two sides are going to balance out on the on going trade war. Given the tech differences, it appears that:
one American job = 10 Chinese jobs (not discussing wages here)

Fentanyl Ban in China
President Xi had agreed (in Dec) to ban the supply of fentanyl which continues to be the number one drug that kills Americans.



The drug which is 100 times more powerful than morphine, and strong addictive; can be ordered directly through mail! Don't want to hurt anybody's feelings here but it feels like a suicide drug; for those disillusioned with life. I saw videos and it is mostly young people, the vulnerable getting nabbed leading to this theory.
--xx--

Although, as an Indian I have deep reservations on anything Chinese, little things are adding up and I am beginning to believe that like Reagan-Gorbachev; President XI's proximity with Trump may lead to increased stability in Asia.

I know not what weapons World War III will be fought but

World War IV will be with sticks and stones
- Albert E

Trump says: Goodbye Treaty



While Mr Trump has cited the Iran factor I personally think Kim Jing Jong-un's yap on using missiles did not bother Mr. Trump as much as the inaction by China. It almost seemed as if the Chinese were having fun. Russia's silence may have also touched a nerve.

So its a new game of Chess and there's just one player.

ha,ha,ha, ha
My former boss *when I asked him why he spent more time outside of office) said, "I have to be close to the enemy"

On radiation soaked into Mars soil, I've no clue

On the Mag Shield, I think its worth reading, an old proposal that was once again presented in Washington, in a forum of world scientists in 2017 by NASA director Jim Green. Green himself termed it then as 'near fanciful'

Instead of the whole planet, he proposed what looked like a 'safe corridor', around the planets using a string of satellites synchronized to Mars rotation. Couldn't locate the picture now but if the field could be colored it would look like a wide, distant rainbow while the terra firma below remaining untouched.

But look at the results if this mag tech was financially affordable.


The carbon dioxide ice is a thin layer, 6 to 8 inches which melts during the day and creates the famous dust storms. In other words, fresh water ice below the CO2 cap.

On energy requirements, Green did not say except:


I think if the tech can be proven the money will come.

I was wondering what happened on the proposal on having a mag shield around Mars.

Continuing on: Desert on Mars' appears similar to that in Australia -- different temperature ranges (not to mention radiation).

[quote} On Mars from Wiki: The caps at both poles consist primarily of water ice. Frozen carbon dioxide accumulates as a comparatively thin layer about one metre thick on the north cap in the northern winter, while the south cap has a permanent dry ice cover about 8 m thick

Australia: Great deserts, no rivers; (15 and 35 degree South Lat)
6000 kms to Antarctica glaciers.

The question appears to be: If it is not feasible to crack glaciers and float ice across the 6000 kms then what life sustainable systems are we talking about on Mars?

This question would have been rhetorical but for the proposal that we should begin thinking about large populations moving over to Mars. i.e., if we are considering population sizes in millions. (Assuming 22nd Century World is more collaborative.)

::Stone cold beer::

If Australians are going to benefit from Mars Tech then
Trump may ask you to pay for the Wall.

Even divorce lawyers drive wedges in the papers. Used to think my Ex was possessive and will come over it.

Conclusion: There's no way mothers can be reassured on this count; unless some extraordinary efforts are made.

I suppose TxsGal is right, work with the system.