<div dir="ltr"><div><font size="4">Adrian Tymes wrote:<br></font>
</div><div><font size="4">"In real life, "evil" and "competent" like that do not go hand in hand.
Putin is the best known modern example of someone trying to be both, and
Russia's been having some problems during his reign. North Korea is a
better example of what happens when someone tries such methods for a
while." <br></font></div><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><div><font size="4">The best example I can think of is the leader of China, Xi Jinping, who has commissioned the organ harvesting, mass sterilization, rape and forced re-education of many Uighyr people. And he is working on a high-tech surveillance/tracking system to thoroughly monitor and control his own Han fellow citizens. And yet despite this, he is an intelligent man who is leading China into an era of continued economic prosperity and greatly expanded military power. If his policies continue beyond his death, we will see the continuation of a cold war between China and the United States and her allies.</font></div><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><div><font size="4">John</font><br></div><div><br></div><div>John <br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Nov 17, 2020 at 1:45 AM William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org" target="_blank">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:rgb(0,0,0)">All North Korea has to do is look South to see that their government's doings are a total failure. People starving, people trying to leave the country, etc. So why don't they change? It has to be because they are not interested in change or in their country's food problems. They are interested in saber-rattling, not competence. Competence counts only in something the military is doing, not the economy. So who is it that doesn't care? Psychopaths. If they had consciences they would change, eh?</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:rgb(0,0,0)">bill w</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Nov 16, 2020 at 10:59 AM Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org" target="_blank">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">In real life, "evil" and "competent" like that do not go hand in hand. Putin is the best known modern example of someone trying to be both, and Russia's been having some problems during his reign. North Korea is a better example of what happens when someone tries such methods for a while.</div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Nov 16, 2020 at 5:53 AM John Grigg via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org" target="_blank">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div>In the classic near future thriller/borderline sf novel, The Profession, by Steven Pressfield, a former USMC lieutenant general war hero who is sort of an evil version of Douglas MacArthur (he successfully forced a CCP expeditionary force in Africa to retreat and go home, but nearly started a nuclear war, and so the current president fires him, but he returns to America and receives a hero's welcome), becomes president during very hard economic and foreign policy times for America. This is a man who had worked with the intelligence agencies, and has no qualms about killing enemies, foreign and domestic. He has his loyal henchman (assassins and special forces) kill off key senators, congressmen and journalists. They all look like accidents. The country senses something is up, but this man actually does turn the nation around. He gets the economy going, in part by intimidating the billionaire class, and getting them to invest in the economy rather than off-shoring money, and also to pay much higher taxes. All it takes is secretly kidnapping key members of their class and then threatening their lives! Well over half the nation adores this president, despite some elements of the "liberal media" being very worried about him. But in the end, karma catches up to the man in a Shakespearean way. Donald Trump could only dream in his most fervent power mad fantasies to be at this villain's level. I worry that one day we will actually elect someone with such monstrous talents who will be very hard to stop. Pressfield is one of America's finest writers, and his book about ancient Sparta, The Gates of Fire, is required reading at all of the military academies.</div><div><br></div><div>John <br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Fri, Nov 13, 2020 at 11:38 PM William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org" target="_blank">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:large;color:rgb(0,0,0)">The idea that Trump (and this is here because it is not controversial) could pull a coup is an idea that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of STaff, Gen. Mark MIlley has put paid to.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:large;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:large;color:rgb(0,0,0)">He said that the military does not take an oath to individuals but to the Constitution. Surely you have seen this story.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:large;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:large;color:rgb(0,0,0)">So what happens at the D of Defense is irrelevant. They cannot order the military to contravene the Constitution.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:large;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:large;color:rgb(0,0,0)">Worry gone, over, done with, put paid to.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:large;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:large;color:rgb(0,0,0)">Now can we worry about something else?</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:large;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:large;color:rgb(0,0,0)">bill w</div></div>
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