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Renzian posted:Hey, since Hillary Clinton's candidacy is a Big Topic in this thread and talk of her memoir occurred a while back (brought up by me, admittedly), I thought I'd give an appraisal of it as I've managed to get about 150ish pages into it since picking it up from the library the other day.
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Jun 26, 2014 17:53
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Alter Ego posted:And usually this isn't a problem, because how many serious international incidents are going to occur between the United States and St. Kitts? As long as you go to all the right parties and shake the right hands, ambassador gigs in small, peaceful countries are not that difficult.
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Jun 26, 2014 17:53
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FMguru posted:For the most part, ambassadors aren't that important - thanks to satellites and jumbo jets, everything can be run out of the State Department in real time and the Ambassador is just a figurehead who doesn't do much. There is a tendency to put real career Foreign Service Officers in posts where things are fluid and high stakes (like Stevens in Libya) but for the most part Ambassadorships are spoils for the President's friends and funders, and everyone in the host country understands this. And in friendly, no stakes positions like the UK, France, Japan, etc, it's an expensive spoil at that. I recall reading somewhere that generally those ambassadors are expected to spend well in excess of their budget from their own personal wealth on social functions and whatnot.
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Jun 26, 2014 19:10
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Ambassadorships as spoils can go a bit far of course, as in his Senate hearing, the prospective ambassador to Norway thought the country was a republic, and that the government coalition had condemned one of its members. Yeah, it's a 4th tier ambassadorship, but skim the Wikipedia page at least 
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Jun 26, 2014 19:32
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That would actually be a good premise for a TV show. Some affable but clueless rich guy (real-estate developer turned political bundler) gets an ambassadorship to some island somewhere, moves there with his overly-dramatic wife, smart and bratty daughter, and a harried staff of real FSOs who keep things running as something crazy happens every week. Season finale is a hostage crisis or car bombing or volcanic eruption. Rich guy lead slowly gets more competent and sympathetic towards his job over time, locals aren't nearly as backwards as they make themselves out to be, daughter gets a native boyfriend (over mom's strident objections), guest stars from time to time (a mix up in the cultural liaison office mistakenly results in Green Day being hired to perform at a swanky reception for the country's Prime Minister - and it turns out he's their biggest fan!), etc. etc.
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Jun 26, 2014 19:43
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FlamingLiberal posted:Books like that will be sanitized to all hell to make sure nothing can be used as future ammo in an election. Yeah, which is why memoirs from high-level but non-elected office-seeking people are amazingly interesting and insightful. Kissinger's memoir is an example - it's like 1400 pages long and I'm only 300 pages in, but it's *jam packed* with interesting insight and a naked appraisal of the Nixon White House and its foreign policy, with Kissinger not shying away from describing Nixon's own peculiar personality and how paranoid he (Nixon) was of his own Administration. If Obama was like Nixon in that way, there's no way in hell you'd ever find that out from Clinton's memoir, or any other memoir from any other individual who might need to be on their boss's good side. EDIT: The Kissinger memoir in question is White House Years, covering Kissinger's time in the WH from '69 to '73.
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Jun 26, 2014 22:15
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FMguru posted:That would actually be a good premise for a TV show. Some affable but clueless rich guy (real-estate developer turned political bundler) gets an ambassadorship to some island somewhere, moves there with his overly-dramatic wife, smart and bratty daughter, and a harried staff of real FSOs who keep things running as something crazy happens every week. Season finale is a hostage crisis or car bombing or volcanic eruption. Rich guy lead slowly gets more competent and sympathetic towards his job over time, locals aren't nearly as backwards as they make themselves out to be, daughter gets a native boyfriend (over mom's strident objections), guest stars from time to time (a mix up in the cultural liaison office mistakenly results in Green Day being hired to perform at a swanky reception for the country's Prime Minister - and it turns out he's their biggest fan!), etc. etc. Reminds me of Benson.
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Jun 27, 2014 01:04
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Warcabbit posted:Reminds me of Benson. 
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Jun 27, 2014 01:21
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ReidRansom posted:And in friendly, no stakes positions like the UK, France, Japan, etc, it's an expensive spoil at that. I recall reading somewhere that generally those ambassadors are expected to spend well in excess of their budget from their own personal wealth on social functions and whatnot. Ambassadors basically are there to throw parties, and rich people are great at throwing kicking rad parties for your in house CIA agents to attend.
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Jun 27, 2014 01:40
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Berke Negri posted:Ambassadors basically are there to throw parties, and rich people are great at throwing kicking rad parties for your in house CIA agents to attend. I have a cousin (much older) who was career Navy, and his last post was as Naval Attache to the embassy in a south Asian country, he used to walk around Embassy parties asking people "so? Are you the spook?"
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Jun 27, 2014 01:47
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FMguru posted:For the most part, ambassadors aren't that important - thanks to satellites and jumbo jets, everything can be run out of the State Department in real time and the Ambassador is just a figurehead who doesn't do much. There is a tendency to put real career Foreign Service Officers in posts where things are fluid and high stakes (like Stevens in Libya) but for the most part Ambassadorships are spoils for the President's friends and funders, and everyone in the host country understands this. Everyone in the host country understands it because they're doing the same thing a lot of the time.
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Jun 27, 2014 05:20
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FMguru posted:That would actually be a good premise for a TV show. Some affable but clueless rich guy (real-estate developer turned political bundler) gets an ambassadorship to some island somewhere, moves there with his overly-dramatic wife, smart and bratty daughter, and a harried staff of real FSOs who keep things running as something crazy happens every week. Season finale is a hostage crisis or car bombing or volcanic eruption. Rich guy lead slowly gets more competent and sympathetic towards his job over time, locals aren't nearly as backwards as they make themselves out to be, daughter gets a native boyfriend (over mom's strident objections), guest stars from time to time (a mix up in the cultural liaison office mistakenly results in Green Day being hired to perform at a swanky reception for the country's Prime Minister - and it turns out he's their biggest fan!), etc. etc. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2048877/ Entertaining and informative.
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Jun 27, 2014 05:42
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I know it's a common misconception that "most" ambassadors are political appointees, the actual figure is less than half. Sure, I think we can all agree that 27%-40% is still too high, but the majority of ambassadors are career civil servants.Majestic posted:As already stated, this is just not true. You can buy cheap, shoddily put together stuff out of China extremely cheap. You can also buy very well put together, high quality stuff out of China for a reasonable amount of money (still cheaper than elsewhere). One of the main problems people have with China (and numerous other countries too, but China seems worst) is a lack of enforcement of IP. It makes it difficult for higher quality producers to maintain their margins when say, anyone can slap a Lifan badge on a shoddily-made engine and sell it as such for less. Or reverse engineer your product (or manufacturing process), copy it, and undercut you, avoiding prosecution by paying off the relevant Party official or having the right family/social tie. China's been moving in the right direction for a while, but still has a way to go.
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Jun 27, 2014 07:30
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This is openly referred to as C&D (a play on R&D) in Asia.
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Jun 27, 2014 10:20
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Pompous Rhombus posted:
That's literally what the US did in the late 19th Century though ( Pirates of Penzance was famously debuted in the US first because that was the only way they could get revenue before all of the copycats made their productions).
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Jun 27, 2014 14:04
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computer parts posted:That's literally what the US did in the late 19th Century though ( Pirates of Penzance was famously debuted in the US first because that was the only way they could get revenue before all of the copycats made their productions). When China makes knock-off garbage that sells to people who don't know/know but don't care well that's not great for that specific company but systemically it's not that big a deal. The "media" stuff is a bigger deal, though a lot of that goes on domestically, too. I don't really see that ending any time soon, though, it's tough to stop (that's why a lot of this goes on domestically). The "preventable" freeloading for the big companies is the industrial espionage and patent infringement. There's a chicken and egg problem where nobody takes the Chinese patent office seriously enough to start taking the Chinese patent office/law/enforcement seriously, if that makes sense, but it's too early to say it's hopeless and people are filing a lot of Chinese applications. The US started getting it's poo poo together with patents in the late 18th century, and by the mid 19th century things were decent--China STARTED making IP laws in like 1982. (Yes, the US still needs to pass the "Innovation Act" or something similar)
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Jun 27, 2014 15:01
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pangstrom posted:The US started getting it's poo poo together with patents in the late 18th century, and by the mid 19th century things were decent--China STARTED making IP laws in like 1982. No, in fact there was an entire convention in the 1880s just to have people say "yeah let's actually respect each other's IP instead of blatantly steal it".
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Jun 27, 2014 15:20
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computer parts posted:No, in fact there was an entire convention in the 1880s just to have people say "yeah let's actually respect each other's IP instead of blatantly steal it". edit: removed the needlessly insulting part 
pangstrom fucked around with this message at 15:35 on Jun 27, 2014 |
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Jun 27, 2014 15:30
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pangstrom posted:At a (quick, dumb) glance this looks like a counterpoint to the state of things in the US but that's actually when "the world" started to get their IP poo poo together. Yes, and that doesn't contradict anything I said. Maybe I should have said "The West was doing this in the 19th Century" rather than "The US" (even though the latter is a subset of the former) but that doesn't change the fact that they were doing exactly the same thing that China is doing now.
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Jun 27, 2014 15:32
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computer parts posted:Yes, and that doesn't contradict anything I said. (And, if someone does care, well the fact that there's was no international law then but there IS now means China is "worse" for doing it now, if anything)
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Jun 27, 2014 15:38
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pangstrom posted:Okay, but address the "fundamental aspect of their economy" part because if you don't disagree with that then who cares about any of this. US manufacturing got off the ground in the early 19th century by blatantly copying secret and patented British manufacturing processes and undercutting. Edit: Slater the traitor started that. The US was built off stealing IP through the 19th century not the 18th. hobbesmaster fucked around with this message at 15:46 on Jun 27, 2014 |
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Jun 27, 2014 15:43
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hobbesmaster posted:US manufacturing got off the ground in the early 19th century by blatantly copying secret and patented British manufacturing processes and undercutting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_United_States_inventions Most everything came from something else and this is the type of argument where bad faith is sufficient to bog it down forever, but, TO THE EXTENT THAT ANYTHING IS INNOVATED AND ANYTHING IS STOLEN, and in the era we're talking about, the US economy has been more of an innovator and less of a thief than has China's.
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Jun 27, 2014 16:02
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Wasn't it more of both? Loose (international) IP laws tend to strongly encourage (local) innovation, by giving people a lot of stuff to work with and improve on without having to worry about licensing and legalities and whatnot.
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Jun 27, 2014 16:12
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Structurally, most of the cause is just an asymmetry in the state of the art, so Chinese actors "steal" from others for the same reason anyone does -- it's stuff you want (or want to sell to others, or components of stuff you want to sell to others) and why invest in re-inventing the wheel. From a global perspective it's even kind of efficient .
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Jun 27, 2014 16:27
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computer parts posted:That's literally what the US did in the late 19th Century though ( Pirates of Penzance was famously debuted in the US first because that was the only way they could get revenue before all of the copycats made their productions). Late 19th? How do you think Ben Franklin got started?
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Jun 27, 2014 18:17
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Warcabbit posted:Late 19th? How do you think Ben Franklin got started? By banging older women and drinking?
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Jun 27, 2014 18:23
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computer parts posted:No, in fact there was an entire convention in the 1880s just to have people say "yeah let's actually respect each other's IP instead of blatantly steal it". To be fair it took the United States more than a century to accede to the Berne Convention. The U.S being in some aspects a pirate country is in the living memory of millions of Americans.
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Jun 29, 2014 10:53
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I think the "cheap Chinese crap" argument has as much to do with material as anything else. Looking at the "old, good" American stuff it was typically metal- iron or steel or hard wood. It came from before the age of plastic and yeah, an old steel wrench will last longer than a current one with a plastic grip. The goods' comparative quality would have gone down anyway, regardless of where they were made, simply because of the change in materials. Even beyond that, people forget all of the cheap disposable paper goods made in the US back then that lasted far less time than their plastic equivalents do today (though, I suppose, an environmentalist would long for those days.)
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Jun 30, 2014 13:55
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Cliff Racer posted:I think the "cheap Chinese crap" argument has as much to do with material as anything else. Looking at the "old, good" American stuff it was typically metal- iron or steel or hard wood. It came from before the age of plastic and yeah, an old steel wrench will last longer than a current one with a plastic grip. The goods' comparative quality would have gone down anyway, regardless of where they were made, simply because of the change in materials. Even beyond that, people forget all of the cheap disposable paper goods made in the US back then that lasted far less time than their plastic equivalents do today (though, I suppose, an environmentalist would long for those days.) The funny thing is at the same time as those things have gone "down" in quality, a lot of other things have become far more durable. Like fridges, washer/dryer sets, cars, even furniture really. And a ton of electronic stuff will last far longer than than it takes for it to become obsolete. Not to mention that in the not too distant past it was "cheap Japanese crap" or even a bit further back it was "cheap (west) German crap".
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Jun 30, 2014 15:14
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Cliff Racer posted:I think the "cheap Chinese crap" argument has as much to do with material as anything else. Looking at the "old, good" American stuff it was typically metal- iron or steel or hard wood. It came from before the age of plastic and yeah, an old steel wrench will last longer than a current one with a plastic grip. The goods' comparative quality would have gone down anyway, regardless of where they were made, simply because of the change in materials. Even beyond that, people forget all of the cheap disposable paper goods made in the US back then that lasted far less time than their plastic equivalents do today (though, I suppose, an environmentalist would long for those days.) China makes those things too and they're just as durable. People are mad because their (literal) toys aren't carved out of a block of steel.
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Jun 30, 2014 15:16
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Cliff Racer posted:I think the "cheap Chinese crap" argument has as much to do with material as anything else. Looking at the "old, good" American stuff it was typically metal- iron or steel or hard wood. Old, good American stuff that you've seen is the stuff that lasted this long. The crap fell apart and got thrown out before you saw it.
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Jun 30, 2014 16:24
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And let's not forget the real price for almost pretty much all manufactured consumer goods are way, way down. The only exceptions really are commodities. So even if you accept that people are buying relative crap, they are paying a hell of a lot less for it.
AreWeDrunkYet fucked around with this message at 20:33 on Jun 30, 2014 |
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Jun 30, 2014 20:31
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Rick Santorum thinks that the jury's still out on whether the founders were right to restrict the franchise to only white men.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kj6O3LPnhqE
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Jul 2, 2014 02:07
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Joementum posted:Rick Santorum thinks that the jury's still out on whether the founders were right to restrict the franchise to only white men. Huh, progress by him I guess.
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Jul 2, 2014 02:10
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I'm sure it will have zero actual effect, but you can now vote for the GOP 2016 host city, choosing between Dallas and Cleveland.
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Jul 2, 2014 02:27
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Question, do they pay the electrical bill for whichever facility they use for the convention? If so everyone should vote Dallas to make them pay for AC in the Texan 2016 summer.
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Jul 2, 2014 02:36
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As someone living in Texas, I choose Cleveland.
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Jul 2, 2014 02:37
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Texas. Keep 'em contained.
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Jul 2, 2014 02:38
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Raskolnikov38 posted:Question, do they pay the electrical bill for whichever facility they use for the convention? If so everyone should vote Dallas to make them pay for AC in the Texan 2016 summer. They have to pay for everything now. This year Congress voted to remove all federal funding for political conventions and divert it to child cancer prevention research.
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Jul 2, 2014 02:38
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That header is strange. How can the GOP nominate Hillary?
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Jul 2, 2014 02:49
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