After this's all over, I hope the U.S. gov't bills Trump for the damage he's done to our reputation

[Lurker13]

Yeah, he's kinda out there with many ideas but I've been skeptical of "overpopulation" for a while, especially when I saw that many many Latin American countries have about a 2.0 replacement rate. There are more people in China than the entirety of the Western Hemisphere. I think we're hitting a peak in the Western Hemisphere in a few decades. China and Japan are old and aren't likely to grow a whole lot in the next few decades.

Sorry JF, I thought you were joking earlier, otherwise I wouldn't have been flippant.

The raw numbers are alarming. The world's population has doubled in the last 50 years, and we've added a billion people roughly every 12 year since 1987.
http://www.worldometers.info/world-popu ... n-by-year/

But you piqued my interest, so I did some poking around. You are right about fertility rates being down, that's a good sign. This link leads to a plot of fertility rates using World Bank data for the years 1960 through 2016, and a table that breaks the data down country by country. The plot clearly shows a decreasing trend since 1964.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.TFRT.IN?

Also, this is an interesting read on Earth's carrying capacity. If every human on Earth became a vegetarian (so we didn't have to feed livestock), Earth's carrying capacity would be about 10 billion people.
https://www.livescience.com/16493-peopl ... pport.html

I'm still not comfortable with saying overpopulation has been "discredited". We were on the path to overpopulation, but I think people ringing the alarm bell started us to think long and hard about it and how to take actions to mitigate it. Hopefully those effects will last.

[friendship]

The concentration camps intensify: http://time.com/5319334/navy-detainment ... on-policy/

[friendship]

Yeah, assassination's definitely a knee-jerk reaction in this case.

Violence will be the only recourse when representatives driven by self-interest instead of public service fail to act, no matter how uncomfortable we are about it.

[Lurker13]

"You're out of your cotton-pickin' mind." - Trump's former deputy campaign manager to black Democratic strategist Joel Payne while arguing about racist dog whistles on Fox News.
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/foxs-david- ... -whistles/

You couldn't make this shit up if you tried.

[JereFuzz]

Yeah, he's kinda out there with many ideas but I've been skeptical of "overpopulation" for a while, especially when I saw that many many Latin American countries have about a 2.0 replacement rate. There are more people in China than the entirety of the Western Hemisphere. I think we're hitting a peak in the Western Hemisphere in a few decades. China and Japan are old and aren't likely to grow a whole lot in the next few decades.

Sorry JF, I thought you were joking earlier, otherwise I wouldn't have been flippant.

The raw numbers are alarming. The world's population has doubled in the last 50 years, and we've added a billion people roughly every 12 year since 1987.
http://www.worldometers.info/world-popu ... n-by-year/

But you piqued my interest, so I did some poking around. You are right about fertility rates being down, that's a good sign. This link leads to a plot of fertility rates using World Bank data for the years 1960 through 2016, and a table that breaks the data down country by country. The plot clearly shows a decreasing trend since 1964.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.TFRT.IN?

Also, this is an interesting read on Earth's carrying capacity. If every human on Earth became a vegetarian (so we didn't have to feed livestock), Earth's carrying capacity would be about 10 billion people.
https://www.livescience.com/16493-peopl ... pport.html

I'm still not comfortable with saying overpopulation has been "discredited". We were on the path to overpopulation, but I think people ringing the alarm bell started us to think long and hard about it and how to take actions to mitigate it. Hopefully those effects will last.

This may sound funny but I think overpopulation may be a "local" thing. The logistics that India and China have to overcome as a result of huge populations may be too much for them to handle. They can never be truly food secure. Their respective lands don't produce enough to feed the domestic population. They have to import huge amounts of food. Japan also falls into this category.

[Chankgeez]

This may sound funny but I think overpopulation may be a "local" thing. The logistics that India and China have to overcome as a result of huge populations may be too much for them to handle. They can never be truly food secure. Their respective lands don't produce enough to feed the domestic population. They have to import huge amounts of food. Japan also falls into this category.

That seems like a contradiction to me. Doesn't it cease being "local" if they have to import stuff from far away?

[JereFuzz]

This may sound funny but I think overpopulation may be a "local" thing. The logistics that India and China have to overcome as a result of huge populations may be too much for them to handle. They can never be truly food secure. Their respective lands don't produce enough to feed the domestic population. They have to import huge amounts of food. Japan also falls into this category.

That seems like a contradiction to me. Doesn't it cease being "local" if they have to import stuff from far away?

It's a boon for the exporter. Pacific Latin American countries are making a lot of money exporting to China.

[JereFuzz]

This may sound funny but I think overpopulation may be a "local" thing. The logistics that India and China have to overcome as a result of huge populations may be too much for them to handle. They can never be truly food secure. Their respective lands don't produce enough to feed the domestic population. They have to import huge amounts of food. Japan also falls into this category.

That seems like a contradiction to me. Doesn't it cease being "local" if they have to import stuff from far away?

It's a boon for the exporter. Pacific Latin American countries are making a lot of money exporting to China.

But it will be a deficit for the exporters if the exporter over-relies on the exports.

[Bassist_Diver]

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/25/trump-s ... tion-.html

Trump says he's 'surprised' by Harley-Davidson moving some production overseas
President Trump says he's "surprised" by Harley-Davidson's plans to shift some of its U.S. production to international facilities.
The iconic American motorcycle manufacturer cited the European Union's retaliatory tariffs as the reason for its decision.
Europe accounts for 16 percent of Harley's sales and is its biggest market outside of the U.S.

Who would have seen this coming other than literally everyone outside Trump's sphere of influence?

But seriously, HD is the first of many.

[jirodreamsofdank]

Oh man, everything is hopelessly fucked for the foreseeable future. Time to start looking into vasectomy costs.

[Faldoe]

"You're out of your cotton-pickin' mind." - Trump's former deputy campaign manager to black Democratic strategist Joel Payne while arguing about racist dog whistles on Fox News.
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/foxs-david- ... -whistles/

You couldn't make this shit up if you tried.

Yeah, I watched that and it was bad.

[Benn Roe]

Justice Kennedy's retirement has had me literally feeling sick to my stomach since I found out. How the fuck did we get here?

[Chankgeez]

I was kinda surprised when the Democrats were so easily resigned to Mitch McConnell's declining to hold confirmation hearings or a vote for Merrick Garland.

Not that it's likely to work (nor are they really in a position to do so), but they should use a similar tactic for Trump's new pick.

[Bassist_Diver]

Trump: "Kim will denuclearize!"
Kim:


But at least the stock market is up, r-right?

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/dow-f ... 2018-06-27

[jrfox92]

Out of all the things I've seen people complain about regarding Kennedy's retirement, I still can't fathom how people could rage against Kennedy's decision to retire.
I mean, you're really angry that an 81 year old man is too fucking tired to wait another 3 years to retire from a position he's had for 30 so that there's a possibility that a president you'd prefer might have a chance to nominate his replacement?