Brexit

[fountainhall]

China has been quite expansionist over the past few decades especially. China currently owns nearly all of Africa, a good portion of Australia's natural resources, and a host of other corporations and resource deposits across the globe. Granted, they've done all this economically and not militarily, but nonethless, you can't tell me China isn't expansionist.

China's economic expansionism has already been discussed - and agreed - in this thread -

China doesn't require the military strength that previous superpowers required. This will be a new form of colonialism and China will come to dominate the world like no other country ever has.

But my discussion was concerned exclusively with military expansionism, the direction this thread has taken for quite a few posts. I totally agree re China's global economic expansion. But you seem to assume that the reason for this economic expansion will lead to some form of military expansion or non-military take-over. I don't think any experts agree with that line at all. One of the most astute observers of China is the former two-time Prime Minster of Australia, Kevin Rudd, a fluent Mandarin speaker who is now President of the Asia Society Policy Institute in New York.

In one speech in 2012, he describes the views of various experts on the likely urbanised-related drivers of Chinese growth demand until 2025 (i.e. in 13 years from the date of the speech). Take a look at the following list. This is the primary reason why China has been snapping up access to raw materials all over the world - to ensure it can meet its own internal requirements - not to expand the borders of China into other territories and countries.

- 350 million more people to move to the cities,
- 221 Chinese cities of greater than a million people (compared with the 35 in all of Europe today),
- A million kilometres of new roads,
- 28,000 kilometres of new metro-rail,
- 170 mass transit systems (twice the number in all of Europe),
- 1.6 - 1.9 billion square metres of new floor space as part of 5 million new buildings,
- 50,000 new skyscrapers (the equivalent of 2 Chicagos per year),
- 97 new airports,
- And, to fuel the above, 1000 megawatts of additional coal fired generating capacity to be commissioned every week.
- Combined with the new wind power turbine being built every hour and a half

http://www.kevinruddmp.com/2012/08/s...rowth-and.html

[Up2U]

EU referendum: Moody's cut UK's credit outlook to 'negative' - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politic...endum-36626201

[Up2U]

Spain demands shared sovereignty over GIBRALTAR, where 95.9% voted to remain in the EU ..... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...remain-EU.html

[Up2U]

Brexit voters have more in common with Arab Spring protesters than they would like to think
Almost by accident, Leave has initiated a revolutionary change, but the weakness of revolutions is that they briefly bring together those with little in common except an antipathy to the status quo.... (read more)....
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/...-a7101276.html

[arsenal]

It seems that Matt, Fountainhall and I are actually in generally broad agreement. So, I suspect that neither of you two are American. Because they are, as a nation in denial. However as I point out to them (individually) that China has done this or that they tend to reluctantly see the new reality.
But look at the bright side. From China we are going to get huge advances in energy, food production and transport.

[fountainhall]

Brexit voters have more in common with Arab Spring protesters than they would like to think
Almost by accident, Leave has initiated a revolutionary change

Partly by sheer outright lies. The bus which took the Brexit leaders around the country had splashed on its side in large lettering, "Let's give our NHS the £350 million the EU takes every week." The National Health Service is every UK politician's untouchable - and it does need more investment. How many older voters were swayed by this much seen quote made by Nigel Farage, the Brexit leader - the more so when it was a large majority of the older population who voted to Leave? The fact is this was an outright lie. Not only will the weekly savings be around half of that $350 million, Farage said yesterday he should never had said it. His explanation? "It was a mistake!" So can the poll be rerun because of a huge lie?

And yes, arsenal, I'm from the UK.

[Up2U]

A pyrrhic victory? Boris Johnson wakes up to the costs of Brexit
Vote Leave’s poster boy should have been crowing, so why was his post-referendum press conference so subdued?.... (read more)...

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/...e_iOSApp_Other

[fountainhall]

I wonder how true this paragraph actually is -

The scariest possibility, however, is that he actually meant it. That like most of Westminster, Johnson always imagined we’d grudgingly vote to stay in the end. That he too missed the anger bubbling beneath the surface, and is now as shocked as anyone else by what has happened.

Yet another politician out for his own ends - becoming Prime Minister eventually - without any true understanding of what the electorate is really thinking. This is precisely why people in general now rate politicians as little better than sewer rats. I hope he never gets near the PM's job.

[Surfcrest]

Looking forward though, with this Brexit vote...it opens the door for the world to get a whole lot nuttier than this, if Trump can beat Clinton. While he's far back today and mired in controversy, you can't count him out especially in light of this Brexit vote. There are quite a few parallels in the voter demographic, excluding the national boundaries that suggest the older population out numbers the younger population in both countries and vote similarly. Just as Bernie Sanders and his young generation lost steam against the older demographic's candidate, so might Clinton against Trump for the same reasons. Sure there's a racial difference and differences between States in the US, but a lot of people didn't see this Brexit vote coming either including the financial community around the globe. There's a lot of similarities with what happened with Brexit with what's about to happen in the US this coming November. Get out the smelling salts quick!

https://www.facebook.com/OccupyDemoc...2607490498970/

Surfcrest

[Up2U]

The British are frantically Googling what the E.U. is, hours after voting to leave it
By Brian Fung June 24
The whole world is reeling after a milestone referendum in Britain to leave the European Union. And although leaders of the campaign to exit Europe are crowing over their victory, it seems many Britons may not even know what they had actually voted for.... (read more)...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...g-to-leave-it/