3 Topics Over Dinner -- NYC -- 3TopicsOverDinner

3 Topics Over Dinner is a dinner discussion group that meets on weekends. Links to articles or videos on the internet about 3 Topics, usually unrelated to one another, are posted on the event listing. Attendees read the articles (and other sources if they so wish) or watch the videos to be discussed over dinner. The idea is to be similar to a book club, only with far less reading. The idea is that this required reading / video viewing will be less than 3 hours.

We go to a different nationality restaurant every month, and always restaurants that will do separate checks for a large group, so everyone can pay with their own credit card and we don't have to figure out how to split the check. The restaurants are chosen to be quiet and nice, but not extremely exorbitant. A link to the menu of the restaurant, with prices listed, will always be provided on the announcement.

The restaurants chosen will always be in Manhattan, 77th St or further south.

RSVP's will be limited to have about 8 people at dinner, small enough that everyone can hear one another and we can conduct a single conversation.

The group has been going roughly once a month since 2008. It was formed on meetup.com and has shifted to Eventbrite.

A $5.00 deposit is required to RSVP. This deposit is refunded in cash ten minutes after the event starts. No-shows and latecomers forfeit their deposit.

"When people actually meet and get to know each other ... what Lincoln called those ‘better angels’ come out. People start recognizing themselves in each other and they start trusting each other, and that’s not just the basis for democracy, but that’s the basis for our long-term salvation." -- Barack Obama

Tariffs

Against the virually unanimous objection of the whole economics profession, and as it turns out, in violation of the US constitution, Trump has gone wild with tariffs.

The Supreme Court reigned him in, but the manner with which he wielded these tariffs before they did show us a lot about how his mind works and how he operates.

Canada Quits Pretending

Cartoon shared on Facebook by an Australian friend.

Trump threatened to invade Greenland in violation of:

• International Law
• The NATO Treaty
• Treaties directly between the US and Denmark signed in 1916 and 1951

1. There is no point in being a "friend" of the United States.
2. Treaties with us aren't worth the paper they're written on, our word means nothing, we have no honor.

And in return all we got was things that had been ours for the asking all along.

When you threaten a friend, even if you don't carry out the threat, it irreversibly changes the relationship. It causes a wound that will take decades to heal, at least.

Trump has the largest and most competent military in the world at his disposal, and rest of the world now obviously regards him like a toddler with a machine gun.

Our allies have spent a year flattering Trump even though they realize that he's a thoroughly contemptible human being, and all it's gotten them is asymmetric trade deals at their own expense. And all this insincere sycophantic flattery is demeaning and degrading to the people who have to say it. After getting kicked around for year and watching, with the military threat to Greenland/Denmark, Trump make clear that he will abuse friend and foe alike, Canadian President Mike Carney has drawn the line in the sand that there's no point in going on with the pretense of liking Trump any more.

We are entering a new Putin / Trump world order, where international law isn't respected and strong countries have no hesitation to invade or otherwise abuse their weaker neighbors.  That is a world where every country is going to want nuclear weapons, which aren't really that hard to get -- North Korea is practically in the stone age, and literally starving -- they were able to get nukes, so most countries will be able to.  With such massive nuclear proliferation, it is inevitable that some nukes will be inadequately guarded, or fall into the wrong hands during coups.  Once non-state actors like terrorists and cartels have them, we will be in a whole new world -- non-state actors can't be deterred by nuclear weapons.  The terrorists will detonate them in cities, and the cartels will charge ransoms not to, like Attila the Hun charged Constantinople ransoms not to sack the city.  We may find ourselves in a situation where living in cities is so dangerous that the human race has to evacuate them all, and disperse to low-density areas.  Any time large numbers of people are to gather, it will have to be over the Internet.

Has Bari Weiss's "The Free Press" lost it's mind? I've been reading it for years, and this is by far the most insane article they've ever posted "How Trump Won Davos" (paywalled, pirate version is here).

Immigration

Currently, neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have a very intelligent approach to border enforcement. Immigration policy.