Politics

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Appeasement, it just doesn't work. It only makes things worse until you get to the point of having to finally fight back. Go back and read your history following the end of WWI through Hitler's rise to power. Focus on those last few years when Hitler moved through western Europe and that pansy Neville Chamberlain wanted to further appease the man with the Germans separated from him by a little bit of water. He too was afraid he may make the mad man angry.

An increase in friction between the U.S. and Iran was already happening, it's what led to Trump's reaction to kill this POS. Did you think for some reason it wasn’t? If so, please explain why. Also please explain what Soleimani was doing in Baghdad to begin with, I’m fairly certain it wasn’t for sightseeing.

But appeasement and wise politics are nevertheless different factors.
At the outbreak of the WW1 there was no appeasement at all. Not one.
After the assassination of Sarajevo, the declaration of war was given to Serbia, followed by the partial mobilization of the French to Serbias help and we Germans were allies of the House of Habsburg/Austria. Then the Russian Czar declared war on Berlin, and so the misfortune took its course.
At the beginning of the WW II
The English and French didn't have an army that could take on the highly equipped Wehrmacht.
They all knew that. Chamberlain did not want a war, Hitler in any case.
 
But appeasement and wise politics are nevertheless different factors.
At the outbreak of the WW1 there was no appeasement at all. Not one.
After the assassination of Sarajevo, the declaration of war was given to Serbia, followed by the partial mobilization of the French to Serbias help and we Germans were allies of the House of Habsburg/Austria. Then the Russian Czar declared war on Berlin, and so the misfortune took its course.
At the beginning of the WW II
The English and French didn't have an army that could take on the highly equipped Wehrmacht.
They all knew that. Chamberlain did not want a war, Hitler in any case.

Of course Chamberlain didn't want a war, but it came to him regardless. As has Iran's actions over the last year have been bringing the US to the same point.

I ask again what Soleimani, in violation of a UN security resolution, was doing outside of Iran and specifically in Baghdad? I believe he was either planning and/or executing acts of war against the US.

Back to Hitler. Had anyone had the nerve and ability to take him out before he started his invasions, many lives would've been saved.
 
Got a question for all those electric and hybrid car owners/leasees/drivers out there. Who and what will replace the billions of dollars of motor fuel tax that's collected to maintain the roads and bridges that you use? From this chair, it's time those tax breaks were reversed and a showroom and wattage recharge tax be enacted on all of the aforementioned vehicles. Buy a Tesla? You'll have your monthly wattage usage downloaded to the state and you'll pay a tax on what you've used. It should equal what a CAFE mileage vehicle pays for fuel. I've written my congresspersons and asked them to introduce a wattage tax on all Tesla charging stations in our state. Oh, wait a minute, we don't need to do that. We'll just tax the rich another couple percent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_taxes_in_the_United_States#/media/File:Gas_Tax_Jpeg.jpg

We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming.
 
congrescritters, especially those of the marxist bent, never think through what will happen when the things they encourage via legislation actually come to pass. The market will always respond to these incentives, but when incentives are based on legislation, those markets are destroyed when the legislation which formed them has to be severely altered or even repealed. Look no further than ethanol. EVERYBODY knows corn in the fuel tank lowers fuel economy, yet here we are, congresscritters afraid to repeal the law which mandates it because the corn market will collapse and a lot of farmers will be bankrupted. If the ethanol mandate is even rolled back a bit and it has to compete on equal market footing with ordinary gasoline, nobody will buy it. The gas station owners will be stuck, the refineries will be stuck, the ethanol plants will be stuck, and the farmers will be stuck. Which means there'll have to be a new program (requiring more tax money) to save them all from "greed", which means WE'LL be stuck.
 
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All these taxes and rebates instigated by the govt are just ways they seek to modify the citizens behavior. Not necessarily believing that the govt can make better choices for my behavior than I can, I refute all such attempts. the govt has gone well past the point of no return since to do away with the system of rewards and punishments would cause such a massive redistribution that chaos would ensue, leaving the US open to takeover by a foreign power that would be worse than the present system. However, it would have been nice if the govt had refrained from such attempts at behavior modification and stuck to providing the 3 Jeffersonian functions of govt, paid for by a flat rate income tax with spending limited to a balanced budget. But now back to reality.
 
All these taxes and rebates instigated by the govt are just ways they seek to modify the citizens behavior. Not necessarily believing that the govt can make better choices for my behavior than I can, I refute all such attempts. the govt has gone well past the point of no return since to do away with the system of rewards and punishments would cause such a massive redistribution that chaos would ensue, leaving the US open to takeover by a foreign power that would be worse than the present system. However, it would have been nice if the govt had refrained from such attempts at behavior modification and stuck to providing the 3 Jeffersonian functions of govt, paid for by a flat rate income tax with spending limited to a balanced budget. But now back to reality.

Sooner or later, this house of corruption/cards is going to come down around our heads. It would be better to let the market begin to settle out by re-adopting Jeffersonian principles, I think, than what will inevitably come if we don't.

But I agree - now back to reality.

BTW, maybe the best interview Friedman ever gave:
 
If you liked that, you can only imagine how privileged I was to take Prof Friedman's Price Theory 200 series at U of Chicago during his last year prior to his retirement in 1977.
 
It takes me twice as much 10% ethanol gasoline to do my small lawn cutting job as the old leaded version. Yeah, that's reducing greenhouse gasses.
 
If you liked that, you can only imagine how privileged I was to take Prof Friedman's Price Theory 200 series at U of Chicago during his last year prior to his retirement in 1977.

I REALLY liked this interview - great interviewer, and a targeted audience of educated people. Have seen tons of him on Donahue, and he always had to dumb things down for that moronic audience. But I always admired him (and Ayn Rand) on that show for keeping their cool with all of those mouth-breathers, particularly Donahue himself. And not just keeping their cool, but being warm and gracious (that may be stretch for Rand, but she was always patient, too).
 
It takes me twice as much 10% ethanol gasoline to do my small lawn cutting job as the old leaded version. Yeah, that's reducing greenhouse gasses.

give it about ten years and the warming cycle will have changed to the cooling cycle- then they'll beg people to convert free carbon atoms to CO2.
 
I question whether they have thought through the process of producing enough raw material to build the batteries etc. I am not sure they realize the huge increase in mining that is required. The northern parts of Canada have areas with no drinkable water due to historic mining practices. I see this as being a pending environmental catastrophe.
 
congrescritters, especially those of the marxist bent, never think through what will happen when the things they encourage via legislation actually come to pass. The market will always respond to these incentives, but when incentives are based on legislation, those markets are destroyed when the legislation which formed them has to be severely altered or even repealed. Look no further than ethanol. EVERYBODY knows corn in the fuel tank lowers fuel economy, yet here we are, congresscritters afraid to repeal the law which mandates it because the corn market will collapse and a lot of farmers will be bankrupted. If the ethanol mandate is even rolled back a bit and it has to compete on equal market footing with ordinary gasoline, nobody will buy it. The gas station owners will be stuck, the refineries will be stuck, the ethanol plants will be stuck, and the farmers will be stuck. Which means there'll have to be a new program (requiring more tax money) to save them all from "greed", which means WE'LL be stuck.

Years ago I was one of the oil refining reps in a working group made up of the engine manufacturers association (EMA), oil refiners, ethanol producers and the EPA. Ethanol interests were being championed by ADM on an emissions platform. The day the EMA came out with the report stating that new engine technology did not get an emissions benefit from alcohol the ethanol platform switched to renewables. Bastards never missed a beat, they had the new platform in a can waiting for the day they needed it. That day I realized that the bastards didn’t give a crap about emissions or renewables, they just cared about the subsidy. I confronted the ADM lobbyist and he just laughed.

I was also on the working group on low Sulphur and ultra low Sulphur diesel. Similar crap. You are paying more for your diesel to be ultra low Sulphur even though the emissions technology finally selected by the EMA does not need it. If you ever wonder why the gasoline/diesel price spread permanently shifted you now have the answer. Bastards!
 
@WAB, The money guys don't worry about anything but how they're going to profit. They don't worry about politics, laws, regulations, environmental issues, climate change, etc., etc. They only figure out a way to MAKE MONEY from whatever changes come down the road.
 
Years ago I was one of the oil refining reps in a working group made up of the engine manufacturers association (EMA), oil refiners, ethanol producers and the EPA. Ethanol interests were being championed by ADM on an emissions platform. The day the EMA came out with the report stating that new engine technology did not get an emissions benefit from alcohol the ethanol platform switched to renewables. Bastards never missed a beat, they had the new platform in a can waiting for the day they needed it. That day I realized that the bastards didn’t give a crap about emissions or renewables, they just cared about the subsidy. I confronted the ADM lobbyist and he just laughed.

I was also on the working group on low Sulphur and ultra low Sulphur diesel. Similar crap. You are paying more for your diesel to be ultra low Sulphur even though the emissions technology finally selected by the EMA does not need it. If you ever wonder why the gasoline/diesel price spread permanently shifted you now have the answer. Bastards!

When I was a younger man on a quest to fill in the education gaps left after formal schooling, I discovered Tacitus. In my early 20s, I didn't really understand this particular quote for quite a long time.
Tacitus said:
The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.
I think you're probably a few years older than I, but not too many. It was a chore going to the library looking for stuff like that.
 
^^^^^^ Included in the "State" I'm sure he meant it encompasses the government, business, and the populace . They all have equal shares of being corrupt with most being in the business world and by extension the government. Ironic, business/corporations don't see it as corruption. To them it's "innovation". :E Rofl:

Somewhat OT, but Boeing's pants are now down around their ankles with the latest 737 MAX revelations.
 
@WAB, The money guys don't worry about anything but how they're going to profit. They don't worry about politics, laws, regulations, environmental issues, climate change, etc., etc. They only figure out a way to MAKE MONEY from whatever changes come down the road.

Actually making money is one of the most honorable things a human can do. What ADM (and many others) is doing is extortion, and would not be possible without a corrupt government, eager and willing to accept bribes.

Making money entails giving your best effort, it's a faith in society that there are other men out there doing the same thing in their own way, and who agree to peacefully exchange the efforts of their labor with money. There are two alternatives - peaceful exchange to mutual benefit, or some sort of theft or fraud.

Ayn Rand said:
When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you - When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - You may know that your society is doomed.
 

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