tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post6014048758422097962..comments2024-03-18T21:52:45.757-07:00Comments on CONTRARY BRIN: The Daggatt Dare: prove your pessimism!David Brinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comBlogger120125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-58029241724919929122016-02-23T07:02:15.934-08:002016-02-23T07:02:15.934-08:00This may go in the registry: company announces hea...This may go in the registry: company announces headphones that release dopamine. http://consequenceofsound.net/2016/02/these-new-headphones-promise-to-give-you-a-dopamine-high/matthewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17757867868731829206noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-78644500555440423512016-02-13T11:50:53.394-08:002016-02-13T11:50:53.394-08:00Never mind.
onward
onward
onwardNever mind.<br /><br />onward<br /><br />onward<br /><br />onwardDavid Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-19849307125439739442016-02-13T11:50:36.972-08:002016-02-13T11:50:36.972-08:00How frustrating for treebeard. He knows that the ...How frustrating for treebeard. He knows that the worst trend in America, causing most of the angst he rages about, is the widening wealth disparity and the return of oligarchy. Yet if he admits that, then the blame falls rightly on the rabid foxites who have given that flood of wealth to new feudal lords.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-47900657284205948832016-02-13T11:35:39.296-08:002016-02-13T11:35:39.296-08:00Sure, this time locum points to some trends that I...Sure, this time locum points to some trends that I'd prefer to gracefully reverse. In fact, the truth? I do blame feminist leaders for failing to broaden their focus and realizing their constituents - most women - would like to see marriage returned to the list of things meriting active preservation. Just as I am perfectly willing to point to the greatest foolishness of the left in our lifetimes - forced school bussing - as a calamitously stupid insanity, without any basis and that helped fuel the confederacy's re-ignition.<br /><br />Having said that, ALL the trends he complains about, above, have slowed under Obama. And ALL of them are worse in the "moral" down home states (except Utah.) <br /><br />And we'd be happy to talk to sane conservatives with suggestions how to motivate good home life attitudes and especially girls and women choosing well. Alas... sand conservatives exist, but they cower and scamper for safety under the trampling of an elephant that is frothing insane.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-46469271674940224192016-02-13T11:33:01.221-08:002016-02-13T11:33:01.221-08:00For me the prescription drug and imprisonment rate...For me the prescription drug and imprisonment rates in Amerika are telling. To keep this place functioning, we have to medicate and/or imprison a large fraction of the population. For the rest there is a sustained propaganda barrage to get them to docilely accept their dose of Amerikan progress. Then you have the decreased life expectancy of the demographic of this blog, which I would think might be of concern, and levels of autism and suicide that may be unprecedented in the history of the world.<br /><br />This is what a radically inorganic, bean-counter made society produces, I suppose. But of course, everything is glorious, things are getting better and the future belongs to us, just as it did for readers of Pravda in the Brezhnev era of the U.S.S.A -- I mean U.S.S.R.Treebeardnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-75872066333276209202016-02-13T10:41:26.798-08:002016-02-13T10:41:26.798-08:00By referencing the degenerate nature of most conse...<br /><br />By referencing the degenerate nature of most conservatives, and almost entirely by accident, David touches on the true motive force behind a New Confederacy: <br /><br />The conservatives lost (and the progressives won) long ago, leaving only a small but growing numbers of reactionary conservatives engaged in political discourse, while a self-identified conservative majority attempts to 'conserve' a fraying progressive establishment brought about by the destruction of the traditional 'conservative' social contract.<br /><br />Social statistics tell this sad story: Fewer than 46% of U.S. children reside within the traditional family unit; 40% of children are born to single unmarried women; 34% of U.S. children reside in single mother (one parent) households; and 70% of men under age 34 are currently unmarried to either women or pro-establishment policies.<br /><br />This is 'progress', we've been told, because elimination of the prior Social Contract is 'good' because it liberates, elevates & 'empowers' an oppressed (mostly) female majority, yet it is a 'progress' that comes at the cost of growing (mostly male) marginalisation, disenfranchisement & antiestablishmentarianism.<br /><br />In such an oligarchy dominated by a few 'Apex Males', wherein (mostly) females have become the new Eloi and most males have become the new Morlocks who are expected to live invisibly, maintain the infrastructure & labour without reward, we 'conservatives' have become increasingly 'hangry' (a neologism that combines 'hunger' with 'angry') for our just reward.<br /><br />Bon Appetite !!locumranchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-6404563650845309062016-02-13T07:22:59.564-08:002016-02-13T07:22:59.564-08:00Annabelle, even I - the designated Conservative pu...Annabelle, even I - the designated Conservative punching bag here - would not call the modern day GOP the party of Lincoln. Nor would I call the modern Dem party anything akin to the Copperheads of that era.<br /><br />David I do not write in anger. I'm not sure why you detect that when I try to express Contrary Opinions. <br /><br />I also find your view of military readiness to be simplistic and reflexive. It is a more complex topic than that. I don't have time this morning but the matter does range widely including the overall plan to reduce numbers of combat brigades by 2017, reduction in headquarters staffs, definitions of ready (I guess on the Korean DMZ is deployed, not counting as ready.)<br /><br />I suppose it is not surprising that the Pentagon does not have a website listing this sort of thing in detail, it seems like that would be a bad notion.<br /><br />But if you wish to present your statistics, those so oft held up as Writ, of course do so.<br /><br />TacitusTacitushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17007086196578740689noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-71567888153978497022016-02-13T06:39:13.519-08:002016-02-13T06:39:13.519-08:00Alfred:
I swear, I wish we *could* use your syste...Alfred:<br /><br />I swear, I wish we *could* use your system. It all sounds fair and logical and all that good stuff. <br /><br />But I can't, because when you are talking about public security, part of what you are leasing out is the ability to enforce contract terms! You can try to keep surveillance, but you either are leasing out the surveillance contract (and lose control) or you keep it (and lose the efficiency gains). Same for subpoena power, investigating secret-keeping or violations, the works. Inspectors General only work because of the implicit threat hanging over them, a threat one weakens with every police power you parcel off. And if you think other means work well, remember the old saying that good soldiers can get you gold -- and these days, so can lawyers, hackers, politicians...<br /><br />No. I'm sorry, I just can't do it. I can trust anything else to at least a partial market solution, but the licenses to force and investigation are what keeps everything else working. I can't feel safe unless a State accountable to <i>everyone</i> and strong enough to enforce on <i>anyone</i> is the wielder of power.<br /><br />You can make the Leviathan answer to the People. You can strip the Leviathan down to its essentials. You can force it to be powered by purified components. But you can't get rid of the Leviathan entirely.Catfish N. Codnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-4234707529216432082016-02-13T06:10:47.703-08:002016-02-13T06:10:47.703-08:00Workforce participation. Number of people of disab...Workforce participation. Number of people of disability. Now can we focus on getting the Party of Lincoln back into to power so they can fix this?Anabellenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-58103389810867792232016-02-13T01:30:16.183-08:002016-02-13T01:30:16.183-08:00Neither 1933 America nor 1933 Germany is an apt ex...Neither 1933 America nor 1933 Germany is an apt example for us to look toward for what lies ahead. Try 1870s; much richer metaphorical/allegoricies to mine.<br /><br />Swap out Pax Britannica at its zenith (as the U.S. economy caught up to and then surpassed the Brits) with Pax Americana (as the Chinese economy catches up to ours and may, in turn, surpass us) - the parallels become stark. <br /><br />1933 was only possible as a result (1) the Great Depression, (2) the real threat of the Soviets, (3) the experience of "the Great War." None of that is in play today.<br /><br />But 1870s? Grant: strong man, weak president. Hayes v. Tilden (1876)? Extremely contentious - fractious country - and the outcome meant only that Reconstruction ended (and post-Confederates quickly restored their local, Jim Crowing oligarchs). An era of a thousand "minor thugs" - but lacking the narrative certainty offered by Hitler and Stalin (and Roosevelt) in the 1930s, so no one really thinks about it.<br /><br />1876 was among the most contentious elections America ever had - but the whole project merely ignored the steady expansion of Standard Oil, JP Morgan, US Steel, and coal trusts. The oligarchs played the politicians against one another, and laughed all the way to their baronies. donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-28357632848740114372016-02-12T20:56:19.806-08:002016-02-12T20:56:19.806-08:00You can bet that the ent - if he had even one “bea...You can bet that the ent - if he had even one “bean counting” statistic to bandy - WOULD bandy it! The fact that he squirms to condemn all bean counting is prima facie evidence of the headlong flight of the entire confederacy from any relationship with science or any other fact-grounded profession.<br /><br />Is bean-counting everything? Hell no! Values matter! Intangibles like whether your kids respect each other enough to minimize teen sex and are smart enough to avoid teen pregnancy, STDs and domestic violence. Conservatives used to frown at divorce… now they’ve twice nominated divorcees and are working on a third. They despised gambling… and are now run by casino lords. <br /><br />In ALL of those categories, the confeds score far far worse on simple values grounds, as well as in competitive economics, delivery of goods and services and so on.<br /><br />All the ent has is armwaved generalities, rooted in inchoate rage.<br /><br />Here’s the irony. He and his ilk can see the same convergence as I do… that the confederacy-re-ignition will lead to poor white americans either veering toward 1933 Germany or 1933 America. The latter will happen! If they recall at all that FDR was the favorite person of the Greatest Generation for a reason.<br /><br />If it is the former? The look up the Night of the Long Knives. The populists cannot win, down that route. David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-75005532429224836292016-02-12T20:54:33.244-08:002016-02-12T20:54:33.244-08:00Tacitus sorry, I do like you, but you act all angr...Tacitus sorry, I do like you, but you act all angry at me too easily. C'mon man, I did no ad hominems this time. I was brusque over the "feckless" thing but anyone repeating Roger Aile's poisonous talking points can expect ever-quicker snap-backs, from now on. <br /><br />As for refusing to play my "mug's game" oh tommyrot. You should care about measurable outcomes! And they'd be even better if we had had an infrastructure bill, 5 years ago.<br /><br />I will concede your point about Libya. BO did not so much inherit that mess from the Bushites as from fickle fate and he hasn't handled it well. He should have coerced Egypt and Algeria to step in, two years ago.<br /><br />But at least SOME things were handled well. NATO is rising, the Baltic States are free and prospering, Ukraine has joined the West. The Iran deal looks great, so far. Cuba-right-on. The Saudi influence in America has plummeted to a many-decades low. And the TPP will unite most of Asia on our side of a growing alliance.<br /><br />Name for me equivalents from the Bushites.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-9057385929816886132016-02-12T18:35:28.513-08:002016-02-12T18:35:28.513-08:00Heh. I'd have to hang my avatar upside down. C...Heh. I'd have to hang my avatar upside down. Closest I've been involves watching Crocodile Dundee.<br /><br />Been here since '83 when I started grad school. Lived near Sacramento most of the time, but now I'm in Ventura county. The Gold Coast is a different world. 8)Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-61907907528074054132016-02-12T17:41:38.660-08:002016-02-12T17:41:38.660-08:00Alfred Differ:
Here in California, I’d run into s...Alfred Differ:<br /><i><br />Here in California, I’d run into serious trouble doing that because of state laws...<br /></i><br /><br />Geez, I don't know why, but for some reason, I thought you were in Australia.<br /><br />I mean for years, now.LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-17189519470893505412016-02-12T17:41:18.143-08:002016-02-12T17:41:18.143-08:00@matthew: Grind away. Please! I’m a CITOKATE zealo...@matthew: Grind away. Please! I’m a CITOKATE zealot and will pay in kind. 8)<br /><br />I recognize your investment in my son (I pluralized earlier because I’ve taught kids) and have repaid in kind. I have no qualms with this kind of trade. When I get suspicious is when someone says the trade has to be government mediated. I’m not overly worried about the gray men who do this for us, but I have a strong preference for keeping such trade as local as possible. The further our money gets away from us, the less we notice what is being done with it and the less we face the real consequences of the prices being charged. In a market, prices are signals that compress crucial information about supply and demand for each thing being traded. My son’s teacher offers up his time at a price. He acquires the skills he needs to deliver the services I want for my son at a price. Tax me to pay for this and I can’t see the transaction. I might go along with it if I believe it to be the best way, but what if I don’t? What if I think there is a better way that serves my son better? In that case, I don’t want your investment being channeled into a wasteful effort supporting my son. I especially don’t want MY taxes being used that way. Once I adopt that belief, the tax being taken and spent is against my will and a form of theft. Before that belief, though, it can’t be theft because I wouldn’t object.<br /><br />Still… my son is not part of the commons. The infrastructure we are both using IS. Like a lot of male mammals, there are few other males I’d trust to raise my son. Those few are family members. Any attempt to treat children as common to the village is likely to raise my hackles. There aren’t many things that would tempt me toward violence, but I’m pretty sure that would be one of them. My duty as a father is to raise a child capable of joining the community as a mature, capable adult. How I do that depends primarily upon MY decisions. Obviously I’m not alone in the effort, but the village CAN’T be responsible. Only people can be responsible and I won’t abandon my duty.<br /><br />Another that makes my mood a little black is when other males force me to invest in their children. Such investment might come at the expense of my own child. If I can see the positive sum outcome, you’ll get no complaint from me. I’ll wave big banners in support. If I can’t… well… theft IS a negative sum game. I can play it as well as any other male.<br /><br />Unfortunately, your understanding of an experimental city is shallow at best. We don’t have to displace anyone. What we have to do is negotiate in good faith.Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-30201868661272647892016-02-12T17:10:24.762-08:002016-02-12T17:10:24.762-08:00@Catfish N. Cod: Okay. The acronyms got a good chu...@Catfish N. Cod: Okay. The acronyms got a good chuckle out of me. I’m going to have to copy them out and re-use them elsewhere. 8)<br /><br />What struck me as odd, though, is the consolidation process you describe looks a lot like what happens with utility companies. Regulating them is tricky and often messy, but in many places we are managing well enough to notice that certain city owned utilities (analogous to a police force) under perform publically owned ones. I saw this personally in the wholesale electricity market in California when CAISO tried to modernize the wholesale market rules last decade. The most recalcitrant stakeholders were the cities. They simply didn’t feel the need to do a damn thing that wasn’t something they thought necessary. The publically traded companies felt pressures the cities didn’t and while they weren’t always happy with change, they could negotiate. They WANTED to negotiate because success in that arena might produce rules that favored their business model, thus their shareholders.<br /><br />The interesting thing about utilities is some of the ‘stuff’ they provide can’t be labelled after they put it in the ‘pipe.’ Electricity is pressured electrons. Good luck labelling them for identification by load devices. Contract security can be done the same way if you get imaginative about payment contracts. I don’t need wires from every electricity provider to be able to buy services from them. We separate Generators from Distributors. If I self-generate, I can sell excess through an Aggregator who acts as a broker among Generators. I’m not suggesting any one particular approach to contract security, though. What I’m pointing out is there is a lot of room for improvement as evidenced by the proliferation of cameras pointing at the police and a big lack of imagination regarding what solutions we might try to fix things. Cameras will point out the problem, but what do we do next? Libertarians have some ideas that range from incremental adjustments to complete kookiness. What they rarely suggest, though, is the mental stagnation that comes from believing we can’t make things better. That kind of conservatism is really about preserving tradition as if they are sacred. Meh. If we really thought that was a good idea, half the country would support legal slavery.Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-68059458102562022602016-02-12T16:46:51.528-08:002016-02-12T16:46:51.528-08:00@raito: I’ve been asked for deadlines with no real...@raito: I’ve been asked for deadlines with no real requirements lots of times. I’ve learned to see two different things going on in the customer’s minds. Some customers are simply ignorant and they are poised to get fleeced when they ask a contractor/consultant to offer such an estimate. However, some are looking to be told what they need and will decline to commit funds if the price is too high. A customer of mine had a pretty good idea they could afford one month of my time and a guess that what they wanted to take one month, so their question to me was meant to be a reality check. If I had said 6 months they would have balked. Some in my shoes wouldn’t even offer the 6 month estimate, but if you have a customer asking to be fleeced, it doesn’t matter what you suggest because what you deliver won’t be what they want. You’ll walk away with an annoyed former-customer, but you will have been paid. What I actually told them was that I had an app that sounded roughly like what they were describing already in my portfolio. I described it for them and they were head nodding by the end. I have them a one month estimate knowing I could have it deployed in a week and then we would tweak it for the next three with the inevitable unplanned changes. Near the end of the fourth week, the changes looked to be never ending, so I just smiled at the project manager and told him I’d continue taking his money if he had it to give. That got his attention and he put a stop to it all.<br /><br />A lot of companies can’t do this, though. If your developers are internal, they get paid to sit on their hands, so where is the harm if some project keeps going? If you can’t control the changes dictated by regulation, you need to get really nimble with code development techniques. There aren’t many people who are any good at the techniques, though, and WAY more demand for them. It isn’t magic, but there is an incredible learning curve. People who can do it are worth millions.<br /><br />Amen!Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-3841822984088711852016-02-12T16:30:08.903-08:002016-02-12T16:30:08.903-08:00@Deuxglass: I’m not convinced the experimental cit...@Deuxglass: I’m not convinced the experimental city would have to leave the country. What it needs is a legally binding charter from the ‘sovereign’ to run things a different way for a while. That charter would double up as a contract between it and the host sovereign for the list of services it WILL PAY to have provided and what WILL PAY for this special arrangement. Charter cities are not a new concept. We have over 100 of them in California. Exactly what the organizers intend shows up as clauses in the charter, so the idea of city level experiments can be quite varied. The limits, of course, are those imposed by the ruling sovereign. In the case of California it is both the State and Federal government. Can we get officials from each to the table to discuss a more libertarian experiment? It’s difficult when people start with the assumption that we have to start with free floating cities out on the high seas and ignore the charter city precedent. Those floating cities see like very expensive investments VERY likely to fail as far as I’m concerned. I’d rather start experiments with smaller, incremental changes and let people vote with their feet instead of long distance, high seas boats.Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-54604334086022985502016-02-12T14:36:06.075-08:002016-02-12T14:36:06.075-08:00And we must break out chisels to discern your prop...And we must break out chisels to discern your proposed remedies, Treebeard. Or have you none, and you're a useless doom crier?Jumperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11794110173836133321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-75205399044452993202016-02-12T13:25:03.885-08:002016-02-12T13:25:03.885-08:00The real battle is not about many beans each party...The real battle is not about many beans each party grows according to Enlightenment cultist bean-counters, but about whether their bean-counting methodology is the only permissible one for determining the Good Society. It's a false dialectic, which omits entire realms of thought, experience and values by design. Having said that, there are all kinds of statistics pointing to the pathology of modern civilization, but it would be boring to rehash them again and get the usual dismissals. It's the reality tunnel, stupid.Treebeardnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-22201543377383208362016-02-12T13:14:44.734-08:002016-02-12T13:14:44.734-08:00I'm not defending the Republicans, I am trying...I'm not defending the Republicans, I am trying to understand the transmission mechanism from "absence of Bill Clinton's veto pen" to the various stats. The tax cut affected the deficit, but even that was not instantaneous and at best explains one zig of the correlation. Shouldn't there be interesting effects from a majority shift in either house of Congress? Maybe presidential influence upon the supposedly independent Fed chair? Impact on the national mood? People give Reagan credit for reversing the inflation and unemployment going on when he was elected, but what did he have to do with it? Volker didn't change Fed policy as a result of Reagan moving into the Oval Office. Presidents have big effects on foreign policy in the short term, other things in the long term maybe, or it seems that way to me. Maybe the president is the national cheerleader, and people just feel more cheerful when the Democrats are leading the cheers? Anyhow, I am not denying the correlation, I just am not sure it's the sort of thing you would want to take into a casino.Davehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17330240621500931648noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-50036281157515821612016-02-12T13:04:22.492-08:002016-02-12T13:04:22.492-08:00Alfred,
I appreciate your willingness to engage. ...Alfred, <br />I appreciate your willingness to engage. After all, this place is where ideas come to be sharpened against the grindstone of opposing (bright, mostly) minds. That being said, let me grind away at some of your statements. <br /><br />On not ever seeing your children as part of the commons - I'd say that ship has already sailed. Assuming that your children do not live solely in a bubble inside casa Alfred, then I personally have already invested in their future. A small amount,true, which would be larger if we lived in the same state, city, neighborhood, but my taxes have subsidized at the very least, their defense from foreign invaders, the federal matching funds that go toward their education, the work that the EPA does on their behalf to supply clean water and air, the FDA checking the drugs they take when they are sick. We, as a nation, have invested many, many thousands of dollars into your children, with an expectation that, when they are matured and ready, they will, in turn, subsidize my children's children until they are ready to shoulder the next load for your childrens's children's children.<br /><br />You say you will declare war on anyone that makes your children part of the commons. When I invite you to go elsewhere to try to build your utopia, I am offering you a way to not wage war, but stage a peaceful retreat away from it. <br /><br />In order to have a place to try your small city of libertarian ideals and experimentation, you will need to displace someone else's claim to the city. And unless you can build a glass bubble around that city enclosing it like a snowglobe, then that city will need to negotiate with its' neighbors over use of water, clean air, waste disposal, and trade.<br /><br />The problem with libertarianism is externalizing the true costs. When you state that "Taxes are Theft," what you are really saying is "I don't want to pay my fair share toward the future." We can argue over how much you should pay, and the structure of payment and how it gets spent and on and on (that's politics), but to say "taxes are theft" absolutely is a blatant attempt at getting a free ride and stealing from everyone else. matthewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17757867868731829206noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-45165980355932058852016-02-12T13:02:32.531-08:002016-02-12T13:02:32.531-08:00Hi Laurent,
I agree about Greece and its shiitty I...Hi Laurent,<br />I agree about Greece and its shiitty IRS <br />BUT<br />That is not the cause of the Greek debt – the problem was the bloody banks – <br />they got into trouble and the Greek government ended up with the debt.<br />From there the Greek IRS meant that they could not get out of it<br />But it was the banks overextension that caused the problem in the first case<br /><br />Raito<br />Quality systems – yep they are mainly the all important consistency systems<br />The secret weapon for improving quality is “Just in Time” and “Lean”<br />Manufacturing people are normally very single minded<br />You can twist their arms and get them to say “Quality is important” but what they actually think is “numbers are important”<br />JIT and Lean start by confiscating their “safety stock” <br />Now it becomes blatantly obvious that their beloved numbers suffer if quality is not excellent<br />Now you have them all pushing for quality<br /><br /><br />duncan cairncrosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14153725128216947145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-62699932201089517752016-02-12T12:46:25.530-08:002016-02-12T12:46:25.530-08:00Complain about our deficit spending all you want: ...Complain about our deficit spending all you want: but I assure you the Saudis are running much worse deficits. We can afford -- nay, we can rejoice! -- in a few years of $30/bbl oil. But it will break them. <i>Will</i> -- I don't think they can avoid it any longer; and OPEC's ability to control world oil production is dead, dead, dead. The Iranians and Russians get no joy out of it, either.<br /><br />Meanwhile we have the best of all worlds: plenty of hydrocarbon capacity to be tapped -- for ANY purpose, not just burning it! -- plus throwing up renewable energy almost as fast as possible that reduces our dependence. All while increasing efficiency, such that the country uses the same amount of energy as 40 years ago despite 60% population increase.<br /><br />The all-of-the-above energy policy has been a MASSIVE success-- for the economy AND foreign policy. All for the cost of shifting energy jobs from Kentucky to North Dakota: bad for very specific Appalachian locations, but much of a muchness for the nation as a whole. <br /><br />I like having an energy policy. All my life till now, I don't think we really had one.<br /><br />Tacitus: I am open for anyone to provide ANY ideas on Syria. No one seems to be willing to stop what looks like the most likely outcome at this point, which is that Putin assists Assad in crushing, first the Free Syrian Army and all the other rebel fragments; then ISIS... and the refugees, who rightfully fear Assad will genocide them, don't go home. Putin is counting on them to break the European Union (who here thinks influence in the Middle East is worth the blood and treasure Putin is pouring out?). Turkey could stop this; France is happy to intervene in any other of its numerous former territories; Europe could try acting like a Great Power instead of a bunch of squabblers; the Arabs could try putting their bodies where their money is.<br /><br />But we couldn't fix Syria if we invaded it -- I readily concede we could conquer, but we can't rule and don't have anyone on hand to do so -- and our allies in Iraq will be able to do no more than push it back to the fantasy "border". <br /><br />If we want the President of the United States to be the Emperor of the West, who dispatches Legions and defends the Borders against Barbarians, then we best get to it -- and the Proconsuls and Imperial Administrators, and the iron-fisted, no-human-rights attitude that must go with it. But if we are still the Republic, we have to admit that we can't just fix everything wrong in the world. I haven't heard a darn thing out of any candidate of any party that amounts to more than either hot air or continuing Obama's "feckless" policies -- and I don't expect to.Catfish N. Codnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-35176903539419593662016-02-12T12:03:04.150-08:002016-02-12T12:03:04.150-08:00You don't much like having your assertions cha...You don't much like having your assertions challenged do you? You misrepresent my points, ignore most of what I said and indicate I am using quotation marks to trivialize a significant matter ( go back and look....no quotation marks)<br /><br />But rather than ask you to illuminate us on the marvelous outcome of our Libyan intervention or of what our current policy actually is in Syria, I will take on an easier task. You ask me to support and stand behind my freely elected President*. So I shall happily list a few foreign policy areas where I think things are going well. <br /><br />We continue to effectively contain North Korea. Some combination of cyber and economic warfare has been going on quietly for quite a while imho. I approve of opening up relations with Cuba. Even if you don't like that regime much, a good brisk dose of Western Capitalism will change them more effectively than an ongoing desultory embargo. There are some other things that I have to suspend judgement on as they take time. The Bergdahl exchange is for instance looking less good these days. The Iran deal could turn out to be good bad or just how things are. <br /><br />I strive in my responses to some of your stuff to remain polite. There are days when it is heavy lifting. Although I suppose I should thank you for emphatically making my earlier point...that being that responding to your silly challenges is a mug's game. You can run Contrary Brin any way that suits you, but there are times I think you are poisoning the conversational water hole to no good purpose.<br /><br />Tacitus<br /><br />* Freely elected, yes, but he works for us. And he is not a czar or anything, simply the guy in charge of one of three equal branches of government. I respect the office. I think the fellow with his name on the door at present is mediocre but that happens some times.<br /><br /> Tacitushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17007086196578740689noreply@blogger.com