Man is inherently flawed which is precisely why democracy will never get you to the promised land. Democracy without guard rails is fun isn't it :-) Grant a monopoly on coercion and violence to a group, Government, and you now have more evil in the world. They're all evil; we're just arguing over who's the worst. Jeffrey Dahmer versus Ted Bundy :-) Ask yourself this question. If Putin is Hitler reincarnated then how come he didn't do Kiev the way we did Baghdad (Shock & Awe). Never mind there were no weapons of mass destruction :-) Only simpletons fall for the White Hat Black Hat nonsense. Unfortunately, for those who haven't lost their deductive reasoning abilities the world is chock full of complete ignoramuses. Bill, I applaud you for sharing this insight with the world. You're triggering the Tards which is a beautiful public service :-)
The first part of your post reminds me of something Madison once said:
“If Men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and the next place, oblige it to control itself.”
Who could argue that we haven't utterly failed to "oblige it to control itself".
Hey Craig. I totally believe Putin is being very careful in this war. Something America is not. For anyone to cast us as the good guys, you have to not look at the last 70 years.
All public universities have taught that inflation is caused by corporate greed for the past 30 years. That’s the answer you will get from 90% of college graduates under 50. Heard one say so just recently
Craig, I wish I could agree with you that it's only simpletons that fall for all the good v bad crap, but I am constantly amazed at the opinions of people I thought were reasonably bright. For some reason I actually felt quite depressed reading Bill's missive today, it may have been his reminding me that a person as out of touch with reality (as I understand it) as Janet Yellen is, can stand on the world stage and spout absolute drivel and get away with it. We are never going to get back up off our collective arses and do anything about it though and they know it, so guess they'll just keep taking the piss
Janet Yellen is a world class ignoramus and economically illiterate to boot :-) You need to purchase yourself a Pee-Litical. They sell them on Amazon. You can urinate and defecate on your politico of choice. My favorite politico to desecrate is Billary Clinton :-)
Bill, Although I hear this record weekly, I must agree in your central message. In my evenings I often find quite amazing historic dramas on television. Two this week stand out. One was a dramatization of the trial and execution of a woman who was accused of being an accomplice in the assignation of Abraham Lincoln. Her defense lawyer was a decorated Union Captain who fought heroically against the rebellion and defended her under political pressure against the military tribunal. Throughout, his defense relied on reference to the constitution. To "save the nation" the military commission used multiple unconstitutional strategies to see that she was convicted and hanged.
The second one was the story of the Pentagon Papers. Here a Marine Lieutenant (Daniel Ellsberg), stole a detailed classified history of the actions of four Presidents that became the Vietnam debacle. Commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, he chose to bury his investigation into the persistent lies that led to the worse military defeat of the United States.
The drama centers around the publication of these secret papers by the Washington Post. The message of the film was again centered around a constitutional protection, in this case the freedom of the press.
I will never forget a presentation at the Marines Memorial Club that Daniel Ellsberg gave about his story some years ago. The panel discussion following his talk included a Marine Corps Admiral, the news reporter who braved government legal threats, and two other principals in the affair. Most of the panel were retired Marines in an auditorium full of Navy and Marine retirees. Pointing out the heroism of the men who fought and died in Vietnam, the Admiral turned to Ellsberg and said "You are the greatest hero of the Vietnam War". Deception is one of the fundamental principles of war, yet Vietnam did a generation's worth of damage to our country.
Reflecting on his time in government, Ellsberg has said the following, based on his extensive access to classified material:
"The public is lied to every day by the President, by his spokespeople, by his officers. If you can't handle the thought that the President lies to the public for all kinds of reasons, you couldn't stay in the government at that level, or you're made aware of it, a week. ... The fact is Presidents rarely say the whole truth—essentially, never say the whole truth—of what they expect and what they're doing and what they believe and why they're doing it and rarely refrain from lying, actually, about these matters."
From Daniel Ellsberg's Wikipedia page, some eye opening material in there!
The Fed can raise rates all they want - in their minds, until enough people get fired. Then wind up asking for unemployment and waiting for another round of "stimulus" handouts.
Never does anyone in Govt speak to the structural change in the workforce - over 2 million people retired due to the Covid mishandling. If you could retire, you did, if you were sidelined at home with kids, you stayed home forever, If you are petrified in fear due to the fearmongering of the govt you stayed out of the workforce and your kids stayed in home school.
These changes are structural - over 65% of the country is non participatory in the workforce. How sustainable is that? How can the supply/demand balance ever be squared? Raise interest rates to 20%?
President Biden is expected to propose a 5.2 percent raise for federal employees in his budget set to be released Thursday — the largest increase the White House has put forward since Jimmy Carter was president. The raise would be the largest pay increase for the workforce of 2.1 million executive branch employees since a 9.1 percent increase in 1980. But it would still fall short of the 8.7 percent raise called for in legislation introduced in the House and Senate and backed by several Democrats and federal employee unions.
Add that to the budget busting bills passed in the last 2 years and tell me how the Fed can raise their way out of this.
Bill's justification to debunk the Good Guys vs Bad Guys argument will be interesting. I submit it will be unpersuasive. We are hardwired to help others in distress.
This innate proclivity is what activates lifeguards, firemen, soldiers, average Joe citizen, etc. to put their lives at risk to help strangers.
Ukraine is in extreme stress. It's citizens, homes, hospitals are being attacked by an invader intent on stealing their property, murdering, maiming, kidnapping in the process To date, 10,000 Ukrainian citizens have had their lives truncated by this invader
Alas, we have been the Bad Guy too many times. Instead of letting our Smart Guys find peaceful solutions in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, the Far East, we loosed the Dogs of War on people no threat to us. No one in Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan praises us in song for trying to bomb them into the 21st century
"To date, 10,000 Ukrainian citizens have had their lives truncated by this invader"
Now do the time from the beginning of Russia's Special Operation back to when 14,000+ Ukrainian Citizens were shelled, raped, shot or otherwise harmed by the Ukrainian "government" that Ms. Nuland and O'blowme installed by coupe 2014. These would be the residents of Donbas and a couple of other regions - you know, the areas that held free and fair elections where they voted overwhelmingly to become part of the Russian Federation? Yup, these are the same "Ukrainians" that speak Russian, wear Russian garb, cook and eat traditional Russian food, etc.
Go ahead, I'll wait.
Other than that one paragraph of selective narrative-induced outrage, I agree with your post...
Hey Star. His defense of the war in Ukraine is ridiculous. He has no knowledge of the maiden Revolution. He probably has no knowledge of the Donnas being shelled since 2014. I can only assume he has worked for the military in some capacity, his entire life. I can guarantee you he has never signed the front of a paycheck.
Your post displays a high degree of selective outrage and biased remembrance.
Anyway - thank goodness the Russian speakers in LA, Houston, Miami, Brooklyn and Seattle don't have to suffer through daily artillery attacks, the women being raped, the men being disappeared in the middle of the night, the children being shot, etc.
What a lame and ridiculous comparison.
Stay on the misguided "high road" of unthinking, blind support for a CIA-installed "government" in the world's 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 corrupt Country being "led" by a hand-picked, 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲, and keep trumpeting about how wrong the rest of us are.
Store. I am always several days late on these articles. So I always miss PG. When he does go completely off the rails, I find that highly entertaining.
Yes, I agree it is generally highly entertaining. I respect him and like his broad knowledge, we just disagree on some key issues.
As of late PG has consistently been going back to the boards in the evening/following morning and deleting his posts. Not sure why - he doesn't strike me AT ALL as someone who would not stand behind what he writes - seriously. I honest to God believe that he is getting "satisfaction" through the belief that he is depriving us of his posts, IOW, they all now have a "sell before" date (usually <24 hours) and after that, we lose...
Jimm you raise a very important point and that is our being hardwired to help those in distress. We wanted to help the Vietnamese people not to be overrun by the communists, the Iraqis to be saved from Sadam Hussein's brutal regime, the Afghanis from the Taliban and the Syrians from Bashar al-Assad. Our instincts and emotions tell us this is what we have to do. The reality however teaches us another lesson i.e. that our efforts to correct what we perceive to be injustices in a foreign land are futile and often result in more chaos, loss of innocent life and material destruction than had we left them to sort out themselves.
I ask myself often; what had the West not interfered in the Ukraine and allowed Russia to march in and occupy the country. would we have had the same loss of innocent life including that of Russian cannon fodder forced to fight in an ideological battle? Would we have witnessed the same enormous material waste? I think not. The Russian occupier would have its hands full subduing a hostile Ukraine citizenry.
The same I think will apply to Taiwan were the US ever to get militarily involved in opposing a PRC invasion. This is a time time for cool heads and the practice of Realpolitik. We are able to prosper together rather than destroy each other and ourselves in the process. The US will never win a war in the South China Sea and does not need to the likes of Nancy Pelosi telling the Taiwanese that we will protect them. Taiwan should be left to sort out its differences with its communist brother. The reality is that "might is right" no matter how little we like it.
Mr. Louw, When I was a teen many, many years ago, I would ask my history teacher why the US was the world policeman. I got several answers; none persuasive.
The most plausible one was, as the leading power post WWII, the US was the de facto guarantor of world peace, a peace made possible by travel and trade
I've often wished instead of being the Peacemaker, that the US would emulate Switzerland, or any of the other countries that don't routinely wage war. As you and every other sentient being knows, wars are very expensive, destructive and kill the living galore.
When thinking about guns and butter, I thought I was the only one who was mostly butter; very little guns. Soon after reading former Congressman Ron Paul's essay justifying why the US should not have become a WWII combatant, I realized I wasn't the only one who felt our flag should follow trade; not the sword.
But when it comes to responding to appeals for help from innocent victims struggling to protect themselves, their families and their way of life from craven invaders, e. g., Ukrainians, our nature is to respond.
And we're not alone. Every Western country whose citizens had a business presence in Russia also responded first by pulling out of Russia and next by giving weapons and training to Ukrainians. I hope it is enough
Taiwan: Their citizens will respond in the same way the Ukrainians did. For them, the stakes are very high. Their freedom is at stake. They either preserve their liberty or succumb to a dictator who believes their island belongs to China; not to its inhabitants. Our role should be to support to the extent possible the Taiwanese defend themselves
PG V -- Your summation in five long paragraphs of Western history shows a grasp of human conduct and motivation that is as dispiriting as it is impressive.
Sadly, I must agree that just as our species has a disposition to help strangers, so too do we have a disposition to slaughter them.
Our own history is replete with examples where church-going folk lynched Blacks galore for a half century with little to no consequence to the murderers; we gloried in killing native Americans who simply sought to preserve their way of life; disparaged Caucasian people because of their origin and/or religion, etc.
In short, I concur with your characterization that our species is mean and vicious.
Man is inherently flawed which is precisely why democracy will never get you to the promised land. Democracy without guard rails is fun isn't it :-) Grant a monopoly on coercion and violence to a group, Government, and you now have more evil in the world. They're all evil; we're just arguing over who's the worst. Jeffrey Dahmer versus Ted Bundy :-) Ask yourself this question. If Putin is Hitler reincarnated then how come he didn't do Kiev the way we did Baghdad (Shock & Awe). Never mind there were no weapons of mass destruction :-) Only simpletons fall for the White Hat Black Hat nonsense. Unfortunately, for those who haven't lost their deductive reasoning abilities the world is chock full of complete ignoramuses. Bill, I applaud you for sharing this insight with the world. You're triggering the Tards which is a beautiful public service :-)
The first part of your post reminds me of something Madison once said:
“If Men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and the next place, oblige it to control itself.”
Who could argue that we haven't utterly failed to "oblige it to control itself".
Hey Craig. I totally believe Putin is being very careful in this war. Something America is not. For anyone to cast us as the good guys, you have to not look at the last 70 years.
Inflation is a mystery to Washington, DC where they raise rates while proposing 80 trillion of spending into 2024.
Progressive Democrats believe inflation is caused by corporate greed. Robert Reich is a big proponent of this "cause".
All public universities have taught that inflation is caused by corporate greed for the past 30 years. That’s the answer you will get from 90% of college graduates under 50. Heard one say so just recently
They act like it’s a mystery.
Craig, I wish I could agree with you that it's only simpletons that fall for all the good v bad crap, but I am constantly amazed at the opinions of people I thought were reasonably bright. For some reason I actually felt quite depressed reading Bill's missive today, it may have been his reminding me that a person as out of touch with reality (as I understand it) as Janet Yellen is, can stand on the world stage and spout absolute drivel and get away with it. We are never going to get back up off our collective arses and do anything about it though and they know it, so guess they'll just keep taking the piss
Janet Yellen is a world class ignoramus and economically illiterate to boot :-) You need to purchase yourself a Pee-Litical. They sell them on Amazon. You can urinate and defecate on your politico of choice. My favorite politico to desecrate is Billary Clinton :-)
Bill, Although I hear this record weekly, I must agree in your central message. In my evenings I often find quite amazing historic dramas on television. Two this week stand out. One was a dramatization of the trial and execution of a woman who was accused of being an accomplice in the assignation of Abraham Lincoln. Her defense lawyer was a decorated Union Captain who fought heroically against the rebellion and defended her under political pressure against the military tribunal. Throughout, his defense relied on reference to the constitution. To "save the nation" the military commission used multiple unconstitutional strategies to see that she was convicted and hanged.
The second one was the story of the Pentagon Papers. Here a Marine Lieutenant (Daniel Ellsberg), stole a detailed classified history of the actions of four Presidents that became the Vietnam debacle. Commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, he chose to bury his investigation into the persistent lies that led to the worse military defeat of the United States.
The drama centers around the publication of these secret papers by the Washington Post. The message of the film was again centered around a constitutional protection, in this case the freedom of the press.
I will never forget a presentation at the Marines Memorial Club that Daniel Ellsberg gave about his story some years ago. The panel discussion following his talk included a Marine Corps Admiral, the news reporter who braved government legal threats, and two other principals in the affair. Most of the panel were retired Marines in an auditorium full of Navy and Marine retirees. Pointing out the heroism of the men who fought and died in Vietnam, the Admiral turned to Ellsberg and said "You are the greatest hero of the Vietnam War". Deception is one of the fundamental principles of war, yet Vietnam did a generation's worth of damage to our country.
Reflecting on his time in government, Ellsberg has said the following, based on his extensive access to classified material:
"The public is lied to every day by the President, by his spokespeople, by his officers. If you can't handle the thought that the President lies to the public for all kinds of reasons, you couldn't stay in the government at that level, or you're made aware of it, a week. ... The fact is Presidents rarely say the whole truth—essentially, never say the whole truth—of what they expect and what they're doing and what they believe and why they're doing it and rarely refrain from lying, actually, about these matters."
From Daniel Ellsberg's Wikipedia page, some eye opening material in there!
“America will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes”
As long as it takes for what outcome and for whose benefit?
The statement is meaningless BS.
The Fed can raise rates all they want - in their minds, until enough people get fired. Then wind up asking for unemployment and waiting for another round of "stimulus" handouts.
Never does anyone in Govt speak to the structural change in the workforce - over 2 million people retired due to the Covid mishandling. If you could retire, you did, if you were sidelined at home with kids, you stayed home forever, If you are petrified in fear due to the fearmongering of the govt you stayed out of the workforce and your kids stayed in home school.
These changes are structural - over 65% of the country is non participatory in the workforce. How sustainable is that? How can the supply/demand balance ever be squared? Raise interest rates to 20%?
Perhaps we need another war. Or more balloons.
Sorry Bill, but your lyrics for the Country Joe song are wrong. Here are the correct lyrics:
And its 1, 2,3 what are we fighting for?
Don't ask me I don't give a damn,
The next stop is Vietnam,
And its 5, 6,7 open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why,
WHOOPEE we're all gonna die
In case anyone wants to hear him sing it at Woodstock: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRl6-bHlz-4
President Biden is expected to propose a 5.2 percent raise for federal employees in his budget set to be released Thursday — the largest increase the White House has put forward since Jimmy Carter was president. The raise would be the largest pay increase for the workforce of 2.1 million executive branch employees since a 9.1 percent increase in 1980. But it would still fall short of the 8.7 percent raise called for in legislation introduced in the House and Senate and backed by several Democrats and federal employee unions.
Add that to the budget busting bills passed in the last 2 years and tell me how the Fed can raise their way out of this.
So, Bill, are you the good or bad guy? Asking for a friend.
Bill's justification to debunk the Good Guys vs Bad Guys argument will be interesting. I submit it will be unpersuasive. We are hardwired to help others in distress.
This innate proclivity is what activates lifeguards, firemen, soldiers, average Joe citizen, etc. to put their lives at risk to help strangers.
Ukraine is in extreme stress. It's citizens, homes, hospitals are being attacked by an invader intent on stealing their property, murdering, maiming, kidnapping in the process To date, 10,000 Ukrainian citizens have had their lives truncated by this invader
Alas, we have been the Bad Guy too many times. Instead of letting our Smart Guys find peaceful solutions in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, the Far East, we loosed the Dogs of War on people no threat to us. No one in Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan praises us in song for trying to bomb them into the 21st century
Hi Jimm -
"To date, 10,000 Ukrainian citizens have had their lives truncated by this invader"
Now do the time from the beginning of Russia's Special Operation back to when 14,000+ Ukrainian Citizens were shelled, raped, shot or otherwise harmed by the Ukrainian "government" that Ms. Nuland and O'blowme installed by coupe 2014. These would be the residents of Donbas and a couple of other regions - you know, the areas that held free and fair elections where they voted overwhelmingly to become part of the Russian Federation? Yup, these are the same "Ukrainians" that speak Russian, wear Russian garb, cook and eat traditional Russian food, etc.
Go ahead, I'll wait.
Other than that one paragraph of selective narrative-induced outrage, I agree with your post...
Hey Star. His defense of the war in Ukraine is ridiculous. He has no knowledge of the maiden Revolution. He probably has no knowledge of the Donnas being shelled since 2014. I can only assume he has worked for the military in some capacity, his entire life. I can guarantee you he has never signed the front of a paycheck.
Hi PG -
Your post displays a high degree of selective outrage and biased remembrance.
Anyway - thank goodness the Russian speakers in LA, Houston, Miami, Brooklyn and Seattle don't have to suffer through daily artillery attacks, the women being raped, the men being disappeared in the middle of the night, the children being shot, etc.
What a lame and ridiculous comparison.
Stay on the misguided "high road" of unthinking, blind support for a CIA-installed "government" in the world's 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 corrupt Country being "led" by a hand-picked, 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲, and keep trumpeting about how wrong the rest of us are.
Just don't do it with MY tax dollars...
Store. I am always several days late on these articles. So I always miss PG. When he does go completely off the rails, I find that highly entertaining.
Hi Worm -
Yes, I agree it is generally highly entertaining. I respect him and like his broad knowledge, we just disagree on some key issues.
As of late PG has consistently been going back to the boards in the evening/following morning and deleting his posts. Not sure why - he doesn't strike me AT ALL as someone who would not stand behind what he writes - seriously. I honest to God believe that he is getting "satisfaction" through the belief that he is depriving us of his posts, IOW, they all now have a "sell before" date (usually <24 hours) and after that, we lose...
😂😂😂😂😂😂
Jimm you raise a very important point and that is our being hardwired to help those in distress. We wanted to help the Vietnamese people not to be overrun by the communists, the Iraqis to be saved from Sadam Hussein's brutal regime, the Afghanis from the Taliban and the Syrians from Bashar al-Assad. Our instincts and emotions tell us this is what we have to do. The reality however teaches us another lesson i.e. that our efforts to correct what we perceive to be injustices in a foreign land are futile and often result in more chaos, loss of innocent life and material destruction than had we left them to sort out themselves.
I ask myself often; what had the West not interfered in the Ukraine and allowed Russia to march in and occupy the country. would we have had the same loss of innocent life including that of Russian cannon fodder forced to fight in an ideological battle? Would we have witnessed the same enormous material waste? I think not. The Russian occupier would have its hands full subduing a hostile Ukraine citizenry.
The same I think will apply to Taiwan were the US ever to get militarily involved in opposing a PRC invasion. This is a time time for cool heads and the practice of Realpolitik. We are able to prosper together rather than destroy each other and ourselves in the process. The US will never win a war in the South China Sea and does not need to the likes of Nancy Pelosi telling the Taiwanese that we will protect them. Taiwan should be left to sort out its differences with its communist brother. The reality is that "might is right" no matter how little we like it.
Mr. Louw, When I was a teen many, many years ago, I would ask my history teacher why the US was the world policeman. I got several answers; none persuasive.
The most plausible one was, as the leading power post WWII, the US was the de facto guarantor of world peace, a peace made possible by travel and trade
I've often wished instead of being the Peacemaker, that the US would emulate Switzerland, or any of the other countries that don't routinely wage war. As you and every other sentient being knows, wars are very expensive, destructive and kill the living galore.
When thinking about guns and butter, I thought I was the only one who was mostly butter; very little guns. Soon after reading former Congressman Ron Paul's essay justifying why the US should not have become a WWII combatant, I realized I wasn't the only one who felt our flag should follow trade; not the sword.
But when it comes to responding to appeals for help from innocent victims struggling to protect themselves, their families and their way of life from craven invaders, e. g., Ukrainians, our nature is to respond.
And we're not alone. Every Western country whose citizens had a business presence in Russia also responded first by pulling out of Russia and next by giving weapons and training to Ukrainians. I hope it is enough
Taiwan: Their citizens will respond in the same way the Ukrainians did. For them, the stakes are very high. Their freedom is at stake. They either preserve their liberty or succumb to a dictator who believes their island belongs to China; not to its inhabitants. Our role should be to support to the extent possible the Taiwanese defend themselves
PG V -- Your summation in five long paragraphs of Western history shows a grasp of human conduct and motivation that is as dispiriting as it is impressive.
Sadly, I must agree that just as our species has a disposition to help strangers, so too do we have a disposition to slaughter them.
Our own history is replete with examples where church-going folk lynched Blacks galore for a half century with little to no consequence to the murderers; we gloried in killing native Americans who simply sought to preserve their way of life; disparaged Caucasian people because of their origin and/or religion, etc.
In short, I concur with your characterization that our species is mean and vicious.
Haha - I obviously live in a bubble, never knew there was such a thing. Pee-litical here I come. No double entendre intended