In no particular order,
Syria
EU refugee crisis (the intelligence and skill level of those interviewed is very high)
Eastern Ukraine
(and you can pretty much blame Putin for a lot of this above, but he is a fuel, not an ignition. The ignition is the failure of political leadership to put the Sunni Shiite divide into a modern framework)
China Economic Policy (you can't have a capitalist market economy with a Communist government buying up stock to support the market)
Islamic Jihadist motivations (fed by God knows what, unless you are an atheist and then it is simply incomprehensible what could motivate such people to do such things)
The GOP Presidential Candidates (there is no coherent policy here)
The Democratic Presidential Candidates (no perfection here, either)
North Korea (megalomania personified here, I thought North and South would be unified by now 20 years ago)
Friday, September 4, 2015
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Kareem Abdul Jappar's Take on Donald Trump's Poor Choice of Verbage
"Trump’s rationale for avoiding Kelly’s debate question – that neither he nor America has time for “political correctness” – taps into a popular boogeyman. The term “political correctness” is so general that to most people it simply means a discomfort with changing times and attitudes, an attack on the traditions of how we were raised. (It’s an emotional challenge every generation has had to go through.) What it really means is nothing more than sensitizing people to the fact that some old-fashioned words, attitudes and actions may be harmful or insulting to others. Naturally, people are angry about that because it makes them feel stupid or mean when they really aren’t. But when times change, we need to change with them in areas that strengthen our society."
"It’s no longer “politically correct” to call African Americans “coloreds.” Or to pat a woman on the butt at work and say, “Nice job, honey.” Or to ask people their religion during a job interview. Or to deny a woman a job because she’s not attractive enough to you. Or to assume a person’s opinion is worth less because she is elderly. Or that physically challenged individuals shouldn’t have easy access to buildings. If you don’t have time for political correctness, you don’t have time to be the caretaker of our rights under the Constitution."
Sad, but True
This is inspired by the picture of that unfortunate 3 year old who drowned while his parents tried to flee Syria through Turkey and on to the E.U, so their kids could have a better life.
Some problems just have no solutions, they can only be managed on the fringes until either (i) the perceived political cost of the problem becomes greater than the cost of a possible solution or (ii) there is a breakthrough discovery that solves the problem.
Issues which fall into this unfortunate category of problems include:
Global Warming I don't understand how the GOP went from creating Cap & Trade to denying that anything can be done about Global Warming.
Syria and it's migrants, who just want a better life somewhere else, but number too many for the places they want to go. Can you imagine the uproar in America if 5 million people from Central America tried to get to the U.S. all at once and 3 year olds were downing in the Gulf of Mexico or off the Baja. Both the Tea Party and the Liberal Left would be screaming at Washington to find a solution. And I do think Assad is guilty of crimes against humanity for not leading his country to peace. You, would think after all this conflict and failure to govern, he would realize he is not governing, and needs to go. But he clearly lacks either introspection or compassion. Maybe NATO or the U.N.will come up with a solution. All I know for sure is neither Russia, nor China, nor Iran will support anything and they are very important to a global solution.
Guns in America and the NRA The Daily News had nice statistic's showing that loose gun regulation states have more death by guns than tighter gun regulation states. So much for the NRA's belief that its takes a good guy to kill a bad guy and that reduces violence. Meanwhile, both police and young black men have much to fear.
Link to column on how politicians are failing on this issue
Link to Nikki Haley's take on the issue
Serious disease. Fortunately, there is money here and sometimes a breakthrough occurs. The ALS ice bucket challenge was criticized by some, and I was skeptical that science could find anything, but low and behold, today there is a news story that research funded by that additional funding from the ice bucket challenge has discovered a protein that seems to reverse ALS plague buildup in the brains of mice. Since this plaque build up is similar to Alzheimer's, this would be a truly mind blowing development; all built upon research that was speeded up by the funding from the ice bucket challenge.
I am sure there are other issues that fall into this, but I can't think of anymore right now.
Some problems just have no solutions, they can only be managed on the fringes until either (i) the perceived political cost of the problem becomes greater than the cost of a possible solution or (ii) there is a breakthrough discovery that solves the problem.
Issues which fall into this unfortunate category of problems include:
Global Warming I don't understand how the GOP went from creating Cap & Trade to denying that anything can be done about Global Warming.
Syria and it's migrants, who just want a better life somewhere else, but number too many for the places they want to go. Can you imagine the uproar in America if 5 million people from Central America tried to get to the U.S. all at once and 3 year olds were downing in the Gulf of Mexico or off the Baja. Both the Tea Party and the Liberal Left would be screaming at Washington to find a solution. And I do think Assad is guilty of crimes against humanity for not leading his country to peace. You, would think after all this conflict and failure to govern, he would realize he is not governing, and needs to go. But he clearly lacks either introspection or compassion. Maybe NATO or the U.N.will come up with a solution. All I know for sure is neither Russia, nor China, nor Iran will support anything and they are very important to a global solution.
Guns in America and the NRA The Daily News had nice statistic's showing that loose gun regulation states have more death by guns than tighter gun regulation states. So much for the NRA's belief that its takes a good guy to kill a bad guy and that reduces violence. Meanwhile, both police and young black men have much to fear.
Link to column on how politicians are failing on this issue
Link to Nikki Haley's take on the issue
Serious disease. Fortunately, there is money here and sometimes a breakthrough occurs. The ALS ice bucket challenge was criticized by some, and I was skeptical that science could find anything, but low and behold, today there is a news story that research funded by that additional funding from the ice bucket challenge has discovered a protein that seems to reverse ALS plague buildup in the brains of mice. Since this plaque build up is similar to Alzheimer's, this would be a truly mind blowing development; all built upon research that was speeded up by the funding from the ice bucket challenge.
I am sure there are other issues that fall into this, but I can't think of anymore right now.
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Consensus Reached: RedStateVt and & I Agree: Middle East Cess Pool
I agree with RedStateVT's comment: "The Middle East is a Cess Pool. Good Luck figuring it out." Which is why I don't want American boots on the ground.
And who is behind the worst of the worst there. Well, Turkey is worthy of comment even though they probably come in 5th place. But as the former colonial power there, they should be exercising more intelligent use of their power, including supporting the Kurd's who are not terrorists.
Israel, is in 4th place because they have abandoned the moral high ground with the West Bank Settlement's providing the provocation that #'s 3 & 2 use for their sh*tty activities.
The PLO is in 3rd place because through the years they have had the opportunity to do something positive for their people and they have failed to find the security necessary for Israel to trust them and they have failed to accept the compromises that were once available to them from Israel and now they are not available and may not be available. Any solution will have to recognize reality on the ground and that has changed over the last 25 years.
In 2nd place is Iran and it's proxies: Hamas, Hezbollah, and Assad. Nothing more need be said about them. They are prime contributors to the cess pool.
And in 1st place, as Thomas Friedman writes so well today, is Saudi Arabia. Whose promotion of Wahhabism is behind ISIS, AlQaeda and the Taliban. I urge you to click on the link and read how petro dollars that Western economic policy has never tried to curb until recently, combined with Saudi religious policy have created the number 1 enemy to world peace.
Link to Friedman column
And this next link is to a column that highlights how the debate on immigration misses the point and the cost to our moral structure of instituting a Trump vision of border control, which is what existed on the East Germany/West Germany Border during the Cold War. I am pretty sure I still have to convince RedStateVT that there is a better path than the one the GOP is following today.
Link to Column on Immigration
And who is behind the worst of the worst there. Well, Turkey is worthy of comment even though they probably come in 5th place. But as the former colonial power there, they should be exercising more intelligent use of their power, including supporting the Kurd's who are not terrorists.
Israel, is in 4th place because they have abandoned the moral high ground with the West Bank Settlement's providing the provocation that #'s 3 & 2 use for their sh*tty activities.
The PLO is in 3rd place because through the years they have had the opportunity to do something positive for their people and they have failed to find the security necessary for Israel to trust them and they have failed to accept the compromises that were once available to them from Israel and now they are not available and may not be available. Any solution will have to recognize reality on the ground and that has changed over the last 25 years.
In 2nd place is Iran and it's proxies: Hamas, Hezbollah, and Assad. Nothing more need be said about them. They are prime contributors to the cess pool.
And in 1st place, as Thomas Friedman writes so well today, is Saudi Arabia. Whose promotion of Wahhabism is behind ISIS, AlQaeda and the Taliban. I urge you to click on the link and read how petro dollars that Western economic policy has never tried to curb until recently, combined with Saudi religious policy have created the number 1 enemy to world peace.
Link to Friedman column
And this next link is to a column that highlights how the debate on immigration misses the point and the cost to our moral structure of instituting a Trump vision of border control, which is what existed on the East Germany/West Germany Border during the Cold War. I am pretty sure I still have to convince RedStateVT that there is a better path than the one the GOP is following today.
Link to Column on Immigration
Monday, August 31, 2015
Dear Senator McCain
I see you raked the Marines over the coals for not wanting to put boots on the ground to try and defeat ISIS.
Only Muslims can defeat ISIS. If they don't have the will, we cannot help them beyond what air power can do. American boots on the ground would attract Jihadists from all over the world looking for the opportunity to kill Americans. We could kill a lot of them, but there would be a cost, and our only reliable ally on the ground are the Kurds, who are basically an Island, so logistics are not secure.
And this doesn't even get into the policy inconsistency that you, Senator McCain, and other neoconservative hawks have: You wants to isolate Iran on the Nuclear Issue leading to a potential air strike there, but have our troops be their allies on the ground in Iraq and Syria. Do you ever have an introspective moment on what the outcome of all that might be?
Sincerely,
A Concerned Citizen
Only Muslims can defeat ISIS. If they don't have the will, we cannot help them beyond what air power can do. American boots on the ground would attract Jihadists from all over the world looking for the opportunity to kill Americans. We could kill a lot of them, but there would be a cost, and our only reliable ally on the ground are the Kurds, who are basically an Island, so logistics are not secure.
And this doesn't even get into the policy inconsistency that you, Senator McCain, and other neoconservative hawks have: You wants to isolate Iran on the Nuclear Issue leading to a potential air strike there, but have our troops be their allies on the ground in Iraq and Syria. Do you ever have an introspective moment on what the outcome of all that might be?
Sincerely,
A Concerned Citizen
Friday, August 28, 2015
Dear GOP
On 9/11/2001, 2977 were killed and we entered the War on Terror and threw in Iraq for good measure, since we were in a war mode and someone convinced us that Sadam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
Since 12/14/2012, 84,523 Americans have been killed by guns in the U.S. Yet, you block everything and refuse to negotiate anything.
How can 2977 Deaths generate $2.4 trillion dollars in expenditures and 84,523 deaths cannot even generate some small changes in policy?
That does not strike me as either conservative nor embracing of family values, which includes safety for the citizens of a country.
Why can't the GOP lead on this issue? The Democrats would support any progress at all. Doing nothing just isn't right.
Sincerely,
A Concerned Citizen
Since 12/14/2012, 84,523 Americans have been killed by guns in the U.S. Yet, you block everything and refuse to negotiate anything.
How can 2977 Deaths generate $2.4 trillion dollars in expenditures and 84,523 deaths cannot even generate some small changes in policy?
That does not strike me as either conservative nor embracing of family values, which includes safety for the citizens of a country.
Why can't the GOP lead on this issue? The Democrats would support any progress at all. Doing nothing just isn't right.
Sincerely,
A Concerned Citizen
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Factory Man Shows What It Takes to win in Globalization and the Cost
Factory Man by Beth Macy is well worth the read. It lays out the history of the furniture industry in America and how it has been effected by globalization.
It is focused on the Virginia part of the industry, so some parts of the industry are perhaps underserved as to how they have coped with the reality that is China.
Those who know me personally know that I am a strong believer in globalization and the need to compete in it. But this book lays out that it is expensive to compete, there are various strategies in which to compete, there are losers in the process, and China does not always compete fairly as measured by international rules for Fair Trade. I was unaware of how the latter occurred, but the book explains that exports can be at cost and the Chinese government will send a check to the company for having exports giving them a profit. And the pricing could even be below cost because the government check will provide a profit. Combine that with low Chinese wages in 2002 (they have been rising), low standards for worker safety, and low standards for environmental protection and you have a significant pricing advantage.
What I didn't understand, since my wife liked to buy expensive high end furniture that was not made in China, was how widespread Chinese furniture has made inroads into the U.S. market as younger people only care about cost and don't mind throwing the furniture away when it breaks down.
This expanding of the "I Don't Care About Quality" population has had one effect that has stunned me. While I was happy buying older wood furniture in my early working career, young folks today prefer new and cheap, and the secondary market for older wood furniture has collapsed because of the inexpensiveness of new furniture. I always thought quality furniture would maintain a certain value and I was wrong about that.
While I wrote this to hopefully promote purchases of this well written and documented book, I also want to use some facts in it to debunk any idea that trickle down economics works when globalization and technology are running amok reducing costs of manufacturing and reducing the size of the labor force required for that production. This creative destruction is both a strength of the capitalist economy but not everyone participates in it equally.
"Between 2001 and 2012, 63,300 American factories closed their doors and five million American Factory jobs went away......During that same time period, the number of people receiving food stamps tripled." I know many conservative bloggers think many of those receiving food stamps are somehow unworthy, but they are desperate people and many of them have gone on social security disability out of desperation. They were not well educated to begin with and they already live/worked in a right to work state, so you cannot blame unions.
While hopefully, some of those people retrained and redeployed themselves successfully, I have no doubt that in small town America, many are working in retail and other low wage/low benefit work. If there is any one reason for the anger in America at the politicians and the 1% who live large from the benefits of globalization (and even those of us who fell out the 1% but have wealth), I believe it is the carving up of hope for a continuation of solid middle class life in small town America. Real people, who don't have either the smarts or the desire to move to the global economy, are stuck, know they are stuck, and are unhappy about being stuck. And they know just enough to blame globalization.
Yes, the goods from China are cheap, but 5 mm people can not afford to buy them and they are angry.
And my point about tax cuts, is it hasn't generated well paying jobs for many of those 5 mm people and it didn't generate the tax revenues needed to pay for the War on Terror. If we had had a balanced budget in 2005 - 2007, we would be in a much better place today. When the economy booms, you should have a budget surplus and it is the government's responsibility to do so. That way when you are in recession, you can run a deficit with a clean conscience.
It is focused on the Virginia part of the industry, so some parts of the industry are perhaps underserved as to how they have coped with the reality that is China.
Those who know me personally know that I am a strong believer in globalization and the need to compete in it. But this book lays out that it is expensive to compete, there are various strategies in which to compete, there are losers in the process, and China does not always compete fairly as measured by international rules for Fair Trade. I was unaware of how the latter occurred, but the book explains that exports can be at cost and the Chinese government will send a check to the company for having exports giving them a profit. And the pricing could even be below cost because the government check will provide a profit. Combine that with low Chinese wages in 2002 (they have been rising), low standards for worker safety, and low standards for environmental protection and you have a significant pricing advantage.
What I didn't understand, since my wife liked to buy expensive high end furniture that was not made in China, was how widespread Chinese furniture has made inroads into the U.S. market as younger people only care about cost and don't mind throwing the furniture away when it breaks down.
This expanding of the "I Don't Care About Quality" population has had one effect that has stunned me. While I was happy buying older wood furniture in my early working career, young folks today prefer new and cheap, and the secondary market for older wood furniture has collapsed because of the inexpensiveness of new furniture. I always thought quality furniture would maintain a certain value and I was wrong about that.
While I wrote this to hopefully promote purchases of this well written and documented book, I also want to use some facts in it to debunk any idea that trickle down economics works when globalization and technology are running amok reducing costs of manufacturing and reducing the size of the labor force required for that production. This creative destruction is both a strength of the capitalist economy but not everyone participates in it equally.
"Between 2001 and 2012, 63,300 American factories closed their doors and five million American Factory jobs went away......During that same time period, the number of people receiving food stamps tripled." I know many conservative bloggers think many of those receiving food stamps are somehow unworthy, but they are desperate people and many of them have gone on social security disability out of desperation. They were not well educated to begin with and they already live/worked in a right to work state, so you cannot blame unions.
While hopefully, some of those people retrained and redeployed themselves successfully, I have no doubt that in small town America, many are working in retail and other low wage/low benefit work. If there is any one reason for the anger in America at the politicians and the 1% who live large from the benefits of globalization (and even those of us who fell out the 1% but have wealth), I believe it is the carving up of hope for a continuation of solid middle class life in small town America. Real people, who don't have either the smarts or the desire to move to the global economy, are stuck, know they are stuck, and are unhappy about being stuck. And they know just enough to blame globalization.
Yes, the goods from China are cheap, but 5 mm people can not afford to buy them and they are angry.
And my point about tax cuts, is it hasn't generated well paying jobs for many of those 5 mm people and it didn't generate the tax revenues needed to pay for the War on Terror. If we had had a balanced budget in 2005 - 2007, we would be in a much better place today. When the economy booms, you should have a budget surplus and it is the government's responsibility to do so. That way when you are in recession, you can run a deficit with a clean conscience.
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