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US Foreign Policy: The Wogs Begin at Calais

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Re: US Foreign Policy: The Wogs Begin at Calais

Kepler said:
I've also heard it's got an acid content similar to Alien blood.

I vote for the snowy owl. That is one pretty bird.
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Goose crap ate right through the clear coat on the trunk deck of a car that was at an airport for a week. I had to have the trunk deck taken off and repainted. :mad:

I vote snowy owl also. I've seen a couple in the wild. The best was sitting on top of a power pole on a snow flurries day. I don't know how I saw it (it probably moved) but it was just a phantom up there because it perfectly blended with the snow and grey sky.
 
Re: US Foreign Policy: The Wogs Begin at Calais

I don't know that its a surprise that there's a near cold war back underway. But capitalism won...so it won't be fought on ideology. It will be fought on dictatorships vs. democracies.

Since the seizing of power by Putin and the failure of the Arab spring, dictatorships have been gaining steam. The recipe is simple. Weak democracies that are struggling due to corruption elect a strong leader. That leader slowly collect power and eventually starts to take away freedoms. Its the Hitler model that was followed by Putin...now in Turkey and the Philippines. And due to sensationalized changes to media...folks have become desensitized to extreme rhetoric. So dictatorships are more emboldened. Whereas bad actors like Stalin were diplomatically cordial but untrustworthy, Putin, Kim threaten nuclear war...and so bizarre is the situation where the stock markets go up.
 
Re: US Foreign Policy: The Wogs Begin at Calais

5mn_Major said:
I don't know that its a surprise that there's a near cold war back underway. But capitalism won...so it won't be fought on ideology. It will be fought on dictatorships vs. democracies.
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Hmm... it seems to me that capitalism has lost in the US to the regulatory state. We don't have free market capitalism here any more, we are "ruled" more by a corporate oligarchy:
-- large corporations like big government because the barriers to entry stifle potential start-up competitors
-- big government likes large corporations because they are so compliant, so easy to find, so easy to do business with
-- so government officials and corporate executives both live large, secure in their wealth and power, while the rest of us post laments on internet message boards.... :(



I am reminded of one of those "future dystopia" movies, the original Rollerball: eventually, civil government collapsed because of too much corruption, and so the task of maintaining law and order fell to mega-corporations instead (some subtle social commentary, the first contest was between Houston and Madrid and so the scoreboard read "Hou Mad"). Ordinary people were given diversions to distract them into superficiality (another selfie, anyone? maybe we can post it on Facebook!) so no one really minded too much as long as they were fed, housed, and entertained.


and how much of a "democracy" we have left also is open to question: more and more "governing" occurs within regulatory agencies who ignore Congress and the Courts with little consequence. Who needs democracy anyway, as long as "your" guy/gal has a telephone and a pen? :(
 
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Re: US Foreign Policy: The Wogs Begin at Calais

FreshFish said:
Hmm... it seems to me that capitalism has lost in the US to the regulatory state. We don't have free market capitalism here any more, we are "ruled" more by a corporate oligarchy:
-- large corporations like big government because the barriers to entry stifle potential start-up competitors
-- big government likes large corporations because they are so compliant, so easy to find, so easy to do business with
-- so government officials and corporate executives both live large, secure in their wealth and power, while the rest of us post laments on internet message boards.... :(



I am reminded of one of those "future dystopia" movies, the original Rollerball: eventually, civil government collapsed because of too much corruption, and so the task of maintaining law and order fell to mega-corporations instead (some subtle social commentary, the first contest was between Houston and Madrid and so the scoreboard read "Hou Mad"). Ordinary people were given diversions to distract them into superficiality (another selfie, anyone? maybe we can post it on Facebook!) so no one really minded too much as long as they were fed, housed, and entertained.


and how much of a "democracy" we have left also is open to question: more and more "governing" occurs within regulatory agencies who ignore Congress and the Courts with little consequence. Who needs democracy anyway, as long as "your" guy/gal has a telephone and a pen? :(
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I'd beg to differ with most of that (although if you live in W VA, you might have that perspective). Growth in start up activity is sky high. Go to any co working or collaborative working outfit which are taking off all around the country. You'll see tons of entrepreneurs many of them extremely successful. The nature of small businesses and particularly successful small businesses has changed. These days they are ecommerce related. Go to silicon valley or check out the hundreds of projects on kickstarter.com. In fact of those companies that don't make it...the top reasons are always incompetence, lack of planning or not understanding the marketplace.

The challenges coming from large business is not that they're too regulated (I have consulted for quite a few). Its due to collusion in select industries. You go shopping for an airline ticket or to buy a hand towel online or in a store and you'll get a highly price competitive market that forces down prices back into the value chain (I.e., manufacturing). But industries like energy and health care have no transparent pricing. In the case of health care, murky pricing options take away the ability to shop price and result in a lack of supply/demand pressure...that would enforce better value further back into the health care value chain (that is to say why we have expensive medication). This is not caused by regulation, but by the inability of society to enforce a free transparent market into a number of industries. There's still this type of corruption, but capitalism has won and that's why global GDP continues to go up.

Edit: Moved.
 
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Re: US Foreign Policy: The Wogs Begin at Calais

5mn_Major said:
capitalism has won and that's why global GDP continues to go up.
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To the extent the free market expands, all boats rise. Capitalism without oversight tends naturally to corruption and rent seeking.

Building a better mousetrap (the free market) is good. Living off the compound interest of your great-grandfather's better mousetrap while erecting barriers to entry in the mousetrap industry to protect your rice bowl (capitalism) is bad. Capturing regulatory instruments and governments to maintain your obsolete corporate oligarchy while destroying all competitors (crony capitalism) is the worst.

America was great when it tended towards the former. It has sunk as it has become infected by the latter. A fumigation is needed.
 
Re: US Foreign Policy: The Wogs Begin at Calais

dxmnkd316 said:
He sounds like a real dick.
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Have you been following Duterte's antics? Ever since he became a prominent politician there he's been an advocate for vigilante mobs taking down drug dealers and all sorts of bad elements. From what I've read, he's pretty much given his police forces carte blanche passes for all shootings that happen in the line of duty. He's threatened the Filipino bishops when they spoke out against his policies,

Actually, he's an elected version of Trump, only with different hair.
 
Re: US Foreign Policy: The Wogs Begin at Calais

Kepler said:
I wouldn't want to be an American citizen there. You should go somewhere safer like Syria.
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Yeah. SS, things are probably not that bad currently. But they are at the start of the curve. All signs are that they will continue to deteriorate...and when they do, you'll have already wanted to make a move.
 
Re: US Foreign Policy: The Wogs Begin at Calais

Here's the thing(s). ;) I'm not the target, my industry is contributing more to their economy than any other and it is expanding exponentially here to help grow the economy. We can employ and pay a livable wage more so than anyone else and it's not even close. So while he may take issue with the US Government and its place in the S. China sea, nothing I've seen yet suggests he's such an imbecile as to believe that the income we generate can be replaced in the very least short term, but probably long term as well. We're talking $16B US in revenues as of 2015 and more than 1mm employed. Current projections are it will generate an additional 1.3M new jobs with 17% annual growth over the next few years. The business complex our company built in my current location filled to capacity within no time at all, it's why I've been asked to relocate to another location on a tiny, tiny remote island because we're building another complex, etc,. etc. So while his rants give me cause in general, I don't honestly think right now I'm at risk. Which is not to say I won't do my best to keep my finger on the pulse and try to anticipate a, "gtfo of Saigon" scenario down the line.
 
Re: US Foreign Policy: The Wogs Begin at Calais

I had to call our service desk to ask a question about one of our internal timekeeping systems a couple weeks back, and I was surprised how flawlessly the CSR spoke English. If I didn't know any better from checking the location in her contact card to confirm she was in Manila, I would've guessed she was sitting in Dallas, or Salt Lake City, or some other call center hellhole here in the US.
 
Re: US Foreign Policy: The Wogs Begin at Calais

Slap Shot said:
Here's the thing(s). ;) I'm not the target, my industry is contributing more to their economy than any other and it is expanding exponentially here to help grow the economy.
Click to expand...

Two possibilities I would worry about:

1. Americans there could become political bargaining chips if our governments get into a tiff. Did you know you're a deep background spy? Any halfway decent intelligence service can make you one with just a few surprise additions to your home or workplace.

2. Brownshirts-in-training deciding to make a play for El Presidente's favor without realizing the ramifications.

Is either likely? No. Is it worth the risk? Personally, I would say no.
 
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