Ups... I should read through the article first, before making hotheaded statements... I do apologize to the blogger. Despite the awful background in his blog, I agree with digby - arming ISIS more than they are already, and have in the past been by the West, is insane. In my view, a better strategy would be to support the regional powers in handling the situation - within limits of course - because, after all, it's those regional powers that will have to live with the mess, if they screw up.
Also, how exactly is Iran "on the edge of a bomb"? Other than Netanyahu, no one believes they will have a nuclear weapon "next week" (or whatever was the nonsense he came up with) - not even the CIA or Mossad believe that; in fact, to the best of anyone's knowledge, they really aren't working on one - and, with the current nuclear negotiations being successful, won't ever be.
There is a few issue with supporting the regional powers over there. Those who are the allies of the US are the main supporters of the ISIS as well and the rest are used to be the bad guys . Perhaps Netanyahu going to calm down as the election campaign is over and no need to impress the hardliner part of the public.
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I mostly agree with you here, but you also have to take into consideration what living standards people will have, not just access to food and other basic needs; and I'm not entirely sure we could sustain the current world population at the living standards rich, developed countries currently afford - well, not as they do it at the moment, or not for long anyway. But, if we get rid of the consumption driven economic model, prevent waste, and as you say, promote better management and wealth distribution, maybe then it would be possible.
You are right, but wasting isn't part of the living standards... or at least it shouldn't. So currently we are maintaining our living standards and on the top of it we are wasting stuff what would be more than enough for keeping all the starving ppl across the world well fed. According to the UN since the mid nineties the fertility rate is continuously falling and they are expecting a trend reversal point around 2050 when the population will start to decrease. Actually in the developed countries because of the ageing population this will cause some serious issues.
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NXT could be a serious challenger for BTC in a few years.
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O.K., so we learn to live with Iran on the edge of a bomb, but shouldn’t we at least bomb the Islamic State to smithereens and help destroy this head-chopping menace? Now I despise ISIS as much as anyone, but let me just toss out a different question: Should we be arming ISIS? Or let me ask that differently: Why are we, for the third time since 9/11, fighting a war on behalf of Iran? In 2002, we destroyed Iran’s main Sunni foe in Afghanistan (the Taliban regime). In 2003, we destroyed Iran’s main Sunni foe in the Arab world (Saddam Hussein). But because we failed to erect a self-sustaining pluralistic order, which could have been a durable counterbalance to Iran, we created a vacuum in both Iraq and the wider Sunni Arab world. That is why Tehran’s proxies now indirectly dominate four Arab capitals: Beirut, Damascus, Sana and Baghdad. ISIS, with all its awfulness, emerged as the homegrown Sunni Arab response to this crushing defeat of Sunni Arabism — mixing old pro-Saddam Baathists with medieval Sunni religious fanatics with a collection of ideologues, misfits and adventure-seekers from around the Sunni Muslim world. Obviously, I abhor ISIS and don’t want to see it spread or take over Iraq. I simply raise this question rhetorically because no one else is: Why is it in our interest to destroy the last Sunni bulwark to a total Iranian takeover of Iraq? Because the Shiite militias now leading the fight against ISIS will rule better? Really? More.. http://digbysblog.blogspot.de/2015/03/objectively-pro-isis.htmlAbsolutely bad idea. With more arms and funds in hand these guys not going to stop at some sort of borders. Iran is strong and organized but the rest of the Middle East and North Africa are in shambles and much easier to conquer. They will spread and with their local branches they will pretty much overrun the half of the world, from the Caucasus down to fuckin' Congo in few decades. I guess this idiot will keep writing stupid blog posts somewhere far far away, when the savages start banging our doors here in Europe. Edit: Do you guys breeding these retards somewhere, or they are just occurring naturally?
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Attacks like that are the reason why people won't be coming to islam controlled countries anymore. Egypt and Tunisia both lost so much money on this islamic jihad nonsense. They are digging their own grave at this point. If they want to be hated by everyone they are great at making it real.
Destabilizing the country and spreading poverty (by keeping paying customers away) is a good way to radicalise some desperate people.
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Columnist Madeleine Bunting quotes Harris from his book The End of Faith: "Some propositions are so dangerous that it may even be ethical to kill people for believing them."
He seems to got quite close to some of those dangerous propositions . Ironic...
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indeed the NSDAP was/is originally a worker party but history showed us that all these was just propaganda and populism. without the looting of middle europe germany could never pay their new policies.
Yes, they won the election from the left and then ruled from the right, but they also did a lot to improve the living standards of the working class, and also did a lot of wealth redistribution to re-establish a strong middle class. everything the NSDAP and Hitler did was preparation for WW2 and a new 1000 year lasting german reich. they planned the murder of everyone they deemed to be unworthy of living from the start. dont think even extreme leftist would actually do it That's actually not entirely true. The first shot in that war was shot by the Jewish World Congress in early 1933 (in that time Hitler wasn't the undisputed ruler of Germany but only a major political figure) in the USA when it declared economic war on Germany and called for boycotting German goods. As it caused more than 10% fall in German export and the freezing or seizure of some German assets abroad of course it pissed off the nazis. When the World Zionist Organization de facto declared war on Germany in 1939 that was oil to the fire. I have no doubt about that Hitler had plans against the jews from the beginning but without the quite hawkish american jewish organizations the situation could have been much more relaxed. Later Hitler and the some zionist organizations made the Transfer Agreement about transferring german jews to Palestine but that agreement was torpedoed by the Brittish govt by demanding £1000 fee per immigrant. What was quite a lot of money in that time (about 5 years average salary) therefore nearly impossible to obtain. So I think that was clearly an anti-immigration tool. Some more details here: http://www.wintersonnenwende.com/scriptorium/english/archives/articles/jdecwar.html if someone interested.
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The whole idea is completely idiotic when the world is already overpopulated compared to sustainable resources in the first place.
This. The sick part is when a couple gets together and DOESN'T have children, they constantly get asked "why" and are looked on as strange. Societies view about reproduction have to change. The world cannot support the people we have now. This^ ... is a bullshit. Back in 2012 we produced food what should have been enough for about 10 billion ppl for cca. 3000 kcal per day per person (1500-2000 cal is the recommended). The problem isn't the scarcity of food but the unbalanced distribution. The developed countries wasting more than 220 million tons of food every year (in 2009). The already overpopulated also not true. The whole mankind would fit to area sized like Texas (and we would have cca. 96 square meter per person). Of course we feel it overcrowded because of since 2008 more than half of humanity living in cities, but outside the cities there are wast scarcely populated areas. So the problem isn't the scarcity of food or the lack of living space all this shit happens because of unbalanced wealth distribution and shitty management.
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Axis of evil will go through russia =)
The axis of evil getting quite a bit shaggy in these days .
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The USSR and the Nazi Germany were both leftist countries (yes, you read well: leftist) "fascist = leftist" -Snail2 Nazi Germany = Fascism = top right hand corner. BS. Have you ever read their election program? That's a massively leftist program. Most of their supporters were the working class, many of them formerly communists. They did a lot for the well being of the working class. Here's a few things. You going to like it . All citizens must have equal rights and obligations. The first obligation of every citizen must be to work both spiritually and physically. The activity of individuals is not to counteract the interests of the universality, but must have its result within the framework of the whole for the benefit of all. Consequently we demand: Abolition of unearned (work and labour) incomes. Breaking of debt (interest)-slavery. In consideration of the monstrous sacrifice in property and blood that each war demands of the people, personal enrichment through a war must be designated as a crime against the people. Therefore we demand the total confiscation of all war profits. We demand the nationalisation of all (previous) associated industries (trusts). We demand a division of profits of all heavy industries. We demand an expansion on a large scale of old age welfare. We demand the creation of a healthy middle class and its conservation, immediate communalization of the great warehouses and their being leased at low cost to small firms, the utmost consideration of all small firms in contracts with the State, county or municipality. We demand a land reform suitable to our needs, provision of a law for the free expropriation of land for the purposes of public utility, abolition of taxes on land and prevention of all speculation in land. We demand struggle without consideration against those whose activity is injurious to the general interest. Common national criminals, usurers, profiteers and so forth are to be punished with death, without consideration of confession or race. We demand substitution of a German common law in place of the Roman Law serving a materialistic world-order. The state is to be responsible for a fundamental reconstruction of our whole national education program, to enable every capable and industrious German to obtain higher education and subsequently introduction into leading positions. The plans of instruction of all educational institutions are to conform with the experiences of practical life. The comprehension of the concept of the State must be striven for by the school [Staatsbürgerkunde] as early as the beginning of understanding. We demand the education at the expense of the State of outstanding intellectually gifted children of poor parents without consideration of position or profession. The State is to care for the elevating national health by protecting the mother and child, by outlawing child-labor, by the encouragement of physical fitness, by means of the legal establishment of a gymnastic and sport obligation, by the utmost support of all organizations concerned with the physical instruction of the young.
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It is not about voters and whether they give credit and legitimacy to the results. They do this by definition (again), since if they didn't, they simply wouldn't come to vote. It is the population of a country as whole that matters, and if the majority of it didn't vote at all, there would be no legitimacy. As simple.
I'm really curious how this can even be an issue.
Definition and practice in real life are two very different animals. That's why this could be an issue. In the past I've seen several elections on many different levels where only 25-45% of the voters turned up, but nobody questioned the legitimacy of the elected officials. The majority simply accepted the results. I also seen parties exploiting the apathy of the voters this way and making big gains with a small but enthusiastic, disciplined and well organized group of supporters.
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If someone is a drug dealer or carder maybe asking the police for help is not the best idea .
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How come? Legitimacy is not something that you can endow yourself with on just your desire only. If most people don't vote, the government is not legitimate by definition. That's why all those countries force their citizens to vote (and then rig the results in their favor as they see appropriate).
In practice legitimacy is something what is based on trust and credit given by the voters. If the voters believe that the voting was clear they will give credit (and legitimacy) to the results, even if they know that only 25% of the voters participated and even if they dislike those results.
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I think the right not to vote is as important as the right to vote. By not voting you express your disagreement with the existing political system as such, since if most people ignore elections, the powers that be are effectively losing their legitimacy even if they win the elections.
Theoretically you are right, practically I've never seen such "powers that be are effectively losing their legitimacy even if they win the elections". Actually what I seen that was the opposite.
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Whoa, seven fighters for a billion dollars. That´s going to eat up your budget fast.
Now; that´s a handsome aircraft
And that's exactly what it did! In 2009 the Senate of the US finally voted to stop production of the F-22 fighter jet, while the Air Force wanted $4 billion in the 2010 budget to build 20 more F-22s. McCain The Warmonger had voted in favor of this bill, which was very unusual for him. It is also noteworthy that each hour of the plane's flight time requires 30 hours of maintenance. So it's bit like the Tiger - T-34 (T-34/85) situation .
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To be honest Google Play is cesspit of badly written and sometimes malware infected application. This screening can be only a good thing. Google seems to be "positively neutral" or somewhat supportive on bitcoin, so I don't think that they would ban crypto applications.
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lol what?
Germany and Russia hated each other they were ideological enemies. the non aggression pact your talking about only dealt with splitting up Poland.
Educate yourself a bit more. The USSR and the Nazi Germany were both leftist countries (yes, you read well: leftist) and for a long time they had strong economic, R&D, and political connections. This cooperation wasn't a honest friendly thing I guess, but more of an "enemy of my enemy is my friend" attitude. Later when they no longer needed each other this attitude changed drastically but basically they were allies during the thirties.
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Sorry mate, but this one is a big pile of sh... rubbish: http://stanislavs.org/the-hungarian-amnesia/Well we true Hungarians used to celebrate the Day of Honour on the 11th of February. Politicians, jews, (aka the Elite) and their brainwashed zombies used to celebrate with you guys. (Be happy with it.) But they are not us, and their heroes are not our heroes, and no we are not at all grateful for exporting democracy and freedom for us :/.
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When capitalism began the state did not interfere. Within a century that led to the gilded age, the great depression, World War I, and the new deal. In that case the problem wasn't the capitalism as a structure for producing stuff or the lack of state control. The problem was/is the parasitic banking and stock market system what isn't functioning as it should. Instead of providing liquidity and serve as a marketplace for bulk transfers they keep shaping and reshaping the market at will, into some malformed thing what isn't represent anything near to the reality. On the political side the main problem is the representative democracy. The political elite what should represent us, lost it's connection to the masses and merged with the economic elite, so it's no longer represents the interests of the public but became a part of a corporate dictatorship.
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