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CubaLibre
the road lawyer
Joined: 02 Mar 2007
Location: Balmer
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CubaLibre
the road lawyer
Joined: 02 Mar 2007
Location: Balmer
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 Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 12:19 am |
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| Vikram Ray wrote: |
| and Energy, which as far as I can tell is just a funnel for big business, most obviously in the Cheney days. |
Member all those nuclear reactors that just went splodey in Japan? How do you think they would have been managed without government oversight? Or do you think John Rockefeller would institute more effective safety standards in his nuke plants than the NRC?
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CubaLibre
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Joined: 02 Mar 2007
Location: Balmer
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| Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 1:19 pm |
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I was going to say that I see the US' trajectory as pretty similar to Britain's. The difference is that we're much more massive and have lots of natural resources, so instead of jockeying with other formerly-imperial countries for the biggest slice of a supranational pie (I'm talking about the EU here) we'll just quietly fold into ourselves, descend into a nationwide Manchesteresque standard of living and talk about the glory days.
First our military will have to peter out though. When you've got that much firepower, no sensible politician is going to let it sit there doing nothing. I don't know what it will take for the American public to consent to a slashing of defense.
Perhaps more importantly, this trajectory might be altered or maybe just extended by our lingering cultural power. Every Greek radio station I flipped on played American music. If we can remain the world's primary cultural producer it's going to be a lot longer before we recognize that our economic power isn't what it used to be.
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CubaLibre
the road lawyer
Joined: 02 Mar 2007
Location: Balmer
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| Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 12:53 pm |
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| Vikram Ray wrote: |
| koholinttakeout wrote: |
| A true end to military adventurism is when the people who make the policies actually think the threat is gone, or subdued enough. It'll happen. |
C'mon, do you really believe that? You're forgetting the profit motive. War is a racket. |
The British military is vastly smaller than it was 150 years ago, isn't it? But war hasn't gotten any less profitable. The fact that "war = $ for defense contractors," which is an obvious truth that has no moral content in and of itself, cannot alone explain when and why states' militaries expand and contract.
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CubaLibre
the road lawyer
Joined: 02 Mar 2007
Location: Balmer
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| Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 2:49 pm |
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| Vikram Ray wrote: |
| CubaLibre wrote: |
| The British military is vastly smaller than it was 150 years ago, isn't it? But war hasn't gotten any less profitable. The fact that "war = $ for defense contractors," which is an obvious truth that has no moral content in and of itself, cannot alone explain when and why states' militaries expand and contract. |
No moral content? Yeah, I don't know that I agree. I'm a little flabbergasted that you're actually defending war profiteers, to be honest. I thought the line was that private industry and profiteering was evil and the government should do everything they can to curtail it? But when it comes to war profiteers, the biggest and most profitable business in this country, they get a pass because... why? |
I didn't say the current US model of defense procurement is totally awesome. I just said someone will always make money in any war, namely the producers of war material. No one is going to make tanks for you unless you pay them. This fact in and of itself says nothing either about the justice of making war nor the justice of paying for tanks.
If you want to object to the post-9/11 US military industrial complex I'll be right there beside you. But your original statement was much more general (unqualified "war is a racket"), and that's what I was responding to.
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CubaLibre
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| Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 5:46 pm |
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Just want to emphasize that the blog points out that Maye leaving his public defender and instead hiring private counsel was a critical mistake.
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CubaLibre
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Joined: 02 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2011 4:29 am |
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| Talbain wrote: |
| Strictly speaking, they can't. They could probably sue most anyone on the internet if such a law were to pass though. |
Not sue, prosecute.
| Quote: |
| More to the point, the law is far too broad, it covers too many things with vagaries in wording that could apply to almost anything, and as a result would almost definitely be thrown out in any court. |
You probably just read this in some analysis somewhere, but I wouldn't depend on any higher court throwing it out on overbreadth. What we need to do is stop it now, in the legislative stage.
| Shiren the Launderer wrote: |
| The feds won't make a dent. |
Pfft. They never have.
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CubaLibre
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| Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2011 5:08 am |
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No. They've done incalculable, unforgivable damage.
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CubaLibre
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| Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 5:50 pm |
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You can thank crusty old England for that charge. It's an ancient common law crime.
As for its application in this case, well, nothing really need be said.
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CubaLibre
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| Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2011 1:43 pm |
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| Texican Rude wrote: |
| I'm glad people think copyright infringement is a "crime" not a violation. |
It is a crime.
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CubaLibre
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| Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2011 10:14 pm |
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So. Does PeerGuardian, or whatever equivalent, actually work?
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CubaLibre
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| Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2011 3:35 am |
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My cousin is a Booz Allen shill. Wonder what she thinks of this.
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CubaLibre
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| Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2011 3:13 pm |
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| GrimmSweeper wrote: |
| What still can happen is each city/county doing the same thing: start their own broadband service. |
But they can't subsidize it.
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CubaLibre
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| Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 7:07 pm |
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Terrorists just hate the freedoms that Norwegians enjoy. And their tallness, and blonde hair, and universal healthcare.
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CubaLibre
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| Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2011 7:50 am |
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Figures this pathetic coward would be into tac porn.
I believe the stock response to this is, well, if the feds are going to spend the money, we might as well get some of it.
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CubaLibre
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CubaLibre
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CubaLibre
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CubaLibre
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| Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 1:39 pm |
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Oh man, county clerks. The stories I could tell.
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CubaLibre
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| Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 6:24 pm |
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Typical local government stuff mostly. Also typical friction between an entire office made of lifelong bureaucrats and the elected/appointed know-nothing that gets rotated in as their boss every however many years.
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CubaLibre
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| Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 5:54 pm |
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| parker wrote: |
| Don't knives go right through bullet proof vests? Don't they have stab vests as a separate thing? |
More or less. They don't "go right through," but they're only as good as any equivalent mass of thick, heavy cloth (which is actually pretty good) at preventing stab wounds.
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CubaLibre
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| Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 6:20 pm |
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Yeah, and Russ Feingold may as well be dead too.
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CubaLibre
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| Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 1:03 pm |
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Black and grey and brown crayons down to nubs.
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CubaLibre
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| Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 6:26 am |
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I'm not exactly sure what it is you're not surprised about.
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CubaLibre
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| Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 7:11 am |
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RESPONSIBILITY! FREEDOM!
Congressman, are you saying society should just let him die?
..........No..........
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CubaLibre
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| Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 5:27 pm |
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Dracko, don't you want the freedom to sit at your kitchen table poring over insurance contracts you can't understand to choose the one that is best for you? And that you can afford. Which um, isn't much.
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CubaLibre
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| Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2011 12:55 am |
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I, too, have read the latest Last Psychiatrist post.
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CubaLibre
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| Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2011 9:51 pm |
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| Dark Age Iron Savior wrote: |
| Additionally, it seems like some of the legal technicalities that keep the US from just legally saying he has renounced his citizenship (thus making him, presumably, as legitimate a target as any other citizen who commits an act of treason through aiding a hostile power against the government) are along the same lines as the kind of technicalities people lament as being enshrined in American legal/legislative canon despite holding progress back? Maybe not. I dunno. |
This is confused. Treason may only be committed by a citizen or someone who "owes allegiance" to the US (like a resident alien). Denaturalizing (not renouncing) him would make him not a citizen and therefore no longer able to be convicted of treason. Instead he'd just be a foreign national/alleged enemy combatant like say any Iraqi militiaman. If he's still a citizen, he can't be executed for treason without a full and fair trial including the testimony of two eyewitnesses to the same overt act. If he's to be denaturalized, that too requires a lengthy bit of due process which certainly was never completed.
If you want to call these due procedures "lamentable technicalities," go ahead.
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CubaLibre
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CubaLibre
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| Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 12:29 am |
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| Vikram Ray wrote: |
| They are a direct result of the government propping up certain economic sectors (like housing or education). |
Why would the government support policies that benefit the few at the expense of the many? A rich man's vote counts the same as a poor man's, and there are way, way more poor people than rich. Bare self-interest would dictate massive redistribution of wealth.
The answer is, because the capitalists are already rich before they corrupt government. You have a chicken and egg problem.
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CubaLibre
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| Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 3:26 pm |
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Yeah, I mean. I think that's what I was saying.
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CubaLibre
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Location: Balmer
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| Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 12:29 am |
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| Toptube wrote: |
| Believe me, anytime the military loses money, it ends up coming out of the pay and benefits of its personnel. Yeah, cutting F-22 production and whatnot immediately hurts the contractors, but the military then skims the top fat off benifits and pay to make back some of that money. As I said, I've only been out 1.5 years and already the post 9/11 G.I. Bill has been squeezed as much as possible and its really only about 2 years old. |
Nobody advocates cutting personnel benefits at all. (Some people do recommend cutting personnel, but obviously only after their current contracts have been completed.) The fact that personnel does take a hit when the DoD budget is cut is a horrible sign of our times, not a counterargument against the general policy that we should, e.g., stop building aircraft carriers. Or funding useless wars.
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CubaLibre
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| Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 3:02 am |
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I don't think it's hypocritical for the latter group. I would be happy if we all got the benefits that military personnel get. That's not why I want the military's budget slashed, nor is it the part of the military's budget I want slashed.
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CubaLibre
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| Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 3:10 am |
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Yes, that is what I advocated. Disarming the military (rendering it no longer a military) but only supporting a random percentage of the population with socialized healthcare. And keeping in place a strictly hierarchical command structure that would order them to do... something. Unrelated to shooting.
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CubaLibre
the road lawyer
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Location: Balmer
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| Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2011 5:04 am |
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| thestage wrote: |
| no, what you advocated is a nebulous "cutting the budget." I mean, yeah, sure, cut it--it's outrageous and the military is useless. but if you think it would have any affect other than the exact one you don't intend, I don't know man--you're the one that presumably deals with bureaucracies, right? who loses out when you stop making aircraft carriers--the billionaire aircraft makers (ALLEGORY IS FUN), or the dudes that, for some reason, have college and living expenses comped so that they can man the aircraft carriers off the coasts of brazil? |
I intend it to have all those effects. The size of the military should be reduced. You're right that that would also reduce the pool of people who now receive sweet military benefits. Of course, those people also won't be needlessly shot at for the privilege. The bigger point is, all Americans should get a substantial part of what are now only sweet military benefits. If your counterargument is THAT'LL NEVER HAPPEN LOL, you can feel free in our future discussions to assume that I'm not an idiot.
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