The pilfering of American taxpayers?

Discussion in 'Wall St. News' started by risk1, Sep 21, 2008.

Would you ask your congressman to vote for or against the deal?

  1. For

    7 vote(s)
    12.5%
  2. Against

    49 vote(s)
    87.5%
  1. LOL

    No, you are THEIR bitch. YOU pay the bills for their fun. You have NO choice. Shut up and pay your taxes, to go up 50% after Hussein wins in Novermber. Bet me.
     
    #31     Sep 22, 2008
  2. I read the following on Wikipedia apparently from
    http://www.gmu.edu/academic/ijps/vol8_1/David and Ramel.htm


    The International Journal of Peace Studies 2003 article ''The Bush administration's image of Europe: From ambivalence to rigidity'' states

    The Republican Party's platform in the 2000 presidential elections set the administration's tone on this issue. It called for a dramatic expansion of NATO not only in Eastern Europe (with the Baltic States, Rumania, Bulgaria and Albania) but also, and most significantly, in the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia. The purpose is to develop closer cooperation within NATO in dealing with geopolitical problems from the Middle East to Eurasia. The program therefore takes a broad and rather fuzzy view of Europe.

    It would be premature at this stage to say that the US administration has had a fundamental change of heart and shed its long-ingrained reflexes in dealing with Russia.

    When it comes to the future of Europe, Americans and Europeans differ on key issues. The differences seem to point toward three fundamental values which underpin the Bush administration's image of Europe. The first is unilateralism, of which the missile shield is a particularly telling example. The American position flies in the face of the European approach, which is based on ABM talks and multilateralism. An opposition is taking shape here between the leading European capitals, which want to deal with the matter by judicial means, and the Americans, who want to push ahead and create a fait accompli.



    You should read the stuff on www.anglospherechallenge.com and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Geographical_Pivot_of_History about the "Heartland"

    There is more on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_Doctrine , apparently the defenders of the doctrine still claim the importance of the Heartland theories which are old... and the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Managerial_state .
    It looks pretty aggressive to me... and I see from a systems perspective about the coming into power by the Neocons that it was the culmination of a tendency, allowed by the "old money" to allow aggressive "reclaiming" and "reshaping" of what was emerging abroad - especially with the Internet transformation and bolstering of much of the economies, communication etc.

    Rumsfeld addressed this emerging "war of ideas" emerging from the Internet in 2006:
    http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=1206 .


    Also, conspiracy theories happens when there is the perception that "something is wrong". The problem with the conspiracy theories is that they apply reductionist thinking to WHY something has happened, and tries to follow a "lead" through events. This is in line with Occam's razor and being reductionist - but simply does not cut it - since it's close to impossible to show the shear number of actions that DO contribute to a situation emerging - it IS a chaos and very complex pattern. E.g you can't simply apply the "principle of bivalence" and "propositional logic" to everything in the universe - it's not a sufficient system - see "degree of truth" and Gödel's incompleteness theorem.

    If you instead - just look at the situation, the directly involved parties - you can describe what is actually the situation. How it emerged is more complex, since it would involve various systems interacting - which happens of course. A "system" can also be applied to describing a situation, an event, and the involved parties etc.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_science
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_theory
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_intelligence
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_thinking
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_philosophy
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_adaptive_system

    This is a relatively new interdisciplinary field - but gaining a LOT of traction - as it applies quickly to so many fields of science - every field in fact.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_bivalence
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degree_of_truth
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_razor
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductionism
     
    #32     Sep 22, 2008
  3. ERTW

    ERTW



    Only if someone would show this to Sarah Palin.
     
    #33     Sep 22, 2008
  4. #34     Sep 22, 2008
  5. I say fuck the government. We should just refuse to pay taxes.
     
    #35     Sep 22, 2008
  6. ERTW

    ERTW

    #36     Sep 22, 2008
  7. I am sure you would prefer sharing a 6x9 cell without a toilet seat with an oversized bear named bubba. You first...
     
    #37     Sep 22, 2008
  8. Your assumption that evolution is science is quite laughable. Try logic, it's a good study!
     
    #38     Sep 22, 2008
  9. ERTW

    ERTW


    This deserves to be quoted in full, with no response.
     
    #39     Sep 22, 2008
  10. Cutten

    Cutten

    Krugman nails it - if the assets to be bought are undervalued, why can't the market buy them? If the assets are overvalued, then it's a direct theft from taxpayers to shareholders and CEOs/top employees of financial institutions.

    The only way this could be just is if the government also then steals money by force from the CEOs/employees of the bailed out institutions. Now that would be amusing and probably quite popular on Main Street :)
     
    #40     Sep 22, 2008