Paris Is Burning Over Climate Change Taxes -- Is America Next?

[Illurion + 894]

18 hours ago, Dan Warnick said:

Oho, Tom!  Ask and ye shall receive, my friend, but let's add immigration to really get the juices flowing, shall we:

Immigration, guns and climate change are inter-related

(Excerpt)

Our actions from guns to climate change have intensified the problems, driving so many families north.  Our president’s mean-spirited border policy is compounding the misery being heaped on these immigrants by this country. We need to have the courage to acknowledge our complicity in the creation of this crisis.  We need to develop and enforce immigration policies that are both fair and humane, and we need to make amends for our actions, which have inflicted so much misery on our neighbors. 

Pam McVety is a Tallahassee biologist and climate change educator.

Dan:    I do not agree with any of what that Pam person wrote.

We are not responsible for the fact that many poor countries south of us are run irresponsibly.

Trump's immigration crackdown is NOT MEAN SPIRITED.

They are illegal aliens who have invaded our country.

Criminals.

We owe them NOTHING.

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

xyz

Edited December 31, 2018 by Jan van Eck

[Illurion + 894]

17 hours ago, Jan van Eck said:

As for the Washington Post

Great stuff.

That was long ago.

Different owner, different staff.

Tom is right.  The post is garbage.

I used to read it in the 70's 80's & 90's.

I stopped reading it around 1995.

Edited December 21, 2018 by Illurion

[Illurion + 894]

9 hours ago, Rasmus Jorgensen said:

Agree Woodward & Bernstein credibillity is unquestionable. 

I never liked them,  and i find their current views VERY questionable.

As for Trump,  i find it hard to believe that they are writing about Trump,  rather than the massive corruption in their own industry.

Obviously,  they are blind to the corruption,  or part of it.

Either way,  nothing they have to say is of interest to me any more.

[Illurion + 894]

6 hours ago, Jan van Eck said:

Bill Kristol 

never liked the man.

he was,  and is part of the swamp.

[Illurion + 894]

3 hours ago, Red said:

However when the underlying theme has passed its use by date, it loses relevance and thereafter may cease to be funny (except as a retrospective).

 

It appears that Tom doesn't believe the "use by date" has expired yet.

There are still more stars that are falling.

[shadowkin + 584]

3 hours ago, Tom Kirkman said:

Memes are very much information warfare.

Social media sites still cannot yet "machine read" and understand memes.

Twitter and Facebook totally freaked out over the recent NPC meme campaign, and carte blanche deleted user accounts en masse of users who changed their profile pictures to NPC heads.

Memes can still effectively bypass MSM automatic censor mechanisms.

Jack Dorsey (head of Twitter) is still trying to find a way to automatically read and censor memes.  The meme war rages on.

 

The EU wants to essentially ban memes through something called Article 13. They couched it in terms of protecting copyrights though. 

"Article 13 effectively deputizes social media and other Internet companies as copyright police, forcing them to implement a highly invasive surveillance infrastructure across their entire service offerings,"

"Aside from the harm from the provisions of Article 13, this infrastructure can be easily repurposed by government and corporations – and further entrenches ubiquitous surveillance into the fabric of the Internet."

Winnie the Pooh meme is banned in China because it's used to mock Xi and this apparently led to the Christopher Robin movie being banned in China because Winnie the Pooh is in that movie.

 

Edited December 21, 2018 by shadowkin

[Illurion + 894]

14 minutes ago, Jan van Eck said:

When you actually have something intelligent to bring to the conversation, we invite you to participate. 

As usual,  you are rude.

I do not need your invitation.

Frankly,   you write very much like Bill Kristol,  only from a liberal point view.

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

28 minutes ago, Illurion said:

As usual,  you are rude.

I do not need your invitation.

Frankly,   you write very much like Bill Kristol,  only from a liberal point view.

You write prattle.   The stuff that urchins in the seventh grade dream up. 

Edited December 21, 2018 by Jan van Eck

[Illurion + 894]

1 minute ago, Jan van Eck said:

You write prattle.   tThe stuff that urchins in the seventh grade dream up. 

And you write with lots of big words to try to make yourself look more intelligent and important.

I will take the normal "PRATTLE" of "NORMAL PEOPLE" anytime.

[shadowkin + 584]

5 minutes ago, Illurion said:

And you write with lots of big words to try to make yourself look more intelligent and important.

 

See my post about inflation equation, Venezuela, and his 'solution'. He just made stuff up and pulled numbers out of thin air hoping to hoodwink people so that he looks smart, apparently.

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

On 12/20/2018 at 11:57 PM, Illurion said:

And you write with lots of big words to try to make yourself look more intelligent and important.

I will take the normal "PRATTLE" of "NORMAL PEOPLE" anytime.

You posted the following  (specifically addressed to me):

You are biting off more than you can chew.

Africa is a black hole that Europe will go bankrupt filling with cash.

  Africa is a stunningly rich continent, with staggeringly vast resources.  It has a virtual lock on Diamonds.  It has all manner of minerals, including rare earths.  The Congo has mahogany forests with trees sixteen feet thick, spread over an area greater than the size of France.  It has oil and hydro resources  to levels that defy measurement.  North Africa was the breadbasket of wheat production for centuries, until the Argentines took over that trade.  It produces olive oils, and figs, and all manner of other products including coffee from vast plantations.   And you call it a "black hole."

What Africa has is poor management, poor political institutions, and poor health care.  That, coupled with historically corrupt leaders that siphon off the wealth, have been barriers to the rational development of Africa.  Europe has for centuries enriched itself from the Africa trade.  It still has considerable earnings on its Africa ventures. Africa is a net exporter of wealth to Europe; your declaration that it is a "black hole" and Europe will "go bankrupt" is just preposterous .

Edited December 31, 2018 by Jan van Eck

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

6 minutes ago, shadowkin said:

See my post about inflation equation, Venezuela, and his 'solution'. He just made stuff up and pulled numbers out of thin air hoping to hoodwink people so that he looks smart, apparently.

Aha.  The other member of the intelligentsia has arrived.  We issue this fellow with both his Mensa Membership card and confer status as  Grandmaster, right up there with Boris Spassky.  Well done.

[Illurion + 894]

4 minutes ago, shadowkin said:

See my post about inflation equation, Venezuela, and his 'solution'. He just made stuff up and pulled numbers out of thin air hoping to hoodwink people so that he looks smart, apparently.

I have loved reading, and writing since i was a child.

As as result of so much reading,  i early on had a large vocabulary,  and used it.

When i was much older,  and in ROTC, one of my Naval Science Instructors took me aside,  and told me that my vocabulary,  which i used both in writing, and speaking,  was over most peoples head,  and that i should tone it down.

He said,  'THE "FIRST" THING YOU WANT TO SAY OR WRITE,  DON'T SAY IT OR WRITE IT.   WRITE OR SAY THE "SECOND" THING.  AND PEOPLE WILL UNDERSTAND IT BETTER,  AND NOT BE LEFT UNCOMFORTABLE."

So,  that is why i have written,  and spoken,  rather "plainly" ever since.

[Illurion + 894]

8 minutes ago, Jan van Eck said:

Africa is a stunningly rich continent, with staggeringly vast resources.

That is exactly correct,   and it will take vastly more resources than the EU can muster to develop them.

The fact that so many of them have yet to be developed is proof of this.

The EU is biting off more than it can chew.

This whole "develop Africa" project will be a boondoggle.

[shadowkin + 584]

6 minutes ago, Jan van Eck said:

Aha.  The other member of the intelligentsia has arrived.  We issue this fellow with both his Mensa Membership card and confer status as  Grandmaster, right up there with Boris Spassky.  Well done.

Must of touched a nerve for you to both quote and respond to me. I wouldn't want others to view my incompetence either so I understand. Looks like you couldn't take your own advice to others and 'just ignore him'. Were your hands trembling as you wrote that? 

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

39 minutes ago, shadowkin said:

The EU wants to essentially ban memes through something called Article 13. They couched it in terms of protecting copyrights though. 

"Article 13 effectively deputizes social media and other Internet companies as copyright police, forcing them to implement a highly invasive surveillance infrastructure across their entire service offerings,"

"Aside from the harm from the provisions of Article 13, this infrastructure can be easily repurposed by government and corporations – and further entrenches ubiquitous surveillance into the fabric of the Internet."

Winnie the Pooh meme is banned in China because it's used to mock Xi and this apparently led to the Christopher Robin movie being banned in China because Winnie the Pooh is in that movie.

 

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

8 minutes ago, shadowkin said:

Must of touched a nerve for you to both quote and respond to me. I wouldn't want others to view my incompetence either so I understand. Looks like you couldn't take your own advice to others and 'just ignore him'. Were your hands trembling as you wrote that? 

The intelligentsia graces these pages with the pronouncement that 1.4 million percent inflation amounts to a doubling every 27 days.  OK, so for back of the envelope calculations, let's just round that off to once a month  (30 days).  That is twelve cycles per year.  Each cycle is 100%. On a simple-interest basis, you have 1,200 percent, a very long way from 1.4 million.  On a compounding basis, you have 12! which I approximate to 2,056 multiples of the original principal, or 200,000  - again a very very long way from 1.4 million percent. 

Shadowkin flunked his math,along with everything else.  Critical thinking is markedly absent.  Enough of this prattle.  I have better things to do. Goodbye, Mr. Shadowkin, darken my door no more. 

Edited December 21, 2018 by Jan van Eck

[Illurion + 894]

Just more 1984 thought control.

Funny picture.

Edited December 21, 2018 by Illurion

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

42 minutes ago, shadowkin said:

The EU wants to essentially ban memes through something called Article 13. They couched it in terms of protecting copyrights though. 

Jackboot Censorship of ideas of Article 13.

[shadowkin + 584]

11 minutes ago, Jan van Eck said:

The intelligentsia graces these pages with the pronouncement that 1.4 million percent inflation amounts to a doubling every 27 days.  OK, so for back of the envelope calculations, let's just round that off to once a month  (30 days).  That is twelve cycles per year.  Each cycle is 100%. On a simple-interest basis, you have 1,200 percent, a very long way from 1.4 million.  On a compounding basis, you have 12! which I approximate to 2,056 multiples of the original principal, or 200,000  - again a very very long way from 1.4 million percent. 

Shadowkin flunked his math,along with everything else.  Critical thinking is markedly absent.  Enough of this prattle.  I have better things to do. Goodbye, Mr. Shadowkin, darken my door no more. 

Digs hole deeper...doubles down on his error...froths at mouth...doesn't understand it doesn't make him correct...takes ball and goes home...cries silently to sleep

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

Just a general note... 

● Disagreeing with someone is perfectly fine.  Heck, I encourage intelligent dissent.

● Personal jabs at someone you disagree is frowned upon here, and tend to dilute the effectiveness of whatever alternative idea you are proposing.

● If a particular member consistently gets on your nerves, riles you up, and annoys the snot out of you, just put that member on your "Ignored Users" list  (Settings > Account > Ignored Users)  for a week or so, until you calm down a bit.

● Or you can just laugh it off and go on with life.  The choice is yours.

 

 

[Enthalpic + 1,496]

9 hours ago, Red said:

Tom practices new math:

-1 + -1 = 0

 

x-2

x-5

[Rasmus Jorgensen + 1,169]

4 hours ago, Illurion said:

That is exactly correct,   and it will take vastly more resources than the EU can muster to develop them.

The fact that so many of them have yet to be developed is proof of this.

The EU is biting off more than it can chew.

This whole "develop Africa" project will be a boondoggle.

Aim for the stars. Even if miss, you land on the moon. 

Have you ever been to Africa? There is a positive development in some countries. It just needs a nudge. And the potential prize is massive : most africans really only leave because of desperation. If we can give them hope where they are we stop migration. Same for the ME. 

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

1 minute ago, Rasmus Jorgensen said:

Aim for the stars. Even if miss, you land on the moon.  

Have you ever been to Africa? There is a positive development in some countries. It just needs a nudge. And the potential prize is massive : most africans really only leave because of desperation. If we can give them hope where they are we stop migration. Same for the ME. 

Europe has been hard at work looting Africa for centuries.  The looting even included its people, with four million slaves surviving the slave trade to the Americas, each trip providing a 100% return of capital to the investors.  You may estimate that another 4 million did not survive the trip.  So that is eight million that have been stripped from Africa in order to provide slave labor and slave sales. 

Take a look at some European countries and how much they profited. Belgium was a sleepy farming backwater until to seized the Congo, and looted and pillaged the place, making the Belgian Crown fabulously wealthy.  That King Leopold was a pig is not admitted to. The French enriched themselves with Algerian gas and Moroccan foodstuffs and grains, and big military (naval) bases to counterpoint the English, nothing to sneeze at.  Italy has for 2,000 years retained Libya and Tunisia as its breadbasket for wheat.  Egypt has not had independence from some foreign ruler since the Romans, until Nasser came along. The British took over South Africa and the diamond trade, plus cattle and grains in Rhodesia and Kenya, and coffee plantations by the Germans in Tanzania and Mozambique.  The Portuguese exploited minerals in Angola, and they all fought each other to see who could steal the most.  

Even with all that, only a very small fraction of the continent's vast wealth has been touched.  Right now there is an effort underway to build a railroad from Kinshasa to the sea, so as to avoid having to send freight via the collapsed rail line at Brazzaville.  To build that new line, the contractor has to cut a railbed through the forest, a vast sea of giant mahogany where the lumber can be milled and shipped as you go.  The profits from the wood alone  repay all the capital costs of building the line and then some. You can rebuild the rail network from Capetown to Cairo and make a profit doing it - if  (big "if") you can keep the corruption under control.  Africa has been imprisoned by garbage leaders, men such as Mobutu Sese Seko and Idi Amin and Robert Mugabe and Laurent Kabila,  all thugs and looters of the people. And the West's contribution to that has been selling them guns and providing mercenaries. 

The West has put up with the looters and the corrupt, to its shame.  every now and then the French Foreign Legion gets called in to deal with the worst of it and remove some particularly egregious miscreant from power, but not often enough.   Once the West gets serious, then Africa can go back to generating vast wealth, this time for the people of Africa.  Long overdue.