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Politics 2017 part 4


Hurlshort

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What the what?

 

I'm saying, anyone can already attend a private school if they so wish. Why is it a problem all of a sudden?

 

The problem is the school voucher program. Nobody is trying to get rid of private schools. If you want to send your kid to one, you pay for it while still paying your taxes which fund public schools. Those public schools are designed to benefit the community as a whole, not just your individual child. I'm clearly pretty biased here, but it makes no sense to me to take that tax money away from the public schools to fund private education.

 

The argument is always "well then more people can afford private education." But that completely ignores the reality of the world we live in, which is a good percentage of parents are not operating with the best interests of their children in mind, and that free public education (which is mandatory by law) is the best chance those children have of breaking out of a cycle of poverty.  

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Oh, they want to opt out of the portion of their taxes that go to public schools, now I get it. No, I disagree with that too.

Yes Im just teasing you, obviously I would never be so rude :)

"Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss”

John Milton 

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” -  George Bernard Shaw

"What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead" - Nelson Mandela

 

 

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I really don't get why the President of the United States of America is still active on Twitter. This doesn't seem like it will end well for anyone.

Maybe Twitter will ban him. But then again posting FOAF BS or other flavours is what Twitter is mainly used for.

Edited by Malcador

Why has elegance found so little following? Elegance has the disadvantage that hard work is needed to achieve it and a good education to appreciate it. - Edsger Wybe Dijkstra

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I really don't get why the President of the United States of America is still active on Twitter. This doesn't seem like it will end well for anyone.

This has become one of the major criticism from many circles 

 

Trump feels he needs twitter to defend himself from  the media

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"Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss”

John Milton 

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” -  George Bernard Shaw

"What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead" - Nelson Mandela

 

 

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I think Trump just needs to get used to the idea of checks and balances... he found out he can't do everything, unlike when leading a company, and that frustrates him.

Everybody knows the deal is rotten

Old Black Joe's still pickin' cotton

For your ribbons and bows

And everybody knows

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I love how Bush has become  beloved by everybody - even those who  called him every nasty name they are currently calling Trump. I shudder at the thought who will be elected to office in 16 hours that will have everyone start sucking Trump's hands. It is HILARIOUS.

DWARVES IN PROJECT ETERNITY = VOLOURN HAS PLEDGED $250.

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If the public parks are nasty and dangerous then it makes sense to demand your tax money back so you can go to a nice private park, no?

 

Edit: Hilarious: https://twitter.com/conncarroll/status/838180293936807937

Edited by Wrath of Dagon

"Moral indignation is a standard strategy for endowing the idiot with dignity." Marshall McLuhan

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If the public parks are nasty and dangerous then it makes sense to demand your tax money back so you can go to a nice private park, no?

 

Edit: Hilarious: https://twitter.com/conncarroll/status/838180293936807937

Is this true ? How many are we talking about and was the slowdown due to people being deported?

"Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss”

John Milton 

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” -  George Bernard Shaw

"What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead" - Nelson Mandela

 

 

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On Trump's and Boeing's inevitable clash:

 

 

Dear Fellow Aero-Theologians,
 
“God Bless Boeing.” Thus spoke President Trump, on his visit to Boeing Charleston earlier this month. For any business, if a president believes he can bring God’s blessings, it’s best to go along with him. The downside is that any president who believes he can invoke God’s blessings likely believes he can invoke a divine smiting, too. Boeing now finds itself in a dangerous dance with a powerful man who probably doesn’t have their best interests at heart.
 
First, from the outside, this is indeed a Special Relationship. It’s more than a little ironic that Trump used the 787 – an icon of world trade in terms of manufacturing, customer base, and airline routes – as a great American achievement, but that’s another matter. The Charleston visit capped a wave of Trump praise for Boeing products, particularly the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet (at the expense of the F-35). Most notably, Trump included CEO Dennis Muilenburg on his call to F-35 program manager Lt. General Chris Bogdan (www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-02-16/trump-s-f-35-calls-came-with-a-surprise-rival-ceo-was-listening). This serious breach of procedure was probably not at all what Muilenburg wanted, but it illustrates that for Trump, Boeing is his new best friend.
 
I understand how Boeing got here, and why it would want to get away from where it was. Just after the election Trump fabricated a $1 billion cost overrun on Boeing’s Air Force One program, and promised, via tweet, to cancel the order (although there was no order). When told that the program would cost just under $3 billion, rather than his $4 billion figure, Trump quickly claimed credit for saving a pile of money. Clearly, this was both an exercise in self-flattery and corporate intimidation (as with the Carrier factory, Toyota, Ford, and numerous other new Big Government intrusions into the private sector).
 
Boeing responded the best way it could. It did not “negotiate” with a “businessman”. Instead, it flattered. It stroked Trump’s ego. This was what was needed (CNN’s story on this evolution: www.money.cnn.com/2017/02/17/news/companies/boeing-trump-dennis-muilenburg/index.html). Humorously, when it came to Air Force One, while Boeing praised Trump’s intervention (“We made some great progress on simplifying requirements for Air Force One, streamlining the process, streamlining certification” Muilenburg told Bloomberg), the Air Force said it had no idea what Trump was talking about (see www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-02-22/air-force-stumped-by-trump-s-claim-of-1-billion-savings-on-jet ) . Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin quickly changed course, stopped “negotiating” and started following Boeing’s flattery. This worked well, with the F-35 going from “out of control” to a “great plane” after Trump “fixed” it.
 
First, perceived cronyism does the system no good at all. Whether Boeing’s competitors strike back, or whether Pentagon officials strike back, someone is going to strike back at any company that is perceived of as having an unfair advantage, or even the perception of one.
 
But most of all, populist politicians can turn quickly from friend to foe, especially when – not if – Boeing’s interest’s diverge from Trump’s. I can see four areas of possible tension:
 
Border Adjustment Tax. Boeing has backed this appallingly bad idea, hoping that export tax breaks will compensate for the higher cost (20%) of stuff it imports. It’s hard to tell if Boeing thinks it will actually come out ahead, or if this is just a way for them to find an accommodation with Trump’s nationalist economic agenda. But most economists also think it will result in a considerably stronger dollar (10-20%). Since 85% of BCA jetliners are exported, this currency appreciation would increase the relative cost of US goods for most of their customer base. If Boeing finds this tax to be a much worse idea than they anticipated, the result could be friction with a key Trump America First objective. 
 
Airline Protectionism. Trump is the best chance for the US major airlines to stop the Gulf carriers, and Norwegian, and anybody else, from gaining more access to the US market. If Delta and the others succeed and Open Skies are pushed back, key foreign carriers could retaliate by switching from Boeing to Airbus. As I noted last month, the strong majority of 777X orders are from the three Gulf carriers targeted by these airline protectionist moves.
 
China Import Tariff. While running for president, Trump threatened a 45% tariff on all Chinese imports. So far, there has been very little difference between Trump the campaigner and Trump the president. A move like this is just a matter of time. It would immediately produce a trade war. An obvious target for a China retaliatory move would be jetliners, with orders shifted from Boeing to Airbus. About 20% of BCA’s jetliner output goes to China. By some accounts, Trump’s anti-Air Force One broadside happened because Muilenburg spoke against trade barriers; if the company pushes back against a Trump China tariff (as it must) it could be back to Square One with Trump…or worse.
 
Super Hornets To India. The Indian Navy and Air Force have large fighter requirements, and the F/A-18E/F will go after both. This will involve substantial offset work – major work packages at the least, and perhaps an in-country final assembly line. Will Trump understand that this is the price of doing business there? At his Boeing visit, Trump reiterated his campaign pledge that a company that lays off American workers to move to another country will face a “substantial penalty” when trying to sell to the US. Trump has been eagerly (and falsely) taking credit for renewed USN Super Hornet purchases; he might just decide to bring God’s blessings to Lockheed Martin and the F-35 instead.
 
The overarching theme with these likely conflicts is globalization. Boeing is a global company. Free trade and open borders are essential to its future – selling jets across borders, to airlines moving people across borders. The Trump Administration is all about America First. A clash between Boeing and Trump is basically inevitable. The company may then find that its new best friend becomes its new worst enemy. Random tweets like Trump’s Air Force One “cancellation” can temporarily hurt a company’s share price; a concerted anti-Boeing vendetta is a far graver threat. To put it another way, hell hath no fury like a politician scorned.
 
February Aircraft Binder updates include the Fighter Overview, 777, 787, F-16, A350XWB, and both Challenger reports. I hope the year has begun well for you.
 
Yours, ‘Til Marine Le Pen Blesses Airbus Too,
Richard Aboulafia
Edited by Agiel
Quote
“Political philosophers have often pointed out that in wartime, the citizen, the male citizen at least, loses one of his most basic rights, his right to life; and this has been true ever since the French Revolution and the invention of conscription, now an almost universally accepted principle. But these same philosophers have rarely noted that the citizen in question simultaneously loses another right, one just as basic and perhaps even more vital for his conception of himself as a civilized human being: the right not to kill.”
 
-Jonathan Littell <<Les Bienveillantes>>
Quote

"The chancellor, the late chancellor, was only partly correct. He was obsolete. But so is the State, the entity he worshipped. Any state, entity, or ideology becomes obsolete when it stockpiles the wrong weapons: when it captures territories, but not minds; when it enslaves millions, but convinces nobody. When it is naked, yet puts on armor and calls it faith, while in the Eyes of God it has no faith at all. Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of Man...that state is obsolete."

-Rod Serling

 

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If the public parks are nasty and dangerous then it makes sense to demand your tax money back so you can go to a nice private park, no?

 

Edit: Hilarious: https://twitter.com/conncarroll/status/838180293936807937

Is this true ? How many are we talking about and was the slowdown due to people being deported?

 

I think it's just theoretical at this point.

 

 

If the public parks are nasty and dangerous then it makes sense to demand your tax money back so you can go to a nice private park.

Do you actually buy that?

 

I wouldn't say it if I didn't. I was just pointing out that the situation isn't as unreasonable as it was portrayed in the ad. If you mean about the schools, then yes, many schools are nasty and dangerous. I understand it's more complex than just "it's all the schools' fault".

 

Edit: lol, we need some spikes on that wall: http://www.breitbart.com/border/2017/03/04/mexican-politician-climbed-border-fence-call-trumps-wall/

Edited by Wrath of Dagon

"Moral indignation is a standard strategy for endowing the idiot with dignity." Marshall McLuhan

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I wouldn't say it if I didn't. I was just pointing out that the situation isn't as unreasonable as it was portrayed in the ad. If you mean about the schools, then yes, many schools are nasty and dangerous. I understand it's more complex than just "it's all the schools' fault".

 

 

So the military is 'unready' and you want to throw another 54 billion dollars at it, but our schools are 'nasty and dangerous' and so you want to take money away from them. Okey dokey.

 

Can I get a voucher for sending money to a private security company? These guys get the job done:

 

metavira_01.png

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Just don't hire Ivan or Igor Dolvich, you'd be asking for trouble.

 

Because Obama can't wiretap his Twitter or something

 

To be fair, I'd bet pretty much anything that he was (and is) being tapped. I don't doubt that Obama didn't order it though- he wouldn't need to.

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