politbureau's comments

"An Israeli-style surgical strike against North Korean nuclear sites could cost huge numbers of civilian lives and start a cataclysmic war."

An Israeli "surgical strike" against Iran's nuclear facilities would likewise cost huge numbers of civilian lives, risk radioactive contamination and uranium poisoning of large swaths of the world's primary oil producing region, likely push the world economy into depression as oil supplies were seriously disrupted, and risk turning the two on-going quagmires in the Middle East into one great clash of civilizations but that isn't really stopping anyone, is it?

And as far as North Korea's crude nuclear weapons (or not) being a deterrent how is that so given that they're not yet deliverable. Sounds more like an excuse to just throw up one's diplomatic hands and continue pretending that Iran is the real threat to the world rather than North Korea with its Nazi-style death camps and admitted nuclear weapons program.

A nation of Walmart greeters and burger flippers can ill afford both basic science and the PNAC Middle East policy simultaneously, particularly since whatever funding there is is primarily borrowed from overseas.

How could you, as a profession, have missed the onset of the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression until it was upon us? Wouldn't a real profession with real predictive tools at least have had some sort of clue at to what was about to happen?

As it was the few economists who warned of impending turmoil were marginalized and ignored by their colleagues.

I'd say some sort of convincing explanation is in order before those of us with real professions are left with no choice but to dismiss your lot as mere wannabes who've somehow managed to convince others to pay them good money for what amounts to -- in the end -- little more than predicting the future after it's happened.

FYI the root problem is that it's too expensive to create wealth in the U.S. so jobs have vanished. It's too expensive because public and private special interests have larded up the wealth creation process to the point where it's more efficient to do the work elsewhere.

The special interests won't relinquish their stranglehold for any reason as banal as the common good and the majority outliers aren't perceptive enough and focused enough to break their grip. It's also a delusion to believe that the good old days will reappear on their own.

The only alternatives are to become highly skilled in a profession employers actually want to pay for or to leave the United States for those parts of the world where it's cost effective to create wealth and so the window of opportunity is wider.

That's all there is to it. Everything else is just static.

"The whole of Gaza's civilian population is being punished for acts for which they bear no responsibility. The closure therefore constitutes a collective punishment imposed in clear violation of Israel's obligations under international humanitarian law."
-- International Committee of the Red Cross, June 2010

"I have been to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and I have witnessed the racially segregated roads and housing that reminded me so much of the conditions we experienced in South Africa under the racist system of Apartheid. I have witnessed the humiliation of Palestinian men, women, and children made to wait hours at Israeli military checkpoints routinely when trying to make the most basic of trips to visit relatives or attend school or college, and this humiliation is familiar to me and the many black South Africans who were corralled and regularly insulted by the security forces of the Apartheid government."
-- Archbishop Desmond Tutu

I'll continue to speak up about Israel's injustices as long as my government continues to fund, arm and morally support them.

Earth to Israel. It's not the 5th century BC any longer.

You've already figured out it's not right to go biblical on adulterers and openly gay people and stone them to death. Now it's time to plant the other foot firmly in the 21st century and stop treating your neighbors like caged animals.

The five "commandments" of Chinese culture are -- as far as I can tell after having lived in Asia for twelve years:

1) Thou shalt take the path of least resistance.

2) Honor thine family as if thine life depended on it.

3) Thou shalt not miss a meal because the next famine may be just around the corner.

4) And educated child is worth more than money in the bank.

5) Thee impede, therefore thee exist.

An oddly enough, despite all the hoopla in the U.S. about it being the land of the free and the cradle of democracy, I feel far freer in Asia these days than I do in America under lockdown.