Bo-Jo goes down and other political meanderings

[AnalogPackrat]

How do you see small government handling large (global) corporations though?

With meaningful anti-trust regulation that is enforced. And I agree that multinational corporations are a huge problem.

There's some appeal to the small government idea, but my feeling is that while governments can be wasteful and can be corrupted to varying degrees, large business *really* can't be trusted to have the best interests of the citizen at heart.

Large government has plenty of places for corporate influence to take hold and is certainly no guarantee against corruption. Any large concentration of power is dangerous.

This is why I disagree about the EU. The EU (for all its many faults) has the teeth to be able to challenge and fight against corporate greed, corporate corruption etc partly because of its size. The whole is stronger than the sum of the parts etc.

In the past decade or two the EU has done some good against some corporations, but others not so much. The problem with the EU is that is now a huge unelected bureaucracy rather than an economic consortium. It has grown and metastasized like government (and corporate) power always has.

 

[ruffrecords]

Yes, Blair was very bad on many levels.

Agreed.

But Johnson, I think, is the type for whom the means almost always justify the ends, and the ends are almost always his own narrow self-interest. That's why he got compared to Trump so often, for whom, of course, the two "almost" in the before sentence may be discarded.

I disagree. He finally got us out of the EU, not really in his self interest since it is the Remoaners who have since hounded him out of office. And he got us the Covid vaccine in quantities despite, or perhaps because of nearly dying of Covid himself. The red wall is not at all pleased bu his ousting. He was never a friend of Trump. As foreigjh secretary he got a lot of stick from the US press after calling Trump a buffoon (or something similar). After that, Trump was just another dickhead he had to deal with. Goes with the job.

Cheers

Ian

 

[living sounds]

I disagree. He finally got us out of the EU, not really in his self interest since it is the Remoaners who have since hounded him out of office.

But at the time he was riding the populist rightwing anti-EU wave. Opportunism is in his bones, I think, and in the end the chickens just came home to roost.

He was never a friend of Trump. As foreigjh secretary he got a lot of stick from the US press after calling Trump a buffoon (or something similar). After that, Trump was just another dickhead he had to deal with. Goes with the job.

I didn't say he was a friend of Trump, but he got compared to him a lot because many similarities in MO. But in some ways they're vastly different characters. If I had to choose to have a drink with one of those two it would, of course, be Johnson.

 

[rob_gould]

In the past decade or two the EU has done some good against some corporations, but others not so much. The problem with the EU is that is now a huge unelected bureaucracy rather than an economic consortium. It has grown and metastasized like government (and corporate) power always has.

???

The EU parliament is made up of members of European parliament that are voted in by the citizens of member states. There are issues with how the representation works to some extent, but no more so than..... the United Kingdom to pick an example not really at random

It's also interesting that you say it's not an economic consortium. Most people's complaints about it are broadly around the fact that that's all it is these days. You probably already know that after ww2 the goal was to create an organisation to prevent such a war from ever breaking out in Europe again - that was the initial mandate. The mandate has changed since those early days to primarily focus on economic prosperity, and free movement of people and the single currency had the primary goal of increasing economic output and trade between member states. Whether that's worked or not depends on how you measure success, but all this stuff about unelected bureaucrats stubbornly making the lives of the working people unnecessarily harder through red tape etc is mostly nonsense.

 

[AnalogPackrat]

???

Smaller countries have proportionally smaller representation and very little power.

The EU parliament is made up of members of European parliament that are voted in by the citizens of member states. There are issues with how the representation works to some extent, but no more so than..... the United Kingdom to pick an example not really at random

I'm not a fan of your system, either. But at least your national sovereignty isn't surrendered to others disparate interests.

It's also interesting that you say it's not an economic consortium.

I didn't say that. I said that's all it was originally supposed to be.

Most people's complaints about it are broadly around the fact that that's all it is these days. You probably already know that after ww2 the goal was to create an organisation to prevent such a war from ever breaking out in Europe again - that was the initial mandate. The mandate has changed since those early days to primarily focus on economic prosperity, and free movement of people and the single currency had the primary goal of increasing economic output and trade between member states. Whether that's worked or not depends on how you measure success, but all this stuff about unelected bureaucrats stubbornly making the lives of the working people unnecessarily harder through red tape etc is mostly nonsense.

Well, that's not my impression of how it's working. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. I'll follow my own advice and butt out of the EU and UK's business (until they negatively impact us here in the USA). Good luck!

 

[ruffrecords]

But at the time he was riding the populist rightwing anti-EU wave. Opportunism is in his bones, I think, and in the end the chickens just came home to roost.

I disagree with that analysis. The anti EU wave was certainly not solely right wing. That's what the destruction of the red wall demonstrated.

I didn't say he was a friend of Trump, but he got compared to him a lot because many similarities in MO. But in some ways they're vastly different characters. If I had to choose to have a drink with one of those two it would, of course, be Johnson.

Apologies, I misread your post. I do not recall him being compared to Trump over here. Maybe that happened in the USA. I agree I would prefer a drink with Boris. I am actually sorry to see him go. Despite his flaws he got a lot of useful things done. I dread to think how pathetic his successor will be.

Cheers

Ian

 

[Tubetec]

Apparently theres a working class Tory lady stepping up to the mark , I think I heard her on the radio today , she doesnt really sound working class to me , more middle ,quite well spoken too but obviously not plucked from the Eton set , like so many of the UK's past leaders .
I have a few good friends came through from what seemed like a previledged life , ie private boarding schools , wealth going back generations , life in the boarding school was akin to prison for teenagers , you were measured by the number of zeros on daddys pay check , independantly thinking people often dont come through such educational systems top of the heap , yes men and piss lickers tend to rise higher under those conditions ,

My mom did have aspirations to send me off to a boarding college for the final couple of years of my secondary education , just as well because of circumstance I took a rain check on that otherwise I'd have shut the place down Kieth Moon style when I realised what was really going on behind the scenes .
A small fire cracker with a water resistant fuse flushed down into Victorian clay and cast iron pipe work, it would have been game over , sugar ,shite and salt peter with a strip of magnesium as a fuse in a copper pipe and every shitter in the building would have been out of action for good . You know what the funny thing was , we were once given a school exercise in English class in public speaking , after my delivery to the class about the solar system my teacher suggested I might have a possibillity of career in politics , ahahahah .

Blair and Bush have the blood of millions of people on their hands ,but I think its fair to say they were duped by their advisors who had vested interests in the WAR machine , were talking Cheney , Rumsfeldt and the good guy who was in the bad guys pocket Colin Powell , Alaistair Campbell was instrumental in the Blair camp for many years but I guess he got himself off the hook by admitting he was a drunkard later ,my guess is the darker forces in the good ole' US of A had him by the short and curleys ,like a puppet on a string who Blair trusted implicitly .

Borris the elephant packed his trunk and said goodbye to the circus , off he went with trumpety trump , trump trump trump . -)

 

[AnalogPackrat]

Here's that unelected bureaucracy in action.

https://www.autoweek.com/news/indus...ti-speeding-tech-mandatory-in-european-union/

 

[rob_gould]

Don't take my word for it!

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/21/the-european-parliament-electoral-procedures

 

[AnalogPackrat]

Ok. I should have said "elected" bloataucracy. You got me. Meanwhile your average citizen has to pony up for more unnecessary tech that will also require more maintenance (and taxes) down the road...

 

[JohnRoberts]

Ok. I should have said "elected" bloataucracy. You got me. Meanwhile your average citizen has to pony up for more unnecessary tech that will also require more maintenance (and taxes) down the road...

Instead lets be thankful for what we have...

The recent SCOTUS EPA decision is pushing back against administrative overreach.

JR

 

[iturnknobs]

Instead lets be thankful for what we have...

The recent SCOTUS EPA decision is pushing back against administrative overreach.

JR

Freedom.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/juliec...through-europe-as-deadly-heat-wave-continues/

 

[AnalogPackrat]

Freedom.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/juliec...through-europe-as-deadly-heat-wave-continues/

With decisions like these, you wonder if they can do basic math, much less engineering:

https://www.wired.com/story/europe-nuclear-power-plants/

 

[PermO]

Needs to happen everywhere. Good luck.

Interesting times we live in


I think that's actually a Chinese curse .. "May you live in interesting times"


Indeed, good luck everyone.

 

[iturnknobs]

With decisions like these, you wonder if they can do basic math, much less engineering:

https://www.wired.com/story/europe-nuclear-power-plants/

Believe or not, I agree with you. While I think we, as a race, need to convert over to as much renewable energy as possible. Well regulated nuclear power plants are a good "stepping stone" to get us there. It would appear as if coal-fired plants will be picking up the slack as the Russia/Ukraine energy issue appears to become more problematic over in the EU. Over forty years ago, as a child, I was told they the human race would clean up the environment and do things differently. It would seem we are now going backwards.

 

[scott2000]

the human race would clean up the environment and do things differently. It would seem we are now going backwards

?
There are more houses with solar panels, solar fields, electric cars and cleaner energy plants than in the past here in FL. I think the emissions have been going down for a while.

 

[AnalogPackrat]

Believe or not, I agree with you. While I think we, as a race, need to convert over to as much renewable energy as possible. Well regulated nuclear power plants are a good "stepping stone" to get us there.

It takes years, decades to plan, permit, design, and build nuclear plants. Thanks to ideologues if a certain bent, the US is now in worse shape than before We've spent untold billions on fusion research while ignoring more pragmatic solutions in fission (Thorium being one).

It would appear as if coal-fired plants will be picking up the slack as the Russia/Ukraine energy issue appears to become more problematic over in the EU. Over forty years ago, as a child, I was told they the human race would clean up the environment and do things differently. It would seem we are now going backwards.

I'm older than you and have seen the huge progress we've made. But much of it was simply forcing dirty (but necessary) industry to other places rather than remaining self-sufficient and finding cleaner processes. Steel, metals recycling, refining--much is done elsewhere where regulations are lax and the result is even more pollution. We just don't see it.

Legislatures aren't very good places to do engineering or science. The results are apparent

 

[JohnRoberts]

Believe or not, I agree with you. While I think we, as a race, need to convert over to as much renewable energy as possible. Well regulated nuclear power plants are a good "stepping stone" to get us there. It would appear as if coal-fired plants will be picking up the slack as the Russia/Ukraine energy issue appears to become more problematic over in the EU. Over forty years ago, as a child, I was told they the human race would clean up the environment and do things differently. It would seem we are now going backwards.

I don't think any thoughtful person disagrees with a desire to have more clean energy. The flawed thinking surrounding this issue is the urgency to shut down fossil fuel use before we have a serviceable clean energy supply in place to replace it. It is a well known persuasion strategy to inject urgency to suspend critical thinking (order by midnight tonight to get your free steak knives ).

I have opined before on how the low information voters have been drawn in to join the movement. Fast thinking/slow thinking, the earth is warming so suspend critical thinking about stopping fossil fuel use, plus the kicker of urgency don't think, do something. I have lost count of how many leaders have predicted the end of the world with dates that came and went with only a whimper.

The human race is smart and wealthy enough to adapt to very slow moving effects like sea level rising. It is not an existential event except perhaps to some beach houses.

===

I was critical of Germany shuttering their nuclear plants when it was proposed because it lacked common sense (that is apparently not used to make political decisions). Further I have been critical of the Nord Stream pipeline giving Russia too much leverage over the EU's energy supplies. While this is an easy criticism in hindsight Russia is not a good partner. NATO was created to protect against Russia, and has suddenly become relevant again. Sadly Russia's military adventures are still being funded by energy sales to EU, ( China, and India. )

Ukraine is a mess that should have never happened but we can review that after the killing stops. Russia is clearly being hurt by economic sanctions, but not stopped. The longer this continues Russia will pay a price in lives and treasure, but Ukraine is paying an even higher price. (I saw an article about how much Russian imports of high tech electronics from China has increased since the war.)

====

I have faith in the human race's creativity and inventiveness for solving problems, but instead of managing all aspects of a practical energy future we are single mindedly taking an all of government full court press to suppress the fossil fuel industry. This could end badly but I expect even the low information voters to be waking up so we can reverse this wrong headed course of action soon.

But sadly I am an unrepentant optimist.

JR