Alaskan Politics (statewide and nationwide) (religious, immigration, mountains)

[Moose Whisperer]

Originally Posted by Captain Crunch

Damn....the moose agrees with something...thats progress

Sorry! I promise it won't happen again!

[Geechie North]

Originally Posted by Alaskagrl

From that excerpt, Geech, it is not evident what the writer's conclusions are.

However, after Googling Batra and reading some of the intro, I'll pontificate on it a bit, though this probably should be moved to the general politics thread/econ.

Batra's premise is that "free trade" is bad. What he seems to espouse is the economic theory of "protectionism"-- not sure if that's an accepted economic theory or his own invention. His explanation of protectionism is that "domestic industries should be shielded from foreign competition" by instilling quotas and tariffs. Hmmm. So is he saying that America should make any foreign competitive product so expensive that we are FORCED to buy American? Wouldn't that defeat the concepts of improvement, quality control, not to mention monopolies?

Usually citizens don't like those concepts too much, and black markets are the next place people go to get what they can't --only instead of getting "bad" stuff like weapons, kidneys, little girls--Protectionism would encourage a black market that sold foreign versions of American products for cheaper--and the foreign products might well be better quality. One result might be that these black markets would then require more law enforcement, government regulatory entities--back to Big Brother becoming even bigger, in the long run.

This is pretty dangerous stuff; however, I need to read way more before I make a judgement. I will say that Bratva sounds extremly egotistical and that does put me off; here's a quote "I predicted the collapse of both capitalism and communism by the year 2000" --by the way he was dead wrong about capitalism. He goes on to say that his extraordinary foresight and intuition about these concepts "had the ability to shape the destiny of nations" and that he felt a "moral responsibility" to put his career on the line and write it anyway.

Such egotism really puts one off, no matter what the content. What arrogance and supreme condescension to believe you alone hold the key to global economic security. But, I'll read on.

Suggest you look at this to better grasp what has been going on. Couple of things about "protectionism" and economists:


http://74.125.95.104/search?q=cache:...nk&cd=29&gl=us

A. From 1790-1973, we were a "protectionist" ( I call it "Algebraically logical") country; that is we protected our production from low wage countries by tariffs. To show you how far back that goes, it's called the "Hamilton (as in Alexander) Plan".
This is not a radical idea. Japan, the EU, China, Korea, all are protectionist.
Monoplies are dealt with by these countries (and used to be by US) by various means: Japan uses cut-throat internal competition among monoplies. We used to have a Securities and Exchange Commission and Justice Dept which regulated market shares and industry consolidation.

Then came Ronnie Reagan.

B. The are many economists who support some form of protectionism; Bluestone, Peterson, come to mind.

But you will never see these guys on corporate tv because it's not good for the top 10% in our society. The problem is one of standards: the guys (and gals) you never see are correct a high % of the time, but never get airtime. Opposite applies to the usual suspects: lots of airtime, but hardly ever correct in what they say.
In fact, something like 90% of your favorite tele-economists said there was little chance of recession in 2000 when the numbers alter said one was already underway.

As for Batra being egotistical:

http://www.amazon.com/Downfall-Capit.../dp/0939352095

If you do what you say you do, it ain't ego.

[DreamChasers8]

Originally Posted by Geechie North

Samuel Joesph Wurzelbacker, aka "Joe the Plumber" is a cartoon character of the McCain campaign's creatiion.

Not a plumber, not a "Joe", not planning to buy a business, a NOT getting a tax increase under Obama's plan, he's as authentic as "Sidney" McCain's claim he is a "maverick".

Obama has been vetted. The media found he went to elementary school in Indonesia, served on a board with a college prof who was a 60's radical, and is 50% black.

yeah and that tells us everything we need to know, right?

[starlite9]

Originally Posted by Geechie North

Suggest you take a basic course in public polling and statistical sampling, because in all honesty what yolu say makes zero sense, methodology wise.

Wasn't suppose to if you had to ask the question....

[starlite9]

Originally Posted by Floyd_Davidson

That was exactly my point.

First, calling what someone says "stupid" is not a personal insult, it does not imply much less explicitly say that the person who said it is stupid (granted that someone who repeatedly says stupid things probably is...), and worse yet when this description of "stupid" is in fact backed up with "peer-based resources", it is precisely the kind of objective article that should be posted.

On the other hand, folks here get admonished for that sort of thing if and only if it is a conservative who's statement is described as "stupid". So called "name calling", even if it is not name calling, is frowned on by anyone labeled "liberal".

But we have at least three "conservatives" who get downright personal with name calling in virtually every article they post. Everyone and everything they disagree with is called several insulting names, including candidates, neighbors, and other posters.

As to posting "peer-based resources", note that when someone who is "liberal" does that, what they get is a list of insults for doing so too! One particular individual went on and on in many many posts, first claiming that I could not possibly be in Barrow, could not possibly write as well as I do (and therefore had to have copied it from the Anchorage Daily News), and when I do post quotes (which are always clearly marked as exactly that) he goes on and on about "cut and paste" as if it is a bad thing to use facts to form an opinion, and even worse to post facts here to help others form valid opinions too! He also repeatedly claimed that I had said things which were almost precisely the opposite of what I actually had said.

That is the sort of non-objective trash which does not belong in any articles, political or otherwise, posted to forums. The forum rules prohibit such posts! But the forum rules are never enforced on people who lean conservative... (On many forums you'll get warned just once for posting that sort of thing, and the next one causes expulsion.)

If you have to "Cut and Paste" to form/frame an Opinion, you didn't have one to start with.

Copying other's opinions/stories to prop up what you say isn't proper and never has been.

You discribed yourself to a "T" in the first Paragraph, way to go!

[Captain Crunch]

Originally Posted by Moose Whisperer

Sorry! I promise it won't happen again!

Thanks moose....on the 5th we'll have entirely different topics to move forward with

[Metlakatla]

Met, the post just above yours is a leftie calling the moderator stupid...well he said that he is not intelligent, which is the same thing.

He hasn't been here that long; he's only adhering to what is accepted practice here.

By the way, neither he or I are "lefties" in any traditional stereotypical sense of the word. Actually, this forum is pretty much the only place I've ever been described as that...interesting, or it would be if I gave much of a damn about this place anymore.

[Captain Crunch]

Originally Posted by Marty Van Diest

Met, the post just above yours is a leftie calling the moderator stupid...well he said that he is not intelligent, which is the same thing.

Thanks for pointing that out Marty, you're on top of your game.....

Care to expand on how you came to the conclusion that I might be a leftie....?

[Captain Crunch]

This does a great job at covering Ted's career...

Ted Stevens - Dickipedia - A Wiki of Dicks


http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77/SpoofCatcher/TedStevens-10-1.jpg (broken link)

[icarian]

Originally Posted by Captain Crunch

Care to expand on how you came to the conclusion that I might be a leftie....?

Brother, you're joking right?