[Ron Paul Institute] In the last several days, North and South Korea have agreed to hold high-level talks, to re-establish a direct communication link, and to participate in the coming winter Olympic games. Taken together it appears a significant step toward reducing tensions on the peninsula and reducing the risk of catastrophic war. You would think the US would be pleased at the developments and hopeful that diplomacy might take over from saber-rattling. But you would be wrong. US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has poured cold water on the developments, screeching that North Korea must first give up its nuclear program before talks can even take place. For more, tune in to today's Liberty Report:
#4
Seems like the North are trying to drive a wedge between South Korea and US and Haley doesn't want to let off the current pressure as it might be working.
#6
Don't be such h8ters! Sure, Pudge has cheated or reneged on every deal he has ever made, but *this* time Lucy will let Charlie Brown kick the football. No, really. I mean it. This is my sincere face!
#9
Oil interdictions are biting, and the ship to ship cheating has been made public, further limiting the sheer volume of cheating that can be done. He is spending whatever cash his drug-running and counterfeiting brings in for the missile programs to the point that his front-line, elite, border troops are starving, parasite riddled and now deserting. The soft tummy rub opening is meant to buy time, and Trump needed to let the SKORs have the Olympics. Had the threat now been postponed, a lot of people wouldn't come and Seoul would lokk very bad. Sadly, in the middle of the Olympics, look for a Nork power display since they are a one-trick pony ....for the last 60 years. As an aside, why is the USS Pueblo still floating? Surely its sinking might make a point since it is after all, our property
#12
Was there in '88 for the Summer Olympics. Semi-confinded to camp, no exercises or major movements in order to avoid upsetting the 'guests'. Could go to the events, but only in civies.
h/t Instapundit
[Bloomberg] It's hard to find controlled experiments in finance. But they exist. East and West Germany, North and South Korea, Chile and Venezuela. In crossing a border, you can immediately see the difference in economic output and financial well-being from one country to the next, based on variations in tax and regulatory policy.
The same goes for within the U.S. Tax policy drives economic behavior in this country, because people respond to incentives. As taxes in high-tax states have gone higher, there's been a migration out of states like New York, New Jersey and California, and into places like Texas and Florida.
...With the proposed Republican tax reform bill comes a $10,000 limit on state and local tax deductions for individuals. Some of the impact has been offset by lower marginal tax rates, but the net effect makes low-tax states more attractive on a relative basis, which is a bit of an understatement: The difference between living in New Jersey and living in Florida could amount to tens of thousands of dollars for high-income households.
...My prediction: Over time, New York City will lose its status as the intellectual and cultural capital of America. The real estate market in California, at stretched valuations, will suffer. Minnesota, Oregon, Iowa, Maine and others will also feel the pain. Florida and Texas will become the new centers of finance and innovation, with real estate values in Austin and Miami -- and even Nashville -- reaching valuations once reserved for California and New York over the course of a few decades.
#1
Nah. The elites in NYC/LA can happily afford the huge prices. In fact, they like it because it keeps us out. The people who move to Texas/Florida/etc are the rank and file leftists, who will infect their new hosts with the same bullshit that they were fleeing - high taxes, rampant crime, etc.
Posted by: Herb McCoy7309 ||
01/04/2018 3:40 Comments ||
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#2
Of bigger concern is how the leadership of high-tax states will respond. If individuals and businesses leave, eroding the tax base, states will face a choice between cutting spending or raising taxes.......I doubt many have the desire to cut services when faced with net migration out of the state.
Hence the desire of the left to embrace the undocumented illegal. Representative government is dependent upon a constituency. Numbers also effect federal funding.
#3
Politicians in California love to talk about the need for affordable housing. But the minute they slap the property taxes on a plot of land it is no longer affordable.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/04/2018 10:19 Comments ||
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#4
But the minute they slap the property taxes on a plot of land it is no longer affordable.
If not property use taxes, then regulations can be enacted to make building impossible and increased the "rent" elsewhere.
#5
Nope. Both states have legal provisions preventing seizing property for non payment of debt, and caps on maximum interest charged in financing. It's why your credit card banks are run out of South Dakota, Utah, and Delaware.
The big banks don't like them.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
01/04/2018 16:07 Comments ||
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#6
A large minority of California votes Republican. I suspect they would lead the way to Texas and they are also unlikely to demand the type of insane laws that drove them away.
Most leftists would do whatever they could to avoid Texas. If they left California they'd probably head to another solid blue state if at all possible.
#7
RJ, you've evidently not followed events out of Austin, a/k/a The People's Republic of Travis County.
As a for instance, how about: smoking wood fires in a barbeque pit are now against their air pollution laws.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
01/04/2018 18:37 Comments ||
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[ARABNEWS] In his magnum opus "Strategic Depth," Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... ’s top foreign policy adviser Ahmet Davutoglu predicted that one day popular uprisings would bring down authoritarian regimes in neighboring countries. He believed that a new "pan-Islamist" politicianship friendly to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... ’s ruling Justice and Development Party would lead the masses in those countries. Davutoglu felt that Turkey should not remain confined to its current borders. He envisaged that a regional order led by Turkey would emerge on the back of these uprisings. From the vantage point of 2012, when Erdogan was still prime minister of Turkey and Davutoglu his foreign minister, this grand vision was nearly realized. In Tunisia and Egypt, the Moslem Brüderbund assumed power via the ballot box and began its efforts to transform state structures in accordance with its political agenda. In Libya and Syria, Islamist movements supported by Turkey dominated the battlefield.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
01/04/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Qisas provides for the aggrieved to have the right to inflict injuries equal to those sustained by the victim, though such verdicts have never been handed out through formal courts. Diyat allows the offender to provide compensation or blood money for the crime to the victim’s family. The law privatises the crime, the state becomes a passive observer as people make independent decisions on whether the killing of citizens should be punished, forgiven or bargained over.
The provision to forgive murders has been particularly harmful for women. With interfamily marriages being so common, women are routinely murdered in the name of ’honour’ by men in their family and the perpetrators forgiven by other men in the family. In countless cases, this has meant a father forgiving his son for killing his daughter, or an uncle forgiving his nephew. After decades of such injustices, there have been recent changes in the law qualifying when diyat is applicable. But the issue did not register in the public consciousness till invoked in two high-profile cases involving the murder of men: Raymond Davis, and now, Shahrukh Jatoi. That diyat protects Pakistain’s rich and powerful at the expense of justice is clear through both cases, but people are hesitant to openly challenge the law given the emotions that erupt at any criticism of laws based on religion.
But the law mirrors the same tribal code prevalent in many parts of the world in the seventh century, including in the nomadic tribal society of Arabia. Diyat was a formula with which tribes could administer justice in a standardised way that did not require the presence of a centralised authority and provided an alternative to vengeance where blood feuds raged. It existed in the form of an important legal mechanism in early Germanic society, and was called weregild in what is today England, ericfine in Ireland, vira in Russia and glowsczyzna in Poland. It was a critical part of Teutonic laws in the Frankish Salic Code applicable in what is today La Belle France, Netherlands and Belgium, and it continued to be in effect till the Holy Roman Empire put an end to it in the 12th century.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
01/04/2018 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Washington has been the largest international donor to the PA since the early 90's with over $5 billion in USAID funds alone -- and that's only half the story
The United States is by far the largest donor of financial aid to the Paleostinians, with this assistance touching nearly every aspect of life in the Paleostinian Authority. But US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... threatened on Tuesday to end this aid to the Paleostinians, angered by Ramallah’s refusal to cooperate with the US’s efforts to jump-start Israeli-Paleostinian peace talks after he declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel in December.
Continued on Page 49
#5
As I learned in Econ 101 50 years ago, money is fungible. For every dollar given to the Paleos it means there's one other dollar freed up to buy bullets.
#6
Ålanc you are correct. When the US cash pays for their clinics, courtrooms, and fire services it free up the money to pay the families of terrorists killed in service and to pay for future terrorist operations.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
01/04/2018 9:27 Comments ||
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[Guardian] Alcohol can cause irreversible genetic damage to the body’s reserve of stem cells, according to a study that helps explain the link between drinking and cancer.
The research, using genetically modified mice, provides the most compelling evidence to date that alcohol causes cancer by scrambling the DNA in cells, eventually leading to deadly mutations.
During the past decade, there has been mounting evidence of the link between drinking and the risk of certain cancers.
"How exactly alcohol causes damage to us is controversial," said Prof Ketan Patel, who led the work at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. "This paper provides very strong evidence that an alcohol metabolite causes DNA damage [including] to the all-important stem cells that go on to make tissues."
The study builds on previous work that had pinpointed a breakdown product of alcohol, called acetaldehyde, as a toxin that can damage the DNA within cells. However, these earlier studies had relied on extremely high concentrations of acetaldehyde and used cells in a dish rather than tracking its effects within the body.
The latest work showed that acetaldehyde slices through DNA, causing permanent damage, if the effects of the toxin are not neutralised by two natural defence mechanisms. The first tier of defence clears away the acetaldehyde and the second repairs the DNA damage.
[PJ] Before we wax too eloquent about the democratic aspirations of the great Iranian people, we should keep in the mind that the most probable scenario for Iran under any likely regime is a sickening spiral into poverty and depopulation. Iran has the fastest-aging population of any country in the world, indeed, the fast-aging population of any country in history. It has the highest rate of venereal disease infection and the highest rate of infertility of any country in the world. It has a youth unemployment rate of 35% (adjusted for warehousing young people in state-run diploma mills). And worst of all, it has run out of water.
We might be observing the birth of Iranian democracy in the protests of the past few weeks, but it is more likely that we are watching the slow-motion train wreck of a once-great nation in all its gory detail. As I noted in an Asia Times analysis this morning, the most violent protests, e.g. the burning of a police station near Isfahan captured on this video, happened in the boondocks where water has run out. The river that runs through Isfahan, a legendary city of gardens in the desert, literally has run dry. Some Iranian officials warn that tens of millions of Iranians will have to leave their homes for lack of water. The country has used up 70% of its groundwater and its literally drying up major rivers to maintain consumption. It's the worst ecological disaster in modern history.
The Islamic Revolution presided over an orgy of corruption, brutality, and mismanagement. Despite the Obama administration's cash infusion and the lifting of sanctions on oil exports, the government is nearly bankrupt. It has allowed several major banks to fail, wiping out the savings of millions of depositors, after the banks lent vast sums to regime cronies for real estate speculation. Forty-five percent of Iranian bank loans are toxic and the cost of cleaning up the bank mess is estimated at half of GDP (to put that in perspective, the U.S. Treasury set aside $700 billion, or 1/20th of U.S. GDP, to bail out the banks in 2008, and needed only a fraction of it. The Iranian banking crisis is a full order of magnitude worse than the U.S. 2008 crisis).
Iran's pension funds, as I report in Asia Times, are bankrupt. The civil service pension fund has only 100 employees paying in for every 120 employees receiving a pension. The government is on the hook for the rest.
Add up the costs of dealing with the water emergency, the bank crisis and the pension crisis, and Iran is close to broke. And that's just the beginning: The average working-age Iranian today comes from a family of seven children, but has fewer than two children. That means that when the older generation retires, there will be fewer than two new entrants into the workforce to pay for the pensions of seven retirees. The demographic crisis hasn't hit yet, and when it does, it will be the financial equivalent of an asteroid hitting Iran.
In other words, Iran's exhaustion of physical as well as human capital may have pushed it past the point of no return.
Iran has plenty of smart people, and two of the best engineering universities in the world, except virtually all the top graduates leave the country. There probably is a theoretical way out of Iran's economic spiral, but no collection of Shi'ite mullahs is going to find it. The most likely outcome is that Iran will undergo economic and social collapse.
That, sadly, is the norm in human history. The democracy first practiced by the Greek city-state is exceptional, and classical Greece is Exhibit A for civilizational self-destruction. Of the nearly 150,000 languages once spoken on this planet, a couple of thousand are left, and 90% of those will fall silent forever during the next century or so. Sometimes the best thing you can do for dying civilizations is, don't be one of them, as I wrote in my 2011 book, How Civilizations Die.
This makes the mullahs all the more dangerous, like a bank robber with a brain tumor who takes hostages. I sincerely wish a happy outcome for the people of Persia. But we need to be prepared for a very unhappy one. If only they didn't have nukes, I really wouldn't care.
#1
Since the UN has been responsible for STOPPING most wars before the greater power can finish the conflict, and the UN is now basically irrelevant, the dictators of the world might want to reconsider their attitudes.
[WSJ] Iran erupted last Thursday. By Friday, the protests against the government, which began in Mashhad near the Afghan border, had spread to dozens of cities. So when we traveled on Saturday to a movie theater on Manhattan’s Lower East Side to see "Darkest Hour," Gary Oldman’s portrayal of Winston Churchill, imagine the jarring dislocation when the theater’s previews included a trailer for an admiring documentary of Barack Obama’s foreign-policy making, "The Final Year."
The preview screen filled with expressions of earnest intent from Mr. Obama, Susan Rice, Samantha Power, Ben Rhodes and the Iran nuclear deal’s handmaiden, John Kerry. About 100 minutes later, we were watching Churchill shout at his war cabinet that you cannot do deals with dictators. That would have been about the time this weekend that protesters in Iran were shouting "Death to Khamenei !" It’s nice to see the Iranian people have a sense of humor.
Producing the past week’s protests against the Iranian regime was not the goal of the six-party Iran nuclear deal. Back then, the Khamenei-Rouhani regime was represented as America’s partner in a good cause. Now the governments of the U.S., U.K., France and Germany (Russia is a Khamenei ally, and China only supports crackdowns) have to decide whether their Iranian partner is the people in the streets or the government that is shooting them.
In the preview of "The Final Year," the Obama team members convey confidence in the rightness of everything they did. But as we learned in November 2016, there was one big thing the Obama people never understood: how a real economy works. By real economy, I mean the private economy, not the economy of public spending.
A central element of the nuclear deal was that it would "help" the Iranian people by lifting sanctions and injecting $100 billion of unfrozen assets into Iran’s economy. This was much the same economic theory behind the Obama administration’s 2009 injection of $832 billion into the U.S. economy. Both flopped because both made the real economy essentially a bystander to state guidance.
The Obama $832 billion went up the government’s fireplace flue. The Iranian $100 billion went into ballistic missile production and for Iran’s proxies in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
The moment has arrived for invidious comparisons.
Donald Trump is president because the Obama-Clinton Democrats forgot about hard-pressed voters in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. The Khamenei-Rouhani regime is under assault because working-class Iranians began this week’s revolt in cities beyond the capital.
Come to think of it, isn’t that disconnect between the people running governments and the people trying to make a living in the real economy the core reason behind the world-wide burst of populism?
It’s the reason France’s working-class voters and young, underemployed college graduates sent Emmanuel Macron and a heretofore nonexistent party into the French presidency. It’s the reason working-class Brits lunged for Brexit. This new global reality‐perform or get shoved aside‐is the reason Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohammed bin Salman imposed reforms.
The Iranians shouting, "Leave Syria, think of us!" are the West Virginia coal miners shouting, "Make America Great Again." That’s not yahooism. It is anxiety directed at incumbent elites who tell the public that reduced levels of economic growth are the new normal. The world’s populations will not accept that.
Iran‐like North Korea‐has taken its best and brightest and stuck them inside a mountain to build atomic bombs, leaving the economy in the hands of Brussels-grade technocrats.
Besides calling for higher taxes in its recent budget, even as prices have spiked for basic foodstuff, Hassan Rouhani’s government has pursued import-substitution policies by imposing high tariffs on many imported goods. Needless to say, Iranians can’t get the clothing, appliances and electronics they want.
To combat a massive cellphone-smuggling operation, Iran recently slapped a 5% duty on them atop the 9% value-added tax and required registration with Iran’s telecom user database. Now, millions of smuggled phones will make it harder for the ayatollahs to kill texting among protesters. The bazaar may prove stronger than the theocracy.
A theme now emerging in Western media is that if Europe’s leaders support President Trump’s "aggressive" posture toward Tehran, that will undermine both the sanctified Obama nuclear deal and support for "liberals" in the Rouhani government. This is where we came in, watching Winston Churchill convince a timid British establishment that an outward-moving dictatorship won’t stop at anyone’s border.
The moment has arrived to admit that Iran’s missiles, nuclear technology and armies won’t stay inside its borders until the people getting shot in the streets are recognized and supported by a too-timid world.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
[IsraelTimes] Washington has been the largest international donor to the PA since the early 90's with over $5 billion in USAID funds alone -- and that's only half the story
How much aid does the US give Palestinians, and what’s it for?
[Guardian] Alcohol can cause irreversible genetic damage to the body’s reserve of stem cells, according to a study that helps explain the link between drinking and cancer.
