Nov 20, 2017 | Politics
https://youtu.be/S-nsU_DaIZE“[H]alf of that greening comes from carbon dioxide itself. In other words, the fact that we're putting more carbon dioxide into the air means there's more fuel to grow plants and when a plant has more carbon dioxide in yet doesn't have to open its pores so much so it doesn't lose so much water in absorbing the carbon dioxide that it needs to grow and so there's tons of experiments now showing that plants grow faster if there's more carbon dioxide in the air; roughly speaking on average for a 200 parts per million increase in carbon dioxide in the air you get a 30% improvement in plant growth. That's experiments both in the field and in the laboratory. So it's really quite a remarkable phenomenon here because of the burning of fossil fuels we're making the planet greener. It's an astonishing discovery I think. I think it's rather amazing and of course it's an incredibly unwelcome discovery for the environmental movement. They don't want to hear this at all and how is it possible…” – Matt Ridley
Nov 20, 2017 | Politics
Writes Peter Schwartz at TheHill on 'America First:' Rethinking the meaning of self-interest:
On his latest foreign trip to Asia, President Trump again invoked the idea of “America first.” As someone who is repelled by Trump and his presidency, I am a little reluctant to justify something he nominally upholds. But, actually, his support for it is all the more reason it needs to be clarified and defended — defended not only against those who criticize it, but against those, like Trump, who embrace it for the wrong reasons.
Schwartz succinctly identifies that "America First" means a policy of "taking action to defend the individual rights of Americans" and that to sacrifice those inalienable rights for "the nation" is a contradiction in terms.
A nation’s self-interest consists of the interests of its citizens. And there is one fundamental social value that is in everyone’s interest: individual freedom. The ultimate goal of American foreign policy — the end to which all alliances and confrontations are the means — is the preservation of Americans’ freedom against attacks from abroad. “America first” is a policy of taking action to defend the individual rights of Americans — the rights to their property, to their liberty, to their lives — when they are physically threatened.Concomitantly, it is a policy of refusing to sacrifice those rights by elevating the needs of other nations above our own.
Schwartz then shows that "Trump’s interpretation of 'America first' is shaped by the collectivist notion of economic nationalism":
A foreign policy based on self-interest, therefore, embraces free trade, with everyone (leaving aside dealings with countries that pose military dangers to us) allowed to seek out the best products at the lowest prices — which is, incidentally, how the entire society prospers. This is radically different from Trump’s outlook. Trump cannot conceive of trade as being mutually beneficial. Instead, he argues that one party’s gain comes only at another’s loss. His ideal is the conniving wheeler-dealer, master of the “art of the deal,” who manages to put one over on his partner. His view of human interaction is that one must be either victimizer or victim, predator or prey. So he calls on the government to intervene and decide who is to be favored and who is to be sacrificed.
Read the rest: 'America First:' Rethinking the meaning of self-interest
Nov 14, 2017 | Business, Politics
From: Richest 1% own over half the world's wealth - Business Insider
The world's richest 1% of families and individuals hold over half of global wealth, according to a new report from Credit Suisse. The report suggests inequality is still worsening some eight years after the worst global recession in decades.[...]"The bottom half of adults collectively own less than 1% of total wealth, the richest decile (top 10% of adults) owns 88% of global assets, and the top percentile alone accounts for half of total household wealth," the Credit Suisse report said.[...]In most countries, including the US, a large wealth gap translates into those at the top accruing political power, which in turn can lead to policies that reinforce benefits for the wealthy.
The real question is: how many used political power to acquire wealth as opposed to honestly producing it economically? If someone created the wealth -- like a Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Jeff Bezos -- then they rightfully own the assets they created.Billionaire politicians and dictators (Castro, Putin, etc.) who earned their money through political means -- theft and cronyism -- do not.Sadly Business Insider, like much of the anti-capitalist press, does not make that distinction.
Oct 23, 2017 | Politics
Writes Scott Holleran on Sacrificing Harvey Weinstein:The downfall of movie studio executive Harvey Weinstein following articles earlier this month in The New Yorker and the New York Times alleging sexual assault and harassment not only demonstrates Hollywood’s hypocrisy, though it certainly does that. What’s happened in the two weeks since the Weinstein claims first emerged has major, possibly ominous, implications for due process, free exercise of speech and the press, and moviemaking.
[...]
...Harvey Weinstein’s fast, epic downfall makes faster the fusion of the New Left’s and conservatives’ political agenda. The result is likely to be accelerated momentum toward a common, sinister goal: total government control of the arts, starting with movies.
[...]
In a statement, the Academy celebrated its expulsion of Oscar-winning Harvey Weinstein by boasting that he was rejected by a vote “well in excess of the required two-thirds majority.” The Academy, which has initiated no action against members accused of serial rape and sued for sexual assault (Cosby), convicted of drunk driving before lashing out against Jews, gays and women and pleaded no contest to a charge of battery against an ex-girlfriend (Gibson) and those who plead guilty to a sex crime involving a 13-year-old girl (Polanski, who fled the country), added that they expelled Weinstein “to send a message that the era of willful ignorance and shameful complicity in sexually predatory behavior and workplace harassment in our industry is over.”
[...]Cautioning against jumping to conclusions about Harvey Weinstein fell to film director Woody Allen — who, incidentally, has been offered membership in Hollywood’s academy and refused — who warned that Hollywood’s and New York’s purge “could lead to a witch hunt atmosphere, a Salem atmosphere, where every guy in an office who winks at a woman is suddenly having to call a lawyer to defend himself. That’s not right either.”
The entire article is worth a read.