Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[lineygoblue]

There's also more domestic oil available these days as opposed to in the past.

[edindetroit]

No it has to be an election, only elections can drive the price of oil down.

[Mike]

Circling back to the ME...how many of us here would be willing to extricate ourselves completely from the region, even if it meant surrendering influence to Russia, Iran or another power?

Yes please! The best gift you could give an enemy is handing them the middle east.

[Mike]

I don't think it's actually explaining anything though. It's highlighting what the question should be...why are woman not entering those college majors? The different "life choices" is a lazy reason and just makes you ask, why are they "making" different life choices.

Equal pay for equal work and low numbers of women in STEM fields are two different conversations. The first has been law for about 4 decades and there is no statistically signigficant difference in pay between men and women when education and experience are the same.

Men's share of the total pie is, in fact, higher than women's. Some of those reasons are mentioned above. Another factor is professions with an element of danger which pay a premium and are held mostly by men. Tradesmen like electricians and plumbers are almost all men, etc. I don't think there is any damage to society if a women chooses to be a kindergarten teacher instead of an engineer.

[hack]

Boy what a disruption that would be to entrenched interests if a full exit was made. Screw defense contractors and the Israel lobby. Screw Sisi and the House of Saud. Buy oil from absolutely no one in the region and you'd have 2m bpd to import from elsewhere -- in this current environment producer countries would be lining up to sell, so pick a few and use that leverage in so many other areas. Done right -- i.e. banning oil imports from countries with human rights abuses -- you could take a serious shot at providing a model for ending the oil curse in such countries.

If you count Af and Pak, and you end all foreign aid to the region, that's $10 billion a year. How impressive it would be to use foreign aid for actual humanitarian/development efforts, like health and education. The headlines that would generate worldwide -- beacon-on-the-hill status reactiviated! Who knows but, given that absence makes the heart grow fonder, it might over time actually increase our influence in the region.

Of course this is all never gonna happen. It would be fun to try, though. Especially before Dick Cheney dies.

[Mike]

Boy what a disruption that would be to entrenched interests if a full exit was made. Screw defense contractors and the Israel lobby. Screw Sisi and the House of Saud. Buy oil from absolutely no one in the region and you'd have 2m bpd to import from elsewhere -- in this current environment producer countries would be lining up to sell, so pick a few and use that leverage in so many other areas. Done right -- i.e. banning oil imports from countries with human rights abuses -- you could take a serious shot at providing a model for ending the oil curse in such countries.

If you count Af and Pak, and you end all foreign aid to the region, that's $10 billion a year. How impressive it would be to use foreign aid for actual humanitarian/development efforts, like health and education. The headlines that would generate worldwide -- beacon-on-the-hill status reactiviated! Who knows but, given that absence makes the heart grow fonder, it might over time actually increase our influence in the region.

Of course this is all never gonna happen. It would be fun to try, though. Especially before Dick Cheney dies.

Sounds like a dream scenario!

[Wild Hoss]

If you count Af and Pak, and you end all foreign aid to the region, that's $10 billion a year.

While staggering, I tend to think that's only a fraction of the total, hidden costs that our perpetual state of warfare in the region extracts from the economy in exchange for oil which is, usually, overpriced anyway. What's the price per barrel with foreign aid, military expenditures, intel expenditures, veterans benefits, and Lord knows what else factored in?

No idea....but if we knew, I suspect we wouldn't pay it.

[hack]

Oh for sure. What a calculation that would be...

[Ghengis Jon]

The GAO reports that the US military (not counting Iraq and Afg) maintains slightly over 800 military facilities beyond the US borders. You don't think we could project military power with a mere 500? That's where real savings can be reached. But none in the legislature want to be labeled "soft on terrorism" or "anti-military" or "isolationist" by the Dickhead Cheney's of the world. Term limits are sadly unconstitutional on a federal level which promotes the attitude of re-election being the single most important goal of Reps and Sens. In the last 30 years I don't believe I've heard a politician utter the words "In the country's best interest, not mine....".

[lineygoblue]

Jon... maybe it's time you and I head to Washington DC and knock some heads together. :-)

[Mike]

Ron Paul is the only politician I've heard rail on on the trillion dollar per year "Empire maintenance". Too bad he was so far afield on so many other issues.

[entropy]

Agree on term limits being a problem. I'd be in favor of congress having 6 or 8 yet election periods but also limiting the number of terms they could serve.


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[Ghengis Jon]

Two term limitation - one in office and one in prison.

[Mike]

Support the troops, Jon!!

[entropy]

did you guys see trumps' latest tweet? I found it funny, but I am amazed at the number of people acting like Trump doesn't know Paris is in France.