Politics Thread

[scoscox]

^ actually very true

[boozehound]

I get that this story has received a lot of coverage, but it's like the 12th worst thing Saudi Arabia did that week.

Yeah. It's weird how we grab on to certain things, while ignoring other (often far worse) things. This is obviously a bad thing that the Saudi government has done, but is anyone really surprised?

[Caf]

Yeah. It's weird how we grab on to certain things, while ignoring other (often far worse) things. This is obviously a bad thing that the Saudi government has done, but is anyone really surprised?

I'm certainly not surprised by their actions and I agree that our media and people pick weird things to focus on. You genuinely have to make an effort to find stories on Yemen. What's continuously surprising and disappointing though is that our leaders seemingly have no line with them. How far in bed with them are we that even Trump, who lambastes NATO and started a trade war with China, won't stand up to them?

[Masterofreality]

I'm certainly not surprised by their actions and I agree that our media and people pick weird things to focus on. You genuinely have to make an effort to find stories on Yemen. What's continuously surprising and disappointing though is that our leaders seemingly have no line with them. How far in bed with them are we that even Trump, who lambastes NATO and started a trade war with China, won't stand up to them?

Ya know, it is very sad commentary, but the whole Middle East is a clusterF$*&k. ALL the actors are bad. Every single one of them. The choice you have is which of the cadre of Bad Actors you choose to have a relationship with. You know that the US will never abandon Israel, and Jordan and Dubai seem to be the only somewhat stable places, also with Monarchies like Saudi Arabia. So what the hell do you support?

It's like walking through a minefield, where you know at some point, something really bad is going to happen. All you can do is navigate and choose to enable the lesser of all the evils. So, you're left with dealing with flawed good/evil locales that for the most part are at least acceptable most of the time.
Hence, Saudi Arabia where you have to step around the Dog Sh$#@t and accept the criticism from pundits when you do.

That's reality.

[Caf]

Ya know, it is very sad commentary, but the whole Middle East is a clusterF$*&k. ALL the actors are bad. Every single one of them. The choice you have is which of the cadre of Bad Actors you choose to have a relationship with. You know that the US will never abandon Israel, and Jordan and Dubai seem to be the only somewhat stable places, also with Monarchies like Saudi Arabia. So what the hell do you support?

It's like walking through a minefield, where you know at some point, something really bad is going to happen. All you can do is navigate and choose to enable the lesser of all the evils. So, you're left with dealing with flawed good/evil locales that for the most part are at least acceptable most of the time.
Hence, Saudi Arabia where you have to step around the Dog Sh$#@t and accept the criticism from pundits when you do.

That's reality.

All good points. If I had a solution or even a sensible recommendation on Mid East policy I'd probably make a lot more money. A Monroe Doctrine type approach seems like the only way to break the cycle, but we're too far in for that.

I do find it really striking how our explosion in oil production has harmed the evil governments of the world. I don't think that's a phenomenon that gets covered enough. Rate hikes are getting all of the press in regards to Emerging Market economics, and they deserve a lot, but our oil production pretty single handedly crushed Venezuela's economy and enormously hurt Russia's.

[GoMuskies]

I do find it really striking how our explosion in oil production has harmed the evil governments of the world.

It's striking, but you know who's fighting fracking at every turn, right? It IS amazing how some geologists and engineers in the Permian Basis are changing the world.

[Masterofreality]

It's striking, but you know who's fighting fracking at every turn, right? It IS amazing how some geologists and engineers in the Permian Basis are changing the world.

Yup. This from Bloomberg Businessweek:

"The Permian Basin is six years into a boom sparked by advances in drilling methods that have unlocked a sea of hitherto unattainable oil buried inside a 90,000-square-mile stretch of sedimentary rock straddling Texas and New Mexico. The area’s production approaches that of Iran—the third-largest OPEC member"

Yeah, we're really taking a chomp out of their business. Amazing how all "anti-fracking" environmentalists were blatantly willing to tamp down the US's energy security, and make this country dependent on unreliable actors, for the sake of beating their chests over "saving the earth".

As Elon Musk is finding out. It's not so easy building a battery powered car. And, damn. Aren't we so happy that Obama threw billions of Federal bucks at General Motors to build an abomination of a alternative vehicle- The Chevy Volt. The same vehicle where it's sales decreased 19% in the second quarter of this year to a "hefty" 4,300 units- WITH large tax subsidies if you bought one. Yeah. That REALLY worked out. In an automobile sales industry of over 17.25 million, there were less than 17,000 Volts sold. I guess that is a greater percentage (.000987) than Elizabeth Warren's "Native American" DNA heritage though. There's that.

Hey, at some point in the far future, the fossil fuels will dissipate, but we have time to come up with other stuff. Much more time than the panicked tree huggers were giving. Thank Gawd we exited that ridiculous Paris Accord.

[Caf]

The best argument for shale has always been energy independence. For awhile, when the scale of our production capability was less understood, that was the best argument for focusing on alternative energies. However, we now have that independence and it has gotten us almost nowhere in the Middle East.

[ArizonaXUGrad]

Yup. This from Bloomberg Businessweek:

"The Permian Basin is six years into a boom sparked by advances in drilling methods that have unlocked a sea of hitherto unattainable oil buried inside a 90,000-square-mile stretch of sedimentary rock straddling Texas and New Mexico. The area’s production approaches that of Iran—the third-largest OPEC member"

Yeah, we're really taking a chomp out of their business. Amazing how all "anti-fracking" environmentalists were blatantly willing to tamp down the US's energy security, and make this country dependent on unreliable actors, for the sake of beating their chests over "saving the earth".

As Elon Musk is finding out. It's not so easy building a battery powered car. And, damn. Aren't we so happy that Obama threw billions of Federal bucks at General Motors to build an abomination of a alternative vehicle- The Chevy Volt. The same vehicle where it's sales decreased 19% in the second quarter of this year to a "hefty" 4,300 units- WITH large tax subsidies if you bought one. Yeah. That REALLY worked out. In an automobile sales industry of over 17.25 million, there were less than 17,000 Volts sold. I guess that is a greater percentage (.000987) than Elizabeth Warren's "Native American" DNA heritage though. There's that.

Hey, at some point in the far future, the fossil fuels will dissipate, but we have time to come up with other stuff. Much more time than the panicked tree huggers were giving. Thank Gawd we exited that ridiculous Paris Accord.

I hate to brake it to you, but fracking is not the solution. It is a band aid. Electric cars are the future, sustainability is the future. Killing the planet just for a band aid on the present isn't what we should be all about. Do you understand that renewable energy and electric cars make us just as independent from those countries also?

Why is this generation so hell bent on mortgaging our future just for the present? We do it in the environment and we do it in government spending.

[GoMuskies]

Aww, you think fracking is killing the planet. That's cute.