Off Topic Politics Thread

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Osvaldorama said:
“When you notice that to produce you need to get permission from those who do not produce anything; when you check that money flows to those who do not deal with goods but with favors; when you realize that many become rich by the bribery and for influence more than by your work and that the laws do not protect you against them, but on the contrary, they are the ones who are protected against you; when you discover that corruption is rewarded and honesty becomes a self-sacrifice, then you can assert, without fear of being wrong, that your society is doomed”

—Ayn Rand
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Ayn Rand never produced a damned thing in her life, and the disciples of Ayn Rand just:

- Lobbied (successfully) for changes to banking regulations so that their preferred institution, Silicon Valley Bank, would not require 'stress tests' to determine whether its balance sheet posed a risk to the broader banking system.

- SVB then made a bunch of really stupid market bets.

- The Rand fans set off a bank run on their own bank out of fears that the stupid market bets would collapse the bank. Which collapsed the bank.

- Immediately began demanding that the government bail them out. Which it did.


Everyone's a strong, self-sufficient libertarian, until they **** up and need the government to help them.
 
Schad said:
Ayn Rand never produced a damned thing in her life, and the disciples of Ayn Rand just:

- Lobbied (successfully) for changes to banking regulations so that their preferred institution, Silicon Valley Bank, would not require 'stress tests' to determine whether its balance sheet posed a risk to the broader banking system.

- SVB then made a bunch of really stupid market bets.

- The Rand fans set off a bank run on their own bank out of fears that the stupid market bets would collapse the bank. Which collapsed the bank.

- Immediately began demanding that the government bail them out. Which it did.


Everyone's a strong, self-sufficient libertarian, until they **** up and need the government to help them.
Click to expand...

Irrespective of her personal history, the quote is absolutely nailed on.

Not sure what link the SVB crisis has to this comment, but I agree with you that the bailout is repulsive
 
Osvaldorama said:
Irrespective of her personal history, the quote is absolutely nailed on.

Not sure what link the SVB crisis has to this comment, but I agree with you that the bailout is repulsive
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The big names who steered firms to SVB -- in many cases, making the utilization of SVB contingent upon receiving venture capital -- are largely vocal objectivists. Peter Thiel -- who runs the Founders Fund -- triggered the bank run, and is involved with the Atlas Society, which is devoted to objectivism.

David Sacks, another big player in the space as CEO of Craft Ventures, is a loud and vocal proponent of technolibertarianism:

https://www.politico.com/newsletter...ibertarian-idea-behind-musks-twitter-00070672

Those engineers, along with right-leaning figures in the tech world like Musk and his close friend David Sacks, a venture capitalist and adviser on the Twitter project, share a classically libertarian passion for free speech and free markets. Where that tried-and-true, bottom-right-of-the-political-compass mindset finds its modern twist is in the particular conflict that Martínez describes: Prime movers like Musk now struggle not just against the greedy, parasitic welfare bureaucrats of Ayn Rand’s imagination, but a cultural regime that seeks to cement its dominance through corporate governance (not to mention academia and the media).
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Except when he's demanding that the government act immediately because no one else can save the banking industry from itself:

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And the ever-dim Jason Calacanis:

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Rand's philosophy is beloved by the very rich, and in particular by techbros (note Calacanis' use of "builders" to refer to Silicon Valley/venture capital types), because they assume that they will remain very rich, and a theory that tells them that they are rugged, self-made men who need nothing from society (which is merely a drain on their greatness) appeals to them. Until they **** up, at which point they literally scream in all caps for the government to save them. Which makes it a particularly pathetic philosophy: it applies when telling the poor to go be destitute somewhere else, but not when they might see their extreme wealth impacted even marginally.
 
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Schad said:
The big names who steered firms to SVB -- in many cases, making the utilization of SVB contingent upon receiving venture capital -- are largely vocal objectivists. Peter Thiel -- who runs the Founders Fund -- triggered the bank run, and is involved with the Atlas Society, which is devoted to objectivism.

David Sacks, another big player in the space as CEO of Craft Ventures, is a loud and vocal proponent of technolibertarianism:

https://www.politico.com/newsletter...ibertarian-idea-behind-musks-twitter-00070672



Except when he's demanding that the government act immediately because no one else can save the banking industry from itself:

You must log in or register to see media

And the ever-dim Jason Calacanis:

You must log in or register to see media


Rand's philosophy is beloved by the very rich, and in particular by techbros (note Calacanis' use of "builders" to refer to Silicon Valley/venture capital types), because they assume that they will remain very rich, and a theory that tells them that they are rugged, self-made men who need nothing from society (which is merely a drain on their greatness) appeals to them. Until they **** up, at which point they literally scream in all caps for the government to save them. Which makes it a particularly pathetic philosophy: it applies when telling the poor to go be destitute somewhere else, but not when they might see their extreme wealth impacted even marginally.
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Yep, I agree. They are beneath contempt. Still has very little to do with the situation we were discussing though.

And also misses the real root cause of the issues - the broken financial system.


In the last year, The ECB created an *anti-fragmentation tool*, the BoJ became the largest owner of its own gov’t debt, the BoE rescued UK Pension Funds from collapse, and now the US Treasury emergency backstopped all bank depositors, insured and uninsured.

And we’re to believe this is a normal and healthy monetary system? No, the moral hazard and the root of most of society’s problems is the fact that the Federal reserve and central banking cartel can create money out of thin air.

It really is the root of so many of the problems we discuss in this thread. Left v right political games dont matter until this is huge problem is fixed. The entire economic & therefore political system is breaking and the cracks are starting to show.
 
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Schad said:
Rand's philosophy is beloved by the very rich, and in particular by techbros (note Calacanis' use of "builders" to refer to Silicon Valley/venture capital types), because they assume that they will remain very rich, and a theory that tells them that they are rugged, self-made men who need nothing from society (which is merely a drain on their greatness) appeals to them. Until they **** up, at which point they literally scream in all caps for the government to save them. Which makes it a particularly pathetic philosophy: it applies when telling the poor to go be destitute somewhere else, but not when they might see their extreme wealth impacted even marginally.
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"It has a fair claim to be the ugliest philosophy the postwar world has produced. Selfishness, it contends, is good, altruism evil, empathy and compassion are irrational and destructive. The poor deserve to die; the rich deserve unmediated power. It has already been tested, and has failed spectacularly and catastrophically. Yet the belief system constructed by Ayn Rand, who died 30 years ago today, has never been more popular or influential."
 
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Osvaldorama said:
And people accuse me of posting fake news <laugh>

That whole article is pure Democrat propaganda to stir up faux outrage
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Here is the amendment, clearly in black and white.

2023-2024 Bill 3549: South Carolina Prenatal Equal Protection Act of 2023 - South Carolina Legislature Online (scstatehouse.gov)

It clearly states that illegal abortion (which is absurd in itself) should now be treated the same as murder which, in South Carolina, can result in the death penalty. Not fake news.
 
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And the only other escape route I can see; yes, the death penalty applies in South Carolina.

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So we have a law maintaining that abortion is murder in a state where the penalty for murder is the death sentence.

But it's fake news.

My arse.

Vin
 
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Onionman said:
And the only other escape route I can see; yes, the death penalty applies in South Carolina.

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So we have a law maintaining that abortion is murder in a state where the penalty for murder is the death sentence.

But it's fake news.

My arse.

Vin
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No but it’s a huge stretch to go from that, to “Republicans want to sentence a woman to death for abortion”.

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They are saying that they want later embryo’s to be afforded the same protection as other humans. Also provides an exception for victims of sexual crimes.

Doesn’t seem anywhere close to the hyperbolic headline.
 
Osvaldorama said:
Yep, I agree. They are beneath contempt. Still has very little to do with the situation we were discussing though.

And also misses the real root cause of the issues - the broken financial system.


In the last year, The ECB created an *anti-fragmentation tool*, the BoJ became the largest owner of its own gov’t debt, the BoE rescued UK Pension Funds from collapse, and now the US Treasury emergency backstopped all bank depositors, insured and uninsured.

And we’re to believe this is a normal and healthy monetary system? No, the moral hazard and the root of most of society’s problems is the fact that the Federal reserve and central banking cartel can create money out of thin air.

It really is the root of so many of the problems we discuss in this thread. Left v right political games dont matter until this is huge problem is fixed. The entire economic & therefore political system is breaking and the cracks are starting to show.
Click to expand...

This is where we disagree. There are absolutely significant problems with the international banking system. You're hardly going to hear me champion global financial corporations. But the solution is not to remove even more of the safeguards. The solution is to prevent regulatory capture by industry. SVB was aware that their balance sheet was sketchy going back three years. They kept it that way because it made them more money (in the short term):

https://t.co/g0gdp6fPkq

And they were able to convince lawmakers to ease the rules for medium-sized banks so that the FDIC had less visibility into their affairs, to the extent that no one knew that they had been functionally insolvent until a few weeks ago.

In Canada, we have had the same number of bank collapses in the past century as the US has had this week (and they were tiny regional banks). And the reason is that, while our regulatory bodies suck for a lot of industries, the Bank Act is extremely stringent. The banks periodically whine about how unfair it is that they don't get to play fun games in the derivatives market like their friends, but to date we haven't budged. It turns out that it's far easier to craft effective regulations when the rules aren't being dictated by the people being regulated. And the same goes for other industries as well: effective regulation is entirely possible if you don't go through the repeated cycle of Crisis -> Increased Scrutiny -> Period of Stability -> Decreased Scrutiny -> Crisis which has typified lawmakers' approach to a whole host of industries. The fact that you tightened regulations and no chemical plants have blown up since is a reason to keep those regulations in place, not to listen to industry claiming that they've learned their lesson from the last time they blew up a chemical plant.
 
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Osvaldorama said:
No but it’s a huge stretch to go from that, to “Republicans want to sentence a woman to death for abortion”.

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They are saying that they want later embryo’s to be afforded the same protection as other humans. Also provides an exception for victims of sexual crimes.

Doesn’t seem anywhere close to the hyperbolic headline.
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Yes, they want every unborn foetus to have the same rights as a live human being. So, having an abortion = murder. The MINIMUM punishment for murder in South Carolina is 30 years to life in prison. And that includes rape victims, unlike what you say. The only exception is if keeping an unborn baby presents a risk to the woman's life.
 
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