Global Warming News

[MikePA]

Corporations and that includes foreign corporations, are not people.

Neither are unions, yet they have been exempt from McCain-Feingold as have 'media organizations' who are free to publish partisan editorials.

So much for judicial restraint and not legislating from the bench....

It's never too late to correct unconstitutional laws which silenced free speech.

 

[MikePA]

The link isn't working, I guess the censors got it

Ken

No, the censors didn't get to it. The link works fine, I just clicked on it.
Apology accepted.

 

[charlz]

Haiti's biggest problem is corruption, and a population that accepts it. You will find this a common issue in most of the worst places on earth (Somalia, etc.) <snip>

Many Caribbean islands have similar resources to Haiti, yet are much better off. Think maybe it has something to do with government, corruption, and what the people are willing to accept and how industrious they are?

I wonder what the ratio is between corruption and outside influence? In other words in a natural resource poor country the money, food, donations etc coming from outside the county become the only 'resources'. So a politician re-directing food shipments is just 'getting ahead' with what he has on hand? Same as a timber baron in a timber rich country? One is viewed as corrupt and the other a smart business man?

 

[Loren49]

Interesting info on deforestation in Haiti:

"The island nation suffers from one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world. This is troubling for a number of reasons. The loss of nearly all its trees promises to amplify how dramatically earthquakes, hurricanes, and other periodic natural occurrences impact Haitians, to say nothing of deforestation's impoverishing legacy of erosion and climate change on local scale (less moisture). Without trees holding the soil in place, a heavy rain let alone a hurricane or an earthquake can easily cause mudslides on the island's steep slopes.

Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the same island in the Caribbean Hispaniola. Both countries are at the same latitude and, generally speaking, the same climatic conditions prevail.

But one country, the Dominican Republic, has lush forests. The other, Haiti, is almost completely brown and bare. The stark difference is visible from high above one side green and full of foliage, the other bare.

Here's a photo from NASA and another from a National Geographic story in the 1980s.

Fewer than 100,000 acres of forest remain in Haiti, a country that was three-quarters tree-covered when European explorers first arrived 500 years ago. The nation, the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, has lost perhaps 98 percent of its tree cover, one of the worst cases of deforestation in the world."

Loren

 

[EddieWalker]

For those who don't think there was some degree of global conspiracy to fabricate support for global warming, here's one more article exposing what the UN has been up to.

Glacier scientists says he knew data had not been verified | Mail Online

Here is the first paragraph of the story;

"The scientist behind the bogus claim in a Nobel Prize-winning UN report that Himalayan glaciers will have melted by 2035 last night admitted it was included purely to put political pressure on world leaders."

Eddie

 

[FallbrookFarmer]

Your're off by a factor of 3.

I'll add also the Germans have double the union participation rate of the US.

You are correct sir. I was using an estimate from a gentleman that I met in the former East Germany a few years ago. He gave me that figure when telling me that the city where we were(Borna) had schools closing and that all the young people were moving to the West for jobs. Mea Culpa. Evidently the unemployment rate has improved dramatically in the last few years.
I think that it only underscores my point that in order to grow the economy, you have to be competitive and that no amount of wailing and gnashing of teeth will change that.
I would also posit that Angela Merkel and her open market policies have had something to do with the turnaround(BTW, I did find a BBC article from 2005 that gave the unemployment rate at 18.5% in Eastern Germany) If you look at the drastic and prolonged recovery that the Reagan policies did for this country, you would have to agree that a lower tax rate makes for a more competitive economy. Your Thoughts?

 

[keegs]

Neither are unions, yet they have been exempt from McCain-Feingold as have 'media organizations' who are free to publish partisan editorials.

Mike.....Explain what you mean here.

It's never too late to correct unconstitutional laws which silenced free speech.

I see.

 

[FallbrookFarmer]

Interesting info on deforestation in Haiti:

"The island nation suffers from one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world. This is troubling for a number of reasons. The loss of nearly all its trees promises to amplify how dramatically earthquakes, hurricanes, and other periodic natural occurrences impact Haitians, to say nothing of deforestation's impoverishing legacy of erosion and climate change on local scale (less moisture). Without trees holding the soil in place, a heavy rain let alone a hurricane or an earthquake can easily cause mudslides on the island's steep slopes.

Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the same island in the Caribbean Hispaniola. Both countries are at the same latitude and, generally speaking, the same climatic conditions prevail.

But one country, the Dominican Republic, has lush forests. The other, Haiti, is almost completely brown and bare. The stark difference is visible from high above one side green and full of foliage, the other bare.

Here's a photo from NASA and another from a National Geographic story in the 1980s.

Fewer than 100,000 acres of forest remain in Haiti, a country that was three-quarters tree-covered when European explorers first arrived 500 years ago. The nation, the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, has lost perhaps 98 percent of its tree cover, one of the worst cases of deforestation in the world."

Loren

I think the info illustrates the point perfectly, Two countries sharing the same island, climate, ethnicity, etc.But one is a basket case. What makes the difference?
Aristide, who was deposed and then reinstalled by Clinton was a corrupt thug who raped the country, is just one example of what others have pointed out. That corruption along with high taxes will kill an economy. Its great for the ruling class, but not so good for the rest of us. Your thoughts.

 

[FallbrookFarmer]

For those who don't think there was some degree of global conspiracy to fabricate support for global warming, here's one more article exposing what the UN has been up to.

Glacier scientists says he knew data had not been verified | Mail Online

Here is the first paragraph of the story;

"The scientist behind the bogus claim in a Nobel Prize-winning UN report that Himalayan glaciers will have melted by 2035 last night admitted it was included purely to put political pressure on world leaders."

Eddie

Eddie,
You gotta love the Brits, don't cha. Their press actually goes out and digs for stories. While our media is content to regurgitate the press releases handed to them.

 

[Ken45101]

No, the censors didn't get to it. The link works fine, I just clicked on it. Stop tossing out irresponsible and uniformed information. It's posts like yours that get civil threads closed

It was NOT working when I tried it. It is working now. I see nothing irresponsible about my post. I tried several times, it was not working. By "censors", I was suspecting that the Times took it down. Geesh!

 

[keegs]

You are correct sir. I was using an estimate from a gentleman that I met in the former East Germany a few years ago. He gave me that figure when telling me that the city where we were(Borna) had schools closing and that all the young people were moving to the West for jobs. Mea Culpa. Evidently the unemployment rate has improved dramatically in the last few years.
I think that it only underscores my point that in order to grow the economy, you have to be competitive and that no amount of wailing and gnashing of teeth will change that.
I would also posit that Angela Merkel and her open market policies have had something to do with the turnaround(BTW, I did find a BBC article from 2005 that gave the unemployment rate at 18.5% in Eastern Germany) If you look at the drastic and prolonged recovery that the Reagan policies did for this country, you would have to agree that a lower tax rate makes for a more competitive economy. Your Thoughts?

I'm not a tax accountant but a cursory look at their tax system suggests to me German's have a much larger tax burden than we Americans. Their top marginal rates are at 45%, they pay a 25% tax on dividends and capital gains, a 19% VAT on almost all consumer goods, real estate taxes and as well, every German is mandated to purchase health insurance.

I'm not sure what the correllation is between Germany's relatively high tax burden and union participation rates on the one hand and its employment rate and large export economy on the other. It seems to me though that contrary to American conservative dogma, they aren't mutually exlusive.

 

[MikePA]

Mike.....Explain what you mean here.

I'm not sure what there is to explain. McCain-Feingold specifically exempted unions and media corporations. Unions are free to contribute to campaigns and media organizations are free to endorse candidates whenever they want to, regardless of how close to the election it is. Both unions and media organizations are legal entities just as corporations are.

 

[MikePA]

By "censors", I was suspecting that the Times took it down.

Interesting use of the word 'censor' to describe the action of the owner of the site and publisher of the information taking a link down.

 

[FallbrookFarmer]

I'm not a tax accountant but a cursory look at their tax system suggests to me German's have a much larger tax burden than we Americans. Their top marginal rates are at 45%, they pay a 25% tax on dividends and capital gains, a 19% VAT on almost all consumer goods, real estate taxes and as well, every German is mandated to purchase health insurance.

I'm not sure what the correllation is between Germany's relatively high tax burden and union participation rates on the one hand and its employment rate and large export economy on the other. It seems to me though that contrary to American conservative dogma, they aren't mutually exlusive.

If one looks at the cost of doing business, a higher tax would make a business less competitive than a lower one.
Agreed?

 

[westcliffe01]

Less competitive at what ? Making money for the owner ? The fact is that I can buy technological product with a high precision machining content in Germany for half the price that I need to pay here. And apparently the German businessman is perfectly satisfied with his margin at that lower price. When you look at examples like Oracle, the CEO compensation alone represents an overhead cost of $500k/month before anything else is added.

The germans can apparently do this while having unionized labor, high taxes, strict environmental legislation and very high real estate prices (very limited land is zoned industrial, or residential and sprawl is basically taboo). It might have something to do with the work ethic, margin expectations, skills pool and the fact that since getting rich is a sin, the business is not run as a "get rich quick" stunt. I don't know if this is a fact, but I suspect that the high taxes are in fact an incentive for owners to continue investing profits into their business instead of pocketing the money and buying personal yachts the size of battleships. Just like here, businesses do get tax breaks if investments result in increased employment opportunities. Many lament the loss of the manufacturing base in America, but who exactly trains machinists and other tradesmen nowadays ? In Germany, the training programs have been reformed to the point that small family operations are training artisans without dealing with a mountain of paperwork. The artisans in training get paid a wage, get to work in a true manufacturing environment and go to school, whereas here the candidate may need to take a loan, go to school and then try to find somewhere to do their internship at what could be considered "slave labor" rates, unless it is part of a unionized operation (like pipefitting).

Perhaps part of the answer lies in the different role taken by the unions in Europe. If you have a productivity issue with a union employee, you talk to the union, and the union officials deal with the issue. The union role has converted to preservation of jobs rather than trying to incrementally improve bottom line pay and benefits year after year regardless of the status of the industry. And unions are acutely aware of the consequences of permitting businesses to fail through uncompetitive labor cost.

If one looks at the cost of doing business, a higher tax would make a business less competitive than a lower one.
Agreed?

 

[turbo36]

Wow! I dropped out of this conversation quite awhile back but after getting back into it I notice two things.
1. Some folks on this board seems to not have to adhere to the no politics rule.

2. Those that are complaining that high taxes in this country will keep them from becoming a millionaire probably would not become a millionaire even with a zero tax rate.

 

[keegs]

I'm not sure what there is to explain. McCain-Feingold specifically exempted unions and media corporations. Unions are free to contribute to campaigns and media organizations are free to endorse candidates whenever they want to, regardless of how close to the election it is. Both unions and media organizations are legal entities just as corporations are.

I'm asking that you support your claim that unions are exempt from BCRA campaign limits.

Resrictions on issue adds funded by corporations and unions is a provision of the bill . I'll grant you that much of the original bill has been compromised by conservative activists and the courts but nothing in it has ever distiinguished unions apart from corporations.

You know it seems to me that with all the concerns being expressed by conservatives over corporate influence on the Obama Administration that there would be more common ground on this issue. That assumes of course that there's actual concern over corporate influence over the Obama Administration and not just partisan posturing.

 

[keegs]

If one looks at the cost of doing business, a higher tax would make a business less competitive than a lower one.
Agreed?

I think most economists would say that at some point higher marginal rates would have an impact on economic growth. In my lfietime we've had marginal rates as high has 90% with very robust economic growth. Marginal rates today are @ 35%. Go figure.

 

[MikePA]

I'm asking that you support your claim that unions are exempt from BCRA campaign limits.

You know it seems to me that with all the concerns being expressed by conservatives over corporate influence on the Obama Administration that there would be more common ground on this issue. That assumes of course that there's actual concern over corporate influence over the Obama Administration and not just partisan posturing.

How about the fact the SEIU gave $60 million to the Obama campaign in 2008?

Corporate influence in the Obama administration? Who's complaining about that? That's a knee slapper, unless you are referring to the businesses that were nationalized.