Karl

Ah we have been up this tilt with Blair. He got soundly panned for his incompetence and rush to war in the recent report, but nothing will stick. As far as the establishment is concerned they deposed a tyrannical despot intent on genocide. This was a guy who had already invaded Kuwait and the intelligence community gave the information to parliament that they could have WMD. we have hundreds of thousands of people who would like Blair to stand trial but it isn't going to happen. After Iraq was Libya and the Syria which were both green lighted under Obama/Cameron. We can go right back to Vietnam, Bosnia and Afghanistan. They can't put all these administrations through court.

LOL score even more votes for Trump. The Establishment is going to get a mighty shock, a very bloody nose.

Facts: his ex wife claims but if you read in the article she also said not in a criminal sense, but, when you are trying to fry your ex partner for as much cash as you can get, then a few twists of the truth can help persuade the defendent that maybe it's not in his best interests to have an unfounded rape allegation up in public. Notice how they lump trump with a paedophile billionaire, it's a classic way to push a narrative. Two rich guys and one a convicted kiddy fiddler go looking for young girls to party with. I can tell you now that this is a piece of press release that has simply been reprinted without any attempt to discover if there is any truth. Just like the other court cases Trump has to put up with. The public aren't stupid, the Trump haters add this to their Trump bonfire, but it just looks like an establishment hell bent n destroying Trump in any way they can. It looks like a witch hunt, it feels like a which hunt and it reads like a which hunt. It's a which hunt. It won't convert the faithful, it will fan the flames of anti-establishment just as it did during Brexit. He department of dirty tricks were hard at it then too.

No you don't have to go to college to get better skills, you go to get a paper passport that might get you into a job, or not. I've been employee, employer and business owner. I look for talent and experience, the bit of paper is a very basic guide. Experience comes with working. Just turning up on time ready to go, acting politely, getting on with the work is vital to an employer. I would take someone with experience over qualification and I would take a self improver over a one off graduate. You can educate yourself without any college course, the world is your oyster, sure you won't get a bit of paper, but you won't get a debt either. At interview I only need to know that you know what you are talking about and are a steady person I can depend on. That's what I ask myself in any interview- can I work with this person, are they grounded, competent, reliable and will fit into the role intended. Look, I have had several jobs which demanded a degree, I don't have one, I don't ever intend to get one, I make that clear to the interviewer and then I sell my skills, knowledge, enthusiasm and every virtue I have. The employer throws aside the need for paper qualifications and I'm hired. Has no one explained this to you ? I don't know how old you are, or at what stage in your career, but there seems to be a disconnect with what you think you need and what you actually need. Scrub that advice if you want a professional career in law, medicine or accountancy and some engineering by the way. If you are in that camp you can't get those skills the old fashioned way- I doubt anyone is going to let you cut up their cat, or do some minor skin surgery to gain them :-)

I would say 'welcome to my world' but it's perhaps a bit early to make that claim. It's best if you do something you enjoy, but keep one eye on the practical considerations. What will the cost be for changing, are you sufficiently academic to achieve a good result, are jobs in that market plentiful. It's awfully hard to set up in business as a scientist, they are institutional jobs requiring a backer, but Chinese medicine allows you to run a business-the only caveat is actually believing in the medicine. As one who has an NLP practitioner certificate, basic hypnotherapy and a coaching qualification I could make a ton of money as an independent service provider and I get a lot of people asking for me, but I don't believe in NLP anymore so I cannot with good conscious act against my moral code ax it would feel dishonest.

And he didn't do it either. I can't imagine he needs to act like that with women given he has wealth, fame and power. He is happily married and his family seem well balanced. I watched him leave that van and he was nothing but the perfect gentleman. It's just Bravado and a bit of crack with the young guy that accompanied him.

Not exactly. Trump said a few words in private to a guy a few years younger than himself. He was joking, like he said 'I could shoot someone and still stay ahead'. He didn't mean it literally. Now a few things that have been missed from the Trump tapes. They were on their way to a tv show episode in which a young woman threw herself at Trump in order to gain favour and get a job/money/marriage- yet no one even questions showing that kind of behaviour to the world. Yet Trump said something in private which, when we saw him meet this young lady he behaved as the perfect gent. No groping, just respectful. Besides, what was he going to discuss with Bobby Bush - a guy 30 years his junior. Pretty much it's football, cars and women because this is common ground. Despite all the accusations of narcissism. Let's look at the facts. When he lost his business a few years back he pointed to a tramp and said to the reporter 'that guy is 9 million dollars richer than I am - hardly someone unable to poke fun at himself. In the infamous Trump tapes he was overheard to say he had 'put the moves' on the woman but had been outright rejected, he admitted he crashed and burned. Then we have lots of reports of him helping people out which have gone unreported by the mainstream, even risking his life to stop a guy getting mugged in the street. Then we have his family. Look at his sons in particular, having grown up around vast wealth they haven't bummed out, turned into drug addled crazy entitled, they respect Trump and enjoy working for him. I'm beginning to conclude Trump is actually a reasonable guy who acts an act. He isn't the hard arse he pretends to be, that's just his method of intimidating those he does business with, it's no good coming across as a nice guy pushover. His act is a bit over blown, but that's his persona. However he has spent his life building a business in a tough sector- sure he has pulled some fast ones, but most businessmen that get anywhere do play it pretty close to the edge. The things they do aren't illegal as such, just some bending and risk taking. Let's compare that with Clinton who has said Bill comes along with the package. This is a woman who has made her money by doing favours and selling her country out to fill her pockets. She hasn't had any jobs, she is a career politician with immense power and wealth. Her entire career has been filled with controversy over her actions and the more gets released on wiki the more we see just how much of liar this woman is. She has presided over some of the most disasterous government policy, she let her countryman get raped and murdered in Benghazi whilst she lay in bed sound asleep. We have the recent email scandal which is peppered with deception, blatent destruction of evidence and using a technique of bleaching a very expensive process that no one had even heard of until it was revealed she had used it. Now this is bad enough but then we have Bill, a pathological liar and a rapist who was impeached. We have Hillary that did everything to enable and protect him whilst threatening the women who accused him. Trump has a private conversation with a guy in a van but his actions betray no sign that he is anything but highly succesful with women. Then we have Clinton who was abusing women on public property, on the public dime in the Whitehouse itself. Get Hillary, you get Bill the rapist as the pakage deal. The Internet is awash with stories Bills illegitimate progeny and Chelsea Clinton is turning out to be a spoilt brat by the looks of the recently released emails from her to the Clinton foundation COO. So under pressure was the lady that she was at the waters edge ready to drive her car over the edge and drown. There isn't anything here for anyone with even a smattering of common sense to support this woman. Bad as Trump might be - and frankly we don't know at all, he has no record like the Clintons-Hillary is unelectable. She should stand down and give up her nomination to Bernie Sanders.

Yes, unbelievably you can choose to live within your means. It may come as a massive shock to you but this is how we lived prior to credit expansion of the 1980s. Those that could buy houses rented them, they didn't fill their homes with brand new furniture, buy cars they couldn't afford. Instead we saved what we could, got ourselves more experience/ skills, found better jobs or started businesses if we were so inclined, then, when we could afford it we bought a house in the form of a savings scheme which guaranteed a healthy return when the mortgage was paid off. I told you it's your choice. That we are born into certain circumstances which involve a massive state machine is not choice, but our support for it is by choice. How many say tax is theft, or that we must look after the poor, we must have free education and a wide ranging welfare system ? Few to none. You are doing it now. It is simply evasion and unless you are able to see that you are supporting an immoral system we will plow ever on until we hit the iceberg and sink. I can only sound a warning, if you can't hear, or won't hear I am powerless to do anything else. It's not necessary to go to unversity and spend thousands on an education, it's a choice. Prior to the student loan scam we didn't pay anything, but the numbers able to go to university was low and selective. Only those capable of academic success went to university, where today any old dross get in and take pointless courses for which there is virtually no demand from employers. It's called ROR. Rate of return. You buy a car, or take a degree because you calculate that it will improve your chances of improving your life. However, you have to apply your mind to the reality of the situation, suss out the opportunities, weigh up the costs and only take the plunge if you definitely know there is an opportunity. No one is guaranteed success and this has of course led to these student loans having to be backed by the poor old over burdened tax payer once again. The terms of the loan virtually guarantee moral hazard and have created a massive boom in students who are neither suited to academia, or who have a clue as to whether their qualification will get them a job. I don't know what this has to do with the Tories. As I said, I don't vote, I don't support Government welfare or interventionism. I'm stuck with it, but I actively don't support it and will do whatever I can to smash it to bits. If your looking to Government to help you, then you are looking at your neighbours wallet with a view to forcing him to hand over 40% of his earnings because you 'need' it. This is the only reason that anyone can give, that someone 'needs' it and need trumps everything regardless of anyone ever being able to show why it should.

I refute that they created ISIS but the US foreign policy has been responsible for its spread and has attempted to use it for regime change and as a weapon against Russia in the form of the mujahideen. There's really no need to go scratching around looking for some part of US foreign policy that looks a bit suspect, the whole thing is suspect. I said before that this is a result of the 'needs' of middle eastern people creating a foreign policy that is more of a religious crusade to free people from their tyrants and bring the oh so wonderful democracy to countries still living in the 4 th century. The US is the indispensable nation bringing light to the savages at any cost no matter what it costs the US people. They are conducting a noble crusade in which they are incising a cancer through 'just.' Warfare. I believe they really think they are doing 'Gods work'. I saw this in Tony Blairs face. A complete refusal to believe that a war to remove a tyrant and free the people could be anything other than -the right thing to do. I don't see a face that looks like it's lying, I see utter bewilderment that anyone could possibly have thought going to war with Iraq had any other design than the one he told the country. I see the signs of faith and church morality etched on him, the incapacity to reject the morals of altruism and selflessness because it would mean rejecting his entire philosophy and that would make him as a murderer-something he cannot bring himself to do and won't attempt to.

The universe is everything. No such entity as God has been found, but if you want to define the universe as God, well a label is a label, define your terms. Why does God need to be responsible for consciousness ? Consciousness is and that's all we need. Why it's necessary to bring in a God is unnecessary, I would simply say 'so what'. You can give consciousness any source you wish, but it doesn't alter it. As with the universe we don't need a creator, even if such a thing were possible (logically it isn't) it would make no difference to the fact that existence exists. If you want a nice story about God and heaven then I wouldn't deprive you of it. Those that have faith appear to desire it and that's their choice.

We can't because we stand on them. On one of these threads I've posted Peikoffs rebuttal of reductionism for consciousness. You see, knowing that the universe is made up of flying invisible spaghetti, or that mixing 10 photons with 6 quarks creates consciousness does not alter a thing. Existence exists and consciousness grasps it. That's it, it's not going to alter consciousness or existence in any way what so ever. God doesn't exist as a creator, because then God would need creating and of course would remain part of the totality of the universe. Perhaps the God people refer to is a transmitter in a distant galaxy that has discovered a way to broadcast directly to human brains. However, this is not a philosophical question, but a scientific one. The same applies to the material of the universe, or the physical nature of consciousness creation-should such a hypothetical thing be found. No religion is right, it is mystic nonsense and science should have finished it off. It would have had it not been for Kant and his following of intellectuals that promoted his work through Prussian universities and gained massive support from a wealthy church slowly seeing its position undermined.

People choose to take on debt. They choose Governments with housing, health and education policies which aren't laissez faire free market. They choose Governments that maintain low interest rates for borrowers so they can consume more stuff now than later. They choose state controlled capitalism over free markets, wealth distribution over property rights and welfare over self sufficiency. These four things are the root of the problem. All of them create unsustainable bubbles and a distorted economy. It means houses, education and health are far more expensive than they would otherwise be. It means a high cost government that has to borrow and print to sustain the appearance of stability with the consequent massive debt landing on the heads of the tax payer, saver, the prudent, entrepreneur, consumer and employee. It means those who borrow get a free lunch off those who don't. It means those who are less productive eat off the plates of the most productive. There's your debt slaver for you. Quick and easy. The more we want Governments to interfere in markets and provide services, the greater the debt becomes. Of course Governments won't tell you the horrifying truth, this is all coming to an end very soon and those in the Government and using most of the services and redistribution will kill the goose that laid the golden egg. If you were an objectivist the reason becomes very clear. It's a simple moral truth. Don't steal, don't take values you haven't earned, don't lie to yourself that it's fine, don't blame the productive and the succesful for your lack of wealth. Here's the truth you buried deep, if you support this kind of Government welfarism and market interference you are holding your own chains and those of everyone else. You are the slaver by choice. You are morally bankrupt and are dragging the world down with you.

The only hope is lassez faire capitalism and the philosophy that underpins it.

Your opinion is no better than the stats though DB. Those figures may not be correct, but how much more accurate are your opinions ? The best we can do is to say there is evidence of rape in both countries and leave it there until more reliable figures are forthcoming. MTL has no evidence to support his assertion and Current figures dispute it no matter how inaccurate. Your opinion is no more accurate than MTLs opinion in that respect.

They were destroying the environment if you want to put it that. Nomad tribes essentially hunt an area until it can't sustain, then they move on. There are schools of thought that say ancient man caused the extinction of the woolly mammoth and, if that's true, we can infer they extincted many species that depended on that animal. It is not true to say man is 'single handedly' that's not an argument when the facts show that species are constantly going extinct and always have been. The dinosaurs were not killed by man. Infact, we should note that man is farming animals and should he expand that farming and ownership to a wider span of animal life, then the species booms. Our ancestors would keep on killing, chopping, digging and burning. They knew that their survival depended on it. Raw nature is benevolent, but pastry doesn't fall from the sky, rocks don't run with milk and coffee, wishing does not create a thing. Our current romance with this new age mysticism is a direct attack on reason, and hence mans freedom to survive and therefore his life. We are only a few meals, a couple of fires or a few jugs of water away from disaster. You should understand this on a deep level, make no mistake, if the modern capitalist system collapses then we will be reduced to living on the edge of existence. Anti-capitalism in all its numerous forms like the green movement are anti-human life. If capitalism falters and I think there is a good chance that our current philosophy will take us to that point, I think man is finished, it is stark, we are writing our own suicide notes if we carry on with anti-capitalism.

They packed a nine and fired in on prime time. The Clinton news channel punts out nothing of any substance. "We're going to make America great again" "Clinton is four more years of Obama, if you don't like it now you aren't going to like it any better with Crooked Hillary in charge" That's the break through message. Trump need only repeat it over and over every time he gets publicity no matter what that publicity is. All he has to do is to repeat, repeat and repeat. The public don't trust politicians nor the media, so talking heads are speaking only to those only in the Clinton bubble, or to her fans. It's all over for Clinton, she is finished no matter what she says, or how many expert witnesses are rolled out. This is operation fear all over again, just like Brexit, it's about fearing change, which is fine if the people to whom you are broadcasting to have done OK - those are places such Washington, California, wall street and New York. The trouble with these politicians is their bubble mentality, they think that their polls and power are all that is needed to win, but like UK politicians they have become out of touch with the people and the people will return their verdict on professional politicians who have systematically let them down whilst boosting the incomes of a few. It's what drove the sanders campaign. Peoples declining living standards can't be improved by telling them they are doing great. The figures might show few unemployed, but the figures only work for markets and politicians hubris, on the ground somebody that lost a good full time job now has to juggle three crappy jobs and debts. The inflation figures might show little movement in the rate, but people who can't afford to live as they once did are feeling it. They can jawbone the markets but not the people. "Make America great again" Trumps message is the same as Obama's message "I bring the change".

You talk strange Mr Jive Bunny Ralis :-) I haven't set out your character, you wrote that you had never heard any of that kind of male bragging which is hard to believe for someone who was in the company of soldiers in Vietnam. Didn't you mix with them ? Were you remote from them in some sense ? Surely there were places you have been where you have overheard it, or are you deaf ?

Yep, that kind of thinking is exactly what I'm talking about. It's the kind that gets you dead.

I've advised that for several years now. Until we dismantle the state education systems the only alternative is either very expensive private schools, or home schooling. There are sufficient businesses creating home schooling programmes which involve a mixture of online, book, interactive and live events. Tom Woods has produced a concentrated curriculum for the Ron Paul school, but the number and variety these days is quite astounding. There is no need to attend child indoctrination farms these days and there is a very real danger that it will turn your child into someone lacking any self confidence whilst simultaneously over compensating on hedonistic consumption. If you want your kids to grow up smart, self confident, happy and motivated, get them out of the clutches of the Government and its agents.

We haven't been around very long at all. Some of the greater climatic changes and early conditions on the planet would not have supported man. Our adaption/evolution has been perfect for our current environment. I don't see modern man surviving as Eskimos or wandering tribesman. Certainly the potential is within us to apply our minds to any situation, but we seem to be losing that ability. Where ancient man would have been hardy and quick witted, we are entirely the opposite. Ancient man wasn't concerned with his environment except to utilise it in order to survive, we appear to be more concerned with 'saving the planet' which is not a good survival trait. I'm amazed, given your previous comments, that you say 'given the money we could build...' But that shows a remarkable lack of understanding about basic economics. Right this moment our Governments are printing money like it was real wealth. We are already debauching capitalism at a rate a plague of locust devours a field of crops. This is literally monetary Armegeddon and I'm not exaggerating when I say that. Production is what makes us able to survive, it's the only thing that allows us to survive. We use our minds to produce things from the raw materials around us, in order that we multiply our effectiveness as producers we must invest in the production process itself, to do this we must first save a portion of our production-delayed consumption, or commonly called savings. This is capitalism at work, yet today we have the opposite. People are shouting down the only route to our survival and the Government is doing its very best to destroy capitalism completely. I have a bad feeling about the results of this a short way down the road. People have to build cities and they only do so for gain, not because of some inherent greed, but because this is the way production functions. The only way this has been done without capitalism is by slavery, but that is an inefficient path to progress. One look at Maos China is sufficient to see where we might well be headed.

Oh I didn't get to choose, they come along with the public sports centre, schools, colleges, sports, the jobs I had, stuff like that, which it appears is a world entirely alien to you. I have no friends apart from my wife, but that hasn't stopped me hearing these things. I have no idea what you got up to in Vietnam, that was a very long time ago, perhaps time has dimmed your memories ? Sure as shite soldiers will most definitely talk of these things in a lewd way. It seems strange to me that you have no recollection of that this at all ? I'm not going to make any assumptions, but it does seem very strange. The world you describe seems more like a monastery ? Some men do talk exactly that way. I suspect it's bravado, puffing themselves up or some such thing. I don't know why they talk crap, but they do, it's a fact. Trump looks the type that would, Bill looks the type who likes to rape women and Hillary looks the type who would do anything to avoid justice whilst filling her pockets with loot. As I said, I wouldn't vote for any of them, dreadful people the whole lot of them. I don't need to excuse Trump, but I'm sure the electorate are quite clear that this is who they are voting for. As for all the little prissy people getting their knickers in a twist over his comments, it's just another example of faux outrage of the too easily offended.

They might not be trustworthy but that's what we have as a starting point for discussion. They are at least as accurate as someone's feelings that rapes might be higher/lower than those figures. I don't say they are right, only that those are the current best estimate. If someone has some other figures they should post them up.

There is no reason we should survive, indeed, if we carry on with this pragmatic selflessness I can see us coming to a sticky end rather rapidly. I don't think we could go back to a time prior to technology and knowledge. I maybe wrong, but I suspect that we will quickly reach the boundaries of our survival bubble and rather than a gradual spin down we will just collapse. We get a light snowfall in our country and you would think it was the end of the world.

Not to mention the slight problem of coming up with the concept of a universe without even having a concept of existence. The fault lies in the way philosophers have dealt with consciousness. There is no such thing as a consciousness per se-that is a consciousness without something to be conscious of. Therefore no entity could concievably be conscious first of the fact that he is conscious and then grasp 'oh I am conscious of something'. You can only become aware you are conscious only after the fact of performing an act of consciousness. Only after you have become conscious of some-thing.

:-)