Blog series 2 62 NAFTA Negotiations - Scripted?

Blog 2 - 62 Scripted  NAFTA Negotiations?

Okay, let’s take a closer look at President Trump and Canadian PM Trudeau’s curious dance. In one area they are certainly behaving more like dancers, in step, than opposites across a negotiating table.   

*The previous NAFTA could be abrogated with only six month’s notice. Hmmnnn, The President has never mentioned that. He always calls for "tearing it up."

This blog was withdrawn when your blogger realized that the dispute mechanism Trudeau was holding out for was not the investor-state-dispute resolution of Chapter 11 NAFTA.   but a Chapter 19, concerned with state-to-state disputes.

 Mr. Trudeau got his dispute resolution (Chap 19) and the Chapter 11 investor-state provision seems to be on its way out internationally.

Blog 2-61 Homo Fonicus

The Law of Money

Money goes where money is.

               Money

 Power

                                                                                   

                                                                       

Homo Fonicus  A,D 3000

 Blog 2-61  The Future Homo Fonicus

Imagine your Friendly Old Blogger at a crowded tourist site, people-watching.  Crowds of tourists, short and tall, male and female, young and old. 

Instead of inventing stories about the individual strangers - your blogger’s usual silent occupation - he was attracted to something different. It was most noticeable in the 14-25 year-olds, particularly in the young ladies. Ohh. So why was your FOB watching young ladies? And wondering…  What was he looking at? 

Well for starters his attention was attracted to an age group that used to have straight backs, flat backs, with heads mounted vertically above square shoulders. Like homo sapiens. Seriously. 

On average these 2018 young people’s backs were more rounded, their heads more extended forward, than would have been the case thirty years ago. The number of girls - and young children - who were wearing glasses seemed higher, too. 

And, of course there were thousands of phones on display. (Ah, of course. That’s what the old fogg is getting at.)

Yes but. This is not a Luddite attack on current technology. It draws attention to a physical threat to the human race in the billions of screens of small devices absorbing human eyes and attentions in 2018. 

Your observer straightened his own shoulders and stood tall in a pose he thought was more erect, and tried to stretch back a pair of shoulders rounded by careless age (and of recent years by a lot of time spent before a computer screen).

Now, I could go on doing a futuristic look at how these changes will affect ideals of human body beauty. Will all round-shouldered young bucks prefer females of the same design?

I digress. A more important concern may be how the human intellect will be affected. Mind matters.

So let’s stretch what mind we have to the distant future of man - the age of the foniacs (3000  A.D) - 

They are recognizable by 

1 - hunched shoulders

2 - head thrust forward

3 - thick reading glasses

4 - hearing aid for hearing destroyed by earbuds

5 - rounded backbones all the way down to short and spindly legs

They will be afflicted by foniasm, a pleasurable mental aberration which excludes all sensations except those emanating from I-fones. Is this the beginning of the end of man” - addiction to his/her dopamine through a tiny screen?

No, I project a population divided, as now: there will be elites who can see, hear, run and think, and foniacs — kept under control by fine-tuned personal messaging. Just as the Roman emperors kept their mobs contained - by bread and circuses.  Bread was an issue of free grain. Circuses were performed in the colosseum where the proles watched the Christians & Lions Show, the Gladiators to the Death Show. and the Imperial Chariot Races. 

Today it is television, and the fone. Lots of circus power there, especially if you don’t mute the commercials

But what about the “bread”? Maybe a guaranteed annual income ?? !!!. 

Maybe, but the fatal disease of elites, the irresistible “MORE AND MORE AND MORE OF THE PIE” syndrome, will finally reach its consummation. No more bread for “them.”                       

That will result in mass foniac demonstrations. 

“The foniacs are revolting, Victor!”

“They’ve always been revolting, Harold.”!

So the elites cut off the foniacs' fone service  The foniacs go into violent withdrawal symptoms starting with rapidly twitching fingers. (Not good, if they happen to have access to assault rifles, which  will still be easy to obtain in America).

Coffee, anyone? Double double? Okay.

                                                                         

                                                    .

BLOG 2 60 Cheeky New Zealand

Blog 2 - 62 Scripted  NAFTA Negotiations?

Okay, let’s take a closer look at President Trump and Canadian PM Trudeau’s curious dance. In one area they are certainly behaving more like dancers, in step, than opposites across a negotiating table.   

We’re looking at two issues: 

1. Canada’s dairy farmers’ marketing practices; and  

2. The dispute resolution procedures.

Now from one point of view, it looks like a set-up for a quid pro quo trade-off. Trudeau sacrifices his dairy farmers and, in return, gets the dispute resolution process into the Agreement.. Trump gets to sell a lot more milk in Canada (to the detriment of the host country’s dairymen (and women). And both claim to their citizens that they won!

Looks good. Except for the widely held understanding - (on which your blogger has already ex[pressed his sharp opinion, (Blogs  45 and 48) - a widely held understanding that 

a. The dispute settlement regime, permits foreign corporations to sue national states for any action that impinges an the corporation’s present profits OR future profits. Examples coming), and

b. Over time, the country with the most and biggest corporations always wins under these dispute resolution treaties. We won’t bore you with the historical evidence.

In this case of the dancing leaders, which is the bigger country with the most corporations,? 

So which is the country whose corporations will routinely sue-and win?  You got that ? Good. I thought it was pretty easy, too.

The only explanation for the Trump-Trudeau’s public stances is that this part of the “negotiation” has been scripted in advance

Canada has the most to lose if the dispute resolution procedures are retained. American firms can continue to thwart Canada legislation, or be well compensated.  

And all Canada has to  do to "achieve" that, is to give away its dairy products management system to help American dairy farmers make more money in Canada.

But that’s not “Quid pro quo“. It looks more like pre-scripted surrender, Mr. Trudeau,

If you have a better explanation, I’m open to hearing it. But I’m pretty smart. And I have been following NAFTA outcomes for quite a long time.

 Never mind, you Canadians. There’s an election on your horizon, too - tho’ it may be too late to revoke NAFTA, if you've signed. Too late.*

*The previous NAFTA could be abrogated with only six month’s notice. Hmmnnn, The President has never mentioned that. He always calls for "tearing it up."

2 - 59 Calling on Humanity's Brain

Blog 2 59   Calling on Humanity’s Brain

Hello, Victor, How are you doing?

Oh, hello Harold.  Well, actually, not so bad. My figures are not all in yet , but it looks as if I broke the two hundred mil mark for the first time last year.

Oh, very impressive. You must have a very good brain.

Well, yes I guess so.

Where did you get it?

What do you mean, where did I get it?

Your brain. Did you buy it? 

No! What are you talking about, Harold?

Did you do anything special  to get your brain?

No.., I’ve always just had it. It came in the package, you might say.

“Came in the package”?  So, it was actually a free gift. And you’ve used it to make two hundred mil last year?  Good return on investment, I’ld say.

Okay, Harold, what are you talking about?

Well, I’ve been thinking a lot lately… Thinking that if the 1% of the world’s people with the best brains - that’s about eighty million top-notch brains - thought of themselves as the brain of humanity, rather than as just super-bright individuals, what could they accomplish? If even half of them thought of themselves as the brain of humanity and they set about to do what a brain does - keep the rest of the body fit and happy - wouldn’t they leave the world - which they inevitably will do - wouldn’t they leave the world a much better place?

Harold, you’re losing your perspective.

Hmmmnn. No, Victor, I think I may be finding it

Hatched in New Zealand.   Feb. 2018

Blog 58 Defining Democracy: a Down-Under Definition

 Blog 58 Defining Democracy: a Down-Under Definition.

In these  blogs I have bored you more than once with academic, polysyllabic, etymological  derivations and explications of such terms as democracy, oligarchy,  aristocracy,  

                            yatayatayata… Apologies for previous failings. 

We have just returned from a two-month visit to a real democracy, and had some conversations with real New Zealanders, especially Adam  (real name, which he has given permission to use - Greg Adams) a practising democrat and a clear-thinking man of parts.

It seems to have been a much-needed break for us and demonstrates that even an old fogg can get a new idea or two.

So this blog, item one, how to define democracy, and the next blog, item two, the brain of humanity, were hatched, like penguin chicks, in New Zealand.

Item One

In a world where almost all governments call themselves democratic, maybe this is a useful test: ignore the claim and examine the outcomes.

First step: make a list. Ask what would the people, if they really were calling the shots, want? Then check the reality. How does Nation X actually stack up against  that list. 

Here’s my short list. Yours may be quite different, but just as effective as a democracy litmus test:

1.  Public health care. 

Where the typical citizen doesn’t have to worry about the costs. Just like the rich citizen. And I don’t think it would be too hard to find enough doctors who would want to care for the ”less than rich”, because… well, just because they would think it is a good thing to do. I certainly know some.

2. Free Public education,.

No overwhelming fees and long-lasting student debt burden.  But this one is not just a wish. It’s essential for the creation and survival of democracy.  To stay in charge, the citizenry must have the tools to be effective critics, to  be able to unmask the propaganda and explode PR BS from government or corporate or other special interests. Free, and good, education (as good as any private school education, for example) is vital to provide those tools.

3. A graduated taxation system.  This is what thelawofmoney blog is all about. Without public control of the money supply, the law of money - money goes where money is - will, suck the wealth out of any economy and bank it at the top.

(Even if all the currently-existing dodges to conceal hidden hoards were closed, the law of money would still operate.)

So what is a graduated taxation system? 

What is it not? Well it is not what has been called a “fair taxation”, system, where a rate of tax - say 15% - is levied on all incomes equally. If that sounds fair to you, you haven’t had enough of #2 - a good public education. 

Simply, in a graduated tax system, higher income/wealth taxpayers pay at higher rate (percentage) than lower income/wealth taxpayers. 

Here’s a graduated income tax system - not a practical proposal, for illustration only.  It shows sample annual incomes from $20,000 to $2 billion.

INCOME      TAX       TAX PAID       REMAINING

                        RATE   INCOME

$2,000.000,000 90% $1,800,000,000 $200,000,000

   $600,000,000 80%   $480,000,000 $120,000,000

   $100,000,000 70%     $70,000,000   $30,000,000

     $50,000,000 60%     $30.000,000  $20,000,000

—————————————————————————————-

—————————————————————————————

    $500,000 30% $150,000 $350,000

    $100,000 20%               $20,000         $80,000

$50,000 10%                 $5,000         $45,000

$20,000 5%                  $1,000         $19,000

There are better grounds for arguing  this as a fair taxation system than there are for the 15% flat tax. 

Blog 57 A News Commentary for the Day (March 14, 2018) Seventeen Minutes

Blog 57  A News Special of the Day (March 14.2018.) 

This blog has for the most part avoided the top news topic of the last two years - the classroom behavior of the nation’s most prominent schoolboy. But, without naming him, permit me to make a few observations on his response to the problem of the shooting deaths in our schools. Now I’m not referring to the little though long-standing problem in ghetto schools, but to the big problem of discontented shooters randomly ravaging schools with automatic weapons. 

Following the mantra of some NRA members and other respectable citizens, that “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people,” or the equally preposterous proposition that “There would be less crime if every citizen was armed”, permit me, on the grounds that every proposal has a right to be heard, to comment on an even more radically ridiculous proposal - that teachers in American schools should be armed with guns.

Talking points:

1. In the intimacy of a school it would be impossible to conceal which teachers were packing. “My Bobby [third grade] saw Mr. Sawyer’s gun poking out of his pocket.”

Since many of the shooters are disgruntled students of the schools they shoot up, they, too, would know who the gun-toters were. So the shooter-to-be would open the door of that classroom first to start his spree by taking down the armed teacher. Sometimes he would succeed.

2. Now you know how parents often have an overactive interest in their children’s educational welfare. Such parents would demand that their child not be placed in a packing teacher’s class. After all, they would claim, it is more dangerous there. The point is, that it would increase the administrative burden of assigning students to classes. You might ask for parents to volunteer their children for those particular classes, but what if a principal couldn’t get enough volunteers? Just a minor administrative problem. Hire a few more teachers. No, the budget-conscious administrative voices would block that.

2 A good alternative proposal then has recently emerged: equip all the pupils with guns. Then… then, the ultimate solution,  there would be no crime, nobody would be killed (according to the “guns don’t kill people” principle.) 

3 Well,I don’t know. That argument would make the shooter-to-be an honest citizen merely exercising his Second Amendment rights. Trust me. In America today, anything is possible.  Even in Supreme Court decisions.  Remember the Citizens United decision that money must be allowed to buy elections. Blog #14

4  Attaining competence with firearms under either regime - armed teachers, or armed students. 

Now, open disclosure  here. Your blogster has not handled a firearm for many years, but was once upon a time an instructor teaching cadets how to clean, load and fire a military rifle. He even fired a Bren machine gun. It was a weighty weapon with a pair of legs on the barrel. You plopped it down on the ground on its legs and laid your own body on the ground behind it. If you just squeezed the trigger you could empty a magazine in seconds. So we were taught to say “Sunovabitch, Sunovabitch. Sunovabitch” as we squeezed the trigger  three times. That fired off only three or four rounds with each squeeze. 

But, I digress. Maybe just as well, even though there are several more points to be made regarding “unintended consequences” and “collateral damage” if the armed schools followed the long-held American tradition of “Shoot first, and ask questions later.” 

But, enough is enough on this subject..

Next posting, back to the law of money and a new approach to recognizing a real democracy, thanks to Adam, the man..

Blog 56 Adam and the Penguins

Blog 56

Okay, okay… When the file on little blog-ideas just crying to be published reaches a thousand words… 


Your blogster has just returned from travels abroad which hatched some interesting insights. He has also just finished reading an important “intellectual” book., Part of this blog’s purpose from the beginning has been to translate hard-to-read books and other treatises into the language of ordinary human beings.  There has been some feedback that (despite the deficiencies of the cartoons) sometimes we have been successful. So, instead of retiring from the blogdom of money, let’s take another shot or two at it.

Let me start with a man I met, a remarkable man. (I’d like to think there are many more like him in his native NewZealand.) 
Call him Adam. He was a farmer’s son, brought up with a farmer’s perspective on work. Now, he lives in a city, has a hostel business, a property repair business that tackles everything from plumbing to laying artificial turf, and a sideline as a home-builder. His one slight fault perhaps is that he is a little too hard on people who have, shall we say? a weaker work ethic.

But, lest you see him as a work addict - far from it - he has time for people just because they are people - here’s a snapshot>

He asked if I would like to drive out on an errand with him . First, however, he stopped to pick up an item at a corner store - a brush, actually. We arrived at the store three minutes before it opened. While I sat in the pick-up; he engaged in three minutes of actual pick-up - of trash on the curb around two sides of the store. He didn’t know the, probably young, people who had thrown their empty coffee cups and junk out of a car window the night before. It wasn’t his trash. But he picked it up, put it in plastic bag and gave it to the clerk who opened the store to him.

I could rest my case on that episode. But that evening he invited us out to see if we could catch a sight, just as the darkness was setting in, of a local feature - mother penguins swimming in to nests concealed among the rocks of the breakwater, to feed their chicks. As the darkness fell, there were 50-or so other curious folk spread out along a stretch of road that lay about 2 or 3 metres above the water level. Adam and a fellow volunteer, in yellow jackets, explained to watchers that they must be quiet, shine no lights, and definitely not go down on the rocks near the nests, or the penguin moms would swim out to sea again. The two volunteers also kept a nightly count of sightings for the biologists who study penguins. One deceased penguin chick was discovered later. It's in Adam's freezer waitting for the biologists. Beginning to like Adam?

Now for the personal point. In our conversations over four or five days with him, I came to a bright new idea related to the basic interest of this blog.  Oh yes, even I still have things to learn! So tune in for at least one more blog.