Saturday, 5 March 2022

"Better off dead"

This whole Ukraine/World War III is really getting me down. I responded the only way I know how:

My latest blogpost: "Better off dead"Tweet this! Posted by Mark Wadsworth at 19:56

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18 comments:

JuliaM said...

I'm leaning towards this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRLON3ddZIw

6 March 2022 at 07:47
The Jannie said...

Don't give up the day job!

6 March 2022 at 09:50
Bayard said...

Julia M, if you are going to have that, you need this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFvxqQTh3m4

6 March 2022 at 10:35
Mark Wadsworth said...

JM, B, yes, that's the same general idea, only Tom L is an intellectual who can sing and play piano. I am savage hound who just busks it.

DCB, thanks for the tip, and no, I have no plans to do so.

6 March 2022 at 14:08
Robin Smith said...

FAB news https://dailysceptic.org/2022/03/06/nigel-farage-launches-campaign-for-referendum-on-net-zero/

Dont forget to look into Location Value Covenants - collecting rent for community purposes. Differ to LVT by being voluntary(the thing which makes it impossible for LVT fans to look at). LVT requires force, coercion or bribery to adopt : POWER. And this is why its the most economically failing policy in all history, especially when analysed by intellectuals

KLN: this surely deserves the #1 KLN slot because it is the only KLN which stands firm under scrutiny. It actually is a killer argument against LVT.

If you require further reading or explanation and clarifications, by all means let me know. Try to avoid cog dis, strawman, confirmation bias, begging the question, infinite evidence and of course Georgist religiosity.

6 March 2022 at 19:55
Bayard said...

"LVT requires force, coercion or bribery to adopt"

All taxes require force, coercion or bribery to adopt, apart from the national lottery.

6 March 2022 at 20:39
Bayard said...

Something to consider, especially the third paragraph from the end: https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2022/03/the-universal-boosting-of-putin/comment-page-6/#comment-1013495

7 March 2022 at 10:17
Mark Wadsworth said...

RS, I invite you, yet again, so send me a two page summary of what LVCs are all about.

B, ta. Also, what RS refuses to acknowledge is that LVCs also require force and coercion. The deal appears to be (or at least this is how everybody he has ever explained them to) that if you don't pay LVCs we will force you to pay 'other taxes'.

B, all these articles are too much navel gazing. With the benefit of hindsight, Putin is pure and total evil.

7 March 2022 at 10:47
Bayard said...

M, you obviously don't get to be top man in Russia by being a nice guy, but, in terms of foreigners killed, Putin is still way behind the Bushes, Clinton and Obama, not to mention all those who presided over the Vietnam and Korean wars, so if he is total evil, what are they?

7 March 2022 at 14:09
Robin Smith said...

MW, we showed you what LVCs are in 2008 when we first met. Then several times since then. Each time you dismissed them out of hand. You reinforce this above by stating they are something they are not. After claiming that I do not understand them and that you do. What a curious way to behave.

Here is a simple example of a Land Covenant Mortgage, which has been available there for 14 years. Let me know if it's the wrong answer or not invented here. Or you cannot access it.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11hDUuALgqT_EjV0PFA9uTieK_Y_Zk-sKu2BWhjbIsWw/edit?usp=drivesdk

The temptation will be to discount this example out of hand because it doesn't require force, coercion or bribery to adopt as per LVT (which has never been adopted, anywhere, successfully, fully). The biggest KlN.

There's far more detail available on the SFR Group web site. The problem you face is that to even look into LVCs is deemed heresy by your ideology. And you won't even be aware of that fundamental problem. It's the same with all religion.

We developed LVCs primarily to bring this psychosis out into the light. After observing how Georgism is such an enormous failure. It tooks us about 6 months to realise that Georgism was born dead in this way.

All the best with it. It will be hard on you if you manage to make way. Call if you need help.

7 March 2022 at 14:24
Mark Wadsworth said...

RS, I invite you, yet again, to send me a 2 or 3 page summary, in Word, by email explaining the basic rules. I have asked for this sort of thing several times since 2008 (or whenever your first mentioned them).

The reason I dismissed them is because, with my tax adviser hat on, I could show you endless loopholes where people would end up paying little or not tax as well having little or no liability under their LVC.

Until you actually send me a summary, I shall continue to dismiss the whole idea.

Your call.

7 March 2022 at 14:32
Mark Wadsworth said...

B, tricky question. Were the US presidents listed responsible for some terrible things? Yes of course. Were they democratically elected and removed without a big fight? Yes. Did they routinely have opponents killed or imprisoned? No. Are there also lots of good things to say about them? Yes.

So on balance, let's say 30% evil, 70% OK. Putin is 100% evil. There is nothing mitigating about him at all.

7 March 2022 at 14:36
Bayard said...

" Did they routinely have opponents killed or imprisoned? No."
I think "not that we know about" would be more accurate. After all, who is going to tell us? whereas the US obviously wants us to know about anything that could be plausibly ascribed to Putin and quite a lot that can't, e.g. the whole Skripal saga, which has more holes in it than a colander. As for imprisoning people without trial, does the name "Guantanamo Bay" ring any bells? Why go to the trouble and expense of imprisoning or killing your opponents when you can simply destroy their livelihoods through McCarthyism. There is no real "opposition" in the US, it's always the Republicrats in power, so their real opponents no longer form part of the political classes and we wouldn't even notice if they did disappear. How many US politicians do you know of that are not members of the two main parties? Mind you, I do think Putin's missed a trick here, he should have had his pal Medvedev set up an "opposition" party and they could have changed and changed about every four or eight years.

7 March 2022 at 20:18
Mark Wadsworth said...

B, sure, there's Alex Salmond, McCarthy era, Julian Assange (and that other chap). There will always be smears and skullduggery.

The Markov, Skripal, Litvinenko etc stories are odd but do point towards Russia. That is worlds apart from Wee Krankie ousting Salmond.

There is 'opposition' in the USA, there are Green and Libertarian parties AFAIAA. Democrats and Republicans are by and large about as different as Coke and Pepsi. Plus I'm not holding up USA as shining beacon of anything anyway.

You are getting bogged down in details. As interesting as these outliers are, they are not the overall pattern in Europe (which is where I live and what I care about and which I would consider to be reasonably 'democratic').

8 March 2022 at 11:21
Bayard said...

We don't know that they are the overall pattern in Russia. We only know about disappearing Russians because our press tells us about them. Our press only knows about them because someones's secret service has told them about them. Meanwhile people disappear in mysterious circumstances over here and it is not front page news because it is in no-one's interest to make it front-page news. Whilst the authorities here are keen always to show Russia in a bad light, something that has been going on since the C19th, the Russians couldn't really give a shit and, in any case, who would print their stories if they did?
So when a young human rights lawyer from near where I live dies in mysterious circumstances, it merits a small mention in the MSM once and then nothing. I only know about it because he was a friend of a friend of a friend.

8 March 2022 at 21:21
Piotr Wasik said...

B, mind you that the more open and free a country is, the easier it is for the press to expose dirty secrets, so imho the US looks worse than it is, with larger percentage of dirty secrets exposed, and Russia or China look better than they are, with smaller percentage of dirty secrets exposed.

9 March 2022 at 16:03
Bayard said...

PW, the press has got to want to expose the dirty secrets first. The problem all the MSM have is that the internet has stolen their lunch. Not enough people read newspapers or watch TV for it to remain the lucrative and influential business it once was. In this situation, it is much easier for the state to control an apparently open and free press. I know from personal experience that information that contradicts the official narrative is not reported. It is not suppressed, simply not reported in the first place. No-one wants to know.

9 March 2022 at 20:27
Mark Wadsworth said...

PW, exactly.

12 March 2022 at 10:27

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