Sunday School

[jakelafortParticipant]

Looks interesting.

Thanks Reg.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

@jakelafort – Feel free to add to this post, if you want.

 

 

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Jake,

It is so natural to lash out at the morons. lately i have been feeling that for the lefty’s. I just don’t know other than a coterie of thinkers who is not stupid. To me intelligence is critical thinking. Math, music, mechanical aptitudes are talents. Not same as general intelligence. Beliefs interfere with reason. Beliefs are the death of reason. So i am gonna order a few books that concern belief formation.

I would say math, music, snd mechanical aptitudes are three applictions of general intelligence. Math, indeed, is a pure science and has Logic undergirding it. And none of these operate on mere belief. So anyone who uses math, music, and mechanical aptitudes has some light in them yet.

Getting people to operate with intelligence in all aspects of life is, of course another matter entirely. Noam Chomsky is a linguist by study and trade and may know his stuff there, but he automatically and moroniclly gainsays anything from the U.S., Israel, and the West and automaticlly supports any totalitarian power that opposes them.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Reg,

Trump’s tarriffs and the reaction of both domestic and foreign markets to them are definitely a problem. They don’t even make sense from Trump’s own brain salad/word salad pseudo-thinking (e.g. he’s wanting high tariffs of, if I recall, 25 percent on Canada and Mexico over allowing Fentanyl to cross the border, yet Trump only wants to tax Red China 15 percent when Red China is the source of the Fentanyl.)

However, I wouldn’t sweat over loss of USAID to American farmers and agricultural reserch. People both at home snd abroad have to buy food and farmers still have to sell and agricultural research is still needed, so there is still a market. Farmers just may not make as much as they want for their wares with no foreign aid. But hey, who couldn’t use cheaper eggs and meat? Get rid of Trump’s tariffs and Supply and Demand prices will be like water and find their own level.

• This reply was modified 1 month, 2 weeks ago by  TheEncogitationer. Reason: Spelling and Grammar

[jakelafortParticipant]

Enco,

Math for sure requires reasoning and more reasoning. Music or the arts in general can be an aptitude seemingly divorced from general intelligence. Witness the musical or artistic savants who may appear in other regards dumb as a rock. Although i suppose great composers are a different case. And someone like DaVinci in his art demonstrated great intelligence.

Maybe my take is off the mark. But for my money the ability to critique anything and everything is the mark of true intelligence. The way Reg took apart fine tuning is an instance imo of true intelligence. That is assuming it is his own thoughts.

I can’t stand that guy. He is quite the linguist though. I have read passages of his very carefully and consider him a highly skilled sophist.

[jakelafortParticipant]

Reg, when i have concluded my readings and pondered weak and weary i shall add my thoughts.

[UnseenParticipant]

Is Trump a functional illiterate?

[UnseenParticipant]

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

However, I wouldn’t sweat over loss of USAID to American farmers and agricultural research.

Well if I was a “real” farmer I might sweat a little. It is the immediate cut-off of all USAID that is the problem.  There was no sliding scale to zero over a few years to allow contingency plans to be put in place. Given that USAID constituted about 0.7% of the total U.S. federal budget or 0.15% of GDP, I think the long term damage will not be worth the ‘savings’, especially the loss of ‘soft power’ abroad.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

@jakelafort – Once upon a midnight dreary, when your mind is bright and cheery, I shall wait to hear your musings—ponder well and share them more.

[_Robert_Participant]

5% have 2/3 of the wealth in the US. They want volatility, they want disruption, they want recessions…huge buying opportunity. The have trillions of dollars of dry powder just waiting…..right now. They will get granny’s farm for pennies on a buck.

When the top 5% has 95%, will they stop then? LOL.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Reg,

Well if I was a “real” farmer I might sweat a little. It is the immediate cut-off of all USAID that is the problem. There was no sliding scale to zero over a few years to allow contingency plans to be put in place. Given that USAID constituted about 0.7% of the total U.S. federal budget or 0.15% of GDP, I think the long term damage will not be worth the ‘savings’, especially the loss of ‘soft power’ abroad.

A farmer would have to be stupid to have only one revenue stream and one customer. Trade is what really helps the poor, both at home and abroad, and is most likely to get funds where they will have the most productivity and prosperity for all involved.

And where is the “soft power” in funding Hamas and its defenders and useful idiots? That’s just soft-headedness.

Terror Finance at the State Department and USAID
MEF research finds that the Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development have provided hundreds of millions of dollars to organizations involved with designated terrorist organizations.
February 1, 2025Sam Westrop
https://www.meforum.org/fwi/fwi-research/terror-finance-at-the-state-department-and-usaid

You are right that USAID is only a small part of the U.S. Federal Budget. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are the entitlements that will kill this nation, and Trump won’t even touch those.

• This reply was modified 1 month, 1 week ago by  TheEncogitationer. Reason: Addendum

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

In an interview on Russian state television on Sunday, Mr. Lavrov listed the ills that Europe — not America — had brought upon the world. The United States, in his telling, had gone from evil mastermind to innocent bystander.

“Colonization, wars, crusaders, the Crimean War, Napoleon, World War I, Hitler,” Mr. Lavrov said. “If we look at history in retrospect, the Americans did not play any instigating, let alone incendiary, role.”

As President Trump turns decades of U.S. foreign policy upside down, another dizzying swing is taking place in Russia, both in the Kremlin and on state-controlled television: The United States, the new message goes, is not that bad after all.

Almost overnight, it’s Europe — not the United States — that has become the source of instability in the Russian narrative. On his marquee weekly show on the Rossiya-1 channel Sunday night, the anchor Dmitri Kiselyov described the “party of war” in Europe as outmatched by the “great troika” of the United States, Russia and China that will form “the new structure of the world.”

Anton Troianovski, the Moscow bureau chief for The New York Times.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

A farmer would have to be stupid to have only one revenue stream and one customer.

I am in agreement that one revenue stream is not wise. Unless they keep hens where I guess having all their eggs in one basket would be very profitable at the moment. However it should have been scaled down and not just stopped. It is not the farmers that are being stupid. On top of this, they now have to deal with retaliatory tariffs. Trade wars during Trump’s first term slashed billions of dollars in U.S. agricultural exports. Farmers can expect an even bigger hit this time. Trump helped to boost Brazil’s economy as they capitalized on the gap left by the U.S., strengthening their trade relationships with China. Rebuilding lost market share was far from guaranteed and now it is happening again.  I still can’t blame the farmers even though the Trump administration attempted to offset losses with massive government subsidies (over $28 billion in aid between 2018 and 2020), but many farmers struggled with the long-term market shifts.

Countries like Brazil, Argentina, and Russia have aggressively expanded their agricultural exports, reducing dependency on U.S. crops. Since the last trade war, China has actively sought to reduce its reliance on American agriculture. This new round of tariffs will likely push China further toward alternative suppliers. If Trump continues to pursue a similar trade policy, American farmers may face not just temporary setbacks but a more permanent decline in global competitiveness. No matter how smart the farmers are, they can’t compete in a protectionist economy. The MAGA approach contrasts with free trade and neoliberalism, which, as you know, emphasize open markets and minimal government intervention in trade. I don’t think you will hear too many farmers singing…….Green Acres is the place to be. Farm livin’ is the life for me.

 

[StregaModerator]

Reg

With reference to Russia now blaming Europe…

The past was alterable. The past never had been altered. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.
George Orwell, 1984

 

• This reply was modified 1 month, 1 week ago by  Strega.

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