(hat tip to GIF Soup for the gif)
It is an unsettling feeling to reach the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, and realize all the sacrifices of World War II may be for naught, as America seems to be engaged in a vicious debate between fascism and socialism, which would have shocked WWII-era Americans.
But the more important question is whether wars are worth it. Consider that the gains of every war in history were eventually lost within centuries. Land may be kept, but governments change, so any "principal" being fought over becomes lost. Fighting "for" or "against" a person or thing becomes moot over time, as the few surviving WWII-era Americans are probably wondering now.
Mind you, this isn't a diatribe against war. It is only a recognition that war should always be the last option on the table. Without the sacrifices of WWII, America wouldn't have made it this far.
On the other hand, WWII could have been prevented. From the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I, through FDR's poor handling of diplomacy with the Japanese (some say he intentionally drove them towards war), the missteps leading to WWII are legion. By the time Pearl Harbor happened, there were no choices left.
The lesson of Pearl Harbor isn't "war must be avoided", but rather peace requires effort. If you work towards war, you will get war. But the only way to get peace is to work towards it.
On the topic of fascism...
Bloomberg:
First came Ford and Carrier. Now Boeing and SoftBank are experiencing the power of Donald Trump’s Twitter feed.
The president-elect jumped into corporate affairs again Tuesday, tweeting first to criticize one company and then to hail another. He began at 8:52 a.m. New York time by calling out Boeing Co. over costs to develop new Air Force One jets. Just over five hours later he celebrated a $50 billion investment in the U.S. by Japanese telecommunications firm SoftBank Group Corp.
The tweets, coming after Trump last week announced a deal with United Technologies Corp. to cancel plans to close a U.S. factory, dominated news and moved markets even as details in both cases remained sketchy and the impacts unclear. Trump again showed a willingness to use his bully pulpit to criticize or congratulate companies over actions affecting American workers and government spending.
“This is extraordinary,” said Mohan Tatikonda, a professor at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. “For a president to get involved at the level of spot locations, spot companies, spot plants, is I think unprecedented.”
In America, perhaps it is unprecedented. But not in history: Adolf Hitler used to pick corporate winners and losers.
A president who’s too eager to pick winners and losers may prompt business owners to seek special treatment in Washington instead of focusing on improving operations, said Anne Krueger, an economics professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.In other words, our existing crony capitalism is coming out into the open. No more backroom deals.
“The rule of law is what prevents crony capitalism, and the minute you have the president-elect, politicians or bureaucrats meeting with business owners to dispense special favors it unlevels the playing field,” said Krueger, a former first deputy director of the International Monetary Fund. “We all ought to be screaming now because if we don’t, we’re going to be a third-world country before we know it.”
While transparency is a good thing, wouldn't it be better not to have these deals at all?
By the way, a Boeing 747 can easily cost over $351 million, and that is before any "special" changes are made. Air Force One will undoubtedly require many special changes, the kind which no other 747 will ever need, which will run up the price significantly. So a $4 billion price tag for two such jets isn't unreasonable under the circumstances.
Considering that there is little doubt Trump has bought an airplane before, he is being disingenuous if he claims he doesn't understand how special orders work in aerospace manufacturing.
Speaking of Trump...
Washington Post:
The Secret Service agents told the Carrier workers to stay put, so Chuck Jones sat in the factory conference room for nearly three hours, waiting for president-elect Donald Trump. He’d grown used to this suspense.
Seven months earlier, at a campaign rally in Indianapolis, Trump had pledged to save the plant’s jobs, most of which were slated to move to Mexico. Then the businessman won the election, and the 1,350 workers whose paychecks were on the line wondered if he’d keep his promise.
Jones, president of the United Steelworkers 1999, which represents Carrier employees, felt optimistic when Trump announced last week that he’d reached a deal with the factory’s parent company, United Technologies, to preserve 1,100 of the Indianapolis jobs — u ntil the union leader heard from Carrier that only 730 of the production jobs would stay and 550 of his members would lose their livelihoods, after all.
At the Dec. 1 meeting, where Trump was supposed to lay out the details, Jones hoped he would explain himself.
“But he got up there,” Jones said Tuesday, “and, for whatever reason, lied his a-- off.”
In front of a crowd of about 150 supervisors, production workers and reporters, Trump praised Carrier and its parent company, United Technologies. "Now they’re keeping — actually the number’s over 1,100 people,” he said, “which is so great.”
Jones wondered why the president-elect appeared to be inflating the victory. Trump and Pence, he said, could take credit for rescuing 800 of the Carrier jobs, including non-union positions.
Of the nearly 1,400 workers at the Indianapolis plant, however, 350 in research and development were never scheduled to leave, Jones said. Another 80 jobs, which Trump seemed to include in his figure, were non-union clerical and supervisory positions. (A Carrier spokesperson confirmed the numbers.) And now the president-elect was applauding the company and giving it millions of dollars in tax breaks, even as hundreds of Indianapolis workers prepared to be laid off.
Business Insider:
Note this article is a few days old. The "1,000 jobs" number is dubious, at best. Regardless:United Technologies Corp., Carrier's parent company, said it is raising prices for its heating, ventilation, and air conditioning equipment by up to 5%, starting January 1. The decision to raise prices was first announced on November 23, the week before the Trump deal was finalized.So for keeping only 800 of 1,400 jobs in one plant, they get $7 million in Indiana tax breaks over 10 years, AND they are raising prices another 5% next year. Cha-ching!
Politics is the art of getting someone else to pay for your prostitutes.
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