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Basra is a major port, not just for oil. Thanks to the oil demand in the early 20th century, there is an ovetland freight corridor from Europe to Basra (Orient Express). An insane amount of freight goes through Homuz, from escalator parts to books to fertiliser.

Australia defines freedom as 'the freedom to not have some other jerk ruin your day.' USA defines freedom as 'the freedom to act as you choose, even if it ruins someone's day.' This is why Oz has food safety standards but not protected freedom of speech.

Al Gore did win. It's documented. The reason Bush became president is because the supreme court ruled in his favor. It was US citizens vs Epstein class - and you know which one the supreme court stands for.

Unfortunately the strait is a bigger issue than just oil - so Iran will still hold the keys to the freight corridor even without the oil trade.

Everything DJT touches fails. This has been true his entire life.

This is the big joke of all right wing 'conservative' parties in the west. If you are under 60, you have never actually seen a right wing party behave in a fiscally conservative way.

Wait a second. I am talking about tax on income, you are talking about tax on existing wealth. I am not even a fan of sales tax because it's a tax on already taxed money.

To be fair, USA is only 250 years old. It's all modern history.

I disagree it's a bad idea, but it can't be done in isolation. None of the action items you listed can be done in isolation. I think the big mistake people make is assuming tax is to pay for expenditure. Tax is the value proposition of money, expenditure is about ensuring future tax.

Number 10 is the most important by far, and doing just that will make all the other points start to happen on their own. 90% marginal. Go big.

For a long time Sony wasn't a computer game company.

I did NOT have Australia in the frontrunners of the renewables transition on my 2020s bingo card! I live in Australia.

Let's go full solarpunk.

I always assumed it was a translation gaff. Ultimate Fantasy could be rewritten as Final Fantasy if you thesaurus Ultimate, and they would have wanted to distinguish themselves from Ultima. That's my guess.

Body cameras aren't the magical anti-corruption devices people think they are. Don't expect that footage to be available or clear even if they were on. They work only under the assumption that the organisation and administration itself is both just and diligent. Neither are true.

On the first point I agree wholeheartedly. I don't agree that reform is impossible. That said, reform requirements too often fall into the same trap as judgements: woefully insufficient and overly favourable to the men.

The devil should get his due, but he should take a number and get in line.

Unlikely. But a win here is them openly admitting they are ignoring the law, no excuses. That's useful because while they won't be federally prosecuted, their allies won't have the same state level protections. For example someone repeating their clearly illegal lies on their foxy network.

Pretty much. Capitalism can be great provided it has proper anti-trust and proper tax laws to stop the rich getting ultra-rich. Raegan broke capitalism in USA when he dropped the marginal tax rate. And by dropped, I mean murdered.

The assumption is federal tax pays for expenditure. This is FALSE. Expenditure is the govt's way of encouraging business to act for the nation. Tax is the value proposition of money. Socialism with capitalism is the govt saying it wants businesses to help the citizens, even the poor ones.