Daily Archives: 8 September 2016

An Outcome of Leading from Behind

Posted on by
Reply

This isn’t just harassment, or actions taken to embarrass us and humiliate our Navy in the Arabian Gulf, though it’s those things, too.  It’s also both a technique to desensitize us to these close approaches by enemy combat vessels and to give those combat vessels and the navies that operate them operational combat practice through exercises that are live in every important way, lacking only live fire.   This time, at least the third incident of this nature just in the last month or so, the

USS Firebolt, a coastal patrol ship, was shadowed by seven Iranian vessels. Three of the vessels came within 500 yards and shadowed Firebolt for eight minutes. Then one of the Iranian vessels broke off and raced in front of Firebolt and “came to a stop directly in front of the ship” at a range of 100 yards, according to the official.

That’s the closest approach, yet, by Iranian Navy combat vessels.  The meek response by the Firebolt, and the other ships in those earlier incidents—responses mandated by President Barack Obama (D), not by our Navy—only encourages more, and more dangerous, such actions.

“Clearly the Iranian behavior has to change,” Capt Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said Tuesday.

Davis refused to outline any specifics on how to bring about that change.

Davis could not identify any specifics because Obama has none; Obama has no plan at all other than to put in his time until the next President takes over and must deal with his mess.

There have been nearly twice as many cases of harassment by Iranian vessels against the US Navy in the first half of 2016 as the first half of 2015.

Oddly, that’s about the time Obama’s nuclear weapons deal with Iran has been in practical effect after Obama signed it last October.

This is one result of leading from behind following along behind events/other nations’ initiatives.  This isn’t likely to end well.

Because Sit Down, and Shut Up

Posted on by
Reply

Apple Inc’s aggressive response to a €13 billion ($14.5 billion) tax ruling by the European Commission shows the U.S. technology company doesn’t understand the moral obligation on big companies to pay taxes, according to the leader of the eurozone’s finance ministers.

Because it’s terrible that a company which has played by all the rules should see its money confiscated—or the attempt made—anyway.

Jeroen Dijsselbloem [President of the Eurogroup, the collection of Eurozone finance ministers] said Apple had “failed to grasp” the public outcry over tax avoidance by large companies.

Perhaps Dijsselbloem has failed to grasp the public’s dismay over excessive taxation and Europe’s refusal to allow competition—especially on taxes.

And just to emphasize Dijsselbloem’s disingenuousness, there’s this comment by him:

The Apple response shows that they don’t grasp what’s going on in society and they do not grasp what’s going on in the public debate.  This is a very strong moral issue and large companies, even if they’re this large, can’t say “this is not about us, there’s no problem here.”

American companies or any company that uses all these different tax plans and at the end of the day pays no tax, that’s not fair.

No, the moral issue is the EU bureaucracy’s demanding to impose its concept of morality in place of the morals of sovereign peoples’.  What’s not fair is being punished even though all the rules, all these different tax plans, have been satisfied.  What’s not fair is demanding all these different tax plans to be normalized in accordance with an EU bureaucracy’s diktats, in complete disregard of constituent nation sovereign imperatives.

Or perhaps Dijsselbloem’s just pettily jealous of having been outgamed by a better man.  If Dijsselbloem, or his cronies in that EU bureaucracy, don’t like the gamesmanship here, they should work to eliminate the incentives associated: they should work to get the rest of the EU’s tax plans‘ tax rates reduced to competitive levels, so such gamesmanship becomes irrelevant.

But that’s inconceivable to folks like the Eurogroup, so all they have is their inchoate demand that dissenters just sit down, and shut up.