djbrow

Not Scal but….

 “I'm sick all day because of this. Hope the mods will take this”

Not as sick as I am. Just realized what a terrible mistake we made in boxing you. 

As with all boxed posters, we have programmed your return on three conditions:

1) hit 80% on your plays tomorrow 

2) write a one page summary of your favorite thread in Archives and why

3) guess the third 

Not this year, but it will be back next year. Wishing everybody good luck today.

There are a lot of myths of foreign aid. The first is that cutting foreign aid would lead to a balanced budget or more money for schools, etc. Foreign aid accounts for about 1.3% of the U.S. Budget (it was about 1% before the Russian/Ukraine war).https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/countries-that-receive-the-most-foreign-aid-from-the-u-s#:~:text=In%20reality%2C%20foreign%20assistance%20typically,globally%20from%202012%20through%202022.

Foreign aid is also a plus sum proposition because much of the aid is equipment and strategic, thus the aid perpetuates military and like agencies' employment. https://www.usglc.org/media/2017/04/USGLC-Foreign-Assistance-Economic-Prosperity.pdf

U.S. aid also creates instability in the countries who are natural adversaries to the recipient. Take the USSR for example...during the Cold War era, President Reagan used the Haig Doctrine to create internal instability in the USSR the largest reason for the initial fall of the USSR. Since the Russian/Ukraine war and the US aid, the Russian inflation rate is 7.7%, the highest in the region with the exception of Turkey.https://www.statista.com/statistics/276323/monthly-inflation-rate-in-russia/

The Iranian inflation rate was at 44% before the recent crisis. https://www.focus-economics.com/country-indicator/iran/inflation/#:~:text=Consumer%20price%20inflation%20in%20Iran,2022%20average%20figure%20was%2041.9%25. We can expect that as the Government contributes to more and more defense, the rate will increase to over 50%, a key number as over half the population will not be able to afford basic services/necessities. Perhaps Obama and Biden's biggest failings (although Trump didn't do much either) has been the failure to appropriately target sanctions related to Iran. The key is always to keep the Government financially weak but the people strong enough to create the internal turmoil (see Syria, Egypt, Libya). 

it is Christmas time. Any upsets? Any teams you all have seen? I was in Hawaii for the Maui (was in Honolulu) Invitational and would not be surprised to see any of those teams in the finals, breaking my heart it won't be Kansas. 

Purdue was in my hotel and those guys were in gym all the time except when they played. 

I think Colorado State is really good. Check out their out of conference schedule. 

Not true. That turkey lived!