Day: October 15, 2022

My Bad Decision Senses are piping up again, accurately detecting possible bad decisions to be made. And they’re pinging the Honda Hornet.

I said never buy Honda. I meant it. I mean it now. I do!

I just kinda want to know the out-the-door price on one in black and yellow.

I’ve heard it said ‘Foreign policy is local.’ That means something like ‘the people who are undertaking foreign policy are playing to a local audience. US politicians are acting as they thing their US voters will approve, UK politicians for UK voters, etc.’ I think there’s probably some truth in that.

People outside the US have very little say in US politics, as we have little say in theirs. What little we have in theirs and they in ours is often the subject of immense pressures. For a US politician to take a firm stance on, say, Belgian politics is to virtually guarantee blowback.

In a democracy, people vote for a leader, and those people largely elect the leader. There’s always a little fuzz. Even in a bureaucracy, the unelected do not reign without constraint. In an autocracy, things are even fuzzier, but there’s a certain amount of ‘will of the ruled’ that must be marshalled.

China has paid close attention to this with their reactions to US politicians who attempt to speak directly to the Chinese people. Putin may be influenced by the disquiet arising in Russia from his Ukrainian war moreseo than he admits. Putin has a lot of money in his authority account, but he’s making big purchases when he sends conscripts to the meat grinder.

Suppose something unpleasant happens. What’s the appropiate level of response?

This is a more difficult a problem it seems.