Post Archive
Region: Libertatem
We are in an era where populists gain the most traction. We are in the Donald Sanders Era.
What bothers me is that because he is flaunting it, he is putting out a bit of sexism himself. The 15 women have just been used as tokens in a way that gives a feeling that their positions were partially earned due to the configuration of their genitalia. Giving a position due to one's genitalia is a bit sexist is it not?
In any case government should be a meritocracy in terms of appointed officials, and Trudeau's flaunting of a diverse cabinet makes his ministers tokens rather than advisers.
Pevvania, Rateria
It's not sexism, it's progressivism.
It's not unjust, it's communism.
Pevvania, Rateria, Wovenland, Teuberland
Uhhh, just so yaknow, yaknow, this whole consersimillation offendizes me. You should all be megashamed. Totes triggered. Ermagersh.
Pevvania
What makes Trudeau's government interesting ist that each minister got his post according to his/her merits. The minister of science is a medical geographer and got a nobel prize. Her being a woman was probably not what made her minister. The minister of defence underwent a military career and is a highly decorated veteran so being Sikh was not his main qualification. The minister of health is a physician who worked in Niger to combat AIDS. She doesn't need to think she was only chosen because she is a woman because she has enough wualification otherwise.
And this is a totally new thing. Look at almost all other government. In most countries politicians can switch profession from being minister of finance to being minister of families even though they have no qualification in either profession. They just undergo a political career.
So when you are able to look away from the fact that there are as many men as there are women in Trudeau's cabinet it is also a very small step to a meritocracy.
Teuberland
That was the point I was making I don't think I made it clear it was sarcasm, it's both of course.
I kinda figured it wasn't serious.
I just saw the opportunity for my own joke, because it's an apt comparison.
Rand Paul crashes Dem Debate to call Hillary Clinton a neocon
Rand Paul Thiglife
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zDt9eoReXCM&feature=youtu.be
Ronald Reagan And Rick Grimes, Lack There Of, Right-Winged Nation, The Liberated Territories, Rateria, Reaganomic Nws
LOL
They can't handle the randal
Pevvania, Ronald Reagan And Rick Grimes, Humpheria, Rateria
Hello Libertatem, I'm Oelesa, the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Commonwealth of Free Nations. Every two weeks I visit a few regions and Libertatem is one of them.
Pevvania, Humpheria, Rateria
Can NS please create an interregional 'like' button as well?
Because I do like this post.
Brasil The Hueland, Cfn Minister Of Foreign Affairs
You can
Welcome to Libertatem. We're happy to have you visit us.
Cfn Minister Of Foreign Affairs
Thank you.
Is Liberty Mutual Insurance a libertarian company?
Evidence:
Use of the statue of liberty as a logo
Use of the color yellow in their graphics
Use of "mutual" as in mutual reciprocation, a part of the non-aggression principle.
Evidence against:
Economic illiteracy (http://www.examiner.com/review/the-economic-illiteracy-of-liberty-mutual)
You decide
I'm so bored that I started answering random question on Yahoo Answers. This isn't ordinary boredom, this is... ADVANCED boredom.
Teuberland
I feel the same way about Reddit.
Being bored is kind of a blessing to me. I'm too busy anymore.
Nova Gharoukannia
Guys, I'm declaring a little bit of inactivity. I is of very young (11), but I haz my wörk to do too!
wörk wörk wörk
Pretty sure they just chose a patriotic name and some imagery that went with it. Also, what does yellow have to do with libertarianism?
yellow sorta looks like gold=gold standard=not government=libertarian
Brasil The Hueland
It is the color of libertarianism. Gold specificly.
Gold and dark blue. All other colors be statist
Rateria, Teuberland, Nova Gharoukannia
Even purple?
Well I guess purple is a royal color, so...
Republic Of Minerva
I like purple.
Rateria, Teuberland, Nova Gharoukannia, Parvimperia
I saw a pro-choicer question state the following:
"All (so far as I can tell) of the pro-Lifers on this thread seem to have the misconception (haha!) that fetuses are humans with rights, I'm not sure why."
It's not as bad as it could be, but it still makes my blood boil. I see a lot of pro-lifers argue poorly in that regard, but it's been argued enough to where they would very well understand why pro-lifers feel that way given that brain activity begins at 20 weeks and heart activity at 5. Right or wrong, he probably has an idea why. Furthermore, he fancies himself on the right to the point of declaring his opponents to be misconceived (badum tss) in front of them.
I have a feeling that if the living strawmen rise up they'll get a awful case of backlash....although then again it could very well be in the form of overly conservative conservatives.
Parvimperia
I can understand many Pro-life arguments, but if you don't back your beliefs in any argument, it makes your statement seem invalid.
Teuberland, Parvimperia
Hi, I'm new to this space. Any advice?
Welcome to Libertatem! If you have any questions, ask one of our government officials.
"Libertarianism cannot work because Koch Brothers!"
Literally the argument I was having with someone else the other day...
Pevvania, Lack There Of
Tell me more, this sounds interesting.
You don't want a new nation to have to fill out miles of paperwork do you? :P
Rateria, Teuberland
So Rand Paul won the fourth GOP debate. You gotta wonder: has he suddenly just 'woken up', or was he planning this kind of a comeback the entire time? Rand Paul has carefully crafted his political career from 2010 to appeal to a broad base of people, tie together libertarian and conservative ideologies and remain nationally relevant. What sense does it make that as soon as his presidential campaign starts - something he's clearly been preparing for years and years - he stumbles and recedes into irrelevance?
I'm not a 'Paulbot', and I have been critical of Rand Paul in the past, particularly over his occasional panders to immigration restrictionists, but I still think he's absolutely the best candidate, and I really hope he wins.
Right-Winged Nation, Rateria, Teuberland
I would love for Paul to win, but at best he has one debate left before he's booted. I say Kasich made himself look weak and that he runs the risk of being the next to go.
PAULBOT, PAULBOT!
Pevvania, Rateria, Teuberland
If you think I'm a Paulbot, you should visit the comments sections of the FB pages 'Rand Paul 2016' and 'The Hill'.
Kasich needs to go. He's the worst type of Republican out there: economically reactionary and anti-free market, yet also socially authoritarian.
I don't know. Trump is insane enough to think deporting 3% of the country would HELP the nation as a whole (never mind immigrants are more likely to take the low paying jobs natives won't take).
Republic Of Minerva, Rateria
I'm more concerned about the amount of money that'd go towards making a giant ass wall.
Rateria, Teuberland
Yeah, but you would forget about when our low-wage labor force collapses. The economic effect would surely cause a recession, if not worse.
Rateria
Donald Trump: Waste billions of dollars on a useless wall
Bernie Sanders: Waste billions of dollars on useless government programs
Miencraft, Pevvania, Republic Of Minerva, Rateria, Teuberland, Parvimperia
Kasich was talking about the hard working Americans during the debate and how they suffered. What came to my mind was: why don't you personally do something instead of making everyone else do it too?
Miencraft, Rateria
For the record, I'm not dead or inactive, I just really have not had any motivation to post around here.
Same. Though I hope there aren't any other government officials following my example :P
It seems that real life has been an obstacle for access to NationStates for many of us, myself included. But this is OK. It's like this at this point of year for a lot of people.
[B]WE FORGOT BOARD ELECTIONS![/B]
You have 24 hours to announce candidacies, seats not contested will be held by incumbent.
1: The Aradites (RLP)
2: RRRG (RLP)
3: Miencraft (RLP) (Chairman)
4: RWN (RLP)
5: TNUS (RLP)
Pev please record it before we forget.
Post self-deleted by Humpheria.
We did?
Man, things are getting real quiet as far as 'Tatem politics are concerned.
It's been a while...
A brief reminder that until the legal action that you are seeking takes place you are still, in effect, banned from the region pursuant to President Muh Road's order.
You may take your case to the Circuit Court, you must see Miencraft, for an arraignment. Note that in the Circuit Court it must be civil (suing the Libertatem government for an appeal of the ban)
http://www.theonion.com/article/rand-paul-escorted-stage-after-falling-below-25-mi-51820
Teuberland
On Climate Change, Libertarians Should Debate the Solutions, Not the Science
I think, as libertarians, we should recognise that climate change is most certainly real, and highly likely to be caused by humans. There is an idea out there that belief in climate change automatically means belief in government-mandated solutions to environmental problems. This is not the case.
In many ways, the market is superior to the government at dealing with environmental issues. Consider the expression, for example, that the USB stick has saved more trees than Greenpeace. This is 100% true. The market is constantly innovating for new ways to make things smaller, cheaper and more cost-effective, and while under the distorted global system of social democracy and corporatism companies and governments can often make net economic gains by committing environmentally injurious actions, under a truly free market every economic actor would be incentivised to minimise any environmental impact of its actions, unless it wishes to anger and risk legal action from another property owner.
Pollution is a negative externality, meaning that when an economic actor's actions result in environmental damage, it incurs a cost on a third party, which is often the owner of the nearby land or the resource itself. Under a free market, where the government does not protect favoured corporations, polluters would have to pay the cost for negative externalities, since they effectively damaged someone else's property to their own profit.
The 'energy crisis' is also something with an easy market solution. Non-renewable fuels are primarily criticised for being damaging to the environment and for being scarce, meaning that one day they'll run out. Their scarcity is vastly over-exaggerated. Since the late 19th Century humanity has predicted that it will run out of oil due to ever-increasing demand, but what has instead occurred is that the increased demand, and thus increased prices, for oil have incentivised producers to drill in areas of the world where it was unprofitable to drill before, thus expanding the supply of oil and stabilising its price. In 1882 we believed that we were 95 million barrels of oil away from 'running out'. In 2008, that estimate had grown to 1.2 trillion barrels away from running out.
Another thing that markets do to avoid resource shortages is search for substitutes. This is currently being done by the market as we speak, as the energy sector slowly begins its shift towards renewable energies amidst the threat of energy shortage looms - or at least the perception of energy shortage. A good example of a substitute good for normally drilled oil is fracked oil. The price of oil had been rising exponentially since the early Bush administration, but now has entered a sustained fall, and the US is once again the top oil producer in the world.
When we truly begin to run out of oil, coal and gas, it'll be OK, because at this point it will become so expensive to produce and sell these commodities that firms will find it cheaper to run solar and wind farms - and it'll be cheaper for the consumer, too. Nobody's going to pay $100 or $1000 for a gallon of oil when they can get cleaner energy much cheaper.
And the other problem with non-renewable energies, that they cause environmental damage, particularly to the ozone layer, also comes under the negative externalities/tragedy of the commons principle I mentioned above, but there is also a demand-side incentive to use cleaner energy. As the public perception of climate change has increased, consumers have been gradually more willing for firms they buy from to use sustainable business techniques and practice 'corporate responsibility'. This is not a passing fad, simply because human beings prefer to be alive, which is quite difficult when there is no air to breathe or ground to stand on.
The real obstacles to environmental improvement are, in fact, erected by government. Special subsidies, regulations and tax breaks for the oil industry, over-regulation of nuclear energy production, eminent domain laws, a large part of the regulatory state and constant wars all contribute to trashing the environment. Before we start lecturing small businesses on sustainability, we should look at how the government is damaging the environment.
Miencraft, Rateria
Ronda Rousey is endorsing Bernie Sanders for president because "he doesn't take corporate money", and that presidential candidates "shouldn't take money from outside interests".
L O L
So a powerful monopoly on labour that literally has the power to steal from workers is a beacon of justice that represents the public, but firms that actually do something for society are "outside interests"? Yeah, I think she should stick to MMA fighting.
Miencraft, The New United States, Yrellian Confederacy, Rateria, Teuberland
Y'know, I'm never going to agree with everything you say, but I'll be damned if you're not really good at this.
Pevvania, Rateria
Post self-deleted by The Aradites.
We have to contact mhomen, his time has come to be on the board and make his ascendance to supreme leader.
Miencraft, Pevvania, The New United States, Muh Roads, Rateria
This calls for Mhomen 3.5: Age of Mhomen - The Awakening - Part I.
The New United States, Muh Roads, Rateria
I've been working on the railroad, all the live-long day!
Teuberland
Oh how I have missed you, Mien. What's your view on climate change?
How Reagan dealt with refugees:
http://dailycaller.com/2015/11/12/what-ronald-reagan-can-teach-us-about-refugee-resettlement/#ixzz3rNY9lSe9
stop oppressing yourself
Miencraft, Pevvania, The New United States, Muh Roads, Teuberland
triggered
The New United States, Muh Roads
What if your prophecy is not true?
The prophecy is true! I saw it with my OWN EYES!
Rateria
Don't tread on me!
I've always seen it as something that we'll just never be able to fix or stop; the planet's going to change and we're just going to sit here and watch it do so because that's all we can do.
Maybe we're speeding up the process, maybe we're not. I'm not totally convinced that we've got that big of an impact on it, but either way it's not going to stop no matter what we do. Doesn't help that a lot of the reliable data (reliable is important, sure we've got a few centuries worth of data but can you really trust meteorological data from the 19th century?) is fairly recent and is manipulated all sorts of ways to make whatever point people want it to make.
Like, I don't doubt that the climate is changing globally. I'm just not totally sure what to make of it beyond that because of how much conflicting data there is.
Pevvania
Attention everyone!
I was just informed that the Chief Justice has accepted Alderney and Liberty City v. Libertatem[/I], Alderney and Liberty City is exercising his right as a former citizen to repeal the executive order that banned him. He must prove that it was unconstitutional.
Someone must volunteer to lead his defense before the trial can be set. The Attorney General must also acknowledge that he will be lead the government's respondent team.
Climate change is the biggest myth perpetuated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTTaXqVEGkU
The New United States
WSJ article about occupational licensing: http://www.wsj.com/articles/anti-licencing-movement-scores-a-victory-1447433906?mod=e2fb
It's interesting how the regulatory state benefits some industries but not others. CrossFit quashed a plan to license fitness trainers, yet the jokers in the salon industry say that if they don't "squash the deregulation movement", somebody will "lose a leg" from not properly following health and safety requirements. So apparently painting a woman's fingernails and braiding hair can lead to dismemberment now.
You really can't make up the pathetic desperation of statists trying to hold on to their monopolies.
Miencraft, The New United States
The Libertatem Department of State is pleased to announce that our region is once again building a bridge to the left. As you all likely know, we have not engaged in an endeavor like this since last year, before my Presidency; our mission to provide and promote our namesake - liberty - to people all across the political spectrum through diplomacy, voluntary association, and peaceful discussion has at long last been resurrected.
If you have the time, be sure to let the members of the Lcrua know that we share their dedication to free association and pan-ideological cooperation, and appreciate their efforts to peaceably unify the diverse regions of NationStates.
Miencraft, Pevvania, The New United States, Republic Of Minerva, Rateria, Noladen Colony, Parvimperia
The most fundamental role of government is to ensure that the rights of man - namely to life, liberty, and property - are not infringed upon by any actor, foreign or domestic. Senator Paul has made it quite evident that he will not, if elected President, properly defend these rights from foreign threats:
Senator Paul's national security policy, as it pertains to the threat posed by radical, international, Sunni Jihadism, and especially that of the Islamic State, is recklessly inadequate - at best.
Post by People Of Pangaea suppressed by Condealism.
http://youtu.be/8e1XX-ngJcc
Post by People Of Pangaea suppressed by Condealism.
Also a genuine question, how will Libertarians deal with the continued automation of labour?
Watch this first.
http://youtu.be/7Pq-S557XQU
Would be great if y'all didn't rely on videos to do your arguing for you.
Humpheria, Rateria, Teuberland
We created those threats through reckless interventionalism, and can't afford another war. However, I will admit that there are occasional circumstances in which war is essential, e.g. WWII.
Well, the robots will need people to repair, manufacture, program, etc. them, so the problem solves itself.
Also, we could ditch minimum wage to keep labor from becoming overpriced.
Miencraft
Therefore... We should ignore the threat posed to American lives?
We're already neck-deep in the war, and we can get serious and pay for it now, or we can pay for it later after another 9/11.
Hello, i'm a puppet of Noladea from Lcrua I want to increase peace between all right and left regions, and for that to happen, we need to not hate and punish each other for their views, we would like if your flag was changed to represent liberty instead of an hatred of nations different ideologies, you dont have to, but we would be happy if you made your flag fit what this region represents instead of a message of hate, thank you.
Ignore it? No, just don't act on it unless it's absolutely necessary.
Now, yeah, we did end up going into the middle east when we could have just put the things back how they were, and I don't think we should have really been there in the first place, but we are there now so we've got to finish what we've started.
If action does become unavoidable, then we act, but if there's any actual way to avoid conflict then we should avoid conflict. Once it becomes unavoidable, then we put everything we can into making sure we win.
Rateria, Noladen Colony
THanks comrade for spreading peace and Lcrua's message :3
*Thanks
There's a funny story about that one time when we actually did try that...
Rateria, Noladen Colony
What happened?
The punch line is it didn't work.
Noladen Colony
How exactly did it not work?
Theory was changing the flag would help make more friends with the left and whatnot, but then when we changed the flag the problem with getting friends was that they were being coerced into serving the more violent communist regions anyways so the flag was totally meaningless.
Plus, I mean, we do still have the whole fundamental War on Communism which isn't really going to vanish any time soon. Obviously we've got no problem with the regions that have no ties to the ones attacking us but, y'know, it's the principle of the thing.
Rateria, Condealism
That and people just didn't like the design of the new flag, so we changed it back to the old one. I'd bet most of us would be amenable to a flag change if the design were good, but no one's really come up with anything since Minerva's proposal.
Miencraft, Rateria, Noladen Colony
Okay, still though, we hope that we form great alliances with all ideologies and bring them together :3
btw, the only opposition we've ever faced was The Communist Bloc funny enough, Zenny thought we were stealing nations from her, even though that makes no sense considering the nations choose where to settle and that you cant force a nation to move to your region, and we tried to form an embassy many times with the region but it was always refused...
and dont get me started on why they kicked out Condealism Intelligence Agency.
Fun Fact: LCRUA started in The Communist Bloc :3
Condealism
God bless France.
Condealism, The Aradites, Lain Iwakura, Noladen Colony
Don't get us started on TCB. The extremist regions talked them into closing our embassy there nearly a year ago - they were our last link to the left... that is, until now.
Noladen Colony
I dont know if you guys would allow this, but I can make it for you :3
I feel like taking this as a challenge to also make a flag.
Rateria, Noladen Colony
This is one of those rare times I pity the Obama administration, if only because I know they won't do the right thing. France's government gave America's a lot of sympathy after 9/11, but now that they've experienced the equivalent, the pressure is on the president to either continue being wishy-washy or return the favor.
Both of you have a considerable amount of design experience, so, yeah, go for it. Couldn't hurt.
Just a word to the wise: I really like the shade of blue in our current flag.
Rateria, Noladen Colony
Let's make a deal, i'll make a flag, you make a flag, then the nations of Libertatem will vote on which flag is better :3
Miencraft, Rateria, Condealism
likewise
Noladen Colony
God bless the people of Paris. Please keep the immigrants of France, who will likely be blamed, in your prayers, as well as the all too numerous families of the maimed and dead. Please pray for the soldiers deployed in Paris, and for the future of the nation, which so dangerously teeters towards violence.
Rateria, Condealism, Noladen Colony
Just so you guys know, I don't actually have the authority to establish a flag competition in any official capacity - I just handle embassies and such.
Still, I welcome everyone to participate. I might whip up a flag design of my own...
Noladen Colony
Just heard about France. Such a sad world we live in sometimes.
Prayers out to all.
Rateria, Condealism, Noladen Colony
I've already finished my flag, only one I sent it to was Miencraft.
Assembled with Dot's Region Saver.
Written by Refuge Isle.