oil crisis...

Famous excerpt (probably made up) from a conversation between Colbert and Mazarin under LOUIS XIV:

Colbert: To find money, there comes a time when fiddling is not enough anymore. I would like the Superintendent to explain how we go about spending even when we are already in debt ...

Mazarin: When one is a mere mortal, of course, and one is covered with debts, one goes to prison. But the State ... The State is different. You can not throw the state into jail. Then the state continues, adds to the debt! All states do that.

Colbert: Oh yes? You think that works?

The negotiations leading up to the Paris climate accord involved years of delicate diplomacy and thousands of voices offering guidance. President Donald Trump's handling of the decision to leave was the polar opposite.

in 2000

New coal-fired power stations using 'clean coal' technology could be funded by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), under plans announced by the Federal Government.

This is the beginning sentences of an article written in... 1939, by Abraham Flexner in an article called "The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge", issue 179, Harpers.. It has enormous resonance with what is happening in the world today. Some of the useless things we do, have gone into the area of the inane, but by and large we still seek beauty and contentment, despite the shit our leaders throw at us via their petty ideas designed to enrich the rich and fiddle with your poor innards to make sure you're in pain. For these morons, sadists and sociopath, leading means inflicting pain to make you react and become a slave of their intent.

..

Today we are studying international politics from the edge of a cliff... This was a way for Thomas Crombie Schelling to express the dynamics of mutual assured destruction via his game theory. Schelling had many strings to his bow, including understanding racial problems from a focal point, a tacit communication and cooperative point of view.