A Foreign Policy of V8 Power.

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I have found my self again watching videos of Iran’s car culture. I guess it’s that I’d like to understand who our rulers want to kill, the things they want to destroy. Youtube has tons of these videos. Videos of car shows, burn outs, irresponsible driving, everything one would expect from the good old US of A. I know what some are thinking, that the cars are some horrible crappy little things or European imports. Nope. In the videos I’ve watched Detroit Iron well represented.

Often seen are well preserved pre-1979 cars and even rather new V8 American cars are apparently very popular. Consider what people must be going through to get these cars into that country. What they have to do to get parts. Many of the cars have US aftermarket performance parts. What pains and high prices they must be paying to have these things.

Many years ago in a car magazine I read an article on a trip to Cuba. The author took a set of spark plugs for a 1950s Ford with him. When he met someone with a car that the plugs might be useful with he gave them to him. The guy nearly broke down with joy. Over a set of NOS spark plugs. What is the point of embargoes and bombs? Just make and sell stuff.

Ron Paul is the sole advocate of a foreign policy of peace and trade in the Presidential field of candidates. All the others want us afraid of the boogie man. Well, the boogie man doesn’t exist. What’s on the other side of the walls the media and government put up are people. People just like you and me. Just as Ron Paul has said. But it is more than that, it is people who love what we here in America build. Not the war machine, the consumer products. The stuff that makes their lives better. Building, not destroying.

Build. What we BUILD, what we have built. Military power is meaningless. Democracy by the barrel of a gun is pointless. Building things wins over the world. People love stuff. They like all sorts of things. One of things many people the world over love are American cars. The uniquely American cars our government keeps trying to exterminate. The big sedans, the muscle cars, the sports and pony cars…. Nobody wants an American car that tries to be European. They want Mustangs, big Caddys, Camaros, GTOs, Challengers, and so on. This isn’t just Iran, it’s world wide.

I’ve known many people from many parts of the world. One rather common thread is when many get here they buy the biggest cars they can afford. I’ve seen it over and over and over again. Building what people want is powerful. Not in the sense that control freak rulers want power, but power in friendship and peace.

It makes us rich as a side effect. It uplifts economies and vast numbers of people. War, fear, violence makes the wealthy few more wealthy it makes the rest of us poor. Trade makes a society wealthy, not war. War is paid for by taking from most people and making things that destroy. It’s negative all around. Building takes from no one. It adds to human society. People become richer, they put their efforts towards increasing the wealth of man. War destroys wealth. War kills. War makes enemies. What does trade make? FRIENDS.

People do not intentionally emulate what they hate. They emulate what they like, what they love, what they see as being fun. When someone in Iran films someone doing burnouts and a doughnuts in a 1970s Firebird, this isn’t hate, it’s love. They love that car and through it, those who built it. Those who built the culture around such things that they emulate. All the bombs and armies in the world cannot achieve this. Building things people want does it easily.

Nobody preserves a car for 40 years in the face of a repressive government or goes through intermediaries and pays all sorts of government import taxes while putting up with all sorts of red tape to get a car because they hate it.

So the people love us… but what about the governments? Trade will make them compliant. Make those governments deny their people access to stuff. Make them be the bad guy. Sanctions make the USA the bad guy. Those governments can blame any domestic misery on the USA. So sell them every consumer, medical, and food good that the people want. Make their government block it.

And once it gets in, that’s the beginning of winning people over. Blue jeans and Rock and Roll broke the Iron Curtain. Bombs didn’t do anything. Trade is the most powerful thing on the planet, which is why rulers never want it to be free for they would lose the power they covet.

So instead of free trade our rulers have blocked trade with people in Iran. They largely wish to bomb these people instead. To what aim? Supposedly to get rid of the government that rules them. Well that’s backwards. Trade can bring down that government peacefully and quickly… unless it reforms. Either way this achieves the so called goal of all this war mongering. Of course the real goal is never stated in public because it’s about benefiting the few while costing the many.

When those in the government try to drum up fear, violence, and war, they are trying to make themselves and their friends wealthy at our expense. Afraid of someone? Make stuff they want to have. They’ll make you rich instead and do so of their own free will. The relationship will make people friends.

And so, I propose my solution for the so called Iran problem. Trade. Start with V8 muscle cars, built in the USA by people in the USA.

23 COMMENTS

  1. Eric,

    That one guy had a NICE Firebird! I like the blue and white colors. Plus, he did some KILLER burnouts and donuts! I especially like the burnout marks superimposed on the crosswalk; that was a good job… 🙂

    • Hi Mark,

      I have been a Firebird fanatic since high school. I love the look – especially the ’70-81 second generation cars, which are in my opinion among the most beautiful cars ever designed (especially the ’70-73 versions, pre-Uncle bumpers).

      So sad that Pontiac was killed off, especially since it was a lingering death. GM first turned it into a badge-engineered marketing front for re-selling Chevys. The coup de grace didn’t come for another almost 20 years…

      • My favorite is Jim Rockford’s Firebird! James Garner did his own stunt driving and made it look easy.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pruex3pgX1g

        Pontiac’s lingering death was extremely painful. Probably the worst was the crappy Daewoo badge-engineered into a “Le Mans.” From this:

        https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/94/1966_Pontiac_LeMans_%2829375747942%29.jpg/800px-1966_Pontiac_LeMans_%2829375747942%29.jpg

        To this:

        https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1a/20101003_daewoo_lemans_1.jpg/800px-20101003_daewoo_lemans_1.jpg

        Absolutely pitiful.

          • I am glad all attempted reboots of “The Rockford Files” have failed to get traction. Did you see what they did to “Magnum PI”? All over the top car chases, explosions and wrecks. Not to mention the plot and character problems. Nobody understands what made the shows good.

            Anyway the driving in the Rockford files was too real, not obviously fantasy cartoonish nonsense of today. Like Bullitt where the ‘fantasy’ comes in technical details like losing too many hubcaps and would a stock mustang suspension hold up to that continual pounding. Same with Rockford’s Firebird, tiny liberties taken on the car’s durability and such but not a cartoon like today. Cartoonish things were left to cartoonish shows back then. (A-Team, Knight Rider)

              • Thanks, and you’re probably correct. Magnum PI may have been the last true american detective series. Rockford the 2nd to the last. Also more general category of film noir has suffered too.

                To find new-to-me stuff I keep moving back in time. Lately radio shows. I like “Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar” There are others as well. Each episode of the Bailey years of Johnny Dollar starts with the phone ringing and Dollar picking it up and the plot starting. Reminds me of Jim Rockford’s answering machine openings.

                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okv2vNzJhyc

                It was a unique form of american entertainment with endless variations and it was killed off.

                At least before it died we got Rockford, Magnum, and another Mike Hammer series. What’s funny is how it was leaked into Star Trek with Picard’s love the genre where he would escape into the holodeck to play Dixon Hill.

            • The art of the grounded, well-written, well-put-together film has been lost. I mean, just look at the whole Fast and Furious franchise. “High-stakes capers and international intrigue against a backdrop of street racing” out to set anyone’s pulse pounding, but the devil is in the details and that franchise got flushed down the toilet of mindless sex and over-the-top violence before it could even get started. If it had been made 30 or even 20 years earlier it probably would have been one for the ages (and not just because of fewer sequels or less-ugly cars), but unfortunately we’ll never know what could have been.

              • SC,

                I think that the first F&F was the best, because there was another dimension to the film: to wit, who were the REAL bad guys? The cops didn’t look that good in the first film, thus opening the question as to who the real bad guys were in it. What did it for me was when the big boss (the black guy) said he could put blame on whoever he wanted to, that it was the perks of the job. Brian’s immediate boss, the sergeant, didn’t come across as a good guy. I submit to you that, even though Toretto’s (Vin Diesel) gang was doing the robberies, that they had more HONOR than the cops did. To me, this was what made the original F&F interesting…

        • Jason,

          Before The Rockford Files, James Garner starred in one of the BEST racing movies of all time, Grand Prix, which was about Formula 1 in the 1960s. To prepare for the role, the actors were put through Bob Bondurant’s school of high performance driving. Bondruant, in an interview featured on the Grand Prix DVD (which I have, BTW!), said that Garner had the talent to have been a professional race car driver; he was THAT GOOD. That’s probably why he did his own stunts in The Rockford Files

          • To my shame I have not seen “Grand Prix” and will need to rectify that.

            Loved the Rockford Files and it’s still a favorite. (Some years ago I made a pilgrammage to Paradise Cove and ate at the Sand Castle while it was still the Sand Castle. It was pretty amazing standing where Rockford’s trailer was!) Garner was an amazing guy and I was truly saddened by his passing.

            • Do yourself a favor and get the DVD; you’ll be glad you did! Not only is the movie good, the DVD extras are must-see too. You’ll see interviews about how the movie was made, stuff like that. The best one is the history of F1 during the 1960s.

      • I like the ’70-’73 versions too-beautiful cars. That’s what that Iranian gentleman had too; he has GOOD taste in cars… 🙂

  2. Late replay but the interesting thing about Iran is that, based on what little information escapes that horrid place, there are a lot of people there who have zero respect for the virulently anti-Semitic, reality-negative nutburgers who currently run it. They know their country is one of the most repressive in the world, and they would very much like to change that. Some people actually tried to revolt, actually ASKED THE US FOR HELP, and Obama wouldn’t give it to them. The same Obama who was usually busy running around the Middle East with a flamethrower trying to burn down dictatorships in the hope that “democracy” (hate that word) would sprout in its place. That should tell you everything you need to know about the motives of these people.

  3. A recent article I’ve read requires an appendix:

    “Surprise Surprise Surprise” – Gomer Pyle.

    So it (finally) comes out that the real reason to attack Iran is not because they are a threat to any other people but because they would become un-attackable, that is a nation permanently outside the control of the empire. Which is -exactly- what Ron Paul has said regarding other nations pursuit of nuclear weapons programs, as a deterrent to attack.

    http://politicalcorrection.org/fpmatters/201112020008

    My own notes: The last thing the powers that be want is Iran to get on track and become the first world nation it would have become without interference. Ultimately the trade sanctions and war threats are to keep the religious extremists -IN- power. To give the present government in Iran a boogie man (the USA) to rally people around and thus continue to keep the whole nation down.

    • Exactly.

      It’s of a piece with Eyerak and other “enemies of freedom.” It a-mazes me that more people are not struck by the weirdness of nations such as the US and Israel, each with thousands (US) or hundreds (Israel) of advanced nuclear weapons and delivery systems, shitting their pants (ostensibly) about a country 20-plus years behind them, technologically, with perhaps one or two very basic bombs.

      No fuss was raised, incidentally, over Israel’s “illegal” nuclear program nor the fact that it possesses the Bomb – many Bombs, in fact. Iran has attacked no other nation in modern history. How many countries has Israel attacked?

      • I hate to sound like a Neocon, but the concern is more rogue elements obtaining those bombs, I believe.
        I dunno…. Depends on just how far our puppet masters would go to gain wealth.
        It’s funny – they have SO MUCH to begin with… WTF is the purpose of “MORE” when you control the supply, AND can manipulate the demand?

        More of a “politics of scarceness” economy. It’s from Vampire:The Masquerade, but I think the theory is sound. So here’s the summary:
        In a normal human situation, you have people moving up the pyramid of power, gaining control, gaining wealth, etc. People move on, people move out (another pyramid / company / country), people die. So time is part of the currency, part of the economy.
        Time for an immortal being is meaningless. Money, for a vampire, is meaningless. But control of feeding grounds is essential… And “people” in that heirarchy rarely “die,” and essentially never move on – they’re frozen in time, in a sense, rather than immortal.
        So the upstarts are desperate to grab whatever they can – the lower on the pyramid your bloodline is, the lower your social status – the worse your chances of ever having anything permanent. And (KEY PART) it makes you DESPERATE to hold onto whatever you can gain – or steal. There’s literally ONLY SO MUCH….

        Relating it to the real world? People die, but fortunes and bloodlines live on. And not all people are equal… there will be fools and spendthrifts and those who cannot even manage wealth, and there are vagueries of upstarts, changes in technology, changes in weather (which can cripple your fortune that is based on crop futures, say)…
        So there’s a finite amount of Wealth to these people (the “0.1%” as was mentioned over at “the Burning platform”, http://www.theburningplatform.com/) There’s a need to husband those resources – the Real Estate, in more than just property – and a need to prevent others from becoming a threat, too. They have means in political connections, similarly-minded friends, and wealth that grows at a rate even Quantitative Easing cannot destroy. They make money when the Fed prints, in essence. their assets become worth more dollars, so it doesn’t matter how much is printed, or how much the currency is devalued…. the upstarts will scramble to get fragments, at inflated prices, so even using inflating dollars to pay it back – the original owner is WELL ahead of the game. And can then find new under-appreciate or under-capitalized assets to obtain and hold, and maybe invest in (E.G., Gentrification of a downtown), to later sell at a profit again….

        These people profit from the mad scramble, the 24-hour news cycle, and from controlling the information flow and currency.
        “Rogue” nukes might help, but would also destroy the values of the Real Estate…

        They profit either way, but nukes can result in greater disruption than is truly useful…

      • IF Iran did have a nuclear weapons program, and “our” intelligence agencies say they probably DID (past tense), they ended it in 2003, when we invaded Iraq.
        They do currently have a nuclear ENERGY development program, which they acknowledge, and which is their right – even if they had not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which they did.
        Israel and India, both of which have nukes, have NOT signed. Neither has Pakistan, which may have nukes, and, if not, is most likely working toward them.
        Just because Woodrow “He kept us out of war” Wilson took us into WWI, where the Ottoman Empire was defeated, does not give us one lick of validity in interfering over there since that time, including 1953.
        Many of the problems over there are the result of GB and France carving the Ottoman territory up to THEIR benefit. Not only did they divide the Kurds into parts of 4 (5?) countries. They should have just left the whole area alone. They might now have the glorious benefit of having NO national gunvermin. If they did, it would have developed by consent, and be better suited to their needs and wants than what was crammed down their throats.

    • Something else to consider is the monetary issue. Saddam Hussein was making noise about trading oil for currencies other than the almighty US dollar. All of a sudden he had WMD’s and had to be removed from power. Gadaffi wanted to use the gold dinar as currency in Libya and wanted payment for oil in gold. As I recall Libya had free education all the way through college, everyone got an oil stipend and they had the highest GDP in North Africa. Hmmm….can’t have that.

      Apparently the band of rag-tag rebels that overthrew old Mu’ammar had already set up a national bank prior to the rebellion (no mean feat for a group of college educated Wall Street boys, much less that rabble). Maybe the Libyan “rebels” had outside help. Maybe someone was as much or more concerned with monetary “gold fever” spreading, than they were with oil.

      Do you think perhaps that “Eyeran”, having the last independent national bank, might be in a similar unenviable position? Perhaps if they’d just turn their economy over to the boys that own the Fed, IMF, World Bank, etc., they’d be allowed to buy all the nukes they wanted? Nah, they wouldn’t need them then…..

  4. I’d wager a year’s remuneration that most Americans have more in common, philosohically, financially, and morally, with an Arab/Cuban/Chinese/”Next Boogie Man” street sweeper than they do ANY of their “own” politicians or bureaucrats nor any distraction industry “pundit” bombarding their senses to keep them from thinking too much.

    Nice Article Brent.

    • you’re welcome. Thank you for having a place where I can write occasionally.

      On this particular topic I just cannot get over the difference between the real people of Iran and what the government and media tells us. It’s such a blatant lie.

      If only the UAW could raise an objection to blocking product from customers… but in the end the UAW is probably too cozy with the government to do what is best for its membership.

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