Before Nine

War Games

2012-02-15T19:58:00.012-08:00

And Only One Winning Move

At a guess, late one night within in the next three weeks, we'll be ready to shut off Conan O'Brien when it's possible that normal broadcasting of Teevee networks may be interrupted with news that Israel (and, possibly, the good old Eusa) has hit Iran with nearly everything but the kitchen sink. Initial targets would be the Iranian air force on the ground, Revolutionary Guard command, control and communication (The Three Cees) facilities, Antiaircraft and antiship missile positions; and (aber natürlich), the four known major centers of their nuclear development effort.

(It's also possible that you could first hear the news of an Iranian attack on an oil tanker or American aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf, or some incident near the straits of Hormuz that results in casualties aboard a U.S. Navy vessel. No matter; the end result would be Iran, lit up like an Exmass Tree.)

By the time you heard reports of an all-out attack, the initial strikes would have been completed and the Iranians moving to execute counterstrikes against U.S. and Israeli targets. No one really knows what the reaction of other, regional and global players -- Russia, China; India, Pakistan; and the rest of the Middle East -- would be.

And by then, all bets will be off; we will truly enter Alice-Through-The-Looking-Glass, unknown territory: Beyond Here There Be Tygers.

Why I feel this is a likely possibility has been the steady drumbeat of evants -- sanctions, and more bellicose statements by the Iranian government; the assassination of another Iranian scientist in Teheran in mid-January; the attack on Israeli defense ministry officials and family members in India and Georgia, and the Israeli statement that it blames Iran (followed by the expected denials); the report of 'Iranians' and explosions at a rented house in Bangkok; claims of Hezbollah planning to attack Western targets (followed by the expected denials).

(I've already chronicled a previous timeline of events here, if you're curious -- or, you know, not.)

I've also noticed an increase in articles on web versions of newspapers or cable news organizations about Iran: Short, even 'filler', never front-page material but consistently playing on themes of Iran's leaders as aggressive, deluded and nonsensical; never know what they'll do next; and they want The Bomb ... and I feel that I haven't ever seen so many of these articles, so consistently -- even last summer, when many observers were convinced, then, that it was likely Israel would hit Iran any minute.

Today, as a result of economic and trade sanctions against the Iranian government, it announced that it was preparing to cut oil shipments to some European countries -- at the same time claiming it wishes to 'negotiate' about the status of its nuclear program.

It's been argued that the attacks on IDF members outside Israel were false-flag operations -- I doubt that; the evidence against the Iranian government and the creature they created, Hezbollah, is damning. However, my gut sense is that the fact the attacks have occurred may reduce or remove opposition to Benjamin Netanyahu and hard-liners in the Israeli cabinet who want to kill the snake in its nest, right now. It's just something indefinable, in the air, that I'm sensing. But I feel the Israeli government has consensus and has made its decision.

And it may be that the only thing preventing them from executing that decision (as it has been for some time, I think) is American reluctance to go 'all in' with our Middle Eastern ally. The recent long article ("Will Israel Attack Iran?") by Ronen Bergman in The New York Times' Sunday magazine section noted that whether or not the Israeli government had U.S. support -- intelligence, logistics; military and political -- will be a critical factor in Israel's decision to attack.

There may come a time that, with or without America's blessing and support, the Israeli government feels it has no choice. When you're surrounded by countries full of people determined to wipe you from the face of the earth, there's no incentive to wait for one of them to go nuclear. Bennie and his hard-liners might call President Obama as attacks are under way, saying You have to go all in with us now. Think how it will look in November if you abandon Israel in her hour of greatest need. You want that on your conscience?

And, realistically; who would?

Well, we'll see. I truly hope I'm wrong about this, but remember -- if it does occur, all bets about the future will be off, for real.

The GBU-28/BLU-113 Hard Target Penetrator is now a standard weapon in USAF service. In the months following the Gulf War, the USAF completed the testing process, TI developed and certified proper software for the seeker, and a substantial stock of warheads was built up. Carried initially by the F-111F prior to its premature retirement, and now by the F-15E, the Bunker Buster can be called upon to do its task at any time. It is indeed an excellent conventional deterrent weapon, as it can crack targets which otherwise would require a surface burst nuclear warhead to take out.

Iraq, Iran, Libya and North Korea have been reported in recent years to be expending much effort in digging themselves even deeper underground, producing a boom in world sales of tunnelling equipment. Given the proven performance of the GBU-28, they should probably keep digging !

More recently, Northrop have commenced flight testing of the GBU-37 GAM-113 (formerly BLU-113/GAM), a GPS guided weapon which uses the GBU-28’s BLU-113 warhead and a modified Northrop GAM tailkit to produce a wholly autonomous all weather bunker busting weapon for use by the B-2A....

Virtually undetectable, a Northrop B-2A dropping these weapons could paralyse an opponent’s hardened C3 system with total surprise. A single B-2A can carry up to eight rounds on its internal rotary weapons launcher. The almost undetectable APQ-181 Attack Radar and GPS aided GAM/GATS targeting system provide a true all weather around the clock precision capability.

-- From Australia Air Power, "The GBU-28 Bunker Buster"

MEHR:... and the top article in this morning's online Paper Of Record is, "Aggressive Acts by Iran Signal Pressure on Its Leadership... A flurry of actions and statements by Iran this week suggest its leaders are responding frantically, and more unpredictably, to the tightening of sanctions."

My take on the story is that the Iranians are fragmented but far from stupid, and while they're willing to lash out at Israel in copycat-style attacks on IDF personnel in Georgia and India, using tactics ascribed to Israeli intelligence in the assassination of Iranian physicists (a message in itself), it doesn't mean they're insane -- at least, not enough to provoke a full-scale assault of their country.

Iran's government excells at escalating situations, and then suddenly appearing conciliatory, reasonable. That style of brinksmanship has worked well for Kim Jong Ill's North Korea, but the Iranians have used it so often as an apparent stalling tactic with the UN and IAEA investigators that it's damaged their credibility: No one wants to trust an angry drunk when they suddenly become genial and ask for the car keys.

As investigators unearthed new evidence implicating Iran in the attacks this week in Thailand, India and Georgia, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran announced Wednesday what he said was his country’s latest nuclear advance, and Iran’s Oil Ministry threatened to pre-empt a European oil embargo by cutting off sales to six countries there.

“These are all facets of the same message,” said Muhammad Sahimi, an analyst and professor at the University of Southern California. “Iran is saying, ‘If you hit us, we will hit back, and we are not going to sacrifice our nuclear program.’ ”...

Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the belligerent moves by Iran actually underscored weakness.

“If there’s a meta-narrative here, it’s that Iran tends to speak loudly but carries a small stick,” Mr. Sadjadpour said. “Their alleged terror attacks projected incompetence more than fear, their announced nuclear progress is likely exaggerated, and their threat to pre-emptively cease oil exports to Europe turned out to be another bluff.” ...

The latest developments suggested to some analysts that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was deliberately lashing out at the West, though it was not clear whether his intention was simply to retaliate or to provoke a limited war with Israel. Some Iranian hard-liners are said to believe that such a war would benefit them, allowing them to close ranks and assert greater authority for the elite Revolutionary Guards.

“I think this is Iran’s way of saying, ‘Look out, we can reach out and touch you,’ ” said Mehrzad Boroujerdi, a professor of Middle East Studies at Syracuse University. “But I doubt that Khamenei wants to go all the way to a serious armed confrontation.”

So, perhaps not all the way to War Games. At least, not yet.

Greece -- The Tragedy; Season 5

2012-02-13T07:12:00.000-08:00

Meanwhile, In Downtown Europe

Happy Greeks Enthusiastically Embrace Austerity To Assist
Their European Allies By Vowing To Live On Dog Food For
The Next Ten Years (Photo: Guardian UK / Milos Bicanski)

The Guardian UK:

Greece enacted billions of euros in spending cuts and fresh austerity measures last night in a volatile parliamentary vote aimed at avoiding default on its national debt and keeping the eurozone intact, despite some of the worst rioting and political violence witnessed in the country in years.

More than 40 buildings were set ablaze in an orgy of looting that left scores injured as protesters vented their anger at the caretaker government and parliament's ordering of a further €3.3bn of savings by slashing wages and pensions and laying off public sector workers.

In return, Greece is to receive a second eurozone bailout in two years worth €130bn in addition to a €100bn writedown of debt by the bankrupt country's private creditors.

There was turmoil inside the parliament, too. MPs voted 199-74 in favour of the cutbacks, despite strong dissent among the two main coalition members.

A total of 37 politicians from the majority Socialists and conservative New Democracy party either voted against the party line or abstained. A further six voted against sections of the legislation. After the vote, the government announced that those 43 MPs had been expelled.

In case you haven't been paying attention (or believe that what happens elsewhere doesn't affect you), the European Central Bank / International Monetary Fund bailout of the current Greek government is important, and you may want to keep these points in mind:

The "assistance" gives the Greeks money to prevent default on the redemption of bonds, due on March 20th; not being able to do so would cause the Greek economy to implode (sooner than it will, that is);
The loan package and debt restructuring makes sure the creditors (primarily major European banks) holding those bonds are paid enough -- some of these banks are Zombies, only kept alive and solvent by the constant motion of money, as in a check-kiting scheme. Without timely payment on these Greek bonds of enough Euros to keep everything in balance, the cash flow would be interrupted, the Zombie banks could suddenly assume full-on Walking Dead Status and default on counterparty obligations, which would Be Bad;
The "assistance" to Greece came with a price -- including cutting over 100,000 public sector jobs in the next four years; selling state-owned electric, natural gas and other monopoly businesses to the highest bidders (Look Out! Here Come The Oligarchs!); and slashing government pensions by up to 40%.

And all of this demand for Austerity is just so that Greece will receive a bridge loan to ensure it will not default and affect European banks.

It does not solve Greece's overall deficit and debt problems. More loans and ECB/IMF financing will be needed for that -- and in order for Greece to receive that future assistance, Little Angela and the Austerians are saying that Greece will need to cut public financing and expenditures even more.

Greece's Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, One Of The
Largest Humans On Earth, Spots Christine Lagarde Of The IMF
At EU Headquarters In Brussels On Thursday. He Seems Hungry.
(Photo: National Post, Canada; Yves Herman / Reuters)

In this latest round of Voting To Impoverish Your People, I particularly liked the part where members of Greece's parliament who voted against accepting the ECB/IMF's financing terms were thrown out of their political parties. And in Brussels on Thursday, IMF Director Christina Legarde stepped from a BMW limousine to speak briefly to the press in her new red coat and black, two-inch-heel Pradas; so comfortable and fashionable. I'm sure the sight of her quiet luxury inspires Greece's children to want to grow up and be just like her.

But, the EU leaders who believe in Austerity don't see the previous weeks of turmoil around Greece as being about a band-aid for Europe's banks. This is about the survival of the Eurozone and the political entity of the European Union -- to people like Angela Merkel, Finance is the force behind the ideals, but it all seems to come down to money in the end. And unfortunately, at this point the world's financiers are not at all trustworthy.

And, please note that the Zombie banks are still at risk of failing from any event that could interrupt the necessary flow of money; they're balanced that precariously. Any default, any failure on the part of another bank to pay might cause one of them to fail. All this is widely understood if not acknowledged; one reason the results of 'Stress Tests' of European banks last year were greeted with skepticism.

But, this isn't over, just in case you were wondering. "Greek Crisis", Season 6, will start again in the near future -- and expect the Greeks to greet it in the same spirit of cooperation and sacrifice which we've seen on Teevee this weekend.

So Good

2012-02-09T17:34:00.000-08:00

Banksters Win Again

So, a "settlement" has been reached between major banks and Attorneys Generals of 49 states over charges of outright fraud in illegal foreclosures.

For having fabricated millions of purportedly legal documents to support foreclosing on millions of mortgage loans in America (a criminal act; something you or I would be indicted for and arrested in a heartbeat), and no one responsible goes to jail. The banks will collectively pay $25 Billion dollars. The total of all mortgages in the United States either in forclosure, delinquent, or whose owners are 'underwater', is estimated to be $700 Billion.

The bulk of the settlement, about $20 billion, would go to one million American homeowners [wrote Nelson Schwartz and Julie Creswell in the NYT] who would have their mortgage debts reduced or their loans refinanced at a lower interest rate. It also includes $1.5 billion for roughly 750,000 people who lost their homes to foreclosure between 2008 and 2011, with each receiving between $1,500 and $2,000.

And, the media is putting a positive spin on developments: Homeowners benefit! Well, some of them do; yeah! People are helped! Justice is served, kinda!

The New York Times headline was, "Homeowners Get Bulk of the Benefits From Mortgage Plan (...Under the settlement, nearly two million Americans could benefit from mortgage relief from the nation’s biggest banks").
The Los Angeles Times headline was, "Foreclosure deal to help 2 million with loan trouble (... The nation's five largest lenders will pay $25 billion to partially compensate those who lost their homes)".
The Guardian UK wrote that "Obama Praises $25b Mortgage Deal (... Millions of people could have mortgage debt cut as America's top lenders agree deal over alleged abuses in housing market)".

“The effect of this settlement will be catalytic,” Shaun Donovan, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, said in an interview.

He predicted it would spur more loan modifications through existing government programs as well as principal reductions — when loan debt is written down for borrowers who owe more than their home is worth — as well as additional mortgage relief provided by banks.

So, let's recap -- approximately one million homeowners will receive some relief through restructuring in their mortgages. Approximately 11 million households need their loans modified in order to keep from being forced out of their homes.

Approximately 750,000 people who were evicted, lost their property and in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars; marriages, and jobs, could receive monetary compensation in the amount of ... between $1,500 and $2,000.

Fortunately, they don't waive any rights to file future legal action against their former mortgage lenders if they demand that two grand -- but is the compensation more than a token? Is it just? Or, an insult? It reminds me of the "compensation" offered by Austrian courts to the families of Holocaust survivors attempting to reclaim their lost art.

The banks, which were facing the possibility of criminal investigations and civil actions in at least 25 states, including California and New York -- will effectively not be further prosecuted by the Attorneys General of 49 states (Oklahoma would not join in) for their actions. They could be investigated and prosecuted for violations of Federal law... but what is the chance of that happening?

And, as HUD Secretary Donovan said to the NYT, the "settlement" would move the major banks to 'act better', provide further loan modifications and reductions in principal for affected Americans (the 11 million other mortgageholders facing foreclosure not assisted by this "settlement"). And the banks would do this, because they're just nice guys.

Remember? The Bush and Obama administrations gave them hundreds of billions of dollars. The expectation was that the money would spur the Nice Guys to lend money to small businesses, prime the pump to get the economy moving. The banks took the money, kept it, and used it (among other things) to provide themselves huge bonuses for their executives and board members. Why would they behave differently, give the ~~Rubes they steal from~~ public any assistance, now?

The banks precipitated a gigantic, global financial crisis -- which is far from being over. They forced millions of Americans from their homes, illegally. They disrupted and even destroyed lives. And unless the States' Attorneys General or the Department Of Justice go after them in force, the banks are effectively getting a Mulligan.

They walk, by ponying up a relatively small amount of cash -- which will simply become a tax write-off as a business expense. I understand that the "settlement"'s cheerleaders tout this as a first step, a move in the direction toward reforming the financial industry. But as one critic noted, the total is a "drop in the bucket". It smells like a band-aid for a dysfunctional system that still rules.

The amounts from individual banks were linked to their share of the servicing market. The biggest, Bank of America, would provide $11.8 billion, followed by $5.4 billion from Wells Fargo, $5.3 billion from JPMorgan Chase, $2.2 billion from Citigroup and $310 million from Ally. Bank of America would contribute an additional $1 billion for Federal Housing Administration loans.

And if nine other major mortgage servicers join the pact, a possibility that is now under discussion with the government, the total package could rise to $30 billion.

Banks stocks were mixed in trading Thursday, but shares of Bank of America rose 0.62 percent to $8.18, its highest level since September. Much of the money to pay for the settlement has already been reserved, and investors expect the settlement to remove at least one legal worry for Bank of America.

Ha Ha Ha Ha. Why not just say it? They won. Again. I'm not surprised at all.

MEHR Mit Schweineri: The ~~War Criminal~~ Washington Post declared in it's usual tarted-up, Villager manner that the settlement was "rough justice — very rough — in a case of rampant, but essentially victimless, alleged law-breaking."

And, Avedon Carol weighs in from a different vantage point in the UK, courtesy of The Great Curmudgeon (paragraphing added for emphasis):

For a moment it seemed like there was good news when I saw this: "Schneiderman's Last-Minute Cancellation Spells Trouble for Foreclosure Fraud Settlement."

But then it seemed it was more like this: "49-State Foreclosure Fraud Settlement Will Be Finalized Thursday."

(And Jesus Christ, Ezra [Klein], why on earth is it good news that this deal will "help a lot in protecting banks from lawsuits"? These people stole people's homes, and you think a check for a couple of grand is some kind of compensation?

(If you get caught selling a lid of grass they confiscate every damn thing you have, but if you steal someone's house you just pay pocket change in compensation out of billions you made from cheating people? That's really nice for you - if you're a banker.

(But, you know, we don't need bankers like that! And we need to put those banksters in jail so they won't do it again - and doing more of it seems to be just what they have in mind, thanks to this deal.)

Avedon has more. Follow the links. Now.

Hold The Mayo

2012-02-09T07:14:00.000-08:00

Stuff Goin' On

The majority of Things going on these days aren't what I want to see happening: Syria, Egypt (still); the distinct possibility of war with Iran (did'ya know there will shortly be five aircraft carriers within striking range of the Gulf, and four Amphibious Assault Ships? Hah? Did'ya?); and, no matter how entertaining, the public transformation of the Republican Party into the Party Of Stupid Bad Crazy.

There's Russia's fictive 'democratic' government of Sad Vlad The Czar. And Yurp (as The Great Curmudgeon would say) continues to say ALL ABOARD THE FAILBOAT! HOOT HOOT!, which may result in a rapid deterioration of just about everything, and then we end up in Yurts watching our children play with toys made in China of radioactive animal dung and sold to us at an exorbitant mark-up.

But, there are good things, too. Such as, we haven't heard anything about the personal life crises of either Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears in a good, long time. You don't know how grateful I am for that.

Happy Birthday Boz

2012-02-07T07:10:00.000-08:00

God Bless Us, Every One

Hand-Lettered Calling Card Of Charles Dickens, Short-Hand Writer (1835)

Today, we celebrate someone like Steve Jobs for being an innovative businessman, for bringing an "imaginative" take to the age-old proposition of selling goods and services. It's important, now, for 'imagination' to be practical, to have a commercial application.

However, Once upon a time, human cultures celebrated the storytellers, people who were able to move us with nothing but a story, which we could read and play out (in Steven King's phrase) "in the skull cinema", the gigantic stage of our own imaginations.

Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870) was one of these Tellers of Tales, and while he was masterful at self-promotion and the commercialism of Victorian England's publishing world, what he had to offer started with a pen on paper and the telling of a tale for its own sake.

We live in a Dickensian world, these days, whether we recognize it or not; a world where the milk of humankindness is present but obscured, and one where a Darwinian interpretation of society rages in full force.

There are Pickwicks and Tiny Tims around us; and Jarndyce v. Jarndyce litigation keeping families at each others' throats; there are secrets from the past, and Miss Havershams wasting away in 'Grey Haven'-style houses -- and there are plentiful Ebenezer Scrooges, with lumps of coal in place of their hearts; far too many of them.

There are Pips, and Bill Sykes-types, in our world (and Sykes' poor dog, Bingo). There are Micawbers and Dan Peggotys and Little Emilys, going off to a new life across the sea. There are Sydney Carltons changing places with Darnay, so that his unrequited love, Lucie, can be happy.

There are Fagins, and 'Monks', Creagles and Steerforths and Bumbles, Pecksniffs and Chuzzlewits, who believe that cruelty and an ignoble grasping for whatever they can lay their hands on, that acts crabbed by meanness and spiked by fear are the proper responses to living, and the world.

There are the Merrys and Cherrys, too, with their spoiled and ridiculous Paris Hilton-expectations of what they are entitled to. There are the Little Nells and orphans. There are those who believe in work-houses and prisons, who seem to believe that many should die and decrease the surplus population. And there are those who do far better things than they have ever done, and remember with tenderness their connections to the people in their past, and to Others. Dickens chronicled them all.

Objects sold in the marketplace, no matter how clean and sleek they appear, and no matter how much they "change the way we listen to music / communicate / work", they don't reconnect us with portraits of our Common humanity.

They're pretty, and efficient; but they don't remind us that we are born and, at some point unknown to us, have to die -- and that the story of the journey between those two fixed and immutable points is the important thing. Whether we were kind, or daft, or ignoble or courageous; whether we turned out to be the heroes of our own lives, or if that station was held by someone else.

Dickens reminded us of that, and on his 200th birthday it's worth taking the time to remember. Happy Birthday, 'Boz'.

How Google Nearly Destroyed My Life

2012-02-06T18:17:00.000-08:00

Brigmann Back On The Air

I'm not even going to waste time trying to describe it, but if you ever, ever have a problem with your Google account, then you are to be pitied. Truly, and forever, as though you had been cast into the descending, circular pit that Dante envisioned in his Purgatorio.

And, yes; I'm fully aware of the irony of broadcasting this on a Google-owned platform.

But, hey; good luck dealing with a faceless bureaucracy. And, in the words of Forrest Gump, that is all I have to say about that.

Newt?

2012-01-31T06:59:00.000-08:00

'My Plan Maintains Our Dignity'

Ethel -- That Thing's Standing Out On The Wing Again. And He Keeps
Looking At Us. (Courtesy of this little Tumblr thing, "Newt Judges You")

Today is Florida's Rethuglican primary, pitting Randyman™ against One Of America's Richest Politicians © -- and followed, of course, by the Harold Stassen (What? Oh, for pete's sake; look it up) of the Rethug world, Ron Paul, who will be handing out little black plastic UN helicopters to supporters -- which, due to his sensitivities around issues of race, Ron will refer to as "ebony".

Mitzy Thrills The Crowd With His "I Can Beat Obama" Face, Borrowed
From The 'Judge Doom' Character In "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"

And, all America™ is thrilled by the level of campaigning shown by the Rethug front-runners -- a sex addict, and a stiff, utterly clueless Wealthy Person.

Randyman is widely expected to have been outspent by America's Richest Politician ©, and Florida is sinking under the sheer weight of rhetoric showing Newt to be a Randyman, flip-flopping liberal crazy person who shot a man in Dallas just to watch him say, "Better watch what you do with that squirt gun, mister". Mitzy, on the other hand is saying I Am One Of You!! You Are One Of Mine!! I Paid For You -- I Own Youuuuu!! over and over, until led away by his handlers.

How many days is it until Iran gets attacked? And who in the name of anything held sacred in human history names their child "Newt"?

Random Barking

2012-01-29T16:25:00.000-08:00

Woof Woof Woof

The state of our Union is getting stronger -- we've come too far to turn back now.
--President Barack Obama, State Of The Union Address; January 24, 2012

In looking over a wide variety of blogs and websites -- it struck me that more than any other generation that's preceded us, we have access to factual details and a wealth actual data in support, clearly showing how badly we have been screwed; by whom; and effects of their predations, given that this slow-motion aircraft crash is very far from being over.

And how clear it is (short of an out-and-out revolution) that we're effectively powerless to do anything about it, or bring those responsible to any legitimate form of justice.

Just sayin'.

Kein Schwein Ruft Mich An

2012-01-28T10:14:00.000-08:00

Episode XVI: Kicking A Can So Big It Cannot Fail

Jack Ewing, in the Paper Of Record, in the wake of Davos and in advance of the meeting of EU Leaders on January 30th:

DAVOS, Switzerland — World leaders turned up the pressure on Europe on Saturday to erect a more formidable wall of money against the sovereign debt crisis, warning that the eurozone continues to pose a severe threat to the global economy.

George Osborne, the chancellor of the Exchequer in Britain, said a bigger firewall was “a key to unlocking further confidence,” while Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said the fund should be big enough to eliminate any doubts about European resolve.

“If it is big enough, it will not get used,” she said on Saturday during a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum here.

The firewall being discussed is the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), a separate fund set up by the EU and the European Central Bank in ~~collusion~~ cooperation with the IMF and the World Bank, holding 500 Billion Euro ($656 Billion USD) as an emergency contingency fund, to provide Eurozone governments with loans ~~when austerity policies fail~~ to reduce sovereign debt.

The 'economic charter', agreed to in principle by all but one of the Eurozone nations in December of last year (Britain opting out rather spectacularly) and still needing ratification by 16 governments, included a promise to complete setting up the ESM and having it ready for operation by July of this year.

These governments are faced with deficits in simply running their governments. They use short-term bond sales to raise cash -- but these auctions don't go well, because the interest rates on the bonds may be high. The governments end up paying more to bondholders than originally projected; an unanticipated addition to their deficits, which the bonds were supposed to help solve. Here, the ESM would step in to provide the government with a loan to ensure 100% on the Euro was repaid, plus interest, to all the bondholders.

The idea's supporters are saying that if the amount of funding in the ESM was huge, gigantic, then "The Market" should understand that it can invest in bonds from Greece and elsewhere with confidence, and interest rates for new short-term bonds should be lower. Maybe. The total ESM fund may have to be much larger than the $500 Billion Euros already suggested.

Obligatory Cute Small Animal Photo In Middle Of Financial Blog Rant.
Today, We Offer Reddy Kilowatt, In Advance Of The Pending Attack On Iran

Angela Merkel and Nicholas Sarkozy have tied the ESM's creation to the EU / Eurozone's acceptance of changes to centralize the Eurozone's economic policies; the ESM is part of that general framework.

Merkel couldn't get a consensus of the full 40-nation membership in the December, 2011 EU meeting to change the Treaty of Lisbon; however, she was able to pull together the Eurozone countries (minus England) to approve a separate 'economic charter' that would initiate a framework for more economic cooperation, but also to enshrine Austerity policies in EU economic regulation.

Austerity is the chosen method to end the cycle of debt in the Eurozone. 'Spendthrift' nations must cut their governments' budgets and reduce their annual deficits. If they don't (so the 'economic charter' lays out), in some cases they can be fined, or lose more autonomy in handling their nations' finances to the EU.

Austerity is an exceptionally bad idea, and many economists have weighed in against it. More Austerity means cutting government budgets because further deficit spending is viewed by the Austerians as an absolute evil. Austerity means (best case) stagnation, and no growth, or (worst case) full Recession.

Eventually, a European economic slide will effect global markets and economies -- and that's what Austerity ultimately means. It will prolong economic hardship for nearly everyone, except the already-wealthy. It will increase social stratification and continue destroying the so-called Middle Class in most Western nations.

For Europe, it means being shoved head-first towards an unknown period of higher unemployment and crime, lowered expectations and standards of living, and the general grit and depressive shabbiness which comes with all of that.

People in Europe understand this on an intellectual level, but many still have yet to experience fewer jobs, buses, streetcars and garbage pickups; reduced public health coverage and increased work loads for remaining employees of corporations who demand higher productivity: There's always someone else who will do your job for less -- so shape up and shut up. People in Greece and Ireland particularly, followed by Spain (where unemployment is nearly 23%) and Portugal, and soon, Italy, are already experiencing it.

One fact about the ESM is that it cannot be made large enough to cover all the potential deficits in national budgets of the 16 participating Eurozone nations. Creating it is more than just a political gesture, but as Felix Salmon noted in December,

... All of Europe’s hopes right now are being placed in ... the European Stability Mechanism ... [which] is going to have to be constructed with the ability to put out fires of any conceivable size. And as such, it’s going to have to be able to borrow enormous amounts of money, and lend them on to countries which have found themselves in trouble.

But that would make the ESM, essentially, a bank. And the European leaders seem determined, today, to prevent the ESM from operating as a bank at all. Which means it will never get the firepower it needs to be taken seriously... the ESM seems set to be capped at a mere €500 billion euros ... compare [that] to Italy’s total debt of roughly €2 trillion. And that isn’t even counting Spain, or Portugal, or Ireland, or whatever money Greece might yet still need.

Many Europeans already are beginning to understand that Austerity will not be experienced equally. Some countries within the EU which don't have as high a GDP-to-debt ratio (specifically, Germany and France) will not experience as rapid a rate of change, or as steep a drop, in their living standards as the 'spendthrift' nations of the Eurozone. And with that will come political tensions between EU countries, and between political parties in those nations where the bite of Austerity is felt most strongly.

Some EU politicians agree with this; some don't -- and the disagreement is over both making Austerity The economic policy, and giving up some control of their country's economies (including their banks) to a larger EU organization. The British voted 'No' to that, and other EU politicians are worried that support for the Eisen Kanzellerin and her 'policy of Less' might hurt them politically -- because not everyone in Europe Hearts Little Angela.

Eurozone leaders are more focused on dealing with what they see as the more immediate danger of a Greek default, and less on testing their taxpayers’ patience by increasing the size of the firewall...

“I’ve never been as scared as now about the world,” said Donald Tsang, chief executive of Hong Kong... “We do not know how deep this hole would be when the whole thing implodes on us,” he said...

Nouriel Roubini, a professor of economics at New York University known for his pessimistic views, forecast Saturday that Greece would have to leave the eurozone this year, and said that there was at least a 50 percent chance that the eurozone would break up within three to five years.

“The euro zone is a slow-motion train wreck,” Mr. Roubini said during a separate panel discussion.

...Speakers on Saturday did not say how big they thought the European firewall should be. But, again echoing American officials, they agreed it should be so enormous that no investor would question its integrity.

In other words, it should be made "Too Big To Fail".

MEHR: The Independent UK (courtesy of The Great Curmudgeon) reports:

Europe's leaders remained locked in dispute yesterday over the size of the eurozone bailout funds, as it emerged Germany is pushing for Greece to be stripped of powers to control its budgets.

The move to make Greece hand over control of budgetary policy as the price for agreeing a €130bn rescue package [this tied to an approaching deadline to redeem short-term Greek government bonds, plus interest; see above] would represent a humiliating blow to Greece's hopes of controlling its own destiny but could offer a means of staving off financial ruin.

The proposal was made by Germany as the euro group considered how extra finance should be offered to countries such as Greece which need support but are "continuously off-track" with their budgets... [that] European institutions already operating in Greece should be given "certain decision-making powers" over fiscal policy.

Hey -- Austerity forced on 'spendthrift' governments, as determined by Angela's model! Now that's an idea that will have broad, popular support among Greeks! Huh? You think? Well, okay; maybe not...

Details of the proposal emerged as finance ministers met at the World Economic Forum in Davos where France and Germany publicly disagreed over the size of the "firewall" needed to protect European economies.

Also, too, Bloomberg reports that new 30-year Greek bonds may well carry a cap on interest rates.

Dort Tanz Lu-Lu

2012-01-24T18:01:00.000-08:00

Ah-ha-ha; Ooo-hu-hu: Liveblogging The State Of The Union Address
We've never done this before. A little music while we wait.

6:05 PDST:
Interesting that ABC touts this as the SOTU, "And The Republican Response". Guess that's 'equal time'. I'm on CBS.

Okay; the President has been announced. He's making his way down the aisle, and appears on his game: Confident, a little jocular, laughing (the way you do when you have a little nervous energy to burn).

6:10 PDST:
Scott Peley and CBS's White House Correspondent, Bob Schaeffer, note that Supreme Court Justices Alito, Thomas and Scalia are absent. They're such nice people; we wish everything for them that they wish for Obama. And more.

6:12 PDST:
Obama has reached the podium. Leading with the return of soldiers from Iraq. "We gather tonight knowing that this generation of heroes has made America safer and more respected around the world..." Leading with national security and defense issues. Subtext: Don't come at me, or the Democratic party, from that direction.

"Imagine what we could accomplish if we followed their examples.... We can do this! I know we've done it, because we've done it before."

6:19 PDST:
A few making it well, the rest not getting by so well; "all must play by the same rules", and almost everyone in the room applauds. Even the Rethugs. Interesting.

The Financial Crisis: "It was wrong -- it was irresponsible... and left hard-working Americans holding the bag."

6:25 PDST:
'I will fight obstructionism and the failed policies that got us in this predicament in the first place'. Where it begins, he says, is American manufacturing -- not sure about that, given how globalization has changed the face of how business is conducted. Unless we can offer corporate business an advantage by investing in America, not sure how that can happen.

Oh, I see: "We can't bring back every job that's left our shores... it's more expensive to do business [these days] in China." Ask how you can bring back jobs to America and the government will help you.

American businesses here are hit by bad tax rate (Uh-Oh). If you outsource, you shouldn't get a tax break; multinationals should pay a fair tax, and advantages go to those who hire in America (Ruh-Roh). Well, this sounds nice...

"Send me these tax reforms, and I will sign them". Good luck with that; President Boner keeps scratching his face. He has a disease? He can't stay still?

6:30 PDST:
We've brought trade issues with China at twice the rate as [Lil' Boots Bush], he says, and Obama announces a new regulatory unit to cover intellectual and product safety issues with China. That's fine, but they won't love hearing that.

6:38 PDST:
Teachers. Cut the deadwood; don't teach to the test. A proposal that in every state, teenagers stay in school by law until they graduate or turn 18. States need to make higher education a priority in their budgets, and "higher education is not a luxury".

"We should be working on comprehensive immigration reform, right now." The Rethugs won't stand up for that.

"Women should have equal pay for equal work". Yeah; everybody better stand up for that and applaud; isn't that supposed to be a reality already?

President Boner looks like he has gas; his eyes keep darting back and forth. President Yertle The Turtle has a tiny, tiny smile on his tiny, smooth face.

Don't lose the race for the future. Make more energy! We have natural gas! We can safely develop it. Hundreds of thousands of jobs. We don't have to choose between our economy and our environment. Fracking = good.

6:45 PDST:
"We've subsidized oil companies for generations."

No reason Congress can't set clean energy standards? Sure there are. There are 200-plus of them in the House and forty-plus in the Senate. "Send me a bill to create these jobs."

Now, infrastructure: "During the Great Depression, America built the Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge... take the money we are no longer spending at war, and use some of it to do some nation-building right here at home."

6:50 PDST:
It's time to have a nation of accountability. We need smart regulations to prevent irresponsible behavior (Uncertain Applause), which will strengthen the financial system. "No bailouts, no handouts, no cop outs".

And a very bad joke about oil and spilled milk.

And, I will not back down from protecting our water and air; I will not go back to the bad old days of health insurance coverage, and where Wall Street plays by its own rules. If you're a bank, you can't play with depositors' and investors' monies in the Big Casino any more.

Pass legislation to prosecute fraud; send me the bill -- the Justice Department is going to investigate the packaging and selling of bad home loans (Hey Angelo! You got a problem!)

"Pass the payroll tax cut without delay." And Little Eric Cantor politely applauds.

Obligatory Cute Small Animal Photo Smack In Middle Of State Of Union

6:59 PDST:
A quarter of all millionaires paid less taxes than millions of American households. Doe we want the Bush tax cuts, or everything else? Because if we want to pay down the debt, we can't have Lil' Boots and things for The People.

The American people know what the right thing to do is. You can call this class welfare all you want. The American Dream is not because we envy the rich, but because we believe we can be like them.

America, built to last, is not one where there is no shared sacrifice.

7:05 PDST:
Ahh, Congress. And President Boner wipes his nose again.

None of this can happen unless we lower the temperature in this town. Politics shouldn't be about mutual destruction. Even though Obama has already been slapped and stepped on by the Rethugs time and again, he's still (publicly, anyway) extending an olive branch.

"We should all want a smarter, more effective government... because together, there's nothing the United States of America can't achieve."

7:10 PDST:
And now, the Arab Spring is mentioned. Ghaddafi Duck is dead, and human dignity in Syria cannot be denied (Oh, cannot it? Ask folks in Hom 'bout that).

Tyranny is no match for liberty. America will take no options off the table in preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, but "there is still an opportunity for a peaceful settlement" -- the best way, but we have never been closer to Israel.

"Anyone who says that America... has waned, they don't know what they're talking about... America remains the one, indispensable nation in world affairs, and... I intend to keep it that way."

7:16 PDST:
Man; President Boner is just Buzz Killington tonight. Maybe he'll cry. It's Republican credibility!

Those of us have been sent here to serve can learn... from our troops. When you put on the uniform, it doesn't matter if you're" whatever you are. "You fight for the people beside you; you rise and fall as one unit -- one nation".

When we nailed bin Laden, no one thought about differences, just the mission. The SEALs succeded because everyone on the team trusted each other... "So it is with America."

This nation is great because we built it together.. because we built it as a team... as long as we maintain our common purpose...

A real, solid close.

7:20 PDST:
ABC reports that before the speech, Vice-President Biden told a roomful of Democrats that the speech, in essence, was "bin Laden is dead; General Motors is alive".

Peggy Noonan, a Reagan and Bush Republican: Speech was too long; why is he talking about all this stuff he should've been talking about in the past three years?

CBS reports that Obama is defining the election about the road ahead, while the Rethugs want it to be a referendum on his Presidency. Mitch Daniels, Republican Governor of the Grrrrrreaat State of Indiana, will deliver the Rethug response.

7:23 PDST:
Cut to commercial! And who gives a damn what Fox is saying. Not surprised if they ran audio of the speech while showing a crudely-drawn caricature of an African-American man on video -- The sort of thing that warms the heart of Crafty Ol' Aussie Little Rupert.

7:29 PDST:
Mitch Daniels, with his faint Southern accent.

Thanks for killing bin Laden, and the President is a good family man. However, the last three years have been horrifying and he's responsible.

Trillions added to the national debt (oh, give it up; 42% of all increases in the Debt since 2000 came from Lil' Boots Bush. Talk to the CBO). As Republicans, let us compare America's financial situation to Greece and Yurp, even though our economic systems are completely different.

We talk tonight to Americans who want to do better by offering "a private economy" as the solution. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Be pro-growth, private sector jobs for everyone!

Fewer tax rates! Don't penalize "job creators"! Energy extremists are bad!

We must save Medicare and Social Security, but we have to build all new programs! The dollars need to go to those who need them most (seniors who can vote for Newt), but in future we need better ways!

We're not obstacles; we're victims of the President and his Democratic allies (yes, Mitch actually used the word "Democratic", not "Democrat")! If we fail to go to a pro-growth government, it will be bad.

Republicans aren't divisive; we're not obstructionists -- all you have to do is agree with us, do what we want, and we'll just ignore you! Better than if we pay attention to you.

7:40 PDST:
The Democrats claime we can't govern ourselves -- the Democrats are dividing us! We must strike out boldly that America is still the land of ~~More Fore The Rich~~ opportunity. The President is lying about how bad things are -- FEAR! FEAR THE FUTURE! FEAR IT!!

"Nothing mature and freeborn citizens cannot set right... the city shining on a hill". What in the utter fuck is he talking about -- "mature and freeborn"??

Thank you, and Good Night.

Mein Gorilla

2012-01-23T07:42:00.000-08:00

Austerity Forever

In a column this morning about the state of the nation, Paul Krugman, Mensch, and one of the smartest persons on the planet, noted that there are small signs of -- and don't say it too loud -- 'recovery' with a small 'r' here in America.

But the economy is depressed, in large part, because of the housing bust, which immediately suggests the possibility of a virtuous circle: an improving economy leads to a surge in home purchases, which leads to more construction, which strengthens the economy further, and so on. And if you squint hard at recent data, it looks as if something like that may be starting: home sales are up, unemployment claims are down, and builders’ confidence is rising.

Furthermore, the chances for a virtuous circle have been rising, because we’ve made significant progress on the debt front.

At the same time, Krugman notes that our nacent 'recovery' could be cut short by what Europe's leaders are (or, aren't) doing:

There are, of course, still big risks — above all, the risk that trouble in Europe could derail our own incipient recovery. And thereby hangs a tale ... told by a recent report from the McKinsey Global Institute.

The report tracks progress on “deleveraging,” ... bringing down excessive debt levels. It documents substantial progress in the United States, which it contrasts with failure to make progress in Europe. And while the report doesn’t say this explicitly, it’s pretty clear why Europe is doing worse than we are: it’s because European policy makers have been afraid of the wrong things.

In particular, the European Central Bank has been worrying about inflation — even raising interest rates during 2011, only to reverse course later in the year — rather than worrying about how to sustain economic recovery. And fiscal austerity, which is supposed to limit the increase in government debt, has depressed the economy, making it impossible to achieve urgently needed reductions in private debt. The end result is that for all their moralizing about the evils of borrowing, the Europeans aren’t making any progress against excessive debt — whereas we are.

What Europe does, or more likely does not do, is the 800-Pound Gorilla in global finance.

Merkel and Sarkozy are determined to save the Euro, and preserve European Union. They absolutely will not waver from austerity programs which Greece, Spain, Ireland, Great Britain, Italy and Portugal have had to adopt as a condition of loans made by the ECB (Note: This isn't true for the British, who have voluntarily adopted Austerity Forever! because they're a cold people who boil everything, including their bread; so there). It doesn't matter that evidence is clear that Austerity is killing Europe's economy as it impoverishes its people. Yet all the Great Nations Of Europe can do is say more cuts!

The 'Greek Problem', the great Black Hole of European finance, continues, and there is certainly evidence that the Greeks may have to pull out of the Eurozone. But as Angela and Nicky refuse to allow increased spending by governments like Greece, it forces unemployment and economic contraction, and leads to a lack of tax revenues; increasing the likelihood of default on sovereign debt, forcing the European Central Bank to intervene with more emergency bailout loans, just so the Greek government doesn't default on bonds already issued, to raise money to pay back loans already received...

This has been the cycle with Greece, twice in the past two years, and it may simply end with them leaving the Eurozone. Angela and Nicky are trying hard to prevent that -- with finances as interconnected as they are, a meltdown of Greece (or any 'at risk' Eurozone nation) could mean the unraveling of the Euro and the EU.

And in these days of interdependent, counterparty-risk financing, if that happens it will adversely affect whatever kind of recovery we begin to have here in America.

Courtesy of Calculated Risk, here are some key dates for the Eurozone to keep in mind as it rapidly turns into the Twilight Zone:

Euro zone finance ministers will decide on Monday what terms of a Greek debt restructuring they are ready to accept as part of a second bailout package for Athens after negotiators for private creditors said they could not improve their offer...

Once the guidance from the finance ministers, known as the Eurogroup, is clear, talks on the restructuring could be finalized later in the week.
Jan 30th: European Union leaders meet in Brussels on debt crisis
Feb 9th: ECB holds rate meeting
Feb 20th: Euro-area finance ministers meet in Brussels
Feb 29th to March 1st: Italy redeems [has to pay bondholders] 46.5 billion euros of bonds
March 1st and 2nd: EU leaders meet in Brussels
March 8th: ECB holds rate meeting
March 12th: Euro-area finance ministers meet in Brussels
March 20th: Greece redeems [has to pay bondholders] 14.4 billion euros of bonds
March 30th: Euro-area finance ministers meet in Copenhagen
Late April: Proposed date for Greek general election.
April 22nd: France holds a presidential election.

MEHR: ...and, Europe edges closer to the Schwarzschild Radius of the Greek Black Hole:

(Reuters) - Greece was clinging on Tuesday to hope of a last-minute bond swap deal to avoid a messy default ...

Athens is desperate for a deal within days to ensure funds from a 130 billion euro rescue plan drawn up by European partners and the International Monetary Fund arrive before 14.5 billion euros bond redemptions fall due in March.

After weeks of haggling with creditors in Athens, euro zone finance ministers in Brussels on Monday dealt a sharp setback to those hopes by rejecting creditors' demand for a 4 percent coupon, or interest rate, on new, longer-dated bonds in exchange for existing debt.

Donnerwetter: Noch Einmal! Boy, do I hate being right.

WASHINGTON — The International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday that global growth prospects had dimmed as the sovereign debt crisis in the euro zone entered a “perilous new phase.”

Releasing quarterly updates ... the fund cut its estimates of global growth this year to 3.25 percent, from the 4 percent it forecast in September, on “sharply escalated” risks emanating from Europe.

In light of that market uncertainty and sluggish growth, the fund is seeking to raise up to $500 billion in additional lending capacity... calling on the European Union to expand its bailout fund to at least $1 trillion from its current capacity of 440 billion euros, or about $570 billion...

In a speech in Berlin on Monday, Christine Lagarde, managing director of the fund, said: “The longer we wait, the worse it will get. The only solution is to move forward together... The world must find the political will to do what it knows must be done.”

The venue for Lagarde's speech should give it away: She was speaking from the Haus of Angela, and the 'what it knows must be done' that Chrissie mentioned is CodeTalker language for More Austerity! It's Our Only Hope!!

The goal of most European politicians (of EU / Eurozone nations, anyway) is to try and preserve the Euro and the Union -- for economic reasons good and bad, and to preserve a politically unified Europe.

European politicians remember the lessons of their own recent history -- hyperinflation, political instability brought on by economic crisis; trade union strikes and riots; and the rise of fascism. They've bet the Farm on Austerity as the method to weather the current crisis. Their governments have followed Germany and France's insistence that it be so, and Europe's citizens have gone along, so far -- mostly because the full weight of the Austerity programs haven't bitten down hard enough, yet.

Unfortunately, the Realpolitik is that Austerity they've hooked their own political fortunes to will not solve Europe's interconnected economic problems -- their own governments may eventually collapse under a tide of unpopularity when their own people can't take 'Austerity' any more. And in the process, the Euro and the European Union may cease to exist.

Noch Enimal Mit Unmöglichkeit !

Little Angela, Die Eisener Frau, says Ooopsie !

Angela Merkel has cast doubt for the first time on Europe's chances of saving Greece from financial meltdown and sovereign default, conceding that Europe's first ever multibillion bailout coupled with savage austerity was not working after two years of crisis that has brought the single currency to the brink of unravelling.

Ha ha ha ha; sorry about that, Greeks. No hard feelings?

Days before the latest crucial EU summit, which – at Merkel's insistence and evoking scant enthusiasm elsewhere – is to finalise an international treaty between eurozone governments entrenching German-style fiscal and budgetary rigour in all single currency countries, the chancellor admitted to having doubts about the strategy she has pursued throughout the crisis...

With Europe's worst ever crisis moving into its third year, the chancellor is facing growing resistance to her key aim at Monday's summit – finalising the "fiscal compact" treaty that is the euro's new rulebook, foreseeing quasi-automatic fines for fiscal sinners... and establishing legally binding debt ceilings for eurozone governments.

The treaty would enshrine the German model of fiscal and monetarist rigour as binding on the eurozone, in effect outlawing Keynesian economics.

Criticism of the pact and the Merkel policy is getting louder. "A lot of time and energy wasted for nothing," Luxembourg's foreign minister, Jean Asselborn, told Der Spiegel ... Last week, a Finnish cabinet minister also attacked the treaty as having more to do with German domestic politics than with saving the euro.

But Berlin looks certain to get its way since it says there will be no new permanent euro bailout fund being established a year early in July without agreement on the new treaty.

Opponents say the pact will do little to stem the immediate crisis. The Germans insist in the medium-term it will prevent a repeat of the profligacy that caused the near-collapse in the first place.

And that means More Austerity!!

And that's Jenga.

Kleiner Mann, Was Nun?

2012-01-22T10:08:00.000-08:00

Gingrich Appeals To The Lowest Common Denominator

The New York Time's editorial this morning:

Newt Gingrich won the primary by a decisive margin of 12.5 percentage points, and there is no mystery about how he did it. Two-thirds of voters interviewed in exit polls said they made their decision on the basis of the two South Carolina debates, where Mr. Gingrich exploited racial resentment and hatred of the news media to connect with furious voters... He had a much better sense of the raw, destructive anger at President Obama swirling around a highly conservative and combative state, and he reflected it back to voters everywhere he went.

Mitt Romney is the candidate of the old-line GOP, the party who represents the status quo of the wealthy, and corporate America.

When the Rethugs rule, the rich get rich. Business goes its own way with little regulation or enforcement of laws. And when internet, or Real Estate and derivative Bubbles burst, the poor get laid off; fuck 'em.

Mitt Romney is a candidate that understands all this in his bones, and can be counted on to be a good, genial empty suit for the media. That's all "The President" needs to be, as far as the GOP is concerned.

(The Democratic Party represents the interests of the wealthy and corporations, too... but their price for maintaining that class structure has been concessions in the form of social legislation.

(Under Democratic governments, the rich still get rich -- but at a much slower pace. And in exchange, All The People get Medicare and Social Security; fairer tax codes; legislation to ensure more equal treatment in society and the workplace; standards for cleaner air and water, meat and produce, medicines, and consumer products; and, more regulation of a predatory Market and Financial sector.

(This limits business, and the wealthy. They don't like it. They don't give a damn about The People, who are only good as ~~serfs~~ employees, or consumers. They'd prefer a Gilded Age world without bothersome limits or barriers to their desires -- and Republican politicians embody this social Darwinism more nakedly and completely than the Democrats.)

It was Mr. Gingrich who pulled the race into the gutter, where he found considerable support. He repeatedly called Mr. Obama “the greatest food-stamp president in American history,” and lectured a black questioner at Monday’s debate about the amount of federal handouts to blacks, suggesting their work ethic was questionable.

On Thursday, in the derisive tones of a radio talk-show host, he said Mr. Obama’s cabinet looked like Mickey Mouse and Goofy. At that night’s debate, he lashed into the moderator for asking a perfectly reasonable question about his ex-wife’s allegation that he wanted an open marriage, saying it was typical of an “elite media” that was trying to protect the president by attacking Republicans.

Newt Gingrich is despicable, precisely because he so openly panders to the worst of human instincts -- hatred and fear; the cherished Rightist belief that 'white, working Americans' are victimized by immigrants and other racial groups; and now, that 'christians' are victimized by a secular world. He does this because he wants to win. Period.

If you've watched Newt in the Rethug debates, he speaks in the voice of a high school political science teacher. When compared to the barking of a Rick Perry, the scratchy whine of Ron Paul or Rick Santorum, and then watch Romney stumbling, as if to say "I'm A Smart Guy Too!", Gingrich's verbal ability makes him appear Presidential. If I were a conservative, I'd be impressed enough by that political simulacrum of intellect.

It's been observed that Newt can't be the candidate of the Old Boys who run the GOP. As Speaker of the House, he made too many enemies within his own party. The Old Boys may have been willing to put up with the arrogance and corruption of a Tom DeLay, but only because he was so much like them. Gingrich isn't; his I'm-The-Smartest-Kid-In-The-Room attitude makes them feel inferior.

And while the Old Boys have always seen lying and extramarital sex as just another Perk of Village power, by sleeping around, Gingrich made himself and the GOP vulnerable. The Democrats (in the hated person of The Clenis, no less) were willing to exploit it, and forced Gingrich to muzzle himself voluntarily in the 1998 mid-term elections (Newt -- who was ~~thumping the current Mrs. Gingrich~~ having an extramarital affair just as he called for Clinton's impeachment, must've found an exquisite amount of Schadenfreude in the Clenis' predicament).

Gingrich may have been the 'intellectual engine' of the 1992 Rethug takeover of the House, enough to be elected Speaker, but he was no Dennis Hastert. The Old-Boy GOP leadership never felt comfortable around him. Gingrich was not (like Reagan) The Genial Dad. The Old-Boys like figureheads who reflect their self-image back, mirror-like -- proof that despite the damage they do to America and around the world, they really are good people.

Gingrich isn't really recognized as one of them. In the Old Boy's estimation, he's more out for Newt than for The Party, meaning their status quo. As a result, they've been doing whatever they can to ensure Mitt Romney is the candidate that runs against Obama in the fall.

In response, Gingrich appears to be threatening their control of the GOP by appealing to more radical, extreme conservative voters. He's saying to the party leadership, You reject me? Well, then fuck you. Let's see who runs things. So, the contest for the Republican nomination becomes more about Gingrich's hurt fee-fees than the public good -- no real surprise, in politics. And Gingrich understands how The Village, and GOP politics, works. Power politics, being The Insider, is his metier.

South Carolina was a preview of the kind of campaign Gingrich would run as candidate. Before more moderate audiences, he'd speak in an academic, intellectual way about history and economics and Obama's poor, liberal choices we can't afford. But for another audience, his remarks will resonate: You are all victims of Barack Obama, a Black, n-word; a liberal -- and you know what they're like.

With a nod and a wink, he'll attempt to link Obama with every negative racial stereotype possible. And if he's called out because of it, Gingrich will dissemble and obfuscate, and talk talk talk. And continue doing it. Between appealing to some Republicans as The Really Smart Kid, and others as the voice of victimized, marginalized white America, Gingrich will develop his constituency.

Romney may try using his PACs for waves of anti-Gingrich, negative advertising ahead of other primaries... but Newt could claim to be the victim of Romney's money.

If Gingrich wins enough in the primaries, a nasty televised floor fight at the GOP convention might be the result, and Gingrich knows the Old Boys are already asking themselves if that's worth it. They may decide that unifying the party early behind one front-runner, having more time to repeat anti-Obama messages, over and over and over through Little Rupert's media machine, is better than a long public show of their party's internal divisions.

At some point, if Gingrich has snapped up enough delegates, the Old Boys may reluctantly agree that he's the candidate -- just to maintain as much power in the party as possible. They will want to limit the influence of radicals, Tea Partei and 'values voters', unashamed of their hatred for liberals (and minorities), whom Gingrich knowingly appealed to and made his big win in South Carolina possible.

The Old Boys will tell themselves that six months after the general election, everybody will forget that to defeat Barack Obama, the GOP permitted, even encouraged, a virtual lynching.

[Gingrich's remarks were] just what South Carolina voters wanted to hear, the signal that he would not only challenge Mr. Obama but work to bloody him, to destroy his dignity. As one voter told a reporter, “I think we’ve reached a point where we need someone who’s mean”...

In his victory speech, he even descended into Rick Perry territory by accusing the “elite media” of anti-religion bias. Is that really what Republicans across the country want from their nominee, or is South Carolina, with its history of acute racial tension and contrarianism, simply sending a singular, extreme message?

I'd hope that South Carolina was a one-time thing, that the bulk of America's Republicans are more moderate. I'd hope that the leadership of the Republican party wouldn't attempt the impossible, to turn back the clock of civil rights and racial awareness in America, just to take back control of the White House (Sadly, I do think they're stupid enough to attempt just that).

Little Man, Now What? I'd hope for a Romney candidacy, if I were you -- not because Mitt wouldn't do some pandering of his own; but because the coalition of Rethug voters he would build might be more mainstream, less Batshit crazy, Troglodyte Haley Barbour / Jim Sessions Sesesh-Type Volk. That his campaign might, just might be one step up from the sewer Herr Gingrich likes to swim in.

Romney is a Mitwisser -- literally, "With-Knowing"; someone who has knowledge of an event and so gives consent. He may be a wealthy, disconnected conservative, but driving his presidential campaign with the kind of hate and division that comes so easily to Herr Gingrich isn't his style. More likely, he would let other ~~scum~~ elements in the Rethug All-Star constellation do that for him while he remains 'above the fray'.

Noch Einmal, Mit Schwein: ... and the Mittwisser proves me wrong by asking the musical question, "Can I Dog-Whistle As Good As Newt?", or, "Way Down Upon The Swinee".

Mongo Thinks About Chuck Some More

2012-01-16T07:00:00.000-08:00

Because Sometimes The Universe Works

(Sean Beaver, Darkness Into Light; O/C 30 X 40 Inches [2005])

The Guy Next Door Has Bedbugs

2012-01-15T22:40:00.000-08:00

So Life's Going To Be... Interesting For A While

Last week, I was advised that the dweller in the unit next to me discovered bedbugs. There's been a certain amount of spraying in his unit, and all those surrounding his, including mine.

No signs of any unpaying roommates so far. It's possible that the infestation was caught early enough; but, who knows. I've just spent the weekend doing two things -- preparing for the possibility of losing most of my possessions, bagging up all the clothes I own, separating out the books I want to keep before any Arthropods might show up.

And I have several hundred books, collected over twenty-plus years; most of them are in bookcases against the common wall I share with Herr Infecto's unit, in a building built in 1908 after the San Francisco earthquake and fire burned out 90% of Nob Hill. Arthropods like books.

I've equated aspects of my life with my possessions -- they represent stability, security, in a world spinning with change. They're twined with my self-image, separating me from others; in my mind, helping to define my uniqueness. The possibility of losing those Things means losing that self-image, breaking down what I assume to be Me.

Any time during the next six weeks, I'll know if the infestation has spread to my unit. One way or another, I'll be jettisoning a lot of things, paring down. This is something I've thought about doing for at least a year. So, perhaps it's useful, a reflection of a desire for growth and change.

It's not precisely like waiting for a medical diagnosis, but it's close.

Change is stressful. And even if I end up scrubbing my life down to only the most essential items and moving on forward, I still have to live a life -- such as it is -- and work at a job (also in the process of changing); try my best to be a Mensch, a friend, a human being.

At the moment, Greece's continuing debt crisis; Iran's tub-thumping nationalism and America's 'line-in-the-sand' diplomacy; and Mitt Romney's nation of 'Quiet Rooms' doesn't seem so important. So posting may be light for a while.

Reprint Heaven: They Make Commercials

2012-01-10T13:47:00.000-08:00

Get Out Your Buckets And Be Prepared To Use Them

I was in a laundromat early this morning; its owners unlock the doors at about 6:00AM, daily, turn on a local TopPop radio station, and leave until 10:00PM. While loading up the washer, I listened to a commercial for a local supermarket chain -- a woman's voice, telling me how certain produce items remind her of her childhood, of "the smell after my dad cut the lawn ... how my mom made lemonade... it all just reminded me of times and things you could count on."

We live in times when Citizens in the trenches are manipulated, daily, for our vote, our support; our money. This commercial was attempting to link buying things at Safeway™ with the idea of safer, more secure times, with childhood fun, mom and dad, and the smell of fresh-cut grass.

Safe And Secure, With The Smell Of Fresh-Cut Grass:
Memories From Everybody's Childhood -- Aren't They?

You know, childhood -- I mean, for those lucky enough to grow up in a house, with both a mom and a dad, and an actual lawn. Not like growing up in an inner-city housing project with Food Stamps, people smoking Rock on the stoop and fifteen-year-olds turning tricks, gang-bangers fighting for the Turf you live on and schools where pat searches happen every day.

I listened to the commercial because I didn't have a choice, and looked around for a bucket to throw up in. Then, on the Intertubes, I found something worse.

Nissan motors has recently released a teevee commercial (see it here) for it's newly-released electric auto, the 'Leaf'.

It features a big and cuddly actual Polar Bear, actual melting ice caps; a long journey, and a knowledgeable Consumer, whose smart "Earth-friendly" choice makes a friend out of Little Knut Of The Berlin Zoo, thereby proving that the motivations of animals are really just as reasonable and well-considered as our own.

Part of me thinks it's a well-made piece of commercial teevee work, knowing something about Maya and 3DMax, alpha-channel and traveling mattes, and I'm impressed with the result -- even more impressed that anyone has been able to train a Polar Bear, the largest land carnivore on the planet -- our 21st Century version of a furry T-Rex in the animal world.

The spot ends with the cute 'n cuddly Polar Bear giving (all right, I'll say it) a bear hug to the Consumer for purchasing a 2010 Nissan 'Leaf' electric car. Another part of me expects that the Polar Bear would rip the Consumer's face off and eat it.

The human being in me thinks this commercial is a typical corporate response: Identify the problem (solutions to which can affect our sales of, uh, 'hydrocarbon-based transportation delivery systems') with something cute and cuddly (therefore making it less 'serious' and more 'managable'). Then, identify the product in the mind of the viewer / listener with 'cute 'n cuddly'. Finally, use catchy images or phrases that will get people talking and go viral, and thereby boost sales, leading to profits, and I want to puke in a bucket.

"How's This? Cute And Cuddly Enough For You? Huh? Huh?
And By The Way -- You Didn't Even Taste That Good!!"

Has Nissan announced that the threat of Global Warming is so serious that they are immediately terminating their production of internal-combustion-engine vehicles, and will now produce nothing but electric automobiles for sale? No? Well, then this is just a cute, imaginative come-on from the propaganda arm of The Capitalist Structure We're Immersed In, and the big problem it references still exists.

Satellite View Of Southeastern Coast Of The United States,
With Projections Of Results Of 15-Foot Rise In Sea Levels
-- But, It's All Hippie Crap, And Anyway We'll Be Dead
(Image Based On 2007 NASA Report By Dr. James Hansen)

I'm only a dog, and no one listens to me. No one listens to the bears, either -- and sadly, they'll go extinct before Nissan does.

A Nation Turns Its Lonely Eyes

2012-01-10T13:18:00.000-08:00

New Hampsha

(CBS News Graphic, January 9, 2011)

Sitting on a sofa on a [Tuesday] afternoon,
Going to the candidates' debate;
Laugh about it, shout about it,
When you've got to choose
Every way you look at it, you lose

"Mrs. Robinson"
Simon and Garfunkle (1968)

Avarice

2012-01-10T07:05:00.000-08:00

Der Untergang Starts Somewhere

As everyone gets so excited about the pending "vote" in New Hampshire to determine which Retrograde Tool Of Capital gets the Cream Pie in this month's Rethug Clown Contest...

Just a few months before two of Bear-Stearns' Real-Estate-Derivative Investment Funds began to implode, as Barry Ritzholtz's The Big Picture reminds us: On January 10, 2007, Little Rupert's Newsy-Truthy Wall Street Journal published an article entitled "Plutonomics" (I don't like linking to any of Rupert's crap on principle, but if you must, go read it here).

"It was written by of all folks, Citigroup global strategist Ajay Kapur", Ritzholtz writes. "In 2005, Kapur’s research team “came up with the term ‘Plutonomy’ ... to describe a country that is defined by massive income and wealth inequality."

According to Kapur's research team, their definition meant that the United Statesis a Plutonomy, along with the U.K., Canada and Australia.”

What are the basic characteristics of Plutonomies? According to Kapur:
They are all created by “disruptive technology-driven productivity gains, creative financial innovation, capitalist friendly cooperative governments, immigrants…the rule of law and patenting inventions. Often these wealth waves involve great complexity exploited best by the rich and educated of the time.”
There is no “average” consumer in Plutonomies. There is only the rich “and everyone else.” The rich account for a disproportionate chunk of the economy, while the non-rich account for “surprisingly small bites of the national pie.” Kapur estimates that in 2005, the richest 20% may have been responsible for 60% of total spending.
Plutonomies are likely to grow in the future, fed by capitalist-friendly governments, more technology-driven productivity and globalization.
Kapur also noted the impact massive income and wealth inequality had on other aspects of the economy: Savings rates, national debt level, spending patterns, reaction to high commodity prices, and more. All of these, he claimed are substantially affected by the ultra wealthy.

Note that this was from 5 years ago today — circa January 2007 was, ten months before the market peaked, 11 months before the Great Recession began, and 15 months before Bear Stearns, 21 months before Wall Street (AIG BAC C FNM LEH, etc.) collapsed, and about 55 months before Occupy Wall Street began.

Interestingly, in February of 2007, a month after publishing this article, Kapur quit Citigroup to found a Hong-Kong-based hedge fund, First Horse Capital. Sixteen months after opening, the firm shut down on June 17, 2008. Kapur now works for DeutscheBank in New York.

As Goethe once wrote, We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe.

Boneryänker's Almanach

2012-01-08T15:06:00.001-08:00

Random Barking: Barrel-Bottom, Masochism Sunday

I'm watching 'Inside Washington' on PBS -- which features Charles Krauthammer (who has the same hair colorist as Ronald Reagan, Mommar Ghaddafi Duck and Silvio! Berlusconi). Everyone, including the host, seem so bored and jaded tossing around what passes for news analysis that anyone (including the host) piping up and asking, "When do I get paid for this?" wouldn't be out of character.

Also featured is The Lovely Nina Totenberg, a pundit / commentator for National Public Radio. Incidentally, her name, auf Deutsch, means, "Mountain Of The Dead".

(Well, as loveable Bender would say: Don't blame me; I didn't name her.)

This is what happens when you've been effectively stuck inside your home for a week, doing little more than producing mucus -- you externalize your experience by watching a television analogy to mucus production.

Ooops; gotta go -- now it's The McLaughlin Group.

Little Michele Bows Out

2012-01-05T11:57:00.000-08:00

Crazy Lady Says Buh-Bye

The national press speaks of GrandTurtlebear Bachmann of the Church Of Crazy Lady™ as if they just aren't sure how someone who scored so well in the Ames straw poll in the spring could have ended their presidential aspirations by Augering In at the Iowa Caucus this week.

Pundits scratch their heads, talk about 'missed opportunities' or hint at misjudgements made by her advisers. But that's not the reason she's out.

The pundits are being very, very polite -- or very, very stupid: It's because she's a Loon. She's an obviously crazy person.

That, even now, anyone ever took her seriously as a candidate for the presidential nomination says a great deal about both the Republican party and the state of politics in America. None of it is good.

Over and Out.

Not Around

2012-01-05T08:39:00.001-08:00

I've been sick as... well, a Dog, for a while, meaning the three people and the superintelligent parakeet who occasionally check out this blog haven't seen anything new.

The punch line? This week was supposed to be vacation time.

It's a new year. Talk amongst yourselves, as The Great Curmudgeon would say.

New Year; Dunno About Happy

2011-12-31T15:44:00.000-08:00

Going Out On A Whimper

It could be fairly said that there's not enough of other things going on with this Dog to make for a cheery and hopeful New Year. Well, that's the breaks, folks.

I wanted to be able to focus on something hopeful for 2012, but like the mythical half-full glass, I can't see it. One principal reason can be summed up in a post at Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality With Both Hands blog, entitled "America's Financial Leviathan".

In 1950, finance and insurance in the United States accounted for 2.8% of GDP, according to US Department of Commerce estimates. By 1960, that share had grown to 3.8% of GDP, and reached 6% of GDP in 1990. Today, it is 8.4% of GDP, and it is not shrinking. The Wall Street Journal’s Justin Lahart reports that the 2010 share was higher than the previous peak share in 2006.

This is "rentier" capitalism, where a small number of people (relative to the overall population) are paid obscene amounts of money, every year, to move other money from one financial category to another: Cash to equities and commodities; cash to insurance against risk; equities to cash, and so forth.

Traditionally, the idea of a financial sector has been to move money into the hands of business through investment; into the hands of individuals through loans; or to indemnify business and individuals against loss through insurance. However, it's always been The Big Casino: The Game is rigged in favor of the house to bring in a consistent stream of revenue through investment in the markets, interest on loans, or monthly premiums on insurance.

Since the 1980's, 'growth' in the financial sector has been about less about putting money to work and more about finding new ways to increase revenue and thus net profits. Nothing wrong with that, on the face of it -- but for the finance 'industry', the past twenty-five years has been about increasing risk -- and making the hapless client assume that risk.

It gets even better: Now, the entire population of the United States has assumed the risk of it's financial 'sector', as the government paid some $1.2 Trillion in the year between November, 2008 and October, 2009 to keep it afloat. The banks own us, not the other way around.

And it gets even even better: An audit of the U.S. Federal Reserve banking system (one forced by Congress and the results of which had to be obtained last month through an FOIA request by Bloomberg News) that the Fed has made emergency loans and other forms of assistance totaling $29 Trillion Dollars to banks worldwide.

Much of this money has been to prop up financial 'houses' still filled with toxic debt and derivatives, and which is only being shuffled around. Who, ultimately, will be made to assume all that debt, that risk? Why, you. The banks certainly won't be left holding the bag; no, sir. Not our fault; not our problem -- it's the governments' problem... because We're Too Big To Be Allowed To Fail.

The individuals pushing money around these days add no value; they simply charge the economy in general for handling money and moving it around. If it was otherwise, there would be an obvious benefit to that kind of activity -- as in other sectors of the economy, like Silicon Valley, say: Where chips are produced, technology is invented and refined. The benefits there, while debatable in some sense, are still obvious.

Not so in "Finance". It seems to exist, not to perform a necessary function in the economy -- but to separate as many Marks from their money as possible, we the fools. As practiced today, it's a Thieves' College, a School For Scandal, and not something a human being with morals or ethics should involve themselves in.

Bernie Madoff is seen as a negative role model in 'Finance'... because he got caught. The lesson of Little Bernie isn't 'Don't behave like Madoff' or, 'Don't steal' -- it's Don't Get Caught.

Overall, however, it remains disturbing that we do not see the obvious large benefits, at either the micro or macro level, in the US economy’s efficiency that would justify spending an extra 5.6% of GDP every year on finance and insurance.

Lahart cites the conclusion of New York University’s Thomas Philippon that today’s US financial sector is outsized by two percentage points of GDP. And it is very possible that Philippon’s estimate of the size of the US financial sector’s hypertrophy is too small.

Why has the devotion of a great deal of skill and enterprise to finance and insurance sector not paid obvious economic dividends? There are two sustainable ways to make money in finance:
Find people with risks that need to be carried and match them with people with unused risk-bearing capacity, or
Find people with such risks and match them with people who are clueless but who have money.
Are we sure that most of the growth in finance stems from a rising share of financial professionals who undertake the former rather than the latter?

[Note: Bulletpointing added] ...And that sums up America for the past decade, and in 2011. It's why people -- and not enough of us -- are in the streets. And more of it to come in 2012.

And yes, Virginia; we are the 99%. Happy New Year.

Mongo Thinks About Chuck Again

2011-12-30T12:12:00.000-08:00

For The New Year
(Courtesy MobiusKlein)

Chaplin: Final Speech From The Great Dictator (1940)

I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an Emperor. That's not my business.

I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible -- Jew, gentile; black man, white. We all want to help one another; human beings are like that.

We all want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone, and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.

We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in -- machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little; More than machinery we need humanity; more than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness.

Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost...

You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness! You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure!

Then, in the name of democracy, let's use that power; let us all unite! Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie!

They do not fulfil their promise; they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness...

Look up! Look up! The clouds are lifting, the sun is breaking through. We are coming out of the darkness into the light. We are coming into a new world. A kind new world where men will rise above their hate and brutality.

The soul of man has been given wings, and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow, into the light of hope, into the future, that glorious future that belongs to you, to me and to all of us. Look up. Look up.

Even Dogs dream, man.

Have a safe, warm and excellent New Year -- and try to Pay It Forward in 2012.

Day In The Life

2011-12-30T09:50:00.000-08:00

A Bit Late, This: But Still Missed.

Look at me
what am I supposed to be?
what am I supposed to be?
Look at me
what am I supposed to be?
what am I supposed to be?
Look at me
Oh My Love Oh My Love

Here I am
what am I supposed to do?
what am I supposed to do?
Here I am
What can I do for you?
What can I do for you?
Here I am
Oh My Love Oh My Love
Look at me,Oh Please Look at me, My Love
here I am - Oh My Love

Ask About The Free Eggs

2011-12-29T12:47:00.000-08:00

Ridley Scott Completes Long-Planned Alien Prequel

Ridley Scott has been responsible for creating some of the most haunting and near-archetypal images in modern motion pictures -- and it's two films in particular that we recognize: Most definitely Blade Runner (1982), but also Alien (1979) -- not to mention Thelma and Louise, 'The Duellists', and later Gladiator.

Alien began a three-sequel spinoff, starring Sigourney Weaver -- James Cameron's Aliens; the relentlessly depressing Alien 3; and the Do Not See! Alien Resurrection. And, there have been the Predator-versus-Alien spinoffs as other producers attempted to assert the primacy of their Brand to be considered the ultimate Badass Movie Creature of the universe. My money, aber natürlich, is on the Alien.

How Many Ellen Ripleys Can You Find? It's Easy And Fun!

The concept was developed by a ~~seriously disturbed~~ Swiss artist, H.R. Geiger, and brought to life in Scott's initial film: Awakened from suspended animation-sleep by their onboard AI (nicknamed 'Mother'), the crew of the raw-ore-carrying spaceship, the Nostromo, are dispatched to identify the source of a repeating signal beacon -- apparently, in the far-future of Ridley's film, humans still haven't had First Contact with an intelligent alien species.

The beacon takes them to planet LV-426, where three crewmembers -- the Captain, Dallas (Tom Skerrit), the XO, Kane (John Hurt), and Warrant Officer Ripley (Weaver) -- land to find a crashed alien ship that looks like an unfinished Cyclotron. The ship is amazingly old, and filled with bays of large, leathery black eggs. Inside each one is...

Sold At Auction, 2007, For $126,500 US

Well, if you don't know this story, go find it on Netflicks. Alien is a classic piece of filmaking, in addition to being one of the top 10 science-fiction classics of all time.

Eddie Powell (1929-2000); One Of The Original Creatures,
Relaxing Between Takes In James Cameron's 1987 Aliens

This morning I stumbled across the news that Scott has just completed a new film, Prometheus, which stars Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender and Charlize Theron, and gives every appearance of being a prequel to the 1979 Alien.

One meme in the world of film criticism these days is that it's all about sequels -- that most of the films, in a time when it's hard to get people to spend money for a trip to the Monstroplex, that are successful have been based on prior releases.

Prometheus could be another one of these, but I don't think so. Scott has done his share of films with a Doggy odor (White Squall, and "G.I. Jane", just to name two; and yes, I understand the irony of using that phrase), but Alien is one of his signature films and it's hard to imagine any artist willing to risk placing a Dud on the shelf beside it.

Prometheus is scheduled to be released here in the U.S. in June, 2012. And, barring a new war in the Middle East or an unanticipated release of the re-engineered-to-be-massively-fatal H5N1 Birdflu virus, I guess we'll see.

The Collect Call Of Chtulu

2011-12-29T09:39:00.000-08:00

Lil' Michele Continues Channeling Chtulu: Ia! Ia Ftagn Iowa !!!!
(Is It Just Me, Or Does She Look Like Cameron Diaz?)

As Evan McMorris-Santoro noted in TPM this morning, the collapse of the Crazy Lady Pain Train For Aremica Campaign beneath the weight of its own irrelevance is nearly complete.

On Wednesday, Bachmann took time off the campaign trail to accuse Ron Paul of bribing her Iowa chair into switching teams. State Sen. Kent Sorenson (R) publicly flipped to the Ron Paul campaign in a surprise announcement at a Paul event Wednesday night...

Lost in the back and forth is the news, of course, that Bachmann lost her Iowa campaign chair just days before the caucuses. And that follows news that a pro-Bachmann Super PAC switched allegiances to Mitt Romney the other day.

And that comes after the story of a leader of the base Bachmann has courted so closely — the Iowa evangelical vote — asking her to step aside. And that’s just Iowa.

It would be truly amazing, watching the Rethug party eat itself, if the collateral damage to the rest of us wasn't potentially so severe. Their front-runner at the moment is a dwarfish paranoid; then Mitzy; and then that morally-compromised, overly-intellectual Guy. Then Le Gouvernour Placard Perry, who will say anything to be elected; and finally, Grand TurtleBear Michele Bachmann of the Church of Crazy Lady™.

Obligatory Cute Small Animal Photo In Middle Of Blog Rant

I will be the first to say that Michele is hot. Hot, hot, hot. I'd do a weekend with her in an apartment above a video store in downtown Bangkok in a heartbeat -- plenty of up-close, uh, 'quality time', and I'd be cooking on a hibachi on the balcony.

But, aber natürlich, this assumes that her head would have to be in an exceptionally different place than it is today. It's just as true that Michele is deranged, possibly Botoxed to the gills; almost certifiably crazy -- but, Hot. So, I'm holding off on buying that pair of tickets on Air Thailand.

And, if you're a candidate for the Rethug nomination as presidential candidate, and the polls have you at the bottom of a pack of fools like Paul, Perry, Mitzy and The Newt and Little Ricky... that's really saying something, isn't it?

In South Carolina, Bachmann’s campaign recently asked for and then touted the endorsement of a progressive Democratic leader who only wants Bachmann to be the nominee because it would guarantee a second term for President Obama.

Well, The End is coming soon. I hear the sound, far-off, like the wet slapping of tentacles against rocks by the sea -- and it sounds like the Call Of Chtulu. In fact, it sounds remarkably like the voice of Ron Paul.

Meanwhile: Auf nicht wiedersehen, Michele, you nutter.

Got That Right

2011-12-28T11:16:00.000-08:00

Just Sayin'

(Courtesy Plutocracy Files)

Cheetah (1929-2011)

2011-12-28T09:16:00.000-08:00

World Mourns Loss Of 'Gentle Spirit'

Cheetah On His 77th Birthday In Retirement, With Photo
Of Weissmuller, Who Never Visited Him

The New York Times reports that Cheetah the Chimpanzee -- who, next to Rin-Tin-Tin, Lassie, 'Alf', and Puffy The Dog from There's Something About Mary, was one of Hollywood's most famous animal stars -- has died. He was at least 80 years old; twice the normal life span of normal Chimpanzees.

Cheetah played the comedy relief opposite Johnny Weissmuller in the "Tarzan" films (he did not, as some have reported, play the role of 'Bonzo' in the defining moment of Ronald Reagan's film career, "Bedtime For Bonzo"). Weissmuller, born in Austria-Hungary, emigrated to the U.S. to become the Mark Spitz of the 1920's, winning five Olympic gold medals in swimming and setting dozens of records before appearing in twelve Tarzan movies. Weissmuller died in 1984.

"Debbie Cobb, the outreach director at the Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbor, Fla., where Cheetah lived," reported the Paper Of Record, "told The [Tampa, Fla.] Tribune that Cheetah was about 80 years old and died of kidney failure on Saturday."

In the Tarzan film series, whose golden age spanned 1932 to 1948, Cheetah was said to have appeared in the films made between 1932 and 1934, as a comic and sympathetic animal sidekick whose intelligence sometimes seemed to rival that of his human co-stars [former swimming star] Johnny Weissmuller (who played the titular jungle lord) and Maureen O’Sullivan (who portrayed his civilized love interest, Jane).

Cheetah had, in fact, been living with Weissmuller until 1960, when he was transferred to the Primate Sanctuary. Of some 15 chimpanzees kept at the sanctuary, Cheetah, Cobb reported, was "the most famous and an outgoing ape with a gentle personality, who had long outlived the 35 to 45 years that chimpanzees typically survive in captivity."

“He was very compassionate,” Ms. Cobb said. “He could tell if I was having a good day or a bad day. He was always trying to get me to laugh if he thought I was having a bad day. He was very in tune to human feelings.”

Word Of Cheetah's Passing Was Met With Spontaneous Public
Demonstrations Of Grief In Asia, Where 'Tarzan' Films Are
Still Cherished (Photo: NHKNot)

She said Cheetah was soothed by Christian music and also enjoyed fingerpainting and football, though she was unsure if the chimpanzee had any favorite teams.

The Times also reported that actress Mia Farrow, the daughter of Maureen O’Sullivan (they performed opposite each other as a mother and daughter in Woody Allen's 'Hannah And Her Sisters'), has gotten more or less the last word on the Great Ape, posting a comment on her Twitter page: “Cheetah the chimp in Tarzan movies died this week at 80. My mom, who played Jane, invariably referred to Cheetah as ‘that bastard.’ ”

Cheetah's real name is unknown. He leaves behind him no children, but a number of finger paintings, and a rich treasury of film memories.

Meanwhile, in other news: The head of Iran's navy announced during ten days of Iranian war games in the Persian Gulf that it would be "Like drinking a glass of water" to close the Straits of Hormuz to oil traffic. Today the commander of the United States' Fifth Fleet in the same region announced that the world "would not tolerate" a closure of the Gulf to shipping.

Noch Einmal Mit Mehr: Apparently, questions have been raised as to whether the claims of the Florida primate sanctuary -- that the Chimp which died Saturday was in fact the Cheetah -- are true.

The sanctuary set off a stampede of news media coverage when it announced the death of a chimpanzee there over the weekend named Cheetah, who, the sanctuary said, appeared with Johnny Weissmuller in films like “Tarzan the Ape Man” (released in 1932) and “Tarzan and His Mate” (from 1934).

Ms. [Debbie] Cobb, 51 [outreach director of the Suncoast Primate Sanctuary], said that she had known Cheetah all her life and that he was born in 1929 or 1930. She said he had been brought to the sanctuary by her grandparents, who received him in the 1960s when Weissmuller’s estate “was being dispersed.” [Note: Johnny Weissmuller died in 1984]

“My grandparents picked these animals up,” Ms. Cobb said. “It wasn’t like you called a hauling company to go pick up a full-grown male chimp.”

Though the nearby Lion Country Safari in Loxahatchee, Fla., is home to a female chimpanzee named Little Mama who is in her 70s, some zoologists believe such animals are not representative of typical lifespans in captivity.

Ms. Cobb said that her sanctuary planned to post brochures from the 1950s and ’60s on its Web site that would show that its Cheetah had appeared in the Tarzan movies, and that the announcement of his death was not a “marketing ploy.”

“We have nothing to prove,” [Cobb] said. “It cracks me up how ignorant some people are, but I think that causes controversy, and isn’t that what it’s all about? I mean, really. I think people like controversy. These are real living beings to us here. These are relationships. We don’t care if it’s in the media or not.”

Meanwhile, Grieving Crowds In Asia Continue Mourning
Publicly For The Great Chimp. More Or Less.

Boxing Your Ears Day

2011-12-26T16:19:00.000-08:00

Yes, They Are

When anyone says to you, "Oh, the Tea Partei Republicans aren't crazy," hand them this letter from current Big Iowa Favorite™ Ron Paul (via his campaign for the Rethug presidential candidacy), soliciting donations:

I have unmasked the plot for world government, world money, and world central banking... officials... wholly owned subsidiaries of the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations. The FEMA plan to suspend the Constitution...

I’ve been told not to talk, but these stooges don’t scare me. Threats or no threats, I’ve laid bare the coming race war in big cities. The federal-homosexual cover-up on AIDS ... The Bohemian Grove — perverted, pagan playground of the powerful. Skull & Bones: the demonic fraternity that includes George Bush and leftist Senator John Kerry, Congress’s Mr. New Honey. The Israeli lobby, which plays Congress like a cheap harmonica. And the Soviet-style “smartcard” the Justice Department has in mind for you..

... That’s why I must send you Surviving the New Money, the Ron Paul Investment Letter, and the Ron Paul Political Report... What’s a middle-class American to do? Gold? Silver? Platinum? Rare coins? Real estate? Gemstones? ... Some investments will protect you. Others are like walking into the IRS and saying, “Take me; I’m yours."

I fear there will be welfare riots in the big cities. Massive unemployment. The destruction of wealth. The erosion of personal liberties. Vicious economic controls. The exaltation of envy. The suppression of privacy. Authoritarian clamp-downs. Bank and S&L closings on a massive scale. A world dollar crisis...

Trouble is coming, and you must be prepared. Surviving the New Money, the Ron Paul Investment Letter and the Ron Paul Political Report will be your survival kit, and if you act now, you can get this $224 value for just $99 — 55% off!… For just $99, get all this wealth-saving intelligence...

Astronomical professionals are discovering new planets circling distant stars every day; can we give these loons a planet of their own? There may not be as much air as there is on Earth, but the first forty million dollars is tax-free. Sure to please the ~~mutant freakshow nutjob~~ libertarian on your post-ExMass list.

(NOTE: Sudden increases in weight have been reporter with conservatism. An uncontrollable desire to beat children for their own good, and to tell complete strangers about a world-wide conspiracy involving reptilian aliens, black helicopters, the United Nations or the Tri-Bilderburg Commission, non-caucasians, and [eventually; always] Jews, have been observed. If you experience headaches, sensitivity to light and a desire to consume the flesh of the living, try and communicate this to your doctor, or simply attack and eat them. The ability to support views that have no basis whatsoever in scientific fact or common sense, spontaneous diarrhea and hair loss, speckles, and Bonzeiger's Syndrome are common side affects with conservatism. Just so you know.)

Ему тридцать лет, которые человек из МОЛДОВЫ

2011-12-23T11:59:00.000-08:00

Don't Trust

We are reliably informed that I.Rabschinsky, occasional commenter here at Before Nine, has just turned 30, on the day before Hanukkah (which means he gets nine days of gifts, this guy, I guess).

As we say in my generation, "Don't Trust Anybody Over Thirty".

I say this to I.Rabschinsky -- and to Moldavish Guy; you, also.

Nadir

2011-12-21T07:04:00.000-08:00

Bottom Of The Batting Order

This Chart Answers The Musical Question, "What Percentage Of
All U.S. Corporate Profits Is Generated By The Financial
Sector?" Answer? "Their Satanic Majesties Request", Or 26%

...And This One Tracks Financial 'Industry' Profit As Percentage
Of Overall GDP. (Source: Arbor Research, via Big Picture)

Tonight at sundown (aside from its being the second night of Hanukkah), the Winter Solstice will begin. This is physically the longest night of the solar year, the Nadir, the lowest point in a cycle of one orbit of the planet around the sun.

As a result, you'd expect the kind of mutant freakshow we're seeing these days.

Republicans Continue Countdown To Self-Detonation: Bob Schaeffer, CBS News Washington correspondent since the Late Cretaceous Period, noted in last night's CBS Evening News that the current (i.e., most recent) impasse in Congress is a result of "both sides trying to undermine each other". On the BBC's American version of the evening news, Clinton-era Labor Secretary Robert Reich (and ~~former BFF~~ prior associate of Citicorp) commented in a segment on the effect to those living on unemployment of having benefits suddenly removed or slashed, "I try hard not to be partisan, but the Republican party seems to be the one" creating the current deadlock.

Some Left Blogistan sites (e.g., TPM) report that, as a result of the refusal of the Rethug-dominated House to pass a Senate bill that would extend (by two months) both a Social Security payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits, President Obama's job approval ratings have become more positive. TPM reported 46.6% Approval vs. 48% Disapproval -- "There’s now a lot of evidence that the President’s approval numbers are rising after bottoming out at the end of the summer after the debt deal debacle," Josh Marshall wrote. "But they’re rising toward an almost total polarization. 50% for, 50% against. Very little middle ground."

Your New Stratoliner: The One Per Cent, And Their Hats

One interesting note: Little Rupert's Wall Street Journal, the "Tits 'n Tattle" scandal sheet of Rupert's empire for the financial class, ran an editorial criticizing Republicans for blocking the two-month extension in the House -- and mostly criticizing it as a poor tactic, rather than for the effect it would have on taxpayers and unemployed Americans.

Heaven forbid that Little Rupert or Fat Roger would give a damn about the people they treat with such barely-disguised contempt.

Rupert, that crafty ol' Aussie, is sending America's Rightist politicians a message: I Am Not Amused. Get Your Shit Together. But as much as he criticizes them, he has to support the Rethugs, and his NewsCorp will have to get behind whichever candidate, drooling, brain-dead and barking, it hoists for president in 2012.

So, whatever scribbles are published on the editorial page of the WSJ tabloid don't really matter. Little Rupert is as much a hostage of a self-destructing political party as the Rethugs are hostage to their addictive love for Little Rupert's propaganda.

MEHR: Not that long ago, the House Minority Whip, Stenny Hoyer walked to the floor of the House Of Representatives, and asked the Speaker Pro Temp, Michael Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania (standing in for President Boner), to grant "unanimous consent" for an up-or-down vote on the Senate bill the Rethugs deep-sixed yesterday.

House Republicans on the Hill were with Speaker Boner at a photo-op. Meanwhile, as Hoyer made his request to the Speaker's chair on the House floor, Fitzpatrick simply ignored Hoyer and walked away... all broadcast on CSPAN.

"As you walk off the floor, Mr. Speaker," Hoyer said to Fitzgerald's back, "You’re walking away, just as so many Republicans have walked away from middle-class tax payers, the unemployed, and very frankly as well from those who will be seeking medical assistance from their doctors — 48 million senior citizens.”

In and of itself, business as usual in the United States Congress. But, providing the Democratic party with a telling image of Rethugs who don't give two hoots about The People, and which can be rebroadcast over and over and over? Priceless.

Global Banking Structure Aims Free Money Nozzle At European Banks: The European Central Bank has loaned a massive 489 billion Euros ($639 billion US) to over five hundred European banks, at one per cent interest, for what the War Criminal Post reported as "an exceptionally long period of three years" in the ongoing attempt to keep the EU from dissolving into a bad fusion between "Apocalypse Now" and "Mr. Hulot Opens A Hedge Fund".

It was the biggest infusion of credit by the European Central Bank in the 13-year history of the Euro; in a response I think is best termed 'irrational exuberance', the DJIA rose over 330 points. The ECB's move allows its client banks to borrow money, essentially, for free: 1 Billion Euros borrowed can become loans, and any interest charged on those loans above one per cent is pure profit.

The problem is, these loans will act as life support for some financial players whose books are sagging with toxic debts that these ECB credit lines can't repair; the amounts of debt are too huge. It's just another means of postponing the Day O' Reckoning, kicking the can down a road paved with good intentions.

But, hey; Little Angela's happy. So, s'all good. Right?

Rethugs Say, VOTE FOR PLAYER TO BE NAMED LATER! Replicating the internal epic battles within the Rethug, Red-State World (something like Rodan vs. Monster Zero), it appears that Thugs will nominate ~~Mitzy~~ ~~Perry~~ ~~Grand TurtleBear~~ ~~Ru Paul~~ ~~Mitzy~~ ~~Randyman~~ ~~Perry~~ ~~Ru Paul~~ "Somebody Else" as their candidate for president in 2012.

No kidding; a poll recently reported by CBS showed Republicans pretty evenly split between three potential candidates, so far: Romney and Gingrich, and "Somebody Else". It's a ringing, star-spangled endorsement of -- well, somebody. A write-in candidate who embodies true, conservative principles, like Lil' Bernie Madoff, or William Stafford, or the Zombified Ronald Wilson Rayguns-ah.

The ever-tasteful Alicublog reports that the Special Bus Kidz at RedState are enthusiastically arguing in favor of... a Rick Perry candidacy.
Fellas, there's probably a robot somewhere that would govern in the most consistently conservative fashion -- it wouldn't be hard to program; just get it to yell "More tax breaks for the wealthy!" and "I hates me a faggot!" at intervals, and to fart loudly when France or higher education is mentioned -- but it doesn't mean anything unless you can get people to vote for it.

...Perry makes George W. Bush look like Pericles. Nobody, but nobody, is praying, "Oh Lord, send us someone just like George W. Bush, only stupider." Just the other day... Perry misread Kim Jong Il as "Kim Jong the Second". That's like something out of a Cheech and Chong movie. Most observers... have moved on to wondering if Perry can tie a shoelace without coaching.
I enjoy flailing, particularly when it reinforces stereotypes I have of conservatives as retrograde, Troglodyte morons, beating each other bloody with Wal-Mart shopping bags filled with The Collected Works Of Ronald Rayguns: "They fought so fiercely because the stakes were so small". Keep it up!

Tubby Twentysomething Becomes New Leader Of Starving, Heavily Armed North Korea: A few days ago, this short, pudgy guy with weird hair and glasses died -- some say on a train: Kim Jong Il, ruler of the upper half of the Korean peninsula and a leader of a totalitarian, repressive state... and was reportedly someone who loved dogs and western porn, and really in his heart was kinda, sort of, a good guy. "The Kim Nobody Knew".

His twenty-something son, Kim Jong Well, a short, pudgy guy with a very bad haircut who reportedly likes dogs, food and western porn, and in his heart is kind a good guy, replaced him. The CIA apparently had no idea that Kim Jong 2 had passed away until it was announced by North Korea's official media (there is no other kind).

There immediately commenced massive (and in the last Stalinst, cult-of-personality culture on the planet, we mean massive) shows of public grieving. Thousands gathered publicly to cry and cry and rend their hair and fall weeping on the pavement, each attempting to outdo everyone else to show how sad they are that a totalitarian freak, who wore shoes with three-inch lifts and created policies resulting in starvation of his people and nuclear weapons, was dead.

Kim Jong Well went to see his father lying in state, bowed without much expression, then reportedly went for pizza and some XBox action.

There's one other thing about The Winter solstice to keep in mind. This is the last of the old solar year, the bottom of the wheel, the Appogeian farthest point out in Earth's orbital motion. The planetary pole is tilted back; this is the longest period of darkness in a full turn around the sun.

And from midnight tonight, the Days will become incrementally longer, the nights shorter. From this long night we will all enter what I like to think of as The Season Of Rising Light -- from one point of view, the darkness being reduced a degree at a time, each day forward, until the top of the wheel, the Apex, next June.

And while waiting for someone to start singing "Here Comes The Sun", in the meantime, we'll still have the unfolding, everlasting clown show to watch.

More Reprint Heaven:Is The Wonderful Is This Life

2011-12-20T07:17:00.000-08:00

By I. Rabschinsky

[Hoo boy; you are being lucky today. Also from a year before, we have The Good film history for you. And as Great-Uncle Yehudi always saying, "Don't Stand In Way Of The History!"]

George Bailey Guy Making The Panik

So always in the America there is at this time the fooding, and also the Sports Produkt on the television. Many people filling themselves with Holiday as if they about to be told, "Next year, you cannot eat!". I am thinking they are the hostage of their Hindbrain, which is still Neanderthal and wishes to fight with Mastodon. But, still.

And, I am noticing specific films which is only appearing on Amerikanyets television at these months between like maybe September and the time of your New Year.

My examples: At Passover, some of the television is showing The Ten Super Big Mitzvah Rules, with Charlton Heston Guy -- you know, movie where Moses stop making fooling around to pretend he is Big Guy of the Egypt, and decides to get real job saving People Of Israel.

This requires lots of people walking around, always saying "Oh, Moses, Moses, Moses" -- like, if they say this three times, they will be teleported by magik into better movie. Navarone Kind Of Big Guns, maybe, or Socialist-Colored Panther.

Place Which Is Gone Forever: Amerikanyets Driving To Movies:
"Moses, Moses, Moses -- What is happening with our Drive-Ins?"

At another time in year, they are showing same Heston Guy what is Moses in Big Mitzvah Rules in another movie, Ben Of Her. However this is basically film of Jewish guy who becomes like early Jesus guy, but by accident.

Movie is good; he is Number Forty-One guy in slave ship, rowing like animator for the Disney; there are becoming big boat battle, and he gets to be some kind of honorary Goyim. Later, there is an exciting thing with horses and carts -- but it is not the porn film, so too bad for you. Go to web sites where they have not blocked you.

Charlton Ben Heston Making The Ramming Speed, 1959

At finally, with the Christmas, every year since somebody discover the Secret Of Fire there is this broadcasting this movie, It Is Wonderful This Life, made by Frank Capra Guy in 1947, showing the kind of place which everybody wanted to believe was the Amerika. Small town, everybody knows everybody; values is good and everybody work hard and knows their places.

Just like village in the Moldova, except animals do not leave defecation in the street, everyone is speaking English, and most people have job. Plus concrete used in apartment buildings is better quality.

Every single year they are showing this film. It is now a classic also, like Wizard Of Odd and Potemkin Kind Of Battleship and Mister Hulot Goes To Beach Place. It is as big movie as The Tanks Know The Truth (Very popular Great Patriotic War movie made in the Russia. My Great-Uncle Yehudi claims he is in this film as Extra, but still we love him).

Big Scene From Tanks Knowing The Truth: Are They Knowing?
Well, They Are Tank; You Are Person. You Want To Be That Sure?

It Is Wonderful This Life story is maybe simple: Guy, George Bailey Guy, living in small town wants to die, because he thinks his life is shit. And there are the angels, who show us life of this Guy in the little town, and how he is The Good, and there is the Rich Guy who is The Bad. And George Bailey Guy never gets to do things in the Life because the Fate is not for him.

Then there is mistake with money (a problem made from the Rich Bad Guy), for which he is blamed, and he runs from family and goes to place of Publik Alkohol; finally he goes to bridge to jump in freezing water so his family will get small piece of Insurance money. Very Sad (There is also squirrel in another scene which is sad, but never mind). Also very Petit-Bourgeois.

So, Angel Guy comes to the Earth and shows this George Bailey Guy his life is maybe kind of okay, not so much the shit; and boom boom boom, problem with the money goes away in big scene at end when everyone gives him their money, and everyone sings. So happy, little bells on tree and big bells of church ring; America wins the World War Two and future is filled with television and freeway. The End.

But this is too simple, my friend. No way is actual life like this. So, maybe some of me thinks this is kind of the Propaganda about America, to keep us from seeing the Truth of the Things.

And, there is forbidden version of this film, which is other kind of the Propaganda. Please -- allow me to introduce.

борьбе за построение социализма во время Угнетение
(также называется "Любовь и революция" после 1991)
("Love And Revolution", Directed By Frank Kapronovich [1949]; Starring Pytor Chost, Gravnik Bolodorin, Irina Valutin. Special appearances by the Spirit Of Revolution, also Che Guevara, Samuel Beckett, and entire 12th Guards Motorized Infantry Regiment)

SO, movie opens with Guy, Georgi Edwardovich Bailey Guy, at the Bridge. He is unhappy, this Guy; boy oh boy he is like making the panic. He goes to public alkohol place and tries to think, but he only finds himself between the forces of dissent and confusion!

TROTSKYITE GUY: River not so bad, after five minutes.
EXISTENTIAL GUY: Wait, but no one comes. No one cares.

Hoo boy; Georgi is in big fix. This guy has family with SmallChilds, and tiny Policy Insuring The Life -- and he is believing everybody would be better off if he would jump and get it over with, already.

GEORGI: My life is steaming pile of animal things,
because the Rich Guy will always win. Now I am jumping.

But, Georgi is being watched at Bridge. Not by some angel Guy (none of this reliance on things which cannot be proven by good Socialist science!) -- but even better -- is Spirit Of Revolutsya!

(Spirit Of The Revolution Watches Georgi)

And, The Spirit saves Georgi! He takes him to place where they can speak of things, of the Truth -- and slowly, Georgi's eyes are opened to not only the forces of historical determinism, but the inevitability of struggle against the oppressor classes!

GEORGI: So you are saying that when the consciousness
of the People is raised sufficiently, that armed struggle
is not only necessary but inevitable?
SPIRIT: You got it, Comrade.

So, Georgi, now with eyes opened thanks to the words of the kindly Spirit, is seeing that the world is filled with inequality and criminal things so big your head feels like kicked soccer ball. It is like understanding that, not only are you living as Dog, lapping up the vomit of the Rich Guy, but you work in factory to make guns to force others to live like this (Also, the Rich Guy pays you in fake dog vomit and those X-Ray glasses which do not work).

For Georgi, this is whole bunch of dried fish to eat in one night (Like story by that Guy, Dickens Guy, Carol Burnett Christmas, or something). This is the Life? He is asking himself.

A World Of Things For Them, But Not Food For Children

Economy And Bad Fate For Peoples Means Nothing To Them

For Them, The World Is Something To Carve Up, Like Beef

While The Many People Lose Everything To The Illegal Foreclosure

So now Georgi is filled with indignant and bad feeling for The State Of These Things. He feels the pain of the oppressed, working masses, and is being filled with Revolutionary Fervor -- and he goes to talk with the People in his little village, to tell them what the Spirit had revealed to him -- and the Spirit sends along friend, Che Guevara Guy, to help.

GEORGI: We don't have to live under the heel of Potter's boot!
He's just some, bloodsucking animal! Feeding on all of us -- and I'm
tired of living on fake dog vomit! We have to run things!
CHE GUEVARA SPIRIT GUY: Ay, Yi Yi! You listen to this guy.

The People, moved by Georgi's words, march with him to the place of the Bad Rich Guy, to demand Justice, the chance to make something other than guns, and to be paid in actual money instead of rubber dog vomit and X-Ray glasses which do not work.

BAD RICH GUY: You realize that the manufacture and sale of
weapons around the globe is the backbone of our nation's industry?
GEORGI: You don't understand -- the days of taking your rubber
dog barf are over, Potter! We're going to run things!
MOB: No fake dog barf!! No fake dog barf!!

BAD RICH GUY: My family has run this town for fifty generations.
All I have to do is close the factories. How long will it be before
your little rag-tag mob starts to starve? They'll come crawling back
to work -- and for half the rubber dog barf I gave you before!

Then, Georgi takes the Big Step -- the one which all oppressed people are taking in these movies when faced with Oppressors who pay them with rubber dog vomit: He crosses line from intellectualizing his oppression to active revolutionary.

Otherwise, we would have no resolution of all this rising action; and only ending for this film possible is that everyone would go for Pizza. This is unsatisfying from view of the Socialist imperative.

GEORGI: You're wrong, Potter -- you, and people of your
class are finished. Now you're going to face Justice for your
crimes -- because the People own the means of production!

And so The Bad Rich Guy is taken away by the People; his house later becomes hospital, day-care center, and place where revolutionary theater troupes practice before going into the streets.

And, of course, there is a proper celebration at the Georgi Bailey house, with the Revolutsia Spirit and the SmallChilds.

GEORGI: Gosh, Spirit, I don't know how we can thank you.
SMALLCHILD 01: Spirit, can't you stay and have some Fair
Trade™ coffee with homemade whiskey with us?
SPIRIT: No, SmallChild; I must go. There are so many oppressed
peoples in a world beset by unspeakable monsters of Capital.
But I will take a shot of that whiskey -- neat, please.

Finally, after long discussion between Rich Bad Guy and the Organs Of State Security, he faces Revolutionary Justice and the verdict of The People.

RICH BAD GUY: Long live International Capitalism!
PEOPLE'S MILITIA LEADER: Fire!

And, of course, Georgi and his lovely wife are pausing in their labor to build a New Socialist Future to share a moment's reflection on the plight of The Peoples, and also to suggest some hygienic sexual activity between them which may occur later.

...and in the background, The Internationale swells on the soundtrack, sung by the Sad Vlad Orphans Choir Of Greater Moscow! Please to show the credits!

This film has not been shown since its original release; big shame, also, because it is at least as good as movie with Bert Landcaster in it but of the name, just now, is escaping me.

Great-Uncle Yehudi likes Revolutionary Love. He thinks it is wonderful comedy, but still we love him. If you can find this film on DVD, then okay. If not, well then it is big world out there! Be That Guy -- go find!

I, Rabschinsky, say this -- to Moldavish Guy; you also.

Reprint Heaven: Желая Каждый Хорошее Ханука

2011-12-20T07:09:00.000-08:00

A Note Being Brief By I. Rabschinski

[Originally, this appeared a year ago. But we are to be using all of the animal, yes? Even Dog. So.]

So, it is time for the first night of the Hanukkah, where we are celebrating lights and days of gifts for SmallChild 01 and SmallChild 02, and for Spouse, who plots to kill the Dog who makes this blog -- though we are trying to talk her out of this extreme of position, usually with distractions ("Hey! Spouse -- Be looking up there!"), and chocolate -- but, the Good from the Switzerland, not krumbly Amerikanyets шоколад which tastes like animal has wiped its back part across your shagging carpet, and then you must lick it.

Hey; you notice how Cyrillic for 'chocolate' -- шоколад -- looks little like "Wonka", maybe? Is deep with the irony, yes? No? Oh, Пожалуйста - получите жизни.

We also enjoy to make the celebration with my Great-Uncle Yehudi, who was wounded in the fight in Great Patriotic War, where he had to have his sense of humor amputated.

This is the actual okay, however: We got him another one many years ago (they are like big grafting of the skin), and so he can watch now the reruns of The Mister Ed and make laughing.

Speaking for myself strictly, a television programme with talking horse ("Oh; Vilbur! Do Not Be Touching Me There!") is like something made by demons. Or Polish people. But, as Uncle Yehudi reminds us, he make the fighting at Kursk and Berlin and we did not ("I did not see you there!") -- so that he could watch 'The Mister Ed' and 'Leaving All To The Beaver' and 'My Three Suns', which Yehudi tells me is science-fiction show. Why he like them, I have not a guess. But still we love him.

So, to all the Mankind, we are wishing is Goot season, Nize season for you and your own SmallChilds, and pets, and the home appliances also. Treat them well -- they watch you when you are not looking and really holding the grudge. So says Uncle Yehudi, and as war hero we must listen to him.

This is same reason why John McCain is, I think, occasionally the popular guy, still.

I, Rabschinski, say this -- to Moldavish Guy; you also.

Dog Dog Dog

2011-12-16T06:57:00.000-08:00

Random Barking

Hoo Hoo Hoo; Cute Pooch: The Japanese Raccoon Dog (Wikipedia)

The world we inhabit is, to a great degree, a creation of human minds; and predictably, with a few exceptions (Klimt, Sargent; Strauss, Herrmann; Pierre Franey; Furst, Fowles and Flaubert; and probably all of those each of us hold dear), the world is one bloody mess and I'm a little tired, in these 'holiday' times, of commenting about it.

However, there is also the world that is not confabulated by humans.

I present for your edification, (we don't need your approval; we're here, we're Canine; get used to it) a Dog -- the Japanese Raccoon Dog, native only to Japan and so (fortunately) protected and not on anybody's endangered species list -- though, when you consider what humans have been up to, we're all endangered species; don't you think?

The Japanese raccoon dog, also known as tanuki (狸 or タヌキ) in Japanese, is conventionally considered as two subspecies of the raccoon dog, hondo-tanuki (Nyctereutes procyonoides viverrinus), and ezo-tanuki (Nyctereutes procyonoides albus).

Their common Japanese name is often mistakenly translated into English as "badger" or "raccoon". Despite these mistranslations, the tanuki is not related to raccoons or badgers; the "raccoon-dog" is part of the evolutionary family that includes foxes, wolves, and dogs.

There is some debate in the scientific community regarding speciation between the other subspecies of raccoon dog and the Japanese subspecies in that due to chromosome, behavioral and weight differences, the Japanese raccoon dog should be considered a separate species from the other subspecies.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature Canid Group's Canid Biology and Conservation Conference in September 2001 rejected the classification of the Japanese raccoon dog as a separate species, but its status is still disputed, based on its elastic genome.

And, the Raccoon Dog has it's own Facebook page, Dude!

Awesome Pooch. Happy Holidays.

Just So You Know

2011-12-13T07:01:00.000-08:00

2012 Is Coming

Recent scholarship involving Mayan pictographs tell us many things about the end of the Mayan "Long Count" calendar, and it's connection to current and future events.

Or, you know, not. But we here at Before Nine like to keep our readers ~~all four of them and the superintelligent parakeet~~ up to date on all the cutting-edge stuff in science, and culture, and Dog Rugs.

Translation Of Mayan Pictographs At Great Temple Of Lompoc

No-Brainer

2011-12-10T19:26:00.000-08:00

The Randy Man, Resurgent

Watching the Rethug debate Live! From Iowa! with George Stephanopolis and The Lovely Diane Sawyer moderating. I've been in and out; surfed to watch La Povira ("The Octopus") on MHz Networks' 'International Mystery' for a while (Mafia soap-opera, in Italian), and went down the hall for a bag of M&M's (Tasty), and then came back to Ames, Iowa, and an audience of people who want, most of all, to turn America back -- to the values of Ronald Reagan, Ward Cleaver, and Cornelius Vanderbilt.

By the end of the debate, what I witnessed has essentially been what I expected: An overly-intellectual Newt versus a rambling, flustered Mittster.

There were a few odd comments from Raving Loon© Ron Paul, and Mssr. Le Gouvernour Placard Perry ("We need a part-time Congress"), with Crazy Lady telling us her family "are coupon-clippers, even today" -- proving she is in touch with the pain and uncertainty of "ordinary" Americans.

Why, even Newt said he lived above a gas station as a boy, and that his ~~Tiffany-jewelery wearing~~ spouse runs Gingrich Productions ("a small business"), and they both know how hard running a small business is, which puts them in touch with the ordinary simple working people of these United States, too.

Right.

I didn't see it, but heard later that the question was put to Newt about his past 'infidelities', and he took it head-on, saying, "I've made mistakes at times -- I'm also a 68-year-old grandfather and I think people have to measure what I do now."

Rrrrright.

That's Jenga™

I did see Stephanopolis hit Newt with another question, and he raised it with Raving Loon© Ron Paul first: Was Gingrich's comment yesterday, that the Palestinians were 'an invented people', incendiary?

When George got to Newt and asked the question, Gingrich took that head-on, too: No, he wasn't sorry; further, he said, "Somebody ought to have the courage to tell the truth. These people are terrorists." (Stephanopolis stared at Newt, mouth open, as if he'd just admitted being a nazi).

"Is [his statement] historically correct? Yes," The Randy Man said. "... the current administration tries to pressure the Israelis into a peace process. Hamas does not admit the right of Israel to exist and says publicly, 'not a single Jew will remain'... It's fundamentally time for somebody to have the guts to stand up and say, 'Enough lying about the Middle East.' "

Romney called Gingrich's comment about the Palestinians "reckless"; Mittster and The Randy-Man traded barbs for two minutes or so, and ABC let them -- this is, after all, what people came to their teevees to see.

This could have been Romney's moment to stop Gingrich's rise. You would expect that Mittzy's handlers had taken him through practice sessions in anticipation of such an opportunity -- and given his slipping in Rethug polls, that Romney should seize it with both hands. But to have done so, he would have had to be a completely different person.

Instead, like a man slipping on ice, arms cartwheeling for balance, Romney fumbled through a semi-coherent string of remarks. "As President, I will exercise sobriety," Romney sputtered (Newt replied in his trademark faux-academic manner that when he called the Palestinians an 'invented people', "I was speaking as a historian").

At at one point, Romney even said that Newt would agree that he (Gingrich) was wrong. Newt stood looking at the moderators, shaking his head (at one point in the exchange, ABC's camera's caught him winking at the audience -- presumably at his wife, or possibly at the next Mrs. Gingrich).

All he had to do to win was appear the more collected and reasonable, respond calmly but firmly, and Romney would come off looking like a chump. I'm paraphrasing, but Gingrich ended the exchange with something like, "It's time we told the truth about the situation in the Middle East," with a riposte to Romney, "And leave other explanations for the timid".

Ah; Mitt? That's Jenga.

No-Brainer

So far, there have been no other major 'incidents' from Des Moines, but it's been amazingly painful, watching Romney flounder no matter what he's been asked. This was the "Newt Debate"; it was his to lose -- all he had to do was hold his own in a field of inconsequential, delusional, or religiously-fueled idiots. It's a no-brainer, in this line-up at the Cretin's Ball, who appeared the most 'Presidential'.

Barring some unforeseen occurrence, Gingrich very probably will be the Rethug candidate for President. He isn't the best they have; he's the only candidate they have.

Newt is a corrupt, serial adulterer who was once as tightly wired into the Washington power structure as a Speaker of the House can be. He whored as a lobbyist because there was money in it for him. He's lied about being a "historian"; wrote a turgid, unreadable novel about the Civil War (However, better than the dribbling, putrescent excuse for a "book" that was ghostwritten for Little Glenn Beck. Just two monkeys in a room with a typewriter could have crafted a better work than Glenny's 'The Overton Whatever').

Newt, rejected by the Mensa Society, wasn't smart enough to know that he couldn't screw whomever he wanted in Washington and not have it used against him: His previous political career was done in by his own Randy Antics, and his committing a breach of Congressional ethics; malfesance.

He is just smart enough to know what the Presidency is for Republicans -- and he wants it. It's a figurehead position, possessing certain kinds of power; in the end you're an elder statesman and set for life. Name in the history books; no matter what they said about you in Newsweek and rolling Stone, you were President Of The United States and will be called 'Mr. President' by everyone as an honorific from the moment you leave office -- all this, what Newt believes he should be destined for.

Newt always reminds me of a certain kind of smart kid in grade school -- the one who always sounds like he knows all the answers. The kid who expects to be appointed Hall Monitor, because Teacher lets him polish her apple. He gets the job, turns you in for some infraction and smirks at you when the teacher isn't looking -- and he never, ever seems to get a comeuppance, no matter what nasty shit he pulls. He's a manipulative, self-satisfied little prick, and always will be.

2012: The Talking Pestidental Candidate

But that isn't what frightens me about Gingrich. It's that he can talk. And talk. And talk. And talk. He sounds as if he has all the answers. In politics, that's often all it takes.

Obama is intelligent, too; he speaks well. His background is in Constitutional law, and can probably hold his own in debates with Ol' Newt. But if the economy takes a nose-dive because Little Angela wants her Austerity, past a certain point no one will listen to what Obama says. People will tune him out; in their minds, he got it wrong, and is to blame, which will only be half true.

And, as I don't feel most Americans give a rat's ass about whether they live in a Democratic Republic or Corporate Fascist state so long as they have ESPN and their cars, I'm concerned that who talks good will be all they'll care about rolling into the 2012 election. That, and the Democrats just seem too hesitant, too namby-pamby, too much the Victim, to really want to win, compromised by feeding from the same trough of money as the Republicans.

It won't matter if Obama dredges up bin Laden and orders him killed, again. It won't matter that he tried to reach a Grand Budget/Debt Bargain and the Rethugs are the bad guys. In the public's tiny mind, Newt won't have Obama's baggage -- and suddenly (after Little Rupert's idiot factory repeats things over and over and over and over...), Newt will begin to sound so smart; Ahhh; let's give him a chance, people will say. They're all crooks; we don't have any power, anyway; who cares... doesn't matter...

The End

As their final statement, Stephanopolis asked the candidates to answer the question Is it possible for all of you on stage to work together? And who on stage tonight can you compliment and why? Newt thanked a role-model governor, and tipped his hat to Ron Paul's supporters ("They're always there with signs...freezing in the cold"). Crazy Lady, living up to her name, talked about Herman Cain. Ricky Santorum talked about Newt, remembering that he listened in the 1990's to a set of cassette tapes of Gingrich's speeches (sold by selfsame Gingrich productions, no doubt).

Romney just answered it by saying we'reatacrossroads and Americaneedsintegrity and that I'mthebestchoice -- and ignored Stephanopolis' question entirely. That, and the expression on his face while he was doing it; brain shorting out, his language wandering, convoluted -- a man rising to the level of his own incompetence, on national television.

It was another painful moment, like watching someone soil themselves in public, knowing they are only dimly aware they have boo-booed in their shorts in front of a live audience. In a panic, already fading in Rethug polls going into this debate, Romney repeated whatever closing speech he'd memorized because, unlike Gingrich, Romney is almost incapable of thinking on his feet.

ABC's commentators, post-debate, are giving Gingrich a win; "He's the one to beat", says Jake Tapper -- so, it has to be true.

Oh, and after final statements, there was a commercial ABC aired for some company selling "reverse mortgages" for "Persons 62 and older". Former Rethug candidate Fred Thompson was the pitchman; how fitting for a right-wing presidential debate.

And that's the Republican party: Cretins, pols, and former candidates hawking financial products benefiting private business (Why hang on to that big house? Get cash now, the financial security that you need in uncertain times!).

Afterword

(I want to repeat a few points I'd made in a post about The Randy Man from August, 2010:)

Please pay attention to this part, because it will be on the final: If, despite plentiful evidence about his character, Newt still becomes one of the GOP front-runners (if not their candidate) for President in 2012 -- then I would become very, very afraid.

Look: ... The "recovery" has stalled. The Republicans in Congress will do nothing, and the Democrats can't seem to do the right thing because they've sold their soul to the Fed and the Banksters. Communities are laying off teachers, firefighters, police; roads are being plowed back to gravel; they're talking about doing away with Social Security and Medicare -- and [As of August, 2010, when I wrote this] no one is out in the streets raising their voices about any of it.

The possibility of a Gingrich Presidency would be as bad as Lil' Boots Bush (the only difference is, Gingrich has a better command of spoken English) -- but if such a thing ever becomes possible, it will be because -- even with clear evidence of what kind of man he is -- it would not matter to voters.

It would be more proof (if you needed it, that is) that the game is rigged; the fix is in; that it's Chinatown -- and that Americans will prefer government by sociopaths; and proof that the lowest common denominator in this country will have suddenly fallen to depths unimaginable even twenty years ago.

If you want to stop and consider that for a moment, it's what many thinking Germans must have felt when their country mutated into something clearly and unmistakably malignant, right in front of their eyes.

And That's Jenga.

Immerhin

2011-12-10T00:15:00.000-08:00

Berlin Bleibt Berlin

The Wall At Potsdamer Platz; March, 2009 (Wikimedia Commons)

Because it isn't all about Angela, you know.

Sunset, 2009, Looking Southwest

Too Little

2011-12-09T20:23:00.000-08:00

More Deck Chairs To Starboard

Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Nicolas Sarkozy (AAP)

Leaders of all 27 member governments of the European Union gathered in Brussels today for a summit conference, which was supposed to provide either a final, concrete plan to stabilize the Euro through unified member action, or the beginning of the end for a common currency and ultimately the EU.

There had been plenty of jockeying for position before the meeting. Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy have been pressing EU governments hard to vote on reopening the Treaty of Lisbon, the legal basis of the European Union, and allow it to be amended.

The suggested treaty changes would force the lowering of national debts through EU governments' ruthlessly cutting their own spending, reducing support for public programs and services. As reported by the UK Guardian, the treaty changes would "[confer] intrusive rights on European institutions [i.e., the European Central Bank and Financial Stability Facility] to enforce budgetary policy in countries breaking the [E]uro's debt and deficit rules, as well as quasi-automatic penalties for delinquents".

The New York Times reported that the treaty amendments "would allow the European Court of Justice to strike down [an EU] member’s laws if they violate fiscal discipline" -- in short, individual EU governments would have to agree to give up some national sovereignty over their economies to save the Euro, and the Union. The amendment would have to be ratified by the parliaments of EU member states, which would have to take the opinions of their respective voters into account -- but, if and when it was done, the Austerity Hawks would have the backing of European law.

Odd Man Out: Cameron In Brussels (Reuters - Francois Lenoir)

Their efforts to amend the Treaty of Lisbon failed. Britain's Tory Prime Minister, David Cameron, blocked the effort with a veto. He wouldn't accept his nation's financial center (known colloquially to the British as the 'City Of London', in the same way we use the term 'Wall Street') being dictated to by the ECB / EFSF. As quoted in the Guardian, Cameron said "... if I couldn't get adequate safeguards for Britain in a new European treaty then I wouldn't agree to it. What is on offer isn't in Britain's interests so I didn't agree to it." He could not allow a "treaty within a treaty" that reduced the UK's position in the EU's single market.

Apparently, Cameron had conferred with leaders of the Labor party (who dislike Cameron intensely, but "We're all Britons, after all")

EU leaders [reported the Guardian] promptly agreed to bypass Britain and establish a new accord on the [E]uro among themselves by March. The EU appeared poised to line up 26-1 against Cameron in support of the Franco-German blueprint, leaving Britain utterly isolated.

Cameron's bombshell came at what was billed as the most important EU summit in years, with the fate of the single currency hanging in the balance. The veto was unexpected and was being seen as a watershed in Britain's fractious relationship with the rest of Europe. Cameron insisted on securing concessions on, and exemptions from, EU financial markets regulation as the price of his assent to the German-led euro salvation blueprint.

Merkel and Sarkozy dismissed Cameron's performance with a wave ("Mr. Cameron was never with us at the table," Merkel quipped to the press) and immediately moved to Plan B -- a "fiscal compact" which would have to be ratified by each EU members' parliaments, and with the same Austerity elements as were in the treaty amendments, all to be in place by March of 2012.

As the New York Times noted, "Sarkozy also said he was tired of British criticism of the handling of the crisis. 'I am sick of hearing every day David criticizing us,' Mr. Sarkozy said, according to one official briefed on the discussions. On Friday, as the summit meeting was breaking up, Mr. Sarkozy snubbed Mr. Cameron, brushing past his outstretched hand."

[The result of the summit] is viewed as unlikely to calm fears that Europe is unwilling to muster the financial firepower to defend the sovereign debts of big member states, including Italy and Spain, that have little or no economic growth and have big debt bills coming due soon.

At the meeting, member governments agreed to raise up to $270 billion that could be used by the International Monetary Fund to aid indebted European governments, and they moved up the date that a European rescue fund [EFSF] would come into operation. But the sums involved fell well short of what many investors and some Obama administration officials have argued are needed to ensure the survival of the euro. Administration officials on Friday welcomed the long-term overhaul of the euro zone’s rules, but argued that stronger measures were needed in the short run.

Going into this summit, Merkel, Sarkozy and their allies had only one choice -- to take amazingly bold financial and (for them) politically dangerous positions. This would have involved a near blank check from the ECB to banks in at-risk EU nations (Portugal, Spain, Greece) for bailout funds; the announcement of a creation of a "Eurozone Bond"; and the formation of an EU "fiscal union".

Anything less would only kick the can further down the road, trying to buy more time for a long-term solution. And, that's what's happened. Pushing the beginnings of that solution out until March of next year, without taking drastic action to provide sufficient backstopping of EU banks, or speed up the creation of the EFSF, leaves Europe at risk to another debt crisis -- another Greece, another Italy; another key bank which implodes.

Felix Salmon, a commenter at Reuter's online, summed it up pretty succinctly today:

Here’s how the [London Financial Times] put it on Wednesday: "... The stakes are therefore very high at Friday’s summit. The world cannot afford another half-baked solution."

And yet, inevitably, another half-baked solution is exactly what we got. Which means, I fear, that it is now, officially, too late to save the Eurozone: the collapse of the entire edifice is now not a matter of if but rather of when.

For one thing, fracture is being built into today’s deal: [R]ather than find something acceptable to all 27 members of the European Union, the deal being done is getting negotiated only between the 17 members of the Euro zone. Where does that leave EU members like Britain which don’t use the euro? Out in the cold, with no leverage...

... It seems that German chancellor Angela Merkel is insisting on a fully-fledged treaty change... Europe, whatever its other faults, is still a democracy, and it’s clear that any deal is going to be hugely unpopular among most of Europe’s population. There’s simply no chance that a new treaty will get the unanimous ratification it needs, and in the meantime the EU’s crisis-management tools are just not up to dealing with the magnitude of the current crisis.

The fundamental problem is that there isn’t enough money to go around. The current bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, is barely big enough to cope with Greece; it doesn’t have a chance of being able to bail out a big economy like Italy or Spain. So it needs to beef up: it needs to be able to borrow money from the one entity which is actually capable of printing money, the European Central Bank.

But the ECB’s president, Mario Draghi, has made it clear that’s not going to happen... a former vice chairman and managing director of Goldman Sachs, he’s perfectly comfortable delivering Italy the bad news that he’s not going to lend her the money she needs...

... All of Europe’s hopes right now are being placed in something called the European Stability Mechanism — a permanent successor to the temporary EFSF. Since it’s permanent, the ESM is going to have to be constructed with the ability to put out fires of any conceivable size. And as such, it’s going to have to be able to borrow enormous amounts of money, and lend them on to countries which have found themselves in trouble.

But that would make the ESM, essentially, a bank. And the European leaders seem determined, today, to prevent the ESM from operating as a bank at all. Which means it will never get the firepower it needs to be taken seriously... the ESM seems set to be capped at a mere €500 billion euros ... compare [that] to Italy’s total debt of roughly €2 trillion. And that isn’t even counting Spain, or Portugal, or Ireland, or whatever money Greece might yet still need.

...The European Banking Authority, with exquisite timing, informed the world on Thursday that the continent’s banks need to raise €115 billion in new capital, including more than €15 billion for Spain’s Banco Santander alone ...

Europe’s leaders have set a course which leads directly to a gruesome global recession, before we’ve even recovered from the last one. Europe can’t afford that; America can’t afford that; the world can’t afford that. But the hopes of arriving anywhere else have never been dimmer.

Any questions?

MEHR: Paul Krugman notes:

Let me return for a minute to Kevin O’Rourke’s recent piece on the European summit. Aside from pointing out just how bad an idea the new super-stability pact is, O’Rourke makes an important observation about what the European experience teaches us about macroeconomics:
One lesson that the world has learned since the financial crisis of 2008 is that a contractionary fiscal policy means what it says: contraction. Since 2010, a Europe-wide experiment has conclusively falsified the idea that fiscal contractions are expansionary. August 2011 saw the largest monthly decrease in eurozone industrial production since September 2009, German exports fell sharply in October, and now-casting.com is predicting declines in eurozone GDP for late 2011 and early 2012.

A second, related lesson is that it is difficult to cut nominal wages, and that they are certainly not flexible enough to eliminate unemployment. That is true even in a country as flexible, small, and open as Ireland, where unemployment increased last month to 14.5%, emigration notwithstanding, and where tax revenues in November ran 1.6% below target as a result... how does the EU expect [cutting wages] to work across the entire eurozone periphery?

The world nowadays looks very much like the theoretical world that economists have traditionally used to examine the costs and benefits of monetary unions. The eurozone members’ loss of ability to devalue their exchange rates is a major cost. Governments’ efforts to promote wage cuts, or to engineer them by driving their countries into recession, cannot substitute for exchange-rate devaluation [between different currencies]. Placing the entire burden of adjustment on deficit countries is a recipe for disaster.
Basically, European experience is very consistent with a Keynesian view of the world, and radically inconsistent with various anti-Keynesian notions of expansionary austerity and flexible prices.

The point about nominal wages is especially telling. Ireland has clearly — clearly — faced a massive demand shock; maybe Casey Mulligan will find some way to insist that 14.5 percent of the Irish work force has voluntarily decided to refuse employment, but it’s just not true.

It is really, really hard to cut nominal wages, which is why reliance on “internal devaluation” is a recipe for stagnation and disaster.

The crisis really has settled some major issues in economics. Unfortunately, too many people — including many economists — won’t accept the answers.

Buckle up. This ride's just beginning; I'd pick out your cardboard box now. Don't wait. Make sure you have the capacity learn to love a Prestident Gingrich ("Historian" and Randyman), with all your heart. Or else.

Not kidding.

Im Abendrot

2011-12-06T17:53:00.000-08:00

A Distant Drummer

Richard Strauss; Photographed At Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, 1930 (BBC)

I'm listening to music from a vanished world, just now: Kiri Te Kanawa's 1979 rendition of Four Last Songs and Orchestral Songs by Richard Strauss (1864 - 1949) (London Symphony Orchestra; Andrew Davis, Cond.; CBS Masterworks [CD] MK35140).

All of it is music from a world, twice-vanished, if you consider it. Strauss' Orchestral Songs were all written in the world of fin-de-siecle Vienna at the turn of the last century -- Strauss' personification of a composer both prophetic and (for a time) avant-garde; the measured movements and manners of the Hapsburg empire. Riding in the morning and walking on the Ring; pastries from Demel's; where women of the upper classes changed their clothing with their moods; and servants could be dismissed, without reference, their lives irreparably changed, over a trifle.

I've been reading Bill Bryson's At Home recently, and the one thing which stands out in contrast through the book is how hard and constricted the world was when you had no money, or legal protections. Considering only three hundred years of the 17th through the early 20th centuries (relatively more 'modern' and accessible to us than life in the Middle Ages or Renaissance), the "laboring and servant classes" worked far harder than you'd like to imagine.

I've had shitty jobs and bad circumstances in my time, but always had options. The working-class men and women of Strauss' day did not. Our 21st Century state of consciousness would perceive the lot of those without much money or power as unfair, exploited; wage slavery, and worse. And Strauss was among the upper ten per cent of European society by income, at least, if not the '1 per centers'.

That pre-August 1914 world, as Scott Fitzgerald pointed out, could not have existed without the sharp distinctions of class and wealth; still, it rested on the timbers of a thousand years of European culture -- and most of it was blown sky-high by the Great War. It's hard to reconcile the beauty of a Klimt, or Strauss' Mutterändelei, with four years of witless slaughter on the Western and Eastern fronts.

The guns stopped. The map of Europe was altered; the Hapsburg empire was gone. The cultural framework of Europe had been shaken on its foundations -- yet most of it was intact. There was still some continuity between the lost certainties of that Old World, and whatever lay ahead.

Tod, Und Verklärung

The nazis lionized Strauss after their rise to power in 1933, and in that same year appointed him head of the New Germany's Reichsmusikkammer (State Bureau of Music), which tacitly gave Strauss some control over state-sponsored presentation of music -- concerts, and opera.

The nazis did so because Hitler liked (some of) Strauss' music, and Little Joey Goebbels, the Rupert Murdoch of his times, flattered and manipulated Hitler whenever he could. He would use Strauss as a revered figurehead; but privately, Joey referred to Strauss as "a pipsqueak ... Unfortunately we still need him, but one day we shall have our own music and then ... no further need of this decadent neurotic". Outside Germany, reaction to Strauss' appointment was viewed by some as approval of the nazis; conductor Arturo Toscanini said publicly, "To Strauss the composer, I take off my hat. To Strauss the man I put it back on again."

Strauss continued to promote classical works by Jewish composers in concert, and continually faced pressure from nazi functionaries to stop. Then, in 1935, Strauss composed a comic opera with a friend, the Austrian novelist Stefan Zweig, who wrote the libretto. It opened in Dresden and was shut down by local nazi authorities because Zweig was Jewish; Strauss tried but could not force reopening the production.

"Do you believe I am ... guided by the thought that I am 'German'?" Strauss bitterly complained to Zweig, who had left Germany for England a year earlier, in a letter. "Do you suppose Mozart was consciously 'Aryan' when he composed? I recognize only two types of people: those who have talent and those who have none." The letter was intercepted by the Gestapo; subsequently, Strauss was dismissed as head of the Reichsmusikkammer. Zweig was able to leave Europe to the Americas, only to commit suicide with his wife in Brazil, in 1942 -- a not-uncommon occurrence among escapees from the nazi empire.

Strauss' son Franz was married; his wife, Alice, was Jewish. In 1938, she and her two children were placed under house arrest in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (where Strauss himself had moved in the 1920's). Strauss asked acquaintances in Berlin with nazi contacts to intervene and ensure they were not formally arrested (in 1938, incarceration as a means of extorting German or Austrian Jews of their money or property was common, particularly after the Anschluss). For the next six years, Strauss repeatedly had to ask, plead and beg the nazis for the lives of members of his family.

(An observation: Any person humbling themselves before ignorant bullies is saddening, distasteful. The more gifted and nuanced the individual, the more painful it must be. Given Strauss' revulsion over the nazis, I can only imagine what dealing with them on any level -- let alone begging them for mercy, based on nothing but the strength of his international reputation -- must have felt like.)

He drove to Theresienstadt concentration camp to ask for the release of Alice's mother, Marie von Grab (which was refused) and wrote letters to the SS pleading for the release of her children, his daughter-in law's brothers and sisters (the letters were ignored).

In 1942, he moved himself and his family from Garmisch back to Vienna. In the ten years after his brush with and dismissal by the nazis, Strauss suddenly became focused, more alive, composing some of his most nuanced and challenging work when he was in his seventies and eighties -- especially Metamorphosen (Metamorphosis), A Study For 23 Solo Strings, based on a soul-searching poem by Goethe concerning the causes of man's darker nature, particularly as it is expressed in war. He also produced The Rosenkavalier Suite in 1944, a reworking of the main themes in one of his most successful operas.

Also in 1944, while Strauss was out of Vienna, Franz and Alice and their children were arrested by the Gestapo and briefly imprisoned; only Strauss's asking the Gauleiter of Vienna, Baldur von Schirach (who liked Strauss' music), to intervene saved them from 'deportation'. Strauss took them back to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where they survived for roughly another year under house arrest.

Zueignung

The European conflict in the Second World War ended with Germany's unconditional surrender on May 7, 1945.

Strauss wrote in his journal:

The most terrible period of human history is at an end, the twelve year reign of bestiality, ignorance and anti-culture under the greatest criminals, during which Germany's 2000 years of cultural evolution met its doom.

Strauss' Four Last Songs -- Spring, September; Before Sleeping and At Sunset -- were his Abscheid, a farewell, to the world he had been born into, erased by totalitarianism and allied bombing and aggressive war, by the ovens of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

But the Songs aren't a raging against the approach of night in the midst of destruction, the aftermath of depravity; they aren't a complaint. They're filled with Strauss' recognition of ending, but with the sense that his personal end is due, fitting: It's time. If anything, they're filled with tenderness, a compassion that sounds sorrowful, but echoes the recognition that ultimately life is in no way fair -- not for the laborer, nor the genius who feels the world through music.

The Last Songs were first performed by Kirsten Flagstad in May of 1950, eight months after Strauss' death. The Norwegian soprano was in her mid-fifties when premiering the works, and while she acquitted herself in performance there were questions beforehand whether she had enough tonal range left in her voice -- and, there were questions whether Flagstad herself (who had remained in Norway, never quite a collaborator but never really a resistor, during the nazi occupation) was the appropriate choice to sing Strauss' final Lieder.

Twelve Years From The London Recordings: Faster, Not Better

I've heard a number of renditions of the Last Songs by sopranos over the past thirty-plus years; my personal favorite is Te Kanawa's 1979 recordings, because she simply puts more of what I believe Strauss was feeling into her interpretation.

I first heard her, doing Beim Schlafengehen (Before Sleeping), one of the most soulful of the four, in the 1981 Australian film, "The Year Of Living Dangerously": Billy Kwan (Linda Hunt) puts on a record for Guy Hamilton (Mel Gibson) as operatic background to a scene of Gibson's romantic longing for British Embassy (and MI-6) officer, Sigourney Weaver (My girlfriend at the time loved the music, which gave me the opportunity to introduce her to Strauss, generally; sadly, that interest didn't develop. Neither did the romance).

Te Kanawa returned to do the Last Songs twelve years later, in a Decca recording with the Weiner Philharmoniker conducted by Georg Solti, and some of the same Orchestral Songs -- but this time, with only a piano accompaniment.

Scott Joplin once said, "It is never right to play Ragtime fast"... Solti's 1991 interpretation of these Lieder with Te Kanawa is definitely up tempo. It sounds and feels too hurried, for me -- particularly when I compare it with Kanawa's earlier rendition, where Davis let her communicate Strauss' bittersweet longing for life, even at its close, in every passage without reaching for low-hanging fruit.

It would be easy to play Joplin as if it were background music for a grainy, sepia-toned silent film, just as it's simpler to present Strauss and things Viennese as a confectioner's treat in saccharine, Art Noveau swirls, a surface appreciation of place and anguished sorrow at a lost world. It's a caricature.

But that wasn't the reality for Strauss in these compositions; he knew what he was about to lose, personally, and what the world had lost in the real events of his times. And Te Kanawa is an artist. Her work with Davis was a reaching for something in herself to connect with one man's expression of the terrible beauty of living. She succeeded.

Four Last Songs seems appropriate music, for me, these days. The sense that "Neroism is in the air", that we seem to be approaching... something, never feels very far away. Far I hear a steady drummer, drumming like a noise in dreams.

And when we get to the other side of whatever that approaching something is, will everything still seem familiar? Or, like Strauss, will we try our best to be true to -- not crumbling social forms... but to describing the truth of our own lives, expressing our experience as human beings, in whatever way is uniquely our own; even as it transfigures us?

Mongo Continues To Think About Chuck

2011-12-05T09:29:00.000-08:00

Just Sayin'

Two Minutes To Midnight

2011-12-04T16:46:00.000-08:00

Investing In Canned Goods Might Be Prudent

Map Of Eurozone By Andrew Rae (New York Times, November 30, 2011)

It's difficult to say this without appearing to overstate, but the next week is a critical juncture in world history. The future of the European Union and its official currency, the Euro, is what's at stake. How the dice fall will affect the Western world.

The EU and its constituent leadership have tried coming together twice this year already and failed to find any agreement on how to resolve what has become a crisis not only in bank debt, but sovereign debt. Most of the EU's members have national debts far above their GDP's (the U.S., by comparison, is 'only' at 80-plus per cent).

For America, a failure by Europe's leaders to resolve that crisis will mean very serious consequences for our own fragile economy. I strongly recommend paying attention to what happens.

In as few words as possible: Sixteen years ago, to become a politically united force and reap the benefits of interdependence, Europe (with few holdouts, such as Great Britain) accepted a common currency. This allowed economic and trade cooperation, but maintained the sovereignty of each EU member nation's governments -- and their central banks, each tied to private banks that do business in each country.

Before the crash, some EU member governments had national debts in excess of 100% of their GDP. The EU has seventeen economies and seventeen central banks, each having a loose association with the European Central Bank (ECB), which acts primarily as a clearinghouse for issues related to the Euro. The ECB also had the ability to put together loan packages from banks in the Eurozone if necessary.

When the Made In USA™ 2007 real estate-backed securities / derivative crisis affected those private banks, governments worldwide were advised either protect your banks or face a worldwide financial Armageddon. Like us, their finance ministers and advisors believed they had no other choice but to bail out the institutions which had helped create the crisis.

What were private debts became public. Before the crisis, governments in Greece, Spain, Ireland and Portugal, Slovakia and Italy had been overextended; taking on billions in bank debts made them even shakier. It wasn't long before loan packages from the ECB became necessary -- to shore up the banks, prevent the contagion from spreading.

In the three years since the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers, Bear-Stearns and Countrywide Financial, the EU lurched from one crisis to another as Europe's banks (who always seemed to have understated how much debt they really held; surprise!) needed even more "assistance". Then, the ECB began putting loan packages together to shore up the European governments themselves -- Spain, Ireland and Portugal, and (several times) Greece.

These were always intended to be band-aids -- because to qualify for ECB loans (backed primarily by healthier German and French banks), the EU members had to promise to reduce their government debt. The only way to do this was through voluntary Austerity programs: Cutting government programs, civil service wages and pensions, and selling or 'privatizing' government assets.

That would mean a drastic fall in the standard of living and the quality of life for millions of Europeans -- but worst of all, it would mean the economies of Europe would be caught in a vicious spiral of cost-cutting, leading to more businesses closing and jobs lost, leading to more economic contraction. This couldn't be clearer; events and data have already proven it in England and Greece.

Even so, this Austerity has been an unshakable demand of both Germany's Angela Merkel and French President Nicholas Sarkozy, whose nations are not as overextended as the rest of the EU.

Now, all the possible fixes and band-aids that could be applied to the situation through the ECB, and EFSF rescue fund have been done, and it clearly isn't enough. There is a summit of EU leaders taking place in Brussels beginning today, and lasting through December 9th. As David Gow for the UK Guardian reports,

Europe has five days to find a solution to the sovereign debt crisis or else the EU itself will collapse, political leaders warned on Sunday at the start of a week of high-stakes summitry.

Torn between the need for stability and the desire for solidarity, EU leaders have to find an immediate fix for the broken eurozone and embrace a longer-term plan for fiscal union by Friday night...

Senior opposition politicians put severe pressure on French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel ahead of their pre-summit talks in Paris on Monday to approve a "grand bargain" or, at least, workable plan that will gain the support of partners such as the US.

Timothy Geithner, Treasury secretary, will be in Europe for talks all week.

Sarkozy's main opponent in next spring's presidential election, socialist leader François Hollande, accused him of caving into German demands for a new EU treaty on budgets that was bound to fail, exacerbating French weakness in an unbalanced relationship with Berlin and ignoring the need for immediate solutions.

So far, Merkel's notion of what's needed is a rewriting of sections in the European Union Treaty itself -- making economic policy a permanent part of the political association. For Europeans who still remember a Europe dominated by a resurgent (nazi) Germany, the idea that the EU will be redefined and effectively led by Die Deutschen is uncomfortable.

Merkel has resisted the possibility that the next level of 'fix' for the crisis lies through the issuing of 'Eurobonds' -- treasuries which could be traded on the international market, bought by the world's financial community and other non-EU governments (like the U.S., say, or Saudi Arabia, or China).

That wouldn't require a rewriting of the EU Treaty, but might demand that EU member governments would give up some amount of control over their own economies -- to the ECB, or some special EU commission -- and again, there are many in Europe who don't (as they see it) want to give the Germans, with the French as their handmaidens, that much power over their sovereign states.

Another aspect of issuing Eurobonds is, would anyone buy them? The most recent auction of German treasury bonds was almost a failure; Italian treasuries sold, a little, but with higher interest rates. 'The Market', which EU ministers want to calm and give assurances to, seems not to trust the ability of EU governments to make good on their issuance of debt.

And underneath every plan to save the day, Austerity is the only hope.

Philipp Rössler, economy minister, rejected eurobonds outright but Günter Oettinger, an EU commissioner and member of Merkel's CDU, said they could not be excluded categorically.

Mark Rutte, Dutch premier, said: "It is really important that the markets see that Europe is prepared to help the countries in trouble, so long as those countries commit to very tough reforms and austerity programmes."

And there are no shortage of shills for Austerity as a morality play here at home. Jonathan Chait in the NYT ("Godzilla vs. Bambi, Op-Ed Edition", December 2nd) compared the ~~bullshit~~ views of Little Davey "Bucky The BoBo Beaver" Brooks with that of Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman:

David Brooks today devotes his column on Europe to the familiar conservative morality tale, in which the European countries in trouble are paying the price for their slothful, profligate ways:
Over the past few decades, several European nations, like Germany and the Netherlands, have played by the rules and practiced good governance. They have lived within their means, undertaken painful reforms, enhanced their competitiveness and reinforced good values. Now they are being brutally browbeaten for not wanting to bail out nations like Greece, Italy and Spain, which did not do these things, which instead borrowed huge amounts of money that they are choosing not to repay.
Does anybody else on the Times op-ed page care to rebut this? Perhaps somebody who has glanced at the relevant data? Yes, you there, the bearded man with the Nobel Prize in economics:
How did things go so wrong? The answer you hear all the time is that the euro crisis was caused by fiscal irresponsibility. Turn on your TV and you’re very likely to find some pundit declaring that if America doesn’t slash spending we’ll end up like Greece. Greeeeeece!

But the truth is nearly the opposite. …

Only Greece ran large budget deficits during the good years; Spain actually had a surplus on the eve of the crisis.
On his blog, Krugman also has a chart showing that Italy and Spain both had shrinking debts as a percentage of GDP in the dozen years before the crisis.

The global financial system is so deeply interwoven by counterparty obligations, derivatives, and the Great Overnight Tides Of Financing which allow so many institutions to appear solvent (MFGlobal, no?). The amount of debt which banks and governments are attempting to deleverage themselves from is so vast (and among governments, growing by month, quarter and year) that all the best-laid plans seem nothing more than misdirection, a kick-the-can-down-the-road, Three-Card Monte scheme to buy a few more months or weeks.

So, too, Europe. I just don't have any confidence the current situation can end well. Issuing Eurobonds may temporarily increase 'market confidence' (expect 'big gains' in the Dow and SPX if it happens) and might work as a foundation for a more permanent solution, if there were wise men and women at the helm.

But there aren't. Merkel and Sarkozy, and supporters (such as England's Conservatives, busy running Britain into the ground), demand Austerity from the simple folk -- that the EU's citizens pay for the failure of their governments to protect them from the very financial institutions which participated in a global ponzi scheme, and are now being defended by those same governments -- and only governments who "commit to very tough reforms and austerity programmes" will be taken seriously. Get with the programme, you Keynesian heretics.

(Otherwise, they may have to fall -- as they did in Greece, and Slovakia, and Italy. Now, Papandrou's government was politically unpopular; and Corrupt Clown Prince Berlusconi was a self-perpetuating joke. And, Sarkozy did say that 'regime change' was not the intention of EU economic policy. Even so...)

To be fair, Merkel and Sarkozy, et Cie, are trying to maintain a political European Union, and at the same time address the reality of seventeen nations, independent, but financially interdependent through use of the Euro.

The single currency bound Europe in better times, and holds its members hostage in crisis -- in the same way seventeen people, trying to escape a burning building, are hobbled by being tied at the ankle to a single chest full of Euros. It will take all seventeen to pull the Eurochest out of the building before it collapses; they'll be burned but alive, though financially damaged. But if one or more of them untie themselves from the Euro and run for it, they may all may die.

As EU member states hand over some control of their sovereign finances to the EU in exchange for a promised security, the resulting loss of growth -- precisely what's happened in England -- will strangle Europe's overall economy. The only security will be for the financial houses or Europe, and America. And a very small percentage of the world's population; the Owner Class.

Again -- as in our own country -- citizens of the EU will pay, for generations, for the sins of a relatively small group of greedy, rapacious, financial oligarchs.

Nur In Amerika

2011-12-03T11:08:00.000-08:00

Wir Einen Neues Blog-Kategorie Eröffnen!

Sie wussten, dass wir in Amerika verrückt haben (you knew we were nuts over here), but we finally made a decision to highlight it in the same manner as major media outlets the world over. Warum nicht? Es gibt so viel davon.

CNN-Site (Klicken Für Grosser Graphik -- Leicht Und Spaß!)

For example, a focus of CNN's website is in highlighting an endless parade of videos and short articles on wacky mix-ups, and mall shootings, and that special brand of religiously-fueled intolerance which America specializes in. Their business model is based on a little titillation, a little news, and a little That's Amazing, America! videos of cute puppies and babies and kids beating the crap out of each other at school.

Little Rupert's 'News' - Note: As Herman Cain Disappears, Huckabee Quietly Reappears (Klicken Für Ein Grosser Graphik Zu Sehen -- Leicht Und Spaß!)

Little Rupert's Fox 'news' does the same thing, except they add a definite ~~fascisimus~~ right-wing twist. Where CNN presents the Crazy as part of the passing show, Little Rupert's Fox defends the xtian religious and Tea Partei babblers and Austerity economists because that's what their business model is based on -- that, and defending the bullies in videos where kids are beating the crap out of each other at school.

The Right-Wing scramble to find a candidate to run against Barack Obama in 2012 goes on -- often called "The Murdoch Primary", as the support of Little Rupert's NewsCorp (the media mouthpiece for the Right in Europe and America) tends to be one of the key factors in which candidate climbs to the top of the swine herd.

Today, Herman Cain's candidacy completed its self-destruction as Herm announced in Atlanta that his campaign was "suspended". Almost immediately, Little Rupert's Fox started mentioning the xtian fundamentalist ex-governor, Mike Huckabee (see the image above).

I would guess that means Newt Gingrich hasn't understood Little Rupert's ~~Personal Fat Boy~~ Fox 'news' editor Roger Ailes when he said Götz von Berlichingen [Our English-speaking readers can use a search engine to catch up]. Once Newt has puckered up, perhaps Little Rupert will give him a bit of favorable coverage.

In any event, we'll be turning this cyberforum into arenas of terror and shame for ~~the superintelligent Parakeet and all three of~~ our European viewers, via updates on the massive fun and merry mix-ups that come with life in Amerika. Viel Spaß Für Dich -- because you are there, and don't have to experience it here.

Out Of The Mouths Of Babes

2011-12-02T16:33:00.000-08:00

From Merry Olde Angul-land.

A Reprint: Closer, Mein Weimar, To Thee

2011-11-26T11:38:00.000-08:00

[This originally appeared on March 5, 2010; it's no less true today than it was almost two years ago -- which should give you an idea how little progress had been made since then, how much more polarized we are; and how much more powerless in the face of The Powers That Be, bless their tiny white cotton socks.

But then, too, also, of course, we hadn't offed bin Laden yet -- so, I guess that makes up for everything. USA !! USA !!]

Class War And A Simple Country Hyperchicken

I've mentioned Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize-winning Economist and regular columnist for the New York Times, before.

In today's column, Krugman says flatly that there is no 'bipartisan' Washington; Republicans are determined to force the Democrats to fail, even if by doing so they appear less like fiscal conservatives and more like people who kick dogs and ignore starving orphans.

What Krugman used as his initial focus was the recent, one-man Filibuster by Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky. Bunning was determined not to allow a bill to pass which would provide a one-month extension of unemployment and COBRA medical insurance benefits to approximately 100,000 workers -- and these were former Federal employees (Talk about biting the hand that used to serve you, huh?).

Former Phillies' All-Star Turned Nasty Greedy Crazy™
(Photo: SALON)

Bunning has been acting... a little weird, lately; angrily pushing away reporters and yelling at a Rotary Club questioner, and delivering heavily scripted remarks at campaign events in a halting monotone. Bunning travels with a special police escort, at taxpayer expense -- he says, because Al-Qaeda is out to get him.

Then, Bunning -- who is virtually unopposed in the upcoming midterm elections, spent nearly a full month in the U.S. Senate raging against a bill, almost single-handedly slowing the work of the Senate to a crawl and forcing all eyes on him.

Bunning Begins His Famous Filibuster

Democrats and Republicans live in different universes [Krugman noted], both intellectually and morally...

During the debate over unemployment benefits, Senator Jeff Merkley, a Democrat of Oregon, made a plea for action on behalf of those in need. In response, Mr. Bunning blurted out an expletive. That was undignified — but not that different, in substance, from the position of leading Republicans.

Merkley once ran Habitat For Humanity, the non-denominational organization which builds homes for the poor, in Oregon. Bunning, in addition to his Senate salary of $174,000, takes a hefty annual paycheck home as the head of the 'Jim Bunning Foundation' -- which, basically, does nothing but sell autographed baseballs, and is supposed to donate the funds to charity -- something that's now coming under more scrutiny.

When Merkley spoke on the senate floor about the direct effects upon people of Bunning's month-long Filibuster, the esteemed Senator From Kentucky (who was standing at another podium) said, "Tough Shit".

Obligatory Photo Of Cute Animal, Embedded In Political Rant
(Now With 52% More Handgun!)

The extension bill directly affected families trying to feed themselves and stay in their homes, and have COBRA health insurance. Even so, Little Jimmy was determined to use every possible avenue in the Senate's rules to delay or kill the bill's passage.

Krugman held up Brunning, his use of his position in the Senate, and power as a U.S. Senator, to show three things: (1) Washington is so polarized that it would be a comedy program, if it weren't so deadly serious in its consequences for the United States; (2) Brunning's actions, and those of Republicans in Congress generally, point out what part of America they really represent -- and the same for the Democrats; and (3) this is disastrous for our country, and isn't going to end anytime soon.

Take the question of helping the unemployed in the middle of a deep slump. What Democrats believe is what textbook economics says: that when the economy is deeply depressed, extending unemployment benefits not only helps those in need, it also reduces unemployment... But that’s not how Republicans see it.... Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, [said] defending Mr. Bunning’s position...: unemployment relief “doesn’t create new jobs. In fact... continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work.”

Bottom Line: The Republicans, while very organized, seem to represent The Rich. The Democrats don't appear to be very well organized, but they represent the Rest Of Us. If it were left to the Rethugs, the spirit that controls our government, and our culture, would be that deep belief of the Protestants who came to settle in North America in the early 1600's... that the world is separated into the Elect of God (chosen by predestination for salvation and eternal life), and The Rest Of Us (not chosen, and so already damned to Hell For Ever).

The Chosen are, of course, the wealthy -- to those same early Prots, worldly success being proof of god's favor. The reverse, then -- Poverty -- is proof of god's disfavor -- and who cares what happens to people who will burn for all eternity, anyway? Screw 'em.

(Incidentally -- d'ya think this might be one reason that the period of intellectual flowering which began in the 1700's was called 'The Enlightenment'? Huh?)

Part of me believes that the Right wants a polarized, paralyzed central government. The more effective a strong centralized government is, the more economic and legal rights of the largest number of its citizens is protected. The less effective it is, life comes down to how much money and power you have -- and, as usual, the ordinary citizen has less of both.

1936 Poster Advertising The New Social Security Program
(Photo: Smithsonian Collection; Common Use)

The struggle between Left and Right in America is ultimately about something that we're not supposed to have -- a Class Structure. The Left says we shouldn't have one, and the kind of laws Democrats enact, by and large, are social programs which benefit the majority of the population -- who are the people (at least, supposedly) that the Democratic party represents.

And, the Left believes it's fair that taxes are used to pay for those social programs, since we all have a stake in what those programs do for the country, and our culture.

Cooperation and collaboration are hallmarks of this kind of political philosophy -- summed up by Robert Kennedy's quoting Shaw: Some people see things as they are and say, why? I dream of things that never were and say, why not?

The Left believes that 'Market Forces' or 'Private Interests' don't keep the welfare of individual citizens -- their health, safety or longevity -- in mind, unless forced to do so by law and regulation. And when they aren't, you get what's just happened: Powerful Banking and Investment interests out of control; an economy kicked to the curb; millions of people who may be without steady employment for years. The effect upon millions of lives of the acts of a relatively small group of men, allowed to do almost anything they wanted, hasn't even begun to be calculated or felt.

Italian Poster For The Venice General Association --
A Riskier Form Of Retirement; The 'Association' Is
Part Of The Free-Market (Ayn Rand Hearts Mussolini)

The Right doesn't care about protecting citizens from the excesses and predations of Wall Street, or a chemical company polluting the air or our water. Republican legislation promotes and defends those interests. They don't represent the largest section of our population, but that smaller, wealthier and more influential number of Americans -- the ten or so per cent who own 60%-plus of the nation... that's who the Republicans represent.

Republican legislation reflects a world view of 'free enterprise', and 'less government meddling with individual and property rights'. In fact, it reflects Social Darwinism, nature red in tooth and claw -- and aggressive competition, where the winners step on the faces of the losers as they march forward into that bright, new Tomorrow. It's an old-school-tie, who-you-know (or who you can pay off) kind of world, and if you can't pay, then (as Little Jimmy Bunning would say) Tough Shit.

A good quote for the Right (wherever it came from) is, The Future Is For The Strong. There's no room in that future for the poor, the sick, the weak. They're going to burn, anyway, so to hell with 'em.

So, Krugman goes on to say ... what are the implications of this total divergence in views [between Democrats and Republicans]?

The answer, of course, is that bipartisanship is now a foolish dream. How can the parties agree on policy when they have utterly different visions of how the economy works, when one party feels for the unemployed, while the other weeps over affluent victims of the “death tax”?

I don't know who will win that contest. But I do know who will lose, in the meantime -- and what we stand to lose if the wrong crowd is the winner.

Postscript, November 2011: (From Wikipedia:)

In January 2009, when asked whether Bunning was the best candidate to run or whether there were better GOP candidates for Bunning's Senate seat, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn said: "I don't know. I think it's really up to Senator Bunning." Bunning replied: "Anybody can run for anything they choose. I am gearing up..."

...In a press conference ... Bunning called Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell a "control freak": "If Mitch McConnell doesn't endorse me, it could be the best thing that ever happened to me in Kentucky."

...Bunning announced he would not run for re-election in 2010, blaming fellow Republicans for doing "everything in their power to dry up my fundraising." On April 14, 2010, in a further show of disdain for GOP leadership and insiders, Bunning announced his support for outsider candidate Rand Paul over establishment favorite Trey Grayson.

And we've all see what sterling representation Rand Paul has provided both the State O' Kentucky, and his public sagacity as a Rethug candidate for the Presidency in 2012 -- as one mentally disturbed person replaced another in the ~~Pay For Play~~ Republican Tea Partei.

And, in July and August, during the so-called Debt Ceiling Crisis manufactured by that same Partei, President Obama tried to broker a 'Grand Bargain', bipartisan compromise. He offered cuts in Medicare and Social Security, if the Rethugs would accept new taxation to raise revenues (Sounds familiar, doesn't it -- the SuperCommittee Crisis, no?)

The Democrats did what they've done since 1994, wanting to be seen publicly as willing to compromise in the public interest, to be the adults in the room... only, the people Obama was dealing with weren't adults. In fact, they're closer to Mussolini than John Adams.

In the summer of 2011, they were willing to hold the government's ability to operate hostage to finally destroy the New Deal, and eliminate any barriers that would prevent the unimpeded stampede of Free Enterprise across America.

Reading Paul Krugman's take on bipartisanship in March of 2010, nineteen months ago -- I'd say he had it right. The Democrats didn't listen then, and may not be listening now. And, my feelings about the Right Wing in America haven't changed, either: I still feel my analysis is true today. Even more so, actually.

But, I'm only a Dog, and no one listens to me.

Two-And-A-Half Minutes To Midnight

2011-11-25T11:59:00.000-08:00

Move More Deck Chairs To Starboard, And Ignore That Iceberg

Not Sure The Word "Ignition" Should Be Used Near The Global Economy --
And, We Didn't Make Up The Headline (Business Insider, 11/25/11)

There are plentiful signs that the 'Euro crisis', an exceptionally complex situation, cannot come to a good end no matter how brave a face Little Angela and Nicky put on it.

... according to Gareth Gore in the International Financing Review(:)
European banks are being forced to abandon their efforts to sell off trillions of euros worth of loans, mortgages and real estate after a series of talks with potential investors broke down, leaving many already struggling firms with piles of assets they can barely support.

Lenders have instead turned their attention to reducing the burden of carrying such assets over months and years, with many looking at popular pre-crisis “capital alchemy” arrangements to minimise capital requirements and boost their ability to use the assets to tap central banks for cash.

Deadlocked talks with potential buyers – a mix of private equity firms, hedge funds, foreign banks and insurers – show little sign of making breakthroughs, say bankers taking part in those negotiations, with the stalemate threatening to block the industry’s ability to save itself from collapse through a mass deleveraging.

“European banks have spent far too long saying everything is fine, when it really isn’t,” said one banker at a US bank who has been advising European clients on their options. “They are slowly realising that they just won’t be able to do what the market is expecting. We are edging slowly closer to the depths of the crisis.”

Some of Europe’s largest banks, including BNP Paribas and Societe Generale, have in recent weeks pledged to sell assets. Together, firms are expected to shrink their balance sheets by as much as €5trn over the next three years – equivalent to about 20% of the region’s total annual economic output – through a combination of sales, asset run-off and recapitalisations.
(The banks want to sell their assets near "par"--the value the banks are carrying the assets for on their books--because then the banks won't have to take losses that would further deplete their capital. The buyers, meanwhile, want deals, and they know that time is working in their favor.)

So now that banks are moving to Plan B... which is financial engineering.

Specifically, the banks are packaging up bunches of crap assets, putting pretty bows on the packages, and then using the packages as "collateral" with which to obtain emergency loans from the ECB...

Even if the European banks can engineer a way to get themselves the funding they need to survive, they're still planning to significantly reduce the amount of credit they're extending. And although this is wise for the banks, it's bad news for the economy.

No EU leader, or The American President and Timmeh! Giethner, and Helicopter Ben, the Secret Lizard from Acturus, will change their economic policies. The EU leaders can't, or (they believe) risk dissolving the Euro and unraveling the "idea" of a United Europe. They want Austerity and low growth, because it will keep Yurp's Bad Bad Rotten To The Core Banks from failing, and so imploding the international 'Markets'.

Here in America, Herr Obama is playing a game of electoral Chicken, hoping that the mass of citizens will see the Evil Rethug Tea Partei as the Enemy Of All That Is Good. He wants to make the Presidential election about a choice between Darth Vader and the Empire, or the plucky Rebellion, even though he will deny it's a Good-vs-Evil drama if asked.

Meanwhile, the Right continues to hijack the country by derailing the Doomed-To-Fail SuperChicken Committee, where they refuse to raise taxes because poor should pay and the rich should be pampered, live softly, and have treats. And the dirty hippies in the street? Ahhh, Fuck 'em. We beat, arrested, shot them and derided them forty-four years ago; we can do it again.

Only The Spirit Of The Past Can Save Us, Say Republican Stalwarts

And no matter what Bucky, The 'Chunky BoBo' Beaver says, The Rethugs are playing their own game of Chicken: They want Europe to implode. They're hoping the economy will deteriorate even further, and if human beings suffer in the process... well, it's all in a good and sacred cause -- to retake control of the country for god and jesus, and Unimpeded Free Enterprise. Gotta break a few eggs, sometimes, ya know; gotta see the Bigger Picture! YAAAH-Hooo YAAAH-Hooo YAAAH-Hooo!!

It's a full court press. The Democrats keep wanting to compromise, when that's an impossibility. They're dealing with sociopathic predators who only know and respect power, and for whom winning is everything. Whenever Democrats respond in kind, the Rethugs whine and scream: Class Warfare! Muslim Islam Mormon Catholic UN Black Helicopter Socialist Dirty George Soros Hippie One World Gov'mint!!!

Crazy Lady Says Only Hoping For The Apocalypse Will Save America From Porn, And Muslims

The higher the unemployment rate, the more the Rethugs can lie to the country through the huge megaphone of Little Rupert's NewCorp ... that it's all the fault of that Bad Illegitimate Socialist Kenyan Nigra Up The White House what thinks he Prestident. They'll repeat it over, and over and over and over.

And just to show you what kind of Edge-Of-The-Volcano? Let's Dance! times we live in, there's a misbegotten freakshow rumor making the rounds inside the Beltway -- the only part of America that matters, you see -- that retired ex-Senator ~~Mutant Zombie Republican~~ DINO Evan Bayh might try to run as a third-party / primary challenger to Obama... because he's a 'centrist', and someone who can rise above the partisan fray, and lead America back to its Destiny, and that's So Just What We Need Now. So there.

Right. Meanwhile, no one in a responsible position of authority does... anything.

All Hail The Medium Lobster

2011-11-24T13:42:00.000-08:00

Because This You Must Know

He Loves Most Of You; The Rest -- Hoo Boy! You Got Big Problems.

Medium Lobster! There is no Lobster but He - the Living, The Self-subsisting, the Eternal. No slumber can seize Him Nor Sleep. His are all things In the heavens and on earth and under the oceans. Who is there that can intercede In His presence except as He permitteth? He knoweth What (appeareth to All as) Before or After or Behind them. Nor shall they compass Aught of His knowledge Except as He willeth. His throne doth extend Over the heavens and the earth, and He feeleth No fatigue in guarding and preserving them, For He is the Most High, The Supreme (in glory). He is Medium Lobster, the One and Only.
-- by Anonymous, at April 02, 2008 10:03 AM

I dreamed he was iridescent red an green an he had frickin' laser beams comin' outta his head. And he smelled like a fish tank.
-- by Laptop Battery, at August 08, 2011 4:12 AM

MEHR:I want to know what Laptop Battery was on at 4:12 in the friggin' morning when he extolled his Big Vision Of The Lobster.

Why? 'Cause I can -- therefore, I am. Wanting to know what's in the mind of commenters about The Medium Lobster is the new standard for an awareness of existence. It is, you'll agree, less obnoxious than fucking over billions of other humans to amass huge amounts of wealth, just to prove to yourself you exist. So just get used to it.

Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T11:29:00.000-08:00

All Righty Then

Thanksgiving: I'm not in a particularly cheery mood today; however, it's virtually indistinguishable from how I appear on most days during the year.

But, there are a large number of people who are trying hard -- harder than I am, in fact -- to find a spark of humankindness and family warmth today, and I won't offer a syllable of criticism about that. We need all the humankindness we can get.

Obigatory Cute Small Animal Photo Of Junge Und Ente In Middle Of Blog Thing

John Neville (1925-2011)

2011-11-22T06:27:00.000-08:00

The Age Of Reason: Tuesday

Neville As Karl August Friedrich Hieronymous, Baron von Munchausen

The Right Ordinary Horatio Jackson: It seems to me, sir, that you have rather a weak grasp of reality.

Baron von Munchausen: Your 'reality', sir, is lies and balderdash -- and I'm delighted to say I have no grasp of it, whatsoever!

Johnathan Pryce, John Neville, The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen (1988)
Dir: Terry Gillam

This Is Where It's At

2011-11-19T12:53:00.000-08:00

Welcome To The New 1967

Police Officer, Davis, CA, Yesterday; Pepper-Spraying #Occupy Protestors In Face

Per Balloon Juice:

[Friday, November 18th] at Occupy Davis, a police officer approached a group of students sitting in a line peacefully on the ground, walked up and down the line and pepper-sprayed them directly in the face—as one would spray pesticide on weeds. What you’ll see in this video is such a callous display of police brutality, I don’t know how this police officer is going to go home and look at himself in the mirror.

As the students cry “Shame on you!” the police arrest a few students; but as the crowd circles them—non-threateningly, but insistent — the police begin to retreat. Then, amazingly, the students ... offer the retreating police a moment of peace:
“We are willing to give you a brief moment of peace so that you may take your weapons and your friends and go. Please do not return.”
And the police do.

It's this simple:

It appears the government of the United States effectively supports the interests of large financial institutions, and of a small percentage of the wealthy as opposed to the majority of the nation's population.

Their answer to the financial crisis is deficit reduction, at the expense of job creation -- which can only end in the curtailment or elimination of the New Deal's compact between America's citizens and government. It would also mean the enforced impoverishment of a majority of The People; while that tiny, wealthy percentage of the population is protected and supported.

The #Occupy movement (and it is one) is in the streets to raise the level of debate on these topics beyond the inbred apathy. They are being ridiculed, demonized, and referred to as dirty hippies, animals, even by the so-called "responsible" media.

And it's been reported that there appears to be an effort on the part of the DHS, and the FBI, to coordinate the activities of police agencies in New York, Oakland, and elsewhere in observing and removing the Occupy encampments -- and that in itself says the movement is being taken seriously. For Government, for either political party, having The People out in the streets is... very inconvenient.

However, they are out there. Nothing more than Business As Usual! seems to be on the minds of the Obama administration, the DNC, or any other part of the Mainstream Left in America, while the Right speaks for itself: Fuck The People.

So, #Occupy is the only political movement directly focused on real issues -- and that's the simple truth. Everything else seems to be pandering, or eyewash; sound bites and posturing. Only direct action on the part of The People seems to be the answer to Business As Usual, since no one else will present one.

And for the Right in America, which could care less about The People, direct action is the only language they understand. Unfortunately, their only response is to up the ante -- to counter nonviolent protest with violent reaction... such as the picture at the top of this post. Law enforcement has become increasingly militarized and even inside commentators agree.

There are a few bright lights in an otherwise dismal landscape: Look at Wisconsin, where voters have found their voice; radical Republicans in the state legislature have been recalled, and 58% of polled voters (including Republicans) want Governor Scott Walker recalled as well. Look at the beginnings of Elizabeth Warren's campaign; no punches pulled.

And, there's #Occupy. At a bare minimum, people watching on the sidelines have to admit that they're willing to endure physical hardship and public opprobrium, even pepper-spraying and arrest, to make a serious point. They're willing to get involved.

What are you doing? Or, don't you think the situation is serious enough?

MEHR: The Los Angeles Times:

The chancellor of U.C. Davis announced Saturday that she will form a task force to investigate the pepper-spraying of Occupy Davis protesters by campus police this week.

An officer’s spraying of the sitting students, who had locked arms, Friday afternoon in an attempt to clear the last of an Occupy encampment was captured on video and uploaded to YouTube and other social media sites.

...might have something to do with this:

The Faculty Association at the University of California, Davis, is calling for the resignation of chancellor Linda Katehi after a YouTube video surfaced showing police pepper spraying passive Occupy Wall Street protesters.

“The Chancellor’s authorization of the use of police force to suppress the protests by students and community members speaking out on behalf of our university and public higher education generally represents a gross failure of leadership,” the Davis Faculty Association wrote in a blog post on Saturday.

We Got Nothin'

2011-11-17T00:33:00.001-08:00

U.S. National Debt At $15,000,000,000,000

(Illustration © David Dees; See Note Below)

The National Debt Of The United States Of America officially passed the Fifteen Trillion Dollar mark today. Apportioned strictly on the basis of population, that's $48,000 for each man, woman and child in the nation.

Over 40% of it ($6.5 Trillion) was created during the reign of the Weak, Vainglorious, Peevish Dullard, Little Wee Georgie Bush ("The Decider!" "Bigger Than His Daddy"!). Thanks so much, Lil' Boots! Hope you're safe and warm, and have treats, and hired persons to serve you -- because you and others of your ilk are so superior; in every way.

As I'm so find of saying, as long as we have 400-channel on-demand porn and Lil' Rupert's Fox Entertainments; as long as there's Monday Night Football and cheap beer, and some people can ~~barely~~ keep making payments on their underwater homes... well, who gives a damn? Who will make an end and a Change; who will revolt, with enough Bread and Circuses?

The #Occupy Oakland encampment at City Hall Plaza was removed two days ago; my Place Of Witless Labor™ is two blocks away, and directly across from Snow Park, where the remaining Occupy (how do you refer to people protesting in your place?) FellowHumans™. This morning, there were a number of Oakland PD cars -- marked and unmarked -- parked around the park.

In downtown San Francisco (where #Occupy has taken the area I'm assuming might be called South Justin Hermann Plaza, in front of the Federal Reserve Building on Market St. and the Bank Of Aremica on the north corner of Market and Spear Sts.), I saw unmarked SFPD vehicles in the general vicinity at 6:00AM this morning when making it down to BART. At 5:00PM, traffic had been blocked at California and Drumm Streets by the City; there were more unmarked cars parked, and the California Street Cable Car line -- how I normally commute home -- had been shut down.

The Giant Lard Boy:

From Nashville. Headline. Staffer says she was urinated on from occupy protesters. No matter where you go here, Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Oakland, they're urinating on people. What is it, is there a syndrome I missed?... Every day we're getting stories that these Occupy people are urinating on people.

All signs are that the City and County of San Francisco, and the City of Oakland for a second time, will follow what happened in New York and in Oakland two days ago. And as digby points out, it's important for the government and established power structure to reduce the New Bonus Marchers to the level of animals. In fact, it's essential.

The protesters are being accused of being criminals, rapists, drug users and more. It's calumny, but perhaps that's par for the course in our overheated culture. But apparently people also want to believe something totally bizarre and shocking about the Occupy protesters: that they are literally behaving like animals by having sex in public and living in bodily waste. It's so astonishing that I've come to believe that it truly represents a dark psychological need to dehumanize these people. And the purpose of such dehumanization is almost always to prepare people psychologically for the next step:
Psychologically, it is necessary to categorize one's enemy as sub-human in order to legitimize increased violence or justify the violation of basic human rights. Moral exclusion reduces restraints against harming or exploiting certain groups of people. In severe cases, dehumanization makes the violation of generally accepted norms of behavior regarding one's fellow man seem reasonable, or even necessary.**
There's no reason this has to devolve into violence. But it seems to me that some people are getting themselves prepared to mentally excuse it just in case.

** Susan Opotow, "Drawing the Line: Social Categorization, Moral Exclusion, and the Scope of Justice." In Cooperation, Conflict, and Justice(New York: Sage Publications, 1995).

Local news in San Francisco is reporting that traces of a potentially fatal canine virus have been found in the #Occupy SF encampment: Ooo, Ick; Dirty Hippies, spreading disease.

Who gives a damn? These people seem to -- more than most of us, because they're Out There. They are in the streets because they understand there is a worm at the heart of the rose, a structure of lies and manipulation which made this current crisis inevitable.

They're saying (among other things) that to claim American culture is the manifestation of Democracy, Liberty and Justice, when it's more apparent than ever that we live in a Rigged Game, It's Chinatown, Jake, is worse than hypocrisy. It approaches willful evil. They're willing to put up with discomfort and arrest and worse, in recognition of the cognitive dissonance that marks the culture we live in.

And perhaps we all had better be in the streets ourselves -- because the current financial situation here, and around the world, is poised to become worse. Sooner or later we may all be in the streets, whether we like it or not. And while that isn't a certainty, even if everyone may not know that, they can feel it. Neroism is in the air.

In art and politics, culture and commonplace belief, Europe in the last years of peace before August, 1914, was speeding towards... something. No one knew what it was, but people felt it, like a wind that picks up ahead of a thunderstorm: You can see a peculiar light, the darkened and clotted sky, and smell the dust and the ozone. Even the deaf and the blind can tell something is coming.

(NOTE: The illustration above is by David Dees, who does good work -- though his images are more for the David Ickes / antizionist crowd; and while I don't agree with the notion of Acturian Space Lizards and HAARP-induced earthquakes, and absolutely don't agree with the state of Israel being represented by a rattlesnake -- for this image, I'm an equal-art opportunity Dog.)

And, one other thing. I don't look at the character in Dees' illustration above with distaste, or make fun of someone who watches televised football.

One reason it's there is that I found myself looking at the image, and feeling suddenly protective. I didn't want anything bad to happen to this character -- because, Goddamn it, I want things to work out for all of us. I want no one harmed, no one to suffer, no one to be mocked or abused or taken advantage of. I want us all to be safe and happy. Everywhere. I want everyone to have a shot at redemption and everyone to matter.

I know how absurd that sounds; and it continues to be my abiding wish.

But I'm only a Dog, and no one listens to me.

MEHR: #OWS Twitterfeed Map is here.

The New York Times reports about, and the Guardian UK livestreams #Occupy Wall Street; clashes with police have been reported. I tend to follow events in the [non-Little Rupert] UK media -- it's in English, its coverage is more honest than domestic outlets, and it does report on multiple #Occupy sites across the United States and in Europe...

I recommend following the Guardian livestream / Twitter feed posted by the Guardian's on-scene reporter, Adam Gabbart. Additional video of OWS can be seen here.

And Sow The Ground With Salt

2011-11-13T19:17:00.000-08:00

Jerry Sandusky Is A Fucking Monster

Sign Outside Penn State Stadium Before Last Week's Game (BAG News Notes)

We live in America, where reasonably free speech is permitted, and the comment above is my personal opinion. (Note: I had a much more bitter and nasty screed posted here, but have truncated it -- not for any other reason than Sandusky, Paterno, Cullen and others will either get what's coming to them, or not. My description of what I'd like to see happen -- something involving baseball bats -- I'll leave out. There's a cached version out there in the Intertubes if anyone really feels the need.)

We live in a nation of laws (I mean, laws for some; justice for some, and the protection of the System for others). And Little Jerry Sandusky's attorney says he is not guilty.

Between January 2008 and July 2009, Sandusky called Victim One 118 times, the report said...

"Jerry Sandusky admitted to my face, he admitted it," [The Mother Of Victim One] told the Patriot-News. "He admitted that he lathered up my son, they were naked and he bear-hugged him. If they would have done something about it in 1998 ... they dropped the ball."

The New York Times added,

Sandusky [replied to the mother]: “I understand. I was wrong. I wish I could get forgiveness. I know I won’t get it from you. I wish I were dead.” The local district attorney is given material to consider prosecution. No prosecution is undertaken. The child welfare agency takes no action. And, according to prosecutors, the commander of the university’s campus police force tells his detective, Schreffler, to close the case. The case is closed after District Attorney Ray Gricar decides there will be no criminal charges...

McQueary reports what he saw to Paterno at Paterno’s home. In a recent statement, Paterno insisted McQueary did not tell him of the extent of the sexual assault that McQueary said he witnessed, only that McQueary had seen something inappropriate involving Sandusky and a child. “As Coach Sandusky was retired from our coaching staff at the time, I referred the matter to university administrators,” Paterno said in the statement.

And, to a former Law Enforcement Dog, this part is really interesting:

April, 2005 -- Ray Gricar, the former district attorney who chose not to prosecute Sandusky in 1998, disappears. The circumstances are murky: his car is found abandoned, his laptop is recovered months later in a river without a hard drive and his body is never found.

An Assistant D.A. handles a lot of cases; who knows what he might have been working on? But to make someone do a Jimmy Hoffa, to have disappeared for almost eight years... that takes some professional wet work. Someone should pull the Gricar case out of the freezer and take another look.

It took a number of people enabling and protecting a monster for a decade and a half, to allow him to cripple at least eight lives. That we know about.

And the defense the enablers will use will be to say it was done to protect the Great University Of Penn State, and The Great Coach Paterno. They will all figuratively beat their chests and weep for the cameras and say -- as The Monster Himself did above -- they are so sorry sorry very sorry, and say they know nothing can make it better and no one will forgive them but they want the world to know they are so so sorry sorry sorry sorry. On advice of counsel. Please don't sue us and let us keep our jobs; we have kids of our own -- Essentially, the Little Rupert defense.

And there are apparently many, many people who will rise to the defense of the Great University and its Legendary Coach. Many were out in force last week, overturning cars and breaking windows, to show their displeasure in The Great Coach Paterno's firing. They're back in school, making jokes about kids "getting Sanduskied". I'm sure those bright stars feel The Great Coach has no involvement in enabling child rape for over fifteen years, and no reason he should personally apologize and take responsibility, for anything. Because he is, of course, The Legendary Coach.

I'd like to remind Jerry, and The Great Coach Paterno, and others, that police agencies tend to take the rape and sexual abuse of children in a serious and special way.

And this time, given the extreme scrutiny of a case that played out over fifteen years -- and that one of the questions that will demand an answer is, How was this whoreson, this sociopathic predator, able to what he did for so long, given that there was evidence -- and that people knew? The people who protected him won't be able to buy so many people off, or play on their local sympathies towards the Great University. And, they can't make every detective who's working the case disappear.

But, they'll find that out. And we'll get to watch.

MEHR: Sports columnist Kelly Scarletta in The Bleacher Report weighed in after the rampage of Penn State students over Paterno's firing:

The Joe Paterno story to me is deeply personal. I never told anyone in my life until about an hour ago, when I told my wife before I wrote this article. The reason it's so, so personal to me is that I was molested when I was 11...

I simply held that within me for 33 years until tonight. It's a hard thing to talk about. Nothing I have ever done has left me feeling more precarious. It is a frightening thing.

The people who were victimized are a thousand times more delicate than you can possibly imagine. Every action you take in defense of Paterno is an action against them. How dare you? How DARE you show more sympathy for the man who, through his minimal action, covered it up than the victims?

Don't tell me that your "heart goes out to the victims." If it did you wouldn't be rioting in the streets of State College... Your heart goes out to the victims? Where is their vigil? Where is their demonstration?

These two positions are diametrically opposed. You either support "JoePa," the man who tacitly enabled these rapes to continue to occur, even if just by his lack of more than minimally required action, or you support the victims, the boys who were raped. There is simply no reasonable way to take both positions at the same time.

Any sympathy, any good will I had for Paterno went out the window when he released that deplorable statement, "I am grateful beyond words to all the coaches...who have been a part of this program."

Really Joe? All of them? Even Sandusky?

Sandusky is accused of raping children. Do you get that? At the very least, Paterno had an obligation to at least have some curiosity based on what he knew. Whether it was a legal obligation is semantics. He had a moral obligation as a grown man, a man in leadership and as a human being.

Did he deserve more than getting fired over the phone? I honestly couldn't care less. Did he meet the minimum legal requirement? Yes. Does that mean he didn't do anything wrong? No. It most certainly does not.

Noch Eimal, Der Schwein: Apparently, Sandusky -- with his attorney sitting next to him -- allowed himself to be interviewed by NBC sports commentator Bob Costas; the interview will air on Tuesday evening, November 15th, reported the Los Angeles Times:

[When] Costas pressed Sandusky in an interviewing airing tonight on NBC News' "Rock Center," Sandusky conceded: "I shouldn't have showered with those kids."

The interview suggests that Sandusky plans to fight the charges contained in the 40-count indictment filed against him, alleging that he sexually abused eight boys over a 15-year-period. The charges have rocked the sports world, resulting in the sidelining or outright firing of several top officials at Penn State for allegedly covering up the crimes or not doing enough to protect children. Among them: the school president, and legendary football coach Joe Paterno...

Costas managed to nab a telephone interview with Sandusky. During the interview, Sandusky said he is not guilty.

"I say that I am innocent of those charges," Sandusky told Costas. When asked by Costas, "Are you a pedophile?" Sandusky responded, "No."

At one point, Costas asks him how such charges could have come about. "I could say that I have done some of those things. I have horsed around with kids, I have showered after workouts. I have hugged them and I have touched their legs without intent of sexual contact," Sandusky said.

Und Noch Immer Mehr:There's also this post at Balloon Juice:

I’m sure these people are well intentioned, but this talk of moving forward and healing is premature, insensitive and unjust to the victims. There is no forward movement or closure to be had now or anytime in the near future. The story of child rape at Penn State has yet to be told in any degree of fullness, and justice for the victims will be long and painful process.

Today, as Jerry Sandusky is characterizing witnessed anal rape as “I have horsed around with kids”, we learn that the director of Second Mile, a licensed psychologist, had no curiosity when he was told that Sandusky’s actions with a boy in the showers at PSU made that witness “uncomfortable”. That man has resigned, but much more remains to be told about his former employer.

Almost 10 more victims have come forward in the last few days. As more victims look for justice, we will have months of discovery and years of lawsuits. We’re going to learn how two institutions took an eyewitness account of child rape, which is incredibly rare in child abuse cases, and used weasel words and willful ignorance to bury it. We’ll learn what sort of deal Joe Paterno made with Sandusky in 1998, what else the PSU football program covered up between then and now, and who else was abused while Second Mile looked the other way.

When it is over, the reputation of Penn State, its football program, and its finances, will have taken a tremendous hit. It may well be that the institution will be deeply damaged and may never achieve anything like its past glory. That’s OK, because any institution that systematically covers up child rape for more than a decade doesn’t deserve to “move on”.

The victims — not good hearted but ignorant students or alumni of PSU — will decide when and if the healing can begin. And all the prayer in the world will not give those victims justice. The courts will.

In the Sunday edition of The Daily Collegian, Penn State's college paper, there was a notice in boldface: “Saturday’s football game against Nebraska provided a return to normalcy for Penn State”.

There were also articles about a 'Vigil for the victims', ("The Penn State student body is still strong and doesn’t reflect the actions of what one man did and what two men didn’t do,” says one student), alongside articles on bomb threats and sexual abuse of a woman, and photos of students posing beside the life-size bronze statue of The Great Legendary Hero Coach ("Fans gather outside the Paterno house to show their support after the first football game without Joe Paterno since 1949").

Here He Goes Again, Breaking That Law Of The Intertubes, but I feel like I'm reading the Sachsenhausen local newspaper from mid-May, 1945: "Extremely Unpleasant Things Come To Light At Local Konzentrationslager", with articles on how all the good christians of the town held a prayer service for victims ("How were we to know?" asks local resident), and the Bürgermeister proclaims that the healing has begun for their little town. For the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of murdered and survivors -- well, not so much.

What in God's name was wrong with Penn State and its entire local community? What is still wrong with it now?

They Only Talk To Each Other

2011-11-12T18:46:00.000-08:00

Little Karen Tumulty Wants Your Attention. Again.

I just heard Karen Tumulty, five years old, say on PBS's Washington Week that the results of the Ohio vote this week regarding SB5 "were such a mixed bag", and painting it as a muddled set of signals, at best.

After all, the people who voted against it, she implied, were doing so for lots of different reasons; no cohesion in the message being sent to the local Tea Partei.

The final vote in Ohio was: Yes: 37% --- No: %63

Lil' Karen -- who, I must admit, has one heckuva [as they say in Texas] large lower jaw -- also said (and I was typing as fast as I could while she did):

The fact is, the campaign this coming year will be negative. The democrats are saying, 'This year isn't a referendum; it's a choice'. And you get that by painting your opponent [as negative], and the Democrats are going to say, 'The Republicans are [negative].

Karen Tumulty is like nearly every 'journalist' and 'analyst' and 'commentator' in Washington: The conversation around the teevee table isn't really for the Rubes tuning in. It's a televised Kool Kidz Club meeting.

These people have national soapboxes -- the chance to deliver honest observation, real news analysis. Instead, they talk to each other; they believe their own press releases. What they say is a better gauge of what the Washington elite are thinking, their take on an event, than an accurate review and a conclusion based on facts.

Their chatter is of the Washington elite, by the Washington elite, for the Washington elite, and their assumption is that it's true because they've said it.

To paraphrase Neil Young: Karen Tumulty's pissin' in the wind / She don't know it / But she is.

There; now you can go back to whatever you were doing before this Tumulty interruption.

All In

2011-11-12T14:09:00.000-08:00

It's Always Been About Saving The Banks And Their Shareholders

There's been a lot of quick-take summing-up about the way in which Our Great Leaders all around the globe have chosen to deal with the titanic amount of toxic debt created by America's financial ~~whorehouse and casino~~ community, giving the rest of the world so many more reasons to love us and want us to ~~be carpet-bombed~~ have soft lives and treats.

Krug Man did it the other day. He said what has happened in the current European debt situation, "it turns out, is that by going on the Euro, Spain and Italy in effect reduced themselves to the status of third-world countries that have to borrow in someone else’s currency, with all the loss of flexibility that implies."

The Euro represents not just a currency, but also, too, the idea of A United Europe. If the Euro dissolves, everyone goes back to a multi-currency system. There will be chaos in the international markets -- how do you value shares of Grosser Hund Am Tisch GMBH™ In Neues Duetschmarks? In Francs? In Dollars? In the Japanese and Chinese Yen? What are the relative values of all the new (old) currencies? Tourists, on vacation abroad; what are all their British and Irish Pounds worth in Drachmas, or Thai Bhat?

Even more important, what are all those U.S. and Greek and Italian Treasuries worth in this newly-valued world? Ones the Chinese and the Saudis and the Japanese have (in the case of U.S. Treasuries) been buying like crazy for twenty years? What about all the major currencies each country's central bank has purchased; suddenly, what's it all worth? What happens in companies large and small, from Lisbon to Warsaw, who all have contracts with buyers and suppliers, in Euros?

Well, the European Union headquarters in Brussels would remain open ... for a while, before it's sold to Rupert Murdoch; because the political European Union will effectively be broken, and Konrad Adenauer will roll over in his grave.

Therefore, the major players in Europe have gone All In, staking everything (including their own political futures) on the fate of the Euro.

And that is why the Austerity demands, which accompany loans to Greece, and now Italy, and who knows who's next, must be accepted. If the populations in Europe just submit to having the quality of their lives reduced for more than a decade to save rotten-to-the-core financial institutions (and The lucky One-Per-Centers) -- then what Angela Merkel and Nicholas Sarkozy and the international Bankster Brigade are doing might work. We'll all be living in yurts, watching our children play with toys made of dried animal dung.

If the people don't submit, and instead complain and protest, and riot, and eventually vote out the governments who are in favor of saving rotten-to-the-core financial institutions -- then the Euro is toast; the global financial structure goes all higgledy-piggeldy; and we will all be living in yurts watching our children play with toys made of dried animal dung.

A lot of people, such as The Krugster, see what all this is about, and have summed it up pretty succinctly -- it's all about saving the banks, their shareholders, and bondholders.

So, too, also The Great Curmudgeon:

Consensus

Well the consensus seems to be we need to just install bankers as the leaders of all the countries, and the only way any of us can survive is if all the richest countries of the world are turned into 3rd world hellholes after the middle class gives all of their money to rich people.

The frustrating thing is that we could just give free money to rich people. Every time banksters light a pile of money on fire, the ECB and the BOE and the Fed can just say, oh, no worries chap, here's another pile. At least try to get down to the dog track this week instead of just having a bonfire with thousand dollar bills. This isn't my preferred option, but it's a better option than making poor and middle class people suffer just because.

by Atrios at 09:00
42 Comments

El Testa Di Cazzo Di Tutta l'Europa Berlusconi Resigns

2011-11-12T11:17:00.000-08:00

Rome Greets Announcement ~~With More Austerity~~

New Reaches Rome Of The Poco Pene's Resignation

As Italy's people steady themselves to withstand the rigors of Austerity which the EU demands as price for ~~saving the Euro~~ lending ~~German and French banks, really~~ Italy money -- the selfsame Italian people took Winston Churchill's advice on V-E day, and "allowed ourselves a brief period of celebration".

Silvio Berlusconi resigned today as Prime Minister of the Republic Of Italy, after nearly two decades of playing factions within Italy's political parties off against each other, in order to deliver a (sometimes) working coalition in the country's Parliament. This was the real reason he hadn't been gotten rid of earlier, not some indispensable personal ability or sage leadership. He was canny -- what the Germans refer to as Schlau -- but ultimately, not possessed of high intelligence.

He also used his position as Prime Minister to make some deals -- he is a Billionaire, and as a member of the planet's Oligarch class, saw nothing wrong with it. In that connection, Berlusconi was accused of money laundering and witness tampering and bribery, trying to evade the charges by having a law passed through the Parliament, giving the Italian Prime Minister immunity from prosecution for any crime -- only to have it repealed.

He also treated the international public to a flamboyant peep-show of his private life; it was the women he dallied with who passed on details to an ever-hungry Tabloid press. And it was in that connection which made him beloved to ~~a superinteligent parakeet and the four other readers of~~ Before Nine.

Obligatory Photo Of Superintelligent Parakeet In Middle Of Blog Rant

So, as he slinks back to his palatial estates and can return to manipulating the Italian people through what issues from the media empire he owns -- here are a few links to our Roll Of Shame for Silvio! -- Chief Clown Prince Of Europe!

May, 2009: See Naples And Divorce

June, 2009: Comedy Relief: Arrogance So Large It Has Its Own Postal Code

September, 2009: He Thinks With Little Silvio, Which Isn't That Bright. Come To
Think Of It, Big Silvio's Stupid, Too.

October, 2009: Meanwhile, In Downtown Italy

December, 2009: Berlusconi Attacked By Cathedral

March, 2010: Wearing Purple, Seeing Red

December, 2010: Salvato! Silvio Salvato Per Avere il sesso con più ragazze adolescenti!

February, 2011: Oh God; Not Again

Now, Italy will go forward, bravely keeping the Banksters and the rich warm, and safe, and with many treats. Just as our Tea Partei and GOP, and many Democrats, want to do right here in the Good Old Eusa.

Silvio Berlusconi: Auf Nicht Wiedersehen, you Nutter.

Not That It Matters

2011-11-11T06:19:00.000-08:00

All Aboard The Failboat

"R.A." is a writer for The Economist, legendary pro-business and fairly conservative publication based in the UK. R.A. published an article, "Finito?" on Wednesday, which describes the trap the EU and the Eurozone finds itself in pretty succinctly (paragraphing added for clarity):

I have been examining and re-examining the situation, trying to find the potential happy ending. It isn't there. The euro zone is in a death spiral.

Markets are abandoning the periphery, including Italy, which is the world's eighth largest economy and third largest bond market. This is triggering margin calls and leading banks to pull credit from the European market. This, in turn, is damaging the European economy, which is already being squeezed by the austerity programmes adopted in every large euro-zone economy. A weakening economy will damage revenues, undermining efforts at fiscal consolidation, further driving away investors and potentially triggering more austerity. The cycle will continue until something breaks.

Eventually, one economy or another will face a true bank run and severe capital flight and will be forced to adopt capital controls. At that point, it will effectively be out of the euro area. What happens next isn't clear, but it's unlikely to be pretty...

I hate to get this pessimistic about the situation. It feels panicky and overwrought. I can't believe that Europe would allow so damaging an outcome as a financial collapse and break-up to occur. And I still don't understand why, if this is all as obvious as it seems to me, equities aren't down 20% now, rather than 2% or 3%.

But the window within which something could be done to prevent it is closing, and fast. I hope to be proven astoundingly wrong in my assessment, but I'm struggling to see alternative outcomes.

It seems obvious to so many professional economists and analysts that Austerity is not the medicine for the Made-In-USA financial crisis -- that reductions in the spending by governments will only continue to reduce growth, maintain high unemployment, and lead to who knows what potential political upheavals.

A commenter, "LexHumana", to R.A.'s post summed up the "centrist" and "reasonable" opinions of a large number of people:

Not to say that the Kubler-Ross model is applicable in all such cases, but I am continuingly amazed at how this Eurozone crisis (and the comparable U.S. financial crisis) nicely follows the five stages of grief. Europe began with denial ("there is no problem, everything is normal"), then moved to anger ("damn those profligate Greeks"), then to bargaining (which still has not been successfully concluded with Greece), and are now entering the stage of depression ("oh my god, we are doomed").

Eventually, Europe will reach "acceptance", and realize that there is no bloodless way of solving this problem -- the Greeks will accept that the days of wine and roses are officially over and go back to the way Greece was in the 1950s, the bondholders will accept the fact that you can't get blood from a turnip and write-off much of the debt as uncollectable, and the rest of the European citizenry will (via their central banks) accept that in order to avoid a financial collapse by the bondholders some degree of bailout will be required and they will be the ones to foot the bill.

An extraordinary amount of pain needs to be shared among the parties, and this is going to push Europe into a recession, but it is survivable.... as long as they get to "acceptance" sooner rather than later.

The problem is, this argument depends upon the premise that the European citizenry will... accept that in order to to avoid a financial collapse... some degree of bailout will be required and they will be the ones to foot the bill.

Why? the "European citizenry" are already asking why they should have to pay to bail out their own versions of TBTF banks. Unlike the Americans, they found their voices on this subject pretty quickly -- footage of Greeks facing off against riot police in Athens, or in Italy, Spain, and the U.K., proves that. Rather than agree to support a rotten system, they're refusing. They want changes made that benefit the majority.

(The way Europeans are saying "no" reminds me, in spirit, of a scene in James Cameron's Aliens: Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) says the Marines should simply nuke the nest of alien creatures; it's the only way to solve the problem and ensure the safety of everyone. The corporate Yuppie slimeball, Burke (Paul Reiser) says, "Whoa, whoa, whoa; You can't do that. This area has a significant dollar value, and represents a significant investment to the company" [Too Big To Fail, in other words?]. "Well, they can bill me," Ripley snorts.)

Why, Europeans ask, should they assist the same people who created this problem? Why should they do with less, see their children go hungry, to subsidize the lifestyles of the wealthy?

It could be argued that Europeans have a longer history of "knowing their place", and dealing with the whims and excesses of aristocrats and nouveau parvenus, and so can 'take it'. It could also be argued that Europe has a tradition of not taking it. And under the grinding, enforced poverty of The New Austerity (so obvious an arrangement to benefit bad banks, bad actors and bad governments), Europe's Communist political parties could become resurgent. Who knows; they might get it right the second time around.

But we don't have to go there. The current dilemma is all avoidable. But we're still going to be forced to go there anyway, to save the banks and the rich and the hurt fee-fees of The Masters Of The Universe.

MEHR: The Krug Man explains the entire crisis in one sentence.

European Debt Crisis, Episode Five: The Empire Strikes Back

2011-11-10T07:38:00.001-08:00

More Jenga

The Big Picture provided two very nice infographics by Scott Barber at Reuter's, putting the musical question "Why Italy Matters" into sharp relief:

It's easy to see just who is most exposed in the pending implosion of the Republic Of Bunga-Bunga, and that a total of $400 Billion-plus in "Non-Bank Private" debt is most at risk if Italy defaults. Primarily French Non-Bank -- Alors!

So, as the West slowly sinks into the steaming pile of a Made-In-Good-Ole-USA financial meltdown, others are ready to pick up our fallen standard of civilization -- their standard might be made of a toxic plastic, and not as pretty as the one we had, and it might have been made by convict slave labor -- but, who cares? The East Is Red / The East Is Red / The Bank Of China Comes Out In The East...

Hey, thanks, Lil' Boots! Thanks Larry Summers! And Thanks Little Angelo Mozilo, and "Tiny" Dick Fuld, and Lil' Lloyd Blankfein, and all the other Masters Of The Universe! Thank you, brave members of Congress! And thanks to all of America's One-tenth Of One Percent -- who never allowed ethical or moral considerations to stand in the way of More for themselves and their clans, and Issue! You're all so awesome and wonderful.

I'm sure you'll understand if all of us down here hope you end up in a basement in Ekaterinburg! Buh-Bye!

Living In The Immaterial World

2011-11-08T18:07:00.000-08:00

Falling Cain

Over the past two weeks, it was revealed that Herman Cain -- ~~Right Wing Nut Job~~ former CEO of a pizza company without any prior political experience and candidate for the GOP presidential nomination -- has been the focus of up to four sexual harassment complaints.

One of Cain's accusers (whose complaint, filed while Cain was president of the National Restaurant Association in Washington, D.C.) was paid an entire years' salary by the Association in an out-of-court settlement. Her attorney called a press conference last week to say the woman would not reveal her identity or make any public statement except to affirm that her charges of being sexually harassed by Cain were true. Cain responded by denying a "settlement" had ever taken place, which sounded like a denial of the truth of any harassment charges.

Yesterday, Sharon Bialek, who had also accused Cain while heading the Restaurant Association of "unwanted sexual contact", made public her identity and details about Canin's groping of her.

Today, Cain held a press conference against a backdrop of American flags (see above) and said that her accusations "simply did not happen".

As I sat in my hotel room [Cain said about watching Bialek's press conference] ... my first response in my mind, and reaction was, ‘I don’t even know who this woman is.’ Secondly, I didn’t recognize [her] name at all... I tried to remember if I recognized her, and I didn’t. I tried to remember if I remembered that name, and I didn’t. The charges, and the accusations, I absolutely reject. They simply didn’t happen. They simply did not happen.

Cain then walked back his earlier denial that an accusation of harassment while president of the NRA had led to a settlement, saying it was an "agreement" -- in law, a different outcome than a "settlement".

Finally, Cain blamed "the Democrat machine" for providing information about the sexual harassment cases to the press (disingenuous or not, the media has hinted that campaign staff of Le Gouvernour Placard, Rick Perry of the ~~failed~~ state of Texas, was the source): "“The fact is, these anonymous allegations are false, and now the Democrat machine in America has brought forth a troubled woman to make false accusations, statements... There will probably be others — not because I am aware of any, but because the machine to keep a businessman out of the White House is going to be relentless. And if they continue to come, I will continue to respond.”

Shorter Cain: Charges false. Dirty hippies are behind it -- and even if another twenty women say I touched them, they are big fat liars. Because they are. Move Along; nothing to see.

Cain's stance since the charges were revealed in the press, and have developed since, has been to deny everything. He claims things have not happened. Period. And in one of the cases, rested his denial on a semantical difference between 'settlement' and 'agreement'. He says he does not recognize Sharon Bialek, and that her accusations... simply never happened.

I continue to be astonished when Right-wing Freaks are caught in their lies -- and they do lie; consistently, with terrible consequences ("Lil' Boots" Bush, and the population of Iraq; No?). They lie about the legitimacy of climate change; they lie about their motives in any reduction of America's debt situation. They lie about having affairs, and about their own sexual orientation. They lie about themselves. They have no credibility.

This isn't to suggest that liberals or Democratic politicians haven't lied, or aren't lying right now. But, if you add up all the facts, the Truth, that stands against statements politicians and public figures on the Right have made... it's not only shocking. It's almost unbelievable how huge the lies are.

But, consider: They either do so because they know that they're lying, and believe manipulation of others is acceptable (in fact, it's a show of contempt) -- or they truly live in some place where 'magical thinking' works; where the principal delusion is that with enough repetition, something will simply become true. Remember Fat Karl Rove's 2003 comment to a New York Times journalist that the resurgent Right, in power, "made new realities", by force of will? This is the kind of delusion I'm referring to.

In our new crop of Rightists, that kind of Crazy can be fueled by religion (as with Messr. Le Gouvenour Perry, or Grand TurtleBear Bachmann), or by illogic (Ron Paul), or out of pure cynicism (President Boner).

Herman, like his fellow Crazies, know what he's done. But he believes he can make, by sheer force of his personal will, two and two make five. Just because he really really says so. And if we are good little boys and girls, we should not pay attention to the bad stories and place all our faith in a dime-store Huckster who will eventually have to say he's sorry, kinda, that so many people got sick eating the pizza he passed out -- but that will be the fault of dirty, hippie haters of Teh Freedom™.

And this is why we need to move heaven and earth to ensure he, and no one like him on the Right, or the Left (because there are BlueDog delusions and cynicism, and 'pragmatic' 'centrist' delusions on the Left, too) continue to run the show and rig the game.

I have very low expectations we can make that happen, but...

Got That Right

2011-11-08T15:52:00.000-08:00

Nostalgia

Just a random thought here, but was reminiscing about the good old days back when this blog was not quite as sucky as it is now. It's hard to comprehend now, but there was really something controversial and subversive about the idea that you could just write stuff on the internets and people might read it. There were a few proto-bloggers before cheap-to-free hosting and blogging software, but those two things lowered the entry bar just enough to make it easy for everybody.

by Atrios at 11:23
229 Comments

Before Nine, Proudly Serving You Cheap Food Since 2008, has received precisely 28 comments in 450-plus posts.

Michele Bachmann Weiterhin Die Berufung Des Cthulhu Hören

2011-11-08T07:03:00.000-08:00

Michele Bachmann Continues To Hear The Call Of Chtulu

TPM:

In an interview with ABC News, Rep. Michele Bachmann was asked for her thoughts on who should be the fifth president on Mount Rushmore. After giving the obligatory nod to Reagan, the Minnesota Congresswoman went off into somewhat more unusual territory.

First, she began angling up to answer James Garfield, apparently on the grounds that he was the last president to move to the oval office from the House of Representatives. However, just before concluding there, she switched horses to Calvin Coolidge on the grounds that “he got the country’s budget back on track.”

“He was a taking-care-of-business kind of guy,” she concluded.

Do people like this even live in the same country we do? Ich Denke Es War nicht so..

All About Me

2011-11-08T06:52:00.001-08:00

Too Stupid To Breathe (European Version)

Italian Home Secretary Roberto Maroni, Left; A Horndog, Center; Italian Minister of Federal Reforms Umberto Bossi At Right (Alessandro Di Meo / European Pressphoto)

And as the world holds its breath, waiting for the beginning of Armageddon in the Middle East or Ragnarok in the financial world through collapse of the Euro, the Paper Of Record © reported this morning that the Clown King of Bunga-Bunga Land views the economic crisis about to break upon Italy in, uh, "personal" terms:

After denying reports about his imminent resignation, Mr. Berlusconi said he would face a vote on a state financing bill on Tuesday that could potentially take down his government, and in coming days would call for a confidence vote on austerity measures meant to quell market concerns about Italy.

“I want to look at those who want to betray me in the face,” he said.

With high debts, vast underground economies, low birth rates and more pensioners than workers, there is no doubt that Greece and Italy need structural changes to survive. But with deeply entrenched political patronage societies, governments in both countries have been unwilling or unable to carry out such changes, which would require striking the heart of their own constituencies.

"With deeply entrenched political patronage societies"... leaders "unwilling or unable [to strike at] the heart of their... constituencies" -- Gosh, does this remind you of any other country we might know?

MEHR: NYT: "Cornered by the European debt crisis, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy offered a conditional resignation on Tuesday, agreeing to step down but only after Parliament passes an austerity package demanded by the European Union, a move that could bring the country closer to early elections."

You Can't Make This Stuff Up

2011-11-07T07:06:00.001-08:00

They Certainly Will. How Many, Of Course, Is Up To The DOJ.

This advertisement ran in a number of American east coast print publications this past Saturday (courtesy of Barry Ritholtz's The Big Picture).

A bit like posting an ad to book passage on the return leg of the Titanic. I'm guessing this was already scheduled and paid for by MF Global through whomever handles their public relations -- and, given the recent Brouhaha (you know; bankruptcy, federal investigations; that missing $600 million in client funds), their attention was, uh, 'elsewhere' and they probably just overlooked cancelling them.

I'm also surprised just how 'Seventies' this ad appears. If you look at graphics design journals or Adweek during that period, they were using the same manner of layout, typefaces; even the African-American business professional -- holding a standard pushbutton telephone handset, please note, not even a cell phone -- could have stepped out of 1978.

(Oddly, the man's shirtcollar and knot of his tie (usually on a center line with the Adam's apple of the throat and the middle of a man's face) doesn't match the position of his head, unless he has a ridiculously long neck. They skimped when they hired the graphic artist -- and how did an art director ever let this slip by?)

Still, if this popped up in a film or a novel, it would strike a tinny, off-kilter note: Hey; c'mon! Stuff like this never happens!

Of course not. And Europe's austerity measures will be proven to stimulate economic growth, and winged monkeys will fly out of Herman Cain's -- oh, wait; that already happened.

MEHR: William D. Cohan (no, not that Cohan) writes about a key element in MF Global's collapse in Bloomberg-o-vision:

How could Wall Street powerhouses such as Bear Stearns Cos., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. disappear virtually overnight? How could MF Global Holdings Ltd. be here one day and gone the next?...

...Before the recent financial crisis reached its most acute stages, beginning in March 2008, the dirty secret of securities firms was that without the ongoing financial support of their short-term lenders they couldn’t stay in business. In effect, the short-term lenders to firms such as Bear Stearns and Lehman had a free option -- every night -- about whether to continue doing business with them...

... Bear Stearns borrowed about $70 billion a day in the short-term -- so-called repo -- secured financing market. The cost was low, and the risks seemingly negligible. Who wouldn’t keep lending to Bear Stearns, especially with a secured interest in the financial assets -- such as Treasuries or mortgage-backed debt -- on the borrower’s balance sheet?

Or so the logic went before March 2008, when we discovered that without the $70 billion from the overnight lenders -- which was suddenly withheld -- Bear Stearns couldn’t continue as a going concern, even though it had $18 billion in cash on hand.

Admittedly, before Bear Stearns collapsed over the Ides of March more than three years ago, very few financial executives had any appreciation for this subtle funding dynamic. Yet nothing is more fundamental to most banks’ operational strategies than the ability to borrow short and lend long. Such backroom plumbing was thought best left to the firm’s repo desk and its treasurer, all blessed with a little oversight from the chief financial officer and other top executives.

Basically, the Masters Of The Universe can do anything they want with money. Absolutely anything. Screw the SEC, to hell with the regulators; It's The Freeee Market, Baby!!! Yeah!!!

Do you see any proof to the contrary?

Three Minutes To Midnight

2011-11-06T16:07:00.000-08:00

Israeli Government Reportedly Closer To Attack On Iran

In case no one has noticed, recently there has been a rapid increase in the probability of a preemptive air strike on Iran's nuclear reactors and fuel (or weapons-grade material) processing facilities.

There have been plenty of precedents. The Israeli air force attacked Saadam Hussein's Iraqi reactor outside Baghdad in 1981; in September of 2007, they hit a suspected reactor site in Syria, allegedly constructed with North Korean personnel and assistance.

There have been plentiful warnings to the Iranians (in fact, if airstrikes occur, they will be one of the most 'telegraphed' military punches since the build-up to 'Operation Desert Storm' in 1991 and to 'Iraqi Freedom' in 2003). The UN has been in negotiations with the Iranian government about their attempt to develop nuclear power -- and nuclear weapons -- since the mid-2000's through their International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Wikipedia notes:

After public allegations about Iran's previously undeclared nuclear activities, the IAEA launched an investigation that concluded in November 2003 that Iran had systematically failed to meet its obligations under its [Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty] safeguards agreement to report those activities to the IAEA, although it also reported no evidence of links to a nuclear weapons program. The IAEA Board of Governors delayed a formal finding of non-compliance until September 2005, and (in a rare non-consensus decision) reported that non-compliance to the UN Security Council in February 2006.

After the IAEA Board of Governors reported Iran's noncompliance ... to the United Nations Security Council, the Council demanded that Iran suspend its enrichment programs. The Council imposed sanctions after Iran refused to do so.

The sanctions against trade and transfer of technology on Iran went ahead under "Lil' Boots" Bush. In 2004, U.S. intelligence was able to obtain a laptop taken out of Iran which allegedly held data about what has been called "The Green Salt Project", including a design for a missile warhead and information about the Iranian's enrichment program for Uranium.

The UN had asked to have access to this information, but were repeatedly rebuffed until 2008, and the "laptop documents" were provided to the IAEA -- which issued a report on Iran's nuclear activities that year. Still, there was no real smoking gun shown in their reports -- though nuclear physicists at IAEA were clear that Iran had increased its capability to ramp-up quickly to weapons-grade uranium production if they desired.

Days ahead of a planned meeting between IAEA and Iranian representatives in Geneva, on September 25, 2009, President Obama and Britain's then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown disclosed the existence of a secret, underground nuclear processing plant near the city of Quom, which the Iranian authorities had built and kept hidden from IAEA inspectors for years.

In early October, 2009, Iranian representatives rejected the IAEA's report at their meeting in Geneva. The UN, on a resolution sponsored by the United States and Great Britain, levied additional sanctions on trade and technology transfer against Iran.

Also In early October, following possibly fixed and controversial elections for Iran's president (resulting in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's continuing in power), massive protests erupted across Iran; it looked as if the regime of Iran's Revolutionary Council and Revolutionary Guard was in jeopardy, but the Iranian government brutally suppressed the protests and rejected any complaints that the elections were rigged.

In December of 2009, the Saban Center For Middle East Policy (part of the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution) conducted a war game exercise -- one of three simulations held that month (the others were held at Tel Aviv and Harvard universities). The scenario assumed Israel hit and destroyed six out of nine nuclear sites in Iran, and only showed more clearly that there was no way to predict where such a crisis would lead.

In June, 2010, a new computer worm called 'Stuxnet' was released and caused some havoc in businesses worldwide -- at the same time, it hit computer networks controlling an unknown number of centrifuges in Iran's nuclear fuel processing facilities, and the centrifuges spun out of control. Iran accused the United States and Israel of developing and delivering the worm. Though there is no conclusive proof (and there may never be), circumstantial evidence about its origins suggests they may be right.

On November 29, 2010, Majid Shahriari, an Iranian physicist involved with his country's nuclear program, was killed and his wife injured while on his way to work at a University in Tehran; his attackers rode motorcycles and placed a magnetic bomb on his car. Another Iranian nuclear scientist, Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, and his wife, survived an identical and almost simultaneous attack.

In February, 2011, as the 'Arab Spring' began, demonstrations in Iranian cities, similar to those of the previous Fall, continued into April but were also stepped on heavily by the Iranian authorities.

In May, 2011, the New York Times reported that the IAEA, "frustrated by Iran’s refusal to answer questions, revealed that it possesses evidence that Tehran has conducted work on a highly sophisticated nuclear triggering technology that experts said could be used for only one purpose: setting off a nuclear weapon."

On July 23, 2011, another physicist in the Iranian nuclear program, Daryoush Rezaie, was shot dead in front of his home in Tehran by gunmen on motorcycles.

In August, 2011, U.S. (and presumably, Israeli) intelligence learned that the Iranians were moving the bulk of their nuclear materials processing into the underground facility near the city of Quom, which the U.S. and UK had revealed in 2009.

On October 11, the Department Of Justice announced arrests had been made in an alleged plot by high-ranking members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and members of the 'Los Zetas' Mexican drug gang, to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S.

Obligatory Small Animal Photo In Middle Of Blog Rant: The Rock Hyrax, Sitting On Your Car

This coming Tuesday, November 8, the IAEA will deliver a report -- something it does quarterly -- about Iran's nuclear efforts (it's hard to believe they haven't already read it), and rumors in the British press indicate the report's contents will be "a game-changer" in negotiations with the Iranian government.

However, this past Tuesday, November 2, the Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz reported that for weeks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been pressing his cabinet to agree to an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. Huffington Post UK reported that:

Recent weeks have witnessed an on-going debate within Israel as to the possibility of a unilateral military strike against the Iranian regime, however Haaretz reported that the doves currently hold sway within the cabinet, including interior minister Eli Yishai and finance minister Yuval Steinitz.

On Monday, Netanyahu told the Knesset: "One of those regional powers is Iran, which is continuing its efforts to obtain nuclear weapons. A nuclear Iran would constitute a grave threat to the Middle East and the entire world, and of course it is a direct and grave threat on us."

One day later, defense minister Ehud Barak, struck a similar tone. "A situation could be created in the Middle East in which Israel must defend its vital interests in an independent fashion, without necessarily having to reply on other forces, regional or otherwise,” he said.

In Great Britain, the Guardian UK also reported on Tuesday that the MoD (Ministry of Defense) has reportedly begun to examine "where best to deploy Royal Navy ships and submarines equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles over the coming months as part of what would be an air and sea campaign".

Remember that during the same ten years we've been discussing, Iran's government -- principally Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- has denied any efforts to produce a nuclear weapon. This same line has been taken by Iran's representatives with the IAEA.

However, Ahmadinejad has also made a name for himself through public statements such as "[Ayatollah Khomeini] said that the occupying regime [i.e., Israel] must be wiped off the map and this was a very wise statement... I have no doubt that the new wave that has started in Palestine, and we witness it in the Islamic world too, will eliminate this disgraceful stain from the Islamic world" (October, 2005).

His remarks denying the Holocaust (2006), and claiming the massacre of European Jewry was blown out of proportion as a tool for manipulation by 'Zionists' (2009) have been widely reported (though Ahmadinejad continually claims he was mistranslated); and saying if the UN levied additional sanctions against Iran after its secret nuclear processing facility was discovered, it would be a mistake "they would regret making".

Israel has made it absolutely clear that it would not permit Iran's having the ability to create nuclear weapons. Iran already has a missile delivery system.

An attack on Iran's nuclear facilities would have to be a full assault on that nation's air defenses and major command and control facilities. Any attack by Israel would be answered by Iran, and any regional players -- Russia, India, possibly even China -- might get involved. It's a foregone conclusion that the United States would be.

Iran has the ability to close the Straits of Hormuz, through which most of the world's supertanker traffic in crude oil moves. The Iranians have Chinese-manufactured 'Sunflower' anti-ship missiles, which can travel at supersonic speeds -- faster than the Exocets used by Argentina against the British navy during the Falkland Islands war.

If our navy guarantees the security of the Straits in the aftermath of an Israeli attack, the Iranians may decide to turn the Persian Gulf into a graveyard for supertankers and U.S. vessels.

An escalating series of confrontations and tragedies, with large loss of American lives, might allow the U.S. to force a resolution in the UN's Security Council allowing serious military action against Iran -- and only preparations for all-out war in the Middle East would allow it. The last time the Security Council approved such a resolution, it was shown to be based on lies created by "Lil' Boots" Bush and his people about the existence of WMD's in order to provide the 'legal' umbrella of authority to invade Iraq. The UN isn't anxious to lose more credibility with a similar mistake.

Remember where we are. America and Western Europe is shuddering under the weight of the greed and avarice of a tiny sliver of its populations. No one down here in the street, among The People, is anxious to begin fighting another war. We can't afford it.

And, there hasn't been any time to prepare the country for the possibility of a conflict. Even an argument about the threat to the existence of the nation of Israel (which I personally agree with) might not be enough to convince a majority of Americans to support another war. We've already had ten years of it -- and the 5,000-plus lives lost in Afghanistan and Iraq, the thousands of wounded, might be the death toll in a single day of combat in the Gulf. Are we prepared for that?

Shiite Iran would like to be the premiere player in the Islamic world, kicking the Sunni Saudis to the curb and ending their influence -- and being a nuclear power would allow it to project its political power in the Middle East; other Islamic nations would be crawling to Tehran to be seen kissing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's ~~ass~~ shoulder. However, the Iranians are Persians, not Arabs, and they might not get as much support as they believe, particularly if they were losing.

Given even the public evidence, a large number of Israel's leaders don't believe they have any other choice but to try and kill the snake in its nest. Given the public positions taken by Iran's leaders about the continuing existence of Israel, they may not. If Israel does go in, our government will be there with intelligence and logistics, technical and realtime support. And it will paint an even bigger target on the United States in the mind of every Islamist on the planet, who will begin -- as they are in Africa, today -- trying to tie us down in asymmetrical warfare, fifty places across the world at once.

What do you think -- do we have anything to be concerned about?

MEHR: The New York Times: "U.S. Hangs Back as Inspectors Prepare Report on Iran’s Nuclear Program":

An imminent report by United Nations weapons inspectors includes the strongest evidence yet that Iran has worked in recent years on a kind of sophisticated explosives technology that is primarily used to trigger a nuclear weapon, according to Western officials who have been briefed on the intelligence.

But the case is hardly conclusive. Iran’s restrictions on inspectors have muddied the picture. And however suggestive the evidence about what the International Atomic Energy Agency calls “possible military dimensions” of Iran’s program turns out to be, the only sure bet is that the mix of sleuthing, logic and intuition by nuclear investigators will be endlessly compared with the American intelligence agencies’ huge mistakes in Iraq in 2003...

For its part, the Obama administration, acutely aware of how what happened in Iraq undercut American credibility, is deliberately taking a back seat, eager to make the conclusions entirely the I.A.E.A.’s, even as it continues to press for more international sanctions against Iran. When the director of the agency, Yukia Amano, came to the White House 11 days ago to meet top officials of the National Security Council about the coming report, the administration declined to even confirm he had ever walked into the building.

Oh; in much more important news, Heidi Klum appeared at a Halloween party in London this past week, also attended by erstwhile briber Princess Fergie, and showed off her nipples.

Good night, and Good Luck.

Andy Rooney, 1919 - 2011

2011-11-05T19:16:00.000-07:00

Andy Rooney, August 2011 (via the New York Times: CBS / Associated Press)

"You know what I don't like about being dead? It's that you're dead; and everybody else is alive. And you don't get to remind them about what they're missing, and what they take for granted."

Five Minutes To Midnight

2011-11-04T22:03:00.000-07:00

Ruh-Roh

Iron Frau (Photo / Michael Sohn / Associated Press): Unser Gott, Bitte Helfst Du Uns

Patrick Wintour and Larry Elliott of the Guardian UK report that the G20 conference in Cannes (usually the place where fantasies of another kind are celebrated each year) has ended in failure.

This matters (For a concise, one-article explanation of why, go here), and as the slow-motion free-fall lurches ahead towards a collapse of the Euro as a common currency and a diminishing of the EU as a political coalition -- both of which online financial commentators have been anticipating -- Wintour and Elliot observed that

A world recession has drawn closer after a fractious G20 summit failed to agree fresh financial help for distressed countries and debt-ridden Italy was forced to agree to the International Monetary Fund monitoring its austerity programme.

Financial markets fell sharply after the two days of talks in Cannes broke up in disarray, amid concerns that Italy will now replace Greece at the centre of Europe's deepening debt crisis.

UK hopes that the Germans would relent and allow the European Central Bank to become the lender of last resort for the euro were also dashed.

On a day of unremitting gloom and yet more market turbulence, the Greek prime minister, George Papandreou, won a late-night confidence vote in his parliament after making a speech in which he promised to start powersharing talks to form a caretaker coalition government...

In a sign that the spread of the debt crisis to Italy could break up the single currency, the [UK] chancellor, George Osborne, admitted the Treasury was undertaking crisis planning for a eurozone collapse.

There had been hopes that the G20 would agree to increase IMF resources by as much as $250B to more than $1T, but disagreements about the wisdom of it, structure, size and contributors to the fund left world leaders forced to pass the issue on to a meeting of G20 finance ministers next February...

Obama, under pressure from Congress, was deeply reluctant to contribute to an expansion of IMF funds... Admitting that he had been given a crash course in European politics, Obama urged Greek and Italian parliaments to take decisive action to control their deficits...

Berlusconi was summoned to a late-night hotel meeting with Merkel, Sarkozy, the IMF director general, Christine Lagarde, and Obama, where he was told that the IMF was to start monitoring to ensure tough austerity measures are implemented. The measures include changes to the labour market, pension reform and the sell-off of state-owned assets.

[French President Nicholas] Sarkozy denied that the demands on Berlusconi represented an IMF coup, saying: "We never wanted to change governments, either in Greece or in Italy. That is not our role, that is not our idea of democracy, but it's clear that there are rules in Europe and if you exonerate yourself from these rules you exclude yourself from Europe."

Berlusconi, facing defections from his own party, insisted he had invited the IMF to offer advice. Berlusconi said on Friday he had rejected an offer of funds from the IMF – "I don't think Italy needs that" – and said his country was more solid than France or the UK...

The EFSF has €440B ($608B) available to lend, of which roughly half is expected to be consumed by bailouts of Ireland, Portugal and Greece. Italy has nearly €2T [i.e., $2.36T US] in debt outstanding.

The European Central Bank has purchased Italian debt since August, but will not carry on doing so indefinitely. The need to bolster the EFSF has led the EU to pursue countries outside the euro zone with surplus cash, such as China [to purchase Italian treasury bonds and finance its debt].

David Randall, in the Sunday edition of the UK Independent, laid out these possible scenarios in the wake of the Cannes G20 conference:

Short term

George Papandreou, having survived a confidence vote on Friday night, must form a new coalition government. This could take about a week, but is already under threat from opposition party calls for snap elections.

Such a move would inevitably delay government approval of the terms of the country's latest international bailout package, worth €130bn. Without those funds, Greece will almost certainly default on its existing loans and go bankrupt next month.

Italy's borrowing costs remain unsustainably high, and the contagion effect of any further disasters in Greece could mean that Silvio Berlusconi will have to rethink turning down the offer of an IMF loan.

Medium term

If Greece is bankrupted, its membership of the euro must surely come to an end.

The cost of borrowing for other countries would soar, which would almost certainly lead to yet another banking crisis – only, this time, one with the potential to dwarf the catastrophic effects of the Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008.

Already it is unclear how Italy is going to refinance €300B [$336B US] next year, though the IMF is sending monitors to Rome to issue quarterly updates on the country's economic progress.

Spain will continue to slash public spending, particularly if, as expected, the PP opposition party wins this month's election. The party has promised to restore Spain's top credit rating, which will require the acceleration of spending cuts.

Long term

Eventually, France will have to stop providing so much money to the bailout funds. Its top credit rating would ultimately go, the consequence being that the European Financial Stability Facility [EFSF]'s lending capacity would fall by at least one-third.

If the rescue fund drops sharply, the worst-hit countries would lose much of the one source of funding that is keeping them afloat. Should confidence in the French economy fall, that would leave just the biggest, most important eurozone country left in the crosshairs of the crisis: Germany.

Jenga II (After Greece Comes Italy)

2011-11-04T07:01:00.000-07:00

Buffoono Berlusconi's Italy May Destroy The EU And The World Economy

Barry Ritholtz, October 31st; "Back Of The Envelope On Italy" (Some editing cleanup, because Barry uses word-recognition software to dictate many posts -- not that there's anything wrong with that -- and too, also, paragraphing):

REVISED: Here’s a back of the envelope calculation on Italy, highlighting the impact that a rise in financing costs coupled with a lack of growth can have on their finances.

Italy needs to refinance about 310b euros of debt in 2012. I estimate the average interest rate they are paying on this maturing debt is 2.7% (short term rates collapsed in ’09-’10). With an average debt maturity of 7 years, Italy may be paying 6%+ on the refinancing.

Assuming a 350 bps [3.5%] additional cost times the 310B Euros of maturing debt, this adds 10.9b euros of interest expense to the 54b euros of interest payments scheduled to be made in 2012. At the same time, Italy’s 2T[rillion Euro] economy is expected to grow REAL GDP 0.1% in 2012 and nominal around 3%.

Thus, nominally 60B euros will be added to their economy with all of the incremental gain thus going to service interest expense. This also doesn’t take into account any new debt Italy has to take on over and above what is maturing.

Over time, just to tread water, any country needs to generate nominal GDP growth equal to its financing costs. In the 10 years prior to the sharp ’08-’09 economic contraction, Italy saw nominal GDP growth of 3.7% (REAL averaged 1.3%), [which was] near its financing costs over that time period.

A continuation of nominal GDP growth of 3.5-4% (now mostly consisting of inflation) will no longer cut it for Italy with funding costs at current levels.

Short version: Without more economic growth, Italy's government cannot take in enough revenue to pay the costs of financing it's debt, meaning they have annual deficits, which add to the debt, which they cannot pay the costs of financing; etc.

Cullern Roche (of the blog, Seeking Alpha) noted: "As we know with Greece, growth is the key. If these nations [The PIGS: Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain] cannot grow their way out of this crisis, then they are doomed to deteriorating budgets. The worst part about the situation in Italy is that the growth outlook is the absolute worst of the major EMU nations and has been for a very long time."

So in a sense, even if Greece accepts the drastic medicine prescribed by the ECB, it doesn't solve the problem of Italy's inability to grow its economy -- and the so-called "reform" measures that clown Silvio! claims will work were literally thrown together over a weekend and presented by Berlusconi in a letter to the other EU leaders, who were appalled at Silvio's apparent nonchalance.

It's curious -- Berlusconi, an oversexed toad and greedy Oligarch, Italy's "Little Murdoch", has been the first politician in over fifty years to bring some stability to Italy's revolving-door government -- they've had to dissolve fifty governments in 50 years, because no one political party could build a coalition in their Parliament.

Berlusconi could, and did. And he came along -- as leaders of his type do -- just as the international economic engine began to run on Real-Estate-MBS and CDS gasoline (made in the USA). Times were good, and he seemed to hold out to Italians the promise of stable government, economic policies, and a better future.

As a result they let Silvio be Silvio!; the turned a blind eye to his personal life and financial dealings. When times were good, there was plenty of leeway for him to bunga bunga pretty ~~whores~~ women and preen in front of cameras, ridiculous in dyed hair and Botoxed smoothness. He alienated half of Europe as a corrupt businessman, and made the other half sick from laughter. But, then, Berlusconi was something Italy could afford.

But now, in a crisis, when real and decisive leadership is needed to create a coalition to save the EU and stabilize the collapse, Silvio can't cut it. He's vain, weak, and losing power even in the political party he runs like a private club. He's facing potential indictment for money-laundering and bribery; his 'coalition' in the Italian Parliament has dissolved -- weeks ago, his government barely survived a No-Confidence vote, which would have forced him to resign as Prime Minister. Italian lawmakers, seeing what's at stake, want him out even if the price is another round of revolving-door governments.

The best he can do is draw something on the back of an envelope (the source for Ritholtz's post title) and present it to the likes of Merkel and Sarzoky as a serious policy initiative, as he did recently. They weren't amused.

If Greece accepts the deal offered by the other EU countries, at best it's citizens can expect drastically lowered quality of living for a decade -- and then maybe, maybe their economy will return to 2008 levels, when the wheels were already beginning to pop off.

And the same is true for every other badly leveraged, deeply-in-trouble European nation, like Italy.

So, in a sense, even if Greece accepts the deal, there's Italy's mess. Then, if that can be 'solved', it will be someone else's mess -- Spain, perhaps, or even France, and the cycle begins again. We'll see bank bailout after hedge fund failure (MF Global, no?), with news that money has "just vanished" and no one can find hundreds of millions (a bit like the palettes of shrink-wrapped $100 bills shipped to Iraq in 2003, which "just vanished", too: Good Times).

We find ourselves back where we were a couple of months ago. Growth is critical -- if the EU economies don't grow, the cost of financing themselves (the interest on their treasury bonds) goes up, making borrowing difficult if not impossible. Really drastic action -- deficit spending to push the economies forward -- is imperative, but it won't happen on The Iron Lady or Sarkozy's watch. They're strapped to the Austerity Bandwagon, as it rolls straight downhill.

In the meantime, world markets will become more aware of the Recession (which we never crawled out of) growing worse in 2012 -- and as it does, more Austerity measures will kick in. Public services will close or be severely restricted. Banks will announce -- surprise! -- they were holding even more debt than we knew about. Consumer confidence will fall, and so will the markets.

We'll limp along into an uncertain future of scarcity, high unemployment and political instability, power shortages and a gap between The Elite Rich and The Rest Of Us that will astound you; we will resemble Tunisia, or Egypt, more than the United States, and the fact that we're a DINO (Democracy In Name Only) will become more apparent the farther out in time we proceed. And that's the best-case scenario.

We could, I suppose, always have another little war. But even that would do nothing more than raise tensions and shake up nations already living with levels of psychological uncertainty not seen since the height of the Cold War or WW2. It would provide only the most temporary stimulus to Western economies who are too diverse to depend on 'defense' spending to be the solution.

Worst-case, Greece or Italy or someone else implodes, the Eurozone unravels; and the world's banking and finance sector, corrupted and corrupting, holding on by its fingerprints, collapses in a matter of days and drags the international stock markets down with them. And the dark world I described earlier hits us, full force, and all at once. It will be quite a shock to lose generations of security and surety in the nature of things and people, that fast.

And, that's Jenga.

MEHR: In the aftermath of the G20 conference in Cannes, which failed to create additional IMF guarantees to bail out European TBTF banks and ~~temporarily~~ stop the domino-effect collapse of European sovereign debt, Silvio! continued his government's policy of "Laugh, Clown, Laugh!", oogling the Argentinian minister at the Cannes conference and brushing aside all criticism of his reign by saying Italy's economy was "just fine".

Jenga (Euro Edition)

2011-11-01T20:45:00.000-07:00

Random Barking

Late this past Sunday morning, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and the other 15 leaders of the Eurozone nations, announced that they had reached an agreement to build a framework to create a bailout for both Greece and 'troubled' European banks.

As announced, the agreement states that European banks holding Greek Sovereign debt must agree to a Fifty Per Cent loss on their investment. In addition, they must agree to increase their capitalization by 150-plus billion dollars. Some observers say thios does nothing to fix the structural problems presented by Europe's financial community, since the same sociopathic animals who pushed America and Europe into our current situation are still running the show, calling the shots, and in charge.

Frau Angela also wants to enshrine as policy in the new financial agreements that EU nations must, as a condition of participation, embrace Austerity measures which will be wonderful for banks, just a bump in the Road To More for the wealthy, and condemn everyone else to live with less: A triumph of globalism. Es Ist Alles Wurst.

This was not expected to go down well with the Greek people, who have been protesting and rioting over the Greek parliament's passionate embracing of Austerity as the way towards prosperity. It's a crock, and everyone knows it (except in Great Britain, and in Washington), but Greece's Prime Minister George Papandreou took the news about the EU/ECB getting closer to a bailout deal and made happy noises. His people, meanwhile, took to the streets.

Someone must have been listening: Yesterday, Papandreou announced that the government would host a plebecite by the Greek people -- an up-or-down vote on whether to accept the EU-ECB debt restructuring plan Merkel had announced would be ratified. The UK Guardian noted that

The decision by ...Papandreou to hold a plebiscite will – assuming the Greek government does not collapse in the meantime – mean at least two months of turmoil as the markets fret about the consequences of a no vote.

You don't need to be an economic or political genius to work out what the consequences could be: Greece would lose the bailout cash that has enabled the government to pay its bills; the banking system would collapse; the country would default and either leave or be kicked out of the single currency.

In a sense, this is good news, for the Greeks -- if they return to the Drachma as a currency, it will become incredibly inflated, but they'll pay off their sovereign debt with that same inflated currency and may even be able to return to something like normal levels of growth after a while.

For the EU, the good news is that Greece appears to be voluntarily providing a way for itself to voluntarily leave the common currency, rather than be booted out of the Eurozone altogether for defaulting on the loans made to Greece already.

The bad news, of course, overshadows any good news. The Euro will be put at risk; European banks will begin to tremble, and so will their counterparties among the U.S. and Asian banks. The Italians -- primarily due to the waffling and posturing of the Capo d'Buffoono Berlusconi -- may begin to crumble; ultimately, the Euro would have to be abandoned. That may cause another collapse of the banking structure, this time on a global scale.

And that's Jenga.

MEHR: Barry Ritholtz, who missed the train, mentions:

Here’s a little secret for ya: Greece has already defaulted on its debts. Anytime a creditor declares his intention to not pay back 100 cents on the dollar n a timely basis, it's effectively a default. We are kidding ourselves debating the differences between a 22% and 50% haircut — it's irrelevant to the question of solvency.

The best thing for the Greek people would be to leave the Euro, start printing Drachmas, and make Greek [sic] an inexpensive tourist destination for Europeans, Asians and Americans. Greek exports (olives, olive oil, cheese, lamb, etc.) would be even more competitively priced. Then the Europeans could focus on saving the economies that really matter — like Italy, and to a lesser degree Spain.

My advice for the Europeans: Stop trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again, and start moving forward, focusing on what matters.

Noch Eimal, Mit Schwein:

Yesterday, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou met with French President Nicholas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the G20 conference to explain: Was it a stroke or tertiary syphilis which prompted him to call for a referendum on a debt resolution deal (which Merkel and Sarkozy had worked so hard to broker) upon which rests the fate of European banks and the global economy and whether we will greet the End Of The World on the Mayan calendar in 2012 living in cardboard boxes under a freeway overpass while the armored limousines of Our Rich Elders and Betters roll by, or not.

Today, Papandreou announced there would be no referendum. It was unnecessary, now; Es war alles ein Traum, ein Cochemar; "Just Kidding!"

Why France and Germany Won't Let Greece Back Out (Chart: BBC)

... and the deal to force even more Austerity down the throats of the people will go through. European Banks can breathe easier.

Meanwhile, workers were seen removing a severed horse's head from the bedroom of Papandreou's hotel suite.

Und Noch Immer Mehr Mehr: I mentioned the 'Godfather' reference before The Great Curmudgeon got to it, for a change. Not that anyone else cares.

All That Glitters

2011-11-01T19:14:00.000-07:00

Glenny Loses His Luster

Santa Monica, CA - Goldline International, Inc. announced today that it is the exclusive precious metals sponsor of Glenn Beck's new GBTV Video Network, which launched on September 12.
-- Goldline Website, September 15, 2011

"I don't believe in paper gold [i.e., gold futures certificates] any more."
-- Little Glenny, Telling Listeners Why They
Should Purchase Gold Coins, From Goldline

From Mother Jones:

Goldline International, the California precious metals retailer promoted by Glenn Beck and other right-wing radio hosts, was formally charged with 19 criminal counts — including grand theft by false pretenses, false advertising, and conspiracy ... by the Santa Monica City Attorney's Office. The criminal complaint also implicates Goldline CEO Mark Albarian, along with two other company executives and two salespeople.

...Using aggressive telemarketing tactics, Goldline employees routinely pressured customers to purchase expensive coins with mark-ups so steep that it was very unlikely the consumer would ever make his money back. The company racked up a long list of complaints with the Federal Trade Commission, and at one point was sanctioned by the state of Missouri.

But Beck ... lent an air of legitimacy to the whole operation, sowing fears of a total economic collapse to help make the pitch for Swiss Francs. Beck's pitch went a step further, arguing that in the event of a total financial meltdown, the government would confiscate gold bullion—meaning you should invest your money in coins instead.

Hee hee hee hee hee hee.