December 2009 archive

We are halfway through a story that is about to turn winter in one of the most beautiful places in the world profoundly ugly.

Just like in a Cecil B. DeMille movie, we have a cast of millions, we have epic scenery, and we have made acquaintance with someone who will go on to perform a heroic act.

Unlike your typical Hollywood production, however, this movie is not going to have a happy ending-in fact, you could make the argument that it’s not over yet.

So wrap yourself up in something comfortable, grab something to drink…and when you’re ready, we’re packing up and heading to the Alps.

  Events are rapidly coming to a head in Greece, and the consequences could ripple through all of Europe.

 Leading Greek economists and bankers yesterday warned George Papandreou, prime minister, that he had to announce bold initiatives to rescue the country’s collapsing bond market and avert the possibility of defaulting on a rising public debt.

…

 Yannis Stournaras, an Athens University economics professor and former chief adviser at the finance ministry, said: “Other countries in trouble have already taken measures. If we don’t quickly follow suit the adjustment will be imposed by markets and it will be violent.”

 How violent? Maybe not as violent as the protests in the streets of Athens. Already there are student, pensioner, and public worker protests and strikes. Remember that the current government is only two-months old, after the old government nearly collapsed under the pressure from street riots.

  This puts the current government in an extremely difficult situation. The public debt is set to rise next year to 124 per cent of GDP, with a fiscal deficit of over 12%. Meanwhile, the public pension fund is expected to go into the red as early as 2011. The fiscal squeeze requires draconian cuts, but the public workers of Greece are not a wealthy group. They will have no choice but to turn out into the streets en mass.

  Premier George Papandreou recognizes that.

 “Salaried workers will not pay for this situation: we will not proceed with wage freezes or cuts. We did not come to power to tear down the social state,” he said.

  The mayor of Kabul was back at his desk the day after was sentenced to four years for corruption. Afghanistan is awash in only one kind of money these days – drug money.

  One of the poorest nations on Earth exports $10 million every day in drug money, most of it right out of Kabul airport, and the world’s bankers are hooked on it like junkies. In fact, this drug money probably did more to save the world’s banking system than all the government bailouts.

 Drugs money worth billions of dollars kept the financial system afloat at the height of the global crisis, the United Nations’ drugs and crime tsar has told the Observer.

  Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said he has seen evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were “the only liquid investment capital” available to some banks on the brink of collapse last year. He said that a majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs profits was absorbed into the economic system as a result.

Burning the Midnight Oil for Living Energy Independence

Last year, I told VP Joe Biden about the Sustainable Electric High(er) Speed Rail I wanted for Christmas (cf. links below). It involved electrifying the 30,000+ miles of STRACNET, and establishing 100mph Rapid Freight Rail paths, including support for running 110mph or 125mph long haul electric passenger services on the Rapid Freight paths.

In short, I wanted Joe Biden to take Alan Drake’s plan and just fracking DO it.

I didn’t get it for Christmas last year – but then, I guess he was only VP-elect last 25DEC08. The post today is to look at the progress toward the goal. The answer, surprisingly, is that we have made substantial progress. Certainly we are not halfway there, yet, but we are much further along than I expected to see.

The wily liberals finally come clean on Obama and their own damn selves:

You didn’t really expect hope and change, did you?

Shorter Brad “Ich bin der Prozess” @Sadly, No!:

Barack Obama’s failings are OUR fault!

As the realizations begin sinking in, the excuses for Barack Obama’s loathsome and herculean efforts to prop up the status quo of the ruling class at all costs-and I do mean ALL COSTS, human and financial–are variegated and mind-numbing.  Not to mention schtupid and counterproductive.

Taibbi’s spanking the President on his massively corrupt Wall Street bail-out should cause the man to resign in disgrace.  Immediately.  Taxpayers could be on the hook for $24 trillion in gambling losses?  With no percentage in any upside, strong anti-reform measures, and potentially on the hook for further, ongoing, crippling gambling losses?  While we lose our livelihoods, homes, pensions, public services, AND get shafted on mandated private health insurance?  Maybe Brad fundamentally disagrees with Taibbi’s painfully accurate assessment of the President:

I basically agree with everything the guy says

Leider, nein.    Like many others, Brad is just relieved that Obama is not the second coming of Dick Cheney or Anton Chigur.  And that’s good enough for him.  I guess he’s still got his job.  And his home.  And his health insurance.  Your expecting anything more than not expanding torture to a mall near you  is not really Obama’s fault.  It’s our fault.  For reading the man’s signals wrong.

At the end of his Rolling Stone article, Taibbi asks

What’s most troubling is that we don’t know if Obama has changed, or if the influence of Wall Street is simply a fundamental and ineradicable element of our electoral system. What we do know is that Barack Obama pulled a bait-and-switch on us. If it were any other politician, we wouldn’t be surprised. Maybe it’s our fault, for thinking he was different.

To which Brad aka Joseph K “I am one who is on trial here!” responds:

Well, yeah, it sort of is.

Now I get what Obama really meant by “The Audacity of Hope,” subtitled, “The Recklessness.”    

I suppose the evisceration of Nuremberg is my fault too.  And torture.  And lying about Afghanistan.  While accepting a peace prize.   Well, yeah, maybe I should go to jail for abetting war crimes.  Can anyone tell me what is the procedure for prosecuting myself?   The rules are kind of opaque around here anymore.  A little help?  Anyone?  Please?

You didn’t really expect hope and change, did you?

Sadly, yes.

By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.

Franz Kafka

We have another one of those “amazing history” stories for you today-and this one’s a real doozy.

We’re going to spend the better part of four years in the Italian Alps (or, to be more accurate, what was intended to be the Italian Alps), and by the time we’re done, nearly 400,000 soldiers will have been killed-and 60,000 of those will have died as a result of avalanches that were set by one side or the other.

In the middle of the story: a mountaineer and soldier who was so highly regarded that even those who fought against him accorded him the highest honors they could muster, creating a legend that lives on to this very day.

And even though a young Captain Erwin Rommel fought in these battles…it’s not him.

Oh, by the way: did I mention that there are also some handy object lessons for anyone who might be thinking about fighting a war in Afghanistan?

Well, there are, Gentle Reader, so follow along, and let’s all learn something today.