SAR #12324

Yes, the US will become energy independent, but you're not going to like it.

Strategy and Tactics: At least 100 Palestinians, over half civilians and many children, have now been killed, and 840 injured as Israel undertakes to “flatten entire neighborhoods in Gaza. Flatten all of Gaza.” A majority of the city's 1.7 million residents are under 18, and all the Palestinians are guilty of is wanting to be treated as equals in their own land.

Slogan: “To reduce inequality, tax wealth, not income.”

Echo: Nearly 11% of Spanish banks' loans are in arrears, which amounts to about €182.2 billion, while bank deposits have declined 7.3% from a year ago. For scale, the bailout discussed for Spanish banks only comes to €100 billion, which is not going to save the bacon. The Spanish government continues to pretend that they need only €40 billion to cover the banks' capital shortfalls. Don't worry, be happy.

Only The Shadow Knows: The shadow – for which read unregulated - banking industry amounts to some $67 trillion. Is that enough to tip over the wagon? You betcha. Should it be regulated and supervised? You betcha. Are the politicians about to do so? Nah.

Escalation: If 2ºC didn't scare you, why does the World Bank think that describing a 4ºC world will have any effect? It's way past the day after next week, which is so yesterday, right? So what's next? More denial, of course.

Tribalism: The consensus, except for Mitt's view, is that 'identity politics' carried the day for Obama. It wasn't the economy. It wasn't the big-PAC money. Those who identify with Obama and the “we're in this together” Democratic tradition outnumbered the insecure and frightened white males. Case closed.

Your Defense Dollars At Work: Honeywell, a major defense contractor, is circulating a Do It Yourself kit telling others how to cozy up to the Obama administration in order to “break up union cohesion across the country.”

That Old Time Religion: Remember when the Heritage Foundation assured us that the Bush tax cuts would completely pay off the nation's debt by 2010.

Another Damned Thing: The private equity people are maneuvering to profit from privatizing the nation's water supplies. While there is a strongly negative public opinion about it, the vultures think that the increased need for revenues by municipalities and the cost of modernizing our decaying water infrastructure means that “the time is ripe” to pluck the low-hanging fruit.

I'll Gladly Pay You... Fannie and Freddie have borrowed $140 billion from the US taxpayer, and have no plan to explain how they might ever repay the money. Wasn't that generous of you?

Cautionary Tale: Teaching point: Petroleum producing companies only export the oil they don't use themselves. With that in mind, it is... interesting? .. that Saudi Arabia, having said it would rely on natural gas for power generation, now admits that last summer it burned more oil than ever before to produce the electricity to make life in the country tolerable. With Saudi population growth, this does not bode well for those on the far end of the supply chain. Like us.

Porn O'Graph: Homes, for the holidays.

The Parting Shot:

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Flashback.