Saturday, February 9, 2013

SAR #13040

If I do not understand your argument, is the problem with me or you? Demetrius

Austerity Are EU: European Union leaders have agreed to cut €34.4billionn from the next seven-year budget. The UK's David Cameron, having destroyed the British economy and Government budgets with his love of austerity, is delirious. But then he has been for some time. This is probably only a symbolic victory and lots of dissension is expected from France and the other victims.

Exception: The Republicans have added a footnote to their anti-Keynesian stance: Government spending kills job creation except for defense spending, which – unlike all other government spending - creates hundreds of thousands of jobs directly and millions of jobs indirectly and thus is untouchable.

Big Dog in the Neighborhood: Turkey's Prime Minster says that he understands the US opposition, but views Turkey's ongoing trade with the Kurds in northern Iraq is legal, important, and continuing. The folks in Baghdad aren't too pleased, either.

How's Investments? Both the number and the percentage of houses purchased for cash (no mortgage) have hit record levels. In California, over 55%; in Orlando 53%, Miami 45%, Phoenix 46%, Tucson 34%, Sacramento 34% and so on. This is way more than double the pre-crash ratio. Something's recovering, but it isn't the housing market.

Once & Future War: The residents of Fallujah are holding weekly demonstrations protesting the central Iraqi government. [Extra credit if you can insert Sunni and Shia in their proper places.] In Pakistan, 74% of the people say the US is “the enemy”. Can't fool everyone all the while, especially from a drone.

Want Fries With That? At least 80% of all antibiotics sold in the US are used to keep meat and poultry safe for human consumption. One side effect is that bacteria such as Salmonella are building up resistance to one or more antibiotics. Think about that when you bite into your next hamburger.

Don't Look Now: George-43 seems to be hard up for models.

Rings of Unemployment: Four out of five Americans know relatives or family friends who were laid off during the recession, if they weren't part of the 23% who were laid off themselves, and 26% had a family member lose a job. Forty percent of us have lent (sic) money to unemployed family or friends.

Biting the Hand: Fatih Biro, Chief Economist for the International Energy Agency – which makes its living from the fossil fuel industry – says that fossil fuel subsidies “are public enemy number one.” The $500 billion that fossil fuels rake in from subsidies world-wide each year make is difficult, if not impossible, for clean alternatives to compete.

Follow The Money: The impetus behind the Keystone XL pipeline can be traced to the Koch brothers, who stand to save $2 billion a year replacing their current Venezuelan imports with cheaper (and dirtier) crude from Canada's tar sands. It's win-win for Washington: they approve the pipeline and get Koch approval (spelled 'donations') and at the same time they are giving government help to the Koch boys (capitalistic socialism), they get to take a jab at the socialists in Venezuela.

Winners/Spoils: The NC senate has passed a bill firing all of the members of the state's regulatory commissions – Utilities, Coastal Resources, Environmental Management and the other leftie agencies. They're not doing away with the commissions, just clearing out the liberals so politically correct business-friendly pols can replace them. What are friends for?

Porn O'Graph: Stamping on job growth.

The Parting Shot:

130209

4 comments:

mistah charley, ph.d. said...

re Want fries with that? - Avoiding eating antibiotics (and bacterial contamination, also too) is just among the good reasons for going plant-based - see the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, pcrm.org

Charles Kingsley Michaelson, III said...

Best I can tell, we humans were originally designed to eat meat and supplement our protein intake with nuts and berries. Nobody on the design team ever thought we'd need to eat spinach or arugula. Or broccoli.

mistah charley, ph.d. said...

For more info on this controversial topic, you could see John McDougall, MD's book The Starch Solution: Eat the Foods You Love, Regain Your Health, and Lose the Weight for Good!


One blurb: "The option is pretty simple. Meat and potatoes and later angioplasty and bypass or a plant-based (starch diet) and medicine-less and procedure-less health and happiness. The 12th McDougall book shows the way. It is highly recommended."
–William C. Roberts, MD, Editor in chief, The American Journal of Cardiology, Executive Director, Baylor Heart and Vascular Institute, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas

tulsatime said...

Resistant strains of you name it may have the upper hand in the population race. We keep narrowing the gene base as we go, and the tipping point could be much closer than thought. Climate is going off the stable list, and the infrastructure damage will drain the last flexibility from world economy.

Welcome back to those old school performers, The Four Hoursemen! I'll have to admit that I have a warm spot for plague, the most reduced of the old timers.