The only consensus on budget cuts is that someone else ought to take the hit.
Wait, Wait: We won't know until Tuesday if the EU/ECB/IMF raid on Cypriot bank accounts prevails, or if the tiny nation defies the Germans and chooses to go belly up. Well, not quite – it's going to go belly up anyway, but the whole thing will lead to a new definition of group punishment and the quaint idea of property rights.
Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid: The US says it has to spend a few hundred billion dollars to defend the country against the threat from North Korea. When you're running out of wars, any war will do. Let's hear it for defense spending, defense spending!
Degrees: Obama wants to both expand the scope of the Authorization for Use of Military Force and make parts of the global war on terror “permanent procedures” to continue the US global campaign against real and imagined threats. Obama's reign is accelerating the use of secrecy, repression, warrantless eavesdropping and indefinite detention, plus establishing and extending presidential assassination powers. Good thing the terrorist didn't destroy our way of life.
Family Man: John Boehner, speaking for the new gentler friendlier GOP, says that he would not change his opposition to same-sex marriage even if he were to have a gay child.
New World Orders: The IMF has told the Eurozone nations that they must abandon national sovereignty and move toward a transnational system that can decide when and how to extract wealth from taxpayers without the encumbrances of political processes. The new Single Supervisory Mechanism should, the IMF said, regulate all banks in not just the Eurozone, but the entire EU. And it urged adoption of an EU banking union under which the citizens of all EU nations would be jointly responsible for bailing out banks and their investors, bondholders, and account holders in any Eurozone country. And no, they did not suggest this be accomplished via any democratic process. And this was before the troika decided to punish Peter (Cyprus) to teach Paul (Russian oligarchs) a lesson.
The Future Is Overrated: The future is already here--it is just not evenly distributed.
Testing, Testing: The University of Tennessee is going to undertake fracking in the Cumberland State Forest, saying that contaminating the pristine 8,000 acres will allow them identify the environmental impact of the drilling. Plus, they say, it could generate enough money to pay to fix the environmental damage the experiment causes. Win-win.
Stop & Go: A US judge, misunderstanding the nature of our brave new 24/7 monitored world, has ordered the FBI to stop its "pervasive" use of National Security letters to snoop on phone and email records, ruling that the widespread tactic was unconstitutional. The government solution will be to get the same information from NSA (the elephant in the room), which doesn't bother with such niceties as warrants and notifications.
Jobs Jobs Jobs: It's the job of the future! A real growth opportunity awaits you in the home health care profession. Average wage is $9.70 an hour, plus food stamps and eligibility for the same Medicaid your clients are getting. Plus there's the possibility of long hours and unpaid overtime, and most certainly no benefits whatsoever. Apply today, especially if you are a minority female – we want to entrust our mothers and fathers to your willing hands.
Bonehead: House Speaker John Boehner, in the spirit of public service, says that “The talk about raising revenue is over” and there is no chance of raising taxes. On anyone. Presumably forever. And that efforts to find a compromise solution are “over”, while he admits, "We do not have an immediate debt crisis.” But he thinks talking about it may give him an opportunity to cut entitlement programs.
Porn O'Graph: Ah, there's the difficulty.
The Parting Shot:
4 comments:
Regarding that IMF plan to make all EU citizens responsible for bailing out all their banks, next they'll be wanting to make all the citizens of the world responsible for bailing out all banks. Since we already have our own version of this plan working here in the US, they can just follow our model.
I see that spring has sprung in your neck of the woods! The parting shot is nearly as much of a draw as the pithy commentary. Thanks again for both!
Yes, the early small white pioneers are here in abundance. Today's guests are Virginia Spring Beauties, Claytonia virginica. In a week or so we should start seeing the Trout Lillies...
BE AFRAID - talk about bilking the national treasury, those are the interceptors that don't intercept very well. If there was an easy trillion to cut out of wasteful defense spending, this entire ABM complex should have been ground zero.
And then there happens to be the latest whiz-bang, gee-gaw,shiney boom-boom, F35. It will make the F22 look like an economy car in comparison. I've said it before, it's like they have given up any pretense of trying to do the jobs they were elected for.
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