SAR #13078

“Even if they get away with it, it sows the seeds of future dissolution.” Yves Smith on the Cypriot confiscations.

It Is Not About Cyprus: All politics is local. Frau Merkel is mot nearly as interested in confiscating Cypriot's savings as she is in being re-elected and to do that, she has to make the voters believe that Germany is not footing the bill for the bailout. Some members of Merkel's Christian Democratic - Free Democrat coalition oppose bailouts, so she had to make it look like Cyprus was being punished.

Motivation: On the Sunday talk shows both John Boehner and Paul Ryan admitted that there is no debt nor deficit crisis and acknowledged that they pretend there is so they can make the poor suffer the way God intended them to.

Blame Game: EU officials say that it was Anastasiades who insisted that the small depositors in Cypriot banks be “taxed” to support Frau Merkel's re-election, in order to protect the wealthy depositors and keep taking in the Russian laundry.  Has a certain truthful ring, doesn't it?

Headline Headline: 'Republicans Foil What Majority Wants by Gerrymandering.' Or democracy as a winner-takes-all undertaking.

Either/Or: The UN wants to bring electricity into the lives of the 1.3 billion folks who currently have none. The UN also wants to cut back on fossil fuel emissions in order to limit global warming to less than 2°C. Can't do both, probably won't do either.

Essay Question: Without using the word 'privatize', explain why Congress is making the Postal Service 'pre-fund' 75 years of its retiree health care costs (ie providing funds for the retirement health care of people that are not old enough to work for the USPS yet) in 10 years. You can note that the USPS would have made $100 million in profit in the last quarter of 2012 without this ridiculous burden.

Get A Life: Roy Blunt (Repulsive-MO) will place a hold on Gina McCarthy's nomination to head the EPA. He's got nothing against her, he just wants to harass the EPA for the amusement of his contributors. The 'hold' is another of the dysfunctional procedural rules that let the minority stymie the will of the people.

Lying For Fun And Profit: Dominican Republic police have confirmed that the three women who accused Senator Menendez of patronizing underage hookers have admitted they were paid to make these false claims. It'll be interesting to track the money back to some political figures. CNN, which featured dozens of stories based on these fabrications has, to date, not acknowledged the error or their eager gullibility.

A Little Off The Top:God's spokesman Pat Robertson says that if bankrupt families will send him “just $20 a month” he'll square it with God and they can still be 'partners' in his fleecing of the gullible ministry.

Defined, Refined: Capitalism, in contemporary use, is a term used to describe systems in which there are no capitalists. Democracy, in the current vocabulary, describes a a form of plutocracy in which the public will is routinely ignored. In the current system it is of extreme importance that we not be misled by science, rationality and an knowledge or reality. The goal is short-term gains and damn the consequences.

The Parting Shot: