Wednesday, January 13, 2016

SAR #16013


Too much change may result in going in circles.
If Only: Putin says Russia has no interest in the costly and meaningless role of 'superpower'. What if the US admitted that Iran has not attacked the US and is most unlikely to do so, and then decided that there were damned few places in the world where removing US troops (and drones) would harm US interests. Note that we're talking US and business interests, if those are separable.
Blame The Other Guy: Reports regularly claim that China's slowdown is responsible for the financial mayhem spilling across the world's economies. The Fed? Wall Street? Hey, we didn't do nothing and besides the contagion won't spread to our markets...
Entrails: The second largest US coal mining company, Arch Coal, has filed for bankruptcy. Because oil...
Blue Booties: In Virginia the GOP has introduced a bill that would require teachers to examine a child's genitals before letting them go to the potty, to make sure they used a restroom of their “correct anatomical sex.” Is this covered in basic teacher training courses?
Dream On: China says it will end the use of coal in the city of Beijing and surrounding areas by 2020 in hopes of making the place livable. They plan on switching to gas or non-coal-fired electricity for heating.
Claws and Effect: Reports suggest that the FBI is aggressively investigating possible corruption between 'donations' to the Clinton Foundation and the awarding of certain Clinton State Department contracts because they were embarrassed by how lightly former CIA Director David Petraeus got off. That's what Bernie was talking about when he said Hillary was in “serious trouble.”
Immunity/Impunity: Five of eleven former Deutsche Bank, Barclays and Societe Generale bankers charged with manipulating the Euribor interest rate failed to show up for their trial. When was the last time you didn't show up for your trial?
The Little Engine That Didn't: Bank of America, noting that railroad car-loadings dropped the most in six years last year and don't look good for this year, suggested that this “may be signaling a warning for the broader economy." They also cautioned that over the last 30 years such declines in car-loadings “ preceded, or were accompanied by, an economic slowdown.”
The Parting Shot:

3 comments:

Gegner said...

[Headline:] Methinks the circular pattern is intentional. As long as commerce continues to 'feed' the top of the theft chain all is well as far as the criminals in control are concerned.

Didn't watch the SOTU last night, partly because these annual reports are usually so divorced from reality that is kind of like watching the Clinton/Sanders campaign [with Hillary being way 'out of touch']

But the more pressing question is 'change..change what?' I'd opine we all have our 'vision' of what change would look like and matchups would only occur in the broadest of strokes.

Increasing is popularity is 'not this!' but there's hardly a consensus on what constitutes 'this'...

Perhaps the saddest realization is USA is the OLDEST standing government on the planet [everyone else, bar none, has had a revolt since 1776] So it's more than a little ironic that the only 'point of agreement' is an alleged 'return' to some mystical 'original intent' of the founders...people who are VERY different from who we are here and now.

Removing the rose-colored glasses we'd see that there was a lot more 'Adam Smith' than Plato behind the founder's 'original intent'. One of our first legal precedents for non-prosecution of 'well intentioned' criminals is how many of the founders were later involved in land swindles/grabs.

Then there is John Jay, the 'framer' of our current judicial system...famously but for some reason not widely quoted as having opined 'Let those who own the land, rule the land'...why is that a bad thing to be linked to the guy we let model our justice system?

Well, let's see how that turned out...take a good look.

kwark said...

RE "If Only": Closing US military bases around the world will happen when 1) operating those bases is no longer insanely profitable for US corporations and 2) we end foreign policies that incite hatred and support tyrants. Don't hold your breath.

RE "Blue Booties": The unintended subtext being. . . "Closet pedophiles have we got a job for you"! I can see the lawyers lining-up now for the bonanza of suits that are certain to follow this sort of thing should it become law. Across the country the GOP shoots itself in the foot like this so often that nowadays no one seems to take notice of the thoughtless stupidity it demonstrates.

Anonymous said...

Adam Smith vs. Plato and Madison vs. Plato

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs_xQ9d_IsQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGfFXc0TwhU

A system designed to give just enough to prevent revolt, except when one part of the 0.1% didn't want to give up one form of slavery for another.