Tuesday, November 30, 2010

SAR #10335

This too shall pass, faster than you might imagine.

Superficial:  Taking his cue from the failed and failing in Europe – and their IMF/Bankster masters, not to mention the GOP and Goldman Sacs - President Obama, in a transparently cynical gesture, proposed a two-year freeze of the salaries of all civilian federal workers – about 2 million workers.  The proposal, which must be approved by Congress, will save the equivalent of a handful of drone attacks on weddings in Pakistan, take the US another step further in the global 'race to the bottom' in wages by setting a standard Big Business will eagerly match, and save $7 billion over two years.  That's all of 0.1% of federal spending.  By the way, how are Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Portugal etc. doing with that austerity thing?

If/Then:   If an increase in oil consumption indicates an increase in economic activity, then we're in luck.  In September, US oil demand was up nearly 5% y/y.

Place Your Bets:  After the next warm-up bout between the politicians and the bankers – in Portugal – the main match will play out in Spain. My money's on the bankers.

Motive, Means, Opportunity:  A bomb in Tehran killed one Iranian nuclear scientist and wounded another.  Hmm.  Qui bono?

Spot Spotted:  A sizable portion of the 4 million barrels of BP's oil that went astray last summer has ended up in globs on the ocean floor – not harmlessly dispersed as the upbeat would have you believe.

Heresy:  David Stockman, Reagan's budget director, says that the two pillars of current GOP theology – that tax cuts for the richest are necessary and that tax cuts will miraculously pay for themselves – are hokum.  He claimed that the latest Bush administration had destroyed “the last vestige of fiscal responsibility that we had in the Republican Party.”

Worst Case Worser:  Once upon a time, two years ago, there was hope that eventual climate warming might be limited to 2º C by 2100.   Now it is routinely accepted that a rise of 4º C (7.2º F) is inevitable by 2060.  A legacy for my grandaughters.

Quoted:  “My only fear in life, when it comes to money, is what’s happening in the United States of America.  The American dream is dead for the majority of America.  The middle class has disappeared.  We have a highway to poverty and no roads coming out.”  Suzi Orman, financial guru.

Porn O'Graph:  Building the bulge.

5 comments:

SPECTRE of Deflation said...

"Superficial: Taking his cue from the failed and failing in Europe – and their IMF/Bankster masters, not to mention the GOP and Goldman Sacs - President Obama, in a transparently cynical gesture, proposed a two-year freeze of the salaries of all civilian federal workers – about 2 million workers. The proposal, which must be approved by Congress, will save the equivalent of a handful of drone attacks on weddings in Pakistan, take the US another step further in the global 'race to the bottom' in wages by setting a standard Big Business will eagerly match, and save $7 billion over two years. That's all of 0.1% of federal spending. By the way, how are Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Portugal etc. doing with that austerity thing?"

This is the least of their problems. Just wait until they take everyone's retirement to square the books for the bankers. Don't think it can happen here? Tell that to France, Hungary, Argentina etc. ect. Also, these unproductive govt. drones already make way more than their private counterparts. They are rich, and we should tax the living shit out of them. There, now I feel like a real progressive.

SPECTRE of Deflation said...

"Apocalypse Now: By the time you put all the pieces together, you'll see that the latest terrorist attack in the US was instigated by the FBI, planned by the FBI, the bomb was designed by the FBI and the components delivered to the designated patsy by the FBI. True, the accused seems to have wanted to do something, but he doesn't seem to have been allowed much free will in the matter. Ah, I love the smell of entrapment in the morning."

In order to trap something you must set the trap along the path that the evil creature takes. You can't trap an animal if it doesn't follow the the rules set by the trapper in placing the trap. It was a Muslim of course from the religion of peace chronicles. So many chapters where they have killed and maimed in the name of their former Sun God Allah.

Dave Cohen said...

It is not "routinely accepted" that global surface temperatures will rise 4 degrees C by 2060. That's pure speculation. I wish I had a dollar for every time somebody said "this disaster COULD happen..."

And you can't talk about both future shortages of fossil fuels (e.g. peak oil or coal) as you routinely do AND say we'll get 4 degrees C of warming by 2060 (unless we get some hellacious positive feedbacks).

Just letting you know in the interests of consistency and coherency.

Charles Kingsley Michaelson, III said...

Yeah, we ought to pick a form of suicide and stick with it. but did anybody ever say that we couldn't do both? Burn up all the fossil fuels and suffer significant if not quite disastrous climate warming?

For sure we are going to burn up all the fossil fuels. Whether that gets us to 6C or only 4C seems academic.

SPECTRE of Deflation said...

Global Warning is pure BS manufactured in order to create a Carbon Market that would make the fat cats even fatter, and all in the name of saving the sheeple while they actually sheer them constantly. Here's a clue. That big yellow ball in the sky and dramatic geological changes to our planet have everything to do with warming and cooling. What we don't know is incredible so we wing it with pure BS.

PS: They were right in the 1970s, and we may all need to pump as much CO2 into the atmosphere as possible in order for our sorry asses not to be frozen solid like a popsicle stored at absolute zero.