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Saturday, July 23, 2011

Michael Hudson: GOP Cries Wolf on Debt Ceiling In Order To Impose Radical Pro-Rich Agenda

I recommend Hudson's book, Super Imperialism. It made quite an impression on me in my younger days.

And here's an even more revealing interview with him which I posted a week ago, it's worth another listen.

Guns and Butter - July 13, 2011 at 1:00pm

Click to listen (or download)

Gang Rape Of Greece Update: Ratings Agencies Induce Coma

The Big Three ratings agencies Fitch, Moody's, and S&P, are owned and/or dominated by the big banks. They would not be hastening Greece's demise if the banks were trying to keep that country afloat.

Let's call this what it is--predation.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/22/us-eurozone-idUSTRE76I5X620110722?feedType=nl&feedName=usmorningdigest

Counterrevolution Alert: Egypt’s SCAF accuses youth movement of “suspiscious plan”

Here we go.

CAIRO: Egypt’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) accused the 6th of April youth movement of having a “suspicious plan” to weaken Egypt’s stability and “drive a wedge between the people and the armed forces,” an Army statement read, shortly following a march to the military headquarters.

http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?p=37159

Staffer Matt Stoller: Dodd-Frank Made No Structural Changes to Banking System

I was a staffer on the Dodd-Frank legislative package, and the whole process seemed odd from the very beginning. There was no attempt initially to ask the question, “what happened and what should we do about it?” There was no examination of the purpose of a banking system, and how to rebuild a system that aligns the public with the financial industry. There was no attempt to build legitimacy through a public education campaign about what Congress and the administration was doing, and why. Instead, legislators and very serious men in suits started throwing around terms like “systemic risk regulator” and “resolution authority”, and then used the idea of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as a palliative for liberals.

Gee, no kidding.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/07/matt-stoller-dodd-frank-made-no-structural-changes-to-banking-system.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

A Report from Greece: 25 Year Sentence For "Agitation"

The mood is tense and people are very unhappy with what’s happening to their country. From what i can tell, only the extreme heat is preventing people from turning out in large numbers to protest the extremely unpopular sell-off of Greek assets to save the banks. Strikes are being planned and one Greek-Canadian businessman friend left the country in a hurry yesterday for fear of being trapped here. Look for the situation to intensify in September.

The authorities here are nervous, to say the least. The young son of my host’s close friends was sentenced two days ago to 25 years in prison for agitation. He was hardly a radical – he was a promising student of naval architecture at the Athens Technical University. Examples are being set.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/07/a-report-from-greece.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

Should You Get Only $7000 if Wells Stole Your House?

If you are a too big to fail bank like Wells Fargo, the wages of crime look awfully good. RIp off as many as 10,000 people to the point where they lose their homes and your good friend the Fed will let you off the hook for somewhere between $1000 and $20,000 per house. And as we’ll discuss in due course, this deal isn’t just bad for the abused homeowners, it’s also bad for investors and sets a terrible precedent, which means its impact extends well beyond the perhaps 10,000 immediate casualties.

Oh, and how much does the Fed think you should be paid if you were foreclosed upon thanks to Wells? Per the settlement document:

if, primarily as a result of the additional payment obligation on the loan resulting from the altered or falsified documents, on or before the date of this Order, the borrower’s home was foreclosed on or the borrower sold the home in a short sale, Administrator A shall provide an additional amount up to $7,000 in appropriate remedial compensation to reimburse the borrower for any expenses attributable to the foreclosure or short sale;

There's a word for this--plutocracy.

Once again, George Carlin:

THEY OWN YOU!

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/07/should-you-get-only-7000-if-a-bank-steals-your-house.html

Get Ready for TARP 2.0

Yep, they ain't done yet.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/07/get-ready-for-tarp-2-0.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

Arrivederci, Water Profiteers

Why 96 percent of Italian voters rejected their government’s push for water privatization.

http://inteldaily.com/2011/07/arrivederci-water-profiteers/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+inteldaily%2Ffeeds+%28Inteldaily.com%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

Oslo Update

Here's a linik to some useful information. What it purports is open to conjecture.

http://inteldaily.com/2011/07/norway-bombing-and-shootin/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+inteldaily%2Ffeeds+%28Inteldaily.com%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

While Breivik is being blamed for this it is important that we remember that a jihadi organization, be it a real one (if there are any) or a Western psy-op, took credit for the attacks.

The latest speculation is that he is a conservative angry with his government's "liberal" immigration policies. This makes sense vis-a-vis the building bombing, but renders the shootings more than a little anachronistic.

The important thing to remember is that we are getting faulty information from well-meaning sources, and from disinformationists who may not be responsible for the incident but will try to spin it to their favor. Caveat emptor.

Fighting the minerals-petroleum-coal complex’s wealth

This article goes into some detail about who owns what and where etc., which perhaps doesn't make for scintillating reading. But it does a good job of highlighting facts which lead to one conclusion: The environmental problem cannot be solved so long as capitalism prevails.

PS Anglo-American was, and presumably still is, owned in large part by the Rothschilds.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/75042

Short Documentary About Los Indignados

If nothing else you might pick up some Catalan.

Recent Protests In Barcelona

Hey, Labor Wins One For A Change

Metal Strike Ends in South Africa with Exemplary 3-Year Contract

http://www.icem.org/en/25-Sub-Saharan-Africa/4547-Metal-Strike-Ends-in-South-Africa-with-Exemplary-3-Year-Contract

The Reactionary Press' War On Trade Unions, The Seattle Potlatch Riots Of 1913

Worth a look.

http://radsearem.wordpress.com/2011/07/17/july-17-1913-the-potlatch-riots/

Improvements at Metro? We’ll See!

Here's a link to Maria Tomchik's article with my response below: I want to make it clear that i do not blame Metro for the problems detailed below. The management is reacting to the collapse of their consumption-tax-driven revenues.

http://www.eatthestate.org/improvements-at-metro-well-see-3/comment-page-1/#comment-1343

"Crowded buses are one thing. Buses that run chronically late (when they bother to show up at all) is another."

The buses that run chronically late are the ones which run most frequently. Such routes serve areas where demand is high, and it is so because of density inthat area or one through which these routes pass. It is not possible for W. Seattle or UD buses to run on time consistently due to the logistics. And it is extraordinarily rare when Metro blows a run. It happens, but very infrequently. Most importantly, it is never because Metro doesn't "bother." You will find among bus drivers the same range of personalities one finds in the general public. If you look hard enough, you will find apathetic drivers, but again it is unusual. Metro management is anything but cavalier when it comes to covering runs. We get recruited, sometimes aggressively, over our communications systems whenever a bus goes down and a run need covering.

"Metro’s on-time record for its in-city routes has become abysmal."

When last I looked we were number three in the nation with an 87pc efficiency rating. The only thing abysmal about metro is the tired commentary it elicits from whiny critics.

"There is no excuse for making passengers stand for more than half an hour in the downtown bus tunnel at 7 pm waiting for a bus to the University District; yet this is becoming a common occurrence—and these are the most frequently travelled routes in the entire system."

First, whether they are in the tunnel or on the surface is of no consequence, the driver still has to get to there. It is an advantage yes, but Mariner and other problems in the south, and Stewart in the north can back up sand do.

At 7pm there should be a bus to the UD every 15 minutes or more often. It is extremely rare to wait 30 minutes for a bus at that hour, and shame on Maria for saying otherwise.

And again, it is because they are frequently traveled routes that they run in a less timely manner. The bus headed out to the UD likely came in from there at about 6;30 or so. That means all surface roads until Convention Place.

"It’s also common to stand in the bus tunnel for long periods of time (20 to 40 minutes) with no buses arriving at all, but plenty of empty light-rail trains at seven minute intervals."

The hell it is! I drive the tunnel and we throng through it all day. After the evening rush frequency slows (as it should), but for there to be no buses in 20 minutes (let alone 40) is extremely uncommon. In addition to driving, I ride metro, and I have an apartment in the ID, I have never waited 2o minutes in the tunnel without a single bus passing. Never!

"Even worse are the drivers who are routinely early and who suffer no consequences for it. I recently flagged down a #67 bus that was speeding by a stop a full ten minutes early. The driver shrugged his shoulders and said: “those times are just estimates.” Well, no. They’re not, at least not for the rider. We expect the bus to be on-time when we’re standing outside in the rain in 40-degree weather. Ten minutes late is okay, but ten minutes early? Never!"

No driver is routinely early, it's impossible!

We receive points against our record for bad performance. If we get too many, we are suspended. More still, We get fired. Running hot (being early) gets you three points, and the pleasure of a heart-to-heart with your base chief, always a joy.

There is a fleet of supervisors on the streets every day checking our times (among other tasks). Metro is most vigilant about schedule, and there are severe consequences for drivers who run hot. Shame again on Maria for this lie.

Yes, Maria, there are estimated times and hard times. And they are not determined by weather conditions.

And if you don't like the rain, you live in the wrong place.

"The main cause of Metro’s on-time problem is simple: Metro recently shortened drivers’ layover times at the end of each route. Now drivers have every incentive to zoom through their routes early; otherwise, they barely get a bathroom break before they have to begin their next route. This is a prescription for a chronic on-time problem. Extending driver’s break times, of course, would cost money which Metro doesn’t have."

Gee, Maria, this third-person omniscient tone sounds as though it came from the ST. "zoom through", now that's funny. You know it's really hard to run early when you are always running late. These shortened lay-overs haven't resulted in buses running early (if you are on time then there would be no need to push it), just the opposite. Other than one's first run of the day, we are often getting to our terminals after our recovery time (the time the next run is supposed to begin), consequently we are starting late and, despite what Maria would have you believe, it makes it far more likely that you wil arrive at your next terminal late than early. This has become something of a hot issue at Metro with drivers becoming increasingly willing to voice their complaints to management about recovery times. It's no fun to always be running late; there's no time to go to the bathroom, and customers are often angry when you arrive late making for an unnecessarily long and contentious day.

But in any case, Maria has it exactly backwards.

Maria ends with some nice thoughts but they stand in contradiction to everything which proceeded it.