Competition: Speaking of Southeast Asia New Mandala
Video: Liquid Metal Flows Into Different Forms, T-1000-Style Popular Science (Robert M)
Fixing Climate Change May Add No Costs, Report Says New York Times. I hate to toot my horn, but I have pointed to evidence supporting this position this since 2007.
Ocean Algae Can Evolve Fast to Tackle Climate Change Reuters (Robert M). But no good news for coral reefs or shellfish.
Apple releases tool to remove free U2 album Associated Press (EM)
Apple a decade behind Japan mobile payment curve Agence France-Presse (YY). I know tech vendors were trying to push this technology in Europe nearly that long ago.
Digital Wallets Adam Levitin, Credit Slips. A badly needed dose of skepticism.
The Return of the Currency Wars WSJ Economics
China Discovers Gas Field in the South China Sea The Diplomat
China Is Mass-Producing Islands To Extend Its Strategic Borders io9 (furzy mouse)
Could Diabetes Derail China? Bloomberg
OECD slashes growth forecasts for leading economies Guardian (furzy mouse)
Scotland
Cameron in last-ditch pledge to Scots Financial Times
If it comes to it, please let’s have an amicable divorce fom Scotland Telegraph
Why UK would miss Scotland CNN
Scottish Independence ‘Could Cause House Price Crash’ Huffington Post
Ukraine
Russia freezes Ukraine into submission: Kiev admits country doesn’t have enough fuel for winter Independent (YY)
Eastern Ukraine offered three years of limited self-rule RTE News. Looks like Russia won. They wanted a buffer. They have no interest in owning Ukraine, an economic albatross, despite Western scare-mongering to the contrary.
Ukraine Offers Amnesty to Rebels, 3 Years of Limited Self-Rule; War and Peace Factions Split; More Killing is No Way to Honor Dead Michael Shedlock
ISIS
Hidden partners? How much Russia, Iran could help US against Islamic State. Christian Science Monitor
In Fight Against ISIS, US Needs Turkey To Stop Flow Of Money, Supplies, Foreign Fighters International Business Times
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Google Report Shows Governments’ Increasing Demands for Users’ Data New York Times
Treasure Map: It’s About Location, Not Gold emptywheel. Time for services that take your cellphone on a walk just to mess up the NSA.
Eyes on New Zealand GIS Watch. Lambert: “It seems NZ remote geographically does not mean remote functionally or in network terms.”
“Project SPEARGUN underway” Public Address
Queensland stations weld bins shut over increased terror threat Independent (YY)
A glaring omission: Pollsters’ choice of questions shapes the political MinnPost (MJL). BTW this sort of bias in polling is pervasive, not just in omitted issues but in how questions are phrased.
Exclusive: New Jersey unloads investment related to Charlie Baker ‘pay-to-play’ allegations Fortune. Note: this is a twofer, in that the story, broken by David Sirota, implicates both Chris Christie and Charlie Baker, who is running for governor in Massachusetts.
Daniele Watts: Django Unchained actress detained by Los Angeles police after being mistaken for a prostitute Independent (Chuck L). Notice how this shameful incident is getting traction overseas.
How should your community manage its water? Angry Bear. Expect to see questions like this a LOT more frequently.
The Stupidest Paragraph in Perhaps the Stupidest Article Ever Written Menzie Chinn, Econbrowser.
Global Fragmentation: Crying Wolf Again? Marc Chandler. Includes a discussion of political stability and the absence of the pressure from the left.
Building bank liquidity buffers, the FHLB, TBTF, WTF way Tracy Alloway, FT Alphaville
FDL Book Salon Welcomes Eileen Appelbaum and Rosemary Batt, Private Equity at Work: When Wall Street Manages Main Street Dave Dayen at Firedoglake
Calpers pulls out of ‘costly’ hedge funds Financial Times. Tries underplaying the CalPERS move, which is bizarre given its position in the industry.
A Dovish Market Has History on Its Side in Tuning Out the Fed Council for Foreign Relations
Conspicuous Consumption Watch
New Social Network For “Elites” Has $9,000 Membership Fee GovtSlaves (1 SK)
Antidote du jour (Lambert via Twitter):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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The rare earth minerals our green energy dreams require are approaching the break even point on energy return on energy invested. China locked up the corner on rare earth elements with low wages, low currency and ignoring radioactive thorium waste, The only way to pay for rare earth elements is to burn the waste by-product that is thorium.
http://www.nature.com/news/economics-manufacture-renewables-to-build-energy-security-1.15847
vertical integration on the energy balance.. the waste is fuel.
A darned sight better than “what should we do with all this depleted uranium.. let’s make warheads?”
Wish I had the time (or the skill) to write this one up properly as it really is quite nice in a dark humour end-of-the-world sort of way.
The main jist is a Godzilla vs. Mothra battle between private equity (who bought out a successful mobile phone retailer, loaded up with oodles of debt and, probably more perniciously, crazy bat$hit return-on-equity expectations) and the world’s cosy cartel of mobile phone network operators (Vodaphone, fresh from its Verizon d-I-v-o-r-c-e, amongst others).
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7cf7a8c0-3c55-11e4-a6ce-00144feabdc0.html?siteedition=uk is the mainstream version, but what’s missing from this business-friendly reporting is the bankruptcy for fun and profit (the company concerned has been put in to the UK’s equivalent of Chapter 11) at the heart of this milieu. Put simply, private equity would rather trash their own business because they can’t gouge out “top quartile performance” than be a little bit long term greedy.
Yeah, dog can’t eat dog so he commits side stuff.
It’s remarkable that Carphone Warehouse have made a fortune and have a massive retail advantage by just being normal, 1990s style tories who don’t go out of their way to screw their own workforce.
Re: Fixing Climate Change
The most recent IPCC report made pretty clear that costs of switching to alternative energy would primarly be borne by the fossil fuel industry as investment was reallocated. But no one cares whether a couple of brothers aren’t able to put another mark on their billiard-room score board to represent their 80th billion dollars, so the disinformationistas claim going green will somehow bankrupt McDonald’s workers.
The conclusion of the Reuters article:
“A U.N. panel of scientists says it is at least 95 percent probable that manmade emissions of greenhouse gases are the main cause of global warming since 1950, causing more heatwaves, droughts and rising sea levels. Opinion polls, however, indicate that many voters believe that natural variations are to blame. The mismatch between scientific and public opinion complicates a plan by almost 200 governments to work out a deal to limit global warming at a summit in late 2015 in Paris.”
We’re so exceptional that science doesn’t apply to us. Free-dumb in the U-S-A!
There has been a tremendous campaign of misinformation fed to those prone to disliking science, specifically (along with education and critical thought, generally). This campaign has also resonated with those who see the debate as being political — GCC being framed as a “liberal” disease of the mind.
Now that powers that can’t be denied by the deniers — the US Navy, for example — have come down squarely on the side of science, the politicking fuckwits who engineered the misinformation will have a hell of a time getting these people on board.
The “Libertarians” are the worst because they pretend to be free-thinkers. Free-thinkers who just happen to be scientific experts in one field only and who coincidentally adopt the central fallacy that maintains Big Oil’s ruling order.
In fact, it’s a very common bourgeois affectation to regard their ideology as a set of unimpeachable observations of tangible fact, regardless of whether it is sane to do so. Generously, this could be called reification or “living in a bubble”; John Boyd’s more scientific conception of “madness” also fits remarkably well.
In that light, Libertarians *are* free thinkers, completely unrestrained by natural limits, long-accepted boundaries, or the present arrangement of matter that constitues facts on the ground. They’re also plum loco.
Really? Wanna bet? In Washington money talks and bullshit walks. The Navy or any other branch of the service can speak all it wants but unless the bosses of the National Security State speak and tell their employees at the Ministry of Truth what to print and broadcast–nothing will happen. They allow some information to come out because they know that unless the press hammers it like they hammer on ISIS and Putin nothing will happen. At this point I can assure everyone that even though many rank-n-file members of the Nomenklatura may sympathize with us on this issue because it is a strictly hierarchical structure so that no significant action is possible unless Exxon execs sign off on it.
It shows how propaganda is essential to advancing any public agenda. Humans aren’t great with logic on a consistent basis, especially when said logic interferes with their short term desires, tribal allegiances, etc. You have to appeal at least as strongly to those instincts as you do to plain reasoning if you wish to sway public opinion. Look, for example, at the Ebola crisis/epidemic. The locals, who are in grave danger, many of them see it as a manufactured crisis or conspiracy of some sort, simply because those who are showing up and trying to tell them what to do with all this urgency are strangers who probably have failed to show enough respect to local customs and stuff.
Where I live, some are hostile to the idea of global warming. From what I can tell it has more to do with the fact that GW is (perceived as being) promoted by “Liberals”, who are perceived as hostile and scornful toward white, rural customs, than anything else.
Yes, it is clearly reactionary thinking and illustrates again where the country went off the rails politically. When working class people can be so easily manipulated they will be. So we have Conservatives and Economic Libertarians, who find AGW horribly inconvenient to their politics and pocketbooks, exploiting the resentments of working class people and tricking them into — yet again — acting against their own interests. (Make no mistake: It is the working class and the poor who will suffer soonest and most as AGW kicks in.) I suggest those folks let go of their resentments and stop playing the fool. But I’m no diplomat.
alternately maybe liberals should be less scornful to white rural customs, that may have been some of the derailing as well. But that might only change the target of the propaganda.
What are these “rural customs” and what do they have to do with whether people think baking the planet is a good idea? And who’s a “liberal” and what does that have to do with AGW either?
When the Democrats under LBJ passed civil rights legislation in the 60s they began to lose the white working class. Then came Vietnam, etc, and the Left and Labor split. The Right Wing pounced and has used social issues ever since as wedges to keep the working class in reactionary mode supporting economic policies contrary to their own interests. (Of course, now the Right Wing Democratic Party is doing it, too, but that’s another story.) Now even science has succumbed to Big Business’ manipulation and the reactionary thinking overcomes common sense and self-preservation. That’s pretty severe cognitive distortion, IMO.
You’re blaming them for responding to the very same propaganda you’re praising as the only way to move a *public* agenda? To assume that humans have a 100% reliable means of regulating what their brain does with what they read or hear is laughable Bourgeois Beweiver nonsense that is well controverted by science, the religion to which, like everything else, they pay lip service and consequently ignore.
Can you try your argument again without doublespeak?
I’m trying to say you have to use propaganda because it’s what works. I tried to use 2 examples from completely separate cultures that showed good-sized groups of otherwise presumably rational people acting against their best interests because, it appears, they felt tribal-like loyalties incredibly strongly. They ended up believing, perhaps acting on, patently ridiculous arguments that advanced behavior that could well destroy their entire way of life. It made me think, “Good Lord. In terms of advancing whatever agenda you may have, it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference whether or not it’s good for anybody. It’s promotional success relies more on your method of promotion, and appeal to logic is less important than tribal or cultural factors (what a friend I once had called “Golden Bullshit”).
I don’t know how much truth is in MY argument here, how much weight the irrational, implied factors have, but I think it’s quite a lot, more than we often want to recognize. Yes, rednecks are dumb-asses, but I’m pretty sure college professors are too, and most everyone in between.
I agree that people are generally susceptible to propaganda and it is important to recognize that if one is in the persuasion business. I think we might also agree it would be far better for everyone if people were less susceptible to propaganda. The more acute issue is how susceptibility to propaganda is heightened by resentment and anger, and can be easily manipulated, notably to the point of self-harm. It will take a combination of approaches to overcome Big Oil propaganda. The problem is that time is not on our side.
What do you suggest?
I’d love to know how those scientists discount water vapor as a greenhouse gas and how they DIRECTLY link it to humanity. *shrugs* For sure, carbon dioxide and other gases potentiate and speed up the feedback loop and the emissions of those have been on the rise since the industrial revolution but the reality is that water vapor IS the largest greenhouse gas and the planet does have large amounts of water on it.
Disclosure: I’m not climate denying. We do impact the environment we live in and I am on board with limiting pollution. I just think that it is ignorant that those who believe we should do something would all anyone who questions the intelligence of all the people who disagree with them. I’m not at all convinced that calling people idiots is the way to compel them to act the way you want them to either.
If you don’t listen to science you are beyond reason. Characterize that as you will.
I think you have to listen and ask questions, knowing whatever claim being put forth is always the current best.
Is water vapor a greenhouse gas? Is it the largest?
‘…is, at best, the current best.’
Water vapor is a feedback, meaning the atmosphere has to warm before it can hold more vapor. It will accelerate climate change but is not forcing the change.
Complexification strikes again (as no one but Lambert could possibly have foreseen):
The Obama administration announced Monday it will cut off tax subsidies to about 360,000 people if they do not offer proof of their income in the next two weeks.
Officials will send final notices this week to individuals who signed up for ObamaCare with income levels that didn’t match government records. Those who don’t confirm their income levels could lose their tax credit and face higher premiums and higher deductibles.
A total of 1.2 million people have had income inconsistencies since the launch of ObamaCare last year. About 800,000 people have since submitted verification.
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/217757-administration-threatens-to-cut-off-obamacare-to-360000
————
Paperwork, comrades: it’s as important as meeting your production quotas.
I wonder how much money we’re spending on the income verification process. It seems to me that the way to fix the system isn’t to add another level of paperwork to it.
That Telegraph article on the Scottish break off is really a hoot. The point being Scotland is holding the UK back.
Haven’t heard that one before. Of course the Scotts would have to take it up the kilts for being stupid by keeping the pound, keeping the nukes, and assuming the debt for most of England. And they wonder why “Yes” is winning.
Now all we need is for Wales to secede, then England, and watch Cameron and the other neocons migrating to Belfast and insisting that they are still the UK…
Or, even better, England, Wales and Northern Ireland all secede and leave Cameron et. al. as the Govt. of the City of London. After all, the City has become the prime constituency of successive so-called “British” Govts., so why not make it official? London would become another Luxembourg, and could battle it out with the other tax havens of the world for all that hot (and illegal) money!
No, really, I’m serious!
‘Apple is releasing a special tool that lets people remove the U2 album from their collections.’
If it isn’t called 86U2, it oughta be!
An even better app (already included with OS X) is the Trash Can. After ditching iTunes, you can replace it with any of seven alternatives:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6446268
Out of curiosity, I took the time to watch Tim Cook doing damage control while making out w/ Charlie Rose. He must have some qualities I missed? Never listened to his rap before, pretty transparent.
I love how, if you wait long enough, technology comes full circle. I have had absolutely NO PROBLEM removing U2 from Apple collections since I have no cellphone and never have had one. I have somehow been able to survive.
As far as BONO himself, he is PHONO or, I guess, iPhono with the emphasis on the phony.
” I down loaded some new stuff from iTunes, now my iPod is full of crap Irish music”
” You too, heh ? “
Why complain? It was, after all, pro Bono.
Oooooooh, there’s an angle. “See, our IP really is Irish in origin. Are you quite through questioning our tax position now?”
“The tools at Apple who foisted this on iTunes customers have released a tool to help you remove the “Eine Kleine Krapmusik” offering performed by a bunch of aging tools led by a mega-tool named, aptly enough, ‘Boner’.”
The Ukraine posts this morning are saying “Looks like Russia won”, Kiev frozen into submission, etc. IMO these conclusions are at best premature and most likely a mistake.
There’s a blindness on both the left and the right as to the magnitude and the significance of what’s going on here, arising I believe from the shared – and understandable – presumption that the Obamanauts are by nature incapable of getting anything right. But look: For many years now I’ve been paying quite a bit of attention to energy. FWIW, I don’t mind saying that I’m out past surprised, heading toward shocked at this latest round of sanctions on Gazprom, Rosneft, et al. The service companies are to wind up operations in 14 days and to heck with existing contracts? That’s pretty radical. With the big investments that BP, XOM and RDS have already sunk into Russian oil production, I never thought the Brits and the Americans would go there.
You can count on it that at the outset of the Ukraine tussle the Putinistas didn’t think so either. Right now I would guess they’re a bit rattled. A long-term future as a captive supplier of energy to the Chinese (who of course have big irredentist claims on Siberia) can’t be an attractive prospect.
The fat lady hasn’t sung yet. Stay tuned.
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2014/09/ukraine-offers-amnesty-to-rebels-3.html
—–Since the ceasefire, two (Ukrainian) camps have materialised – a “party of peace” around President Petro Poroshenko, and the “party of war” associated with Arseniy Yatseniuk, prime minister, and Yulia Tymoshenko, the former premier.—-
Anybody remember Nuland’s guy, “Yats”, also known as Arseniy Yatseniuk, also known as leader of today’s Ukrainian “party of war” referenced above.
That tells you a lot. Our guy, the guy we put in charge as soon as the coup succeeded, is the guy who wants more war. Is that the reason we picked this guy? Also notice his links with the neo-nazi’s.
I’m sure that some people will be along any minute to assure you that his “so-called” ties to Nuland are meaningless, because his pro-war stance is simply a pure manifestation of the overwhelming will of the Ukrainian people to overcome the evil machinations of the despicable Ivans and join the peaceful, democratic fold of the European West and reject the authoritarian Orientalism of the benighted Russians.
Great point. I was having a similar conversation the other day. Russia (and before that the USSR) always looked to the rest of Europe as its main trade partner, by focusing on exporting resources to a large but not politically unified economy. Because of their relative strengths and weaknesses, up until now there wasn’t a dominant part in this arrangement.
The US though has managed to strain that arrangement. Now Russia is faced with the dilemma of either rolling over to the US, or becoming dependent on China as its primary trade partner. Eastern Ukraine is just damage control, and even there the Kremlin doesn’t seem to have arrived at a coherent strategy.
Don’t worry.. Europe has 6 months supply of NG!
Indeed the fat lady has not sung, Only the most ignorant politicians earnestly use global energy production as a political policy club. Doesn’t work (as intended anyway).
“A long-term future as a captive supplier of energy to the Chinese” wont happen unless someone in the EU pulls a new energy supply out of the bag. China and Russia already have a US$400BB 30yr gas deal anyway, That relationship is win-win, as long as both sides benefit. As far as Russian oil? It will find its way to the market one way or the other, there will be some rich(er) brokers.
Russian Arctic Oil? Technology? It will happen irrespective of XOM or BP, maybe slower on the uptake and dirtier but it is written.
Two things about the Russians, they are uber-nationalistic and they consider tolerance of austerity/hardship a historic character strength. Bottom line , the hold the keys to the energy realm for the EU, I don’t see the Russians blinking first, they can spend their time and resources developing domestic alternative products and technology.
And Russia, as a culture, has a long history that honors education, as well as, persistence. They are not US.
I agree with this argument. It seems to me the Russkies are more in the catbird seat.
“We WON’T use you natural gas anymore!”
“Uh,… okay!”
I’ll put odds on The Russians being able to hold out longer.
Eastern Ukraine getting three years of limited self government is just but kicking the can down the road. Doesn’t solve diddly. It certainly isn’t any kind of “buffer zone” between NATO nukes and Russia proper, because it wouldn’t be honored any more than our promises to the American Indians were. The three years would be spent by all sides rearming themselves and repositioning diplomatically.
Why? Same reason in both cases: we want that land, or control of it by our American empire. Sure, Russia needs the poor Russians of Eastern Ukraine like a hole in the head, but that does not compare with preventing NATO from parking nukes, tanks and armies right on the Russian border, which would delight the Pentagon no end. A true buffer zone would be an independent nation of Eastern Ukraine, which Russia could subsidize in order to keep it standing up, just the way it has subsidized the entire Ukraine for decades, especially with low gas prices. But this new nation could never join NATO.
“Join NATO “ is diplomatic speak for “let’s put nukes and tanks right on Russia’s border!”
The Pentagon is busy creating chaos in the Middle East so they can change the Syrian and Iranian regimes into friendly ones, all in order to squeeze Russia from the Caucasus region around the Caspian Sea, putting nukes in those little -istan countries as well as drilling all their oil and gas for them. Right now the neocon’s bravest boast is, “Real men go to Tehran.” Once Iran has experienced a regime change, and is our ally again, it will be “Real men go to Georgia.” After that, Moscow I suppose.
The neocon vision isn’t just about conquering nations with troops on the ground. It’s about hemming them in, and forcing them to do things our way, more and more and then even more. Russia and China are at the top of the list. We’re squeezing China in the South China Sea, and they’re pushing back hard.
The Ukraine fighting is the next logical location to squeeze the Russian nation by every means possible so that it does not interfere with the goal of American empire over the whole globe. We’re squeezing lots of other nations to get them to toe our line, to protect the Petrodollar, to do things that favor us over them. Ukraine must be seen in this context. And it will be a constant, ongoing struggle even over decades until we finally get those nukes parked right on the Russian border. Whatever you see going past in the news cycle, that is the goal, and some way will be found to accomplish it or else.
People forget that to the neocon mindset, this struggle for American hegemony is absolutely existential, as in, Dick Cheney and his ilk would sooner see the world go up in ten thousand mushroom clouds than let America fail to lead and dominate the world. They can’t even conceive of a world where America doesn’t win everything in the end.
Imagine you are negotiating some important business with someone, and the end result is that one of you lives and one of you dies. So it’s serious, this negotiation and sparring back and forth. Now, if you could figure out a way to get the drop on the other person, to put a gun to their temple and assure them that ‘either their brains or their signature will be on the contract in the next ten seconds, would you? Could you?
Neocons would. In fact, that’s how they open such negotiations, every time. “Give me everything I want first, then we can talk.”
We want NATO nukes right on the Russian border so Russia doesn’t dare delay us, interfere, or try to stop us from anything we want to do. The needs of the empire require that this goal be met expeditiously.
The fact that this “compromise” has been announced this early is a huge acknowledgement of the weakness of the Western position. Pray tell how is this not a win for Russia? If you read the Western media, you’d be persuaded that 1. Russia is scelerotic, desperate, and about to fall over and 2. The “separatists” are 100% Russians who came over the border.
This development makes a mockery of the official position.
No question about the weakness of the western positilon – at least for the short term. The Russians can help themselves to the territory of Ukraine, take as much as they want. I don’t know of anyone who has ever seriously questioned this.
The important point here is that NATO, surprisingly, has decided to pay the price to put in place an effective way to make it cost them. Among other things, the Russian government is facing the prospect of a new energy regime, and one that will be much less lucrative for them. Instead of selling at world prices to a fragmented group of customers in the West, they’ll be selling a much larger fraction of their production at discounted prices in the East. Stranded energy assets, if any, will be in Siberia rather than in North America. That’s the part that nobody expected, including the Russians.
Given all the circumstances the new energy sanctions make a lot of sense as a non-military attempt to curb irredentism by a nuclear power. There are all kinds of concerns as to what comes next – viz. the Japanese reaction to trade restrictions in the run-up to WW II. But we shouldn’t be thinking that all the heartburn here is on the Western side.
Best, PW
The 3 years of self rule is a scam. The fine print says up to 3 years. The minimum is 6 months, i.e. until the weather gets better again. Ukraine will use the time to build up its weapons cache and fully train its troops. Then – Reset.
The Nazis haven’t accepted and complied with either of the two ceasefires. They will not hold off unless they are offered a deal such as above. The outcome will be fully trained and armed Nazis, financed by the oligarchs. The Nazi hordes are already attacking the parliament buildings. I suspect the plan is to replace Poroshenko with someone who is prepared to go the whole way. Yarosh maybe?
The main cost of dealing with Climate Change is that the energy companies stranglehold on the imperial capital would decline. This is unacceptable to these pirates of the deep. It would also disrupt the worlds current power arrangements and power-sharing deals and networks. So it can’t happen. We are doomed unless we destroy the political power of the status quo which is only interested in holding on to power at all costs even the destruction of their own children’s future. I know a little bit about the corporate structure of Exxon, for example, I know that what motivates execs there is competition–the culture is one series of pissing contests after another and the thrill of victory, regardless of the consequences, is more important than anything else–if you haven’t been around big-time players in any league you don’t know how seductive that is.
I will go further and suggest that we live at a time when technology, if we had the social capital and we aren’t even close to having that, would create an earthly paradise for all the world’s population if you allowed all the repressed and ignored solutions to get a fair hearing in the public square. There are so many brilliant solutions to collective problems that could work if we allowed something other than bribery and political power to determine our course.
“I will go further and suggest that we live at a time when technology, if we had the social capital and we aren’t even close to having that, would create an earthly paradise for all the world’s population if you allowed all the repressed and ignored solutions to get a fair hearing in the public square. There are so many brilliant solutions to collective problems that could work if we allowed something other than bribery and political power to determine our course.”
Bingo
One aspect of this lack of social capital is a lack of understanding that the key to so many of the visible problems is social reorganization, a societal maturing. Since the media and academia are controlled by obsolete neo-liberalism too.
Too much capital, and no place to invest it that will read the sought-after returns. So we get froth, corruption, conspicuous consumption, and so forth.
If money equals speech, most of those with good ideas have had their vocal cords removed.
Usually the last straw that provokes a Country to war is to cut off it’s energy supplies.
We seem to be doing it backwards by cutting off our own energy supplies but I am sure we will figure out a way to blame them so we can bomb.
If it weren’t so deadly serious, it would be hilarious. For some reason, the incompetence reminds me of Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau.
There are sufficient energy supplies, for now. Now is all that matters. European and American leaders don’t even seem to think four months down the line, no less 40 years, when the oil (and most likely gas) will be in glaring, permanent decline. In 20 years we’ll be running the world on perhaps 2/3rd as much oil and maybe as much natural gas as we are right now–spread out over 9 billion people. These seem to be unalterable facts. But they have no traction. The only manifestation of this reality we see is in the global grab for resources. Instead of trying to figure out how to do more with less and transition away from fossil fuels, trillions have been and will be sunk into protecting, grabbing, or denying resources that are doomed to run out anyway. All the capital needed and resources needed for the transition are being burned up in a futile attempt to keep the hydrocarbon political economy going. The only question that matters is, will after this orgy is over there be enough resources left to pick up the pieces and keep civilization going? My cautious answer is, only by accident, not by design, because the project of human civilization means exactly nothing to the Obamas, Camerons, Merkels, and Putins of this Earth.
I think you’ve nailed the reason for the utterly nonsensical escalation of sanctions on Russia just when a peace deal looks most promising. The US, Nato, and our man “Yats” want no part of that; the neocons will not stand for peace! War may be either a cover or a catalyst for financial collapse en route to full-spectrum dominance, but they will have it.Nothing better than having the Euro-peon masses hungry and shivering in the dark to call on a fascist savior to start global war. Who can they turn to but the igNobel Prince of Peace?
RE: 1% Facebook
Touchy peters, really? That’s someone’s actual name? Goodness…
Don’t think I’d want to be part of a social network created by a guy with that name–it’s probably just a bunch of oversensitive cocks anyway…you know: touchy peters, so to speak.
Wow, just wow. Either you’re getting too much or too little, but either way something is obviously on your brain! :)
I have a very great friend in Wome named…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMGu-55sKJs
If I can’t join ’em, at least I can make fun of their names. I feel like it’s the adult thing to do.
Even the British upper crust need some place to play online, you know.
Kidding aside, even though dude got the luxury-goods pricing formula right, I figure there are three most likely endgames:
* turns out to be a scam pandering to class solidarity and the need to be seen (if only by the moderators)
($6k initiation fee, hmmm riiiight)
* completely fails to get any traction
(ffs anyone with $6k can have their neighbor’s kid build an exclusive social network site and have $5900 left over for domains and the launch party)
* gets the Anonymous treatment like Stratfor and iCloud did.
(looks like their “exclusive club” is a WordPress site with a posh theme and a few plugins… “Really, Dude, you surprise me. They’re not gonna kill s—, they’re not gonna do s—. What can they do? They’re a bunch of f—in’ amateurs, and meanwhile, look at the bottom line: Who’s sittin’ on a million f—in’ dollars? Am I wrong?”… just as they walk out to find the Dude’s car and the “million dollars” stolen…)
So many tears to go round.
btw: Katniss Everdeen—your posts are missed here.
Know how situations/respnonsibitlites change.
best wishes.
Missed y’all too, Brindle. But the worst is almost over, and I can’t wait to get back.
Keep up the good work.
Missed y’all too, Brindle. I think the worst is almost over, and I can’t wait to get back.
Keep up the good work.
Back soon. The worst is almost over. Keep up the good work.
YIKES!!!!!!! I guess I forgot how to do this.
I have discovered that if a comment I’ve tried to post does not appear immediately, I need just to reload the page and, voilà, there it is!
too funnee, great entrance/s kat
“Remember, I tell myself. You’re the hunter now, not them”
cya soon
Good news :)
Be well Katniss.
Scottish independence could…
1. slow down Earth’s spin
2. cause more volcanic eruptions in Iceland
3 make Russia/China more belligerent
4. lead to global savings glut
5. more addiction to Irn Bru
6. invite alien invasion
7. revive the Templars
and more other disasters too scary to even think about right now…
Vote No!
Wait! Those are the positive outcomes of a Yes vote.
Speaking of Scots and Yes, “Close to the Edge”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51oPKLSuyQY
small world…CloseToTheEdge is my user name on another site, where something a bit stronger than Aby is needed ‘)
“A seasoned witch could call you from the depths of your disgrace,
And rearrange your liver to the solid mental grace.”
“..something a bit stronger than Aby is needed’…
Huh? abynormal isn’t outré enough? Does this other venue exhibit pronounced male chauvinist pig tendencies? (Thinking about the over and under tones of ‘Close To The Edge’ as a pseudonym, would I be out of the ballpark in guessing RedState? If so, good for you!)
I still associate this version of Yes with cannabis consumption. (I was an “evil daddy” because I knew most of the warning signs and kept our kids on a short leash as far as pharmaceutical experimentation was concerned. “You’re not going anywhere with your girlfriend when she has eyes as red as that.” “Oh daddy, you’re evil!” “D— right I am. Now go on back to your room.” “Mommy!” “I’m backing up your dad on this.” “This isn’t fair!” “Right you are. It’s not.”)
Ha! ive seen Yes 5x…my red eyes never distorted my hearing.
my daughter thought i was evil too…i blasted disco one night for her and told her when she could come to me with something like that, we’d talk.
i made her cry bahahahaaaaa
my favorite guitarist the world over
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1ZmIFR4Sc0
steve vai 2nd’)
you catch anymore flack from your youngin’s…throw them in a krav maga class (they do free classes everywhere). threaten’m with another class from there on out…it’ll be good for them and you.
the krav maga symbol is my avatar…Close takes no prisoners
krav works great on grandchildren too’)
i got a bday this wk and that post aged me hard…im not a grandparent btw
Happy Birthday!
(As for grandkids. The minute you stop thinking about them, they’ll pop up.)
Free krav maga classes?! We don’t do nothing for free here in Mississip! (If it’s based on Israeli sources, you might have a difficult time finding it. Around here they have to advertise in the paper to find a minyan.)
No true Scotsman will vote for independence.
But the rest of them will.
Now, if the Scots would allow ex-pat Scots a vote, the results would be really weird. Scots I have contact with around the Deep South have wildly different takes on this referendum. (One cited all the UK military bases that would be closed and the economic impact resulting from such actions. Another cited the North Sea oil royalty treaties with Norway. They are with the London government. Now what would happen? Renegotiation can go either way.)
A problem with Scottish or Catalonian, etc., independence is that it creates another pygmy on the world stage. The EU has enough trouble getting anything done with the number of members it has now. I don’t see how adding several more will solve that problem. Then, if EU voting is switched to population size, aren’t the Scotts, etc. are back in the same boat they were in?
So Scottish independence will likely weaken the UK, the EU, etc. and at the same time it will relatively strengthen the behemoths.
Or at least that is my theory on how a piece of it will play out over time and in crises.
Spoken as if anything the EU were “getting done” lately serves the interest of its population. Maybe it’s in the population’s interest (those accursed non-union extras) for Brussels to just shut down and go into cold storage for a year or two.
For that matter, Federalism, however noble its aims, never lasts.
The EU is totally undemocratic, which is why it is eagerly negotiating the TTIP in secret.
Voting arrangements in the EU make no difference, the parliament can’t propose legislation or even amend significantly that they are asked to rubber stamp. Its an extremely comfy sinecure for those whio take up the job of pretending there is a democracy.
All the power lies with the commission (corporate elites) and the council of ministers (political elites) who use it to impose policies they daren’t try to sell to their own populations.
A fractious mob of small,self interested small nations, who remember unfashionable ideas of sovreignty, would be far preferable.
The idea of the EU as a counterweight to US might is laughable. Five eyes has got the negatives on all of them, though they’ll never need to use them.
Merchants have no country, but they’ve always got each other.
I think you’re misidentifying the problem. You know, the former British Colonies of North America are an interesting case study. They had these same problems to face and, ironically, they also concerned what to do about government from Westminster. On one hand, they had to argue (about the ties with Britain) “The colonies must break away in order to be free!” At the same time, (about their common plight as a loose collection of potentially semi-autonomous states) they had to argue, in essence, “Join or die!” — so they did both of these at once, even as they allied with certain native tribes against the British and fought with other tribes which, for their part, had reasoned that, by aiding the British, they were opposing the most immediate enemy at hand–Colonists threatening their very ways of life–by making common cause with that local enemy’s distant former-cultural-home, Britain, about which they really knew very little except what the Colonists’ resemblances had taught them about that mother-land culture.
Well, we know what happened. But no one at the time knew how things would turn out. Once the Colonist-tribal-French alliance defeated British rule, the Colonies confederated clumsily and quickly turned their attentions back to destroying or encroaching upon natives’ lands and cultures, by which process both Britain’s former tribal allies and those of the former colonies lost their strategic gambles. In the end, from the native tribes’ real clear-sighted point of view, there was nothing really serious for them to choose between the Colonists and their rulers across the seas.
Now, look: In a world dominated by only one or perhaps two very like-minded behemoths which have a divide-and-rule attitude toward “everybody else,” breaking away, chopping off an ineffective (or worse) bond, becoming smaller, more compact, more unified, of course entails costs and risks. But compared to the risks entailed in leaving things as they are, which are worse? And, don’t smaller, more sub-divided parts logically present the behemoths with objectives which are that much more difficult in the application of their divide-and-rule tactics?
Finally, and simpler still, imagine that you are Scotland. For three hundred and seven years you’ve lived life as a Siamese twin, joined at the shoulder to England, itself joined awkwardly to Wales and to the rump remnant, Northern Ireland. Over time, you come to the realization that your attached twin is the moral-likes of Rupert Murdoch– a truly odious miscreant thing that is finally seen as a threat to you, your life and everything that has or could have any value to you.
The impending referendum is your “scalpel” and, if you value your life and freedom, if you have any idea of what’s good for you, you’d better grasp it and make the most of using it. Questions of currencies, of flags, of everything else, are truly secondary affairs. This matter at hand is severing yourself from that hideous thing to which you find yourself joined. The time for dithering and doubting is past. It’s now time for long overdue surgery.
It isn’t necessary for diabetes to derail China. Some are making what they want of foreign direct investment in China being down 14 percent year over year in August. This is money attracted to China for business investment, expecting higher yields, when interest rates elsewhere were artificially held down to zero by the Fed. ‘09 was 167 billion, ‘10 – 273, ‘11 – 332, ‘12 – 296, ‘13 – 348. So the August decline puts it annually back to 2012 levels. This disinvestment will have to continue to be very significant, but I am wondering if anyone has tried to actually get any significant amount of money back out of China. My theory, based on worst fears and the example of Cyprus, is that this hard foreign money has gone into paper bags, been distributed to party hacks, and been whisked away into stashes in the Caymans or used to pay for fancy foreign homes for the Chinese elites. It adds up to over a trillion since 2009, so it wouldn’t be good if the bankers found out their assets in that coal and steel economy turned out to be little burros. Anyway, our elites are taking notice, as evinced in Bloomberg running two or three China stories every day now. Even McArdle is muttering about all indicators pointing to a crash, but could it be Japanification instead? Wishful thinking.
If a crash were to happen, we could look forward to warlord-ism in China again…many mini-Scotlands (albeit densely populated).
We will have to pivot fast from Ukraine in order to protect whatever regions we deem valuable (Zhejiang, Guangdong, maybe).
I wrote the above at 11 am EST, and at noon the Peoples Bank of China decided to print up 500 billion yuan in new money and distribute it to the five largest Chinese banks, as a liquidity injection. I would assert it lends credence to what I have been saying about China in comments since April. While if a crash occurs, I will not take credit for that; nevertheless I will have a sense of relief, knowing that of the millions of jobs outsourced to the Far East, many will begin returning to our shores.
“Committee Endorses Death By Firing Squad”
http://wyomingpublicmedia.org/post/committee-endorses-death-firing-squad
Wyoming, huh? Maybe they can get their favorite son to shoot people in the face.
Actually, they could take this a step further, and privatize executions — but only for cowboy churches that want to hang the condemned as part of their Sunday services.
Some years back I was in either Jhole or Bozeman, don’t remember which, but saw a car that had the bumper sticker “Hey Montana (or Wyoming)! Our Governor is dumber that your Governor!” Sums it up out there.
Could make that callout here in IL w/ any neighboring state, but that’s a statement of the obvious.
There was a reason France used the guillotine. I would assume the main reason it was never considered for use in America was that in the 1900s ropes and bullets were cheaper, the guillotine was used to execute members of the ruling class and (now) the specter of a severed head looks barbaric compared to electrocution and death by injection (unless you’ve had the misfortune to see how they actually work).
But if we are talking riddling a body with bullets in modern times, the guillotine sure looks like a competitive option…
Don’t belittle beheadings, as state-sanctioned decapitation has worked well in Saudi Arabia…which has led to good training for IS executioners in the field, and a win for privatisation of a heretofore state monopoly.
Reading an article about suicide tourism awhile back I was surprised to see that sodium pentobarbital was used in Switzerland… surprised because barbiturates, once popular and widely prescribed in the US are now quite difficult to obtain — much less considered a likely solution to the execution problems some of our states are continually experiencing. Maybe it’s just too easy…
Quelle surprise! Reportedly, Ukraine ceasefire was a NATO trap to save and rearm Kiev. This is why sanctions are escalated.
“Washington’s Bait-And-Switch Manuever Exposed By Arms Flow To Kiev—Truce To End Soon.” (Daniel McAdams at Stockman’s Contra Corner)
“The ceasefire provided pro-US Kiev forces time to regroup and absorb NATO weapons under the guise of stopping the violence, with the intent of slaughtering rather than negotiating with the pro-independence forces. This is no great surprise, as the February coup itself proceeded with US cooperation just as a compromise power-sharing agreement between the elected president Yanukovich, and the Maidan rebels was signed.”
It’surprising that Russia would fall for it (if they did).
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/washingtons-bait-and-switch-manuever-exposed-by-flow-of-arms-to-kiev-truce-to-end-soon/
Russians are born with matryoshka dolls in their mouths. They know a lot about hidden, convoluted, Byzantine plots.
Don’t think Putin/Lavrov aren’t aware of the fact they are at war with the U.S. and it’s pathetic servile client-states in Europe. But this is a long-war one that will go on for some time and one that has many fronts. The Kremlin needed a few weeks or even a few months of being off the front page so that the propaganda organs could pay attention to other matters so a period of detente was required while the political situation resolves itself. It gives time to anti-Imperial forces to assert themselves. For example, the Scottish referendum is extremely important in all this as is the question of whether or not the Hollande era may not collapse and Le Pen emerge who is Europe’s leading anti-imperialist. There are many questions in the air right now that could put Russia’s situation in a better light, i.e., it will allow all factions within the EU to realize that there are actually two targets in this new Cold War–and one of them is the EU. This is strikingly obvious and it has been the case in the past decade. The alliance of Wall Street and the City seeks to bring the continent to their knees and, so far, it has worked pretty well. The Euro left is as asleep now as it is in the U.S.–a complete non-factor. The only hope in both societies comes from the right. Sorry people, I know you hate it when I say this–but look around.
It is not so much that Russia fell for it, but they felt it was worth a try. Europe had real reasons to decline the US imposed sanctions, so it was worth giving them a chance to do so. It failed, oh well. Not all moves succeed, and a good strategist does not require all moves to succeed, only enough moves.
The status quo cannot return. This winter Europe gets less gas from Russia, and maybe no gas from Russia. Nobody, and certainly not the US, can make up the difference. In theory Europe could reverse course–we are hearing that the Hungarians, the Czechs, the Slovaks, and the Finns all want Europe to reverse course–but that will not happen, and now we know why.
Here is the part that had not been clear before: The European oligarchs have no national loyalty at all, meanwhile US strategy turns out to be cannibalization of the periphery to sustain the core. It further turns out that Europe is part of the periphery–like a banana republic. If anyone suspected it, none of us really expected it. How the oligarchs are getting paid is not clear, but paid they are, and they are happy to destroy Europe at America’s behest. So that is now what is going to happen. Even Putin was unsure how this would play out
On the other hand, although Kiev was defeated on the field, Novorossiya was over-extended and could not follow up their advantage. So both sides needed a chance to refit and regroup. The edge goes to the side that can use this time more effectively. I don’t assume it to be Kiev.
–Gaianne
Hillary Clinton being a tool: ” “I would think it would be a loss for both sides,” added Clinton, who told BBC interviewer Jeremy Paxman that “I would hate to have you lose Scotland.”
That brought a reminder from Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond that, “Scotland is not a property to be lost but a nation about to take a precious and consensual and democratic decision.” http://m.thenation.com/blog/181627-hillary-clintons-other-campaign-against-scottish-independence
Showing a tender concern for her future poodles. .
Yes indeed, there is special relationship between master and poodle. Which is probably why I love cats. Too much dignity and pride to submit to servility…
Not only are we behind Japan on mobile payments, we’re even behind Kenya.
Considering how many times a year I have to straighten out ‘glitches’ in my PC, being behind in anything that could let third parties have access to your finances is a plus in my book. (I’m all in support of cash whenever and wherever.)
TV plug, but I’ll let Jim Wolcott do it.
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/wolcott/2014/09/dynasty
I think the claim that moving to a sustainable economy in environmental and GHG terms is basically bullsh*t. How effective have standard economic models proven in anticipating developments even over short time horizons? Over long term horizons, they have repeatedly proved way wrong. They are basically just mindless linear extrapolations, the assumptions of which are chosen for the sake of “tractability”, and motivated by the desire to maintain the status quo. Yet transforming the economy to a sustainable energy and resource path will require massive investments in both productive capital stocks and infrastructure on both the production/supply side and on the consumption/use side, even as much current capital and infrastructure must be written down to zero, at rates much faster than “normal” depreciation, (for often very long-lived “assets”). Add to that much greater efficiency in resource use for both production and consumption will amount to a reduction in nominal demand, (though not necessarily the quality-of-life), which acts against profit-seeking investment motives.
The coordination and realization problems for required investments here are large, and the projections of minimal additional costs are based on continuing exponential growth, which means more and more unnecessary consumption, of energy, resources and much else.
Oops! I think the claim that moving to a sustainable economy in environmental and GHG terms is relatively costless…
FYI East-West news:
“Goldman leads US banks in tapping local cash pile
(c/o Bloomberg)
US banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Citigroup Inc are rushing to issue US dollar bonds in Taiwan after a rule change unlocked US$586 billion of funds held by local insurance companies.
Goldman sold US$974 million of 30-year notes last month in the largest such issuance in Taiwan, leading US$7.3 billion in greenback debt offers this year, versus zero a year earlier.
JPMorgan Securities LLC estimates US issuers can obtain lower costs than they would at home, after lawmakers in May excluded locally issued foreign-currency bonds from a 45 percent cap on the amount insurance firms can invest in overseas assets. . . .”
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2014/09/11/2003599450
Daniele Watts: Django Unchained
“… when they were seen showing affection in public, the actress said in a Facebook post..”
Define showing affection?
Giving her husband a terrorist fist bump.
Does she have one?
Does it matter?
If the reporting is inaccurate, yeah it does.
Why, because cops assume that black chicks being affectionate in public with white dudes must be prostitutes? It doesn’t matter whether the dude is boyfriend or husband, not one bit.
L.A. cops… just another “gang” in bang town… with a more ridged color code… fashion police with attitude…
Agreed. Same thing in Chicago and the greater Chicagoland area. It is rather obvious to those of us who pay attention to these things that the only ones getting stopped and frisked in my diverse neighborhood happen to have black skin.
OIF,
What are the facts?
The fact is that Danielle Watts was perfectly within her right, according to California law, to refuse to provide identification. She got arrested for it. And for being a black female who had the temerity to know what her rights are.
I think youre misinformed base on what Ive read
The LAPD was investigating a complaint, they were very much in their rights to ask for an ID.. by CA state law
No, the cops were not within their right to ash for an ID and arrests her for refusal to provide it. From a California ACLU attorney: “If you are a suspect in a crime, do you have to show your identification?
No.
If police reasonably suspect you of a crime, they can detain you to investigate that crime. Some states have what are called “Stop and Identify” statutes that require someone suspected of criminal activity to provide identification to police, making refusal a crime. California has no such statute, so if you refuse to provide an ID while police are detaining you, they can’t arrest you just for refusing” http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-daniele-watts-lapd-show-id-20140915-story.html
Given that she was not cited for anything, and certainly not charged with anything, and also given the officer’s statements, it appears that she was cuffed because she refused to show an ID and did so in a way that hurt the [white] officer’s tender feelings of entitled douchebaggery. Last I heard that ain’t a crime either.
OIF
In this case witnesses called in a complaint of two people fitting thei description having sex in their car w the vehicle door open.
Dont know about where you live but In my neighborhood at least that would be reasonable cause to investigate. In this context the lapd were within their right to ID the two contestants. Regarding the allegation that she was accused of being a prostitute, show me that.
As a minimum it reads to me that she is a lair, and she is playing the race card much to the depreciation of legitimate cases of blacks that being racially targeted by police
Officers may “detain” someone when they have “reasonable suspicion” that criminal activity has, is, or is about to a occur and the person being detained may be involved. You are not free to leave during a legal detention. If you try to leave, it is a violation of 148(a)(1) PC – Resisting, Delaying, or Obstructing Officer; and you may be subject to arrest.
Further, while you are not required to carry physical identification (unless operating a vehicle), you are required to identify yourself during a detention when asked. It is part of the investigative process and necessary to documented the incident. Failure to do so again delays and obstructs the officer from doing his job and can be a violation of 148(a)(1) PC.
ref: http://www.laweekly.com/informer/2014/09/16/daniele-watts-story-about-a-racist-lapd-stop-is-falling-apart
ACLU vs PD interpretation of the law. I will take ACLU’s interpretation, thank you very much.
And I live in Hyde Park. Full of cops, both CPD and UChicago PD. I am yet to see them stop and frisk a white person since they started doing that four years ago. The police are legalized crime syndicate, nothing less.
BTW Yves, congrats on your CALPERS victory. With such a scalp under your belt, they’ll have to start taking you all the more seriously.
I know you mean well, but this was not my CalPERS victory. As I said on the other thread:
Well. not to be too argumentative, but you did file a FOIA lawsuit against CALPERS, uncover and publish actual contracts from public records in PA, and have been basically writing/campaigning frequently against PE and hedge fund abuses for quite a while now. So it’s not quite true that you had nothing to do with setting up through public exposure the context by which CALPERS made its “recalculation”. Of course, there were many other factors involved, such as the case of criminal fraud against a former CALPERS exec., but it’s hard to believe that staffers for the CA legislature didn’t at least consult your work in preparing their hearings.
Of course, this is just one small step in campaigning against these tax-evading, asset-stripping, bankruptcy defrauding vultures.
Indeed.
Asking questions and knowing what to look at/examine/investigate is what is important.
What’s the current state of your wrangling with them for the data?
I hope you get what you asked for.
I also think you can fairly claim, at a minimum, a little responsibility for the decision. Your fight illustrated how intertwined the industry is with the buyers, and how far the supposed public buyers were willing to go to protect their (not-so) private ‘industry’.
It’s a pretty big fucking deal. Congrats. Now, will the sierra club (et-al) follow?
Feel like someone is painting a target on your back…. inadvertently?
Thanks for the GIS piece, Lambert. A whole lot of territory covered very succinctly, and it makes the connection between the Kim Dotcom case and the more important revelations on mass invasion of privacy (going on right now as I type, thanks to x-keystroke) world-wide. An interesting point at the Auckland Town Hall event was the Dotcom claim that livestream was going out totally encrypted. Otherwise, it was all about the lie that preceded the enactment of the security bill last year and what exactly was going on, with Edward Snowden making some very explicit statements about New Zealand’s involvement in mass surveillance worldwide as well as internally.
The second piece makes my earlier point that this is not about Kim Dotcom; rather he was the catalyst for what has unfolded. I even think Warner Bros is more to be condemned for strongarming NZ labor laws during the “Hobbit” crisis, but that’s just me.
Again, thank you.
Ref. link to bin welding for G20 security here in Queensland…
PM – “Newman to sell Qld as ‘safest place in the world’
QUEENSLAND has a new tool in its tourism selling point tool box – safety.
Premier Campbell Newman described Queensland as “a safer place than probably any other on the globe” while promoting the latest tourism report card in Noosa on Tuesday.
Mr Newman said the state offered a “wonderful and safe” holiday environment because of the government’s tough stance on crime and reaction to the increased terror threat level.
He rebuffed suggestions the additional security measures across the state, which have seen bins welded shut at CBD train stations and increased checks at major events including sporting grand finals, would deter tourists.
Mr Newman said the security measures would not put off visitors from countries which had “sadly” seen the “scourge of terrorism”.
http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/news/newman-sell-qld-safest-place-world/2389754/
Comments are a gas~
ohnx74 – Taigum 3 hours ago
<
The usual scrambled message from the Joh lover.
If its safe for tourists to come to Queensland why isn't it safe for Queenslanders who live here ?
Another massive overreaction from newman …. again.
Just like the moron Abbott, the simpleton newman has "no specific intelligence".
Reply
whoswho – Maroochydore 3 hours ago
Obviously he's never walked through Mooloolaba on a Friday night.
Reply
berserker – Mackay 3 hours ago
Sadly we are not protected from corrupt government officials and police….
Reply
Bishop – Moodlu 2 hours ago
When we lose access to our bins, the Terrorists win, just repeat that a few time Newman and see how ridiculous you really are.
Reply
bleckfella – Gin Gin 2 hours ago
'Safest place in the world' but you can't throw your rubbish away at a railway station because the trash bins have been removed as Queensland's own terrorists will place bombs in them and frighten everyone away. That tells a story doesn't it! I hope this rubbish (no pun intended) will discontinue when the G20 is over.
Reply
Harpmark – Beerwah 2 hours ago
Once again with the lies camby we need more lies. Our lives are so much safer from what? They are no safer from the predators selling our assets to mates and donors, they are no safer from your lies and those of your colleagues and seeing as you are so intent on wasting police time on the bikies while trying to keep pedophiles in jail is just too hard to manage huh?
The figures prove you wrong Mr Newman and no amount of lies will save you from jail time if we had an honest system and one law for all instead of the bent system we have. I would rather walk through a room nose deep in untreated sewerage than a room full of politicians as the smell would be better and the solid things floating by more human and more moral and upright.
Tell a lie long enough and hard enough and you may get a few weak minded mentally challenged people to believe the lie. I think we have to petition the Queen to remove these criminals from power. Anyone not believing the crimes and corruption is going on please come buy my bridge and I have some nice window seat tickets to the first Jupiter flights.
There couldn't be anyone left still believing them could there? It would be the same logic that would make you leave your toddler at Father O'Brien's catholic creche and childcare center.
Reply"
skippy…. off to the Beach [!!!]
Eastern Ukraine offered three years of limited self-rule RTE News. Looks like Russia won. They wanted a buffer. They have no interest in owning Ukraine, an economic albatross, despite Western scare-mongering to the contrary.
Good grief – a buffer against what, exactly? An invasion from the Ukraine’s impotent and bankrupt military?
Putin is an old school imperialist who understands power in territorial terms. This “three years of limited self rule” nonsense is a face saving measure to do disguise de facto autonomy, with outright annexation still in the cards at a future date. This is consistent with previous Russian actions in Moldova and Georgia.
i hear putin’s headed to iowa.
That’s old news, some traitorous scum tipped him off and he is now laying siege to Monsanto’s HQ in St. Louie!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjmiyOgO66g
Chile keeps moving away from neoliberalism thru tax reform
http://santiagotimes.cl/historic-chile-tax-reform-given-green-light/
recap…”If Bachelet is elected without the legislative firepower necessary to push through the agenda which has spearheaded her electoral campaign, she could well face similar widespread protests to those seen under President Sebastián Piñera. His presidency has been marred by ***student protests demanding an overhaul of the overpriced and unequal education system as well as massive environmental and labor protests*** which been a major factor in locking the president into approval ratings between 27 and 40 percent since the height of the student movement in August, 2011.” http://santiagotimes.cl/chiles-parliamentary-elections-thorn-bachelets-side/
No one has done good who has not suffered disillusionment. Chilean Proverb
(there’s still hope u s a)