The second leg down . . . via Grandinite
Waltzing at the Doomsday Ball
By JOE BAGEANT
Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico.
As an Anglo European white guy from a very long line of white guys, I want to thank all the brown, black, yellow and red people for a marvelous three-century joy ride. During the past 300 years of the industrial age, as Europeans, and later as Americans, [...]...
Global Leftism Wears Its Mania on Its Sleeve via The Nexus of Assholery
Frances Russell lays her cards on the table......And they're all jokers.How else to explain the embarrassing (if only Russell had the sense to be ebmarrassed) op/ed, entitled "Banking, Smoke and Mirrors", published in the Winnipeg Free Press?If any doubt remained that Russell is, in fact, an extreme leftist, this op/ed piece ought to dispell any such doubt.In the article, Russell counter-factually insists that the Canadian government did, indeed, bailout its banks, and so should support the global banking tax being pushed by various Eurpean left-wing governments.In order to make this case, Russell channels economics Jim Stanford and Michel Choussudovsky.These are, of course, no ordinary economists. Stanford is currently in the employ of the Canadian Auto Workers union -- essentially a...
Fuck You, Nancy Hughes Anthony… via The Nexus of Assholery
Murray Dobbin is my bitch...
Bucky Fuller, on Tea Parties and the Dissolution of Nation-States via Grandinite
Did Bucky Fuller foresee the Tea Party movement?
Reason number two for fear-wrought panic is because all of the 150 nations of our planet are about to be desovereignized by evolution; that is, they are about to become operatively obsolete – about to be given up altogether. There are millions in the U.S.A., for instance, [...]...
France Set to Get Tough on Debt via The Nexus of Assholery
Nicolas Sarkozy proposes debt-limiting constitutionAs Europe desperately attempts to stave off a complete economic collapse precipitated by the fiscal irresponsibility of the Greek government -- possibly to be followed by the Italian, Spanish and Irish governments -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy has reiterated his commitment to limiting France's public debt.Sarkozy is prepared to go so far as to amend France's constitution. The propsed amendment would require any French government that runs a deficit to commit to a five-year plan to balance the budget and pay off the debt."Without budgetary adjustment, our growth and our social model are threatened," Sarkozy explained. "That is what lies behind the decisions I have presented."Not only is Sarkozy proposing to constitutionally mandate... “The Little Thief From Swift Current” via The Nexus of Assholery
Dwain Lingenfelter clearly frustratedIn the Saskatchewan Legislature, NDP leader Dwain Lingenfelter recently slip the frustration that he -- and a limited number of Saskatchewan's citizens -- have been feeling with Premier Brad Wall and the Saskatchewan Party government.In an unparliamentary outburst, Lingenfelter harrangued Wall as "the little thief from Swift Current".It makes one wonder: precisely what did Wall steal?Perhaps in Lingenfelter's mind, it's government. And popularity.In fact, a recent poll indicates that 68% of Saskatchewan's citizens approve of the job Wall has been doing as Premier of Saskatchewan, and that 58% would vote for the Saskatchewan Party in a future election.That leaves Dwain Lingenfelter and the NDP in a very bad way -- facing the prospect of relegation to...
“We Are All Kanellos” via The Nexus of Assholery
Few people could have said it better -- but not in the way that John Baglow must have imagined.In a recent post at his blog, "Dr Dawg" John Baglow remarks about Kanellos, the dog who has been spotted at many Greek protests since 2008.One is almost uncertain about how to break the bad news to Baglow, but:Kanellos is a dog.It isn't as if Kanellos understands the issues at the heart of the protests he shows up at. And considering the scope of the fiscal situation in Greece, one wonders if some those protesting against austerity measures on the part of the government understand why they are protesting.Greece owes as much as 120% of its Gross Domestic Product to foreign creditors, a figure that is increasing with Greece's deficit, accounting for 13% of its GDP.And although many are blaming...
David Cameron and the Puzzle of Measuring a Mandate via The Nexus of Assholery
Pooled authority must mean a shared mandateAs Britons wait expectantly to find out who will form the government following May 6's election, the Mirror's Kevin Maguire has a message for British Conservative leader David Cameron:You have no mandate for austerity. He writes:"The progressive political parties – Labour and the Liberal Democrats, two parties united by much – easily polled more votes between them.Cameron secured no mandate to unleash an age of austerity on those without cash to buy private education or health."It's the kind of knee-jerk reaction that one should expect from the relentlessly adversarial left. One can see it right now in Greece: even as the state of their fiscal ship threatens to drag the bulk of Europe down with it, the Greek left rioted against...
Good for HM PM Harper via Dr Roy's Thoughts
HM PM wants to concentrate on economics during the G8 and G20 meetings, not on the climate hoax. That's exactly right. I also happy HM Pm wants more free trade and no bank levy. The statists from the EU have little to teach Canada.
Talking to Canadian reporters, he stressed how much Europe and Canada have in common, calling them "natural partners with basically the same model and the same values." He said he was looking forward to talking with Harper, saying they had a "very good working relationship."
However, the two men differ not just on the need for immediate climate change action, but on whether a global bank tax should be imposed to start building an emergency fund to ward off the effects of financial meltdowns down the road.
Harper opposes such an international levy. Barroso...
Vancouver: China’s Exit Plan via Grandinite
There’s plenty of anxiety out there concerning whether or not Canada is in a housing bubble. An important distinction to note is that “Canada” is too far spread out to consider that a unified Canadian housing market even exists. Housing in Toronto is no substitute for housing in Saskatoon if your job is in Saskatoon. [...]...
An Idea Whose Time Has Come via Grandinite
Tailings have again taken over the mainstage of public debate in Alberta:
Alberta approves Syncrude’s tailings plan
Isn’t it time to re-think the problem?
If only there were a technology out there that did the following . . . .
1. Extracts 99.9% of oil from oil sands feedstock
2. No water is used in extracting bitumen from oil sands feedstock
3. No chemical discharge or oil-polluted tailings ponds are created
4. No natural gas or other fossil fuels are used in oil sands extraction or upgrading
5. Carbon gases produced during processing can be captured in the ‘closed’ system
6. Electrical power consumption is extremely low
7. Tailings are clean and dry, ready for reintroduction into the environment
8. Sulfur and other contaminants are significantly reduced during...
Don’t Buy Canada’s Dirty Oil. Support Tyranny Instead. via Grandinite
I’ve combined two data sets, one from the Economist’s Global Democracy Rankings and another from the US Energy Information Administration to try to understand how much of America’s oil imports are sourced from democratic, freedom-loving nations.
Why?
It goes back to this paper by Kevin Morrison of the Duke U PoliSci Department entitled: Oil, Non-Tax Revenue, and Regime Stability: The Political Resource Curse Reexamined. The paper examined the impact of non-tax resource revenue on regime stability, and found the following regarding oil revenues:
Specifically, non-tax revenue should not affect redistribution and regime stability in democracies, but it should diminish redistribution and increase regime stability in dictatorships.
This should matter to Americans because if... The Stupid Future via The Nexus of Assholery
In the Dilbert Future, Scott Adams mused about whether or not stupidity would increase endemically in the 21st century, and wondered how smart people might be able to profit from it.In Dogbert-esque fashion, the book simply suggests that the savvy business people of tomorrow will find ways by not only exploiting, but facilitating and actually encouraging the stupidity of others.It isn't at all outside the realm of imagination that we already see this in the modern economy.Consider, for example, the advent of KFC's Double Down, a product that fortunately will not be available in Canada -- at least for the time being.With the prevalence of obesity-induced heart disease in American society, one would imagine that a food item that is essentially two pieces of deep-fried chicken with cheese...
Oilsands: The Great Satan of Water Use via Grandinite
A good friend once turned me down the path of epistemology, and he armed me with three propositions:
1. In the absence of fact, myth prevails.
2. Change the myth, change the culture.
3. And finally, treat everything I say as lies.
For the sake of brevity, I’m not going to expand too much on these propositions, but rather skip to applying the model of myth de-bunkery to some of the facts and myths regarding oilsands in Alberta. I am not trying to refute facts so much as provide context. And that’s the problem I have with most of the information warfare going on between industry and the greens. Both cite facts in a void, and when there’s nothing to compare them to, the immediate response is to accept whatever spin is put to them.
Take fact #7 from the Pembina... ? via Grandinite
NYC – Brooklyn – Coney Island – The Cyclone by wallyg
AP: The Dow’s up but trades are scarce, worrying bulls
Globe & Mail: Friday, April 16 – Premarket: Dow set for decline
NYTimes: U.S. Accuses Goldman Sachs of Fraud in Mortgage Deals
Bloomberg: U.S. Stocks Drop as SEC Sues Goldman Sachs for Fraud on CDOs
Montreal Gazette: TSX down heavily as commodity prices sink, Goldman...... The Economic Recovery: Not only is it Fragile, it may all be an Illusion via Grandinite
WSJ: Economist Warns of Public Bubble
The gist is this: The stimulus and other such measures have prevented a shedding of debts that needs to happen before the economy can return to sustainable growth. The saving rate has grown from its record lows, but has been propped up by tax cuts that have exacerbated the mountain of debt at all levels of government. Property values have fallen, but accounting changes have prevented banks from acknowledging a lot of underwater loans. Even the roaring stock market is artificial, in the firm’s view.
“The rally in the equity markets seems to be occurring despite the fact that overall asset prices still seem too high given our long-run potential for growth. And the bounce in the asset markets overlooks the fact that overall the national deleveraging...
How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Coming Collapse via Grandinite
I am going to try this stream of consciousness writing, because I feel that it is the purest form of blogging. Yes, I blog as an artform, as a means of injecting my thoughts into the noosphere, where, it is hoped, they will be picked up by others and integrated within the global consciousness, potentially even across generations. It is possible that my daughter may one day read these words and get warm and fuzzy feelings about how I was thinking of her when I wrote this.
On one hand, the age of telecommunication ought to drive use towards a convergence of thought, thus negating the individual’s role in the grand scheme. If you want to know what people are talking about, just check Twitter or google trends to see what’s happening, and you yourself can think about these nuggets...
If the Books Don’t Balance in Time for the Election, Blame the Loonie via Grandinite
Ed Stelmach believes the surging loonie will hurt the government’s war on Alberta’s provincial deficit.
Edmonton Journal: Surging loonie hurts Alberta deficit fight: As Canadian dollar climbs in value, provincial revenues drop, premier says
The rising loonie is bad news for Alberta’s efforts to reduce a projected $4.7-billion deficit, Premier Ed Stelmach said Wednesday.
Every one-cent annualized increase in the Canadian dollar costs the province about $215 million in lost revenue, Stelmach said.
The loonie reached 99.31 cents US in trading Wednesday, before easing to close at 98.98, up .36 for the day.
A strong dollar hurts Alberta’s three major export industries — energy, agriculture and forestry, Stelmach said.
“The concern is it does have an impact...
A Random Stream of Consciousness on Money via Grandinite
Work. What is work? You go to this place, do stuff with other people who are doing similar stuff, and you get to go home each day. Then, every two weeks, these digits appear in electronic form, either on your atm screen or your computer screen. 0’s and 1’s – that’s what you’re paid in. Not gold, nor even fiat debt money backed by nothing but one’s sheer faith that it will be accepted by others as “legal tender for all debts”. It’s quite strange how our notions of money have changed. Some societies have used shells, beaver pelts, or huge stones sitting on the ocean floor as money. In Greece, according to Aristotle in his Nichomachean Ethics, they used the “Knife of Delphi” as money. It was something like an ancient...
Is Canada a Myth? via Grandinite
Filmmaker Doug Force and Melanie Howe were on the Richard Syrett Show in 2008 to discuss some of the research that went into his latest film project, Bamboozled. His arguement is very interesting; namely, that Canada was unlawfully Confederated, that it is effectively a group of 10-12 sovereign nations (as evidenced by our insane interprovincial trade barriers), and that we have been had: Canada is a corporation, as are its provinces, municipalities and towns. It’s not that far out to lunch when you consider that towns must incorporate with a provincially-granted Charter if they are to levy taxes on individuals, elect officials and have elections.
On a related note, while poking around for information, I came across the “Alberta Refederation Party”, which seeks to...