by Crazy Horse
Fri Nov 26th, 2010 at 05:33:24 AM EST
We are good at finding fault with the results of unbridled predatory capitalism, perhaps less good, or less evolved, at proposing solutions. In a front page diary yesterday about Daniel Cohn-Bendit's recent remarks, he said:
So, we are saving, not just banks, but a system that is in itself a system of bankruptcy, a political system... It's the failure of neoliberalism and of deregulation...
to which Miguel responded:
European Greens Party: Financial CrisisIn this context, the EGP puts forward the following propositions for consideration:
In the short term, Governments have no other choice than to take action in order to prevent the collapse of the banking system by providing state guarantees or injecting capital, using taxpayers' money. Because at the same time, Governments find billions to save banks that are responsible for their problem, while they can't find the funding needed to fight starvation, unemployment, environmental degradation, the loss of biodiversity and to fund development aid, this rescue is not legitimate if not counterbalanced by a number of measures
<sigh>
I
replied:
The document is from October 2008; perhaps Green economic policy has matured in the intervening two years.
Further, as you didn't highlight, "this rescue is not legitimate if not counterbalanced by a number of measures," so we should first investigate the counterbalancing measures.
So let's look at the underlying measures, and see if the European Greens have something to offer, below the fold.
by Crazy Horse
Mon Nov 1st, 2010 at 06:55:42 PM EST
Recognizing bread and circus isn't the hottest topic around these parts, not to mention baseball (there, a mention), the david Giants meet up in the 3rd game of the best-of-seven series against the philadelphia cheese steak goliaths. first pitch at the civilized time for Yurpeens of 10:19 in the evening.
each team has won one, but tonight is the first back in San Francisco, in the world's most beautiful bread and circus arena, for the next three games. some of us are pretty jazzed even to be in this situation.
As debt financing for the Pennant Project is not yet in place, the Giants (or Jints, as they were called when still fighting against the Yankees in Nueva York), are forced to reshuffle their lineup, now stacked with right-handers in a nod to Yurpeen politics. this is the most powerful lineup the Jints can field, but pales against the mighty phillies, who are illiterate rednecks who make signs asking Giant players to fix their teeth.
as there's still over an hour to go 'til first pitch, and the writer has discovered ants and poisonous spiders on his butt and can't sit still, he's decided to offer a screed to the gods of baseball, who are far more worldly and forgiving than most of the other gods running amok around the planet.
by Crazy Horse
Tue Sep 14th, 2010 at 01:19:23 PM EST
A friend turned me on to the concept of Global Dimming. While i'd been through some of the accompanying literature a bit, and while i've read some about the effect of jet contrails, i'd never seen it put together like this. Yet i have no idea of where this science stands.
I'm sure there are people at ET who are far more familiar with this research. I'd like to get a handle if there is any validity here. I'm using a BBC show from 2005 as a base for discussion, but have no idea of where this research has gone over the past five years.
NARRATOR: Instead we have to take urgent action to tackle the root cause of both global warming and Global Dimming - the burning of coal, oil and gas. We may have to make very difficult choices, about how we live and how we generate our electricity. We have been talking about such things for 20 years. But so far very little has been done in practical terms. The discovery of Global Dimming makes it clear that we are rapidly running out of time.
by Crazy Horse
Sun Aug 8th, 2010 at 08:54:14 AM EST
One wonders if what follows isn't the beginning of a good, even powerful, film. Hiawatha is a tale about the real people who brought an end to the cycle of revenge which permeates human culture. Who created a lasting Great Peace.
*How strange to learn that much of it became Avatar.*
(This edition of the script is the dumbed down version, at 6th grade level, so beloved by Ivy League-educated Hollyweird execs. Where the most important value is the amount of blank space on a page.)
Despite healthy deals, it was never made, as the CH would not accept Johnny Depp or Val Kilmer as Hiawatha, and held out for an all native cast.
by Crazy Horse
Sun Jul 12th, 2009 at 02:55:16 PM EST
Back when Deutschland experienced Das Sommermärchen, the fairy-tale 2006 FIFA World Cup, the Gobal Village Idiot wrote a piece for Der Spiegel (the mirror) on what englisch-speaking tourists would find in German. In the spirit of Mark Twain, who wrote:
"In German, a young lady has no sex, while a turnip has."
Sparked by something Fran posted in the Salon, i give you, through the time tunnel, a cursory understanding of the German language, if you want to call it that.
by Crazy Horse
Wed Jan 7th, 2009 at 04:15:01 PM EST
In the first hard news I've seen that life will also be tough for one of the main industries which should survive well in the economic meltdown, LM Glasfiber announced up to 20% cuts in its workforce. LM is the largest independent rotor blade manufacturer around the globe. (Many manufacturers produce much of their own blades, but not all.)
Wind turbine blade producer LM Glasfiber has announced that it is to fire one fifth of its Danish workforce in what is being called the biggest domestic firing-round of recent times.
While I do believe this is a significant event, I do not believe it is strictly related to the meltdown. More below.
by Crazy Horse
Wed Sep 17th, 2008 at 03:42:36 PM EST
Our global digital spiderweb is momentarily on hyperactive overdrive, chronicling the demise and dying dinosaur thrashing thievery of Anglo capitalism. Sharing the billing is the public pharce masquerading as the US elections, where the ideals of the Founding Fathers wallow trampled beneath the steamroller of media inanity and megabucks. The airwaves and cables are filled with the latest event, as many begin to forget what happened but a few hours previous. We're watching the 200 year Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in the time span of reality TV, 500 channels of analysis, or rather spin, included.
Thankfully for the powers that be, economic meltdown allows us to forget the daily trickle of global warming catastrophe looming even larger in the background. But there's something even more lost, missing in the miasma that's become the media and blog discussions of the meltdown and its attendant thievery by the ruling class.
Human beings.
This is going to hurt, folks. Let's remember that. I've got something to say that doesn't need any graphs.
by Crazy Horse
Wed Jul 2nd, 2008 at 04:57:09 PM EST
The Crazy Horse was writing a screenplay about the shipyards in San Francisco, so he took a job there. Among other things, he had to work refitting an oil tanker. What occurs below the fold comes straight from the unpublished real-time novel on which he was experimenting at the time. He didn't know what blogs were, though the novel might have made a fine blog of those delirious dot.com days. At least he knew something about windpower, and this evidence of what windpower was trying to replace.
Here's the part about seeing the reality about oil: beyond intellect, beyond politics, beyond power and insanity. This is how it gets to your tank.
