(But all G--'s chillun got shoes!)

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind

If the picture above doesn't work, check:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_2bSu8n8ZbFI/SLaMEwlmXOI/AAAAAAAAALk/GEVL0HPinFs/s1600-h/anti-nuclear_coal_ ad_md.jpg

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

Of interest to those here, should be chapter 8, international comparisons.

The relevant site is here:
http://www.stateofworkingamerica.org/index.html

Chapter 8:
http://www.stateofworkingamerica.org/swa08-ch08-international.pdf

The takeaway is how much the US is an outlier from other developed nations. This includes the wealth disparity as well as the poor level of social services and the weak labor movement.

Data in other chapters shows such things as how life expectancy is correlated to economic status. You get what you pay for in the US, including a longer life.

Policies not Politics
---- Daily Landscape

Let's just say that I have been eating avocados all week long for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

"Beware of the man who does not talk, and the dog that does not bark." Cheyenne

Rasmussen Daily Tracking Poll

"Is Gov Palin qualified to be veep?"

Men: Yes 35-41 No
Women: Yes 25-48 No

I suspect that after the customary day of fluff coverage, those numbers may actually get worse once we get beyond the GOP convention, especially if Biden can do the Older Gentleman schtick at the veep debate while Palin makes a fool of herself (or, better yet, reveals herself as an unqualified wingnut).

Oh, my better half gets to meet Mark Warner tonight.  Our (soon-to-be) new senator here in Virginia!  Hoping she can get a picture.

Where's your motherf*%&ing flag pin?

Hidden riches in a rubbish dump

(Reuters) - A dramatic rise in the value of old plastic is encouraging waste companies to consider the possibility of mining existing landfill sites to reclaim and recycle their potentially valuable contents.

Interesting stats on the composition of waste follows...

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

House of horrors

How bad can it get? Nationwide's August figures showed house prices down almost 2 per cent since July, producing the UK's first double-digit, year-on-year decline since 1992. The annualised quarter-on-quarter rate of decline, meanwhile, is touching 17 per cent. It is now likely that the eventual peak-to-trough fall will end up being more severe - in real and nominal terms - than the corrections of the early 1990s and mid-1970s.

Of course, that graph was also used 3-4 years ago (without the last bit going down) to suggest things were unsustainable - and was nevertheless dismissed as unserious.

What were they thinking? Or rather - what were they selling?!

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

Ans: Lots of pretty graphs.

McCain/Palin ... total sacks of SHIT!

Merkel's choice: economic reform or populism

As the economy weakens, Ms Merkel faces a choice between the populism preached by a large segment of her conservative troops to win re-election or fundamental reform. Recent history suggests economic woes can bring out the best of German politicians. When the economy was last stagnating and haemorrhaging jobs, Gerhard Schröder, her Social Democratic predecessor, responded with Agenda 2010, a tough and unpopular package of benefit cuts and labour market reforms. The measures led to Mr Schröder's premature ousting from office, ironically a few months before they began to bear fruit.

The record of the grand coalition, blessed by the creation of 1.6m jobs in the past two years, is so far not as impressive. It courageously raised the retirement age by two years and began to fix Germany's ballooning budget deficit - albeit thanks to booming tax revenues. Yet it could not muster the strength to finish Mr Schröder's job of labour market reform and fixing social security. If fact, it has reversed some of the Agenda 2010 reforms.

So could the looming downturn herald a return to bitter medicine? There are reasons to fear it will not. Indeed, next year there is more likely to be a bout of populist rhetoric that could make even Hugo Chávez, the Venezuelan president, blush.

(...)

Germany's rulers face the choice between being honest now or resorting to populism to win re-election and then facing an unpleasant backlash.

Reform always hurts people so is opposed, but it is necessary (for the rich and their "growth"). But opposing it gets you labelled a Chavezist. I wonder what we should do about the permanent use by the neolibs of insults (or, more precisely, of what they have turned into insults by parallel propaganda).

Putin maps the boundaries of greater Russia

We need to get this straight. Vladimir Putin's Russia has invaded a neighbour, annexed territory and put in place a partial military occupation. It seeks to overthrow the president of Georgia and to overturn the global geopolitical order. It has repudiated its signature on a ceasefire negotiated by France's Nicolas Sarkozy and disowned its frequent affirmations of Georgia's territorial integrity. Most importantly: all of this is our fault.

The "our" in this context, of course, refers to the US and the more headstrong of its European allies such as Britain. If only Washington had been nicer to the Russians after the fall of the Berlin Wall. If only the west had not humiliated Moscow after the break-up of the Soviet Union.

Surely we can see now what a provocation it was to allow the former vassal states of the Soviet empire to exercise their democratic choice to join the community of nations? And what of permitting them to shelter under Nato's security umbrella and to seek prosperity for their peoples in the European Union? Nothing, surely, could have been more calculated to squander the post-cold-war peace.

(...)

Moscow's invasion of Georgia and its public scorn at the likely international response speaks to an entirely different mindset: a retreat from integration and a preference for force over rules. Russia's neighbours are told they can be vassals or enemies. Mr Medvedev boasts Russia is ready for another cold war.

I struggle to see what Russia will gain. It is friendless. Governments and foreign investors alike now know that Moscow's word is worthless. The price of aggression will be pariah status. Mr Putin, of course, will blame the west.

I usually expect better from Philip Stephens. There is no mention of Iras, Kosovo or Saakashvili's aggression.

Pathetic.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

This one I will debunk in full (later).

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

A major survey of Australians' views on climate change has found an overwhelming majority think it is happening and they're prepared to pay to address it.

The study by University of Technology Sydney found Australians wanted to see cuts in the nation's greenhouse gas emissions irrespective of the actions of other countries.

Researchers quizzed 768 people, who were chosen randomly but with a method to ensure the sample was reflective of the Australian population.

The key findings include that 83.7 per cent believed global warming was occurring and, of those, 84.9 per cent said Australia should proceed with an emissions trading scheme (ETS) regardless of the international response. "The bottom line from this study is that Australians think now is the time to adopt a climate change program that has some real teeth," visiting economics professor at UTS Richard Carson said.

"They believe that climate change will cause serious problems in Australia and elsewhere in the world, and they understand there will be sizeable cost going along with it."

The concrete box is 180 x 88 x 47 m. high.  It´s the first offshore gas platform to be installed in the world and has a distribution capacity of 8m metric tons per year.
...
The LNG Terminal project client is Rass Laffan LNG, participated by Quatar Petroleum, Exxon Mobil USA and Edison Italia, and have also collaborated Aker Kvaerner and Norway´s subsidiary of Skanska, responsible of engineering and construction management.

The trip will take about 21 days.... to its final destination 17 km. from the coast of Venice...

That'll be good for a nice bump in oil prices.

Och nu den svenska kocken bakar en Alaskan älg jägare. Bonk! Bonk! Bonk!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/27/opinion/27friedman.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=friedman&st=cse& amp;oref=slogin

It's the latest column by Thomas Friedman, Mr. Neo-Liberal himself, remarking on China's accomplishments in preparing for the Olympic games, and how it was an example of state planning and power at work. He goes on to say (in broad terms) that we need the same in America, in order to rebuild the country. Part of his justification is that while China's poor are still worse than America's poor, China's upper class is living better than America's upper class.  

Not what you expect to hear from a neo-liberal, especially one who seemed to personify neoliberalism in the 1990's. Friedman was rabidly against the anti-globalization protests here in Seattle in 1999, and used his position at the NYT to become the leading public figure espousing neo-liberalism. He was very influential in Washington.

He seemed to moderate these views in the last few years; in a recent book he even made a favorable reference to Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. This column, which has gone completely unnoticed during the focus on the Democratic convention, might be a sign that he is seriously flirting with a major break with neoliberalism.

Too early to tell, however this is how major change occurs: a significant part of the establishment becomes disenchanted with a status quo they previously accepted or even championed, and actively work to bring it down.

In my opinion, that's exactly what happend in Eastern Europe in 1989. A sizable chunk of the elite class, having been to the West and seen its richness, and having seen how the elite in the West benefited when Reagan and Thatcher removed the "burdens" of regulation and the state, realized that if they did away with planning committees, they could own everything outright. So they turned against their own system...

Now it may be happening again, but in the reverse direction.

Thoughts?