Riot police outside the Greek parliament building (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
BAIL-OUTS AND AUSTERITY: LIKE A HORSE AND CARRIAGE THEY GO TOGETHER IN YET ANOTHER EUROPEAN COUNTRY.
(Daily Mirror) Greece joins Portugal, Spain and Ireland as countries for which the European Union has agreed to provide funds to deal with their financial insolvency in return for “austerity” measures that cut back on government funding of public services. Thus, as in the U.S., U.K. and elsewhere, “disaster capitalism” rumbles along as the social contract by which “governments are instituted among men” to provide for their their “common welfare” are breeched in favor of keeping a bankrupt financial system afloat.
“BLOW-OUT” IS OCCURRING FOR CHINESE MINING OPERATIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
(Asia Times) Hoping to exploit Australia’s iron ore deposits to feed the voracious appetite for booming Chinese industry, state-owned mining group has thrown billions of dollars into plans for Australian mining, only to report now huge cost over-runs that threat the viability of their plans. Among other problems, Chinese operators are finding that wage costs in Australia are severely impacting their bottom lines, as Australian workers are not willing to work at the low wages prevalent among Chinese workers.
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MINNESOTA GOVERNMENT RE-OPENS FOR BUSINESS, BUT PUBLIC BITTERNESS ABOUT LOSS OF PUBLIC SERVICES LINGERS ON.
(Minneapolis Star-Tribune) Minneapolis Star Tribune article quotes many statements among people who had agonizing waits for desired government services during the 20 days shutdown, including a 17-year old who just completed a motorcycle training course and was then unable to get a rider’s permit. Many Minnesotans are left to wonder just what was accomplished by the shut-down.
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BRO, DON’T TASE US WITH THOSE BUDGET CUTS!
(USA Today) Leaders of black civil rights organizations meet with President Obama to urge that he not try to deal with the budget deficit by cutting programs like Medicaid on which black Americans are so heavily dependent. They leave the meeting saying they are “reassured” that the President shares their concern, and that he will return to a jobs creation agenda just as soon as he gets the current “debt crisis” resolved. (“I feel your pain, brothers!”)
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WILL DEVELOPERS IN FLORIDA GET A “PASSPORT FOR POLLUTION”: BECAUSE OF A CONGRESSMAN’S “DIRTY WATER” BILL?
(Orlando Sentinel) This is the claim of environmentalist protesters, who say that the bill introduced by John Mica, passed in the House but awaiting approval by Senate and President, would prevent federal regulators from enforcing provisions of the Clean Water Act in Florida and other states. Mica claims that this legislation is necessary since without it, EPA regulations will impose unaffordable costs for water treatment on local businesses.
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Quote of the day...
What do Dick Gephardt, Tom Harkin, and Mike Huckabee have in common? They all won the Iowa caucus. What do Steve Forbes, Pat Robertson, Pat Buchanan, Paul Simon and Gary Hart have in common? They all finished second. In 1972, George McGovern, the Democratic presidential candidate finished third in Iowa; in 1988, Michael Dukakis finished third; in 1992, Bill Clinton finished fourth (with a microscopic 3-percent).
David Macaray, on the irony that the Iowa caucuses are regarded as “bellwether” events when in fact their results seldom predict the winners of presidential nominations.
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This class warfare is indeed international and…the oligarchy will not prevail. The greedy oligarchs want complete control over the people and the national and international wealth. The real question is whether or not the oligarchs are willing to live with the consequences of massive popular uprisings that will definitely cramp their life styles.
What is required of the people now is complete solidarity. The time is close at hand when we will see in our own cities the type of thing that we now see in Greece. The people have reached their limit of the type of shit that they are receiving from the plutocrats and their flunkies.
Those with the money make the rules Doesn’t matter if it’s Dollars or Euros.
The bankers will win the first few skirmishes but the battlefield is global and the rules are changing.
We feared a depression. We seem to have prevented that, but we’re still in a recession that we can’t seem to figure out how to get out of. Sort of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I don’t understand how throwing state and federal government employees out of work is going to improve the economy. And tax cuts are bullshit, they are like winning the lottery when everyone else wins the lottery. Any gain just evaporates though inflation.