Signs that the world is going to hell in a handbasket

[Toedancer]

Nope. I was flabergasted to say the least. You have no idea how discouraged I am. I'm making arrangements to spend a week with a friend, so I can go commando. I refuse to pay people's goddam mortgages for them when the writing has been on the wall for a couple of years now and I refuse to be TOLD what I CAN do and what I CAN'T do whe I'm PAYING for the privilege. I have a very bad attitude.

[Toedancer]

http://www.detnews.com/article/20111011/METRO01/110110385/DTE-deal-pulls-out-lights-in-Highland-Park


Highland Park in Detroit is a very poor nabe (altho the houses in the vid look quite large and well-kept). Their streetlights have been dismantled because they can't pay the electricity bill. One business owner who had his a/c stolen the next night was told by a cop 'he could get xtra protection if he paid $250 every 2 weeks' (that bit of extortion is being looked into). The Mayor says no lighting won't raise criminal stats, he's a moron. Of course no lights where he lives will be removed. He's not a mushroom like the 99%. Living in the Dark Ages, absolutely no pun intended.

[Toedancer]

Street lights in Detroit gone. Now.....in Topeka, Kansas they are no longer prosecuting Domestic Violence (I don't know who the brain trust is there, but wouldn't it follow to stop prosecuting non-violent cases such as small marijuana possession?) oh don't tell me this isn't aimed at the poorest.
http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/weird/Cash-Strapped-Topeka-Stops-Prosecuting-Domestic-Violence-131468933.html


In Pritchard, Alabama retired city and state workers are no longer receiving any pension cheques.
 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/23/business/23prichard.html?_r=1


I suppose I could keep looking for examples, but the decline is happening fast. There isn't a politician alive in the U.S. who knows how to tackle the financial corruption , many don't even has an inkling to the true despair they are so disconnected from the people. I can't imagine the scale of violence that will take off and oh I suppose 'confuse' the political class.

[Toedancer]

Chris Hedges - Sacrifice Zones
Excellent interview - http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/20/chris-hedges-americas-sacrifice-zones-being-destroyed-for-profit/


When Moyers asked Hedges what he meant by saying there are no impediments left, he explained, “The political system is bought off, the judicial system is bought off, the law enforcement system services the interests of power, they have been rendered powerless.” Even worse, Hedges believes these devastated communities represent the future for all of us.

All of us. Either it's fight or . . In Canada it will be ... InvertedTotalitarianism
Dissent is allowed, although the corporate media serves as a filter, allowing most people, with limited time available to keep themselves apprised of current events, only to hear points of view which the corporate media deems to be "serious" or IOW's we are nothing but a 'managed' democracy'. Resistance = Dignity

[greenvie]

Moyers has some awesome guests on his comeback show. Remember when he got booted off PBS a while back? 

These corporations know only one word, and that’s more,” Hedges went on. “And because the mechanisms of governance can no longer control them, there is nothing now within the formal mechanisms of power to stop them from the creating, essentially, a corporate oligarchic state.

I watch his show, sometimes cheering and then waiting for more solid ideas about how to "stop them". I read the comments under each show and am amazed the Americans aren't more angry.

In 17th century England, a barrister, John Cook, risked assassination to put King Charles I on trial for crimes against the people. The problem was that the king (Rex), who made the law, could not be against himself. Could Rex be against Rex? The solution was to argue that the King is an office, not an individual, and must obey the law of the land. Cook won and Charles lost (his head).

The 1%, er, corporations, were clever to get themselves the same rights as the person. Now we must get more clever than them. And we won't even take off their heads. If they have the rights of the person, what about the responsibilities?

[greenvie]

£13tn ($21 trillion): hoard hidden from taxman by global elite

Much of it is being done by oil-rich states, according to the research. How transparent do we think multinationals in Alberta are? 

A global super-rich elite has exploited gaps in cross-border tax rules to hide an extraordinary £13 trillion ($21tn) of wealth offshore - as much as the American and Japanese GDPs put together...

...According to Henry's research, the top 10 private banks, which include UBS and Credit Suisse in Switzerland, as well as the US investment bank Goldman Sachs, managed more than £4tn ($6.2tn) in 2010, a sharp rise from £1.5tn ($2.3tn) five years earlier...

..."Closing down the tax loopholes exploited by multinationals and the super-rich to avoid paying their fair share will reduce the deficit. This way the government can focus on stimulating the economy, rather than squeezing the life out of it with cuts and tax rises for the 99% of people who aren't rich enough to avoid paying their taxes."

Assuming the £13tn ($21tn)mountain of assets earned an average 3% a year for its owners, and governments were able to tax that income at 30%, it would generate a bumper £121bn in revenues – more than rich countries spend on aid to the developing world each year.

One of the best bits:

According to Henry's calculations, £6.3tn ($9.8tn) of assets is owned by only 92,000 people, or 0.001% of the world's population.

[Toedancer]

The Canadian hoard, as pogge blogged from the G & M.


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/tear-down-those-mountains-of-cash/article4431702/

[greenvie]

Thanks, Toe! 

I like the 14 pages of comments at The Guardian article better though. Less intellectualizing and more succinct anger.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/21/global-elite-tax-offshore-economy#start-of-comments

Example, with 1268 recommends:

This country is not in debt. Our deficit is a taxation deficit, it is money that Britain is owed, not money that Britain owes. This coalition represents the tax evaders that owe us this money and is pursuing austerity to the death in the pretense that we owe them. This isn't a government, it's a robbery.

More:

With Sicily on the brink of bankruptcy, Greece being pressurised by the ECB, Spain close to default and the IMF now stating we should be printing money how long can the present system exist? If the global economy crashes then that $21tn would be worthless, unless used as kindling for a few bonfires.

How is it that our health and our lifestyles are so threatened by putative terrorists that we justify all hell in the name of keeping us safe and secure, when these tax scum float off unreachable and untouchable while reeking massive harm and destruction to our way of life and our collective health and well being.
Orange jump suits for these robbers and thieves would be simply too kind

Doug Saunders doesn't mention where the mountain of money actually is. No mention of off-shore accounts. Am I naive in believing him when he just says it's in "cash reserves", as if this is some benign bank in Calgary? I need to know more.

[sparqui]

This quote should be repeated over and over again, a meme for the masses (the 99%):

This country is not in debt. Our deficit is a taxation deficit, it is money that Britain is owed, not money that Britain owes. This coalition represents the tax evaders that owe us this money and is pursuing austerity to the death in the pretense that we owe them. This isn't a government, it's a robbery.

[Toedancer]

You'll love this quote sparks, it's stunning.


Americans should lose faith in their government. They should deplore the captured politicians and regulators who distributed tax dollars to the banks without insisting that they be accountable. The American people should be revolted by a financial system that rewards failure and protects those who drove it to the point of collapse and will undoubtedly do so again.
Only with this appropriate and justified rage can we hope for the type of reform that will one day break our system free from the corrupting grasp of the megabanks.
Who said that? Special inspector general of the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Neil Barosky
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-22/bungled-bank-bailout-leaves-behind-righteous-anger.html

[Toedancer]

U.S. grid buckling under extreme weather.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/26/us/rise-in-weather-extremes-threatens-infrastructure.html?_r=2

In the Chicago area, a twin-unit nuclear plant had to get special permission to keep operating this month because the pond it uses for cooling water rose to 102 degrees; its license to operate allows it to go only to 100. According to the Midwest Independent System Operator, the grid operator for the region, a different power plant had had to shut because the body of water from which it draws its cooling water had dropped so low that the intake pipe became high and dry; another had to cut back generation

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because cooling water was too warm

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.

[Boom Boom]

Saw a couple of links on FB today that indicated the USA will face the highest food costs this fall ever in their history  because of severe drought in their breadbasket - similar to the dust bowl of the 1930s. And Food Aid overseas will be cut drastically.

[Toedancer]

We will as well, the big rainfall and electrical storms we've had last couple of days are not nearly enuf for the corn, but the soybeans are thrilled.

[Boom Boom]

There was a concerted effort to stop using corn for biofuels in the US this year because of the drought, but the industry won out. How f*cking stupid is biofuels when the country is in the midst of the worse drought since the 1930s???

[Toedancer]

From what I've been reading their Stupid carries on. Always.