Raúl Ilargi Meijer
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zander, I hear you again, you and Euan and all my other Scotch buddies must be shaken still. I’m still going to stick with my viewpoints that I wrote about a lot, but then I ain’t Scotch.
And yes, I was thinking the same thing: why would Cameron stick with anything he said; he’s going to make him now?
Glennda,
… calling her “Grandma” is really too sexist. Would you have called her predecessor “Grandpa”?
Here’s what I said Sep 12:
The Fed is about perception. About trying to make people believe something, and make them act a certain way that they choose for them.
That’s why after the Oracle left they pushed first a bearded gnome and then a grandma forward as the public face. The kind of people nobody would perceive as a threat. Putting a guy who looks like second hand car salesman in charge of the Fed wouldn’t work.
So no, no sexism. Then again, how many female garden gnomes do you know, let alone bearded ones? I know, I kill me …
Euan,
I find it striking that 1) the Dutch report confidently states there were no planes anywhere near MH17, while the Russians have always said there was. The Dutch team undoubtedly knows this, but never addressed it, and 2) that the Dutch said the holes in the fuselage were consistent with a BUK rocket, while the Russians rule that out precisely because of those same holes.
Right now, I see Poroshenko addressing the US Congress, and he states as a fact that Russia and the rebels shot down MH17. All I want is facts, but I can’t get them.
I’m convinced they’re going to start shooting and bombing again soon, because nothing has been solved. East Ukraine will never volunteer to remain part of Ukraine. They’ll point to Scotland as an example of how people can choose to be their own boss.
Zander
For some reason I wonder why you’re so sure the Scots will put up with all the craziness you describe. And if they do, isn’t that what they deserve? BTW, Euan in Aberdeen has some sort of referendum special on Energy Matters. He must be feeling shaky today, like so many other Albionians.
Halva, I don’t really see Chossudovsky as a source, not in the sense that I meant to use the word. He’s an opinion man. Stopped reading him eons ago because there’s far too much loose cannon about him for me. What I meant was – major – news sources. They all have the same spin. Luckily, there are plenty other people who don’t buy into that.
Euan, touché, but that’s not what St. Onge meant to say, he was talking about wars etc.
John Day, yes, The Rupture should be obligatory reading for everyone.
Zander, as I said, I was living in Montréal in 1995, so I know just what you mean by ‘interesting times’.
Yeah, well, you want Salmond gone and Cameron gone …
I see a lot of people saying what a success the Union has been for 300 years, but when I think about the list of Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, I just get the shivers. What about that is worth preserving? It’s just going to keep getting worse, even though one might think that’s not possible. Next one up may be Boris Johnson …
Zander, I hear you, but separation never takes place under ideal circumstances. What I think is most important is that the centralized power structures are broken up, the UK and the EU. When’s the last time Britain had a decent government? I really couldn’t tell you. And that must backfire at some point. As for the EU, it must be cut to size ASAP. It has become a nasty power podium for psychopaths, and it’s a huge threat to everyone in EUrope who’s not part of some elite. That was of course already evident in southern Europe, and it is now in Ukraine as well. If Scotland can be the catalyst that rips apart more EU countries, and their increasingly technocrat governments, that would be a very good thing for all Europeans except the elites, and I don’t think it will turn out nearly as bad for the Scots as people try to make them believe. Salmond is merely the spark needed for the break-up, others will stand up to lead the independent country after that.
Euan, I’d say the UK hasn’t had a functional government for as long as I care to remember. And I can imagine why people get sick of that. I also think the UN charter on self-determination is respected awfully poorly. Spain won’t even allow the Catalans to vote. Same for the Donbass. There’s something wrong in that. Let people choose their own governments if they want to. It’s going to happen a lot anyway as wealth end energy dwindle. Better establish a civilized model for it, or there’ll be a lot of fights in Europe and elsewhere.
Mind you, according to John C. Kornblum, former U.S. undersecretary of state for European affairs, who helped draft the act, it’s pretty much meaningless:
Pact With Russia Keeps NATO Bases at a Distance, But Should It?
Q: Some NATO members are against the permanent stationing of troops in Eastern Europe, arguing that it would violate the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act. Are they right?
Mr. Kornblum: The first important thing is that this is not a treaty. It’s not something legal. An act is an agreement of political commitments people make. It’s not legally binding. The Germans are twisting that around by saying ‘We can’t violate the act.’ But there’s nothing to violate.
Q: If it’s not binding, what was the purpose of the act?
Mr. Kornblum: The NATO Russia Founding Act was a statement by NATO and Russia as to how they were going to regulate relations. It was all done in terms of political commitments. It isn’t written in the terms of a legal commitment. It’s written as a political intention.
Q: In that case, it should be easy to cancel the agreement, correct?
Mr. Kornblum: It says if conditions change, all bets are off. There are all kinds of escape clauses if the other side isn’t sticking to its commitment. Clearly, the Russians have broken virtually all of theirs. There’s no way you can say the conditions are as harmonious as when it was signed.
Q: If it’s so clear, why do Germany and other NATO members read it differently?
Mr. Kornblum: The Germans are determined to continue following a political track. They don’t want relations with Russia to become warlike and they don’t want it to devolve into something resembling a cold war. Their view is that if you can hold onto the commitment you can still have a dialogue. So they want to avoid being seen as having violated the founding act.
Still, if that’s all it is, why should Russia stick to it? Looking only through western eyes, and on top of that only seeing what you like, seems a flimsy way of doing politics.
From a legal perspective, this evolves around the NATO-Russia Founding Act of 1997. NATO accuses Russia of violating this act, while ignoring the fact that things like having CIA ‘advisors’ and other personnel inside Ukraine, let alone conspiring to topple a government, is also a violation.
BTW, Anders War Party Rasmussen will leave as NATO head September 30, his term was extended only to organize the present conference. He will be succeeded by Norway’s Jens Stoltenberg, not a Russia fan either (or he wouldn’t have been picked, NATO’s a hammer looking for a nail).
Any additional interest income from higher rates will be wiped out by greater defaults.
The banks won’t wait for interest income, they have much more lucrative sources.
I don’t think the US economy can grow with a 10Y UST much above 3%.
It’s not growing now, so what’s the difference? Besides, everyone knows ultra low rates can’t last forever. Pensions funds have been getting murdered. And will be finished off by lower stock markets.
If the economy isn’t perceived to be growing, the big banks won’t be very profitable.
They can bet against the economy, and the markets, and get filthy stinking rich. All they really need to do is pull their stock portfolio’s.
I see little reason why Goldman would prefer a booming economy to a plunging one. There’s money to be made in either case. Their income from QE and low rates is now subject to diminishing returns. So higher rates is what it will be. it’s just a matter of fine tuning the timing.
Low rates and deflation is TAE’s position, right?
Deflation is. Low rates are temporary inventions.
But since IS and the House of Saud are both Sunni, the odds of SA subsidizing IS may be higher than IS destroying Ghawar pumps.
Quite a few shale drillers must be so deep into debt all they can do is go deeper as long as they can borrow even more, and then hope prices will rise, of either the land or the oil they produce. It can’t be a healthy business anymore.
If you would simply have searched ‘Assange’ on Google News, I’m sure it would have returned results. Doing that, by the by, is also a great way to get access to paid content from WSJ, FT and many others.
But he did say he’ll leave the embassy soon. Never charged with anything in either Sweden or Britain or US, everyone’s just diddling as US builds a case against him, which has taken 4 years now. UK has spent £7 million protecting the Ecuador embassy. Assange filed a criminal complaint against FBI. No movement at all in Swedish investigation. Sweden refuses to hear him in UK.
But that was just a rumor. He seems to be doing a wrap-up of all legal matters in various countries against him.
Assange to do a press conference any moment now; rumored to be so ill he’ll have to leave the Ecuador embassy to seek treatment.
Ferguson looks pretty surreal, and out of proportion (starting with shooting an allegedly unarmed kid 6 times). To hold back a few hundred protesters, what looks like entire armies are being put on the streets. The governor just signed an order to deploy the National Guard. What are these people going to do when there are thousands of protesters, or tens of thousands?
Far as I know, Naftogaz, the monopoly pipeline company, owns them. Which is already kind of peculiar, because Russia paid for much of them. They just came with the territory when Ukraine separated from Russia, which didn’t complain too much about it, because it was under the impression that the situation guaranteed continued flow of the gas to Europe. Russia even paid a lot of money in ‘rent’ over the years. Just like they subsidized, financed, Ukraine in 100 other ways. They may regret some of that now, and they may not take the abrupt reversal of all of these deals lying down. I wouldn’t be surprised if Putin launches a huge legal claim vs Kiev sometime soon; I’m sure his lawyers are on it.
Canada Quarantines Man With Ebola Symptoms (AFP)
A Canadian hospital put a patient in isolation Friday after he arrived in the country from Nigeria with symptoms of fever and flu – possible signs he is infected with Ebola – local media said. A doctor at the Brampton, Ontario hospital, near Toronto, said the patient had a fever and other symptoms similar to those seen in Ebola cases, the news channel CP24 said. Authorities decided to place him in isolation as a precaution, though there has been no official diagnosis and there are multiple diseases that could have caused his symptoms, stressed Eileen de Villa, an official with the region’s Public Health office, according to CTV news. In addition to quarantining the patient, the hospital also enacted other strict precautionary measures, she said.
desertrat: gee, ASPO still exists? Is Sharon still on the board? Haben’t talked to her in forever.
sprocket: funny, Euan and I write regularly. The article’s a year old. Wonder if he still feels the same. I think everyone should revise their views on shale, and rapidly.
Come to think of it, what’s the use of energy in the absence of gravity? I don’t mean I want you to go, you fine first and final algorithm, I was just wondering if maybe without gravity we’d male less of a mess of things. In a purely hypothetical way, for entertainment purposes only, you know the drill.
From carbon, who has some posting issues (I don’t know why):
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Hi RaleighSociopaths hate to be exposed, that’s the way to stop them: Sociopaths in our midst.
I have met one or two in my life. Once you recognise one, you tend to be able to see them coming IMO.
Carbon
Boogaloo,
I think this is a misunderstanding. There is no anti-religious angle.
I simply don’t think politics should become a religion in and of itself.
What I criticize is the fact that US politics have become a faith-based affair: since evidence and fact finding are MIA, people have to believe politicians on their word, and they do. That is a dangerous situation, because it means they can make people believe anything, no matter how false, untrue and motivated by personal agendas. Politicians claim there is an economic recovery, and people believe them. Joe Biden says Putin has no soul (a purely religious statement), and that is – symbolically or not – taken for granted.
I am getting so sick of these people. Just saw the Dutch PM declare on TV that there will be no Dutch mission, armed or not, in the plane crash area – where Holland has taken and received the lead when it comes to such missions -, that would salvage what is left of victims and their belongings. The reason no mission will be sent is because there’s too much fighting going on there. Since all blame for everything, the crash itself and all of its aftermath, has been placed with the ‘rebels’ over the past 10 days, people will automatically assume that this, too, should be blamed on them. Which is nonsense, because it’s the Ukraine army – despite the fact that they no longer even have a government to give them orders(!) – that hugely increased its attacks in the very plane crash area, so the bodies that are still there cannot, even after 10 days, be rescued. But the Dutch PM will never tell his people that it’s our side, the Dutch, EU, West side, the one we finance and support, that make it impossible for ‘us’ to save what dignity is left for those bodily remains that are still out in the fields there. He’d much rather leave the suggestion hanging in the air that it’s the rebels, hence down the line Putin, who are responsible. Still not one word from Holland, Australia, Malaysia, the parties involved in the rescue, about asking/demanding that Kiev halt its attacks on the rebels at least long enough to allow the forensic experts to save what can be saved, be it physical remains or dignity. I’ll teal you something else: since there has been no discernible change in tone vis a vis Kiev after Yatsenyuk left, I suspect the Ukraine army hasn’t been directed from Kiev, or by Ukrainians for that matter, for quite a while. And for a PM who deliberately leads, misleads his vulnerable traumatized people when they look for his support, I have zero respect.
Euan,
Yeah, it’s a curious chain of events. Not sure it confuses Putin, though; he may well have expected something like this.
The ECA (commercial airline pilots ass’n) issued a statement yesterday saying intelligence about missile systems had not been shared outside of US, UK, France, Canada, Oz (whose airlines fly other routes. Holland and Malaysia were never informed of recent developments. But even then … And then again, Ukraine air traffic control does play a role. But their tapes were confiscated by Ukraine intelligence and not heard – from – again since. It’s like the black boxes being sent to Britain, which is not exactly a neutral country.
Obama won’t go talk to Putin, because he’s got him where he wanted: western public opinion is solidly anti-Putin, and they haven’t even had to provide any proof he did anything wrong.
And the public have no idea what has been done in their name, so they feel no guilt whatsoever, but nevertheless all those thousands of dead east Ukrainians (and counting) really are directly linked to our support for Poroshenko, Yatsenyuk and the shady friends they keep.
People in the west feel something bad is being done to them, and are ignorant of what’s being done to others on behalf of them. That’s our press for you.
This is one damning video. Not even so much because Marie Harf admits the State Department relies on social media, but because she states they specifically rely on what Kiev has posted on those media. And as I wrote, no other party has been caught bluntly lying more than Kiev. For instance, Kiev has made tons of outrageous and proven untrue statements, their BUK transport video has been proven a fabrication, and there are serious doubts about the authenticity of their audio recordings of rebels and alleged Russian officials. In other words, the State Department’s case is based on nothing. Which is curious, to say the least, for a country that boasts the best equipment on the planet: why base your case on such a questionable source?
