This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Sol Sanders | Follow the money No. 87 -- Hello? Something in the water?
Latest from Uncle Sol. A version of this column is scheduled to be published on Monday, Oct. 10, 2011, in The Washington Times. My question for Sol is this: Is Barack Obama trying to throw the election? -- Chris
Follow the money No. 87 | Hello? Something in the water?
By Sol Sanders
Could more conspiratorial environmentalistas’ interpretations of our times be correct, that is, someone has been putting something in the water and we are all being lobotomized, even without major brain surgery?
You could make the case this week. Much of the world’s leadership, even though presumably suckling their bottled water, exhibits all the manifestations of imbibing something adversely affecting the normal cognitive processes:
· Pres. Barack Obama gets on television to boost his proposal for creating jobs by massive government expenditures and tax increases at a time when most Americans think the main problem – after disappeared jobs -- is a runaway federal deficit. Never mind he sent a $447 billion spend and tax bill up to the Congress without a co-sponsor in either of the houses, that his own Party’s Senate leadership initially refused to look at it, then introduced something radically different as a Millionaires’ Tax. All that even though the President has repeatedly endorsed his Republican opposition’s claim any tax increase during a recession is job-killer. Of course, neither bill has a – woops! we can’t say that any more – chance of getting through the Republican-dominated House or the splintered Democratic Senate. Hello?
· Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin [soon scheduled to slip back into the presidency in Moscow’s musical chairs] has dreamed up a restoration of Stalin’s old USSR as a “Eurasian Union”, a regional agglomerative dictatorship. Putin’s vision is a world of such regional blocs, graciously allocating the U.S. the Western Hemisphere. Unable to accomplish fundamental post-Soviet reforms, he has put together helter-skelter economic collaboration with neighbors [including pumping their gas and oil] with Belorussia, Kazakhstan and a loose customs union [Common Economic Space]. He now aims bringing in the current pro-Moscow Ukraine leadership. But his present arrangements already cost Moscow $1.7 billion in tariff sharing revenues last year. Meanwhile, prospective investors in this harebrain scenario are trading every ruble to dollar they can get their hands on and tossing them out of the country – more than a record $49 billion so far this year. Hello?
· Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, chairing the Eurogroup finance ministers, says “[E]verything will be done". He means in an effort to avoid Greek default and without Athens opting out of the 17-member single currency. But the rating agencies just whacked Italy’s credit rating, Spain’s soaring borrowing rate fell only because the already strapped European Central Bank bought its increasingly high risk bonds, and debt-ridden Portugal is failing to meet targets. The decision whether Greece will get the next tranche of its bailout was delayed until mid-November so the European Union, the European Central Bank and the IMF can pull themselves together to decide whether Athens has met conditions for receiving help. Latest official figures say not: the Greek budget deficit will hit 8.5 percent of GDP in 2011 instead of the 7.6 percent it promised creditors. Greek officials now pledge the 2012 deficit will be slashed 6.8 percent of GDP instead of the promised 6.5 percent if a €6.6 billion [$8.83 billion] worth of supplementary austerity and reform measures package is forthcoming by 2013 Without the “current” €8 billion [$10.71 billion] tranche, Athens would bankrupt by this November with major repercussions for Europe and the world. Hello?
· Syrian Dictator Bashar al-Assad allegedly told visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu Damascus would strike Israel with missiles if NATO helps his country’s rebels during his rapidly escalating civil war. “If a crazy measure is taken against Damascus, I will need not more than six hours to transfer hundreds of rockets and missiles to the Golan Heights to fire them at Tel Aviv,” Assad warned after Turkish foreign minister conveyed a United States’ polite request to clear out. Assad continued: “All these events will happen in three hours, but in the second three hours, Iran will attack the US warships in the Persian Gulf and the US and European interests will be targeted simultaneously” True, Assad is rumored to have chemical and bacterial warfare stocks. But the Israelis sit on the Golan Heights less than 75 miles, downhill to Damascus. After Assad’s father tangled with the Israelis in 1982 -- the largest air-to-air combat of the jet age and one of the shortest – Syria lost 85 Soviet MiGs. Hello?
Yep, must be something in the water, the wine, the arak or wherever.
— Sol Sanders, a veteran international correspondent, writes weekly on the intersection of politics, business and economics, can be reached at solsanders@cox.net and blogs at http://www.yeoldecrabb.wordpress.com
»
- advertisements -
bid whats wrong witrh culling
we cull anim als
what makes US so special
a lot of peoiple want to die anyway so they should offer it up
hell a lot of muslims would kill for the chance to be culled in the name of allah to be with 69 virgins
hell thats all of the middle east clear already
It wouldn't have to be an INVOLUNTARY CULLING
You've been watching too much TV. You should get out more. Bill O'Reilly isn't the know-all, see-all.
This is what the public just do not understand. There is not enough to go around, and we are running out. Nobody wants to talk about over population, but that is the real issue behind everything that is going wrong."
Your problem is busy solving itself. The Western world and most of Asia is on the verge of a population implosion. Spain, Italy, Japan will be unpopulated in 100 years unless they take huge amounts of immigration. No culture has ever recovered from birth rates as low as theirs. The US is barely at replacement fertility rate (2.1 children per woman). South America is approaching zero population growth. Only Africa and the Middle East are still growing their populations rapidly and even there, the birth rate has plummeted in most countries. Even there, it is a few basket cases like Yemen that are still pumping out babies at exponential rate growth levels that are holding up the numbers.
Breaker
I think you need to get out more.
Try going to Indiaq, Phillippines, Indonesia and try telling me ASia is NOT overpopulated
you say no nation has survived low birth rates
but which nation has survived an exponentail rise
if we all lived like Americanms we would need about 6 earths just for the resources
Think of rabbits on an isl;and, evgentually the socirty collapses due to too many rabbist eating all the resources
thats reallky where we are at
I here people say we are not5 overpopulated as we could all fir into texas,maybe we could but space is not the limiting facftor its our lifestyeles and the resources it takes that is
and with our materialistis lifestyles the system reached its mathematical limit in 2008
billions will have to die or we all live a meagre existence
Keep drinking the cool-aid, my friend. Love the death that they have planned for you and accept it with open arms. This isn´t even about the Middle East or muslims or overpopulation in Asia. You are completely delusional in misdirecting the discussion.
There is no rhyme or reason why our resources must be so misused, technology suppressed, and freedom hijacked except for the Malthusian thugs on our planet that have decided to torch the world.
The Buckminster-Fuller model provides a design solution for most problems. It is called ephemeralization. Read the Critical Path and the Grunch of Giants. For once, use some critical thinking instead of regurgitating the propaganda of massive death.
I just plain don't like them around...can we kill them off just because they're offensive?
Not much of a thinker, are you?
kayl
I didn't change the subject i rezsponded to bids sensless comments that Asia isn't overpopulated. I have never heard of suchy bullshit and only means he has never been there
Go to China or India and tell me there isn't a population problem
A population problem is a mindset, not a fact of existence. It doesn´t matter how many people you have, but rather how you see the resources and organize the physical environment. Yes, there are tons of people in Asia and those countries haven´t found suitable ways to design out the solutions to keep people healthy, educated, fed, and productive. Massive corruption is at the root of the problem.
In precolonial India, the rajas used to maintain incredible food stores for times of famine. They saved during the good times to provide for lean years. And that system worked well for the people. No one needed to go hungry. This system was completely destroyed with British rule. West Indians are sanguine about their situation, but still recognize the sanctity of life. The Chinese have gone over to the dark side by imposing rigorous one child policies and forced abortions. They practice extermination on the falun gong and whatever other sector of the population they want to target. India and China are ancient civilizations, and they will have to sort out those problems.
There is a population problem in the United States too, when you figure all the money heaped into Social Security was stolen. The baby boomers are numerous and succeeding generations don´t have the same numbers. Yet, our population only reaches 1/3 of India´s. Breaking the extended family was the coup de grace for the elite. In all previous generations, the older parents simply gave over their wealth to the new generation in an act of faith that they would be cared for in old age. Whether they had lots or little, it didn´t matter. Families took care of each other. Now the young generations couldn´t be bothered. The Eskaton (greek) has arrived quite literally. Bankruptcy of social security wouldn´t mean a thing if the old social norms were in place.
By Malthusian calculations, people should be mass murdered to cover up the malfeasance of the TPTB and their manipulation of the resources and environment. These TPTB have pushed the propaganda so far that even the young generations taking a radical Darwinian view see a culling or cleansing as a good thing. They embrace their death through blissful ignorance.
I wouldn´t argue too much about India and China. Contribute what you can to building a world along side the old. Read the Critical Path by Buckminster-Fuller. Make the current system obsolete that we may continue without the TPTB. Plant a garden, raise chickens. Have children, but refuse to fill out birth certificates. This is the most radical act in our time.
it ios our attitudfe I agrree, 99 percent have no consideration for mthe natural world
I for one do not like urbanization. I like nature,clean seas, coral reefs and forests and clean air. Tell me where you can fidn these things now that have not been dstroyed in the nam eof "progress"?
Our host the planet is dying and noI am not tyalking about the man made globalk warming bullshit but real damage like reefs, rainfoirests etc
If we carry on the entire planet will be one big STRIP mall and condo complex. Thats our future un less we change and its not jmust about wasting resources but how 99 percent wanbt to live
We could all live in a nice clean environmnet if we lead a far more simpleless materialistic life. I findf it fitting that as our society collapses due primarily to resoyrce constarints we mourn the loss of Steve Jobs
who really was thye epitome of our shallow materialistic lifestsylke that we have bred for ourselves.If everyone in thew worldhad an I pod and Ipad the world would be finished through resource depletion.
If every 7 billion [eople lived like an average american then we would need about 4 more earths for the resources. Its not just about the space we take, yes we could alkl fit in Texas but the resources or our footprint we leave
It starts with you. Do you have a car, a cellphone, or a bank account? If not, kudos. Read the Critical Path and prepare for a better future.
So America needs to stop stealing everyone's resources. The IMF needs to stop financially terrorizing whole countries. NATO needs to stop bombing public water works. Ending hunger would cost a fraction of the cost of our ongoing wars, which destroy when we could be creating. There's also plenty of water. We just need to stop poisoning it.
Overpopulation is one of those Malthusian ideas that needs to be thrown out, along with eugenics and anthropogenic global warming. Killing a chunk of the population will not stop the war mongerers and financial terrorists from exploiting the defenseless for profit.
no but it may stop the march of concrete and environmental destruction caused by too many people wantimg too much
All I want is clean air, clean seas, healthyu coral and forests
tell me where you can find that
the world is beatiful but natures world not a man made one
2 sides of the conversation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExH7h9Lk5HY
eve of destruction
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK7qo0-TwV0&feature=related
Groovy kind of love - mindbenders.
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost
I love that poem. Thanks for the reminder.
And thanks for Barry McGuire too.
So many protest songs from my earlier years (I am now 68) are possibly even more apt than they were back then.
One of my favourites was Joan Baez, "We Shall Overcome". An anthem for the 99% in these latter days of empire and financialism?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkNsEH1GD7Q
BTW I also post under my real name: gerryhiles and see a kid from Michigan comment that my generation did not waste our time.
That California water must have LSD in it, too - seeing as how they hallucinated up the money to pump into the education system for illegal aliens.
Hmm.. maybe enrollments are down and its the only way to keep their administrators and professors comfortably funded.
The beauty of a fiat currency, you imagine billions and they can become real. We could pay off the national debt tomorrow and make every citizen a millionaire, if the fed wanted to.
Funny money for the oligarchy, debt for the rest. A prescription for madness and political suicide.
Political Class More Lobotomized Than The Amerikan Public
In the case of Obama Bin Lyin'... That is just the CIA mind control implant...
Works great when the Teleprompter is on... Bumbling but useful "uh,uh,uh" idiot when the 'Prompter is off...
We live in historical times. A ferment of change as the lies we have all been told are revealed to all. And as we pass from the perceived safety of the eye of this hurricane, perhaps the biggest weapon the top Banksters and PTBs have is thru the vapid media which they control to invoke widespread fear. Fear as a weapon that blocks cognitive reasoning and the ability of most to think out of the box and accept and act on a new parardigm. So I would say to all, as we go into this night..be not afraid and act accordinglyl. <or as dorothy would say: we are not in Kansas anymore...>
You're right. This debate has gone on before. That's why they created all this debt in the first place, to avoid the world understanding how we're running out of resources (while the elite took control of those very SAME RESOURCES) and the panic that would come from that. Look at oil - 50 OR MORE PAPER barrels for every REAL barrel. Look at gold, 5000 OR MORE PAPER ounces for every REAL ounces.
This is what the public just do not understand. There is not enough to go around, and we are running out. Nobody wants to talk about over population, but that is the real issue behind everything that is going wrong.
Read:
http://www.wix.com/andrewcostell3/simple-wealth-book
"This is what the public just do not understand. There is not enough to go around, and we are running out. Nobody wants to talk about over population, but that is the real issue behind everything that is going wrong."
Your problem is busy solving itself. The Western world and most of Asia is on the verge of a population implosion. Spain, Italy, Japan will be unpopulated in 100 years unless they take huge amounts of immigration. No culture has ever recovered from birth rates as low as theirs. The US is barely at replacement fertility rate (2.1 children per woman). South America is approaching zero population growth. Only Africa and the Middle East are still growing their populations rapidly and even there, the birth rate has plummeted in most countries. Even there, it is a few basket cases like Yemen that are still pumping out babies at exponential rate growth levels that are holding up the numbers.
Here's a UN link you can explore on this subject:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...fertility_rate
Light blue on the map means the country will almost certainly decline in population (fertility rate less than 2.1). Includes China, Russia, all of Europe, Japan, Australia, and Canada. I find it amazing that CHINA will be having a population crash (not just a decline) soon--it's fertility rate is 1.71. But they will. All five of the most populous countries in the word are at negative, zero, or (in the case of India) very slightly above zero and declining rapidly.
Green means country a has slow or zero growth (fertility rate: 2-3). Includes US (zero), Indonesia (zero), India (slightly above zero), South America, even Iran and Turkey.
The whole population explosion hysteria from the 60's has become a cultural meme that most people have not reexamined in light of the facts. It is comfortably stuck amongst the boomers in media and academia and being passed along to a new generation. It really takes a bit of thinking and research to get out of their comfortable little box, where overpopulation explains pretty much everything. The problem would be better stated twofold: (1) The current problem: How to deal with a declining population at the time both the last large demographic (in America, boomers) and the small demographic are still alive during the transition era. This manifests as the Social Security problem or the not-enough-young-workers-to-support-retirees problems. The US has a bad problem in that regard. Europe much worse. China has a bigger implosion going but does not provide a money support network to support retirees--so it is somewhat more robust to this problem as it can let old folks die without acquiring huge unfunded liabilities; and (2) The future problem: How to deal with an absolutely declining population over multiple generations.
Sorry for the long post. But in reality, your grandchildren are MUCH more likely to live in a world of rapidly declining human population than in a population explosion.
Don't confuse the PC trolls with facts. Their religion states: Peak Energy Peak Water Peak Food Peak People. Their solution: Peak Amish.
His problem is he is a fucking retard that would not recognize oppressive totalitarian governments as culpable in technology, social repression.
The only thing poisoning the population is fraud money. 100% synthetic crisis and misallocation of humanity.
The ignorant starve while the rich survive, and this is blamed on anything but truth.
Overpopulation my ass. Crisis of fraud and leadership = blood.
Eat the rich, they are obviously the weakest to survive without liar money, liar markets, liar laws, and the liar society they create to insulate themselves from their own lies.
End the money that enables these humanitarian distortions and introduces the fraud control you weak ZH readers hang your hat on every single day.
Over population is a problem. But it is merely the amplifier that turns up the heat on all other problems while reducing the time line to solve them.
Being frozen like deer in the headlights and refusing to see that we have problems, let alone act to resolve them, has led us into intractable stasis. We cannot act because we cannot act. The population clock is burning up the remaining air and everyone is either mad, apathetic, or in denial.
Try to solve the problems that you can. Be aware of the thin crust we walk on and know tomorrow is only a dream, not a promise.
"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing."
Macbeth
oh my. I guess nothing is going to get solved around here tonight.
...
We should not forget that all of this saber rattling is an orchestrated and methodically executed degeneration of nationality. When all involved are so depleted that they can no longer clain a national economy, then the will seek shelter under the World Bank umbrella.
http://georgesblogforum.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/crash-course/
That water runs through DC obviously, it's called the Potomic.
And it flows from the headwaters of the Ptomaine.
"Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea."
Kubla Kahn
It seems only a matter of time before some politician somewhere loses their mind and does something stupid.
Geekgrrl how do you think we have come to this point in time? If these have been the "smart" politicians, I can't wait to see the stupid ones. After 8 years of George Bush you are still looking for the stupid politicians?
I don't think politicians are the answer. It's up to us.
Sounds like past tense to me....
No, not past tense, Knukles.
I'm thinking large areas turned to glass.
As much as I hate to say it, Chekhov seems prescient. The gun is on the wall. We are in the third act. Climax is approaching.
Hey, it gets rid of the mosquitoes and solves the overpopulation problem at the same time. What's not to like? I assume they will be careful to not kill any endangered species. ;>)
yep.
No shit? It is amazing, sad, and so f#%$ing predictable.
Well as NATO sure knows that, if they take action against Siria, Israel Air Force will need far less than 2 hours to destroy the all alleged missiles and Lilltle Assad´s ass.
Little bit tired of the greatests middle east armies that resists even less than "grandeur" France army in WWII.
It´s me or this little Assad looks like a young De Gaulle?
You may need to update your playbook there Tiger: "Lillte Assad" has some big playmates now, and the sandbox bully you appear to be rooting for has been striking out every time they call "Big Sis" in the State Dep for backup...seems somebody is not quite so eager for war with Iran and it's allies at this time of, er, budgetary constraints.
http://www.intifada-palestine.com/2010/11/can-israel-defeat-hezbollah-in...
Wow. Bikes at 90 mph. Scares me! The only limit on Israel's ability to defeat Hezbollah is the PR war, which Israel has not mastered. But then, I'm not sure how to counter journalists photoshopping dolls into bombed out ruins republished by a credulous US press.
Bikes at 90 mph, unless they're seriously motorized, seems unlikely unless Superman has a new job.
Israel has mastered PR, BTW. Have you not heard of the Zionist, Eddie Bernays?
Pah. One nuclear warhead will ruin Hezbollah's whole day. And don't think the Zionists won't do it.
The problem is the countries are so small that nuking the other guy is pretty dangerous to the nuker. Sort of like Vermont nuking New Hampshire. There's a fallout problem.
Adaptation? This does show why Capitalism (real) is humankind's best bet, systems will never prevail against a swarm of individuals. Israel appears to be flat footed? Meanwhile 'our' empire is the latest to get it's ass beatdown in Afghanistan.
So much for the leftist dream of centrally planned utopia.
Capitalism as currently practiced, is merely economic cannibalism. I think we know how that ends.
Capitalism was the first Ponzi Scheme.
It relies on inflation, population growth and the confiscation of other nation's resources.
But, hey, it's the best economic system there is.
"systems will never prevail against a swarm of individuals." This is basically brilliant.
Hey, like your approach, mostly the "budgetary constraints"
Nobody is eager to go to war, in fact I would like to see USA more focused in USA than being the "bad cop" of the world, but Assad "bla,bla,bla" reminds me the MSM analist before Gulf War about the wonderful Irak army and how hard will be to defeat them. Of course terrorism, or better said non regular war is another thing and you have to count on it.
Sure palestinians are great in the use of RPGs paid by European taxpayers, but they are good in "contained wars" against terrorism , probably not soo much in an open war
Peckerheads.
Cloned Peckerhead of The Peckerhead.
Kinda like the Nazi's cloning Adolf in S. America and having a Fun Farm in Paraguay.
Myself, I think that some enterprising young Nazt=i Youth member traded some Red Army Soldier his pocket knife for Hitler's ashes and the rest of Adolph's Meat Tenderizer ids history.
And they say the FDA don't do it's job.
Didn't Gw Bush buy a several thousand acre ranch in Paraguay, involving a shady deal done by his daughter on a UN sponsored trip?
Wonder where Obama's bug out ranch will be?