Sunday, May 27, 2012

Sunday musings


Well, the slow crumbling of the European economy continues this week. One of the largest banks in Spain has pleaded with the government for emergency funding as it basically has run out of money. Depositors in Greece continue withdraw euros at a frantic rate and as my friend in Germany says, the people of Germany are not happy at all and know that the poor countries of Europe will continue to suck money from them to prop up their own economies.
A Mr. Porter from BMO Nesbitt Burns in a column in the Globe and Mail said that the crisis in Europe has cost the European economy over 2 TRILLION in the 3 weeks since the Greek election happened!
You ever stretch a rubber band just a bit too much and have it snap in your hands unexpectedly? Do not look now but the European economy might be at that point.
Here is a thought – what if the Germans say that enough is enough and that they will leave the Euro?
Hmmmmm.................................
In the United States, the leader of the House majority party, a Mr. Boehner is gleefully promising the same budget impasse as last year which only resulted in a credit downgrade of the American credit rating. This just had the effect of raising interest rates and the cost of borrowing which resulted in cuts to many social programs that hurt the poor, elderly, sick and impoverished minorities – the exact opposite of the rich cat Republican party supporters who continually bemoan the horrible tax rate they pay. However if you look back to 1944 the tax rate on the so called wealthy was 94% compared to 34% in 2008!
Still believe the rhetoric from the Republicans, Tea Party folks and quack journalists like Rush Limbaugh?
The fact is that the wealthy should pay more but also that the American society has to rethink its social contract with the people. Health care is criminally expensive yet almost anyone can get a marijuana smoking permit (hello California!) or it is apparently ridiculously easy to get a medical disability income for things like a “sprained” back that never gets better or a number of other system abuses that never get caught. Sadly there are way too many people that actually need this kind of help but the number of scofflaws is destroying the system. And taxes do have to go up to help rebuild the country's infrastructure and pay down the accumulated debt. One way to start might be to look at military costs and war actions out of country. Maybe the rest of the world could actually start to carry their share of fiscal and physical responsibility in keeping the world safe.
Hello Africa and Europe and the Far East.
How about you taking over keeping South Korea safe? Or footing the whole bill to get rid of the pirates from Somalia and the rest of that region? Or how about getting rid of the useless United Nations? Or instead of Africa spending money from oil resources and diamonds on guns and warfare, spending the money to improve the life of people in Africa?
How novel!
The iconic Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco celebrates its 75 birthday this week – wonderful structure, a rare piece of beauty in a world of too many ugly construction projects.
In Syria the bloodshed continues unabated with over 32 children being murdered in the area called Houla this week.
The world still sits on its hands.
Where is the Arab League in this? Do the yanks always have to do the heavy lifting in these matters?
Seems so, what a crock!
I see where the great democratic country of Pakistan has sentenced a doctor to 32 years in prison for aiding the Americans in finding Osama Bin Ladin and terminating his existence. And they riot against Americans and still gladly take money in military and economic aid from the United States? In this case maybe the Americans should re-examine this relationship because it does seem to be one sided doesn't it?
So the butler to the Pope is in Vatican jail facing charges of leaking confidential documents to the press.
First off, since when does the”humble parish priest of God” need a butler anyway? Secondly, maybe this is a good thing as it seems that the church is not accountable to anyone in the way it turns a blind eye over the years to the sexual abuse of boys by their priests. Indeed when these “men” are caught – they usually get promoted or disappear into the inner sanctum of the Vatican never to be seen again or to serve any punishment at all. Sort of a prime example of an old boys network looking after themselves and the hell with you or a case of do as I say and not as I do!
In Russia President Vladimir Putin steered Dmitry Medvedev into the chairmanship of Russia's ruling party today and demanded reforms to the flagging organization he will rely on to keep his grip on the country's far-flung regions. Another example of a corrupt old boys network would you not think?
In Argentina, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner apparently indicated that she will not be running for re-election. That is a story that will bear following as it unfolds.
So we went out the last couple of evenings and bought annual flowers to plant around the house and yard for the year. The ritual of doing this brings a sense of fulfilment in that yes, Spring is almost over and we can look forward to a nice summer and enjoy the outside for the few short months we have in Saskatchewan. My northern ferns are slowly starting to emerge in their corner of the rear yard and I look forward to the abundance of leafy green they will provide, as well as the fond memories they stir of happy times camping and fishing in the north of this province.
We had almost a full week of mist and rain before it cleared this past Friday and normally when I cut the grass I manage to get 2 – 3 bags of clippings. Not this time, after hacking my way through the underbrush I ended up with 6 bags!
Ouch!
Oh well, in another 6 months snow might be on the ground.
In this day in history, 1944 Jean-Paul Sartres "Huis Clos," premieres in Paris and in 1907 Bubonic Plague breaks out in San Francisco.
Well, that is it for another week my friends.
Take care out there,
flatlander52

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Sunday musings


So the G8 leaders met in the United States and came out with yet another vague statement about how Greece should stay with the Euro and somehow the European Union will prosper as a result.
You notice that for the last 4 years as the economic crisis around the world and specifically in Europe has run its course, that the leaders of Europe have adopted a cowardly strategy of mouthing platitudes and blowing smoke out of all their orifices and actually doing diddly squat? They are more concerned with their cushy jobs and re-election that trying to create an actual program to help their country's economic future. Now with the rise of both extreme right and left wing parties all across the continent, the politcos are scrambling to placate the masses. There is a retreat from stern demands that Greece follow the austerity program it adopted in order to get loans. Now it seems that the course is to reduce the cuts and maybe add some stimulus money to prime the economy. It seems that the extreme right wing leader in Greece was right in saying that the European community would back down and “give” the Greeks more money to buy their way out of their fiscal problems.
Hmmmm..........
Internet company Facebook issued shares to the public this week and made gazillionaires people like Mark Zuckerberg. I cannot understand a couple of things about this. First, being why people use Facebook at all – it is mainly a gossip page where people list intimate details of their private lives and assume that only a select few people will view this. A select few? Like advertisers who pay Facebook for access, like hackers and when desired, law agencies armed with warrants (hopefully that is, as it seems to be a growing tend of law officials to want sweeping powers to snoop on people with no safeguards anymore. They always raise the specter of the events of 9-11 to justify these desired abuses of democracy. Something like George Orwell's 1984 world.) as well as so called friends that love to blab any and everything to the whole world. The second is why such a thing as Facebook is worth money. It is an entity with no physical body – it exists solely on the Internet. Yes the company has offices that house staff and machines but there is no product made – period. Not at all like when you spend hard money on say, a deep freezer. There you get something that actually does something and performs a function. It is not something that is parasitical.
Here in Canada 2 items of interest.
In Quebec the government has passed a law that suspends – not cancels – the school year in an attempt to end the student “strike” against proposed class fee increases. Also in the law is a section where it is now illegal to were masks while protesting. The government has no courage at all and is backing down from the students. They should have cancelled the school year and that would have forced to striking students to redo the year lost – and pay the extra costs as a result. This way the students get to pass with no penalty. Fat consolation for the majority of those students that did not strike and went to classes and endured violence from the strikers. It seems in Quebec, doing illegal acts pays off.
Something is really off kilter in the mindset of those students.
Federal socialist Opposition Leader, Mulclair seems set on his plan to divide the country politically. He wants to pit the East against the West. In Canada the East is dependent on manufacturing and suffering from the world depression and the West is booming with its resource based economy. He spouts divisive nonsense about how the petro dollar is inflating the value of the Canadian dollar and harming the exports of the East. Say what? He is actually saying that they only way that goods from the East can compete in the world against efficient manufacturing in other countries is to subsidize this inefficient industries with an artificially low dollar. Load of crap. He speaks of oil production as a horrible polluter yet he has never been to the oil sands district to see what is done there. And of course, since the socialist NDP is mainly represented by seats from Quebec in Ottawa with almost none from the West, he does not complain about the flooding that the hydro power system in Quebec has done or how that province has basically screwed its maritime neighbour provinces when it comes to selling power to them.
Bloody hypocrite!!!
Sad news for my German friends, Chelsea beats Bayern Munich on penalties in Champions League final in football news. Only good thing about that is at least David Beckham was not involved on the Chelsea side. Oh for the days of Beckenbauer!
Also, the respected German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, famed for his performances of Schubert's song cycle Winter Journey, died at the age of 86.
In the state Of California, projections are for a 17 billion dollar deficit. That is correct – 17 BILLION! And, due to some arcane voter mandated funding formula, increases to the education system are on the way. Of course there will be cuts to welfare and healthcare for the poor. I am still struggling with a deficit of 17 BILLION – try and tell your banker that this year you will be running a deficit of , let us say, $30,000 dollars – when he stops laughing do you think he will move to repossess your house really fast? And yet governments like California -hello Ontario – have no problem doing this and the politicians doing this suffer no censure or penalty, they still get paid and believe they are doing good work .
Incredible.
Is the world going crazy?
Former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic went on trial Wednesday in the HAGUE,accused of carrying out a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing and Europe's worst massacre since World War II. And the next day the trial was adjourned indefinitely because the prosecution somehow forgot, for crying out loud, to supply some required documentation to the defense attorneys.
Here I go again with the same word -incredible.
You want to either laugh or cry at this stupidity.
Ah, but it is Spring and time to talk of better things. Amazing how the return of warm weather brings blossoms to the trees and green to the once brown grasses of the lawn isn't it? We – actually my better half planted the garden and we look forward to the harvest this fall. Already I have mowed the lawns a number of times and sweated rivers and cursed like a drunken sailor over the effort. But they sure look good though.
I have spent most of the week tearing out all the carpeting in the basement in anticipation of the arrival of replacement carpet next week. Over 1000 square feet and underlay as well, I must have sworn a thousand oaths at our old cat Timmy for this going away present from him. This had to be done as he had some “problems” in the last month he was with us and just cleaning the carpet was not an option unfortunately. Sure wish that I was 20 years younger when I did this chore!
However on the positive side, the house is looking soooo clean these days and I have been getting rid of so much accumulated detritus that has gathered over the years that I am almost giddy about it. Perhaps it should be mandatory that people do a major clean out of possessions every 3 or 4 years.
In history, 1932 Amelia Earhart leaves Newfoundland 1st woman fly solo across Atlantic, 1902 Cuba gains independence from Spain.
Just thought it might be of interest.
And remember, take a few minutes for yourself and enjoy being the person you are!
Take care out there,
flatlander52

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Sunday musings


Well, the pundits were correct and France has a new socialist President, a Mr. Hollande who wants to scale back the austerity programs that his predecessor Sarkozy and German chancellor Merkel instituted. Citing a belief that France has shouldered too much of a burden and that there is much more tax money to be squeezed out of the shrinking middle class while also extending the 37 paid holidays to at least 40 (the Americans by contrast have 13!) and shortening the work week from 35 to 30 hours.
Poor overworked French people.
Greece is without a government as the people soundly rejected the 2 traditional ruling parties and splintered the remaining vote among other parties. This includes a far right semi Nazi appearing party that by default gets 50 free seats based on the way the vote went. The possibility of another election looms and if that happens, this neo - Nazi party may win all the marbles. Their platform is to say to heck with the Euro, stop immigration, especially non white, default on all loans and financial obligations and oh yes, we will continue to not pay individual income tax and avoid all forms of taxation and increase the size of people working at non existent jobs in government – because that is their right as a citizen of Greece!
Perish the thought that someone will have to pay the bills – we can always get more money is we say “pretty please” - right?
I think we can kiss the fragile world recovery from the depression of '07 goodbye.
JP Morgan, one of the largest banks in the world said on Thursday that because of a flawed strategy, it had lost 2.3 or so billion dollars on derivatives recently.
Huh?
The same bank whose President has repeatedly said that the Dodd Frank financial reform bill in the United States was an unneeded and intrusive federal government intervention in the free market banking system and unAmerican.
And the bankers wonder why citizens think they are being screwed by them? And that every time the banks are forced to actually try and act like lawful corporate citizens, that they pass on increased costs to the consumer and act outraged when people complain?
This is what lack of accountability and lack of legal penalties can do, and actually rewards these banks for their lack of accountability.
Hugo Chavez has returned from cancer treatments in Cuba to Venezuela amid stories that a critic has hidden clues about plans to assassinate him in a crossword puzzle.
Really?
Please, leave the paranoia to the socialists in Saskatchewan.
Speaking of that, here in Regina, plans were announced over a year ago to replace the aged football stadium with an covered entertainment complex, part of a massive redevelopment program for the inner city district of the city. This was to be one of those once in a generational projects intended to propel the city into the modern era.
So much for vision, courage and dreams.
The city resubmitted the proposal this week and what a difference.
Now, there will be an open air stadium. Used for the short summer season only. It will be on existing city owned property squeezed into a small area with zero parking available. The city hopes people will use mass transit to get to the park – never happen. The area where the enclosed facility was to be built was to be on soon to be vacated railroad property in the heart of the city. There is talk of a 4% property tax increase for 20 years. If instituted, the increase will never be repealed – that gravy train is never shut down by greedy governments, they always have excuses to continue it and find ways to spend the money. Talk of a 75% private sector involvement to pay for all this has vanished, as if it never was. The hotel industry that pledged 10 million towards the project has withdrawn the offer because, as they say, an open air stadium does not bring in extra visitors – an enclosed venue does. All the whining the citizens do about losing majour entertainment acts to our sister city in the north will continue – and that is solely the fault of a loud, vicious vocal minority of taxpayers opposed to anything that spells progress. So like the socialist New Democratic Party that had ruled the province for so long and always sought to bring the citizens down to the lowest common financial and expectation level possible – except of course for the chosen few of the Party and their friends and relatives – hypocrites all!
I weep for this city and what it is losing.
It makes the move west easier every day as I see more and more evidence of the lack of forward thinking here and realize that the greatness I once dreamed for its future, was only a dream and not reality. It seems the people here prefer mediocrity and blandness over progress and vitality and a zest for life and the future.
So sad.
American President Obama has come out in support of gay marriage – after an awkward silence when the Vice President did so a few days earlier. I remember his promises when running for President originally, and how he was going to be different and decisive – his words, not mine. And how the real world changed him after election and really, is he much different than his predecessor – George Bush?
Mitt Romney, his Republican opponent continues to try to please everyone. Before he supported gay rights, not now. Before he supported the changes proposed by Mr. Obama to health care, now he is opposed.
Poor America, what does the future hold for you?
A Russian prototype short haul passenger jet crashed while touring the Far East on a sales promotion trip – no one survived sadly. It is unfortunate that a nation with such a storied history in aviation production has stumbled so badly these past few years, decades actually.
Of course with Mr. Putin returned as King, oops, President, the Russian diplomatic face is becoming more aggressive amid threats of a possible nuclear strike against NATO if the Americans are allowed to deploy a missile defence system in Europe, ostensibly against possible missile strikes from rogue states like Iran.
Like having the Cold War again isn't it?
Mr. Putin, times have changed, maybe you should change as well – please?
Spring cleaning-will it ever stop?
The more I dispose of and remove, the more I find, unbelievable. 
Way too many things to put in the blog this week sadly, as I am over my word count and unfortunately it is time to end for now.
So, until next week,
take care out there,
flatlander52

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Sunday musings


So, two Sunday elections in Europe. One apparently will see the defeat of the sitting French President Sarkozy and the other may see a reshaping of the Greek Parliament. In France this means a probable change in the co-operative approach with Germany in driving an agenda of strict austerity driven budgets in different European countries. France will probably turn towards a less program, services and employment reduction strategy and more of a financial stimulus program similar in style but not scope as the United States did. If the Greek government falls, critics suggest that the country may opt to default on financial debts and leave the Euro in favour of a return to the Drachma.
Something tells me the money markets are not going to sleep well for a long time if this happens.
In Iran parliamentary elections resulted in candidates supportive of the ruling clergy and opposed to the policies and person of the President, Mr. Ahmadinejad, routing  supporters of his. This will make the remaining time of his term, lasting into early 2013, very ineffective. In all likelihood this marks the end of his career and influence. Possibly his future may include imprisonment – who knows what will happen in that interesting country?
In sad proof that the war on drugs in Mexico is struggling, over 20 corpses were found laying in the streets of the border city Nuevo Laredo the other day – victims of cartel violence apparently. It seems ironic that the majority of weapons used by the drug cartels come from the United States. If the Americans really wanted to stop the flow of drugs into their country, you would think that they might actually try to stop this flow of weaponry wouldn't you? It seems that their strange love affair with weapons and the supposed right to own any type of weapon such as an AK 47 or machine gun, bazooka and the like is more important that the safety of the public. Tell me again how a hunter of deer and such needs a machine gun?
On Monday Mr. Putin returns as President of Russia for a 6 year term. The country has changed since he last was President and I wonder if he has as well. I think that the old way of “my way or the highway” approach to running of the country will not work anymore. The people are slowly becoming used to some form of democratic participation in local government and wanting their needs addressed. It should be interesting to see how this develops over the next few years.
Japan has closed down its last nuclear reactor this week. One wonders where it will get the energy that is now gone from the grid from all those plants. Will it mean more coal burning high polluting power plants?
If so, will the tree huggers protest at all or will they be conspicuous by their absence?
In the province of Quebec, it seems that the striking students have reached some sort of agreement to end the seemingly endless strike that they have been on to protest a miniscule hike in yearly tuition rates (subsidized massively financially by money transfer from mainly the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan). One assumes the lesson in this is that if you disagree with something your government does, riot in the streets and get your spoiled way and all will then be forgiven.
Bloody wonderful eh?
In America yet another state has banned funding for an organization called Planned Parenthood. Yet another example of the power of the extreme right wing radical Tea Party group. Tell me how helping women gain control of their bodies and reproductive choices is wrong? Is it better to have many unwanted babies thrust upon social welfare rolls better? And if this is not available – what then? Let them starve? Where is the humanity of those people? Can they not see that it is less costly to the system to be proactive in matters such as this?
One wants to weep.
Under the heading, hooray for Canada, Canadian stunt woman Jolene Van Vugt was flushed with pride Wednesday after setting a new land speed record for the fastest motorized toilet as recorded the Guiness book of Records.
This week has been a rough one for us as we had the sad duty of taking our cat Timmy to the local vet for his last visit. He was one month short of his 18th birthday. I know some would say that he was just a cat so why the emotion? Well, he was the third cat that has lived with us over the years and every time one leaves us the sadness is great. They are more than “just a pet”. For better or worse they become almost like one of the family. They give in return for food, lodging and safe living conditions, an unconditional love and companionship. I know that in the times when I was away from work for a while, my mental health was improved by the cat of the day.
I will miss Timmy, and I do not know if we will ever replace him.
Take care out there,
flatlander52