Ireland

The shell game continues. Countries hike debt to rescue banks, which then threaten their rescuers with bankruptcy by shorting their bonds. Blackmail: countries in okay shape but with a plunging bond rate must accept to be rescued in exchange for ditching the Welfare State and imposing Libertarian Capitalism, i.e. every man for himself. Unemployment jumps, real wages drop, everyone is screwed, and the rich get richer. After Ireland comes Portugal, Spain and all the rest of the little duckies. The US too: this is like Brecht: when they come for you there will be no one left to object.

Everything, absolutely everything in the financial markets is a scheme to rob the working wage earner and create the conditions for Third World bliss: 1% of the population with 99% of the wealth. Check out how far along the US is on this road, and you have the country's history of the last 30 years in a nutshell.

The little man revolts but he hasn't a clue: there is a grass-roots movement by Spaniards to withdraw all their savings from banks on December 18th. Good luck. But if this goes on, the little man could get really angry and start thinking. Let's hope so.


Photo: Favela Morumbi, Sao Paulo
From Treehugger

Campaign Lessons from Catalonia

Note to the wary: the links on this post are not for minors, even if they are in Catalan. And they are not for your Aunt Minnie either.

American politicos can learn something from the election campaign in Catalonia, the autonomous region whose capital is Barcelona. Videos by different parties have added some spice to the process, always welcome in bringing out the vote.

First the youth division of the Socialists came out with a video in which an attractive young female voter gets a little heated up on entering the polling station, and then has a rather sublime time of it introducing her ballot into the ballot box. See it here (sorry about the ad).

Then a fringe party (Alternativa de Govern) did a video with its leader, Montse Nebrera, appearing on camera wrapped in a towel after sounds of sex, and saying something like, "I could go further but...."  The video is a little long, tracking through a disheveled bedroom and some political messages in Catalan while the soundtrack plays out to its conclusion, but Montse is worth the wait, even if she must be some kind of political kook (she is backed by the Opus Dei, altho I'm not sure if they previewed her campaign material). Judge for yourself here.

This was all very fun, but then the conservative Popular Party's youth brigade sent out a video game where their candidate avatar gets points for shooting down illegal immigrants and symbols of Catalan identity such as paellas and butifarra sausages  (stand-ins for those pesky Catalan indepentistas). But there was a fuss and  they had to withdraw the game and come up with some plausible excuse. Here's a couple of screen shots someone got before they pulled it, where you can appreciated the campaign's graphic skills:

There she is, up in the left hand corner on the back (or neck) of a seagull, a party symbol, whacking away at immigrants and butiffaras with her light bulb missiles (get it? -- bright ideas). Note the apocalyptically silhouetted homeland, with Calatravian doodles in ruins, a beseiged cross, and a burning glow on the horizon....

With only 40% of the electorate expected to turn out, anything is worth a try.

Tea, Anyone?

The New Yorker has been doing a quick intensive course on the new right wing and its been a lot of fun. About how Wm F Buckley worked to keep the John Birch nutcases from taking over the GOP, to keep the party in the center of the road, from Goldwater to Reagan. About the Koch Bros, descendants of John Birchers with reasons of their own to be rabid libertarians and anti-regulators (oil and gas pipelines), secretly financing the tea takers to the tune of millions. On the origins of the Fox news guy Beck's rants and raves (John Birch again and worse, and all based on fictionalizing history, the Constitution and so on). 

My new theory: Yes to a weak federal govt, yes to states rights. If the east coast and the west coast want health care, pass it state by state. If all the rest of the middle of the country wants to prohibit abortion, jail homosexuals, throg immigrants and worse, let'em go back to the Stone Age on their own. And while Idaho, Texas and Colorado are busy with these pressing social issues, who cares about foreign affairs? That will be the beginning of the end of the military-industrial dictatorship (I admit, a rather remote possibility) and give the rest of the world a rest from American foreign policy. I mean, Iraq, where's that? What we have to worry about now is Massachusetts!!