But of course that’s not what the Polish government, instigators of said legislation, want to see happen to the famous director.
In fact, the Poles are intervening along with the French government to get Switzerland to release Polanski. The Swiss arrested Polanski under a 30 year old US warrant.
Gorilla says: “Talk about sinister, Rosemary’s Baby is still working for Warsaw!”
Our President is headed to Denmark to beg the IOC for a Chicago Olympics.
This is the first time in his presidency where the hope is that he will fail. The last thing America needs is another money losing Olympic dog and pony show. One wonders why this is a high political priority when unemployment is approaching 10% and the banking system remains a disaster.
Gorilla thinks: “Big shoulders and the taxpayer are better off remaining unfashionable!”
A victory for Angela Merkel in Germany, she may now actually have to do something!
It’s hard to pinpoint what she has accomplished so far. Germany remains in deep denial about its zombiesque banking system, and doesn’t seem inclined to do much heavy lifting (beyond calling up a bombing over a fuel truck heist) in Afghanistan.
Gorilla says: “Grand coalitions are never very grand, it’s nice to see democracy return!”
These were the events that mattered this week in Gorilla’s world:
*UN Follies: President Obama made his first General Assembly speech and presided over a Security Council meeting that passed a resolution in favor of nuclear disarmament. Gorilla thinks that none of this will be remembered a month from now.
*The Summit Of Shaking Hands: President Obama found out yet again that neither Israel nor the Palestinians are serious about peace. So, a bit of blunt speaking and a handshake sealed 8 months or so of pointless diplomacy. Gorilla suggests that it will be at least a year and/or another Israeli election before much happens in that part of the Middle East.
*The G-20 Follies: Now a larger and more unwieldy group than the G-8 is able to agree on nothing. We want the Europeans to cut back their presence in the IMF, they want us to cut back on the presence of our bankers. Gorilla thinks the next financial bubble is underway, so there’ll be a year or two of messing about ineffectually with finance before we can all resume panic stations.
*The Secret Iranian Nuclear Facility: Well, not so secret any more. It’s hard to understand why everyone is so worried about a fifth-rate regional power that we could destroy in five minutes if a single nuclear warhead was launched at Israel or Europe. Gorilla believes all of the sturm and drang about Iran is leading inevitably to a bilateral deal being cut within the next 12 months.
*Health Care Reform: Still going nowhere. Gorilla thinks it would be nice if nominally Democratic Senators decided to go along with the last 2 elections and vote Democratic, but he’s not holding his breath. A bill by November, full of sound and fury, signifying not very much.
*Catching A Possible Bomber: The Nail Varnish Remover Terrorist may not be a serious threat, but at least the FBI didn’t manufacture this case (unlike those in Texas and Illinois). Gorilla thinks we’ll learn something about how fanaticism develops in and is exported by semi-failed states, but we won’t learn anything much about what we can do about it.
*The V Word: Back again to remind us, 35 years on, that listening to your commanders on the ground is as good a way to lose wars as any. Gorilla does not think the Pentagon will get the troops it wants in Afghanistan and we’ll be phasing out of there within 12 months.
In Honduras, the nonsense goes on and on.
The current President, ousted in a coup in July, is now holed up in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa. The Embassy is surrounded, and no one is being allowed in or out.
Meanwhile, those inside are existing on biscuits and have not bathed in days.
One would think that a country currently ranked 143rd in GDP per capita would need a less stupid group of political leaders, particularly when a new election is scheduled in November, but then again the US Congress isn’t exactly a living testament to common sense.
Gorilla considers a coup: “We could replace the Senate with a potted plant and start a real green revolution!”
Big, bad, and substandard loans by large institutions keep on rising!
How much is questionable at the moment? $642 billion!
Gorilla asks: “Wonder when we’ll see these on balance sheets not belonging to the Fed?”
Iran has a secret nuclear facility!!!
And we’ve known about it for quite a while!!!
A cynic would say that the timing of this revelation is suspicious, coming at a G-20 summit during which nothing much will be agreed.
What’s the point of knowing this? It can’t be that we should be surprised about Iran’s intentions to develop nuclear weapons as it develops nuclear power.
Nor can it be that we are actually committed to nuclear disarmament, not when several nuclear powers remain outside the IAEA framework.
Until the US, Russia, China, Israel, Pakistan and India invite IAEA inspectors to visit their caches, we can be certain that the rhetoric and the resolution don’t amount to a hill of plutonium.
Eventually we’ll have to make a deal with Tehran, so this phase of shock! shock! is not much more than an opening bargaining position.
Gorilla says: “Forget about battery farming, it’s a free range game of chicken!!!”
A country that does not fear the rule of law would do the right thing: try or release all those still being held at Guantanamo, Bagram, and elsewhere.
Allow sentences to be served either in the United States or the home country of those found guilty (assuming they won’t be tortured).
Allow those who are released without trial to live in the United States or return to their home country (assuming they won’t be tortured).
But a country of cowards ships ‘em out to Palau!
Seems only right for us quivering, spineless, and fearful Americans to give the Palau Visitors Authority a plug. They provided the picture above and the courage of our failure at convictions.
Gorilla says: “Be sure to wave to our brave politicians when you see ‘em at Jellyfish Lake!”
The tidetime folkorist wonders why it’s called a summit when mostly it’s a race to the lowest common denominator.
This Week’s Platter: Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off by George Gershwin (for settling the Netanyahu Blues)
This Week’s Bait: The Gaza Strip Wooly Bugger Fly (Hamas is that doggie in the window?)
Why does anyone think the US is serious about climate change and global warming?
Ethanol requires more energy, and hence contributes more to global warming, to produce a gallon of ethanol than it does to produce a gallon of gasoline.
But it is a great subsidy resource for corn farmers and the Senators who represent them.
The obvious solution to reducing the country’s reliance on fossil fuels is a stiff tax on carbon. Until that happens, there’s no economic viability in alternative energy development. And it’s never going to happen.
So, while it’s lovely that the world’s biggest polluter has decided to acknowledge the climate change problem, it’s a lot tougher to do anything meaningful about it. Americans aren’t into sacrifice of any kind these days.
Gorilla thinks: “The corn is as high as a pie in the sky!”
Gorilla’s Blog