The death knell begins for the bluefin tuna…
No surprise that a total ban was turned downed by the UN!
Left to their own devices, the world’s fishermen will keep going until there are no more fish left.
Eventually, something may be done for the bluefin as it has been done for the cod, but too little, too late is how the world’s environmental policy is made and developed.
Gorilla says: “Cash is king from the neck up!”
Yes, health care reform will reduce the deficit!
And single payer would reduce the deficit even more, but alas that’s not what we’re getting.
Great sighs of relief will be heard on Capitol Hill when the bill finally passes and is signed, but the lessons learned may take a while longer:
1) The President should have gotten this bill through in the first 90 days of his Administration. He wasted a year and nearly got nothing because of his infatuation with nonexistent bipartisanship.
2) The Democratic Party needs to become more cohesive, or it will be pitched out of office. The Blue Dogs and clowns like Stupak are not really Democrats; progressives need to start fielding and electing candidates that are progressive.
3) The Know Nothing Party has nothing to offer the country.
4) The extreme right remains a spent force, not worthy of a moment’s consideration in the political process or in any country that thinks it is civilized.
Gorilla predicts: “There’s a long way to go, but we’ll all be in Medicare by 2025!”
Or words to that effect from the Greek President.
The problem for Greece is that the cost of borrowing the money necessary to meet its budget will more or less undo the fiscal tightening contained in that budget.
Euroland leaders have applauded the tightening, but not been willing to back it up with either lower interest loans or loan guarantees, with the result that the Greeks may turn to the IMF.
The money needed is on the order of a couple of hundred billion euros over the next 3 years, and so far Brussels has only pledged a possible 20 billion.
Once again, the main obstacle is Germany, which is engaged in a beggar thy neighbor export policy, doesn’t want to bail out irresponsible governments, doesn’t want to throw irresponsible governments out of Euroland, and would be delighted to see the euro drop another 20%.
Greece itself could withdraw from the eurozone, go back to the drachma, and devalue, but that would be at least as painful as what’s on offer at the moment.
So the IMF card will be played, mostly to call the German bluff.
Gorilla says: “Another round of moussaka and bratwurst poker!”
The formula still works on a bipartisan basis.
The latest CIA Director, whose agency has failed miserably to capture or even locate anyone in al-Qaeda’s top leadership, now says the terrorists are “on the run, but still coming after us”.
Putting aside the curious logic (which direction are they running?), what this says is that al-Qaeda was never a serious, existential threat to the United States or anyone else. They were and are a terrorist group who occasionally get lucky, but remain a very low-tech, very fifth-rate collection of psychopaths.
We’ve spent trillions on catching them and haven’t caught them. The chances of being killed by a terrorist are less than the chances of being killed by falling out of bed. But we must remain afraid and give the Pentagon a blank check to fail.
Gorilla asks: “When will we change fear and loathing to loathing of fear?”
One of the tidetime folklorist’s favorites has died.
Alex Chilton’s music with the Box Tops and Big Star was always a good listen.
Here are three favorites:
Box Tops Sweet Cream Ladies Forward March
Big Star Back Of A Car
Big Star Thirteen
