things seem to be moving in a downward spiral. with the economic crisis, the imposed austerity measures on the mass of people, things will probably deteriorate more ... before they get better.

Here's some of recent news items that are particularly revealing of the deteriorating trend.

The war in Afghanistan

Well we all really know that this war is not going well for the western powers. A new book by Rajiv Chandrasekaran spells out the deep trouble between the US and British troops. These 2 articles are revealing:

• afghanistan war within a war
• us army battles british afghanistan

Amazing, because the US and Britain are supposed to be the best of friends, a truly "special" relationship. Now this book shows us the deep mistrust among these two allies. Are they even allies here ?

Rajiv Chandrasekaran is emerging as the chronicler of American failure abroad. He is famous for his book "Imperial Life in the Emerald City", on the Bush era in Baghdad's Green Zone.

 

Libor banking scandal

 While the Libor banking scandal is the brand new banking scandal of the moment -- with calls for criminal investigations -- the financial and banking sectors are being continuously revealed to be part of growing number of scandals, corruption and vastly inappropriate behavior.

Echoes of the phone hacking scandal. Politicians have trouble chasing the rich.

The banks and other financial institutions have triggered the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression and have been bailed out. Time to end  unregulated finance ? Get rid of private banking  ?

US vs Wikileaks

Seems like the US is really trying to hit back on wikileaks and other whistle-blowers. Julian Assange may be right to fear the US is chasing him. 

 

This issue is revealing of the prevailing climate.

 

Blowing up the EU

British PM,  Cameron is reading to "impose stringent border controls that would block Greek citizens from entering the United Kingdom, if Greece is forced out of the single currency". 

david-cameron-immigration-greece-uk

Who knows where this will stop ?? Completely blows up the treaties and spirit of the EU. Keep a watch on this one, its got potential !

 

Imperialism didn't end...

 ... these days it's known as international law.

I liked this commentary piece, empire-of-capital. It was published under the above heading.

Too much oil

It seems that the world supply of oil is not coming to a sudden end anytime  soon.

peak oil supplies

Fukushima radiation estimates double original estimates

New estimates of radiation release from the Fukushiman nuclear accident are much higher.

The WSJ article  (seems like one has to read it carefully to understand it)
online.wsj.com - Fukushima

Greek article on the same subject is much more direct
news.in.gr - Fukushima

genderized manifestation of state control

A deeper look at what is going on in the USA with all the hoopla on abortion and women's rights. To me, the US is not on a good path..

 Article by Naomi Wolf

Some excerpts:

It is all part of the larger crackdown we see on privacy, private space, freedom and personal choice.

...has made the gatekeepers seek every kind of method of control available to them.

Bills have been proposed in Albany, New York to criminalize anonymous postings online – to "protect business people and government officials" from criticism.  And the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act has language legalizing the directing of propaganda at United States citizens. And so on

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/may/24/what-lies-behind-war-on-women-naomi-wolf

G. Delastik interview on greek tv

interesting thoughts. Interview on Greek TV on 01-04-2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pX4LpU7FKY

Occupy the Economy

Challenging Capitalism

http://www.rdwolff.com/content/occupy-economy-challenging-capitalism

also from www.amazon.com

Interviews with David Barsamian.
Today's economic crisis is capitalism's worst since the Great Depression. Millions have lost their jobs, homes and healthcare while those who work watch their pensions, benefits and job security decline.

A cure for capitalism

A new book just recently published (May 2012)
 
http://www.rdwolff.com/content/democracy-work-cure-capitalism
also available from www.amazon.com

A new historical vista is opening before us in this time of change, Wolff writes in this compelling new manifesto for a democratic alternative based on workers directing their own workplaces.

Tsipras in Berlin

Following a visit to Paris on Monday, Tsipras met likeminded, anti-capitalist far-left politicians in Berlin, on the Berlin leg of a charm offensive.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/may/22/greek-leftist-leader-alexis-tsipras-germany-visit

skin tissue from heart attack patients into fresh, beatin heart cells

It's possible to take skin cells from an elderly patient with advanced heart failure and end up with his own beating cells in a laboratory dish that are healthy and young – the equivalent to the stage his heart cells were in when he was just born


 http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/may/23/skin-heart-attack-beating-heart-cells

wall street monkeys

Monkey business from another blog:


Once upon a time in a village in India , a man announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10.

The villagers seeing there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them.

The man bought thousands at $10, but, as the supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their efforts. The man further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.

Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer rate increased to $25 and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now act as buyer, on his behalf.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers: ‘ Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when he returns from the city, you can sell them back to him for $50. ‘

The villagers squeezed together their savings and bought all the monkeys.

Then they never saw the man or his assistant again, only monkeys everywhere!

Welcome to WALL STREET

The Ministry of Unknown Science

A truly hilarious group !
Check out their videos on

• Fuck-Fu
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Wacky Humor at its best
Many more videos at http://www.tmous.com/
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Iraq and corruption

Firing fraud monitors
Corruption == Iraq.
A mess.
No. An out of control mess.

china and latin america

China on its way to being a financial power -recession or not.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7733811.stm
Trade with Latin America is booming ($100 bn, is that a lot of money ? compared to ... ?). Notice the numbers given in the article are up to 2007, they don't include 2008.
BTW, on an older piece of news chinese advisers are (what else ?) advising the venezuela space program http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7697130.stm.

Creation date. I wonder how this blog will develop. if at all
A number of ideas are floating about within the cosmic dust-o-sphere.

Here's a sample:

• Odd bits of current news stories, articles that catch my fancy or attention.
• Comments on programming and computers that show my biases.
• AOB (any-other-business, corporate jargon yuck!)
• Trendy stories and people and stuff
  
• Not so trendy stories, people and stuff

Before continuing on with a silly laundry list of big and noble things a blog is good/bad for
let me just say Hi!