Weekend Economists Cruising the Bounding Wave May 16-18, 2014

[Demeter]

I know I promised to be here on time (whatever that is) but something happened:

This Weekend is all Fuddnik's fault. He suggested it when I mentioned (complained extensively) about the amount of rain falling on my fair state of Michigan. At least the Great Lakes will start filling up, again.

What about that Noah fellow, and his Ark, and the Flood? Any basis for thinking there's even a grain of truth to it?

From the sociological/anthropological point of view, the Flood is a recurring theme in oral tradition and literature.

A flood myth or deluge myth is a narrative in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine retribution. Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of these myths and the primeval waters found in certain creation myths, as the flood waters are described as a measure for the cleansing of humanity, in preparation for rebirth. Most flood myths also contain a culture hero, who strives to ensure this rebirth. The flood myth motif is widespread among many cultures as seen in the Mesopotamian flood stories, the Puranas, Deucalion in Greek mythology, the Genesis flood narrative, and in the lore of the K'iche' and Maya peoples in Mesoamerica, the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa tribe of Native Americans in North America, the Muisca people, and Cañari Confederation, in South America.

The Mesopotamian flood stories concern the epics of Ziusudra, Gilgamesh, and Atrahasis. In the Sumerian King List, it relies on the flood motif to divide its history into preflood and postflood periods. The preflood kings had enormous lifespans, whereas postflood lifespans were much reduced. The Sumerian flood myth found in the Deluge tablet was the epic of Ziusudra, who heard the Divine Counsel to destroy humanity, in which he constructed a vessel that delivered him from great waters. In the Atrahasis version, the flood is a river flood.

Assyriologist George Smith translated the Babylonian account of the Great Flood in the 19th century. Further discoveries produced several versions of the Mesopotamian flood myth, with the account closest to that in Genesis 6–9 found in a 700 BCE Babylonian copy of the Epic of Gilgamesh. In this work, the hero, Gilgamesh, meets the immortal man Utnapishtim, and the latter describes how the god Ea instructed him to build a huge vessel in anticipation of a deity-created flood that would destroy the world. The vessel would save Utnapishtim, his family, his friends, and the animals.

In Hindu mythology, texts such as the Satapatha Brahmana mention the puranic story of a great flood, wherein the Matsya Avatar of Vishnu warns the first man, Manu, of the impending flood, and also advises him to build a giant boat.

In the Genesis flood narrative, Yahweh decides to flood the earth because of the depth of the sinful state of mankind. Righteous Noah is given instructions to build an ark. When the ark is completed, Noah, his family, and representatives of all the animals of the earth are called upon to enter the ark. When the destructive flood begins, all life outside of the ark perishes. After the waters recede, all those aboard the ark disembark and have God's promise that He will never judge the earth with a flood again. He gives the rainbow as the sign of this promise.

In Plato's Timaeus, Timaeus says that because the Bronze race of Humans had been making wars constantly Zeus got angered and decided to punish humanity by a flood. Prometheus the Titan knew of this and told the secret to Deucalion, advising him to build an ark in order to be saved. After 9 nights and days the water started receding and the ark was landed at Mount Parnassus.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_myth

Put on your hip boots and let's explore the Flood(s) and the floods of fact, fiction and gossip that constitute news on our political economic front.

This ark, located an hour south of Amsterdam, is a replica of Noah's Biblical boat.

[Demeter]

1. One Bank Failure Constitutes a Flood, These Days

AztecAmerica Bank, Berwyn, Illinois, was closed today by the Illinois Department of Financial & Professional Regulation—Division of Banking, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Republic Bank of Chicago, Oak Brook, Illinois, to assume all of the deposits of AztecAmerica Bank.

The two branches of AztecAmerica Bank will reopen as branches of Republic Bank of Chicago during their normal business hours...

As of December 31, 2013, AztecAmerica Bank had approximately $66.3 million in total assets and $65.0 million in total deposits. Republic Bank of Chicago will pay the FDIC a premium of 1.025 percent to assume all of the deposits of AztecAmerica Bank. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, Republic Bank of Chicago agreed to purchase approximately $58.3 million of the failed bank's assets. The FDIC will retain the remaining assets for later disposition...

The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $18.0 million. Compared to other alternatives, Republic Bank of Chicago's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. AztecAmerica Bank is the seventh FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the second in Illinois. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was DuPage National Bank, West Chicago, on January 17, 2014.

REMEMBER THE BAD OLD DAYS, WHEN WE WOULD HAVE 3-5 BANKS FAIL EACH WEEKEND?

[Demeter]

2. Was there a Flood (or more) in Human Memory?

In ancient Mesopotamia, the excavated cities of Shuruppak, Ur, Kish, Uruk, Lagash, and Ninevah all present evidence of flooding. However, the evidence comes from different times. In Israel, there is no such evidence of a widespread flood.

The geography of the Mesopotamian area was considerably changed by the filling of the Persian Gulf after sea waters rose following the last ice age. Global sea levels were about 120m lower up till 18,000 BP and rose till at 8,000 BP they reached the current levels, which are now an average 40m above the floor of the Gulf, which was a huge (800 km (500 mi) x 200 km (120 mi)) low-lying and fertile region in Mesopotamia, in which human habitation is thought to have been strong around the Gulf Oasis for 100,000 years. A sudden increase in settlements above the present water level is recorded at around 7,500 BP.

BP MEANS "YEARS BEFORE THE PRESENT DATE"--DEMETER

Adrienne Mayor promoted the hypothesis that flood stories were inspired by ancient observations of seashells and fish fossils in inland and mountain areas. The ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Romans all documented the discovery of such remains in these locations; the Greeks hypothesized that Earth had been covered by water on several occasions, citing the seashells and fish fossils found on mountain tops as evidence of this history.

Speculation regarding the Deucalion myth has also been introduced, whereby a large tsunami in the Mediterranean Sea, caused by the Thera eruption (with an approximate geological date of 1630–1600 BC), is the myth's historical basis. Although the tsunami hit the South Aegean Sea and Crete it did not affect cities in the mainland of Greece, such as Mycenae, Athens, and Thebes, which continued to prosper, indicating that it had a local rather than a regionwide effect.

Another hypothesis is that a meteor or comet crashed into the Indian Ocean around 3000–2800 BC, created the 30-kilometre (19 mi) undersea Burckle Crater, and generated a giant tsunami that flooded coastal lands.

It has been postulated that the deluge myth in North America may be based on a sudden rise in sea levels caused by the rapid draining of prehistoric Lake Agassiz at the end of the last Ice Age, about 8,400 years ago.

One of the latest, and quite controversial, hypotheses of long term flooding is the Black Sea deluge hypothesis, which argues for a catastrophic deluge about 5600 BC from the Mediterranean Sea into the Black Sea. This has been the subject of considerable discussion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_myth

[Demeter]

3. IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR DATA SECURITY

https://www.eff.org/who-has-your-back-government-data-requests-2014

ALAS, I CANNOT COPY THE TABLE, SEE LINK! OR DOWNLOAD AS PDF ENTIRE REPORT:


https://www.eff.org/files/2014/05/15/who-has-your-back-2014-govt-data-requests.pdf

[Tansy_Gold]

4. Flood v. Kuhn

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curt_Flood#Flood_v._Kuhn

Curtis Charles Flood (January 18, 1938 – January 20, 1997) was a Major League Baseball player who spent most of his career as a center fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals. A defensive standout, he led the National League in putouts four times and in fielding percentage twice, winning Gold Glove Awards in his last seven full seasons from 1963 to 1969. He also batted over .300 six times and led the NL in hits (211) in 1964. He retired with the third most games in center field (1683) in NL history, trailing only Willie Mays and Richie Ashburn.

Flood became one of the pivotal figures in the sport's labor history when he refused to accept a trade following the 1969 season, ultimately appealing his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Although his legal challenge was unsuccessful, it brought about additional solidarity among players as they fought against baseball's reserve clause and sought free agency.







http://articles.philly.com/2011-07-12/sports/29765016_1_curt-flood-slavery-documentary

What he actually said was, "In the history of man, there's no other profession except slavery where one man is tied to one owner for the rest of his life."

People reacted to the slavery comparison like he'd set fire to their shoelaces. "Slavery?" they yelped, the man is getting paid $90,000 to play a game! Flood answered softly, "A well-paid slave is still a slave," and started down the brutal path of suing Major League Baseball, striving to get the reserve clause declared illegal.

[Demeter]

5. Or before divorce, marriage would be another profession

[Demeter]

6. I'll see your Flood, and Raise you an Arc

Ukraine creates arc of chaos By Francesco Sisci

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/CHIN-01-160514.html


As if on a romantic double date, Europe is strolling nonchalantly toward what in reality is a risky pair of electoral appointments: the vote for the European Union parliament in Brussels and the presidential election in Ukraine, both scheduled for May 25. The combination of the two could multiply the many hazards each separately entails. The most obviously precarious is the Ukrainian election. Here a thousand things can go wrong, so much so that either side (the anti- and pro-Russian factions in the country) could claim the elections were disrupted.

In some ways Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to cool the tension by urging pro-Russian factions to call off a local referendum on secession in eastern Ukraine on May 11. However, he turned up in Crimea on May 9, in an apparent sign of support for pro-Russian faction in Ukraine. So pro-Russian groups didn't heed the call to stop the referendum. Moreover, Americans claim Moscow has troops at the border ready to intervene, something that - Putin's words notwithstanding - could further encourage secessionists. Their presence could also prevent the intervention of pro-Kiev forces that might be too eager to intervene to gain more prestige and badges of honor in the West.

It is not completely clear what is in play there. Are the pro-Russians really loyal to their Moscow leader or do they have their own agendas and are trying to force Putin's hand? Or vice versa they could be being played by the grand puppeteer - Putin.

Certainly, the main parties - Putin on the one hand and the EU and the US on the other - seem to have all realized they have gone too far in Ukraine, but it is very hard to move back from the brink of the abyss. Nobody there seems eager to go to war over splinters of Ukraine and the respective short-term objectives (and their consequences) have all been achieved...

MORE

Francesco Sisci is a Senior Researcher associated with the Center for European Studies at the People's University in Beijing. The opinions expressed in this article are his own and do not represent in any way those of the Center.

[Demeter]

7. Why are Fundies so hung up on the Noah Story?

I think it must be Schadenfreude:the conceit that some righteous people are worthy of divine intervention, while the rest will drown...plus the idea that some people listen to God, and the others don't.

It is the religious equivalent of that harried mother's threat: Just wait until your father gets home!

[Demeter]

8. Wikipedia's List of flood myths

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_flood_myths

West Asia and Europe
Ancient Near East
Sumerian

Sumerian creation myth

Babylonian (Epic of Gilgamesh)

Gilgamesh flood myth

Abrahamic religions (Noah's flood)
The Deluge, c. 1896-1902, by James Jacques Joseph Tissot

Genesis flood narrative
Noah's Ark
Islamic view of Noah

Classical Antiquity

Ancient Greek flood myths

Medieval Europe
Germanic

The Louse and the Flea

Irish

Lebor Gabála Érenn - Cessair

Modern era folklore
Finnish

Finnish flood myth

Africa

Many African cultures have an oral tradition of a flood myth including the Kwaya, Mbuti, Maasai, Mandin, and Yoruba peoples. The Maasai myth, which has obvious Judeo-Christian influences, is as follows:

Once upon a time the rivers began to flood. The god told two people to get into a ship. He told them to take lots of seed and to take lots of animals. The water of the flood eventually covered the mountains. Finally the flood stopped. Then one of the men, wanting to know if the water had dried up let a dove loose. The dove returned. Later he let loose a hawk which did not return. Then the men left the boat and took the animals and the seeds with them.

Asia-Pacific
India
The Matsya avatar comes to the rescue of Manu

Manu and Matsya: The legend first appears in Shatapatha Brahmana (700-300 BCE), and is further detailed in Matsya Purana (250-500 CE). Matsya (the incarnation of a deity) forewarns Manu (a human) about an impending catastrophic flood and orders him to collect all the grains of the world in a boat; in some forms of the story, all living creatures are also to be preserved in the boat. When the flood destroys the world, Manu - in some versions accompanied by the seven great sages - survives by boarding the ark, which Matsya pulls to safety.

Puluga, the creator god in the religion of the indigenous inhabitants of the Andaman Islands, sends a devastating flood to punish people who have forgotten his commands. Only four people survive this flood: two men and two women.

Central Asia/Turkestan

Nama

China

Yu the Great
Nüwa
Great Flood (China)

Korea

Mokdoryung

Malaysia

Temuan

Tai-Kadai People

There are stories spoken by Tai-Kadai people, included Zhuang, Thai, Shan and Lao, talking about the origin of them and the deluge from their Thean (แถน , supreme being object of faith.

Khun Borom
Poo-Sankhasa Ya-Sangkhasi or Grandfather Sangkhasa and Grandmother Sangkhasi, who make the human beings and the deluge.

Oceania
Australia

Tiddalik

Polynesia

Nu'u
Ruatapu
Tāwhaki

Americas
North America

Hopi mythology - Entrance into the Fourth World
W̱SÁNEĆ peoples, flood myth
Comox people - Legend of Queneesh

Mesoamerica

Mesoamerican flood myths

South America
Inca

Unu Pachakuti

Mapuche

Legend of Trentren Vilu and Caicai Vilu

Muisca

Bochica

Tupi

Sumé


LINKS TO SUPPORTING ENTRIES AT ORIGINAL LINK

[Warpy]

9. Elephant shit, alone, would have filled that sucker up in a week.

Have you ever seen Ringling Brothers march the elephants through town? What they leave on the road is pretty impressive.

That Bronze Age myths would feature periodic Great Floods is not surprising. The Mediterranean Basin has a long geological record of tsunami, mostly from periodic collapses and landslides from Mt. Etna but also from other regional vulcanism. For instance, the eruption that blasted Thera apart and caused the destruction of the Minoan culture is likely the source for legends like Atlantis and also for biblical accounts of things from some of the Egyptian plagues to the destruction of Sodom and Gommorah.

I've always thought of Noah being an insanely lucky sailor who was bringing a load of sheep somewhere and managed to ride out one of the major tsunamis on the way. The story grew first in his attempt to milk it for more free cups of wine and later by retelling by others who wanted to milk it for more free cups of wine.

As for your own Epic Flood, please stop hogging it. The southwest is still bone dry to the point of being crunchy and we need rain very badly.

[Demeter]

14. Warpy, I am no Weatherman (or woman)

Last edited Fri May 16, 2014, 09:27 PM - Edit history (1)

I control no forces of Nature...the winds blow west to east across the continent.

If you want relief, you've got to talk to the Chinese. They are the ones messing with your weather.

Here's a rain dance for your enjoyment:

[Demeter]

39. I'm sure the plan was to collect and dump it overboard each day and night

Had to give those sons something to do....

I'd be more worried about the food running out. The bible never mentioned food....and I doubt there was that much interest in fish...

[Demeter]

10. BUT BACK TO NOAH: The Comeback of Noah's Flood By Andrew Alden

http://geology.about.com/od/flooding/qt/floodcomeback.htm

In 1997 two marine geologists, William Ryan and Walter Pitman, published a book about Noah's Flood—the real one they discovered themselves. It's a geologic event that they say occurred several thousand years before the ancient Hebrews wrote the story down in its familiar 40-days/40-nights form. The response among Ryan and Pitman's readers was approving interest and follow-up research, the cultural equivalent of polite applause.

Just a few generations ago, though, the question of the Flood created whole decades of cultural flame wars. Geology won the argument and the Biblical literalists lost. The Flood could not have covered the whole world, it could not have laid down every sedimentary rock bed in a few months, and Noah could not have rescued every living species. The rocks put the lie to all that.

This debate, along with the equally ferocious argument over evolution as well as other trends of the 1800s, basically debunked the Bible as an authority for any physical truth. But while the Bible is of no use as a geology text, it does have value in its version of the Flood. In that sense, Ryan and Pitman have rehabilitated the good book.

The Updated Flood

Their new picture of the original Flood is this: As the last ice age waned some 10,000 years ago, the Black Sea overflowed with meltwater from the northern Asian ice cap, and it drained downhill into the Mediterranean, which like the rest of the ocean was rising but still well below its present level. Then a global cold snap hit. The glaciers stopped melting and the Black Sea shrank to a large freshwater lake about the size of today's Caspian Sea, a hundred meters or so below sea level. People moved there and set up the earliest significant farming societies on the lake's shores.

When warming resumed after a millennium or so, the north Asian meltwater went elsewhere and the lake stayed low. But the Mediterranean continued to rise until, one fateful day around 5600 BCE, it spilled over the hills where once the Black Sea had spilled the other way.

That first trickle of seawater grew within days to a colossal, roaring torrent as it gouged out a deep notch in the hills. Storms, lightning, earthquakes and other geophysical disturbances surely accompanied this catastrophe. In a matter of months, the great lake was utterly drowned and its shore-dwellers scattered. The Black Sea and its outlet to the Mediterranean, the Bosporus, became as we know them today in a geologic instant. But the survivors of the Flood long remembered what happened in epic songs and myths, one version of which is preserved in the book of Genesis.

How Noah's Flood Was Debunked

The history of geology is a story of hard evidence gradually defeating scripture for authority over our view of the Earth. The Flood—that is, Noah's Flood story from Genesis—was primary in that struggle.

The very first "theories of the Earth" assumed a universal Flood for two good reasons: the word of God described it in convincing detail and the majority of the rocks of Europe were obviously formed under water (and having never seen lava flows, many early thinkers considered even basalt a marine sediment). But the geologic evidence grew and its contradictions with scripture could no longer be denied.

At the same time, archaeology illuminated the sources and cultural context of the Bible itself, including the many different Flood myths that circulated among other cultures at the time of the ancient Hebrews. The Flood shrank in significance and became just another moral fable, like the tale of Jonah and the whale.

You can study the history of geology and learn how the geologic evidence began to arise in the 1600s and how theory changed to account for it. It's a peaceful timeline on the blackboard, but it leaves out the opposition. At every stage there were powerful people, many remembered today as major scientists, whose basic argument was that the evidence contradicted the plain words of the Bible. They were stubborn opponents for more than 200 years, but the last of them surrendered in the late 1800s.

Recovering History

The Bible has always been an awkward book. Most of it is historical, of course, and much of that human history can be independently confirmed. But much of the Bible is mythical, a record of fundamental stories that shaped an ancient worldview. Taken literally, Noah's Flood suggests a widespread set of geological consequences that have not been found. The world is true, therefore this part of the Word is not. But Ryan and Pitman's hypothesis that the Flood myth had a historical basis assumes, correctly, that even if Noah's story is not literally true it is not utterly false. More realistic versions of it can be checked out and possibly verified.

It has taken more than a century to bring this great Biblical story back to some sort of plausibility. The next few decades should produce some fascinating discoveries under the Black Sea waves as we check out Ryan and Pitman's hypothesis in detail. Scientists are arguing about the evidence and gathering more.

It's still valuable to read about 19th-century geology, because while science and religion settled their dispute during that time, both parties were wounded and distorted in ways that still matter today. In 1896, Andrew Dickson White published A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom, recounting the battles with fairness and sympathy for all sides, at a time when memories were fresh. It's all reproduced on Bob Kobres's remarkable ABOB site.

[antigop]

11. Musical Interlude: Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head

[Demeter]

15. Oh, you are wicked!

Thanks for the interludes!

[antigop]

12. Musical interlude: "Soon It's Gonna Rain" from "The Fantasticks"

[antigop]

13. Musical interlude: "Singin' in the Rain" -- Gene Kelly

[DemReadingDU]

16. Carpenters - Rainy Days And Mondays

[DemReadingDU]

17. Fake Noah's Ark to be built in Kentucky

3/1/14 5 Things Kentucky Could Spend $73 Million On Instead Of A Fake Noah's Ark
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/01/kentucky-noahs-ark-ken-ham_n_4876282.html

[Tansy_Gold]

18. Musical treat

[Demeter]

19. I am so gratified that this thread is taking fire in the imagination of its readership

but I'd better get some economics in....

[Demeter]

20. Noah's Ark: the facts behind the Flood

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10574119/Noahs-Ark-the-facts-behind-the-Flood.html



A recently discovered Babylonian tablet is a blueprint for a round-shaped ark that animals could board two by two...



In the year 1872 one George Smith, a bank­note engraver turned assistant in the British Museum, astounded the world by discovering the story of the Flood – much the same as that in the Book of Genesis – inscribed on a cuneiform tablet made of clay that had recently been excavated at far-distant Nineveh (in present-day Iraq). Human behaviour, according to this new discovery, prompted the gods of Babylon to wipe out mankind through death by water, and, as in the Bible, the survival of all living things was effected at the last minute by a single man.

For George Smith himself the discovery was, quite plainly, staggering, and it propelled him from back-room boffin to worldwide fame. Much arduous scholarly labour had preceded Smith’s extraordinary triumph, for his beginnings were humble. Endless months of staring into the glass cases that housed the inscriptions in the gallery resulted in Smith being “noticed”, and eventually he was taken on as a “repairer” in the British Museum in about 1863.

The young George exhibited an outstanding flair for identifying joins among the broken fragments of tablets and a positive genius for understanding cuneiform inscriptions; there can be no doubt that he was one of Assyriology’s most gifted scholars.

At first, Smith was unable to decipher the tablet that would change his life, because a lime-like deposit obscured the text. Only once this had been painstakingly removed – an agonising wait for the highly strung Smith – could all the words be read. A contemporary observer reported what happened next:

“Smith took the tablet and began to read over the lines which… had [been] brought to light; and when he saw that they contained the portion of the legend he had hoped to find there, he said, 'I am the first man to read that after more than two thousand years of oblivion.’

MORE

[Demeter]

21. Another one for the Wall of Shame

Ex-Trader at SAC Fund Is Sentenced to 3 Years

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/05/16/ex-sac-capital-trader-steinberg-sentenced-to-3-12-years/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

A federal judge seemed pained at times on Friday in sentencing the former hedge fund trader Michael Steinberg to three and half years in prison for his conviction last year on insider trading charges.

On several occasions, Judge Richard J. Sullivan of Federal District Court in Manhattan talked about Mr. Steinberg’s character and how he doubted Mr. Steinberg would break the law again.

The judge said he was particularly moved by the 68 letters that Mr. Steinberg’s family members and friends had written on his behalf before the sentencing. The letters, which Judge Sullivan said seemed genuine and not part of an organized campaign by Mr. Steinberg’s defense lawyers, had persuaded him that Mr. Steinberg, one of the longest tenured traders to work for the billionaire investor Steven A. Cohen at SAC Capital Advisors, was a “good man” who had made a mistake in an effort to make more money.

“This doesn’t define you,” Judge Sullivan told Mr. Steinberg, 42. “This is a sad day for everyone.”

But Judge Sullivan said the prison sentence, coupled with a $2 million fine, was necessary to send a message to others on Wall Street that insider trading is not a trivial crime. He said the evidence produced during a monthlong trial showed that Mr. Steinberg’s trading on inside information was not isolated and was part of a pattern of “systematic trades over months and years.”

MORE

[Demeter]

22. Walmart, Contractor Settle $21M Wage Theft Suit, Days After Obama Praises Penny-Pinching Retailer

http://truth-out.org/news/item/23753-walmart-and-contractor-settle-$21-million-wage-theft-suit-days-after-obama-praises-penny-pinching-retailer

[Fuddnik]

23. I fart in your general direction!

Saw Spamalot tonight. Laughed til I cried.

[Demeter]

24. WEEKEND FUNNIES--OR UNFUNNIES, DEPENDING

Last edited Sat May 17, 2014, 08:47 AM - Edit history (1)

FIRST--SNOOPY ON OUR THEME:




THEN A RIPOFF OF THE CLASSIC Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth

The woman in the painting is Anna Christina Olson (3 May 1893–27 January 1968). She is known to have suffered from polio, a muscular deterioration that paralyzed her lower body. Wyeth was inspired to create the painting when he saw her crawling across a field while watching from a window in the house. Wyeth had a summer home in the area and was on friendly terms with Olson, using her and her younger brother as the subjects of paintings from 1940 to 1968.[2] Although Olson was the inspiration and subject of the painting, she was not the primary model — Wyeth's wife Betsy posed as the torso of the painting.[2] Olson was 55 at the time Wyeth created the work.[2]

The house depicted in the painting is known as the Olson House, and is located in Cushing, Maine. It is open to the public, operated by the Farnsworth Art Museum;[3] it is a National Historic Landmark, and has been restored to match its appearance in the painting.[citation needed] In the painting, Wyeth separated the house from its barn and changed the lay of the land.

Management Deluding Itself Again

What actually happens with friends? They recruit each other at their next job....

[Demeter]

61. SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT

[Demeter]

25. The IRS May Reschedule the Death of the US Dollar By Mark Nestmann

http://humansarefree.com/2014/05/the-irs-may-reschedule-death-of-us.html#more

Ever since President Obama signed the ill-conceived “Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act” (FATCA) into law in 2010, I’ve been warning about the death of the dollar. And I haven’t been alone. Other experts have cautioned about FATCA’s potential to literally shut down the global economy when it goes into full effect July 1, 2014. But the IRS has now postponed that day of reckoning – for at least some – until January 1, 2016. The idea behind FATCA is simple: Demand that other countries enforce America’s imperialistic tax laws. And to do so by the confiscation of foreign assets, if necessary. Under the provisions of FATCA, interest, dividends, rents, and similar payments leaving the US will be subject to a 30% withholding tax. The only way that most foreign banks and other foreign companies will be able to avoid this tax is to act as unpaid IRS informants. Non-US individuals investing in the US will be affected, too. If their foreign bank isn’t FATCA-compliant, their US income will get whacked by 30%. It will be possible to recover the tax in some cases, but even so, I can’t think of a better way to scare foreign investors away from the US. Something I call “FATCA contagion” would be even worse. In this scenario, since they couldn’t be completely certain that foreign recipients are FATCA compliant, US banks might start routinely deducting 30% from international funds transfers – and letting the IRS sort it all out.

You can probably imagine what this might do to the value of the US dollar. It could sink like a stone. If there’s panic selling out of the dollar, the US Treasury could impose foreign exchange controls overnight. If it went on for more than a day or two, it would shut down much of the global economy. The IRS seems to have become dimly aware of this possibility. On May 2, it released regulations that give many of the companies and financial institutions affected by FATCA another 18 months – until January 1, 2016 – to become fully compliant. But this extension will apply only if the IRS thinks the particular institution is making a “good-faith effort” to do so. If it’s not, withholding begins July 1.

How is any US bank supposed to know if the foreigner it’s sending money to has made a good-faith effort to become an IRS spy? Sure, the IRS has exempted entire categories of foreign recipients from the withholding tax, and others will be “deemed compliant” if they just try to comply. Entire countries are labeled “compliant” if they sign what the IRS calls a “Model 1” FATCA agreement. This requires that banks in those countries send the information demanded by the IRS to their own tax authorities to subsequently be sent to the IRS. But because it’s expensive to set up a FATCA compliance program, thousands of what the IRS calls “foreign financial institutions” or “non-financial foreign entities” have made no effort to become FATCA compliant. Unless the IRS delays the withholding mandate entirely, there’s a real potential for disaster.

I don’t have a reputation as a fear-monger. But FATCA has me very worried. The only way the IRS can stave off the possible collapse of the US dollar after July 1 is to delay withholding for everyone until January 1, 2016. Don’t get me wrong… I’m pleased that the IRS made a halting step away from the dollar precipice. But it’s already too late to avoid stepping over it eventually. Here’s why: To many foreigners, FATCA was simply the last straw. They’re fed up with what many are calling “dollar imperialism.” America is already the world’s largest debtor. Our government owes more money to more people than anyone else in the world. And in just the last seven years, our nation’s central bank has created $4 trillion out of thin air through quantitative easing. If you or I tried that trick, we’d go to jail for counterfeiting.

And now FATCA.

In response, the rest of the world is finally setting up the financial and contractual infrastructure to avoid the dollar entirely. That’s a big reason China has signed agreements calling for the use of its currency, the yuan, in financial exchanges with numerous major countries including Germany, Russia, and India. Japan and India have signed a currency deal linking their currencies closer together. Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing states in the Middle East plan to end dollar-for-oil exchanges and instead settle deals with a basket of non-US currencies and gold. All these arrangements, and many more, lessen the world’s dependency on US dollars. FATCA only accelerates this process, and delaying FATCA will merely delay disaster. There’s no way to stop it. Even if the dollar doesn’t collapse shortly after July 1, the handwriting is on the wall. The dollar is doomed.

It’s time to start thinking about Plan B for your assets. Today couldn’t be too soon.



Mark Nestmann is a journalist with more than 20 years of investigative experience and is a charter member of The Sovereign Society Council of Experts. He has authored over a dozen books and many additional reports on wealth preservation, privacy and offshore investing. Mark serves as president of his own international consulting firm, The Nestmann Group, Ltd.

[xchrom]

26. CYPRUS SAYS 4TH BAILOUT REVIEW IS POSITIVE

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_CYPRUS_BAILOUT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-17-05-46-25

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) -- Cyprus' finance minister says international creditors have given a fourth straight positive review to the country's financial rescue program and are projecting that its economy will shrink this year slightly less than earlier forecasts.

Harris Georgiades told reporters Saturday the economy will contract 4.2 percent of gross domestic product in 2014, 0.6 percent better than an earlier projection.

Georgiades said Cyprus' strict adherence to the terms of its 10 billion-euro ($13.7 billion) bailout from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund is working.

But difficulties remain, including a weakened banking sector that still faces a significant number of bad loans.

Georgiades said the Cyprus expects the next bailout tranche of over 600 million euros ($821.8 million) by the end of June.

[xchrom]

27. ON HIGH SEAS, VIETNAM AND CHINA PLAY TENSE GAME

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_VIETNAM_CHINA_CAT_AND_MOUSE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-17-01-23-41

ABOARD VIETNAMESE COAST GUARD SHIP 4033 (AP) -- Each day the Vietnamese ships tried to get close to the rig. And each day they were driven back by the much larger Chinese ships.

But before they sped away, laboring engines spewing black smoke, the Vietnamese delivered a message: "Attention! Attention! We are warning you about your provocative act," blasted out a recording from a loudspeaker in Vietnamese, Chinese and English. "We demand you respect Vietnam's sovereignty. Please immediately halt your activities and leave Vietnamese waters."

Occasionally colliding with or firing water cannons at each other, Vietnamese and Chinese ships have been shadow boxing in a sun-dazzled patch of the South China Sea since May 1, when Beijing parked a hulking, $1 billion deep sea oil rig, drawing a furious response from Vietnam.

Vietnam, ten times smaller than its northern neighbor and dependent on it economically, needs all the help it can get in the dispute. Its leaders believe international opinion is on their side. This week they invited foreign journalists to get a closer look at the standoff, the most serious escalation between the countries in years over their overlapping claims.

[xchrom]

28. WORRY SETTLES OVER WALL STREET AS STOCKS STALL

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ANXIOUS_INVESTORS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-16-17-44-50

NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street has caught a case of the jitters.

Employers are hiring at their fastest pace in 2 1/2 years, the economy is expected to expand by a robust 3.5 percent this quarter and corporate earnings have hit a record. But you wouldn't know it from the way many investors are acting.

They're pouring money into U.S. Treasury bonds, considered the world's safest asset. They're loading up on dull, but reliable utility stocks. They're dumping holdings that would get hurt most from a stalled recovery, like stocks of retailers and risky small companies.

Just a few months ago, investors thought the economy would grow rapidly this year. Now they're not so sure and shifting money around in surprising ways, a sign that confidence remains fragile five years into a recovery.

[xchrom]

29. GREEK COALITION FACES MAJOR TEST IN MIDTERM VOTE

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_GREECE_ELECTIONS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-17-04-54-00

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Greece's rickety coalition government faces its first electoral test in local and regional voting Sunday - followed in a week by the nationwide European parliamentary elections that the left-wing opposition has billed as a referendum on the country's bailout.

Much has changed in the two years since Prime Minister Antonis Samaras' governing conservatives won a slim victory in a parliamentary election. In mid-2012, the debt-hobbled country was on the brink of a possible chaotic exit from the group of European countries using the euro currency, amid deep political and financial instability.

Since then, in a coalition with the remnants of his Socialist archrivals, Samaras has overseen a massive fiscal turnaround. Greece is projected to return to growth after a nightmare six-year recession slashed a quarter off the economy. But unemployment, although below its cruel peak of nearly 28 percent, remains very high amid a deep drop in incomes and property prices.

So the pain of more than four years' austerity, imposed to secure international rescue loans, is a top issue for voters. Polls give Alexis Tsipras' opposition Syriza party a small lead over the conservatives in the May 25 European parliamentary elections, in which Tsipras is the European Left's candidate for EU Commission president.

[xchrom]

30. Thai protest leader promises final push for alternative PM

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/05/17/uk-thailand-protests-idUKKBN0DX06T20140517

(Reuters) - Anti-government protesters in Thailand are to stage mass rallies in coming days to try to get a new prime minister installed, but their leader said if this final push in a six-month fight did not succeed, he would surrender to the authorities on May 27.

"It's time. This show has been going on for so long," Suthep Thaugsuban told a meeting of supporters from around the country on Saturday. "It must come to an end. Whether it will be a happy ending depends on the great mass of people in this country and our state officials."

Thailand has been in turmoil since the protests flared up in November, the latest phase in nearly a decade of antagonism between the Bangkok-based establishment and supporters of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who won huge support among the rural and urban poor but was ousted by the army in 2006.

Thaksin's sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, was forced to step down as prime minister on May 7 when the country's Constitutional Court found her and nine ministers guilty of abuse of power.

[xchrom]

31. Venezuela president urges re-start of political dialogue

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/05/16/uk-venezuela-protests-idUKKBN0DW1SO20140516


(Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro urged opposition leaders on Friday to return to political talks intended to stem unrest around the country or face the "repudiation" of the nation.

Moderate leaders of the Democratic Unity (MUD) coalition broke off dialogue this week, saying government officials were insulting them and rebuffing requests for releases of opposition-linked prisoners.

Unrest has flared again in Caracas in recent days, with more than 100 youths arrested during violent clashes with security forces and attacks on government buildings.

Since anti-government protests began in February, 42 people have been killed, more than 800 injured, and about 3,000 arrested, of whom more than 200 remain behind bars.

[xchrom]

32. U.S. prosecutors drop two more charges against Rajaratnam's brother

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/05/16/uk-rajaratnam-insidertrading-idUKKBN0DW1SK20140516

(Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors have dropped two insider trading-related charges against former Galleon Group hedge fund portfolio manager Rengan Rajaratnam, the second time in two weeks the government has whittled down its case against him.

In a new indictment made public on Friday, prosecutors eliminated two securities fraud charges against Rajaratnam, but he is expected to go to trial on other criminal charges.

Rajaratnam is the younger brother of Galleon founder Raj Rajaratnam, who is serving an 11-year prison sentence for his 2011 conviction for insider trading.

Two weeks ago, prosecutors dropped two other securities fraud counts against Rengan Rajaratnam following a written opinion from U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald that those charges were “internally inconsistent” with a conspiracy charge in the indictment.

[xchrom]

33. Legal claims over RBS cash call near 4 billion pounds

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/05/16/uk-rbs-lawsuit-idUKKBN0DW1BI20140516

(Reuters) - Hundreds more investors have joined an unprecedented group legal action against Royal Bank of Scotland, alleging they were misled during an emergency cash call in 2008, and are claiming damages of around 4 billion pounds.

RBoS Action Group, which represents the largest group of shareholders, said it had filed claims by Friday and would lodge more next week. The claims could be for at least 1.2 billion pounds.

That adds to claims from three other groups that total more than 2.5 billion pounds on behalf of big financial institutions and thousands of small investors in the first American-style class action set to hit English courts.

Thursday marked the six-year anniversary of when the shares RBS sold in its emergency rights issue began trading and could be the cut-off point under English law after which damages claims are no longer be accepted.

[xchrom]

34. U.S. warns 'time is short' as Iran nuclear talks make little progress

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/05/17/uk-iran-nuclear-idUKKBN0DW1EC20140517

(Reuters) - Iran and six world powers made little progress this week in talks on ending their dispute over Tehran's nuclear programme, U.S. and Iranian officials said on Friday, raising doubts over the prospects for a breakthrough by a July 20 deadline.

After three months of mostly comparing expectations rather than negotiating compromises, the sides had intended to start drafting a final agreement that could end more than a decade of enmity and mistrust and dispel fears of a wider Middle East war.

"We believe there needs to be some additional realism," a senior U.S. official said on condition of anonymity, declining to provide details on what issues had caused the most difficulty. "Time is not unlimited here."

"In any negotiation there are good days and bad days, there are ups and downs, this has been a moment of great difficulty but one that was not entirely unexpected," the official added. "We are just at the beginning of the drafting process and we have a significant way to go."

[xchrom]

35. US REGULATORS CLOSE SMALL LENDER IN ILLINOIS

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_BANK_CLOSURES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-16-19-30-37

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Regulators have closed a small lender in Illinois, marking the seventh U.S. bank failure of 2014 after 24 closures last year.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Friday that it has taken over AztecAmerica Bank, based in Berwyn.

The lender, which operated two branches, had about $66.3 million in assets and $65 million in deposits as of Dec. 31.

Republic Bank of Chicago, based in Oak Brook, Illinois, agreed to pay the FDIC a premium of 1.025 percent to assume AztecAmerica's deposits. Republic Bank also agreed to buy roughly $58.3 million of the failed bank's assets.

[xchrom]

36. MOODY'S UPGRADES IRELAND'S DEBT RATING 2 NOTCHES

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MOODYS_IRELAND?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-16-18-05-01

NEW YORK (AP) -- Moody's Investors Services says it has upgraded Ireland's credit rating by two notches.

The ratings service says Ireland's economy has picked up momentum in the past few months and should grow considerably faster than the average among countries using the euro currency. It says Ireland's improving real estate market has also significantly reduced the government's contingent liabilities.

It raised Ireland's rating further into investment grade to Baa1 from Baa3 late Friday.

Ireland had to be rescued by an international bailout after it faced economic ruin in 2010, when the cost of a bank-rescue program destroyed its ability to borrow at affordable rates. But it has since regained its financial independence and repaired its fiscal reputation by exceeding a series of deficit-cutting targets and avoiding both labor unrest and protracted recession.

[xchrom]

37. What I Learned About the Indian Election at Kebab Stands

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/05/what-i-learned-about-the-indian-election-at-kebab-stands/361998/

?n5bhxa
A tea-stall vendor in Kolkata wears a mask of prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. (Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters

DELHI—I recently spent five weeks eating dinner at this city’s food carts, with one goal: to better understand the Indian election and the man who will likely win it. I did so based on two assumptions: everyone (even the wealthy) eats street food, and people tend to speak their mind truthfully when queried over kebabs, dosas, or chai.

India’s general election, which began on April 7 and runs through May 12, begets superlatives and hyperbole. The Largest Election Ever. It’s true that the country’s 815 million registered voters are casting more ballots over these five weeks than in any other single election in history. But superlatives and hyperbole distract from detail—from the nuance of the main issues in this race.

India is diverse, divided, and evolving. There are 22 official languages and hundreds of unofficial ones. Nearly every major world religion is represented here. There are Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, animists, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists, even a handful of Keralan Jews. Here in Delhi, the country’s wealth disparity—a product of globalization, economic liberalization, and history—is apparent. Range Rovers cruise alongside auto-rickshaws and mopeds, past barefoot pedestrians and beggars. New restaurants serve increasingly globalized cuisine at increasingly globalized prices.

But for every new upscale restaurant, there are a dozen street stalls offering affordable meals to the vast majority of India’s population, the yet-to-be success stories. This urban street food blurs communal lines in surprising ways. Marathis eat Lucknowi food, Hindus eat traditionally Muslim food, North Indians eat South Indian food, and everyone eats Himalayan momos.


People stand near a kebab stall at a marketplace in the old quarters of Delhi. (Desmond Boylan/Reuters)

[xchrom]

38. Why You Should Worry About the Election of Narendra Modi in India

http://www.thenation.com/blog/179904/why-you-should-worry-about-election-narendra-modi-india


India's next prime minister Narendra Modi, May 16, 2014. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das)

Who is Narendra Modi, and why should we be afraid?

Modi, of course, is the leader of India’s Bharatiya Janata Party, a rightist, Hindu nationalist party, which won big in India’s weeks-long national election, and Modi will become India’s next prime minister now that 550 million ballots have been counted. In ousting the Congress party, the BJP will drag India much farther than it has ever been into a sectarian and even militant view of the role of Hindus in India and beyond, and it’s very possible that relations between India and Pakistan will get a lot worse under Modi. Because Modi is, above all, a pro-business advocate, he’ll be careful not to rush into a confrontation with either Pakistan or China. But those relationships, already not good, are certainly not likely to improve under the BJP. (Markets were sharply higher in India after Modi’s win was confirmed.)

Not only would worsening ties between India and Pakistan threaten to revive those two countries’ proxy war in Afghanistan, but if they lead to tensions in Kashmir (beyond the long-simmering crisis that plagues that divided region), then they could even threaten to spark a war between New Delhi and Islamabad—and both countries are nuclear-armed. And Modi’s involvement in horrific sectarian, anti-Muslim riots in the state of Gujarat signal that Modi may not be welcomed by India’s vast Muslim minority.

There’s also a danger that the United States, where some neoconservatives and other hawks see India as a counterweight to China, might seek to build military ties with the new BJP government as part of Washington’s “pivot” toward Asia.

The BJP is the political heir of the 1970s-era Janata party, which ruled India for a few years under Morarji Desai. Aside from, and parallel to, the role of the BJP and Modi in sectarian strife putting Hindus against Muslims in India, the BJP and its allied organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, have forces within them that believe that India under the Congress party and the Gandhis has lost sight of India’s glorious role as defender of Hindu interests. The RSS—whose name translates as “National Volunteer Organization”—is a right-wing, paramilitary group founded in 1925, which has long been involved in anti-Muslim violence and which has been banned several times in India’s history, including after one of its adherents assassinated Mahatma Gandhi in 1948. And though the leaders of the BJP have, lately, been careful to keep the RSS at arm’s length, the RSS jumped into the fray during the election with strong support for the BJP.

[Demeter]

40. I hear he models himself after Margaret Thatcher

That should be worry enough.

[antigop]

41. The Beatles: Rain

[xchrom]

42. Modi Tells India’s Hindu Heartland He’s Doing God’s Work

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-17/thousands-greet-modi-in-delhi-after-historic-india-win.html

Incoming Indian leader Narendra Modi told thousands of supporters in one of Hinduism’s holiest cities that he represented a break from past governments after winning the nation’s biggest electoral mandate in 30 years.

“There’s a lot of work that god has put me on this earth for,” Modi said today on the banks of the Ganges River in Varanasi, his constituency, after attending an hour-long prayer service at a temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction and transformation. “A lot of it is dirty work, but I am up to the task.”

Thousands of people threw rose petals at Modi’s convoy as it made its way through the streets of Varanasi, with onlookers and security officials taking pictures. Earlier, Modi greeted supporters in New Delhi, where his Bharatiya Janata Party said it would nominate him formally for prime minister next week.

The outcome, which saw Modi trounce the Gandhi dynasty, boosted stocks and the rupee as investors bet a stable government would make changes needed to bolster growth in the world’s largest democracy. While Modi’s opponents accused him of inflaming tensions between Hindus and a Muslim minority that stem from the country’s founding in 1947, on the campaign trail he pledged to revive Asia’s third-biggest economy.

[xchrom]

43. Modi Win Spurs Optimism India Economy Will Lead BRIC Rebound

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-16/modi-victory-spurs-optimism-india-economy-will-lead-bric-rebound.html

India’s strongest electoral mandate in 30 years puts Narendra Modi in a position to pass measures to bolster Asia’s third-biggest economy, spurring optimism it will lead a recovery among the biggest emerging markets.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies won about 61 percent of seats in parliament as voters punished the Congress party-led coalition for slowing growth, graft and Asia’s second-fastest inflation. If Modi pursues the anti-corruption policies he’s promised, India has the potential to grow about 10 percent annually for the next 20 years, according to Jim O’Neill, former chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

“This is the most positive development in India in 30 years,” O’Neill, who coined the acronym BRIC, referring to Brazil, India, Russia and China, said at the SkyBridge Alternatives Conference in Las Vegas yesterday. Modi’s victory is a “massive, massive positive” for the nation, he said.

[xchrom]

44. Portugal Laden With $293 Billion Debt Exits Bailout Plan

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-15/portugal-laden-with-293-billion-debt-exits-euro-bailout-program.html

Portugal exits its international bailout program tomorrow, regaining the economic sovereignty the nation lost after the European debt crisis erupted while facing enduring challenges to its finances.

The Iberian country’s 214 billion euros ($293 billion) of debt is the third highest in the euro region as a percentage of gross domestic product. The economy is about 4 percent smaller than in 2010, a year before the government had to ask for an international rescue. Borrowing costs based on 10-year (GSPT10YR) bond yields are almost twice those of France and all three major ratings companies consider the country non-investment grade.

“There will now be two or three decades of lean times for the state, which will have to purge that debt burden,” said Diogo Teixeira, chief executive officer of Optimize Investment Partners, a Lisbon-based firm that manages 87 million euros in assets including Portuguese government debt. “The debt burden is sustainable, but it’s heavy.”

Portugal decided to mimic Ireland in exiting the bailout without the safety of a precautionary credit line after last month auctioning bonds for the first time since requesting the 78 billion-euro rescue package. While the country has emerged from its longest recession in at least 25 years, Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho’s government must trim spending this year and next to meet deficit targets.

[Tansy_Gold]

45. The Rain, the Park, and Other Things

&feature=kp



And just 'cause

[Demeter]

52. You can hear how their voices matured....

[MattSh]

46. Most of Europe's Running Out of Fossil Fuels | Motherboard

A report out today shows how the distribution of natural resources around the globe has changed over a decade, and it’s not a pretty picture. Our supplies of many resources are dwindling, and fast.

The report by the Global Resource Observatory at the Anglia Ruskin University's Global Sustainability Institute produced a series of maps that show how many years each country has until resources run out if its consumption rates continue at the same rate: food, water, natural gas, oil, coal—you know, just life’s little luxuries.

The most alarming maps are, unsurprisingly, related to energy. We know that oil, gas, and coal are finite resources, but the colour-coded indicators of quite how little is left in some places is nevertheless a stark reminder of our current situation, and Europe in particular needs the wake-up call. According to the GRO, the UK has fewer than 10 years of oil left, and fewer than five years of coal and natural gas, with the rest of Europe also looking pretty barren (though Russia is doing just fine). These maps show the distribution of oil, coal, and gas in 2010, the most recent year shown in the report:

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/europes-running-low-on-fossil-fuels

[Demeter]

49. Hey Matt! What's new in the U?

The demonization of Putin continues apace here on DU and in the M$M.

[MattSh]

53. Putin & Russian domestic politics

I posted this earlier this week in GD, using the original title (in bold), to a moderate number of reads. This article tells me more about Russian domestic politics then anything I've read in the NY Times this year (except the comments).

Sorry America, Ukraine isn’t all about you | PandoDaily

As the Ukraine crisis tips further into full-scale bloodbath and civil war, we seem to be getting more clueless than we were before this crisis started. That’s a pretty low bar to measure against, and the consequences of our cluelessness about what’s driving the various sides could be catastrophic for everyone.

One of the biggest problems is that everyone who riffs on Putin and Ukraine frames their analysis through a very narrow, Americanized lens, as if the only thing on everyone’s minds out there is us, America. Either Putin is behaving evilly because he fears America’s empire of liberty and freedom; or Putin is behaving perfectly rationally because the evil American empire has bullied Putin into a corner, forcing him to annex Crimea and support pro-Russian separatists.

.....

The important thing to remember is this: Russia’s liberal intelligentsia and its big city yuppie class is small in numbers, outsized in influence and importance…. and hated by the rest of Russia. And there’s a lot to hate: intelligentsia liberals and Moscow yuppies are elitist snobs on a scale that would turn anyone into a Bolshevik. They even named their go-to glossy “Snob”— and they meant it. It’s not just the new rich who are elitist snobs — liberal journalist-dissident Elena Tregubova’s memoir on press censorship interweaves her contempt for Putin with her Muscovite contempt for what she called “aborigines,” those provincial Russian multitudes who occupy the rest of Russia’s eleven time zones. Tregubova flaunted her contempt for Russia’s “aborigines,” whom she mocked for being too poor and uncivilized to tell the difference between processed orange juice and her beloved fresh-squeezed orange juice. I’m not making that up either.

.....

Most living Russians still remember the Soviet era, when wealth inequality was so minute it was measured in perks rather than yachts. That’s what the Russians mean when they tell pollsters they preferred the Soviet Union days and rue its collapse. Lazy hacks interpret those polls as proof that Russians are still evil empirelings, for the sheer evil joy of having a Warsaw Pact to boast about. Rather than the obvious: Russians lived longer and easier under Soviet rule, then started dying off by the millions as soon as capitalism was introduced, when poverty exploded and they found themselves in the most unequal country on earth.



http://pando.com/2014/05/14/sorry-america-the-ukraine-isnt-all-about-you/

[Demeter]

59. And yet the US is in a competition to see if it can be the biggest, baddest Inequality of them all

It is to weep.

[Ghost Dog]

54. (Floods of fascists) Pilger: Break the silence: world war is beckoning

... Russian-speaking Ukrainians are fighting for survival. When Putin announced the withdrawal of Russian troops from the border, the Kiev junta's defense secretary - a founding member of the fascist Svoboda party - boasted that the attacks on "insurgents" would continue. In Orwellian style, propaganda in the West has inverted this to Moscow "trying to orchestrate conflict and provocation", according to British Foreign Secretary William Hague. His cynicism is matched by Obama's grotesque congratulations to the coup junta on its "remarkable restraint" following the Odessa massacre. Illegal and fascist-dominated, the junta is described by Obama as "duly elected". What matters is not truth, Henry Kissinger once said, but "but what is perceived to be true".

In the US media, the Odessa atrocity has been played down as "murky" and a "tragedy" in which "nationalists" (neo-Nazis) attacked "separatists" (people collecting signatures for a referendum on a federal Ukraine). Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal damned the victims - "Deadly Ukraine Fire Likely Sparked by Rebels, Government Says". Propaganda in Germany has been pure cold war, with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung warning its readers of Russia's "undeclared war". For Germans, it is an invidious irony that Putin is the only leader to condemn the rise of fascism in 21st-century Europe.

A popular truism is that "the world changed" following 9/11. But what has changed? According to the great whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, a silent coup has taken place in Washington and rampant militarism now rules. The Pentagon currently runs "special operations" - secret wars - in 124 countries. At home, rising poverty and hemorrhaging liberty are the historic corollary of a perpetual war state. Add the risk of nuclear war, and the question begs: why do we tolerate this?

/... http://atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/CEN-01-140514.html

[Demeter]

60. "why do we tolerate this?"

Most people have no idea it's going on. When asked, they registered disapproval, and so, they aren't told or asked any more.

No freedom for you, if you can't use it responsibly to support the fascists!

[Fuddnik]

62. Washington has been itching for another war.

Or at least another cold war.

I think they're making a serious mistake messing with Putin. And we've been doing it since the Clinton administration started recruiting former Warsaw Pact countries into NATO, violating previous agreements.

[DemReadingDU]

47. The Beach Boys - Pitter patter

[antigop]

48. Barbra Streisand, "Funny Girl": "Don't Rain on My Parade"

[Demeter]

50. Thank god they didn't take scenes from the Focker movies

[antigop]

51. I'm always impressed when I play that...it's an incredibly difficult song to sing.

Requires tremendous breath support.

[xchrom]

55. SWISS CAST BALLOTS ON WORLD'S HIGHEST MINIMUM WAGE

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_SWITZERLAND_MINIMUM_WAGE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-18-07-02-55

GENEVA (AP) -- Switzerland's citizens voted Sunday on whether to create the world's highest minimum wage of 22 Swiss francs ($24.70) an hour.

If passed, the Swiss would more than double the existing highest minimum wages in force elsewhere in Europe. Results are expected later Sunday.

Trade unions sponsored the wage proposal as way of fighting poverty in a country that, by some measures, features some of the world's highest prices. But opinion polls indicated that most voters side with government and business leaders, who have argued it would cost jobs and erode economic competitiveness.

Switzerland currently has no minimum wage, but the median hourly wage is about 33 francs ($37) an hour.

[xchrom]

56. Switzerland 'rejects world's highest minimum wage'

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-27459178

Swiss voters have rejected a proposal to introduce what would be the highest minimum wage in the world in a referendum, first projections indicate.

Under the plan, employers would have had to pay workers a minimum 22 Swiss francs (about $25; £15; 18 euros) an hour.

Supporters said the move was necessary for people to live a decent life.

But critics argued that it would raise production costs and increase unemployment.

[xchrom]

57. Portugal's economy: Two steps forward,

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-27432712

Portugal formally exits its eurozone bailout this weekend after three years of painful austerity that was the condition for it to receive 78bn euro (£63bn) in loan guarantees from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

To mark the date, the right-of-centre government called an extraordinary cabinet meeting whose single agenda item was the approval of a medium-term economic strategy.

Opposition parties accused the governing coalition of blatant electioneering in calling the cabinet in on a Saturday, barely a week before elections for the European Parliament.

Two formal complaints were submitted to the National Elections Commission, but were struck down.

[xchrom]

58. US wholesaler Costco opens first Spanish megastore in Seville

http://elpais.com/elpais/2014/05/14/inenglish/1400083526_880193.html


They have managed to get 15,000 people to pay for the privilege of shopping at their store, and they haven’t even opened their doors yet.

The US warehouse club chain Costco is disembarking in Spain with a first establishment due to open in Seville today.

Though modest, this incursion into Spanish territory has not gone unnoticed by the distribution sector, which will keep a close watch on the performance of its new rival.

Costco is one of the world’s largest retailers, with 650 warehouses in nine countries. The Seville experiment is its first step in a bid to expand into continental Europe (it already has 25 stores in Great Britain).

[Fuddnik]

63. Look out Wall Street, the New Populism is coming.

Even as the Campaign for America’s Future prepares for its May 22 conference on the New Populism in Washington, attacks on populism keep coming from all directions. One of the latest salvos to be publicized comes in an anecdote about former President Bill Clinton.

As Tim Geithner told Andrew Ross Sorkin, Clinton sarcastically told the Wall Street-friendly Treasury Secretary how to “pursue a more populist strategy”:

“You could take Lloyd Blankfein into a dark alley,” Clinton said, “and slit his throat, and it would satisfy them for about two days. Then the blood lust would rise again.”

Clinton was always effective at belittling people with whom he disagrees – even when, as in this case, his own position is morally indefensible. The president and his economic team deregulated Wall Street to disastrous effect, then became very wealthy there after leaving office.

(snip)
http://www.nationofchange.org/look-out-wall-street-new-populism-coming-1400335423

[Demeter]

64. Due to Zero Energy Levels

I'm calling it a wrap. I've stopped treading water, you could say.

Gonna take care of nothing but comfort needs. See you on the SMW!