Environment 1, Economy 0

According to a recent report in The Guardian (UK), the world’s wealthy have as much as $32 trillion stashed in off-shore accounts.

Why is all that money stashed in off-shore accounts? The obvious answer is that it’s avoiding the tax man, of course. The less obvious answer―the answer almost everyone overlooks―is that it’s cooling the economy and helping to reduce CO₂ emissions and other forms of pollution worldwide.

Wait! What?

That’s right. Money acts as a lubricant for the economy. When you take away substantial amounts of lubricant, machinery starts to bog down. If you take away all of the lubricant, machinery seizes up and grinds to a halt. The economy works on the same principle; it needs plenty of lubricant (money) to keep the machinery running smoothly at top speed. When money goes out of the economy, the economy slows down, contracts and turns sluggish. You know, about like the global economy is doing right now.

More money circulating in the economy means more people have more money to spend on goods and services, which stimulates the economy. When demand goes up, businesses hire more workers to help them meet the increased demand. Taking money out of the economy produces the exact opposite effect.

Money taken out of the economy and squirreled away might as well not exist; certainly nothing would change if it ceased to exist. Money held in savings represents economic activity that’s already occurred; as long as that money is held in savings, it can’t be used to stimulate new economic activity. In terms of the economy, money is only useful when it’s spent. In terms of the environment, the opposite is true; unspent money represents reduced economic activity and a corresponding reduction of industrial pollution entering the environment.

Whether by intent or as an unintended consequence of rapacious greed, the world’s wealthy seem to be doing the rest of us a huge favor by reining-in the causes of global warming. How cool is that?

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M.I.A.

"Coming out of the recent election, it is clear that we're in the midst of a serious national conversation about marijuana." ― Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske, January, 2013

Where the hell have you been, Gil? We’ve been having a serious national conversation about marijuana for forty fucking years, but your side refuses to participate.

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Fuck DOMA, Support DORMA*

*Defense of Right to Marry Act 

 Or, you can just sign this petition: 

Change.org|Create a Petition

 Moral and social justice demands equality under the law.

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Random Ramblings & Miscellaneous Musings

Random thoughts that almost became blog articles but, you know, didn’t:

The only truth is the one that conforms to reality.

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Any society that puts a higher value on dead trees than it does on live ones deserves its fate.

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Human beings became stewards of the planet largely because the fuckin’ polar bears and whales wouldn’t stand up and do it. Well, okay, I can understand why the whales didn’t stand up, but the polar bears? C’mon!

The irony is that we humans, despite our supposed superior intelligence and opposable thumbs, have been spectacular failures as planetary stewards; polar bears (and whales) could have done a better job.

Of course, polar bears (and whales) lack a profit motive.

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"Senate Democrats haven't passed a budget in a thousand days even though the law requires it," McConnell said, ignoring the fact that Senate Republicans have blocked every budget proposal put forth by Senate Democrats. Were it not for lies, damn lies and really insane lies, Republicans would operate in total silence (as would many Democrats, come to think of it).*

*My comments (highlighted) added to the original quote.

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Government is not the problem; intellectually challenged morons that think government is the problem are the problem.

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Maybe the best way to end abortion is to transplant an unwanted fetus from a woman that would otherwise opt for abortion into the uterus of a right-to-lifer. Think win/win.

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When right-wing trolls post comments on lefty blogs accusing lefties of being on a mission to discredit Republicans, they confirm my suspicions that right-wingers are incapable of rational thought. C’mon, it doesn’t take a genius to recognize that Republicans are perfectly capable of discrediting themselves (as their track record amply demonstrates) and probably wouldn’t accept help from Democrats were it offered.

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The rest of humanity is doing to the planet what Haitians did to Haiti. Just as Greece is the microcosm of the global economy, Haiti is the microcosm of the global environment. Both countries prove that when your position is untenable, you’re basically fucked. Do we really need to prove it on a planetary scale?

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The powers-that-be and the bastards-that-are, are one and the same.

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The problem is not a job shortage; the problem is too many people. With population numbers, climate change, environmental degradation and non-renewable resource depletion all in conflict, business-as-usual no longer works. Unless we transform our economy into something that is steady state and sustainable, we can expect the economic decline of the middle and working classes to continue its downward spiral in stages punctuated by brief intervals of perceived economic “recovery.”

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Capitalism’s major fatal flaw is its absolute lack of sustainability; no system that consumes its resources to satisfy a profit motive can endure over the long term. Eventually, market saturation sets in, or environmental thresholds are breached, or consumer-demand changes, or critical resources become scarce, or some other limiting factor kicks in, and suddenly reality gives the economy a kick in the teeth. Yo, dumbass, you’re about to exceed the limits of physical reality. Abort! Abort! Having no other recourse, the economy aborts. Economic collapse is inevitable when delusions of endless prosperity through unlimited growth collide head-on with the limits of physical reality; the lesson here is that unrestrained growth cannot sustain in a constrained environment. 

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Payback is a Bitch

The Supreme Court’s ruling (Citizens United v. FEC) essentially gave corporations, in the name of free speech, the right to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence the outcomes of public elections and dictate legislative agendas. In effect, the Supreme Court affirmed that money is equivalent to speech.

But if one buys that argument—that money is equivalent to speech—then one must also buy that speech is equivalent to money; what’s fair is fair. Equivalency is a two-way street.

With that in mind, I want to notify my corporate creditors that, beginning with the next billing cycle, all future payments will be made in the form of a short speech. The current exchange ratio of 1:1 (one word = one dollar) will apply. Subject of speeches is limited to a single issue, the evils of corporate greed. Creditors may choose either telephone or e-mail as the vehicle for payment delivery. 

If the 99% got on board with this by midnight tonight, we could end the global economic crisis by noon tomorrow.

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Appointment in Samarra

Yesterday, Population Media Center’s daily e-mail contained a link to an excellent .pdf, by Doctor William E. Rees, on issues of sustainability. It boasts lots of fun facts and more than a few interesting parallels that suggest the golden age of unbridled capitalism, unlimited economic growth and mass consumption is about over.

This excerpt―especially the highlighted portions, which are particularly relevant to current economic and environmental conditions―imparts a sense of urgency and fairly demands that people start taking this shit seriously:

 “To stabilize GHGs at even 650 ppmv CO2e, the majority of OECD nations must begin to make draconian emission reductions soon (by 2015).*

650 ppmv CO2e implies a catastrophic four degree C mean global temperature increase.

Unless we can reconcile economic growth with unprecedented rates of decarbonization (in excess of 6% per year), avoiding this increase will require a planned economic recession.”*

Wait! We’re in a recession, aren’t we? Well, okay, then; now it all makes sense.

Still, it seems the prudent thing for us humans is to take immediate steps to ensure that we miss our appointment in Samarra.

*Highlighting/bolding mine.

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Get a Brain, Morans!

Quoted from George Monbiot’s article in The Guardian (as posted on AlterNet):

“Perhaps it is in the same spirit of liberal constipation that, with the exception of Charlie Brooker, we have been too polite to mention the Canadian study published last month in the journal Psychological Science, which revealed that people with conservative beliefs are likely to be of low intelligence.”*

No shit! Sure makes me want to jump aboard a clown car careening along on wheels that are about to fall off. That people cheerfully and proudly identify as conservative Tea Party Republicans is proof enough of their low intelligence. These same people always double down on stupid, which is one of the main reasons why things always get worse.

*Highlighting mine.

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Smoke and Mirrors

Politicians, media pundits, economists and business leaders are blowing a lot of smoke up society’s collective ass in their attempts to perpetuate the myth of economic recovery. Almost no one understands (or pretends not to) that this time around there won’t be one. Even the so-called economic experts, from Joseph Stiglitz, Paul Krugman and Robert Reich on the left to John Boehner, Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin on the right, seem to miss the big picture; the global economy is on the verge of collapse because of a growing scarcity of cheap energy and other vital resources that fuel economic growth. Industrial Capitalism is dying, as inevitably it must, and the economy we once knew is never coming back.

What does the future a decade hence look like?

If the future you visualize is filled with flying cars, cheap gasoline, frequent air travel to exotic destinations, lavish lifestyles for the masses, vast domed cities and all the other claptrap favored by futurists of the corporate class, you’re in for a big surprise. And bitter disappointment.

Ponder this:

When today becomes yesterday, it will be tomorrow.

If (having pondered) your vision of the future is still distorted by wishful thinking, perhaps a change in perspective can help you see things as they are. Juliet Schor’s Yes! Magazine article, Less Work, More Living, describes her vision* of a future that could become reality, providing we survive the current round of Democratic cowardice and short-sightedness and Republican stupidity, intransigence and obstructionism. Oh, alright—and rampant greed.

When today becomes yesterday, it will be tomorrow. Exactly what does this mean? It means that when our present—our now—looks more like the 1890s (with certain social, fashion and technological improvements) than the 1950s, we can be certain that our sustainable future has arrived. Ms. Schor presents a pretty clear vision of what our future could be like.

As it turns out, it’s not so scary after all.

*Her thinking on the subject of building a sustainable society closely mirrors mine.

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Dream On, America

If you haven’t yet seen Van Jones’ “Rebuild the Dream” speech, I urge you to at least take a look at the highlights; I think you’ll find it worth your while. Jones, aided and abetted by MoveOn.org and other influential progressive groups, is starting a movement designed to bring about a more balanced and more just society that meets the economic needs of all its members.

Campaign for America’s Future has the full video accompanied by an article, by Robert Borosage, documenting American Dream Movement’s launch. Another high-profile progressive organization, Common Dreams.org, hosts a WaPo article written by Rachel Weiner that provides additional insight. 

To accomplish its goals the American Dream Movement needs (and wants) your input. If you’ve got any ideas at all on how to undo the damages done to working- and middle-class American society by our corporate-run government and Wall Street financiers, now is your chance to pitch them to people who might actually listen to you. Join the movement. Get involved!

While the American Dream Movement is an example of grassroots activism at its finest, and while the movement seems to have gained a lot of traction in a relatively short time, its success is not guaranteed. To succeed, this movement needs popular support on a national scale, and that means getting the message in front of as many people as possible, by every means possible, as frequently as possible. Blog about it, write about it in letters-to-the-editor, tweet it, text it, talk about it, chat it up to everyone you know. Help it go viral. Help make it part of the public discourse.

Republicans tell us, disingenuously, that America is broke. Van Jones tells us it’s not broke, only broken, and that it can be fixed. The American Dream Movement promises to show us how.

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Here's a thought:

For the greater good of preserving our nation’s sovereignty, solvency and sanity, we should rewrite Constitutional laws, tax laws and civil laws in ways that show the 2 percent what it’s like to be the other 98 percent.

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