09:37 – The riots in Athens (which the Greek government describes as “peaceful protests”) were apparently on a larger scale than most of the MSM is reporting. The Greek government estimated that 70,000 “protesters” gathered in Athens alone. The strike leaders estimated 200,000. So, based on the likelihood that both estimates are biased, I’d guess there were probably about 135,000 Greeks taking to the streets in Athens, peacefully protesting by throwing bricks and firebombs at the cops. Meanwhile, in Spain it looks like Rajoy won’t be able to hold power much longer–perhaps not even the rest of this month–and there are rumblings from senior military figures. A coup d’état is by no means out of the question, particularly if, as they have announced they intend to do, Catalonia holds the referendum on independence that the Spanish government has forbidden. And the northern tier countries have announced that there won’t be any bank bailouts for existing bad debts, which really puts Spain behind the eight ball. The eurozone is coming apart at the seams.
15:03 – I’m just back from the dentist, and I see that, as expected, Spain has released its budget for next year. It’s a joke, also as expected. But almost no one gets the joke, it seems. Next year, Spain proposes to reduce the budget DEFICIT. Not the debt, you understand. The deficit. In other words, next year Spain plans to spend more than it takes in, again, just not as much more as they did this year.
That’s not going to help. The only way out of this mess for Spain or indeed any of the other countries with large debt piles, which is to say essentially all of them, is to spend less than they take in. Much less. What Spain should have announced was that it intended to reduce the DEBT by 10% next year and every year after that until it was retired completely. Instead, they announced that they plan to increase the debt next year, and presumably every year after that. Let me know how that works out. What’s that old saying about what to do when you find yourself in a hole?
Meanwhile, Berlusconi, who at least has more sense than the eurocrats, said publicly that Germany leaving the euro would be no bad thing. No kidding. No bad thing for Germany, at any rate. The real reason Germany is still in the euro is that it’s hoping to get out without it costing them anything more than they’ve already wasted on it. That’s not going to happen. The best Germany can hope for now is to get out as cheaply as possible. That’s not going to be cheap. But it will be a lot cheaper than staying in. What Germany still doesn’t get is that a promise to pay is not the same as payment. Right now, Germany wants to keep its exports to the southern tier at a high level to avoid unemployment and other undesirable economic consequences at home. But all those Mercedes-Benzes they’ve “sold” and continue to “sell” to the southern tier for what amounts to IOUs might just as well have been given away.
Regarding previous subject matter herein, recommendations of the drama Heartland, and reading the results of the recent Emmy awards, I uidedecided to watch it last night as the TW cable guide lists it. Unfortunately, not available to us as broadcast here. The guide lists it as showing on the Gospel Music Channel; however, when attempting to tune their, we are informed that such channel is neither part of the standard package nor our optional channel packages, paid or included with nominal subscription.
Interesting choice, since Heartland is pretty much religion-free. I mean, the only time anyone in the series goes to church is for weddings and funerals and when a baby was born, they had a baby-naming ceremony at home rather than a christening in church.
Interesting, I did not know that the GMC channel is the Gospel Music channel. GMC is also showing “7th Heaven” and “Judging Amy”. My wife is recording “7th Heaven” on our DirecTV DVR now and has a 40 episode backlog to watch. I see that GMC ( http://www.watchgmctv.com/ ) is promoting itself as family friendly but is showing “A Time to Kill” on Saturday night. An excellent book and an excellent movie but really bothered me during the child rape scene.
I also notice that the schedule sbows a lot of infomercials. My guess is that their original mission was not fulfillable.
Regarding Europe, you know the dollar is in trouble when it keeps losing ground against the euro.
Gosh, it does not even take getting elected before Tea Party hypocrisy surfaces. Richard Mourdock challenged long-time Senator Dick Lugar running with a Tea Party stand, and won, retiring 86 year-old Lugar.
“The night of the election he was singing the tea party’s praises—’I couldn’t have gotten elected without the tea party!’—and then the clock turned midnight and he’s a mainstream Republican,” said Mike Murphy, an Indiana Republican strategist and former state representative.”
…
Rather than rally true believers, Mourdock is working now to tie himself closely to the state’s popular governor, Mitch Daniels, who is a conventional business-executive Republican rather than a party insurgent, while tying Donnelly to Obama, who is expected to lose Indiana in November.
What incredible liars politicians are.
Chief Inspector Dreyfus is dead at 95. At least he outlived Clouseau, although how, in view of his many attempts at suicide, is a mystery.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEcsgbwBFRs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j_2KMyUxso
Herbert Lom, born in what is now the Czech Republic, had an accent, and could not get any roles but villains and ogres during the early part of his career. Here he is in a scene from “Dark Towers”, 1943.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfKIErphqOo
And here is a rare appearance in a public setting last year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYW7mOXPQws
Hmm. Mere correlation or… causation?
I’m a life long Republican who is currently more sympathetic to the Tea Party than to the Party establishment. I voted for Mourdock in the primary because Lugar listed his voting address as a house he sold 30 years ago when I was in high school.
As to Mitch Daniels, he’s certainly not a Tea Party Republican, but he seems fiscally responsible for a politician. If Daniels were to run for President, I think his track record on fiscal issues would get him a lot of Tea Party support. I think Daniels would be a better contender than any of the Republicans who ran.
I agree with that assessment. Unfortunately, Daniels just completely lacks the minimum charisma necessary for political office at the Presidential level. He is the one who should have retired Lugar, not Mourdock. Actually, Lugar should have stepped aside voluntarily for Daniels.
I say that with a good bit of trepidation, however, as Daniels engineered the sale of the Indianapolis Power & Light utility, garnering himself a small fortune, while decimating the shareholders, and my family were among those unfortunates.
Meanwhile, Lugar blames his loss on low voter turnout in the primary and points to one place where turnout was high because of another race, and he won. He has done the world a disservice by not stopping the Iraq war, and now he has done the Republican party a grave disservice by not stepping aside for somebody with a proven record like Daniels, instead of being easily retired by another Tea Party liar.