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The Michael Lowrey affair and the reception he got from the people of Tipperary points out what nobody wants to acknowledge; that the disaster which overtook Ireland can be laid at the feet of the people of Ireland and not any particular political party. Mr. Lowrey was a FG man at the time and his friend O’Brien ahould be arrested for bribary.As we say "there is plenty to go around." So no more scape goating one party.OK? For some reason we seem to think in black hat, white hat terms.Somewhat unreal.
236. Room To Rent – No Muslims, No Pitballs, No Micks.
237. Tiocaidh ar la
238. Some say the devil is dead, the devil is dead, the devil is dead, more say he rose again, more say he rose again, more say he rose again and joined the british army!!
239. The empire wrapped in the butchers apron
240. We are not Brazil!!Surely default is inevitable now? As in Greece, Portugal, Spain and as the dominos roll, I think ultimately the UK.
The sooner this is played out, the sooner we can build a new system that does not enable a rich elite to enrich themselves through constructing ponzi-webs of paper transactions that they take a cut from every time they pass one on.
Program on Radio 4 tomorrow afternoon. 1:30pm.
I reckon I understand the whole thing better after reading this:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opi … 72123.html
A bleak picture …..
AP
A historic moment no doubt. I think the Queen portrayed herself very well as did our president. Strange watching her in the garden of rememberance but a step foward at the same time. It was funny to see the same group of junkies protesting in town and sky news referring to them as dissident republicans, they were just filling the time until their next fix. A Shame HRH and the prince were not tempted into having a sip of the black stuff in St. James Gate but they did appear to enjoy all the studs and stable tours around the country.
The security was a little off the wall although it was vital she was kept safe. I live beside Baldonnel and all the roads where closed around us for days, everytime you wanted to go drive somewere you had to explain yourself to a garda at a checkpoint. They were everywere.It was complete lockdown. Then yesterday they closed the N7 with no warning. It took me 3 hours to make a a 5 mile journey across the motorway. They totally closed it off, many people where left stranded all day for hours on end and not able to go to work. The whole operation should of been handled better in this regard. But that is a critsim of our own idiotic law enforcers and not Lizzy.
Glad the whole visit went well, now we have Obama to entertain on Monday. He will get a shock when he gets to Offaly to find his roots. A god foresaken backward hell hole of a kip!!
No getting over the fun HRH was having in Ireland. Anyone would be proud to have her for their Queen (mother of the nation).
I am not blaiming the bailouts on capitalism I am blaimimg the collapse of capitalism on the system which we have in the US. The banks cannot live with integrity.They are the heart of capitalism and they failed and so capitalism failed.They were bailed out by the peoples money. Obama had the honeymoon to direct the bailout wherever he liked and he chose to support the bankers who caused the depression rather than the people who suffered from it.I am not interested in what the democrats or the republicans say I am giving you my opinion.
Didn’t Martin Luther King say on the eve of his murder, "Longevity has its place." I expect any president these days, who threatened to be progressive, and was not already beholden to Golden Sacks and Wall Street would bear that in mind at all times.
You may remember, some time back, a man broke through a cordon right up to where Obama was standing, and not one security official who should have been in a position to stop him had done so. I don’t believe any explanation was forthcoming. If it was, it could hardly have been satisfactory in any case. I think it might have been a warning. "We can be nice…. and we can be… not nice….."
Around the time of WWI, some very eminent politician, either British or American, told a colleague that there were people so powerful (and implicitly, sinister) that they could only be mentioned in whispers. I wish I could remember who it was. Maybe Woodrow-Wilson. Yes, here it is:
"Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men’s views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it."
— Woodrow WilsonAnd how about this for history repeating itself?
"I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world – no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men."
— Woodrow WilsonHavent read right through this, but it may come as news to some that capitalism hasnt collapsed. In fact its the alternative systems which have collapsed.
Even during the recent crisis, the voters turned their back on the extremes and its no wonder why. There is simply no desire for a stalinist or facist (similar systems in reality) state. This is most proven by the arab spring where the islamists so beloved by the left, have failed to make any impact at all.
Havent read right through this, but it may come as news to some that capitalism hasnt collapsed. In fact its the alternative systems which have collapsed.
Even during the recent crisis, the voters turned their back on the extremes and its no wonder why. There is simply no desire for a stalinist or facist (similar systems in reality) state. This is most proven by the arab spring where the islamists so beloved by the left, have failed to make any impact at all.
"For ‘flexible’ British workers, hours are up, productivity is up – but their share of the profits is way down"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree … r-flexible
"Just after WWII Argentina practically fed Europe. Argentina was know in Europe as " the world’s granary". Cattle and wheat was enough to feed our own country and another continent.
So, what happened? Why are there so many that have little or no food and end up eating out of dumpsters?
I mean, the land is still there, isn’t it?
Well, the country is the same country that used to be called the "world’s granary" but some things changed. Several big, multinational corporations, such as Benetton, bought hundreds of thousands of acres of natural resources. I don’t know the exact number, but I do remember that the media started talking about the integrity of the sovereignty of the country being at risk because of these massive purchases of land, so you can imagine how many acres were bought. Mysteriously, the media suddenly dropped the subject.
Another important factor is that now, with our new economy, it’s not good business to sell Argentine food to Argentina. Why sell a kg of meat to the local market for 17 pesos when they can now sell it to Spain for 17 Euros when 1 Euro = 3,5 pesos?
All this combined with high unemployment, salaries that are not enough to buy the minimal amount of calories for a typical family, and the high prices resulted in a country that slowly started to suffer hunger.
Again, I can pin point the exact moment when the entire country realized what was happening. After the 2001 crisis things had been bad, but people in Buenos Aires, the capital city and the richest province, didn’t realize how bad things actually where in the other provinces.
This was until teachers noted that kids had problems with education. You see, they noticed that they had problems to concentrate, that they fell asleep, and that they found it difficult to resolve mathematical equations.
They later found out that this was due to mal nutrition, kids where not receiving the minimum amount of nutrients for a healthy working body.
The braking point was when a reporter interviewed a little girl about 8 or 9 years old. The reporter lady asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up, the usual kiddy questions.
The girl, crying, said that she didn’t want to be anything, that she didn’t care.
The lady asked her why was she crying.
She said that she cried because she was hungry, that she had nothing to eat for days, and it was then that I noticed how skinny the little girl actually was.
Seeing children starve is terrible, I guess we all saw those images f the starving kids in Africa. But when you see them speak your same language, with your same accent, in your own country, it hits a nerve.
People talked about it for weeks, and they interviewed pediatricians that confirmed that the number of children dieing because of hunger had increased drastically in the last few months."
http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/10.08/tshtf1.html
Whatever your fate in the next life, Clivexx, you will richly deserve.
… and an interesting little snippet from the Wikipedia article on Argentina:
" Newly elected President Carlos Menem began pursuing privatizations and, after a second bout of hyperinflation in 1990, reached out to economist Domingo Cavallo, who imposed a peso-dollar fixed exchange rate in 1991 and adopted far-reaching market-based policies, dismantling protectionist barriers and business regulations, while accelerating privatizations. These reforms contributed to significant increases in investment and growth with stable prices through most of the 1990s; but the peso’s fixed value could only be maintained by flooding the market with dollars, resulting in a renewed increase in the foreign debt. Towards 1998, moreover, a series of international financial crises and overvaluation of the pegged peso caused a gradual slide into economic crisis. The sense of stability and well being which had prevailed during the 1990s eroded quickly, and by the end of his term in 1999, these accumulating problems and reports of corruption had made Menem unpopular.[30]
Néstor Kirchner with his wife and successor, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, upon her inaugural in 2007.President Fernando de la Rúa inherited diminished competitiveness in exports, as well as chronic fiscal deficits. The governing coalition developed rifts, and his returning Cavallo to the Economy Ministry was interpreted as a crisis move by speculators. The decision backfired and Cavallo was eventually forced to take measures to halt a wave of capital flight and to stem the imminent debt crisis (culminating in the freezing of bank accounts). A climate of popular discontent ensued, and on December 20, 2001, Argentina dove into its worst institutional and economic crisis since the 1890 Barings financial debacle. There were violent street protests, which clashed with police and resulted in several fatalities. The increasingly chaotic climate, amid riots accompanied by cries that "they should all go", finally resulted in the resignation of President de la Rúa.[31]
Three presidents followed in quick succession over two weeks, culminating in the appointment of interim President Eduardo Duhalde by the Legislative Assembly on January 2, 2002. Argentina defaulted on its international debt, and the peso’s 11 year-old tie to the U.S. dollar was rescinded, causing a major depreciation of the peso and a spike in inflation. Duhalde, a Peronist with a centre-left economic position, had to cope with a financial and socio-economic crisis, with unemployment as high as 25% by mid 2002, and the lowest real wages in sixty years. The crisis accentuated the people’s mistrust in politicians and institutions. Following a year racked by protest, the economy began to stabilize in late 2002, and restrictions on bank withdrawals were lifted in December.[32]
Benefiting from a devalued exchange rate the government implemented new policies based on re-industrialization, import substitution and increased exports and began seeing consistent fiscal and trade surpluses. Governor Néstor Kirchner, a left-wing Peronist, was elected president in May 2003. During his administration, Argentina restructured its defaulted debt with a steep discount (about 66%) on most bonds, paid off debts with the International Monetary Fund, renegotiated contracts with utilities and nationalized some previously privatized enterprises. Kirchner and his economists, notably Roberto Lavagna, also pursued a vigorous incomes policy and public works investment.[33]
Argentina has since been enjoying economic growth, though with high inflation. Néstor Kirchner forfeited the 2007 campaign, in favor of his wife Senator Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who became the first woman to be elected President of Argentina. She saw controversial plans for higher agricultural export taxes defeated by Vice President Julio Cobos’ surprise tie-breaking vote against them in July 2008, following massive agrarian protests and lockouts from March to July. The global financial crisis has since prompted Mrs. Kirchner to step up her husband’s policy of state intervention in troubled sectors of the economy."
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