1. The Koreans will start a kerfuffle that will define the 2012 elections like the Iranian Crisis defined the 1980 election.
2. The Chinese economy will contract, adding tension to the growing US/China trade war.
3. Putin will attempt to increase the autocratic controls in Russia, because next year's Russian elections will badly weaken his party.
4. To keep the Euro afloat, the EU countries will move closer to a federal system.
5. Mugabe will die. The western powers will attempt to install a figurehead and let foreigners confiscate the land.
6. There will be a major terrorist attack within the 3 months leading up to the US election. It will be instigated by domestic terrorists.
7. If the election starts to looks like a blowout weeks early, like last time, Obama or his family will be attacked on the campaign trail by domestic terrorists.
8. The Amazon tablet family will erode Apple's market share. Amazon will announce a smartphone.

>> ^rougy:

@bcglorf,
The problem I have with your point of view mainly rests on the presumption that the people who were defrauded "got what they deserved." I just don't see it that way. It's sort of justifying the bankers actions.
When somebody who is in a position of power and respect, as are most bankers and investors I would say, you can't blame John & Jane Doe for trusting in their advice.
The bankers and investors should have known better, and the vast majority of them did, but that didn't stop them from spreading the lies and conning people into signing their lives away.
P.S. - I hope Greece defaults. Something is rotten in Denmark when entire countries must go bust in order to satisfy Wall Street.


The people I figure were defrauded were the ones investing in the companies that were carrying terrible bad mortgages but calling themselves grade A safe investments. Those investors were defrauded and have very serious cause for concern as they were outright lied to by people wanting to profit off them.

As for the people buying homes at inflated prices, I would say they hold some blame and some plain old bad luck. The ones that took on mortgages they could only afford if the home increased in price I do blame pretty readily. They took a big risk, and risk were they were informed. They knew that they were betting on housing prices increasing. They knew the terms they were betting under and what it would mean if they won or lost the bet. They lost and should take the loss. The banks encouraging and focusing on those bets lost as many times over as they had customers lured in. The difference is the banks were pocketing more profit and got tax payer assistance to cushion their loss while the customers were left to deal on their own. I'd prefer both were left to deal with the consequences.

As for Greece, I've only scratched beneath the surface still, but it is looking like their debt problems run much deeper than just social services spending. I'm very curious were the real turning/tipping point in this was. If anyone has any good advice aside from the lead Rougy already threw out that'd be great. My current trail is the 40% of the Greek economy that was purely public sector jobs. That makes for a house of cards that's very vulnerable to government cut backs. My province(Manitoba) is in that very same boat and it is federal transfer funds from the federal government alone that is keeping us afloat.

$500,000 house arrest fees? wtf....how about you wikileak your daily expenses assange. Thank god hes under house arrest otherwise what would it cost to keep him afloat? If you havent, you should really look up Julians inner musings on his sexiness and irresistibility...heres a small sample.

"I've always found women caught in a thunderstorm appealing. Perhaps it is a male universal, for without advertising this proclivity a lovely girl I knew, but not well, on discovering within herself lascivious thoughts about me and noticing raindrops outside her windows, stood for a moment fully clothed in her shower before letting the wind and rain buffet her body as she made her tremulous approach to my door and of course I could not turn her away.

"But then, just when one might suspect that men are krill to the baleen of female romantic manipulation, I found myself loving a girl who was a coffee addict. I would make a watery paste of finely ground coffee and surreptitiously smear this around my neck and shoulders before seducing her so she would associate my body with her dopaminergic cravings. But every association relates two objects both ways. She started drinking more and more coffee. Sometimes I looked at her cups of liquid arabicia with envious eyes for if there were four cups then somehow, I was one of them, or a quarter of everyone one of them..."

Soooooo, both sides receive massive amounts of money from the rich and powerful but one of those sides is moral and the other not... because, why?

Why do you think welfare was created by a bunch of rich, racist white guys? Could it have been, instead of goodness, a corporate money laundering scheme? I mean it goes straight from the most poor of souls--barely keeping them afloat. Not to mention limiting them-- and straight to businesses.

I would say Walmart is very happy with this program and the people it helps are barely scraping by. I would also add that those rich people also put into place our justice system, which further makes the poor dejected…

Or better—--look at corn subsides… Goes straight to big corn, puts small famers out of business. But does it help the poor? You bet your fucking ass it “helps!” More than welfare any day of the week. It reduces the price of all food by leaps and bounds. That’s millions of restaurants too. But is it for you and I? Even though it benefits us? Fuck no… It means more money for the fat cat.


>> ^raverman:
The problem is that the two branches of Civil Liberty and Small Government are opposing objectives because Bureaucratic corruption aside, the government plays a role in representing and protecting the liberty of the people.
The left likes Civil Liberty, but doesn't believe the massive base of working class individuals can protect themselves from the rich and powerful barons and corporate warlords that develop in the power vacuum without central government.
The right likes the idea of small government purely because it gives more power to the rich and powerful barons and corporate warlords. They manipulate the concept of 'civil liberty' that individuals do not need the government to limit the control of the rich.. while unspoken is interpretation that this is fend for yourself or die trying world.
The Left won't accept giving up control will give more civil protection, but the right can give lip service to civil liberties and ignore it as 'aspirational' when need be.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

But why is it that always seems to be way down on the list. Taken from This site:

III. The Global Deployment of US Military Personnel

There are 6000 military bases and/ or military warehouses located in the U.S. (See Wikipedia, February 2007).

Total Military Personnel is of the order of 1,4 million of which 1,168,195 are in the U.S and US overseas territories.

Taking figures from the same source, there are 325,000 US military personnel in foreign countries:

800 in Africa,
97,000 in Asia (excluding the Middle East and Central Asia),
40,258 in South Korea,
40,045 in Japan,
491 at the Diego Garcia Base in the Indian Ocean,
100 in the Philippines, 196 in Singapore,
113 in Thailand,
200 in Australia,
and 16,601 Afloat.

In Europe, there are 116,000 US military personnel including 75,603 who are stationed in Germany.

In Central Asia about 1,000 are stationed at the Ganci (Manas) Air Base in Kyrgyzstan and 38 are located at Kritsanisi, in Georgia, with a mission to train Georgian soldiers.

In the Middle East (excludng the Iraq war theater) there are 6,000 US military personnel, 3,432 of whom are in Qatar and 1,496 in Bahrain.

In the Western Hemisphere, excluding the U.S. and US territories, there are 700 military personnel in Guantanamo, 413 in Honduras and 147 in Canada.

the thing about "personal responsibility", is that it is used in very misleading, and brainwashed ways

the brainwashed way is the whole "you shouldn't have had a kid if you can't afford it" schpeel...

first, its moronic because it reduces the subject to $ figures... raising a child goes WELL beyond money, let alone the questions posed morally and on the scale of society itself... should only the rich (and yes, its expensive to have a child, outrageous actually, in the US... i'm not talking about the cost of feeding/clothing/education/etc... simply the procedures up to and including birth, let alone any issues that may arise afterwards both in mother and child - glad I live in a country where this is covered socially, and that I more than happily contribute to - our future isn't regulated to have/have nots)

second, as part of a society, do you feel you have a personal responsibility to it? or other members of it (irrespective of your opinion as to whether or not a particular person is "contributing" or not)? do other's in your society have a personal responsibility in regards to you?... the debate in the US literally ALWAYS boils down to someone arguing "personal responsibility" yet assuming none in regards to the society they "LOVE SO MUCH" and "WOULD DIE FOR"... that, or that if you give people handouts, that's all they'd ever want; they'd never strive

WELL, that is EXACTLY describing the situation of your (and I mean YOU, yes YOU) parent's raising you... did they keep all the receipts and calculate the interest you owe on top regarding food they fed you, education they paid for, etc? are they sending collectors yet?

better yet, can you honestly say you have no drive or ambitions in life because of being raised like this (as is the general norm)?

it provides a foundation, a base from which to launch... its two swimmers racing, one with something to push off of, and the other starting with nothing to push off of... sure the outcome isn't decided completely... but you can make a REALLY accurate guess as to who has the better chance to win... no one is throwing them a dragline while they are swimming... its just the start of the race

if you had a family member who got ill, would you help them? if the swimmer got cramps and couldn't stay afloat would you want someone to pull their head up above the water?

why this doesn't translate from being a staple of family life, to society should make most American's go "hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm"

the honest truth... it is GREED
both personal GREED of the average citizen not wanting to spend a cent on a fellow citizen
and corporate GREED... they see social programs and free health care as either a pool of money they don't got but WANT or robbery from them... and they lobby and basically buy off politicians through campaign financing and lucrative job offers post office... meanwhile you are sold that this is in the interests of your freedom... when really all you are being sold is the freedom to be F_CKED

Government is there to protect the INTERESTS of it's citizens, not it's CORPORATIONS (most of whom are multinational btw)... and it's failing Americans... mainly because Americans are failing themselves... they'd rather drink the kool-aid than question what's in it... they'd rather get worked up about side issues that really only affect their life MINIMALLY (mainly because of religion) rather than care about issues that do... and they like to bite people who question the status quo... why? because WE'RE NUMBER ONE!!!! USA USA USA. (despite the OVERWHELMING evidence to the contrary)

its really elementary logic to deduce that a society that tries to elevate itself by uplifting all members of that society (or as many as possible) will have a better survival chance than a society where all individuals horde and fight over resources... i mean, which one do you think leads to feudal style systems? really?

How about issuing parking tickets? I know governments like that bullshit, it's what keeps New York City & San Francisco afloat.

"he seems to know exactly what he is doing"

yes most fucking mammals have developed the ability to not instantly drown and try and stay afloat when they are put in water.

EXTREMELY ROUGH TRANSLATION PART 4 (FINAL)

6:68~7:33

[NARRATOR] An instant before the car sinks, Mr. Muroga fled from the vehicle, barely escaping with his life. We took this opportunity to have him watch the images and give us his thoughts.

[MR. MUROGA] Ah, right at this point. I saw the cars being swept along and thought “It’s a tsunami!”

[NARRATOR] From the left-side of the screen, cars flow past and Mr. Muroga realizes the danger.

[MR. MUROGA] The camera doesn’t capture it, but I could see in the rearview mirror that an even faster tsunami had already arrived behind me.

7:33~8:16

[NARRATOR] These are pictures Mr. Muroga took with his own camera. This picture looking out the back of the car allows us to understand the ferocity with which the tsunami behind him arrived.

[MR. MUROGA] At this time, the cars were crashing into each other with great force and my car began to be battered out of shape.

[NARRATOR] Surrounded by waves, Mr. Muroga decided it was too dangerous to try to leave his vehicle.

[MR. MUROGA] I thought about things like, “Maybe I’ll be able to escape when the water recedes.”

[NARRATOR] However, instead of receding, the water began to churn with even greater intensity.

8:16~8:55

{MR. MUROGA} At this point, the car began to be swept away. I was carried away by the current.

[NARRATOR] The tsunami flowed from the ocean between the buildings, capturing Mr. Muroga’s car like a pincer. Within only 30 seconds his car was completely afloat and slowly drifted along. But after that his car entered the faster part of the current and was dragged along by the tsunami.

8:55~9:20

[NARRATOR] This is the point at which Mr. Muroga, being swept along by the tsunami, escaped from his vehicle.

[MR. MUROGA’S VOICE ON VIDEO] Okay, now!

[MR. MUROGA] I think I jumped from the vehicle at this point. Because water suddenly began pouring inside.

[NARRATOR] Just moments before the car sinks, Mr. Muroga makes his escape through the window he had opened earlier.

9:20~9:55

[NARRATOR] Mr. Muroga’s car was swept approximately 150 meters into the wall of a warehouse before sinking. Mr. Muroga, while being swept along by the current, managed to swim to a nearby building and pull himself from the water. He visits the scene of the accident for the first time since the incident. As he approaches the area where the current was strongest, he notices something.

[MR. MUROGA] Ah, look over there, by the divider. Right there, the curb has been practically erased. Clearly the tsunami did that, no?

9:55~11:16

[NARRATOR] Even now, three months later, the evidence of the tsunami remains. What can we learn from these images? We requested Dr. Imura, a tsunami specialist to analyze them. The first thing he noticed was how quickly the water level rose.

[DR. IMURA] At this point it’s already over 50 centimeters deep and the cars are starting to float. Once that happens, the car is beyond control. The tanker truck has larger [in diameter] tires and isn’t floating yet. And then after the height reaches 1 meter, even trucks begin to float away.

[NARRATOR] Dr. Imura points out that once the water level rises above the height of the tires, the vehicle will begin to float and in a very short time be beyond driver control.

[DR. IMURA] Almost as soon as the tsunami appears before your eyes, your vehicle will begin to float. At that point you should monitor the situation and if the current doesn’t seem too strong and if there isn’t a lot of dangerous debris nearby, you should break your window and leave the vehicle as quickly as possible. Once outside, you should head for the highest area you can find, such as a fence or telephone pole—whatever is available. Grab onto whatever it is and climb as high as you can.

11:16~12:15

[NARRATOR] Also, Dr. Imura points out the difficulty vehicles pose on your ability to hear.

[DR. IMURA] It’s important to remember that the sound of the car will drown out outside sounds and make them harder to hear. The various sounds of a car may make it difficult to hear the approaching tsunami.

[NARRATOR] It is certainly true on the video that you cannot hear the roar of the tsunami approaching over the sounds the car. Mr. Muroga also had this to say about the sound.

[MR. MUROGA] In the video, I think you can see that there are many people lined up on the roof of that building. I’m pretty sure these people were screaming at us to run and get out of there. But none of us in our vehicles noticed them. We couldn’t hear them.

12:15~13:44

[NARRATOR] About trying to escape a tsunami in your vehicle, tsunami specialist Dr. Imura had this to say.

[DR. IMURA] Basically, people who can’t walk well should use a car to try to escape. Those who can walk or run should, in principle, not use their vehicles.

[NARRATOR] Cars being swept along… the might of the tsunami. Mr. Muroga told us that through these images he hopes to educate others about the awful power of the tsunami.

[NEWSCASTER, GRAY SUIT] It seems like Mr. Muroga maintained his calm in a difficult situation. In that part of the city, there are lots of buildings and you can’t see very far, making it difficult to notice the approaching tsunami. Furthermore, as we saw in the video, with the windows rolled up you can’t hear the tsunami approaching either.

[NEWSCASTER, FEMALE] It was very quiet on the video, wasn’t it?

[NEWSCASTER, GRAY SUIT] It had been an hour since the earthquake struck and Mr. Muroga was more than 1km inland, so he didn’t think there was any danger from a tsunami.

[NEWSCASTER, FEMALE] According to our tsunami specialist, it was the first time he had ever seen footage like this taken from within the tsunami.

[NEWSCASTER, GRAY SUIT] It’s very valuable footage. It would be great if many people—everyday people and tsunami specialists—could watch this footage and from it find the means of how to protect themselves and others.

EXTREMELY ROUGH TRANSLATION PART 3

2:53~4:46

[NARRATOR] Just before 4PM, approximately 1 hour after the earthquake struck, Mr. Muroga’s car stops due to heavy traffic. Suddenly from the left-hand side several cars float into view, swept along by the tsunami….

Next the tsunami swept up from behind his car. Only 10 seconds after the tsunami reached his car, Mr. Muroga’s car began being pushed forward…

And then at 25 seconds the car is completely afloat and beyond his control, swept up by the current. At this point Mr. Muroga was still inside the vehicle. His car approaches a black wagon. You can see the figure of a male person inside the black wagon…

Immediately after this collision, Mr. Muroga considered fleeing his vehicle and opened the window…

While on the one side, in the center of the screen, you can see the debris floating slowly to the right, in the background—with incredible speed—a truck is swept along to the left. You can see that the driver of the black wagon that Mr. Muroga collided with earlier has climbed onto the roof of his car.

4:46~5:03

[NARRATOR] And then the car begins to slowly change direction. As it does, the swift current flowing between the buildings comes into view. Inside the car, Mr. Muroga listens to news reports of the tsunami hitting other areas.

5:03~5:34

[RADIO ANNOUNCER] It has just turned 4PM. The wave is swallowing the houses and plastic hothouses in its path.
[NARRATOR] Meanwhile, in the car, Mr. Muroga contemplates when he will try to escape from his vehicle.

5:34~6:48

[NARRATOR] And then, approximately 4 minutes after having been caught in the tsunami, Mr. Muroga’s car is pulled into the swift-flowing current. The car bounces up and down. In front of him, other cars are being swept away. The car begins to spin, with Mr. Muroga still inside, and is swept away by the tsunami… Finally, about 4.5 minutes after the arrival of the tsunami, the car strikes a building, is dragged underwater, and the image cuts out.

What the HELL is wrong with the reporter narrating the footage? He sounds like he's trying to rap to a beat that only he can hear. Alternatively, like he is trying to keep a ping-pong ball afloat while speaking. Dude, not all consonants have to be CRAZY articulated.

>> ^kceaton1:

>> ^Enzoblue:
"I'm divorced from it now." - because I got rich and now can afford to be. Show me someone w/o amazing talent that got that divorce, and I'll show you a guy that lives in a van down by the river.

Please, tell us your pay scale so we can respond appropriately. Me, myself, I'm at a satisfactory low-middle class income.


Same.
I guess my beef is he claims to have divorced himself from the rat race and is laughing at those of us still in it. A luxury few can afford. If he was at our income level and did this, he'd be the crazy hobo everyone avoids.
I'm a happy person myself, not very materialistic, but I do feel that until I throw in the towel and become a hobo, I'll always be a part of this downward slope of humanity. I am, willing or no, a part of this system. It makes me feel spiritially guilty that I keep going to work everyday, but I do and the material things make me feel better about it, (let's be honest here).
The people who call me a fool are either independantly wealthy, young with a parental fallback, or bums prattling as I walk by. Occasionally I see a nomadic guy near my age that sems to have it all in hand, but so far every one has had some base income to keep him afloat.

...somebody had to say it. I'd say every album since OK Computer had a couple of good tracks. The idea of the band couple with those few quality jams have kept them afloat. I'm sure they put on a helluva live show, too.

>> ^deputydog:

Congratulations on keeping the ship afloat for half a decade. I unfortunately had to dive off a while back, but I still circle in my dinghy on a regular basis.
(Something else nautical, etc. Where's Choggie? Etc, etc.)
I love every last one of you.

*Gasp* When did you start to capitalize your sentences?

Congratulations on keeping the ship afloat for half a decade. I unfortunately had to dive off a while back, but I still circle in my dinghy on a regular basis.

(Something else nautical, etc. Where's Choggie? Etc, etc.)

I love every last one of you.