I actually think this was a pointless interview. We gained no great insights, we heard no new information, etc... All of what was said has been said for weeks AND has been said better, i.e. reasons to be there and reasons not to be there.

Plus, I don't consider the CIA to be anything more than a tool anymore and hopefully it stays that way; as in the past you could make a case that the CIA was GETTING us involved in wars and shaping internal politics. I'm sure they still do this, but enough whistle-blowers came forward to create an environment were the CIA must tread carefully. Especially, after their complete and utter fuck-up of the century for the last Iraq war.

I appreciate this man's council, but in the end he has as much experience in leading a country as I do (armchair generals). He's very well informed in some international dealings, but his answer of "do nothing" is an old answer and it needs to be done away with to some degree. As it's an answer that does nothing; in fact it shows you the shear amount of apathy that our country feels is O.K. to use (like Cambodia, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, etc.). The problem as I see it is that the U.N. passed a unanimous security council resolution on Libya, a U.N. member. Libya said it would comply and then went on to do exactly what @bcglorf has said.

The solution I see is that NATO shouldn't be the watch dog here. The problem is that the U.N. is a useless body without fangs. It NEEDS fangs. The fact that EVERY security council member is not involved in this situation/resolution to me means that their "security club membership" should be nullified. I'm tired of people abusing the U.N. . It's perhaps our best way to solve many of these problems. But, when the military action is ALWAYS carried by NATO at the end of the day, I begin to believe that members that don't participate in resolutions THEY PASSED need to be kicked out of their position (I'm looking at you China).

Until the U.N. gains some fangs and the ability to enact resolutions that are passed UNANIMOUSLY (5 abstains for the countries too scared to take a stance), we will continue to carry the weight via the U.S. Armed Forces or NATO; otherwise, we let innocent people die. We could do nothing, but if we did do nothing the media needs to put the blame squarely at the feet of U.N. Security members that abstain; make them swim in the blood they've spilled by their political maneuvering called "abstain"... We don't do this, but I think it's time we did. If China wants to be a big boy, they need to learn about responsibilities related to their direct inaction. Likewise, Russia needs to learn that the Cold War is dead; holding their feet to the fire internationally might do that.

Eventually, this comes down to the media getting the story right and being willful enough to put countries to the question: Why?

Don't bring up the "reverse angle" of death and destruction. I know it will happen, but this is the cost of choosing and FIGHTING for any side. Death is everywhere; it doesn't make it right, but it makes it true...

Here is the vote for, Resolution 1973:

U.S.-Y*
Lebanon-Y
France-Y*
U.K.-Y*
Bosnia and Herzegovina-Y
Columbia-Y
Gabon-Y
Nigeria-Y
Portugal-Y
South Africa-Y

Abstained (the eternal worthless permanent security council members: China-they never do ANYTHING, and The Russian Federation-who seem to vote just to be contrary); I'll put a mark next to permanent members that abstained^:

^The Russian Federation-NA*
^China (as usual)-NA*
Brazil-NA
Germany-NA
India-NA

I find it hard to keep Russia and China on the security council (they'd whine like babies if removed) as they almost always abstain AND they don't help; in fact they do nothing. The other members are not permanent and may be cycled out in the upcoming year; making me not very concerned with their attitude.

*Permanent Security Council Members

So take it or leave it; but, I think our worldwide diplomacy from every country still revolves around the Cold War and WWII. It's terribly sad to me that we are still stuck on such ridiculous fears and ghostly machinations...

Has the world become a deus ex machina to politicians? Do they believe complex problems can be solved with the smallest of effort? This is what it seems to be coming to and it's scary to see people like Donal Trump in the runnings for president. Sarah Palin is a walking and breathing Captain Catherine Janeway in the sense that she believes she has answers and solutions that are easy to implement and as ridiculous as every piece of deus ex machina "Voyager" ever used. AND she is not alone...

I see this in our country and in others. Simplistic leanings that help no one except to further their own agenda. It's as though politicians and leaders use Rube Goldberg machines, yet these do have a purpose: they grab your attention, they pacify, they cause you to become their disease--ready to even spill the blood of what they hate. It's true in every country on the planet. So when Russia and China take the easy way out, that is what I think of them. It is also why they should NEVER be given leadership, as they seemingly don't know what it truly is or they abuse it.

/My long two cents with a little drama to get a dialogue started...

Welcome to the club of the "Fucked-over-deficit" Ti_Moth. All public workers in Portugal making more than 1500€/month had a pay cut (the higher the salary, the bigger the cut), the fuel market was deregulated a couple of years back, so now we're paying 1,5€ per liter (and on the rise), unemployment is at 10,5% (me included), and the fucking idiots in the government just announced and extra set of measures for 2012 and 2013 that will surely fuck us all even more.

<sarcasm> Fortunately the high-speed train project (which will connect Lisbon to Spain, and later on, Lisbon and Porto) and the new Lisbon Airport are still going ahead as planned at a cost of several billion euros. </sarcasm>

I heard some "expert" on NPR saying that whatever your preconceived notions of drugs you'll be proven right when you look at the data from Portugal. For example if you are against decriminalization you'll see that Portugal proves you right and it shouldn't be decriminalized and vice versa.

Now I don't know if that's true or not and I'm considering the source the bastion of the intellectual class of state managers. I'd like to see someone parse this report down to something more palatable.

>> ^TheGenk:

14k$ for 1 semester?
Let me check germany: 500€ for 1 semester... hmm, let me check what I have to pay since I got siblings: 0€ for 1 semester
Haha, way to go capitalist idiots!


Hell... even here in Portugal, a whole year of college is less than €1000, and if you're poor, you can get a scholarship and pay almost half of that.

So yeah... I gotta agree with TheGenk on this one.

>> ^curiousity:

@<a rel="nofollow" href="http://videosift.com/member/GeeSussFreeK" title="member since August 1st, 2008" class="profilelink">GeeSussFreeK
It is still illegal when it is decriminalized; it is typically that the punishment moves from the criminal justice system to a one that typically focuses on harm reduction for the individual caught. In a way it is like being taken to civil court instead of criminal court - you could have some punishment, but the risk of going to jail is gone.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_liberalization#Drug_decriminalization

Article about how Portugal's decriminalization works:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=portugal-drug
-decriminalization


Interesting! You see, that is a misconception I had about decriminalization, that it was in essence removing all consequence from said action. Didn't realize it just changed it to a fine instead of time. Still less than ideal, and even more prone to abuse I would think...but a move in the right direction.

@GeeSussFreeK

It is still illegal when it is decriminalized; it is typically that the punishment moves from the criminal justice system to a one that typically focuses on harm reduction for the individual caught. In a way it is like being taken to civil court instead of criminal court - you could have some punishment, but the risk of going to jail is gone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_liberalization#Drug_decriminalization

Article about how Portugal's decriminalization works:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=portugal-drug-decriminalization

Ireland has had a very different post WWII history to America. A lot of what you just said is irrelevant to us. Eg we didn't have a baby boom - you can be guaranteed this guy had a hard time in the 60s, 70s, 80s. The spoiled generation was born in the late 80s and 90s. Ireland's retirement age to my knowledge has never dropped below 65. That aside, our pensions are paid for directly through taxes anyway.

More generally, our "leftist philosophy" (and it's a big stretch to call it that) is not responsible for the crash. The banks guarantee scheme is where the vast majority of our debt is coming from. It was not debt racked up by the people or the government but by banks. The guarantee doomed the country. Fucking Anglo Irish Bank.>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:

Well - as with many Sift vids this brings up a complicated issue and only chooses to tell a part of the story.
Companies, banks, insurers, financial institutions, and many businesses have indeed behaved with what can only be described as evil indifference. They have gamed systems around the world to create favorable business environments for themselves, and when the market collapsed they pushed slimy political patronage in order to get bailouts to save them from their stupidity. These businesses should have been allowed to fail and damn the consequences.
But the video ignores the other dancers on the floor - government and the citizens.
Western governments have been 'engineering' this problem for decades because of leftist poltiical philosophy being funded with crony 'capitalism'. They have been buying votes with social giveaways, and partnering with business to use skullduggery and questionable legislation (and some outright unconstitutional stuff) to engage in 'social justice', 'political fairness'. But progressive/liberal philosophies always run governments into unsustainability because the model cannot sustain itself. Greece, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Germany and the rest aren't in financial trouble just because banks behaved like idiots. They are on the brink of collapse because they promised trillions in social benefits that they NEVER had the ability to supply. They knew this long ago, but made a devil's bargain with the sleazy businesses to shadow-fund the shell game. But inevitably, unsustainable models break, and now everything is crumbling around them, which forces them to make cuts (austerity measures) or face total collapse.
Which finally brings us to player #3. The people. No offense to specific individuals, but as a collective the citizens of Western civilization have behaved (with exceptions of course) like a bunch of spoiled brats. This angry Irishman is probably a spoiled brat too, since he looks to be a part of the Boomer generation which is one of the most spoiled rotton generations this world has ever seen and he's totally whining about not getting to keep his precious benefits. Despite potential financial collapse, these stupid people still till want to retire at age 50, get 1 month a year free vacation, free college, full retirement benefits, and every other unaffordable perk, benefit, freebie, and giveaway they can glom their sticky, greedy mitts on. Not to mention that they VOTED these bozos into office based on promises to get all this stuff, which is why the governments screwed up so badly to start with.
Bad banks? Sure. But government and the people get no free pass with me.

Well - as with many Sift vids this brings up a complicated issue and only chooses to tell a part of the story.

Companies, banks, insurers, financial institutions, and many businesses have indeed behaved with what can only be described as evil indifference. They have gamed systems around the world to create favorable business environments for themselves, and when the market collapsed they pushed slimy political patronage in order to get bailouts to save them from their stupidity. These businesses should have been allowed to fail and damn the consequences.

But the video ignores the other dancers on the floor - government and the citizens.

Western governments have been 'engineering' this problem for decades because of leftist poltiical philosophy being funded with crony 'capitalism'. They have been buying votes with social giveaways, and partnering with business to use skullduggery and questionable legislation (and some outright unconstitutional stuff) to engage in 'social justice', 'political fairness'. But progressive/liberal philosophies always run governments into unsustainability because the model cannot sustain itself. Greece, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Germany and the rest aren't in financial trouble just because banks behaved like idiots. They are on the brink of collapse because they promised trillions in social benefits that they NEVER had the ability to supply. They knew this long ago, but made a devil's bargain with the sleazy businesses to shadow-fund the shell game. But inevitably, unsustainable models break, and now everything is crumbling around them, which forces them to make cuts (austerity measures) or face total collapse.

Which finally brings us to player #3. The people. No offense to specific individuals, but as a collective the citizens of Western civilization have behaved (with exceptions of course) like a bunch of spoiled brats. This angry Irishman is probably a spoiled brat too, since he looks to be a part of the Boomer generation which is one of the most spoiled rotton generations this world has ever seen and he's totally whining about not getting to keep his precious benefits. Despite potential financial collapse, these stupid people still till want to retire at age 50, get 1 month a year free vacation, free college, full retirement benefits, and every other unaffordable perk, benefit, freebie, and giveaway they can glom their sticky, greedy mitts on. Not to mention that they VOTED these bozos into office based on promises to get all this stuff, which is why the governments screwed up so badly to start with.

Bad banks? Sure. But government and the people get no free pass with me.

Since you're a Haligonian perhaps you can tell me what is that honkin big white tower on Citadel Hill. As soon as I started watching this vid I recognized the street and the background view but I couldn't place that tower and it isn't even on street view. I also couldn't find any pics on google with it in them.

In reply to this comment by notarobot:
More on Portugal and Spain in this vid, also filmed in Halifax: http://videosift.com/video/22-Minutes-EU-Bailout-of-Ireland
>> ^EMPIRE:

Can Portugal and Spain's situation really be compared to Ireland and Greece's? I mean, yes we are also in a bit of trouble, but I truly believe the whole situation has been amplified by fucking speculators, messing with our credit ratings.

I'm not a nationalist at all, and I'm ever more inclined to consider patriotism and nationalism a damn mental disorder than anything else. Feeling all proud and somehow better than others because you fell out of your mother's vagina in a particular geographic location is completely stupid.

I'm all for unification of mankind, not the other way around. Unfortunately, very few people seem to think like that. Hell, I wouldn't mind if Spain and Portugal united as one country called Iberia. We have europe's oldest borders. That says a lot about your relationship with the neighbours.



>> ^radx:

>> ^EMPIRE:
Can Portugal and Spain's situation really be compared to Ireland and Greece's? I mean, yes we are also in a bit of trouble, but I truly believe the whole situation has been amplified by fucking speculators, messing with our credit ratings.

It certainly is amplified by speculations, for which the blame primarily rests with Merkel, if you ask me.
At current interest and growth rates, Portugal's national debt is noticably less threatening than Ireland's, but considering the agenda of cuts and savings, growth will remain abysmal or even turn negative, as is the case of Greece. Add the account deficit of 11.6% of GDP in the first half of 2010 and I'd say Portugal is quietly insolvent.
Spain on the other hand with its national debt of mere ~57% of GDP looks somewhat more stable, but look at the foreign exposure of the private sector. That's up to a cool €700B once the lid is taken off. And that would stretch the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) budget to the limit, a budget of only €750B. Which is why some argued that it should have been closer to €2T from the start.
And that's when a haircut is inevitable. Folks around Europe won't just accept massive cutbacks, causing massive unemployment and the following nightmares, just so investors can cash in on their situation. There's going to be some serious debt restructuring, including haircuts.
The real shit would begin if Italy, due to national debt and political instability, got sucked down as well. That'd be fun, yap.
So I'd say let's take Jean-Claude Juncker's advice and finally make it a proper union, not just a shared currency with opposing interests. Unfortunatly, my own bloody government won't play along with that.

>> ^EMPIRE:

Can Portugal and Spain's situation really be compared to Ireland and Greece's? I mean, yes we are also in a bit of trouble, but I truly believe the whole situation has been amplified by fucking speculators, messing with our credit ratings.

It certainly is amplified by speculations, for which the blame primarily rests with Merkel, if you ask me.

At current interest and growth rates, Portugal's national debt is noticably less threatening than Ireland's, but considering the agenda of cuts and savings, growth will remain abysmal or even turn negative, as is the case of Greece. Add the account deficit of 11.6% of GDP in the first half of 2010 and I'd say Portugal is quietly insolvent.

Spain on the other hand with its national debt of mere ~57% of GDP looks somewhat more stable, but look at the foreign exposure of the private sector. That's up to a cool €700B once the lid is taken off. And that would stretch the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) budget to the limit, a budget of only €750B. Which is why some argued that it should have been closer to €2T from the start.

And that's when a haircut is inevitable. Folks around Europe won't just accept massive cutbacks, causing massive unemployment and the following nightmares, just so investors can cash in on their situation. There's going to be some serious debt restructuring, including haircuts.

The real shit would begin if Italy, due to national debt and political instability, got sucked down as well. That'd be fun, yap.

So I'd say let's take Jean-Claude Juncker's advice and finally make it a proper union, not just a shared currency with opposing interests. Unfortunatly, my own bloody government won't play along with that.

More on Portugal and Spain in this vid, also filmed in Halifax: http://videosift.com/video/22-Minutes-EU-Bailout-of-Ireland
>> ^EMPIRE:

Can Portugal and Spain's situation really be compared to Ireland and Greece's? I mean, yes we are also in a bit of trouble, but I truly believe the whole situation has been amplified by fucking speculators, messing with our credit ratings.

Can Portugal and Spain's situation really be compared to Ireland and Greece's? I mean, yes we are also in a bit of trouble, but I truly believe the whole situation has been amplified by fucking speculators, messing with our credit ratings.

Ah, let's just lean back and enjoy the show.

42.91 million now rely on the SNAP. You went from 26.5 to almost 43 million in less than five years. That's 6! (SIX) million more in the last 12 months alone. I was disgusted when it passed the 30 million mark, but when 40 was breached, my inherent cynicism took over. So now it's fun again.

And what about the FED audit?
It's fucking hilarious if you look at it. TALF, PDCF and whatnot, they made sure the casino could keep on playing. There's no denying that all those capitalists are hardcore socialists when their ass is on the line. Deficit, debt, inflation: irrelevant, big money needs its bailout.
And since all is fine now - except for some collateral damage like mass unemployment, mass foreclosure, explosion of the SNAP, etc -, the deficit matters once again. Woe is us if we don't cut social security.

For the grand finale, you need some Tea Bagger to run the show or a proper socialist. Either is fine by me, as long as it's entertaining. Though I do prefer the latter, just to see Goldman Sachs nationalized and then cut down into manageable pieces.

Or how about a race to the bottom, EU vs USA? You're in the lead now, but once Portugal and Spain go down, we might just have a chance.

Please direct your attention to Portugal, which at only 33 seconds in, still has the same borders it has today, with no change. (well... apart from that period where it was taken over by Spain in the Filipine dinasty).

Yes we're tiny, and apparently very complacent as well.