Some records to help you sleep tonight:* Just over two-thirds of the way through the year and, with today's death of four US soldiers, the number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan has broken the record.
* Breaking the record for craven bureaucratic nastiness, the CIA report detailed the intricate and specific rules that Washington expected CIA agents to follow when torturing suspects. They ought to receive the Kafka Award.
* I'll let this quote about America's debt speak for itself: "The government’s total debt would roughly triple by 2019 to $17.5 trillion under the new estimate, almost $2 trillion more than the White House estimated in May. Measured as a share of the nation’s economic output, public debt would hit 76.5 percent of gross domestic product by 2019 — by far the highest percentage in the past half-century — from about 56 percent this fiscal year. This year will be the first time the number has exceeded 50 percent since World War II. The previous estimate was about 67 percent."
* Our Liberal and Tory parties are breaking the record for being totally indistinguishable, while still existing as two separate parties. Both support the war in Afghanistan. Both support neo-liberalism. Both have leaders with bad hair. Both are filled with whack-jobs, seat-warmers, and outright criminals. Both have the same level of popular support (OK, this isn't a real record but I felt like I needed to meet my Canadian content quota).
* According to Nouriel "Dr. Doom" Roubini, the infamous economist who predicted the crisis while all those investment bankers (now deceased - the banks that is, not the bankers) were slugging back the bubbly, is saying it ain't over yet. "In summary, the recovery is likely to be anaemic and below trend in advanced economies and there is a big risk of a double-dip recession." What's the record here: a record recession. Worst since the 1930s.
Sweet dreams!
2 comments :
it took me about 45 seconds to remember the name of our prime minister this morning. most likely, my subconscious was trying to block it out and give me a hatred-break. aside from a slight fear of early-onset dementia, it was nice.
those debt statistics are insane. i'll keep them in mind when i calculate whether i can afford organic red peppers this week.
and what an incredible propaganda/marketing job the US military has done such that: the war is a total disaster, they wish it to continue and (as far as i know) the draft isn't even on the table.
Harper is a forgettable asshole. The only memory of him that will last beyond our generation will be, perhaps as a verb - to harperize - ie. to use tools of manipulation and control to prevent the utter nutjobs he leads from doing anything damaging (to his party). Waiters in roadhouses will use it after, say, serving a bachelor party: "Whoa, I totally had to harperize that crowd last night. They were wasted."
Unfortunately, nobody is harperizing the American ruling class and they continue to be driven by some of the worst whackjobs ever to control a million man army. It's a bit sad to watch Obama, in whom so many people placed so many hopes, to be sucked into the vortex that is Afghanistan. It's possible they could "pacify" the country by utterly destroying it but, given Afghanistan's history, I can think of no other way of defeating the Afghan resistance. There aren't the rooted social institutions that existed in Iraq to draw upon for stability and collaboration. The Russians found that out the hard way.
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