The End of Europe?

A new round of anti-austerity protests have broken out in Greece and Spain. It looks like there's no solution to the debt problems. Pundits of all persuasions are speaking about the collapse of the European Union. Nobody knows obviously how bad it will all be. But the continuing uncertainty is having a depressing effect on the world economy.

Ubermensch Romney

In a recently leaked video Mitt Romney addressed a group of wealthy donors with remarks that show how he really thinks. Romney denounced Obama supporters as "There are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it." Romney further elaborated that I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."

The Repubs have been playing this game of "the makers versus the takers," since the times of Nixon. Of course many of the Repubs have been feeding at the government trough for decades; big military contractors, big agribusiness corporations, and lets not forget the banking and financial interestst who seem to be "entitled" to a bailout whenever they get into trouble. This video is so embarrassing that even right wing pundits like David Brooks and William Kristol are denouncing it.

The arrogance of Romney's tone is really astonishing. Not the slightest hint of doubt. Not even the need to for a "social safety net" (like Reagan) or "a thousand points of light" (Bush I) or "compassionate conservatism" (Bush II). Romney really thinks he's better than everybody and he doesn't even try to hide it.

The Mess in Europe Continued

The BBC news website has posted an article "Eurozone Crisis Explained." Despite the belief that the Eurozone crisis was caused by government defecit spending, this was only true of Greece, not the other Eurozone countries. What actually happened is that Europe underwent its own real estate bubble, which burst in 2008. Many European governments then had to bail out their own banks at great cost. The real problem, then, was uncontrolled speculation. The European Central Bank has recently announced measures to ease the situation. Whether this does any good remains to be seen. In any case until Europe recovers the world economy will remain in bad shape.

Rigth Wing Dementia: A Growing Problem

Watching Clint Eastwoods pathetic performance at least week's GOP convention was funny: Eastwood started to harangue a chair with anti-Obama epithets. The entire episode seemed to indicate the mental deficiencies of the right wing. These are the people who aren't bothered by the flagrant lies that their candidates are saying. We've all heard of Stephen Colbert's "truthiness;" thinking that comes from "the gut" rather than the brain. It seems to have gone further than that; the right-wing are withdrawing into a twisted fantasy world shaped by morbid fears and an obssession with "charismatic" leadership. The question is; can a democracy still function when a significant portion of the population loses its grip on reality?