Inspite of being bombarded with global warming scare stories, the "most scientifically literate and best-educated generation in American history" shows little interest in climate change:
A survey in 2009 found members of Generation X were largely disengaged from climate change. Two years later, these American adults became slightly more so, a follow-up survey has revealed.
"We found a small but statistically significant decline between 2009 and 2011 in the level of attention and concern Generation X adults expressed about climate change," said researcher Jon Miller of the University of Michigan in a statement. "In 2009, about 22 percent said they followed the issue of climate change very or moderately closely. In 2011, only 16 percent said they did so."
The survey data comes from the university's Longitudinal Study of American Youth, which includes responses from approximately 4,000 Gen Xers, born between 1961 and 1981. Interestingly, this generation is the "most scientifically literate and best-educated generation in American history," Miller writes in his report, "Climate Change: Generation X Attitudes, Interest, and Understanding."
Read the entire article here
PS
Generation X is to be congratulated for their realistic views on global warming/climate change. Hopefully their realism sets an example to their children.
Saturday, 21 July 2012
Friday, 20 July 2012
The French ban on shale gas exploration to be reversed?
Is France beginning to see the light with regard to shale gas and oil exploration?:
Shale gas, an energy game changer in the U.S., is dividing the French government, raising the possibility the country may lift a ban on its exploration.
“It’s not a banned subject,” Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg said today in Paris. “We must confront it. For the moment, there is no government position.”
Montebourg, who is charged with reversing job losses and a decline in French industrial production, was speaking at a conference today attended by top executives of some of the country’s biggest companies, including energy explorer Total SA, a shale gas producer in the U.S. whose permit was revoked in France by the previous government.
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France last year became the first country in the world to ban fracking, which uses water, sand and chemicals to open fissures in rocks and release gas and oil. Following passage of the law in parliament, the previous government suspended the rights of energy companies to explore for shale gas around Paris and in southern France. Oil companies including Total (FP), the nation’s largest, and Toreador Resources Corp. had been awarded licenses for exploration.
France and Poland are the two countries in Europe with the biggest potentially recoverable reserves of shale gas and oil. Only in the region around Paris - with a geology similar to the Bakken shale i North Dakota, there may be over 100 billion barrels of oil:
“How can we not want to know if our land has these resources? ” Total’s Pouyanne asked. “Our country may have these resources. If it does, it would indisputably represent industrial renewal. We must have confidence in the ability of our country’s industry to develop these resources and respect strict environmental rules.”
Read the entire article here
PS
One must hope that the French industry minister will be able to persuade François Hollande to join the voices of sanity on this matter.
Thursday, 19 July 2012
The end of the criminal Assad regime is close
The end of the criminal Assad regime in Syria is close:
"A few weeks ago, we were counting the life span of this regime in months. Now after the last week and today, I think you'd have to say weeks. This is a very fast moving conflict."
Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut
"A few weeks ago, we were counting the life span of this regime in months. Now after the last week and today, I think you'd have to say weeks. This is a very fast moving conflict."
Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut
Assad´s main international supporter, Russia´s de facto dictator Vladimir Putin, will no doubt share the same fate in the not too distant future.
The euro crisis failure explained: Eurozone leaders in a state of (mimicked) drunkenness
Der Spiegel on June 29:
Monti emerged from the late-night negotiations as a clear victor, having broken Chancellor Angela Merkel's resistance just as Italian striker Mario Balotelli cracked the German defense on the pitch in Warsaw earlier in the evening. In 15 hours of negotiations in Brussels, Monti together with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy secured easier access to the permanent euro-zone bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).
The session ended at 4:20 a.m. on Friday morning. Ten minutes later, Van Rompuy and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso announced the breakthrough at a press conference. At 5:00 a.m., Monti, the winner of the evening, appeared at the Council building's exit. He gave a press conference on the way to the car -- and announced that he will travel to the European Championship football final in Kiev on Sunday.
Now it is becoming clear why the European Union has failed to solve the euro debt crisis:
Read the entire article here
Monti emerged from the late-night negotiations as a clear victor, having broken Chancellor Angela Merkel's resistance just as Italian striker Mario Balotelli cracked the German defense on the pitch in Warsaw earlier in the evening. In 15 hours of negotiations in Brussels, Monti together with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy secured easier access to the permanent euro-zone bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).
The session ended at 4:20 a.m. on Friday morning. Ten minutes later, Van Rompuy and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso announced the breakthrough at a press conference. At 5:00 a.m., Monti, the winner of the evening, appeared at the Council building's exit. He gave a press conference on the way to the car -- and announced that he will travel to the European Championship football final in Kiev on Sunday.
The eurozone political leaders are always in a state of (mimicked) drunkenness when making important decisions about the euro! And regrettably there are no signs that they are going to sober up anytime soon:
If the leaders of the 17 euro-area countries really want to solve the debt crisis shadowing their currency, they may want to sleep on it.
That’s not likely to happen. Of Europe’s last six summits, three ended no earlier than 4 a.m. The most recent, on June 29, ended at 5 a.m. And finance chiefs’ monthly gatherings routinely extend past midnight.
Those late hours haven’t served European leaders well and may be one reason why their next meeting, to hammer out a bailout for Spain’s banks on July 20, is scheduled to begin at noon. Lack of sleep, the evidence shows, has played a role in faulty decision-making that led to disasters at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and the Exxon Valdez oil spill as well as the ill-fated launch of the space shuttle Challenger.
“We’re not well designed to work well into the night,” Chris Idzikowski, a co-founder of the British Sleep Society who has explored the land of nod for more than three decades, said in an interview. “It has to be one of the worst times to do negotiations.”
Remaining awake too long mimics the effects of being legally drunk, according to recent research. Staying up past your natural bedtime can make you more vulnerable to another’s influence and likelier to take risks. It can impair brain function and lead to misjudgments.
European political leaders, then, may want to go to bed at a “normal” time, say between 10 p.m. and midnight, and let sleep do its job, said Idzikowski, who is director of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre in Scotland. “The brain does think about solutions during sleep,” particularly during rapid-eye movement, or REM, sleep, a phase associated with learning, memory and dreaming.
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In people awake for 16 hours, Maas says brain activity is similar to that of someone with a blood-alcohol content of 0.05 percent, which is legally drunk in some jurisdictions. Staying awake for 24 hours is equivalent to having a blood-alcohol content of 0.10 percent -- exceeding the legal-intoxication limit in all countries involved in the talks.
“It takes a tremendous toll,” says Maas, who co-wrote the books Power Sleep and Sleep for Success! Everything You Must Know About Sleep but Are Too Tired to Ask.
Emotions can be one casualty of sleep loss, Maas says.
“Kids, when they’re sleep-deprived, they do indeed get cranky and cry,” he says. “Adults get wired. They get irrational, they get emotional, with symptoms similar to attention-deficit disorder. If you track mood during the day, around 4 to 5 p.m., people get really touchy,” and without a nap, it could be downhill from there.
European finance ministers met for 13 1/2 hours to hammer out a deal on a second Greek bailout, capping it with a press briefing that didn’t end until almost 6 a.m. on Feb. 21
Wednesday, 18 July 2012
Vladimir Putin is worried about the huge gap between rich and poor in his country
Russia´s lifetime president and dictator Vladimir Putin has according to the Moscow Times spoken about the great gap in his country between the super rich and the poor:
President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Russia's rich-poor divide is unacceptably wide and promised renewed efforts to decrease the gap in earnings.
"In our country, there remains an inexcusably large discrepancy in incomes," Putin told a meeting of the State Council, an advisory body to the president, Interfax reported.
"Unfortunately, 13 percent [of the population], or roughly 18 million people, still live below the poverty line," Putin said, without specifying the income level used to calculate the metric.
Maybe Putin could begin to close the income gap by selling part of his large watch collection - which includes such tresures as e.g. a Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar, valued at $60,000. and an A. Lange & Söhne Tourbograph, valued at half a million dollars - and donating the money to his less successful compatriots?
Life without the Patek Philippes and the Tourbographs would not make a huge dent in the former second rate KGB spy´s comfortable "investment portfolio". Stanislav Belkovsky, a Russian analyst, has stated that the Russian businessman, politician and current president of Russia, could be worth around $70 billion. Putin is reported to have major shares in three oil and gas companies; Gunvor (oil trader), 75%, Urgutneftegas (oil supplier), 37% and Gazprom: 4.5%.
This afternoon there was one comment to the article in the Moscow Times, which pretty much says the truth about Putin:
I doubt Putin is serious about closing the wealth gap. The people getting rich in Russia would not be getting rich without his support. He has been ruling the country for 12 years or so, and many of the social and economic problems in Russia only keep getting worse. His most important accomplishment in Russia has been to slide the country back to dictatorship.
An industry in its death throes: Offshore wind turbine market collapses
Opposition against inefficient, bird killing and landscape destroying wind turbines is growing everywhere. The wind turbine industry is in its death throes, as governments cut subsidies. Now it turns out that offshore wind power, the last hope of a dying industry, is collapsing:
Sales of offshore wind turbines collapsed in the first half, a sign the power industry and its financiers are struggling to meet the ambitions of leaders from Angela Merkel in Germany to Britain’s David Cameron.
One unconditional order was made, for 216 megawatts, 75 percent less than in the same period of 2011 and the worst start for a year since at least 2009, according to preliminary data from MAKE Consulting, a Danish wind-energy adviser. Vestas Wind Systems A/S (VWS) of Denmark, the largest manufacturer, won the contract while Germany’s Siemens AG (SIE) was among those shut out.
That’s a setback for Chancellor Merkel and Prime Minister Cameron, who are targeting a 10-fold expansion in offshore wind to limit fossil fuel use and create jobs. Banks have curbed lending to developers as Europe’s financial crisis spread, and utilities held off on new projects because of delays in connecting existing ones to high-voltage transmission grids.
This is what happens to an industry that manufactures products which do not meet real market requirements - and is totally dependent on tax payers´ subsidies:
Shares of Vestas, the world’s biggest wind turbine maker, have fallen 80 percent in the past year through yesterday, underperforming the 57 percent decline in the Bloomberg Industries Wind Turbine Pure-Play Index (BIWINDP) tracking 14 companies in the industry. Siemens, which with Vestas dominates the offshore business, dropped 27 percent over the same period.
Read the entire article here
The shale gas revolution: US carbon emissions back to 1990 levels this year?
For years now representatives of the European Union have been blaming the US - and particularly the "evil" Bush White House - for the failure of to reach a global agreement on reducing CO2 emissions.
But, like so often, reality differs from the myth:
The Eurocracy did not plan it to be this way.
But, like so often, reality differs from the myth:
“America’s carbon emissions may drop back close to 1990 levels this year. That result would have been thought impossible, even at the end of 2011.
But the shale gas revolution makes a reality many things recently thought impossible. It was thought impossible to slash carbon US carbon emissions back to 1990 levels by 2012. It was thought impossible to massively, quickly cut carbon emissions and, at the same time, have lower energy bills.
Shale gas production has slashed carbon emissions and saved consumers more than $100 billion per year. Truly astonishing!”
MP: And unlike renewable energies like solar that reduce carbon emissions but are uneconomical even with billions of dollars of taxpayer dollars, the shale gas revolution has reduced CO2 emissions significantly without any taxpayer support and wasn’t even part of any intentional energy policy from Washington, or any regulatory directive from the EPA.
Welcome to the shale gas revolution!
Read Mark Perry´s entire blog post here.
Peter C Glover compares this with what is happening in Europe:
In stark contrast to the U.S., Europe’s use of natural gas fell last year by 2.1 percent as gas-fired plants that needed only half the number of carbon permits, became increasingly uncompetitive. Prices fell sharply by 17 percent to just 8 euros a tonne. Indeed, so expensive has gas become in Europe that the major players like EON and RWE are considering shutting down their gas-fired plants entirely by 2015. Coal – the literal bête noire for all green politicos – is the only viable alternative.
The Eurocracy did not plan it to be this way.
You might think that European capitals would be falling over themselves to develop Europe’s own shale gas resources and share in the ‘green’ benefits of switching from burning coal; not least because another key EU energy policy is to diversify away from European dependence on Russian gas imports. But the EU-imposed goals of CO2 targets for 2020 dictate that member states must bend the knee to the green lobbies that demand a ban on hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”), the technique singly responsible for the U.S. gas and oil revolutions. In effect, an EU-sponsored lose-lose situation has developed.
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Eurocrat socialism, with its predilection for imposing regulatory cap-and-trade restrictions that inherently render industry less globally competitive, has contrived to achieve the very opposite of its chief goal: a new, high carbon-emitting, coal boom. American capitalism, on the other hand, has not only seen technological innovation (fracking) promote a cheaper energy revolution and reduce dependence on foreign energy imports it has also raised the very real prospect of energy independence. Just to rub salt in fast-developing European ‘green’ wounds, the U.S. way of ‘doing green’ is making EU energy policies look UP (unfit for purpose).
Read the entire article here.
Tags:
climate change,
energy,
EU,
global warming,
Shale gas,
US
Tuesday, 17 July 2012
German energy transition - myth and reality
German chancellor Angela Merkel has given a keynote speech at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, a gathering of warmists in Berlin. Deutsche Welle, the German government´s propaganda outlet, unintentionally reveals the amazing truth about Merkel´s quasi-religious, blind belief in global warming/climate change:
"I emphatically believe in climate change," said Merkel, referring to scientific data that places the link between carbon dioxide emissions and global warming into doubt. She does not want to waste time with various interpretations of various studies, time which could be better spent on discussions of climate change. Data or no data, the important debate was about the use of the Earth's resources.
In another amazing statement, Merkel went on to praise her government´s energy transition policy:
"I emphatically believe in climate change," said Merkel, referring to scientific data that places the link between carbon dioxide emissions and global warming into doubt. She does not want to waste time with various interpretations of various studies, time which could be better spent on discussions of climate change. Data or no data, the important debate was about the use of the Earth's resources.
In another amazing statement, Merkel went on to praise her government´s energy transition policy:
In her speech, Merkel placed special emphasis on the so-called green economy. "We must manage to decouple economic growth from increased resource use," she said, adding that the focus should be on qualitative growth, not quantitative growth.
In order to achieve this, she said innovative technologies and sustainable thinking are key. Merkel brought up the energy revolution in Germany as an example of such policy. "This is no easy task, but we managed to master the transition and other countries can learn from our experiences," she said.
The fact of the matter is that the only thing other countries can learn from Merkel´s energy transition policy is, how to avoid making the same huge mistakes. Der Spiegel recently revealed the truth about Merkel´s failed policy:
GERMANY STALLED ON THE EXPRESSWAY TO A GREEN FUTURE
There is no recognizable strategy, no grand design upon which to organize the transition into the age of renewable energy. The only thing clear is that installing more solar panels and wind turbines won't be enough. The other task -- and the more challenging and costly one -- is to adapt the rest of the energy system to new conditions.
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The excessive subsidies have made solar power by far the most expensive source of green energy. It is now emerging that the other components of the energy turnaround are also being artificially propped up with government help to make them profitable: offshore wind power, the power grid, energy-storage systems and gas-fired power plants.
Monday, 16 July 2012
Gerhard Schröder - by far the worst German political leader after World War II
The "flawless" democrat together with his German friend and promoter. |
It is now quite obvious that Gerhard Schröder, former chancellor, has been - and, regrettably to a degree still is - the by far worst leader Germany has had since the end of World War II.
Schröder´s role as a promoter - and beneficiary - of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is wellknown. Schröder also deceived the US government about his pledge to support the toppling of Saddam´s regime in Iraq. The former chancellor has also gone to great lengths to make Iran´s president Ahmadinejad politically respectable.
Now Der Spiegel has unearthed documents which show that Schröder was the the man who made the present euro crisis possible by his activities in the early 2000s:
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Seven years later, that which triggered the celebratory mood at the time is now seen as a lapse that made possible the current crisis faced by the European common currency. It permanently undermined confidence in a set of regulations that was intended to force countries to pursue responsible fiscal policy. Afterwards, several countries felt sufficiently emboldened to abandon their efforts to limit spending.
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It is widely accepted that this corset was loosened at the insistence of Germany and France. In truth, however, the weakening of the Stability and Growth Pact was primarily the work of one man: Gerhard Schröder. He received support from his chief of staff, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and from Reinhard Silberberg, head of the European division in the Foreign Ministry. Documents from the Chancellery, released in response to a SPIEGEL request, show that Schröder and his government were the driving force behind the effort. They also show that attempts by Eichel and his ministry to resist were ultimately in vain as he was forced to give in to pressure from Schröder. What's more, Schröder picked Eichel to convince the remaining holdouts among Germany's euro-zone allies.
Read the entire article here
Copenhagen - not quite so wonderful for bikers
This is one of several vehicles, that pick up approximately 13,000 abandoned bicycles on public streets in Copenhagen each year.(wikipedia) |
Copenhagen´s socialist mayor Frank Jensen has been on a high carbon foot print trip to Peking in order to promote biking. Jensen had this message to his communist colleagues in the Chinese capital:
Half of all Copenhagen residents bike to work every day and the city is now expanding its cycle network by 30 percent, in a move to reduce emissions by 7,000 tonnes per year. This will also cut the city’s healthcare expenditure bill by 300 million kroner annually, owing to improved health of commuters.
Jensen himself bikes to his office at City Hall every morning, and told Xinhua it was “the most efficient way to commute in Copenhagen”, ranking above the city’s bus and underground rail network.
He added that biking is less stressful than driving, builds a sense of community in a big city, and is a great social leveller.
“In Copenhagen, all kinds of people go by bike: cabinet members, deputy mayors, businessmen. It is not only for poor people. It is also for people in prestigious positions,” Jensen said.
Jensen´s talk about biking as a "great social leveller" should of course be taken with a pinch of salt. Danish cabinet members and other politicians bike to work mainly because it is the politically correct thing to do - every politician in Denmark wants to look "green". A pinch of salt is also needed in order to believe the 300 million saving Jensen is boasting about.
And anybody who has lived in Copenhagen knows that Jensen´s PR speak differs somewhat from the reality:
According to the Danish Cyclists' Federation and Wonderful Copenhagen, the official tourism organisation for Denmark, the sheer success of the drive to get more locals and tourists on bikes is creating a dangerous, intimidating and unpleasant climate for cyclists in the city.
"In Copenhagen, we have quite extraordinary problems around cycling congestion," said Aneh Hajdu, of Wonderful Copenhagen. "I don't take my children on their bikes into Copenhagen at rush hour any more. It's too dangerous and scary. I just wouldn't risk it."
It is not just the locals who are, according to Hajdu, finding the sheer crush of cyclists in Copenhagen an ordeal. "I went on a cycling trip around Copenhagen with a friend visiting from London recently, and she was terrified by the mass of cyclists and the aggressive way they behaved," said Hadju. "She found them so overwhelming that she burst into tears. She was too scared to get back on her bike. We had to put it in a taxi and drive back home."
As numbers increase in the cycle lanes, says Hadju, so behaviour deteriorates, with jostling and cutting-up becoming more frequent. "The locals rush past the foreigners, who are often uncertain on their bikes and going slowly," she said. "The locals get impatient and therefore become more threatening."
Frits Bredal, of the Danish Cyclists' Federation adds:
"In rush hour, there are enormous numbers of cyclists fighting for space on Copenhagen's bike paths, which become cramped and packed.
"As numbers grow and they fight for space, cyclists are becoming more aggressive and reckless in traffic. I increasingly see people bringing themselves and others into dangerous situations," he adds. "They break the laws and use their bikes in completely reckless ways."
And finally a word of warning:
If you planning to rent a car while visiting Copenhagen, be aware of the fact there is nothing more arrogant and aggressive, from a driver´s point of view, than a Danish biker!
BBC`s Moscow correspondent on Putin´s support for Assad
The BBC´s Moscow correspondent is right about one thing: "There is little sign that the Kremlin is ready to do what he (Annan) says:
Mr Annan is expected to ask Mr Lavrov to put pressure on the Syrian authorities to begin a political transition.
The BBC's Steve Rosenberg in Moscow says Mr Annan knows Russia's role is crucial for the success of his peace initiative, but there is little sign that the Kremlin is ready to do what he says.
Part of the reason for this is that the Russians fear even greater chaos and bloodshed post-Assad, he says.
But Moscow is also deeply suspicious of the West and reluctant to endorse regime change, our correspondent adds, although this could change if it decides its own economic and geopolitical interests are better served by Mr Assad going.
However, everything else what Steve Rosenberg says is nonsense. The Russians could not care less about chaos in Syria, and neither do their "economic and geopolitical interests" play any crucial role there. The only real reason why Putin props up his fellow dictator, is the fear that he himself might share the same fate as Assad - being dethroned by his own people.
But Putin´s delay tactics will not succeed. Assad will soon be gone - and Putin will join him somewhat later.
Madness: UK subsidies for wind power over £1billion this year
"No developer will build windfarms without subsidies. Electricity companies are compelled to buy this expensive electricity. Both are funded by an extra charge on every electricity bill. This is not a government subsidy, which would be open for scrutiny. We are now paying £1 billion a year." nowind.org.uk |
The UK government is soon expected to announce a cut of the subsidies, but the the decision could be postponed because of Whitehall internal wrangling. (Liberal Climate Change Secretary, warmist Edward Davey would like to keep the reduction as small as possible, whereas Conservative MPs have been fighting for cuts of about 25%).
According to an analysis of official figures by the think-tank Renewable Energy Foundation (REF), the total annual subsidy for onshore and offshore wind farms has, for the first time, topped £1billion. REF estimates that on current renewable energy targets – and with only modest cuts – the energy companies will have received £100 billion in subsidies by 2030.
REF said it expects 10 companies, between them, to pocket £800million through subsidies over the next 12 months.
The biggest winner is Dong Energy, a Danish energy company, which is on course to earn more than £156 million in subsidies through its British wind farms.
The next highest earner is Vattenfall, a state-owned Swedish energy conglomerate, which will earn £128 million from its wind farms. Out of the top 10, only two of the companies are British-owned – Centrica, which will receive £58 million in subsidy and SSE, which is due £53 million.
Read the entire article here
Tax rises and spending cuts worth up to £68billion are needed on top of the £123billion already planned to stop the public finances spiralling out of control, said the Office for Budget Responsibility.
If David Cameron wants to get re-elected, he should stop this madness, and remove the subsidies entirely!
"Ball cutter" fish in Illinois lake - Is This What Global Warming Looks Like?
"Ball Cutter" fish in Illinois. Is this What Global Warming Looks Like ? |
There are reports about a new fish species found in an Illinois lake:
The pacu fish might not be as large as jaws, but for men it can be just as frightening.
The pacu is lovingly referred to as the "ball cutter" after killing two men in Papua New Guinea by biting off the testicles of at least two local men.
The fish that sports human-like teeth and can weigh up to 55 pounds, has been spotted in Lake Lou Yaeger in Illinois, KSDK reported.
The lake's superintendent Jim Caldwell brought the fish to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources after initially responding to a report that a piranha had been caught. The lab quickly identified it as a pacu, according to the Huffington Post. There are conflicting reports that a second pacu fish had been spotted shortly after.
How did a fish native to the Amazon basin end up in a small lake in the middle of Illinois? Caldwell believes they were dumped there and were most likely someone's aquarium pet.
Or could this be something far more sinister: There are rumors about AP´s Seth Borenstein being sighted on the lake. Could this be What Global Warming Looks Like?
Sunday, 15 July 2012
A federal EUSSR by order?
Serge Halimi, the editorial director of Le Monde diplomatique, issues a warning about introducing a leap to a federal Europe with the euro crisis as the pretext, without giving the voters a chance to have a say: "Europe cannot afford to deny democracy yet again":
The true believer’s faith is strengthened by disaster. So the true believers in a federal Europe have no intention of abandoning the monetary, budgetary and commercial integration policies that have exacerbated and prolonged the economic crisis. On the contrary, they want to increase the authority of those responsible for these policies. If European summits, stability pacts and disciplinary measures haven’t solved the problem, then that, our true believers assure us, is because they did not go far enough: we owe all our successes to Europe, all our failures to its absence. On the strength of this blind faith, they sleep soundly and dream happy dreams.
They also have nightmares, because federalists do not dislike storms: warnings of storms ahead give them the pretext of an emergency with which to subdue resistance to their grand design. Caught in mid-stream and under fire, you cannot go back. You must reach the other bank or die in the attempt, make the great “federal leap” or fail. As the former German foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, said last year: “Unless the current confederation evolves into a political federation with a central government, the eurozone — and the Union as a whole — will disintegrate” (1). In France, the three major radio networks and two of the main newspapers say the same thing every day.
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Will the current drama be the pretext for imposing a new federal leap forward without allowing universal suffrage a last bow? Europe is already in trouble; it cannot afford to deny democracy yet again.
Read the entire article here
Weak Obama administration propping up Putin
Russia has sent 11 old warships to Syria in a fake show of force |
Lee Smith, Senior editor of the Weekly Standard is right when pointing out that a weak Obama administration has allowed a powerless Russia to "get away with just about anything" - particularly with regard to Syria. In reality, "the Russians are all show", and "it is the Obama administration that has provided the stage":
On Tuesday, Russia announced it was sending 11 warships to the Mediterranean—some of which would dock in Syria, where Moscow keeps a base in Tartus. If some onlookers believed that the “unusually large size of the force” was meant to send a message to Washington, the fact is, the Obama administration has been signaling to the Russians that they can get away with just about anything, especially when it comes to Syria.
in
Some 16 months into the Syrian uprising and after, according to some estimates, more than 17,000 have been killed, there is little end in sight. U.N. special envoy to Syria Kofi Annan has finally conceded that his six-point peace plan, has failed. “We have made significant efforts to resolve this situation by peaceful political methods,” Annan said earlier this week. “Obviously, we have not succeeded. And there is no guarantee that we will succeed.”
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But Russia, says Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, is not really “holding on to Assad.” Rather,according to this report, it is “defending basic international principles that prevented powerful nations from deciding the internal conflicts of smaller states.” Anti-imperialist rhetoric, it seems, has entered its baroque phase. Were this sentence not spoken by a Putin apparatchik, it would be hard to hear it as anything but a parodic evocation of golden age Soviet oratory, when smaller states existed for no other reason than for Moscow to tilt their internal conflicts on behalf of Soviet interests.
The point is, the fact Russian diplomats are trotting out this line now, long after it lost the military might to back it up, masks a profound weakness. Maoscow is no longer able to project power the way it could during the Cold War. Regardless of its port in Tartus, or dispatching ships to the eastern Mediterranean, Russia cannot save Assad—not even from a disorganized rebel army that the Obama administration has disdained to support. It is only in diplomatic forums that the Russians are capable of managing any sort of protection for the Syrian president. The Russians are all show. And it is the Obama White House that has provided the stage.
PS
The real reason for Putin´s support of Assad can be found here.
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