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Oil price fantasies

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Listening to RTE this morning I was struck by a fantasy spoken about Aer Lingus. It’s a fantasy repeated often with all the economic crisis issues going on, the fantasy;

…when Oil prices go back down!

Oil prices going down is a fantasy! There is no motovation, nor reason for oil prices to drop a significant amount to make a difference. Oil is a supply and demand issue, and will stay high, with MAYBE a minor drop in price in the near term. At least until the next price rise some where in the area of 150$ a barrel by next summer.

The one thing that seems to be forgotten is that oil is a finite resource that has been subsidized to remain low, like heroin, we have become addicted and completely dependent. And when we seek to ween ourselves off it to renewables, the price is reduced to make the switch too expensive.

Oil is running out, and will continue to rise, and no fantasy will dilute that reality.

A glimmer of Democracy

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This article is amusing as a Sudden outbreak of democracy baffles US pundits. I was chilled by the observation that the Media and Pundits were so amazed at the opposition reaction to the Congressional bail out. The observation of this writer, was spot on with the snobs being snubbed by the general population. What would happen if the banks holding flaky mortgages failed, what if all the marginal mortgage holders were just granted the properties held by the banks. and then allow the banks fail. Wouldn’t that be real justice for corrupt banking and financial managers?


“Your representative owes you,
not his industry only, but his judgment;
and he betrays, instead of serving you,
if he sacrifices it to your opinion.”

Edmund Burke
(1729-1797) Irish-born British statesman, parliamentary orator, and political thinker

Congress must make some hard decisions and it’s now time to standup and make them.

Delusional greed in the financial sector

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At a previous position, I worked with a major financial company. Insurance, investing, retirement and what not. And while attending a meeting with the business ‘customers’ of the ID department. I was nearly physically sickened by their use of the terminology ‘manufacturing a new product’. This is a financial institute, not a manufacture of real products. So when they created a product they meant a paper house contract. The sickening part was how they declare how much money the company would make from the future ‘customers’ of the product. Not that the ‘customer’ wouldn’t have earned some modest income from the ‘product’, it was just that the vast majority of any profits would go to the company, with the customer taking all of the risks. More over, the ‘creator’ of this new product would be richly rewarded in advance of any company profits from the product hence creating a motivation to ‘create’ more of these types of ‘products’. Greed, promoting Delusions that reward more greed. This is true nature of the financial issues we face and any congressman claiming market forces will fix the problems is blind AND stupid and otherwise, just a fool, and should be removed from office.


If men were angels, no government would be necessary.
James Madison

So a Free market we cannot afford. We must have government to control the Raw Greed on Wallstreet!

Defeat McCain with the Truth

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While the mud slinging and lies are flying from the GOP, the Obama campaign I’m sure are trying to find a strategy that will nullify the muck flowing from McCain and Palin. This West Wing Clip, while addressing a religious nut job from a talk show, ends with a quote, ‘That is how I will defeat him {my presidential opponent}” and while it’s subtle, it speaks one thing, Obama should defeat McCain and Palin with the truth, with the facts, with honesty, in other words, with everything they are not!.



Sarah Palin – The Barracuda

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Someone from the States just email me this link, and it makes for interesting reading. Calling Sarah Palin the Barracuda may be only the start of the story. This woman is down right dangerous, not to the Democrats, but the Republicans, as she represents all the worst traits that Republicans have been demonstrating over the last 8 years in the Whitehouse.

Predicting a vote Theft

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Articles like the one at Slate: WHERE THE ELECTIONS STAND TODAY is a prescription for Vote Theft. Not that they are promoting theft, but by presenting ‘opinion’ as facts, and displaying the point spread of the two Presidential candidates, McCain and Obama, as if they were very close together. They promote doubt about the real margin so should there be wide spread vote fraud, the public will not suspect it as easily. There is a vast difference in the chances of winning. There is currently a 60% chance Obama will win against a 38% chance McCain will win at Intrade. That is a 22 point advantage for Obama, not even including any indecision on the part of the public. Intrade has had the most accurate data in this and the previous elections in the U.S. making any other prediction, propaganda, clear and simple.

President Biden

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That doesn’t sound too bad, after all that will be the result should Barack Obama fall ill, or be assassinated, the Vice-Presidential nominee Joe Biden assumes the position of President. And that likelihood is very high, as Obama will have a serious segment of the U.S. population enraged, the bigots and racist that constitute the radical GOP right wing.

Ireland in Isolation

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This article highlights a danger for Ireland Shipping Costs Start to Crimp Globalization. Ireland is an Island! Almost everyone I’ve met in Ireland never think of Ireland as an Island (the center of the universe maybe, just not an Island). We have become so complacent about the availability of foreign goods and produce, we have forgotten that without cheap oil, we will have to live within our own agricultural means. Something the Lisbon “Yes” folks don’t seem to get yet. They believe that the mobile economy will balance the trade products and that putting fishermen and farmers out of business will not harm Ireland as a whole. Cheap oil has made this possible, and is no more. No more cheap fruit, and beef, no more massive highways and individual car ownership.

John Lennon sang Imagine, just Imagine no Oil.

The Civil war of Europe

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One effect of the Lisbon treaty is to bring into stark relieve the different perceptions of politicians and citizens. More than a century ago in the United States there was a Civil war. And while the popular belief was that this war was over slavery, it was not. It is an issue which Europe faces now and in the future. What faced the U.S. was not an issue, but a right to deal with an issue locally, within the individual states representing the members of the United States. A confederacy of independent but unified States joined in common defense. The E.U. is currently just such a confederacy, but the Lisbon treaty seeks to move that into a Federalist, Centralist Nation. In the U.S.A. the Federalists sought to force the freeing of slaves on all the states, a centralist decision, which the State governments of the South had previously supported Slavery and while the topic was abhorrent, the subject could just as well have been health food or something. The central Federal government forcing decisions on State governments.

This is the fundamental goal of the Lisbon treaty, to allow the creation of laws created in the Federated European Parliament to be issued to member State/Countries superseding local control. Just as in the U.S., this was the trigger for the Civil War. The Confederacy lost the argument, and a more ridged Federal, Central government was established. As in the U.S. a decision will have to be made, will Europe be a Federal Government, or will it retain it’s individual Nations in a loose Confederacy of United Nations. War is an alternative to this decision making process.

The only government that has allowed it’s citizens to vote, to allow them to choose what they wanted, were the Irish. But the politicians of the member states want a federal government and have decided that their citizens shouldn’t be allowed to choose. They now seek to ignore the ‘No” and force another vote again until they get their ‘Yes’ because a for them, a ‘No’ will restrict their power. There is no up side for the peoples of Europe, very government seeks to restrict and control it’s citizens the question is who will do the controlling. Will the Irish control the Irish, or will Brussels.

The choice is ours!

Demonization of the Iran

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The Demonization of Iran has begun in this article Silent no more I believe that we will be seeing many more of these types of there articles from ‘conservative’ GOP publications in a deliberate attempt to justify an attack on Iran. Some of these ‘exclusive’ stories will be true, but many more of these, including this one, will not ring true but like Iraq, the truth will not come out until latter. It’s the old cry wolf story all over again, it’s a shame that it will probably work with the ignorant U.S. Public again.