Tuesday, December 22, 2009

The War is Over

We have finally reached victory in Iraq, oil has been privatized. No longer in the hands of the Iraqis, Oil fields are now owned by the likes of Exxon-Mobile and Shell. Now we can truly state “Mission Accomplished”, and we can stop pretending that the war was for any other reason.


We go to war and use public dollars to fight for private corporate interests. We even use a private military. More than half of the people we use in our wars are not members of the US military, but work for private independent profit driven companies. Those enormous profits these companies make are built into our military budgets. It is a giant scam, and there is a a lot of money to be made.


The federal government always has enough money when tax revenue can be transformed into private profits, such as our military budget and wall street bailouts. But never enough money for the things in the public good, such as real health care reform, education, or fighting climate change. Congress just approved an additional 636 Billion for Iraq and Afghanistan, as compared to our 10 Billion we plan to put forth for climate change. I wonder what out schools would look like with an additional 600 Billion dollars. I bet we could afford to give Coca-Cola back all their scoreboards.


Friday, December 18, 2009

Copenhagen

The climate talks in Copenhagen were a complete failure. As it stands, capitalism remains fully intact as the economic system of the world. I had hope that after meaningful discussion the world would conclude that in order to save the planet our current economic system would need to be abolished. However, meaningful discussions were not on the agenda.


As the delegates from the global north exited their jets and entered their limos, they entered the conference with optimism. To their dismay, delegates from the global south, NGO’s, and the people in the streets wanted a real agreement that was in the interest of the planet and the people of the world. The North said they would not raise the temperature by more than 2 degrees. Africa said that is genocide to their continent, and the wanted no more that 1.5 degrees. The North was concerned with how that would affect their profits in March through June as compared to July through October. Then a leaked document showed we are moving towards a 3 degree increase. This greatly concerned the poorest nations, but the rich nations barely heard their cries. Many countries from the Global south walked out of the conference in protest. When one of the northern delegates was asked about the delegates from the South walking out, the response was, “Really, they did? I didn’t notice. So now who is going clean the bathrooms?”


The US said they would reduce emissions to 17% below 2005 levels. The rest of the world uses the metric system and 1990 levels, so in the terms of the rest of the world, it equals a 4% reduction. A market driven Cap and Trade system is expected to go into effect, so business can purchase a 4% credit and not reduce emissions at all. It it brilliant, there we can do absolutely nothing, but make it look like we are making great strides by playing with numbers and fudging paper work. Karl Rove could not have done it better. Basically our terms were that we would not do a damn thing.


US is giving 10 billion to fight climate change, and a promise to give 100 billion in 10 years. That is about 4% of what we spent on the Iraq war. If that figure sounds too low, you can also say it is about 17% of what the gulf war cost. The US sees this as a good deed, calling itself a donor state. We are generous, we offer to clean up a portion of the mess we made.


When it looked like talks would go nowhere, the US sent Hilary Clinton in to give an ultimatum. If the the poor countries agreed to fuck themselves, the US would give them money. If they would not fuck themselves, then they would get no money, and would then be fucked by the US.


On Friday President Obama was schedule to speak, but when he stood at the crowd and opened his mouth, only bullshit came out. Bullshit, as we know, contains methane, which is a greenhouse gas. It was reported that the temperature of the room increased by 3 degrees during his speech. I am not sure if we can ever curb emissions as long as politicians keep opening their mouths.


The blackmail and/or ultimatum worked. The terms of the global north were met. We are such free marketists that we walk in there and purchase the terms of the agreement. Copenhagen went to the highest bidder, who also happens to be the biggest polluters. Shameful.


Shame on the Bush administration for turning their back on Kyoto. Double the shame on the Obama Administration for pissing all over Copenhagen, and then using a bunch of political double speak that attempted to to paint themselves as the heroes. Heroes don’t set out to gain world domination, that is what villains do.