Needlenose

For the record, I don’t favor having the Government at any level act as a VC for technology companies.  If for one reason or another we have a strategic interest in having something happen – like decreasing our reliance on fossil fuels while increasing our usage of renewable energy – then I’d rather the Government take some specific steps around reducing demand through taxes on the undesirable and reduced taxes or mandates on usage to promote the desirable – with every intervention specifically time-bombed and diminished over time.

So I also look askance on Obama’s loan guarantees to Solyndra (and the socializing the failure thereof).

However, the real issue here is that the Chinese massively subsidize their solar industry and are dumping their panels below cost in the U.S. market.  How could Solyndra (or other non-Obama VC’d manufacturers) compete?  This is yet another industry that the heavy guns of the state-controlled Chinese companies have chosen  to wipe out (and are in the process of doing so).

The Reactionaries, of course, who would normally love to take an opportunity to criticize China, seem rather pleased to watch Solyndra fail as it makes their nemesis Obama look bad.  Same thinking that makes them delight in the still-crappy economy – they’d rather watch a failed America run by fellow Reactionaries than a successful one run by Liberals – positively Miltonian!

Rank and file UAW workers not feeling the love as US car companies return to profitability – and union leaders are aligned with Management.  No mystery here, business has been using a clever tool for the last 4 decades.  When times are tough, buy off the existing union members by keeping their salaries and benefits static, while getting them to agree to screwing future workers:

The sense of grievance among autoworkers in large part stems from concessions accepted by the UAW in recent years, as the industry has grappled with declining sales and the government has stepped in to rescue major automakers. The concessions in essence created two separate classes of autoworkers via a two-tier wage system — a term now underlined by many workers as the source of enduring unhappiness.

Under the two-tier system, workers with seniority have generally been able to preserve their pay scale, with basic wages of about $28 an hour. But new hires can now be paid half as much, at a wage officially referred to as “entry rate” because workers are theoretically able to move up through the wage levels as senior workers retire.

The future of labor in America lies in organizing labor abroad.

The recession has hit everybody really hard, that:

• My neighbour got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.
• Wives are having sex with their husbands because they can’t afford batteries.
• CEO’s are now playing miniature golf.
• Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.
• A stripper was killed when her audience showered her with rolls of pennies while she danced.
• I saw a Mormon with only one wife.
• If the bank returns your check marked “Insufficient Funds,” you call them and ask if they meant you or them.
• McDonald’s is selling the 1/4 ouncer.
• Angelina Jolie adopted a child from America.
• Parents in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their children’s names.
• My cousin had an exorcism but couldn’t afford to pay for it, and they re-possessed her!
• A truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico.
• A picture is now only worth 200 words.
• When Bill and Hillary travel together, they now have to share a room.
• The Treasure Island casino in Las Vegas is now managed by Somali pirates.

I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security, retirement funds, etc., I called the Suicide Hotline. I got a call centre in Pakistan, and when I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited, and asked if I could drive a truck.

Tip o’ the ‘Nose to Spy Buddy!

I ditto Ian Fletcher’s call for import tariffs to level the playing field against unfair overseas competition.  But I don’t think his suggestion to use a tariff to make up the difference in the price of goods due to China’s currency manipulation and to compensate for other country’s foreign export rebates goes far enough.

The Capitalist Tools want us to compete by rolling back 100 years of labor reforms and eliminating environmental protections, basically a race to the bottom for the other 98% of the population so that our hard-working children and prisoners can breath the same smoggy air and drink the same polluted water enjoyed by labor in China and S.E. Asia.

To hell with that!  Let’s keep our high standards, and instead hit foreign goods with ‘carbon,’ ‘pollution’ and unfair labor practices tariffs.

Sure, the prices of goods will rise as manufacturing shifts back to well-paid North Americans…but at least we’ll have jobs and some money with which to buy them!

Wasn’t so long ago when “Town Hall” meetings around the country were dominated by older, angry white reactionaries, yelling something about gubbernmint messing with their Medicare and stalking around the building carrying poorly written signs and firearms.

How times have changed!  Governor Walker’s brazen attempt to kick in the teeth of labor has resulted in angry crowds of liberals at town hall meetings, yelling about reactionary strong-arm tactics and carrying well-written signs.

Good-on ya Wisconsin!  Nice to know that not all liberals are spineless jellyfish – apparently that’s just limited to Democratic Leadership and elected officials!

Tell me this ain’t so…another rig in the Gulf of Mexico just exploded.

Just in case you forgot why nuclear energy is so bad, here is an unpleasant reminder from Chernobyl – the wildfires are near the contaminated area – a burn in the region could release radioactive ash.

Just as BP shuts down the undersea gusher, some drunken redneck smashes his boat into a small wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico.  What are the odds that this could happen?  Well they have a lot of boat-driving drunken rednecks down there in the Gulf, and a lot of wells and pipelines…

The People’s Republic of China has surpassed the U.S. in energy usage.  Seems like only yesterday when CMike was berating me for negatively comparing Chinese output of CO2 to that of the U.S.  That’s a first-place we really didn’t need

The cost of oil.  The cost of coal.  The cost of wind power.

*Update* Tip of the  ’Nose to MIT Buddy: On Faux News they are saying that Obama and the Liberals sabotaged the oil rig.  DrudgeIdiot is calling the spill Obama’s Katrina.  Those fuckers are evil and stupid:

Just how stoopid are Fox viewers?