'Toontime: Noblese Oblige

[credit: Jim Morin, The Miami Herald]
Wackydoodle axes:  Are they eatin' cake yet?

Some numbers encapsulate the moment and remain in the memory: 9-11; 99%; 38th; 54-40; 1776. Mitt Romney, the plutocracy's anointed son, is going to have to do a lot of fast talking to remove 15% from American voters' memory this election cycle. Nevertheless, he seems to relish throwing his conspicuous wealth into our faces by making misstatements like "I am not concerned with the very poor". Of course, the media and Newt have made hay with his malaprop out of context. Revealingly, Mitt thinks there is still a social safety net in America. Someone should tell him that Repugnants since Ronald 'Raygun' have been doing their upmost to 'monetize' it. Poverty has actually increased in America, with more people who think they are middle class falling out of it. All it will take for them to wake up from their happy dream is one personal catastrophe. Another 2.6 million people slipped into poverty last year according to the Census Bureau, and median household income fell to the 1996 level. Official poverty reached a low in 1973 of 11.1%, but by 1983 the number of American poor reached 15.2% or 35.3 million. Poverty has remained above 12% except for the economic boom times of the 1990's when it declined. Currently, the Bureau says the rate is 15.1% or 46.2 million, the highest number in 52 yearsThe young and minorities are still disproportionately represented among the poor while older Americans, thanks to Social Security and private pensions, are doing better than previously in our nation's history.

Our government's response to this crossroads in history:

[credit: Glenn McCoy, Belleville News-Democrat]

Wow!: Queen Annuls Bankster's Knighthood

Queen Elizabeth ratified the stripping of Sir (former) Fred Goodwin's knighthood. Goodwin was the head of the Royal Bank of Scotland which insolvency started the worst recession in Britain since WW2. The head of British Civil Service notified Goodwin of the action Tuesday. The government said his prominent role in the 2008 Panic made him an "exceptional case" while some Labour ministers said the annulment was a "bow to the mob" given some people have been to prison and still have their knighthoods. Members of the House of Lords, for example, cannot have their honors removed (e.g., Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare) The Cabinet Office said Goodwin's knighthood was annulled because it brought the honours system into disrepute. Are they serious? The Royal Bank of Scotland was rescued by the government at ₤45.5bn ratepayer expense to prevent even more damage to the world's banking system. Sir Goodwin resigned under pressure as the bank's CEO and took early retirement in October 2008. Goodwin was knighted in 2004 for his services to banking. His knighthood was history when Tory Prime Minister David Cameron called for it to be removed. Goodwin joins spies Anthony Blunt and Kim Philby, dictators Nicolae Ceausescu, Robert Mugabe, and Benito Mussolini in the club of the disreputable. Mr. Obama, you should check this box: ◻.

Bat Death Toll Will Go Higher

Myotis lucifugus

Biologists are gearing up for the winter bat count, but they expect more bad news as the "white nose syndrome" continues to spread through North America's bat colonies. The cause has been isolated,a fungus (Geomayces destructans)that lives in cave soil, but no effective means have been developed to stop the virus from killing more beneficial bats. The state of Wisconsin considers the fungus to be an invasive species, perhaps transplanted to New World hibernacula by peripatetic spelunkers. Estimates of the death toll are between 5.7 and 6.7 million. Mortality rates in some caves reach 100%. 70-80% is common. Congress directed the Department of Interior to dedicate $4 million of the Department's 2012 appropriations to fund research and response. One of the problems facing researchers is the lack of population data on common species such as the little brown bat. Endangered species like the Indiana brown bat are more closely inventoried, but both species are dying from the disease. Six species of North America's 45 species of bat are affected; all of the affected hibernate in winter. A spokesperson for Bat Conservation International characterized the disease as a potential extinction event on the order of the passenger pigeon or bison. Reports that natural resistance to the virus is increasing among decimated northeastern colonies where the diseases was first detected in the Andirondacks, but that may only be wishful thinking. European bats seem to be immune to the disease, and may offer some clues as to how to combat the deadly infection before it wipes out bats worth $3.7 billion annually in insect control.

Peace Prize Winner Sells Guns to Bahrain in Secret

AP: Humvee & M113 near Pearl Roundabout

Readers may remember that the kingdom of Bahrain used Saudi troops to help quash protesting citizens during the "Arab Spring" uprising [photo]. But the oppressive character of the country's government does not stop the Obama administration from selling it advanced weaponry in secret. Fearful that public arms sales to Bahrain would met with widespread condemnation during an election cycle, the Obama State Department is using a legal loophole to secretly sell 44 armored Humvees and over 300 advanced missles (TOW) to Bahrain. A planned $53 million arms sale was blocked by congressional opposition. State did not release details of the new sale, but only briefed a few chosen congressional offices. The US government can sell less than $1 million in arms to a foreign government without listing the sale publicly on the Defense Security Cooperation Agency website. So the Obama administration is treating the transaction as multiple sales of under $1 million to avoid publicity or objections. State claims the weapons are only for "external defense" not for use against Bahrainis, But when the first sale was being processed a video popped up on the Web showing the Bahraini military using US manufactured equipment (M113 personnel carriers) to suppress civilian dissent, making a liar out of the State Department, again. An official of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights commented to the Cable blog that selling arms to the Bahraini regime sends the wrong message to the whole Arab world and is exactly similar to Russia selling arms to Syria. He said, "Bahrain has become the United States' test on how serious they are about standing against human rights violations, and they are failing miserably." Congressional opponents of arms sales to Bahrain have introduced legislation in both chambers to prevent the secret sale being consummated.

Chevron Hit with Criminal Charges

Brazil intends to charge Chevron with criminal acts related to the 2,400 barrel oil spill off the Brazil coast in the Campos basin in November of last year. As many as 12 Chevron officials may be indicted for taking irresponsible risks in the Frade field. Although the Gulf Oil Spill was over 1,000 times larger than the Frade spill, British Petroleum has had no criminal charges filed against it, and the federal civil court judge handling claims against BP has ruled out punitive damages or civil fines as a result of these suits. Last summer Judge Carl Barber dismissed a consolidated racketeering suit arising out of the Gulf oil spill. The US Justice Department said in June it would investigate whether any criminal laws were broken by BP. The Clean Water Act contains criminal penalties, but environmental protection laws are only as good as the enforcement as Brazil is demonstrating.

Europe's Second Tier

The ECB's cheap money deluge is relieving the crisis for some countries who are able to borrow at lower rates, like Italy and Spain, but the policy of exchanging 1% loans for bad collateral--similar to what the Fed did in the US--is in danger of creating a permanent debtor class of countries like Greece who will never be able to pay off its euro denominated debt bomb and will be eternally begging for mo' money from rich countries of the EU like Germany and Sweden. The situation in Greece is getting worse, not better, as the entire EU is headed for another recession, reducing government revenues and putting more and more Greeks into poverty, further reducing revenues. There are simply not enough antiques to sell to make the loan payments. European banks are getting plenty of liquidity from the ECB emergency lending operations, but the banks are only parking the money with the ECB to facilitate their own de-leveraging and meet the new reserve requirements--also similar to what happened with the TARP funds in the US. Greece's only hope of preventing future financial feudalism is to follow Iceland into repudiation, exit the zone, and pay back debts in drachmas. Of course this will drive the big banks crazy with losses, and there may be blood, but Greece is confronting its survival. This chart shows what the Baltic Index, a widely followed leading index of bulk shipping rates, shows about the near economic future for Europe:

The chart below shows the 'double dip' recession the UK is sliding into compared to its previous recession cycles while its sovereign debt total is on a parabola off the chart:

The red line is the current UK recession. It is the worst on record which does not bode well for the rest of Europe.