ECB starts printing money big time: nightmares come true!

The European Central Bank said it injected a record 489.19 billion euros (US$641bil) into eurozone banks in its first-ever three-year refinancing operation.
Sounds really apocalyptic but at the same time prosaic and predetermined. One can only imagine the dialog that took place between Angela Merkel and Sarkozy, it could have been something like this:

MERKEL: I am not sure... I do have some bad feelings and premonitions about unconditionally subjugating the one and only healthy donor-type economy in eurozone - Germany - to the parasitic majority of the whole company.. Don't think I am too scrupulous, but it looks a bit alarming in terms of possible historic responsibility...
SARKOZY: Oh, my dear Angela, come on, we live only once. Let's do the usual thing we in democratish countries always do in such situations - borrow from our children and grandchildren and postpone the big crash for several years... Even if it means a total collapse of the EU, this will not happen tomorrow and all those journalists and publicists, never mind our lot - politicians - will be saying that you just 'made a mistake' but you tried your hardest to save the whole thing... Nobody can accuse us of a CRIME we are protected by the 'half-democracy'. We just make sometimes mistakes... Nothing criminal... Lets live in the present - in this day - you and me have only a few years left in office... Let's not over-complicate things.

Instead of a comprehensive reform of the financial capitalism and democratization of the EU, they decided to do what almost all observers and analysts expected them to do in the end (you don't need an Oxford degree to make such predictions in the modern 'decomposed' Western political world): they 'leveraged' an already existentially dangerous structural problem. Instead of 'germanization' - okay, if somebody don't like this term, let them have Finlandization or Scandinavization - of those pseudo-democratic, American type oligarchic pluto-klepto-cratic neighbors like Italy or Greece - parasitic in essence (by no means do I blame the victimized people of those countries, rather the system and the state), they on the contrary bend down the heart of the European economy - Germany - to the dictates of its ill - now quite possibly terminally ill - members. They decided to treat the economic drug dependence with additional unending mega-shots of 'the financial heroin' - just to postpone the debts of the southern countries by loaning times more money at the expense of increasing the debts even more - to a fatal extent. And, mind you my dear reader, all those people in power KNOW what they do and all the consequences, which in my humble opinion, makes the difference between a mistake and a crime.
You also don't have to be Adam Smith now to understand that the huge economic problems of Greece, Portugal, Italy, Spain etc, possibly even France, are to do with structural problems of those economies, with the structural problems of their political models (especially in countries like Italy and Greece) and structural problems in the format of the eurozone - both political and economic. Those countries are in essence oligarchic plutocracies (which mistakenly considered by some credulous people to be democracies), where there's a continuity of interests of successive governments, which themselves in essence are nothing more than an appendage of the powerful rich group(s) - a kind of lackey, or doorman at the doors or the club, the owners of which never have been the peoples of those countries. Of course every new government in Greece borrowed as much as possible using state bonds just to stay in power and satisfy the ever-increasing appetites of their master - wealthy 'elites'. Now, when the situation came to a head in such countries as Greece where the minimum supply of liquidity is coming to an end (the state and banks just don't have a minimal amount of money to sustain the basic economic mechanisms, after all those huge loaned money just drained in the private pocket of the wealthy 10% of the population), they decided to pump an additional amount of this 'heroin' DIRECTLY through the bank system, and institutionalize this approach via change of the ECB role to a KIND OF Fed. Reserve of the US (which Germany resisted so long but unsuccessfully in the end). That means in essence printing money, and indirectly using taxpayers' (predominantly German taxpayer's) money for covering the losses of the banks which are too big to fail (mainly German and French banks financed the Greek banks directly or via government and now the insurance company called 'taxpayers all over the Europe' must cover this megatheft for free - see http://dr-world.blogspot.com/2011/11/greece-will-fail-without-euro-just.html). Immediately and unsurprisingly the banks on the first day of the auction grabbed almost 500 bln euros (!!) from ECB, and this is only a start. Looks like a 'safety shot' in the head of the economic union of Europe.
The second problem is the same old problem, which, in my view, from the very start of the EU became a time bomb for the very EU: the total absence of democracy in the very foundation of the EU (never mind eurozone), and, hence, legitimacy (http://dr-world.blogspot.com/2011/01/few-words-about-eu-good-idea-but-in.html). The use of Central Banks in itself for printing money and pumping liquidity into the banking system is not necessarily bad at all times, but the problem is that within democratic national systems, e.g. in the case of the USA, Japan, England etc, the emission and REDISTRIBUTION of money supply has legitimacy with the people (at least nominal), and the people, at least nominally, have the power to influence the policymakers directly (through local and general elections), influencing through them what can be an UNJUST and unbalanced redistribution of money and credit power in the national economy - there is at least on paper a democratic feedback and a place for the people in this pact between the state institutions. But nothing of this sort do you have in the EU - The Soviet Union of European Governments and Functionaries. Germans are 120% sure that the actions of the ECB are aimed at stealing their purchasing power and the value of their savings (which is 120% true too) just to save the foreign fat cats (who give nothing instead) and their own fat cats (in the form of their bankrupt banks).
And there's nothing that Germans can do about this within the EU bureaucracy's rules and so called 'laws' (a union which is in essence a form of usurpation of national sovereign powers and democracy, because it is not democratic in itself). This leads the whole system directly to a political crisis of an immense scale. But European 'leaders' just continue - knowingly so - to inject the 'heroin' into the poisoned bloodstream of the system, robe their taxpayers without saying a WORD about the critical situation with democracy and legitimacy of this whole rosy house named 'EU' (I am really amazed by the fact they call themselves 'leaders' since in my simple mind, leaders are exemplified for instance by some Roman generals or Emperors who to heighten the moral and hope of their armies get ahead of everybody else and demonstratively risk their life to start a crucial attack and fundamentally change the course of the fight. The image of the miserable self-interested and cynical RATS, whose only task is getting rid of all kind of responsibilities, staying in power  as long as possible thanks to political prostitution and appearing even before their own public only in the presence of heavy security and behind the bullet-prof glass of their tank-like automobiles, doesn't easily fit into my old fashioned conception of leaders).

My last tribute to a giant of a man - Vaclav Havel

I am sending my last tribute to the great man Vaclav Havel of the world, great politician and artist, who died today.
Unfortunately now the presence of such GIANTS in politics in the West is absolutely ruled out. The coming of Vaclav Havel into politics could become possible only and only thanks to the realities of the Cold War and the Soviet Occupation. Viewed against the background of such persons like Vaclav, today's political bedbugs in Europe, which dare to call themselves 'leaders', would really seem pathetic Lilliputs.
My heart goes out to the Czechs and those who really understand the human dimensions of Vaclav Havel and his contribution not only to the Czech Republic but to the world.
Thank you Vaclav for all you did, for your ideas and ideals, for your words and deeds.

Arab peoples must get rid of ALL illusions about the West's intentions

Arab peoples must get rid of ALL illusions about the West's intentions: Western powers have NEVER EVER wanted to promote a genuine democracy in the Middle East. They historically either financed dictators (like in Egypt or in Yemen) or created 'sham' democracies (like in Iraq or Bahrain) which in reality under the 'democratic gravy' are kleptocratic oligarchies (clan based or capital based), which steal from and cripple their own nations. The West is not only disinterested in real strong democracy in the Middle East, but does everything in its power to prevent it: WEAK Arab-speaking world is GOOD Arab-speaking world, at least in the view of the US. If Arabs want true democracy, they MUST build it themselves, and they'd better not step on the same 'mine' as India or Eastern European countries, who decided to build American type of capitalism (http://dr-world.blogspot.com/2011/08/note-about-india-disparity-and.html). American type of capitalism is incompatible with true democracy, cos capital has always more votes than people. Do learn from Finland and Sweden, which are not only much more socially and morally just societies but also are an order of magnitude more democratic than the US (practical control over what the state is up to and the independence of government from lobbying power of capital is incomparably better and unadulterated in Scandinavia which in part explains why the quality of life of the general public there is significantly better now than that in the US). Don't forget, the buzz word of 'democratic capitalism' is a malicious demagogic myth for the undereducated people.
See also on this topic:
http://dr-world.blogspot.com/2011/03/america-refused-to-teach-arabs.html
http://dr-world.blogspot.com/2011/06/why-did-west-start-war-against-gaddafi.html
http://dr-world.blogspot.com/2011/03/bahrain-just-another-litmus-test-to.html
http://dr-world.blogspot.com/2011/03/some-extra-about-moral-political-crisis.html

Canada exits Kyoto: oil prostitution has its modest price

Yeess, here I would reluctantly agree with you, my critical justice-seeking reader: Canada is a very active and progressive contributor to the global warming... though it doesn't mean that Canada is a region that feels the most of the consequences of this phenomenon in its 'most warming' manifestations, I am afraid...
Unfortunately Canada (of course here by Canada I mean only and only Canadian STATE), among many different types of 'political and economic prostitution' it has traditionally practiced, has lately taken to OIL prostitution and she's done it so energetically, enthusiastically and in earnest that has almost instantly overtaken her big southern brother in terms of the intensity of state's jolly fellatio - figuratively speaking - of the tar-smelling member of the oil corporations... American oil corporations... What the hell does Canada need this Kyoto protocol for if it digs up Alberta's tar sands (and all of Alberta with it) by the hands of the US oil companies for the good of American ecology and interests of American people?! Maybe for some crazy countries and regions like Germany. Japan. Korea etc, who go by leaps and bounds into the 21th century, developing green post-oil economy, it is important to have some green-house gas protocols, but of course not for Canada which has by right deserved to be exempt from this duty by her stubborn and triumphant march into the 20th century... even though her big southern brother's lately faltered a bit in his assurance on this front... Canada can sometimes remind a time machine.

Iran's nuclear weapon is inevitable: Israel must thank the US!

I am less than happy about Iran's nuclear program in the form it is now, BUT, unfortunately, as a rational man, I have to recognize the overwhelming probability that now nobody can prevent Iran from developing the enrichment process and getting all the ingredients to built its own nuclear explosive device. In my mind it's almost a forgone conclusion, though, I hasten to add, that it's not necessarily the main goal of the Iranian regime to construct an actual bomb. The main thing for them is to reach and demonstrate the absolute ability to built the bomb at will.
Also I have no doubts at all that the turning point in Iran's nuclear program and the huge window of opportunity Iran used for playing this card were created by Bush's government policy and actions (no matter deliberately or not), that's the US. After America got quite predictably bogged down into the unprecedentedly ugly, immoral and stupid war in Iraq while continuing to stay in Afghanistan (for reasons unknown too), there were no more factors left that could restrain Iran from going nuclear. This was rationally absolutely predictable and almost inevitable, and, in my view, therefore, the whole responsibility for any Iran's successes on this front must be FULLY placed on the US. In this sense Israel may say many many 'thanks' to its big friend for this 'help'. Furthermore, the very coming into power of radical Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could have been impossible without this 'performance' given by Bush on the Middle East stage. As is well known, before Ahmadinejad at the helm of Iran stood quite a moderate and incomparably more friendly and cultured Mohammad Khatami (who, by the way, mothballed the nuclear project). Of course the invasion of Iraq radicalized the Iranian society, giving such guys like Ahmadinejad a very good chance - a result, which cannot have been unpredicted (at least as a big possibility) by the White House.
Anyway, for now the technical and scientific potential of Iran at this stage of development and zero levers of the West to out pressure, in my mind, make Iran's becoming a nuclear state almost the inevitability. So one will have to live with that and build relations accordingly. All this fuss about Iran's threat to Israel or the US and, even more ridiculously, to Europe is, I am afraid, again is nothing more than a piece of very cheap, 20th century low standard demagoguery and propaganda.
Oh completely forgot, about DIPLOMATIC ways of preventing Iran from going nuclear and denuclearization of the Middle East : of course, it stands to reason and goes without saying, that Middle East should not have been nuclearized in the first place. In the 21th century, I hope, it is ridiculous even for a school boy to think that all those soulful, dear and 'highly moral' talks about preventing nuclear arms spread in the Middle East are just a kind of trite joke if in one package with it you don't discuss Israel with its illegal 200 nukes and one of the most powerful armies in the world (nonetheless additionally reinforced in the form of alliance by the most powerful army in the world - the US).
On the other hand, any strikes and military aggression against Iran will bring a chance that that country would be further radicalized and consider seriously using its technology for producing a real bomb. All those actions, be it on the part of Israel or the US, would mean really putting at (created) risk many people and many lives, and the responsibility for all the consequences of such, in my opinion CRIMINAL, gambling, would lie with those powers (that would start this harmful almost anti-humane, game).
That being said, there may be serious possibility to solve the 'nuclear' problem in theory: if - just assume for the sake of argument - the US gets serious about discussing Israel's nuclear arsenal and its denuclearization in the broad context together with Iran and all other countries in the Middle East. Such talk would be really an honest and adult attempt to start on the road to peace. But some 'inner voice' tells me (I hope it lies) that, though this fair and practicable way is obvious and workable, neither the US nor Israel will follow it in the foreseeable future, and the 20th century standard warmongering rhetoric will go on, further spoiling the international reputation and image of the US http://dr-world.blogspot.com/2011/03/some-extra-about-moral-political-crisis.html (you can't say anything about Israel's international reputation, if of course you don't place it alongside countries like Russia http://dr-world.blogspot.com/2011/09/israel-stays-on-in-20th-century-not.html).
In the meantime arguably the most dangerous nuclear country Pakistan - most dangerous not only of Israel, but for the whole of the world -remains among the friends and allies of America - America with whose tacit agreement, if not direct protection, Pakistan made this very nuclear weapon. Never ever did I hear that Israel tried at least to put some pressure on America in relation to its friendship with Pakistan. O no! Israel itself weaponizes Pakistan with great success. Don't tell me after that about Israeli and American governments caring about their peoples... Give me a break! Hah... the world and America's 'spoiled teenager' Israel would be by orders of magnitude more safe if America swapped around Pakistan and Iran, making the latter its strategic friend, and turning Pakistan into the 'bogeyman'. At least Iran has a sound control over all its territory, over its weapon arsenal and don't sponsor directly terrorists (which is such a characteristic feature of Pakistani governmental agencies). Iran in terms of its soundness and safety in comparison with America's beloved Pakistan can be seen as Belgium in comparison with Serbia in the times of Milosevic's rule.

Don't tell me the West cannot put more pressure on Assad!

It is too often that one has had lately to hear all kinds of demagoguery coming from Western leaders and political observers which boil down to the simple formula 'We cannot do anything more about Syria, cos all our non-military arsenal of levers and means of pressure has been exhausted'. To me that sounds like barefaced cheap lies - very cynical too.
There are a lots of things in the arsenal of the US & its Western allies to contribute to democratic revolution in Syria, or, at least, overthrowing Assad's repressive regime. What to do about Syria?
1. First of all, criminal proceedings should have been initiated against Assad in Hague Tribunal quite a time ago. Morally one cannot understand why it hasn't been done many months ago, but, taking into account the sad realities and absolute immorality of the politics of many so called democracies in the West it only stands to reason that Assad is not prosecuted by this 'controlled selective justice tool' - Hague Tribunal: many politicians in the West are still holding out hope that Assad's forces will prevail in the end, no real responsibility for saving Syrians will not have to be taken and Syria will continue to remain blissfully weak and therefore safe country in the eyes if the US - just as is the case with all the rest of the Middle East (about the purposeful policies of the West aimed at creating and keeping bloody dictators in the Middle East see also http://dr-world.blogspot.com/2011/03/america-refused-to-teach-arabs.html, http://dr-world.blogspot.com/2011/06/why-did-west-start-war-against-gaddafi.html  and http://dr-world.blogspot.com/2011/03/some-extra-about-moral-political-crisis.html). It goes without saying that not having started prosecuting Assad through the Hague Tribunal just adds to the ruining of the already disfigured image and reputation of those justice institutions and principles.
2. Stop buying oil.
3. Stop all diplomatic relations with Syria, call back all diplomats.
4. FREEZE all bank accounts and transaction of the regime and its officials.
5. Deny entry visa and movement of any Syrian regime officials within (and through) the territory of the Western and countries.
6. Continue information war and moral support (there is huge experience accumulated by the West in this respect in the times of the Cold War, ranging from radio-channels provided for the dissidents of the regime to helping with financing the opposition groups' own press and information campaigns).
7. One the most important things to do: provide free specialist consultation to the opposition groups on more effective political fight tactics and organizations, about leadership formation and the creation of institutions.
8. Last but not least: Western powers must publicly PROMISE that irrespective of the situation in Syria the West's relations won't improve and all the sanctions will stay in force. Veeeery important step, because, obviously, now the Syrian government hopes (just as any other government would do in its place), that if it finally succeeds in suppressing the revolutionary forces, over time the situation will come back to normal, the West as ever, will calm down, and everything will be business as usual.
9. You don't need to be Machiavelli to understand that president Assad and his groups would resist to as long as possible and kill as many people as necessary to support their hope, for one simple reason: they FEAR for their lives. If the West is really interested in promoting democracy and saving as many civilian lives as possible (which I doubt very much on the historical grounds) they can negotiate a form of guaranties for Assad's life - kind of safe 'prison-asylum'. I am all for putting Assad on trial, but, as a man who REALLY wants to stop the blood shed in Syria, I would happily agree to 'imprison' Assad like Napoleon on some island with a life-long pension, servants and safe good conditions, ONLY to STOP the killings and facilitate the regime change. With all my hatred of people like Assad, thousands of innocent lives and a speedy change of regime for me are thousands times more valuable that one life of this butcher.
All theses things are understood and known by Western powers no worse than by me, but they are not done. Hope that new players like Turkey will help Syrian people much faster than Western HYPER-HYPOCRITES!

Governments' concern with global warming is hard to believe in

Just cannot help but drop a couple of skeptical remarks on this global warming fuss and hype supported by a number of Western countries: I think something needs to be elucidated once and for all about all those noises politicians in the West try to make about greenhouse gases and global warming threats, convening regular summits at the top level, flying there on huge jets, throwing big parties and having collective slick pictures taken of themselves as a memento at the expense of their crisis-stricken nations.
It is really hard for one to believe (if, of course, one is not a 16 year old youth, full of sweet fantasies and hopes about the nature of the modern politics and mechanisms governing it), that governments around the world are really concerned with the global warming and its consequences for the future generations - something looking more of a blueprint for a surrealistic novel or movie.
Global warming is practically a scientific reality (only 'voodoo parties' like Republicans in the US don't recognize the overwhelming base of scientific evidence in favor of the human-induced greenhouse effect taking place), and a dangerous reality too, but so far the history teaches us that politicians and governing elites (classes) not only aren't concerned the least bit about the future of the next generations, but on the contrary ALWAYS ready and willing to BORROW as much as possible from and make as much indebted (in all imaginable senses) as technically feasible generations of their children and grand-children. It is really ridiculous to think that all that global warming drivel originates in a kind of soulful compassion ostensibly cherished by those cynical, intrinsically immoral, political animals, who are ready to sell anything and anyone, including any national interests, only to stay in power during THEIR life-time on this planet - politicians who decide to send to war their kids to be killed and mutilated just at a snap of their fingers, after a private talk with a leader of a foreign nation on his ranch, regardless of opposition to this idea by 80% of their own nation, just because it could give them some assumed advantage. Give me a break. They couldn't care less about what can happen in a matter of 5-10 years, let alone after their death (at least now degeneration of the 'semi-democracies' brought the situation in West to this deplorable state of things).
But what the ruling elites, at least in Europe, have really become concerned is OIL ADDICTION and DEPENDENCE. Because none of them wants to say directly 'We want to move away from using hydrocarbons as the main energy source, stop financing rogue regimes (who are most often the lucky owners of the oil reserves), and stop this malicious over-dependence on the oil corporations wielding enormous lobbying power' they thought up this politically correct and HIGHLY MORAL (as usual) narrative about their care and concern for future generation and third developing countries suffering from the excessive droughts and floods, brought on by Global Warming. When oil prices went up to $100 per brl against the background of the soaring appetites of China and India for hydrocarbons and continuing depletion of easy oil fields, the Europeans started to feel some discomfort, especially seeing as nothing on the horizon bodes any improvement on this front.
Of course there are some other pleasant extras and bonuses that could be potentially derived from this 'MORAL' context, introduced by those 'angelic custodians of the well-being of the future generations': for example, instead of paying 'carbon-fuel' or 'technological' reparations to the developing countries (who only now, 100 years after the West, undergo the phase of industrialization of their economies, like China, India and many others), those Westerners can feel themselves cosmically brazen on the contrary to require some extra payments in return from those poor developing countries (though of course, it goes without saying, the main consumers of those new production bases created in the developing countries are Westerners, who in essence move their production from their 'clean garden' to the dirty shops of the new Asian contractors); or those developing countries could be put in a position where their companies and governments would be more willing (trying to be as MORAL as their big brothers in the West) to BUY new equipment and green technologies from the Western champions of the green future of the human kind (instead of getting them FREE as a partial compensation for those centuries of wild Western industrialization). Many other goodies could be potentially derived from this incredible heavenly MORALITY and RIGHTEOUSNESS of the posed MOTIVES of the Western countries, whose colossal industrialization at any cost with zero regard for anything and anyone live else in the world during the last couple of centuries, became the one and only cause of this very Global Warming.