@Moor Larkin

You definetely have a point about the financial implications of the war(s). But I don’t think that the present financial collapse has anything to do with war spending. These collapses have been a long time coming. I got my hands on some interesting stats the other day.

In 1952 the US financial institutions were valued at approximately 400% of GDP (seems like a lot, but having lots of cash to invest sloshing around is the norm). This stayed pretty stable through the US’s “Golden Era” (1950ish – 1970ish). By 1982 it was approximately 420% of GDP.

Now fast-forward through the crazy 80s and the loony 90s – in 2007 it was approximately 1100% of GDP!!! That’s a near threefold increase.

All the while the profit-rate for non-financial companies has been in decline. In 2006 it reached its second lowest point in the post-war years, 5.5% or so (the lowest point was after the dot-com crash when it dropped to just under 4%).

Capital investment in the non-financial sector has also bombed. It was at about 6% (% of GDP) in 2007 – its lowest point since 1960 (the post-war period of reconstruction was a shaky period for capital investment – the difference being that profits back then were rising).

Finally consider the fact that real wages in the US have stagnated since around 1979. So non-financial companies are getting cheaper labour than they were in the “Golden Era” but there profits are… down?

I think that these trends account for the increased investment in finance. There’s less money to be made in non-financial investment. The financial meltdown seems to have been a structural problem.

Although war-spending is undoubtadly going to speed-up the crash of the US empire, this crash was inevitable. How is this connected to the Soviet experience in Afghanistan and the Union’s collapse? Frankly, I think history is just having a bit of a joke with us…

“You can say absolutely nothing of value in America, providing it has no effect whatsoever.”

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Media Disinformation in America
You Can Say Anything You Want — As Long As It Doesn’t Have Any Effect

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17457
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“In America You Can Say Anything You Want — As Long As It Doesn’t Have Any Effect.”
- Paul Goodman
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The fella has it wrong:

Correction to the quote should be:
“You can say absolutely nothing of value in American, as long as it has no effect”

http://www.mcdonalds.gr/
http://www.mcdonalds.it/

== same overall design ==
http://www.mcdonalds.fr/
http://www.mcdonalds.es/
== end ==

http://www.mcdonalds.de/
http://www.mcdonalds.ie/

In the UK I am amazed they have no Curries, like in India.
http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/

The row:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8503430.stm

Italy has got its teeth stuck into an almighty row over a burger. It’s the new McDonald’s burger called the McItaly.

Some food critics have described it as a betrayal of Italy’s culinary traditions, as it’s being promoted by the government as the new face of Italian cooking.

But the agriculture minister, who has endorsed the burger, says they are ‘ignorant Stalinists’ who should be proud of this food made from all-Italian ingredients.

Third party efforts in the USA have not been successful in the past due to the role that 3rd parties can play in the Presidential campaigns.

For one thing, the corporate infrastructure and organization necessary to hold a 3rd party campaign is extremely difficult to build. The two major parties have essentially limited the other small parties from holding offices by their regulatory rules.

Secondly, the third party candidate usually ends up taking a fraction of votes from the two major parties. In the election of 2000, the presence of the Green Party candidate Ralph Nader likely changed America’s history by taking sufficient votes from Al Gore to cost him the clear victory. Many conservative Republicans threw money at Ralph Nader in order to have him stay in the race. The GOP knew that running Nader and keeping him in the campaign would take more votes from Gore than Bush. A similar thing occurred when Ross Perot ran against George Bush and Bill Clinton in 1992. This opened the door for Clinton to win in 1992.

The situation today is different and likely more analogous to the Bull Moose candidacy of Teddy Roosevelt. The two parties are more likely to shift their messaging to contain the loss of voters.

The Tea Party movement which is currently receiving alot of MSM attention in the United States is not an independent movement. The movement is started by strongly Republican organizers, money, and infrastructure. It is an attempt to recapture the people who left the Republican Party over the last 3 years. As the economic crisis worsened and the true colors of the Bush Family became more apparent, the GOP lost millions of supporters.

Some of these people have gathered under the “Tea Party” tent.

McDick’s has made a McITALY BURGER!!!!
This is fucking STUPID!!!!
Considering wherever I went, I’d see billboards spray painted “McMerda”…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8503430.stm

Leave our Stacy alone, shithead. You don’t like it around here then piss off mate. Go do Freeper shit at some Freeper site. You don’t like us .. go to hell. Take your feelings and go. Don’t go away mad. Just go away.

Although, arsonists would be able to hurt someone twice, first the burn, then the bill, maybe thats the plan afterall.

Again, the fella has it all wrong.

In the USA you are limited to saying absolutely nothing, and what you do say cannot have any effect…

1. Cross over at a land crossing nearer to where you live. There are some really deserted crossings in Manitoba.

2. In his case, the excuse one should use is wildlife photography in the national parks.

3. Take the train to Calgary, and a bus to Kamloops or Kewlona.
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Anti-Olympic reporter denied entry into Canada

http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100207/bc_protestor_detained_100207/20100207?hub=BritishColumbia

A Chicago-based independent journalist says he was detained and questioned at the Vancouver airport on Saturday afternoon, denied a phone call or legal counsel and sent unceremoniously back to the U.S.

Martin Macias Jr. arrived at YVR at around 11:30 a.m. with his travelling partner Bob Quellos. Both are outspoken Olympic critics associated with No Games Chicago, a group that opposed the city’s bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

The two were planning to meet up with local anti-Olympic crusader Chris Shaw and attend a number of Vancouver rallies and protests this week leading up to the start of the Games.

Macias never made it out of the airport.

Instead, the 20-year-old part-time reporter says he spent two and a half hours being interviewed by customs about his fellow protesters.

“They wanted to know more about the people who are organizing the conference, about who I was staying with, if I could contact them, if I knew what they were wearing,” Macias said. “It was very, very strange.”

Macias said his phone book was confiscated and inspected. One local Vancouver number, listed under “Support,” was of particular interest.

“It is a number to the conference in case you’re in the city, you need food, or you get questioned by police,” Macias said. “They took that as a sign that I was coming here with the intention of getting into some kind of violent rally or protest.”

Macias said he was accused of withholding information and given a choice: leave Canada voluntarily or be detained until he faced trial.

“It would be a week and a half,” Macias said. “I have work, school, my family. I can’t be here that long.”

Authorities refused to pay for his ticket back to Chicago, Macias said, so he boarded a flight to Seattle instead.

[...]