Current mood:	infuriated
Entry tags:	climate catastrophe, economic meltdown, environmentalism, health care, people suck, politics, student loans

Swim out past the breakers, and watch the world die. (part 13.7)
If you click on nothing else I ever post, click here:

http://www.correntewire.com/priorities_pravda


(chart comparing what is spent on the financial bail-out in just 12 months to various other things spanning years and centuries)

Now, think about what we could do w/the money it cost to invade Iraq, and then think about how the financial services bail out dwarfs that.

Fully funded federal health care for all? Check.
Fully funded college education for all who want it? Check.
Enough money to every individual in the country that everyone not already well off would see a noticable improvement in living standards for at least six months? Check.
Vast investment into renewable energy resources that could give us energy independence and fight climate change? Check.
All of this combined? I dunno, but I wouldn't be surprised.
Would all of these things have actually sent money into the economy to help pull us out of the current state of nastiness so they wouldn't have had to invent a "jobless recovery" and things' would actually really be getting better? Yes.

So, hundreds of millions better off and better long term prognosis, or save a few rich people? Clearly, more important to save a few rich people. Or, Larry Summers grasps key economic fundamentals well hidden from stupid people like me. Pick one. (to be fair: third conceivable alternative: Larry Summers is horribly wrong but well-intentioned and thinks he knows what he's doing and it really will be best for all and has actually crunched numbers and this all made sense to him)(or, see here: http://www.correntewire.com/headlines_say_it_all_goldman_exec_named_first_coo_sec_enforcement#comments)

Equally important, if not moreso, re: global warming, melting icecaps, and bad stuff happening faster than models predict:
http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/014498.php

Also important, takedown by climate scientists of new book that is either deliberately false or woefully misguided (and in either event appears to deliberately mischaracterize the opinions of primary sources, according to said sources):

http://climateprogress.org/2009/10/12/superfreakonomics-errors-levitt-caldeira-myhrvold/

Naked capitalism on the state of our press: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/10/msm-reporting-as-propaganda-no-one-minds-our-new-financial-lords-and-masters-edition.html

Hawaii as possible health care reform model, except no one is studying it: http://alegrescorner.soapblox.net/showDiary.do?diaryId=3704

Democratic leadership in action, re: student loan improvements; http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/youve-got-to-be-kidding-me-by-digby.html

People are fucking evil, part 5 Trillion: http://jblaque.livejournal.com/734714.html (gov't approves new horrible way to kill prairie dogs that will also damage ecostystem even as prairie dog numbers continue to precipitously decline) (aka more democratic leadership in action, aka wow, it's so much different w/Bush gone! part 97)