Closing the Revolving Door?

President-elect Obama is to curb the influence of professional lobbyists in an effort to close the revolving door and clean up on Capitol Hill. It all sounds very Jimmy Stewart. Good Luck. It may seem mad to say so, but the oil industry's long ascendancy is clearly waning as its influence over the US fades and its epitaph is prepared. It'll be a long, slow going, though. Pity we left it so late.
Thanks to Craig Mackintosh for pointing this out to me

The Onion has this to say

Throbgoblins International salutes Miss Joan Pick. Frank may be sending her flowers.

Hearts of Gold

Environmental criminals are making fortunes from everything from Tiger testicles to clear logging. The question of how to stop this has vexed much and many bigger brains than mine, but It's a sad (and probably accurate) testament to our motivation as a species that the only realistic solution that a lot of people can offer is to pay people NOT to lay waste to the planet.
Its something of a Kray twins approach to conservation. "Hmm - nice rainforest you got 'ere. squire. 'Shame if somefin' woz to 'appen to it, eh? Nah -fer a small remittance..."
As long as the "protection" is effective, I suppose we can't be too fussy, at this stage in the game.

I'm afraid I've mislaid the link here...

Panic in Detroit

The markets flail about like landed cod and even the mighty Ford and General Motors face the prospect of bankrupcy. Suddenly we're all social democrats again and intervention is the name of the game - (in some things).
The political class seeks a route through the mess so that we can steam full ahead over the precipice's edge, and have luxury goods to play with as we plummet...

Oh - I know I shouldn't, and if there was a hell I would go there...but...when there is so much hopeless tragedy visited upon the innocent in the endless procession of road deaths, it's nice to know that witless shits get offed too.

plus ca change

Before I get on my high horse - please take a look at the latest McFly (Manchester Climate Fortnightly).
and watch Leo Murray's short film

Now then...

As unregulated capitalism breathes its last, the world's bankers -unfazed, and with bonuses intact - gather for the World Economic Forum junket in Tianjin. I was going to do a strip based on the current (wholly unpredictable) financial debacle which juxtaposed the imminent belt tightening with a report by the Food Climate Research Network (of Surrey University) that calls for some climate driven belt-tightening. It would've tied it all up nicely and Frank would have got to say some scathing and self righteous stuff, whilst looking comically cross. Then I realised that I could just repost some old stuff from last year's WEF, by way of an "I told you so" - which I found more satisfying. Normally I would resist this, but I'm full of a cold and somewhat irritable.

I watched Chris Martenson's economics Crash Course presentation yesterday. The simplicity of our collectively generated financial illusion "repels the mind".

I have found myself unaccountably amused by the following joke for days now.

-I got some German christmas cake yesterday
-Was it stollen?
-No, I bought it from Aldi

( I apologise. )

A bird in the hand (is worth two of George Bush)

A report indicates that privately owned fisheries deplete slower and remain viable longer than the habitual free for all of the commons. It neglects to go into the tricky subject of policing or the morality of foreign owned stocks.

Common birds are in freefall (flap, my beauties, flap) all over the planet as climate change and environmental degradation take their toll. It occurs to me that once they (and the frogs) have gone, there's going to be an awful lot of extra insects around (but not bees).

I can't help but have one more slug at the financial f*ck-up. The New York staff of the bankrupt Lehman Bros are to be rewarded for their total incompetence with billions in collective bonuses whilst the likes of you and I are looking at increased taxes to pay for it. Marvellous. Surely there must be some actual moustache twirling going on somewhere, to the soundtrack of heavily echoed BWAHAHAAHAARs

At the Manchester "Labour" party conference - I saw John Prescott standing unguarded, chatting in the street yesterday, in marked contrast to the wailing multi-vehicled cavalcade taking Gordon to lunch. I'm not particularly getting at Brown there. The leadership nonsense is a sideshow. It just showed up how things have changed from old to new labour; from ordinary bloke to celebrity. The streets are blocked off with attractively made barriers that seem designed to distract you from the fact that you are no longer allowed to approach your elected representatives during the congress of the People's party.
I've never seen so many police in the city centre, drafted in from all over the show to rummage through the rucksacks of students and look sideways at foreigners. All very cosmopolitan.

Socialism to the rescue?

Let's hope that Asia and the petro-economies don't decide to get all "Black Monday" on the Dollar's arse. (links to follow)

Now that we can finally acknowledge the validity of big government interventions in major crises - perhaps we can start looking at Climate Change through more focused eyes.

Craig Mackintosh of the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia sent the following link,

and there's this, from the FT

Where has all the imaginary money GONE?

Ern is misquoting the Anti-Growth Fetishist Clive Hamilton

They deregulated everything they could get their hands on and used numbers plucked from the air to pump lusts and fictions into every aspect of a globalised world economy. They did away with society and promised us big houses and big bucks and the moon on a stick. They called everybody who questioned their rationale communists, terrorist sympathisers or fools. They made collectivists feel like shit and psychopaths feel like kings. They wouldn't buy my cartoons. They took control of everything and dominated global politics for a generation. "NO BIG GOVERNMENT" was their battle cry (oh how we laughed!)
Can we perhaps do some tinkering now please.

Maybe our tendency, as a species, to seek a dominant (usually male) individual to take all the risks and act as a fulcrum that determines everyone's status extends to our devotion to creed. We seem to throw our lot in entirely with ideologies that have almost no sense in them at all beyond the narrow boundaries of the class or caste that created them. This One God bollocks hasn't helped. I mean -really? One? That's just asking for trouble.


I wonder if we're ready for democracy yet? You know the gig - everybody engaged and on top of their game as active citizens instead of cow-eyed, shopaholic tossers desperate for (please God) just ONE MORE year of (perpetual, star-crazed, lazy arsed, wank-wracked) adolescence.

Obviously, just because the financial elite are now shown to be as incompetent and corrupt as any other elite anywhere, ever, it doesn't mean the revolution is just around the corner, or that capitalism is about to throw in the towel. It's dug in too deep in our collective psyche. But let's surf the irony to a slightly better place, shall we`?

Economic Creationism

These things don't always lend themselves to pithy strips.
I'm getting increasingly alarmed, depressed and generally pissed off by the rise of creationism as some sort of "alternative science" that deserves to be considered by sensible people and even taught to our children. Perhaps we should consider teaching Erik von Daniken as well, or maybe Terry Pratchet. It's turtles all the way down, you know. I suppose it's not surprising - seeing as our entire economic system - and therefore our culture - is based on a fairytale that flies in the face of reason. Specifically - Why do we believe we can prize an infinite amount from a finite resource and grow our economies exponentially in perpetuity? Because we want to. Because it's easier to believe that than to face the realities of our situation and because it upsets people to think otherwise. So Bollocks to physics, biology and climatology. They're too difficult. Give us Super Heroes and Father Christmas. Give us cornucopia and abracadabra.
The fact that we persist in this doublethunk mindf*ck under our present economic management - with banks going tits-up left, right and centre - is a remarkable testament to our "faith"

The idea was to seamlessly plait these two threads into irrefutable comic gold. The evidence may point in another direction but, in the spirit of the age, I shall choose to believe I succeeded.


And finally...
Many thanks to Andrew Revkin for pointing readers of his (and the New York Times') DotEarth in our direction. Much appreciated

Money for Nothing

The emissions permit scheme designed to help the planet only seems to be benefittiing the polluters. The facts speak for themselves.

The Only Planet, Manchester, featured in the cartoon, is being officially launched at the Sandbar, Grosvenor St, Manchester on Wednesday 17th September from 8pm- so if you're within range please come along and support it.