Politics
How near is nearly?
With the news that the LibDems now have more English local council seats than the Conservatives let us hope that this graphic actually does reflect the position. We could all breathe a welcome sigh of relief if the LibDems became the opposition to Labour….... Read more
UK banks will go bust because of climate change
I posted this video on YouTube this morning:
The transcript dealing with this pretty big, and vital claim is:
UK banks are going to go bust because of climate change. Now, that's a big claim to make, but I think it's right. And let me explain.
When you borrow money from a bank, at least when you borrow a lot of money from a bank, the bank will normally want what they call security from you. In other words, they want some form of guarantee that you can repay.
Well, you don't wholly blame them, do you? But let's explain the most common form of security that they ask for. It's your house, or if you're a business, it's your business property. In fact, 85 per cent of all loans made by UK banks are for the purchase of houses or business properties, or are at the very least secured on the value of houses and properties.
So why are banks going to go bust because of climate change? Well, because as a very senior risk officer of a very large UK bank explained to me not so very long ago, the vast majority of the properties that they are using for the purposes of security could be underwater in the next 30 years.
They know, for example, that the Thames barrier is not going to protect London from flooding. It's just not tall enough.
They also know that if you live in the area of the country where I do, which is in the Fens, just south of the Wash in Norfolk, there's a real risk that you will be flooded at some time over the next 30 years. Well, unless you happen to live in the Isle of Ely, as I do, which is a hundred feet above sea level - in which case, you'll just be back on an island again.
They know that means that Cambridge will be underwater.
It means that Bedford will be underwater.
No, not all the time. But enough of the time that those properties will not only be uninsurable, but they will also be subject to such frequent damage that their value will be impaired and they will be no use as security for repaying the loans that the banks have lent out. on the basis of those properties.
Now, if the banks know that, why are they still lending? Well, they all pretend that they'll be able to shove their loan books - secured against the value of these properties which they know are going to flood, unless we take action to prevent it - onto some other bank in the next few years, and therefore they won't be on their books when it comes to the glorious day when the waters have risen and these properties are underwater.
But that doesn't work. They're all making that assumption. And of course, if they all make that assumption, they won't be able to pass on the loans to somebody else because that somebody else won't take them because they'll know that the property is at risk of flooding just as the ones already on their books are.
So we're heading for a banking crisis unless we deal with the risk of flooding in the UK.
Oh, by the way, this is also true of much of the USA as well, and large parts of Europe, and other places. But, let's just worry about the UK for now.
Unless we take action to control flooding in the UK, our banks will fail because the debts that are owing to them, secured on property, will not be worth the value that they have, because those properties cannot be sold. And, therefore, the banks will go bust. In which case, the most important thing we need to do to preserve UK banking from failing completely and utterly, in a way that will make 2008 and the Global Financial Crisis look a mere picnic, is to build flood defences.
But nobody's talking about doing it. And that is an act of gross irresponsibility. Not just by our government, but by the banks who are not demanding it, because they know they need it, just as much as you and I do, because it's our houses that could be flooded.
I Oppose Israel’s Atrocities In Gaza Because I’m Not A Psychopath
Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):
https://medium.com/media/71cbacc23a60b2c96e4c6a46b00197b6/href
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I don’t oppose the butchery in Gaza because I love Hamas or hate Jews or love Islam or hate America.
I don’t oppose the butchery in Gaza because I’m a lefty or a commie or an anarchist or an anti-imperialist.
I oppose the butchery in Gaza because I’m not a fucking psychopath.
Opposing Israel’s butchery in Gaza is so obvious, so common sense, such a bare-minimum, fundamental-level, Being Human 101 position that if it isn’t immediately self-evident to you after learning the basic facts, your problem is much, much deeper than whatever ideology or bias or prejudice you might happen to have. There’s something wrong with you as a person.
If you support Israel’s butchery in Gaza, you’ve got much bigger problems than merely not having the correct ist or ism belief system. You’re just all fucked up inside. Your conditioning has made you into a generally shitty human being. You have deep and immensely consequential flaws in your character, and you won’t mature as a person until you heal and transcend them.
Opposing Israel’s atrocities in Gaza doesn’t make you a good person, it just makes you a normal person — and supporting Israel’s atrocities in Gaza makes you a bad person. Nobody gets any points for opposing an active genocide; that’s just the basic, bare-minimum requirement for a normal human being with a functioning empathy center in their brain. If you can’t meet that basic, bare-minimum standard, you deserve to be viewed with suspicion and disdain, and anyone in your personal life who cares about truth, morality and humanity should seriously reassess their relationship with you.
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https://medium.com/media/27a727d0325a47268efea546fe90dcc6/href
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One reason the empire is losing young people is because the imperial status quo has given them no investment in it. They’ll never own property. They can’t support a family or retire. They’ve been given no reason not to want to rock the political boat. So they’re rocking it.
The only vested interest young people have left is an interest in breathable air and a livable planet, and the possibility of a future that isn’t intolerably dystopian. All of which are diametrically opposed to the interests and trajectory of the status quo politics of the western empire.
So they’re going for it. They’re beginning to see that there’s no reason for them not to plunge headlong into a push for real change, in direct opposition to the mainstream politics of our time. Like Bob Dylan said, when you got nothing you got nothing to lose.
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One of the many things that’s beautiful about this particular protest movement is that these young people aren’t protesting a war that they could get drafted in or could harm their personal interests in any way. They’re opposing something cruel and evil solely out of compassion.
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One Palestinian life is worth more than every college campus window in the world.
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If you’re wondering why you’re suddenly seeing the word “radicalizing” a lot in mainstream politics and media, it’s because that’s the big scary boogieman the empire plans on using to justify stomping out the burgeoning antiwar movement it created with its atrocities in Gaza.
https://medium.com/media/366d54663c9a4430b420efbf1e8e70e1/href
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Israeli police raided Al Jazeera’s office after the Israeli cabinet voted to shut down the broadcasts of the Qatari media outlet on Sunday. The west is protecting freedom and democracy by stomping out its own freedom and democracy to assist the genocidal atrocities of a nation that is also stomping out freedom and democracy.
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Trump supporters are such foam-brained bootlickers that they’re now united in shitting on protests against a genocidal mass atrocity that’s being pushed by neocons, the Biden administration, and every other warmongering establishment swamp monster they claim to oppose.
Trump supporters: fighting the Deep State by siding with every intelligence agency, weapons contractor, mainstream media outlet and professional war whore in America.
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Republicans pretend to fiercely oppose Biden, but when it comes to issues that really matter like the president encouraging violent police crackdowns against people protesting his actions they’re in furious agreement, even saying he didn’t go far enough. They’re on the same side.
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My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Go here to find video versions of my articles. Go here to buy paperback editions of my writings from month to month. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.
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Tradies Will Be Allowed To Take Uni Students Lunch Money Under A Dutton Government
Opposition leader and self-described friend of the worker, Peter Dutton, has declared that any Government that he leads will allow the Nation’s Tradies to be able to bully Uni students out of their lunch money.
”What sort of World do we live in when our poor hard working tradies have to walk past Uni students and aren’t able to shake them down for cash,” said the Opposition leader. ”Anthony Albanese, needs to stop pandering to the inner-city leftie elites with his cuts to HECS and get out their and look after our beloved Tradies.”
”Why can’t we get a negative gearing type scheme going for flannelette shirts?”
When reached for comment on the Opposition leader’s anti-Uni students policy, a Spokesperson for the National Union of students said of the idea: ”Jokes on Dutton, no Uni student that I know has any lunch money on them.”
”What with rent, HECS, books, bus fare, to be honest I’m not sure when the last time I actually bought lunch was.”
”I mean I dived a good dumpster the other day and got some great day old bagels.”
”Well, I would’ve enjoyed them if I wasn’t boycotting anything Jewish over the whole situation in Gaza.”
”Anyway, got to head off to my part-time job, I’m lucky, I get to follow Barnaby Joyce around parliament and make sure he is always stocked up with frangers.”
Mark Williamson
@MWChatShow
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