With no aggregate demand, there's no real investment to be had. So the 1% piss their money away on the ponies. As they always did, but now that's all they do:

But less well understood is the role of austerity in making all of these solutions more difficult. With few attractive options to lend to businesses, which have little incentive to invest in plant and equipment in a stagnating economy, excess liquidity piles up on the balance sheets of banks and corporations. With lax regulation bankers have more and more incentive to undertake the dangerous gambles like those at JP Morgan. People must demand and politicians must enact an end to the policies of the austerity buzzards who are squashing jobs and economic growth, and preventing investments in people and in the transition to a green economy. As Keynes understood, unless the government takes a lead in job creation, a stagnating economy with massive liquidity will only encourage more speculation and more financial instability.

Ya know what I think we need?

Eesh:

The desperate cunning scheme to get Greeks to pay property taxes by bundling them with electricity bills didn’t last long. You guessed it, people stopped paying their electricity bills [to the PCC] and now it looks like the power company – which had to be bailed out last month – has stopped even trying to collect the levy.

The PCC experience suggests we really could be moving towards the IOU stage of this crisis as liquidity issues bite.

Say, I've got an idea!

any person who "obstructs" in any form the implementation of the new Yemeni government..

This is almost unbelievable.

That would mean that any editorials criticizing the former vice president taking office, the single candidate election, etc., could have any assets "based" in the US frozen. That would mean any speeches, editorials, published articles, blogs criticizing the whole sham "transition" would be subject to having assets frozen.

What is the president* doing? Who really does control his actions? This is, to me, surely not the kind of thing a Democratic incumbent does to win voters' confidence and enthusiasm? But it may win the Saudis' continued support....

It would be irresponsible not to speculate. --Peggy Noonan

NATO Summit. Guides: from OccupyChicago (PDF) and Occupy Peace. Coverage and media: Mainstream wrap-up. TimCast (independent video streamer). Guardian live blog. Inflammatory headline watch: Chicago braces for violence at NATO summit

Participants: The NATO guest list is rawther long and includes every shade of left opinion -- including OccupyChicago. And the ClownBloq (avec entartistes?). For unaffiliated out-of-towners, organizing bus travel fraught (true for Occupy DC also).

Legalities: NATO could be the first public test of H.R. 347 "restrictive zones" (a la Zucotti Park "frozen zone").

Authorities: DHS leads NATO security through Secret Service and Federal Protective Services divisions, working with the CPD (12,500 strong). (What was "shocking" six months ago is normal now.) Northern Command Gen. Jacoby reminds the troops (3000) they may not "solicit prostitutes." Philly PD sends 67 officers to assist. (Oh great. But shows independent streamers are important.) interestingly, Charlotte, too. (Historically, forces from multiple jurisdictions face chain-of-command and communications issues, risking violence.)

Police tactics: A field guide for NATO. Kettling is costly! CPD chief McCarthy will control deployments of tear gas, bean bags, etc. "We're going to take people who are committing crimes out of those crowds."

Gear: For NATO, $1 million. Including LRAD sound cannons. "This is simply a risk management tool."

Venues: NATO Summit its

Decomposition is so cool.

Indybay Media:

UC Police Assert Private Control Over Gill Tract
Farmers Respond: Farmland is for Farming

This morning, over 100 police officers armed with projectiles, batons, and pepper-ball guns descended on the Gill Tract Farm to attempt to force an end to efforts to reclaim the Gill Tract for community use.

The land, which is owned by UC Berkeley's Capital Projects Development arm, was reclaimed by Occupy the Farm on April 22 and has been used for community-friendly farming education for the three weeks since. Today, using all the power at its disposal, the University of California has reasserted its control over the land.

I love this story. What a good thing.

VOA. The parties can't get an austerian coalition government together.

Document the atrocities! --Eschaton

Dimon London Whale Fiacso. Obama on ABC's The View: “We don’t know all the details. It’s going to be investigated but this is why we passed Wall street Reform". Ben Smith, Politico, last graf: "[I]t would help Obama’s reelection campaign if Schneiderman gets around to the more glamorous work of putting people in handcuffs sometime in the next six months". From The Department of Fat Chance, or trial balloon?

Magic mushroom

The magic part is that it popped up out of nowhere a day or two ago. I guess that's what fungus does, but this one isn't like the other little brown mushroomy things that turn up occasionally. This one doesn't have a stem. It's just a little round thing growing up out of the soil.

Barack Obama, the Great Deceiver. Here's the conclusion:

Those of us who care about decency, the rule of law, constraints on corporate power, civil rights, and economic protections for the downtrodden have become complacent, and we are now reaping the bitter harvest of our neglect. Many of these protections seemed so fundamental that there has been a tremendous amount of denial over the speed at which they are being stripped from us. But these gains were not granted freely or easily by those in authority. They came about as a result of long, persistent, difficult campaigns. If we want to preserve the rights previous generations fought hard to win, we have to make this battle our own.

Needless to say, Yves does not run a blog that everybody hates and nobody reads. So this post is a big deal.

YouTube: Two Romney Supporters Attack Two Ron Paul Supporters in Oklahoma

Arizona Ron Paul supporters boo Romney's son off stage

The convention may prove to be the Republican Götterdämmerung.

I'm looking for (I suppose) companion vegetables for Rosa Rugosa

Follow the bureaucratic tentacles:

A new trove of heavily redacted documents provided by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) on behalf of filmmaker Michael Moore and the National Lawyers Guild makes it increasingly evident that there was and is a nationally coordinated campaign to disrupt and crush the Occupy Movement.

In enterprise of martial kind, when there was any fighting,
He led his regiment from behind — he found it less exciting.
But when away his regiment ran, his place was at the fore, O —
That celebrated, cultivated, underrated nobleman, The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
-- Gilbert & Sullivan, "In enterprise of martial kind," The Gondoliers

Readers, note request at end. I'd really, really like reputable local sourcing in swing states!

Romney Liberty University speeh. Evangelical Christian Leaders Praise Romney. "Graduate Lindsey Burnette described Romney as 'Christ-like'". Stephen Jones, class of 2012 said, "I think the one thing that is going to be the glaring problem is going to be the deity of Jesus Christ. I think that, if you compare him to Obama, I think yes, we'll side with him a lot better than we will Obama."

Sabbath day gasbags. Meet the Press, the Bobblespeak Translations: "GREGORY: you said that crazy London trader was a tempest in a teapot and then he lost $2 billion DIMON: that's true but in my defense I'm an idiot". Obama on Dimon and Blankfein, February 10, 2010: "I know both those guys; they are very savvy businessmen". So I wonder if Obama's position is evolving?

Discuss.

Feijoa sellowiana

Pineapple guava

This poor tree has been blooming for years, but has never produced fruit. It needs (I'm guessing) cross pollination and there's no second tree. Last year I bought seeds to grow a new one, but they didn't even sprout. I promised the tree I would find it a mate, so one way or another, it's going to have fruit -- someday.

I've grown weary of politicians talking and then betraying their people. I have likewise grown weary of token gestures that do nothing to help the many or hurt the elites. As a whole I assume politicians will easily betray their promises.

At least for now, though, the leader of Syriza in Greece is backing up his talk:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/a...

Posted by Mona, aka Wonk the Vote, at Sky Dancer.

A big thank you and appreciation for mothers all over this beautiful blue (and tan and brown and and green and white) planet.

At least 37 dismembered bodies are stuffed into a bag and dumped on a highway in northern Mexico.

Let's remember: Things can always get worse!

The commendably brief post in its entirety:

Mint The Coin

A nice $1 trillion platinum coin.

It gets better or at least more interesting:

If it does, this is my shade garden. Or part of it anyway.

In 2002 Jill Stein became the first gubernatorial candidate in Massachusetts history to endorse same-sex marriage. Stein pushed the other six candidates, all Democrats, to abandon their “civil-unions" position.

Stein’s stance and robust support from gay rights advocates and gay-friendly newspapers encouraged several other Democratic candidates to take the risk to support gay marriage, too.

Big Picture.