I’ll have a Brador, thanks.  And keep them coming.

And those Aussies.

Maybe a couple of Oil Cans now.

The climate is apparently already affecting the United States, according to the latest scientific reports, and the IPCC report is saying that we are facing severe crisis as we move further into this century. Yet public policy is nowhere near catching up to the extent of the crisis.

The underlying economic crisis has not been dealt with. The issues that led to the financial collapse in 2008 have not been addressed. The issues of too-big-to-fail, the issue of massive financial speculation and gambling that triggered the crisis have not been mitigated in any serious way by legislation. And most predictions are we’re heading into another global, deep recession sooner than later.

Lawrence Wilkerson is a retired United States Army soldier and former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Transcript

I think, your real question, who’s behind the White House, and who’s therefore behind U.S. foreign policy, more or less? I think the answer today is the oligarchs, which would be the same answer, incidentally, ironically, if you will, for Putin in Russia, the people who own the wealth, the people who therefore have the power and who more or less (and I’m not being too facetious here, I don’t think) buy the president and thus buy American foreign policy.

Transcript

Transcript

Didn’t See That Coming

Greenwald (of course)

Your Resident Expert and Deranged Millionaire

Congressional Vampires

I tease my mother by calling her Emily after Emily Gilmore both because overall my family reminds me very much of the Gilmores and because she’s never met a brand name she didn’t like whereas I’m perfectly content to buy generic.

I thank her among many things for a thorough grounding in the domestic and other arts.

Mom teaches first grade and is actually famous in a quiet sort of way.  The kind parents brag about and angle their kids for though she’s won national awards too.  Of course I owe everything I know about educating to her and among my own peers I’m considered an asskicking trainer.

She also insisted we learn to perform routine self maintenance, little things like laundry and ironing, machine and hand mending. basic cooking.  Of course she always indulged us with trips to museums and zoos, made sure we got library cards, did the usual bus driver thing to swim practice, had this huge second career as a Brownie/Girl Scout Leader for my sister.

At one point when I was old enough for it to make an impression she took her Masters of Fine Arts in Art of all things, so I know a little Art History with Far Eastern.  I understand how to bang out a copper pot and make silver rings because she took me to class once or twice.  She liked stained glass so much that she and dad made several pieces (you use a soldering iron and can cut yourself pretty bad so it’s a macho thing too).  They also did silk screening which taught me a lot about layout and graphic arts.

But she always liked fabric arts and in addition to a framed three dimensional piece in the living room, there are Afghans and rugs and scarves and pot holders and wash cloths and hats and quilts and dolls.

And the training kits and manuals for her mentorship programs, and the adaptations and costumes for the annual first and fifth grade play.  Did I mention she plays 3 instruments, though mostly piano?

She touch types too.

So to Emily, a woman of accomplishment and refinement, Happy Mother’s Day.

So Vettel starts in 15th because his gearbox blew up and Vergne in 21st because he left the pits with a loose wheel.  Maldonado could barely complete 2 laps in Qualifying before crashing.

It’s all very entertaining if you’re a Mercedes fan and this appears to be their year.  They have the only reliable power plant (ok, Ferrari is reliable but it’s also slow).

On offer are the Hards and Mediums because Circuit de Catalunya is notoriously abrasive.  It will be 66 laps and unlike other years there has been no testing there this season.  At that it may be a two stop race for the leaders.

Caterham has booted their technical director but honestly, who cares?  There may be the first woman driver since 1976 next year.  Renault is considering cutting off the deadbeat teams which, considering its power plants are unreliable and slow, may or may not be such a good idea.

This is Ayrton Senna Memorial weekend-

• Ayrton Senna to be remembered in Imola 20 years after his death Paul Weaver, The Observer, Saturday 26 April 2014 17.30 EDT
• Ayrton Senna: Imola F1 circuit to host 20th anniversary commemorations Press Association, The Guardian, Wednesday 30 April 2014 11.43 EDT
• Safety on the F1 track is a lasting legacy of the Ayrton Senna tragedy Paul Weaver, The Observer, Saturday 26 April 2014 17.00 EDT

Other stories about Formula One-

• Rosberg Fastest in Final Spanish GP Practice By REUTERS, MAY 10, 2014, 6:26 A.M. E.D.T.
• Hamilton on Pole for Spanish Grand Prix By REUTERS, MAY 10, 2014, 2:32 P.M. E.D.T.
• Rosberg Declares Game on After Hamilton Plays Pole Ace By REUTERS, MAY 10, 2014, 1:14 P.M. E.D.T.
• Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo gives the thumbs-up to team orders Press Association, The Guardian, Tuesday 6 May 2014 13.10 EDT
• Lewis Hamilton goes into reverse over Mercedes psychologist in F1 Paul Weaver, The Guardian, Thursday 8 May 2014
• Lewis Hamilton puts Mercedes on pole again for Spanish Grand Prix Paul Weaver, The Observer, Saturday 10 May 2014 09.52 EDT
• Mark Webber says Lewis Hamilton and Williams will dominate F1 season Giles Richards, The Guardian, Thursday 6 March 2014 16.31 EST
• Five reasons why this could be an F1 season to savour Martin Brundle, The Guardian, Friday 14 March 2014
• Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes will take some stopping in race for F1 title Martin Brundle, The Guardian, Friday 14 March 2014 10.09 EDT
• Formula One turns back time and looks to revitalised future Richard Williams, The Guardian, Friday 14 March 2014 11.52 EDT
• McLaren are stuck in reverse despite Ron Dennis’s obsessive will to win Paul Weaver, The Guardian, Monday 21 April 2014 06.15 EDT

Formula One Interactive Track

Oh, you want to hear about Bernie-

Formula One holds its breath as Bernie Ecclestone’s bribery trial begins

Paul Weaver, The Guardian

Wednesday 23 April 2014 13.34 EDT

The judge Ecclestone will be up against does not take any prisoners; or rather, he does. Peter Noll convicted the former German banker Gerhard Gribkowsky, a central figure in the Munich hearing, and sent him down for eight-and-a-half years in 2012. In his concluding statement, Noll said: “In this process we assume the driving force was Mr Ecclestone.”

Last month the same prosecutors, who have spent two years preparing for the Ecclestone case, brought down Uli Hoeness, then president of the European football champions Bayern Munich. Hoeness was jailed for three-and-a-half years for tax evasion.

If all this was not enough to seriously daunt Ecclestone – who will be 84 in October – Noll has also been handed what could be a loaded gun. In February Ecclestone – who denies any wrongdoing – won a civil case brought by the German media company Constantin Medien.

…

But although F1’s chief executive won that time, the comments by Mr Justice Newey were immensely damaging. He said it was “impossible” to regard him as a “reliable or truthful witness”.

Bernie Ecclestone launches defence against bribery charges

Philip Oltermann, The Guardian

Thursday 24 April 2014 08.44 EDT

The 256-page indictment against Ecclestone, formulated after a two-year investigation, accuses him of bribing a German banker with the intention of cementing his powerful position at the top of the motorsport.

The banker, Gerhard Gribkowsky, was notionally the chief risk assessment officer for the Formula One shareholder Bayern Landesbank at the time. But, the indictment alleges, payments totalling $44m (£26m) and the promise of future employment in Formula One swayed Gribkowsky to act against his employers’ interests, easing the sale of Bayern LB’s share to a company that had guaranteed to keep Ecclestone in charge as chief executive.

…

Far from being an easily manipulated pawn, Ecclestone painted a picture of Gribkowsky as a power-hungry man who dreamed of becoming “Mr Formula One” and owning his own race team.

In one meeting, Ecclestone said, the German had made himself comfortable in the chief executive chair and smoked a cigar throughout, causing Flavio Briatore, then a senior figure in Formula One who had recently quit smoking, to storm out halfway through the meeting.

The indictment acknowledged that Gribkowsky had made “insinuations” about Ecclestone being ultimately in charge of Bambino, but seemed to dismiss the possibility of blackmail as Ecclestone had “no concrete evidence to hand”.

Ecclestone’s defence is that he had been forced to act even though he felt he had done nothing wrong in his affairs with Bambino, because the risk involved of a reputable banker like Gribkowsky contacting the UK tax authorities was “hard to calculate” and could have led to a fine of “more than £2bn”.

“Some people have asked me how it is possible that someone like Bernie Ecclestone can be put under pressure”, said his statement. “I say: Yes, it’s possible, if you know exactly where to apply the right pressure, and Gribkowksy got the right spot for me and Bambino”

One thing that you learn as an artist is that it’s good to have a patron.  The popular illusion is of the independent entrepreneur who through the strength and novelty of their original vision captures the hearts and minds of the masses and markets their output commercially.

The truth is that every Vincent has at least a Theo and that financial success is like winning the lottery.  Most who are ridden by a Muse die poor, young, and convinced they are despised.

Welcome our Benevolent Oligarch Masters.

As I had the good fortune a few years ago to be heard by Your Royal Highness, at Your Highness’s commands, and as I noticed then that Your Highness took some pleasure in the little talents which Heaven has given me for Music, and as in taking Leave of Your Royal Highness, Your Highness deigned to honour me with the command to send Your Highness some pieces of my Composition: I have in accordance with Your Highness’s most gracious orders taken the liberty of rendering my most humble duty to Your Royal Highness with the present Concertos, which I have adapted to several instruments; begging Your Highness most humbly not to judge their imperfection with the rigor of that discriminating and sensitive taste, which everyone knows Him to have for musical works, but rather to take into benign Consideration the profound respect and the most humble obedience which I thus attempt to show Him.

And he was just a Margrave, the equivalent of a Count or a Baron.  Imagine if he were a Duke.

So here’s an audition piece for you.

Of course there’s more

Mutant Republicans

Past Master

For the rest of the festivities and the 3 part Web Exclusive Extended Interview and pean to centrist Third Way Fix the Debt Versailles Villager Washington Consensus politics with Peter Schuck, join me below the fold.

More hidden mysteries below.

Law & Order: FVU

Pleased to meet you. Hope you get my name.

For the rest of the festivities and the 3 part Web Exclusive Extended Interview and pean to centrist Third Way Fix the Debt Versailles Villager Washington Consensus politics with Peter Schuck, join me below the fold.