Who Profits...? [part two]

Things have just gotten rather interesting here in Europe.  To "save" banks from supposed failure, the EU is taxing The People.  This, without debate, without discussion, and without consent.  People here see quite clearly that the rich will be protected at all costs.


Zerohedge says it correctly when they said...

"...Let's be quite clear; the European Union has confiscated the private property of the citizens in Cyprus without debate, legislation or Parliamentary agreement...Please note that until yesterday all depositors in Cypriot banks were insured up to the value of €100,000 with any one bank. Today that solemn governmental promise has been shown for what it is; a lie... Nothing now; Nothing is safe!"

On Friday, Jude and I went to share a light meal with our landlords.  Part of our discussion included thoughts on what might happen should The People be pushed too far.

We agreed that here in France, people will not sit by and let things "take their course".  That, we understand, is what happens in the USA.  No one rises up to shout "no!"  No one takes power from the greedy 1%.  Rather, ever more power is given to those at the top of the economic heap.


In France?  Well, let's just say things will be different.  Time and again, history has shown that the French are quite good at reminding the rich overlords who actually can become quickly in charge here.

The anglo-saxon press has started talking about similar taxes being placed on private bank deposits in Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal.  Afterall, if the Germans and Dutch can pull this little coup on Cyprus, then there's nothing stopping them from doing the same thing to other countries that are in steep debt with the EU.

Though little is being said openly, I imagine people are thinking they might withdrawl their monies to avoid the German/Dutch "bank tax."  If a run on the banks in Europe begins, watch out!  Anything can and will happen.

Who profits...?

File this under the heading, "Things that make you go Hmmmm...."

How you Americans can put up with the Greedy Bastards who own the place is beyond me.  What benefit do you actually see from allowing and enabling the top 1% to do what they do?

Here are a few facts to warm up a conversation.

• US corporations stash 40 percent of their profits outside the US
• $166BILLION in US corporate profit is parked offshore in 2012
• 2/3rd's of US corporations pay no tax at all
• Jobs are shipped to China where labor is cheaper and the supposedly brains sharper
• The Middle Class in America is now only a memory of it's former self

Here are a few facts about how the top 1% is getting wealthier.

• In just salary alone (ignoring annual stock option sales), SP500 CEOs make more than 300times the average amount of their employees.
•  When adding stock option sales in 2011...
• Apple CEO Tim Cook gained $377MILLION+
• Nike CEO Mark Parker gained $35MILLION+
• Danaher CEO Larry Culp gained $21MILLION+
• In November 2012 on just one day's worth of trading...
• Danaher CEO Larry Culp gained $59,686,600 on November 22, 2012 when he sold just 1MILLION shares of his stock options (you should see what he sold on subsequent days too!)
• Danaher board members the Riles brothers gained $755,550,000 on November 24, 2012 by selling 15MILLION shares!
• This is the at the same time (2012) when Danaher Corporate officers permanently "reinvested" $9.3BILLION in revenue overseas to dodge paying any taxes on that money

This stuff goes on every single day in America and no one blinks an eye.  In fact, a large part of the population are rabid supports of this level of greed.  The top 1% are even called "job creators", when the opposite is actually the truth.  Nice "feel good" dodge from reality, don't you think?

Given the facts: What are you people thinking, that you would allow some people to amass this kind of money while jobs you could perform are sent to China?  Do you really feel that powerless that you do nothing to help yourselves get to a different and better place?

 

Black Smoke?

Damn!  No Pappa.  Not yet, at least.  The smoke was black last night.


From watching Telematin this morning it looks like the Men in Dresses have closed the doors and are arm wrestling, or whatever they really do in there, over who will be the next Prince of the Church.

I'm stunned.  But not from what you might think.

You see, my wife and I were in the kitchen cleaning the dishes.  I'd just finished washing a frying pan and Jude was drying it when she put her nose to the pan and said "here, smell this, it still smells like onions."

Being the dutiful and curious husband, I bent forward to put my nose where her's had just been.

THONK!

Right between my eyes.

I'm stunned and backing up to lean against the frigo.  No time to say "ouch."  No brain capacity to process what just happened.  Yes.  I'm still stunned.  Jude's wet hands felt the pan's sudden shift and could do nothing to prevent the rather minor attack on her husband.


Which brings me to the costs of healthcare here.  Had I needed a doctor, which I don't since the THONK to the head left only a Small Red Spot and there's nothing to be concerned about, it might not have cost me anything.

Here in France, unless something is urgent, you head to the pharmacy first to see if they can diagnose you and provide the right medicine or ointment or treatment.  If it's beyond their ability to help, they will send you on to a regular doctor.  Right then and there you can have an appointment made for the very same day.  Once your doctor's visit is done, you hand the Good Doctor between 21 and 24Euros and go home.

My wife and I carry major medical insurance.  It costs us around 2000USD a year total for the two of us.  And this is the expensive insurance.  Next year we will likely buy into a European plan and the price could drop as much as 40 percent over what we're currently paying.

Back in the United Corporate States of America, we paid 40USD to see a doctor _and_ had the privilege of paying an insurance company to manage, oh, I don't know, maybe how the money was best deposited to the CEO's bank account?  Each month we handed over 1200USD to the greedy unhelpful bastards.  Yes, that is 14,400USD _each and every year_ to claim the right to hold a piece of plastic that said we had something called "insurance."


 See the difference?  Not yet?

OK, how about this: The United Corporate States of Greedy Business Bastards has you ranked number 37 in the world for healthcare.  Yes.  Number thirty seven.

Any guesses on who's Number One (and Everyone Loves a Winner, don't they?) in the world?  Oh dear.  You will have to scroll a Long Way down the Business Insider web page to see it.  So I will not hold you in suspense any longer.  It is France (and Everyone Loves a Winner, unless you are a medical industry CEO who doesn't want you to know you're paying Way Too Much for Every Thing in the UCSofGBB! and no! it is _not_ Mr Obama's fault as his approach is based on the German system of medical care which cuts out the Greedy Bastards and you've been held over a barrel by your Republican "business friendly" hoards for decades).

How can it be that the county that pays the most for health care in the world is ranked so low?

How is it that France provides the best care for it's citizenry at 2/3rd's the cost of the UCSofGBB?

When you take into account denied benefits (thank you UCSofGBB "insurance" companies), the cost of pharmaceuticals (have I yet mentioned that the cost of one of my wife's medicines here is less than 2Euro out of pocket for something we paid 20USD back in the UCSofGBB for the very same thing?), the fact that the medical industry lobbies the UCSofGBB more heavily than any business, and, finally, add the fact that "healthcare" in the UCSofGBB is a For Profit Business (as opposed to being a basic human right that everyone has access to) and you can see what drives cost.


Pure and simple: It is greed.

Meanwhile, here in France, a social system has been in place for many decades that ensures quick, easy, efficient, cost effective access to healthcare.  Heaven forefend I refer to such a social systems as, oh, how shall I put it?, Socialism.

This leads me back to the beginning and il Pappa and the odds on favorite being the Archbishop of Milan.  It's time to turn on the TV to see if the smoke has turned white.  The costs of US medical care are no longer a concern for us, just so long as we stay away from that costly country.

News Update:  Il fume noir!   Nous n'avons pas un Pappa.  Bientot, peut-etre.  

It's a horse race!

In a month where an enormous enabler of international terrorism was reported to be "too big to jail", and in a week where North Korea showed the world it loves nukes, comes news of a different sort worthy of our close attention.

But first, let's check in with the World Gangsters, shall we?


When I was young and oh so naive I used to believe that governments were created to protect the citizens of their country while enabling the doing of Good Things.  Waking up to reality is one of the reasons we left the US.  The dream had been burst and reality was just too much to take.

Where else in the world would HSBC, a rather large international bank, be allowed to avoid jail, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that it broke nearly every banking and terrorists money laundering law on the books?  This "walk" has been granted by that guardian of US law, the Department of Justice, thank you very much.

What about money laundering for an enemy of the US (do you remember al Qaeda and M.bin Laden)?  What about channeling money for the Russian Mob?  What about being the bankers to the Drug Lords of Mexico (the guys who contribute to Mexico's homicide rate being twice the US rate, and, oh, about ten times higher than Europe)?  Apparently these are not infractions of supposedly well written law worth jailing anyone for.  The only thing HSBC received was a slap on the wrist fine of about 5 weeks of profit.  That's it.  So, where's the justice?


News of the North Korean nuke test came and went with the speed of a speeding dove of peace.  In free-fall.  After being shot out of the sky by a rouge nation.  What?  ICBMs capable of hitting places around the world isn't news enough to push the latest gossip scandal off the headlines page?  Tipped with nukes a rouge nation is actively testing?  Nah.  That's so 1950's, isn't it?

What has become of the US?

Meanwhile, in Europe, things are a bit different.

Watching Telematin on France2 TV revealed something very interesting.  The smiling laughing reporters and TV program hosts had me at the first giggle and snort.  There's something very infectious about a good laugh.  Add to this that the story involves men in dresses, lots of smelly incense, colorful robes, and tall pointy hats and I just had to sit up and take notice.


It turns out that enterprising Canadians, standing in the middle of Saint Pete's Square in the Vatican, are making book on who will be the next Pappa.  People there were excited about having a true Race for Glory and a declaration of Possible Sainthood.  I didn't see any money change hands.  That had to be taking place off-camera somewhere.  Conveniently, an authority on Vatican politics wandered by and offered his opinion of the Canadian odds.  It seems the Kanucks have it just about right.  Sweet.  This is serious business.

Now this is simple cause and effect news I can appreciate and understand.

It was certainly better than listening to how Gangster International Bankers, Gangster Russian Mobs, Gangster Mexican Drug Lords, and the top 1 percent Gangsters of the US get a pass on facing any even a menial form of justice for their continued arrogant and highly profitable misdeeds.

Cost of Living...

Something caught my eye this morning while browsing CNN Money today.  It a banner article about the most expensive cities in the world.  CNN believes Paris, France is the 8th most expensive city to live in.


I looked at their prices and wondered where they shopped.  For instance, CNN says bread here costs $8.95.  Even assuming a healthy conversion from the Euro into USD, there's no way I would ever pay nearly $9 for a loaf of bread.  I doubt I could find such a thing, unless, that is, we shopped at le Bon Marche, on a particularly costly day.  Come to think of it, I don't know of one place in Paris where you can spend that much money.  I wonder where CNN came up with such a thing?  Perhaps they ordered bread at a bar in a very pricey hotel?

The next item on CNN's list is something I don't know anything about.  Milk.  It's listed at $2.55 a litre.  To my way of thinking, would you rather have a litre of milk or wine?  Full organic biodymanically grown vin can be found for less than 6Euro for 75cl.  We're grown ups, ferkripesake!  So let's just get down to talking about the real stuff.  The good stuff.


Which is where CNN trots out an expensive three course meal for four priced at over $2100.  Gee, isn't that a lot more than the typical one months rent here?  If you're that much of a sucker for pricey food, I'm sure you can find a chef in any city in the world who would be happy to take your money.

Before we moved here, we checked to see that on many lists Paris was ranked number 19 in the world for expenses and was expected to drop further.  That was back in 2011.  In the summer of 2012 (just last year), Mercer published a survey of the most expensive cities around the world.  I was not particularly surprised to read that Paris has indeed dropped it's placing to being number 37 on the list.  This is well behind Tel Aviv at number 31 and just ahead of Milan which is taking up the number 38 position.

Make no mistake, it's expensive living here.  The officially reported (and by official, I mean French state published studies) price per square meter for living space remains over 8,000Euros.  The next five largest cities in France cost just above 2,000Euros per square meter.



So what gives?

Well, I suppose CNN needed a splashy headline.  Or it could be that different criteria were used to judge the relative expenses between cities. Or the CNN "news" could be the product of wishful thinking.  Whichever excuse CNN might give, I find it interesting to read how US media reports on the world outside it's borders.  I wonder if the American mindset is, yet again, being controlled through propaganda and lies.

What if the real "message" is that you have it good there and that the rest of the world is too too expensive to live in, so don't you dare think about moving away, because we, the Corporate States of America, know we deserve the money you are so privileged to give us.

Yes, this is a rather dim, narrow, anti-capitalist view, but what other way is there to understand such statements like CNN publishes?

Beer. Yes. Beer.

Moving to Paris from the USA has been very traumatic in one clear narrow sense ~ I feared for the lack of decent beer in a wine loving country.

If there is one thing that France exports and the world demands, it's wine.  Fine wine.  Expensive wine.  With pretty labels.  Wines with Names.  Wine with Names on Labels that nearly everyone has been trained to know and love (as they reach for their wallets to shell out, how much was the bottle of Chateau Float Your Boat FrewFrew again?).

I'm a simple man.  I like wine.  I also like beer.  Maybe that makes me an egalitarian instead of simple?

The city we moved from is famously known for it's microbrew.  In fact, it's so well known that a friend who moved from Scotland to our former city did so just for the beer.  It's friends like this that led me to believe finer beer could not be found.  Afterall, the Scotsman lived in Good 'Ol Yerp, ferkripesake, and should've known better, right?

With the move to Paris, I decided I'd become a Wine Guy, again.  Indeed, Jude and I have found some pretty stunning wines for Cheap Plonk Prices.  Yet, from time to time I would be found sitting on the couch whimpering and whining and pining after a wee dram of decent brew.

I confessed to my brother, Peter (a beer fan), with "Forgive me Father, for I have sinned.  It has been nearly a year and a half since my last Sampling of Suds..."  A few liberally applied Hail Mary's and Our Fathers and I should've been Good to Go.  But I'm talk'n beer in a wine country, OK?

Using the Force, I googled beer in Paris.  Two places came up repeatedly.  Could Salvation be at hand?

Off to the first place, I heard that Pacific Northwest hops were junk!  Junk!! I was told.  After a stunned look I realized he was just teasing.  Great opening line, though.

I learned there are many interesting small batch brewers all around Paris and one or two inside the city limits.  I liked stouts and porters.  That's what I told the man, and that's what I got.  Good.  Solid.  Tasty. Stuff.  On par, if not slightly better than the supposedly Good Microbrew I used to drink.

On my last successful trip down there, the proprietor recommended the Finest Beer Known to Man.  God's Own Brew.

It was after I sampled this recommendation that the Heavens Parted and Goddess of Brewers Yeast and Malts appeared to anoint me and to offer Le Don de Dieu.  Oh, Lordy Lordy, 12 percent ETOH of fabulously balanced jaw dropping goodness.

After a series of mishaps, I decided to try a second Beer Source.  Besides, the second shop is closer to where we live and, well, the prices are more attractive.  They just happen to sell God's Own Brew too.

It turns out, the owner of the second shop makes weekly trips to Belgium/Netherlands/Holland to procure the best beers he can find.  How he can charge so little is beyond me.  My liver deeply thanks him.  Deeply.  Oh, and thanks must be given for the chalice he gave me as well.  It takes a Proper Chalice to drink a Proper Beer.  Come to think of it, the chalice looks a whole lot like the one our parish priest used to celebrate mass with. 

The French make some incredible beer.  There is something of an inside joke/war going on around these parts.  It's related to the amount of hops put into beer.  The Purists have Declared War.  A True Beer cannot have that many hops and still be termed beer.  The Small Batch Brewers have called up the Revolutionary Forces and the (very humorous) War of Words has been engaged.  I've not followed the fracas, but I wish everyone well in the fight.  It's good to see that people enjoy making and drinking beer here in the Heart of the Wine Universe.

For me, I've discovered that the winter-strength ales brewed by old Trappist and Benedictine monasteries (manned by the Monks Themselves) fit my pallet perfectly.  Until now, the closest I'd come to having something this nice was a bourbon barrel aged barley wine.  It was listed at 10 percent ETOH.

The winter ales from France, Belgium and the Netherlands start at 9 percent ETOH and head north to around 12.5 percent ETOH.  These are normal drinking beers.  Nothing special.  Just something to go with dinner before Evening Vespers, apparently.  Yikes! but these are phenomenal!!  The barley wines here approach 15+percent ETOH (try Bommen et Granaten).  They are something quite special, too.

Yes, you can see I retain my sense of American Over Exuberance.  I have yet to develop a Parisian oh that's just sufficient attitude toward anything good and nice.  Certainly not in the face of these new found loves.  Ranked in no particular order, because they are all Simply Incredible to me and my Aging Taste Buds don't really know any better -

• Trappistes Rochefort #10 - 11.3%ETOH
• Urthel Samaranth - 11.5%ETOH
• Straffe Hendrik - 11%ETOH (my latest discovery and oh dear oh dear it's good stuff)

If you find yourselve in a Monoprix on a Desperate Friday night and just HAVE to have a  decent beer, I've found one brew that I like -

• La Trappe Quadrupel - 10%ETOH 

There are plenty of great beers to choose from.  If you visit either beer shop here in Paris, the staff will happily recommend things that might surprise you.  Try la cave a bulles down in the 4th (Simon is a brilliant man) and take a close look at the ancient buildings as you make your way up to Heaven's Gate.  The alchemist Nicholas Flamel frequented the area.  If you live south of the river, try the Bootlegger at 82 Rue De L'Ouest.  The Gates of Paradise are painted red and the lights announce you are about to enter Everlasting Paradise once and for all time.

It's trying hard to snow outside.  The wind whips bitter cold from the Seine up to Montmartre.  It's winter.  Still, I can't bring myself to wish for spring.  Not yet.  There will be plenty of time for whichever spring/summer/fall beers that come along.  For now, it's Deep Winter and these high ETOH monk's beers are keeping me warm and toasty.

More of my photos of beers found here in Paris.

How to fete in Deepest Winter?

There are any number of wonderful ways of celebrating winter around the world.


You can celebrate Samhain, Guy Fawkes Night (oh, now this is a Good One), Diwalii, a good 'ol fashined Nativity Fast, Bodhi Day, Winter Solstice (what's not to like about building a bonfire and dancing the night away while completely nakkid?), Mondraniht, Saturnalia (with a tip to Old Rome), Hogmanay (I'm sorry I sold my kilts, really I am, but the world is a safer place for it), Pancha Ganapati, Imbolc, and, of course, Christmas in America (where you are encouraged to spend, spend, spend as a spiritual exercise of keeping the Top One Percent firmly in their place - at the top).

Here in France, there are the traditional Lighting of the Lights each night down the Champs Elysee, and the very important Sacrifice of the Sapin (Christmas Tree to normal folk) in Your Livingroom.  Yet, the whole season somehow seemed less festive than I imagined it would be.  Even New Years Eve was a surprise.  The French are a reserved lot after all, right?

Wrong!

I simply did not understand how Winter was to be properly celebrated.


Up before dawn with breakfast in the belly and my big cameras slung around my neck, I was out the door and into the metro before, um, what's this?  Clouds?  Drizzle?  Rain?  Ugh.  Well, there was nothing for it but to soldier on.

Popping up out of the metro at Concorde I made my way over to Place Vendome.  This is where began my education into how the French really celebrate Winter.  Avec du vin, du fromage, et un petit morceau de pain.  Zut!  Il n'est pas deja 09H30!!  On doit de la nourriture, n'est pas?


Oooooo... wot's this then?  A two seater Bugatti?  And over there, a Jaguar XK120 OTS?  And, OMG!, a full blown Ferrari F40?  Jesus Christo! and here they all come!!  Automobiles.  Vintage automobiles.  Of all manner of marque and stripe and condition of the "silencers" on their exhaust systems.  Heavy American Iron.  Old British High Carbon Content Steeled Beasts.  Bright Eye Searing Red Italian Slippered Gorgeous Supple Leathered Hand Hammered Aluminum Bodied Race Cars.  Piles and Stacks and Generous Helpings of French Goodness on Four Freak'n Wheeled Art Works.

Voici la traversée de Paris deux mille treize.


Now this, my friends, is a party.  A party worthy of Fun.  A party worth celebrating avec la Bruit et la Vitesse.  In other words, a party to welcome the Full Onslaught of Winter.

After several hours in Place Vendome, I made my way over to Pont Sully.  There are two bridges there that feed automobiles off la rue Saint Germaine de Pres, across le Seine, and sends them past the old Sully Armory and into the former prison at la Bastille.


Kilometer after kilometer de voitures anciennes.

A l'isle Saint Louis Local stopped me and asked pourquoi est-ce que vous prenez les photos de voiture?  Knowing Parisians HATE to have their photo taken, I had to perform a rather quick mental calculation.  What I came up with was a mixture of Franglais and the Complete Unknowable.  Still, I was able to convey il y a 600 voiture qui passe pres d'ici.  Aujourd'hui est la traversée de Paris.

The questioner gave me a quizzical look and asked six cents de voiture anciennes pres d'ici?  C'est formidable, ca!


A more complete accounting of my photographic adventures from la traversee de Paris are found here (simply scroll down through 100+ images).