May 28, 2012  Just when you thought that Rafael Correa would get no worse, he has decided to expand his criminality, not just with Cuba, the Mexican cartels, Russian mobs, the FARC-Shining Path, and Iran but now with the  notoriously corrupt Belarus.

No one does business with Belarus except for dirty business. Every Ecuadorean should move to end this shameful alliance with criminals. In fact, the weird Latin American groups such as UNASUR and most assuredly the OAS and all sane nations should join in rejecting Correa’s melding with more criminals and let it be known for what these dirty folks are doing.

Belarus is called “the last outpost of European tyranny” for good reason. Belarus, a smallish nation of about 10 million people, is repressive and thoroughly corrupt, as all tyrannies are.

The BBC does a decent review of Belarus, reprinted below.  Again, we urge all Ecuadoreans to stand up for what they believe and reject Correa’s House of Shame.

-Pedro Camargo for ECrisis

----------------

Neurope.eu
Minsk to deepen co-operation with Cuba, Ecuador
May 27, 2012 -    Belarus is set to expand co-operation with Cuba and Ecuador, Belarus’ Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Savinykh told a briefing on 24 May, BelTA reported.

On 23-30 May, a Belarusian delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister of Belarus Sergei Aleinik was expected to visit Cuba and Ecuador. The delegation included representatives of the Industry Ministry, Ministry of Architecture and Construction, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, Belneftekhim Concern and a number of Belarusian companies.

The delegation was due to meet with representatives of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, the Council of Ministers, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Industry Ministry, Ministry of Energy and Mines, Agriculture Ministry, Construction Ministry, Transportation Ministry and Armed Forces Ministry.

During a visit to Ecuador, Aleinik was expected to meet with top officials of the Presidential Administration, representatives of the Ministry of Foreign

____
BBC NEWS

Belarus country profile

The present borders of Belarus were established during the turmoil of World War II.

The former Soviet republic was occupied by the Nazis between 1941 and 1944, when it lost 2.2 million people, including most of its large Jewish population.

There are about 400,000 ethnic Poles living in the west of the country.

It has been ruled with an increasingly iron fist since 1994 by President Alexander Lukashenko. Opposition figures are subjected to harsh penalties for organising protests.

In early 2005, Belarus was listed by the US as Europe's only remaining "outpost of tyranny". In late 2008, there were some signs of a slight easing of tensions with the West, though this proved to be only a temporary thaw.

AT-A-GLANCE

·  Politics: President Lukashenko is seen as "Europe's last dictator". He's been in power since 1994

·  Economy: Soviet-style economy is considered to have been subsidised by cheap Russian gas

·  International: A key oil and gas pipeline from Russia to Europe runs through Belarus

The country became independent in 1991, following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Two decades later, the sense of national identity is weak, international isolation continues and the nature of political links with Russia remains a key issue.

In the Soviet post-war years, Belarus became one of the most prosperous parts of the USSR, but with independence came economic decline. President Lukashenko has steadfastly opposed the privatisation of state enterprises. Private business is virtually non-existent. Foreign investors stay away.

The economic situation deteriorated drastically in the summer of 2011 when a balance of payments crisis drained the country's hard-currency reserves. The government's efforts to re-peg the official exchange rate and freeze the price of staple foodstuffs failed to impress either Russia or the International Monetary Fund, to both of which Belarus appealed for assistance.

For much of his career, Mr Lukashenko has sought to develop closer ties with Russia. On the political front, there was talk of union but little tangible evidence of progress, and certainly not toward the union of equals envisaged by President Lukashenko.

Belarus remains heavily dependent on Russia to meet its own energy needs and a considerable proportion of Russian oil and gas exports to Europe pass through it.

Russia's role as a major energy supplier to the rest of Europe and Belarus's position as a key transit country have come under the spotlight several times since 2006, when tensions first arose between Moscow and Minsk over the price of Russian gas and Belarus's privileged access to duty-free oil.

Relations with Russia deteriorated sharply in the summer of 2010, with disputes over energy pricing, customs union terms and the presence in Belarus of ousted Kyrgyz president Bakiyev, prompting speculation that Moscow might switch support from Lukashenko to another leadership candidate.

Population: 9.6 million (UN, 2010)
Capital: Minsk
Area: 207,595 sq km (80,153 sq miles)
Major language: Russian, Belarussian (both official)
Major religion: Christianity
Life expectancy: 65 years (men), 76 years (women) (UN, 2010)
Monetary unit: 1 Belarussian rouble
Main exports: Machinery, chemical and petroleum products
GNI per capita: US $5,950 (World Bank, 2010)
Internet domain: .by
International dialling code: +375
President: Alexander Lukashenko

Alexander Lukashenko, often referred to as Europe's last dictator, was inaugurated for a fourth term as president in January 2011.

The announcement of the presidential election result in December 2010 was followed by violent confrontations in the capital Minsk between the security forces and thousands of opposition demonstrators protesting about alleged vote-rigging.

The European security organisation, the OSCE, described the election as seriously flawed, and OSCE observers criticised both the counting of votes and the violent backlash against opposition candidates. The Belarus government responded by shutting down the OSCE's Minsk office. Russia said the election was an internal matter for Belarus.

A former state farm director, Mr Lukashenko was first elected president in 1994, following his energetic performance as chairman of the parliamentary anti-corruption committee.

A 1996 referendum gave the president greatly increased powers at the expense of parliament and extended his term by two years. He won a further five years in office in 2001 presidential elections condemned as undemocratic by Western observers. Another referendum in October 2004 supported lifting the two-term limit on Mr Lukashenko's rule, allowing him to stand again in 2006 and 2010.

Over the years, several opposition politicians who might have provided leadership have disappeared or been imprisoned. Insulting the president, even in jest, carries a prison sentence.

The president remains defiant in the face of Western pressure for change. He has dismissed all possibility of revolutions such as those which brought an end to old-style regimes in Georgia and neighbouring Ukraine.

The government maintained its stranglehold on politics in the 2008 parliamentary elections, winning all seats.

The release in late 2008 of several opposition activists prompted a slight loosening of EU and US sanctions, and tentative talk of a thaw in relations with the West. However, this process was thrown into reverse after the 2010 presidential elections.

Mr Lukashenko is keen on sport with a particular interest in ice hockey. He was born in 1954.

Belarus has been heavily criticised by rights bodies for suppressing free speech, muzzling the press and denying the opposition access to state media.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranked Belarus 151st out of 175 countries in its 2009 press freedom index.

A 2008 media law raised concerns. The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it was "severely restrictive", citing curbs on foreign funding for media, accreditation rules for journalists, and efforts to censor the web.

TV is the main source of news. The four national channels are state-controlled; their main competitors are Russian networks.

Official newspapers are subsidised, while opposition print media have faced increased charges and have been forced to change name, close down, or publish abroad.

Some private publications survive. They include business daily BDG Delovaya Gazeta and the embattled opposition paper Narodnaya Volya.

Foreign media outlets target Belarus. They include the Polish-funded, Belarussian-language satellite TV station Belsat.

The web is used by the opposition to make its voice heard. There were around 4.4 million internet users by June 2010 (InternetWorldStats).

RSF says a "burgeoning internet has only recently come to the attention of the censoring authorities". Under a 2010 presidential edict, ISPs must identify the devices used by web users and keep records of services rendered.

The press

Sovetskaya Belorussiya - Russian-language, main government daily
Respublika - Council of Ministers daily
Narodnaya Hazeta - National Assembly daily
Zvyazda - Belarussian-language daily, sponsored by National Assembly and Council of Ministers
BDG Delovaya Gazeta - private, business daily
Narodnaya Volya - private, opposition daily; banned from state-controlled distribution, printed in Russia
BelGazeta - private weekly
Television

Belarussian TV - state-run, operates the First National Channel, entertainment network Lad (Harmony), satellite station Belarus-TV
Nationwide TV (ONT) - a joint venture with Russia's Channel One; state holds a majority stake
STV (Stolichnoye Televideniye) - state-run, Minsk local broadcaster
Belsat - based in Poland, targeting Belarus via satellite and internet
Radio

Belarussian Radio - state-run, operates three national networks and an external service
Radio Baltic Waves - EU-backed, based in Lithuania
Radio Racja - based in Poland
News agencies/internet

Belta - state-owned, English-language pages
Belapan - private, English-language pages
Belarus-Forum - private, news service based in Germany
Charter 97 - opposition-leaning site, English-language pages
Story from BBC NEWS

May 8, 2012  For a while, nations that ban rule of law feel oh, so clever. Their structural corruption seemingly delivers the cash for political bribes, pay offs and control of the people. All seems well. But all is never well. The system is not fair with a corrupt caudillo at the helm.

Russia, as the facts bear out, on a much larger scale, is like Ecuador under Correa. The more than 70% of gross national exports from oil and oil products reveals a nation which fails to incubate creativity and productivity while depending on spot oil trades and creepy derivatives speculators to keep the price of oil synthetically high, which never lasts and always falls. Ah, the Faustian Bargains with corruption. But wait you say: it will never afflict Ecuador. Ecuador avoids its vast corruption because Ecuadoreans are better han the rest of mankind and can lie, steal and cheat its way to fame and glory. Ecuadoreans, like Minister Patino can always

out - fox and out - manipulate the dummies still pretending that laws and due process have a meaning when every clever Ecuadorean from birth today  is taught that rules have no meaning and bonds of fellowship have no place in this world. Like ambassador Cely sent to the USA, her portfolio is based on nothing more than a demand that she lie, steal and cheat.

And that is how Ecuador mirrors Russia today: lawless, corrupt and with absolutely no moral fiber. It is the moral thing….so easily discarded in Ecuador, that actually destroys nations. And Ecuador is killing itself.

- Pedro Camargo for ECrisis

 ---------------

 The Wall Street Journal
OPINION
May 10, 2012, 7:46 p.m. ET
David Satter: Awaiting the Next Revolution
Russia is a country in which the population has no respect for the political system, their rulers, or the distribution of property.

The violence that accompanied the inauguration of Vladimir Putin as Russian president this week is an ominous sign that Mr. Putin's apparent desire to rule for life is leading his country toward a dangerous political confrontation.

Initial demonstrations following last December's fraudulent Russian parliamentary elections were cheerful. Crowds of more than 100,000 kept to agreed meeting places and routes and even thanked the police for showing restraint. On the eve of this Monday's inauguration, however, police made 450 arrests and attacked demonstrators with batons, sending at least 17 people to the hospital. More than 20 police were injured by debris and beer bottles thrown by protesters.

Dmitry Peskov, Mr. Putin's spokesman, said he regretted that the police had not behaved more harshly. But harsh treatment may do little to shore up Mr. Putin's dwindling support. Rising prosperity had until recently obscured the fact that Mr. Putin and a small group of cronies control an estimated 10%-15% of Russia's gross national product.

Officially, Mr. Putin was elected president on March 4 with 63.8% of the vote. But a count carried out by the Golos Association, a Russian nonprofit founded in 2000 to protect the electoral rights of citizens, showed that the real figure was 50.75%. Even this could not have been achieved without banning many opposition candidates and putting the entire government at the service of Mr. Putin's campaign. In the Dec. 4 parliamentary elections, the pro-Putin United Russia party, which claimed to win a majority of seats, only received 30%-35% of the vote, according to Golos.

Under these circumstances, neither Mr. Putin's supporters nor his opponents can take the political process seriously. In an effort to defuse the protests, then-President Dmitry Medvedev agreed to a number of political reforms after the December parliamentary elections. The most important was the direct election of governors. But in each region, candidates must collect signatures from 5%-10% of the municipal legislators or mayors, a serious problem outside of Moscow for opposition candidates. Before leaving office, Mr. Medvedev also replaced 13 governors in politically independent regions, removing those seats from political competition for the next four of five years.

One new law regarding political parties gives legal status to opposition parties but prohibits coalitions, making it impossible to form a unified opposition. Mr. Medvedev signed a decree on April 17 establishing a supposedly independent television station, but the director will be appointed by the president.

Some democratic activists are working to achieve political power at the local level. Others may decide the best way to fight a pseudo-democracy is in the streets.

 Another problem bred by Mr. Putin's rule is a deteriorating economy. Crude oil and gas account for 75% of Russia's exports. In order for him to win the presidency, Mr. Putin's government authorized $161 billion in additional spending through 2018, increasing pensions and freezing gas prices. As a result, the government needs an oil price of $150 a barrel over the next few years to break even, while a sharp fall in price (for example to $80 a barrel) could lead to an immediate crisis.

Corruption, especially of this magnitude, has its consequences. Investors do not invest in a country with no rule of law. In September 2010, Russia's capital account went into deficit, the result of lagging investment and capital flight. How much capital flight? According to Sergei Guriev, dean of Moscow's New Economic School, in net terms Russia is losing between $7 billion and $8 billion of capital every month, equivalent to 5% of its monthly GDP.

Finally, Mr. Putin's rule has led to rising nationalist extremism. During the election campaign, Mr. Putin accused the West of meddling in Russian affairs, saying "The battle for Russia continues and we will win!" It was not clear who he was battling or what he expects to win, but such rhetoric provides emotional support for the nationalist movement in Russia.

Under Mr. Putin, radical nationalists have attacked dark-skinned foreigners on the streets of Russian cities with impunity. In 2006, 13 people were killed in a bombing of Moscow's Cherkizovsky market, where the traders were mostly from the Caucasus and Central Asia. With the violence threatening to slip out of control, the authorities began to arrest neo-Nazis and skinheads, but there's been no attempt to combat their xenophobic worldview. Some fascist groups are now saying on their websites that it's not enough to attack "Tajiks"—the time has come to attack the system.

In the face of all this, Mr. Putin has made attempts to endow himself with new legitimacy. In recent years, he's been filmed riding a Harley-Davidson, singing the 1950s hit "Blueberry Hill," and photographed riding a horse bare-chested. One of his aides said he believed that Mr. Putin was sent to Russia by God, and the Russian media reported that a small female sect believes that Mr. Putin is the reincarnation of the Apostle Paul.

None of this, however, is likely to protect the Putin regime from the challenge it now faces. Russia is a country in which the population has no respect for the political system, their rulers, or the distribution of property. It is also a society assaulted with tendentious information not only by the rulers but by some of those in opposition.

In the best of all worlds Mr. Putin would resign, and free and fair elections, with nonpartisan monitors, would be held. But even that would not be enough. Russia needs a commission similar to the South African Commission on Truth and Reconciliation to review publicly not only the crimes of the Putin era but also crimes committed during the eight-year rule of his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin. Only this can provide a basis for democracy.

Sadly, no such accounting is likely in the short run, which is why the stage is now set for a struggle over Russia's future in which neither side can be confident of success. What's at stake is not just the country's prosperity but its existence as a civilized society.

 ____

May 4, 2012   President Cristina Kirchner of Argentina just spent tens of millions of Argentinean pesos at Young + Rubican in New York to advertise a nasty, cynical and dishonest political scam. Kirchner wants you to believe an untruth. Kirchner wants to persuade you that Argentina owns the Falkland Islands when it does not and never did. Certainly the Falklands for almost 200 years always flew the flag of England. Today- for over thirty years, the Falklanders loud and clear state that they choose to stay with the British Commonwealth and want Argentina to leave them alone. Over 90% of the very rugged islanders are full British citizens and want to stay that way. Kirchner does not care.

Here is Cristina’s very expensive and very dishonest ad. She features an Argentinean hockey player. We assume this is ice hockey. The ad shows him training for the summer Olympics

in England. The winter Olympics are not held in England- just the summer Olympics. We do not know if this wanna be Olympian althlete will succumb to field hockey, but we do not believe that field hockey is an officially designated Olympic summer game. We are not sure what he is training for but it is not, as the ad says, training for the Olympics in England this summer.

Nonetheless, the ad shows this Argentinean athlete, this hockey player, running up and down the streets of the Falklands primary town. The tiny pub is their largest and most prestigious.

The Falklands is almost  a truck stop on some lost highway: few people, no urban development, certainly no hideous cement high rises and sacred condos so dearly beloved by tasteless Quitenos….but the Falklands do have a lot of sheep. Lost of sheep. The British came with sheep almost two hundred years ago when there was not much else on the Falklands and certainly no Argentineans nor Spaniards nor French nor any indigenous. Now they have sheep.

And Ms. Kirchner tells us that to train for the summer Olympics in England, the Argentinean hockey player must train on Argentinean soil….on the Falklands. Now we do not know if this is a video actually shot on the Falklands- camera crew and all or  if this was a photo shop job.

What we do know is that under Cristina’s stupidity, no British camera crew could shoot such an ad on Argentinean soil, let alone the capital Buenos Aires. Cristina would send her paid Chavista bully boys…and now her Cuban spies and Cuban thugs after the British. That’s our Cristina….that is when she is not busy celebrating her theft of Repsol.

Somehow we liked Cristina a bit more when she was publicly stating that her now dead, but then supposedly alive husband Nestor enjoyed better sexual performance by eating Argentinean pork. She told us- and that they were proof- that this was more effective than Viagra.

And if you think that Rafael Correa is not teamed up with dirty Iranians moving businesses through and across Argentina as a shelter/ a cover with Iranian banks and terror criminals, you would be wrong. Thus far, these global criminals have hidden their crimes….their will has triumphed, a la Leni Refenstahl, even as the US president Obama continues, for reasons unknown to deem both Correa and Kirchner as dear allies, leaving Obama and every Latin president to look as dishonest and corrupt as the father of you-know-who, then ambassador Joe Kennedy did in the 1930s declaring that Hitler’s Nazis were also our allies. Then again, Peronista Argentineans were Hitler’s allies. The triumph of transnational criminal will. ….but not for long. Riefenstahl’s propaganda was funded by fascists to sell their political persuasions also. Both the Peronistas and the Nazis had a pretty bad record of protecting humanity while eschewing the overarching great central state and the great laborer, not unlike communists in that sense.

Watch Cristina’s ad here.     

Recall too that in 1938, Adolf Hitler went in to propaganda overdrive using and abusing the Summer Olympics too.

Here is a Nazi bit of propaganda, which is appallingly still in usage today: support the Hard Left/ the communists, the Nazis/ the ALBA/ Montaneros, Peronistas/ Shining Path/Chavistas ….for they alone help the poor of the state and by the state.



The propaganda archives to mislead citizens is in fact a hall of shame. Be a Nazi- help the poor, they say.   Be a socialist- help the poor. In fact, like all socialists, they helped their citizens to a very very early grave.  You can see more here.

            -Pedro Camargo for ECrisis

April 29, 2012  ECrisis has long maintained what Ecuadoreans and other assorted fools across the globe have NOT maintained: Ecuador’s 9-08 Cuban ALBA constitution is based on Cuban communism. So…please quit already with the false narrative that this text sprung forth, fully formed from the hearts and minds of legal giants, US AID liars, and EU communists from Spain and Caracas. In fact, the Ecuadorean constitution did come from the above listed liars who did a horrifying cut and paste job…removing any vestige of liberty from Ecuador. The Ecuadorean constitution is a disgrace and is the instrument of your own self imprisonment.

We remind that the Cuban constitution is a horror tool also. Complete state primacy over your work and private life. Like idiotic Venezuelans who pretend that this is great as long as Hugo Chavez’s bribes just keep rolling in, Ecuadoreans have sold out their morals for a few hand outs while doing nothing whatsoever to deserve anything from the global high prices of oil. Seen any debt reductions by Correa? Any “sovereign” savings? Are you any better off today that five years ago? No….you are not no matter that Correa reminds often of his new schools, new roads and no clinics. We state that these are badly done and the overall picture is that Ecuadoreans are poorer in a land that is rich because criminals and government burglars steal Ecuador’s assets. There is no justice in Ecuador: only the state. And that which Correa has not yet stolen, he lies about….because you let him.

Study the piece on the Castro 'legal system' here. If you do not see the similarities, please move to Havana.

Otherwise, demand that justice be the law of the land.

Once again….do what no one does: Review your constitution. The whole thing. Understand that it gifts total powers to one person- the president. Stop lying about it and stop telling us that you love your life lived inside a garbage can.

            And what future does this little girl have…sacrificed for Correa’s communism?

-Pedro Camargo for ECrisis

April 27, 2012  Colombia’s Uribe is one men who is a truthteller. He is not a wind bag and he does not lie. That puts him in an extremely unusual category in the Andes, surrounded as he is by liars, ninnyhammers, dimwits and dunces, most of whom should go to jail at once.

Uribe is completely correct that Venezuela [ and Ecuador] are drug havens.

"Venezuela is a haven for drug traffickers and terrorists and needs a new government to restore democratic values, former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said."

WOLA’s Adam Isaacson has been a Soros and pro Chavez tool for far too long. Who do you believe ?

For its part, Bloomberg carries on with he lie that Colombia bombed inside Ecuador to keill, as they were legally entitled to do so, Raul Reyes of the FARC. Seen any bomb craters in Lago Agrio from the raid? No-  you have not. When bombs fall from the sky, there are bomb craters.

Jose Miguel Insulza toured the Reyes FARC camp. He saw first hand.

Seen any bomb craters yet? More to the point: seen any head counts for Ecuador of the numbers of FARC, ETA, Hezbollah, Iranian QUDS and Hamas?  Why is that?

-Pedro Camargo for ECrisis

April 11. 2012  ECrisis presses our readers to study the following analysis for its inherent lessons for all Cuban communists now destroying Ecuador, along with the heavy immorality of Iran’s totally dishonest Mullahs of Morass.

So far, many Ecuadoreans report how happy they are to surrender any and all liberty to the uber-Correa communist ploy. Pathetic indeed  are these idiots who fail to ponder what happens when Correa runs out of someone else’s money and stops bribing the locals. And none have tallied up Correa’s incoherent economics….his failure to report even basic governmental budgets. But Correa is a liar and reports nothing honestly, like his sainted Cuba and Iran. No honesty equals no honor. Correa calls this his sovereign right. We suppose it is as long as Ecuadoreans confer to Correa his task of lying, stealing and cheating as much as he can…sovereign rights to be a criminal cartel conferred on leadership by the people for more extortion and bribes. Sounds like a plan! A plan that is until you finally figure out that you too are a Correa criminal: your role in this crime spree is obvious. You dance with the devil at your own demise.

Each time you applaud Correa stealing from innocent persons, you yourself are accessory to crime, salivating no doubt that this is necessary for your own wallet. It is necessary for your own moral rap sheet…that is all. Stop enabling Correa’s crime.

-Pedro Camargo for ECrisis
-----------------

The Poverty of Equality
By Stephen Moore & Peter Ferrara April 2012    AMERICAN SPECTATOR 

Fairness requires that President Obama read up on his Kurt Vonnegut.

The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.

So began Kurt Vonnegut's 1961 short story "Harrison Bergeron." In that brave new world, the government forced each individual to wear "handicaps" to offset any advantage he had, so everyone could be truly and fully equal. Beautiful people had to wear ugly masks to hide their good looks. The strong had to wear compensating weights to slow them down. Graceful dancers were burdened with bags of bird shot. Those with above-average intelligence had to wear government transmitters in their ears that would emit sharp noises every 20 seconds, shattering their thoughts "to keep them…from taking unfair advantage of their brains."

But Harrison Bergeron, who was far above average in everything, was a special problem. Vonnegut explained, "Nobody had ever borne heavier handicaps.… Instead of a little ear radio for a mental handicap, he wore a tremendous pair of earphones, and spectacles with thick wavy lenses." To offset his strength, "Scrap metal was hung all over him," to the point that the seven-foot-tall Harrison "looked like a walking junkyard."

The youthful Harrison did not accept these burdens easily, so he had been jailed. But with his myriad advantages and talents, he had broken out. An announcement on TV explained the threat: "He is a genius and an athlete…and should be regarded as extremely dangerous."

Harrison broke into a TV studio, which was broadcasting the performance of a troupe of dancing ballerinas. On national television, he illegally cast off each one of his handicaps. Then he did the same for one of the ballerinas, and then the orchestra, which he commanded to play. To shockingly beautiful chords, Harrison and the ballerina began to dance.

Not only were the laws of the land abandoned, but the laws of gravity and the laws of motion as well.…The studio ceiling was thirty feet high, but each leap brought the dancers nearer to it. It became their obvious intention to kiss the ceiling. They kissed it. And then, neutralizing gravity with love and pure will, they remained suspended in air inches below the ceiling, and they kissed each other for a long, long time.

SOCIAL SAFETY NETS that provide basic help for the needy to prevent human suffering are easily justifiable on moral grounds. Nearly everyone supports them to prevent severe hardship among those disabled, widowed, orphaned, or even just temporarily down on their luck. In modern and wealthy societies like ours, there is broad voter consent to such policies, which ensure people do not suffer deprivation of the necessities of life: food, shelter, and clothing. This recognizes we have a moral obligation to help our fellow man. It's always an open question how much of that should fall to private charity and how much should be done through government taxation. That said, the truth is, such safety nets, if focused on the truly needy and designed to rely on modern markets and incentives, would not be costly compared to the immense wealth of our society.

But once such policies are established, going further—taking from some by force of law what they have produced and consequently earned, and giving to others merely to make incomes and wealth more equal—is not justifiable. Vonnegut's story helps explain why.

First, achieving true and comprehensive equality would require violating personal liberty, as the talented and capable must be prevented from using their advantages to get ahead. Under this philosophy, the most productive must be treated punitively through high tax rates simply because they used their abilities to produce more than others. What we have just described is a progressive tax system. Work and produce a little bit, and we take 10 percent. Work and produce more, and we take 20 percent, and so on. Some societies take as much as 90 percent of the marginal output, as the U.S. did after World War II.

In a society where men and women are angels who always put the welfare of others ahead of their own, this system—from each according to his ability, to each according to his need—might even work. High tax rates wouldn't have any negative consequences because everyone would work for everyone else's benefit. Society would be like one, large commune, with everyone working for the common good. The ambitious, hard worker would get the same pay as the one who sleeps in and lives a lazy lifestyle. Output would be high, and we would have almost complete equality of outcome.

The problem, of course, is that men are not angels. We are driven by self-interest-not entirely, of course, but enough that giving everyone an equal share despite unequal contributions would severely deter work incentives. This is why in all those societies that have tried to enforce the more extreme vision of mandatory equality, totalitarian governments and poverty have emerged. And, by the way, in practice these societies are not very equal either. Richer and freer countries tend to have smaller income disparities than poorer and less free nations.

Moreover, as Vonnegut's story illustrates, inequalities of wealth and income are not the only important differences in society. If equality is truly a moral obligation, then inequalities of beauty, intelligence, strength, grace, talent, etc. logically all should be leveled as well. That would require some rather heavy-handed government intervention. It is not fair that LeBron James has a 40-inch vertical leap, and we have a 4-inch vertical leap (combined). It is not fair that some have high IQs, and others are below average. It is not fair that Christie Brinkley is beautiful, that some people are born with photographic memories, that one person gets cancer and the next one doesn't. We Americans were born in a land of opportunity and wealth, while billions around the world are born into poverty and squalor. We won the ultimate lottery of life just by being born in this great and rich country. Where is the justice in that?

THE GOAL OF A SOCIETY should not and cannot be to make people equal in outcomes, an impossibility given the individual attributes with which we were each endowed by our creator. It is the opposite of justice and fairness to try to equalize outcomes based on those attributes. It is not fair to the beautiful to force them to wear ugly masks. It is not fair to the strong to punish them by holding them down with excess weights. It is not fair to the graceful and athletic to deprive them of their talents. In the same way, it is not fair to the productive, the risk taking, or the hard working, to deprive them of what they have produced, merely to make them equal to others who have worked less, taken less risk, and produced less.

As Vonnegut's story shows, putting social limits on the success people are allowed to achieve with their own talents and abilities makes everyone worse off, because it deprives society of the benefits of their brilliance and beauty and skill and talent. The fact that Bill Gates and Steve Jobs made billions of dollars in income—more than some whole societies make—has on paper made America more unequal. But is the middle class better or worse off for Microsoft and Apple products? Should we curse the invention of the personal computer, which is now in nearly every home in America, simply because it made these men unthinkably wealthy? Since hundreds of millions of people buy their products willingly, it would seem self-evident that Mr. Gates and Mr. Jobs generated a better world for everyone, not just for themselves.

Finally, this vision of equality as a social goal, with equal incomes and wealth for all, is severely counterproductive economically, and so makes for a poor society as well. Pursuing such a vision would require very high marginal tax rates on anyone with above-average production, income, and wealth, which theory and experience show leads to decreased production. As we saw in our discussion of tax policy above, the less people are allowed to keep of what they produce, the less they will produce.

A good and just tax system should be designed to make the poor rich, not the rich poor. The preoccupation with equality reverses these two objectives, such as when Barack Obama says we should raise the capital gains rate even if it doesn't increase government revenue, for "the purpose of fairness." How is an outcome that hurts everyone fair?

IT'S EASY TO THINK of other unfavorable results of this fairness fetish. Under the social justice of equal income and wealth for all, investment would make no sense. People invest only to earn returns, which means more income. Anyone who invests more would have a higher income, which would be expropriated to the extent it was above the average. But anyone who invests less and thus has a below-average income would be rewarded with a grant from the government to ensure equality. So, again, the only rational strategy would be to avoid all investment.

China is one good recent example. During the era of communism in the 1940s, '50s, and '60s, when all land was cultivated for the "common good" and food was evenly distributed to all, regardless of how much one worked, China produced way too little food, and many millions of people, including children, starved to death. But then, starting in the 1980s, agricultural reforms began to emerge that allowed farmers to take a small plot of land and keep the food they grew. An amazing thing happened. Production of food on these very small tracts surged multiples higher than the output on the communal lands. The Chinese farmers saw output double and even triple from the previous arrangement where all food was put in a communal pot. Private ownership of the farms led to a green revolution, and China quickly became a food exporter.

Was this because the Chinese people are selfish and don't care about their fellow man? No, Chinese culture is no more selfish than any other. It's just that we as human beings are hardwired to put our own well-being and that of our kids above that of the fellow we don't even know. The human pursuit of happiness begins for most by taking care of themselves and their families. That is deeply ingrained into our cores.

We would add that the alternative course of demanding equality of opportunity can (and almost always does in practice) lead to the subordination of other values, such as personal liberty. As one example, the talented almost always want to leave societies where their talents are suppressed. Think of North Korea, or Cuba, or East Germany after World War II. These regimes quickly discovered that to keep their nations from economic collapse, they had to enforce tight restrictions on emigration and international travel to avoid losing their most productive citizens. And it wasn't just the best and brightest who wanted to leave. Many average citizens wanted to flee from economically stagnant, poor societies. So the governments had to restrict everyone from leaving and impose on the liberty of all. This is where the Berlin Wall came from. It was not a wall to keep invaders out. It was to keep citizens captive.

BUT DOESN'T THE DECLARATION of Independence itself say "All men are created equal," and isn't equality a fundamental American ideal? Yes, but these expressions invoke a concept of equality different from the social justice concept of equal incomes and wealth for all.

The original and traditionally American concept of equality is "equality under the law." That means the same rules apply to all, not the same results. Baseball is a fair game because the same rules apply to all players.

Equality of rules protects the property of all, which encourages saving, investment, and work, because all are assured protection for the fruits of their labor. Equality of rules ensures that all enjoy the same freedom of contract, which empowers them to maximize value and production, and plan investment knowing they can rely on their agreed contractual rights. Equality of rules provides a framework in which all are free to pursue their individual visions of happiness to the maximum extent.

Within this framework of equal rules for all, the outcome of the market in terms of income and wealth is fair, for two fundamental reasons. The first is that people basically earn in the market the value of what they produce. Economists say more formally that wages equal the marginal productivity of labor. That encompasses both the quantity and rarity of each worker's output. If the worker's output is unique, that output will be worth more, to the extent that people value it, because only he can produce it. James Patterson has gotten rich writing mystery novels that readers buy because they derive happiness from his thrillers and are captivated by his plots. Every one of us can sing, but Katy Perry has a string of number-one hits that young people all over the world want to listen to over and over.

Alex Rodriguez and LeBron James each make a lot more money than any teacher, or any doctor. In a broad social sense, what teachers and doctors do is worth much more than what professional athletes do. Sure, not everyone can teach, and fewer still can practice medicine. But only Alex Rodriguez and LeBron James can do what they do, which entertains millions at the stadium, on the radio, on television, and in the paper the next morning. Each fan is willing to pay a little in return for their unique performances. What they get is not unfair. They earn it, through talent and hard work.

THIS IS WHY it is wrong to even speak of the "distribution" of income and wealth. Income and wealth are not distributed. Income and wealth are created, and in a fair society they come into the world attached to the rightful owner that produced them. As the late Harvard philosopher Robert Nozick wrote, "Whoever makes something, having bought or contracted for all other held resources used in the process…is entitled to it. The situation is not one of something's getting made, and there being an open question of who is to get it." If income and wealth are not attached to the owner that produced them, they tend not to be created at all.

Moreover, what is produced is not taken from anyone else. It is created by the worker, the earner, and does not come at the expense of others. The economy is not a fixed pie with slices handed out by Barack Obama. Each worker expands the pie and creates his own slices.

A society that puts equality ahead of freedom and prosperity will be in the end an unhappy one. As we have seen throughout history, high tax rates, high welfare benefits, and collectivist outcomes lead to deprivation and poverty. We want a fair society where everyone can realize his fullest human potential. And yes, that means some—Bill Gates, Michael Jordan, Tom Cruise, Albert Pujols, Lady Gaga, and Sergey Brin—will get a lot richer than others. There is no injustice in that.

We left until now the thrilling ending of Mr. Vonnegut's story. Just at the moment when Harrison Bergeron and the ballet dancer were wowing the audience with their expertise and breathtaking talent, as the orchestra was breaking into shockingly beautiful chords, and as the crowd's cheering reached a crescendo of joy and admiration, at that very moment, in barged the Handicapper General, Diana Moon Glampers. With a double-barreled shotgun, she shot the two lawbreakers dead to the floor, and equality was restored.

April 3, 2012   Can we get some relief yet? El presidente Correa just keeps on lying and lying and lying. Are there no Ecuadoreans willing to stand up to this uneducated, dishonest sociopath? Seriously….where does he get his stuff? And which priest instructed the Correa to announce the things he does about Christ, deftly forming it all in to some disgusting justification and manipulation of the New Testament?

No wait….Correa lies about everything and manipulates everything. While his view of Christ is so wrong, why are we surprised that he tackles Christ’s Passion for his own disgusting re- election efforts? What is next? The Liberation Theologists still hovering around the Vatican, soothing that Marxism will solve all problems, to declare that Correa’s dishonesty is next to Godliness?

No one should be swayed by Correa’s dishonest view of Christianity. The Jews, all on their own, handed Jesus up to death. The Romans drove the get away car and pounded in the nails. It is as clear as that. Much of mankind is likely to have joined in the evil…to their unending shame. The Jews were not manipulated by the Romans to condemn Christ. Indeed the point is: this is a tale of all mankind for every time we lie, steal and cheat….we go against Christ’s teachings. Correa is trying to remove the guilt of the sinning…as if to say the Romans made us do it. This is classic Correa: always blame someone or something else. The sins remain.

It remains that Correa is a criminal. He lies, He distorts, He steals. He extorts. He commits fraud and he needs to be gone. There is no excuse for his rampant, total criminality.

No one has made Correa do the evil things he has done and there is no excuse.

Correa has no right to decipher Christ for he and his 9-08 constitution chucked Christ under his Cuban Marxist ALBA constitutional bus….in favor of fat fake polytheistic Pachamama, now the state religion of liars and created for liars. There is no excusing Correa and his merry band of sociopaths.  The Romans did not make any enact Correa and his sins.

-Pedro Camargo for ECrisis

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 President Correa Sends Holy Week Message via Twitter

April 02, 2012          Rafael Correa

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa promised not to wash his hands of injustice, via his Twitter account, today.

Through several tweets, Correa told the story of the Passion of Jesus as a representation of the collective thinking of our society. He condemned Pontius Pilatus and the high priests for washing their hands of Jesus’ crucifixion, after manipulating the Jews into condemning him to the cross.

The overtones of this message unleashed comments from both Correa’s critics and supporters. Mateo Martinez, a political analyst and doctoral candidate for the National Autonomous University of Mexico, shared his opinion of Correa’s strong religious message. “Correa is playing with the vagueness of symbolism, by sharing implicit and explicit allegories between the Holy Scripture and his presidency,” said the expert.

April 2, 2012    “Franken-states” – abnormal, ungodly, inhuman, discredited, dishonest, creations by corrupt men [and woman] to be as humane things but are always created for criminality are on the menu in Latin America. No Cuban-communist ALBA nation is not a Franken-state. Each of these woe-begone horrors walks among us, undetected, unreported and fully inhuman…creations of their corrupt owners.

The Wall Street Journal’s Mary Anastasia O’Grady delivers a tremendously helpful overview of  monsters among us, in this instance Argentina. What defies logic is why, in the annals of fact based reporting and inter-governmental reviews of the Western Hemisphere, do we not see any substantive facts regarding real time data on these Franken-states, which always are ruinous, always dishonest and always lead to bad ends?

Ecuador is far worse than Argentina for actual crimes against mankind. Correa’s dishonest regime has married its own Central Bank with the Central Bank of Iran, dishonestly calling this as nice little trade deals to ward off any fact based analysis, still missing and still in dire need of completion. In fact, Ecuador’s marriage with Iran is so horrifying that any and all who refuse to so review the facts are themselves guilty of conspiring to aid and abet Iranian  terrorists. Ecuadoreans want to pretend that destroying its own Central Bank, its national credibility, merging as it does with Iran and global vermin is of no consequence as long as one and all self-delude that they are helping the poor, which of course are not helped by this fraud scheme.

Mary Shelley, the authoress of the original book on FRANKENSTEIN told of the doctor seeking to help mankind, to better this world by making the dead walk. The dead do not walk but criminals do. All Ecuadoreans are lying to themselves and to the world at large today. Theirs is a ruinous nation, depleted of any honor for the greater lie that dead policies of communism and state crime can walk among them. It always ends badly.

ECrisis has been exasperated at the failure of all nations in South America to demand integrity of the whole. We consider these enablers and lying sycophants to self enrich. Worse yet is out sheer and utter revulsion at the U.S. Department of State for continuously refusing to report the facts on these man-made demons, instruments of horror. Then again, the Obama White House and its minions of synthetic Marxism, which demands that each sell the globe a dishonest world view is at the creator’s bench and what they have wrought and enabled strides among us all as a New Age cretinous Leviathan.

You might observe that Rafael Correa has become his own monster….his own Frankenstein, operating on false facts, false promises, false government and certainly not one whiff of the highly vaulted democracy, so arduously detailed by Correa’s enablers in crime. Democracy is not within ten million miles of  Quito.

The JOURNAL article notes that the Economist has banned any printing of what Kirchner’s dishonest, dishonored kleptocracy state called Argentina puts forward. Have you not noticed that no one credible runs or entertains Correa’s fake financial data either? The void is yawning and the rejection of everything that Correa says and does is huge. Huge that is, except to cartels, Iranians, Cubanoids, Sorosites and the U.S. government of Obama and his “progressive” Democrats who demand lies, insist on failed nations and support ruinous acts to pretend that Cuban communism gives mankind relief. Relief is not on the menu for Correa.

Ruining the lands called Ecuador is what he does. Frankenstein’s monster is among us all. Ecuador is a primary Franken-state. Just stop it. Now.

Demand that liberty-in-law be yours. Insist that all stolen lands and companies be  returned. Demand accountable government. Insist on independent central banking….not the Sanctions Demanding Central Bank of Ecuador ruining your future under Correa’s massively dishonest cousin Pedro Delgado with Iran’s tender mercies. Correa, Delgado and Iran have installed your own defilement and worst nightmare of state sponsored crime and horror: Frankenstein is yours now.

-Pedro Camargo for ECrisis

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The Wall Street Journal
Kirchner Grabs the Central Bank
Argentina's monetary policy is now subject to the fiscal demands of the government. Citizens can look forward to more inflation.
By MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY    4-1-12

Argentina's Franken-state stormed the central bank last month, destroying the last vestiges of independence. Given the hyperinflationary history of that nation, it is worth asking why Argentines have allowed this to happen.

The pathology of a government power grab is not hard to discern. The state creates the conditions for crisis. Crisis strikes. Politicians seize extraordinary powers. Crisis passes. Left behind is a popular perception that complete annihilation was averted due to government genius. Politicians are permitted to expand their power.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (left) with her hand-picked head of the central bank, Mercedes Marcó del Pont.

Americans have a real-time example of this phenomenon in the subprime meltdown brought on by federal housing policy. We are now told that government intervention saved civilization: Last week Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke lectured students at George Washington University about the arbitrary rescue of Bear Stearns and AIG creditors in 2008 that he said stopped what otherwise "would've been basically the end." For whom, it is still not clear.

Having thus altered destiny, Mr. Bernanke next directed an unprecedented expansion of the Fed's balance sheet in order to rescue others in need. And last week he told a conference of the National Association for Business Economics that he is concerned that improvements in the unemployment rate may be unsustainable. He pledged to continue his free-credit policies, savers be damned.

The dangers of using easy monetary policy to push on a string are well documented. But when government is making up for previous mistakes, it rarely employs moderation.

Take unrestrained central banking to the extreme and you get Argentina. In 2002 it also had an epic crisis and the government intervened heavily in the economy, including orchestrating a mega-devaluation of the peso.

Under Kirchner presidencies—first Néstor and now his wife Cristina—since 2003, the state has confiscated bank accounts and retirement savings, hyper-regulated many entrepreneurs out of business, abrogated contracts, imposed price controls, and raised import tariffs and export taxes. Vast entitlements, notably in subsidized utilities and transportation, have been used to consolidate power.

Advocates of this broad intervention argued it was justified on the grounds that an economic contraction of minus 10.9% in 2002 required extreme measures. But since 2003, the economy has been growing. A country serious about building wealth in the 21st century would logically restore economic liberalization.

Instead, Argentina keeps reducing freedom and expanding the reach of the state. The latest concern is what appears to be an attempt to nationalize the Spanish oil company Repsol's Argentine holdings by getting governors who are sympathetic to the president to cancel key provincial concessions in recent weeks and making it difficult for the company to operate in the country.

Last month the Kirchner-controlled Congress delivered what could be the coup de grace for the Argentine economy: a reform of the central bank charter that eliminates a 1991 monetary rule requiring that base money be backed up by international reserves and placed beyond the control of the government. The central bank board now will come up with some formula for the amount of reserves to be kept on hand. Reserves above that amount will be available for Mrs. Kirchner's government to borrow. The formula can be adjusted at any time.

The Kirchner government has been dipping into the central bank's "excess" reserves—the surplus over the monetary base—since 2010. A showdown about that policy provoked the resignation of former bank president Martin Redrado in January 2010 and the naming of the more compliant Mercedes Marcó del Pont.

The government has argued that it is wasteful to sit on dollars that pay next to nothing when they could be used to pay down debt. That makes some sense. But paying down debt is not all Mrs. Kirchner has in mind. She maintains her popularity with generous government spending, and with international reserves fleeing, excesses are shrinking. She needed a charter change if she wants to tap more central bank funds. According to the reform, she can now borrow from the bank about twice what she could borrow before.

The bank's singular mandate of price stability has also been removed. In its place is a three-pronged mandate that includes the goals of providing for growth with social fairness and financial stability along with price stability.

Given Argentina's track record, it is hard to imagine that these new rules won't lead to more inflation. And none of this will boost the bank's credibility, which is already on the rocks. Government claims that inflation is running around 10% have been challenged by independent economists who say it is more like 20%.

In February, the Economist echoed those doubts with a seething commentary announcing that it would no longer publish official statistics. "We are tired of being an unwilling party to what appears to be a deliberate attempt to deceive voters and swindle investors," the magazine wrote.

A crisis is brewing. When it hits, will Mrs. Kirchner get even more power or will Argentines finally come to their senses?

April 1, 2012      Argentina is following Cuban-communist ALBA play books, especially mimicking Rafael Correa and Hugo Chavez: lie a lot, cheat, steal and pretend that you are honorable due to your self proclaimed “sovereignty” born by your own narcissism and fraud.

Suing innocent parties, stealing their belongings and dishonestly claiming that you have the obligation to do so is….still horrifyingly wrong. The Telegraph reports that Argentina threatens to sue banks helping Falklands oil explorers as trade war with Britain escalates.

-Pedro Camargo for ECrisis

March 28, 2012   The old church hymn reminds us, “and the government shall be upon his shoulders.” For Ecuador, that means the Cuban communist government, now in a threesome with Iran. You will recall that the first thing on the first day when new president Correa, who refused to be sworn in to uphold extant Ecuadorean law…or treaties or concordances, opened himself for business, he publicly declared full merger with Castro’s criminal, communist Cuba. He swore allegiance to Cuba. And the Obama team, waiting as they had during the Bush years, declared this holy.

One hopes that the stark visual of Correa’s pledged leader, Fidel Castro is before your pea brain. This is the Castro which Ecuador has promised to defend and serve….not the Pope nor anything remotely resembling honorable governance. Note the black jump suit. Note that the two men are about the same age. One was conscribed by force to the Nazi youth and willingly walked out. Later he was almost subjected to the horrors of communism. The other took communism’s dirty money and has caused mayhem and slaughters untold around the globe.

And Correa calls this blessed.

For our part, we stand against Correa’s dishonesty and his perversion of decency.

It is time you do also.

A poignant review by the great Carlos Eire on those who game mankind’s higher sensibilities to protect the statist prerogatives follows.

Weep afresh . How are your Holy Week preparations coming? Feeling any better yet?

-Pedro Camargo for ECrisis

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The Wall Street Journal·                               EUROPE NEWS             March 28, 2012

Pope Seeks Greater Freedom for Church in Cuba
By NICHOLAS CASEY

But first, we have to realize where we are, and what the hour demands of us. Right now, for every Cuban, everywhere, there is but one question to answer: “quo vadis?”