Paramount and Warner Brother’s have both made U.S.$2 billion in profits so far this year, but not here in the U.S.
The two movie studios made those profits overseas. They’re the first U.S. movie companies to hit such a high overseas profit.
If anyone has been paying attention to where U.S. movies are first released, they’d notice that U.S. movie premiers have been taking place overseas first, before being released in the United States.
Scotland Yard arrested one of their own, for revealing to the public that newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch were hacking into cell phones.
The 51 year old policeman was released on bail. His name has not been made public.
The London Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard) admit the officer was arrested because everyone in the know about the phone hacking had been ordered not to say anything to the public.
This only makes Scotland Yard look more suspicious in the public’s eye, because some people say they were involved in helping Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers get private info on specific individuals, including members of the Royal Family.
Afghan officials have told British media that the U.S. and Afghanistan have agreed to keep thousands of U.S. troops in country until 2024!
The deal would allow U.S. forces to use Afghan military bases, provide facilities to store massive numbers of U.S. military equipment, and allow thousands of military personnel to stay, including special forces.
Russian officials pointed out that the deal doesn’t make sense: “If the job is done, if terrorism is defeated and peace and stability is brought back, then why would you need bases? If the job is not done, then several thousand troops, even special forces, will not be able to do the job that 150,000 troops couldn’t do. It is not possible.”-Andrey Avetisyan, Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan
The Russians should know, they got their butts kicked by the Afghans back when Russia was part of the Soviet Union. They did exactly what the U.S. is doing now, trying to train up the Afghan government to take on the “terrorists”. The Soviet Union left Afghanistan in 1989, but continued to supply weapons and trainers to the Afghan government. The Afghan government lasted until 1992, brought down by a civil war that lasted until 1996. The civil war ended in 1996 when the Taliban took control of the country.
“Egypt has decided to withdraw its ambassador to Israel until there is an official apology.”-Egyptian government statement
Egyptian officials say Israel killed at least five of their military personnel, who patrol the Israeli/Egypt border on a regular bases.
Egyptians are still protesting outside the Israeli Embassy in Cairo: “This protest will not end as long as the Israeli embassy still has a place in Egypt. We will not leave here until they do, and if that fails, we will go back to Tahrir.”-protester
Egyptians also said they wanted relations with Israel ended, permanently. One protestor said Israel has killed Egyptian border troops before, and that the former Mubarak government always looked the other way. The protestors say they will no longer look the other way when Israel goes on the war path.
The family of a seventh grade special-education student are suing the Republic School District, in Missouri.
The reason is that the girl was raped several times, and then school officials made her write an apology to the boy who raped her, and then she was suspended! After returning to school, after the suspension, she was raped again!
This is what the school says in their own files on the girl: She is “…conflict adverse, behaviorally passive and would forgo her own needs and wishes to satisfy the request of others around so she can be accepted.” Basically the school says she was raped because she wanted to have friends!
Get this. When the girl was raped, after returning to school following her suspension, her mother took her to be examined by doctors. They found semen in the girl, and it was a match to the boy she said raped her. The boy was arrested and pleaded guilty in juvenile court. Yet the school still denies any rapes took place!
Republic School District administrators had this final statement: The girl was at fault because she “…neglected to use reasonable means to protect herself.”
By the way, this is the same Missouri school district that ordered copies of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five out of its libraries, for contradicting the Bible.
Sick U.S. school administrators!
“If we do that, it means lower costs – career people leave, more non-careers come in. Much of that will be attrition, but I don’t know if we can do that fast enough.”-Patrick Donahoe, Postmaster General
The U.S. Postal Service is being forced to lay off so many postal workers that it’s asking Congress to cancel current Union contracts. 220,000 postal workers will be laid off by 2014.
The reality of the situation is forcing the many different unions, involved with the Postal Service, to scramble to negotiations, not to save those jobs, but to soften the impact on those who will keep their jobs.
Those unions are the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), the National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU), and the American Postal Workers’ Union (APWU).
Not only does the USPS want to get rid of 220,000 employees, but they want to shut down as many as 3,700 post offices, close at least 300 processing facilities, and consolidate as many as 20,000 delivery routes.
All that will affect those people who’re “lucky” enough to still have their jobs. If the negotiations with the unions fails, then it’s on to arbitration. USPS workers can not legally go on strike, because they are considered Federal employees.
One reason the USPS is short on money, is because the U.S. Congress essentially stole $75 billion from the Postal Service. Congress said it was to cover the Postal Service’s portion of the Federal Employees Retirement System. The Postmaster General was able to prove that Congress overcharged the USPS. The U.S. Congress refused to refund the money.
Another reason is that Congress has refused to raise Postal rates to reflect the increased cost of operation. It’s almost as if the U.S. Congress wants the USPS to fail!
The United States Postal Service does not make money off taxpayers, they are solely funded by the postage they charge (prices are controlled by Congress, not the USPS), and other products they sell. The cuts being made to the USPS will have no affect on U.S. government debt.
President Obama’s budget chief Jacob Lew has ordered government agencies to submit budgets that are at least 5% less than the past fiscal year’s budgets.
It was also suggested that the different government agencies find ways to cut another 10% through out the next fiscal year. This is part of the Debt Limit Deal (Budget Control Act of 2011) passed a few weeks ago.
A new survey shows that most U.S. citizens on Medicare don’t realize just how much they’re paying out of their own pocket.
The study looked at “specialty tier” drugs under the Part D prescription drug plan. Specialty tier drugs are mainly expensive name brand drugs.
At least half the people surveyed thought only a co-pay was required. Specialty tier drugs require a co-insurance, not just a co-pay. Also, most people greatly underestimated how much they would have to fork up out of their own pockets, even with the specialty tier coverage.
The study was conducted by NERA Economic Consulting.
The European Union has banned the importation of oil from Syria. This is supposed to hurt Syria, but it will only hurt Europe.
90% (some sources say 95%) of the oil that comes from Syria, goes to Europe, so you can see it will only hurt Europe. Unless this is part of some conspiracy to drive oil prices back up to $100.00 per barrel?
The EU decision was not unanimous, several European countries, like Cyprus, Greece and Italy expressed concerns that the embargo would not hurt the Syrian government.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told the Stars & Stripes newspaper that Iraq has agreed to extend U.S. military presence beyond the 2011 deadline.
Iraqi officials responded with: “We have not yet agreed on the issue of keeping training forces, the negotiations are ongoing, and these negotiations have not been finalized.”-Ali Mussawi, advisor to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
Another Iraqi official said this on Iraqi TV: “The Iraqi government denies what the American Defense Minister Leon Panetta said that Iraq agreed to extend the presence of U.S. troops in the country after 2011.”
Recently many Iraqi officials have promised that military action would be taken against U.S. troops if they stayed.