On February 23, 2012, Sears Holdings released the latest list of Sears and Kmart store closings.
15 stores have been added to the 79 previously announced. The latest announcement has one Kmart closing in Maryland, one closing in New Jersey and one in South Carolina.
Also, a combination of Sears/Kmarts will be closed in the following states: Two in Ohio, two in Minnesota, three in Florida and five in Illinois.
Sears Holdings lost $3.1 billion in 2011.
On February 23, 2012, Sears Holdings announced that they will sell off eleven stores to major mall owner General Growth Properties (GGP).
Sears at the struggling Pine Ridge Mall in Chubbuck, Idaho
GGP owns most of the malls in Idaho (Idaho Falls, Boise, Chubbuck and Coeur D’Alene), and they have Sears stores, but, none of the eleven to be sold off are in Idaho. This means that it’s possible they might make the next round of closings.
The eleven stores to be sold to GGP (for a total of $270 million, to be finalized in April 2012) include one in Hawaii, two in Utah, two in Iowa, one in Washington, one in Texas, one in Illinois, one in Oklahoma, one in Florida and one in Michigan.
Also on February 23, Sears Holdings reported a net loss of $3.1 billion for the year 2011!
The Chinese government reports that 140 Chinese construction workers were hit by the large explosions in the south western African country of Congo-Brazzaville. Six have died, one is missing.
Officials in Congo-Brazzaville expect to death toll to climb higher than 206.
The Catholic Cathedral called Saint Louis was flattened: “Many of the faithful are trapped in the debris of the church. Several of the dead have been taken out and I confirm there are more deaths inside.”-Didier Boutsindi, presidential spokesman
St Louis is the Diocese of the area, and it is not located in Brazzaville, where the explosions took place. It is located in Nkayi, just west of Brazzaville. If the report is true it gives you an idea how powerful the explosions were.
Congo-Brazzaville (Republic of Congo) has been racked by civil war for decades. In 2003 former French oil company executives testified in court that the oil industry is behind causing civil wars, because they can get access to the oil more cheaply.
“Instead of using fiscal policies to invest in their own economies in order to avert the crisis, the rich nations have spilled U.S. $4.7 trillion in the world to make problems worse, thus putting emerging markets in jeopardy.”-Dilma Rousseff, President of Brazil, and is also an economist
“We have a currency war that is based on an expansionary monetary policy that creates unequal conditions for competition. We will continue to develop (our) country by defending its industry and ensuring that the strategy used by the developed countries to exit the crisis does not cannibalize emerging markets.”
When you realize that the overwhelming number of people living in the United States are now lower income, and that it has come as a result of the Elitist policies within the United states, then you can see that they are cannibalizing their own people as well.
“…there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, ‘A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!'”-New American Standard Bible, Revelation 6:5-6
“According to sources at the central hospital we’re talking of around 200 dead and many injured. Some people are still (trapped) in their houses… They’re saying the entire neighborhood of Mpila has been destroyed.”-Betu Bangana, head of protocol in the Congo president’s office
March 4, 2012, Congo (aka Republic of Congo or Congo-Brazzaville, and not to be confused with the Democratic Republic of Congo [DRC]) has been hit with as many as six huge explosions. Pictures show the smoke from one explosion is bigger than nearby skyscrapers.
“I saw someone being carried to hospital with their intestines hanging out. They had been hit by a shell.”-witness
One report says military ammo depots were targeted by rebels. The Defense Minister of Congo denied such claims, and said it was a fire that caused the massive explosions.
The explosions hit the capitol city Brazzaville. They were so large that across the river in the DRC, the government there had to calm down the residents because the blasts took out windows in homes and businesses!
Back in the capitol of Congo, at a Catholic church where mass was being preformed, church goers were overwhelmed and of course the mass was canceled.
One thing that makes this suspicious is that a U.S. security contractor just happened to be in the city when it happened, and he’s the one who said there were six explosions: “I heard at least five or six good sized explosions, which blew out the windows and brought down half the ceiling in our hotel.”-Patrick Mair, Control Risks
Another suspicious thing is that Congo has been used by French oil companies, Total and Elf Aquitaine, in an effort to remain independent of U.S. and British oil companies (and therefore their respective governments’ policies).
In 2003 former executives of Elf Aquitaine admitted in court that they intentionally fueled civil wars, as a way to maintain cheap access to the oil. How this worked was the oil companies traded cheaply acquired weapons/ammo, to various waring factions, in exchange for raw petroleum oil. GlobalWitness reported in 2009 that the incredible corruption between the Congo-Brazzaville government and the oil industries, was still ongoing!
To make things worse, Congo-Brazzaville, and the DRC, are areas of south western Africa that have seen many new oil discoveries in the past decade.
Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other.
The Obama Administration, and the Republican dominated Congress, love to use data from the United Nations to justify attacking other countries, like Libya, and soon Syria. But, what about when the UN points the finger at the United States for Human Rights violations? Will our leaders attack themselves?
Recently the UN’s Human Rights Council began its 19th session in Switzerland. Of course Syria is topping their list of concerns, but guess who else is making their list (again)? The United States!
“Over the past year, I have also expressed concerns about the rights of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, and my deep disappointment at the failure to close this detention facility.”-Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
One of the big upsets is President Barack Obama’s reneging on his promise to close Guantanamo Bay prison. The UN documented that in March 2011, Obama stated to the international community that the United States would close down the torture facility known as GITMO.
Sri Lanka even pointed out that they’ve closed all but one of their military run prisons, since 2011.
Some UN member countries accused the United States of violating the Human Rights of immigrants. Ecuador even demanded action: “…time to end impunity for those who continuously violated the human rights of migrants.”
Others demanded that the United States be investigated for Human Rights violations.
“The United States was not a guardian of human rights and should reflect on its own record in committing human rights violations inside and outside the country before pointing at other countries.”-Right of Reply from North Korea
“China was gravely concerned about the failure of the United States to close down Guantanamo Bay and urged the United States to review its own human rights record before criticizing others.”-Right of Reply from China
Russia said that the so called interventions by the United States and Europe violated Human Rights: “…acts intended to protect human rights did themselves sometimes lead to mass violations, including deaths of civilian populations.”
Cuba pointed out that the United States was violating the Right to Express yourself, by controlling the internet. They claim that only 30% of the World’s population has access to the internet, and that internet governance is directly controlled from the U.S.
Norway said the U.S. dominated internet is being used by governments to violate Human Rights.
Others pointed out an increasing desire to criminalize the use of the internet, the United States being one of those countries doing so!
William Echikson, a representative from Google, admitted that his company routinely “takes down content” and “discloses information” when ordered to by U.S. courts.
UN officials are also watching the U.S. Supreme Court case, in which people are demanding they be allowed to sue corporations under a 223 year old U.S. law (Alien Tort Statute), that’s apparently been ignored. The law allows people to sue international corporations for Human Rights violations, among other things.
The latest reports indicated that the pro-Corporate America judges would deny such cases!
“We do not comment on our trading activities. Shell complies with all applicable sanctions.”-Royal Dutch Shell statement
An Iranian 270,000 ton supertanker, called Delvar, just docked in Singapore. It’s delivering a huge load of oil for a major European/U.S. oil company: Royal Dutch Shell.
Before docking in Singapore, the Delvar transferred 60,000 tons of oil/condensate to a Chinese ship.
Despite the above recent quote from Royal Dutch Shell, on February 2, 2012, the CEO of the company said: “We will comply with the sanctions and we will therefore get our oil from somewhere else.”-Peter Voser, Chief Executive Royal Dutch Shell
Yet, a Singapore official confirmed that Royal Dutch Shell just bought 1.5 million barrels of Iranian oil: “Yes, Shell bought it. There is no other reason for the ship to be anchored at Bukom.”-unnamed ship broker
The U.S./European imposed sanctions against Iranian oil. Also, on February 21, Iran banned oil sales to European Union countries, unless they signed new contracts under Iranian terms. The Iranians have also stopped oil shipments to Britain and France. Royal Dutch Shell is partly owned by the British (about 40%).
Royal Dutch Shell gets about 100,000 barrels per day of Iranian oil, for Europe, and another 100,000 bpd for Japan.
The fact that Royal Dutch Shell (5th largest oil and gas company in the world) is still doing business with Iran indicates they’ve signed onto the new Iranian oil deal. However, some oil traders do not think so: “I would not be surprised if they continued to ‘lift’ a little bit, until it becomes illegal to do so.”-unnamed oil trader
“The newly discovered oil field must be considered among the biggest fields ever discovered in Iran!”-Seyyed Mahmoud Mohaddes, National Iranian Oil Company
On March 3, 2012, Iranian oil officials announced that not only have they discovered the largest oil field in Iran’s history, they’ve found several new oil fields!
Drilling has already started, and there are at least three more new oil fields. Iran already has the second largest proven oil reserves in the world. Just more reasons for the West to get their hands on Iran!
A new study has confirmed what most economic historians will tell you; long term wars actually destroy your economy: “…the positive effects of increased military spending were outweighed by longer term unintended negative macroeconomic consequences.”
The latest study was done by the Institute for Economics and Peace. But their study revealed that the War on Terror has been more damaging to the U.S. economy than expected, because it’s the first U.S. war in which taxes collections went down! This means that while military spending went up, the tax revenues to pay for the military went down!
A long term war, with reduced tax revenues to pay for it has resulted in “…the U.S. having severe unsustainable structural imbalances in its government finances…” and “…major constraints on the economy and limited the scope of options that were available to policymakers…”
“The indictment alleges that the defendants flagrantly enriched themselves at the expense of the Iraqi people, the very people they were there to help, and American taxpayers.”-Kenneth J Gonzales, U.S. Attorney General
Former executives of Laguna Construction Company, are accused of colluding with four foreign nationals, to defraud taxpayers of more than $5 million through kickbacks to subcontractors.
Two subcontractors were actually connected to Laguna Construction, and they are accused of overcharging, and charging for services not rendered.
It took several law enforcement agencies to identify the scam: “…joint effort by the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and our law enforcement partners from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations Division, and the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.”-Janice M Flores, DCIS