Iran intends to boost the volume of its oil swaps to 200,000 barrels per day by March 20, 2012.
Iranian officials say that by using newly devised mechanisms, the demand for trading oil through barter deals, rather than using cash, is climbing.
The barters involve swapping oil related products, such as crude oil for refined fuel.
Iran is the second largest oil exporter within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Steve Jobs was a revolutionary. We wouldn’t have half the personal computer related products without him. I love my Mac, after decades of using crappy IBM based PCs I finally splurged and got me a Mac a few years ago. I’ve never had one problem that I’ve had with the IBM type PCs. I’ve had my Mac longer than any PC I’ve had in the past, which justifies what I paid for it.
Jobs was also proof you don’t need a college degree to succeed! “You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
Jobs’ secret to success? Do what you want, not what society tells you to do: “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.”
And that’s exactly what the U.S. Declaration of Independence says you should do: “…that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
You read that? It says the people of the United States are supposed to base their lives on the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness, not following the orders of a society brainwashed by Corporate America, or the military industrial complex, or organized religion, or the Israeli lobby! It’s one of the reasons why the creation of the United States was so revolutionary (like Steve Jobs)!
I hope Apple doesn’t go astray. Steve Jobs died October 5, 2011.
“Well, I would say very generally I think people are quite unhappy with the state of the economy and what’s happening. They blame, with some justification, the problems in the financial sector for getting us into this mess, and they’re dissatisfied with the policy response here in Washington. And at some level, I can’t blame them.”–Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Bank Chairman
October 5, Ben Bernanke was answering questions from a U.S. Senate panel (yet again), when he was asked about the growing, and spreading, “Occupy” demonstrations. Senators wanted to know if the protestors were justified in blaming Corporate America for the economic fall of the United States.
“Did Wall Street’s greed and recklessness cause this recession, that lead to so many people losing their jobs?” asked Senator Bernie Sanders. Bernanke replied that excessive risk taking on Wall Street and the failure of financial regulators “had a lot to do” with the recession.
Any job stimulus bill that gets passed by U.S. Congress will be much too little much too late. That’s because the upcoming, publicly announced, layoffs will shut down nearly half a million jobs!
Chicago based Gray & Christmas Incorporated added up all the publicly announced future job layoffs, and it came to 480,000 jobs. 70% of those job cuts involve Bank of America and the U.S. Army.
Analysts say we ain’t seen nothin’ yet, not all layoffs are publicly announced in advance: “Bank of America is not the only bank still struggling in the wake of the housing collapse, and the military cutbacks are probably just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to federal spending cuts.”-John A. Challenger, CEO of Gray & Christmas
According to the Bloomberg article, it’s the biggest cuts in jobs in the past two years. A 212% increase from September 2010!
And don’t forget the intentional destruction of the U.S. Postal Service, by the U.S. Congress. Happy upcoming Holidays!
“The government may only compel a citizen to assist in law enforcement when there is imminent danger. There was no imminent danger here, and therefore the Operator’s Fourth Amendment rights were violated.”-John Samuelsen, Transport Workers Union Local 100
On the day that thousands of protestors took the Brooklyn Bridge, the NYPD forced New York city bus drivers to off load their passengers, just so the buses could be used as Paddy Wagons. Police said they needed the buses to haul away the 700+ people they had arrested.
Now the New York city bus drivers are taking the cops to court! The bus drivers’ union says police can only take over vehicles in an emergency, and peaceful protesting is not an emergency: “…this was not such an emergency, and our members’ rights were violated. They are there to transport passengers, not be an arm of City Hall to squelch free speech!”-John Samuelsen
The union is asking the New York State Supreme Court for an injunction to keep the NYPD from forcing city buses to be used as Paddy Wagons.
Union members say they are now joining the Occupy movement: “They’ve really thrown a spotlight on issues that are bothering people, especially bothering workers like our members. Right now, we’re discussing how we’re going to give them material support, what we should do for them.”-Jim Gannon, Transport Workers Union
Yet more proof that the Danish government’s tax on fat is about making money, not being healthy. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, only 10% of Danes are obese!
On a recent BBC World Have Your Say program, a Danish politician said that the purpose of a democratic representative government is to “find balance” in imposing social policies on the general public. Say what? I always thought a democratic representative government was supposed to do what the majority of the voting public wants! Oh well, I’m still waiting for it to happen here in the United States.
Basically the Danish politician was admitting that Denmark is being run by a minority of do gooders that’re pushing their own agenda upon the majority of Danes.
Consider this: There is scientific evidence that it’s a high carbohydrate/sugar diet that actually makes you fat. Now realize that the majority of Danes eat a high fat diet and only 10% are obese!!! That’s 5% below the average for all of Europe.
There’s also plenty of evidence that shows skinny people are just as prone to conditions (like diabetes) as fat people. In fact there’s growing evidence that most poor health conditions, in adults, are more influenced by genetics than what you eat. Remember the old nursery rhyme about Jack Sprat? There’s truth in it.
“I spent seven years at the University of Michigan getting a PHD in Medieval European History, and I realized that I wasn’t making a difference there, and I thought I can make more of a difference on the street organizing people, getting the 99% out to have a voice.”-Occupy LA protestor
October 3, protestors in Los Angeles, California, have occupied city hall and say they will stay there for as long as possible.
Volunteers from the National Lawyers Guild are educating protesters about their legal rights in case they are confronted by police. But some protestors believe that eventually the police will join the protests: “…their pensions are under attack, their overtime is under attack, their benefits are under attack. So once they realize they’re actually part of this movement, I foresee no problems.”-Occupy LA protestor
The continued expansion of the “occupy” movement across the United States has even protestors amazed: “The leadershiplessness of this movement is incredible! The number of the people, the commitment of the people, the collective education of the people. The moment is ripe!”-Occupy LA protestor
According to Federal numbers, the percentage of unemployed young men in Idaho is more than the national average.
In 2009 the national average was 17%, in Idaho it hit 20%! Idaho’s 2010 rate was around 18%.
Unemployment claims are down, but according to Idaho Labor Department officials that’s because people just don’t qualify for unemployment assistance anymore. One official said about 100 people per week are falling off the state unemployment assistance simply because they’ve exceeded the time limit.
Delta Dental of Idaho is going to cut insurance payments to dentists by as much as 13%.
Delta officials say they have to do it to keep costs down to employers who offer their employees the Delta Dental plan.
Idaho dentists say they will have to jack up prices to make up the difference. One dentist says the cuts took him by surprise: “In the past, Delta Dental has been a great partner with dentists. This is a little out of the blue. I’ve never seen this before.”-Don Wyatt
Delta Dental of Washington state cut payments back in April, by as much as 15%!
Under the guise of forcing people to eat “healthy”, the governments of Denmark and Hungary have imposed the world’s first taxes targeting specific foods. Of course those foods are the most affordable for the growing number of people with less and less income.
Hungary has imposed a potato chip snack tax. Snack chips (called crisps, in Europe) will be taxed at about U.S.$1 per kilogram (2.2 pounds), which could add 10 to 20 cents per bag of chips. The tax includes other items like sugary drinks, snack cakes, salty snacks, and even food flavorings!
Denmark has imposed a U.S.$3 per kilogram (2.2 pounds) tax on the saturated fat content of food. The main targets of the fat tax are milk, butter and cheese.
Here’s the problem with the logic of the governments’ reasons for taxing food that is fast becoming the only food people can afford: Putting a tax on food does not make people eat healthy! The taxes imposed by Denmark and Hungary are not enough to force people to buy much more expensive health food. In the case of Denmark, they’re taxing the main staples of European diets; milk,butter and cheese! Rather, I think those governments are trying to capitalize on the fact that more and more people will be buying the “less healthy” food, because they can’t afford anything else!
Read why the Danish fat tax is only about money (clue: the Danes are not fat)!