“I’m looking for a quiet, calm, sane, civilized society to start the next phase of my life.”-Michael, from Michigan
Canadian officials say the number of U.S. citizens applying for temporary work visas doubled between 2008 and 2010.
Since the beginning of 2010 nearly 30,000 U.S. citizens moved to Canada, they make up the second-largest group of temporary workers in Canada, behind only Filipinos.
“The government has surrendered all sectors of public life to the country’s creditors. Everything is being demolished by austerity … All our hopes of recovery have evaporated!”-Christos Fotopoulos, National Police Officers’ Association
September 9, in the Greek city of Thessaloniki 5,000 police prepared for massive protests, the problem is that some of the Friday protestors are police officers!
At least 1,000 Police, emergency personnel and even the Greek Coast Guard joined the protests!
“Not only is it difficult, it is impossible to live on the wages we make. And don’t forget we are also called upon to provide our services in other parts of the country….and we pay for that from our own pockets!”-George Drigakos, Coast Guard Union Representative
“This was not a deliberate act. The employee was just switching out a piece of equipment that was problematic.”-Daniel Froetscher, Arizona Public Service
At least 2.5 million people in the U.S. and Mexico, lost power because of maintenance at a Yuma, Arizona, substation.
Around 15:30 September 8, monitoring equipment was replaced. That caused power to go out for about 56,000 customers. Ten minutes later, after an attempt to restore power, the lights went out for 2.5 million customers from Yuma, Arizona, to San Diego, California, to Tijuana, Baja California.
Apparently circuits were shorted out. Power company officials are trying to find out why such actions would have created a “cascade” effect along the power grid.
The power outage also shut down the San Onofre nuclear plant, and caused a 3.2-million gallon sewage spill San Diego beaches.
“Turkish warships, in the first place, are authorized to protect our ships that carry humanitarian aid to Gaza. From now on, we will not let these ships to be attacked by Israel, as what happened with the Freedom Flotilla.”-Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister of Turkey
Erdogan said that Turkey will boost its naval presence in eastern Mediterranean to challenge Israel’s domination in the sea.
In a reference to Israeli plans to exploit huge gas and oil reserves found beneath the Mediterranean Sea, that are claimed by Lebanon, Erdogan said Turkish forces will also stop Israel from exploiting natural resources in the area.
On July 26 Lebanon issued similar warnings to Israel: “We warn Israel against extending its hands to this area to steal Lebanon’s resources from Lebanese waters.”-Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah Secretary General
The Turkish prime minister indicated that Israel’s claim to all the resources of the Mediterranean is what will lead to war: “You know that Israel has begun to declare that it has the right to act in exclusive economic areas in the Mediterranean. You will see that it will not be the owner of this right, because Turkey, as a guarantor of the Turkish republic of north Cyprus, has taken steps in the area, and it will be decisive and holding fast to the right to monitor international waters in the east Mediterranean.”
Texans are suffering the worst fires in Texas history. Did you know that Governor Rick Perry slashed the state firefighting budget by 75%?
Earlier in 2011 Perry said he was planning on slashing funding for the volunteer fire department from $30 million down to $7 million! Back in May, Forest Service Director Tom Boggus told Reuters that volunteer programs were the number one defense against wild fires. Despite this, the Texas Forest Service is expected to see $34 million in cuts over the next two years, no thanks to Rick Perry.
Rick Perry recently tried to blame Obama for lack of funding for Texas firefighters: “It is not only the obligation of the federal government, but its responsibility under law to help its citizens in times of emergency.”
Perry’s cronies say their cuts are necessary to save money: “We understand the difficulty they have had in dealing with almost unprecedented numbers of fires this year. We also understand that in order to balance the budget, everybody needs to endure some reductions.”-Talmadge Heflin, Center for Fiscal Policy/Texas Public Policy Foundation
But get this, the ‘savings’ in cuts to Texas firefighting services have been totally negated by the cost of this year’s ongoing fires. So far damages are estimated to be $5 billion, and counting!
And yet the historic fires of Texas aren’t enough to stop ‘christian’ Rick Perry from campaigning for President of the United States!
Corporate bankruptcies in Japan have risen for the second month in a row, they blame the rising value of their yen, which is being pushed up by the falling U.S. dollar.
Credit research firm Teikoku Databank says 969 companies failed in August!
The strong yen is causing a drop in orders and exports, and causing trading losses in currency derivatives.
The research firm warns of a vicious spiral, with more companies shifting production overseas to escape the high yen, in turn cutting even more orders to Japanese firms and putting them at risk of bankruptcy.
Australia’s economy is doing much better that the U.S. economy, thanks to their deals with China, yet the state government of New South Wales is going to layoff 5,000 government employees, and cap government wages!
Also, Australia’s biggest steel maker, BlueScopeSteel, is laying off 1,000 workers! Back in July solar power companies announced they were losing 73 jobs per day in New South Wales!
September 8 saw 30,000 protestors hit the streets in Sydney.
The latest economic news out of Australia says consumer spending is up, 1%, and their export economy hit 1.2% growth. Household savings is at 10.5%. Analysts expect overall economic growth to expand by 4.3% by the end of the year. Much better than the U.S.
So why are Australians still losing their jobs?
BlueScopeSteel claims they’ve been losing money, no thanks to the rising Australian dollar! Company officials says most of their sales are overseas, and the high Australian dollar makes their products too expensive for international customers.
Workers and union officials say it’s really because company management is financially incompetent.
As the U.S. dollar falls, other currencies, like the Australian dollar is rising.
The Australian Solar Energy Society (AuSES) and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) says because the New South Wales (NSW) government has failed to adopt the ‘Fair & Equal Price for Solar Solution’ plan, at least 73 solar power jobs are being lost per day.
NSW officials want a four month delay before adopting the plan, but company officials say that by then their companies could be shut down. The plan would allow residents to put affordable solar power on their own homes, then sell excess power back to the grid. The plan would not cost anything to the state government.
This brings us to the strange announcement that NSW is going to lay off 5,000 of its own employees, and cap wages for the rest.
From what I could find, the only reason for the government layoffs are because the elites of Australia want to privatize everything. NSW’s Premier Barry O’Farrell claims it’s a necessary step in preparing for a much more competitive world (the overall bad global economy caused by the United States, like the falling U.S. dollar driving up the Australian dollar).
Residents of NSW aren’t taking this laying down, not like most people in the United Police States of Corporate America. Here’s what some of the September 8 protestors had to say: “IR laws, stick it up your barrell O’Farrell.”
“Our message to Barry O’Farrell is you are a horrible bastard. You’re a liar and we’re going to fight you every inch of the way.”-Matt, prison guard
The protestors also sang the old Twisted Sister song “Were not gonna take it.”
NSW firefighters also protested, at least 500 firefighters with dozens of fire trucks arrived in Sydney, and union bosses told the firefighters to be ready “to drag this government into the gutter…”!
“O’Farrell doesn’t give a stuff how hard we work, how smart we work, all he wants us to be is cheaper. We have to say no.”-Jim Casey, Fire Brigade Employees’ Union
When will the slaves of the United Police States of Corporate America say no?
State-owned China National Petroleum Corporation won the first oil and natural gas exploration contracts in Afghanistan since the U.S. led invasion in 2001.
It’s estimated that there are 1.6 billion barrels of crude oil in Afghanistan. The oil fields of Bazarkhami, Kashkari and Zamarudsay (areas under contract with CNPC) contain an estimated 80 million barrels.
In 2007 China got the rights to mine copper in Afghanistan. Isn’t nice that the U.S. led War on Terror is allowing other countries to get contracts to mine minerals and oil?
September 8, Reuters reporting at least 40 Israelis being arrested after blocking traffic, and breaking into the Tel Aviv city hall.
This after the biggest anti-regime rallies in Israel’s short history, on Saturday.
Anti-regime protests erupted in Israel in mid-July as activists began setting up tents in Tel Aviv to protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s economic and social policies.
The protestors are also opposed to Israel’s illegal settlement expansions in the occupied Palestinian territories.
“We want to make a decent living as doctors in Israel….We have a great public health system and you have to invest money and funds and the government is just letting the health system collapse.”-Doctor Shuli Swetitzki, Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv
She said a lot of doctors sought to leave either Israel or their profession “because it is so hard to get by.”
Israelis have been protesting the high costs of living and social injustice over the recent months. The largest anti government protest by Israelis took place on September 3, when around one million Israelis held protest rallies in at least 50 cities.