Category Archives: International

Business/Economics, International

What Economic Recovery? Tens of thousands of Chinese turn out to help the growing poor, by listening to a businessman sing

A Chinese businessman, upset with how many people are being left behind in China’s explosive economic growth, put on a charity concert, and was surprised by how many people showed up to help.

What’s even more amazing was that the only talent in the concert was the very same Chinese businessman.  He was hoping to get 6,000 people to show up, he got 20,000!

“It was packed. There were fans from Xinjiang, Gansu and Inner Mongolia, holding up posters.”-Chen Guangbiao, 43-year-old businessman and high-profile philanthropist

Here’s another surprise, it wasn’t money that was being donated: 2,000 pigs, 1,000 sheep and 113 tractors where given to the Bijie city government, to be donated to local farmers.

Chen Guangbiao says he will check up on the local government: “I’ve asked them to put distribution details online.”

International

Corporate Incompetence: Train employees beat to death the wrong man, in front of dozens of witnesses

In China, a good samaritan tried to stop a fight between train stewards and a disgruntled passenger.  He paid for it with his life.

According to more than 20 witnesses, after the good samaritan intervened more train employees showed up, including the train’s conductor.  Apparently they mistook the good samaritan as the passenger who was causing the fight.

The samaritan was grabbed by the neck and beaten about the head as he was hauled off the train.  An ambulance was called, but he was dead by the time it arrived.  No word on what will happen to the train employees, but police have taken at least 20 sworn witness statements.

Business/Economics, Idaho, International, Technology, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Idaho chip maker, Micron, in trouble

September 29, Boise based Micron reports losing money for the first time since 2009.  For the quarter ending September 1, Micron lost U.S.$135 million.

That’s a big drop compared to the previous quarter when the Idaho memory chip maker (they also make computers) reported a $75 million profit!

The loss is being blamed on a drop in chip prices, and a drop in sales.

Things got so bad in 2009, that Micron laid off more than half it’s Idaho work force! It has not recovered.

To make matters worse, Micron is facing a court case in which a California competitor claims Micron colluded with a South Korean company to price fix certain types of memory chips.  If they lose the case Micron could be hit with a $11.9 billion fine!

International, U.S.

World War 3: Russia successfully launches new submarine based ICBM

September 29, the Russian navy successfully launched a new submarine based ICBM.   The Inter Continental Ballistic Missile was launched from the Tula nuclear powered submarine in the Barents Sea.

Russian officials say the warheads hit their targets in Kamchatka in the Russian Far East.  It has longer range than older submarine based ICBMs, and can avoid the U.S. “missile shield”.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Japanese banks following the money to…Vietnam

September 30, Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group will invest big time in a major Vietnamese bank, Vietcombank, all in an effort to profit off Vietnam’s explosive economic growth.

Even officials with the U.S. bank Citigroup is amazed at how well Vietnam’s economy is doing.

Currently Vietnam’s GDP is at 6.11%.  Very good, but less than their 2010 GDP, which was 7.18%.  The annual GDP for the U.S. is stagnating between 1% and 2%!

The down side to Vietnam’s explosive growth, is that most Vietnamese are being left behind in the dust of poverty.  Fast economic growth comes with the paradox of increased poverty, because most of the quick profits end up in the pockets of the few (and they do not trickle it down).

International, U.S.

Government Incompetence: U.S. backed Columbia sells secret spy documents to rebels and drug dealers

“Ever since it was known that DAS would close down, lots of people started doing business and looking for ways to make a few bucks. Others started pilfering information as a kind of insurance, in case one day they would face a criminal investigation or disciplinary hearing.”-A former unnamed DAS detective

In retaliation for the shutting down of Columbia’s Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (state intelligence agency), it appears that employees sold off secret documents to the highest bidders.

According to the Colombian magazine La Semana, over the past two years tens of thousands of classified documents have been sold to militias, foreign governments and drug traffickers.

The scandal came just days after the former head of DAS, Jorge Noguera, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for colluding with U.S. backed right wing  paramilitary death squads.

 

Business/Economics, International

Global Food Crisis: Mexican Citrus hit by Yellow Dragon

The bacteria Candidatus Liberibacter (aka yellow dragon) is jeopardizing  more than 520,000 hectares (1,285 acres) of Mexico’s citrus trees.

Federal officials said symptoms were detected in Colima, Nayarit and Michoacán.  The disease has appeared in Nuevo Leon and threatens states from Tamaulipas to San Luis Potosi.

Mexico is the fourth largest producer of citrus.

 

International

World War 3: “Democracy” rebels in Syria go on wave of assasinations, of university professors

Four university professors in four days, that’s how many have been assassinated by so called ‘democracy’ demonstrators in Syria.  What does killing professors have to do with achieving democracy?

The latest professor to be killed was a nuclear engineer.  Mmmm, does anybody suspect Israeli Mossad?

Along with the professors a police commander was also assassinated in the past four days.

International, U.S.

World War 3: Obama about to go all Nixon on Pakistan’s ass

“I think that the fact that there are links that exist between the Pakistani government and the Haqqani network, the nature of those can be assessed and is complicated. But there is no question that they have safe havens in Pakistan.”– Jay Carney, White House spokesman

September 28, U.S. President Barack Obama has endorsed the claims of Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, who accused Pakistan’s intelligence agency of “exporting” violence to Afghanistan.

In 1969 President Nixon (a Republican) secretly ordered the bombing of Cambodia and Laos (Operation Menu), believing they were helping the Viet Cong in South Vietnam.  The Operation Menu bombing lasted from March 1969 to May 1970, and failed to stop Viet Cong, or North Vietnam’s efforts to unite the country.  The failure led to Nixon making peace with the Viet Cong and North Vietnam.

Will Obama (a Democrat) follow in Nixon’s footsteps?

But wait, we’re already bombing Pakistan with our UAVs.  Oh, but the U.S. was already secretly bombing Cambodia under President Johnson (a Democrat), four years before President Nixon!  It turns out that Nixon’s bombing of Cambodia and Laos were simply an escalation of Johnson’s actions.

U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Obama had to consider military action against Pakistan.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Passing the Buck: Obama blames Arab Uprisings and Europe for bad economy in the U.S.

“The changes that have taken place in the Middle East sent oil prices up, and that gave a shock to the world economy.”-Barack Obama, President of the United States

First off, President Obama, oil prices are no where what they were a couple of years ago. What’s been driving up the price of gas (which is just as high as when oil was more than $100.00 per barrel) is not the current price of oil, but refineries that’re purposely keeping production of gas below the demand for gas (which makes the price go up).

Secondly, it was your attack on Libya, President Obama, that caused oil prices to go up!

President Obama also blamed the Europeans: “Some of the challenges that we’ve had over the last several months actually have to do with the fact that in Europe we haven’t seen them deal with their banking system and their financial system as effectively as they needed to.”

First off, if the U.S. banking system wasn’t so involved with the European banking system the U.S. wouldn’t be as affected by their problems.

Secondly, many of the actions taken by European banks, that got them into trouble, were the same mistakes that got U.S. banks into trouble.  By the way, those banking troubles started here in the United States, and have yet to be resolved!

Stop passing the buck President Obama!