Category Archives: U.S.

International, Opinion, U.S.

China & U.S. sign something saying they’ll get along

The agreement has a lot of strong sounding words and phrases, like “comprehensive” and “concrete plans”.

Here’s what the Obama administration said;  China and the U.S. need “a cooperative partnership that is comprehensive in scope, cooperative in nature, and yields positive achievements that benefit our people.”

Basically China, and the U.S., spent a lot of taxpayer money to sit around and tell each other their woes, and why don’t we just get a long.  Then they signed a long winded agreement that basically says ‘we promise’.

What has been going on is being called “cooperation talks”.  Basically the U.S. is  in big debt, China holds most of that debt, China wants a piece of the U.S. action, the U.S. doesn’t want them to have any, but the U.S. owes China trillions so they try to make happy happy joy joy talk so we don’t go to war, or, so that China doesn’t dump all their trillions of U.S. bonds all at once.

Fukushima, U.S.

U.S. nuclear plant under NRC scrutiny

The Brown’s Ferry nuke plant in Alabama, is under investigation by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.  Investigators say a cooling system failure is of “high safety significance”.

Last October the plant had a cooling valve problem, in reactor 1, that cause it to shut down.  Operators say the valve is fixed.  But there are concerns especially since the Brown’s Ferry plant is similar to the GE designed Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan.

Also, Brown’s Ferry Reactor 1 had been shut down for 22 years before being put back into operation in 2007.

 

 

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Florida cutting unemployment benefits, to benefit corporations. Idaho’s high unemployment rate holds steady

Starting in 2012, Florida will cut back the maximum number of weeks that unemployed people can collect benefits.

This is not to save the state money, but the corporations.  Like Idaho, companies in Florida are the ones who pay into the unemployment system.  Florida lawmakers said by reducing the number of weeks a person can collect benefits, it will reduce the cost to the companies paying into the unemployment plan.

In Idaho, companies actually get a refund at the end of the year, if they don’t have over a specific number of unemployment claims filed against them.  The idea is to encourage companies not to let workers go, but it hasn’t helped reduce Idaho’s high unemployment, which is holding steady at 9.7%.

International, U.S.

S & P’s reacts to Greece needing mo money, get ready for the stock markets to react

Standard & Poor’s cut Greece’s credit rating, downward 2 points, after Greek officials announced they needed more bailout money.

The S & P’s rating now puts Greece below investment grade.  S & P’s also says that Greece will need a waiver on repaying most of its current loans (that means they don’t think Greece can pay).

 

International, U.S.

Argentina says slave trade being run by U.S.

Argentina is demanding help from the United Nations, in helping to fight slave trades, run mainly by organizations from the United States.

Argentina claims that U.S. organized crime is using Argentina as a recruiting grounds, and transit point, for human trafficking.  Poor people are promised well paying jobs in the U.S., but end up working for little pay, if any, and long hours.

The workers, men, women and children, not only work in industries like textiles, but, according to the U.S. Bureau of Statistics 80% end up as sex workers in the United States.

Other countries that are destination points for human trafficking are Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Israel, Japan and Thailand.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Iran joins China in blaming U.S. Federal Reserve quantitative easing policy for bad economy

Iran is joining China in blaming the U.S. bank, Federal Reserve, for destroying the world economy.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, says the “paper money” policy of the Federal Reserve is playing a part in the increase of poverty around the world, by forcing most international trades to use U.S. dollars.  He says the Federal Reserve injected into the world economies $32 trillion in “worthless” paper money.

President Ahmadinejad believes the Federal Reserve policy is part of a plan that forces poorer countries to pay the debts of the West.

International, Opinion, U.S.

Imperialist Barack Obama to build permanent U.S. base in Poland, Russia getting pissed

Polish media reporting that President Obama will be announcing a deal made with the Polish government that will allow a permanent U.S. base on Poland’s territory.

The new U.S. air base, at Lask air field, would replace the Aviano air base in Italy.  The USAF has F-16s based on Aviano, and they might be transferred to Poland in 2013.

Russian officials say they will counter the U.S. move to Poland.

If you were Russia, and your rival makes several deals with eastern European countries for “missile shields”, and, now they’re going to move an air base from Italy to Poland, wouldn’t you think your rival is positioning itself to attack you?

International, Opinion, U.S.

Defense Department home video of Osama bin Laden is pathetic

The home video released by the U.S. Department of Defense is pathetic.  The decrepit man in the video, supposedly Osama bin Laden, was so much a threat to the world that we had to expend such great effort to kill him?

What I see in the video, is a really old man who spends his days watching videos of himself (if it is Osama bin Laden).  Again, pathetic!   Yeah right this guy was directing all kinds of evil against the world!  The guy probably had alzheimers and had to watch videos of himself to remember who he was!  What a threat; send in the SEALS, no wonder there wasn’t any resistance to the assault.

Why not simply arrest the old codger and bring him back to New York City?

Has anyone seen if the video ever shows the old guy’s face?  I find it suspicious that what the U.S. media shows is from behind.

Come on President Obama, the Bush Jr administration was better at BS than you!  I’m putting on hip waders, it just gets deeper and deeper!

International, U.S.

Iran says has proof Osama bin Laden died years ago, did U.S. kill bin Laden relative?

“If the U.S. military and intelligence apparatus have really arrested or killed bin Laden, why don’t they shown him (his dead body), why have they thrown his corpse into the sea?”-Heidar Moslehi, Iran’s Intelligence Minister

Iran’s Intelligence Minister, Heidar Moslehi, claims Osama bin Laden died from disease years ago.  Pakistani officials made a similar claim a few years ago.

Moslehi goes on explaining that the U.S. claimed that it was following Islamic law, when they dumped bin Laden’s body, but Islamic law does not approve of burial at sea, and does not have a specific timeline for burial.  He says this is a sign that the Obama Administration is lying about what they did with Osama bin Laden.

Moslehi says the claim by Obama that their DNA evidence is proof, is weak, because they are not giving details of the DNA process.  Also, it’s possible to get a 99.9% match through any close relative of Osama bin Laden, and the bin Laden family is big.

A University of California criminology professor points out that DNA testing is not that reliable: “If the DNA test compared the profile of the man shot in Pakistan with members of bin Laden’s family members, the results could properly be presented only as a likelihood ratio…”-William thompson, UCI In other words, DNA will not provide the actual identity of an individual, only a probability.  Is it possible the U.S. assassinated a close relative of Osama bin Laden?

Even though Iranian officials criticize the Obama Administration for weak evidence, Iran has not produced evidence for their claim that Osama bin Laden died years ago.

 

Business/Economics, International, Opinion, U.S.

China continues to sell off U.S. bonds

China is the biggest buyer of U.S. sovereign debt (bonds), but has been selling off that debt at a steady pace. In February China sold off $1.15 trillion (yes, trillion) in U.S. bonds.

Chinese officials say the sell off of U.S. bonds could continue for another two months, or as long as the Federal Reserve continues with its quantitative easing (QE) policies.

According to the U.S. Treasury Department, China holds $4.47 trillion in U.S. sovereign debt.  China wants to cut it to less than $1 trillion.  Even then, Chinese officials say holding that much U.S. debt is only good for the short run.  I guess they don’t think the future looks very bright for the United States.