On Tuesday Toyota announced more cuts for North American factories, now more cuts in Europe and China.
For Europe Toyota announced that they will cut production, after the already scheduled production halt for the end of this month. The reason is lack of electronic parts. Toyota’s Chinese factories will also see production cuts, in some cases production will be down to 30%. The production cuts, around the world, could last past May.
“Resourced”? Is this new mil-speak for “operational planning”? Or “tactics”? How about pull your head out!
In an official announcement made on the Joint Chiefs of Staff web site, U.S. Admiral Michael Mullen, admitted that the U.S. was totally screwed up for the first eight years of the occupation of Afghanistan, ‘cept it wasn’t quite put like that in the official statement: Although the United States has been in Afghanistan for 10 years, the chairman said, only over the last 18 months has the effort been resourced correctly.
So basically, the first eight years were ‘incorrectly resourced’. This is the new way to say you’ve F’ed up, without actually saying it.
In an interview with a Pakistani news station, GEO TV, U.S. Admiral Michael Mullen said the U.S. will maintain bases beyond the 2014 troop pull out.
He also contradicted himself saying the U.S. will not maintain bases in Afghanistan. Mullen said that Bagram and Shindand air bases will be used by the U.S. to continue training Afghan government forces. It could be that officially the bases will be maintained by Afghan forces, yet there will be a U.S. “presence” on those bases. Talking out of both sides of your mouth is becoming a common thing with our leaders.
For decades Japanese living on Okinawa have demanded that U.S. forces leave. They might be getting their wish.
Internal U.S. Marine Corps documents obtained by NHK revealed a plan to reduce the number of Marines by 8,000. The Marines would be relocated to the U.S. territory of Guam.
It still leaves about 10,000 personnel at the Futenma Air Station on Okinawa, but, eventually the air base will be moved as well. There is a meeting between U.S. and Japanese officials, to work out details, scheduled for June.
After giving a speech that implied that social programs for citizens of the U.S., such as Food Stamps, would have to be cut, President Obama is considering sending food to North Korea.
U.S. Special Envoy, Robert King, made the announcement in response to the UN World Food Program’s call for 430,000 tons of food aid to North Korea. The United States canceled food aid about two years ago, because of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
To the people of the United States it’s one slap in the face after another. Recently President Obama gave a speech saying cuts need to be made to U.S. government spending. Then he gives $3 million so some students can study in China, and now he’s giving Libyan rebels $25 million in equipment!
On April 20, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the announcement. Obama is joining with United Kingdom, France and Italy in openly taking sides with Libyan militants, some of who might actually be al-Qaeda, according to military officials, including NATO boss U.S. Admiral James Stavridis.
A company that was going to build two reactors in Texas, abandoned the plan.
NRG Energy, in cooperation with Toshiba, was planning on building two reactors in Texas. The company now says the investment environment has become too risky to continue with the plans. They will now write off U.S.$ 481 million on their taxes, for the canceled project.
Toyota announced that it will have to continue cuts in production in its North American factories. Continued parts supply problems being blamed.
Factories in Mexico, Canada and the United States will now suspend operations on Mondays and Fridays. Production will be cut in half on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The latest cuts will continue until June 3.
Toyota expects the new cuts to directly affect North American car sales.
“We are one shock away from a full-blown crisis.” Robert Zoellick, World Bank President
The World bank is run by the United States, and if the current situation within the U.S. is any sign, then the world economy, influenced by the World Bank, is in trouble.
The International Monetary Fund is worried as well: “Especially because of youth unemployment… there is now a risk that this will be turned into a life sentence, and that there is a possibility of a lost generation.”-Dominique Strauss-Kahn, IMF chief
One analyst says fiscal and monetary policies might actually make things worse: “What they do is they very often pressure government to adopt what we call pro-cyclical policies. The economy’s weak and in recession, they want them to cut spending or raise taxes. And that can be very dangerous, I mean you can slip back into recession, you can make a recession worse.”- Mark Weisbrot, Center for Economic and Policy Research
Officials with the World Bank, and the IMF, say food prices, citizen security, justice and jobs, are the main issues for international economic stability. Yet history shows that the policies of the IMF and World Bank actually cause some of the problems: “The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank say that they are interested in reducing poverty. All their actions however said otherwise. Their actions have instead raised the poverty level and created under-development.”-Andrew Garvin Marshall, Center for Research on Globalization
The president of the World Bank has always been a United States citizen, since 1944.
“We’re actually seeing Texas burn from border to border. We’ve got it in west Texas, in east Texas, in north Texas, in south Texas — it’s all over the state.”-April Saginor, Texas Forest Service
Firefighters from 34 states are helping Texans battle the blazes. More than 170 homes have been destroyed. One firefighter has been killed, five injured.
To show how difficult the situation is, a firefighter using a bulldozer ran over a gas line, causing an explosion.
Texas has been dealing with drought. The National Weather Service said Texas is so dry, that even if it rained right now, it would not be enough to help put out the fires. In fact, there would probably be more fires from the lighting that accompanies most Texas rain storms.