31 May 2012, Sears Holdings announced that it will sell off a portion of its Sears Canada operations. Currently Sears Holdings controls 95% of Sears Canada.
Sears Holdings said it “…will retain approximately 51% of the issued and outstanding common shares of Sears Canada.” So they are willing to let go of 49% control of Sears Canada in order to raise cash, however, Sears Holdings states they reserve “…the right not to complete the spin-off …”.
2 June 2012, the Venezuelan government imposed a total ban on gun sales: “We are going to make serious efforts as President Chavez has done for the security of our citizens. We’re going to continue to fight against criminals and more importantly against what causes violence.”-Elias Jaua, Vice President of Venezuela
Anti-gun laws don’t work! A 1 June 2012 report out of the U.S. anti-gun state of California proves it!
The U.S. Attorney General’s office revealed that their investigation showed that California cops are selling guns to the public. Those guns are illegal for California’s civilian population under California law!
So law enforcers are behind illegal gun sales in anti-gun California! California cops are using their legal rights to buy guns, which are legal for cops but illegal for civilians, and then turning around and selling the guns to the public at as much as a triple profit!
After a shootout in San Francisco in February 2011, investigators discovered that the fugitive had 20 guns, 12 of which were illegal under California law. To their surprise they traced two machine pistols back to a Sacramento County sheriff’s deputy!
Further investigations revealed that some California cops were regularly selling illegal weapons, including .50 caliber (12.7 mm) guns! The .50 caliber bullet will take your head off, and punch through armored cars, no problemo.
The Sacramento District Attorney revealed that California cops are also altering the already illegal guns, making them more lethal!
Here’s the amazing thing, the California government has not arrested these cops, they’ve simply been charged with a crime. Some have been fired from their jobs, others have been placed on paid leave.
This is proof that anti-gun laws don’t do what they’re supposedly intended to do, that is reduce gun violence. By the way, back to Venezuela, note that the vice presidente inferred that the violence in his country was because of guns. Hello, people cause violence, not guns! This is also justification for the U.S. Constitution’s 2nd Amendment which demands that people of the United States be able to equip themselves with the weapons of the day (“arms”) in order to protect themselves, even to protect themselves from their own cops!!!
“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”-2nd Amendment, ratified December 1791
“I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”-Oath of Enlistment U.S. military
“I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the State of (STATE NAME) against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the Governor of (STATE NAME) and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to law and regulations. So help me God.”-Oath of Enlistment state National Guard
Note: In respect to the U.S. Constitution’s 1st Amendment, you are not required to say “So help me God.”
2 June 2012, United Kingdom’s Queen Elizabeth II’s rental property & business management empire, Crown Estate, reported a 9,200% increase in revenue over the past 60 years!
Keep in mind that according to an Act of Parliament, all profits from the Royal property/business management scheme are to go to the British Treasury! According to the Financial Times: “Under an agreement struck between King George III and the government in 1760, the portfolio was managed by the Crown on behalf of the state, with surplus revenue going to the Treasury. In turn, the Treasury made a fixed annual payment to the monarch.”
Also: “The Queen has no powers to liquidate assets belonging to the Crown Estate. She cannot buy or sell properties and is entitled to a modest slice of the company’s revenues.”
So how much money is the Crown Estate making? Here’s what the Crown Estate’s own website claims: “…the urban estate the value of the portfolio increased by 11.6 per cent to £5.2 billion [$7.9 billion USD].”
“…marine estate revenue increased by 1.7 per cent to £47.4 million [$72.8 million USD]. Total property value rose to £586.9 million [$902.2 million USD]…”
“…income from renewables….rose….to £3.5 million [$5.3 million USD]…”
“The coastal estate…added £14.3 million [$21.9 million USD] in revenue…”
“…capital value of the rural estate exceeded £1 billion [$1.5 billion USD] for the first time…”
“…asset management saw revenue rise….to £25.7 million [$39.5 million USD]…”
The question is, if the Crown Estate is making so much money, and it’s supposedly meant to benefit the commoners of the United Kingdom (through the state) then why is the government of the United Kingdom imposing such drastic austerity measures upon those very commoners?
Just how much is the “fixed annual payment to the monarch”? Under a new Sovereign Grant Act, beginning in 2012 the Queen can receive only 15% of the revenues. How much was she getting before that?
But wait, there’s more! Members of the royal family own other property companies, not beholden to the British government. Here’s one; the Grosvenor Estate.
“The Grosvenor Estate is a portfolio of businesses, rural estates and other assets owned by trusts on behalf of Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor who is the 6th Duke of Westminster, and his family.”-Grosvenor website
However, unlike the incompetent British government (by the way the Queen is the literal boss of the House of Lords in the British government, she is not a figure head!), Grosvenor Estate is actually spending money to try and build up the economy in the English city of Liverpool. The Duke’s Grosvenor Estate is spending the equivalent of $1.5 billion USD on a project called Liverpool One.
Again, the question is, what happened to all the money from the Queen’s Crown Estate that was supposed to be used for the people of Britain?
2 June 2012, despite Japan just joining a trilateral military pact with the U.S. and Australia, getting oil from Iran is still of utmost importance to Japanese industries.
So much so that Iran and Japan are developing their own shipping insurance companies, to avoid the U.S./U.K. dominated shipping insurance business, and therefore get around U.S./European sanctions.
The European oil sanctions against Iran go into effect on 1 July. Iran is considering laws that will allow their domestic shipping insurance industry to insure foreign ships.
Japan is now working to create an insurance system that will cover Japanese oil tanker ships carrying Iranian oil. The system might be similar to one created to help Japanese airlines after the 11 September 2001 attacks in the U.S. Prior to that Japanese airlines were insured through U.S. companies, but the U.S. companies drastically cut their coverage after the 11 September attacks.
“Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas any more.”-Dorothy, MGM’s 1939 movie version of Wizard of Oz
Just as North Dakotans are dealing with hyperinflation thanks to their exploding economy, which in turn is no thanks to their oil boom, now Kansans are experiencing the same thing: “It’s like a gold rush. No one knew this little area was worth anything, and now all of a sudden there’s all kinds of business going on, and everyone wants a piece of it.”-Kathy Smith, motel owner who turns away 25 customers per day!
The oil industry has been busy in Kanasas, and the result is that in the past three years the cost of living there has tripled, at least. Oh and don’t forget the new wind farm that was built. The result is a population boom, caused by the wind farm and the oil industry, and that has caused prices, like rent and even food to skyrocket.
Sure there are lots of good paying oil jobs in Kansas now, but those oil workers are paying thousands of dollars in rent, for homes that were costing only hundreds to those living in them before the oil boom.
In fact, just as in North Dakota, the Kansans living in those rental homes were actually kicked out by the property owners, so that much much higher rents could be charged to the incoming oil workers: “We’re one of the ones forced out of our home. We lived in our home 11 years and four months, we received a certified letter in the mail saying we had one month to get out. There was no where to go. That month was a holy hell!”-Eileen Morris, Harper County resident
Here’s what a real estate “entrepreneur”, who caters to the oil industry, said about the housing situation: “My goal was to get housing available as quickly and efficiently as possible.”-Bobbie Oliver
To give you an idea just how high rents have gone, mobile homes (aka “modular” homes) that would normally rent for several hundreds of dollars per month, are renting for as much as $2,100 USD per month!
But what about those Kansans who aren’t working for the oil industry? Here’s what a local county official in Kansas said about that: “…people are charging higher rent prices and so these guys that have jobs that are paying $12 to $15 an hour, it’s a hardship for them.”-Mike Lanie, Economic Development Harper County
Some of the oil companies, like Shell, are actually paying holding money on homes that were forcefully vacated, in order to ensure that their oil workers have a place to live when they get there. So far no one’s said what’s happened to those Kansans who were kicked out of the homes they were living in.
And just like North Dakota, Kansas is seeing a skyrocketing crime rate. According to Tracy Chance, Undersheriff of Harper County, the biggest increase so far has been car accidents and public intoxication.
Isn’t the promise of fast easy money wonderful? Welcome to the false Christian run western Whore of Babylon oil industry! Like Peter Voser, current CEO of Shell, who will be attending this year’s Bilderberg beast conference in Virginia! Like Edward P. Cross, current president of the Kansas Independent Oil & Gas Association and a paid lobbyist for the oil industry! Like Tom L. Ward, current CEO of Oklahoma based SandRidge Energy, which holds horizontal drilling rights in Kansas!
“There are one million millionaires in China. I will have more than enough business if I sell to China’s millionaires alone!”-Earl Kluft, makes luxury mattresses
1 June 2012, Chinese media reporting that some business owners in the U.S. state of California are targeting the growing number of millionaires in the Communist country of China.
Back in September a California mattress maker decided to take a chance on selling his handmade mattresses in China. It paid off, big time. Chinese elites are paying as much as $50,000 USD for one of Earl Kluft’s mattresses! The result was that Kluft’s revenues for 2011 hit $50 million!
According to Boston Consulting Group, China is third for number of millionaires. Japan is number two, and, to prove the point of the Occupy and Tea Party movements, the United States is still number one for 1% elites.
However, that could soon change. According to the Group M Knowledge-Hurun Wealth Report 2011, the number of Chinese millionaires is expanding at a rate of 10% per year.
Kluft markets his mattresses as heirloom mattresses, and they can be made from expensive materials such as cashmere, mohair, Joma wool and Talalay latex. Have any of us commoners ever thought of owning a mattress like that? Chairman Mao is rolling in his tomb!
But forget handmade, now Kluft says high sales of his mattresses have forced him to dedicate two factories in the United States specifically to meet Chinese demand, and he says they’re still willing to pay the high handmade price: “The Chinese demand for American made luxury products is on the rise…..The Chinese consumers want them made in America. They don’t want them made in China.”
1 June 2012, after working weeks of overtime, my paycheck never arrived!
My employer, who has contracts with unAmerican Corporate America banks, says she can’t pay because US Bank (which is now her main contract on the eastern side of Idaho) failed to pay her!
This is strange because US Bank (aka US Bancorp, USB) recently reported 1st quarter earnings that were up! Maybe my employer is lying?
Whatever the case, since my employer pays only once per month, all us employees have burned through last months pay and are in need of our well earned paychecks just to be able to buy necessities for the next month, let alone pay our debts! Don’t tell me the economy is getting better!!!
(I’m writing this because it’s not the first time we’ve had problems with our employer paying us on time. You’d think a contractor working for the too big to fail banks would have such a problem.)
“Student loan debt continues to grow even as consumers reduce mortgage debt and credit card balances. It remains the only form of consumer debt to substantially increase since the peak of household debt in late 2008.”-Donghoon Lee, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
31 May 2012, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported a huge increase in student loan debt, from the 1st quarter of 2003 to the 1st quarter of 2012: “…student loan debt has substantially increased since 2003, growing $663 billion. Outstanding student loan debt surpassed credit card debt as the second highest form of consumer debt…”
Student loans now stand at $904 billion USD! Also: “…delinquency rates for student loans steadily increased from 6.13 percent in the first quarter of 2003 to its current level of 8.69 percent. They remain higher than that of mortgages, auto loans and home equity lines of credit…”
Of course student loans are up, more and more people who can’t find good jobs are going to college with the hopes that an expensive degree will get them at least a “good” job.
The problem is that unAmerican Corporate America is not creating enough good jobs to employ all those highly edumacated workers who’ll need really really good paying jobs in order to pay off those student loans. The latest estimates are that 362,000 net new jobs must be created every month, for three years straight, before there’s any true economic recovery!
In the study of revolutions and civil wars you’ll discover that one of the primary ingredients to social collapse is a country with not only a huge number of unemployed people, but a huge number of highly educated unemployed people!
1 June 2012, bad news for everyone, that is bad news for everyone playing the western (U.S./British dominated) game of capitalism (including the “communist” Chinese)!
Employment numbers did not live up to the expectations of experts in the United States. The U.S. Department of Labor reported that only 69,000 net jobs were created in May. Employment experts in the private sector expected at least 150,000 new jobs.
To top that, the Labor Department revised the April and March employment numbers…down! For the two months before May, the number of net jobs created was revised downward by 49,000!
In the past labor officials said that in order to have an economic recovery unAmerican Corporate America must create 200,000 net new jobs every month. That hasn’t happened, and now it’s worse! The latest estimates are that 362,000 net new jobs must be created every month, for three years straight! That would bring down the unemployment rate to 6%.
Here’s some factual numbers: At least 12.7 million people in the U.S. are “officially” unemployed. At least 100,000 million people are “unofficially” unemployed! Both those factual numbers come from the U.S. Department of Labor!
As one of the many Low Income workers who recently went back to work, working for the Man in the U.S. (after two years of unemployment), let me just say this: No Shit Sherlock!
We Low Income workers, still with jobs, have seen the unAmerican Corporate America bullshit first hand, on a daily bases. It’s now to the point many of us see it on an hourly bases! Nothing has changed, people! If anything the glorified, deified, well educated, well financed leaders of our country are only picking up speed with their snowballing moronic decision making! Need proof? How about JP Morgan Chase (I now work for a contractor who lost a contract with Chase, now I think we know a major reason why Chase canceled the contract)? Wake up people!!! UnAmerican Corporate America is the cause of our economic decline!
Now for Europe.
The 17 member European Union held onto its record unemployment rate for the second month in a row. The latest report is for the month of April, and it stands at 11%. When you break it down by EU member countries it gets worse: Italy 10.2%, Portugal 15.2%, Greece 21.7% (stats for February only).
But how about that Spain? 24.3% unemployment! When you look at just youth unemployment (workers under 25 years of age) it’s 51.5%!!! Can you say “get ready for civil war”?
The result of the collapse of the EU is causing the euro to crash & burn, and forcing the Japanese yen to increase in value. Not only that, but today was the first day that China and Japan began trading their money (in order to avoid the U.S. dollar) and the yen gained in value over the Chinese yuan!
That will kill Japanese business. Japan is a country whose economy depends on international trade. Since 2011 the yen has gained in value, and has already caused major harm to Japanese companies. Yesterday Toyota announced that it was selling $2.5 billion USD in bonds to raise cash, because they believed another credit crash was coming (funny how the U.S./British mainstream media misreported the news).
China is reporting a drop in the Purchasing Managers’ Index, down 2.9 points from April. The drop is caused by a combination of decreased sales internationally, and domestically. It means China’s economy is slowing down, and if China is the manufacturing center of the western capitalist world, then it makes for a good canary in the western capitalist economic coal mine.
Oh, let’s not forget those stable government bonds. On 1 June 2012, U.S. ten year bonds hit a record low of 1.5% interest! German government bonds hit a record low of 1.1%!
The result of all this doom & gloom, based on factual data, is that all the stock markets in Asia went down. In the United States the Dow Jones Industrial Average (aka Wall Street) lost all its gains for January to May 2012, falling more than 200 points in one hour and 30 minutes!
“Iran is an important neighbor and crucial trade partner for India, and also a major source of our energy supplies.”-S M Krishna, External Affairs Minister of India
31 May 2012, after a meeting between Iranian and Indian officials, India made it clear that Iran was India’s number one source for oil!
Indian officials are looking to Iran for other economic deals, as India considers Iran the economic gateway to Central Asia. S M Krishna said Iran was also the economic key to the whole world!
The two countries also discussed “threats” being made against them.
Iran has invited India to attend the upcoming Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit in August. NAM consists of countries that do not kowtow to the United States/British Empire.