Tag Archives: economy

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

World War 3: Japan demands exemption from U.S. oil embargo against Iran, prepares for short U.S. war with Iran

“…officials are working hard in order to win a waiver from the sanctions by the end of this month.”-Osamu Fujimura, Chief Cabinet Secretary for Japan’s Prime Minister

Since January, 2012, Japan has been trying to get an exemption from the U.S. oil sanctions against Iran.  Japan’s economy depends on it.

“We have not yet reached an agreement in principle, although we have deepened mutual understanding.”-Koichiro Gemba, Foreign Minister of Japan

Since there is no progress in getting the exemption, Japan is now preping for a possible war in the Persian Gulf, which would cut off 10% of their oil supplies.

Foreign Minister Gemba claims Japan is making preparations that would make any cut off of oil, due to the closing of the Strait of Hormuz, have little affect on Japan’s industries. But that’s because Gemba believes any war with Iran would be short.  Does he know something we don’t?

Gemba explained that Japan has 200 days of oil reserves and 70 days worth of liquid natural gas.  Apparently Japan was told (during their negotiations to get exempted from the U.S. oil sanctions?) by U.S. officials not to worry about a long war.

Gemba added that the Japanese government is going over various scenarios to reduce the impact the war will have on people’s daily lives.

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Yet another airline ends service in Idaho

Frontier Airlines has ended its Boise to Denver route.  In the past two years the airline temporarily stopped service due to a seasonal drop in passengers, but they officially announced they will not restart service, for 2012.

For the past two years, the seasonal drop in business happens in winter, and Frontier restarts flights in April.  Passenger numbers have been steadily dropping since 2007, and Frontier decided it wasn’t worth it to restart the Boise-Denver route for 2012.

Back in December, 2011, SeaPort Airlines announced they were ending their Idaho Falls-Boise route.  Not enough sales were the official reason.  That claim was news to Idaho Falls airport airlines director Len Nelson, who said: “We were really, really disappointed to see them leave. We were just starting to fill the airplanes up. Out of nine seats, we were filling it a lot of times, and averaging five, six passengers a flight.” Nelson’s reasoning is out of touch.  Filling five to six seats, out of nine, is not enough for an airline to justify the route.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

World War 3: United States imposes sanctions on Japan, U.S. been doing business with Yakuza

February 23, 2012, the United States imposes sanctions against the Yamaguchi-gumi.

The U.S. Treasury Department froze the assets held in the United States by the organized crime family. The U.S. has also banned the Yamaguchi-gumi from doing anymore business in the United States.

While this sounds good, it should raise the question: “How long has the U.S. knowingly done business with the Japanese Yakuza?” And I wounder if freezing their assets is just a tricky way to raise cash for a broke U.S. government?  The Obama administration estimates they have billions in their U.S. accounts!

Idaho, International, U.S.

Lessons for the Occupy Movement from the Egyptian January 2011 Revolution: #2 Cyberspace does not win Revolutions! Occupy the land! Keep Lines of Communication open!

I watched the January 2011 Egyptian Revolution from day one.  It did not start with cyberspace, and it did not end with cyberspace.  Rather cyberspace was only a briefly used tool of the Revolutionaries.

“I don’t think the Revolution ever happened in cyberspace…They need physical space, they need public space. Tahrir Square provided that.”-Nezar AlSayyad, Center of Middle East Studies, University of California at Berkeley

The fact that Revolutions need public space is the true reason why local and state governments, in the United Police States of America, are now passing laws that’re making it illegal to gather in public spaces!

On December 9, 2011, the city of Honolulu, Hawaii, created a law that is not only aimed at preventing public gatherings, but is being called “a particularly egregious attack on the homeless”.

On January 24, 2012, Charlotte, North Carolina, passed a “no camping” on city property law.  Even if you’re not camping the law includes things that allow police to have you removed, or arrested, anyway.

On February 21, 2012, the state of Idaho created a law that specifically targets the Occupy movement.  It has extended anti-gathering laws (no demonstrations can last longer than four hours, which only proves what I said in part one) to the state property the Occupy Boise movement is currently using.

The small, and ignorant, Occupy Boise movement has until 17:00 February 27 to clear out.

I say the Occupy Idaho movement is ignorant, because of what they said in a PBS Newshour interview: “I will take it elsewhere. There are a lot of us who recognize that this movement is more important than the place we’re staying.”-Daniel Grad, Occupy Boise, December 8, 2011

In fact, the Occupy Boise movement told local Idaho PBS reporters that they specifically chose the land (land that until now was exempt from the four hour limit law) so as to not cause legal problems!

FAIL!  There’s a saying in the world of business, “location, location, location”!   If there is no need to Occupy land, then what was the point of Egyptian Revolutionaries fighting so hard to control Tahrir Square?

Back to cyberspace.  In Egypt twitter and facebook and other social media tools were not the instigators of the Revolution.  Those tools only became important as Egyptians in one city realized, through their communications, that they were not alone, that Egyptians in other cities were also rebelling.  So cyberspace became a way of communication after the fact.

Even so, as I was watching the live broadcasts, the Egyptian government shut down many cell phone towers, and internet providers (with the help of a U.S. telecommunications company).   Did that stop the Revolution?  Hell no!

Revolutionaries turned to old fashioned land line phones, short wave radios, even the ancient task of running messages by foot.  Some reports said they had taken over radio stations, even broke into police stations to steal the police radios.

But while this proves that cyberspace is not critical, it does prove that communications are critical.

In the military, communications does not refer to just being able to talk or relay messages.  It refers to the ability to keep your forces fed and armed.  (specifically its called: Lines of Communication, called such because supplies tended to follow the same route that hand carried messages, and telegraph lines, did)

The Egyptian Revolutionaries not only took and held land (sometimes losing it, but retaking it later), they kept their Occupiers fed, and they rotated fresh Occupiers in, while the tired Occupiers went out to get rest.  They, without really thinking about it, kept “lines of communication” open to the land they were Occupying.

This is important, because one of the riot control maneuvers used nowadays is called “Kettling”.  This is a way of hemming in protestors, to cut them off from their lines of communication (even though most protestors don’t even know about such things as lines of communication).

The lesson is that you must not rely on high technology, you must Occupy the land, and you must keep your “lines of communication” open!

By the Way, Occupy Boise is appealing to the Federal Court, on the grounds the new Idaho law violates the rights to freedom of speech and assembly guaranteed under the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.

LESSONS FOR THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT FROM THE EGYPTIAN JANUARY 2011 REVOLUTION: #1; PEACEFUL PROTEST DOES NOT WORK!!!

International, U.S.

World War 3: New phase of Afghan War; Genocide in the Name of Fighting Terrorism. Hundreds of families displaced everyday, hundreds of children frozen to death! National ID cards new weapon for Ethnic Cleansing!

“We saw letters issued by the provincial government of Herat that said, effectively, don’t direct any assistance specifically to displaced people. The theory is that since they don’t want to either encourage them to stay or even acknowledge that displacement is a problem they’re going to pretend that it doesn’t exist.”-Michael Bochenek, Amnesty International

Not being reported by most of the main stream U.S. media is what looks like a new phase in the so called U.S. war on terror in Afghanistan: Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing, specifically by targeting children.

The New York Times has published a report, concerning the growing number of cases of children freezing to death, and being targeted by U.S. led forces.

The Washington Post has also written about the increased forced displacement, and articles about the increased killing of children by U.S. led forces.

For years the Brookings Institution has been reporting on the increasing number of people being forcibly displaced in Afghanistan.

Also, Amnesty International has recently reported that as many as 400 people, per day, are being forced from their homes into refugee (concentration?) camps.  As of the middle of February, 2012, there were an estimated 500,000 people in these camps.

It’s in those camps that children are freezing to death. The camps do not have any basic necessities.  The U.S. backed Afghan government says it’s necessary because of the continued U.S. led war with “Taliban”, and natural disasters.

Amnesty says many of the Afghans being affected include those who returned to Afghanistan after the U.S. “liberated” the country from the Taliban.  Ten years later, those who returned say they were better off in Pakistani refugee camps!

The U.S. supported Afghan government officials deny there is a problem. They label returning refugees as “economic migrants”.

The camps for economic migrants are where hundreds of children have frozen to death this winter.  According to the British Telegraph, at least 40 people, mostly children, froze to death just in the past four weeks!

“They may be refused enrollment or threatened with expulsion if they can not produce a national identification card, a document that most Afghans do not have…”-Amnesty International

One program started by the U.S. supported Afghan government, is a national identification (ID) card (similar to what some lawmakers in the U.S. want for Americans).  If you don’t have the ID card you don’t get any help, your children are not even allowed to attend school (wasn’t that one of the reasons for getting rid of the Taliban, so that kids could go to school?).

“Economic migrants” are not issued ID cards, unless they have other forms of documentation.  Now realize that most Afghans who live outside major cites, as well as those people who fled the civil wars in the 1990s, have no “documentation”.

“In the typical scenario, a group of men arrives, claiming to own the land and telling the families they must leave.”-Amnesty International

If you don’t have this Afghan national ID, you can be kicked out of your home (similar to what Israelis have been doing to Palestinians) and placed in the so called refugee camps. In these camps people are even being denied food because they can not “prove” they are Afghans!

A New York Times article said that U.S. supported Afghan government officials refuse to recognize the increasing number of deaths because those who died did not have proper ID!!!

Where’s all the international aid? Most of the supplies coming into the camps are coming from locals! But, they are not enough.  Nader Nafey, a local businessman, brought food for 200 people at the Charahi Qambar camp.  The problem is that there is more than 900 people in the camp!

“Private Afghan businessmen, as well as companies like Roshan, a mobile telephone carrier, and Ariana Television, through their charitable arms, have visited both of the worst-hit camps in recent days, handing out aid, including food, firewood and cash payments.”-New York Times

Amnesty International says the billions of dollars in international aid, is deliberately being blocked from the camps, by the U.S. supported Afghan government. 

New York Times investigators have interviewed U.S. supported Afghan officials, who blame it all on the refugees.  They make the outrageous claim that the undocumented economic migrants sold off all their food, and even rented out their government supplied apartments, to risk death living in the unheated tents of the refugee camps!!!

This is taking place while killings of Afghan children, by U.S. led forces, is also increasing.

“Seven boys under 14 and an 18-year-old were killed in the attack….They were herding sheep less than half a mile from their homes when the bombing happened.”-New York Times

U.S./NATO/ISAF officials consider herding sheep suspicious: “We were engaging a group of armed men that we observed engaging in unusual behavior.”-Lieutenant Colonial Jimmie E. Cummings

“Suddenly some airplanes came and dropped bombs on the children and killed my son, my two nephews and some other children from our village. When we went there we saw the children in pieces, some missing legs, some missing arms, only the heads and face could be recognized, nothing else.”-Abdul Zahid, local police officer

Recently French NATO/ISAF forces admitted killing the seven boys, and the 18 year old. The French say they had information that the boys were Taliban gun smugglers! (an excuse used thousands of times by U.S. led forces)

Here’s another typical explanation given by U.S. led forces: “These were young Afghans. They were adult-sized, athletic, strong, walking perfectly in the valley. I have no doubt that they were carrying weapons.”

Locals basically say ‘no shit sherlock, we all carry guns, this is Afghanistan where we all have the right bear arms!’  That’s right all you right wingers in the U.S., the right to have weapons is more respected in Afghanistan (even if the U.S. supported government is against it) than in the hypocritical United States!  The problem is that U.S. led forces in Afghanistan target anyone seen carrying a weapon, no mater how young.

“Afghan children, women and men continue to be killed in this war in ever-increasing numbers. For much too long Afghan civilians have paid the highest price of war.”-Ján Kubiš, United Nations Special Representative for the Secretary-General

On February 4, 2012, the United Nations published a report, which said there was a 192% increase in the number of civilians killed, in the last six months of 2011!  The report also said civilian deaths have been increasing every year!

The report blames the yearly increases not only on freedom fighters, but on U.S. supported pro-government forces: “Among the tactics of Pro-Government Forces, aerial attacks caused the greatest number of Afghan civilian deaths in 2011…”

The fact that year after year civilians are increasingly killed or driven into death camps, implies only one thing; an official policy of Genocide.

While many ethnic groups are targeted, the majority are Pashtuns.  The Pashtuns just happen to be the majority of Afghans, and make up the majority of “Taliban”.

This looks more and more like an official U.S. policy to eradicate the dominant Pashtuns, through genocidal ethnic cleansing.  Don’t forget, not one Afghan has ever been directly linked to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States!!!

 

 

 

 

International, U.S.

World War 3: Riots continue in Afghanistan, Taliban take advantage and go on Offensive, 20 Afghans killed, 2 U.S. troops killed, Obama makes empty apology

U.S. media reporting that an Afghan soldier has killed two U.S. troops, vengeance for the burning of dozens of Qur’ans.  It’s not the first, second or third time U.S. led forces have committed acts of desecration (in violation of the UCMJ) in Afghanistan.

At least 20 Afghans have been killed, as a direct result of the riots.  One of those killed was an Afghan government solider. It’s not clear if the soldier was taking part in suppressing the riots, or take part in the riots.

A militia/freedom fighter group (U.S. media calls all Afghan freedom fighters “Taliban”) issued a statement calling for all out attacks on all foreign troops and bases.  At one base U.S. forces were shot at, resulting in two U.S. troops injured.

U.S. President Barack Obama sent a written apology to Afghan President Karzai.  When you realize how many times the U.S. has apologized to Afghanistan, for killing civilians and acts of desecration, it becomes clear those apologies are hollow.

 

International, U.S.

Lessons for the Occupy Movement from the Egyptian January 2011 Revolution: #1; Peaceful Protest does not Work!!!

“We will not be silenced! Whether you’re a Christian, Muslim or Atheist you will get back your goddamn rights!  We will have our rights, one way or another! We will never be silent!”-Egyptian revolutionary

Peaceful protest does not work.  If you take certain U.S. university Political Science courses on revolutionary countries, or history of terrorism courses, you’ll learn of studies that show that peaceful protests always fail.  Most of these U.S. university courses are aimed at students who want to be public administrators, or law enforcers.  Why?  Because the courses teach them how to keep “the people” down!

“I am six months pregnant! I’m ready to die with my child so Egypt would live!”-Egyptian Revolutionary

Was the Egyptian January 2011 Revolution peaceful?  Hell no!  Not only were the police, and pro-Mubarak thugs, violent, but protestors finally fought back. Egyptian protestors used rocks, sticks, trash can lids and even their own bodies, to fight against guns and bombs.

If you want proof just watch videos of the Battle for Qasr al-Nil Bridge, in which police hit protestors with rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons, even when they were praying, and then repeatedly rammed their armored vans into the crowds.  Watch the violent reaction of the protestors, attacking the armored vans with their bare hands, lifeless bodies being carried away, finally taking the Bridge!

If that’s not enough, watch the many videos from Tahrir Square, in which protestors and police (backed up by pro-Mubarak thugs), spent days in a back and forth of violence!

I watched the January Revolution from day one, many days not getting any sleep because I did not want to miss anything (and I was in communication with some revolutionaries via the internet).  Despite the myth that it was peaceful, it was not.  The protestors definitely started out peaceful, and that’s just what those in power want.

Studies have shown that those in power will violently suppress even the most peaceful protests, because it works!  If they get resistance, they will increase the violence they use on the protestors.  However, the same studies show that the power elite have a short window of time to successfully put down a revolution.  If protestors can withstand the violent crackdown, and even fight back, it will weaken the power elite.  The longer the people can resist attempts by elites to put them down, the weaker the elites get!

As the elites grow weak that is not the time to back off and make concessions. Again, that’s what the elites want. The Egyptians pushed and pushed, and the elites (well, Mubarak anyway) finally fell.

The peaceful U.S. Civil Rights protests of the early 1960s is not what got the Civil Rights laws passed.  It was the violent revolutions of black Americans before and after Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated, that forced the white Americans to give in!

Research the insurgencies (race riots) in Watts 1965, Jersey City 1964, Elizabeth 1964, New York/Harlem/Rochester 1964, Dixmoor/Chicago 1964, Philadelphia 1964, Cleveland 1966, Benton Harbor 1966 (put down by Mitt Romney’s father George Romney), Tampa 1967, Buffalo 1967, Newark 1967, Detroit 1967, Plainfield 1967, Cairo 1967, Washington DC 1968, Baltimore 1968 (caused by King Jr’s assassination), Chicago 1968 (caused by King Jr’s assassination), Kansas City 1968 (caused by King Jr’s assassination), Louisville 1968 (caused by King Jr’s assassination).  It was those violent uprisings, and others into the early 1970s, which scared the crap out of the white power elite, and they caved and passed Civil Rights laws.  Also, research the creation of the Black Panthers and MOVE.

And don’t get me started on Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, he was no peace lover!  He just knew how to manipulate.  The Hindus presented themselves to the British as obedient sheep, to the point of doing nothing while the Red Coats beat, shot and stabbed them.  Yet the Hindus were attacking Muslims, provoking Muslims to fight, and then the Hindus would tell the British ‘you see you can’t trust those violent Muslims, give us control of India’.

By the way look what happened to Gandhi’s peace loving wife; assassinated by her own body guards after she ordered the killing of Muslims and the destruction of a Sikh temple!

When I was taking video/film production classes at Allan Hancock College, in Santa Maria, California (back in the early 1990s), I attended a journalism seminar.  At the seminar I listened to a lecture by a retired lobbyist.  The guy spent a couple of decades lobbying elected officials at the state capitol in Sacramento.  He said: “The only way you get action out of elected officials is with money or violence.”

He went on to explain that in his years at the state capitol the only time the politicians truly listened to “the people” was when they had money to offer, or were rioting in the street!  He stressed that those people who peacefully demonstrated were essentially blown off by the elected officials.

Most elitist politicians rationalize that if an issue isn’t bad enough to get people causing violence in the street, then it must not be an issue at all!

“I would rather die with pride than live without it!”-slogan used by Egyptian Revolutionaries

The point is, peaceful protest is a myth created by the power elite to fool the masses.  The only time real change is ever made in societies is through violence.  By the way, that’s how the United States of America came into being!

More to follow…..

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

More suicides at Chinese Slave Wage Factory Cities

Chinese media reporting that a man jumped to his death on February 18, and a woman did the same on February 15.  The local government officials claim they are investigating.

The two slave wage employees worked at Nanshan International Stationery.  The man had been trapped their for eight years!  Many people in the United States don’t realize these Chinese factory cities are literally walled in cities.  When you sign a contract to work there you’re stuck inside.

Nanshan International Stationery has Western investors, through Hong Kong.  Officials at the factory said “personal problems” were the cause of the suicides. Yeah, I agree that eight years trapped in a factory city would cause personal problems!

 

 

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Black Horse & What Economic Recovery? Greeks right about sinister plots against them, yet again the latest Bail Out is put on hold!

How many times is this gonna happen: World finance leaders announce a done deal for a Greek bail out loan, only to retract it not even 24 hours later.

Yet again European Union leaders, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), are using excuses to hold back the latest 130 billion Euro loan.

“Greece has obviously made significant efforts, and now we need to continue the work and that the entirety of the elements, particularly furnished by the other parties, are also put into place.”–Christine Lagarde, IMF

The IMF’s Christine Lagarde said, February 21, 2012, that the new loan deal is now going to be scrutinized by the IMF, and a decision to approve, or not, will be made by the second week of March!

Many Greeks believe their country is deliberately being destroyed economically.

…there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

Business/Economics, International

World War 3: Iran makes Oil offer to European countries. But still; France, Britain No Oil For You!

Iran has made a new oil deal offer to European countries, except the countries of Britain and France: “They must know that our country is in a position which must be talked to and treated on equal standing and through mutual respect, and they must forget about their past empires and exploiting other countries.”-Ramin Mehmanparast, Foreign Ministry of Iran

For all other European countries Iran is willing to continue shipping oil to them if: “They…must sign medium, or long term contracts covering periods of three to five years….and ban….oil customers from unilaterally canceling their contracts.”-Ramin Mehmanparast, Foreign Ministry of Iran

Iranian officials say that by signing the long term contracts European countries could get a fixed price for Iranian oil.  If they don’t sign contracts, then no more oil for you: “We make decisions in our own country and we have sanctioned hostile states; if other countries do not specify their decision about long term oil contracts, Tehran will make a decision about them as well.”-Rostam Qassemi, Oil Minister of Iran

Iranian officials claim they don’t really need the European market, saying only 18% of all of Iran’s oil production goes to Europe.