Tag Archives: employment

Business/Economics, U.S.

Government & Corporate Evil: Ritual Animal Sacrifice under the guise of Michigan’s new Corporate created “feral” farm animal law. What do other state’s say about feral pigs?

“Does anyone know what it feels like to open fire on 20 baby piglets in one group which weigh between 5 lbs and 15 lbs? They are so adorable and cute.“-Dave Tuxbury, forced by the state to kill off his entire herd

Under the NAZI’s in Germany in the 1930s-40s, you could get thrown in a concentration camp just because of your physical features.  If you ‘looked’ Jewish, or Gypsyish, or ‘behaved’ like a homosexual, in you go.

Now the U.S. state of Michigan has created a law (with Corporate America’s help) that allows state officials to trespass on small farms and shoot to kill any pig that doesn’t ‘look’ right.

Farmers who do not comply will be charged with a felony crime!

“I’m one of two farmers in Michigan that has said we will not comply, and we have filed suit against the Michigan DNR [Department of Natural Resources] and we’ll probably go to court with them this summer.”-Mark Baker, Bakers’ Green Acres in Marion, Michigan

Corporate America farmers have convinced the Michigan government that small family hog farmers are a health threat.  That’s because many family run hog farms have bred their pigs in a way that produces better meat.

The Corporate America farmers can’t compete, because the pigs they use have been designed for their mass production style of operation, which means tasteless meat (that’s the real reason they call it “the other white meat”).

Anyone hunt wild boar?  The meat is red, not white.  The small family farms have bred hogs with red meat, they’re called Heritage Pigs.  Under Michigan’s new law they are now considered “Invasive Species”!

The irony is that these “invasive” or “feral” hogs are actually a better food source than what the Corporate America farmers can produce!  So how are they a threat?  They’re only a threat to the profits of Corporate America!

And the state of Michigan has already forced farmers to kill off their entire hog herd, under threat of prison time:  “I was served a search warrant yesterday at 7:45am.  After 8 guys, 3 four wheelers, and 4 hours, DNR decided I was correct. I have killed all my hogs. They gave me papers that say I do not have any hogs on my property. All they saw were dead hogs laying around from my mass slaughtering. It took 12 guys 4 times in there to kill all of them, sows with young, pregnant sows, dozens of piglets, and old mature boars. It has been a sad few weeks.    

Does anyone know what it feels like to open fire on 20 baby piglets in one group which weigh between 5 lbs and 15 lbs? They are so adorable and cute.

They commented to everyone that they never saw a fence built so tough and no way would a hog get out of this area. I trenched 2′ then installed chain link fencing, then a 10′ high tightlock fence on top of that. ( 200 acre area ) They never saw a fence like that.”-Dave Tuxbury, deer tracks ranch

This new law affects 2,000 farms and private hunting ranches!

Here’s an incomplete list of the types of pigs that Michigan now bans: Wild boar, wild hog, wild swine, feral pig, feral hog, feral swine, Old world swine, razorback, Eurasian wild boar, and Russian wild boar.  Basically the same list as used by the Federal USDA.

Michigan is not the only state with bans on pigs that do not meet the needs of Corporate America’s mass production facilities.  However, most of those states focus only on truly wild pigs, not the pigs that family hog farmers have bred for better meat.

The state of Washington says:  “It is unlawful to import, hold, possess, propagate, offer for sale, sell, transfer, or release feral swine.”

The state of New York says it’s hard to tell domesticated pigs from feral pigs: “Feral swine crossbreed readily with domestic pigs, which has resulted in a wide range of coat colors and body shapes.  Many look like typical wild boars, while others may be hard to distinguish from domestic pigs.”

While New York supports the eradication of feral pigs, they do allow “…anyone with a small game license may hunt and keep feral swine year round with no limit.”

In Texas wild pigs are so numerous that people are encouraged to hunt them and eat them.  But, keep in mind they’re talking about pigs running free in the wild, not some family farm operation!

Realize that Michigan is saying that they now consider certain farm raised pigs to be invasive, and therefore to be killed and not used for food!

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

U.S. Media Confuses: Home Construction actually dropped, blame the Too Big to Fail Banks

One U.S. media headline stated “…Housing Starts Remain Unchanged…”, yet when you read the article it actually admits that construction starts, for March 2012, have declined by 5.8%.

The overall decline was led by a 16.9% drop in construction of multifamily homes.

Construction reps blame the bad economy caused by the too big to fail banks not wanting to lend money to the working class: “…builders remain very cautious about starting new projects until they see more actual sales materializing. At the same time, in places where buyers are ready to go forward with a purchase, access to credit for both builders and buyers and difficulties in obtaining accurate appraisals are persistent challenges that continue to slow that process considerably.”-Barry Rutenberg, National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)

Another article pointed out that March is the second straight month with such a big drop in housing construction projects.  It was also not expected by the economic “experts”!

So what’s the real info?  According to the April 17, 2012, Joint Release U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development PDF, March 2012 housing starts are 5.8% down from February, yet up 10.3% from March 2011.  So; a drop from month prior, an increase from year prior.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery: “Developed Country” status for Japan to end, could officially regress to “Less-Developed”

The Japan Business Federation’s 21st Century Public Policy Institute is warning of not only a collapse of the Japanese economy, but a regression to “less-developed” country status.

That would put Japan behind India, as India’s economy counties to boom.

Analysts blame Japan’s fall on an ongoing population exodus, and money exodus, both caused by the March 2011 natural and ongoing nuclear disasters (gee, maybe nuclear reactors are not good for the economy?).

The analysts say that even in the good scenario, Japan’s economy will shrink drastically and by 2050 will drop to 28th in world Gross Domestic Product rankings.

However, the analysts say one way the government can slow the fall, is to drastically increase taxes!  That seems counter productive, as I think it would cause even more people to leave Japan (as is happening in the United States).

By the way, Japan is a member of the Trilateral Commission (Europe, North America, Japan/Asia), whose goal is to establish a singular privatized government system that is seemingly created in response to severe economic and “natural” disasters.

Fukushima

One Year Later: Big Exodus continues; most number of people flee Japan since 1950!

April 17, 2012, Japan’s Internal Affairs Ministry reported a record drop in Japan’s population.  The exodus started as a result of the March 2011 nuclear disaster at the GE designed Fukushima Daiichi power plant.

As of October 2011, 259,000 people fled Japan.  Percentage wise it’s not much, only 0.2% of the total population of Japan, but still a record since 1950.

It’s not just people who live near the disabled nuclear power plant who’re leaving; 40 of the 47 prefectures are experiencing exodus.

Japan is also experiencing the biggest number of foreign residents leaving.  By October 2011, 51,000 more foreigners left, than those who were moving to Japan.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Government Incompetence: Yet again, Record number of people renounce U.S. citizenship. IRS blames elected officials. Where to get official advise for kicking the U.S. citizenship habit

“Americans abroad are terrified. We’ve had people pay tens of thousands of dollars in fines. We’ve had people … pay huge amounts of back taxes. Up to this point, we never heard of anyone renouncing, or if they did, they didn’t talk about it, now we’re seeing a lot of people speak openly about it and come to us for information.”-Marylouise Serrato,  American Citizens Abroad

April 17, 2012, according to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) National Taxpayer Advocate’s Office, 1,788 people renounced their United States citizenship in 2011.

That’s another record.  The National Taxpayer Advocate’s Office has been keeping track since 1998, and it’s been going up every year.

However, the U.S. Department of State keeps their own records of who gives up U.S. citizenship, and they say it’s been a steady average loss of 1,100 people every year.  Still not good if the United States is such a great place to live; 1,100 people give it up every year, that’s 11,000 people in the past ten years.

The number one reason for leaving the land that’s no longer of the free is taxes!  If you know your U.S. history, taxes were the number one reason for the 1776 Revolution that created the U.S. of A.

In fact one of the rallying cries for the Revolution was “No taxation without representation!”   We’ll that’s exactly what’s happening to the approximately 6.3 million U.S. citizens living in other countries, they’re being taxed and fined more than if they were living in the U.S., and they have no true representation in the U.S. government.

Another problem is that foreign banks say the U.S. government is interfering in their business so much that it’s not worth it to take on U.S. customers: “They’re going to drop Americans like hot potatoes. The foreign banks are upset enough about the regulations that they’re saying they just won’t keep American customers, and it’s giving (Americans living abroad) a lot of sleepless nights.”-Francisca N. Mordi, American Bankers Association

Even the IRS’s National Taxpayer Advocate’s Office blames the U.S. government: “The complexity of international tax law, combined with the administrative burden placed on these taxpayers, creates an environment where taxpayers who are trying their best to comply simply cannot. For some, this means paying more U.S. tax than is legally required, while others may be subject to steep civil and criminal penalties. For some U.S. taxpayers abroad, the tax requirements are so confusing and the compliance burden so great that they give up their U.S. citizenship.”

A major problem with the U.S. tax law is that not only does the U.S. citizen have to report their own income and assets, but they must report the income and assets of their non-U.S. citizen spouse: “When they decide to come clean and report everything, they have to go ask their husbands for all of their bank information, retirement funds, and investment accounts, everything. Your options are to ignore the IRS and stick your head in the sand; take your name off of all the accounts and live in a completely cash economy; divorce; or renounce U.S. citizenship.”-Lucy Stensland Laederich,  Bordeaux Women’s Club

“I grew up in a military family where patriotic feeling was very strong. I’m amazed at how terrible I felt renouncing. But it was the only way to get them off my back. It’s very distressing and time consuming to keep up with all the paperwork. But if it’s this bad when I’m 64, how bad will it be when I’m 74?”-Genette Eysselinck, renounced all ties with the United States

But don’t think renouncing your U.S. citizenship will solve your tax problems, in fact they could get worse: “First of all, there is over a 2 year wait in several countries. Secondly, you are still liable for taxes for the next 10 years. Finally, on the day that you renounce your citizenship, you are considered by the IRS to have made a fictive sale of all of your assets worldwide, and you will be taxed on that sale.”–American Women’s Club Düsseldorf

For an idea of what it takes to officially/legally renounce your citizenship, you can check out the U.S. embassy website in Germany here.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Global Economic War: Israel sues Bank of America

Israel’s Bank Hapoalim has filed a $720 million USD lawsuit against BoA.

Officials with Bank Hapoalim says BoA lied about the mortgage securities it sold to Israel.  BoA is also accused of violating its contracts regarding the sale of those securities.

Bank Hapoalim suffered more than $1 billion USD in losses in the 2008/2009 mortgage/credit crunch fiasco.

 

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

Oil & Gas Prices: New oil spill in Gulf of Mexico. Oil market bubble bursting? Blame War for your high prices! U.S. backed Oil War continues in Sudan. India #1 buyer of Iranian oil

“The U.S. Coast Guard is conducting an over flight assessment for a report of a rainbow sheen approximately one mile by 10 miles spotted near the Mississippi Canyon block 807 in the Gulf of Mexico……trying to identify the responsible party.”-Petty Officer Bill Colclough, U.S. Coast Guard

April 12, 2012, the USCG is investigating a report, by Royal Dutch Shell, of an oil spill located between two Shell off shore platforms, near the U.S. state of Louisiana.

Shell says it is not coming from its Mars and Ursa rigs.  It could be natural seepage.

The International Energy Agency says international oil stockpiles are so high, and demand is so low, that it expects oil prices to continue to drop.

Isn’t it funny how not even a  year ago the oil industry “experts” kept telling us that demand was still high, and that we could expect $150 per barrel, or more?

“Easing first quarter 2012 fundamentals have seen prices recently lose most of the $5 per barrel they gained in March. The muted impact so far is partly because much of this extra supply has been stockpiled on land or at sea.”-IEA statement

But don’t expect lower gas prices, as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said, the Northern Hemisphere summer driving season is always used as an excuse to raise prices: “U.S. oil demand remains a key uncertainty to the existing demand assessment. The upcoming driving season might be affected by high retail gasoline prices and the pace of the economic recovery.”-OPEC statement

The International Energy Agency says consumers can blame the high fuel prices on wars and rumors of wars: “We cannot discount the possibility that prices will remain high so long as geopolitical uncertainties remain.”-IEA statement

Sudan launched an offensive to re-take the largest oil field from South Sudan: “Within the next 72 hours, we shall have pushed all of their troops out of our territories.”-Rabie Abdelaty, Sudanese spokesman

The Heglig field produces about 60,000 barrels per day.  Last week U.S. supported South Sudan captured the Heglig.

India has just surpassed China, as Iran’s number one oil buyer.  In the first quarter of 2012 India imported 433,000 barrels per day from Iran.  China’s import rate for Iranian oil was only 256,000 bpd.  That’s according to  Petrologistics.

It could be that China had made a huge oil deal with Russia, but now Russian courts could threaten that deal.

Russian prosecutors are investigating the 30 year deal, over a discount giving to China.  That discount results in a reduction in profits, over the 30 years, of $3 billion USD.  Many Russians are not happy about that.

China imports 300,000 bpd from Russia’s Eastern Siberian oil fields.

 

 

 

 

Business/Economics, International, Technology

Iran major exporter of Cement & Carpets

“Today our country has become a main exporter of cement. By launching the second phase of Orumieh cement factory, Iran’s cement production capacity increased by one million tonnes!”-Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran

With the end of the Iranian year (on March 19, 2012) came news of increased exports of products other than oil, and despite U.S. and European sanctions.

Cement and clinker (a kilned then quenched cement product) has increased 17.44% and reached 10,119,780 metric tons (11,154,960 tons)!

In August 2011, Iran became a world exporter of cement.

In March 2012, Iran revealed it had developed “smart cement” which could withstand the impact of a bunker busting bomb. The smart cement was originally developed to counter the shaking of earthquakes, which Iran is prone to many.

Hand made rugs are one of Iran’s biggest sellers.  In the United States they’re called Persian rugs.

An estimated 1.2 million people in Iran are employed in the hand made rug industry.  They produce five million square meters of carpets, 80% are exported!

In the past year Iran exported $560 million USD worth of Persian rugs.

 

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

Oil & Gas Prices: Iran can stop all oil sales for three years, without harm to its economy

“Some people think that they can trouble Iran through oil sanctions but I should say that we have so much reserves that even if we don’t sell oil for two to three years, the country will be administered easily.”-Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran, April 10, 2012

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

World War 3: Iran stops oil shipments to Germany, Iran imposes sanctions on 100 European companies

April 11, 2012, Iran follows through on threat to cut off oil to Germany, now Italy is next.

Iran also announced sanctions against 100 European Union companies.  Sasan Khodaei, Deputy President of Iran Trade Promotion Organization, said the companies will no longer be able to sell products to Iran.

One reason for the sanctions is that Iran is now able to make the products for themselves.