Beginning January 15, 2012, Verizon will charge you and extra $2 when you pay your wireless bill over the phone or online using a debit or credit card.
You can avoid the charge by using an e-check, or signing up for AutoPay.
Verizon officials say the charge is to make up for what they are charged by the credit and debit card companies (that’s right, businesses get charged fees every time you use a credit or debit card).
It’s only been two days since Sears Holdings announced they were closing up to 120 Sears and Kmart stores, and now they have named 79 of those stores.
I already explained why their Chubbuck and Pocatello, Idaho stores could be closed.
Sears store in Lewiston Center Mall, Lewiston, Idaho, makes this initial list of 79 closings. The list does not provide details on any timeline for closing.
Some regional media sources have stated that other stores in the area “escaped” the list, however the list is only 79 of as many as 120 total closings (and it could be more).
Other Pacific Northwest Sears stores that made this early list are in Roseburg, Oregon, Longmont, Colorado and Walla Walla, Washington. Also, the Kmarts in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, and Spokane, Washington will be closed.
Also, a Sears store in Denver, Colorado, that was formerly a Kmart store, will be converted back into a Kmart store.
You can find out more by going to www.searsholdings.com and looking under their media tools section.
“The Scottish Government will of course publish a white paper in advance of the referendum, detailing independence, including the new relationship of equality with England, such as the Queen remaining as our head of state, and this will be the positive platform for Scotland’s future that people will be asked to approve.”-Scottish government statement
In an article found in the Scotsman, Scottish officials are working fast on legislation that would not only free them from the English tyranny but create their own military force.
Plans could also include leaving NATO in favor of a military partnership with the recently created Nordic Alliance. The Nordic Alliance is currently made up of Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
Despite what some bloggers say about Scotland not being Nordic, a check of Scottish history proves a direct connection with Nordic peoples (and lets not forget the even older pan-European Celtic peoples).
However, it’s now clear that while Scotland wants independence from England, it does still want to be part of the Monarchy. I don’t base that on just the official Scottish government statement, but the fact is that the current members of the Nordic Alliance are monarchies, with direct ties to the Queen of England.
So much for Scottish Independence. In fact, this whole “independence” movement in Scotland could just be part of bigger plans to create a grand Royal Nordic Alliance, with the Queen of England in charge.
According to the HeraldScotland it’s all about money and control. Their article calls it a Scottish-Nordic financial institution that will eventually include Scotland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and possibly Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. These regions were all part of the Hanseatic League in the Middle Ages.
This new Nordic Alliance is part of an anti-government, pro-privatization (pro-business, modern day feudalism) movement: “…the public sector is failing to engage with this [business, private] sector when it comes to procurement. There is also a serious funding gap, both the difficulty of obtaining ‘micro’ credit from banks and the total absence of any ‘microinvestment mechanism’.”-Anne-Grethe Eckman, Nordic Enterprise Trust
Supporters of the Nordic Alliance movement claim they are doing this for the good of small/micro businesses. They point to the fact that governments seem only interested in helping big businesses. That sounds good, but the major problem I have is the connection of the Nordic Alliance to the monarchies of northern Europe, like the Queen of England. History shows that the little guy always suffers by the hands of Royalty.
I also wonder if this Nordic Alliance movement is also part of a conspiracy to take down the European Union and replace it with a more corporate/private sector centered system. (research Club of Rome, Trilateral Commission and Bilderberg)
The Russian Emergency Ministry is reporting that a K-84 type nuclear powered submarine is on fire, after wooden scaffolding around the sub caught fire.
The Delta class sub is in a shipyard in the Murmansk region. Crews are currently trying to put out the fire. The Emergency Ministry says radiation levels are normal, the fire is external and so far is not affecting the reactor inside the sub.
“The sale of our Regional Media Group will enable The New York Times Company to continue our transformation to a multi-platform media company and further sharpen our focus on the development of our brands nationally, globally and in the northeastern U.S.”-New York Times, memo to employees
The New York Times has been in business since 1851, it even survived the Great Depression, now it has sold off its Regional Media Group to raise much needed cash! But was it for economic reasons?
Late December 27, the New York Times announced it made a deal to sell Regional Media Group to Halifax Media Holdings (aka Halifax Media Group), for $143 million in cash.
Regional Media Group consists of 16 regional newspapers and other related businesses. Those newspapers and other publishing businesses are spread from the southeastern U.S. to California.
Halifax Media Holdings is reportedly a foreign company, but is listed as based in Florida. The State of Florida’s Division of Corporations says Halifax Media Holdings didn’t register with them until October 2009. Since the news of the deal was first leaked last week, Halifax Media Holdings removed their website from the internet (website was listed as Halifax Media Group)!
Even though the State of Florida shows Halifax Media registering in October 2009, the Daytona Beach News Journal (owned by Halifax Media) claims the corporation was founded in 2010: “Founded in 2010, Halifax Media is headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida. The company’s investment group includes Stephens Capital Partners LLC, Jaarsss Media, and Redding Investments. Halifax’s strategy is to invest long-term capital in quality companies positioned in strong markets that are closely connected to the community.”
The various forms of company names using ‘Halifax Media’ in the title adds to the sinisterness. There is also a Halifax Media Co-op in Nova Scotia, Canada, which began in February 2009. It claims to be part of a grassroots socialist media movement started by The Dominion News Cooperative in 2003.
The Dominion News Cooperative does not have any corporate headquarters, they are decentralized and operate ‘guerrilla’ style. They claim to be anti-corporation which would make them unlikely to be part of the Halifax Media Group. However their stated purpose of conducting media operations at grass roots level is similar to the Halifax Media Group’s desire to take over media operations “…that are closely connected to the community.”
Whether or not Halifax Media Holdings (aka Halifax Media Group, aka Halifax Media Acquisition) is connected to Halifax Media Co-op, it’s interesting that since 2009 (when Halfax Media Co-op started in Canada) this secretive, possibly foreign controlled corporation, has been quietly buying up U.S. newspaper publishers.
Halifax Media has also given warning to the hundreds of employees of Regional Media Group. The Atlantic published an article with the full New York Times memo to its employees, which include statements like:“…you will be notified within the next 48 hours whether the buyer will be offering you employment. The New York Times Company has not been involved in that decision.”
Also, in the official New York Times memo, company officials stated they did not put Regional Media Group up for sale, it was Halifax Media that came to them demanding to buy it: “While it [the sale of Regional Media Group] was not planned, we were approached by Halifax Media Holdings LLC.”
Mmmm
Tied for “Most Unpopular Governor in the United States”, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, along with the State’s Legislature, proved who they really represent; Corporate America.
For 2011 Synder has signed into law, bills passed by Michigan’s lawmakers, which favor corporations and attack unemployed people!
Those laws cut unemployment assistance from a maximum of 26 weeks down to 20 weeks. Some unemployed people will get only a maximum of 10 weeks of assistance!!!
At the same time corporations operating in Michigan now get at least $1.7 billion in new tax breaks!!! That about $30 in new corporate tax breaks for every one dollar cut from Michigan’s social services.
If you think about it, how is cutting corporate taxes by far more than what you cut from government programs gonna help the state government’s budget problems?
Struggling to figure out what to do with the ever increasing nuclear waste, caused by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster reactors, the Japanese government has decided to dump it in Fukushima.
The county of Futaba, in Fukushima Prefecture, is being asked to allow eight of its cities to become nuclear waste dumps. The official reasoning is that area is already contaminated (currently it suffers the equivalent of 100 millisieverts of radiation per year).
Of course this would mean that those people still living in the area would have to leave, and the national government will pay for occupying the land.
Many people in the area are upset, and disillusioned with their national government, because immediately after the March nuclear accidents, they were told, by national government officials, that the situation wasn’t that bad and they would all be returning to their homes soon.
China is THE biggest supplier of rare earth minerals, which are absolutely necessary for today’s high tech computer devices, like your cell phone that’s almost permanently attached to your ear while you’re driving (stop that, damn it!).
How big? China supplies 90% of the world’s rare earth metals!
Chinese officials say they will try to meet their 2012 quota, but because of new environmental regulations going into effect they expect delays from the mining industry.
China’s Commerce Ministry has granted export quotas of nearly 24,900 tons to 31 companies. That’s only 80% of what they said they would export for all of 2012. At least 20 other mining companies are having problems meeting the new environmental standards. If those companies can not meet the new standards, then China will fail to meet their stated 2012 goal of exporting more than 30,000 tons of rare earth metals.
Japan’s Forestry Agency tested male cedar tree flowers, in Fukushima Prefecture, and discovered extreme levels of contamination: More than 250,000 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium!
The forestry Ministry took samples from 87 locations between November and December. The highest level, 253,000 becquerels of cesium per kilogram, were discovered at Omaru in the town of Namie, 11.3 kilometers (7 miles) from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Now realize that pollen is blown through the air, meaning highly radioactive pollen is blowing throughout Japan!
Japan’s Environment Ministry says as much as 2,207 grains per cubic meter, of radioactive pollen, is being blown around. However, the Forestry Ministry is trying to downplay the spread of radiation through pollen, by saying if people breath it for 4 months they would be exposed to 0.553 microsieverts of radiation. Officials claim this is equivalent to ten times the normal background radiation found in Tokyo. Mmm, they’re not concerned with that?
“If sanctions are adopted against Iranian oil, not a drop of oil will pass through the Strait of Hormuz. We take no interest in animosity and hostility, our belief is friendship and brotherhood, but the West will not end its scheming….The enemies will only drop their plots when we put them back in their place!”-Reza Rahimi, Vice President of Iran
More than a third of the world’s oil (carried by tanker ships) passes through the 34 mile (54 kilometer) wide Strait of Hormuz. In the past few weeks Iranian media have been pushing for selective blocking of the Strait, saying the West is already at War with Iran. A well known British commentator backs that up saying: “War on Iran has already begun….For months the evidence has been growing that a U.S./Israeli stealth war against Iran has already begun, backed by Britain and France.”-Seumas Milne, The Guardian
Some of that evidence includes:
• Two nuclear physicists were killed, and the head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran was wounded, after bombs were attached to their cars or detonated near them in 2010.
• The Stuxnet computer worm infected Iranian nuclear facilities in 2010; numerous reports suggest this was a U.S./Israeli attack to cripple Iranian nuclear centrifuges.
• On November 12, 2011, an explosion destroyed the Revolutionary Guard base at Bid Kaneh, killing 17, including a founder of Iran’s missile program.
• On November 28, 2011, an explosion in the western Iranian city of Isfahan badly damaged a uranium enrichment facility.
• On December 4, 2011, it was proven that the U.S. has been sending military aircraft into Iranian airspace after the IRGC used electronic warfare to bring down an expensive stealth UAV.
Read what “christian” U.S. Senator Rick Santorum said: “There have been scientists turning up dead in Russia and in Iran. There have been computer viruses. There have been problems at their facility. I hope that the United States has been involved with that.” (doesn’t sound very ‘christian’ like to me)
By the way, recent bills for new sanctions against Iran will make it legal, under U.S. law, to designate civilian scientists as military targets!
In a recent interview with CBS Evening News, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the Obama administration now thinks Iran will have nuclear weapons in 2012. When asked about Israel’s publicly stated plans to attack Iran, Panetta responded: “The United States does not want Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. That’s a red line for us and that’s a red line, obviously, for the Israelis. If we have to do it we will deal with it.”
But U.S. officials also consider the closing of the Strait of Hormuz a reason to bomb Iran. Texas based think tank Stratfor (Strategic Forecasting) said: “The importance of this waterway to both American military and economic interests is difficult to overstate. Considering Washington’s more general, and fundamental, interest in securing freedom of the seas [for U.S. interests only, of course], the U.S. Navy would almost be forced to respond aggressively to any attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz.”
By the way, oil analysts have said that if the Strait of Hormuz was closed for 30 days, or even if one bomb fell on Iran, the price of oil could go as high as $500 per barrel. Try commuting to work on that! (maybe this is some kind-a insane conspiracy by the elitist oil industry to drive up oil prices)