Tag Archives: ows

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Government, Corporate & Farmer Incompetence: MF Global scandal will destroy U.S. Agriculture! “Christmas is canceled.” Is it all about creating the Great Global Food Crisis?

“I simply do not know where the money is, or why the accounts have not been reconciled to date.”-Jon Corzine, former CEO of MF Global

On December 8, all those investors got their answer from the former boss of investment company MF Global.  Jon Corzine told the House Agriculture Committee that he doesn’t know what happened to the billions of investment dollars from clients, that include single moms and a lot of the country’s farmers.

“I can’t start my business at all because I have absolutely no capital…my twins’ birthday is December 9th, we can’t have a party now, Christmas is canceled.”-Jennifer DaRuzza, invested with MF Global in the hopes of raising enough money to start a business

The bigger concern is the fact that so many U.S. farmers were using investments with MF Global to fund their operations.  Historically farmers do not make enough money to “pay as you go”, they must deficit spend.

Senator Pat Roberts, who leads the Senate Agriculture Committee, told PBS’s Nightly Business Report that the MF Global scandal is bringing U.S. agriculture to a screeching halt: “…think of the farmer that was driving back to Kansas from Colorado, heard about this on the news, all of a sudden found out $30,000 of his assets were frozen. He was getting prepared to buy seed, fertilizer, was talking to a local realtor in regards to some land he might want to purchase or rent, that just stops it like that!”

Roberts also gave a dire warning for the country’s food supply in 2012: “…gonna have an impact on crops. This is gonna have an impact on our food prices. It is pretty broad across all the farm country and I’m hearing more about this than I am with what’s gonna happen in the farm bill!”

Try this:  Incompetent and greedy Corporate America just shot the United States in the Bread Basket!  Remember the Dust Bowl and Okies of the 1930s?  This time, instead of Mother Earth destroying U.S. agriculture it’s the hand of our divinely inspired leaders!

The destruction of the 1930s agriculture industry, in the bread basket of the U.S. (Midwest), is talked about as only one aspect of the Great Depression of the United States, but it should be discussed much more because people gotta eat!

(here’s a link to an interesting timeline of the Great Depression, where you should notice some ominous similarities between what happened then and what’s happening now)

It’s such a concern that United Nations officials have been warning of a coming Global Food Crisis for the past several years.  In 2008 UN officials called it “a silent tsunami” that was about to wash over the world.   This year the UN is stepping up preparations for long term famine relief (sinisterly involving the World Trade Organization): “My High Level Task Force is working to ensure that the UN system, international financial institutions and the WTO are ready to provide robust and consistent support to countries struggling to cope with food insecurity. This is a long term effort and it will require a comprehensive push to back solid partnerships, strong strategies and well financed actions that empower communities to become food secure.”-Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General

The strange thing about Ban Ki-moon’s statement; notice the emphasis is on “financed actions”.  What happened to growing food?  This is even more reason for individuals to try and grow their own, remember Victory Gardens? We’re at war people, and it’s not one country against another, as our 1% Elitist leaders claim, it’s the We the 99% against the 1%!

Here’s another scary part concerning the UN preparations, I don’t think the UN had taken into account the possibility that the Japanese would destroy their agriculture with radiation, or that the U.S. agriculture industry would be done in by their own financial system!  If the UN was predicting, back in 2008, that more than 100 million people are going to be starving to death, what about now?

Conspiracy theorists blame the coming Global Food Crisis on the Trilateral Commission, the Club of Rome, UN Article 21, and more.  Why?  Because all these organizations and proclamations are about one thing: Destroying existing systems for the purpose creating an all powerful one world government.

Oh, don’t worry, there will still be national and local governments, but they’ll answer to one single world government.  As the Russian Foreign Ministry recently said, regarding the formation of CELAC, it’s all part of “…the formation of a polycentric world and the strengthening of the role of regions in the system of global governance…”

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

Trilateral Commission & Global Economic War: Italian & Greek austerity, slashing & burning the U.S. Postal Service, all part of Corporations taking over through Privatizing government services. House actor Hugh Laurie prophesied such a thing back in the 1980s!

The Italian and Greek prime ministers (both known members of the European branch of the Trilateral Commission, which is pushing for a one world government) forced their governments to pass austerity measures which include privatizing many government services.

Interestingly even though many government services will be privatized, the taxes Italians and Greeks pay will go way up.

Here in the United States, the scandal with the U.S. Postal Service might just be a move to fully privatize the service.  Why has the U.S. Congress stolen, I mean, forced the USPS to pay so much of their hard earned, non-taxpayer dollars, into government employee funds, and then refused to give it back when the USPS is in money trouble because of it?

There are many private delivery services that would love to get that business, and FedEx is already a contractor with the USPS (they’re the ones who actually handle those overnight and express mailings).

A few months ago I posted about protests in Australia.  What’s so important about Australia?  Well for one their economy is actually booming (being tied directly to the booming Chinese economy), and for second people are still losing their jobs!  It’s mainly government employees, and employees of companies that were getting government subsidies, who’re losing their jobs.

The Premier of New South Wales, Barry O’Farrell, actually said that privatization was a necessary step in preparing for the new world order, and that was why he was laying off 5,000 state government employees!  I wonder if he’s a member of the Trilateral Commission?

Now here’s a surprise, it turns out that Hugh Laurie, along with Stephen Fry,  actually predicted privatization back in the 1980/90s, in their comedy sketch called The Privatisation of the Police Force.

In the skit, a Brit has just returned from being away from England for awhile and his car is stolen.  He tries to report it only to learn that the police have been privatized.  He also learns that being a “citizen” is no longer enough, you must own “shares” in your local police service.  You must also be a “shareholder” of the streets you use in your everyday routine, if not “You can not pass!” (actually that quote is from the Fellowship of the Ring movie).  In the end the man is arrested for not having invested in any police service, or street, and is kicked in the nuts.  The skit ends with the man saying “I see some things haven’t changed.” (regarding Bobbie Brutality, and also prophetic of what’s happening now).

By the way you can watch it here.

The skit also makes reference to the United States, saying that America is to blame for the privatization trend, and remember this was in the 1980/90s!  But that shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, many conspiracy theorists, who investigated the Trilateral Commission, warned of it, only back then it was made fun of by comedians like Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry.

More seriously, here’s a link to a report on U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron’s push to privatize the Brutal Bobbies. Who’s laughing now?

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

Government & Corporate Incompetence: A second Japanese nuclear plant has been leaking radiation! 85% of Japan’s nuke plants off line

It has just been revealed that another nuclear plant in Japan is leaking radiation.  The Mihama nuclear power plant, in Fukui Prefecture, shut down one of their reactors, after failing to stop a radioactive leak.

Kansai Electric Power Company says reactor 2 has been leaking contaminated water since November!  A valve has been leaking, and the radioactive water has been collected in a tank, but it is nearing full capacity.  The reactor was scheduled to be shut down for inspection on December 18.

This means 85% of Japan’s nuclear reactors are shut down.

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Government Incompetence: Mafia Medicare deadline nears, but applications aren’t getting through, if you don’t sign up when you turn 65 you’ll pay for it!

“Some people had difficulty accessing the [Medicare] online enrollment center. Others have not had calls returned due to high call volume.”-Bill Deal, Idaho Department of Insurance

Midnight (00:00 hours) December 8 is the deadline for the elderly getting Medicare applications in, yet many are not going through.  Idaho officials are reporting that phone in enrollments are overwhelming their system.  For those people they will now have until December 10 to enroll.

“We’re seeing various people who delayed enrollment into Medicare for various reasons.”-Frederic Riccardi, Medicare Rights Center

And if you don’t think you need to sign up for Medicare, even though you’ve just turned 65, you’re going to pay for it later on.  Medicare actually penalizes you for not signing up when you become 65 years old.

For those people who enroll in Medicare after their 65th birthday, the government will increase your Medicare premiums by 10% for each year you delay enrollment!

If you’re still a “current” employee, then you don’t need to, but the instant you lose your job you better do it. And you can’t trust Social Security officials to tell you, or even the Medicare handbook, as one man learned the hard way: “On my last day of work, I went to the Social Security office, asking for some guidance.”  “I’ve never had a problem, until I tried to sign up for Medicare.” -Robert Joseph

Joseph lost his job after he turned 65.  Because of bad advise from a local Texas Social Security official, and because he misinterpreted instructions in a Medicare handbook, he waited 18 months after losing his job to enroll.  Now he’s paying a higher monthly premium because of those 18 months he waited!

Medicare is not ‘free’.  You pay for it with the FICA (Federal Insurance Contributions Act) taxes that are taken out of your paycheck.  Then you pay again when you enroll at the age of 65, in the form of Medicare insurance premiums.  And guess what?  You still have to pay out of your pocket for some of your medical care!  Sounds like the Mob is runin’ da joint!

Business/Economics, Opinion, U.S.

OWS, What Economic Recovery? U.S. houses burning down, and people dying, direct result of local government budget cuts and insurance policies! More reason to get rid of government and the insurance industry!

“To me, it’s not an issue. To me it’s like car insurance. If you have a car, you pay insurance. If you want protection, you pay the price.”-Benny McGuire, Obion County Mayor

If you listen to Mayor McGuire’s statement it sure sounds like extortion.

For the second time this year, Tennessee firefighters stood by and watched a families home burn to the ground. The latest fire burned down a home on December 5.  When Obion County firefighters arrived they were ordered not to put out the fire, because the family had not paid a $75 firefighting fee!

Homeowner, Vicky Bell, told KFVS TV that she and most of her neighbors have not paid the fee because they were told they are ineligible for firefighting service anyway, because they don’t have home insurance!

Back on October 4, another Tennessee home burned to the ground for the same reason.  But this time the home owner offered to pay right then and there. The fire didn’t even start in the home!  The firefighters refused, and the home burned down killing three dogs and a cat!

“They coulda’ been saved if they put water on it. But they didn’t do it!”-Gene Cranick, watched pets burned alive

Some Tea Party ass holes think this is they way things should be done. Bull Shit!  I’ve been in Third World Countries and that’s the way it’s done there.  So you Tea Party ass holes want the United States to revert to Third World status?  Don’t worry, I think you’ll get your wish for freakin’ Xmas!

As previously stated, even if the home owners could afford the extortion fee of $75 , if they did not have insurance, which most home owners don’t have once they reach a certain point on making their mortgage payments (or they’ve paid off their home) because they can’t afford the insurance, they do not qualify to pay the extortion fee!!!

By the way, this is why you should not call a firefighter, EMT or cop, a hero.  Hero’s don’t require payment!!!

Oh, now I’ll get to the guy who died why public servants literally stood by and wrung their hands.

“I thought it was kind of weird that they weren’t going out to bring the guy in, you know, he was out there, his head was above water, he was looking at everybody, there was plenty of time for them to react.”-Perry Smith, witness

On May 30, a distraught man drowned after treading water for more than an hour.  It happened in daylight, on Alameda Beach in California, in front of dozens of people, including emergency personnel.  The beach goers all thought the paid emergency personnel were going to take care of it, they were wrong, and many are shocked: “It’s horrible. How can we let that happen? How can our emergency personnel allow that to happen? I don’t get it, I don’t understand it.”-Gary Barlow, witness

The Coast Guard said they didn’t have a boat that could reach him where he was, and their helicopters were busy!  Police said it’s not their job: “We’re not trained to go into the water, obviously the type of gear that we have on, we don’t have the type of equipment that you would use to go into the water.”-Joe McNiff, Alameda Police Department

What about firefighters?  “…I would have to stay within our policies and procedures because that’s what’s required by our department to do.”– Ricci Zombeck, Alameda Fire Division Chief

Those policies don’t allow firefighters to go into the water.  In fact, it was a woman, a civilian, a true hero, who went in, albeit too late (the man died), and recovered the body.  The taxpayer paid emergency personnel were not even going to recover the body!

The ‘hero’ division fire chief admitted they should have done something, and “…that we’re going to evaluate our response protocols.”

The next day it was revealed that the city had quietly stopped funding their water rescue program, back in 2009, in an attempt to save the city some money.  On top of that the city’s firefighters were ordered to stay out of the water.

To prove the point that paid emergency personnel are not heros, here’s what the interim fire chief of Alameda had to say: “I know that yesterday, those crews, it was killing them to stand on those shores and not be able to do anything. But under the circumstance and because of the policy, they really didn’t have a choice.”-Michael D’Orazi, Interim Fire Chief

Notice; “…because of the policy…”.  The ultimate concern of emergency personnel is not violating their policies (for cops it’s a different story, so many of them violate their own policies all the time, but in a bad way)!

I had a lot of bad experiences with emergency personnel, and cops, and this was decades back when the economy was good!  So pardon me if I seem upset!

For you Tea Party ass holes who’d like to see the U.S. turn into a Third World Country, there’s a saying that should be applied to you: “Git a rope.”

However, if people can’t work together and overthrow their oppressive governments and corporations, and create a better system, then let Anarchy reign!!!


Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Government & Farmer Incompetence: Apples and Rice poisoned by farm chemicals, FDA tries to blow it off! EPA has known since before 2007! Just more reasons for the coming global food crisis!

I’ve already criticized the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its handling of radiation contamination, now there’s evidence they’re ignoring arsenic poisoning of apples, rice, and other food due to farm chemicals.

In one study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S. women who ate half a cup of cooked rice, ingested an amount of poisonous arsenic equivalent to drinking four and a quarter cups of water with the maximum allowable level of arsenic.

“The large and statistically significant association we observed between rice consumption and urinary arsenic, in addition to earlier reports of elevated arsenic concentrations in rice, highlights the need to regulate arsenic in food.”

But that’s not all.  Consumer Reports, and the TV show Dr. Oz, discovers that apple juice is also contaminated with arsenic.  Several brands of apple and grape juice were found to have arsenic levels exceeding Federal safe limits (max 10 parts per billion).

“Roughly 10% of our juice samples, from five brands, had total arsenic levels that exceeded federal drinking-water standards. Most of that arsenic was inorganic arsenic, a known carcinogen.”– Consumer Reports

Notice “inorganic arsenic”, that means it’s not naturally occurring arsenic in the soil, it’s coming from the chemicals used on farms!

Consumer Reports also added that other foods are contaminated with chemical arsenic, and that lead has been found in juices as well.

Dr. Oz questioned the FDA and they gave him the amazing response that most food born arsenic is “essentially harmless”!  He was also amazed to find out that the FDA has no criteria regarding lead in apple juice!

Inorganic (chemical) arsenic is absorbed by plant roots.  Inorganic arsenic gets into the soil because it’s part of the ingredients in the chemicals farmers use.  Over the decades those chemicals, including arsenic, has been building up in the farm soil, now it’s finally showing up in high levels in our food!

Researchers in Scotland found that most arsenic contamination can be found in U.S. states that used to grow cotton. Chemicals used on cotton plants had high levels of arsenic.  They also found that rice grown in those states had much higher levels of arsenic, than rice grown in California.

Andrew Meharg, of the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, has been warning since before 2007 about arsenic contamination in rice!  He says it’s not just the U.S. and European rice crops, but rice grown in Asia (now you can add the radiation from Japan).

In fact, Meharg said the U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA) conducted a study and were concerned with the results: “…the risk assessment has been done for the U.S.A. by the U.S. EPA and they’ve actually found that there is a risk for the U.S. based population and that’s why the U.S. levels in water were reduced, because the risk from arsenic to the U.S. population was more perceptible, and above background, particularly for lung and bladder cancers and what we’re finding is that the levels of arsenic in rice for certain subpopulations exceed those current levels for safety and water. And eating high levels of rice, they’re actually well over what they should be consuming.”-from March, 2007 interview

Meharg said rice with the lowest levels of arsenic, according to his research, comes from India.

Don’t everybody rush for the ‘organically’ grown food, there just isn’t enough for all of us, just more reason there’s a coming global food crisis.  Grow your own!

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Government Incompetence & World War 3: Russia & China say the West is foolish to ask them to embargo Iranian oil! China willing to fight for it!

Russia and China have said they will not join any embargo of Iranian oil.  For Russia the reason is simple: “…we are not consuming Iranian oil at all!”-Sergei Shmatko, Energy Minister of Russia

You’d think the leaders of Canada, the U.K. and U.S. (the countries pushing for an embargo of Iranian oil) would already know that.

For China the reason is personal: “Iran is a very important supplier of oil for China. I believe there would be a massive conflict between America’s prohibition from, and China’s interest in, the Iranian crude. China won’t certainly do what the United States says!” He Jun, Anbound Information Consultancy

Put it another way; China is willing to go to war over it!

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Texas mom shoots kids then self after being denied food stamps, part of increasing trend in Texas due to bad economy

On December 6, a Texas mom shot her two kids, and then herself inside a Laredo social services office, after being denied food stamps.  She had been applying since July!

Officials say she didn’t provide enough documentation!  Her two kids, a 10-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl, are in critical condition, she’s dead.  The woman had moved to Texas after losing her job in Ohio. This is not the first shooting in Texas related to the bad economy.

On November 30, in Bay City, Texas, an illegal immigrant shot the mother of his children, and then killed all four children, in front of neighbors.  One neighbor said the man had just lost his job at a local grocery store: “He worked nights and all of a sudden he was having trouble with his family. I knew the guy, but I didn’t know he would do something like this.”-Juan Elizondo, daughter witnessed the shootings

The shooter had been deported before, and there’s speculation that fear of being deported again could have played apart: “She was scared she didn’t have papers, that he didn’t have papers. They were both scared that they were going to get deported.”-Juan Elizondo

 

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? SeaPort shuts down route due to bad economy, yet to issue official press release, proof that east Idaho community leaders have head in a hole

On December 4, an east Idaho TV station reported that an airline route from Idaho Falls to Boise will stop service on December 31.

On December 5, the same east Idaho TV station did an update, after they talked to the President of Oregon based SeaPort Airlines.  Rob McKinney said that ticket sales in east Idaho not only weren’t enough, but had steadily declined from their  “…re-launch of flights between Idaho Falls and Boise.” (from July 23, 2011 SeaPort press release) back in July.

I got a response to my December 4 story about SeaPort closing down the IF/Boise/Pendleton route, from someone in the marketing office of SeaPort.  After correcting a few things they also confirmed that sales in east Idaho is just too bad to continue business: “There is an official explanation for the discontinuation of this service; there was not enough passenger traffic to continue flying the Idaho Falls-Boise route.”

By the way, for some reason, as of December 7 SeaPort still has not issued an official press release on their website.  The last press release is dated September 2, 2011.

This comes after months of eastern, and southeastern, Idaho business/community leaders telling us (through east Idaho media) that things were getting better!

International, U.S.

The Hunt for War Criminals Bush Jr & Blair: African countries refuse to arrest, fearful of U.S. & U.K. reprisals, getting U.S. taxpayer dollars more important

“The U.S., the most democratic country in the world, has the infrastructure to arrest Bush if he is charged with human rights abuses. Why don’t they ask the Obama administration to arrest that guy?”-Mikael Atsbeha, Ethiopian cameraman

Last week Amnesty International naively asked three pro-U.S. African countries to arrest George W. Bush.

Bush, along with the United Kingdom’s Tony Blair, were convicted in an international court of being War Criminals.   Last week Bush visited Tanzania, Zambia and Ethiopia, and Amnesty International asked those governments to arrest him.

The problem is all those countries are deep in the pockets of the U.S. taxpayer, pro-U.S./U.K. and anti-Musilm (maybe not Tanzania which has 35% of the population claiming to be Muslims).  In fact ‘Christian’ Ethiopia was paid with U.S. taxpayer money to invade Musilm Somalia, on July 20, 2006, for the purpose of deposing the Muslim government (as part of the U.S. War on Terror).   The Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi, has the nickname America’s Poodle.

However, that doesn’t mean that Ethiopians don’t think Bush Jr isn’t a War Criminal, they admit it’s all about getting the U.S. taxpayer dollar: “Bush is a criminal, but Ethiopia should not be involved in arresting a former U.S. president. We would pay for that in our relations with the U.S.”-Abiy Demilew, Ethiopian radio show host

The same can be said for the Tanzanian government. Tanzanian political analyst, Azaveli Lwaitama, admits the U.S. is evil but says “…the Tanzanian government needs every coin it can get, even from the devil.” Also, concerning the British and the chances of arresting  Blair: “A few weeks ago when David Cameron [ U.K. Prime Minister] said that anti-gay attitude in this country would mean British aid drying up, the same government people talked about neo-imperialism. You now have the bigger imperialist Bush here and they are clapping!”

Tanzanian journalists say Amnesty International is extremely naive in expecting their government to arrest Bush or Blair: “Tanzania’s constitution prohibits former heads of state from being prosecuted, it would have made more sense for Amnesty International to approach the International Criminal Court to stop him from flying here at all.”-Mike Mande,  journalist

The government of ‘Christian’ Zambia was even more ‘in your face’ about Amnesty’s naivety: “Tell them to hang, and also please ask them to create their own country and wait for Bush to visit their country so that they can arrest him to suit their wish and not here in Zambia.”-Chishimba Kambwili, Foreign Affairs Minister of Zambia

The points are well made.  Amnesty International was totally naive to think pro-U.S. and pro-U.K. African countries, who’re deep into the pockets of British and ‘merican taxpayers, would arrest Bush Jr and Blair.