Tag Archives: russia

Venezuela Building Nuclear Plant, says Yankee Empire Behind World Aggression

It’s interesting how our government, and main stream media, is so rabid about going after Iran’s nuclear power ambitions.   And now, in the back yard of the United States, Venezuela has signed a deal with Russia to build a nuclear reactor. I’m not seeing any rabid war mongering coming from our government, or media, about it.  Mmmm.  Here’s what U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley had to say about it; “It is certainly a right of any country to pursue civilian nuclear energy, but with that right comes responsibilities,”.  Not as tough sounding as with Iran.

ITAR-TASS: MOSCOW, RUSSIA. OCTOBER 15, 2010. Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez (R-L) sign agreements at the Kremlin. (Photo ITAR-TASS/ Mikhail Klimentyev) Photo via Newscom

Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, is traveling the world.  His first stop, Russia, where he gave a speech denouncing the United States, and expressing sorrow for the fall of the Soviet Union.  The nuclear plant deal was part of a larger economic deal with Russia.  Another part of the deal involves the sale of Venezuela’s stake in four oil refineries that are co-owned by a German company.   Other petroleum deals with Russia involve the sale of Venezuelan assets co-owned by British Petroleum (BP, remember those guys).  Gee, that doesn’t sound like a communist thing to do?   Chavez stated; “I’m a socialist, but also a good merchant.”

KIEV, UKRAINE. OCTOBER 18, 2010. Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez (C) touring the Antonov aircraft assembly plant in Kyiv, accompanied by its President and General Designer Dmitry Kiva (L). Photo ITAR-TASS / Vladimir Sindeyev Photo via Newscom

Chavez also stopped in Ukraine, and had a tour of the famous Antonov aircraft factory.

In a Russia Today interview, President Chavez blamed the current violent state of the world on the “…Yankee Empire.” (I wounder how many U.S. citizens know that ‘Yankee’ refers to them).  Russian President Medvedev said Russia and Venezuela are working to create a world order not dependent on the United States; “…a world order where our future would not depend on the will, desire, or mood of some country, but on joint efforts of the international community, and, indeed, internal development.”

Staples Office Supply Going Russian

The worlds largest office supply store, Staples, has joined up with a Russian company, Pragmatic Express.

The two companies will work jointly to serve international customers in Russia.

The deal allows U.S. based Staples to continue its worldwide expansion.  It also allows Staples to take advantage of Russia’s growing economy, while the U.S. economy falters.

Recently the IMF predicted 4.3% economic growth for Russia in 2011.  Compare that to the forecast of 2.3% growth for the United States.  Also, Russia’s unemployment rate is expected to drop to 7.3%, while unemployment in the U.S. is expected stay around 9.6% (www.imf.org).

Pocatello, Idaho.

Food Prices Up, Crop Yields Down

27 September 2010

Signs of a coming food crisis are everywhere. Most notably at the source, the farms that grow the basic crops. Here on the east side of Idaho, farmers had to deal with a spring that was too cool too long, resulting in crops being planted weeks late, and then a short summer (www.noaanews.noaa.gov) (www.kidk.com).

It’s not just Idaho, but many of the crop growing states in the U.S. are experiencing lower yields, and you can blame the weather. Any type of extreme weather will affect crops (sciencepolicy.colorado.edu).  In Idaho it’s too cool & too dry. In other parts of the United States it’s too wet (just look at all the flooding in the southern states), or too hot & dry. And it’s not just the U.S.; Canada & Mexico, South America, Eurasia & Africa as well as Australia, are all dealing with the adverse affects of weird weather on their crops. Pakistan can kiss most of their crop production goodbye after the incredible floods they experienced. Russia is loosing crops due to record heat & fires (www.voanews.com) (rt.com) (rt.com). Just in the past couple of days flooding in Nigeria has destroyed 240 acres of farmland (www.cnn.com).

The result is that overall, globally, less product is heading towards the markets, which means higher commodity prices paid for those crops (Law of Supply & Demand). This is good for farmers who can still produce big crop yields, as farmers in Colorado are finding out (www.agweek.com), but it’s bad for the average consumer. Coffee retailers have finally started passing on the higher costs they’re paying for the beans (starbucks.tekgroup.com). This will only add to the specter of inflation, a three pronged attack caused by governments printing too much money, precious metal prices blasting off and food prices soaring.

Here’s what has happened to wheat commodity prices: In March 2010 Hard Red Winter Wheat was at a value of 191.07,  by August 2010 it hit a value of 246.35 (www.indexmundi.com).  Not all commodities have experienced such a big increase, a few have actually dropped. But, there is a trend of reduced availability & increased cost, so much so that the UN held an emergency meeting to discuss the issue (www.guardian.co.uk). Some UN officials blame inexperienced commodity speculators for the increases in prices. One example of that is that it looks like the December 2010 Corn futures were “overbought” (Idaho Grain Market Alert 9.23.10). This is a double whammy for the average consumer; not only will some foods become limited but some food will be too expensive. So the coming food crisis may probably be more about people not being able to buy the food, than it’s limited availability.

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