Tag Archives: unemployment

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Oil & Gas Prices: Argentina raises prices, Quantas uses cooking oil to fuel planes, Sinopec looking to rival U.S. shale oil production

Daniel Cameron, Argentina’s Energy Secretary, is proposing to raise the price of Argentine oil exports to $63 per barrel.  Currently Argentina sells their oil at $42 per barrel.

Decades ago the Argentine government froze their export oil prices.  Now oil production is way down, because it’s not worth it to the Argentine oil companies.

To make the economic situation worse, Argentina imports most of its refined fuel, and that’s been going up, in price as well as volume.  Cameron wants to increase their export oil prices to offset the growing demand and cost of imported fuel, and to build up reserve funds in Argentina’s Central Bank.

The Australian airline Quantas, will be using a mix of kerosene based jet fuel, and used cooking oil.

Two of their airliners will be using the mixed fuel.  It’s being supplied by a Dutch company called SkyNRG.

Don’t be too concerned, the turbine (jet engine) is a glorified diesel engine.  In 1893 Rudolph Diesel designed the diesel engine specifically to run on peanut, or vegetable oil.  He succeed, however he was sued by Rockefeller’s Standard Oil.

Today’s diesel fuel is actually Petrodiesel, meaning fuel for diesel engines made from petroleum, not plant oils.

So, turbines and piston diesel engines should run fine on cooking oil, unless they were specifically made to run on Petrodiesel only (and don’t forget the bogus U.S. EPA rules that force you to use Petrodiesel in your diesel powered vehicle).

Virgin Airways Australia is also about to run their airliners on plant based fuels.  The fuel will be based on a type of Eucalyptus, called a Mallee tree in Western Australia.

China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) will increase oil production and natural gas extraction.  This is partly because their profits dropped by 23% in their fourth business quarter.

The drop in profits came as corporate officials tried to shift from producing fuel, to buying fuel from other refiners.  Officials said Sinopec refining operations were actually costing more than refiners in other countries.

Sinopec is also exploring possible shale oil in western China, which could rival shale oil production in the United States.

 

 

International, U.S.

Terror Drones: March 18-25

“The President’s counter terrorism campaign is about stealth power, rather than hard power or soft power. He is a Jekyll and Hyde president; he is the king of covert because there are not many military options available now.”-Laura Blumenfeld, German Marshall Fund

On March 25, 2012, U.S. President Barack Obama was labeled “Jekyll and Hyde”, at the annual Brussels Forum. Analyst say Obama has increased the use of terror drones in order to save money!

Pakistan’s President says Parliamentary demands that the U.S. stop using terror drones against Pakistan, is a sign of democracy.

On March 25, President Asif Ali Zardari met with Marc Grossman, Special U.S. Representative on Afghanistan and Pakistan.  Zandari said the U.S. had to respect the demands of the Pakistani members of parliament.

Zandari also brought up drug trafficking, which has increased ever since the United States started the so called War on Terror.

Earlier in the week, U.S. Senator Joe Libierman and Senator Dianne Feinstein refused demands from Afghan leaders, who’re calling for a stop to terror drone strikes in their country.

“Drone strikes are critically important to America’s national security. So obviously, I do not believe they should stop.”-Joe Libierman, Senator for Connecticut

“I think the key is whether Pakistan will go into North Waziristan and other places and take out those terrorist leaders who are essentially fueling and leading attacks against our troops in Afghanistan.”-Dianne Feinstein, Senator for California

In the Philippines the government there is denying that the U.S. is using terror drones to help the Philippine government fight mujahideen in the southern islands: “They are here as advisers. They are here as trainers. They can not participate in combat operations.”-Benigno Aquino, President of Philippines

The United States began sending troops back to the Philippines ever since the beginning of the War on Terror.  In the past two years U.S. troop numbers have increased, and could actually be due to the growing tensions over the oil rich South China Sea (especially in an area called Reed Bank).

While the Philippines says no terror drones are being used there, they admit  helping the United States, and the Malaysian government launch air strikes against mujahideen in Malaysia.

 

 

 

 

U.S.

Dumb ‘Mericans: Investigation reveals U.S. Schools continue to FAIL, standardized test scores off the charts

“These findings are concerning.”-Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) has published the results of their investigation into standardized test scores across the United States.

Sompin’ fishy in Denmark! The chilins ain’t gettin’ an edjumacation!

Scores from 69,000 public schools, in 49 states, were compared.  Standardized test scores should not vary greatly from year to year.  The norm is considered 5%.  Yet the AJC found percentages in variation as great as 29.17% (a school district in Rhode Island)!

In many cases, students who scored well one year absolutely crashed and burned the very next year!  If teaching was consistent from grade level to grade level, and the students are answering the questions honestly, something like that shouldn’t happen.

Such high variance suggests the test result were falsified, although the AJC is not going so far as to make that claim.  Investigators are asking the U.S. Department of Education to look into it.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Government Incompetence: More U.S. citizens renounce their citizenship, American exodus continues, if you leave you are now a terrorist

“What we have seen is a substantial change in mentality among the overseas community in the past two years. Before, no one would dare mention to other Americans that they were even thinking of renouncing their U.S. nationality. Now, it is an openly discussed issue.”-Jackie Bugnion, American Citizens Abroad 

Since 2008 the numbers of U.S. citizens rejecting their citizenship has only gone up.

2008: 235

2009: 743

2010: 1,500+

And these are the people who left the United States and officially rejected their citizenship.  The number of people who still have U.S. citizenship, after leaving,  are in the millions!

The exodus has got government leaders so riled up that they’ve passed tax laws (like FATCA & FBAR) that essentially makes anyone who leaves the United States a tax evading terrorist.

This is redundant because expatriates are already required to pay U.S. taxes even though they live in another country: “The U.S. is the only developed nation in the world that taxes its citizens on income they earn abroad.“-William McGurn, Wall Street Journal

By one count, 5.2 million U.S. citizens live outside the United States, and pay taxes to the United States!

Recently a U.S. citizen, who’s been living in Sweden for 25 years, got hit with a huge FBAR fine: “I was potentially looking at a seven figure fine.”-‘Pamela’

‘Pamela’ also explained how she was treated like a suspected terrorist: “I was treated like a criminal. I was told that even in the Voluntary Disclosure Program it would be assumed I was a ‘willful violator’ of the tax laws and would need to pay 25% of all my overseas assets, based on the highest balance in the sum total of all my bank accounts, retirement accounts, apartment, car, etc. over the last eight years.”

The U.S. government even puts pressure on other countries to go after the U.S. expats: “We have heard of banks calling in mortgages and refusing pension fund and insurance coverage for U.S. citizens.”-Mary Louise Serrato, American Citizens Abroad

Serrato says the U.S. government is even going after people who were born in the U.S., to foreign parents, but then left immediately afterwards never to return: “Many individuals are not even aware that they are American and should be filing, such as Green Card holders and ‘accidental’ Americans (born in the U.S., left when they were three and never returned), children of Americans now living overseas (even if U.S. citizenship was never claimed)!”

“I really can’t believe it! This nice country that I respect, have they gone mad?”-Peter Hallworth, U.K. citizen, who’s two adult sons (raised in Britain) are being forced to pay U.S. taxes because they were born in the United States

U.S. expats living abroad, yet paying U.S. taxes with little or no representation.  Isn’t that what the U.S. Revolution of 1776 was all about?

International, U.S.

World War 3: Yemen & Bahrain

March 22, 2012, The Associated Press reported that U.S. Navy ships shelled the city of Zinjibar, in the southern Yemeni province of Abyan.  USN officials claim they were attacking “al-Qaeda” forces.  29 people were killed.

Reports say the USN shelling was done over a 24 hour period.  However, other Western media sources say the U.S. Navy is now denying they attacked the city of Zinjibar.

March 24, 2012, Chinese media reporting that Yemeni Mujahideen have taken control of the city of Azzan in Shabwa Province.  An unnamed city official says most of the Mujahideen are foreigners, but are supported by residents: “Some local residents are from the al Qaeda wing and accept the terrorists to enter their town without any resistance.”

The fighters are known as Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

The current government of Yemen is still controlled by the United States.  The new president was “elected” in an election that was held on such short notice that most Yemenis didn’t get to vote.

More people protesting the U.S. puppet government of Bahrain have been killed and raped by police, and Saudi Arabian forces.

The latest death was a woman in her fifties was killed by tear gas.  Also, a 16 year old boy was found lying in the streets, unconscious, with his hands tied behind his back and his pants pulled down.

Locals say Saudi forces left him there after they pulled out of the neighborhood.

“We have been receiving worrying reports of the disproportionate use of force by Bahraini security forces, including the excessive use of tear gas, the use of birdshot pellets and rubber bullets.”-Rupert Colville, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

On March 23, 2012, Police attacked the funeral procession for the woman who died from tear gas.  Teenagers responded to the police with a challenge:  “Come and fight hand to hand, you cowards, you animals!”

By the way, the tear gas used by the Saudi and Bahraini forces is made in the United States, by a company called Combined Systems.

At the end of 2011, Physicians for Human Rights tested some of the tear gas and found that it “…may be using unidentified chemical agents…”

Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.

International, U.S.

World War 3: Battles continue between Government forces and freedom fighters, 2 NATO/ISAF soldiers killed

The Afghan Interior Ministry reporting that military operations in several provinces are continuing.  They claim dozens of mujahideen have been killed.

Afghan police, Afghan army, Afghan intelligence and U.S./NATO/ISAF forces have been engaged in battles in Nangarhar, Uruzagn, Ghazni and Herat provinces.

On March 22, a U.K. soldier was killed in Helmand Province, when the vehicle he was in hit a mine (aka roadside bomb, IED).

Also on March 22, a French soldier was killed in Kapisa Province.  ISAF officials claim it was not due to combat, but they refused to give a reason for his death.

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

Class Warfare: Elitist Canada to increase the cost of college, again! This time by 75%! University is a “privilege”?

Provinces across Canada have been increasing the cost of college, just as their neighbors to the south (U.S.A.) are doing.

Currently the cheapest place for Canadians to go to college/university is Quebec. As of March 2012, the average yearly cost for attending college in Quebec is $2,519 CAD ($2,539.91 USD).  But provincial officials want a 75% increase over the next five years!

One student pointed out that college students in Quebec have less debt than other Canadians, and implied that forcing young Canadians into debt was the intent:  “Tuition fees are lower in Quebec than the rest of Canada, but so is the student debt, which is a good impact of low tuition fees.”-Hugo Bonin, attending Concordia

Many people are torn over whether college should be made more expensive, or free.  Many with an elitist attitude say it is a “privilege” not a “right”.  Well in actuality it’s neither!  If our business leaders, and government leaders, are constantly harping about the lack of “skilled” employees, and they are constantly pushing grade school students to “Go On” (higher education campaign slogan used by the state government of Idaho, U.S.A.) so that we can be more competitive in the global economy, then it is not a privilege or a right, it is a requirement!

Why should we pay for college (more like getting into massive debt for life) for the benefit of industry and government?  Unless our leaders are lying to us (would they?) it is obvious that higher education is now a requirement, which means if they want qualified workers then they need to pay for the education to create the qualified workers, goddam it!

So how much is the average price of a “privileged” higher education in the rest of Canada?  $5,366 CAD ($5,410.55 USD)!

Business/Economics, Technology, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Hewlett Packard going down, HP to cut even more jobs in Boise?

“We didn’t make the investments we should have during the past few years to stay ahead of customer expectations and market trends. As a result, we see eroding revenue and profits today.”-Meg Whitman, CEO of HP, February interview

There’s rumors that Hewlett Packard is considering merging its computer production, with its printer production.  Boise, Idaho, is home to a huge HP compound that includes  printer manufacturing.

Analysts say they don’t know what good will come from such a merger, but agree that people are going to lose their jobs: “HP has some massive structural fixes that they need to make, and this doesn’t come close. I don’t see how this changes anything apart from probably giving you an excuse to cut some heads and cut some costs.”-Rob Cihra, Evercore Partners

Business/Economics, International, Technology

Nissan to bring Datsun back to life

Up until the mid 1980s Nissans were sold in the U.S. under the Datsun name.  Now Nissan is reviving that brand, but not for the United States.

Nissan says Datsun vehicles became known as cheap but reliable cars.  They are reviving the brand name for the Indonesian, Indian and Russian car markets.

Datsun started in 1931 as DAT motors. Its smaller cars were called DAT-son, as in son of DAT.  In 1933, Nissan took over the company and changed the name to Datsun, because the Japanese Emperor is considered a descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu, and because ‘son’ means loss in Japanese.

The cars will be made in factories in those countries.  Indonesia is now the number one car market in South East Asia, 890,000 vehicles were sold there in 2011!

 

 

International, U.S.

World War 3: Russia supports UN resolution on Syria, but only if….

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, said Russia will support a resolution on Syria proposed by Kofi Annan, but only if two conditions are met.

One: The details of the resolution are made public.

Two: That it is not an “Ultimatum”, but an on going process of dialog to “…end to violence on all sides…”