Tag Archives: unemployment

International, U.S.

White Horse & World War 3: Germany wants war with Syria

Germany’s Defense Minister, Thomas de Maiziere, basically said in an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine that war is the only option for Syria: “The actions of the Syrian government against the people must be condemned internationally with a resolution of the United Nations….must isolate Assad….we must help the opposition in Syria.”

Maiziere says Germany and other countries do have the right to go to war with Syria: “International law does provide for a right to intervene to protect people in other countries against the violence of the rulers.”   (you think that might happen to the U.S. if Obama starts using his Republican Congress sanctioned national military police?)

I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

World War 3: Germany & Turkey say Israeli war against Iran will be disastrous

Germany’s Defense Minister, Thomas de Maiziere, said in an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine that if Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear industry: “A success would be highly unlikely, and result in obvious political damage.”

Maiziere said the European Union sanctions should be allowed to go into effect before any military action takes place.  The EU sanctions will not be in place until July 2012.

Turkish officials also say war would be a mistake: “A military strike is a disaster. It should not be an option. Especially at a historic turning point in our region, we do not want to see another huge tension.”-Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkish Foreign Minister

International, U.S.

War Were Declared (almost): Arab League wants war, demands the United Nations invade Syria! Russia demands to see proof of AL claims!

February 12, 2012, the Arab League (AL) is calling for an end to “all forms of diplomatic cooperation”, and “tighter economic sanctions”.  Instead they want war with Syria!

In a new AL resolution, they are demanding military action by the United Nations. The resolution also says all forms of communication with Syrian rebels should be opened up.  (‘communications’ is a military term that also means supplies, like weapons and ammo)

Saudi Foreign Minister, Saud al-Faisal, backs that up saying the AL should “give all forms of support” to the rebels.

Russia doubts the sincerity of the Arab League, and says the AL observers weren’t in Syria long enough to collect viable evidence: “We would like to know why they are treating such a useful instrument in this way. I would support an increased number of observers. We are surprised that after a decision was taken on prolonging the observers’ mission for another month, some countries, particularly Persian Gulf countries, recalled their observers from the mission.”-Sergei Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister

The AL’s resolution will be presented to the UN on the same day that the Human Rights Commission is to make their report, February 13.  It’s been reported that the Human Rights Commission will make charges of war crimes against the Syrian government.  (think we’d see such charges brought against the U.S. government?)

The UN General Assembly could go around the UN Security Council, on the grounds of human rights violations.  Russia and China vetoed the UNSC resolution against Syria.

 

 

 

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Pepsi will lay off 8,700 employees, gives axe man a $2 million bonus

PepsiCo announced that they must radically restructure if they want to stay competitive.  This comes after Pepsi fell to third place, after Diet Coke.

Pepsi will lay off 8,700 employees around the world, and then spend big bucks on advertising to get you to buy more Pepsi products. Pepsi officials declined to say exactly how many U.S. employees would lose their jobs, but did say it should not be more than 3% of their U.S. operations.

Pepsi already laid off about 3,300 people from 2008 to 2009.

But here’s the thing, the former executive who caused Pepsi’s fall, is getting a $2 million bouns!  Massimo d’Amore ran Pepsi’s Global Beverages Group until September 2011.  He ordered changes in how Pepsi was marketed.  Those changes actually hurt sales.

So, d’Amore is let go, but walks away with $3.4 million in retirement and stocks, plus $2 million in severance, while 8,700 Pepsi employees will probably get nothin’ when they get axed!  And it’s not their fault Pepsi lost sales, it’s d’Amore’s fault!  Just another argument for employees to be the owners of their own business!

Business/Economics, U.S.

Conservative Reganomics Economist says Republican supporters are Stupid when it comes to Taxes and the Economy

Bruce Bartlett, former Reagan and Bush Sr official, has published a new book called The Benefit and the Burden: Tax Reform – Why We Need It and What It Will Take.  But guess what? He says the wealthy have been getting huge tax cuts for decades, and that’s part of what put the federal government into record debt!

He also says, in an interview with Bill Moyers, that right wing Republicans are stupid when it comes to understanding how much taxes they really pay, and how taxes really work:  “Back when the Tea Party first came into existence, back in 2009 they had a big demonstration in Washington. And we went around and we surveyed…You know, questions of just straight factual knowledge, not opinion. And it turned out that these people all thought taxes were vastly higher than they really are, and that they were paying exorbitantly high tax rates that would be impossible for them to pay.”

Bartlett also says the right wingers are stupid religious nuts: “…it’s very much like religion. And I think that it’s not a surprise that so many very, you know, devout Christians are a part of the Republican Party and accept a lot of this. Because the nature of deep religious belief is faith, which means you accept things for which there is no proof. And so, I think it’s not that hard to shift that faith over to believe …That if you cut taxes, revenues will go up…That all tax cuts are good and all spending cuts are good, and all government is bad.”

He blames Right Wing radio and Fox News: “You hear the same idea over and over again. Or you can call it propaganda if you like. It’s broadly believed and people just keep saying these things all the time, that ‘Rich people create jobs.’ ‘Yes, rich people create jobs.’ ‘They’re motivated primarily by taxation.’ ‘Yes, they’re motivated by taxation.’ ‘We must cut their taxes.’ ‘Yes, we must cut their taxes.’”

“Year after year after year of people watching Fox News and listening to talk radio, had conditioned them in advance to believe that the government is responsible for all of our problems.”

Bartlett says once enough stupid Tea Party members realize it’s their own Republican officials who are doing them in, they’ll Join the Occupy Movement: “…once they start to realize that the Republicans really do want to not just cut Medicare, but essentially abolish it, you know, I just think those people are not going to be part of the Tea Party. They’re going to be over with the Occupy Wall Street.”

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

White Horse & World War 3: U.K. and Argentina heading for Second Falklands War, major oil find could change the minds of U.S. leaders

Argentine Foreign Minister, Hector Timerman, demanded that the United Kingdom “…refrain from this military escalation that they are carrying out in the South Atlantic with the introduction of the latest generation of warships and warplanes, and dispatching a nuclear submarine with the capacity to unload nuclear weapons.”

While some British officials say the sending of Royal Navy ships to the Falklands (Malvinas) Islands is in response to Argentina’s growing demand to return the islands to Argentine control, other British officials say the move to send warships was planned long ago.

In any case the United Nations is asking the two countries to settle the issue peacefully: “The secretary general expressed concern about the increasingly strong exchanges between the governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom on this issue. He expressed the hope that the governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom will avoid an escalation of this dispute and resolve differences peacefully and through dialogue.”

In the 1990s. Argentina’s constitution was changed to make retaking of the Malvinas, from the British, a constitutional requirement.

Disputes over who controls the Falklands goes back to the late 1700s, and involves France, Spain and the United States, as well as Argentina and Britain.  This latest dispute is being exacerbated by the fact that oil has been discovered there.

If war were declared, the U.K. would find it a little more difficult to fight, than in the 1982 war, because several major South American countries have indicated they will help Argentina fight the British.

“The recovery of Malvinas Islands on part of Argentina is a fact that joins countries like Peru…It is part of our identity; there is a piece of colonial territory in these islands that still remains in South America.”-Rafael Roncagliolo, Foreign Minister of Peru

“…back Argentine sovereignty over the Malvinas and back the UN resolutions calling on the Argentine and British governments to hold talks on the issue…”-Antonio Patriota, Foreign Minister of Brazil

“I’m speaking only for Venezuela, but if it occurs to the British Empire to attack Argentina, Argentina won’t be alone this time.”-Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela

What does the United States have to say about this?  Basically the same thing they said in 1982: “Our position remains the same. This is a problem between two of our partners. We do not want to change our position…”-Roberta Jacobson, Acting U.S. Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs

However, a recent huge oil find might change the stance of U.S. leaders.  Because a major U.S. oil company, Anadarko, wants to get involved with the British company that discovered the huge oil field.

Anadarko wants to invest $1.5 billion into the British company Rockhopper: “A deal has been tabled. Anadarko has got approval to do this from the highest levels in the U.S., and they’ve been reassured the British will stand by the islands.”-unnamed British source

Anadarko was involved with British Petroleum and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010.  The British media says Anadarko has connections to the Pentagon because it’s current Board of Directors include Kevin Chilton, a former commander of U.S. Strategic Command, and Preston M “Pete” Geren III, who worked in the U.S. Department of Defense for at least ten years.

I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.

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

White Horse & World War 3: Iran says it will reveal Nuclear Achievements in a few days, Israel says it’s ready to take action

“In the nuclear field, major achievements have been made by the Iranian nation in recent years. Today, not only has this nation become nuclear, but it has also succeeded in meeting a large portion of its needs in this field.”-Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran

On February 11, 2012, the Iranian President not only praised the nuclear program of Iran, but said that “major nuclear accomplishments” will be revealed in the next few days.

These words will most likely give the warmongers in the United States more ammo in their call for war.

Israel’s Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said his country is ready: “Israel has a large selection of ways, when the world of international sanctions fails, to persuade Iran to halt its nuclear program.”

I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.

U.S.

United Police States of America: Video shows rich White cops hunting poor black man in New York

Almost reminiscent of the British killer cops who started riots in poor London suburbs by killing an unarmed father, white New York City cops intentionally stalked a poor black man, and it was caught on video.

Ramarley Graham, 18, died last Thursday after NYPD broke into his grandmother’s home, went upstairs and held his grandmother at gunpoint, in the bathroom, while they shot her unarmed grandson point blank in the chest!

Officially the cops said Graham was running from a drug bust, however the apartment’s security camera video shows Graham calmly walking into the apartment.  Suddenly two cops run from around a corner and start kicking the door.  One cop is trying to conceal his identity with is hat and hoodie.  Witnesses say the cops never identified themselves.  The racists cops had their guns drawn almost from the beginning.

The liar cops also said, just like in the London case last year, that Graham had a gun as well as drugs.  One cop was said to be heard yelling “gun, gun” just before they shot Graham.  Guess what? No gun or drugs were found on Graham, or in his grandmother’s home!!!

Watch a local New York news report, with the security camera video

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Black Horse & What Economic Recovery? South American Economist says current U.S. & European economic experts are “Stupid”! Another reason why Universities are a waste of money!

The following statements are from Artur Manfred Max-Neef, a Chilean economist, who began teaching economics in the 1960s at Berkeley in California.

“This economy is crazy and poisonous. I am an economist, and I have been fighting against the economy that is taught the way it is being taught and being practiced. I have been fighting it for almost 40 years of my life, because it’s an absurd economy that has nothing to do with real life. It’s all fabrications…”

“We are simply, dramatically stupid. We act systematically against the evidences we have. We know everything that should not be done. There’s nobody that doesn’t know that. Particularly the big politicians know exactly what should not be done. Yet they do it!”

“After what happened since October 2008, I mean, elementally, you would think what? That now they’re going to change. I mean, they see that the model is not working. The model is even poisonous, you know? Dramatically poisonous. And what is the result, and what happened in the last meeting of the European Union? They are more fundamentalist now than before! So, the only thing you know that you can be sure of, that the next crisis is coming, and it will be twice as much as this one. And for that one, there won’t be enough money anymore. So that will be it. And that is the consequence of systematical human stupidity.”

“The university is, for me, the main responsible for this. The university today has become an accomplice of maintaining a world which we don’t want, because if you don’t teach something different to the economists, well, how the hell are you going to change it when they are professionals, you know, working?”

“….it ceases to be a discipline, it ceases to be a science, and it becomes a religion. And that is what economics, neoliberal economics, is today.”

“…economists know nothing about ecosystems. They don’t know nothing about thermodynamics, you know, nothing about biodiversity or anything. I mean, they are totally ignorant in that respect. And I don’t see what harm it would do, you know, to an economist to know that if the beasts would disappear, he would disappear as well, because there wouldn’t be food anymore. But he doesn’t know that, you know, that we depend absolutely from nature. But for these economists we have, nature is a subsystem of the economy. I mean, it’s absolutely crazy!”

Five postulates and one fundamental value for economists in the coming new world:

1: The economy is to serve the people and not the people to serve the economy. 

2: Development is about people and not about objects. 

3: Growth is not the same as development, and development does not necessarily require growth. 

4: No economy is possible in the absence of ecosystem services.

5: The economy is a subsystem of a larger finite system, the biosphere, hence permanent growth is impossible.

The fundamental value of the new economy: No economic interest, under no circumstance, can be above the reverence of life.

For more on Max-Neef’s insight into why our economic world is collapsing check out Democracy Now!

…there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

 

Fukushima

Japan Modern Day Atlantis round 7 & What Economic Recovery? People fleeing Nuclear disaster in Japan destroying the local economy and local governments

The Japanese National Police Agency have released the latest numbers regarding people leaving the disaster hit areas of Miyagi, Iwate, and Fukushima prefectures.

At this point more than 150,000 people have left the Tohoku region (where the affected prefectures are).  Just a few weeks ago, in January, is was reported that 31,381 people left Fukushima Prefecture alone.  But now, February 11, that number has jumped to 53,000!

Local officials are now saying if people keep leaving at that rate the local economy will be destroyed, along with tax revenues.

Earlier in the week, the Japanese national government reported that reconstruction efforts are not taking place because contractors can not find enough workers who are willing to work in the nuclear disaster area.  This too will destroy the local economies.

And it’s not just people fleeing the Tohoku Region, back in October, 2011, the Japanese Foreign Ministry reported that a record 1.1 million people left the entire country of Japan, just seven months after the March 11 disasters!

At this point the Japanese National Police say 15,787 people have been confirmed dead, and 3,302 are still missing, from the March 11, 2011 disasters.

JAPAN MODERN DAY ATLANTIS ROUND 6: NE HONSHU TO BE HIT BY ANOTHER MAGNITUDE 8+ QUAKE