Category Archives: U.S.

U.S.

United Police States of America: Witness to police crime being sued for recording video of the crime, does your state have laws that could make you a criminal for recording police crimes?

In 2009 a man was beaten unconscious by Springfield, Massachusetts, police.  A witness recorded video of the crime.  Now that witness is being threatened with a lawsuit, and even criminal charges.

Officials are citing a Massachusetts law that prohibits “…the secret use of such devices [recorders] by private individuals…”. However, attorney’s for the woman who recorded the police crime, say the law was meant to be applied to organized crime, not individual citizens: “Even a cursory review of the law would show that the Legislature took the time to insert a preamble into the statute showing that it is specifically aimed at organized crime prosecutions.”-Daniel D. Kelly, attorney

The woman posted the video on the internet, you can see it in a report posted by masslive.com.  The victim tries to run from police, but is caught.  One police officer then proceeds to beat him, sometimes the blows are so loud you can hear them in the video.  You can also hear people in the background begging police not to hurt him.  The beating continues until the man is unconscious.  For more than 15 minutes police stand around, as if they’re trying to figure out what to do, some are laughing.  After eleven or twelve minutes some of the residents of the neighborhood come out, asking for an explaination.

Massachusetts is one of several states that use a law that requires “consent” before you can record a conversation.  Other states include California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington.  Massachusetts is claiming the woman who video recorded the police crime, violated the two-party consent law because she recorded audio.  Apparently if she had recorded silent video she would have been within the law.

 


U.S.

U.S. Supreme Court bans, yet supports the Health Care Reform Law, chances of it ever being implemented slim to none

Friday August 12, the 11th Circuit Court of appeals, in Atlanta, Georgia, ruled that forcing people to buy insurance is unconstitutional.  The health care reform law would have forced every U.S. citizen to buy health insurance, or be punished with fines.

The ruling said forcing people to buy anything is beyond the power of the U.S. government!

However, the three Federal Court judges said all other aspects of the health care reform law can remain in effect.

The ruling adds to the chances that the health care reform law won’t even be implemented.  Many politicians say they’re going to block funding of the law, and it appears U.S. Congress is set for massive arguments over how to put the law into effect.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Israel to stock up on used U.S. military equipment, U.S. can’t afford to ship it all home from Iraq

Israeli media reporting that the Israeli government plans to expand their military equipment inventories by buying used U.S. equipment now in Iraq.

The report says the Israel purchase of U.S. military gear will help out the U.S. Department of Defense, because apparently the U.S. can’t afford to ship all that equipment back home from Iraq.

The equipment includes everything from vehicles to ammo.

It’s not just Israel that the U.S. will sell to, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are customers as well.  This is just another sign the United States is hurting for cash.

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

The Golden State lacks the Golden Rule: California finally admits high student drop out rate, as early as 8th Grade, all those decades of increased taxpayer funding wasted

California is now the first state in the Union, that admits that grade school students drop out of school as early as 8th grade.  In the latest survey it was revealed that more than 17,000 8th graders quit school in 2010.

Also, more than 94,000 California High School students dropped out in 2010.

Prior to this survey most drop out rate surveys were considered unreliable.  They varied greatly from 11% to 22%.  In 2009 California legislators actually passed a law dictating how the drop out rate survey would be conducted.

To many employment analysts the latest California drop out numbers prove what many employers have been complaining about; not enough high school graduates to fill open positions in California.  And to make it worse, the high drop out rates continued even though more and more taxpayer money was being spent on education year after year.

In fact, in the past the California Department of Education actually worked to keep drop out rates from being made public.

One result of the waste of taxpayer money, and degrading public education in California, was the creation of the Parent Empowerment Law, in 2010.  The law gives parents the right to convert a public school into a charter school, if 51% of the parents of children in that school sign a petition.  An elementary school in Compton will become the first school converted to a charter school under the Parent Empowerment Law.

One commentator in California said it’s ’bout time the Golden State learned the Golden Rule: “What America desperately needs is an educational system that cherishes each child as an individual, that recognizes each child has needs that must be met and gifts that deserve to be nurtured. When families have freely chosen the best school for their children, there is a sense of community, of belonging, even of family, that keeps our kids in school and gets them safely to graduation.”-Alan Bonsteel, San Francisco Chronical

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Global Hyperinflation, incouraged by the U.S. and Europe, China is the only one doing the right thing

“While the markets can operate on false scenarios for a significant period of time, reality always wins in the end. When it does, the situation can get quite ugly and all the profits gained from a belief in an unsupportable viewpoint can evaporate over night. At the moment, there is a lot of denial about inflation and investors should be paying attention to this.”-Daryl Montgomery, Independent Trader

People need to start studying up on basic economics.  What the G7 and the U.S. Federal Reserve are doing will lead to catastrophe, for the little guy.

After an emergency meeting on August 7, the Group of 7 most industrialized countries decided to deal with the growing debt crisis, of Europe and the United States, by flooding the markets with cash (liquidity).  One way to do that is to buy massive amounts of bonds, which is what the European Central Bank (ECB) did.

Following the G7 meeting the ECB began buying up Italian and Spanish bonds, even though the week before Germany was advising against such a move, because Italy and Spain were too bad off to be trusted to pay them back.

Injecting cash into markets, like buying up bond issues, can have the same result as overprinting money; hyperinflation.  The most recent case of hyperinflation took place in Zimbabwe.  It lasted from 2004-2009, and is considered the second worst case of hyperinflation in the world.  It happened after their economy crashed, and the government responded by overprinting money  (by the way the U.S. has been overprinting money for years now).

In a statement, the G7 (which includes the United States) tried to say their move to flood markets with cash will work as long as government fiscal policy remains “disciplined”.  There was no clarification what they meant by “disciplined”, but surely they mean that as long as governments, mainly European, continue to cut spending and increase taxes to pay their government debts, then hyperinflation should not be a concern.

Why would that be? Possibly because so many people are out of work, which reduces the flow of money in the consumer markets, and, increased taxes reduces the amount of spending money a consumer, who still has a job, has.  Also, cutting government spending is another way to reduce liquidity in the consumer markets.

But flooding markets with cash isn’t the only way to create hyperinflation, keeping interest rates low can do the same thing.  And keeping them artificially low for long periods of time will only make things worse.  That’s exactly what the U.S. Federal Reserve (a privately run central bank) is doing.

On August 9, the Federal Reserve (incorrectly referred to as The Fed, incorrect because it’s not a government agency. The Fed, or Feds, usually refers to a government agency, in fact it used to refer to the FBI), announced it would keep interest rates low, again.  Not only that but they would so so until 2013, with the possibility of lowering it even more.

The interest rate, that the mainstream media is always talking about but surely doesn’t understand, is the Federal Funds Rate.  This rate does NOT affect us little guys.  It is the interest that banks pay each other for borrowing money from each other.  Only in theory does it “trickle down” to us little people in the form of lower credit card and loan rates, and even supposedly on the interest rates the banks give us for putting our money into their so called “savings” accounts.

The past decade has proven that keeping the Federal Funds rate low does NOT “trickle down” to the little guy, working class, consumer level.

And that’s the point.  There is nothing being done to help the average John Q Public.  Everything is being done to help the big guys, the Man, the elites and their global corporations/governments.  Keeping interest rates low for the big guys, and flooding the markets with cash (only for the benefit of the big guys) are short term actions that will result in long term pain for the little guy (as if the little guy isn’t in pain now).

Even investment advisers are warning people of the dangers: “…governments that engage in this behavior frequently go to great lengths to ensure the public doesn’t make the connection and realize that inflation is caused by government actions.”–Daryl Montgomery, Independent Trader

Now, there are some officials with the Federal Reserve that are also sounding a warning.  Narayana Kocherlakota, the president of the Federal Reserve’s Minneapolis bank, has been arguing for an increase in interest rates: “Central bankers alone cannot solve the world’s economic problems.”

Kocherlakota wants to raise the Federal Funds Rate by at least a half a percent.  He says most of the economic problems in the U.S. are a result of mismatches between the labor market, and employers, and that is something the Federal Reserve can not influence.  It’s proof that what Central Banks are doing have nothing to do with solving the bad employment situation.

China seems to be the only country that’s following traditional economic policies regarding the prevention of inflation.  So far this year the inflation rate in China has hit 6.5%.  China is blaming the slow down in their economy partly on domestic inflation.

China is experiencing inflation because more people are making more money, which means more money available on the consumer market.  It’s being exacerbated by foreign banks loaning money to Chinese consumers.

China has instituted policies to restrict the money flow, by making it almost impossible for people to qualify for home loans, and even auto loans.  They’ve recently banned certain loans being issued by foreign banks.  The Bank of China is also raising their interest rates.

It hurts consumers, only in that it’s much harder to get a loan, but it restricts the amount of money in the consumer market, which is supposed to keep inflation down, which benefits consumers in the long run.  Also, if you’re a saver then you benefit by getting higher interest on your traditional savings account.

Bottom line: Low interest rates and flooding markets with cash only benefits the big guys, and only for the short run.  In the long run it will hurt everyone.

 

 

 

U.S.

Pacific Ring of Fire: Alaska volcano threatens air traffic

The Colorado volcano in Alaska is erupting, something that was predicted back in July.  Scientists think the eruptions could get bigger, based on satellite images.

The volcano is on an island (part of the Aleutian Islands) and doesn’t threaten people, but, because it’s thought the volcano’s eruptions could get bigger, it poses a threat to air traffic.

Scientists are so worried about a major eruption that they’ve ruled out flying to the island for closer inspection.

The volcano has frequent minor eruptions.  The last big eruption was in 2001, when the lava flows made it to he ocean.

 

U.S.

United Police States of America: Two U.S. courts say Rumsfeld is NOT immune from being charged with torture, Obama is on Rumsfeld’s side says your rights don’t count

“Plaintiffs have alleged sufficient facts to show that Secretary Rumsfeld personally established the relevant policies that caused the alleged violations of their constitutional rights during detention.”-Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals

August 8, a Federal appeals court ruled that former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, is not immune from being sued for torture.

Interestingly, the two people suing Rumsfeld are U.S. citizens, and former security agents as well.

The two former private security agents, were detained and tortured, in Iraq by U.S. personnel, with sleep deprivation, and deprived of food and water.  They claim they were detained because they were trying to blow the whistle on the illegal activities of their employer.

The two agents suspected their employer of making improper payments to Iraqi officials, and that fellow employees were engaged in weapons-trafficking.  After providing U.S. officials with information they were suddenly detained.  The two agents were never charged with anything.

In another case, last week a Federal court in Washington DC ruled that Rumsfeld can indeed be sued for torture.

In that case a U.S. military contractor was also tortured by U.S. personnel in Iraq.  Government officials say the contractor was passing information to the enemy, but, for some reason, after torturing him, the government decided not file charges and let him go.

Don’t think President Barack Obama influenced the courts’ decision.  Obama supports Rumsfeld, saying, effectively, that U.S. citizens have no rights when they’re in a combat zone. The U.S. Justice Department is planning to appeal the latest Federal court decisions.

 

 

 

International, Technology, U.S.

Antartic Ice Shelf, the size of Manhattan, ripped off by March 11 Tsunami

The Journal of Glaciology, and NASA, says that 18 hours after the massive March 11 tsuanami hit Japan, it torn off huge chucks of ice at the South Pole.

Large pieces of the Sulzberger ice shelf, one the size of Manhattan, broke off between March 12 and 16.  NASA scientists watched and took pictures of the event using a satellite.

NASA said they immediately turned there eyes towards the South Pole when the March 11 tsunami hit Japan.  They wanted to test a long time hypothesis, that large numbers of ice bergs appearing in the ocean coincide with large earthquakes and tsunamis.  They got their proof.

Amazingly the tsunami was only one foot high when it hit the Sulzberger ice shelf.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? China will stop selling U.S. bonds, and they will stop buying them as well, beginning to realize just how much power they truely have

“In my opinion, at this moment, the best strategy is no buy, no sell. At this moment, it’s very difficult to shift (investment), to change fundamentally, because we hold such a big amount.”-Cheng Siwei, former senior Chinese lawmaker

Cheng Siwei, is advising the Chinese government to take a “no buy, no sell” attitude towards U.S. Treasury bonds.  Cheng is telling the government that it needs to hold off on investing it’s $3.2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves.

Many European countries have been knocking down China’s door, begging China to bail them out by buying their bonds, instead of more U.S. bonds.

Cheng says the situation for China has become more of a political one, than an economic one.  In other words, with so many countries, including the United States, hoping to be saved by China’s cash, the Chinese are starting to realize just how much power they have.