Tag Archives: crime

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Global Economic War: Japan & Iran avoiding U.S. & British controls, by developing their own insurance system for oil tankers!

2 June 2012, despite Japan just joining a trilateral military pact with the U.S. and Australia, getting oil from Iran is still of utmost importance to Japanese industries.

So much so that Iran and Japan are developing their own shipping insurance companies, to avoid the U.S./U.K. dominated shipping insurance business, and therefore get around U.S./European sanctions.

The European oil sanctions against Iran go into effect on 1 July.  Iran is considering laws that will allow their domestic shipping insurance industry to insure foreign ships.

Japan is now working to create an insurance system that will cover Japanese oil tanker ships carrying Iranian oil.  The system might be similar to one created to help Japanese airlines after the 11 September 2001 attacks in the U.S.  Prior to that Japanese airlines were insured through U.S. companies, but the U.S. companies drastically cut their coverage after the 11 September attacks.

International, U.S.

World War 3: Australia, Japan, United States agree to military pact! “Re-balancing region” against China!

“Australian Defense Minister Stephen Smith joined Panetta and Watanabe in another trilateral meeting. The U.S., Japanese and Australian leaders agreed ‘to work through 2020 to refine and consolidate their trilateral defense relationship and support the network of existing alliances, forums and dialogues to meet a variety of common security challenges,'”-U.S. Department of Defense press release

2 June 2012, Australia, Japan and the U.S. have agreed to pursue a military pact that is in line with what an unnamed U.S. Defense official said was “…our rebalancing to the region.”

There are a lot of coded words and phrases in the Defense Department press release, all indicating that the U.S., along with dozens of countries in the Asia Pacific region, are falling in line against China!

But don’t blame Barack Obama, these Shangri-La Dialogue anti-China re-balancing meetings began under the George W. Bush administration.

According to Japanese news media reports, the new military pact between Australia, Japan and United States will include joint military industry developments.

International, U.S.

World War 3: Proof the coming global war will be against China, U.S. sending 60% of naval fleet to Asia-Pacific region! Blame South China Sea oil fields!

“…make no mistake, in a steady, deliberate and sustainable way, the United States military is re-balancing and brings enhanced capabilities to this vital region.”-Leon Panetta, U.S. Secretary of Defense

2 June 2012, U.S. Defense Secretary, Leon Panetta, announced that the United States is now sending most of its Navy to the Asia-Pacific region, with the goal of having 60% of U.S. naval forces in place by 2020!

Panetta made the announcement at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue conference, in Singapore.  He stressed that the bad economy, and U.S. government budget cuts will not affect the buildup of U.S. military forces near the South China Sea.

The coming full blown global war could be between China and the West, not between Christians and Muslims. It will be centered on controlling the immense oil fields at the bottom of the South China Sea.

The U.S. has been there before, it was called (unofficially) the Vietnam War.

Decades ago, while doing research in a community college library in California, I came a cross a little black book, published only once.  It was a chronicle of U.S. and European oil companies who were attempting to explore the South China Sea.  They concluded that there was massive oil reserves there, but the technology needed to get at it was not worth what oil was selling for. Believe it or not the average price per barrel of oil, from 1958 to 1970, was only $3.00 USD!!!

According to the book (of which I forget the title), the oil industry’s decision not to spend anymore money on South China Sea exploration was a key factor in U.S. President Richard Nixon’s decision to get out of Vietnam (the peaceful anti-war demonstrations had nothing to do with it).

Since the end of the Vietnam War, China has laid claim to the entire South China Sea.  In the past few years several other countries have as well, such as; Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Philippines and Japan.  Why? Because the current price per barrel of oil makes drilling in the South China Sea worth it!

Already China has secretly built natural gas rigs in the Sea.  They were discovered by Japanese recon planes sent to investigate the sighting of huge fire balls shooting into the sky.

To enforce how important the South China Sea is to the Whore of Babylon oil industry of the United States, in November 2011 a U.S. Asian political analyst said: “If we are going to move out of this recession, Asia is going to be part of that equation. Asia is where we are going to grow.”-Ernest Bower, Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies

This newly announced U.S. naval buildup in the Asian Pacific is on top of the U.S. military buildup in Australia.

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? My employer says no paychecks until US Bank pays up!

1 June 2012, after working weeks of overtime, my paycheck never arrived!

My employer, who has contracts with unAmerican Corporate America banks, says she can’t pay because US Bank (which is now her main contract on the eastern side of Idaho) failed to pay her!

This is strange because US Bank (aka US Bancorp, USB) recently reported 1st quarter earnings that were up!  Maybe my employer is lying?

Whatever the case, since my employer pays only once per month, all us employees have burned through last months pay and are in need of our well earned paychecks just to be able to buy necessities for the next month, let alone pay our debts!  Don’t tell me the economy is getting better!!!

(I’m writing this because it’s not the first time we’ve had problems with our employer paying us on time. You’d think a contractor working for the too big to fail banks would have such a problem.)

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? U.S. student loan debt hits $904 billion! Recipe for Civil War!

“Student loan debt continues to grow even as consumers reduce mortgage debt and credit card balances. It remains the only form of consumer debt to substantially increase since the peak of household debt in late 2008.”-Donghoon Lee, Federal Reserve Bank of New York

31 May 2012, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported a huge increase in student loan debt, from the 1st quarter of 2003 to the 1st quarter of 2012: “…student loan debt has substantially increased since 2003, growing $663 billion.  Outstanding student loan debt surpassed credit card debt as the second highest form of consumer debt…”

Student loans now stand at $904 billion USD! Also: “…delinquency rates for student loans steadily increased from 6.13 percent in the first quarter of 2003 to its current level of 8.69 percent.  They remain higher than that of mortgages, auto loans and home equity lines of credit…”

Of course student loans are up, more and more people who can’t find good jobs are going to college with the hopes that an expensive degree will get them at least a “good” job.

The problem is that unAmerican Corporate America is not creating enough good jobs to employ all those highly edumacated workers who’ll need really really good paying jobs in order to pay off those student loans.  The latest estimates are that 362,000 net new jobs must be created every month, for three years straight, before there’s any true economic recovery!

 

In the study of revolutions and civil wars you’ll discover that one of the primary ingredients to social collapse is a country with not only a huge number of unemployed people, but a huge number of highly educated unemployed people!

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? U.S. job creation crashing! European unemployment holding at record high! Production falling in China! Japan going down! Government bonds at record lows! Dow Jones erases all gains of 2012!

1 June 2012, bad news for everyone, that is bad news for everyone playing the western (U.S./British dominated) game of capitalism (including the “communist” Chinese)!

Employment numbers did not live up to the expectations of experts in the United States. The U.S. Department of Labor reported that only 69,000 net jobs were created in May.  Employment experts in the private sector expected at least 150,000 new jobs.

To top that, the Labor Department revised the April and March employment numbers…down!  For the two months before May, the number of net jobs created was revised downward by 49,000!

In the past labor officials said that in order to have an economic recovery unAmerican Corporate America must create 200,000 net new jobs every month.  That hasn’t happened, and now it’s worse!  The latest estimates are that 362,000 net new jobs must be created every month, for three years straight!  That would bring down the unemployment rate to 6%.

Here’s some factual numbers: At least 12.7 million people in the U.S. are “officially” unemployed.  At least 100,000 million people are “unofficially” unemployed!  Both those factual numbers come from the U.S. Department of Labor!

As one of the many Low Income workers who recently went back to work, working for the Man in the U.S. (after two years of unemployment), let me just say this: No Shit Sherlock!

We Low Income workers, still with jobs, have seen the unAmerican Corporate America bullshit first hand, on a daily bases.  It’s now to the point many of us see it on an hourly bases!  Nothing has changed, people!  If anything the glorified, deified, well educated, well financed leaders of our country are only picking up speed with their snowballing moronic decision making!  Need proof?  How about JP Morgan Chase  (I now work for a contractor who lost a contract with Chase, now I think we know a major reason why Chase canceled the contract)?  Wake up people!!!  UnAmerican Corporate America is the cause of our economic decline!

Now for Europe.

The 17 member European Union held onto its record unemployment rate for the second month in a row. The latest report is for the month of April, and it stands at 11%.  When you break it down by EU member countries it gets worse: Italy  10.2%, Portugal 15.2%, Greece 21.7% (stats for February only).

But how about that Spain?  24.3% unemployment!  When you look at just youth unemployment (workers under 25 years of age) it’s 51.5%!!!  Can you say “get ready for civil war”?

The result of the collapse of the EU is causing the euro to crash & burn, and forcing the Japanese yen to increase in value.  Not only that, but today was the first day that China and Japan began trading their money (in order to avoid the U.S. dollar) and the yen gained in value over the Chinese yuan!

That will kill Japanese business.  Japan is a country whose economy depends on international trade.  Since 2011 the yen has gained in value, and has already caused major harm to Japanese companies.  Yesterday Toyota announced that it was selling $2.5 billion USD in bonds to raise cash, because they believed another credit crash was coming (funny how the U.S./British mainstream media misreported the news).

China is reporting a drop in the Purchasing Managers’ Index, down 2.9 points from April.  The drop is caused by a combination of decreased sales internationally, and domestically.  It means China’s economy is slowing down, and if China is the manufacturing center of the western capitalist world, then it makes for a good canary in the western capitalist economic coal mine.

Oh, let’s not forget those stable government bonds.  On 1 June 2012, U.S. ten year bonds hit a record low of 1.5% interest!   German government bonds hit a record low of 1.1%!

The result of all this doom & gloom, based on factual data, is that all the stock markets in Asia went down.  In the United States the Dow Jones Industrial Average (aka Wall Street) lost all its gains for January to May 2012, falling more than 200 points in one hour and 30 minutes!

International, U.S.

World War 3: U.S. occupation of Afghanistan; May 28-30. 5 more U.S./NATO troops killed. Several Dozens of Afghans killed. Proof the War on Drugs is a joke!

30 May 2012: International Security Assistance Force reports two U.S./NATO personnel killed by Mujahideen attacks, and explosions in southern Afghanistan.

At least 172 occupying personnel killed since the beginning of 2012.

According to local security officials in Badakhshan Province, at least eight cops were killed and two wounded after an attack by Mujahideen.  Several police officers are missing.  The attack began late on 29 May and continued into the early hours of 30 May.  Local police officials claim they killed six Mujahideen. The Mujahideen launched coordinated attacks on three police check points.

In Herat Province, Mujahideen attacked an Afghan army check point, killing one soldier and wounding four others. Officials claim they killed four Mujahideen.

In Farah Province one Afghan soldier was killed, and another wounded after an explosion.

In Nangarhar Province about eight civilians were killed.  Five people were killed after their house was attacked with grenades.  Three other people were killed when they drove over a mine.

Afghanistan’s Ministry of the Interior reports that in the past 24 hours 30 Mujahideen were killed or wounded in battles in the following provinces: Kabul, Nangarhar, Faryab, Helmand, Uruzgan, Logar, Ghazni, Paktika and Paktia.

29 May 2012: Another school was targeted with poisoning of the female students. At least 120 girls became sick. This is the third school poisoning in Takhar Province in the past two weeks.  The “Taliban” are being blamed, however, “Taliban” reps swear they’ve had nothing to do with the poisonings.  Public health officials say blood tests are not revealing what poison (if any) is being used.  “Taliban” reps say the Afghan government is behind the poisonings.

Another tribal elder was assassinated while praying in a Mosque in Ghazni Province. Also, in Ghazni city, Mujahideen attacked the eastern part of the city and wounded between three and seven people.

The United Nations reported that only 5% of the Afghan population is involved in producing more than 5,800 tons of opium, or 90% of the World’s illegal opium!  The UN also said that so far less than 2% of the opium produced is being captured and destroyed.  That’s par for the course when you study the lack of success in the 30+ years of the U.S. War on Drugs!

In Nangahar Province two potential suicide bombers were killed, and three wounded after the car they were in exploded.  Officials think there was a mechanical problem which caused one of their bombs to go off too soon.

International Security Assistance Force is claiming they killed an al-Qaeda “leader” in Kunar Province.  They said he was from Saudi Arabia, an ally of the United States.

In Baghlan Province, Afghan officials claim they killed two Mujahideen “commanders”.

28 May 2012: International Security Assistance Force said at least one U.S./NATO soldier was killed by Mujahideen attack, in southern Afghanistan.  Two other U.S./NATO personnel were killed when the helicopter they were in went down in eastern Afghanistan.

Five police officers in Baghlan Province were killed when they drove over a mine.

An Afghan government official was arrested on murder and rape charges. The former deputy chief of the Afghan Passport Department is accused by several people from Badakhshan province of raping and killing women.

In Helmand Province, at least three people were killed when they drove over a mine.  Local officials said they arrested a man suspected of planting the mine.

ISAF, Afghan Ministry of Defense, and Ministry of the Interior, report six Afghan soldiers killed, and between 21 and 38 Mujahideen killed in the past 24 hours.  The battles took place in Laghman, Paktiya, Baghlan, Kabul, Kunar, Nangarhar, Kunduz, Faryab, Kandahar, Ghazni, Khost, Helmand, Uruzgan, Maidan Wardak and Logar provinces.

International Security Assistance Force claims two “leaders” were captured in Kandahar and Paktiya provinces.

 

 

 

International, U.S.

Drug War: Drug Lord gets new life in Spain thanks to the U.S. taxpayer!

On 28 May 2012, Spanish media reported that a Colombian drug lord, Javier Antonio Calle Serna (aka Comba), and his parents, sister, wife and kids, are now living a new life in Spain.

The drug lord worked in the Norte del Valle cartel before forming his own drug gang, known as the Rastrojos.  He surrendered to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) on 6 May.

He was supposed to stand trial in New York City, however, the Spanish newspaper, El Mundo, says Spanish authorities also wanted the drug lord for drug dealing and money laundering in their country.

In the end the drug boss agreed to tell everything he knew, in exchange for a new life in Spain, thanks in part to the U.S. DEA.  What’s interesting is that the Spanish media reports his whole family arrived in Spain back in April!

 

 

International, U.S.

World War 3: U.S. occupation of Afghanistan; May 23-27. 5 U.S./NATO deaths in 2 days. More civilian deaths. Civilians fighting back. Politicians cave to U.S. bribes. Cops stealing oil and running drugs. France will keep troops in country after all!

“Afghanistan would sign long term partnership agreement with the People’s Republic of China and the agreement will probably be inked during President Hamid Karzai’s participation at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit on June 6-7 in China.”–Zalmai Rasoul, Foreign Minister of Afghanistan

China will join United States, Britain, Germany, India, Italy and Australia in long term “strategic” pacts with Afghanistan.

27 May 2012, local officials in Paktia Province are now confirming that a U.S./NATO airstrike, on the night of 26 May, has killed eight civilians, and that not a single Mujahideen was killed.

Earlier, reports said as many as 20 Mujahideen were killed by the U.S. led airstrike, but when local officials investigated all they found were the bodies of one man, his wife and their six children!

Also on 27 May 2012, Afghan Ministry of Defense says five of their soldiers were killed, and 13 wounded in battles in the following provinces: Kapisa, Kunar and Laghman.

The Ministry of the Interior claims that six Mujahideen were killed, two wounded, and nine captured in the following provinces: Kapisa, Kandahar, Maidan Wardak and Khost.

International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) says three U.S./NATO personnel were killed by Mujahideen attacks in eastern Afghanistan, on 27 May.  ISAF also confirmed that four U.S./NATO personnel were killed by explosions on 26 May.  ISAF did not give much info (SOP) other than the explosions were separate incidents.

About 169 occupying personnel have been killed since the beginning of 2012.

In Baghlan Province, five people wearing police uniforms tried to steal a truck hauling oil. They were arrested.  Owners of the oil tankers are praising local authorities because hi-jackings of tankers by people wearing police uniforms has been ongoing on Baghlan-Samangan highway.

26 May 2012, in Kabul Province two police officers were arrested and accused of helping alcohol and drug traffickers. Officials say one of the arrested cops is a high level officer.

The counter-narcotics and intoxicants court, in Kabul city, says in the past month at least 50 people have been detained.  Compare that to last year when a total of 53 people were detained.  Now realize that those 53 people included 33 cops!

Also on 26 May, officials in Ghazni Province say local civilians, and the local Mujahideen group Islamic Party of Afghanistan (Hezb-e-Islami), repelled an attack from an outsider group.

The local civilian militia, and Hezb-e-Islami, claim to have killed 12 and captured 15 of the outsider militants.  The report also says the attacks took place in at least five villages.  Other sources say the attacks took place weeks ago and are only now being reported.

The new French President, Francois Hollande, has pulled an Obama! Just weeks ago he sounded like he was getting France out of Afghanistan altogether.  Now he admits that even after the official French withdrawal there will still be 1,400 French troops in country, to help the United States with training and logistics.

On 23 May, one member of the Afghan Parliament (National Assembly of Afghanistan), Qorban-Ali Erfani, said the United States was bribing officials with money and promises of immigration to the U.S., if they would approve the midnight military pact signed by Obama and Karzai on 1 May.

On 26 May the parliament approved the pact.  But wait, there’s more!  Of the 249 members of parliament only 183 were present, and only six of them voted against it. Where were the other 66?  Unnamed sources say the 66 who were no shows were threatened because they were openly against the Obama/Karzai pact.

 

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Government Incompetence: U.S. Courts allow Japanese banks to do buisiness with Iran

On 17 May 2012, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ filed a suit against the U.S. government’s sanctions on Iran.

25 May 2012, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ said they’ve officially restarted transactions with Iran, after a U.S. court decided in their favor.

The whole thing was because of a U.S. federal judge deciding that Iran was responsible for the 1983 bombing of the USMC barracks in Beirut, after the U.S. invaded Lebanon.  Their is little evidence to back up such a claim. And by the way, shouldn’t the invader (the United States) by held responsible?

Attorney’s for Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ argued that the U.S. court ruling is not valid under Japanese law.

It’s estimated that the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ handles 70-80% of Japan’s transactions with Iran.