Tag Archives: employment

Business/Economics, International

Evil Banks: New bank account tax created by Too Big to Jail banks! Cyprus is “test case”. Russians forced to pay the tax! Banks freeze ATMs and close branches to stop the run by account holders! Is your bank account next?

18 March 2013/06 Jumada l-Ula 1434/28 Esfand 1391/07 Yi-Mao (2nd month) 4711

The people of Cyprus are almost up in arms over a heavy tax that could be imposed on their bank accounts.  The tax is part of a privately funded bailout deal from Too Big to Jail European banks.  The tax would go to those banks, not to any government.

Banks in Cyprus have closed their branch offices and turned off their ATMs to try and stop the wave of people who want to withdrawal all their money.

Germany’s Deutsche Welle (DW) is reporting that the bank account tax is a “test case”, and could be imposed on other countries: “People feel anger first of all, and fear. I saw people waiting in front of ATMs over the weekend who were shouting: ‘Why are they doing this to us? Is this some kind of an experiment?’ They say Cyprus is seen as a small country that can be the test tube for the whole of Europe. If this is going to work here, they say, it’s going to be applied in other countries. Cypriots are angry because they say they’ve been working for years and now somebody comes and steals their money.”-Flora Alexandrou, journalist

It’s not just individual account holders who’ll be forced to pay the new corporate imposed tax, but businesses, investors and even other banks!

The bank account tax is going to hit Russian banks hard, because they’ve got big bucks in Cypriot bank accounts. It’s reported that Russia’s second biggest bank will end up paying 130 million euros ($168 million USD) in taxes!  So what happens if Russia’s banks pullout the tens of billions they have in Cypriot banks?

Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, called the European banks’ imposed tax “unjust, unprofessional and dangerous.”

Fukushima

Cooling at Fukushima Daiichi stops, TEPCo does not know why!

18 March 2013/06 Jumada l-Ula 1434/28 Esfand 1391/07 Yi-Mao (2nd month) 4711

Tokyo Electric Power Company reporting that for an unknown reason the cooling of stored nuclear fuel rods, at the GE designed Fukushima Daiichi power plant, has stopped.

There was an electrical power blackout affecting 2100 spent fuel rods in storage pools for reactors 1, 3 and 4.  TEPCo says temps have been rising slowly but steadily every hour.

A forth pool with 6300 fuel rods was also affected, as well as the water decontamination system.

TEPCo does not know what is causing the power outage.  They claim cooling of the melted reactors have not been affected.

 

International, U.S.

World War 3: North Korean media calling for Second Korean War, now!

17 March 2013/05 Jumada l-Ula 1434/27 Esfand 1391/06 Yi-Mao (2nd month) 4711

A DPRK media source published an editorial calling for a Second Korean War:

“The Second Korean War has become an unavoidable thing, now that the U.S. and the south Korean puppet regime, barbarous provocateurs, push the situation to the extremity by resorting to the unprecedented ‘sanctions’ against the DPRK and the war drills to invade the north, condemning the DPRK’s legitimate satellite launch.

At last, time has come to put an end to the long cycle of the provocations and tensions which has lasted for a long time century after century.”-Rodong Sinmun

Business/Economics, International

What Economic Recovery? Asian investment markets crashing, Euro crashing due to 10% tax on bank accounts! Depositors making a run on the banks!

18 March 2013/06 Jumada l-Ula 1434/28 Esfand 1391/07 Yi-Mao (2nd month) 4711

Reports that Asian stock markets dropped, along with the euro, as details of the financial bailout of Cyprus were revealed.

The European Union (EU) agreed to bailout the island country of Cyprus, but only if individual bank accounts were heavily taxed, in some cases as high as 10%!

Now Cypriots are making a run on the banks, trying to cash out their accounts.  So far, in the ongoing European bailouts, Cyprus is the only country that has been ordered to tax bank accounts.

But because of the way EU officials avoided questions about the possibility of other European bank accounts being taxed, there is a fear that runs on the banks will spread outside Cyprus.

The 10% tax could end up being 12.5%, that’s according to Reuters. Officials are trying to change the bailout rules by lowering the tax for people with less than $129000 USD in a bank account, but the difference would be passed on to wealthier accounts.

If the Cypriot Parliament does not ratify the bailout deal, then there is no bank account tax and no bailout money. (they should do what Iceland did, default!)

Influenza

Influenza update, 17 March 2013: Ellen Degeneres down! H1N1 spreading! More studies reveal vaccines do not work, and can paralyze you! 12000 dead pigs found in river! A study suggest that breathing spreads flu faster than sneezing!

Reports that Ellen Degeneres canceled a weeks worth of TV shows, and her trip to Australia, because she’s sick: “People of Australia! I’m down, but I’m not out. I’ll be in Sydney next weekend, and Melbourne after that. More details soon!”

Speaking of Australia, a new bird flu is popping up, as the flu season is starting early Down Under. Ducks and chickens in Western Australia were confirmed to have a H5 type flu.  At least 95 poultry were euthanized. Health officials say from January to February 2013, more than 700 human cases of flu were reported. That’s significantly higher than usual, and much earlier than usual.

Researchers from multiple U.S. schools of medicine and public health say simple breathing can spread flu faster than sneezing. They analyzed droplets from infected people’s relaxed breath and found that it contained far more amount of virus, than if they had sneezed!!!

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said flu activity in the States is still active, but decreasing in some areas.  So far 90 children have died.  The CDC tracks only child deaths caused by influenza, they do not keep tabs on adult flu related deaths.

In New York U.S.A., health officials are reporting a surprise resurgence in flu cases. Several counties are reporting more flu cases, along with norovirus, sinusitis and strep bacterial infections.

In California U.S.A., University of California Los Angeles researchers are preparing to track a possible pandemic: “Using surveillance of influenza cases in humans and birds, we’ve come up with a technique to predict sites where these viruses could mix and generate a future pandemic.”-Trevon Fuller, Predicting Hotspots for Influenza Virus Reassortment

Also in California, San Diego County has now seen 51 deaths.  There have been 5046 lab confirmed cases so far this season. San Diego saw a record setting 58 flu related deaths back in the 2009-10 H1N1 pandemic.

In Oklahoma U.S.A., 33 deaths including one last week. At least 1036 people have been hospitalized.

In Pennsylvania U.S.A., so far 174 people have died from flu complications.

In South Dakota U.S.A., a 35th person has died.

Health officials in Racine County, Wisconsin U.S.A., are calling it one of their worst seasons for flu cases: “We had two really mild seasons, and this last year was regular. We haven’t even had a second peak yet.”-Dottie-Kay Bowersox, City of Racine Health Department

In the Fertile Crescent country of Jordan, four people have died from H1N1 (a type of swine flu).

An experiment on vaccinated pigs, who were then infected with a version of H1N1 from Thailand, suggests that a vaccine for H1N1 does not work:  “The present study demonstrated that both the pH1N1 and rH1N1 influenza viruses, isolated from naturally infected pigs, induced acute respiratory disease in experimentally inoculated nursery pigs.”-Virology Journal 2013

More bad news for anyone who got a H1N1 shot.  It concerns vaccines given in 2009-10, in the United States.  A new U.S. Department of Health & Human Services study suggests that some people could be paralyzed with Guillain-Barré syndrome.  It’s already been shown that the vaccine used in the 1976 swine flu epidemic caused Guillain-Barré syndrome.  During the six weeks after the 2009 vaccine was first given, 54 cases of the paralyzing syndrome were reported.  Researchers still don’t know why the vaccine causes some people’s immune systems to attack their nervous systems.

Despite all the studies showing how ineffective flu vaccines really are, Iran has decided to start making their own. Iranian officials say their motivation is to save money, as the imported flu shots are very expensive for their government health system.

Another U.S. Department of Health & Human Services NIH study says weather has more effect on infections, and it has nothing to do with people staying indoors during cold/rainy weather: “One hypothesis that is often used to explain tropical influenza activity is that people congregate indoors more frequently during the rainy season, increasing contact rates and disease transmission. There is little data to confirm this…..The predictions of our climate-based models compared favorably to epidemiological information collected independently…”-Cecile Viboud, researcher

Another study says your body’s ability to repair and recover from a flu infection could determine your risk for future infections. The study looked at immune system cells called cytokine interleukin-22 (IL-22), used in the repair of lungs of children sick with flu: “With the increasing prevalence of more infective and/or virulent strains of influenza, understanding the impact of virus on the host epithelium and the processes involved in lung repair are of great importance. A key finding is that even after the resolution of infection, influenza results in lung parenchymal remodeling that may be critical to susceptibility to further injury.”-John F. Alcorn, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh

In Vermont U.S.A., more cases of dogs getting sick with the relatively new canine flu (it mutated from horse flu).  Dogs are going down fast as this is a new disease for them.

In Florida U.S.A., several horses have been quarantined at the Horse Shows in the Sun facility in Ocala: “The biosecurity measures we’ve put in place for EHV-1 should assist with reduction of the transmission of the flu virus. We’re being as proactive as we can.”-Mark Fagan, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services

New Jersey U.S.A., reporting a blood shortage and is importing 30% of their blood supply from other states.  This is because local blood donations are way down due to too many people being infected.

Health officials in Austria are reporting that case numbers are more than 10000 per week! They say H1N1 is the top flu, followed by H3N2 and a mild form of flu B.

In Hong Kong, health officials reporting an outbreak in the Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital.  The flu has been identified only as a type A flu.

India continues to see increased cases of swine flu. Health officials are blaming humidity and warmer temps. Flu cases, and deaths, are reported at state levels in India, and they are growing rapidly.

In Shanghai, China, people are concerned about the ongoing case of dead pigs in a local river.  The number of dead pigs found in the river has now hit 12000!  The pigs are coming from farming areas upstream.  Officials are looking at the possibility of a new more deadly swine flu.  The Huangpu river is the main source of drinking water for tens of millions of people.

International, U.S.

World War 3: North Korea threatens war with Japan!

17 March 2013/05 Jumada l-Ula 1434/27 Esfand 1391/06 Yi-Mao (2nd month) 4711

One of DPRK’s media outlets, Rodong Sinmun, published statements making threats of war with Japan.

Japan has been calling for more sanctions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.  Japanese media say their military officials estimate that North Korea has 200 missiles aimed at Japan.

The commentary from Rodong Sinmun says that if North Korea is pushed to launch a nuclear strike, Japan will not be spared.

International, Opinion

World War 3: bin Laden destroys holy sites at Mecca!

17 March 2013/05 Jumada l-Ula 1434/27 Esfand 1391/06 Yi-Mao (2nd month) 4711

Photos taken by Saudi Arabian activists show that the buildings surrounding the Ka’aba are being torn down, specifically those built during Ottoman and Abassid eras.

The demolition is reportedly being performed by the Saudi Binladin Group (a company started by the father of Osama bin Laden). In the past the SBG was involved in restoring holy sites.

It’s also reported that one of the sites razed is the spot where Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim (aka Muhammad) began his night journey to Al-Quds (Jerusalem).

Saudi officials claim the demolition is necessary to make room for the exponentially increasing Muslim pilgrims.  (this might be true as Islam is the fastest growing religion in the World, despite the U.S. led War on Terror)

Critics point out that the Saudi leadership is Wahhabi.  In the past Wahhabist clerics have called for the destruction of Mecca.

In 1979, Wahhabi extremists (who might now be called al-Qaeda) took over Mecca.   Western media ignored it because they were obsessed with the Iranian Revolution.  The Grand Mosque Seizure ended when Saudi troops, and a Pakistani commando unit, took it back by force after two weeks of fighting.  255 people were killed, at least 560 wounded.  The surviving 67 extremists were publicly beheaded.   Iranian officials said the takeover by extremists was backed by the United States.

During the early years of Islam the arrogant elites of Mecca saved their lives by making a deal with Muhammad. They would accept the new religion and throw out the idols if their lives were spared and they were allowed to maintain their control over Mecca.  (you see all these ‘holy sites’ of Judaism, Christianity, Islam and others, are just money making schemes, most being located on important cross roads of the ancient Silk Road)

Do you think Muhammad did the right thing by sparing the elites’ lives?   On one hand I don’t like seeing historical sites destroyed, on the other I don’t like seeing historical sites being turned into money making idols unto themselves by being declared ‘holy’.  (this is the main reason Jesus of Nazareth threw the money changers out of the Temple of David!)

International

World War 3: High level meetings between military leaders of Iran & Iraq!

On 12 March 2013/29 Raby’ ath-Thani 1434/22 Esfand 1391/01 Yi-Mao (2nd month) 4711, Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy met with Iraq’s acting defense minister, chief of staff of the army and Navy commander during a four-day visit.

Fadavi also toured the Iraqi Navy’s operation center and Academy of Naval Sciences.  The main purpose of the visit was to discuss joint Persian Gulf defenses by Iran and Iraq.

Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, and Iraq’s Vice Admiral Ali Hussain Ali, signed an agreement to expand cooperation between Iraqi and Iranian naval forces.

International, U.S.

World War 3: Iran captures U.S. backed al-Qaeda militants!

Iran’s commander of the Kermanshah Cavalry Division, General Ali Hajilou, claims that in the past three months his forces have captured U.S. supported al-Qaeda militants trying to cross into Iran from Iraq.

He says his troops’ actions prove the borders of Iran are secure.

International

World War 3: Iranian Navy buzzed by Aussie ASW bird!

17 March 2013/05 Jumada l-Ula 1434/27 Esfand 1391/06 Yi-Mao (2nd month) 4711

Iranian Navy officials say an Australian ASW (anti-submarine/ship warfare) aircraft approached an Iranian helicopter carrier and a destroyer while they were off the coast of Sri Lanka.

“The Navy’s 24th fleet of warships, comprised of Khark chopper carrier and Sabalan destroyer, which was nearing Sri Lanka’s coasts after leaving Zhangjigang port of China and crossing the line of the Equator.…The reconnaissance plane changed its flight route immediately after receiving the warships’ warning but dropped some subsurface units detection devices…..all the dropped devices were hunted skillfully and by the timely action of the Iranian Navy forces.”-Admiral Siyavash Jarreh, Islamic Republic of Iran Navy (IRIN)