Tag Archives: unemployment

Business/Economics, U.S.

Government Incompetence & United Police States of America: Las Vegas cops shoot Gulf War veteran, who lost his house, in the back of the head, 7 times. Veteran’s wife blames PTSD and the VA. VA is ending needed treament for veterans

“100%. They are 100% responsible for what they did to my husband. They killed my husband.”-Rondha Gibson, blaming the Veterans Administration for her husband’s death because they took him off his PTSD meds and cancelled his benefits

On December 12 Las Vegas police shot and killed a 1991 Persian Gulf War veteran.  They shot him seven times in the back of the head as he sat in his car.

According to newly released police report, cops responded to claims of an attempted burglary.  Apartment residents said two men tried to break into an apartment, failed and then took off in a white Cadillac. As the cops were writing down the info, a white Cadillac pulled into the apartment parking lot.

The cops surrounded the car, the driver apparently panicked a tried to get away but ran into a parked police car.  For 30 minutes the cops yelled at him to get out of the car.  They decided to shoot a bean bag to break a window, and then spray riot control gas into the car.  For some reason another cop grabbed a semi-automatic AR-15 assault rifle.  When the one cop fired the bean bag round, the cop with the AR-15 fired also.  The reason has yet to be revealed.

The cop with the AR-15 fired seven times into the back of the war veteran’s head.  The AR-15 is a semi-automatic version of the automatic military M16.  What that means is that the cop had to pull the trigger seven times to fire seven rounds!

Police officials are investigating why the cop with the AR-15 fired seven rounds off, when that was obviously not part of the plan to get the veteran out of his car.

By the way, the reason why the veteran pulled into the apartment parking lot was because he lived there!  He and his wife moved in after losing their house!  There are plenty of white Cadillacs in Las Vegas, dumb cops!

It turns out the Gulf War veteran, Stanley Gibson, had lost his Veterans benefits, was taken off his PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) meds, and then lost his house!  A social worker who works with veterans blames the Veterans Administration for what happened: “They’re just trying to get away with the minimal that they can, and if they dance you around the block enough you’ll go away.”-Marsha Oritt, social worker

Gibson and his wife had fought the gradual reductions in his benefits for years, but the VA won out.  Rhonda Gibson says the VA totally blew them off: “If they had just listened to the man, listened to me and stopped canceling his appointments and make sure he had his medications on time, we would have been ok.”

Social worker Marsha Oritt says the VA has made the Gibson’s life a living hell: “It was just a constant nightmare for them both. Lots of tears. Lots of frustration. Lots of upset.”

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Russia finally an official member of the WTO. Is that Why Russia suddenly reversed course on Syria, bailing out Europe?

“Russia is the world’s 12th largest trading nation and until we have this important country among our members, we cannot truly be the World Trade Organization.”-Pascal Lamy, World Trade Organization

After 18 years of trying to join the WTO, Russia was finally allowed in on December 16.  Just the day before Russia surprised many people in Europe and the United States, by announcing they would help bailout Europe, and, they would work with the United States to present a resolution to the UN Security Council concerning Syria.

Up until December 15 Russia had kept mum about bailing out Europe, and had opposed any UNSC resolution on Syria.

Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander Lukashevich, did admit there were conditions for Russia’s joining the WTO, and conditions for maintaining  membership: “Russia is joining the WTO on conditions answering its national interests. There are preconditions for further improvement of our business climate, for attraction of foreign investmens, for expanding of Russia’s export with simultaneous keeping of key industries of the national economy.”

WTO officials put another condition on Russia’s joining the global organization; they have to be well behaved for at least six more months, then, in the summer of 2021 they will be considered a full member of the World Trade Organization.  Even then there will be a “transition period” up to seven years.

The WTO members, including the United States, voted unanimously to let Russia finally join.  There are now 154 WTO members, which control 98% of global trade.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? One step closer to One World Government, IMF proposes international co-op, hints at Global Great Depression

“It’s not a crisis that will be resolved by one group of countries taking action. It’s going to be hopefully resolved by all countries, all regions, all categories of countries actually taking action.”-Christine Lagarde, IMF Managing Director

The director of the International Monetary Fund made that comment in a U.S. State Department conference on December 15.  Christine Lagarde also used the word “retraction” which is another way of saying economic depression.

Lagarde said she is greatly concerned because recent efforts to ‘save’ Europe have failed, and there is growing economic protectionism, and political isolationism, which will only make the global economy worse.  These are all things that helped cause the Great Depression of the 1920s-1930s.

She is calling for a new global financial co-operative system to prevent the coming Global Great Depression.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Russia says it will bailout Europe, through the IMF

“41% of foreign exchange reserves in Russia are euro-denominated, so EU member states and Russia all are interested in the security of it.”–Dmitry Medvedev, President of Russia

Turns out that Russia has a big stake in European countries getting back on the economic track.

On December 15, Russia’s current President said his country will work to help bailout struggling European countries, but only through the International Monetary Fund: “…we will keep backing the EU in terms of our quota in IMF membership and we will abide by all the commitments, being the participant of the IMF and ready to invest financial means to back the European economy and the euro zone.”

Medvedev did say that it was still up to European Union members to come up with a doable plan: “Only Europe will be able to help Europe but other countries should provide conditions for Europe to liberate itself from the crisis burden as soon as possible and recover from this downturn as soon as possible.”

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Global Food Crisis: Where’s the beef? Texas drought killing the cattle industry

“Consumers are going to pay more because we’re going to have less beef. Fewer cows, calves, less beef production and increasing [demand for] exports.”-David Anderson, Texas AgriLife Extension Service

Texas is officially suffering its worst drought ever!  The decline in cows just more proof.

Texas is now seeing the biggest drop in cattle since the U.S. Great Depression in 1930s.  This year they lost more than 600,000 cattle.  Not all to death directly caused by drought, or early slaughter, some were moved out of state to, literally, greener pastures.

It’s not just Texas, but Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana and Arkansas also saw an increase in loss of cattle due to drought.

This past year beef prices for U.S. consumers went up 9%. The USDA predicts another 5.5% increase for 2012.

 

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Earthquake Alert? Continued mine collaspe could be due to increased seismic activity in Idaho. Federal government closes mine

“We’ve issued a closure order so the entire mine is shut down. We will conduct a thorough investigation and we will not allow it to reopen until we are sure it is safe.”-Amy Louviere, U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration

On December 14, another rock burst struck the unlucky Lucky Friday silver mine in northern Idaho.  This time no one was killed.  Just last month, November, a miner was killed trying to free a stuck rock bin.  In April, a rock burst killed one miner.

Officials are concerned with the sudden occurrence of rock bursts in the mine.  For the past 25 years there had been no reported fatal accidents at the Lucky Friday mine.  Also of interest, there was no mining activity taking place 24 hours prior to the December 14 rock burst, that could have caused such a collapse.

There is now speculation that what is happening is the result of increased seismic activity in the northern part of Idaho.  (anyone remember the movie Dante’s Peak?)

Regarding the death in April, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration blamed the mine’s owners, Helca Mining Company, for lax safety standards.  However, December 14’s rock burst took place while miners were trying to install a safety net designed to protect miners from such rock bursts.

Federal officials don’t know how long their investigation will take place.  At least 300 people in the small community of Mullen, Idaho, rely on the mine for high paying jobs.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

More proof the Occupy movement is right: When cost of living is included almost 50% of Americans are poor, yet the top 10% got big pay raises in 2010 and their employers lied about it

According to corporate research firm Global Market Insight (GMI), Corporate America’s CEOs got big raises in 2010, even though many companies did not perform well!

The CEOs of the top 500 companies got as much as a 36.5% increase in pay. The next 3,000 U.S. corporations gave their CEOs a pay raise averaging 27%!  Researchers with GMI said they were surprised, and considered the pay increases way out of line with the poor performance of many of the companies.

This news comes at the same time the U.S. Census Bureau is unofficially calling almost half of the population of the United States poor!

“SPM rates were higher than official poverty rates in 2010, overall and for most groups”-Brookings/Census Bureau Meeting on Improved Poverty Measurment, November 7, 2011

The new poverty statistics take into account “nondiscretionary” cost of living expenses such as income taxes, child care, health care, commuting to work, etc.  When cost of living is factored in it raises the official number of poor people in the U.S.

The “official” poverty surveys consider before tax income only!  This means the “official” poverty numbers have been way off for decades.  However, the Census Bureau says the new SPM poverty numbers “Will not replace the official poverty measure” and “Will not be used for resource allocation or program eligibility”!

The new SPM numbers also include some types of welfare benefits a family might be getting, plus child support, and yet even with that data the number of poor people still went higher than the “official” poverty numbers.  This is more evidence of how inaccurate the “official” count is, and how rampant poverty is in the U.S.!

The new data was released on November 7, 2011, yet I don’t recall any mainstream U.S. media reporting it. The data covers the year 2010 only, it’s called Supplemental Poverty Measure: 2010 (SPM).

When using the SPM (aka Improved Poverty Measure) a big jump in the number of poor people were found in the age group of 18 to 64 year olds.  But the biggest jump in poverty was found in the age group of people 65 years or older.

If I read the Census Bureau graphs correctly (and if I understood the Bureaus’ explanations of how they figured it), when you add the “official” poverty numbers to the new SPM numbers you get 146.4 million people who are poor  (49.1 million “officially” poor + 97.3 million SPM poor).  Even if you go by just the new SPM data that’s nearly 100 million poor people in the U.S.

Officially there are 312 million people in the United States.

Back to Corporate America’s big pay raises for their CEOs.

The top earning CEO in 2010 was John Hammergen of McKesson Corporation, getting $145 million, not counting his stock options or retirement benefits!  According to GMI, McKesson has essentially lied about how much they paid Hammergen.  They reported they paid Hammergen only (hmph, ‘only’) $46.1 million.

GMI researchers said McKesson refused to explain the difference.  GMI says Hammergen not only got $145 million in pay, he got $112 million in stock options, a retirement plan worth $13.5 million, and, if he ever got fired his severance package is worth $469 million! For getting fired!!! And the right wing neo-conservative ass holes complain about the average unemployed worker being on unemployment pittance (it certainly is not a “benefit”)!!!

Just like it says in HR 1905, we are slaves!

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Corporate Incompetence? Third mine disaster in Idaho this year

For the third time this year, Hecla Mining Company’s Lucky Friday Mine suffered a rock burst.

It happened before 19:30 hours on the evening of December 14.  This time the miners were actually ‘lucky’.  Seven miners were rescued, with one going to a local hospital.

But two other mine employees were not lucky. They were both killed by  rock bursts at the same Lucky Friday silver mine.  The first rock burst happened in April, the second happened just last month!

Business/Economics, International, Technology

What Economic Recovery? Japan desperate for cash, will sell off famous bullet train, to India

The Japanese government is in need of some cash (no wonder since they’ve been making promises of financial aid to other countries).  But they’re so desperate that they’ll even sell off a famous bullet train.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has instructed his cabinet, and Japanese business leaders, to sell Japan’s infrastructure to India, including the Shinkansen bullet train system.

It’s not quite what it sounds like.  What Prime Minister Noda means is that Japan is going to sell the technologies behind their infrastructure to other countries, especially India.  Indian officials have expressed a desire to build a bullet train system similar to what Japan has.

Noda told Japanese officials that global competition is becoming intense and that the Japanese government must do all they can to promote the sale of Japanese infrastructure technologies to other countries.

 

Fukushima

Japan admits high levels of radiation in north eastern Honshu!

Japan’s Environment Ministry has given some clues as to how bad the radiation contamination is in north eastern Honshu.  The area is being devastated by radiation coming from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

In a report on how the government of Japan plans to address decontamination issues, they revealed that some areas have soil that’s emitting more than 0.23 microsieverts per hour!

They also stated that ‘sludge’ has been found to be contaminated with 8,000 becquerels per kilogram of cesium!

The Environment Ministry even admitted that areas as far south as Tokyo are highly contaminated and will require decontamination.  Tokyo is about 220 kilometers, or 137 miles from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.