“Some people think that they can trouble Iran through oil sanctions but I should say that we have so much reserves that even if we don’t sell oil for two to three years, the country will be administered easily.”-Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran, April 10, 2012
April 11, 2012, Iran follows through on threat to cut off oil to Germany, now Italy is next.
Iran also announced sanctions against 100 European Union companies. Sasan Khodaei, Deputy President of Iran Trade Promotion Organization, said the companies will no longer be able to sell products to Iran.
One reason for the sanctions is that Iran is now able to make the products for themselves.
“Recently, China and Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution draft on Syria. Some people accuse China and Russia of not being ‘cooperative’ or ‘responsible’. In my view, our decision was the responsible one. We should not forget the lesson in Libya.”-Le Yucheng, Assistant Foreign Minister of China
Chinese officials believe a U.S. led war on Syria would have the same results as in Libya. They compered the U.S. led war on Libya to “surgery that kills the patient”. Libya is now in a full on civil war.
China’s Assistant Foreign Minister blasted the United States: “China does not do things just to please certain countries. China never takes its cue from others or pays the bill without asking the price. Being responsible means saying ‘no’ to such ‘protection’. What we need is not just ‘the responsibility to protect’ but also ‘responsible protection’.”
April 10, 2012, Iran has officially halted oil exports to Spain and Greece.
The official government announcement comes after Iran canceled oil shipments to two Greek companies on April 5.
Back on March 16 Iran had named the next countries on its oil export ban list. Those countries are Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. This is in retaliation for the up coming European Union oil sanctions that go into effect on July 1.
Iran had already halted oil shipments to France and United Kingdom back in February.
According to an April 10 Reuters report, Iran is now considering halting oil exports to Germany as well.
“…an armed group fired more than three rocket propelled grenades on the pipeline, setting it on fire for the second time in less than two weeks.”-unnamed witness
For the second time this month, an oil pipeline, belonging to Saudi Nimir Petroleum Company, was blown up in Yemen. April 11, 2012, a pipeline carrying crude oil from Shabwa to the Bir Ali terminal on the Gulf of Aden was blown up. It was last attacked on April 2.
This latest attack on the pipeline came one day after anti-government Mujahideen launched a full blown attack against a U.S. supported Yemen army base. Officials, and local elders, say 60 soldiers were killed, and 54 Mujahideen were killed.
The Yemen Mujahideen also blew up a natural gas pipeline on March 30.
“…with the decision of Ministers of Protection and Finance, the Greek police is available for hire by private clientele. However, this means if the Greek police is hired by those who can afford it, there are no available forces for those who cannot.”-Proto Thema, Greek news media outlet
The Greek news media outlet Proto Thema reporting that Greek cops will now be rented out.
Greek officials claim this is the only way they can continue to fund law enforcement.
The cost: About $39 USD per hour for one cop, additional $13 if you need a cop car.
Police patrol boat $261 per hour.
Police helicopter $1,960 per hour.
As you can see, only the elites can afford police protection now, and the “people” are still being forced to pay taxes for such “police protection” that they now won’t get!
Greek officials say they have to go with the rent-a-cop plan because crime has skyrocketed, no shit Sherlock, youth unemployment in Greece is at 50%!
“We have already withdrawn some military forces from several Syrian provinces.”-Walid al-Moualem, Foreign Minister of Syria
The Foreign Minister of Syria made the announcement at the same time U.S. and European media were creating rumors to the contrary.
“The U.S. and other countries which have influence over the Syrian opposition had better stop pointing the finger at China and Russia all the time, but rather use their leverage to convince everyone to stop shooting.”-Sergey Lavrov, Foreign Minister of Russia
Russia says the Syrian government is justified in asking for written guarantees of ceasefire from the U.S./Israeli supported rebels.
The Syrian government has until midnight, April 10/11, to get troops out of cities under the United Nations ceasefire deal. The UN ceasefire plan actually is scheduled to begin on April 12.
“We have decided to identify a range of appropriate defense equipment for joint development and production….which contributes to both countries’ security and presents industrial opportunities.”-Japan-U.K. joint statement
Back on March 14, 2012, U.S. President Barack Obama stated, at a White House press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron, that the U.S. and U.K. would be uniting their militaries, and military industries. I watched the conference live and not one reporter questioned him on that. Now Japan has announced they want to join in!
April 10, 2012, Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, and British Prime Minister David Cameron, have agreed to study the possibility of Japan becoming a partner in joint defense and military research.
Japan has already been working on revising their constitution so their military industries can begin selling weapons to other countries.
This joint military talk comes as Obama issued an executive order, very quietly on March 16, that paves the way for Total War. The main stream media never reported it.
Ever wonder how Corporate America can make money when we Consumers are spending less because most of us have less income? It’s called “tax loopholes”, or “backdoor subsidies”, or “corporate welfare”!
Citizens for Tax Justice, and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, just updated their recent study on how too big to fail Corporate America is making money off the U.S. tax system.
The study, first published in November 2011, showed that so called Corporate America was actually getting paid by the U.S. tax system due to loopholes.
From 2008 through 2010, 30 of the top U.S. corporations actually had negative tax rates, even though the same 30 companies had total pre-tax profits in the hundreds of billions of dollars! All together they had a -7.1% tax rate, but Pepsi led the pack with a -57.6% tax rate, and General Electric took second with -45.3%!
For 2011 the number of corporations with negative tax rates dropped to 26. Pepsi and GE still led the pack with negative tax rates.
Basically what Corporate America is getting is a type of backdoor government subsidy, something right wing neo-conservative Capitalists have always said shouldn’t be done in a true capitalist system.
The study showed that from 2008 through 2011 the 30 companies have received more than $78 billion in total tax subsidies!
Here’s a list of some of the big subsidy recipients: “Wells Fargo alone garnered $21.6 billion in tax subsidies over the four years, followed by General Electric ($10.6 billion), Verizon ($7.7 billion), and Boeing ($6.0 billion).”–Big No-Tax Corps Just Keep on Dodging
Now realize that all this free tax money to Corporate America has not resulted in the creation of the millions of new jobs that are needed to create an economic recovery!
Wake up people!!! “Accordingly, they [elitist individuals & corporations] ink multi-billion dollar agreements and loot the energy, oil, wealth and existence of the nations, whereas they are the major cause of insecurity themselves!”-Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran, April 10, 2012
April 9, 2012, Gerard Canino, president of New York’s First Class Equities, pled guilty to $66 million USD mortgage fraud scheme.
“As the president and owner of First Class Equities, Gerard Canino should have promoted responsible home ownership and protected the integrity of the mortgage finance industry. Instead, he used his firm to commit a massive mortgage fraud scheme that left scores of foreclosed properties in its wake.”-Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney
Canino and his firm recruited “straw buyers”; people who posed as home buyers to purchase distressed properties but who had no intention of paying the mortgages. The bank loans meant for buying the properties actually went to Canino and his co-conspirators. Court papers said the Long Island based firm ran the fraud from 2004 to 2009.
If you think about it, $66 million is a drop in the big bucket of home foreclosures.