ARTICLE 1
Romney revives attacks on Obama’s health-care plan – by Lisa Lerer and Roger Runningen,
Mitt Romney on the campaign trail:?With the Republican presidential nomination secured, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney steps up his criticism of President Obama.
June 13 (Bloomberg) — Mitt Romney pledged to replace the U.S. health-care overhaul with a plan relying on private markets to provide “access to good health care” for every American, as he revived attacks on President Barack Obama’s signature achievement that the U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to rule on.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee told small- business owners in Orlando, Florida, that he would implement policies, including tax breaks, aimed at helping the private market care for the uninsured and those with preexisting medical conditions.
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Obama a non-plutocrat saves money AND YET offers no state oversight Capitalist style (meaning could be very badly run by a profit and ‘cheapness’ oriented and uncaring medical company), Romney sounds ‘commie state controlled’ (AND also a plutocrat?) but will have state oversight (can you say Orwell? Or will this be an exercise selective amnesia and ‘deniability’ no different than if Obama style private run . . . ). Uncontrolled free enterprise from a non-plutocrat vs. Orwellian from a plutocrat. Hegelian dialectic (http://dont-tread-on.me/?tag=hegelian-dialectic)?
Maybe ex-Governer Jesse Ventura has something there, why must each side offer something fundamentally flawed? A 3rd force needs to offer the best of both worlds. The 30% of most profitable companies in the country should directly deduct 50% of after tax profits and offer state run (public accountable open account) medical institutions AND free medical degrees. This way WEALTH DISTRIBUTION can occur. Health is not sympathy or a waste, and a good patriotic company should not begrudge FREE HEALTHCARE from the same citizens feeding their bottomless pit bank accounts and cronies and proxies (who might well be one’s neighbours), even if the profits come from the rest of the world much less locally in the USA where the economy has been failing since Clinton left (maybe Clinton window washed the books’ better?).
Healthcare and education are an obligation of the wealthy corporate sectors and even plutocrats. So how can people be worth 100s of millions (Romney is worth 250 million) while USA rots or has lack of facilities for injured veterans? Living in luxury or sequestering so much wealth while those who fight for the country are abandoned says ALOT, ‘Romney’.
ARTICLE 2
£5million lottery winner ‘claimed housing benefit and income support for 20 months after windfall’
Edward Putman, 46, alleged to have claimed £15,000 in handouts over 20 months by Andrew Levy – PUBLISHED: 16:30 GMT, 12 June 2012 | UPDATED: 07:38 GMT, 13 June 2012
Cashing in: Putman was charged with cashing around £15,000 in income support and housing benefit from the Department of Work and Pensions
When Edward Putman scooped nearly £5million on the Lottery, he asked to have no publicity.
That anonymity was ripped away yesterday when he appeared in court accused of fraudulently claiming £15,000 in benefits after his big win.
The 46-year-old, who lives in a large detached house with a fleet of cars outside, is said to have continued applying for income support and housing benefit nearly two years after receiving his Lotto cheque.
Although he was not convicted yesterday, his barrister said his client would admit two charges of benefit fraud at the next hearing.
The delay came after the Crown Prosecution Service was unable to confirm exactly how much the millionaire owes.
Putman attempted to continue living out of the public eye after yesterday’s hearing when he sprinted from St Albans Magistrates’ Court trying to hide his face with his mobile phone.
He refused to comment at the £600,000 home in the upmarket village of Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, which he shares with his long-term partner. It is understood Putman was unemployed when he won £4,525,058 on September 26, 2009.
Sources said an investigation began after council officers became suspicious when he tried to buy his former one-bed council flat in Hemel Hempstead with cash.
Enquiries found Putman appeared to have continued claiming income support and housing benefit between September 2009 and May last year.
Yesterday, his brother, Raymond, who lives in Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, said: ‘He was absolutely skint and then suddenly he had millions.
‘He won’t be happy people know about his win because he’s a private person. I don’t even know how much he won. He didn’t even tell me about the court case. How crazy.
‘I don’t know if he has been managing the money but he had a BMW, then a Range Rover. There are other cars and motorcycles.
‘He’s also bought friends and family cars. The other week he bought seven Suzuki Swifts to give to people. That’s just him. I hope he doesn’t waste it all.’
Putman’s former partner Gail, who took his name during their time together, said he had hidden the Lotto win from her.
Jailed: In April 2011, Lesley Brogan was jailed for 21 months after she claimed more than £100,000 for her ¿disabled¿ husband, despite the fact that they had won £120,000 on the lottery
Jailed: In April 2011, Lesley Brogan was jailed for 21 months after she claimed more than £100,000 for her ‘disabled’ husband, despite the fact that they had won £120,000 on the lottery
Miss Putman, who had a son by him before they split several years ago, said: ‘I never knew he’d won the Lottery – he never told me. He couldn’t even pay me £5 a month maintenance.
‘If he won this money and he’s done this fraud, what does that tell you about him?’
Miss Putman, who lives in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, added that she believed her former partner had fathered another son with a different woman before starting his current long-term relationship.
Neighbours of Putman’s also revealed how he claimed to be a property developer.
Windfall: Putman’s £600,000 house in the village of Kings Langley, Hertfordshire
One added: ‘I’ve been made redundant three times and when I claimed income support I had to sign on. I had to show them I’d been trying to get a job and going for interviews. How did he claim it for 20 months without them making him get a job?’
Last night it appeared Putman was trying to sell his home. A message posted anonymously on buildinglanduk.co.uk said his house, garden and even his mobile home were up for sale.
It said: ‘I’m not sure how to explain what I have without someone looking but I have a four-bed detached house with a garden which has a mobile home on.’
During yesterday’s five-minute hearing, George Brooker, chairman of the bench, said the case would be adjourned for sentencing until July 3.
The Department for Work and Pensions said: ‘We cannot comment until sentencing.’
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Shows the NHS system is not as modern or as well networked as the taxpeyers are charged for.
ARTICLE 3
The crisis in Syria is deepening and the Assad regime is fighting for its life. The rhythm of the revolution is familiar: The state cracks down on demonstrators throughout the week, inevitably committing some new outrage on its citizens; rage builds and explodes on Friday after prayers; repeat as necessary.
The state’s crackdown seems more futile with each passing week. The Alawite grip on power in Syria seems to be slipping away and the events could foreshadow a similar path in Lebanon.
Imagine a future where Lebanon’s Shia have managed to conquer Lebanon with brute force. The situation seems hardly possible, but Syria faced a similar situation forty years ago. Syria’s Alawites, who comprise only 15% of the population, managed to subdue the nation under Hafez Assad in 1970.
It’s not impossible to imagine something similar in Lebanon. One thousand reasons could be given why this would never happen, but surely the same could be said of Syria all those years ago. While success is unlikely, an attempt is possible.
The Shia are Lebanon’s largest minority, and as such they wield significant political power. Beyond that, Hizballah is considered to be the most powerful fighting force in the country. They have strongholds in the south and in the southern suburbs of Beirut, but do not always feel at home in the cosmopolitan capital.
Lebanon’s Shia for years occupied the bottom of the socio-economic spectrum. Long ago they realized that the only way they would get anything in Lebanon is if they took it with force, as the merchant-class Christians and Sunnis in Beirut would never give up anything willingly. This is the genesis of the Amal Movement in the 1970’s, and later Hizballah.
While it’s impossible to know whether Hizballah will ever gain a monopoly on power in Lebanon, perhaps we can learn something about what their trajectory might look like by considering the Alawite experience in Syria. Consider the following excerpt from a report from the International Crisis Group, “The Syrian People’s Slow-motion Revolution”:
Yet, the sectarian survival instinct upon which the regime relies could backfire. The most die-hard within the security apparatus might well be prepared to fight till the bitter end. But the majority will find it hard to keep this up. After enough of this mindless violence, this same sectarian survival instinct could push them the other way.
After centuries of discrimination and persecution at the hands of the Sunni majority, Alawites and other religious minorities concluded that their villages within relatively inaccessible mountainous areas offered the only genuine sanctuary.
They are unlikely to believe their safety is ensured in the capital (where they feel like transient guests), by the Assad regime (which they view as a temporary, historical anomaly), or through state institutions (which they do not trust). When they begin to feel that the end is near, Alawites might not fight to the last man. They might well return to the mountains. They might well go home.
Partly due to Hizballah’s helps, Lebanon’s Shia have come a long way over the past 40 years. Today the sect wields real power, both politically and militarily. The can bring down the government, as they did this year, and they can take over the capital, which they did in 2008.
But something doesn’t seem right. Hizballah’s actions are becoming more aggressive towards the state, especially since the indictments in the Hariri Tribunal were made known. This week, Hassan Nasrallah announced that the state would never be able to arrest members of Hizballah.
Nasrallah has been vocal in his support for Syria, which badly exposes him as a hypocrite who is grossly out of touch with the Arab tide of history. This was after proclaiming support for protestors in Tunisia and Egypt.
He has also maintained steadfast support for Iran, which also continues to oppress its citizens. Because of these patently opportunistic and self-serving stances, Hizballah’s credibility on the Arab street has to be plummeting, particularly amongst Sunni Arabs.
How long can this keep up? Can Hizballah count on the unconditional support of the common Shia? Is there a limit to what they will accept? Hizballah’s support for authoritarian regimes, coupled with its ultra-aggressive posturing at home, will only lead to growing isolation for the group, and the Shia by extension.
The common enemy in the Middle East used to be the United States, which had supported the likes of Mubarak and Ben Ali for decades. But in 2011, Arabs realized that instead of getting the United States to abandon its support for the region’s dictators, they had to remove the dictators themselves. And they’re doing right now.
Suddenly, corrupt and oppressive regimes became the enemy (whether they supported the US or not) and Hizballah found itself on the wrong side of history. With the region’s political calculus undergoing such significant changes, it follows that Hizballah would alter its strategies accordingly. But they didn’t and in the process revealed themselves to be little more than an outpost of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, beholden to the Ayatollah instead of their constituents.
The question then becomes whether we will see any daylight developing between Hizballah and the “average Shia”. It’s not clear how unconditional support is for Hizballah amongst the Shia, but there are signs of cracks developing. The downfall of the group’s financial chief, penetration by Israeli spies, support for brutal regimes in Iran and Syria, isolation from Sunnis, and isolation from the world in general… both the group and the sect are under tremendous pressure.
The whole situation seems to be coming to a head. There are just too many highly-volatile moving pieces. It’s likely that Hizballah can count on its sectarian constituents if push comes to shove; the Shia won’t have any choice. The shoves will be coming from the Sunnis and the Shia will likely close ranks and band together in the event of a civil conflict.
But it is unclear how far rank and file Shia will go in support of the Party of God. Perhaps a look at the fate of Syria’s Alawites over the last 40 years can give some clues.
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Potentially the Saudi Sunnites are attempting to take control of all factions by toppling ‘somewhat secular and moderate (though dictator run) governments’ via ‘Arab Springs’ but things aren’t exactly goin the way they want . . . Alawites and Sufis or even Druzes are very much more suitable for Caliphate, simply by virtue of fact that Sunnites and Shiites have BOTH involved themselves in persecutions and killings of fellow Muslims from other sects far much more than the above 3.
As for Padishah Emperors, England and the West burnt their last bridge to the Middle East when Dodi Fayyed died along with Diana. Were the Royals more cautious, (no offense to Charles), an alternate reality where Diana lived and married Dodi had children, and the English monarchy somehow was succeeded by the progeny of the above couple instead of/with Charles AND William AND Harry out of the picture (not necessarily dead but just out), Persia if revived could yet be controlled from England. But too bad eh? No proxy Padishas for England even as King of England and Emperor of India was the title of the English sovereign! And Iran is very pissed with England with not an Ayatollah on the ‘West’s side! Good on Charles likely taking over the throne though, continuity is important though Camilla being Queen should no longer be an issue internally at least, to those who did not love Princess Di that much at any rate.
ARTICLE 4
Falkland Islanders to get historic referendum on whether they want to stay British – by Richard Hartley-parkinson – PUBLISHED: 13:34 GMT, 12 June 2012 | UPDATED: 14:59 GMT, 12 June 2012
Island government hopes to send message to Argentina that they want to remain British
Vote comes 30 years after 27,000 troops repelled Argentinian invaders
Vote set to take place in the first half of next year
The Falkland Islands are to hold a referendum on their ‘political status’ – hoping to bring an end to the continuing dispute with Argentina over the islands’ sovereignty, their government said today.
The announcement comes as Falklanders prepare to mark the 30th anniversary of the liberation of the islands.
Three decades after Margaret Thatcher sent 27,000 troops and more than 100 ships to repel the Argentinian invaders, Buenos Aires continues to set its sights on claiming the territory it calls Las Malvinas.
Disputed territory: Falkland Islanders are to be given a vote to allow them to say whether they want to be considered as British or Argentinian
Disputed territory: Falkland Islanders are to be given a vote to allow them to say whether they want to be considered as British or Argentinian
But the Falkland Islands government said it hopes a referendum will send a firm message to Argentinian president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner that islanders want to remain British.
Reacting to the announcement, Foreign Office minister Jeremy Browne said this is a ‘truly significant moment’.
The Falkland Islands, a rocky archipelago in the South Atlantic, are 7,780 miles from the UK and 1,140 miles from Buenos Aires.
Calls to stop British aid money pouring into Argentina: Country owes UK taxpayers £225MILLION
Prince Edward and wife Sophie look relaxed as they touch down in front of Rock of Gibraltar for controversial visit
Spanish fury over Prince Edward’s ‘deeply unfortunate’ royal visit to Gibraltar
They have been under British control since 1833 – apart from the brief but bitter 74 days of occupation in 1982.
Gavin Short, chairman of the Legislative Assembly, said: ‘We are holding this referendum not because we have any doubts about who we are and what future we want, but to show the world just how certain we are about it.
‘I have no doubt that the people of the Falklands wish for the islands to remain a self-governing overseas territory of the United Kingdom.
The vote comes 30 years after Margaret Thatcher sent 27,000 troops and more than 100 ships to repel Argentinian invaders
The vote comes 30 years after Margaret Thatcher sent 27,000 troops and more than 100 ships to repel Argentinian invaders
‘We certainly have no desire to be ruled by the government in Buenos Aires, a fact that is immediately obvious to anyone who has visited the islands and heard our views.
‘But we are aware that not everybody is able to come to these beautiful islands and to see this reality for themselves.
‘And the Argentine government deploys misleading rhetoric that wrongly implies that we have no strong views or even that we are being held hostage by the UK military. This is simply absurd.’
The Falkland Islands has a population of around 3,000 people, with just over half on the electoral roll and expected to take part in the vote.
The referendum will be organised by the Falkland Islands government and will take place in the first half of next year.
Mr Short said: ‘We have thought carefully about how to convey a strong message to the outside world that expresses the views of the Falklands people in a clear, democratic and incontestable way.
‘So we have decided, with the full support of the British Government, to hold a referendum on the Falkland Islands to eliminate any possible doubt about our wishes.’
The Falklands government said it intends to invite international observers to verify the outcome of the referendum.
It added that exact timings, the specific wording of the question and other details will be announced in the coming weeks.
Argentina’s Ms de Kirchner has been heating up the debate over the islands as key milestones in the 1982 conflict have passed.
Last week she announced that Buenos Aires would be launching criminal proceedings against UK oil firms that are operating off the Falkland’s coastline, saying they were operating illegally.
Britain has accused the country of implementing a number of economic blockades on the small, isolated islands and of acting in a ‘domineering way’.
But British officials are adamant that there will be no change in the UK’s sovereignty of the islands unless and until the Falklanders themselves wish it.
Mr Browne, who arrived in the Falkland Islands yesterday, welcomed the announcement of a referendum.
Foreign Office minister Jeremy Browne said the referendum is a ‘truly significant moment’
Foreign Office minister Jeremy Browne said the referendum is a ‘truly significant moment’
‘Only the Falkland Islands people can determine how they wish to be governed, so I very much support this initiative by the Falkland Islands government,’ he said.
‘Indeed, I believe this referendum is a truly significant moment.
‘It will give the Falkland Islands people the opportunity to send a clear message – not just to Argentina, but to the whole of the international community – that the islanders, and they alone, are masters of their fate.’
He added that the British Government would respect whatever the outcome of the referendum might be.
Islanders hope the referendum will send a clear message to Argentinian president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner that they want to remain British
Islanders hope the referendum will send a clear message to Argentinian president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner that they want to remain British
‘I call on all governments who prize democracy and human rights to do likewise,’ Mr Browne added.
‘Whilst it is for the islanders to choose, let me be clear: the British Government greatly values the links between the UK and the Falkland Islands.
‘We believe these should continue and deepen, long into the future.
‘And if this proves to be the will of the Falkland Islands people, then we in the UK will not just respect it, but will continue actively to defend this act of self-determination from those who seek to challenge it.’
The Government called for the referendum just two days before Ms de Kirchner is due to attend a UN committee in New York on de-colonisation.
During the meeting she is expected to put the Argentinian position on the Falkland Islands.
She will also be addressed by a group of young Falkland Islanders, most of whom were not born when the Falklands War took place in 1982.
Speaking from London yesterday, they said they often get drowned out by the arguments over sovereignty taking place between the UK and Argentina.
This will be the first referendum held on the islands, but in a poll in the mid-1980s, 94.5% of those who took part supported staying British.
Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell, secretary of the All Party Parliamentary Group on the Falkland Islands, said it was an ‘extremely important decision’ that would determine ‘once and for all’ the wishes of the islands’ inhabitants.
He said he expected a ‘very similar result’ to that in a referendum held by Gibraltar in 2002, in which the idea of Britain sharing sovereignty with Spain was rejected by 98.5% of residents.
‘It will make it clear once and for all what the Falklands Islands want for their own destiny,’ he said.
‘I hope that the Argentinian government will respect the democratic wishes of the islanders.’
Prime Minister David Cameron said Britain would ‘respect and defend’ the outcome of the referendum.
‘I have always said that it is up to the Falkland Islanders themselves to choose whether they want to be British and that the world should listen to their views,’ he said.
‘Thirty years ago they made clear that they wanted to stay British. That’s why British forces bravely liberated the island from Argentine invaders.
‘Now the Argentine government wants to put that choice in doubt again, by shouting down the Islanders’ ability to speak for themselves and punishing them for exercising their own free choice.
‘That’s why it’s absolutely right that the Islanders have today set out how they intend to make their voices heard once more. And Britain will be resolute in supporting their choice.
‘Next year’s referendum will determine beyond doubt the views of the people of the Falklands. Britain will respect and defend their choice.
‘We look to all UN members to live up to their responsibilities under the UN charter and accept the Islanders’ decision about how they want to live.’
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Won’t work. EEZ and continental shelf makes Malvinas belong to Argentine. Also if Malvinas residents want to change aspects of the law, they can very well elect someone who will speak for them. Where sovereignty is concerned, no go. Check with the UN, those islands were forcibly colonized. Just because alot of ethnically foreign citizens congregate in a particular district does npt gove them rights to seccession. In which case, Chinese citizens and their larger Chinatowns worldwide might as well vote for democratic rights in a ‘decision’ to be part of China and not the host nation! Prime Minister Wenjiabao might as well say China would ‘respect and defend’ the outcome of the referendum of those Chinatowns as well. This is deliberate twisting the intent of the UN Charter. Such skewed views and reporting are illegal and actionable for sure.
ARTICLE 5
Argentina loses a third of its dollar deposits – Fri, May 25 2012
Argentine CDS spiral on “peso-fication” fear
China moves in right direction on bank flexibility
Fri Jun 8, 2012 4:46pm EDT
* Argentines reacting to foreign exchange restrictions
* About $100 mln in dollars withdrawn every day
* Rush toward greenback started in November
By Jorge Otaola
BUENOS AIRES, June 8 (Reuters) – Argentine banks have seen a third of their U.S. dollar deposits withdrawn since November as savers chase greenbacks in response to stiffening foreign exchange restrictions, local banking sources said on Friday.
Depositors withdrew a total of about $100 million per day over the last month in a safe-haven bid fueled by uncertainty over policies that might be adopted as pressure grows to keep U.S. currency in the country.
The chase for dollars is motivated by fear that the government may further toughen its clamp down on access to the U.S. currency as high inflation and lack of faith in government policy erode the local peso.
“Deposits keep going down,” said one foreign exchange broker who asked not to be named. “There is a disparity among banks, but in total it’s about $80 million to $120 million per day.”
U.S. dollar deposits of Argentine banks fell 11.2 percent in the preceding three weeks to $11.5 billion, according to central bank data released on Friday. The run on the greenback has waxed and waned since November, after President Cristina Fernandez won a second term on promises of deepening the state’s role in the economy.
From May 11 until Friday, data compiled by Reuters from private banks showed $1.9 billion in U.S. currency had been withdrawn, or about 15 percent of all greenbacks deposited in the country.
Feisty populist leader Fernandez was re-elected in October vowing to “deepen the model” of the interventionist policies associated with her predecessor, Nestor Kirchner, who is also her late husband.
Since then she has limited imports, imposed capital controls and seized a majority stake in top energy company YPF.
A spokesman for the central bank said on Friday that the rate of dollar withdrawal from Argentina’s financial system shows signs of slowing.
“We have seen a tendency toward fewer withdrawals, to about $90 million (per day) over the last week from $120 million the week before,” the spokesman said a day after the bank lifted daily reserve requirements on dollar deposits to help banks respond to steady drum beat of withdrawals.
DITCHING HER DOLLARS
The near-impossibility of buying dollars at the official rate is driving some savers and investors to pay a hefty premium in the black market.
Many are taking what dollars they can get their hands on and stashing them under the mattress or in safety deposit boxes, fearing moves by the government to forcibly “de-dollarize” the economy. Officials have strongly denied any such plan.
The president’s battle to slow capital flight and fatten the central bank reserves needed to pay the public debt has prompted even tighter controls in recent weeks, making it almost impossible to buy dollars at the official rate. The effects have been felt throughout the South American country’s economy.
For example. Argentines, who normally pay for new homes with stacks of dollar bills, have been struggling to get their hands on U.S. currency since Fernandez started imposing stringent controls on dollar buying late last year. [ ID :nL1E8H6EZ8]
She wants Argentines to end their love affair with the greenback and start saving in pesos despite inflation clocked by private economists at about 25 percent per year.
Fernandez set an example on Wednesday by vowing to swap her only dollar-denominated savings account for a fixed-term deposit in pesos.
But savers in crisis-prone Argentina are notoriously jittery. Memories of tight limits on bank withdrawals and a sharp currency devaluation remain fresh a decade after the country’s massive sovereign debt default.
“There is a lot of fear, considering everything that has happened before,” another foreign exchange broker said. “Confronted by risk, whatever kind of doubt, depositors pull their dollars out of the bank and wait to see what happens. (Writing by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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Demogoguery and bully reporting. Hot money is not real money. Fiat money is not real money. The numbers flowing out of USA are mostly monetized debt held by ‘rich’ people who can NEVER claim or materialise that wealth from the 99% that ‘owes’ the system of usury and money that is not even real. Banks are a joke. And this is worse when a supposedly respectable outfit like Reuters cannot understand that fiat and banks are NOT the real economy of REAL GOODS and REAL SERVICES, rather than a plutocrat CONMAN posing as wealthy with the number of zeros in that bank account.
Prices are overinflated, wealth is overstated and based upon empty populations ‘owing’ money or getting indebted in ‘student loans’ while being unable to access land banks that belong to them as a collective of citizens who are part of the country that politicians keep from owning the same land via laws. The 99%ters had better start voting politicians that understand and will act on the above (and quit after 2 terms instead of creating medieval satrapies). That sort of money is both unaccountable and unenforceable, plutocrats are living on the goodwill of the ntion’s citizens and collusion by foreign governments. Argentina need not worry about outflows, there were no inflows to begin with. Dollars especially are worth nothing, the debt of USA is enough to lower the value to 0.000,000,001% or even less (USA has 10 trillion or more in debt, so what is the true value of the currency? Nothing more than what one can count in cents.)
ARTICLE 6
Earth nearing ‘tipping point,’ study warns By Stephanie Pappas
Earth is rapidly headed toward a catastrophic breakdown if humans don’t get their act together, according to an international group of scientists.
Writing Wednesday (June 6) in the journal Nature, the researchers warn that the world is headed toward a tipping point marked by extinctions and unpredictable changes on a scale not seen since the glaciers retreated 12,000 years ago.
“There is a very high possibility that by the end of the century, the Earth is going to be a very different place,” study researcher Anthony Barnosky told LiveScience. Barnosky, a professor of integrative biology from the University of California, Berkeley, joined a group of 17 other scientists to warn that this new planet might not be a pleasant place to live.
“You can envision these state changes as a fast period of adjustment where we get pushed through the eye of the needle,” Barnosky said. “As we’re going through the eye of the needle, that’s when we see political strife, economic strife, war and famine.” [ Top 10 Ways to Destroy Earth ]
The danger of tipping
Barnosky and his colleagues reviewed research on climate change, ecology and Earth’s tipping points that break the camel’s back, so to speak. At certain thresholds, putting more pressure on the environment leads to a point of no return, Barnosky said. Suddenly, the planet responds in unpredictable ways, triggering major global transitions.
The most recent example of one of these transitions is the end of the last glacial period. Within not much more than 3,000 years, the Earth went from being 30 percent covered in ice to its present, nearly ice-free condition. Most extinctions and ecological changes (goodbye, woolly mammoths) occurred in just 1,600 years. Earth’s biodiversity still has not recovered to what it was.
Today, Barnosky said, humans are causing changes even faster than the natural ones that pushed back the glaciers — and the changes are bigger. Driven by a 35 percent increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide since the start of the Industrial Revolution, global temperatures are rising faster than they did back then, Barnosky said.
Likewise, humans have completely transformed 43 percent of Earth’s land surface for cities and agriculture, compared with the 30 percent land surface transition that occurred at the end of the last glacial period. Meanwhile, the human population has exploded, putting ever more pressure on existing resources. [ 7 Billion Population Milestones ]
“Every change we look at that we have accomplished in the past couple of centuries is actually more than what preceded one of these major state changes in the past,” Barnosky said.
Backing away from the ledge
The results are difficult to predict, because tipping points, by their definition, take the planet into uncharted territory. Based on past transitions, Barnosky and his colleagues predict a major loss of species (during the end of the last glacial period, half of the large-bodied mammal species in the world disappeared), as well as changes in the makeup of species in various communities on the local level. Meanwhile, humans may well be knotting our own noose as we burn through Earth’s resources.
“These ecological systems actually give us our life support, our crops, our fisheries, clean water,” Barnosky said. As resources shift from one nation to another, political instability can easily follow.
Pulling back from the ledge will require international cooperation, Barnosky said. Under business-as-usual conditions, humankind will be using 50 percent of the land surface on the planet by 2025. It seems unavoidable that the human population will reach 9 billion by 2050, so we’ll have to become more efficient to sustain ourselves, he said. That means more efficient energy use and energy production, a greater focus on renewable resources, and a need to save species and habitat today for future generations.
“My bottom line is that I want the world in 50 to 100 years to be at least as good as it is now for my children and their children, and I think most people would say the same,” Barnosky said. “We’re at a crossroads where if we choose to do nothing we really do face these tipping points and a less-good future for our immediate descendents.”
Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas or LiveScience @livescience. We’re also on Facebook & Google+.
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What are you Stephanie? A 2D videogame? Think 3D and know that this ‘Earth at Tipping Point’ B.S. is MSM scare mongering :
See response to article 4 :
ARTICLE 7
Obama campaign plan for private sector? Hire more teachers, firefighters – Published June 10, 2012
FoxNews.com
President Obama’s top campaign strategist said Sunday that the country needs to “accelerate” job creation in the private sector — by hiring more teachers, police and firefighters.
David Axelrod made the comment as he continued to perform damage control for the president, who said Friday during a press conference that the private sector’s “doing fine.” But Axelrod drew rapid-fire ridicule from conservatives, after he called for more public-sector hiring to address private-sector economic issues.
“The private sector, we need to accelerate job creation in the private sector,” Axelrod told CNN’s “State of the Union,” before adding: “One of the ways that we can do that is putting teachers and firefighters and police back to work because those are good middle-class jobs.”
Told that teachers and firefighters are part of the public sector, Axelrod continued to defend his statement. “But that will help accelerate the recovery,” Axelrod said.
Axelrod also pointed to a proposed small business tax credit and refinancing program as ways to help the private sector.
The political adviser appeared on two Sunday shows in large part to answer questions about the president’s comments Friday, when Obama had to publicly backpedal after initially diagnosing the private sector as “fine.”
Axelrod seemed to acknowledge that the private sector still needs help, but argued that it’s doing far better than the public sector and continued to press for the president’s goal of more teachers and police officers.
Axelrod said the private sector grew by 4.3 million jobs over the last 27 months, while the public sector lost jobs. He said the president’s critics are “more eager to have a debate over an out-of-context clause in his remarks than the substance of what he said.”
Republican strategists were closely watching Axelrod’s interviews. The Republican National Committee on Twitter accused him of trying to avoid answering questions about Obama’s comment, calling the CNN interview “awkward.”
“When even your own chief strategist can’t defend your comments, it indicates that your assessment of the economy might be wrong,” the Romney campaign said in an email.
Meanwhile, the Romney camp put out a blistering new web ad, which features people talking about their struggles in the current economic climate — and then plays the clip of Obama saying the private sector is “doing fine” three times.
On ABC’s “This Week,” though, Axelrod accused Romney of responding to the comment by pushing for fewer teachers, police and firefighters.
“I would suggest he’s living on a different planet if he thinks that’s a prescription for a stronger economy,” he said.
[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]
Hegelian dialectic at work? Romney has the choice right. Less public funded people. As of now On the other hand Romney is just not the ‘everyman’ or Joe Public President being worth 500 times a 401K. Obama may have closer to grass roots level of wealth, but this ‘hire more’ thing is ridiculous as talking about Mars NASA missions when the Middle East wars are not even finished AND with a debt overhang that could well collapse the fiat currency system worldwide. Try the below for why Obama is not thinking correctly here (1 employee’s salary and benefits could easily mean 10 people on welfare . . . so what will the other 9 people do? ) :
Observations on Parasite Bureaucracy Paradigms (circa Jan 2012) :
ARTICLE 8
‘Manifest Destiny’ – The Still Growing Global Tyranny – by Jim Kirwan – 1-10-12
The weapons and the boots may be much different now than they were when America declared that we could do what we did because of “Manifest Destiny,” But the crimes we are committing today are the same ones that we used to conquer this continent so long ago. We slaughtered over five thousand native-nations, destroyed their languages and their religions while we began polluting their waters and their lands. At that time we claimed the “right” of our self-imposed “Manifest Destiny” that was used to justify the entire desecration of “The New World” (North, Central & South America). This arrogant slander against all the other peoples in the world today has become a global cancer that is killing its global-host with every passing day.
This is what we are attempting to initiate in Africa, the Middle-East and the Far East as well as the Pacific Rim nation-states. The US accounts for only 6% of the global population and yet together with our criminal-ally Zionist-Occupied Israel, we seek to claim all the rest of the world for our élite owners while we classify the vast global population as un-people. We crushed the native populations here and turned the survivors into slaves from the 15th through the twentieth century and never looked back. What this nation has done in the name of Manifest Destiny is beyond criminal, because we raped and looted this land and its people: Now we are seeking to do the same to the whole world, as Israel has been doing to the Palestinians for the last 63 years; which has turned every nation into an OCCUPIED place where having your own thoughts becomes a criminal offence punishable by torture, life in prison or death, at the slightest whim of whichever sock-puppet happens to sit in an office in Washington D.C.
This is why Americans must now SURRENDER everything we once thought we owned, along with all our unalienable rights that came with birth. Today the New World Order will decide for all of us just who can live and who must die! Take a look at the new Obama Plan for “Healthcare-in-America’ as envisioned by the same forces that want to own you, your children and your dreams. A ten minute video (1)
To accomplish this, the elite’s have tried to crush the freedoms from tyranny what were signed into law in 1297 that was and still is called the Magna Carta. This document became the bedrock upon which this Republic was founded. After the Robber-Barons were chained up and the corporations were limited after they had publicly wrecked the American-economy; virtually every effort going forward was designed to reverse that loss of prestige along with their determination to crush every freedom that might ever threaten their criminal way of business and life, in what they saw as their rightful place at the very top of global society. What we’re seeing now is their final move against the US Constitution, after having spent decades smashing up the Magna Carta. Apparently this is ‘just fine’ with all the simple-minded who are seemingly accepting this without so much as a whisper of complaint.
Some have already begun to call for the imposition of Martial Law to protect themselves from a public that is becoming increasingly intolerant of these global-criminals that are stealing more and more of everything from our jobs to our health and all the way down to our every thought.
It’s fascinating that during all this time from the Magna Carta forward the world has only had one real Renaissance (a rebirth of the arts and letters that counterbalances the sciences and politics). While in that same period of time the world has suffered through hundreds if not thousands of Inquisitions wherein millions died to appease the greed and dreams-of-deluded power, that have continued to plague the so-called civilized world. Yet that spark of the fire that illuminates real life has not yet been extinguished. And as long as there are those of us who are willing to literally risk everything-just to live free-then no matter how much the Dark Side spends they can never defeat the global-human-race!
The world has suffered through so many religious and political fantasies for so long that most can’t imagine a world without these monsters: But such a world could exist if people simply recognized how much we all have in common beyond the artificial divisions that the darkness tries to use to defeat us (race, religion, ethnicity, sexual identifications, habits and appetites) because in the end what we share are the same dreams, the same blood that runs through all races and creeds, and the same desires for a world with better tomorrows on every horizon.
What we have gotten instead from those ancient Robber-barons and their latest generations has been going backwards since before the First World War There’s a reason that there were three of these global Wars planned. It’s all about money and power and manipulation of everyone else that is more interested in living than in the minutia that is constantly used to steal virtually everything from those that have earned it all, and yet who remain screwed to the hilt by the criminal-elements that are no longer blocked by any laws or any expectations from the people they are determined to dominate without mercy or cessation. Three World Wars were needed to reposition the global-financial-criminality into that place where there would be NO CHOICE for their intended vicitms except to UNCONDITIONALLY SURRENDER or perish!
For those who have no interest in lengthy history, you need only go as far back as Reagan (32 years ago) to grasp exactly what has happened to this nation. Under that un-American bastard we lost almost all of what had made this country what it was (for a very brief time)-as we tried to convert our colonial-Empire into that beacon of hope which our Constitution seemed to promise to every American. The problem was and still is that the only way that could have happened was IF we paid attention to our government and to what it was doing when the spotlights were turned off. But instead of paying attention we bought into all the distractions and the toys and thereby sealed our own future with a graveyard that marks the end of the promise and the beginnings of an ABSOLUTE-SURRENDER that is predicated upon the self-fulfilling prophecy that says: RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!
We have suffered many reverses of late, and now we are undergoing an inundation of new “laws” that are without legitimacy because they were constructed outside the strictures of the Constitution and as such they must be moot upon arrival. The US Constitution is the Supreme Law of this land; not the Supreme Court, not the Congress and most especially NOT the president because this is a Constitutional Republic, not a Monarchy, not a dictatorship and not even the Police-State it has become. None of these deviations from the constitution are legal and all it takes to erase these artificial constructs that have been IMPOSED upon us by pre-emptive-political strikes against the very heart of this nation by unilaterally directed interests hell-bent on stealing all the wealth of this land and its people, before murdering more than four-fifths of the population. This is exactly what we did to Central and South America, which is why they largely did not participate in WWI or WWII except as escape havens for the combatants in those wars. Simply put we could not trust those people with arms and ammunition, because we had already done to them what is planned for us today. And with arms they might have decided to rebel, so they were excused from most of those first two wars.
When Gadaffi made overtures to Venezuela’s Chavez, to join forces (Africa and South America) in order to resist the Rothschilds DEBTOR Banks as well as their virtual total control over their own countries, Gadaffi’s fate was sealed, and apparently Chavez now has suddenly contracted terminal cancer?
The reason is that Colonial America was only using Central and South America as cadaver’s while we drained their life blood, all the resources we could transfer to our criminal corporations under color of hemispheric cooperation-but in truth we had already done that to everyone else in this hemisphere, with some form of what we seek now to do to the USA. This colonial-disease of bloody-Empires has been around far too long and must be ended globally; unless we want to join in making their victory over the whole planet a total success for them and a near total defeat for the rest of us.
Ronnie Reagan was famous for asking “Are you better off today than you were before?” It was his way of saying that he could bring a better world to everyone if he were elected. He promised smaller government but he increased the size of government by 300%. He promised continued prosperity (the USat the time was the world’s leading Creditor nation). By the time he left office the US had become the world’s leading debtor-nation, making the US in fact the worst risk for investment on the planet, in just eight years.
Ronnie opened the door to what became the tidal-wave of illegal immigration, to benefit his rich supporters who didn’t want to pay a living wage to keep on making billions. Reagan also introduced American trained Death-Squads, to keep order in South and Central America and he and Bush’s daddy set up the Arms-for-Hostages swap in Iran that ended as soon as he was ‘selected’. His administration also oversaw the Drug War going deep into criminality with CIA flights that carried weapons to the “freedom fighter/terrorists”) throughout the region in exchange for drugs that he established and it continued under Clinton. Of course Ronnie was an imbecile and just another sock puppet but he should have been impeached. Just as LBJ, Nixon, Clinton and Poppy, along with George Junior. All of these TRAITORS should have each been impeached for TREASON. But because Americans were too pre-occupied with raking in the profits from all these illegal wars, nothing happened to any of our national criminal leaders. That’s why we are where we are now-because we FAILED to demand that these creatures be held to account for everything that has continued since LBJ tried to allow the USS Liberty to be sunk for Israel.
Now we have watched al these crimes morph into this:
“Apparently having goons grope the public nearly every step of the way as they walk under the watchful eyes of full-spectrum surveillance just isn’t good enough.
The new Bureau of Counterterrorism was announced on January 4th by Obama’s State Department as an agency with,
The mission . . . to lead the [State] Department in the U.S. Government’s effort to counter terrorism abroad and to secure the United States against foreign terrorist threats. The bureau will lead in supporting U.S.counterterrorism diplomacy and seek to strengthen homeland security, countering violent extremism, and build the capacity of partner nations to deal effectively with terrorism. (Source)
Probably the least comforting part of this announcement is the use of the term “violent extremism.” It is under this very flexible definition which allows the agents of tyranny to assign it to anyone, at any time, thus making them susceptible to the full arsenal of the War on Terror, which we now know includes the indefinite torture and murder of American citizens on American soil.” (2)
Out of that nightmare that was designed to hide the Nuclear Blackmail that Israel is holding over the heads of every so-called American president. (This is the basis for our so-called SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT with that shitty little place that is still not even a nation.
“Many of you are no doubt scratching your heads, wondering why every elected president turns back on his campaign promises the second the inauguration is complete. Believe me, the corruption of American elected officials is not that deep. You cannot elect several presidents in sequence, and have them all perfectly screw the country, ESPECIALLY the way Bush and Obama did; they had their reason, and it is called NUCLEAR BLACKMAIL.
What if they never wanted to renig (at least not so completely)? What about Obama? And what about the other countries, which also screwed their people the same way? Why is it seemingly a universal truth, that all governments around the world are simultaneously going against the will of their people, in favor of the Jewish bankers and Israel?
I believe I have figured it out, and I have documented it.
I am going to tell you the how and why of Israel’s dirty little secret – how they got their nuclear offensive capability in place, why they decided on the chosen method, and how they ended up using it.” (3)
If we ever want another chance to have-a-life, then we must begin to push back the cops and to charge every officer that puts hands or batons on people without just cause-because every time that happens it is ASSAULT, and it is a crime being committed every day whenever any thug in uniform starts the physical trouble within any confrontation.
kirwanstudios@sbcglobal.net
1) The Government Health Plan 10 min 29 sec VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=HcBaSP31Be8&vg=medium
2) Obama administration gives birth to New Agents of Tyranny
http://www.activistpost.com/2012/01/obama-administration-gives-birth-to-new.html
3) Jim Stone: Nuclear Blackmail
http://www.jimstonefreelance.com/
ARTICLE 9
Nick Clegg ‘backs stripping better-off pensioners of their benefits’ in another row with David Cameron
Lib Dems tell MailOnline Mr Clegg believes millionaires should be lose their handouts
But David Cameron wants them to keep all perks because it is one of his key election promises
By Martin Robinson – PUBLISHED: 11:19 GMT, 7 June 2012 | UPDATED: 12:14 GMT, 7 June 2012
Rich pensioners should be stripped of their free bus passes and winter fuel allowances, Nick Clegg has said.
The Deputy Prime Minister has gone nose-to-nose with David Cameron over the issue as yet another huge split has appeared at the heart of the Coalition, it was claimed today.
Mr Clegg has admitted privately he would happily see all but the very poor lose their handouts so the Department for Work and Pensions can cut its £5 billion elderly benefits budget.
But the Prime Minister is adamant that he will not take away perks like free prescriptions and TV licences, even for millionaire pensioners, because it is one of his key election promises.
Nick Clegg
DC
Loggerheads: Nick Clegg has admitted he would allow benefit cuts for rich pensioners but David Cameron will try to block this to protect an election pledge
The Prime Minister is already at loggerheads with Tory Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan-Smith over the matter and is also nervous about the impact of the so called ‘Granny Tax’, which is set to reduce their weekly pension payments.
And as the Coalition has been widely criticised for being slow to make decisions, Nick Clegg’s views have revealed another cabinet split.
‘This is all about whether the richest should be getting those benefits’ a Lib Dem spokesman told MailOnline today.
Enlarge Rightfully yours: Pension Credit is designed to help those on smaller incomes and reward saving
Changes: All but the most hard-up pensioners could lose some of their benefits
‘If you’re faced with helping the wealthiest pensioners or helping the vulnerable across Britain then his priority is the vulnerable people across the country who need the help most,’ he added.
David Cameron said during the live TV election debates in 2010 that he would not cut any of the key benefits for pensioners.
But he has come under pressure ever since because some critics believe too many pensioners get them even though they have enough money to get by.
Lib Dem stalwart Lord Oakeshott has called on winter fuel payments to be taxed after he worked out that almost 700 peers get £200 to £300 annually to heat their homes.
‘Nick Clegg had to eat humble pie on tuition fees, so David Cameron can at least swallow a slice now for fairness,’ he said said.
But Downing Street and the Department for Work and Pensions have today backed David Cameron.
A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions told MailOnline: ‘This is speculation and were are continuing to protect key support for pensioners including winter fuel payments, which make an important contribution to the fuel costs of pensioners.’
A No 10 source added to the Guardian: ‘The coalition agreement is absolutely clear and it reflects the promises the Prime Minister made before the election.’
[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]
Cameron = One track mind, inflexible posing as pledge worthy. Clegg = thinking ‘cents’. England = near bankruptcy, do the math and pick the man who makes SENSE. Those millionaires don’t need those passes, the country does need their cents, and every single cent counts.
‘The coalition agreement is absolutely clear and it reflects the promises the Prime Minister made before the election.’ . . . but does not take into account the state of the English economy.
ARTICLE 10
US Navy hopes stealth ship answers a rising China – Associated PressBy ERIC TALMADGE | Associated Press – Mon, Jun 4, 2012
The DDG-1000 Zumwalt, the U.S. Navy’s next-generation destroyer, which has been funded to be built at Bath Iron Works in Maine and at Northrop Grumman’s shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss. The super-stealthy warship that could underpin the U.S. navy’s China strategy will be able to sneak up on coastlines virtually undetected and pound targets with electromagnetic “railguns” right out of a sci-fi movie. (AP Photo/Bath Iron Works, File)
SINGAPORE (AP) — A super-stealthy warship that could underpin the U.S. navy’s China strategy will be able to sneak up on coastlines virtually undetected and pound targets with electromagnetic “railguns” right out of a sci-fi movie.
But at more than $3 billion a pop, critics say the new DDG-1000 destroyer sucks away funds that could be better used to bolster a thinly stretched conventional fleet. One outspoken admiral in China has scoffed that all it would take to sink the high-tech American ship is an armada of explosive-laden fishing boats.
With the first of the new ships set to be delivered in 2014, the stealth destroyer is being heavily promoted by the Pentagon as the most advanced destroyer in history — a silver bullet of stealth. It has been called a perfect fit for what Washington now considers the most strategically important region in the world — Asia and the Pacific.
Though it could come in handy elsewhere, like in the Gulf region, its ability to carry out missions both on the high seas and in shallows closer to shore is especially important in Asia because of the region’s many island nations and China’s long Pacific coast.
“With its stealth, incredibly capable sonar system, strike capability and lower manning requirements — this is our future,” Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations, said in April after visiting the shipyard in Maine where they are being built.
On a visit to a major regional security conference in Singapore that ended Sunday, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the Navy will be deploying 60 percent of its fleet worldwide to the Pacific by 2020, and though he didn’t cite the stealth destroyers he said new high-tech ships will be a big part of its shift.
The DDG-1000 and other stealth destroyers of the Zumwalt class feature a wave-piercing hull that leaves almost no wake, electric drive propulsion and advanced sonar and missiles. They are longer and heavier than existing destroyers — but will have half the crew because of automated systems and appear to be little more than a small fishing boat on enemy radar.
Down the road, the ship is to be equipped with an electromagnetic railgun, which uses a magnetic field and electric current to fire a projectile at several times the speed of sound.
But cost overruns and technical delays have left many defense experts wondering if the whole endeavor was too focused on futuristic technologies for its own good.
They point to the problem-ridden F-22 stealth jet fighter, which was hailed as the most advanced fighter ever built but was cut short because of prohibitive costs. Its successor, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, has swelled up into the most expensive procurement program in Defense Department history.
“Whether the Navy can afford to buy many DDG-1000s must be balanced against the need for over 300 surface ships to fulfill the various missions that confront it,” said Dean Cheng, a China expert with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research institute in Washington. “Buying hyperexpensive ships hurts that ability, but buying ships that can’t do the job, or worse can’t survive in the face of the enemy, is even more irresponsible.”
The Navy says it’s money well spent. The rise of China has been cited as the best reason for keeping the revolutionary ship afloat, although the specifics of where it will be deployed have yet to be announced. Navy officials also say the technologies developed for the ship will inevitably be used in other vessels in the decades ahead.
But the destroyers’ $3.1 billion price tag, which is about twice the cost of the current destroyers and balloons to $7 billion each when research and development is added in, nearly sank it in Congress. Though the Navy originally wanted 32 of them, that was cut to 24, then seven.
Now, just three are in the works.
“Costs spiraled — surprise, surprise — and the program basically fell in on itself,” said Richard Bitzinger, a security expert at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University. “The DDG-1000 was a nice idea for a new modernistic surface combatant, but it contained too many unproven, disruptive technologies.”
The U.S. Defense Department is concerned that China is modernizing its navy with a near-term goal of stopping or delaying U.S. intervention in conflicts over disputed territory in the South China Sea or involving Taiwan, which China considers a renegade province.
China is now working on building up a credible aircraft carrier capability and developing missiles and submarines that could deny American ships access to crucial sea lanes.
The U.S. has a big advantage on the high seas, but improvements in China’s navy could make it harder for U.S. ships to fight in shallower waters, called littorals. The stealth destroyers are designed to do both. In the meantime, the Navy will begin deploying smaller Littoral Combat Ships to Singapore later this year.
Officially, China has been quiet on the possible addition of the destroyers to Asian waters.
But Rear Adm. Zhang Zhaozhong, an outspoken commentator affiliated with China’s National Defense University, scoffed at the hype surrounding the ship, saying that despite its high-tech design it could be overwhelmed by a swarm of fishing boats laden with explosives. If enough boats were mobilized some could get through to blow a hole in its hull, he said.
“It would be a goner,” he said recently on state broadcaster CCTV’s military channel.
___
AP writer Christopher Bodeen contributed to this report from Beijing.
[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]
As long as any country does not enter another country’s EEZ or offensively abuse freedom of navigation privileges, there should be no issues. Rear Adm. Zhang Zhaozhong reminds sucintly about ‘unequal warfare’, like the roadside IED, all that tech still has to concede to sheer numbers and strategic use of resources, in this case fishermen’s lives, dinghies and perhaps simple fishing dynamite. IESDKs! Much like so many strongholds in guerilla or even urban warfare involving gangs, this is a seperate sovereign country 1000s of miles away with a different language and culture. What ARE US ships doing in Chinese territory? Maybe China needs a Great Oceanic Wall of China, the other structure visible from the Earth’s orbit!
mini-ARTICLE 10
ZOMBIE’ vanity plate leads to Pa. stun gun arrest – Associated PressAssociated Press – 9 hrs ago
ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania woman who allegedly hit a man with a stun gun during a pedestrian hit-and-run was arrested after police say her vanity license plate made her easy to track down.
Allentown police say Yardley Joy Frantz was promptly arrested Friday after witnesses spotted her “ZOMBIE” license plate.
Investigators say Frantz ran into a man and his nephew with her car around 7 p.m., then zapped the man’s son with a stun gun after he confronted her.
The Morning Call of Allentown (http://bit.ly/LVvlZT ) reports Frantz claimed she didn’t know who had been driving her car.
Frantz is free on bail as she faces charges including aggravated and simple assault. A phone number for her could not immediately be located.
[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]
The more unique the car and plate the easier to trace. Instead of making cars more uniform, they should encourage distinctness and uniqueness which can easily be used to identify. Only criminals would want to ‘blend in’ and indeed the most ‘uniform’ types are the most criminal.
ARTICLE 11
Cameron will hand Scots control of 70 per cent of all income tax it raises as a ‘reward’ if they reject independence
Scots have £1,000 more spent on them per head by the Government than English residents
Prime Minister reportedly prepared to raise Scottish control of income tax from 6 per cent to 70 per cent
Cameron unwilling to give up control of corporation tax
By Gerri Peev – PUBLISHED: 00:49 GMT, 8 June 2012 | UPDATED: 08:32 GMT, 8 June 2012
David Cameron wants to offer Scotland control of 70 per cent of all money it raises if it votes against independence, it was claimed last night.
The Prime Minister is said to be prepared to hand over more fiscal responsibility to Scotland if its population rejects breaking up the Union.
Scotland currently controls 6 per cent of the revenue it raises, but the Prime Minister wants to raise this to 70 per cent, according to reports in The Spectator magazine.
Suggestion: David Cameron wants to offer Scotland control of 70 per cent of all money it raises if it votes against independence, it was claimed last night
Nationalist: First Minister Alex Salmond has long called for control over corporation tax, saying he wants to make Scotland more competitive
Clash: David Cameron does not want to give up control over corporation tax, a long-term goal of Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, right
His offer could include complete control of income tax.
Scotland already has power to raise or lower the tax by 3 per cent.
Mr Cameron is not expected to hand over control of corporation tax to Scotland, however, for fear that the Nationalist government will use it as a weapon against Westminster.
First Minister Alex Salmond has long called for control over corporation tax, saying he wants to make Scotland more competitive.
A senior Government source told the Mail that if ‘Mr Salmond wants to play with his train set, he will have his chance’.
The offer would also go some way to meeting Mr Salmond’s demands for a two-question referendum, with a ‘fallback’ option of more fiscal powers in the event that Scots vote against separation.
Decision making: The Scottish Parliament could become the heart of an independent Scotland if residents choose to vote in favour of leaving the union
The Westminster government is against having that option on the ballot paper but it could offer more fiscal powers as a consolation prize.
According to official figures, Scots have £1,000 more spent on them per head by the Government than English residents.
The biggest sticking point in the event of a vote in favour of separation would be on who owns North Sea oil revenues.
Nationalists argue that the proceeds – £13billion in 2008/09 – should go to Scotland.
However it is doubtful that the Westminster government would give this up without a challenge.
A referendum on independence is due to be held in 2014.
[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]
The gold counting leprechaun in me laughed when I read this. If the Scots go independant, they get 100% control. What does Cameron take the Scots for? 30% short of fools for outast Germans who colonized the Isles? A seat at the UN with 30% MORE control than 70% (absolute control), is more precious than Cameron’s ‘friendship’ on behalf of the Sazxe-Coburg Gothas (Battenburgs). Windsor incidentally, is a purlioned name from the real (probably monetarily subverted) Windsor family :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Royal_Family
;since 1917, when George V changed the name of the royal house from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. This decision was primarily taken because Britain and her Empire were at war with Germany and given the British Royal Family’s strong German ancestry, it was felt that its public image could be improved by choosing a more British house name. The new name chosen, Windsor, had absolutely no connection other than as the name of the castle which was and continues to be a royal residence. Windsor Castle has been named that since 1066 when the original Windsor family came to that area in fact. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror.
Windsor, a town that emerged along the banks of the Hawkesbury River became the third settlement in the Colony in 1794 and is the first Macquarie town. Originally called Green Hills Windsor was officially named in 1810 by Governor Macquarie after the town in England. The five Macquarie Towns are Windsor, Richmond, Wilberforce, Pitt Town and Castlereagh.
The origins of the name Windsor were in the 7th century Saxon settlement of Windlesora, where the present day village of Old Windsor is located. The town of Windsor is correctly known as “New Windsor” – the word “new” being used in a strictly relative sense! The REAL Windsors could very well sue for infringement via ‘cybersquatting’ laws, or ‘namesquatting laws’. Does the current head of the clan of Windsor allow the false named Windsors use of the Windsor name? The half-German Saxe Couburg Gotha family the English call their ‘Royals’ could well be required to change their name back to Saxe Couburgt Gotha AND also end up being replaced by the REAL rulers of the area, the proto-Celts! Use of violence to conquer the Isles is wrong even after the Romans! Go back to Germania you Anglo-Saxon outcasts!
http://users.senet.com.au/~dewnans/ancient_dumnonia.html
ANCIENT DUMNONIA
Before the Romans came to Britain the indigenous Celtic people formed a number of independent nations. The Dumnonii (or Damnonii) occupied Devon, Cornwall, and the western parts of Somerset and Dorset. To the east lay the Durotiges and beyond the Belgae peoples.
These native Britains may have been ethnically related to the Iceni, celtic tribe of the east of England led to heroic defeat by Boudicea (Boudicca), but they did not suffer the same fate. A number of factors helped in this.
The Dumnonii (to use the Roman name) were Iron Age Celts, but hardly savages. They mined tin and other minerals from Dartmoor, the Tamar Valley, and Cornwall, and they traded tin with the Phoenicians and other Mediterranean civilisations long before the Roman invasion. Conflict between the nations of pre-Roman Britain had led to the establishment of numerous hill forts on the boundary – and with the Somerset levels then being still largely tidally effected marshland – Dumnonia’s only boundary to the east was relatively narrow and easy to defend.
Once the Romans invaded Britain they extended their domain north and west, but before they could reach the land of the Dumnonii they had to conquer other tribes. The Durotiges also had hill forts, and the Romans had considerable trouble overcoming these. A major and bloody battle seems to have taken place at Maiden Castle (a major Celtic hill fort) and also at Hod Hill, and on occaision the Romans had to ley siege to the hill forts and starve the inhabitants out (it is reported that the Romans then killed the inhabitants – man, woman and child)
Having accomplished the conquest of Dorset the Romans would have been faced with the defended hillforts of the Dumnonii, who would have had some time to enhance their defences, and who also would no doubt have had their resolve hardened by the fate of their neighbours, and who therefore may also have had their numbers boosted by refugees.
The Romans themselves do not record any victories over the Dumnonii (and as victors they normally did), and there is only one battle recorded (without the Romans noting the outcome). It seems that the Romans must have come to some arrangement with the Dumnonii, for a small garrison was established at Exeter the size of which is not in keeping with a occupying force, and a relatively small number of other garrisons or forts were established. Remains of Roman settlement in Devon and Cornwall are remarkably few, but the fact that some Roman buildings exist, even down to Cornwall (eg at Nanstallon) points to some sort of truce between the Romans and Dumnonii, and the Dumnonii probably continued to have a degree of self-government throughout the Roman occupation.
It is recorded that iron was mined on Exmoor during the Roman period.
The Dumnonii capital was believed to be at Exeter, which the Britons called Keresk (‘Caer Uisc’), and which the Romans named Isca Dumnonioram. In Devon another settlement was Tamaris (according to Ptolemy) which is believed to be in the Plymouth region.
When the Romans left almost 400 years later, the Dumnonii soon regained their independence (by 410 AD). Shortly thereafter there is evidence that trade with the Mediterranean recommenced
However Celtic tribes in eastern Britain felt vulnerable following the Roman withdrawal, and looked across the North Sea for support. Angles, Saxons and Jutes were therefore invited to Britain to help defend it, and ended up settling in Britain and setting up their own nations.
The newcomers gradually extended their territory, and in the sixth century they occupied about half of England. However this advance was then stopped, and it is about this that the legend of Arthur speaks. Whether there ever was an Arthur (and there is evidence of an ‘Artorus’) what is evident that the Celtic tribes did unite to halt the westward expansion of the Angles and Saxons and that expansion was stopped for around a hundred years. Dumnonia has many strong claims to Arthur, but it is difficult to match legend with fact. One thing is certain, if Arthur existed he led the Britons (the word Briton coming from the Brythonic Celts) against the English (the words English and ‘Anglo’ coming from the Germanic tribe the Angles)
The victory of Arthur and the delay in Anglo-Saxon encroachment is important for it is during this time that the Saxons start to adopt christianity (the Britons already were christian although they observed christianity in different ways) and subsequent expansion was probably more tolerant of the indigenous Britons.
It is also at this time that a wave of migration happened, this time by the Dumnonian celts, into Brittany. The reasons for this migration are uncertain, as the Saxon encroachment was still a distant threat to Devon and Cornwall. Nevertheless many people from Dumnonia settled in Brittany, naming regions after their homeland (Cornouaille [Cornwall] in the south west of Brittany, and Domnonee [Devon] in the north east of Brittany) and taking with them the Celtic language
Eventually the Saxon advance westward recommenced and in the sixth century (577AD) the Britons of the westcountry were separated from those of Wales. The Saxons made themselves locals and called the Welsh, the ‘Wealas’ (meaning foreigners!) and the Dumnonians became the ‘West Wealas’ and this is reflected on a number of ancient maps.
ARTICLE 12
US buys most expensive drones ever – Published: 03 August, 2011, 20:56
United States Air Force Global Hawk un-manned reconnaissance aircraft. (Photo from http://www.af.mil)
With $14 trillion in the hole and a slew of wars seemingly no one wants America to be in, what better way for the United States to spend their money by putting $23 billion into spy planes?
The US will drop billions on defense spending with the purchasing of 55 Global Hawk drone planes over the next few years. Each of the four dozen-plus spy crafts comes at a price tag of $218 million apiece — ten times the price of the largest armed attack drone.
Global Hawk drones are capable of flying twice as high as commercial aircrafts and can spot insurgents up to 100 miles away. Once identified, the robotic crafts that are controlled from 24-hour command stations can then send images to intelligence centers or directly to troops.
The Global Hawk drones will replace the U-2 spy planes that the States currently deploys, which the US has relied on since the dawn of the Cold War. Sending unmanned aircrafts into warzones, while grossly expensive, comes as an attempt to limit fatalities by avoiding putting extra troops into danger. Though relying on on-board navigation, those U-2 flyers have proved effective over the last half-century, recently assisting in operations in Afghanistan
A team of 50 engineers will slave over the construction of the Global Hawk drones in a Palmdale, California warehouse.
The US Air Force will invest $12 billion towards the initiative, with the Navy offering almost as much to have their own versions of the Global Hawks.
And, in case you didn’t hear, lawmakers just spent months trying to figure out how to keep the country from defaulting. The town of Central Falls, Rhode Island (the entire town) is currently in bankruptcy court, and the most populous county in Alabama is expected to join them in the coming weeks.
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USA should just focus on the South Americas and at most Africa and the Far East for trade and stop messing with the Middle East, the fundo Muslims are very angry with USA to the point of ‘unreason’. Perhaps a travel prohibition to the entire area for a few decades will help, only allowing diplomatic staff to continue. This way terrorism will only be local and from within USA. Otherwise at very least, TSA should not target local citizens but be situated in a ‘Quarantine/Clearance Port/Airport’ instead. A single drone could probably revivify a single district. So Red Ocean spending will down USA instead of reinvesting back home.
mini-ARTICLE 12.5
North Korea proclaims itself a nuclear state in new constitution – by K.J. Kwon, CNN – May 31, 2012 — Updated 1151 GMT (1951 HKT)
North Korean soldiers salute during a military parade to mark 100 years since the birth of the country’s founder Kim Il-Sung on April 15.
North Korea proclaimed itself a “nuclear state” in a revised constitution this week
Analyst: Appears to be directed at the U.S. as the rhetoric from Pyongyang rises
Comes as signs are growing of activity at North Korea’s nuclear test site
Seoul (CNN) — North Korea proclaimed itself a “nuclear state” this week following a revision of its constitution earlier this year.
Kim Jong-Il has “transferred the country into an undefeated country with strong political ideology, a nuclear power state, and invincible military power,” according to the updated constitution posted on its portal website Naenara. The website posted the revised constitution on Wednesday, according to Yonhap, the South Korean state affiliated news agency.
North Korea ready to carry out nuclear test at any moment, Seoul says
The statement looks all too familiar.
North Korea previously announced its nuclear capability through its state-run broadcaster and newspapers, “but no expression can be stronger than including it in their constitution,” Professor Choi Jong Kun of Yonsei University told CNN.
North Korea preparing another nuke test?
“It is an announcement of confirmation,” he added, “and it appears to be directed to the U.S. and other relevant nations.”
The communist state carried out nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. Pyongyang recently announced that it will press on with its nuclear program in response to what it calls “hostility from the United States.” A defense publication, IHS Janes, also said it detected signs of activities ramping up at North Korea’s nuclear test site, raising speculation Pyongyang may be preparing for a third nuclear test.
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North Korea should know that some forces would exactly want a thermonuclear war in the region of North East Asia. To irradiate the entire region, the ‘West’ will provoke with the hawks in South Korea by holding military exercises, so Kim should know that those nukes are not to be lobbed even at South Korea. Counterproductive sabotage of the Far East by NK’s hand effected by Western goading! Dismembering a S. Korean effigy makes NK look bad btw. How about a nice well reasoned propaganda campaign based on strong logic based around unity of Korean peoples against people who would keep a United Korea (and hence a stable North East Asia) impossible?
mini-ARTICLE 13.5
New stealth destroyer really sucks – China mocks America’s $7 billion Navy acquisition – Published: 04 June, 2012, 22:47
The US Navy is readying a $7 billion boat that can launch attacks faster than the speed of sound and is practically invisible to detection. Even with that hefty cost, however, China says it will only take a few fishing boats to blow up the DDG-1000.
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In 10 years China can MASS PRODUCE rockets WITH colony modules on the cheap, and send up to 300 million spare people ‘fully equipped’ to colonize Moon, Mars and outer moons of the planets outside the inner planet area. The ‘West’ is drowning in debt and has no production capacity that does not cost 10-100 times that China or even India has (think TataNano car costing 2500 compared to most Western 25K and above vehicles).
Russia can provide the tech if need be. BUT for a peaceful, equitable and inclusive solution, how about this? Let the current ratio of any usable planet be assigned in the same ‘West-East’ manner equal to the current land ratios controlled? This would mean that smaller countries would also have space on Moon, Mars etc.. To be uncivilised and play ‘locust’ or ‘carp’ though, guess who has the upper hand?
ARTICLE 13
Virgin Galactic spaceship cleared for test flights by US FAA
Commercial spacecraft SpaceShipTwo can begin rocket-powered suborbital test flights, the company has said – guardian.co.uk, Thursday 31 May 2012 01.49 BST
The Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo is released from the mothership, WhiteKnight2, over Mojave, California, in 2010. Photograph: Mark Greenberg/AP
The US Federal Aviation Administration has cleared SpaceShipTwo, a commercial six-passenger spacecraft owned by Virgin Galactic, to begin rocket-powered suborbital test flights, the company said on Wednesday.
SpaceShipTwo manufacturer Scaled Composites of Mojave, California, received a one-year experimental launch permit on 23 May for test flights beyond the atmosphere, FAA spokesman Hank Price said.
The six-passenger, two-pilot spacecraft is based on the prototype SpaceShipOne, also built by Scaled, which clinched the $10m Ansari X Prize in 2004 for the first privately funded human spaceflights.
SpaceShipOne made three suborbital hops beyond the atmosphere, each with a solo pilot aboard, ultimately reaching an altitude of nearly 70 miles above Earth. SpaceShipOne is now on display at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space museum in Washington.
Virgin Galactic is owned by British billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and Aabar Investments PJS. Branson hired SpaceShipOne designer Burt Rutan, who has since retired from Scaled, to create a fleet of spaceships for commercial use. Virgin Galactic has taken deposits from more than 500 people for rides, which cost $200,000.
Participants will experience a few minutes of weightlessness and see the curve of Earth set against the black sky of space. NASA’s first two manned spaceflights in 1961, by Mercury astronauts Alan Shepard and Virgil “Gus” Grissom were suborbital flights.
Like SpaceShipOne, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo will be flown into the air beneath a carrier jet and released. Once separated, the spaceship’s rocket engine will fire to blast it into the sky. SpaceShipTwo has completed 16 free flight tests.
The FAA permit will enable Scaled, now wholly owned by Northrop Grumman, to move on to rocket-powered flights, the first of which is expected toward the end of the year, Virgin Galactic said in a statement.
Company President George Whitesides called the permit an important milestone “that positions the company a major step closer to bringing our customers to space”.
In addition to flying wealthy tourists, Scaled has signed contracts to fly researchers and science experiments.
The experimental permit allows Scaled to fly only its own test pilots, not passengers, Price said.
A date for the start of Virgin Galactic’s commercial spaceflights has not yet been set.
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Wake up morons . . . the company should be called ‘Virgin Sub-Orbital’ more accurately. And that ship is an atmospheric sub-orbital airplane, NOT a ‘space’ ship.
If that craft can make way to the moon and back, then the name ‘Virgin Sub-Planetary’ or ‘Virgin-Satellite’ (or if a few Moons ‘Virgin ‘Inter-Satellite’) could be used.
If that craft can make way to any planet in the solar system INCLUDING Pluto and back, only then could the name ‘Virgin Interplanetary’ could be used.
If that craft can make way to any of 51 star systems in this star cluster, INCLUDING and back, only then could the name ‘Virgin Interstellar’ could be used. 10 nearest stars below.
1. Proxima Centauri
The closest star to our our own solar system will not always be closest, but it will be a long time before that happens. Proxima Centauri is the third star in the Alpha Centauri star system, also known as Alpha Centauri C.
Distance: 4.2 LY
Spectral Type: M5.5Vc
2. Rigil Kentaurus
The second closest star is a tie between the sister stars of Proxima Centauri. Alpha Centauri A and B make up the other two stars of the triple star system Alpha Centauri.
Distance: 4.3 LY
Spectral Type: G2V
3. Barnard’s Star
A faint red dwarf star, discovered in 1916 by E. E. Barnard, recent efforts to discover planets around Barnard’s Star have failed.
Distance: 5.9 LY
Spectral Type: M3.8V
4. Wolf 359
Known to many as thelocation of a famous battle on Star Trek the Next generation, Wolf 359 is a red dwarf. It is so small that if it were to replace our sun, an observer on Earth would need a telescope to see it clearly.
Distance: 7.7 LY
Spectral Type: M5.8Vc
5. Lalande 21185
While it is the fifth closest star to our own sun, Lalande 21185 is about three times too faint to be seen with the naked eye.
Distance: 8.26 LY
Spectral Type: M2V
6. Luyten 726-8A and B
Discovered by Willem Jacob Luyten (1899-1994), both Luyten 726-8A 726-8B are red dwarfs and too faint to be seen with the naked eye.
Distance: 8.73 LY
Spectral Type: M5.5 de & M6 Ve
7. Sirius A and B
Sirius, also known as the Dog Star, is the brightest star in the sky. Sirius B, the companion, has received considerable attention itself, since it is the first white dwarf with a spectrum to show a gravitational red shift as predicted by the general theory of relativity.
Distance: 8.6 LY
Spectral Type: A1Vm
8. Ross 154
Ross 154 appears to be a flare star, which means that it can increase its brightness by a factor of 10 or more before reverting to its normal state, a process which takes only a few minutes.
Distance: 9.693 LY
Spectral Type: M3.5
9. Ross 248
While it is now the ninth closest star to our solar system, around the year 38000AD, the red dwarf Ross 248 will take the place of Proxima Centauri as the closest star to us.
Distance: 10.32 LY
Spectral Type: M5.5V
10. Epsilon Eridani
Eridani (tenth closest star to Earth) is the closest star known to have a planet, Epsilon Eridani b. It is the third closest star that is viewable without a telescope.
Distance: 10.5 LY
Spectral Type: K2V
If that craft can make way to any star in this Galaxy, INCLUDING Sagittarius A in the centre of the galaxy and back, only then could the name ‘Virgin Galactic’ could be used.
If that craft can make way to any star in the center of any galaxy *OUTSIDE OF* this Galaxy, and back, only then could the name ‘Virgin Inter-Galactic’ could be used.
Misnomer that cheats the consumer. This is short selling the public with misrepresented naming. Like plastic (Sub-Orbital capable craft) marketed as gold (Inergalactic capable craft). Virgin Airlines Fails! This is not just semantics but a commercial ethics issue. Buyer beware! Misleading the public will get the Intergalactic Consumer’s Commission down in fraudalant advertising!
ARTICLE 14
India’s oil import bill jumps 40% to $ 140 billion in FY12 – Source: PTI – Thursday, 14 June 2012 | 11:00
India’s oil import bill leaped 40 per cent to a record $ 140 billion in 2011-12 as high oil prices shaved off much of the nation’s GDP growth rate, Oil Minister S Jaipal Reddy said yesterday.
Speaking at the 5th OPEC International Seminar in Vienna, Reddy said it was “estimated that a sustained $ 10 increase in oil prices lead to a 1.5 per cent reduction in the GDP of developing countries”.
“We have seen evidence of this in our own country: India’s GDP grew at 6.9 per cent during the last financial year (2011-12) down from the 8 per cent plus growth rate experienced in the past few years,” he said.
Reddy, whose speech copy was released by his office here, said between the 2010-11 and 2011-12, the world’s fourth largest oil importer saw its average cost of imported crude oil rising by $ 27 per barrel, “making India’s oil import bill rise from $ 100 billion to $ 140 billion dollars”.
“Higher international oil prices lead to domestic inflation, increased input costs, an increase in the budget deficit which invariably drives up interest rates and slows down the economic growth,” he said.
Also, net oil importing countries like India experience a deterioration in their balance of payments, putting downward pressure on exchange rates.
“As a result, imports become more expensive and exports less valuable, leading to a drop in real national income,” he said. “There could not be a more direct cause and effect relation than high oil prices retarding economic growth of oil importing countries”.
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China and India should focus on solar power instead of wasting tax dollars on oil and pollutive infrastructure much less nuclear. A state sponsored programme for energy via solar panels should put paid to any further expenditures in oil import or clean up costs. On top of that the carbon foot print could effectively be reduced to ZERO. Consider the response to the article below for an organic take on energy generation. Colonies of working elephants on ‘treadmills’ or ‘hamster wheels’, which also contribute to preservation of the good natured and communicative animal (treat them as equals not slaves or prisoners at a labour camp, remember that like people, elephants work and do need rest days, varieties of food, hours off, green space to relax and ‘frolic’ – meaning acres in which to run around) also make the ecologically destructive hydro damming options unnecessary as well as represent a harvestable source of ivory (which is as valuable as gold) after natural death occurs (also bone ivory furniture), at least until perpetual motion turbines are invented . . . EFFICIENCY and CONSERVATION ! Ganesh would approve! :
ARTICLE 15
UK floods banking system with more than 100 billion pounds – Published: Friday June 15, 2012 MYT 9:10:00 AM / Updated: Friday June 15, 2012 MYT 9:11:32 AM
LONDON: The government and central bank will flood Britain’s banking system with more than 100 billion pounds ($155.43 billion), seeking to pump credit through an economy struggling to escape recession under the “black cloud” of the euro zone crisis.
In his annual Mansion House policy speech to London financiers on Thursday, Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said Britain would launch a scheme to provide cheap long-term funding to banks to encourage them to lend to businesses and consumers.
He also said the bank would activate an emergency liquidity tool.
Treasury officials said the government plan could support an estimated 80 billion pounds in new loans, while the central bank’s separate scheme will provide monthly 5 billion pound tranches of six-month liquidity to banks.
King said the case for pumping more money into the economy via further purchases of government bonds had increased as the outlook for the economy had worsened, although he again rejected calls for the central bank to buy private assets.
King said the euro zone’s woes were leading to a crisis of confidence in Britain which was leading to a self-reinforcing weaker picture of growth.
“The black cloud has dampened animal spirits so that businesses and households are battening down the hatches to prepare for the storms ahead,” he said.
Britain’s action comes just before cliffhanger Greek elections this weekend that could determine the fate of the euro zone, as well as a meeting of the leaders of the world’s major economies next week to find ways to tackle the currency bloc’s crisis and spur the global economy.
British finance minister George Osborne warned of the huge dangers from a collapse of the euro area. He again urged euro zone leaders to fix the crisis and said Britain was taking action to protect its own economy.
“We are not powerless in the face of the euro zone debt storm,” Osborne said in his speech at Mansion House. “Together we can deploy new firepower to defend our economy from the crisis on our doorstep.”
Britain is still reeling from the 2007-2009 financial crisis that has left many Britons poorer and forced the country to bail out big banks with tens of billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money.
The government on Thursday announced a sweeping reform of bank regulations aimed at making financial institutions safer, and avoiding a re-run of the crisis which has pushed Britain into recession twice in the last four years.
CASH BOOST
Britain slid back into recession around the turn of this year, piling pressure on Osborne’s embattled Conservative-led coalition government to come up with new ways to boost growth.
The government has pinned its fortunes on a tough austerity plan of tax hikes and spending cuts to erase a budget deficit which still comes in at around 8 percent of GDP.
Osborne defended his debt-cutting measures, arguing that they gave the Bank of England the leeway to keep monetary policy loose, and said there was still more the central bank could do.
BoE Governor Mervyn King said the central bank would complement its quantitative easing asset purchase scheme with new steps to encourage bank lending and reduce their funding costs, which have rocketed as a result of the euro zone crisis.
The BoE and finance ministry have designed a new scheme, to be launched in a few weeks, that would offer banks loans with a maturity of possibly 3-4 years at below current market rates.
The loans would be made available on condition that banks increase their lending to businesses and households.
In addition, the central bank will activate its Extended Collateral Term Repo facility, created in December, to provide six-month liquidity to banks against a wide range of collateral.
King said now was the right time to activate the scheme, which is aimed at helping banks through phases of exceptional stress.
King hinted that the central bank may also restart its QE programme, which it halted in May having bought 325 billion pounds of British government bonds, and countered accusations that the scheme had lost its effectiveness.
“With signs of a deterioration in the outlook, especially in world markets, the case for a further monetary easing is growing,” King said. – Reuter
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The English (in typical crooked English style, butchers and colonizers of the Isles and Colonial era, now conmen of the world . . . ), are going to ‘con’ REAL GOODS producing countries with that worthless scrip via the English citizens. BRICS, OPEC nations, use barter to counter this sad ploy and finish off the fiat printers. England’s economy has NOTHING to offer but printed ‘Banana Notes’. DO not be stupid enough to exchange your REAL GOODS for worthless fiat. Continue hiring REAL SERVICES providers though, and reward the workers with REAL GOODS instead. If the English want to buy from these areas a cheap car or house and migrate, or commodities like oil, they ‘jolly well’ can WORK for that. Now will those foreign exchange fiat peddlars adjust the value of the already overpriced Sterling Pound down about 3 zeroes please? And even that is being 2/3rds too lenient for a country that produces NOTHING but only subsists on unreasonable fines and commission charges via transactitons, little wonder the Scots want out . . .
ARTICLE 16
Benefits of direct yen-yuan may be few, far between – by Yang Guoying (Global Times) – 08:20, June 18, 2012
Effective June 1, China and Japan launched a new currency exchange program which allowed direct trading of yuan and yen, making the Japanese yen the second major currency, after the US dollar, that can be directly exchanged with the renminbi.
This new scheme, its advocates claim, will reinforce bilateral trade and investment between the two countries by lowering transaction costs and settlement risks at financial institutions, and also promote the internationalization of the yuan by building up its position in the world’s third largest economy.
While there certainly is the potential for this much-lauded agreement to further these goals, there is also a chance the scheme could fall flat or run counter to China’s best economic interests.
Over the past decade, China has been enlarging its commodities and energy imports and has been using these resources to develop its own high-tech equipment and precision machinery for export, a sector that was previously dominated by Japan.
While lowering settlement costs might stimulate bilateral trade between China and Japan, as the countries gradually shift away from a complimentary trade relationship toward a competitive one, the benefits of the new scheme may not have the dramatic impact many are expecting.
Moreover, the scheme will push up the weight of the yen in China’s foreign reserves and as Japan’s public debt snowballs, the risks of holding its currency will continue to mount. Over the past year, three of the world’s most respected rating agencies – Fitch Ratings, Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s – have all downgraded Japan’s credit rating as its debt is expected to clock in at 240 percent of its annual GDP by the end of 2012. As a Japanese economic recovery continues to remain elusive, China could find itself saddled under the weight of an ever-depreciating yen.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan, the country’s central bank, announced on May 23, it would maintain its overnight interbank market interest rate between zero and 0.1 percent, much lower than that of most other countries, including China, as part of its monetary policies.
The direct trading of the yen and the yuan will facilitate Japanese investors who plan to profit from the difference between interest rates in the two countries’ money markets, leading to an inflow of hot money.
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Again I promulgate barter of REAL GOODS or contracts for labour of foreign workers as the best system. The fact that China is aware that exchange of fiat is a waste of time bodes well for a REAL GOODS or REAL LABOUR based economic system. Fiat exchange only enriches the banks, agencies and the middlemen via the bloodsucking fees imposed at every turn or every transaction with the actual moving of fiat scrip the epitome of farcical economy. Any country can print fiat and add plenty of zeros, try the English above. That fiat is worth nothing, even as the sterling pound belongs in the pound being backed by nothing. Except shiny banks that AGAIN penalise citizens of whatever country they appear in. Barter, especially between nations is the way to go. Governments also can distribute fiat internally to the closest cronies – especially in 3rd world countries without accountability, where anyone who demands an audit or access to the accounts is automatically treated as an enemy of the state rather than honest expositions of what goes on, tell me how many people have access to the mint and we will know how transparent a government’s internal fiat system is, the more the merrier, the lowlier who can access the safer . . . making the case for the precious metals currency that some proponents wishing to prevent uncontrolled printing of fiat (like the Quantitative Easing of USA or England’s 100 billion flood above without appropriate devaluations – indicating collusion between governments, especially rhose who tend to collude on NATO type issues) are pushing for.
ARTICLE 17
Gold price creating history, frequently – News Updated By- Hari Har Sharma Posted From- Kathmandu | June 18, 2012
KATHMANDU, JUN 17 – With the price skyrocketing, gold is gradually getting out of middle-class reach. Such is the rise that the price set records for three straight days last week.Instead of buying fresh designs, Bullion traders say the trend of remaking old jewelries is on the rise. Even regular, potential customers have stopped buying, they say. “Half of our customers are remaking their old ornaments,” said Tej Ratna Shakya, president of the Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association (Negosida).
The escalating price has forced customers, particularly those buying gold for wedding purpose, to reduce quantity. For many Nepalis gold ornaments are a must in wedding ceremonies. “The price has increased sharply over the last year,” said Shakya. “This has resulted in low sales.”The gold price started to rise since 2008, according to gold traders. Since then, the price has gone up by a whopping 133 percent. In 2012 alone, the price rose by Rs 4,240 per 10 gram.
Last week’s figures show how the gold price is escalating in the local market. When the market opened on Sunday, gold was traded at Rs 48, 270 per 10 gm, but the figure jumped to Rs 48, 825 on Wednesday and to Rs 49,040 on Thursday, before closing at a record high of Rs 49,080 per 10 gram on Friday.
The price of gold in the domestic market is determined in line with the international trend. With the price remaining volatile in international market, its impact is reflected here. Major drivers of the price in the international market are global macroeconomic events.
Gold price is expected to further rise in dollar terms due to the sovereign debt crisis in Europe and a possible quantitative easing. International media have reported that the worsening eurozone crisis is catalysing gold demand and is, thereby, supportive of gold prices.
Bullion traders attributed the surge in the price in the local market to the rise in the international market price and a freefall of Nepali rupee against the US dollar. Since the local market is dependent on the international market for gold and silver, changes in the exchange rate of dollar and gold price are directly proportional. Traders predict a further rise in gold price if the Nepali rupee further devaluates.
The government has maintained a quantitative restriction on gold imports since 2010 after massive imports led to a negative balance of payments situation. The import quota is presently 20 kg a day, up from 15 kg previously. Nepal imported gold worth Rs 41.63 billion in fiscal 2009-10. Imports plunged to Rs 11.35 billion last year after the imposition of the quota.Imports have reached 4,350 kg worth more than Rs 18.8 billion in the first nine months of this fiscal year. Nepal imported 400 kg of gold in mid-January which jumped to 600 kg in mid-April.
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Gold cannot be printed like fiat. And hence crony collusion or quantitative easing or uncontrolled printing is impossible if precious metals replace fiat currency.
malaysiandemocracy 