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Australians Face Huge Fines For Criticizing Unpopular Carbon Tax
SHOPS and restaurants could face fines up to $1.1 million if waiters or sales staff wrongly blame the carbon tax for price rises or exaggerate the impact.
And households are being warned to watch out for telephone scammers offering to deposit carbon tax compensation into their bank accounts.
The prices watchdog, the ACCC, will today launch its countdown to the July 1 carbon tax with a special focus on helping small businesses understand their obligations and consumers to be vigilant for false claims.
ACCC deputy chairman Dr Michael Schaper told the Herald Sun companies were entitled to increase their prices and did not have to justify or explain why.
"It is business as usual,'' Dr Schaper said.
But if they blamed the carbon tax they must be able to prove it and not use it as a cover for other price increases related to wages, rent or stock.
"If a business claims that a price is linked to the carbon price, that claim must be truthful and have a reasonable basis,'' he said.
Dr Schaper said the warning applied to comments made by staff over the phone, on the shop floor or in meetings.
It also covers advertising, product labels, websites, invoices, contracts and contract negotiationsSHOPS and restaurants could face fines up to $1.1 million if waiters or sales staff... more -
The Hot Dog Stand: How Much Would You Charge?
by Amaterasu Solar
Let Us presume a world where free energy is available to all. Also, Let’s add robots doing all the necessary work no One wants to do - or taking up the slack where not enough People are doing necessary work.
In this scenario, there would not be any need for money - in any form: barter, trade, work exchange, cash, checks, electronic funds. You may doubt this, but Let’s examine a single case to illustrate the whole.
Let Us now suppose that You have a hot dog cart - You like to hang around it from time to time and chat with People, say; You are a gregarious sort. And You like to see people happy eating food. The energy to run this cart is free, and You have a robot tending it, taking orders, fixing the dogs, and so on. You, Yourself, may choose to fix a dog or two for People You particularly like, but You don’t HAVE to do any of the work.
Your robot is run on free energy, so it doesn’t cost You anything.
Now Let’s say Your hot dogs come from pigs, and the farm - where the pigs are allowed to roam a few acres - is run by robots. There may be someone who LOVES to raise pigs there, but most likely, the pigs are cared for, organically, by the robots (which are run on free energy). The cost of the pigs themselves is nothing.
The fields that grow the food for the pigs are farmed by robots, running on free energy, and perhaps a Human or three who LOVE to farm the land. The tilling, planting, weeding, debugging (maybe by small robots patrolling the plants), and harvesting is all handled organically by these robots and so there is no cost to grow the pig food.
Robots transport the pig feed for free (and any Humans who LOVE to transport things, should there be any).
Robots would handle the slaughter, cleanly (We would ensure this), quickly and honorably. They would also process the meat into the dogs, and upon a standing order, or Your request over the web, would deliver the dogs to Your cart - for free.
From the fields, free-range chicken coops and dairies (handled by robots), would come the ingredients for the buns and condiments, delivered to bakeries and processing plants for free - baked by robots (and Those whose bliss it is to bake large batches of buns) and processed by robots, with no energy cost anywhere. These things too would be delivered upon request, for free.
So… How much would You charge for these hot dogs? You paid nothing for the energy in the production line, nor for the labor in the production line - Those who chose to add Their Human energy did so not because They HAD to in order to survive, but because They LOVE to do what They were doing. Things being free, They simply chose to spend Their time in Their bliss. The seeds that were farmed are freely given by nature...so are the pigs, for that matter. The planet sits under Us freely for seeds to go into and pigs to live on.
You paid nothing for these hot dogs; it costs You zero to run the stand. (And We could go into the stand itself, as well as the robot, costing nothing, too, through robot workers for mining the metals, smelting, shaping, etc...). So why would You need to charge for the hot dogs?
Now, Let's say one day You befriend someone and She just LOVES to make specialty hot dogs - Her own "secret recipe" of spices. She can get Her meat free, Her spices free, Her cooking heat free, Her pots and pans and whatever else for free. And, because She doesn't HAVE to spend 8 or more hours pursuing Her slave's compensation for Her Human energy, She has time and energy of Her own to devote to making Her signature hot dogs.
One day She invites You over - You, who don't have to "mind the store," since Your robot can handle it easily - and so You decide to hang out with Her while She is in Her bliss, making Her dogs.
You say, "Hey. Those smell damn good. Better than what I have at the hot dog stand! If You have any extra, can I distribute them at My cart?"
She smiles in delight. "Of course. I always have a lot and You can have what You want! Thank You for the compliment!"
Thus begins a happy relationship. You have a robot pack up Her dogs and take them to the cart. You also have a sign made up saying, "NOW! Dogs by Delilah!" And soon, Delilah is blissfully making Her dogs, and Your cart is gaining the reputation of being the best on the block - or in town…or in the world. You develop a reputation. Your cart is written up in a number of blogs, and demand for the dogs - HUMAN made - grows. Soon, reservations are required to get the dogs, because Delilah does not want to make THAT many dogs. All this is handled via net and computer.
In the end, You gain reputation for having a popular hot dog cart, Delilah has reputation for making dogs, and neither of You have traded, bartered, exchanged work, exchanged coin, bills, checks or electronic funds (money).
But You are both very rich in social standing.
This all seems idyllic, so wonderful to consider. Every Human Being freed from wage-slavery and poverty to follow Her/His bliss, with richness in character and betterment contributions defining wealth. But can We get there? The answer is, YES!, but We need a plan.
The Plan is to:
1) Raise awareness that electrogravitics technology (which provides gravity control (“antigravity”) and overunity (“free energy”)) exists so that We can -
2) Call for the release of the overunity technology to -
3) Remove the cost of energy in manufacturing, transportation, agriculture, homes, & misc. so -
4) The cost of building robots to do the necessary jobs no One wants to do becomes affordable so -
5) We can relieve Ourselves of undesired toil, being supported easily at this point on social services since -
6) Money will become unnecessary when the effort to collect the penny for the week's groceries (the room full of furniture, the house, the [fill in the blank]) is more than the penny is worth
By abundantly replacing the money with what it represents (meaningful energy expended), the need for money dissipates and there is no motive to promote consumerism. There is no motive to create cheap, breakable goods to ensure future sales. There is no motive to solve issues the cheapest or most profitable way. There is no motive to steal - if One wants it, another can be had for the asking on the web. There is no motive to defraud. There is no motive to silence discoveries. There is no motive to hide cures. There is no motive to do what does not give One bliss.
But surely there are plenty Whose bliss is solving problems. Plenty Whose bliss is creating robots. Plenty Whose bliss is programming. Plenty Whose bliss is researching. Plenty Whose bliss is helping Others. Plenty Whose bliss is building. Plenty Whose bliss is creating art. Plenty Whose bliss is teaching. Plenty Whose bliss is any endeavor robots can't handle.
There WILL be motive to better the world - Those who contribute will earn appreciation, thanks, gratitude, name recognition and Self satisfaction. Instill a Betterment Ethic in place of the work "ethic" (a slave's ethic - enrich others with One's Human energy).
"From Each according to BLISS; to Each according to DESIRE."
So if One wants to be a couch potato... Heh. No problem!
Clearly We must spread this information. Widely. Below is a link to a petition, but if You choose to sign it, don’t stop there. Share it. Email it to friends and family, tweet it often on Twitter, post it to the Hotel Califacebook and on forums You visit. Become proactive and maintain the proactivity. If We all do this, We can make this planet a far better place than it is now.
To sign a petition for the release of electrogravitics technology:
http://www.change.org/petitions/us-military-release-the-technology-of-electrogravitics
More detail on the simple chaos seed for a society with free energy: http://bit.ly/I5TriH
Twitter: @AmaterasuSolarby Amaterasu Solar Let Us presume a world where free energy is available to all.... more-
- Amaterasu
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- 20 days ago
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Sex, Lies and Cigarettes
The Smoking Baby - the 2-year old who became a global YouTube sensation in the summer of 2010, has unwittingly become the posterchild and symptom of a Big Tobacco-sponsored battle being waged in developing markets.
Christof Putzel heads to Indonesia, where he exposes Big Tobacco's successful and deadly expansion into that country, and observes the stage being set for a David vs. Goliath battle, as a small, underfunded group of concerned advocates battle Big Tobacco and a government drunk on profits and denial.The Smoking Baby - the 2-year old who became a global YouTube sensation in the summer... more-
- Christof
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- 1 month ago
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Corrupt Judge David P. Kreider now taints the 2012 election process from his base in "Gator Country"
This pertains to public corruption that has extended to the 2012 election process. It once again involves Florida. The public should be aware.
http://www.complaints.com/2012/march/14/Corrupt_Judge_David_P._Kreider_now_taints_the_ele_264712.htm (SOURCE)
The above webpage is constantly updated as new developments arise. This is the gateway to some serious corruption and a major cover-up attempt.
FYI, this matter also relates to the “Gibson Case” and the matter has grown to the point that the resultant scandal now involves several people. Some of those involved are as follows:
1
David P. Kreider, Alachua County Court Judge (see http://circuit8.org/kreider )
2
Martha Ann Lott, Ex - Chief Judge for the 8th Judicial Circuit of Florida (see http://circuit8.org/lott ) [Embattled Martha Lott resigned from her chief judge post subsequent to becoming embroiled in this scandal which has started to implode; her resignation was announced on 04/09/2012 and was reported to have gone into effect on 04/05/2012.]
*For information about Martha Lott’s resignation see
-"The Gainesville Sun” article dated 04/09/2012 at http://www.gainesville.com/article/20120409/ARTICLES/120409606
-8th Judicial Circuit of Florida official press release dated 04/10/2012 at https://circuit8.org/web/news/4-10-12%20Chief%20Judge%20Roundtree.pdf
3
Spencer Mann, Chief Investigator for the 8th Judicial Circuit of Florida’s State Attorney’s Office (see http://sao8.org/Chief%20Investigator.htm )
4
J.K. “Buddy” Irby, Alachua County Clerk (& Clerk of Court) / Clerk of the Circuit Court for the 8th Judicial Circuit of Florida (see http://www.alachuacounty.us/Depts/Clerk/Pages/Clerk.aspx/ )
5
William “Bill” Cervone, State Attorney for the 8th Judicial Circuit of Florida (see http://sao8.org/ABOUT%20WILLIAM%20CERVONE.htm )
6
Denise R. Ferrero, Alachua County Court Administrative Judge (see http://circuit8.org/ferrero )
7
Ted McFetridge, Court Administrator for the 8th Judicial Circuit of Florida (see http://circuit8.org/court-administrator )
8
Robert Roundtree, Chief Judge for the 8th Judicial Circuit of Florida (see http://circuit8.org/roundtree )[he replaced Martha Lott in April 2012 upon her resignation]
9
Pam Carpenter, Alachua County Supervisor of Elections (see http://www.myfloridaelections.com/fsasedir.php?detail=Y&County=Alachua )
10
Paula M. DeLaney, Chair of the Alachua County Board of County Commissioners (see http://www.alachuacounty.us/Depts/BOCC/Profiles/Pages/Delaney.aspx )
11
Polly Cheshire, Alachua County Court Program Specialist
Everything stated here and at the above referenced "source webpage" is true and supported by two irrefutable reports and extensive corroborating evidence that is in the possession of agencies, including those within Florida’s 8th Judicial Circuit (and the Chief Judge’s office and Chief Investigator Spencer Mann of the State Attorney's Office). The comprehensive reports and evidence span a total of more than 100 pages and in-depthly detail criminal activities carried out under the color of law by criminal/judge David P. Kreider and various other co-conspirators. As indicated above, serious corruption and a major cover-up attempt is in play.This pertains to public corruption that has extended to the 2012 election process. It... more -
Michigan government unleashes armed raids on small pig farmers, forces farmer to shoot all his own pigs
Michigan government unleashes armed raids on small pig farmers, forces farmer to shoot all his own pigs
http://www.naturalnews.com/035585_Michigan_farms_raids.html
back info http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=843yH_0RMIA&feature=share
http://www.naturalnews.com/035372_Michigan_pigs_farm_freedom.html#ixzz1qMnU3XGQ
Now current Update
Michigan government unleashes armed raids on small pig farmers, forces farmer to shoot all his own pigs
I so mad right now .. I just at lost for words.. So if any of you come back supporting this action .. DON"T POST IT JUST WALK AWAY FROM THE KEYS... this was a Slaughter of animals by a government that should be removed at once. the on "Invasive Species" right now i see is the law makers and those who action caused this..
http://www.naturalnews.com/035585_Michigan_farms_raids.html
(NaturalNews) NaturalNews can now confirm that the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has, in total violation of the Fourth Amendment, conducted two armed raids on pig farmers in that state, one in Kalkaska County at Fife Lake and another in Cheboygan County. Staging raids involving six vehicles and ten armed men, DNA conducted unconstitutional, illegal and arguably criminal armed raids on these two farms with the intent of shooting all the farmers' pigs under a bizarre new "Invasive Species Order" (ISO) that has suddenly declared traditional livestock to be an invasive species.Michigan government unleashes armed raids on small pig farmers, forces farmer to shoot... more-
- CCorsair
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- 1 month ago
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We Just Built Skynet in the Desert, Now What?
Ten years after 9/11, the National Security Agency (NSA) is close to putting the finishing touches on what will be the single biggest spy center in the country. According to James Bamford of WIRED, this new one million-square foot spy complex in the Utah Desert will actually be capable of monitoring, intercepting and de-encrypting just about any message sent over any communication network in the country. It will be capable of keeping tabs on any civilian in the U.S. or any foreigner visiting the USA. And it will all be hooked up to federal computers in Washington, giving it access to the records and databases of the most powerful government agencies in the country. If all this is starting to sound a lot like Skynet in the Terminator movies, that’s because, well, it is - minus the Schwarzenegger robots, of course.
The sheer amount of data that the NSA – and by extension the CIA, FBI and Pentagon – will be able to collect on both foreigners and its own civilians is staggering. The $2 billion center, which goes by the disarmingly bland name of the Utah Data Center, is the final piece in the puzzle for the Pentagon, which has been attempting to build a Global Information Grid ever since 9/11. Remember the Total Information Awareness program of 2003? Well, it’s now here in physical form – and it’s heavily guarded. In military parlance, it’s not a “soft” target - the facility has been hardened to the point where a 15,000-pound vehicle traveling at 50 miles per hour couldn't muscle its way inside. At its peak, this new surveillance center will be able to handle so much data that the NSA practically had to coin a new word to describe it: yottabytes. There are so many servers running this system that the annual cooling costs are estimated to be $40 million.
That’s quite an electricity bill for a "data center."
That's because this federal spy center goes far beyond what’s already being collected about us online, to explore the “Deep Web” that’s all but invisible to typical search engines. The spy center will also delve into the world of code-breaking and reverse-encryption. Even things that we think are far beyond any type of cyber-penetration will be readily available to the powers-that-be. That’s where things get downright scary. We assume that spambots and spiders slither behind us everywhere we go online, but what do we really know about all the other information that is being tracked about us? What information is being collected about us by security monitors in the streets and satellites overhead? The scope of what's being collected by the NSA is breathlessly thorough in detail, reaching into every area of our lives:
"Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital “pocket litter.” It is, in some measure, the realization of the “total information awareness” program created during the first term of the Bush administration—an effort that was killed by Congress in 2003 after it caused an outcry over its potential for invading Americans’ privacy."
This digital "pocket litter" that each of us leaves behind us may sound harmless – but that's until all of this highly unstructured data gets dumped into a supercomputing capable of mining all this data and producing patterns and insights. This “pocket litter” is no longer trash once it can be used to construct ever-more precise profiles of everyday civilians and predict future behaviors.
“Cybersecurity” and “the war on terror” are handy little buzzwords for enabling governments to extend their cyber-surveillance over every aspect of our lives. At the end of the day, pure democracy and absolute authoritarianism are really just flip sides of the same coin. This is precisely why dystopian novels such as George Orwell’s 1984 and Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We are so terrifying. Authoritarian regimes always start out with a willingness to help - not enslave - its civilians. War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. A government that claims to protect its citizens by spying on them is a government that needs to be watched, monitored and held under strict surveillance by its own citizens.
http://bigthink.com/endless-innovation/we-just-built-skynet-in-the-desert-now-whatTen years after 9/11, the National Security Agency (NSA) is close to putting the... more -
The Continually Expanding Definition of Terrorism
The Continually Expanding Definition of Terrorism
Public Intelligence
Though the United States has been engaged in a Global War on Terror for more than a decade, the U.S. Government surprisingly does not have a standardized definition of terrorism that is agreed upon by all agencies. The State Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation and a number of other government agencies all utilize differing definitions of what constitutes an act of terrorism. This lack of agreement has allowed individual agencies to present different and, in some cases, far more inclusive definitions of terrorist acts enabling the use of expanded investigative procedures that might not be applicable in other agencies.
The FBI utilizes a definition of terrorism based upon the agency’s general functions under 28 CFR § 0.85. Under this regulation an act of terrorism is defined by “the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.” The USA PATRIOT Act expanded this definition to include domestic acts within the definition of terrorism. Section 802 of the USA PATRIOT Act modified the legal definition of terrorism (18 USC § 2331) to include a category of “domestic terrorism” that is defined by “acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State” intended to “intimidate or coerce a civilian population”, “influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion” or “affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping” that are conducted primarily within the jurisdiction of the U.S. At the time, this expansion of the definition of terrorism was decried by the ACLU as “broad enough to encompass the activities of several prominent activist campaigns and organizations.”
One of the defining features of terrorist acts has always been a component of violence. Even under the expanded definition of terrorism created by the USA PATRIOT Act, there must be an act that is “dangerous to human life” indicating some form of physical harm to others could arise from the action. However, the Homeland Security Act of 2002, which created the Department of Homeland Security, extended the definition of terrorism further by including any act that is “damaging to critical infrastructure or key resources.” Though this definition differs from the legal definition of international and domestic terrorism under 18 USC § 2331, the modified definition is currently used by DHS as the basis for their own activities and intelligence products that are disseminated to federal, state and local law enforcement. The modified definition of terrorism is presented in a revised Domestic Terrorism and Homegrown Violent Extremism Lexicon published last year by DHS:
Any activity that involves an act that is dangerous to human life or potentially destructive to critical infrastructure or key resources, and is a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any state or other subdivision of the United States and appears to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion, or to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping.
Notice that the statement “potentially destructive to critical infrastructure or key resources” is part of a disjunction, indicating that the act need not be “dangerous to human life” for it to be considered an act of terrorism. This means that, according to DHS, a non-violent actor could be capable of committing an act of terrorism simply by engaging in “potentially destructive” behavior towards some part of the nation’s critical infrastructure. Due to the fact that large sections of domestic infrastructure, including everything from banks to bridges to milk processing plants, are now considered critical infrastructure, a wide range of “potentially destructive” actions could be investigated by DHS or any one of the dozens of fusion centers around the country as potential acts of terrorism. The DHS Domestic Terrorism Lexicon states that the definitions presented in the document are designed to “assist federal, state, and local government officials with the mission to detect, identify, and understand threats of terrorism against the United States by facilitating a common understanding of the terms and definitions that describe terrorist threats to the United States.”
A recent report from the Congressional Research Service states that this ambiguity in the definition of terrorism can create confusion “in the investigative process regarding exactly when criminal activity becomes domestic terrorism.” The report also notes that the government often uses the terms “extremist” and “terrorist” interchangeably creating further ambiguity as to what exactly constitutes an act of terrorism. A 2009 study from Syracuse University found that U.S. Federal District Courts, the Department of Justice’s National Security Division and federal prosecutors all rely on different criteria to determine whether or not specific cases involve terrorist acts. This lack of agreement has led to widespread failures to obtain prosecutions of suspects recommended for charges by investigative agencies. In fact, the study found that from 2004-2009 “assistant United States attorneys all over the country declined to bring any charges against two out of every three (67%) of the thousands of terrorism matters that the investigative agencies had recommended for criminal prosecution.” The Syracuse study ends with a warning about the ambiguity surrounding the definition of terrorism:
The strong evidence that various parts of the government do not share a common understanding about terrorism has important consequences for all Americans. Those most immediately affected are the thousands of people whom the investigative agencies each year incorrectly recommend for prosecution in federal court. But to the extent that the investigators systematically waste their time targeting the wrong suspects, the chances increase that they will fail to identify the real terrorists who right now may be seeking to plant bombs, spread poisons or otherwise harm a much larger number of innocent people.
To solve these problems the study offers a surprisingly straightforward solution: come up with “a clear and understandable definition of terrorism.”The Continually Expanding Definition of Terrorism Public Intelligence Though the... more-
- entropyincarnate
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- 3 days ago
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45 Signs That China Is Colonizing America
#1 It was recently announced that China’s Dalian Wanda Group has bought U.S. movie theater chain AMC Entertainment for a whopping 2.6 billion dollars. This deal represents China's biggest corporate takeover of a U.S. firm ever.
#2 Earlier this month, the Federal Reserve announced that it has given approval for banks owned by the Chinese government to buy stakes in U.S.-owned banks.
#3 A few days ago Reuters reported that China is now able to completely bypass Wall Street and purchase U.S. debt directly from the U.S. Treasury Department.
#4 A recent investigation by the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services found more than one million counterfeit Chinese parts in the Department of Defense supply chain. How in the world could we be so stupid?
#5 After being bailed out by U.S. taxpayers, General Motors is currently involved in 11 joint ventures with companies owned by the Chinese government. The price for entering into many of these "joint ventures" was a transfer of "state of the art technology" from General Motors to the communist Chinese.
#6 A Chinese company known as "Sino-Michigan Properties LLC" has purchased 200 acres of land near the town of Milan, Michigan. The goal is to build a "China City" with artificial lakes, a Chinese cultural center and hundreds of housing units for Chinese citizens.
#7 As I reported on recently, corporations controlled by the Chinese government have been rapidly buying up U.S. oil and gas deposits worth billions of dollars.
#8 Chinese investors have been gobbling up real estate all over New York City. The following is from a recent Forbes article....
According to a recent report in the New York Times, investors from China are “snapping up luxury apartments” and are planning to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on commercial and residential projects like Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn. Chinese companies also have signed major leases at the Empire State Building and at 1 World Trade Center, the report said.
#9 The Chinese are also doing huge real estate deals in cities in the middle part of the country. The following example is from an article in the Toledo Blade....
Dashing Pacific Group Ltd., which has already purchased the nearby Docks restaurant complex for $2.15 million, put its $3.8 million offer to buy the southern 69 acres at the Marina District in East Toledo back on the table for approval by Toledo City Council. Additionally, Dashing Pacific Chairman Yuan Xiaohong, in a letter signed in Hangzhou, said the firm wants a two-year option to buy the decommissioned Toledo Edison power plant property on the site.
#10 According to ABC News, major road and bridge projects all over the United States are being built by Chinese companies. Meanwhile, there are millions upon millions of blue collar American workers that cannot find jobs. The following is a brief excerpt from a recent ABC News article....
In New York there is a $400 million renovation project on the Alexander Hamilton Bridge.
In California, there is a $7.2 billion project to rebuild the Bay Bridge connecting San Francisco and Oakland.
In Alaska, there is a proposal for a $190 million bridge project.
These projects sound like steps in the right direction, but much of the work is going to Chinese government-owned firms.
"When we subsidize jobs in China, we're not creating any wealth in the United States," said Scott Paul, executive director for the Alliance for American Manufacturing.
#11 The new World Trade Center tower is going to include glass that has been imported from China.
#12 The new Martin Luther King memorial on the National Mall was made in China.
#13 Check out this incredible photo which contrasts the decline of Detroit over the years with the amazing rise of Shanghai, China.
#14 A couple of years ago, a large Chinese company was considering building "a 10,000- to 30,000-acre technology zone for industry, retail centers and homes" just south of Boise, Idaho.
#15 Our trade deficit with China in 2011 was $295.5 billion. That was the largest trade deficit that one country has had with another country in the history of the planet.
#16 In 2011, our trade deficit with China was 28 times larger than it was back in 1990 and more than 49,000 times larger than it was back in 1985.
#17 Back in 1998, the United States had 25 percent of the world’s high-tech export market and China had just 10 percent. Today, China's high-tech exports are more than twice the size of U.S. high-tech exports.
#18 America has lost more than a quarter of all of its high-tech manufacturing jobs over the past ten years.
#19 According to the Economic Policy Institute, America is losing half a million jobs to China every single year.
#20 The U.S. spends about 4 dollars on goods and services from China for every one dollar that China spends on goods and services from the United States. Does that sound like "fair trade" to you?
#21 While we allow Chinese goods to freely flood our shores, China just keeps slapping new tariffs on American-made goods. According to the New York Times, a Jeep Grand Cherokee that costs $27,490 in the United States costs about $85,000 in China thanks to all the tariffs.
#22 According to U.S. Representative Betty Sutton, an average of 23 manufacturing facilities a day closed down in the United States during 2010.
#23 The United States has lost an average of approximately 50,000 manufacturing jobs a month and more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities in the United States have been shut down since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.
#24 The United States has lost a staggering 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.
#25 Between December 2000 and December 2010, 38 percent of the manufacturing jobs in Ohio were lost, 42 percent of the manufacturing jobs in North Carolina were lost and 48 percent of the manufacturing jobs in Michigan were lost.
#26 In 2010, China produced more than twice as many automobiles as the United States did.
#27 In 2010, China produced 627 million metric tons of steel. The United States only produced 80 million metric tons of steel.
#28 In 2010, China produced 7.3 million metric tons of cotton. The United States only produced 3.4 million metric tons of cotton.
#29 Today, China produces nearly twice as much beer as the United States does.
#30 85 percent of all artificial Christmas trees are made in China.
#31 China is now the number one producer of wind and solar power on the entire globe.
#32 Chinese solar panel production was about 50 times larger in 2010 than it was in 2005.
#33 Right now, China is producing more than three times as much coal as the United States does.
#34 China is now the number one supplier of components that are critical to the operation of U.S. defense systems.
#35 According to author Clyde Prestowitz, China's number one export to the U.S. is computer equipment. According to an article in U.S. News & World Report, during 2010 the number one U.S. export to China was "scrap and trash".
more info and links at article...
China is the model for the New World Order. There's no doubt Red Dawn is coming!#1 It was recently announced that China’s Dalian Wanda Group has bought U.S.... more-
- rodstradamus
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- 5 days ago
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Repost From February 2009 - "Is The GOP Actively Courting A Depression?"
Was the Civil War a Pyrrhic victory?-
- mfb1949
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The Secret Weapon Lobbyists Use to Ruin Your Health
Story at-a-glance
A common form of bribery in the Halls of Congress is to secretly promise a politician (or one of his key staffers) a high-paying position as a lobbyist once they leave office. According to a recent investigation into 12 lawmakers-turned-lobbyist, politicians increased their salary by an average of 1,452 percent from the last year they were in office
In an explosive 60-Minutes’ report aired last year, former lobbyist Jack Abramoff revealed just how effective this form of bribery was. He would primarily target Chief’s of Staff with job offers, ultimately giving him profound power of influence over more than 100 congressional offices
The US political system is fatally flawed. It is run by bribery, and it cannot be fixed through reform efforts, because those creating the reforms are the very people affected by them
In order to have even a remote chance of ending this kind of corruption, all members of Congress and their staff must be prohibited from ever becoming a lobbyist after their service on the Hill is over
full article at link...Story at-a-glance A common form of bribery in the Halls of Congress is to secretly... more-
- rodstradamus
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Chris Hedges discusses the NDAA and what it could mean for journalists.
This is a very important topic, and an excellent interview. It addresses what may, or may not, be “unintended consequences” very well.
This is a "Must see".
Here's a direct link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK1kWqb5t6U&feature=youtu.beThis is a very important topic, and an excellent interview. It addresses what may, or... more-
- ClassicalGas
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- 10 days ago
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Young People in the Recession - The War Against Youth
The recession didn't gut the prospects of American young people. The Baby Boomers took care of that.
Twenty-five years ago young Americans had a chance.
In 1984, American breadwinners who were sixty-five and over made ten times as much as those under thirty-five. The year Obama took office, older Americans made almost forty-seven times as much as the younger generation.
This bleeding up of the national wealth is no accounting glitch, no anomalous negative bounce from the recent unemployment and mortgage crises, but rather the predictable outcome of thirty years of economic and social policy that has been rigged to serve the comfort and largesse of the old at the expense of the young.
Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, human potential has been consistently growing, generating greater material wealth, more education, wider opportunities — a vast and glorious liberation of human potential. In all that time, everyone, even followers of the most corrupt or most evil of ideologies, believed they were working for a better tomorrow. Not now. The angel of progress has suddenly vanished from the scene. Or rather, the angel of progress has been sent away.
Nobody ever talks about generational conflict. Who wants to bring up that the old are eating the young at the dinner table? How are you going to mention that to your boss? If you're a politician, how are you going to tell your donors? Even the Occupy Wall Street crowd, while rejecting the modes and rhetoric and institutional support of Boomer progressives, shied away from articulating the fundamental distinction that fills their spaces with crowds: young against old.
The gerontocracy begins at the top. The 111th Congress was the oldest since the end of the Second World War, and the average age of its members has been rising steadily since 1981. The graying of Congress has obvious political ramifications, although generalizations can be deceiving. The Republican representatives tend to be younger than the Democrats, but that doesn't mean they represent the interests of the young. The youngest senators are Tea Party members, Mike Lee from Utah and Marco Rubio from Florida (both forty). Here's Rubio: "Americans chose a free-enterprise system designed to provide a quality of opportunity, not compel a quality of results. And that is why this is the only place in the world where you can open up a business in the spare bedroom of your home." He is speaking to people who own homes that have empty spare bedrooms. He will not or cannot understand that the spare bedrooms of America are filling up with returning adult children, like the estimated 85 percent of college graduates who returned to their childhood beds in 2010, toting along $25,250 of debt.
David Frum, former George W. Bush speechwriter, had the guts to acknowledge that the Tea Party's combination of expensive entitlement programs and tax cuts is something entirely different from a traditional political program: "This isn't conservatism: It's a going-out-of-business sale for the Baby Boom generation." The economic motive is growing ever more naked, and has nothing to do with any principle that could be articulated by Goldwater or Reagan, or indeed with any principle at all. The political imperative is to preserve the economic cloak of unreality that the Boomers have wrapped themselves in.
Democrats may not be actively hostile to the interests of young voters, but they are too scared and weak to speak up for them. So when the Boomers and swing voters scream for fiscal discipline and the hard decisions have to be made, youth is collateral damage. Medicare and Social Security were mostly untouched in Obama's 2012 budget. But to show he was really serious about belt tightening, relatively cheap programs that help young people like the Adolescent Family Life Program and the Career Pathways Innovation Fund were killed.
His intentions may be good — he may want to increase support for AmeriCorps — but the program shrunk last year. Three quarters of the applicants were turned away. He resisted Republican efforts to slash Pell grants by $845 per student, but then made other changes to the program that will save the government — or cost students, depending on your perspective — a projected $100 billion over ten years.
The youth vote still supports Obama, but in a chastened, conditional way. In hindsight, Obama's 2008 campaign looks like an indulgent fantasy in which the major conflicts in life simply don't exist. There may be no white America and no black America, no blue-state America and no red-state America, but one thing is clear: There is a young America and there is an old America, and they don't form a community of interest. One takes from the other. The federal government spends $480 billion on Medicare and $68 billion on education. Prescription drugs: $62 billion. Head Start: $8 billion. Across the board, the money flows not to helping the young grow up, but helping the old die comfortably. According to a 2009 Brookings Institution study, "The United States spends 2.4 times as much on the elderly as on children, measured on a per capita basis, with the ratio rising to 7 to 1 if looking just at the federal budget."
The biggest boondoggle of all is Social Security. The management of entitlement programs, already weighted heavily in favor of the older population, has a very specific terminal point that coincides neatly with the Boomers' deaths. The 2011 report by the Social Security trustees estimates that, under its current administration, the fund will run out in 2036, so there's just enough to get the oldest Boomers to age ninety.
Continued at: http://www.esquire.com/features/young-people-in-the-recession-0412The recession didn't gut the prospects of American young people. The Baby Boomers... more-
- JRBarilla
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The Jones Plantation
One cannot change reality by changing the words you use to describe reality. Look beneath the rhetoric, and glimpse the truth.One cannot change reality by changing the words you use to describe reality. Look... more-
- Vierotchka
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- 17 days ago
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Subcommittee Hearing "The Federal Reserve System: Mend It or End It?"
This hearing examines a number of legislative proposals to reform, replace, or abolish the Federal Reserve System.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3EkmeQw_KIThis hearing examines a number of legislative proposals to reform, replace, or abolish... more-
- JRBarilla
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- 20 days ago
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France Goes With the Socialist
The austerity regime in Europe took a big hit Sunday, with French voters electing Socialist Francois Hollande, while the Greeks, also voting Sunday, handed out pink slips to the ruling centrist coalition that has slashed government spending on EU orders.
Hollande will be the first left-leaning leader of France in 17 years, an awfully long drought considering the country’s reputation as a social democracy.
Votes are still being counted as of this posting, but President Nicolas Sarkozy has already conceded.
Hollande’s ascension is significant to the Greeks, who spent the day castigating their pro-austerity representatives in parliament and voting to support a variety of alternative parties on both the left and right.
Driven by conservative leaders in the U.K., France and Germany, “austerity” has been the watchword for Europe these last few years. Despite everything the United States learned in the 1930s and ’40s about the value of stimulus, lawmakers across the pond have been pushing their own version of austerity—“deficit reduction.”
The results have left something to be desired. Rather than stabilize the British economy, austerity seems to have pushed the U.K. into a double-dip recession, which Prime Minister David Cameron blames on the eurozone.
In France and Greece, voters seem to be rejecting the concept. Hollande promises to spend more and wants to renegotiate austerity agreements with Germany.
Perhaps like couture, will the political fashions of Paris somehow find their way to these shores? Not likely, with both presidential candidates agreeing to curtail spending on anything but the military and a few token millions for popular programs. In France, Hollande promised to hire 60,000 teachers and raise the minimum wage. That kind of boldness, whether politically feasible or not, is sorely lacking in this year’s U.S. election. Maybe there is a lesson in Europe for President Obama’s campaign team. Maybe not. —PZSThe austerity regime in Europe took a big hit Sunday, with French voters electing... more-
- BakedFresh
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- 23 days ago
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What Has Been Happening to The GOP
An article about what is occuring in the GOP. One of the best I have read. Simple and to the point.An article about what is occuring in the GOP. One of the best I have read. Simple... more-
- thevoiceoftoday
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- 27 days ago
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Mainstream Media Outlets Are Buying the Drug Czar’s “Third Way” Lie, Hook, Line, and Sinker
Media outlets have published reports from Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske’s Tuesday speech at the Center for American Progress. As you might expect, several of the stories are straight transcription jobs, lacking response comments from drug reform advocates, or independent data. In two cases, the reports contain blatant falsehoods.
Here are the worst offenders:
ABC (republished by Yahoo!): “Obama's Drug Czar Stumps for 'Third Way' Policy”
“To hear President Obama's drug czar tell it, the leading voices on drug policy are kind of crazy,” reads the lede to Chris Good’s exceptionally lazy piece. While Kerlikowske utterly mischaracterized the position of drug reform advocates, he didn’t actually call them crazy.
This line from Good’s report is also wrong: Kerlikowske was “promoting the White House's new National Drug Control Strategy, which calls for a focus on treatment and prevention rather than punishment.” If Good had actually read Obama’s 2013 federal budget proposal, he’d know that it allocates nearly 60 percent of the federal budget to drug law enforcement, AKA “punishment.”
C-SPAN: “Drug Czar Outlines ‘Third Way’ for U.S. Drug Policy”
The vaunted cable outlet’s report is only three paragraphs, but still contains a huge error. “Mr. Kerlikowske told the audience that the past few years has seen a reduction in the use of cocaine and methamphetamine, and that the White House has approved elimination of mandatory sentencing guidelines that disproportionately affected minorities.” Actually, the White House didn’t approve the elimination of the sentencing disparity between crack cocaine and powder cocaine in 2010, it simply reduced it from 100-to-1, to 18-to-1. And not only did Obama not “eliminate” the disparity, he also failed to make the new sentencing guidelines retroactive.
The best report came from the Hearst Newspapers. Reporter Dan Freedman sought comment from Law Enforcement Against Prohibition’s Tom Angell, noted that the current federal drug budget allocates nearly 60 percent to enforcement, and added that “Kerlikowske's de-emphasis of law enforcement stood in contrast to a crackdown that U.S. attorneys in California ordered last year on medical marijuana businesses operating under state law.” Gold star for you, Dan Freedman.
http://reason.com/blog/2012/05/02/mainstream-media-outlets-are-buying-theMedia outlets have published reports from Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske’s Tuesday... more-
- JRBarilla
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The Unholy Alliance: Monsanto, Dupont & Obama
President Obama knows that agribusiness cannot be trusted with the policy and regulatory powers of government. On the campaign trail in 2007, he promised:
"We'll tell ConAgra that it's not the Department of Agribusiness. It's the Department of Agriculture. We're going to put the people's interests ahead of the special interests."
But, starting with his choice for USDA Secretary, the pro-biotech former governor of Iowa, Tom Vilsack, President Obama has let Monsanto, Dupont and the other pesticide and genetic engineering companies know they'll have plenty of friends and supporters within his administration.
President Obama has taken his team of food and farming leaders directly from the biotech companies and their lobbying, research, and philanthropic arms.
Michael Taylor, former Monsanto Vice President, is now the FDA Deputy Commissioner for Foods.
Roger Beachy, former director of the Monsanto-funded Danforth Plant Science Center, is now the director of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
Islam Siddiqui, Vice President of the Monsanto and Dupont-funded pesticide-promoting lobbying group, CropLife, is now the Agriculture Negotiator for the US Trade Representative.
Rajiv Shah, former agricultural-development director for the pro-biotech Gates Foundation (a frequent Monsanto partner), served as Obama's USDA Under Secretary for Research Education and Economics and Chief Scientist and is now head of USAID.
Solicitor General Elena Kagan, who took Monsanto's side against organic farmers in the Roundup Ready alfalfa case, has been nominated to the Supreme Court.
Now, Ramona Romero, corporate counsel to DuPont, has been nominated by President Obama to serve as General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
DuPont's lengthy record of lies, crimes and misdeeds are well known, and the company's efforts to deceive the public and cover-up risks of its products continue to this day.
Corporate Crime Daily reports:
DuPont brought genetically engineered "Bt" crops to market, despite concerns raised by scientists, environmentalists and organic growers who noted that the Bt crops threaten to destroy the usefulness of Bt sprays, valued by many as the world's safest and most important biological pesticide.
Genetically engineered Bt is not the same as the long-used Bt sprays. It is an activated, high-dose toxin. DuPont claims its Bt products are safe, but there is evidence that Bt crops can trigger allergies and there have been many reports of sickness and death in animals exposed to Bt crops.
Installing a DuPont lawyer at the USDA would create a terrible conflict that would no doubt be resolved in favor of this powerful company rather than the people's interest in food safety, public health and environmental sustainability.
President Obama should stand by his promise, and withdraw his nomination of Ramona Romero, or the Senate should refuse to confirm it. This would be a positive step in turning the Department of Agribusiness back into the Department of Agriculture.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ronnie-cummins/the-unholy-alliance-monsa_b_642385.htmlPresident Obama knows that agribusiness cannot be trusted with the policy and... more-
- JRBarilla
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- 28 days ago
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'OWS has right target, must sever itself as US caught in vice of no escape'
America sees the' looting' of the US Treasury, and the money given to a Wall Street 'criminal class', journalist Chris Hedges told RT. He adds that ordinary people are caught in the vice of unregulated corporate capitalism -- with no escape.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDqdK4fODzs&feature=g-all-uAmerica sees the' looting' of the US Treasury, and the money given to a Wall... more-
- JRBarilla
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- 29 days ago
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