Posts Tagged ‘China’
Posted by msrb on June 25, 2009
Pornography on Internet Courtesy of Google, Inc
MSRB Moderators have received information from fellow bloggers in South East Asia that the “DO NO Evil [sic]” Google is spreading pornography on Internet in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and possibly other countries.
A simple image search can connect Google users to various on-line pornography sites directly and without any warning.
The confirmation comes amid reports that China’s Foreign Ministry has accused Google of spreading pornography on Internet thereby breaking Chinese law.
Meanwhile, it was reported that neither Google’s search engine nor its Chinese-language version were accessible in most parts of China, presumably blocked by the authorities as a retaliatory measure.
China has demanded that all new computers sold in the country come pre-installed with an Internet-filter software called Green Dam Youth Escort to block pornographic content, starting July 1, 2009.
As the deadline approaches, however, the US called on China to scrap its plan. “China is putting companies in an untenable position by requiring them, with virtually no public notice, to pre-install software that appears to have broad-based censorship implications and network security issues,” BBC reported the US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke as saying.
China ordered Google last week to stop deliberately linking Internet users to “pornographic and vulgar” websites.
“We have found that Google has spread a lot of pornographic content, which is a serious violation of Chinese laws and regulations,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters.
The US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said “China’s proposed internet filter would violate China’s free trade obligations, weaken computer security and raise serious censorship concerns.” The report said.
“Mandating technically flawed Green Dam software and denying manufacturers and consumers freedom to select filtering software is an unnecessary and unjustified means to achieve that objective, and poses a serious barrier to trade,” Kirk said.
“The latest comment raises the concern about a broader trade war between the US and China over everything from computer security to chicken poultry imports.” The report said.
The US has already filed major complaint with the World Trade Organization accusing China of unfair trade practices by restricting competitors’ access to raw materials, and is now complaining that to pre-install the “pornography-filter” software would violate China’s WTO free trade obligations because it puts pressure on PC manufacturers.
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology now says installation of the filter was not compulsory and users can uninstall the software.
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Posted in Chinese law, Google in China, Green Dam Youth Escort, restricting competitors' access, WTO | Tagged: China, free trade obligations, Google, Great Firewall of China, Online porn | 1 Comment »
Posted by msrb on January 6, 2009
China: A New Revolution May Be in the Making
Out with the old corrupt regime; in with the young new visionaries
Outlook (Liaowang) Magazine, produced by the official Xinhua news agency, warned this week that weakening economic outlook could result in large scale unrest by millions of disparate migrant workers and university graduates without jobs.
“‘Without doubt, now we’re entering a peak period for mass incidents,’ a senior Xinhua reporter, Huang Huo, told the magazine, using the official euphemism for riots and protests.” Reuters reported.
Migrant workers wait to board a train back home at the waiting room of a railway station in Taiyuan, Jiangxi province December 16, 2008. Rising unemployment and a widening income gap are the two issues of most concern to Chinese people, an annual report released on Monday by the Chinese Academy of Social Science said, China Daily reported. REUTERS/Stringer (CHINA). CHINA OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN CHINA. Image may be subject to copyright.
“In 2009, Chinese society may face even more conflicts and clashes that will test even more the governing abilities of all levels of the Party and government.” Huang Huo said.
“The candor about these problems reflects the severity of the unemployment problem. It’s meant to attract the attention of all levels of government,” said Mao Shoulong, a professor of public policy at Beijing’s Renmin University.
“The government wants to show that stability is at the top of its agenda.”
“The biggest threats to China’s social fabric will come from graduating university students, facing a shrinking job market and diminished incomes, and from a tide of migrant laborers who have lost their jobs as export-driven factories have shut.” The report said.
“Factory closures, sackings and difficulties paying social security had already unleashed a surge of protests, the report said. Officials in provinces that have provided tens of millions of low-paid workers for coastal factories have reported a leap in the number returning to their farm homes without work.”
The authorities estimated that there were about 10 million jobless rural migrant workers, the magazine said.
A total of 7 million university and college graduates, including the ones who are still jobless since graduating in 2008, would be hunting for jobs this year, Huang estimated.
Based on its 8 percent GDP growth target, the government could probably generate about 8 million new jobs for the whole country this year, he added. Bearing in mind that in 1989, the core of the pro-democracy protests comprised of university students.
“If in 2009 there is a large number of unemployed rural migrant laborers who cannot find work for half a year or longer, milling around in cities with no income, the problem will be even more serious,” said Huang.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said: “We have the ability and the confidence to ensure the Chinese economy’s stable and relatively fast growth and to ensure social stability.”
The Morning After. Victims of Tiananmen Massacre-Beijing, June 4th, 1989. More horrific images available at source.
The Outlook report said that the protests were “increasingly politicized, making it harder for officials to douse them by force or cash hand-outs.”
“Social conflicts have already formed a certain social, mass base so that as soon as there is an appropriate fuse it always swiftly explodes and clashes escalate quickly,” said Huang. Source
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Posted in Beijing, Renmin University, riots, Tiananmen massacre, Xinhua | Tagged: China, Chinese society, Corrupt Communist Party, government, revolution | Leave a Comment »
Posted by msrb on October 26, 2008
submitted by a reader
China is hurt and she’s mad with the U.S. [Mis]Administration!
There’s a limit to how much you can party on other people’s money
There’s a joke about borrowing money: if you borrow a few thousand dollars, the lender owns you; if you borrow a few million, you own the lender!
Alas, the Chinese didn’t find the old joke very funny! They didn’t like the US dollar comporting like enema fluid: Every time it comes back there’s less of it both in quantity and quality. And even though Uncle Sam is the number one customer for their shoddy goods, here’s what they had to say:
Renminbi: Chinese Currency is called Renminbi (RMB or CNY) means “People’s Currency” in Chinese language. Source: China Today.
U.S. has plundered world wealth with dollar: China paper
BEIJING (Reuters) – The United States has plundered global wealth by exploiting the dollar’s dominance, and the world urgently needs other currencies to take its place, a leading Chinese state newspaper said on Friday.
The front-page commentary in the overseas edition of the People’s Daily said that Asian and European countries should banish the U.S. dollar from their direct trade relations for a start, relying only on their own currencies.
A meeting between Asian and European leaders, starting on Friday in Beijing, presented the perfect opportunity to begin building a new international financial order, the newspaper said.
The People’s Daily is the official newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party. The Chinese-language overseas edition is a small circulation offshoot of the main paper.
Its pronouncements do not necessarily directly voice leadership views. But the commentary, as well as recent comments, amount to a growing chorus of Chinese disdain for Washington’s economic policies and global financial dominance in the wake of the credit crisis.
“The grim reality has led people, amidst the panic, to realize that the United States has used the U.S. dollar’s hegemony to plunder the world’s wealth,” said the commentator, Shi Jianxun, a professor at Shanghai’s Tongji University.
Shi, who has before been strident in his criticism of the U.S., said other countries had lost vast amounts of wealth because of the financial crisis, while Washington’s sole concern had been protecting its own interests.
“The U.S. dollar is losing people’s confidence. The world, acting democratically and lawfully through a global financial organization, urgently needs to change the international monetary system based on U.S. global economic leadership and U.S. dollar dominance,” he wrote.
Shi suggested that all trade between Europe and Asia should be settled in euros, pounds, yen and yuan, though he did not explain how the Chinese currency could play such a role since it is not convertible on the capital account.
A two-day Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) of 27 EU member states and 16 Asian countries was set to open on Friday. Though few analysts expect much in the way of concrete agreements, Shi said it could prove momentous.
“How can Europe and Asia grasp each other’s hands and together confront the once-in-a-century global financial crisis sparked by the U.S.; how can they construct a new equitable and safe international financial order?” he said.
“The world is waiting for this Asian-European meeting to achieve big results in financial cooperation.” (Source)
(Reporting by Simon Rabinovitch; Editing by Ken Wills) Copyright author or the news agency.
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Posted in Beijing, borrowing joke, Fed Reserve, U.S. dollar, world wealth | Tagged: borrowed chickens, Bush, China, coming home to roost, US Administration! | Leave a Comment »
Posted by msrb on October 15, 2008
Submitted by a reader:
Mandelson stunt, which impressed Wen Jiabao, prompting his promotion, ends in kidney ‘failure!’
Politics of Kidney Stone
Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Lord Mandelson, a British Politician and a former European Union (EU) Trade Commissioner, was rushed to hospital with kidney complaints and subsequently diagnosed with having kidney stones, said the British media.
Nothing to it: White, clean and full of protein (!) Peter Mandelson Drinking the local milk during a televised press conference in China.
In an otherwise carefully calculated political stunt, Lord Mandelson in his former role as an EU Trade Commissioner gulped a glass of Chinese milk on television during a press conference on September 26, a move which prompted the establishment to appoint him as Britain’s Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform to appease Beijing.
Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier was overwhelmed by Mandelson’s selfless act of health sacrifice and said: “He committed this act because he not only sees the present, but also the future.”
Alas, it was a short future indeed for Lord Mandelson since it lasted only 9 days before he was rushed to the hospital.
Lord Mandelson’s spokesman said: ‘He won’t want to comment.’
At least 56,000 Chinese babies needed treatment for kidney stones and 4 died [we may never know the exact number of the dead, a state secret] when Chinese companies added melamine, an industrial chemical, to make watered-down milk appear nutritious and used the tainted milk to manufacture infant formula.
The worst contamination case involved infant formula manufactured by a joint venture operation owned by China’s Sanlu and New Zealand’s Fonterra.
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Posted in China food imports, embedded with China, Politics of Kidney Stones, Tainted Milk, Wen Jiabao | Tagged: China, Fonterra, New Zealand, Peter Mandelson, sanlu | 1 Comment »
Posted by feww on September 16, 2008
Submitted by a Reader
An Open Letter To NZ PM Helen Clark:
Tell the Truth to the Parents of the Dead and Sick Chinese Babies, they are Humans, Too!
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark claims her government learned of the contamination problem on September 5. She slept over it for three days and then decided to inform Beijing after local Chinese officials refused to act.
She deputized New Zealand ambassador to China Tony Brown to tell the Chinese government.
“We were the whistle-blowers and they [the Chinese government] leapt in and ensured there was action on the ground,” Clark said. “We cannot have it on our conscience.”
Fonterra had “been trying for weeks to get official recall and the local authorities in China would not do it”, Clark told TVNZ.
“I think the first inclination was to try and put a towel over it and deal with it without an official recall,” she said.
What a load of old codswallop!
They are Humans, too, Ms Clark, Despite their “Squint Eyes” and Your Official Briefing
Parents of the babies with kidney stones talk to reporters at a hospital in Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu Province, Sept. 11, 2008. (Xinhua Photo)
Now, Tell the Truth!
Do you confirm or deny, preferably under oath, that your senior SIS agent in China, “Y,” told you about the tainted Sanlu powdered milk incident before September 5, 2008?
And you better think real hard before you answer the question.
[Hint: We know you lied the first time.]
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Fonterra had Foreknowledge
Truth About New Zealand
Posted in sick infants, tainted milk powder | Tagged: China, Fonterra, Helen Clark, New Zealand, sanlu | 8 Comments »
Posted by terres on August 28, 2008
submitted by a reader
Corrupt Chinese Govt Officials Detained
Why are Hu Jin-tao and Wen Jia-bao still on the loose?
If you say that ‘endemic corruption threatens the Communist Party’s grip on power,’ then the Chinese Big Brother lets you off the hook! Well, this is a trick that Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao seem to use every time like a ‘secret code.’
What happened to the ex-Party General Secretary and President Jiang Zemin and his son?
The cases of Zhou Zhenyi, Liu Jingbao, and Wang Weigong, as well as the recently exposed Zhaogu case in Shanghai City are all related. All these cases involve large-scale corruption, bribery and embezzlement and all involve Jiang Mianheng, son of Jiang Zemin. (Internet photos) - Epoch Times
Who exactly is in charge in China, anyway? We know the media and judiciary, like our own, are NOT independent. Is it possible that the same cabal who run our country, the continent, Europe, Australia, as well as … also run China? Think about it it isn’t as far fetched as you might think!
Back to the corruption news: Auditor General Liu Jiayi reported that 14 central government officials had been arrested and nearly 200 other people had been punished. It’s not cleared what means of punishment were applied!
Apparently the offenses included using the Sichuan earthquake disaster relief funds to build government offices. Since building government offices is not an offense, it must be presumed that the earthquake funds were earmarked for other uses!
In his 2008 annual report, China’s auditor-general also reported about 50 government departments had misused or embezzled about 4.5bn yuan ($660m) in 2007. In some cases public funds were used to speculate in the stock market.
This raises a few more questions: Were the offenders discovered because their luck ran out and they lost the founds? Will the stock market pay the public money back? Who owns, or profits from the Chinese stock market?
Additionally, “managerial irregularities” totaled to another 42bn yuan ($6bn) worth of of public money misuse, especially by China’s education and commerce ministries, and the statistics and tax offices.
So, what about the cheating Chinese officials in the Beijing “Opium” Olympics? Was that category of cheating condoned because it served the glory of the capitalist communist fatherland?
If you thought a ruling party as powerful and ruthless as the Central Committee of the [capitalist] Communist Party of China could eradicate all official and non official corruption with the flick of a finger, you would be right.
What good is the power, if the Chinese people are swamped by official corruption, industrial pollution and systemic oppression? How could their future, unlike the past, bode well for them?
Why don’t they? The only plausible explanation is no one would be willing to shoot the Peking Duck that lays the golden eggs!
Once again, China has disappointed the world—just when you thought it had a chance to make it through!
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Posted in collapse, ecosystems, environment, Global Warming, government, money, politics, war | Tagged: 000 Years of Corruption, 50, Auditor General Liu Jiayi, CCP corruption, China, Chinese stock market, disaster relief funds, Hu Jintao, Jiang Zemin, Peking Duck, Shanghai, Sichuan earthquake, Wen Jiabao | Leave a Comment »
Posted by msrb on August 17, 2008
The disgraced Olympics is about cheating without worrying whether you’d get caught!
Chinese Fair Play!
According to her passport, Jiang Yuyuan will be 17 in November. One list, however, has her at 14. Photo: Mark Ralston/AFP. Image may be subject to copyright!
Dishonest governments/authorities serve whose interests?
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Posted in ecosystems, Energy, environment, Global Warming, government, money, politics, war | Tagged: Beijing, cheating, China, dopes, gymnastics, ioc, official fraud, olympic games, olympics of disgrace, tourism, travel | Leave a Comment »
Posted by msrb on June 21, 2008
The Best Caption Competition Winners:
– There’s no war here.
– Don’t trouble me with national emergencies, I have a war to fight.
– Our troops need all the money we can send them to fight the enemy over there.
– Don’t be sissies! This is nothing like the 1993 deluge.
President George W. Bush talks to the media after viewing receding floodwaters on Normandy Drive in Iowa City, Iowa, USA, on 19 June 2008. EPA/MATTHEW HOLST / POOL. Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!
“They all told us, `The levees are good. You can go ahead and build,”‘ said Parks, who did not buy flood coverage because her bank no longer required it. “We had so much confidence in those levees.”
“People put all their hopes in those levees, and when they do fail, the damage is catastrophic,” said Paul Osman, the National Flood Insurance Program coordinator for Illinois. “New Orleans is the epitome; a lot of those people didn’t even realize they were in a floodplain until the water was up to their roofs.”
This used to be a road, and we parked our trucks right there!
Volunteers sandbag a building submerged in Burlington, Iowa June 15, 2008. Officials moved paintings, books and documents out of harm’s way on Sunday as record flooding in parts of the U.S. Midwest partly submerged the University of Iowa campus in Iowa City. REUTERS/Eric Thayer (UNITED STATES). Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!
“We reported to the president in ’94 that the levee system was in disarray, the levees were not high enough to take care of any potential problem. People didn’t understand their flood risk and there wasn’t good co-ordination across federal, state and local governments,” said Gerald Galloway, a professor of engineering and flood control expert.
“The same thing applies today,” Galloway said. “It’s amazing that in the face of [Hurricane] Katrina and now this particular challenge that we continue to relearn the same lessons.”
Galloway’s recommendations to improve the levee system were basically ignored. He said that he’s experiencing much the same response now from officials as in 1993.
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Posted in Bush, collapse, ecosystems, Energy, environment, Global Warming, government, money, politics, war | Tagged: China, Climate Change, climate refugees, CO2, crop damage, Drought, Energy, environment, Extreme Rain Events, extreme weather events, floods, Food, Gerald Galloway, GHG, Global Warming, government, Health, historic hydrological event, levee system, Midwest Flood Victims, Midwest Floods, Misled by Feds, Mississippi River, Missouri river, National Weather Service, northern Louisiana, Quincy, St. Louis |, tourism, travel | 3 Comments »
Posted by msrb on June 16, 2008
Fuel and Food Strikes Spreads to South Korea
About 18,000 operators of construction machinery went on strike in South Korea on Monday demanding cheaper fuel and higher pay, joining thousands of truckers who began their strike last week.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. Lee may be forced to resign in the coming weeks.
The strikers are also angry over the policies of the new President Lee Myung-bak, who came to office amid a landslide victory in December, but has since become increasingly unpopular because of a decision to resume imports of U.S. beef.
Protesters chant slogans at a candlelight vigil on a street leading to the U.S. embassy and the presidential Blue House in central Seoul June 10, 2008. REUTERS/Lee Jae-Won. Image may be subject to copyright. See PRO Fair Use Notice!
There have been waves of street protest in the recent weeks demanding the government to repeal of the U.S. beef deal. The South Koreans are concerned about the threats of mad cow disease associated with the US beef.
Adding to the pressure, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions is expected to call on its 600,000 members to stage a walkout against Lee’s privatization and pension reform plans, Reuters reported.
The strikes have so far cost Korea $3.5 billion, the commerce ministry said.
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Posted in Bush, collapse, ecosystems, Energy, environment, Global Warming, government, money, politics, war | Tagged: big oil, biofuel, boneheads, BP, Brent crude, cabal, catastrophe, CEO, Chevron, China, Colombia, Congress, ConocoPhillips, construction machinery operators, corn, corporate racketeering, corporations from hell, energy riots, ethanol, Exxon Mobil, Exxon Valdeez, feedlots, free market my foot, gas-guzzling cars, gasoline prices, George W. Bush, Gulf, House of Representatives, hypocrisy, inflation, insanity, Iran, Iraq occupation, Justice Department, Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, Lee Myung-bak, lifestyle, lynch mob, mad cow disease, Middle East, Mobil, niger delta, Nigeria, oil, OPEC, Pinheads, politics, Public Citizen, Ralph Nader, red heifer, renewable energy, Rep. Kagen, Rocky Mountains, runaway economy, Saudi Arabia, senate, Separation of Oil and State, sheeple, shell, South Korea, Speculators, StatoilHydro, Steve Kagen, supply and demand, truckers, truckers strike, uncertainty, Uncle Sam, US, USD, van der Veer, Venezuela, Wall Street, Weak dollar, White House, Wisconsin | Leave a Comment »
Posted by msrb on June 16, 2008
The Human Rights of an Octogenarian Chinese Woman
Google has effectively blocked the following posts from its search engines:
Google Censorship is a Flagrant Violation of Our Freedom of Speech!
Freedom of speech is being able to speak freely without censorship. The United States Constitution protects opinions under inalienable 1st Amendment free speech rights.
The right to freedom of speech is also guaranteed under international law through numerous human-rights instruments, notably under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
How much longer is Google allowed to continue its censorship in violation of the United States Constitution and the international law?
Posted in Energy, environment, government, money, politics | Tagged: 1st Amendment, China, China quake, Chinese Victim, Europe, free speech, free speech rights, freedom of speech, Google, Google censorship, google gag, google law, Health, human rights, murder, New Zealand, New Zealand Poisoning Syndrome, Octogenarian Chinese Woman, Plumbing the Depth of Depravity, politics, pollution, racism, Racist Storm, rape, tourism, Tourist Deathtrap, Tourists, travel, United States, United States Constitution | 8 Comments »
Posted by msrb on June 13, 2008
Europe Fuel Protests Turn Deadly
Two truck drivers were killed in fuel protests in Spain and Portugal, while a third driver received serious burn in a suspected arson attack.
The imapct of haulers’ strike is now being felt throughout the Spanish and Portuguese economies.
In Spain the country’s 18 car factories are running out of parts and fuel. The car industry accounts for about 5 percent of Spain’s GDP.
As the blockade continues in the European nations, consumers rush to stockpile food and fuel causing severe shortages in some areas.
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msrb
Posted in Bush, collapse, ecosystems, Energy, environment, Global Warming, government, money, politics, war | Tagged: big oil, biofuel, boneheads, BP, Brent crude, cabal, catastrophe, CEO, Chevron, China, Colombia, Congress, ConocoPhillips, corn, corporate racketeering, corporations from hell, energy riots, ethanol, Exxon Mobil, Exxon Valdeez, feedlots, gas-guzzling cars, gasoline prices, George W. Bush, Gulf, House of Representatives, hypocrisy, inflation, insanity, Iran, Iraq occupation, Justice Department, lifestyle, lynch mob, Middle East, Mobil, niger delta, Nigeria, oil, OPEC, Pinheads, politics, Public Citizen, Ralph Nader, red heifer, renewable energy, Rep. Kagen, Rocky Mountains, runaway economy, Saudi Arabia, senate, Separation of Oil and State, sheeple, shell, StatoilHydro, Steve Kagen, supply and demand, uncertainty, Uncle Sam, USD, van der Veer, Venezuela, Wall Street, Weak dollar, White House, Wisconsin | Leave a Comment »
Posted by msrb on June 7, 2008
UNEP Clumsy Scaremongering Diminishes the Seriousness of Environmental Threats
Posted in Bush, collapse, ecosystems, Energy, environment, Global Warming, government, money, politics, war | Tagged: advertising industry, air pollution, airports, China, Climate Change, CO2, coal-burner, consumption, electric toothbrush, electricity generation, Energy, Food, gasoline prices, greenhouse gases, Health, Kick the CO2 Habit, parking lots, political economy, propaganda, roads, Snakeoil, tourism, travel, UN, UN hypocricy, UNEP, US, vehicle emission. | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terres on May 22, 2008
Summited by a member
The pinheads in the House of Reps. make even White House look “smart!”
House passes bill to sue OPEC over oil prices
The House of Representatives voted 324-84 to approve legislation allowing the Justice Department to sue OPEC members for not pumping out enough oil. The White House has reportedly threatened to veto the bill.
“This bill guarantees that oil prices will reflect supply and demand economic rules, instead of wildly speculative and perhaps illegal activities,” said Democratic Rep. Steve Kagen of Wisconsin, who sponsored the legislation.
Just exactly what are the supply and demand economic rules in a political economy, Rep. Kagen of Wisconsin? I bet you don’t have a single clue what you are talking about.
Uncle Sam: I Want You, Your Oil, ‘n Your Money!
Uncle Sam’s Drinking Habits and the OPEC Dimwits
Lo and behold, the good ol’ lynch mob [the House of Representatives] is out to get someone: The bartender [OPEC], no less!
They are desperate to hang the bartender, not because he had Uncle Sam smashed out of his tiny head by giving him too much to drink; they are lynching him because he refused to serve more of “them devil’s brew” to the usual clientèle who would never leave the bar sober: The runaway economy, the corporations from hell and the rest of the morons who are so addicted to their waste-intensive lifestyles they wouldn’t know their sustainable energy sh*t from Shinola.
Weak dollar and inflation are eating out the heart of the system; the cars are getting thirstier than ever before [and a hell of a lot more of them hit the roads each day;] Mrs Rabbit is breeding too many bunnies, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 even 9 bunnies a throw; the bunnies diets are getting more exotic, they’d no longer settle for carrots; four times as many lambs air-cruise today as they did a decade or so ago; Exxon [Valdeez] Mobil and other oil monsters broke all their previous profit records.
But all of those factors put together couldn’t possibly play more than a minor part in the overall picture. They could probably account for 5-10 percent of the price rise. That’s child’s play when compared to the wholesale fleecing of an entire flock of marsupial boneheads by Wall Street speculators. How do they do it?
Uncertainty!
The oil price is rising rapidly because of the uncertainty created by the US military presence in the Gulf. The continued occupation of Iraq, the threat of war [true or false] against Iran and Syria [fed by the frenzy created by the free media, trusted journalist prima donna and venerable “ex-CIA” political activists] and the implied warning of a US military takeover in Saudi Arabia, in case their ruling regime loses favor with its own people, are the main drivers for the rapid price rise. [The perils of a possible regional war in South America, waged by US-backed Colombia against Venezuela, and fears of supply disruptions in Nigeria also help increase the uncertainty factor.] Who created the chaos in the first place? The Prez and the Congress, of course! And who is responsible for the rapidly rising oil prices? It is the OPEC, stupid!
Gotta strike while the iron is hot!
Who else can we sue, while the proverbial iron is still hot, Rep. Kagen of Wisconsin? I know, let’s sue the pants off the National Corn Growers Association. Just look at the mess they have created. So what they are producing overcapacity? It’s not enough! Look at price of corn, $6 dollars a bushel and there isn’t nearly enough of it going around to feed the poor. [Stay clear of any absurd argument about the obscene amounts of grains wasted to produce ethanol. Why, don’t you drive a car? Start with the ethanol and you’ll end up in a feedlot looking a red heifer in the eye.]
Uncle Sam Supplying the World with Berry Brothers Hard Oil Finish, chromolithographic print c. 1880.
OPEC: Damned if they do; damned if they don’t!
It’s very difficult to sympathize with some of the OPEC members, for example, Saudi Arabia. But to blame OPEC for the inebriated Uncle Sam’s bladder mishaps goes an extra mile and a half beyond the Reps. standard milestone of hypocrisy.
In the first three months of 2008, the five companies Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, Shell Oil, Chevron and BP America earned $36 billion.
Exxon [Valdeez] Mobil made a profit of $1,504 per second in the first quarter of 2008. That’s stealing an additional 43 cents a day [each and every day] from each US citizen [woman, man and child,] thanks to Wall Street speculators. But even Exxon knows that level of corporate racketeering is unsustainable. That’s the stuff riots are made of.
Do the Reps. dare upset their old paymasters, the oil monsters like Exxon? Of course not. Can they afford to point a finger at Wall Street? Not a chance. Or mess with their own future by saying something stupid like healthy economy, renewable energy, or other scary stuff like that? No way!
The ol’ lynch mob have eyed their “nigga,” and are about to unleash the bloodhounds.
With a bunch of remarkable idiots making moronic queen-of-hearts laws for the greatest flock of sheeple on Earth, is it any wonder the world is teetering precariously on the brink of catastrophe?
What Others Say
[ Updated May 24, 2008 ]
JOAN CLAYBROOK, president of Public Citizen, said: “You are paying sky-high prices at the gas pump because the barons of ‘big oil’ have bushwacked the American people. With the help of major league lobbyists and the high-ranking politicians receptive to them, oil companies are earning enormous profits through a combination of anti-competitive practices — including market manipulation — made even easier by the wave of recent oil company mergers and the government’s outrageously weak regulatory oversight.
“Every time you buy gas, you know you are being price-gouged, but did you know that, for every gallon of gas you buy, you are being charged an extra 70 cents — at least — that is related purely to market speculation and not a function of supply-and-demand? The oil barons not only get away with this, they use their considerable influence to prevent the passage of meaningful fuel economy legislation, further squeezing consumers by ensuring automakers will continue to build gas-guzzling cars.”
Steve Kretzmann, Founder, Oil Change International, said: “In their testimony about high gasoline prices, top oil executives repeatedly ducked questions about gas prices, demanded access to more drilling, and could not tell Senators how much they earn. Not a single suggestion came from the oil executives that will lower gas prices. There’s a reason for that, which is that the only answer is one they don’t want to discuss — an urgent transition to renewable energy.
“We could drill every last inch of Alaska, the Rocky Mountains, and our coasts and it would barely make a dent in supply or prices. Congress needs to stop this political theater and get serious about the transition to renewable forms of energy. So far, they’re continuing to lavish the industry with billions in subsidies, while receiving millions from the industry in campaign contributions.”
Nadine Bloch, field director with Oil Change International, said: today: “I was arrested in the Senate hearing room yesterday for demanding a Separation of Oil and State. We can’t drill our way out of this problem. We need to get Big Oil money out of our Congress.” [Source]
Jeroen van der Veer, CEO, Shell, second largest oil monster in the world, said: “What we say and what we see is there are no physical shortages […] There are no tankers waiting in the Middle East, there are no cars waiting at gasoline stations because they are out of stock. This has to do with psychology in the markets and you cannot forecast psychology.” (Source)
[Update: May 28, 2008 ]
Deborah Fineman [via Ralph Nader,] president of Mitchell Supreme Fuel Co. in Orange, New Jersey: “Energy markets have been dictated for too long by hedge funds and speculators, who artificially manipulate the numbers for their own benefit. The current market isn’t based on the sound principles of supply and demand but it is being rigged by companies and speculators who are jacking up prices for their own greed.”
Harry C. Johnson [via Ralph Nader,] former banker and oil executive said, “some industry experts, who profit greatly from the high price of crude, and have stated openly that the worldwide economic price of crude, absent speculators, would be around $50 to $60 per barrel.
Ralph Nader: “Oil was at $50 a barrel in January 2007, then $75 a barrel in August 2007. Now at $130 or so a barrel, it is clear that oil pricing is speculative activity, having very little to do with physical supply and demand. An essential product—petroleum—is set by speculators operating on rumor, greed, and fear of wild predictions. ”
“A sane government would drop all subsidies and tax loopholes for Big Oil’s huge profits and other fossil fuels and promote a national mission to solarize our economy to achieve major savings from energy conservation technology, retrofitting buildings, and upgrading efficiency standards for motor vehicles, home appliances, industrial engines and electric generating plants.
“Those are the permanent ways to achieve energy independence, reduce our trade deficit, create good jobs that can’t be exported and protect the environmental health of people and nature.
“Those are the reforms and advances that a muscular consumer, worker and small business revolt can focus on in the coming weeks.
“What say you, America?”
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Posted in cabal, China, collapse, ecosystems, Energy, environment, George W. Bush, Global Warming, government, lifestyle, money, politics, war | Tagged: Alaska, big oil, biofuel, boneheads, BP, Brent crude, Bush, catastrophe, CEO, Chevron, China, Colombia, Congress, ConocoPhillips, corn, corporate racketeering, corporations from hell, energy riots, ethanol, Exxon Mobil, Exxon Valdeez, feedlots, gas-guzzling cars, gasoline prices, Gulf, House of Representatives, hypocrisy, inflation, insanity, Iran, Iraq occupation, Justice Department, lynch mob, Middle East, Mobil, niger delta, Nigeria, oil, OPEC, Pinheads, Public Citizen, Ralph Nader, red heifer, renewable energy, Rep. Kagen, Rocky Mountains, runaway economy, Saudi Arabia, senate, Separation of Oil and State, sheeple, shell, StatoilHydro, Steve Kagen, supply and demand, uncertainty, Uncle Sam, USD, van der Veer, Venezuela, Wall Street, Weak dollar, White House, Wisconsin | 2 Comments »
Posted by msrb on May 18, 2008
Wen Jiabao, Hu Jintao and the Politburo Gang: Criminally Incompetent, or Calculating Mass Murderers?
Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao represent the worst of a country mired in corruption and sleaze. The criminal gang in the Chinese Politburo have once again proven that the Chinese people may not count on them for their safety and protection.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao (R) upon Hu’s arrival in Mianyang, a city in quake-hit southwestern Sichuan Province, May 16, 2008. Photo distributed by China’s official Xinhua News Agency. REUTERS/Xinhua/Ju Peng (CHINA).
What Others Say About the Corrupt Politburo Gang in China?
- Why was the quake nurse reduced to tears and had to beg the soldiers to rescue children?
- If rescuing the children wasn’t their priority, and clearly it wasn’t, what were the soldiers ordered to do?
- What were the orders soldiers own general gave them?
- When did the authorities decide they couldn’t cope with too many quake survivors?
“Although the time for the best chance of rescue, the first 72 hours after an earthquake, has passed [exactly as planned by CPC], saving lives remains the top priority of our work [believe what I say, not what I do, you ‘ignorant peasants’],” the [doublespeaking] Chinese president, Hu Jintao, told the survivors. (Source)
The Riddle of the Chinese Paratroopers
1. There are an estimated 30,000 people burried in the area. How could 100 paratroopers help rescue such large number of victims?
2. The paratroopers landed two days after the mainshock had struck. By then the survival chances of the victims who had been buried alive had already been reduced by about 80 percent.
3. Anyone rescued from the rubble would need medical attention, freshwater, food, blankets, tents … to survive. Did the paratroopers carry all of the vital supplies in their rucksacks?
Therefore, the question remains: Are the paratroopers sent to rescue the “survivors,” or to “finish off the job,” i.e., bury everyone, alive or dead, to prevent potential outbreaks of plague and other pandemics? [The Beijing Olympics are just around the corner!]
To climb a tree to catch a fish is talking much and doing nothing.” —Chinese Proverb
Wen Jiaboa and Hu Jianto, like the rest of the ruling gang in China are criminally incompetent officials, incapable of protecting the interest of the Chinese people.
“Wen, seen repeatedly on state TV cradling infants and offering hope to earthquake victims, hailed the ‘order the country has maintained for the past 80 hours,’ the report said.”
What if the order does break up? Will the ruling criminal regime send in the special forces to do a Tiananmen Square job?
Q: Is a corrupt, criminally incompetent regime in China good for the “Free world?”
About 6,900 classrooms were destroyed – weaker than other buildings in withstanding the shock. It has also said that as many as 390 dams could be at risk.
China is earthquake prone, Sichuan in particular experiencing a similar scale earthquake in 1933. China’s geologists had warned there was a one-in-10 chance of a recurrence within 50 years and buildings and dams should have been built to strict regulatory standards. They weren’t, especially those built most recently. This is not just corner cutting in the quest for fast growth, or the kind of loose practice that comes to light after disasters everywhere. It is the consequence of systemic non-enforcement of regulations in return for bribes – and everyone in China knows it.
Professor Hu Angang, an economist at Tsinghua university, estimates that one yuan in six is, in effect, corrupt. Even army officers buy their rank.
One mother told the Guardian: ‘Chinese officials are too corrupt and bad … They have money for prostitutes and second wives but they don’t have money for our children.’ It is the same story when it comes to food safety, drug standards or environmental regulations, of which only 10 per cent are enforced. Corruption is ubiquitous, which is why so many buildings were deathtraps. Another woman drew attention to the government and party buildings that remained standing, plainly built to the right specifications.
Water shortages have become “extremely serious” in Sichuan province, according to Chinese Housing Minister Jiang Weixin. There is no running water in 20 counties and cities in the disaster area, he said.
A doctor, who had worked for two days without a break in the ruins of school buildings that entombed 900 students, lashed out at those responsible for sub-standard buildings that failed to protect victims of the earthquake.
“It’s nothing but corruption – they must have used sub-standard cement and steel,” said Dr Tian, who was reluctant to give his other name.
Three days after the quake struck, troops and fire engines queued idly along the roadsides waiting for orders.
“I saw a doctor walking along the lines of bloody bodies, checking pulses and looking at wounds. If he shook his head the nurses were instructed not to take the person to the operating theatre but move them to another room to die. It was like a scene from a war film,” she said.
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Posted in asia, bribes, China, ecosystems, environment, government, money, politics, sleaze | Tagged: ACTION, China, chinaquake, Climate Change, communists, Corruption, CPC, CPC Central Committee, deathtraps, disaster, disaster relief, disasters, environment, Food, food prices, foreign policy, free world, Health, Hu Jintao, human rights, Humanitarian Crisis, mainshock, New Zealand, Olympics, pandemics, paratroopers, plague, prostitutes, rescue team, second wives, Sichuan, storm, tourism, travel, water rationing, water shortage, wealth, Wen Jiabao, Zhou Yongkang | 19 Comments »
Posted by msrb on April 28, 2008
Excerpts are from:
Environmental Cost of Shipping Groceries Around the World
The Food Chain
The New York Times April 26, 2008
by E. Rosenthal and D. Pinto
Cod caught off Norway is shipped to China to be turned into filets, then shipped back to Norway for sale. Argentine lemons fill supermarket shelves on the Citrus Coast of Spain, as local lemons rot on the ground. Half of Europe’s peas are grown and packaged in Kenya. [“Norwegian cod costs a manufacturer $1.36 a pound to process in Europe, but only 23 cents a pound in Asia.” And the hell with internalizing the environmental costs. Oh, and it’s nice to know there is still cod left off Norway!]
In the United States, FreshDirect proclaims kiwi season has expanded to “All year!” now that Italy has become the world’s leading supplier of New Zealand’s national fruit, taking over in the Southern Hemisphere’s winter.
And the penetration of mega-markets in nations from China to Mexico with supply and distribution chains that gird the globe — like Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Tesco — has accelerated the trend.
But the movable feast comes at a cost: pollution — especially carbon dioxide, the main global warming gas — from transporting the food. [Include processing, packaging and refrigeration!]
Under longstanding trade agreements, fuel for international freight carried by sea and air is not taxed. Now, many economists, environmental advocates and politicians say it is time to make shippers and shoppers pay for the pollution, through taxes or other measures.
“We’re shifting goods around the world in a way that looks really bizarre,” said Paul Watkiss, an Oxford University economist who wrote a recent European Union report on food imports.
He noted that Britain, for example, imports — and exports — 15,000 tons of waffles a year, and similarly exchanges 20 tons of bottled water with Australia. More important, Mr. Watkiss said, “we are not paying the environmental cost of all that travel.”
[Cheap oil has distorted the notion of creating ‘economic gains’ to such great extents that governments subsidize the industry to export and import the same product, often in similar quantities, within the same fiscal period. Country A exports Q tons of product P to country B, while it imports Q tons of the same product P from country B at the same time, with a net zero gain in commodity exchange for either country. However, the exchange produces about 9Q tons of CO2e pollution, nine times the weight of the commodity that was flown in either direction, for every 1,000 miles that the consignment is airborne. See The Death of Homo Sapiens Sapiens (Part 1)]
The European Union, the world’s leading food importer, has increased imports 20 percent in the last five years. The value of fresh fruit and vegetables imported by the United States, in second place, nearly doubled from 2000 to 2006.
Under a little-known international treaty called the Convention on International Civil Aviation, signed in Chicago in 1944 to help the fledgling airline industry, fuel for international travel and transport of goods, including food, is exempt from taxes, unlike trucks, cars and buses. There is also no tax on fuel used by ocean freighters.
Proponents say ending these breaks could help ensure that producers and consumers pay the environmental cost of increasingly well-traveled food.
[Our weekly shopping basket includes items that would have flown more air miles than the average family fly in their lifetime! A 1kg (2.2lb) bag of New Zealand kiwifruit (in any of its cadmium, arsenic, lead, mercury… or organochlorine varieties) produces about 142kg (313lb) of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent gases) pollution flying to the US, or 188.7kg (416lb) of CO2e to Europe. See The Death of Homo Sapiens Sapiens (Part 1)]
And with far cheaper labor costs in African nations, Morocco and Egypt have displaced Spain in just a few seasons as important suppliers of tomatoes and salad greens to central Europe.
Some studies have calculated that as little as 3 percent of emissions from the food sector are caused by transportation. But Mr. Watkiss, the Oxford economist, said the percentage was growing rapidly. Moreover, imported foods generate more emissions than generally acknowledged because they require layers of packaging and, in the case of perishable food, refrigeration.
Britain, with its short growing season and powerful supermarket chains, imports 95 percent of its fruit and more than half of its vegetables. Food accounts for 25 percent of truck shipments in Britain, according to the British environmental agency, DEFRA.
Mr. Datson of Tesco acknowledged that there were environmental consequences to the increased distances food travels, but he said his company was merely responding to consumer appetites. “The offer and range has been growing because our customers want things like snap peas year round,” Mr. Datson said. “We don’t see our job as consumer choice editing.” [Tell that to melting ice!]
Global supermarket chains like Tesco and Carrefour, spreading throughout Eastern Europe and Asia, cater to a market for convenience foods, like washed lettuce and cut vegetables. They also help expand the reach of global brands.
Pringles potato chips, for example, are now sold in more than 180 countries, though they are manufactured in only a handful of places, said Kay Puryear, a spokeswoman for Procter & Gamble, which makes Pringles.
Proponents of taxing transportation fuel say it would end such distortions by changing the economic calculus.
“Food is traveling because transport has become so cheap in a world of globalization,” said Frederic Hague, head of Norway’s environmental group Bellona. “If it was just a matter of processing fish cheaper in China, I’d be happy with it traveling there. The problem is pollution.”
Switzerland, which does not belong to the E.U., already taxes trucks that cross its borders.
Some studies have shown that shipping fresh apples, onions and lamb from New Zealand might produce lower emissions than producing the goods in Europe … [Don’t the statistics related to shipment of toxic food from New Zealand have a habit of defying physical laws and conventional maths?]
But those studies were done in New Zealand, and the food travel debate is inevitably intertwined with economic interests. [Right!]
Last month, Tony Burke, the Australian minister for agriculture, fisheries and forestry, said that carbon footprinting and labeling food miles — the distance food has traveled — was “nothing more than protectionism.” [O RLY?]
Box Fresh Organics, a popular British brand, advertises that 85 percent of its vegetables come from the British Midlands. But in winter, in its standard basket, only the potatoes and carrots are from Britain. The grapes are South African, the fennel is from Spain and the squash is Italian.
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Posted in Energy, environment, Global Warming, money, politics | Tagged: Add new tag, air pollution, asia, Australia, Carrefour, China, Cod, Environmental Cost, EU, Global supermarket chains, international freight, New Zealand, Norway, packaging, processing, Procter & Gamble, refrigeration, Shipping Groceries, statistics, Tesco, United States, Wal-Mart | Leave a Comment »
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