Monday, March 15, 2010

US Showdown with China? Israel? Faber: Time to Ditch US Treasuries

From Jenna Orkin

Headlines
Showdown Between China and the US?
Israeli envoy sees "historic crisis" with U.S.: report
Faber: Time To Ditch U.S. Treasuries
Credit Agency Warns U.S. and Others of Risk to Top Rating
Saving U.S. Water and Sewer Systems Would Be Costly
California's public schools send out 22,000 pink slips - from Rice Farmer
Motorists 'mugged' as petrol to hit £5.41 a gallon
Nigeria is falling apart, says Nobel prize-winning author
Venezuela draws up food plan amid energy crisis
China delivers Venezuela jets for anti-drugs fight
Lula Nodding to Iran Shows Brazil Empowered as Confusion With Chavez Grows
Final Destination Iran? - from Rice Farmer)
Matthew Simmons' Awesome Presentation On The Coming Oil & Water Shortage - from Rice Farmer

Big Brother
Pentagon ran secret spy network
Pentagon to build $400 million spy blimp
Pakistan disbands spy unit linked to terrorists
To Stop Crime, Share Your Genes
"President Obama wants to get DNA profiles from people arrested. A fairer way to compile a national database is to get samples from all Americans."

Energy
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Deep water oil.
MPs accused of funding tar sands
Rising energy costs fuel a return to heating homes with a fire
Chile Says Blackout May Reoccur as Cuts Leave 80% Without Power

Economy
The Fed’s Responsibility
The Federal Reserve’s draft of rules intended to stop the credit card industry from bleeding customers dry is disturbingly weak.
Obama's $3 Trillion Tax Increase; IRS To Track PayPal Transactions; Toledo Ohio Fiscal Emergency; Obama's Utopian Education Goals
Two Sets of MD Pension Books: One with Real Salaries, the other Includes What Government Documents Refer to as "Phantom" Cost-of-Living Adjustments
Greece Bailout Ping-Pong, No Deal Underway; Pension Promises Add To Greek Debt Woes; How Does Greece Compare To US?
Stimulus About To Wither On Vine; A look At February Retail Sales
An Enron for Ernst & Young?
Report could lead to criminal charges
Lehman manipulation not unusual?
Loan squeeze thwarts small business survival Wall Street Journal
The Mayor Of Detroit’s Radical Plan To Bulldoze One Quarter Of The City - from Elizabeth Miller
Will Liberal Hero Dennis Kucinich Ultimately Be The Killer Of Healthcare Reform?

Environment/Science
Climate snapshot reveals things are heating up
Chinese Trash Data Paints A Far Dirtier Picture Than The Government Presents
Stopping the Ug99 Fungus Before Its Spores Bring Starvation
Humans 'could regrow body parts'

And...
People in power make better liars, study shows

10 comments:

v said...

Final destination Iran?
Hundreds of powerful US “bunker-buster” bombs are being shipped from California to the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in preparation for a possible attack on Iran.

The Petraeus Briefing:
Biden’s Embarrassment Is Not The Whole Story

GrTz,

V

Unknown said...

A more thorough article on bulldozing Detroit .

From my own limited experience with Detroit, bulldozing the entire city would be an improvement. But the residents might feel upset. So only 1/4 of it is razed, fine.

Note that the plan involves selling the bulldozed portions to ONE TYCOON, who will then do the green thing and produce food and store carbon or whatever, supposedly.

Also note the article's emphasis that the real problem in Detroit is grinding poverty. If the land is going for $3000 an acre, you could get 4 good-sized family gardens on one acre and cut those families' food expenses in half. At $750 per homestead lot, microloans would make it work, and those who didn't pay would lose their lot to someone who would pay. If the rules made people put the land into cultivation, and keep it that way for 10 years before they owned the plots, much good would be done before speculators could start buying up the lots again. And at that point, at least the citizens of Detroit would make a profit.

This deal looks screwy to me. You could do a lot better with the prairie lands of Detroit, IMHO. But the mayor is unlikely to ask me.

RanD said...

US/Israel realtions in a state of "historic crisis", finally? It's about time.

Baiano said...

Link to "Things are heating up..." is not working. Regards

Baiano said...

Link to "Things are heating up..." is not working. Regards

businessman said...

Thanks for the links to those Matt Simmons slides, Rice Farmer.

I went on Matt Simmons' Web site after watching the slides and he has them there, too. And they're bigger and they're in color there.

Click Here to See the Slides

MuZaKisGooD said...

Hello Everyone,

I have been following this blog for a couple of months now. I have a friend going to kenya and the only way I'll be able to keep in touch with her is by creating a blog.

Anyway, now that I have a blog, thought I'd add to the "map"... here is a recent article on Mexico's oil/political situation:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/business/global/09pemex.html?em=&pagewanted=all

PeAcE ;)

P.S. Even though it is a little late in the "game" to push for change, there are some anti-war protests coming up:

http://www.pephost.org/site/PageServer?pagename=m20_flyers

http://peaceoftheaction.org/

Unknown said...

V
RE: The Petaeus Briefing

Interesting rumor, possibly true. But this echoes the basic outline of Mideast conflict since at least 1973, if not 1947. Anglo-American interests use Israel to break up power blocks within the Arab world (divide and rule), while Israel uses the US to kick its neighbors around with impunity. The Arabs, who historically relied mostly on the US and Britain for their oil contracts, is cramped by the outrage over this Israel-Western complicity, forcing the governments to negotiate while outrage bleeds out in non-state extremist violence. The violence is used as an excuse for further US aggression, while Israel applauds, and to further Israeli aggression, while the US nodds in vague or explicit support. The Arabs become angrier (joined by the Persians, who are caught in the same trap) and the "Angry Towelhead" becomes an icon for The Enemy in the West. And this makes the Islamic side angrier... and so it goes.

The change this article implies is that the Army is saying "We're weak and they know it and we have to be nice or we're gonna look really bad." That's interesting. If the rumor is not true, it's certainly one of those stories that could be true.

Weaseldog said...

eyeballs said... "Note that the plan involves selling the bulldozed portions to ONE TYCOON, who will then do the green thing and produce food and store carbon or whatever, supposedly.

It seems to me that they could do better.

The city could keep stewardship and convert it to green spaces and community gardens.

I'm not sure how much toxic cleanup this would involve though...

This would also make it easier to implement the plan in a patchwork fashion, rather than implement it as one giant expensive scheme.

I would suggest a moratorium on new construction in these areas and begin ripping out the unused sites. Let many of the current residents stay, that don't want to move. Give ample notice that services for them may well change. Implement programs to help residents convert to septic tanks and on-site water supplies.

I'd suggest one more item, make it possible for long time residents that qualify for homestead exemptions, to purchase rights to reclaimed acreage adjacent to their homes at a highly discounted price. They could use this property for any agricultural purpose.

This acreage would be reclaimed by the city in the case of the property being sold, to avoid having it used for speculation.

pagun said...

I'll bet Amy Goodman got the Scotland story from your blog and put it on dem o'crazy too late yesterday. She should give Mike the mike for one hour and he would rock the boat harder than she has in her whole cumulative career. I think you should talk more about the Nazi's starting the cia, and the whole story of how they went underground to wait for a brighter day for their ideas. It would be a shocker for a lot of so called educated people that have put this subject way on the back burner. I think 911 is real important because look what they have done since the LSD+JFK=DOA: If we give them another 50 years only the roaches will be left.