Sunday, 12 August 2012 16:28

Free World News Desk Sunday 8.12.12

 

Rice Farmer - Evening Edition
## Global Ponzi meltdown/House of Cards ##
Asia Firms Struggle to Deliver on Earnings
"Rate cuts in China seem all but certain now. The People's Bank of China has cut consumer borrowing and lending rates to try to spur consumption growth, but the slowdown has continued despite these efforts. Analysts now expect further rate cuts and potential cuts of the Reserve Requirement Ratio (RRR) instead of consumer rates."

## Global unrest/mob rule/angry people/torches and pitchforks ##
Spanish fieldworkers union 'expropriates' food for the poor
Guyana police, protesters clash over electricity
"Government offices were burnt down Friday amid fresh clashes in south-eastern Guyana over rising electricity rates and claims that officers killed demonstrators, officials said."
These common-sense ideas are gradually making their way into the mainstream media. -- RF
Can we bear the legacy costs of industrial society's toxic pollution?

## Intelligence/security/internet ##
Drones in the sky over America
"They're coming: In a few years the skies over the United States will be filled with hundreds if not thousands of of drones, unmanned aerial vehicles, doing a variety of tasks -- border security, disaster relief, search and rescue, counter-terrorism and looking down on people and streets on behalf of police departments."

## Systemic breakdown ##
Professor sees energy 'trap' ahead
Urban disasters spotlight strain on Asian cities
"Biggest cities are buckling under the strain of rapid economic development, extreme weather"

## Japan ##
Energy cuts in Japan sap spirits and economy
"Workers in short-sleeved dress shirts spend their days in 28-degree offices, the new standard. Lights are dimmed and printers are on only when necessary. Companies chart their energy use, and at one bread factory on this northern island, an employee jumps on the PA system when electricity usage spikes, ordering airconditioners off and asking select workers to stop what they're doing."

 

Jenna Orkin - Morning Edition
 
Headlines
 

"AL-ARISH, Egypt, Aug 12 (Reuters) - A group of armed men opened fire on Sunday on peacekeeping troops in Egypt's Sinai peninsula on the border with Israel, a security source in Sinai said.

"The attack happened in Um Shyhan area in the middle of Sinai but no one got injured," the source said.

The incident came just days after the start of a military operation in the area against militants suspected of being behind a bloody attack on Egyptian boarder guards last Sunday, which killed 16."
 

Grain prices skyrocket as drought deepens

"The worst American drought in more than half a century is driving up grain prices and deepening worries about global food shortages.

With much of the corn crop already lost, farmers are holding out hope for some weather relief that could help salvage the harvest of soybeans and other. But the latest data from the government Friday showed that the damage to the food supply chain already has been done.

“This is worse than 2008 -- we’re in kind of a perfect storm scenario,” said Ana Puchi-Donnelly, senior agricultural commodities trader at London-based Marex Spectron. “We won’t really know until the whole crop is harvested. We’re talking about the worst drought in the last 50 to 70 years in one of the hottest years on record.""

Get ready, in every way you can. Starving people don't have anything to lose. - Wes

 

US Banks Told to Make Plans for Preventing Collapse

"U.S. regulators directed five of the country's biggest banks, including Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, to develop plans for staving off collapse if they faced serious problems, emphasizing that the banks could not count on government help. 

The two-year-old program, which has been largely secret until now, is in addition to the "living wills" the banks crafted to help regulators dismantle them if they actually do fail. It shows how hard regulators are working to ensure that banks have plans for worst-case scenarios and can act rationally in times of distress."

Maybe we shouldn't change our name...more "collapse" appears imminent. - Wes

Spanish fieldworkers' union 'expropriates' food for the poor

"On Tuesday, 200 members of the Andalusian fieldworkers' union, in an example of sheer civil disobedience, went to two supermarkets, filled up shopping carts, and left without paying. They then donated the food to the poor.

As austerity measures cut deeper into the lives of the Spanish people, drastic measures are being taken. Now it is not just the 15m Indignados initiating civil disobedience, other members of the population have had enough too."

A fine, and yet still civilized, example of what I'm talking about regarding starving people. How long will the stores stay open under these conditions? How long until we have armed guards at food lines, be it grocery stores or soup lines? Those days may be coming soon. - Wes


An Afghan Police Squad Invited US Special Forces Soldiers To Dinner And Killed Them

"There is speculation this plan is in response to the deteriorating situation in Iraq following the U.S. withdrawal, but there is no confirmation on this from the Pentagon.

Either way the maneuver will leave U.S. soldiers, like these that were killed yesterday, on the ground in Afghanistan well beyond 2014."

"It's no secret the Central Intelligence Agency has an investment firm that funds startups that could have a big impact for the Agency. 

If there is a company out there doing intelligence research, it's likely that In-Q-Tel, the CIA's personal investor, either looked them up or made a check out to them. 

It's all to ensure that the Agency remains on the forefront of tech. Not long ago, In-Q-Tel invested heavily in a company called Keyhole. Never heard of them? Maybe you know their work, a little project eventually known as Google Earth."

No funding for us. Go figure? - Wes
 
 
Economy
 
 
"Last year the experts of Threadneedle Street were expecting the economy to grow by 2 per cent in 2012. But now the Bank thinks there will be no expansion in output at all this year. It also said that the economy has been stagnant since the middle of 2010. The Bank did say that moderate growth would return next year. But it has been saying the same thing for five years and it hasn't materialised."

We are looking pretty Japanese in the U.S., too. - Wes
 

Selecting Paul Ryan as V.P. running mate was a major gift to Obama. I think it just handed Obama the election. Ryan is the perfect corporate Scrooge, the personification of cold-hearted American style fascism. (Whereas Obama is merely fascism-light). Do you think people in the U.S. are going to vote to end Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the Department of Education, and so on? Elect the Romney/Ryan Reich and throw grandma in the streets? That's the essence of the choice Obama will highlight.

This election cycle might as well be over. - Wes
 

Big Brother is not always the smart one. - Wes
 
 
 

 
Energy/Resources
 
 
 
 
 

 
Military/Intelligence
 

"The U.S. Navy said one of its guided-missile destroyers collided with an oil tanker near the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf.

The collision between USS Porter and the Panamanian-flagged bulk oil tanker M/V Otowasan occurred at about 1 a.m. local time, Bahrain-based U.S. 5th Fleet spokesman Lieutenant Greg Raelson said in a phone interview today. The collision was not combat-related and overall damage to the ship is being evaluated, he said."

Some Captain's career just hit an oil tanker, and it is sunk. - Wes
 
 
Civil Unrest/Politics
 
 
 
 

They weigh more...I'm sure they bearly even copped a buzz. - Wes
 
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