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Good evening, all. Here’s your news.
International Developments
❖Last week, the Free Syrian Army issued President Assad a 48-hour ultimatum–observe the UN cease-fire or resume fighting. The former didn’t occur, but the latter has: over the weekend the “rebels killed at least 80 army soldiers . . ..”
❖Egyptian protestors, angry at the verdicts from the recent trial of Mubarak and six security commanders, have called for mass demonstrations on Tuesday.
❖The US State Department has urged China to free all protestors arrested in conjunction with the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, and to “provide a full public accounting of those killed, detained or missing.”
❖As “part of a new military strategy that calls for greater emphasis on the region”, Leon Panetta visited Hanoi “to broaden its military partnership with Vietnam.” (China wasn’t mentioned in the article, except as part of the place name “South China Sea”.)
World Economics
❖Interesting article focused on fears about the world economy: feeble to slowing growth in the US, China, India and Brazil; investors turning to US and German government bonds; Greece and its potential impact on the eurozone; machines replacing US workers and other companies just not hiring; and so on.
❖Cryin’ my 96 tears: “World’s Richest Lose $24 Billion As Adelson Fortune Drops” (Sheldon Adelson lost $2.2 billion of those 24.)
❖They haven’t asked for it yet, but it appears Cyprus will be requesting bailout funds from the EU’s European Financial Stability Facility.
Economics USA
❖Abacus Bank of NYC and 19 of its former employees “have been criminally charged [in a rare indictment] with issuing hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent mortgages and ended up in unwitting investors’ portfolios . . ..”
❖In response to a survey by AlixPartners, almost half of US manufacturers said “reshoring” was a good thing, but that Mexico–and not the US–”was their top choice for relocating factories designed to supply the US market.” 70% said the same thing last year, so this year’s 50% is an improvement; moreover, 35% this year (up from 21% last year) said the US looked attractive to them.
Politics USA
❖From the WI Gov Scott Walker “John Doe” trial: Tim Russell, Walker’s closest political aide, is the once-insider who “was cooperating with [the] prosecution against Walker himself.”
❖US House Rep Nancy Pelosi (Dem-CA) had this to say recently about Hillary Clinton: “Why shouldn’t she run? She’s a magnificent secretary of state . . .. She’s our shot” for 2016.
❖From the things-it’s-nice-to-know-never-happened department: “Obama Administration Approached Bloomberg About World Bank Post”
❖The US Supreme Court has refused to review AL ex-Gov Don Siegelman’s conviction
Earth News
❖Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government “is rewriting the nation’s environmental laws to speed the extraction and export of oil, minerals and other materials . . ..” The energy industry and some economists love it; environmentalists hate it, calling it a war on nature and democracy”.
❖More than 1,000 banana plantation workers in Costa Rica, Ecuador and Panama have sued Dole Food Co, Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc, and Dow Chemical Co for injury due to pesticide poisoning.
❖Documents obtained under freedom of information rules in the UK show that “the government has been trying to water down key environmental regulations in Brussels”, and those efforts “have the backing of the UK’s big six energy firms . . ..”
❖Gulp. “Recent Global Warming Is Unprecedented in Magnitude And Speed and Cause”, based on latest findings from Australia.
Latin America
❖Who invited them? “U.S. officials have said that, with the Iraq War finished and the Afghanistan War winding down, more attention and money can be devoted to the war on drugs in Central America.” Honduras seems to be prime target for the moment.
❖Bolivian president Evo Morales, who nationalized some utility companies a while back, is now talking about “making all natural resource-related industries property of the state.”
❖”Thousands of people joined a march in the Colombian capital to demand justice in a case of rape and murder that has shocked the country.”
❖The leader of Colombian drug cartel Los Rastrojos, which exports cocaine to the US, has been arrested in Venezuela.
Mixed Bag
❖Good grief! Seven scientists are on trial for manslaughter in Italy for “allegedly giving a false sense of security” to people in L’Aquila prior to the April 6, 2009, quake that killed at least 17.
❖12 guns were turned in Saturday at the Oakland CA PD’s first-ever gun buy-back.
Break Time
❖Venus’ transit across the sun is tomorrow. Take heed, for you won’t be able to see it again until December 2117.
❖Jeremiah Horrox of Much Hoole: “The Man Who Knew Venus Would Transit The Sun”
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About FDL News Desk
Would it not be funny if the Chinese turned around and ‘strongly urged’ our own government to provide an accounting of all those arrested/harmed by them from the Occupy Movement.
Ah, yes. Thnx, Gothrykke.
About Venus’s transit…
“The best times to look are ingress and egress–that is, when the disk of Venus is entering and exiting the sun. Ingress is between 22:09 and 22:27 UT(Noontime in Hawaii, 6pm East Coast) on June 5th; egress occurs between 04:32 and 04:50 UT. (6 hours later)
You could watch it live on this All Sky Cam atop Mauna Kea…! ;-)
Ooooh, thnx for the cool sky cam link, CTuttle.
“The US Supreme Court has refused to review AL ex-Gov Don Siegelman’s conviction”; truly makes a mockery of the phrase “and justice for all”. Aarrgghhh !!!
wish these people were running the financial system:
The first known observation of a transit of Venus was made by Jeremiah Horrocks from his home at Carr House in Much Hoole, near Preston in England, on 4 December 1639 (24 November under the Julian calendar then in use in England). His friend, William Crabtree, also observed this transit from Broughton, near Manchester.[16] Kepler had predicted transits in 1631 and 1761 and a near miss in 1639. Horrocks corrected Kepler’s calculation for the orbit of Venus, realized that transits of Venus would occur in pairs 8 years apart, and so predicted the transit in 1639.[17] Although he was uncertain of the exact time, he calculated that the transit was to begin at approximately 3:00 pm. Horrocks focused the image of the Sun through a simple telescope onto a piece of paper, where the image could be safely observed. After observing for most of the day, he was lucky to see the transit as clouds obscuring the Sun cleared at about 3:15 pm, just half an hour before sunset. Horrocks’ observations allowed him to make a well-informed guess as to the size of Venus, as well as to make an estimate of the distance between the Earth and the Sun. He estimated that distance to be 59.4 million miles (95.6 Gm, 0.639 AU) – about two thirds of the actual distance of 93 million miles (149.6 million km) but a more accurate figure than any suggested up to that time. The observations were not published until 1661, well after Horrock’s death.[17]
and more at wikipedia. brilliant people.
this roundup thing, getting better all the time.
:) Many thnx, mafr.
*heh* I’ll second that (e)motion..! ;-)
About Harper’s Canuck Moose turds, Al Jazeera, served up another excellent exposé, on my old birthing grounds of Alberta…
Canada’s pipeline a pipe dream?
But, but the moose ones are organic. You know, earth-friendly. Srsly, thanks for the link.
*heh* Don’t ya just luv the Lake, M’dear…? ;-)
How true. Now we even get the news organized by category and/or geography.
*heh* Twinkle fingers up, on that brand-new feature, BP…! ;-)
“Although there was a 41 percent reduction in sub-Saharan Africa, the progress is slow and uneven. Moreover, the region accounted for more than half, 56 percent, of the world’s maternal deaths in 2010. One in 39 women in sub- Saharan Africa dies during childbirth”
http://allafrica.com/stories/201205280321.html
“Abacus Bank of NYC and 19 of its former employees “have been criminally charged…”
Of course, a small minority owned bank, lock them up and throw away the key, but by all means let the thugs from BofA, CITI, Chase, etc. walk away Scot free. The perfect Obama move.
The only thing free about the Free Syrian Army is that they are getting weapons for free from U.S., Saudis, Israelis.
No permanent friends. No permanent enemies. Only permanent interests.
So, now can we stop having permanent war?
Excellent roundup, fatster.
Which is exactly what I have been saying is happening.
And, if the economy were growing, that would be a good thing. But, …
Except that machines do not buy houses, cars, eggs and butter.
We lost that war but are no worse off that had we won it. I think that must be the very definition of a stupidly tragic war. And, everyone who got heard thought it was so important at the time.
I don’t know, it sure seems like if we were, say, about 2000 years ago, a lot of these things happening in the sky would be considered some pretty startling omens.
Heck, maybe even 500 years ago we would pay more attention to these things.
That weird eclipse gave me the heebie jeebies for instance
It’s increased productivity per worker per hour. If some of those gains were passed along to the workers and there were additional jobs in a “growing” economy there’d be increased demand for such goods. And it is demand, not rich people, that creates jobs. Capitalists hire as few workers as possible and pay them as little as possible.
Mr. Panetta should meet with some of the agent orange victims. And see what he can do about getting rid of some of the unexploded bombs that are all over Vietnam.
If I were a veteran of that war, (either side) I might find this meeting somewhat nauseating.
I knew in 1966 how it would end, just not when. That is why I opposed the Vietnam War. I think that is probably the position most anti-war protesters had. The idea that the US could win was always an illusion, just as it was in Afghanistan and Iraq.
My list of what Mr. Panetta should do is very long already. Your additions are exactly right. He is not likely to take orders from either of us.
Just watch. Vietnam might be the next added member of the NATO Partnership for Peace program.
Hate to tell ya, TarheelDem, but they’re apparently going to considerably rev up their on-going War on Drugs among our neighbors to the south. Just check out that first entry under Latin America. Blatantly stated.
And thnx for yr kind words. :)
Hurts to read those stats, mafr. Thnx for bringing them here to remind us.
When the Post-Gazette recognizes this, it is likely that public sentiment is not ready for a “war on drugs”. Especially since it’s clearly a war on peasants and not on drugs. Or a staging area for a second Contra operation against Daniel Ortega. One wonders who these “US officials” are and what sanction they have from the White House. The MIC is working overtime to avoid any cutbacks to their programmed expansion at all.
I thought that the NATO Summit was the strategic time to say No to all this, and I still do. I think the public sentiment might be there. Sorta like how the “nuclear winter” and “Beyond War” movements gathered momentum in the middle years of the Reagan administration.
Thnx for the link, TarheelDem. I do hope you’re right that public sentiment will stand in the way of such an escalation.
I’m not saying it will. I’m saying that we will have a better go of it now than in the midst of what the public perceives as “wartime”. And the public is pretty much in the “we’re outta there” spirit whether it reflects reality or not. And the public has had it with the drug war as well.
Time to persuade.