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Good evening all!
International Developments
❖ France claims “Hundredsof Islamist militants killed in Mali” and wants Mali under a UN peacekeeping force asap so French troops can leave.
❖ Hmmm. “Iran arrests ally of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, notorious prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi”. Ahmadinejad has challenged Ayatollah Ali-Khamenei.
❖ The FBI has been dispatched to investigate last week’s bombing of the US embassy in Ankara, Turkey.
❖ When President Obama goes to Israel at the end of March he’ll “bring urgent peacemaking agenda”.
❖ Could the “UK face human rights court” as a result of The Open Society Justice Initiative’s torture report?
International Finance
❖ “Royal Bank of Scotland . . . has been fined $610m by UK and US authorities for its part in the Libor rate-fixing scandal.”
❖ “Deutsche Bank has suspended more traders as part of an inquiry into whether staff attempted to manipulate [Libor and Euribor] interest rates.” Five suspended Tuesday in Frankfurt.
❖ Greek seamen, on strike for six days, have been ordered back to work by the government.
Money Matters USA
❖ Thanks to “Congressional incompetence”, there’ll be no more Saturday mail deliveries, as the US Postal Service struggles to survive.
❖ “Judge Rakoff Delivers Big Blow to Bank of America and JP Morgan in Flagstar Mortgage Putback Ruling”. Judge Rakoff wasn’t about to be fooled, either. Thorough analysis, and–finally–a just award.
❖ Standard & Poor’s downgrading of the US credit rating and the Justice Dept’s lawsuit against them “is raising questions of whether it actually amounts to retaliation.”
❖ Outgoing Defense Secretary, Leon Panetta, has expanded his argument against defense cuts to include the damage they will wreak on the overall economy. He’s also recommending pay cuts for the troops. And he’s pondering reducing the carrier fleet in the Persian Gulf by one.
❖ “Yale Suing Former Students Shows Crisis in Loans to Poor”. And it’s not just Yale.
Politics USA
❖ Anti-immigration rally in Tucson. American Indian walks by, takes a look around and calls them out. Video.
❖ “Legal, ethical, and wise”. Those are the words White House Press Secretary Jay Carney used to describe drone strikes.
❖ The White House seems to be leaving it to John Brennan, nominee for CIA head, to explain that drone base in Saudi Arabia.
❖ Cast aside your concern about lack of drone strike oversight . Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, has got it covered.
❖ The officer in charge of the Office of Military Commissions at Guantanamo is John Imhof, former owner of “Hotel Hell” in upstate NY which ended up $750,000 in debt.
❖ KKKKarl says he doesn’t want “a fight”with the Tea-party, he just wants to find and fund conservative candidates who can win. Rove’s American Crossroads unleashed an ad against Ashley Judd, who might run against Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Judd thanked Rove and American Crossroads “for all the attention”.
❖ “The Virginia House of Delegates killed a plan by the state Senate GOP to redraw legislative lines”. Let us hope that’s the last of that “Dirty Trick”.
❖ Former MT state Sen. Corey Stapleton (R) announced his 2014 candidacy for Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT)’s seat.
❖ NC has a $2.6b unemployment insurance debt. The GOP plans to fix it by raising business unemployment insurances taxes. Democrats say the fix hits workers the hardest, punishing them for things beyond their control.
❖ The American Council of Engineering Companies in California (ACEC-CA) contributed $400,000 of that $11m in “dark money” used for political ads in the 2012 campaign. The Professional Engineers in California Government responded that ACEC-CA “should be ashamed.”
❖ Jeb Bush offered a handsome sum to buy the Miami Marlins, but they weren’t interested.
Health, Homelessness & Hunger
❖ NC’s Senate has passed a bill “that blocks state government from expanding Medicaid”.
❖ A UCLA lab has developed a very “Tiny capsule [that] effectively kills cancer cells “.
Working for A Living
❖ Home Depot will hire 80,000 seasonal workers this spring, 10,000 more than last year.
❖ Delphi Flint East of MI is moving to Mexico, according to United Auto Workers. 287 hourly workers are involved.
Heads Up!
❖ Do we, in the Land of the Free, have to undergo this all over again?
❖ Charlottesville, VA’s City Council passed “what is believed to be the first anti-drone resolution in the country.”
❖ Frank Serpico, the New York police officer portrayed in the movie, has joined the legal team of Officer Adrian Schoolcraft who is charging the NYPD “dragged him off to a mental hospital after he accused them of fudging crime stats.” $50m suit.
Planet Earth News
❖ The Environmental Protection Agency says fracking is the “second-biggest source of U.S. greenhouse gases.”
❖ Jim White on the closure of the Crystal River (FL) nuclear power plant.
❖ The US Food & Drug Administration doesn’t “have enough data” and the Environmental Protection Agency is currently “evaluating” the situation, while the European Union “requires labeling of foods containing nanomaterials”, which “have deleterious effects on mice and cells.”
❖ US Power plants in 2011 “produced 4.5 percent less emissions overall” than in 2010.
❖ Poland has outlawed Monsanto maize, 8th Eurozone country to do so.
Latin America
❖ Cuba was elected to the presidency of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, another hint that it might be time to improve US-Cuba relations. “The world has changed, as has Cuba. Only [US] policy remains froze in time.”
❖ Drummond Co, of AL, “dumped nearly 1,900 metric tonnes of coal into the sea to prevent its barge from sinking” according to Colombia’s Environment Minister.
Mixed Bag
❖ Dammit, not the iron!
Break Time
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About FDL News Desk
Wouldn’t troop paycuts hurt the economy?
Please refrain from too much logical thinking, Elliott. It hurts me head.
Re: “France . . .wants Mali under a UN peacekeeping force asap so French troops can leave.”
——–
“Come into my parlor”, said the spider to the fly.
Regarding “When President Obama goes to Israel . .”
——-
Or he could just pick up the phone. It would be faster.
How many times have we been down this path? How long have we been around? How long have the both of them?
You wouldn’t know it from this NPR piece (and the interview with Susan Collins that followed it) which never mentions the law mandating pre-funding the retirement benefits.
Friends don’t let friends contribute to NPR.
❖ When President Obama goes to Israel at the end of March he’ll “bring urgent peacemaking agenda”.
*heh* Shapiro is full of Sh*t, as always… Obama won’t bring new peace plan with him, sides say…
And just think, the the Syrian Jihadists are setting up shop in DC and NYC…! Hopefully, near ‘Ground Zero’…! ;-)
Where’s my manners…? Mahalo and aloha, fatster…! *g*
Sadly, 6 dead, villages destroyed in Solomons tsunami…
Aloha to you, CTuttle. Very sad news about the loss of life in the Solomons. Mahalo.
maa8722, I found this for you. You’ve probably already seen it by now, but just in case. Made me feel better anyway.
Unbelievable, allan. And I certainly heartily concur with you. Thnx so much.
Yes, I heard about that, and it’s a relief. I think I love museums and historical sites more than any other inanimate objects. It’s a shame when any of them is at risk.
This brazen act, maa, shall infuriate ya… US Ambassador’s ‘shortcut’ destroys 4000 Years of History!
Translated…
…The convoy of the US ambassador in Lebanon Maura Connelly “casually & arrogantly destroys ancient ruins in Tyre while trying to take a short cut to save the precious time of the ambassador. The ambassador wanted to see the ruins but unlike the natives she did not want to get out of her car. She did not want her shoes to get dirty, so she ordered the convoy to drive around the ruins, as you can see here. This is not even a car road. People walk the path while looking at the ruins. What would happen to the Lebanese ambassador in the US if his convoy (and he does not have one) were to destroy ruins from the 19th century, or even an old building? …”
Boise boys go Galt:
Bill would require all Idaho school kids to read ‘Atlas Shrugged’ to graduate
Stem cells & 3d printing. Second item, starts around 6-7 minutes.
Goes right along with The Citadel, huh, allan?
No question that the requirement of pre-funding retirement benefits was an effort by Congress to weaken and/or eventually eliminate the U.S. Postal Service. The U.S. Postal Service!
❖ Could the “UK face human rights court” as a result of The Open Society Justice Initiative’s torture report?
“”The moral cost of these programs was borne not just by the US but by the 54 other countries it recruited to help,” she said.”
I feel certain that the moral cost of the torturing and kidnappings is uppermost in the minds of all the leaders of those countries.
Amen. The Nice Polite Republicans should be shunned.
Thanks, as always, fatster for the great roundup, and a special thanks for the clip of Bela Fleck. Banjos — they’re not just for “Deliverance” any more!
S&P rating & charges.
So what’s new hear. When the downgrade was being discussed many saw S&P threatening the US with the downgrade if they proceeded with the lawsuit.
Could be that the DOJ just wanted enough time to transpire so that it wasn’t quite so connected.
Doesn’t change the fact that S&P should have been charged long ago.
I find myself turning them off whenever they do ‘stories.’ It is such pap. Feel bad about not contributing to VPR, but as long as they are hooked into NPR they are not getting any money from me. I stopped giving about eight years ago. It used to be so good. I think the peak was the early 1980s.
Does the US-Korea trade agreement make it possible for goods produced in North Korea to be sold in the USA without any change in human rights in the vile country of North Korea?
it appears to be so.
all businessmen who are savvy will be approving.
Annex 22-b of the agreement:
“outward processing zone”, means the place in North Korea where things are manufactured.
“However, Annex 22-B holds North Korean outward processing zones to a significantly lower standard. The Committee evaluating a North Korean outward processing zone for potential inclusion under the trade accord must only consider “labor standards and practices, wage practices and business and management practices prevailing in the outward processing zone, with due reference to the situation prevailing elsewhere in the local economy and the relevant international norms.”
“Annex 22-B does not require that North Korean outward processing zones uphold the “relevant international norms” in their statutes, regulations, and practice. It also fails to require effective enforcement of the labor laws governing those “norms” or ban derogation of those laws in a manner affecting trade. Annex 22-B does not even define “relevant international norms” to which the ambiguous “due reference” must be given; they could include all, some, or none of the fundamental workers’ rights articulated in the ILO Declaration.
Furthermore, by directing the Committee to give “due reference to the situation prevailing elsewhere in the local economy,” Annex 22-B adds a criterion for assessing labor conditions that is not contemplated by the trade policy template nor its implementing language in the US-Korea FTA: conditions throughout the country.
Human Rights Watch rejects this criterion because it introduces a standard for evaluating working conditions other than internationally recognized labor rights and embraces as a valid standard the egregious workers’ rights violations “prevailing elsewhere” in North Korea.
http://www.hrw.org/legacy/backgrounder/business/korea0807/3.htm#_Toc173745456
Your the only person posting ANY Greece developments. And it doesn’t even get any play here.
The reporting I’ve read said Marshall Law basically was in effect, with the strikes being broken by Govt.
Remember Wisconsin? Solidarity? This should rate as a stand alone diary, by a much more articulate member than I.
Thanks again.
Thank you, Marion in Savannah. And Fleck?
:)
:)
:)
You betcha, Derravaragh! On both counts. Please let us know of any developments you read/hear about. Much appreciated!
Arrrrrgh! Money’s talking through that agreement, it seems. Quelle surprise!
Many thanx, and . . . Good Morning.
///
hi Fatster
and thanks for the roundup.
Panetta is recommending paycuts for the troops.
Time for a new bumper sticker: Support our drones.
And the defense dept is also hoping protests from troops and families can put a stopper on some of the cuts, but in case they don’t, it’s just another in your face example of how expendable the “rif raf” is in the minds of the war mongering elite.
Yeppers, sad to say, 21stcentury. “Cannon fodder”, “fungible” (per Herr Rumsfeld) and poor.
Thnx, and for the bumper sticker, too.
Thanks, as usual, fatster. This is OT, but I finally woke up. I don’t recall anyone mentioning it before so I am bringing it up now. There is a prohibition in Islam of showing pictures of living things. That is why the mosques and other buildings are decorated by geometric designs. Yet when you see pictures of Ahmadinejad or Khamanei, there is usually a picture of Khomenei on the wall. No big deal, just interesting to me because we are so used to those kinds of pictures that it doesn’t register.
By the way, I have the feeling that the Mali rebels or whatever they actually are, would be much less likely to destroy precious Islamic and history books than the French soldiers. Just look back to our actions in Baghdad during the invasion.