Another Billionaire for Poverty . . . Your Poverty.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said Sunday that U.S. immigration reform is “one of the biggest civil rights issues of our time.”
Shit. Now illegal and legal immigration is a fucking "Civil Right".
The 29-year-old billionaire, who has recently taken a more active role in calling for immigration reform, made the comment on ABC’s “This Week.” And he was immediately challenged by the interviewer, who suggested many Americans would likely disagree that providing a path to citizenship for some of the 11 million people living in this country illegally is a civil rights issue.
“There are a lot of misconceptions about that,” Zuckerberg responded. “A lot of them came here because they just want to work. They want to help out their families and they want to contribute,” reports Fox News.
Zuckerberg recently founded the group FWD.us with other Silicon Valley leaders “to promote policies to keep the United States and its citizens competitive in a global economy,” according to its website.
FWD.us’ key points include securing borders, the path to citizenship and support for issuing more H-1B visas.
The group argues the change will “attract the world’s best and the brightest workers.”
However, skeptics argue that allowing U.S. employers to "temporarily" hire more educated foreign workers for skilled jobs or “specialty occupations” in such fields as technology and engineering allows companies like Facebook to hire lower-paid immigrants over college-educated Americans.
Americans Need Jobs Billionaire assholes like Zuckerberg want to import and legalize countless millions of new workers from foreign nations to compete with Americans for a limited number of jobs and drive wages down. . Both political parties join with Zuckerberg in this madness. The Democrats in order to recruit new poor voters and the GOP to serve their Masters in the business community looking for cheap labor. Both parties could care less about the under and unemployed American citizen.
Real Unemployment is 23% The seasonally-adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate (the blue line) reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994. That estimate is added to the BLS estimate of U-6 unemployment, which includes short-term discouraged workers. .
The U-3 unemployment rate is the monthly headline number. The U-6 unemployment rate is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) broadest unemployment measure, including short-term discouraged and other marginally-attached workers as well as those forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment.
Leftist loons now want race based car loans out of "fairness".
We all know how well the race based Community Reinvestment Act worked in collapsing the housing market five years ago. But never try to confuse a Socialist with facts.
(From Moonbattery) America under liberal rule is a racist tyranny. Think that is hyperbole? Then talk to a car dealer about this from the Wall Street Journal:
[T]he new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau [CFPB] is ginning up a campaign to use “disparate impact” analysis to charge racism in auto lending. That’s the theory that looks at statistics to prove bias without evidence of specific discriminatory intent. Never mind the financial or other circumstances of the borrowers beyond their race.
That is, car dealers must provide a proportionately equivalent number of car loans, at the same interest rate, to all racial groups, regardless of whether members of these groups are equally likely to repay the loan. Essentially, if Customer X has money in the bank and has never missed a day of work in his life, and Customer Y is living on welfare and just got out of jail, they must be regarded as equal credit risks if Customer Y is lucky enough to be black.
Obviously, there are plenty of blacks who are good credit risks. Equally obviously, there are many who are not. You would have to spend your entire life sealed in a windowless room with no access to the outside world except a TV tuned to PBS not to know that there are cultural differences that make blacks as a group significantly less likely to repay their loans than whites reports Moonbattery.
To achieve the liberal conception of equality, these differences must be papered over by forcing car dealers to make bad loans, effectively subsidizing cars for those who don’t pay their bills at the expense those of us who do pay our bills, because we will end up having to pay more to make up the loss.
If all of this sounds familiar, you could be thinking of the Community Reinvestment Act, spawned by Carter but doubled down on by Clinton and Obama, by which the federal government forced banks to make mortgage loans on a racial basis lest they be accused of “redlining.” This was a primary cause of the 2008 economic crash.
Patrice Ficklin, head of the bureau’s Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity, revealed that “we have found substantial and statistically significant disparities between the interest rates paid by African American, Hispanic, and Asian car buyers when compared to the interest rates paid by white car buyers with similar credit scores and other factors.
Really. Can we see some evidence of this?
No, we cannot.
[The CFPB] hasn’t published its research in detail and has instead proceeded to mount a political pressure campaign to remove dealer discretion in setting loan terms. “Guidance” from the agency sent to banks in March included advice on how to avoid running afoul of anti-discrimination laws in auto lending.
Message received. The banks that provide financing for the dealers began warning dealers to improve compliance or risk having flat fees imposed. In other words, the dealers’ profits on loans would be capped.
Knuckle under to intimidation and regard black skin as the ultimate qualification for a loan, or your profits will be capped. I didn’t think I would live to see things done this way in America.
Commerce is our goal here at Tyrell. "More human than human" is our motto. Blade Runner
The Droids are Taking Our Jobs
We are looking at a brave new world of a massive and permanent unemployment of countless millions of people and ever increasing poverty caused by computers, the Internet and robotics.
In China more than 60 percent of the enterprises surveyed have reduced production line employees by at least 10% using robotics. While 16 percent of the firms have cut their production jobs by more than 30%.
Best of all, robots do not form unions, take vacations or want pay raises.
Zhejiang province is to invest 500 billion yuan ($82 billion) over the next five years to encourage manufacturers to adopt more robots to overcome the short supply and high cost of labor.
The program is underway and will help at least 5,000 companies a year, a source with the investment division of the Zhejiang Economic and Information Commission told China Daily, without giving details.
Replacing humans with robots is the most effective way to tackle the labor shortage and rising labor costs, the commission said reports China Daily.
From 2005 to 2012, average labor costs in Zhejiang, a hub for private manufacturing enterprises, almost tripled from 14,847 yuan to 41,370 yuan a year, with an annual increase of nearly 16 percent. In a survey conducted by the commission in May, 75 percent of respondents said rising costs were the main reason for switching to robots.
Robot Hamburger Maker Even fast food jobs are rapidly being abolished by technology. No longer will they say, “He’s going to end up flipping burgers.” Because now, robots are taking even these ignobly esteemed jobs. Alpha machine from Momentum Machines cooks up a tasty burger with all the fixins. And it does it with such quality and efficiency it’ll produce “gourmet quality burgers at fast food prices.” (singularityhub.com)
As factories used more robots, the proportion of surveyed enterprises with labor shortages dropped from 80 percent last year to 56.4 percent. The survey was based on replies from 515 enterprises that have introduced robot workers.
More than 60 percent of the enterprises surveyed have reduced production line employees by at least 10 percent, while 16 percent of the firms have cut their production jobs by more than 30 percent.
Meanwhile, robot workers have helped these factories improve productivity by more than 10 percent. . If such a strategy is adopted by large enterprises throughout the province, the labor shortage will be reduced by 700,000 workers, saving 29 billion yuan in labor costs a year, the commission said.
Li Gang, president of the robotics sector in China at ABB, a leading supplier of industrial robots, said China has become a "world factory", but with increasing awareness of health and safety the manufacturing sector faces challenges in the workplace.
"Replacing workers with robots in dangerous and unhealthy working environments and using them for more creative jobs will be an inevitable choice for China's manufacturing sector," Li said.
He was speaking at a forum during the 15th China International Industry Fair in Shanghai last week.
Li said robot sales in China accounted for 21 percent of the world's total in 2012, and he estimates that the country will become the largest robot market in the next year or two.
The Republican Party's Corporate Masters have gathered to pressure House Republicans to cave on immigration in order to increase their profits.
With over 90 million people not in the workforce, with record food stamps, poverty and under employment, corporate America wants 30 to 40 millions new workers legalized and/or imported into our economy.
Editor's Note - My wife's company outside of Los Angeles is an example of the screwing of the American worker. All of the American citizens on the 3rd floor were fired and their jobs sent to the Philippines. On the 1st floor all of the American citizens were "phased out" and the entire floor is now filled with temp agency tech workers imported from India. My wife and the few Americans left on the 2nd floor await their fate . . . and the screwing of America goes on and on.
The Democrats are fully on board with impoverishing American citizens by legalizing and importing 30 to 40 million citizens of foreign nations as new workers. Now the business community is pushing the GOP to join in on the fun. Don't worry they say. We will pony up all the campaign money you need in case of an election challenge.
In a public statement released post-government shutdown on Oct. 23, the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition (EWIC) wrote that it thinks Congress should focus on immigration reform efforts before the end of the year.
“Now that Congress can refocus after the showdown over the budget and debt ceiling, we are hearing calls from both sides of the aisle to go back to immigration reform,” EWIC wrote. “The Essential Worker Immigration Coalition (EWIC) is looking forward to continuing to work with the House of Representatives as it deliberates the important issue of immigration reform,” reports Breitbart News.
Among other groups, the EWIC represents the National Council of Chain Restaurants (NCCR). According to the group’s website, its board includes a who’s who of fast food restaurant executives.
For instance, NCCR’s chairman is Chip Kunde of Darden Restaurants--which owns brands like the Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Longhorn Steakhouse, Seasons 52, the Capital Grille, Bahama Breeze, Eddie V’s, and Yard House. Other members include:
Vice Chairman: Mary Schnell of Wendy’s
Treasurer: Cicely Simpson of Dunkin’ Donuts
Secretary Lynn Liddle of Domino’s Pizza
Past Chairman: Mike Starnes of Denny’s
Board members: Donald Balfour of Waffle House, Steve Hilton of McDonald’s, Craig Prusher of Church’s Chicken, James Richardson of White Castle, Patrick Sheehy from Cracker Barrel, Mark Simpson of Texas Roadhouse, Dan Colegrove of DineEquity, Inc., which owns IHOP and Applebee’s, and Joe Taylor of Brinker International, Inc., which owns Chili’s and Maggiano’s brands
Chairman Emeritus: Steve Brigandi of Jack in the Box
Conservative Socialism The politicians double cross the American people and line the pockets of their corporate allies with cash with an endless flow of cheap imported labor. After all, it is only "fair" to legalize 30 million new workers to compete directly with American citizens for the limited number of jobs. . As a bonus, businesses rake in the money when they provide "free" Obamaphones and when EBT card money is spent in their stores. For businesses more poor people means more money in their accounts. . Conservative Socialism. Using taxation the wealth is re-distributed through the state's welfare system and into the pockets of Corporate America.
The EWIC argued that despite unprecedentedly high unemployment rates, the industries it represents somehow need more workers. According to the September report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in America stands a 7.2 percent and has not dropped below 7 percent since President Barack Obama took office.
“There is currently no effective process by which lesser skilled essential workers can immigrate legally other than a guest worker in a seasonal or temporary period position,” EWIC wrote in its statement. “Our American-born workforce will increase only 1% over the next 10 years. The restaurant industry alone projects a need for 15% more workers. There are simply not enough American-born workers to fill the jobs we expect to be created by a vibrant economy in the coming years.”
House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) has publicly stated he wants a conference committee with the Senate bill. "A lot of people are saying, just pass the Senate bill," Ryan said in July. "That's not what the House is going to do. I think we can make it better.”
Other industry groups the EWIC represents include:
American Health Care Association
American Hotel & Lodging Association
American Immigration Lawyers Association
American Meat Institute
American Nursery & Landscape Association American Staffing Association
Associated Builders and Contractors
Associated General Contractors of America
Federation of Employers & Workers of America
Greenberg Traurig, LLP
ImmigrationWorks USA
Independent Electrical Contractors International Franchise Association
National Apartment Association
National Association of Home Builders
National Association of Manufacturers National Club Association
National Multi Housing Council
National Retail Federation
National Roofing Contractors Association Professional Landcare Network
Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council
Small Business Workforce Alliance
EWIC is hardly the only group representing fast food restaurants pushing for amnesty. The National Restaurant Association (NRA) has participated in the campaign to lobby the House of Representatives as well.
The New American Dream Just keep reloading my EBT card please.
Boycott Domino's Pizza With America sinking into a giant shit-hole of poverty and under and unemployment we have corporate American pressuring Congress to fuck overthe American people and legalize 30 million new workers in order to drive down wages.
A huge 12.2% "official" unemployment rate in Europe
While 23% is the real unemployment in the U.S.
Pressure is mounting on the European Central Bank to boost activity in the euro area after the latest figures showed a fresh rise in unemployment, and inflation dropping sharply to a four-year low.
The jobless total for the 17 nations that use the single currency rose by 60,000 in September to 19.4 million – the 29th consecutive monthly increase. Unemployment is a million higher than in September 2012 and up by almost four million since the spring of 2011.
Analysts said the labour market in the euro area had yet to stabilise despite the return of modest growth in recent months.
Jobless rates range from 4.9% in Austria and 5.2% in Germany to 26.6% in Spain and 27.6% in Greece, with unemployment in Italy rising to a record high of 12.5% in September. The jobless total in France also rose, up by 34,000 in September and by almost 250,000 in the past year.
Unemployment among the under-25s rose by 22,000 in September to 3,548,000 – nudging up youth jobless rate to 24.1%. In France, the youth jobless rate jumped from 25.6% to 26.1%, while in Italy it increased from 40.2% to 40.4%.
23% Unemployment in the USA
Alternate Unemployment Charts
The U.S. seasonally-adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994. That estimate is added to the BLS estimate of U-6 unemployment, which includes short-term discouraged workers. .
The U-3 unemployment rate is the monthly headline number. The U-6 unemployment rate is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) broadest unemployment measure, including short-term discouraged and other marginally-attached workers as well as those forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment.
The American middle class is being devoured before our very eyes by technology and robotics.
As much as I slam Obama as the Food Stamp King, the food stamp issue started long before he appeared. Food stamps are only a symptom of the problem. Food stamps are the new normal.
We are not out of work because the economy is bad. The economy is bad because we are out of work.
It amazes me the more I study this story. If you listen to the so-called "experts" in the main stream media, you will believe that what happened to the global economy only happened starting in the latter part of 2008. They are way off base. For many years we have been seeing a slow motion job implosion of the Americans economy driven by the Internet, robotics and outsourcing.
A huge part of the food stamp explosion is millions of jobs being eliminated by robotics, the Internet and outsourcing to Asia and Latin America.
EBT cards are the modern version of the old Roman bread and circuses to keep the permanently unemployed mobs fed and entertained so they would not rise up against the political system.
The number of people enrolled in SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, aka "food stamps") has doubled to 47 million people in the past ten years. Perhaps more disturbingly, the number of people on the program increased during a period of economic growth, something that has never happened before.
Poverty used to fall in tandem with the jobless rate, reducing the need for food stamps but the researchers found poverty did not decline as the economy grew in the mid-2000s -- and in the recovery following the Great Recession, the number of people receiving food stamps kept rising.
The assumption has always been a stronger labor market would reduce the need for food stamps, the economists said, but the new trend suggests rising employment might no longer be enough.
SNAP is also being expanded in several states to include food from restaurants. Gift baskets that include both food and non-food items are also eligible to be purchased with SNAP.
The government is encouraging enrollment—and reliance—on their programs. EBT Bingo games occur in Rhode Island to enroll residents in the program.
China helped create the Food Stamp Explosion When China was admitted to the World Trade Organization in 2001, tariffs were lowered, and it became very profitable for American companies to relocate production to China’s sweatshops. . Millions of American jobs were lost, and those former workers have piled up on the food-stamp rolls. Experts say the cause of the ongoing crisis is trade imbalances created by then-President Clinton about 20 years ago when he granted China most-favored-nation trading status --- when he negotiated World Trade Organization membership for China.
Five years after the start of the Great Recession, the toll is terrifyingly clear: Millions of middle-class jobs have been lost in developed countries the world over.
And the situation is even worse than it appears.
Most of the jobs will never return, and millions more are likely to vanish as well, say experts who study the labor market. What's more, these jobs aren't just being lost to China and other developing countries, and they aren't just factory work. Increasingly, jobs are disappearing in the service sector, home to two-thirds of all workers.
They're being obliterated by technology.
Year after year, the software that runs computers and an array of other machines and devices becomes more sophisticated and powerful and capable of doing more efficiently tasks that humans have always done. For decades, science fiction warned of a future when we would be architects of our own obsolescence, replaced by our machines; an Associated Press analysis finds that the future has arrived. Read more at http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/02/robot-wars-in-china-bugger-flipping.html#rmIlzyAFl702EfvB.99
Five years after the start of the Great Recession, the toll is terrifyingly clear: Millions of middle-class jobs have been lost in developed countries the world over.
And the situation is even worse than it appears.
Most of the jobs will never return, and millions more are likely to vanish as well, say experts who study the labor market. What's more, these jobs aren't just being lost to China and other developing countries, and they aren't just factory work. Increasingly, jobs are disappearing in the service sector, home to two-thirds of all workers.
They're being obliterated by technology.
Year after year, the software that runs computers and an array of other machines and devices becomes more sophisticated and powerful and capable of doing more efficiently tasks that humans have always done. For decades, science fiction warned of a future when we would be architects of our own obsolescence, replaced by our machines; an Associated Press analysis finds that the future has arrived. Read more at http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/02/robot-wars-in-china-bugger-flipping.html#rmIlzyAFl702EfvB.99
Five years after the start of the Great Recession, the toll is terrifyingly clear: Millions of middle-class jobs have been lost in developed countries the world over.
And the situation is even worse than it appears.
Most of the jobs will never return, and millions more are likely to vanish as well, say experts who study the labor market. What's more, these jobs aren't just being lost to China and other developing countries, and they aren't just factory work. Increasingly, jobs are disappearing in the service sector, home to two-thirds of all workers.
They're being obliterated by technology.
Year after year, the software that runs computers and an array of other machines and devices becomes more sophisticated and powerful and capable of doing more efficiently tasks that humans have always done. For decades, science fiction warned of a future when we would be architects of our own obsolescence, replaced by our machines; an Associated Press analysis finds that the future has arrived. Read more at http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/02/robot-wars-in-china-bugger-flipping.html#rmIlzyAFl702EfvB.99
Five years after the start of the Great Recession, the toll is terrifyingly clear: Millions of middle-class jobs have been lost in developed countries the world over.
And the situation is even worse than it appears.
Most of the jobs will never return, and millions more are likely to vanish as well, say experts who study the labor market. What's more, these jobs aren't just being lost to China and other developing countries, and they aren't just factory work. Increasingly, jobs are disappearing in the service sector, home to two-thirds of all workers.
They're being obliterated by technology.
Year after year, the software that runs computers and an array of other machines and devices becomes more sophisticated and powerful and capable of doing more efficiently tasks that humans have always done. For decades, science fiction warned of a future when we would be architects of our own obsolescence, replaced by our machines; an Associated Press analysis finds that the future has arrived. Read more at http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/02/robot-wars-in-china-bugger-flipping.html#rmIlzyAFl702EfvB.99
The Middle Class - Busted & Betrayed
While both parties fall all over themselves to legalize and import citizens of foreign nations, the jobs held by American citizens are being abolished by the millions.
Five years after the start of the Great Recession, the toll is terrifyingly clear: Millions of middle-class jobs have been lost in developed countries the world over.
And the situation is even worse than it appears.
Most of the jobs will never return, and millions more are likely to vanish as well, say experts who study the labor market. What's more, these jobs aren't just being lost to China and other developing countries, and they aren't just factory work. Increasingly, jobs are disappearing in the service sector, home to two-thirds of all workers.
Year after year, the software that runs computers and an array of other machines and devices becomes more sophisticated and powerful and capable of doing more efficiently tasks that humans have always done. For decades, science fiction warned of a future when we would be architects of our own obsolescence, replaced by our machines; an Associated Press analysis finds that the future has arrived.
"The jobs that are going away aren't coming back," says Andrew McAfee, principal research scientist at the Center for Digital Business at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-author of "Race Against the Machine." ''I have never seen a period where computers demonstrated as many skills and abilities as they have over the past seven years."
The global economy is being reshaped by machines that generate and analyze vast amounts of data; by devices such as smartphones and tablet computers that let people work just about anywhere, even when they're on the move; by smarter, nimbler robots; and by services that let businesses rent computing power when they need it, instead of installing expensive equipment and hiring IT staffs to run it.
Whole employment categories, from secretaries to travel agents, are starting to disappear.
The AP's key findings:
For more than three decades, technology has reduced the number of jobs in manufacturing. Robots and other machines controlled by computer programs work faster and make fewer mistakes than humans. Now, that same efficiency is being unleashed in the service economy, which employs more than two-thirds of the workforce in developed countries. Technology is eliminating jobs in office buildings, retail establishments and other businesses consumers deal with every day.
Technology is being adopted by every kind of organization that employs people. It's replacing workers in large corporations and small businesses, established companies and start-ups. It's being used by schools, colleges and universities; hospitals and other medical facilities; nonprofit organizations and the military.
The most vulnerable workers are doing repetitive tasks that programmers can write software for — an accountant checking a list of numbers, an office manager filing forms, a paralegal reviewing documents for key words to help in a case. As software becomes even more sophisticated, victims are expected to include those who juggle tasks, such as supervisors and managers — workers who thought they were protected by a college degree.
Technology is replacing workers in developed countries regardless of their politics, policies and laws. Union rules and labor laws may slow the dismissal of employees, but no country is attempting to prohibit organizations from using technology that allows them to operate more efficiently — and with fewer employees.
More American Workers Outsourcing Own Jobs Overseas
The droids are taking our jobs An Oxford University study concluded that 47% of all
Touch Screens at McDonalds Abolish Jobs. McDonald's and the Japanese sushi chain, Kura, just installed 7,000 touch-screens throughout Europe, eliminating the need for workers to take customers' orders. Kura, for its part, has been able to fully eliminate cashiers from their workforce.
. “The Master created humans first as the lowest type, most easily formed. Gradually, he replaced them by robots, the next higher step, and finally he created me, to take the place of the last humans.” ― Isaac Asimov - I, Robot
GOP Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan has been in hiding during the government shutdown and Obamacare debate. It appears he has been using his time off to find ways to legalize up to 30 million or more illegal aliens to compete directly with Americans for jobs.
Some GOP donors will withhold money from Republicans who obstruct "reform".
I have long felt that Congressman Paul Ryan (R - Wisconsin) was simply another turd that managed to float to the top of the Congressional bowl.
It appears I was right yet again, and it is time to flush.
Ryan was AWOL during the entire budget-Obamacare insanity. That alone tells you all you need to know about him. But it looks like he spent his free time trying to figure out how to legalize and/or import 30 million plus illegals to compete with Americans for jobs.
“Republican Representatives Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin and Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida have been working on legislation that includes a process by which immigrants here illegally could ‘get right with the law’ and eventually become citizens,” the New York Times’ Eric Lipton and Ashley Parker wrote on Friday in a piece about immigration reform.
Several Republican executives and donors who are part of a lobbying blitz coming to Capitol Hill next week said they were considering withholding, or had already decided to withhold, future financial support to Republican lawmakers they believe are obstructing progress on immigration.
“I respect people’s views and concerns about the fact that we have a situation in the United States where we have millions of undocumented immigrants,” said Justin Sayfie, a lawyer from Florida who said he helped Mitt Romney raise more than $100,000 for his presidential campaign last year, in addition to helping other Republican candidates. “But we have what we have. This is October 2013. And the country will be better off if we fix it.”
Politico reported on Friday that the Speaker and other House GOP leadership figures are privately saying they do not expect a vote on immigration measures this year, publicly they say they want to hold a vote on something on the floor of the House.
Fucking Insanity Poverty and food stamps are at record highs. There is massive under and unemployment. Countless jobs are still being outsourced to Asia. And nimrods like Paul Ryan want to legalized tens of millions of new workers and drive down wages.
Most Brazilians have a more relaxed view of demonstrations.
Communists try to block development of Brazil's oil
The anti-oil Communists in Brazil appear to have received their talking points directly from America's anti-oil, pipeline blocking, Dear Leader Obama.
The Leftists try to take advantage of legitimate concerns of Brazilians over the the degree of foreign ownership of the nation's resources.
Brazilian protesters clashed with police on Rio de Janeiro's beachfront during a multi-billion dollar oil rights auction that was held in a nearby luxury beachfront hotel.
In the last of a series of violent demonstrations fuelled by black-clad "Black Bloc" anarchists to hit Brazil in recent months, stone-hurling protesters overturned the car of one local TV channel and set it ablaze before being dispersed by police that fired rubber bullets and tear gas.
Somehow I think Brazilians have more interesting things to think about than Marxist attacks on "evil" oil.
They were met by some 1,100 security personnel who had been deployed to protect premises of Hotel Windsor, in the upmarket district of Barra de Tijuca, where government official and oil companies' representative were taking part in the auction for Libra, an offshore field that could hold up to 12 billion barrels of oil.
Sunbathers and tourists watched the chaotic scenes, in which several protesters were injured. Demonstrators later moved in central Rio to demonstrate in fort of the headquarters of state-run oil giant Petrobras.
Rights to right to develop the site were won by the sole bidder: a consortium led by Petrobras and backed Shell, Total, two Chinese firms.
Under a recently approved legal framework Petrobras has been designated as the sole operator of new found oil deposits has to hold a minimum 30% stake in oil blocks.
The company added a 10% stake on top of what it was already entitled. The remaining shares were divided between Shell and Total, each accounting for 20% and Chinese firms CNOOC and CNPC with 10% each.
The auction was described as a success by of the government's National Petroleum Agency.
"It is hard to imagine a more successful outcome. These companies are among the world's 10 most valuable in the energy branch," the agency president, Magda Chambriard told the BBC.
Creating Jobs and Wealth What a contrast of nations. . Brazil - President Dilma Rousseff (a former radical leftist) is doing everything in her power to develop oil fields and create jobs and wealth. . USA - Comrade President Obama is doing everything in his power to prevent the development of oil and coal fields and stop the creation of jobs and wealth.
Brazilian Communists line up to take advantage of social unrest.
Commies in their Che Guevara shirts protesting oil.
While Communists were protesting in Rio de Janeiro against auction of the drilling rights to one of the world's largest offshore oil discoveries, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff hailed the auction's outcome, promising that it would bring a "small revolution" for Brazil.
A demonstrator from the group called Black Bloc runs outside the City Hall.
A Brazil's Forca Nacional member fires a rubber bullet from shotgun at activists protesting auctioning off oil deposit drilling rights, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 'Libra' Atlantic oilfield has brought Brazil's proven oil reserves to 15.3 billion barrels, making country's reserves second-largest in South America after Venezuela.
After all, it is Brazil. If you are a Leftist loon with a screw loose you can parade around in your Che Guevara shirt demanding a Worker's Paradise or you can head to the beach like normal people do.
Police protecting the beach entrance to the hotel oil gathering.
. Democracy in Brazil Some food for thought. The Brazilian Chamber of Deputies consists of 21 political parties representing every possible faction of society. . While back in the USA the same two corrupt political parties "magically" win 100% of all elections to Congress. Call me "crazy" but it looks like we need election reform in the U.S. . For more see Chamber of Deputies (Brazil)
Global credit rating agency Fitch has put the United States’ ‘AAA’ credit rating on “rating watch negative” based on stalled debt ceiling negotiations.
The real question of the day is, "What took so long?" After all,with the Federal Reserve printing trillions of phony Obama Dollars every year it is not like our currency has any real value.
"Although Fitch continues to believe that the debt ceiling will be raised soon, the political brinkmanship and reduced financing flexibility could increase the risk of a US default," Fitch wrote in a release Tuesday afternoon.
The agency said the US Treasury, though it could still make some obliged payments after October 17, may be exposed to “volatile revenue and expenditure flows” based on the impasse in Washington reports RT News.
“The US risks being forced to incur widespread delays of payments to suppliers and employees, as well as social security payments to citizens - all of which would damage the perception of US sovereign creditworthiness and the economy,” Fitch wrote.
Halted talks on raising the debt ceiling risk "undermining confidence in the role of the US dollar as the preeminent global reserve currency, by casting doubt over the full faith and credit of the US,” Fitch went on. “This ‘faith’ is a key reason why the US 'AAA' rating can tolerate a substantially higher level of public debt than other 'AAA' sovereigns.”
"The announcement reflects the urgency with which Congress should act to remove the threat of default hanging over the economy," a US Treasury spokesperson said.
In August 2011, credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded the US credit rating from ‘AAA’ (outstanding) to ‘AA+’ (excellent) amid a similar stalemate in Washington on raising the debt ceiling.
Call me crazy, but maybe default would be a good thing. Bankruptcy would be a true shock to the political system that would force real changes in money printing, spending and debt.
“We are in danger of being overwhelmed with irredeemable paper, mere paper, representing not gold nor silver; no sir, representing nothing but broken promises, bad faith, bankrupt corporations, cheated creditors and a ruined people.” Daniel Webster Congressman, U.S. Senator Federalist Party
. Denial is not just a river in Egypt Both the U.S. and world are living a fantasy that the dollar has any real value. To bottom line it, the dollar is only paper and it is losing value by the day through endless money printing. At some point the bubble will burst and no one will want to buy our debt.
Just because China wants it does not mean it is a bad thing.
The U.S. encouraging the powers of Europe, India and Japan to better defend themselves and be active in world affairs only frees up American resources and wealth making us stronger in the long run.
Believe it or not, for a thousand years Europe and Asia somehow managed to exist without the U.S. dictating policy and spending trillions in American wealth to buy "friends".
China’s official news agency has called for the creation of a “de-Americanized world”, saying the destinies of people should not be left in the hands of a hypocritical nation with a dysfunctional government.
Heaping criticism and caustic ridicule on Washington, the Xinhua news agency called the US a civilian slayer, prisoner torturer and meddler in others’ affairs, and said the ‘Pax Americana’ was a failure on all fronts.
With the #3 economy on earth Japan should be taking a larger role in Asia.
The official news agency of China, which is seen as the pretender to the world’s superpower crown, then rubbed in more salt, calling American economic pre-eminence just a seeming dominance reports the International Business Times.
“As US politicians of both political parties are still shuffling back and forth between the White House and the Capitol Hill without striking a viable deal to bring normality to the body politic they brag about, it is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanized world,” the editorial said.
It asks why the self-declared protector of the world is sowing mayhem in the financial markets by failing to resolve political differences over key economic policy. "... the cyclical stagnation in Washington for a viable bipartisan solution over a federal budget and an approval for raising debt ceiling has again left many nations' tremendous dollar assets in jeopardy and the international community highly agonised," the agency said.
It is not the first time Chinese leadership and newspapers have criticised Washington over a policy paralysis that threatens to devalue its dollar assets.
The European Union Why should the United States bankrupt itself in Don Quixote type quests around the world? . The economy of the European Union is larger than that of the United States. The EU has large and modern militaries to defend their borders and France and the UK have nuclear weapons. . Europe is rich and powerful enough to easily act, if needed, as policeman for North Africa and the Middle East. Most recently through NATO, Britain, France, Spain and Italy engaged Libyan forces to assist the rebels in the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi.
