China fears unrest – with good reason.
Chinese riot cops.
As much as I dislike China, more specifically the Chinese government, I have to admit they’ve been pretty consistent and candid about one fact: They have to keep GDP growth at at least 8% or risk facing wide-spread social disorder.
In an article on the McClatchy News site, Tom Lasseter notes the unease Chinese officials and other observers are feeling:
Lots of export factories will be shut down, and a lot of migrant workers will lose their jobs,” said Ma Yang, the director of a Beijing-based migrant workers advocacy group called On Action. Ma paused and considered his words: “If the government does not provide assistance to help them through this economic transition, it will create a lot of social problems.”
As a side note, this weekend I was in an REI store (not by my choice) and I happened to notice that all of the products on offer were made in China. ALL of them. At last, I found a flashlight made in the good ol’ USA, albeit with a caveat attached: “Some” of the parts “might” be imported. SIGH!
Presidential Science Panel says 90,000 could croak this year from the swine flooos
Close to HALF the Country could be infected.
Coming soon to an ER near you.
Read it and weep HERE.
NOW:
The carnage could start as early as next month, which is little comfort to those most at risk since a vaccine will not be ready until mid-October and it will take weeks to get people fully immunized, probably because it comes in a SERIES of shots. (Now they say two, but last week it was three.)
Then there was this reassuring quote from THE pandemic expert, the guy who wrote the book on flu pandemics:
“The Northern Hemisphere medical care requirements for the next six months are a train wreck waiting to happen,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy in Minneapolis. “In the fall, even if nothing else changes in terms of the virus’s severity and our preparedness, it’s going to be a real challenge.”
A Nation of Dumbasses
Birthplace of our President. Really, no kidding.
According to a new Public Policy Poll, 10% of Americans either believe Hawaii is not part of the United States or are unsure about it. (See, Q4 on Page 2 of release.) Jesus H. Limping Christ on a Fucking Raft! We deserve whatever awful fate awaits us. Perhaps the swine flus will kill off a lot of stupid people and ultimately save us from ourselves. One can only hope.
“The World is in Trouble” sez German Bank Econ
Weimar Currency.
The top economist at Germany’s D-Bank says the green shoots are about to turn brown.
‘The World Is in Trouble’: Deutsche Bank Chief Economist
The global economy still faces turmoil as governments try to figure out how to move out of fiscal rescue packages, which could lead to another two downturns, Deutsche Bank Chief Economist Norbert Walter said Thursday. In addition, nervousness on the part of major dollar holders could pressure the greenback and lead to a very worrying 2010, Walter said. Norbert said recently in research notes “the world is in trouble.”
“I believe that the rescue packages brought on have been so costly for so many governments that the exit from this fiscal policy will be very painful, very painful indeed,” he said. “Some of us are already talking about a W-shaped recovery. I’d probably talk about a triple-U-shaped recovery because there are so many stumbling blocks here to get out of this.”
This is US in 10 Years
Think of Borat's home town. Yours could look like this sooner than you think.
I heard someone on the radio the other day who had a new definition of a “Gaffe” – you know, those verbalizations politicians make all the time and wish they hadn’t. Vice President Biden owns the Gaffe Factory, for example.
Well, the new definition of a Gaffe is when a politician screws up and accidentally tells the truth. Turns out the Veep’s recent observations on Russian fall squarely into this new view of gaffsterism. Biden got it right. He just regrets saying it out loud.
This is what is in store for the good old USA. Think I’m nuts? Check out Dmitry Orlov’s Blog, Cluborlov. He had a front row seat at Russia’s crack up. He sees one coming for us, too.
Biden had it right: Rural Russia is dying of poverty, neglect
Tom Lasseter | McClatchy Newspapers
last updated: August 05, 2009 04:31:57 PM
KUVSHINOVO, Russia — The government administrator was bursting with optimism: More children are being born, many rubles will be invested in infrastructure and his region is weathering the global economic storm.
“The situation is so good,” said Boris Zaitsev, a broad-shouldered man who spoke in a confident monotone.
Outside his office, some 170 miles northwest of Moscow, the front steps to the Soviet-era government building are falling into a pile of rubble. Deep, spine-rattling potholes that rival sections of Baghdad riddle the town’s streets. The region’s population has plummeted by more than a quarter. Officials here like to point visitors to Kuvshinovo’s new Russian Orthodox church, an elegant wooden structure. Work inside the church hasn’t been finished, because the money ran out. Looters searching for icons and cash previously torched the office of another local church. Twice. A priest in a nearby village, who’d led an anti-alcoholism campaign, was burned to death with his family. The area around this rural enclave is in steep decline; once-thriving fields are empty and the population is in free-fall. Along with many other towns and villages in vast rural Russia, it’s a microcosm for a country that, according to recent studies, is withering away.
Four Yemeni soldiers killed as unrest swells
Violence widens in Yemen.
By Hammoud Mounassar (AFP)
Many of the demonstrators have been protesting against poor living conditions in the region.
SANAA — Four Yemeni soldiers were killed on Tuesday when armed men attacked a checkpoint in the restive south, in the latest in a series of violent incidents rocking the country, a security official said. Yemen, the poorest nation in the Arab world, is an Al-Qaeda target and mired in a rebellion by Shiites in the northern province of Saada as well as an upsurge in violence in the south. The growing strife has led parliament to question the government’s ability to tackle the country’s problems. The security official said it was unclear who was behind Tuesday’s attack, which took place on the road linking the provinces of Abyan and Hadramaut and which also left another soldier wounded. A website linked to the defence ministry reported that 10 armed “saboteurs” ambushed the checkpoint. The army has launched a manhunt for the assailants, it quoted a security official as saying.
Labor Strife Roils South Africa
Cops are shooting protestors with rubber bullets.
(See also the CSM HERE.)
Protesters chant slogans during a strike in Johannesburg July 27, 2009. REUTERS
South Africa’s government faced more violent protests on Tuesday as police fired rubber bullets on marchers as a strike by tens of thousands of municipal workers entered a second day. Police broke up a demonstration in an informal settlement in the Mpumalanga province where some 500 residents angry over a lack of service delivery burned down a clinic, a library and a fire engine. They also stoned police, landing a policeman in hospital.
“We had to use rubber bullets to disperse the crowd, I believe there are some injuries but they have not been reported as yet,” said provincial police spokesman Abie Khoabane.
In Thokoza, a Johannesburg township, police dispersed 200 residents with rubber bullets after they blocked off streets and stoned a police cordon in a protest over the lack of service delivery by the municipality. Thokoza has been a hotspot of rioting as a series of service delivery protests have swept South Africa in recent weeks. Rising discontent over wages and slack service delivery have increased pressure on the new government of President Jacob Zuma in the midst of a recession.
Mob beats Chinese steel factory executive to death
China Unrest: Chinese riot police get into position as Uighur protesters gather during a demonstration in Urumqi, earlier this month.
Thousands of workers had gathered in northeastern rust belt city of Tonghua to protest the takeover of their company and threatened layoffs.
Chinese state media confirmed Monday that a steel factory executive was beaten to death after thousands of workers gathered to protest the takeover of their company.
Chen Guojun, an executive at Jianlong Steel Holding Co., died Friday after an angry mob in the northeastern rust belt city of Tonghua beat him and then blocked ambulances from reaching him, according to the China Daily.
The protesters worked at the state-owned Tonghua Iron and Steel Group, which was going to be sold to Chen’s privately owned Jianlong Steel. Chen sparked the riot by announcing 30,000 workers would be laid off, the newspaper said.
They dispersed later only after they were assured by authorities the sale would not go through.
– David Pierson
Huge Regional Thrift Set to Collapse
Guaranty Bank, the second largest in Texas has been ordered to turn itself over to the FDIC.
Pig Flu Pandemic: Blame it on the Kids
It’s all the fault of the little rugrats. They are super-transmitters, apparently.
Pig Flu News
- Argentine fear over flu spreads, as accusations of incompetence and numbers-rigging plague the government.
- The WHO – stop testing for H1N1 – assume it’s pig flu. Great way to fudge the numbers, no?
- Health Officials in the UK expect 100,000 NEW cases PER DAY by August.
- UN says its needs $1 billion to fight flu in poor nations. (Rush Limbaugh will probably advocate NOT fighting it, in order to reduce to surplus population.)
- Boston – swine flu panic led to prison uprising.
- No seasonal respite from this flu apparent.
Bank Failure Friday – Thursday Edition
Back from a holiday hiatus to find 7 (seven) banks failed. Normally, they close them on a Friday, but I guess the holiday gave them the opportunity to put the key in the door on these guys a day early. Interestingly, 6 of the 7 are in my home state of Illinois. Hmmmmmmmmm.
DC awash in the pig flu
Health officials in Washington say the number of cases are comparable with the seasonal flu in fall / winter.
US tips the 1 million mark in pig flu cases; resistance to drug found
So says the CDC.
If the figures are correct, it is reassuring news, because it indicates that the fatality rate from swine flu is even lower than thought, says BBC medical correspondent Fergus Walsh.
Oh, I am reassured no end. What happens when the damn thing mutates?
Funny thing, I immerse myself in news on a daily basis and heard nothing of this from US outlets. If you want to know what’s going on in your own country, best look to the Brits for the info.
Also, check out: Roche Finds First H1N1 Case With Resistance to Tamiflu.
Bank Failure Friday!!!
A whopping 4 5 (four – FIVE – they slipped another one in on me after I posted) banks bit the big one today! Read ‘em and weep, kids!
Metro Pacific Bank, Irvine, CA
Neighborhood Community Bank, Newnan, GA
Community Bank of West Georgia, Villa Rica, GA
AND
This makes a total of 45 (forty-five) banks closed this year by the FDIC.
The End of Empire – The BRIC is hitting the fan, folks!
Children playing with stacks of cash in Weimar Germany.
Stop reading right now unless you are prepared to be massively depressed. Our empire has fallen. We are now, officially, the Romans. In a stunning, devastating piece at TruthDig, Chris Hedges puts together the cataclysmic chain of events to come that many of us have struggled to round up and articulate since September of 2007. It took a year after that for the situation to get so bad, on September 21, 2008, that the Congressional leadership was called together by the Fed and Treasury and told without a massive cash infusion of tax dollars the whole rotten movie set that was our economy was going to fall on top of us. Riot, mayhem, violence and disintegration were sure to follow. Out of that meeting was born TARP, TALF, AIG, GM, the stimulus package, etc.
The whole piece is a must read, but some snippets after the jump will curl your hair.
Quote of the Day – Mark Ancona
I stumbled upon this while reading the comments section of James Howard Kunstler’s weekly blog entry. By a click, I found this gentleman, Mark Ancona, also has a blog on silver, which I am fond of, usually describing myself as a “Free Silver Democrat” to people who don’t get the reference.
I see the inevitable, and it is approaching us with increasing speed. The potential for disaster is extreme and my neighbors just do not get it. I have stopped speaking to most folks about the need to grow our food locally and accumulate some real money in the form of silver and gold because they think I am insane.
It will come to pass that America descends into the abyss of lawless violence, when the entitlement checks stop coming in the mail, and fewer and fewer people can afford to buy gasoline. Our crumbling and antiquated electrical infrastructure is one lightning bolt away from meltdown, so rather than repair it we give fifty billion dollars to a car company with a 900 million dollar market cap.
Day Old Bread – Odds and Ends 06/08/09
- Can’t make the payment? Light a match!
- Palin kicked out of Republicanist fund raising dinner – again.
- Right wing on the upswing in meaningless EU elections.
- ChiComs put Ray Nagin on lockdown in Shanghai. Has the mayor been “Shanghaied”?
- Apparently we’re letting some of the big banks pay back their TARP money. Let them give it all back, dammit!
- Laura Bush thinks Sotomayor is OK.
- Can’t afford your car payment? Torch the damn thing!
- Right Wing Israeli government stands in the way of Mideast Peace, while simultaneously claiming to have a new plan in the works.
- Canadian nurses meet to discuss possible violence surrounding flu pandemics. Now, they’re talking.
- Government selectively tracks the pig flu.
- Officials said to be preparing for second wave of flu. 1918 here we come.
- Coming to a jailhouse near you – Rikers Island overrun with the pig flu.
- I am irritated with the President on DADT, but I understand his strategery.
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