Posts
Bankia’s saga
of lies, deception, and fraud should (but probably won’t) culminate
in the imprisonment of a former IMF president, crippling
fines for the auditors (Deloitte), and fireworks at financial
regulators.
##
Airline Death Spiral ##
Delta
continues to pull back in Memphis. The airline announced in 2013
that it would drop Memphis as a hub and has whittled away
at its presence there ever since. Now, after yet another round
of cuts revealed on Friday, it appears Delta's retrenchment in
Memphis is nearly complete.
A
survey by the International Air Transport Association suggested that
43 per cent of airlines experienced more than 100 cases of
unruly passengers in a year. We round up the more bizarre cases
of air rage that have come to light in recent years.
##
Fault lines/flashpoints/powder kegs/military/war drums ##
60-plus
nations nominally in the coalition and over 1,000 airstrikes
between Iraq and Syria, the US has thrown myriad data at Congress
to try to prove “progress” in the war on ISIS. Yet a
closer inspection reveals anything but.
Scientific
data shows Greenland's continental shelf is connected to a ridge
beneath the Arctic Ocean, giving Danes a claim to the North
Pole and any potential energy resources beneath it, Denmark's
foreign minister said.
Global arms
sales by top 100 defense companies in the world fell for the
third year in a row, while Russian arms sales went up by 20
percent, according to new data compiled by the
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI),
a Sweden-based independent think tank.
The
population of Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank
has continued to surge during Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's years in office, growing at more than twice the
pace of Israel's overall population, according to newly
obtained official figures.
##
Global unrest/mob rule/angry people/torches and pitchforks ##
##
Energy/resources ##
As
hard as it is to believe - given the strength of
the "Russia-is-doomed" meme - Crude oil prices for
Russia (in Rubles) are unchanged since February... This is
important as all costs are Ruble denominated while revenues are
USD denominated, leaving Russian oil companies’ margins
insulated despite the dollar decline in price.
Severe
droughts are forcing researchers to rethink how technology can
increase the supply of fresh water.
Ukraine’s
bid to rid itself of its dependence on Russian energy just took a
huge hit.
##
Got food? ##
##
Lifestyle Solutions ##
##
Environment/health ##
##
Intelligence/propaganda/security/internet/cyberwar ##
Researchers
in the Netherlands have found what they say is a way to make it
impossible for criminals to forge passports, ID cards or credit
cards.
This
of course assumes that we'll have the power to run the necessary
electronics and the internet. Even temporary power outages would
wreak havoc on such a system. -- RF
##
Systemic breakdown/collapse/unsustainability ##
It's
the kind of defiant hubris one expects from a dying empire. -- RF
Of
course all added layers of security entail greater cost and also
increase complexity, thereby hastening collapse. -- RF
##
Japan ##
Electrics,
hybrids, fuel-cell cars... Futile attempts to save a dying system. --
RF
##
China ##
About
300 Chinese people are fighting alongside the Islamic State in
Iraq and Syria, a Chinese state-run newspaper said on
Monday, a rare tally that is likely to fuel worry in China that
militants pose a threat to security.
##
UK ##
Hospitals
and fire services will be run “outside the public sector” as
the Conservatives dramatically shrink the state and cut costs,
a senior minister has disclosed.
The
Dalai Lama says Britain kowtowed to China over the protests in
Hong Kong because its “pocket is more or less empty”
##
US ##
The bottom
line for the vast majority of us is that there is an extremely high
price to be paid for independence from fealty to the State
or Corporate America.
The
Empire is falling on hard times. -- RF
Homeland
Security Secretary Jeh Johnson came to this South Texas outpost on
Monday to inaugurate a 50-acre detention center that will hold
up to 2,400 migrants caught crossing the Mexican border
illegally, becoming the largest immigration detention
facility in the country.
Housing
starts collapsed in November. They weren’t good, they weren’t even
so-so as media reports intimated. The seasonally
adjusted annualized number which the paid flacks report is
absolute nonsense. It’s fiction.
And
finally...
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.