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In our opinion, this man right here perfectly exemplifies about half of what is wrong with America.

Submitted by Roanman on Wed, 09/26/2012 - 14:38

 

This is Patrick Clawson of the Washington Institute for Near East Studies suggesting that the US should provoke Iran into a war.

Please excuse our blunt approach here, but to our way of thinking among the gravest problems facing this country are the not just a couple of murderous, neocon psychopaths much like Mr. Clawson here who have been entrusted with positions of power and/or influence. 

 

 

GM loses $49,000 per unit on the Chevy Volt. Gonna make it back on volume.

Submitted by Roanman on Mon, 09/10/2012 - 12:47

 

From Reuters.

Click anywhere below for the entire piece which also mentions layoffs in Hamtramck.

 

Insight: GM's Volt: The ugly math of low sales, high costs

General Motors Co sold a record number of Chevrolet Volt sedans in August — but that probably isn't a good thing for the automaker's bottom line.

 

 

Nearly two years after the introduction of the path-breaking plug-in hybrid, GM is still losing as much as $49,000 on each Volt it builds, according to estimates provided to Reuters by industry analysts and manufacturing experts.

Cheap Volt lease offers meant to drive more customers to Chevy showrooms this summer may have pushed that loss even higher. There are some Americans paying just $5,050 to drive around for two years in a vehicle that cost as much as $89,000 to produce.

And while the loss per vehicle will shrink as more are built and sold, GM is still years away from making money on the Volt, which will soon face new competitors from Ford, Honda and others.

GM's basic problem is that "the Volt is over-engineered and over-priced," said Dennis Virag, president of the Michigan-based Automotive Consulting Group.

And in a sign that there may be a wider market problem, Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi have been struggling to sell their electric and hybrid vehicles, though Toyota's Prius models have been in increasing demand.

GM's quandary is how to increase sales volume so that it can spread its estimated $1.2-billion investment in the Volt over more vehicles while reducing manufacturing and component costs - which will be difficult to bring down until sales increase.

 

 

I'm thinking that the Indiana State Police Pension Fund wouldn't have been so stupid as to piss away a billion two hundred million on a car that costs $89,000 to build and stickers for $39,900.

Although, you never know.

 

South African police open fire

Submitted by Roanman on Sun, 09/02/2012 - 17:19

 

Our Labor Day post is very tough to watch.

From Reuters.

This is the raw footage of South African police opening fire on striking/rioting (take your pick) Lonmin miners August 16, 2012.

270 miners who didn't happen to have been shot dead by the Police were subsequently charged with murder.

Those charges have now been dropped ..... provisionally.

Can we even begin to imagine the desperation that would drive people armed only with hatchets and clubs to attack a line of police armed to the teeth with automatic weapons?

 

Coming to a township near you.

 

We've an update from the BBC Africa.

3 September 2012 Last updated at 09:49 E

New South Africa mine shooting 'injures four workers'

Security guards have wounded four striking gold miners with rubber bullets near the South African city of Johannesburg, police say.

The mine is partly owned by a company in which South African President Jacob Zuma's nephew, Khulubuse, and Nelson Mandela's grandson, Zondwa, have a stake.

 

Of course it is.

 

Just who exactly do they intend to shoot?

Submitted by Roanman on Wed, 08/22/2012 - 08:24

 

This one has been flying around pretty good for the last couple of days, we think it should fly around some more.

 

By Major General Jerry Curry, USA (Ret.) 

The Social Security Administration (SSA) confirms that it is purchasing 174 thousand rounds of hollow point bullets to be delivered to 41 locations in major cities across the U.S.  No one has yet said what the purpose of these purchases is, though we are led to believe that they will be used only in an emergency to counteract and control civil unrest. Those against whom the hollow point bullets are to be used — those causing the civil unrest — must be American citizens; since the SSA has never been used overseas to help foreign countries maintain control of their citizens.

What would be the target of these 174, 000 rounds of hollow point bullets? It can’t simply be to control demonstrators or rioters. Hollow point bullets are so lethal that the Geneva Convention does not allow their use on the battle field in time of war. Hollow point bullets don’t just stop or hurt people, they penetrate the body, spread out, fragment and cause maximum damage to the body’s organs. Death often follows.

Potentially each hollow nose bullet represents a dead American. If so, why would the U.S. government want the SSA to kill 174,000 of our citizens, even during a time of civil unrest? Or is the purpose to kill 174,000 of the nation’s military and replace them with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) special security forces, forces loyal to the Administration, not to the Constitution?

All my life I’ve handled firearms. When a young boy growing up on my father’s farm in Pennsylvania Dad’s first rule of firearms training was, “Never point a gun at someone, in fun or otherwise, unless you intend to shoot them. If you shoot someone, shoot to kill.” I’ve never forgotten his admonition. It stayed with me through my Boy Scout training, when I enlisted in the army as a Private to fight in the Korea
War, during my days as a Ranger and Paratrooper and throughout my thirty-four year military career.

If this were only a one time order of ammunition, it could easily be dismissed. But there is a pattern here. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has ordered 46,000 rounds of hollow point ammunition. Notice that all of these purchases are for the lethal hollow nose bullets.  These bullets are not being purchased and stored for squirrel or coyote hunting. This is serious ammunition manufactured to be used for serious purposes.

In the war in Iraq, our military forces expended approximately 70 million rounds per year. In March DHS ordered 750 million rounds of hollow point ammunition. It then turned around and ordered an additional 750 million rounds of miscellaneous bullets including some that are capable of penetrating walls. This is enough ammunition to empty five rounds into the body of every living American citizen. Is this something we and the Congress should be concerned about? What’s the plan that requires so many dead Americans, even during times of civil unrest? Has Congress and the Administration vetted the plan in public.

 

 

Bearing in mind as always.

 

 

 

Whoa! Was that a mosquito or a drone?

Submitted by Roanman on Thu, 07/19/2012 - 20:30

 

From Clean Technica and Rob Aid.

A team of researchers at Johns Hopkins University is helping to develop a micro aerial vehicle (MAV for short) that will be no bigger than a bug.

 

 

So, What Good is a Micro Aerial Vehicle?

An MAV would be used for military reconnaissance operations in urban areas, where densely packed buildings and unpredictable winds create unique challenges for a small flying device – no surprise here, since the Hopkins research is partly funded by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

 

Secret of the Hopkins MAV

Student researchers Tras Lin and Lingxiao Zheng are spearheading the Johns Hopkins contribution to MAV research, using high-speed video cameras to analyze the way a butterfly’s body moves in flight. The advanced cameras enabled the researchers to separate one-fifth of a second of movement into 600 frames. According to Lin, the breakdown shows that the insect’s body in flight shares some characteristics with the body movements of figure skaters, who use their arm position to modify their speed while spinning.

According to Phil Sneiderman of Johns Hopkins, the key discovery so far has been to recognize that changes in the distribution of the insect’s body mass play an important role in its ability to perform intricate maneuvers while flapping its wings. Previous research into flight dynamics had overlooked this area of study and focused primarily on wing movements.

 

 

Look Out! More MAV’s on the Way

If something rings a bell about this project, you may recall that last year DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, released photos of the Hummingbird, a tiny, ultra lightweight remote-controlled flying vehicle designed to resemble an actual hummingbird. The Hummingbird was designed specifically to let troops in urban combat to get a look around corners and inside buildings.

 

 

The silent job killer: Our unemployment system

Submitted by Roanman on Thu, 07/19/2012 - 12:35

 

From CNN Money who has been on a roll lately.

As always click on the photo below in order to link up to the entire piece.

Since we're on the subject, here's a three minute vid also from CNN Money on youth unemployment in America.

 

The silent job killer: Our unemployment system

By Nina Easton, senior editor-at-large  July 19, 2012: 9:56 AM ET

FORTUNE -- Hemingway Apparel, located in a rural former cotton town a hundred miles east of South Carolina's capitol, should be the kind of small business that government nurtures. In a county where the unemployment rate hovers near 12%, the factory employs low-skilled workers who don't have a lot of options.

Hemingway barely survived the drift of apparel production overseas. Today, company owner Jack L. Marsh benefits from the "Made in America" determination of top customer Angela Newnam.  The Harvard Business School grad and former McKinsey consultant also happens to be a daughter of the Carolina textile mills who is putting her company, Knockout Panties, behind her stubborn belief in American manufacturing.

The Marsh-Newnam partnership has all the makings of a grassroots business story that -- stitched with thousands of others -- could aid an American jobs revival. Except for one thing: Marsh isn't hiring. He's being killed by unemployment taxes that are on their way to quadrupling since 2009. When new business comes calling, Marsh says, "I have to ask myself if there's another way to meet production needs without adding employees.'' He would rather pay overtime than shell out a per-worker tax of $900 (up from $270 three years ago) that is slated to rise to about $1,100 in 2014.

 

Are we creating jobs or disabilities?

Submitted by Roanman on Wed, 07/18/2012 - 18:36

 

From Investor Business Daily which increasingly is becoming our morning newspaper of choice.

As always click on the chart for the entire piece.

 

Disability Ranks Outpace New Jobs In Obama Recovery

By JOHN MERLINE, INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

 Posted 07/06/2012 04:36 PM ET
 
 

More workers joined the federal government's disability program in June than got new jobs, according to two new government reports, a clear indicator of how bleak the nation's jobs picture is after three full years of economic recovery.

The economy created just 80,000 jobs in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. But that same month, 85,000 workers left the workforce entirely to enroll in the Social Security Disability Insurance program, according to the Social Security Administration.

The disability ranks have outpaced job growth throughout President Obama's recovery. While the economy has created 2.6 million jobs since June 2009, fully 3.1 million workers signed up for disability benefits.

 

 

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