Daily Archives: April 17, 2012
Michigan Farmers Learn Hard Way How Agenda 21 Affects Them
Liberals love to dismiss any talk of a global plan to take over small farms and destroy private ownership as “conspiracy theory.”
Michigan farmers are starting to learn that there’s nothing theoretical about it and the conspiracy is quite real.
NaturalNews.com reports that the state’s Department of Natural Resources recently conducted at least two armed raids on pig farmers, including bringing the entire goon squad of at least six vehicles and about a dozen armed officers.
Were the farmers criminals?
According to the DNR they were, and the raids included felony arrest warrants. But the actual crime was … raising pigs.
Under an “invasive species order,” or ISO, the state of Michigan has declared the pig farmers’ livestock to be an invasive species, and the raids were planned for the purpose of killing said pigs.
Farmer Dave Tuxberry reported slaughtering all of his pigs in advance of the DNR raids, hoping to avoid arrest. But according to NaturalNews, the DNR conducted the raid anyway, tossing the place and generally doing the jack-booted thug thing.
After four hours, the DNR officers decided that all the pigs were indeed dead, and they gave the farmer papers to the effect that he was no longer breaking the law because he was out of business.
Another farmer reported the interrogation of his customers, and he says his regular meat processor was so terrorized that she will no longer take his pigs for fear her company will be raided, but the loss of business will cause her severe financial harm.
The invasive species order issued by the state declares that nearly all small family farms raising open-range pigs are engaged in illegal activity. The pigs are declared to be “wild hogs” under the ISO, distinguished by their hair type. Raising pigs of the wrong hair color is punishable by up to four years in prison.
Wrap your head around that for a moment. First, how can a hog be “wild” if it’s being “raised”? And now it’s criminal to even have one of these evil creatures in your possession.
The farms, most of which have been in business for decades, are competition to “Big Pork,” in this case the Michigan Pork Producers Association, which explains the ISO on its website.
This is straight out of Agenda 21, the United Nations’ plan for global “sustainable development.” Part of that plan aims for the elimination of small farms as a waste of resources.
It also seeks a reduction of the population. And if you’re going to do that, targeting the diversity of a nation’s food supply could be a good way to start.
Nationally, the federal Department of Transportation has been going after family farms by reclassifying most farm vehicles as commercial vehicles, requiring anyone driving a tractor to invest in training and a commercial drivers license, and placing the equipment under laws intended for semi-trucks driven on the road. It would also ban young, underage farmers from using a tractor.
Note that the DOT Secretary Ray LaHood holds a seat on the recently created White House Rural Council, which has ties to George Soros and the Center for American Progress.
The EPA, of course, is getting in on the act, taking small farms as “buffer zones” for waterways to protect them from pesticides. Under Agenda 21, these areas are designated as not inhabitable by humans, as detailed by the Wildlands Project.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson is on the Rural Council, which was established, according to President Obama, “to strengthen rural communities and promote economic growth.”
Related articles
- Michigan Government Unleashes Armed Raids on Small Pig Frmers, Forces Farmer to Shoot all his Own Pigs (spiritandanimal.wordpress.com)
- Michigan MNR actually launches armed raids on small pig farmers based on questionable “invasive species” claim (thebovine.wordpress.com)
- Michigan Government Unleashes Armed Raids On Small Pig Farmers, Forces Farmer To Shoot All His Own Pigs (Video) (thedaleygator.wordpress.com)
- Insane Michigan Government Announces Plan To Destroy Ranch Livestock (newsworldwide.wordpress.com)
- Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin: farmers fight hogicide in Michigan (EndtheLie.com)
Tokyo Is Planning To Piss Off China By Buying These Disputed Islands In The East China Sea
TOKYO (AP) — Tokyo‘s outspoken governor says the city has decided to buy a group of disputed islands in the East China Sea to bolster Japanese claims to the territory, a move that could elevate tensions with China.
Gov. Shintaro Ishihara said the city is close to reaching an agreement with the private Japanese owner of three of the four islands in the group known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese.
The islands, surrounded by rich fishing grounds, are also claimed by China and Taiwan. They have been a frequent flash point in diplomatic relations between Japan and China.
A collision between a Chinese fishing boat and Japanese coast guard vessels in 2010 near the islands set off a serious diplomatic spat, with Beijing temporarily freezing trade and ministerial talks.
“Tokyo has decided to buy the Senkaku islands. Tokyo will protect the Senkakus,” Ishihara said in a speech Monday at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington. “The Japanese are acquiring the islands to protect our own territory. Would anyone have a problem with that?”
Ishihara, a strong nationalist, said the idea is to block China from taking the islands from Japanese control, as the central government is reluctant to upset China.
He did not indicate how much the city would pay, but said the deal would be finalized while he is visiting the United States.
In Beijing, Liu Weimin, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reacted harshly to Ishihara’s comment and reiterated China’s claim over the islands.
“Any unilateral measure taken by Japan is illegal and invalid, and will not change the fact that those islands belong to China,” he said in a statement.
Tokyo city official Tatsuo Fujii said details of the deal could not be released immediately and further discussions would be held with Okinawa prefecture, which has jurisdiction over the islands, and other related authorities.
The government currently pays rent to the owners of the four islands in the Senkaku group so they won’t be sold to any questionable buyer. It pays 24.5 million yen ($304,000) a year to the owner of the three islands, which are unused. The fourth island is used by the U.S. military for drills.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura reiterated on Tuesday that Japan has sovereignty over the Senkaku islands and said the central government might purchase them.
Japan and China also have disputes over undersea gas deposits in the East China Sea and Japan’s wartime history.
Ishihara previously helped to erect a lighthouse on one of the Senkaku islands, which a group of nationalists later replaced with a larger one recorded on navigation charts.
Ishihara’s comments about the disputed islands are also seen as politically motivated to discredit Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda‘s government, which is struggling to gain public support.
Related articles
- UPDATE2: Tokyo gov’t in talks with owners to buy Senkaku Islands: Ishihara (english.kyodonews.jp)
- UPDATE4: Tokyo gov’t in talks with owners to buy Senkaku Islands: Ishihara (english.kyodonews.jp)
- UPDATE3: Tokyo gov’t in talks with owners to buy Senkaku Islands: Ishihara (english.kyodonews.jp)
- Tokyo governor says city will buy disputed islands (newsinfo.inquirer.net)
- UPDATE1: Japan protests China’s possible East China Sea gas drilling (english.kyodonews.jp)
- Japan names 39 unihabited islands to cement economic zone (english.kyodonews.jp)
Forget The Election News: Keep Your Eye On Tim Geithner And The Love Trapezoid
If you can take your eyes off the primary election coverage, watch Geithner. The US is engaged in a love trapezoid. The four corners are Beijing, Tehran, Tokyo, and Washington. Treasury Secretary Geithner is the Obama Administration’s front person. Track the news for the names of the other agents.
This is a very serious time. The pieces are linked. Some bullets as you watch the news flow.
1. The US faces the pressure of follow-through on Iran sanctions. Iran is an exporter of oil to Asia. Japan is dependent on imported oil. China is not self-sufficient. One part of this trapezoidal geometry is about oil.
2. Iran is feeling the heat from sanctions. The US wants to tighten them. It cannot do so without help from Asian “friends.”
3. China and Japan are each buyers of US Treasury securities. They each help finance the American fiscal deficit and the ongoing current-account deficits. They each want to diversify their reserves. They are not sellers, but they are reluctant additional buyers. This is truer for China than for Japan, but it is true in both cases.
4. China is glacially proceeding toward world reserve-currency status. It gradually allows its currency to strengthen against the dollar. It follows a policy that is fully rational for the Beijing oligarchs. It shrugs off political threats from Washington politicians (Schumer, Graham) who love to bash China while talking to their American constituents. China understands our political processes and our weaknesses. However, China also understands “realpolitik” and uses it. They learned US use of realpolitik from Nixon and Kissinger. Expect them to smile publicly but put some very intense private heat on Geithner.
5. Japan faces enormous economic pressure and sees the yen strength as now threatening. In order to weaken the yen, it must acquire other currency holdings in large quantity. (See the Cumberland website, www.cumber.com, for G4 central bank charts, and flip to those on the Bank of Japan. You will be able to observe how Japan expanded its balance sheet several years ago and subsequently contracted it. We expect them to expand it in 2012 as they seek to arrest yen strength.)
6. Japan is negotiating with China so that it may acquire reserve debt instruments denominated in Chinese currency. Beijing likes this because it is a step toward achieving world reserve-currency status. Geithner now worries, because the trend points toward a gradual and long-term weakening of the US position, as the world’s second (China) and third (Japan) largest economies maneuver their global positions.
7. Our Asian friends know that the US election cycle creates maximum vulnerability for the United States. That also makes circumstances more dangerous and raises risk profiles. Europe is of no help to us, given its internal crises.
We recall that a three-legged stool is a stable form. A four-legged stool is less stable. A four-legged stool with a trapezoidal top is least stable. Especially when one of the legs is Iran.
Watch Geithner in Asia and the news flow. Read between the lines, since the public statements will all be scripted and self-serving. Risk is high. Also, stay overweight energy. We are.
Read more: BI
Related articles
- Forget The Election News: Keep Your Eye On Tim Geithner And The Love Trapezoid (businessinsider.com)
- The Chinese Yuan May Become A World Currency (mb50.wordpress.com)
- Tim Geithner Glitch In The Matrix Special: Will America Become Greece In Two Years – “No Risk Of That” (zerohedge.com)
- U.S. politics clash with reality over China currency (promoteliberty.wordpress.com)
- Wen calls for focus on common interests (upi.com)
President Obama Has A Plan To Tackle Oil Market Manipulation
President Obama is expected to announce a plan to tackle oil market manipulation today.
Obama will make a statement in the White House Rose Garden about the issue at 11 a.m. EDT.
The president has been criticized for doing little to curb rising gas prices. The plan would increase spending for Wall Street enforcement, at a time when Republicans are trying to curb the extent of federal financial regulations.
Obama’s $52 million plan involves strengthening federal supervision of oil markets and increasing fines for market manipulation, according to CBS News.
The plan calls for a six-fold increase in the surveillance and enforcement staff of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to better monitor and deter oil market manipulation.
It also aims to increase spending on technology to improve surveillance of energy markets, increase civil and criminal fines against firms caught engaging in market manipulation from $1 million – $10 million.
In April last year, President Obama said his attorney general had launched a task force with “Just one job: rooting out cases of fraud or manipulation in the oil markets that might affect gas prices, including any illegal activity by traders and speculators.”
Don’t Miss: How $5 Gasoline Will Change Every Aspect Of The American Economy >
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USA: Mitsubishi Inks Development Deal with Cameron LNG
Mitsubishi Corporation said it has signed a Commercial Development Agreement with Cameron LNG, a subsidiary of Sempra Energy, to liquefy approximately 4 million metric tones of natural gas at Cameron LNG terminal.
The agreement binds the parties to negotiate a 20-year tolling agreement, based on agreed-upon terms outlined in the Commercial Development Agreement. The intending tolling agreement will enable Mitsubishi Corporation to become a foundation customer of LNG produced at Cameron LNG terminal, and Mitsubishi Corporation will market them to overseas utility customers.
In recent years, due to the rapid increase of natural gas production in the United States, some LNG receiving terminals are planned to be converted to LNG export terminals by additionally building liquefaction facilities.
Cameron LNG receiving terminal in Hackberry is expected to start conversion in late 2013 with operations to commence in late 2016. The completed liquefaction facility will utilize Cameron LNG’s existing facilities, and is expected to be comprised of three liquefaction trains with a total export capability of approximately 12 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) of liquefied natural gas (LNG). In January 2012, Cameron LNG received approval from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to export up to 12 Mtpa of domestically produced LNG from the Cameron LNG terminal to all current and future Free Trade Agreement countries. The authorization to export LNG to countries with which the U.S. does not have a Free Trade Agreement is pending review by the DOE. Cameron LNG expects to receive the required permits from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and enter into a turnkey contract in 2013 for engineering and construction services for the project.
Natural gas which Mitsubishi Corporation will procure from the North American natural gas market will be processed through the Cameron LNG facility pursuant to a tolling agreement for 4 Mtpa, which LNG will then be marketed to utility customers. To secure natural gas from the market in safely and cost competitive manner, Mitsubishi Corporation will utilize expertise of independent gas marketer CIMA Energy Ltd. (headquartered in Houston, Texas) which Mitsubishi Corporation holds 34% share.
Under a situation where Japan is currently importing LNG mainly from the Middle East and Southeast Asia, LNG import from the United States will contribute to diversification of energy resources and increase flexibility of supply plan by utilizing fluid North America’s natural gas market in parallel.
Related articles
- USA: Sempra Wins DOE Approval for Cameron LNG Export (mb50.wordpress.com)
- USA: Freeport LNG to Buy Land for Gas Pretreatment Facility (mb50.wordpress.com)
- Will the US Become the World’s Largest Exporter of LNG? (appliedagrotech.net)
- USA: Cheniere, KOGAS Ink Sabine Pass LNG Deal (mb50.wordpress.com)
- USA: ETE Units File with FERC for Proposed Lake Charles Liquefaction Project (mb50.wordpress.com)
Norway: Statoil, Aker Solutions Enter USD 1.9 bln Cat B Well Intervention Deal
Statoil is awarding Aker Solutions a contract today for hiring of an entirely new type of rig which represents an important technological advance for the industry. The category B rig will be an important contribution towards increasing recovery from existing fields.
Development of technology for increasing the recovery from operating fields is an area of commitment for Statoil. For the last year, the average oil recovery rate from Statoil operated fields has risen from 49 percent to 50 percent.
The category B rig is designed and equipped for the industrialisation of drilling and intervention services in existing production wells and represent a new sort of service.
“This will be a very important part of the toolbox for increased recovery on the Norwegian continental shelf, making it possible to produce oil and gas that otherwise would be lost,” says Statoil executive vice president of Technology, Projects and Drilling, Margareth Øvrum. “The category B rig is the result of long-term, targeted technology development to increase subsea well recovery rates.”
In cooperation with the supplier industry, Statoil has developed a new type of rig and well control system specially adapted to carry out well intervention and drilling operations in existing subsea wells.
This type of rig fills the gap between light intervention vessels (category A) and conventional rigs (category C). The category B rig with associated integrated services is expected to reduce operating costs for well intervention by as much as 40%.
New technology
The category B design with integrated services is based on Aker Solutions own studies with a background in Statoil specifications. The rig type is designed for year-round well service in Statoil-operated activities.
The category B design provides the option for a number of different types of well interventions using wireline and coiled tubing operations.
This type of rig is also designed to carry out sidetrack drilling from production tubing (through tubing drilling – TTD) in a manner that allows simultaneous production from both the new sidetrack and existing production tubing. The well services are conducted through existing subsea Christmas trees.
This is an important piece of Statoil’s rig strategy, which is based on fit-for-purpose vessels and rigs for various operations.
The key to maintaining the current production level on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) is increased recovery from existing fields, along with the development of new fields. Increasing drilling activity on mature fields is important in order to achieve the NCS’ full potential.
“New and improved well service methods provide a substantial contribution to increased recovery on the NCS. Statoil currently operates around 500 subsea wells, and we need efficient tools to maintain these. Collaboration between many licences has been a precondition for establishing a long-term work programme. We therefore thank our licence partners for enabling us to realise the category B service together,” says Ivar Aasheim, senior vice president of field development in Statoil.
Statoil and the licensees will enter into an eight-year contract with options for three times two years for the category B service. The estimated value of the contract is USD 1.9 billion. In addition to rig rental, the contract also includes rental of the necessary equipment and services to carry out well intervention, sidetrack drilling, ROV operations, well testing and cementing. The rig will be in service during 2015.
Related articles
- Aker Solutions to Build Umbilical Plant in Malaysia (mb50.wordpress.com)
- Aker Solutions to Design World’s Largest Spar Platform for Statoil (mb50.wordpress.com)
- Shell Orders Subsea Connection Systems from Aker Solutions (Norway) (mb50.wordpress.com)
- Norway: NPD Supports Statoil’s New Rig Concept for Subsea Wells (mb50.wordpress.com)
- Statoil Introduces New “Cat J” Jackup Rig for Norwegian Continental Shelf + [VIDEO] (mb50.wordpress.com)
- Norway: Aker Solutions Delivers Subsea Templates for Skuld Fast-Track Development (mb50.wordpress.com)
- Ghana: Aker Solutions Signs Well Service Contract with Tullow (mb50.wordpress.com)
Continents of the World
Mb50's "Liquid Mud" Rant 