Americans have become depraved of their own understanding of the world by their media.

e·mote

1.

(esp. of an actor) portray emotion in a theatrical manner

It is so much easier to have people handled when they are easily 'moved' to emotion in an understanding an event is happening to them.

The American people don't even know whom they are relating to, but, yet they are suppose to send in the military to save the day.

When Beslan occurred, it was the rescuers that promoted deaths of children and parents, but, it was NOT the rescuers that took them hostage.

In Egypt, a young woman stood on a street corner and tweeted the end of the world was coming, little did they know it actually would. 

In Libya, a real madman was killing entire villages of people and the USA disarmed him. It was right to do, but, in the aftermath the militias, no different than in Iraq, decided they wanted nothing more of Western influence in their country. I can't imagine why. A magnificent Ambassador and his protectors died because Americans believe they can over come anything. 

In Algeria:

The infrastructure was ready. The nation was settled and prepared. People died and people lived but not because they government acted against them, but, because their government responded.

30 August 2013 Last updated at 22:50 ET

The survivors of January's siege of an Algerian (click here) gas plant still cannot believe they are alive. Forty of their colleagues died when Islamic militants took them hostage. The Algerian army opened fire on the convoy of hostages and terrorists as they broke out of the plant. It is only now that some have felt able to tell their stories.

For BP team leader Lou Fear and his wife Lori at home in the UK, the morning of 16 January 2013 began as usual with a text message from Lou. But the content was anything but normal.
It told her terrorists were roaming around - the plant was under attack. Lou was barricaded in his office with some colleagues and hiding behind a filing cabinet. The militants were just outside.
"Somebody tried the door handle and they were saying, 'Come out, come out, we're friends,' in Arabic," says Lou. "I would never have believed it would be a terrorist attack. It was incomprehensible, but it was real."...

In Tunisia:

There are talks and it is turbulent, but, it is happening. Islamists are difficult to deal with. They are not going away and neither are those that they have to deal with, so, the process will be long.

Tunisia's Islamist-led coalition (click here) has failed to agree with the opposition on how to end weeks of political deadlock, mediators said on Saturday, ahead of planned anti-government protests....

In Sudan:

OMG, there is a Southern Sudan. Did you know that? I do believe the man in the USA White House had something to do with that.

Since President Obama was elected Southern Sudan was born in January of 2011. The anger was incredible and Sudan insisted on more killing, but, it is different now. This may take awhile.

KHARTOUM/JUBA | Sun Sep 1, 2013 2:41pm EDT

(Reuters) - South Sudan's President Salva Kiir (click here) will visit Sudan on Tuesday for talks with President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, officials said on Sunday, as the long-time foes seek to avert a halt of vital cross-border oil flows. 

Diplomats hope what is only Kiir's second visit to Khartoum since South Sudan's secession in 2011 will help build trust between the neighbors, who fought one of Africa's longest civil wars that ended in 2005. 

Both countries agreed in March to defuse tensions and resume oil exports from landlocked South Sudan through the north, its only route to market.
But Sudan has threatened to halt oil flows by September 6 unless Juba cuts ties with rebels operating across the disputed and unmarked border. South Sudan denies providing them any support. 

Kiir and Foreign Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin will travel to Khartoum to discuss implementing the March agreement with Bashir, South Sudan's foreign ministry spokesman Mawien Makol Arik said....

In Syria there are more than 20 million people. 100 Thousand or more are dead in a civil war. There was a chemical weapon attack by the leader of the nation. It was legal regardless of it's horror and unthinkable deaths.

Send humanitarian aid, send rebels weapons to allow them a defense, send them gas masks, but, don't send them bombs and US soldiers, all will regret it.

We don't belong in Syria. 

We never did.

I don't think there is enough facts or any accountability in the light of the UN calling for talks in relation to Syria.

And who killed them? Rebels? But, of course, Russia could not care less about the law and the people. They are the evil empire.

Russia a nation worse than al Qaeda. But, a meeting to bring all parties to the peace table is too difficult to put together because arm wrestling with the USA military is so much more interesting.


Hundreds Die As Troops Battle Hostage Takers (click here)

By Peter Baker and Susan B. Glasser

Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, September 4, 2004; Page A01 

BESLAN, Russia, Sept. 4 -- Hundreds of children, their parents and teachers died in the bloody culmination of a 52-hour siege that began when heavily armed Muslim guerrillas stormed their school Wednesday and ended in an hours-long battle with Russian troops Friday.
The battered, burned and scorched survivors of Beslan's School No. 1, many of them half-naked children, filled the region's hospitals as troops continued to fight through the afternoon with guerrillas holed up inside the school. Twenty-seven of the fighters, described as Chechens, Russians, Ingush and Arabs, were killed, and at least three were captured, officials said....

How many belong to Assad?

Anyone that says all of them is lying.

Published: 1 Sep 2013 at 19.49
More than 110,000 people have died (click here) in the conflict in Syria since March 2011, a rights watchdog said Sunday, days after alleged gas attacks near Damascus shocked the world...

How many have been killed by Assad's forces. It is necessary to bring those numbers to reality for the United Nations.

...With regard to the magnitude of violence, more than 1,000 people have been killed to date. (click here) Coincidentally, that is the figure that many political scientists use to delineate the difference between "unrest" and "war." The issue here, however, is that nearly all of the deaths have been on the same side, the army and police killing demonstrators. Thus, what we have seen so far is not civil war so much as oppression, or simply mass killing....

Who killed who here? How many can be attributed to the Egyptian military?

Oh, no one knows. But, the USA should ride to the rescue regardless of the violence, lawlessness and death with absolutely no accountability for it. 

I here in the USA the closest most fans can get is the parking lot.

Ah, what a man. Conflict without a gun. Nothin' like it to define real manhood.

Swiss Alpine wrestlers Christian Stucki (top) fights with Martin Koch during the Federal Alpine Wrestling Festival in Burgdorf. Swiss Alpine wrestling, called "Schwingen", is the oldest sport in Switzerland. 

Dig the wrestling uniforms. Van Heusen and the latest in sweat pants, I think.

All they need now is corporate sponsors to define where everyone can buy their manhood, too. Americans are pussys. Now, this is what I call a spectator sport. There is more character strength and morality than any American can muster. "Come as you are and make it count."

Morality? You betcha. No money to sponsor and note the neck band. No fear because the opponent won't pull dirty tricks and seek to break bones. This is about physical strength and endurance and not killing and maiming.

Nationalism Trap. Who is the real American? Did you register for the Draft yet?

The claim (click here)
Ted Nugent was a draft dodger. Really.

The background 

Regarding last week’s Fact Checker sidebar, Mark Nelson of Sparks wrote, “(Fact Checker) said that since Ted registered for the draft and did not go to Canada, he is not a draft dodger. A quick Google check shows the definition of a draft dodger is someone who ‘evades compulsory military service.’ It says nothing about Canada or failure to register. By his own admission, Nugent faked symptoms and used drugs to keep from being drafted. Nugent is a draft dodger.”
The original column was more interested in whether it’s hypocrisy for someone to hold different views at age 64 than at age 18. The question of draft-dodging during the Vietnam War, when some young men were forced to serve by the government, probably wasn’t given its due....

Uncle Ted Wants You

By Jack Goldsmith
Sunday, September 1, 2013 at 7:27 AM 

(a) Authorization. (click here) — The President is authorized to use the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in connection with the use of chemical weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in the conflict in Syria in order to –

(1) prevent or deter the use or proliferation (including the transfer to terrorist groups or other state or non-state actors), within, to or from Syria, of any weapons of mass destruction, including chemical or biological weapons or components of or materials used in such weapons; or

(2) protect the United States and its allies and partners against the threat posed by such weapons.

Like I said, Obama doesn't need authorization. The USA is already at war in the region. There is nothing stopping him now or in the future. He has already lied to justify the demand for more military spending. Blood money. He'll kill more people in a month than Assad did in two years.

Congress's approval has no brevity here. None. Hagel and Obama are getting all kinds of grief from the weaning of the military. The Sky is Falling, the Sky is Falling.

Senior officials (click here) in the Obama administration said that President Obama may still decide to strike Syria even if Congress disapproves of military action, CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller tweeted Saturday. 

He is President and hears about how he is going to kill people in the USA and with allies IF he doesn't act. He hears it from the NSA, why do you think Rice is National Security Adviser. He is tired of hearing the whining. This is the MILITARY. This is the Poor Military and it's Sequester cuts.

It isn't as though they aren't getting facts, it is just that the whining and insistence has achieved a new pitch. This is all about money. It has nothing to do with national security or regional stability. A war would return the money to the military they lost with Boner. That is all this is. That and what's her name, Powers and a mission to change the paradigm of genocide. "A Dream Come True" from the USA Military Elite. 

Get over it. The USA military is a huge problem to this country.  They have got more war plans based on stupid ideas about borders and danger than any other agency on Earth. The Yemen leadership is starting to sound as if they are Musharraf when he was Pakistan's leader. Everyone is attempting to kill him if they only get a chance. Why is that?

"The Ghost of Bush/Cheney rides again, can victory be far away? 

44.9767° N, 85.6506° W

September 1, 2013
1931:41z
UNISYS Enhanced Infrared of the Midwest (click here for 12 hour loop)

Torrential rain in daylight while a shelf cloud is moving east.

There is a hard front moving from west to east. Don't underestimate it's effects. The radar may not be telling the entire story. 

The front is dense and dark and it's rain clouds are high altitude with plenty of light penetration. It isn't stopping. 

Ain't nothing like being on the ground, satellites have their limits. 

The dark clouds are moving southeast. It is still daylight as if noontime and raining hard. Everything is drenched. Satellite signals lost.

Has to be inches per hour. 

Wind has stopped, continues to rain at the same rate. Puddles forming with an inch of water. 

Emergency vehicles. 

4:37 PM 74 degrees Fahrenheit.

Tropical storm Kiko still churning in the East Pacific, began a full 40 hours ago.

No activity in the Atlantic. This time last year there were eleven named storms in the Atlantic; this year only six.

The action is shifted to the East Pacific along with the lack of Jet Stream involvement. There are more storms in the East Pacific this year than last. The air masses are driving Central America tropical water vapor westward. 

The rain is slowing and the sunlight has not changed.

The climate is changing and the hurricane season with it. The storms have spawned in higher turbulence with the return trip of Sol south after it's northern peak, however, the season is growing later because the water vapor needs to cool and condense in order to organize in the Atlantic.

There could be a repeat of a Superstorm in the Atlantic, but, I doubt it will be normal.

Lake effect clouds are coming over the hill with a very low cloud ceiling settling in, not enough density to block the sun, but, the rain continues. The lake effect off the bay is moving slowly from north to south. 

There are some densities at the Eastern Antilles, the question is will it consolidate a rotation or simply dissipate. It is the same place where Sandy started. 

See, at this point Earth has a real affinity for NEAR SHORE AEROSOLED WATER VAPOR. If there is going to be an accumulation it will mostly likely start there and continue to build. The trip from Africa is proving to be too long a journey for sustained winds at this point. The open ocean's water vapor is unavailable to sustain velocity. 

Rain stopped, light and cloud static and 1.25 inches in puddles. 

Miniature sunflower crop still standing as if the rain never occurred. 

Darker clouds now from the bay with a border to the system noted and sunlight the other side of the border unobstructed by clouds. Darker cloud noted to have minor mesotornadic composition. 

Satellite signal returned. 

5:06 PM Temperature 70 Fahrenheit''

More light colored clouds coming off the bay.

end.

The USA's Capitalistic Economy has become corrupted and immoral. Everything I cite here is proof.

Now, I should be called a communist and socialist, but, that is not the case. Capitalism as practiced in the USA is proof of it's follies. 

In the case of Smithfield's Foods it is plainly obvious; the small family farms were destroyed and corporate EFFICIENCY has created a monster that now kills it's own product. That is true across the USA when it comes to Agribusiness. At one time the agricultural industry in the USA wasn't an industry at all, it was 75% owned by families across this country. They were and in some cases still are wonderful people. We, as a country, would celebrate them at County Fairs where 4-H projects would bring top dollar in testament of excellent farming practices. It was the day of the Farm Cooperative, the Farm Agent and all that was possible to preserve soil health, air and water quality. The USDA celebrated with an annual yearbook; a coffee table book of our agricultural community. It was the day of romantic affection for all that was the USA.

That is primarily gone now and what is left is Monsanto and Smithfield's and dead cattle on droughted plains with empty slaughterhouses except for predatory horse slaughtering. I don't call that at all moral and most certainly is nothing but corrupted.

In the case of the Pacific Ocean Fisheries, the canneries were all along the Western Coast of the USA and full to the brim. There were single family fisherman out on the waters and not corporate seine nets hauling in enormous number of fish and endangered species besides. It was easier when a single set of fisherman from a single family pulled in a turtle or dolphin; it was bycatch no one wanted to sell and they would immediately return it to the sea. The catch is very different with single family fishermen/women. They, like the small family farm, took care of their fisheries. If I am not mistaken there is still crab pots owned by a single family in North Carolina near or at the Outer Banks. They have had those waterways for a very long time and they never cease to disappoint them every year. 

Now, we are left with overfishing of decades and collapsed breeding stock. The endangered species of Marine Mammals can't even recover as their young are now dying for lack of food and desperate attempts to become adults and worthy of life. They don't understand they are good hunters, but, for the human exploitation of their habitat.

The USA and it's Wall Street has become perverted. It is linked with fewer and fewer corporations seeking higher and higher profits without regard to what actually made and can make the USA economy vibrant. As a result the citizens are left with deciding what is worthy of life and what is not. Female is no longer demure and romantic; it is anything goes as young girls become pregnant for a lack of self-worth or a clear value of their lives outside their sexual assets while college educations on the horizon become more and more dim, so why not get what you can while you are young? 

Young men in our culture are measured by strength, endurance and extremism and not the worth of a father and a husband, a son or a grandson. They are expected to be hideously masculine and outwardly vial in acts of killing without purpose. 

And the identity of the USA is one of nothing but perversion. It is the Superpower that can leap from any tall building in a single bound. It can kill at will without a global consensus to the outcome that leaves nations running for their lives be they ally or foe.

Why, indeed, would someone seek to kill a Bald Eagle and display it as a meal for a national holiday? If the country has become this perverted, why not the people?

Just in time for Labor Day Barbeque, too.

KOLR10 News

08/30 09:41 AM

LEBANON, Mo. -- Conservation agents in Laclede County (click here) are asking members of the public for any information they may have about the death of a federally protected American Bald Eagle found shot near Lebanon early Sunday.

Missouri Conservation Department agent Jarrad Milligan said the mature male bird, weighing 6 to 8 pounds and with a wingspan of 6 to 7 feet, is likely one that has been spotted in the area before and was one several birds now living in the region.

"We have four active nests in Laclede County along the rivers that we are watching," he said.

The bird was found dead on Emerson Road by Lebanon resident Pete Doughty, who also has a part-time business doing catch and release of nuisance wildlife. He called Milligan, who took the animal. It is being held as evidence, Milligan said.

"No person is allowed to possess any part of an American Bald Eagle, dead or alive, in Missouri unless they have a permit," he said. Possession is against both state and federal law. Zoos and animal sanctuaries may have the permits, but few others.

Learning who is responsible for the shooting will likely depend on citizens providing leads to the agents, Milligan said, and he encouraged anyone who has information to contact him or his partner at the Laclede County office - (417) 288-8744 - or call the hotline for Operation Game Thief, 1-800-392-1111.

The bald eagle will continue (click here) to be protected by the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act even though it has been delisted under the Endangered Species Act. This law, originally passed in 1940, provides for the protection of the bald eagle and the golden eagle (as amended in 1962) by prohibiting the take, possession, sale, purchase, barter, offer to sell, purchase or barter, transport, export or import, of any bald or golden eagle, alive or dead, including any part, nest, or egg, unless allowed by permit (16 U.S.C. 668(a); 50 CFR 22) "Take" includes pursue, shoot, shoot at, poison, wound, kill, capture, trap, collect, molest or disturb (16 U.S.C. 668c; 50 CFR 22.3). The 1972 amendments increased civil penalties for violating provisions of the Act to a maximum fine of $5,000 or one year imprisonment with $10,000 or not more than two years in prison for a second conviction. Felony convictions carry a maximum fine of $250,000 or two years of imprisonment. The fine doubles for an organization. Rewards are provided for information leading to arrest and conviction for violation of the Act.

We saved the California Condor so the NRA could kill it.

by Alicia Graef
August 30, 2013
 
The National Rifle Association (NRA) (click here) is in the spotlight again, this time for its latest efforts to fight against a ban on lead ammunition in California. According to conservation groups, this ban will protect California condors and other wild animals from lead poisoning.
When hunters use lead ammunition and leave carcasses or gut piles that contain lead shot pellets or bullet fragments, scavengers who eat what’s left can end up with lead poisoning, causing sickness and death.
Assembly Bill 711 would ban lead ammunition in the state, in addition to providing non-lead bullets to hunters free or at a low cost. If it passes, California will be the first state to require a switch to non-lead alternatives, such as copper or bismuth.
While some hunters are supportive of the ban and are switching voluntarily, the NRA is fighting it and has launched huntfortruth.org, a website intended to debunk scientific studies concerning the adverse effects of lead ammunition on people and wildlife and has named a number of conservation organizations and zoos on its list of enemies.
The organization’s bigger fear seems to be that this is just another step in the fight to ban hunting altogether, even though supporters of the ban continuously point out that isn’t the case and that this is an issue about protecting wildlife. The NRA used the same anti-hunting argument when it fought the issue back in 1991 when the Environmental Protection Agency banned lead ammunition for hunting waterfowl, but the organization’s paranoia was as unfounded then as it is now....

Dolphins on the East Coast and Seals on the West

It doesn't look as though endangered and threatened species will be recovering any time soon.

Sea lions come to Point Bennett each year to breed and birth pups. They’re joined on the island by northern fur seals, the darker mammals in clumps. (Nadia Drake/WIRED)

California sea lions, like all marine mammals, are protected under the MMPA. Endangered Status (click here) 

By Nadia Drake 
08.16.13
9:30 AM

 SAN MIGUEL ISLAND, Calif. – It’s late June, and San Miguel Island’s white sand beaches are filled with barking sea lions. More than 100,000 of them. The marine mammals have come to this windy, remote island to breed and give birth – a rowdy, stinky summer extravaganza that last year, enigmatically, ended in disaster.
 When the sea lions converged on this most westerly of southern California’s Channel Islands in May 2012, as they do every spring, there was no hint of anything amiss. A year later, thousands of pups – perhaps as many as 70 percent of the newborns – were dead. The struggle to survive led desperate pups from their sandy nursery into the churning, dangerous sea, long before they were ready.
Between January and June, five rescue centers along the southern California coast, from Santa Barbara to San Diego, took in more than 1,500 stranded pups – five times more than normal....


By Jim Haw
July 1, 2013

By Katie Lee

Recently, (click here) the New York Times Green Blog described how two major Southern California fisheries (kelp and barred sand bass) had collapsed “right under the noses of management agencies.” The management and oversight of these fish stocks had not changed since 1959. This news is perhaps not surprising as there are more examples of marine species collapses off our coastline than possible to list in this blog post.
Though the media tends to focus on the effects of pollution, climate change, or overfishing, outdated systems of management are actually the main cause of the collapse in many cases....

...Though these two fisheries are now managed with the future of the fish populations in mind, and the government and fishermen appear to have learned from the past, there are still countless fisheries off of Southern California that have collapsed, even within the past few years. Many people blame this surprising decline on something called “hyperstability.” It’s a phenomenon where a high catch rate masks a decline in actual population of fish because the fish tend to spawn and congregate in large masses, giving an “illusion of plenty” (UC San Diego 2011). Though the fisheries are now required to tightly monitor the stock of fishes, because the fish congregate in large masses in certain places, their data is always too high a number.
The persistent over-fishing and consistently high catch rates are what lead to the collapse, in addition to the gradual warming of the water since 1980. If we want to preserve the ocean’s beauty and continue to eat sushi, fisheries need to not rely purely on catch rates to determine fish population level, both in Southern California and the rest of the world....

Just in time for China to purchase Smithfield. Somehow, it is befitting for China to own the lousy corporate pig farms.

Don Webb poses near a creek that has been contaminated by waste from a nearby hog farm Sunday, July 7, 2013, near Stantonburg. Webb is one of 588 people who recently filed nuisance complaints about against Smithfield Foods. The residents argue that hog farm odors and pollution make it impossible for them to enjoy their homes, creating the basis for nuisance complaints. Their suits come at a time when the General Assembly proposes to change the law to prohibit any newcomers to hog farm neighborhoods from filing nuisance suits. An amendment introduced in a senate committee meeting also would make it so neighbors who lose in court would have to pay the legal bills of the corporate farms.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/07/07/3015749/hundreds-file-suits-over-hog-farm.html#storylink=cpy

Hundreds file complaints over hog-farm waste (click here)

Published: July 7, 2013 

By Joseph Neff — jneff@newsobserver.com

 

Nearly 600 residents of Eastern North Carolina have notified Smithfield Foods that they plan to file lawsuits charging that stench, flies and pollution from the world’s largest pork producer have deprived them of the use and enjoyment of their property.
The 588 complaints, known as “farm nuisance disputes,” were filed in the Wake County Courthouse on Wednesday. The filings complain about the storage of hog waste in lagoons and the spraying of liquid manure on adjoining land.
The complaints were filed as the North Carolina General Assembly contemplates changes in the law governing agricultural and forestry nuisance complaints. The state House and Senate have each passed bills tweaking the way farm nuisance complaints are handled. The Senate version, however, contains a clause requiring complainants who lose in court to pay the legal costs incurred by the farmer who defends a suit....

Update: North Carolina officials (click here) have filed six cruelty-to-animals charges against one of the individuals documented dragging and beating pigs and abusing them in other ways in a 2007 PETA undercover investigation of a sow farm. He is suspected to have fled the country. Charges are pending against a second man who has apparently fled the state.
Video footage obtained in the investigation revealed horrific cruelty to mother pigs and their piglets on a farm owned by Murphy Family Ventures, LLC, which supplies the largest pig-killing company in the world, Smithfield Foods.
In addition to the confinement of mother pigs to cruel "gestation crates" so small that the animals can't even turn around or lie down comfortably, the following cruelty was documented at Smithfield supplier Murphy Family Ventures, LLC:...

Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv) has been identified in Wisconsin. The virus is especially fatal to young pigs, with a death rate of nearly 100 percent.

August 6, 2013

WASHINGTON - A new pig virus (click here) that has killed thousands of piglets is spreading across the country and has reached North Carolina from the Midwest states. Agricultural officials say efforts are under way to keep the virus out of Virginia.
"We are not aware of any cases of it in Virginia. Now, it is a highly contagious disease so there is always a chance that we could get it," says Elaine Lidholm, director of communications for the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
The virus, known as porcine epidemic diarrhea virus or PEDV, does not pose a risk to humans or to food safety and has mainly killed nursing piglets.
If the virus enters Virginia, Lidholm says it shouldn't have as big an impact as it's had in states with major swine farrowing or birthing operations, such as those in North Carolina.
"North Carolina … has a lot of farrowing operations where they are birthing the pigs there on the farm," Lidholm says. "For the most part, we take the pigs at about 40 pounds and raise them to market weight."
Lidholm says an easy way for the virus to spread would be through any combined farming operations in North Carolina and Virginia, and she says there are many such operations on the border between the states.... 
 
05 August 2013
GLOBAL - The number of sows kept in stalls (click here) throughout gestation globally is declining as Smithfield Farms confirmed its commitment to phase out this form of housing in the last week. The company has also released a video for consumers, showing sows kept in group-housing systems for most of their pregnancy. Thirteen EU states are now fully compliant with the sow stall ban. Research continues into the cause and spread of the piglet diarrhoea virus, which now affects farms in 16 US states.
Consumer concerns have prompted a large hog operation in Utah, Circle Four Farms, and 459 other farms operated by the world’s largest pork supplier to phase out sow gestation stalls, it has been reported in the last week.
Officials from the parent company, Smithfield Foods, said the company made the decision "based on input from its customers". When completed in 2017, it is estimated that the US conversion will cost about $300 million.
Smithfield's international hog operations will complete conversions to group housing on company-owned farms by 2022.
In other related news from the company, Smithfield Foods has released a video aimed at consumers about group-housing systems for sows....

August 26, 2013
Investors considering a purchase (click here) of Smithfield Foods SFD +0.03%, Inc. (NYSE: SFD) stock, but cautious about paying the going market price of $33.50/share, might benefit from considering selling puts among the alternative strategies at their disposal. One interesting put contract in particular, is the January 2014 put at the $30 strike, which has a bid at the time of this writing of 35 cents. Collecting that bid as the premium represents a 1.2% return against the $30 commitment, or a 2.9% annualized rate of return (at Stock Options Channel we call this the YieldBoost)....

August 20, 2013
WASHINGTON -- The $4.7 billion purchase (click here) of Smithfield Foods by Chinese meat processor Shuanghui International Holdings could move a step closer to completion when shareholders of the world's largest pork processor and hog producer vote on the merger next month.
Smithfield said Tuesday it will hold a shareholders' meeting on Sept. 24 to vote on the transaction with Shuanghui that was announced by the two companies in late May. Smithfield said its board of directors recommended that shareholders vote in favor of the deal....

 01/05/2009
...The boy survived, (click here) but following his illness, around 800 people in his tiny town, La Gloria, southwest Mexico, also fell ill with a mysterious flu. What we also know, is that a few miles down the road lies "Granjas Carroll", an enormous hog producer, majority-owned by multinational Smithfield Foods, and the United States's biggest pork supplier. The factory has long been the target of protests by locals, who have complained of contamination for over half a decade. Now, they're making the link between the pollution which comes from the farm and the origins of influenza A (H1N1).... 

When NAFTA went into effect in 1994, (click here) there were many investment incentives for companies like Smithfield Foods to relocate operations there. Thus, Smithfield established the Perote operations with the Mexican agrobusiness AMSA (Agroindustrias Unidas de México S.A. de C.V.). In 1999 it bought the U.S. company Carroll’s Foods for $500 million and began rapid expansion of its operations in Perote.In this "race to the bottom", companies like Smithfield had their operations based in areas (most notably outside the U.S) so that they would deal with lower levels of environmental and health restrictions. 

"The waste is for the Mexicans, the meat for the Americans"- Smithfield's Impact on the People of La Gloria

While Mexico might complain about disease from Smithfield's, little is ever stated about the poor quality of life of their American employees. Sullivan County, Missouri is owned and operated by Smithfield's as the exclusive employer to the county. The quality of life in Sullivan County is not only poor it is some of the worst the USA has to offer with high teen pregnancy rates, alcoholism and increases in violent crimes.

Sincerely, this is the Wall Street influence in the USA.

Background (click here)

...Sullivan County is a rural county located in the northcentral portion of the state. The population is approximately 7,000, with the majority of residents living in the country. The town of Milan is the

county seat and is home to approximately 2,000 people. Sullivan County is an agriculture and industry based community. Smithfield Farms is the largest private employer in Sullivan County...

... The average annual salary in Sullivan County (Kids Count 2005) was $27,805 compared with a state average of $34,356. These figures vary little from 2002. Unemployment in Sullivan County was 6.1 compared to the state of Missouri’s average of 5.4. There were approximately 3,500 people in the workforce in 2000. Of those, 2,300 commuted alone, 136 walked, and 220 worked at home. 1,900 of the workers held an occupation is production and manufacturing. Smithfield Farms, formerly known as Premium Standard Farms, empl oys a majority of this population. Sullivan County had over 1,100 and 23% of the children under the poverty line in 2000....

... When compared to the state for maternal and child health indicators (Kids Count 2005, MICA), Sullivan County is higher than the state rate for percent of births to mothers without a high school diploma (SC = 40.2, MO = 18.6), births to teens (SC = 77.3, MO = 43.4), and children who are on

Medicaid (SC =48.3, MO = 41.1; seven days, GC = 42.7, MO = 26.2)...

...The mortality rate in 2005 for Sullivan County for heart disease was significantly higher than the state of Missouri. Heart disease accounted for 30% of the total deaths in Sullivan County and the trend shows it to be increasing... 

By Philip Walzer
The Virginian-Pilot
July 30, 2013

A Smithfield Foods Inc. shareholder (click here) has sued the pork company, saying it hasn't provided stockholders "adequate value" or sufficient information in its plan to be acquired by Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd.
The suit, filed by Florida resident David Payne in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, said Smithfield has breached its fiduciary duty to shareholders. It asks that the deal be blocked or, if it isn't, that shareholders receive unspecified damages.
The $7.1 billion takeover would be the largest of a U.S. company by a Chinese business. It must be approved by U.S. regulators and the company's shareholders....

Source: The Virginian-Pilot
Published July 11, 2003

Source: The Virginian-Pilot
Published July 11, 2003 - See more at: http://www.iatp.org/news/smithfield-packing-settles-lawsuit#sthash.xwFOWNTP.dpuf

A lawsuit filed by a former Smithfield Packing Co. saleswoman (click here) against the meatpacker has been settled on the eve of trial this week. The terms were not disclosed. The former employee, Julie M. Bannister, claimed in the $18 million suit that the company tried to force her to take a lie-detector test after she filed a sexual-harassment complaint. She also claimed she was defamed by a supervisor. Papers filed in U.S. District Court June 24 say that the case was settled, but no details were provided....

the eve of trial this week.\r\n\r\nThe terms were not disclosed. \r\n\r\nThe former employee, Julie M. Bannister, claimed in the $18 million suit that the company tried to force her to take a lie-detector test after she filed a sexual-harassment complaint. She also claimed she was defamed by a supervisor.\r\n\r\nPapers filed in U.S. District Court June 24 say that the case was settled, but no details were provided. The trial was set to open this week.\r\n\r\nLawyers for both sides declined to comment, and Bannister could not be located. She was last known to be living in Missouri.\r\n\r\nSmithfield Packing, based in Smithfield and the largest subsidiary of Smithfield Foods Inc., produces Smithfield Premium and Lean Generation pork, among other products.\r\n\r\nBannister sold pork products to retailers and distributors between 1998 and May 30, 2002, when she was dismissed, according to the lawsuit. The company said in court papers that Bannister was fired for disrupting the sales floor by gossiping about alleged sexual affairs among company executives. - See more at: http://www.iatp.org/news/smithfield-packing-settles-lawsuit#sthash.xwFOWNTP.dpuf

A lawsuit filed by a former Smithfield Packing Co. saleswoman against the meatpacker has been settled on the eve of trial this week.\r\n\r\nThe terms were not disclosed. \r\n\r\nThe former employee, Julie M. Bannister, claimed in the $18 million suit that the company tried to force her to take a lie-detector test after she filed a sexual-harassment complaint. - See more at: http://www.iatp.org/news/smithfield-packing-settles-lawsuit#sthash.xwFOWNTP.dpuf

March 1, 2003
Washington - The U.S. Justice Department (click here) on Friday sued Smithfield Foods Inc. (SFD.N), alleging the company failed to properly notify antitrust enforcers about stock purchases it made during its attempts to buy rival IBP Inc. in 2000.
The department's antitrust division contends in its lawsuit that Smithfield violated merger notification rules on two occasions. It said it is seeking penalties of more than $5.4 million.
Smithfield, the world's largest pork producer, had no immediate comment on the lawsuit.
After a brief bidding war, IBP in January 2001 passed up Smithfield's bid in favor of a competing, $2.9 billion offer from Tyson Foods Inc....

Problem

Over the past decade, (click here) the number of hog producers in the state of North Carolina has fallen from 23,000 to 8,000, but the number of hogs in the state has nearly tripled. Large hog farming corporations have come into N.C. and have bought out smaller family farms, or have integrated with the smaller farms by providing hogs and materials in exchange for the use of the farmer's land. In this time, a population of 7 million hogs has invaded and taken over the land and lives of residents living in the one time tobacco capital of the state....

A lawsuit filed by a former Smithfield Packing Co. saleswoman against the meatpacker has been settled on the eve of trial this week.\r\n\r\nThe terms were not disclosed. \r\n\r\nThe former employee, Julie M. Bannister, claimed in the $18 million suit that the company tried to force her to take a lie-detector test after she filed a sexual-harassment complaint. - See more at: http://www.iatp.org/news/smithfield-packing-settles-lawsuit#sthash.xwFOWNTP.dpuf

A lawsuit filed by a former Smithfield Packing Co. saleswoman against the meatpacker has been settled on the eve of trial this week.\r\n\r\nThe terms were not disclosed. \r\n\r\nThe former employee, Julie M. Bannister, claimed in the $18 million suit that the company tried to force her to take a lie-detector test after she filed a sexual-harassment complaint. - See more at: http://www.iatp.org/news/smithfield-packing-settles-lawsuit#sthash.xwFOWNTP.dpuf

Fracking destroys federally protected species.

The species is part of a food chain. They are consumed by birds and other wildlife. Over predation was never an issue; a female spawns over 1500 eggs at a time. It is human pollution that originally was killing them and this is just about as pathetic as it comes. Thank Dick Cheney for this idiocy.

5:23 pm

Wed August 28, 2013

A joint study (click here) by the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is pointing to natural gas fracking as the cause of widespread death of fish in an Eastern Kentucky stream.

The report found that hydraulic fracturing fluids—which are used to help extract the gas from the ground—spilled from a natural gas well site near Acorn Fork in 2007. After that, scientists saw a sharp decline in aquatic life in the stream. One of the species affected—the Blackside dace—is federally threatened....

“One particular area immediately downstream of one well (click here) had conductivities, which is a measure of dissolved minerals and salts in the water, more like what you’d find in seawater. Now in those areas, you can imagine, there wasn’t much living there.” –Anthony Velasco

Just in case there is any doubt.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR (click here)

Fish and Wildlife Service

[FWS–R4–ES–2008–N0183; 40120–1113–0000–C4]

Endangered and Threatened Wildlife

and Plants; 5-Year Status Review of 20

Southeastern Species

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION:Notice. 

SUMMARY:

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Service (Service) is initiating 5-year

status reviews of the slender chub(Erimystax cahni), blackside dace(Phoxinus cumberlandensis), vermillion

darter (Etheostoma chermocki),...