| French Protest Against Austerity and Prime Minister Valls Posted: 13 Apr 2014 08:32 PM PDT The French have taken their crusade against austerity to the streets. Organizers say 100,000 hit the streets, government officials say 25,000. The truth is likely to be somewhere in the middle, but as noted numerous times recently, prime minister Manuel Valls is in the spotlight, and not in a good way. Via translation from Les Echos: Left Take Protest in the Streets Against Austerity. Several thousand people demonstrated on Saturday against austerity and the economic plan of the government in the first step of the "Left Opposition" held since the defeat of PS in municipal elections and the arrival of prime minister Manuel Valls.
Holding placards "Let's send Vallser austerity" or "Holland's enough," the protesters marched between Republique and Nation to the call of the Left Front, the New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA), several union federations and associations .
They were 25,000 to manifest according to the prefecture of police, 100,000 according to organizers.
The leaders of the Left Front, Pierre Laurent and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, were present at the head of the procession alongside the Greek leader of the leftist SYRIZA and candidate of the European left to the President of the European Commission, Alexis Tsipras.
"This is a message sent to the government," said Jean-Luc Mélenchon, co-chairman of the Left Party, press. "There is a left in this country and it is not acceptable for Hollande to apply a right wing economic policy. "
"The message is clear, Manuel Valls begins with a first event, and this is important because it means that there is a new political sequence that opens," said his side Olivier Besancenot, the NPA, to the press.
"This is the first manifestation of the left opposition to the government," he said.
Manuel Valls has faced a sling of opposition from the left who claim Hollande's shift in its policy as too rightist.
The left requests Hollande abandon the Covenant of responsibility that provides relief loads of companies in exchange for hiring. This iconic economic measure of François Hollande is seen by its critics as a blank check to the employers.
According to a BVA poll published Saturday by Le Parisien-Aujourd'hui en France, 60% of French people doubt the ability of Manuel Valls to reduce unemployment and 56% think he will not be effective to "allow social justice. "
The European elections are on May 25. This march against austerity is an opportunity for the left to the left to make its voice heard.
After participating in a disorganized municipal elections in late March, the PCF and PG jointly launched the campaign Friday evening for polling.
"The European elections will confirm the political verdict is that people are fed up with the right wing policies of François Hollande," said Jean-Luc Mélenchon. What amazing irony. The French are fed up with the "right wing" policies of one of the biggest socialists on the planet. The French have a right to be upset, at themselves of course. They elected Hollande, and the socialists are on the verge of running France into the ground. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com |
| Ukraine Announces Full-Scale Army Operation on Pro-Russian Militants in Seized Buildings; Verge of Civil War; Russia Calls for Emergency UN Meeting Posted: 13 Apr 2014 01:15 PM PDT In what some call "crunch time" others a worst case scenario, Ukraine Announces Full-Scale Army Operation on Pro-Russian Militants in Seized Buildings. Ukraine's president says a full-scale operation involving the army will be launched in the east after pro-Russian militants seized government buildings.
Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov said he would not allow a repetition of what happened in Crimea which was annexed by Russia last month.
His live televised address from parliament came after pro-Russian forces targeted half a dozen cities.
An urgent meeting of the UN Security Council will be held in New York.
The meeting, at 20:00 New York time (midnight GMT), was called for by Moscow, which has strongly criticised Kiev's plan to use its armed forces in eastern Ukraine.
Responding to Mr Turchynov's address, a Russian foreign ministry spokesman said the plan to use the armed forces was "criminal" and caused "particular indignation".
Ukraine was, the spokesman said, "waging war against its own people".
Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen's statement on Sunday drew parallels with some aspects of last month's seizure of Crimea.
He said the "reappearance of men with specialised Russian weapons and identical uniforms without insignia, as previously worn by Russian troops during Russia's illegal and illegitimate seizure of Crimea, is a grave development".
On Saturday, armed men took over police stations and official buildings in Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Druzhkivka.
Similar accounts emerged of armed men dressed in camouflage arriving in buses in Sloviansk and Kramatorsk and storming the police stations.
BBC reporters in Sloviansk said the gunmen were well-organised and quickly established control throughout the town. Checkpoints had been set up on the main roads into the town. Troubled Areas Crunch TimeBloomberg reports 'Crunch Time' for U.S., EU as Pro-Russians Battle Ukraine Forces U.S. and European leaders trying to stop the further destabilization of Ukraine have reached "crunch time" as pro-Russian separatists and security forces shoot at each other in the town of Slovyansk, analysts said.
Envoys from Ukraine, Russia, the U.S. and European Union are due to sit down in Geneva on April 17 to look for ways to end the crisis touched off by Russia's takeover of Ukraine's Crimean region last month. Agreement may have become a more distant prospect today as camouflaged gunmen fired on government forces near Slovyansk, about 240 kilometers (150 miles) from the Russian frontier in eastern Ukraine. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk described the situation as a "worst-case scenario."
"This is crunch time for the West's response to Russia's attempts to assert its influence over eastern Ukraine," said Nicholas Spiro, founder of Spiro Sovereign Strategy. "This is supposed to be the trigger for more meaningful economic and trade sanctions against Russia. We're now going to see the extent to which the West is unified in its willingness to face down Russia." Russia Calls for Emergency UN Meeting In response to the violence and threats of further violence Russia Seeks UN Meeting. Russia called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council tonight after Ukrainian security forces battled pro-Russian gunmen in the eastern town of Slovyansk.
The Security Council session was scheduled for 8 p.m. in New York as the U.S. and Russia's allies traded accusations over who was behind the violence.
Camouflaged gunmen fired on units deployed by the government in Kiev in an anti-terror operation near Slovyansk, about 240 kilometers (150 miles) from the Russian frontier, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said today on Facebook. One serviceman was killed and five were wounded, with an unknown number of dead on the separatist side, he said.
'Worst-Case Scenario'
"Over the past few hours we've witnessed the worst-case scenario playing out in Ukraine," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who has advocated a strong response to Russia, said in an interview with Radio Zet in Warsaw.
One person was killed and nine were wounded in Slovyansk, news service Interfax reported, citing Donetsk regional Governor Serhiy Taruta. It didn't give details on who the casualties were.
Russian state-run Rossiya 24 TV said Ukrainian pro-Russian "self-defense" forces led by an Afghan War veteran had spread across Slovyansk and troops allied to the government in Kiev arrived in armored personnel carriers and by helicopter. Verge of Civil WarUnfortunately, evidence suggests Ukraine is on the verge of a civil war. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com |
| State Department Cannot Account for Billions of Contracts; It Can Account for $400,000 for Camel Statue in Pakistan Posted: 13 Apr 2014 11:35 AM PDT The state department cannot account for $6 billion in paid bills. The contracts are missing. Did the contracts even exit? If not the money was stolen. The US State Department is unable to explain how it spent billions of dollars worth of contract funds in areas throughout the world, according to a newly unveiled report by the department's internal watchdog.
The Office of Inspector General explained in a March 20 "management alert" to department leaders that approximately $6 billion has gone unaccounted for over the past six years. The note said the number of missing documents "exposes the department to significant financial risk" and is a dangerous lack of oversight.
"It creates conditions conducive to fraud, as corrupt individuals may attempt to conceal evidence of illicit behavior by omitting key documents from the contract file," the inspector general wrote. "It impairs the ability of the Department to take effective and timely action to protect is interests and, in turn, those of taxpayers." State Department to spend $400,000 for Camel Statue in PakistanMeanwhile some of the things the state department is wasting taxpayer dollars on is simply absurd. For example, please note that the State Department will Spend $400,000 for Camel Statue in Pakistan. The State Department plans to spend $400,000 in taxpayer dollars to purchase a camel statue for the new American embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan.
The sculpture by artist John Baldessari depicts a fiberglass camel staring into the eye of an oversized needle in play on a passage from the New Testament about the difficulty the wealthy have in entering heaven, BuzzFeed reported.
According to a procurement document, the 500-pound, fiberglass, aluminum, stainless-steel, acrylic and painted "Camel Contemplating a Needle" will be displayed at the new embassy compound in Islamabad, which is estimated to be fully completed by 2016.
"This artist's product is uniquely qualified," the document says. "Public art which will be presented in the new embassy should reflect the values of a predominantly Islamist country."
The department came under scrutiny in December after commissioning a $1 million sculpture to be installed at new building at the American embassy in London in 2017. The purchase was defended as a "good use" of the agency's resources. Camel Contemplating Needle  The State Department says $400,000 for that statue is a "bargain". I suggest the statue is clearly a waste of taxpayer money. Can someone even tell me how a Christian biblical reference reflects values of a predominantly Islamist country? If it doesn't, people in Pakistan will object, and the statue will be taken down. Even if the statue does reflect Islamist values, should the state department be promoting Islam or any other religion? Is the statue even religiously accurate? There are some interesting answers in a discussion on the Camel and the Eye of the Needle on the Guardian. Some suggest it's possible there is a mistranslation of similar sounding words, one meaning camel, the other rope. More likely the "needle" refers to a narrow gate in the walls of Jerusalem. One person commented ... The "Eye of the Needle" was indeed a narrow gateway into Jerusalem. Since camels were heavily loaded with goods and riders, they would need to be un-loaded in order to pass through. Therefore, the analogy is that a rich man would have to similarly unload his material possessions in order to enter heaven. Walls of JerusalemHere is an image of walking through security at the Needle Gate of the Wall of Old Jerusalem.  Religious debate aside, we waste money on absurd things. Of course with trillions of dollars sloshing around, perhaps we should be grateful that only $6 billion in contracts is missing. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com |
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