Monday, April 27, 2015

Google Cofounder and CEO who is worth $30 BILLION dollars : “Massive unemployment is coming. The computers will take your job and there is NOTHING you can do about it”

When Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin formed the company in 1998, they sought to package all the information on the internet into an index that’s simple to use.
Today, Google is much more than a search engine. The company appears to be involved in every type of new technology ranging from self-driving cars to contact lenses that can test for disease.
In a recent interview with the Financial Times, CEO Larry Page provided some insight as to why the company has decided to take on so many different tasks.
Part of the reason is because Page believes there’s this inevitable shift coming in which computers will be much better-suited to take on most jobs.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/google-ceo-larry-page-computers-taking-jobs-2014-10#ixzz3YUvuyhOu
Not just low-wage jobs, either…
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — THE machine hums along, quietly scanning the slides, generating Pap smear diagnostics, just the way a college-educated, well-compensated lab technician might.
A robot with emotion-detection software interviews visitors to the United States at the border. In field tests, this eerily named “embodied avatar kiosk” does much better than humans in catching those with invalid documentation. Emotional-processing software has gotten so good that ad companies are looking into “mood-targeted” advertising, and the government of Dubai wants to use it to scan all its closed-circuit TV feeds.
Yes, the machines are getting smarter, and they’re coming for more and more jobs.
Not just low-wage jobs, either.
Today, machines can process regular spoken language and not only recognize human faces, but also read their expressions. They can classify personality types, and have started being able to carry out conversations with appropriate emotional tenor.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/19/opinion/sunday/the-machines-are-coming.html?_r=0

TTIP and TPP Signal the Rise of the One World Government

(Jay Johnson)  In his book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins pulls back the curtain to reveal how exactly the globalization machinery works. The signing of the TTIP and TPP treaties create the framework for a one world government.
Gone are the days of freedom and democracy as the American oligarchy have created the conditions for the rise of worldwide corporatocracy.
According to some academics, the world is in the third stage of globalization. In a lecture presented at Auburn University, the first stage of globalization was the discovery and subsequent colonization of foreign lands, mostly by Europeans in the 1400s and continuing forward. The second stage occurred somewhere after the invention of the steam engine and the railroads. The third stage began after the marriage of cheap computers and public internet, somewhere in the mid 1990s. With this in mind, as globalization has progressed, a similar trend has been occurring simultaneously in the political/business world.
As people slowly changed from recognizing and fighting for local principalities, to the rise of the nation state and now to the supranational state via the creation of monetary unions like the EU or military blocs, such as NATO, the net effect is that borders have been destroyed and once distinct cultures have merged or are merging.
Everything everywhere is slowing becoming homogenized and standardized. Want to watch the new Avengers movie? It’s coming soon to a movie theater to you! (in a language you speak) Thirsty? Have a Coke! (it’s sold in the same standardized units worldwide) Need some military training or weapons? America can provide the best trainers or weapons money can buy.
In his book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins pulls back the curtain to reveal how exactly the globalization machinery works. The people working behind the scenes do so mostly in secret and work for mostly boring names with lots of acronyms.
In an interview with monthlyreview.org, John Perkins said:
“They inhabit a stateless global archipelago of privilege — a collection of private schools, tax havens, and gated residential communities with little or no connection to the outside world. They are people to whom nations are as meaningless as they are to the global corporations and to the international aristocracy they serve.”
He went on to say: “The system of contemporary capitalist globalization operates for the exclusive benefit of a global plutocracy that has no national boundaries or loyalties. Oligarchy, (an interesting word that in western media is usually used as a propaganda technique to distinguish the “us vs them” paradigm), has been applied exclusively to the modern-day capitalist barons of Russia, is no less real in the triad of the United States, Japan, and Europe.”
Think of the Rockefeller family in America or the Rothschild family in Europe.
In fact, a Washington Times headline cited a Princeton university study in the headline: “America is an oligarchy, not a democracy or republic.” That article went on to note: “The U.S. government now represents the rich and powerful, not the average citizen.”Leaders_of_TPP_member_states
An interesting thing in that study noted: “When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organized interests, they generally lose.”
So, here is where the TTIP and the TTP come in. TTIP, which stands for Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTP, Trans-Pacific Partnership, are regional trade and investment treaties. This doesn’t sound too bad, right? Trade and business are, in theory, enough to bring countries together, thus preventing war.
As a quick reminder, here are all of the countries involved so far — TTIP: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom.



However, to look at it another way, Wikipedia notes: “The United States and European Union together represent 60% of global GDP, 33% of world trade in goods and 42% of world trade in services. A free trade area between the two would represent potentially the largest regional free-trade agreement in history, covering 46% of world GDP.”
TTP covers- Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam.
The Washington Post notes: “(Pacific Rim countries) are responsible for 40 percent of the world’s GDP and 26 percent of the world’s trade.  Putting this all together, one can clearly see that by passing these treaties, America becomes the center of the world, so to speak. So, what’s so wrong with that, some might say?
A recent story in the New York Times noted-“(the treaties) are a blatant attack on labor, farmers, food safety, public health and even national sovereignty.” But, how can that be?  Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, the Senate’s No. 3 Democrat said- “This is really troubling,” It seems to indicate that savvy, deep-pocketed foreign conglomerates could challenge a broad range of laws we pass at every level of government, such as made-in-America laws or anti-tobacco laws.”
The New York Times continued by saying- “the public has no access to its contents, and even members of Congress don’t know much. (On the other hand, “cleared advisers,” mostly corporate lawyers, have full access.” See, that’s how they roll. Doing deals in the dead of the night, behind closed doors.
As further proof of the secrecy surrounding this deal, United States Senator Ron Wyden wrote:
“The majority of Congress is being kept in the dark as to the substance of the TPP negotiations, while representatives of U.S. corporations—like Halliburton, Chevron, PHRMA, Comcast, and the Motion Picture Association of America—are being consulted and made privy to details of the agreement. […] More than two months after receiving the proper security credentials, my staff is still barred from viewing the details of the proposals that USTR is advancing. We hear that the process by which TPP is being negotiated has been a model of transparency. I disagree with that statement.”
Pretty amazing, right? Even a US Senator isn’t allowed to read some of the “finer print”.
We do know a little bit though. For instance, On March 26, 2015 WikiLeaks released the TPP’s Investment Chapter, which noted: “the accord would grant the power to global corporations to sue governments in tribunals organized by the World Bank or the United Nations to obtain taxpayer compensation for loss of expected future profits due to government actions.”
Basically, corporations will be able to force anyone opposing them to do whatever they, in a backroom deal. The New York Times summed this up by writing: “The TPP is little more than enhanced corporation power branded as free trade. It gives corporations the right to challenge government regulations and seek compensation if they think they’ve been treated unfairly by any of the 12 Pacific Rim nations in the deal.”
The New York Times noted: “The agreement would even allow countries to challenge one another’s laws, so that “equivalency” may simply mean that the least powerful regulations become the norm. The United States would have no special standing: If our laws are seen as restraining trade or limiting profits, they could be challenged in special courts, per the TPP’s “investor state” clause. Philip Morris is suing Uruguay over that country’s antismoking laws under just such circumstances”.
Making matters even complicated, a bill was recently introduced that would give the US President Barak Obama “fast-track authority” regarding the TPP. If it passes, Congress could vote only up or down on the deal, not amend it. That means that it can’t be changed, only agreed upon or not. Which probably means that corporate lobbyists are working overtime now, in an attempt to line up the votes. If it was such a good deal for the people, why all of the secrecy? Why all of the need to rush it through Congress without an open debate?
To quote George Orwell’s 1984- “There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always — do not forget this, Winston — always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever.” And that, dear listeners, is the future if these treaties are passed. Think of it like this- the entire world will be literally changed forever by the stroke of a pen if Obama signs the trade treaties. Corporations will win, and the little guy will lose, forever. With these treaties, the world is  moving towards the final stage of globalization — away from “democracy” to “corporatocracy”.
So, what do you think dear listeners, does the TIPP and TPP signal the rise of the one world government?

After Bee Die-Off, Chinese Apple Farmers Resort to Hand-Pollination

(Stuart Liess)  Bees are dying in droves, with serious consequences for our farmers, which rely on the furry yellow workers to deliver the pollen that allows their food crops to produce fruit. In China, farmers have already experienced what it’s like to farm without bees—and it’s no easy feat.
Studies abound that document the problem of bee decline around the world. For example, the rusty patched bumble bee, an important pollinator of wildflowers, cranberries, blueberries, and apples, was once abundant throughout the United States, but it is now threatened with extinction, according to Xerces, a nonprofit conservation group.
It appears to be getting worse too since the problem first became apparent in the 1980s. Nearly one quarter of the honeybee population in the U.S. died over the winter of 2013/2014 according to a report made by a collaboration between the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Apiary Inspectors of America, and the Bee Informed Partnership. A recent assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature recorded that throughout Europe one in ten bee species are facing extinction.
Reasons for the decline, often dubbed “colony collapse disorder,” are many, but look to be largely of our own making. They include new and potentially bee-harming pathogens and parasites, a lack of bee nutrition due to a reduction in available pollen sources, and the harmful effects of toxic pesticides sprayed on crops and ingested by bees, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
While the problem exists worldwide, nowhere is it more poignant than in China’s mountainous Maoxian region, in Sichuan province, where farmers were forced to pollinate their apple orchards by hand after experiencing the loss of their entire wild bee population.

Bee Work

The pollination of apples in Maoxian has to be completed within five days in order for the trees to bear fruit—so every year thousands of villagers arrive for the arduous task of meticulously pollinating every single blossom by hand, according to Dave Goulson, writing for chinadialogue, an independent non-profit with offices in London and Beijing.
Using homemade pollination sticks made from chicken feathers and cigarette filters dipped into plastic bottles filled with pollen, a single person can pollinate five to ten trees in a day. Children also participate by climbing the trees to reach the higher branches.
The population of Maoxian is around 91,200, with a 6,437-hectare growing area approximately three times the size of Manhattan Island, New York.
Apple production in the Maoxian valley began in 1946 with 400 trees. By the 1980s, the region boasted over 200,000 trees and apples were the county’s leading cash crop.
By 1998 Maoxian had reached it’s peak, producing 30,000 tonnes a year with a total value of 40 million yuan (USD $6.4 million).
Along with the valley’s growing commercial success came an increase in the use of pesticides, which steadily took over the more traditional organic methods of fertilization, beginning in the 1970s.
The Maoxian apples, known as “maowen apples,” became famous throughout China and beyond, with their renown reaching as far as Russia and parts of Southeast Asia.
However, by 1990, a 50 percent decline in overall productivity was attributed to the mysterious bee loss phenomena.

End of An Industry

As part of its investigation into the reasons for bee declines globally, the nonprofit BioProfit went to China in 2001 to investigate the loss of bees in Sichuan valley.
While they were unable to confirm the exact cause of the disappearance, researchers attributed it to a combination of several factors.
According to numerous findings, pesticide use has been a major factor in cases throughout the world contributing to the decline in bees. Another major factor in Sichuan region was over-extensive farming contributing to a loss in natural bee habitat.



At one point, commercial bees were introduced into the area to fill in for the indigenous bees, but due to the overuse of pesticides, they all died, according to BioProfit.
Another factor that plays a role in fruit farming is that of pollinizer trees, which are typically mixed in with the orchard. They produce pollen, which gives the bees a source with which to fertilize the rest of the fruit.
A typical example would be the crabapple. Scientists recommend for a successful apple crop, there should be 25 percent to 33 percent crabapple trees mixed in with the commercial crop.
The Maoxin farmers typically planted less than 10 percent crabapple trees, as they didn’t think it would be commercially viable to have more due to the small land-holding size each farmer owned.
Temperatures and changing weather conditions also likely played a role. The farmers regularly reported fluctuations in the weather, characterized by quick temperature changes, and rain and hail storms during the blossoming periods.
BioProfit returned in 2011 to find that most farmers had replaced their apple groves for more manageable crops that didn’t need bees for pollination, like plums, walnuts, cherries, etc. Thus the great Maowen apple industry came to an end.
bees

Pollution in China

Of large concern throughout China is its huge pollution problem, and over pesticide use is a major contributing factor.
Since the 1970s, the heavy-handed use of chemical pesticides has proven very popular with Chinese farmers as they strive to protect their crops from being eaten by insects.
The standards of use set by the ministry of agriculture tend to be ignored by farmers, and the laws are a lot more lenient in China than in more regulated countries where the distribution of pesticides would be in the hands of companies certified to do so, according a report by Yang Meng of chinadialogue.
The overuse of pesticides in China has become a big part of Chinese agriculture and is becoming a huge environmental and food safety problem, wrote Meng.
“The Ministry of Agriculture has standards for use, but if the standard says to use one bottle cap’s worth of pesticide the farmers will use three, just to make sure,” Xu Ming, director of the Pollution Prevention Office at the Ministry of Agriculture’s Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, told chinadialogue.
Also, when a biological or natural pesticide costs ten times the amount of its chemical counterpart, the money-conscious farmer would tend to pick the latter.

A World Without

Ever since the dawn of agriculture, farmers have relied on pollinators to fertilize new life, and bees make up for a third of this workforce.
The problems faced by farmers in Maoxian offer a haunting insight into what could one day happen on a global scale. Imagine a world without bees … our supermarkets would be dramatically empty.
UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said in 2011: “Human beings have fabricated the illusion that in the 21st century they have the technological prowess to be independent of nature. Bees underline the reality that we are more, not less, dependent on nature’s services in a world of close to seven billion people.”

For-profit Corinthian Colleges to close all remaining campuses

(CALIFORNIA)  Corinthian Colleges will shut down all of its remaining 28 ground campuses as of Monday, displacing about 16,000 students, less than two weeks after the U.S. Department of Education announced it was fining the for-profit institution $30 million for misrepresentation.
In a statement Sunday, the Santa Ana, California-based company said it was working with other schools to help students continue their education. The closures include Heald College campuses in California, Hawaii and Oregon, as well as Everest and WyoTech schools in California, Arizona and New York.
Corinthian was one of the country’s largest for-profit educational institutions. It collapsed last summer amid a cash shortage and fraud allegations.
For-profit colleges have been under sharp government scrutiny and pressure for several years, with critics accusing them of putting profit ahead of student achievement. Some graduates have found that their degrees don’t win them jobs and that they are left saddled with large student debts. Enrollments in for-profit colleges soared during the recession as job seekers tried to improve their credentials.
Other for-profit institutions such as Apollo Education Group and Strayer Education have struggled to attract students since a 2010 government crackdown revealed low graduation rates and poor employability of graduates.



The Education Department contends that Corinthian failed to comply with requests to address allegations of falsifying job placement data and altering grades and attendance records. It agreed to sell or close its campuses under pressure from the department.
Earlier in April, the department fined subsidiary Heald College, alleging the school had shown a pattern of falsifying post-graduation employment data. In one instance, the company’s Honolulu campus declared a student had found work in her chosen field of accounting, even though administrators knew she was working at Taco Bell, the department said.
Most of the company’s former schools have been sold, and Corinthian attempted to sell Heald as well but was blocked by the refusal of California Attorney General Kamala Harris to provide prospective buyers with a release from liability.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris gestures while standing by a display showing the target demographic of Corinthian Colleges during a news conference Thursday, Oct. 10, 2013, in San Francisco. California's attorney general is suing the college company, alleging it misrepresented job placement rates and school programs to lure low-income state residents. According to the AG's Office, Santa Ana-based Corinthian and its subsidiaries operate Everest, Heald and WyoTech colleges and have 81,000 students. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg) ** Usable by LA and DC Only **
The company said Sunday it had been in “advanced negotiations” with several parties to sell the 150-year-old college and allow outside partners to let Everest and WyoTech students continue their education but was unsuccessful.
A group of current and former Corinthian students are petitioning the Education Department to waive their federal student debt based on the alleged misconduct. According to the company’s filings, the schools generated $1.2 billion government loans its final year.

Signs of Next Phase of Global Economic Collapse


we are entering the next phase….
Website: dailysheeple.com
Author Credit: Michael Snyder, Economic Collapse Blog
Link: http://www.thedailysheeple.com/11-sig…

Obamacare Premium Payments Can Now Be Made At 7-11

(Soumya Karlamangla)  With Obamacare in its second year, health officials are still working out the kinks in expanding health coverage to millions of Californians.
In the latest fix, members of a health plan for low-income Los Angeles County residents now can pay their premiums with cash at neighborhood stores, a more convenient option for some people without bank accounts.
“It really is a testament to how far we’ve come in terms of the implementation of the ACA that now we’re really addressing these on-the-ground, everyday issues and barriers,” said Amy Adams, senior program officer for California HealthCare Foundation’s Improving Access team.
Roughly 4 million Californians have become insured under the national health law, which required nearly everyone to have health insurance starting in 2014. The state’s uninsured population has dropped by half to 11%.
Consumer advocates have long pushed for easier ways for the working poor to pay their insurance premiums. A report released before the implementation of Obamacare last year found that 27% of Americans and 19% of Californians who were uninsured and eligible for subsidies didn’t have bank accounts.



The insurance plan that rolled out the neighborhood cash payment system this month, L.A. Care Covered, is among those offered to patients who are eligible for government subsidies through the state’s health coverage exchange, Covered California. Members can pay their premiums at 1,953 stores in California, including all 7-Elevens, by scanning a bar code linked to their account.
“We’re very excited,” said Laura Jaramillo, an L.A. Care Covered official. “We feel that that’s going to make it extremely easy and convenient for them to pay their premiums.”
Jaramillo said officials hope a few thousand of the plan’s 17,000 Covered California members will use the new payment option. It’s not clear how many members lack bank accounts, she said, but about 40% mail in a money order, cashiers’ or personal check, instead of paying with a credit card online. An additional number also pay with a prepaid debit card online, she said.
Before the Affordable Care Act took effect last year, Obama administration officials ordered health plans to accommodate people who don’t have bank accounts by accepting paper checks, cashier’s checks, money orders and prepaid debit cards. They opted not to require that they accept cash, saying it would be too complicated. Managers at Covered California also discussed requiring health plans to accept cash payments, but decided against it.
Danny Shader, founder and chief executive officer of PayNearMe, the company partnering with the Los Angeles health plan, said that low-income people without bank accounts haven’t been able to benefit from innovations in online payments. “They’re, in fact, shut out of the digital economy,” he said.
Health plan members without bank accounts have typically had to wait in line and pay a fee to get a money order or a cashier’s check. With the new payment system, members pay no fees when they use cash to make a premium payment at a participating store. Instead, the health plan is charged a fee equivalent to a payment for a credit card transaction.
“It’s as quick as buying a carton of milk,” Shader said.

McDonald’s getting crushed by healthier fast food companies like Chipotle

(PA Watson)  In what can only be chalked up to karma, McDonald’s and its artery-clogging menu are taking a nasty hit in sales, with overall global sales reported to be down 2.6 percent from a year ago for comparable outlets. Sales in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East region fell by 8.3 percent, which played a significant role in the overall decrease.
Total revenue sank 11 percent to reach $5.96 billion in the quarter to March 31, and net income plunged 32.6 percent to $812 million. With 36,000 outlets in more than 100 countries, McDonald’s has been feeling the pressure from its decreasing customer traffic. They attribute the drop to a range of difficulties including changing consumer tastes and flexible rivals with healthier menus.
President and CEO Steve Easterbrook said the company is working to resolve the challenges, including closing underperforming restaurants and simplifying menus.
“McDonald’s management team is keenly focused on acting more quickly to better address today’s consumer needs, expectations and the competitive marketplace,” he said in a statement. “We are developing a turnaround plan to improve our performance and deliver enduring profitable growth. We look forward to sharing the initial details of this plan on May 4, 2015.”
As part of their follow-the-leader approach, Easterbrook has announced that with the chain now selling more chicken than burgers, it will stop serving chicken raised on antibiotics that are important to human health as worries grow over resistance to crucial drugs. They also announced they would increase wages for 90,000 employees in company-owned restaurants in the U.S. and offer them paid time off.
Once could view both of these changes as a marketing ploy rather than genuine concern for customers’ and employees’ well-being given the fact that these issues are being addressed in the aftermath of plummeting sales dating back to October 2014. It seems that the company’s corporate responsibility is directly tied to their pocketbook rather than their leadership and concern for those who fuel their empire.

McDonald’s losing ground to Chipotle

The irony in this latest development is that McDonald’s is falling behind its competitors, including one that they previously had a stake in. Chipotle, which McDonald’s had up to 90 percent ownership of in 2005 and then divested in 2006, is on fire. While McDonald’s was announcing a 30 percent plunge in third-quarter income and declining revenue in 2014, Chipotle reported a 31 percent increase in revenue and a 57 percent rise in net income in the same period.
Chairman, Founder, and co-CEO of Chipotle, Steve Ells, cited “the way we source, prepare, and serve our food” as a major contributor to their increasing popularity. In 2003, they made a statement that they were taking tangible steps to become GMO-free and were moving towards serving 100 percent grass-fed beef worldwide, which certainly puts some teeth behind that statement. Although supply shortages of this type of beef in the U.S. could put a crimp in the sustainability of their offerings, it does represent a move in the right direction.
mcdonalds3



Meanwhile, McDonald’s intends to officially announce antibiotic-free chicken in the future and is using Canada to introduce its verified sustainable beef venture some time in 2015. This means that they plan to blend the conventional stuff into the sustainably-sourced beef and gradually increase the percentage over time. As it continues to slowly introduce offerings that are being gobbled up by healthier fast food chains like Chipotle, McDonald’s might continue to be a victim of decreasing sales as the behemoth struggles to keep pace and stay relevant.
Only time will tell how well McDonald’s handles the current situation, but as they continue to slowly figure it out, expect other fast food chains to smell blood (grass-fed, of course) and move quickly in order to put a choke hold on the champ.
Sources:
http://news.yahoo.com
http://www.bloomberg.com
http://www.foodrenegade.com
http://www.marketwatch.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com
http://www.greenbiz.com