Tag: raw materials

White House Rethinks China Tariffs Amid Taiwan Turmoil

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

White House Rethinks China Tariffs Amid Taiwan Turmoil

By Zerohedge.com

The Trump tariffs are the subject of a lawsuit filed by scores of U.S. companies who’ve asserted the levies are overly broad and were improperly implemented. If the Biden administration can’t defend the Trump tariff regime, it could be compelled to evaluate tens of thousands of public comments about it, or reimburse the plaintiffs for tariffs they’ve paid so far.

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Biden’s interest in pandering to labor unions also figures in his slow-walking his tariff-relief decision. Milton Friedman had something to say about that

“The benefits of a tariff are visible. Union workers can see they are ‘protected.’ The harm which a tariff does is invisible. It’s spread widely.”

What labor unions?!

Union Representation Petitions Continue to Increase in FY 2022 Under Biden Administration

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2021 the percentage of U.S workers, including public- and private-sector workers, who were members of unions was 10.3 percent—a half point decline from the 10.8 percent unionization rate in 2020. Within the private sector, the unionization rate declined by 0.2 percent in 2021 to 6.1 percent. The degree to which union activity in 2022 with an aggressively labor-friendly NLRB general counsel and a majority Biden appointed Labor Board moves the needle for union membership is yet to be determined.

Former Bolivian President Evo Morales Calls For a Global Campaign to Eliminate NATO

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

In interview with a British journalist, Morales says the U.S. uses NATO to provoke wars and sell weapons. U.S./UK-backed coup against him in 2019 was undertaken for lithium and because his government advanced an alternative economic model to the neoliberal “Washington Consensus”

Former Bolivian President Evo Morales Calls For a Global Campaign to Eliminate NATO

MoA: This New Import Law Will Hurt U.S. Consumers

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

This New Import Law Will Hurt U.S. Consumers

For small importers it will be impossible to do the above. Only big companies [Congress’ gift to Big Corporations] can afford to research and provide all that data and to take the risk of importing products that may get confiscated at the border. They will of course ask their customers to pay for all that.

Previously:

US Crackdown on Forced Labor in China Risks Further Supply Chaos

MoA brings up some things that I hadn’t.

Domestic Crude Oil Peaked at $145 a Barrel in 2008. It Closed Yesterday at $118.50. So Why Is Gas at the Pump at All-Time Highs?

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Domestic Crude Oil Peaked at $145 a Barrel in 2008. It Closed Yesterday at $118.50. So Why Is Gas at the Pump at All-Time Highs?

Part of that, as the above stories illustrate, is just plain ole price gouging. But the big picture is more complicated than that. According to the EIA, in addition to the 61 percent of the price of a gallon of gas that comes from the cost of crude oil, the other 39 percent shakes out as follows: the costs of refinement (14 percent), distribution and marketing (11 percent), and taxes (14 percent).

And refining* looks to be a particular problem right now. The EIA reports that as of January 1, 1982, the U.S. had 301 refineries in operation. That compares to just 129 in operation as of January 1, 2021.

Related:

*Chevron CEO says there may never be another oil refinery built in the U.S.

Previously:

More Oil From U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve Heads To Europe

Diosdado Cabello: Washington Has Not Lifted Any Sanctions Against Venezuela

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

Caracas, May 26, 2022 (OrinocoTribune.com)—This Wednesday, May 25, the Vice President of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Diosdado Cabello, said that the United States government has not lifted any illegal sanctions against the Venezuelan people.

Diosdado Cabello: Washington Has Not Lifted Any Sanctions Against Venezuela

Related:

Venezuela Confirms US Authorized Oil Corporations to ‘Negotiate & Restart Operations’

CPRF Statement: In Ukraine Russia is Fighting Neo-Nazism

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Comments on the Article of the International Department of the CC KKE “On the Imperialist War in Ukraine and the Stance of the CPRF”

On April 23, 2022 the newspaper Rizospastis, the organ of the Communist Party of Greece, carried an article by the International Department of the CC KKE “On the Imperialist War in Ukraine and the Stance of the CPRF.”

The article assesses the actions of the CPRF in connection with the special operation Russia is conducting in Ukraine openly accusing the party of having a pro-government, i.e. pro-imperialist position. We categorically disagree with this utilitarian assessment.

CPRF Statement: In Ukraine Russia is Fighting Neo-Nazism

Ukraine: The American Tyranny Of Power

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Ukraine: The American Tyranny Of Power

The first thing these evil ruling oligarchs want is property, and the best way to drive prices down is to start a war, like they did in Vietnam, and in Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen and the entire Middle East where people are fleeing the war zones. As soon as this happens, land prices go down and the corporate privateers sweep in.

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Digital Directorate so it can more effectively control internet information. The control of scientific and technological information is just as important as the control of words and language, any intellectual information that is written or spoken. All the internet hypertext language is routed through the supercomputer processors of the CIA in Langley, Virginia. Vladimir Putin recently said that the Internet was a CIA special project. He was right.

H/T: The New Dark Age