Category Archives: children

Geoengineering: Insane and Delusional

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A report here on Al Gore speaking out on geoengineering.  I totally agree.  The Earth is a magnificent living, breathing, organism that can take care of herself quite well, thank you, without any *help* from us.

What we need to do is put on our big adult pants and scale down the polluting.  It means stop giving industry the right to pollute what belongs to all of us.  Well, that’s not accurate, either, because it doesn’t really *belong* to us, but rather, we are borrowing it while we are here.

It’s not ours to do with as we please, but a gift to be cherished and given back….what  a wonderful humble idea…

…meanwhile, that 15 MILLION pounds of toxins into Indiana waterways keeps flashing in my head….

The PR ads against Teachers and Public Education

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Mercedes Schneider has this up on a billboard blasting Randi Weingarten and teachers  unions (read: public education).  (hat tip to Diane Ravitch)

Note that sleazy Rick Berman is behind this attack ad.

This is what parents have to look forward to, with dictatorships as Charters:

This is a comment signed Concerned Charter Teacher:

I work at Success Academy and thought you might be interested in the following. Just heard that we are planning a pro-charter parent march on October 8th. Our schools are being closed for the morning. Teachers, parents, students, and central office staff are being required to join the march. Other charter schools are joining as well. Several emails from senior leadership make it clear that the event is not optional. It seems very unethical that adults and children are being forced into this political statement, but I don’t know what, if anything, can be done. [Emphasis added.]

 

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Event is not optional.

Thinking is not optional.

Art is not optional.

Music is not optional.

Being a kid is not optional.

 

Ohio River and the West Virginia spill

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So…the spill in West Virginia in the Elk River has gone into the Ohio River and is headed our way…so I went looking to see how the authorities are dealing with it…

I found that the Cincinnati folk are right on this–

When I looked for Indiana authorities’ action on it…nothing.  No surprise there.  The Indiana Dept. of Environmental (MIS-) Management allows businesses three years between inspections.  West Virginia could happen here. (and probably already has, but without nary a peep from anyone who knows about it.)

But I did find this disturbing report.  Indiana is guilty of dumping 15 MILLION pounds of toxins into the waterways.  Good Grief!

Here’s yet another disturbing report of BP once again poisoning a body of water from the Whiting, Indiana, refinery…you know, the petcoke we’ve talked about.  This time,  it’s our wonderful Lake Michigan they’re dumping mercury into….where is the media coverage here?  *crickets*

If you don’t think two pounds of mercury sounds like a lot, keep in mind it only take a thermometer of mercury to poison a 20-acre lake.

(Of course, I take exception to this article ignoring amalgams as sources of mercury along with vaccines.  And ignoring GMO’s as impacts on the gut, allowing heavy metal poisoning.)

…and it’s not just the water they’re poisoning…

Slanting the news

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Diane Ravitch has this up on Politico’s slanted reports on Education.  I have noticed this myself lately of the few articles I’ve read on there–a definite change in the wind, so to speak.  The comments are interesting, too, as others have noticed and some suspect the Billionaires Media Club is at work here.

From the comments:

Ryan

January 14, 2014 at 11:20 am

It’s the billionaire boys club at work again, I’m afraid. Stephanie B. Simon was a superb reporter working stories on the privatization of public schools, and Silicon Valley’s and Wall Street’s pieces of the pie. Then she was hired by Politico, and her stories have changed. Similar thing happened to the NYT Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Mike Winerip, who early on did a great piece on the scam that is K-12 Inc’s so-called ‘virtual schools.’ Really K-12 is just peddling incredibly overpriced software and a few overloaded teachers to answer questions. NYT offered him full-time work, and put him on the baby boomer beat (?) and now he is writing its Motherlode blog — dispensing advice to parents. Gates $$ have totally shifted Ed Week’s reporting — it seems they aren’t even bothering to re-write the press releases fro the privatizers. PBS has done only a little reporting on the privatization of education. Rachel Maddow is silent. And on it goes.

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(underlining is mine to emphasize reporters’ collaboration by silence or slanted reporting.)

 

Young speaking out on Canadian Tar Sands

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Neil Young is trading pointed remarks with the Canadian government over the tar sands oil.

Good for him.   I’m glad someone with some media attention is speaking out for the indigenous.

 

Republican Mask – Democrat Mask

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Reclaim Reform (Ken Previti) has this up on the Chicago Teachers Union’s new IPO….the solution isn’t with those wearing Democrat or Republican Masks whom are in reality corporate employees…but with us.

God bless Karen Lewis and the CTU.

Moving the pet coke

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Well, of course….they’re dumping pet coke in Chicago…and Whiting, Indiana….

“Petcoke tends to have higher metal content than coal – like nickel, vanadium and selenium,” added Geertsma. “Coal can have higher mercury content, so they’re both bad in terms of toxic heavy metals content.”

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The report says that Canadian exports of petcoke to the U.S. more than doubled between 2010 and 2012, and BP Whiting’s expansion will triple its petcoke production to 6,000 tons per day.

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And I got my answer to where the petcoke piles were moved to–Ohio.

 

More on Fukushima **edited

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The comments on the last blog have some good links:

Nearly a third of all babies born after 3/11/11 are more likely to have thyroid issues.  If you recall, radiation interferes with the thyroid.  A good page here on what happens to the body.

More here.

Another link to a comments page about nuclear fallout and its affects on those in the military:

We think there are 150,000 more Atomic Veterans across the U.S. who do not know that their oath of secrecy has been recended, since 1963, and who also may not know that they may be entitled to VA benefits. The National Association of Atomic Veterans ( NAAV ) was formed in 1979 to assist Atomic Vet’s in accessing the VA system, for the purposes of getting treatment and compensation for a host of health issues precipitated by their exposure to ionizing radiation particles while proudly serving their country, as Mr. Beatty did, at Operation Crossroads… We continue to get phone calls, weekly, from A-vets who have recently been made aware of our organization, and who are in need of assistance in these areas. We look forward to hearing from anyone who may read this article…… Our website is: http://www.naav.com

R J Ritter – Nat. Commander
NAAV, Inc.
Member: Veteran’s Advisory Board on (radiation) Dose Reconstruction.

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Pass the word–perhaps this will help someone affected and not knowing where to go for help.

~~A side story on the chemical spill in West Virginia…criminy, if this isn’t nature slapping us in the face, warning us that we’re inept in dealing with this stuff, I don’t know what is…nature can only endure so much.

The attitude that the river will “take care of it” is utter bullshit.  It’s just going to go somewhere else and cause health issues for the unfortunate ones.

Meanwhile, the Koch brothers have a pile of petcoke right next to the river in Detroit…**edited:  I stand corrected. It has been removed….but the report fails to tell us where the pile was moved to..?  Wanna bet it was to some poor neighborhood?

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Fukushima lawsuit

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The tragedy of Fukushima continues to reveal more illness.  Navy first responders have come forward with radiation related sickness.

Nuclear energy will never, ever be safe.  This accident proves that beyond a doubt.  Holy crap, I don’t think we’ve even begun to see all of the devastation.

Understanding the gravity of NAFTA

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Idle No More has a post up on the far-reaching effects of NAFTA.  This is especially important because now we have NAFTA on steroids with TPP being fast-tracked through Congress.

Here’s an update on Blackfire.

More here.

From the article:

Though officials did meet with NGOs opposed to the mine, they accepted Blackfire’s take that protestors were out to squeeze money from the firm, says MiningWatch’s analysis of the emails.

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Of course….because the mining company execs see everything in $$, they think everyone *else* thinks as they do.  It is inconceivable to them that there are people who value the environment, their health, their children’s health, the Earth, etc.

Note how the company was unable to substantiate claims against Abarca.  It appears he was thrown in jail under false claims.

NAFTA, and I fear TPP, are all about taking power and control away from the local people.  It means losing their autonomy to decide what happens in their communities, as the mega million dollar lawsuit illustrates.

These trade agreements are not supportive of the democratic process, rather a dictatorial process.  How is this representation of taxpayers?