Category Archives: nuclear

More on Flight 800

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Democracy Now has a piece up featuring the controversy over Flight 800.  When I wrote the piece yesterday, I was unaware that Borjesson was the director of the documentary.

There are some serious questions raised about what happened.  These folks raising the questions are not hysterical people.  They are intelligent folks with great analytical skills who see something that just isn’t right.  I just wish we had a press that did the same thing.

**a side note~ a heart tug at hearing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” during the interval between the segments.  It was the song I sung to my Mom as she began to pass from this world.

To Clarify

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To clarify what I mean with my last post–I don’t have a problem with wiretapping suspected terrorists per se, but I have a big problem with the illegal wiretapping of anyone.  That is, I expect the gov’t agency to go before a judge with evidence that this person is indeed up to no good.  It’s what our Constitution requires.  I expect those in the gov’t who swear to uphold the Constitution to do just that.

What ver you doink Thursday night at 3:46 p.m.?

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Well, if you can’t remember, the NSA might be able to help fill in the memory gap.    (hat tip to fatster at  FDL.)

This quote from the comments brought a smile to my face in an otherwise somber article:

Candide08
I’m going to start calling random doctors and other businesses that have nothing to do with me. A little dis-information goes a long way.
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I don’t know everybody is surprised by this–anyone with half a brain could see the continuing violation of Fourth Amendment right to privacy.   All in the name of safety.  Um-hmmm….there’s no ulterior Nixon-like motive to gain an edge over someone by snooping into their private lives…./snark.  I’ve been saying all along that this whole thing smelled of Watergate–only on steroids.  Nixon sought the information so he could win at all costs.  Fortunately, we had Senator Frank Church to stand up for what was right.  Where’s our Church now?  Oh, right, drummed out of office by what is now the Tea Party.

 

 

Helping ourselves

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commondreams has this up.  Be sure to look at all the videos–well worth the time.

The idea is so simple it’s like “duh!”

I have a quibble, though, with Klein saying that it’s up to the Left to “seize the moment”.  There are those who are NOT in the Tea Party on the Right who also need and want to find a solution to the crashes around us.  I say this because the Left has not been of the same mind — I was shot down on a progressive website when I advocated buying American so we could put people back to work.  I knew that Washington wasn’t going to get off its collective duff and do anything about the job loss.  (NAFTA being a good example of monumental job loss.)

I just don’t think people have been given the skills or knowledge to feel confident enough to take over a business if the owners want to sell out.  I think it may be a case of learned helplessness?  Not believing in yourself can be such a huge obstacle that one stops before even getting started.

Perhaps the “teach-ins” of 2013 should be “Business 101:  how to own a business without going belly-up nor bankrupting the environment on your way to the bank…”

The Native Americans learned this a loooong time ago–nature was not a second thought.  They did not separate their actions from nature.

It’s still so incredibly stupid that business has ignored the laws of nature, as if we could exist without clean water, clean air and chemical free food…

Well…exist is probably a bad word choice…since we are existing right now…perhaps thriving  is the better word.  All one has to do is look at folks’ skin and see that we are not thriving, but existing.  The skin is such a barometer of what’s going on in the insides…not doing too well by that account.

Anyway, Washington isn’t going to help us…most likely profiting off of NAFTA…so, it’s up to us if we want to save ourselves.

 

 

 

 

Blackwater, Monsanto, and Gates Foundation

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In keeping up with all the dirty little deeds the Gates Foundation promotes….here is an article on the link between Gates, Monsanto, and Blackwater.   Really disturbing.

The article mentions The Nation with Jeremy Scahill—while looking for the Scahill article, I happened upon this with a scathing reply by the authors:

We agree that it will ultimately be up to farmers to decide what is best for them. Our concern continues, however, to be that the choices farmers face is systematically skewed, with some ideas being amplified over others. Any policies that involve redistribution–such as land reform–are off the Gates agenda, despite being a live concern to many African farmers’ movements. This demonstrates our broader point. Despite the foundation’s best efforts to be accountable once the policy has been laid down, the Gates Foundation’s interventions reflect, at heart, the undemocratic vision of a single very powerful and ultimately unaccountable organization.

Sincerely,

RAJ PATEL
ERIC HOLT-GIMENEZ
ANNIE SHATTUCK
www.foodfirst.org

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(italics are mine.)
Jeremy Scahill’s article here.

One of the most incendiary details in the documents is that Blackwater, through Total Intelligence, sought to become the “intel arm” of Monsanto, offering to provide operatives to infiltrate activist groups organizing against the multinational biotech firm.

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Another fracking/nuclear/oil toadie on CSPAN

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Michael Levi was on CSPAN this morning…he was vague in his assertions, but reading between the lines, I saw “fracking toadie”.

He has written a book on energy that they were highlighting on CSPAN.  It has the words  “battle for  America’s future”  ….words that are emotional and raise an immediate red flag.

Brookings Institute fellow—another huge red flag.

From the wiki page on it:

Funders

At the end of 2004 the Brookings Institution had assets of $258 million and spent $39.7 million, while its budget has grown to more than $80 million in 2009.[64] Its largest contributors include the Ford Foundation, the Gates Foundation, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and her husband Richard C. Blum, Bank of America, ExxonMobil, Pew Charitable Trusts, the MacArthur Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation, and the governments of the United States, Japan, Qatar, the Republic of China, the District of Columbia, and the United Kingdom.

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The Gates Foundation.  ExxonMobil. Republic of China.  Bank of America.  All giving money…for what payback…because these folks play to win and they don’t throw their money after something without expecting something in return.

And why is our government contributing to a think tank??

Here’s another piece I found on the Brookings Institute and their treatment of Diane Ravitch.  Pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?  I don’t know why they are considered liberal?

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And the fact that Levi is a doctor doesn’t necessarily impress me–Mengele and Freud were also doctors who skewed things towards their point of view.  It’s especially troubling that his doctorate is in War Studies.

He was advocating “clean energy” another industry catch phrase that actually means “keep on doing what we’ve always been doing, but keeping our dirty business out of the public eye as much as we can…”  (as seen by the non-coverage of the Arkansas oil spill.)

He was also stating that fracking should be done, and concern for the environment should be a priority. Sounds good, eh?  But then….he states further in the interview that the *only* problem was what to do with the contaminated water once they had extracted the natural gas…um, yeah, he totally ignores that there is a HUGE problem with the chemicals traveling through the earth to people’s wells, contaminating them.   My blog on that here. And here. And here.

There was a male caller making outrageous statements about green energy and allowing even more leasing to oil/gas companies…and he was not characterized as emotional…

…but when a woman caller called in and raised the earthquake question and the contamination from the chemicals…whoa…she was *cough*  “emotional”.  (I can’t remember if that was Levi’s exact wording, but the meaning was the same.)  In other words, even though she brought up facts, she was discredited as being emotional.  ::don’t worry your pretty little head, darling, we men folk will take care of this important stuff::   Grrrr.

So, my conclusion from the above is the Michael Levi is an energy industry toadie.  He’s dirty.

 

Mommy, the IRS is picking on me!!

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Really, the repub party should go from the “party of NO’ to the “party of whine”.  Good God, can they play the victim…

They were seeking approval to operate under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. This would require them to be “social welfare,” not political, operations. There are significant advantages to being a 501(c)(4). These groups don’t pay taxes; they don’t have to disclose their donors—unlike traditional political organizations, such as political-action committees. In return for the tax advantage and the secrecy, the 501(c)(4) organizations must refrain from traditional partisan political activity, like endorsing candidates.

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Since when is asking questions “singling-out” someone?  Asking questions is the IRS’s job.  And the last line of the above quote is enough to revoke their tax exempt status.

George Will is trying to compare this to Watergate.  Seriously?? How lame.

If Republicans had controlled both houses of Congress in 1973, Nixon would have completed his term. If Democrats controlled both today, the Obama administration’s lawlessness would go uninvestigated.

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Committee members of Watergate- Senate:  three repubs on it.

A brief on the Watergate affair.

On CSPAN this morning, they had Jenny Martin, the CEO of Tea Party Patriots.  She was playing the victim well–without really offering any hard evidence of the accusations of the IRS…even when asked for specifics by a caller.  I listened carefully to her mini-speeches, and once when she began to divulge what actually occurred, she caught herself and went back to “safe mode” without giving the details.  Hmmm….

Meanwhile, when the point was made that the IRS has been inundated by groups  applying for tax exempt status, so there was possibly a backlog AND good reason to scrutinize these groups that don’t want to pay taxes.  (The irony here is that the Tea Party is all about reducing government workers, but it would appear that the backlog is created because of a lack of skilled workers to process them…)

It is clear that Tea Party Patriots is a political group and they promote their political causes aggressively…so why shouldn’t the IRS ask them pointed questions about their fundraising and their activities??  If you want to avoid taxes, you’d better be prepared to answer some questions.

(Gah, I never in a million years thought I’d be sticking up for the IRS.  Lord knows they’ve used their strong arm tactics on me–when I lost my house, they actually wanted to charge me for taking a profit(!!) and then when I owed a measily $200 (and didn’t have the money to pay them) they threatened to take what was left after the crash and burn. I did eventually pay it off in installments. but it was difficult at that point in time. )

Kelp and arsenic

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A member posted they did not take kelp supplements because of the high arsenic content.  I was aware of the possible contamination with heavy metals, but it’s always good to check and re-check supplements to see the latest.

I have been taking Solgar brand kelp, because Solgar is a good brand…but that doesn’t mean I should slack off….so…

I went on a search this morning trying to find out the exact content of arsenic in kelp.  I found a disturbing study out of UC Berkeley…that tested several brands of kelp and found arsenic in all of them but one.  The aggravating part of the story is that they did not name the brands!  WTH? (One also needs to keep in mind that universities are not islands in the $$ funding arena, so their “studies” may be heavily influenced by donations from corporations.  Supplements have been the target of Big Pharma for years…they would love nothing better than to destroy the supplement industry because it cuts into their $$ billion dollar profits. Greed. Greed. Greed.) (also–many pharmaceuticals are derived from plant properties. Another site here.)

Doing a search, I came up empty on Solgar when looking for specific data stating arsenic content.

I found these links:  Vegan health on supplementing with iodine.  I notice they recommend potassium iodide by Nature’s Plus because it isn’t made from kelp, thus avoiding arsenic contamination.  I am always skeptical about sites that recommend a specific brand.  I saw this on three different sites that had the same format–a red flag is raised.  Not that I think Nature’s Plus is a bad brand, only that the authors of these sites perhaps are receiving some sort of compensation for the recommendation, which would influence their judgment and perhaps they would not state adverse problems with the product.

This article recommends Lugol’s for replacing iodine.  Lugol’s is a popular supplement on the mercury support group.

This page states that Solgar, among others, is a good brand that is not loaded with toxic heavy metals.  The connection of fluoride displacing iodine in the thyroid….and yet they continue putting fluoride in public drinking water.  Also note his assertion that kelp is superior due to the minute minerals it adds plus the bioavailability (it isn’t going to do you much good if your body doesn’t recognize it and absorb it).   He recommends against Lugol’s because of… possible toxicity in the liver…this is especially worrisome for heavy metal poisoned folks like moi--the liver and kidneys take direct hits from the stupid mercury poison and therefore have a tough time processing toxins like they would normally–care needs to be taken.

I like that he also considers kelp a balancing food between yin and yang (not that I understand yin and yang to a deep degree–just know that it’s an Asian approach to medicine of balance).

 

 

Fort Wayne is on Fire

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Another police shooting—the fourth in four months–of a Fort Wayne citizen:        indianasnewscenter.com/news/local/Mayor-Henry-on-205796441.html

This isn’t even counting the ones shooting each other.  You know it’s bad when California sits up and takes notice….as they did with the third shooting just a few days ago…

The news reported that the latest shooter “should not have had access to a gun with his prior history…”  It left out the details about why this person should not have had a gun….but since he claimed to be Jesus and just randomly started shooting people (rather than a specific target), I would guess mental issues.  And yes, I would wonder about the chem trails and the toxic environment of FW–they had terrible air quality last year on many, many days.  And this shows air quality is once again questionable.  All I can say is that I notice a change in people’s behavior when there has been heavy chem trail spraying and when the air quality is already bad.  I know that when I tried jogging in the A.M. on bad air quality days, I started wheezing afterwards.  Not good.

Here’s another map showing particulate matter as being moderately high.  This is not good, either, as particulate is known to be the cause for health conditions–scientists just don’t know how it affects health, only that it does affect heart, lungs, and brain health.