Category Archives: racism

Eye Candy, but not for long if XL Pipeline goes in… **edited

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This week’s pics of beautiful Canada.  So gorgeous.  I wonder if #17 is a rock formation by the First Nations ancestors?  Perhaps a marker to show the way?

I look at this in awe of it….and then the horrible pictures of the destruction of the land by the oil and gas companies…and my heart sinks.

Thanks to those of you who signed the petition against XL pipeline.  Blessings to all of you for speaking out and making your voice heard.

I think I might have featured this video before, but definitely bears repeating:

It’s disturbing in the first few minutes a woman stands there and says “keep this stuff in Indiana, where it belongs….”

Excuse me?  It belongs in my state…because…?  The attitude is that we deserve it.  WTH?  We don’t want it here any more than you do.  Stop making Indiana the freaking garbage can for the Koch brothers!

…and Rahm Emanuel allows up to 2 years for the Kochs to comply to an order to enclose the petcoke.  What a joke.

Here’s the MSDS data sheet on petcoke. Note how BP gets out of updating the MSDS by a hole in the law that allows them to get out of updating it every three years.

Just look at the handling of this stuff, and one can see how toxic it is:

Handling

Contact with hot product may cause burns. Avoid contact with eyes. Avoid breathing dust.

Use only with adequate ventilation.

Avoid the creation of dust when handling and avoid all possible

sources of ignition (spark or flame).

To avoid fire or explosion, dissipate static electricity during

transfer by grounding and bonding containers and equipment before transferring material.

Use explosion-proof electrical (ventilating, lighting and material handling) equipment.

Wash thoroughly after handling.

When using do not eat, drink or smoke.

Regular periodic self inspection of the skin is recommended, especially those areas subject to contamination.

In the event of any localized changes in appearance or texture of the skin being noticed, medical advice should be sought without delay.

Storage

Keep container tightly closed. Keep container in a cool, well-ventilated area.

Empty containers may contain harmful, flammable/combustible or explosive residue or vapors.

Do not cut, grind, drill, weld, reuse or dispose of containers unless adequate precautions are taken against these hazards.

Not suitable

Prolonged exposure to elevated temperature

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It goes on to say the air purifying respirators are limited in their ability to protect one from this toxic stuff.  It also recommends gloves that cannot be penetrated by chemicals or oil. Heavy-duty.

Lastly, we have this bit:

Overexposure to dust may cause mechanical irritation.

Repeated or prolonged inhalation of dust may lead to chronic respiratory irritation.

Repeated and prolonged inhalation of any respirable dust may result in changes in lung function.

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They always want long term studies to evaluate toxins…but do we really have to poison people long term when something is obviously this toxic?

Here’s a good piece on petcoke.  They’ve been burning it in Nova Scotia.  Burning it releases mercury, lead, and arsenic…just like coal.  But it is said to be more toxic.

“The carbon intensity of petcoke is higher than the carbon intensity of most conventional coal so when you burn petcoke, you’re likely going to release more toxic emissions than you will when you burn traditional coal so it has a higher carbon dioxide content, it also has a higher sulphur content and by contrast, the carbon intensity of natural gas is about a third that of coal. And this is when we’re talking about fossil fuels, we’re choosing the best of evils,” said Abreu, adding that they would prefer to see an electrical system that relies on a diverse mix of renewable fuels.

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This stuff needs to stay in the ground. Absolutely.

**edited:  to take out the part of the scientist.  He was saying the same thing I was saying…can you tell that this upsets me? Oy.

Moskowitz using the kids for her personal gain

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David Sirota has this up on Eva Moskowitz, queen of charters in NY.  She closed the schools to bus children to her rally.  Unfreakingbelievable.  Can you imagine anyone in public education being allowed to do that?? They would be fired.

Next, we have this from Fred Klonsky on the close ties of pro-charter education profiteers and our elected representatives.  Sleazy opportunists.

One notorious group, “Democrats for Education Reform” (DFER), is a front for financiers that seek to spread charter schools in Chicago, even at the expense of neighborhood public schools. DFER has given extensive support to Christian Mitchell, placing him on their “Hot List of 2012” and naming him their “Reformer of the Month” for January 2014, in which they solicited political contributions on his behalf.

Rep. Mitchell has also accepted over $100,000 in political contributions from “Stand for Children,” an organization that wants to defund public education through voucher programs and other failed policies that only hurt Chicago students.

Last year, Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed 50 neighborhood schools which put more than 80,000 children at risk. The closings are the largest in U.S. history. Rep. Mitchell showed little support to his constituents as they protested the drastic action. Instead, he has loudly supported private charter expansion, which research shows have little accountability and a questionable academic success rate.

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In more education news, Fred Klonsky has this up about DFER and David Axelrod.

Julian Vasquez Helig, PhD, has a great summary of the billionaires’ club influence on public education and charters here.

Diane Ravitch features a poem by a teacher who couldn’t take any more.

Their innocence plundered their self now askew,
They hardened completely while no one even knew.

Their spirits were taken their childhood replaced
A new breed of children – a much meaner race.

Now where are those sadists who made up such rules
to torture young children with cruel cunning ruse?

They’re safe in their castles no thoughts of that time,
When children were maimed by their heinous crime

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Victory for Saucedo teachers

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Woot! Teachers taking back their classrooms!   The tactics of intimidation by Barbara Byrd-Bennett did not work.

…and the teachers, bless their hearts, still taught a lesson in civil disobedience and nonviolence, a la Ghandi and Rosa Parks.

Makes me smile. 🙂

 

Aboriginal rights a threat to Canada’s resource development

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Warrior Publications has this up on what we already knew, but yeah, putting it in writing that Harper and the rest see the land rights of the First Nations folks being problematic.

See…it’s so much harder to get the oil out when you have to ask permission by folks who see it as violating the Earth.  They aren’t as easily swayed by $$ because the Earth is sacred to them.

It’s even more of a problem when those folks have the law on their side.

Honor the Treaties, Canada.

 

 

Supporting teachers, supporting public schools

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Bill de Blasio, the mayor, and Gov. Cuomo were at what could be described as dueling rallies.

Eva Moskowitz, the queen of charters with Success Academy, claims their rally was not meant to compete with Mayor de Blasio’s.  Um-hmmm…

You might remember Success Academy with this post.

Meanwhile, support came far away for the Saucedo teachers in Chicago…from the big ole’ state of Texas.

Ryan continues war on poor

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Paul Ryan has not been swayed from his austerity measures, as he still advocates for the rich while seeking to starve people…

I started to watch a link to a Newseum piece hosted by Brian Williams, but five minutes of listening to Paul Ryan and I couldn’t stand any more.  Him being a toadie of Kochs and Peterson just turns my stomach.

More from Mother Jones here.

I followed the link to Paul Ryan’s False Advertising Photo Op at a soup kitchen.  What an opportunist.

It seems that the answer to poverty is pretty basic:  jobs with livable wages; affordable housing; healthcare.  That’s it.  With those factors, you can’t lose, because those are the three factors that keep people off of food stamps, off the streets, and free of financial disaster when an illness hits.

My previous post on Ryan here.

 

 

 

More on Tyendinaga Mohawks blockade

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Here’s another article on the blockade drawing attention to the missing and murdered indigenous women.

The federal government has already insisted that it is willing to commit $25 million to the National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains. While this is a start, the mandate is not specific to why First Nations women are at a higher risk of violence due to historical and socio-economic factors.

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It seems lost on the Harper government that these women are being targeted because they are First Nations women…why?

And why have most of them occurred in the last 15 years?  A serial killer undetected?

 

Venezuela Protests: S. American Tea Party?

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Dispatches from the Underclass has an interesting post up on what is happening in Venezuela.

Ukraine, revisited, it would seem…if the allegations about being funded by a conservative, elite network including Americans, is true.

I have no illusions about how greedy oil corporations and others  are and what lengths they will go to in order to get what they perceive as theirs…

…but I have to plead ignorance about the situation there and who is telling the truth–situations can be manipulated by the media, as well as helping shed light.

Here is an article with the opposite stance on the protesters.  It is so lopsided and devoid of facts that I have to wonder about the author’s financial connections to those that stand to gain from Maduro’s overthrow.

Public Education: The Hunger Games

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Wow.  This old post by School Finance 101 really drives home the utter madness of school “reform” and draws a correlation between the pitting of kids against each other that Race to the Bottom and Common Core demand in order to receive tax dollars and falsely rate students, teachers, and schools…..and The Hunger Games.

I haven’t seen the movie, but I have seen examples of the pitting of people against one another to “increase production”.  Personally, I have always felt that this was just a sick game by dark ones who enjoy seeing people beat each other up or use underhanded tactics to win.  Kind of like the show “Survivor” put on by “devout Christian” Mark Burnett.  Tell me, Burnett, would Jesus approve of pitting people against one another to win??  Didn’t I read that he fed everyone loaves and fishes…not feeding just a few after making them fight for it??

But, I digress…

I have never understood why business models were held up as some sort of panacea.  If the business model is an elaborate pyramid scheme, how can it possibly be sustainable?  It all depends on making a profit–make that bigger profit.  Greed is the goal instead of sustainability. It just doesn’t make sense.

Phrase of the day:  cannibalistic management practices.

As I’m reading this, I’m thinking of that gym teacher that used to punish the group that lost when we played sports games.  It was punitive and counter-productive–I hated gym class because of it.  It certainly didn’t make me want to exercise more or win more games.  Even if one is good at a particular game, if you have folks on your team who are not, you still lose.  His thinking was that you would shame or bully your teammates to perform better, but that was a stupid, thoughtless gesture that created a negative atmosphere.  It did not allow for some folks being more coordinated and therefore better at sports.  It totally missed the point that it was about getting exercise and making that enjoyable instead of competitive.

It is important to note Microsoft’s copying this insanity…with predictable results.