So… was Brian Williams surprised by this? If a news person is surprised by all that NSA/CIA is doing, then we’re in serious trouble, folks….
…and it shouldn’t surprise Williams that Snowden was “cagy”….Williams, et al, apparently can’t move about without detection, so Snowden is smart to keep information to a minimum.
I had heard this report was out but hadn’t seen it until now–about our toxic waterways. Indiana, unfortunately, heads the list for toxic load. It’s worse than I first read about–the number now is 17 million pounds of toxins into our waterways. 43 million pounds released into the Ohio river, THE most toxic river. Good Grief.
And Joe Donnelly, Dan Coats, and Jackie Walorski, paid by their bosses (in the form of campaign $$, and God knows what else), are fighting for the industries’ right to poison us. Some of them are so bold to say they’re fighting for us and our families….seriously. 17 million pounds of toxins. Whom is irresponsible, Mr. Coats?
NY Times has a page up on fines and violations…and how nobody takes responsibility.
The Sierra Club’s take on the Indiana Dept. of Environmental Mis-Management, including a dog boiled alive by hot water discharge, and a coal industry lobbyist being appointed to…wait for it…the IDEM–for prosecuting the polluters. If this wasn’t so serious, I would be laughing my arse off.
Diane Ravitch has a blog up on one of the teachers involved in the Vergara case. Ms. McLaughlin had replied to the “witch hunt” charges that she was a bad teacher…made by a student who also said there were five bad teachers and only one during her education–the one that wanted revenge apparently for being let go.
As I read the comments, the one by Chi-Town Res made me cry:
Yeah, and just wait until he hits retirement age and realizes that teachers with no union protections like me are exploited terribly. We are very low paid (and often hourly workers), don’t make enough money to get by on, let alone to save, have no pensions and are expected to live on about $900 per month from Social Security when we retire.
I could go live in a ghetto, since I will officially retire next month, because I can’t afford to continue living where I’ve been (renting) for the past 15 years, but I have no money to move. (Yes, homeownership was never an option for me.) Anyway, that’s the kind of income that even poor people in the ghettos can’t survive on in my area.
The reality is that I’m in arrears on my rent due to a further decline in my already low income and a high increase in my rent. I have applied to many places but I’ve been unable to find additional work. SS won’t actually start paying me until mid-September, my job put limits on our income and wouldn’t give me work for July, and I don’t qualify for unemployment compensation. I won’t get paid my measly wage again until the end of August. My landlord will not wait to be paid, and anyway I won’t get paid enough money then to cover back rent. I’ve been fighting becoming homeless for about three years now but, at this point, I have no more resources or anyone to turn to for help, and absolutely no one cares. So I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I will lose everything I own and be put out on the street and homeless before the fall. The only thing that could save my life now would be winning the lottery, but that is an intolerable hope.
The truth is that I could never afford to really stop working either, but SS has a limit on the amount of income I can earn. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place. No one fully appreciates the “I’m living on a fixed income” cries, because the elderly are not revered in our society. No wonder the suicide rate for seniors is high.
As problematic as unions can be, not valuing the protections that unions provide workers is extremely short sighted.
~~~~~~~~~~
Also noted in the comments was that one of the plaintiff’s lawyers was Ted Olson, who ended the vote recount and handed George W. Bush the presidency, against the American public’s wishes. Blood is on his hands, as well, for the wars and the economic mess Bush left us in.
Be sure to click on the link for Diane’s original post on Ms. McLaughlin. Really stunning to see how she is “witch-hunted” by those with their own agendas. She seems to be an outstanding person with true caring about her students, as a good teacher needs to be.
From the link:
“Indeed, this whole Vergara trial was like something out of Mao’s “Cultural Revolution” in China during the 1960′s. For those not acquainted with this, here’s primer: zealous students, under party leaders’ directions, would persecute their teachers. Kids would get their jollies as they put their teachers on a stage, put dunce caps on them, then screamed at them while forcing their teachers to bow their heads, kneel down, and confess their “crimes” and on and on…
These kids—appointed and empowered as “Red Guards” by Mao’s henchmen— would parade their former teachers through the streets…
~~~~~~~~~
Diane has also put up a link to a short film clip on the red army of children that illustrates the terrible time.
(A side note~I got this weird message that Diane Ravitch’s site was “untrusted”. Say what?? It’s on a wordpress platform…why would I get that message? Is someone trying to interfere with the traffic to her site??)
(hat tip Diane Ravitch)
The Onion has their usual satirical take on the Charter Schools lottery “system”.
“Between small class sizes, longer school days, individualized instruction, and superior college admission rates, charters provide amazing opportunities for students who don’t enter a convulsive state, fall into a coma, stop breathing, and cease all bodily functions during the admissions process.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
bwahahahahahahaha.
Spot on.
It’s really sad that the article hits Charter snobbery at its heart….and the kids suffer most of all.
I’ve read a few good posts on the Middle East-– Iraq and the U.S.’s role in the mess there.
I have to agree with the writer’s premise–that we have made a mess of things and they need to work this out for themselves without us riding in on a white horse to only make matters worse.
They know how many Americans feel about Muslims–led by a biased media willing to portray them as all thinking alike. That is as stupid as portraying all women as thinking alike. Or anyone, for that matter.
My other posts on Iran here and here.
Palestinians cry for help.
Presbyterian Church divests itself of U.S. corporations helping Israel to destroy the Palestinians.
Just wanted to give you a head’s up on something the mercury group has posted~
Vitamin Research Products (vrp.com) is no longer stocking DMSA, one of the chelators of mercury and lead. They just suddenly stopped stocking it and have even removed the page from their website.
This is not good news. They were the main supplier of DMSA. Theories are abound that Big Pharma is behind this–buying out the competition. And if they can buy out natural cures, they can force sick people to buy their side-effect-laden crap.
There are also allegations that Obamacare is limiting natural methods of healing, such as chelation supplements, making it harder for folks to get well. I don’t know this for fact, but it is one of the reasons I have not signed up for the health care. Another reason is the link to the insurance industry instead of single-payer, which would have been more palatable, being like Medicare for All.
I can tell you that many of us on the group lost jobs as a result of mercury–therefore, we had lost the ability to pay for medical insurance and the ability to pay for supplements that insurance didn’t cover. But at least the supplements were available…and cheap. I would have not gotten well without that. So once again, the poor take a hit for the uber wealthy to make even more profits….
I suspected that Big Pharma would try to grab this part of the market again, because they had in the past and continually try to get some twerp in Congress to do their bidding with making supplements illegal.
With billions of dollars and high-priced lawyers, they have gotten away with trying to take credit for natural healing herbs and methods, such as those used in India. These were used for thousands of years…and Big Pharma comes along and tries to claim a patent. Utterly mindboggling. More here on Big Pharma’s battle to get a share of the market in India. An even better explanation of it here.
Big Pharma tries to claim that compulsory licenses aren’t available for cancer drugs – a lie; or that they are only available for national emergencies – another lie; or that India is establishing a general exception to patents for pharmaceuticals – an even bigger lie. Sovereigns retain the right under TRIPS to issue compulsory licenses or to allow public, non-commercial use of patented products or processes. As long as the correct procedures are followed and adequate remuneration is paid, the patent holder has nothing legitimate to complain about – unless, of course, it is a U.S. multinational who doesn’t want an emerging country like India to get in its way.
~~~~~~~~~~~
…or for a group of U.S. citizens who want natural methods to heal their bodies to get their way….
And unfortunately, that’s not all that the greedy are trying to patent.
Lastly, here is a good segment on DN! with Vandana and Mira Shiva–two “uppity” women I admire for fighting the good fight~~
Vandana brings up the point of liability. It would seem that none of the chemical companies — be it Dow/Union Carbide or any Big Pharma — want to take responsibility for the harm that they cause. All the profits. None of the guilt.
She also highlights the attitudes towards the poor–they don’t matter so let’s poison them or use them as guinea pigs.
It was great to hear of them speak of their strong mother in the end~~no junk food in the house. My father, too, did not allow junk food in the house when I was growing up–a parent who cares is not going to feed their child junk. I heard the other day of parents of my children’s generation feeding their kids nothing but junk…and they don’t see anything wrong with that. Very unsettling. Regretfully, I didn’t appreciate my Dad’s wisdom until recently. I always felt deprived because other kids got to have a “treat” of junk food on Friday night. Just before the divorce, my sister would make Chef Boy-ar-dee pizzas on Friday night. I felt happy at getting that “treat”. Pfft. The “treat” that kills.
Food is medicine. Weeds are medicine. When will we learn to value that which is not valuable by profit-making and make that available to all, not just those with cash in hand??
Have these people completely lost their minds?
One New York state study found radioactivity in fracking waste water at 267 times the level considered safe for human consumption. Other studies found several cancer-causing contaminants in fracking waste water. The report cites arsenic, lead, hexavalent chromium, barium, chloride, sodium, sulfates, boron, benzene and radioactive agents.
~~~~~~~~
You might remember hexavalent chromium…it was the stuff used by PG & E featured in the movie, Erin Brockovich.
It, as well as benzene, are known cancer causing agents. Arsenic and lead, of course, are heavy metals that cause neurological damage and in enough amounts–death.
It is just mindboggling that the fracking proponents look the other way at the damage caused by the fracking process. All that matters to them is getting the gas out of the ground, no matter the consequences. Well, it has a way of coming back on you…quality of life goes down…healthcare costs go up…and each generation suffers more DNA damage.
Members of Congress have paid attention to the orca documentary, Blackfish, and are now asking Secretary Vilsack for updated guidelines on marine mammals in captivity.
Well…it’s a start…but I would much rather see the whole practice abandoned entirely. It is inhumane to take these animals from their natural habitat for our entertainment.
It’s sad to see that the Sea World employee lashing out at people speaking out against Sea World. It was troubling to see Dawn Brancheau’s family speaking out against them, too. Mindboggling.
My other posts on Blackfish and orcas.
Puget Sound group helping orcas.
…and the evidence continues to mount on Eliot Rodgers’ hatred towards women and his previous acts of violence and aggression.
Why was this allowed to go on for so long?
Well, now…CNN still has some chops:
The former video of Elliot Rodger has been made “private” now, so one cannot view his rant on how deserving he is of women’s attention and sex. One cannot see the blatant sense of entitlement. Nor his viewing women as objects for his personal pleasure.
I love that CNN explored this topic–one that women deal with on a daily basis, but has been ignored by mainstream media…well, ANY media, be it liberal or conservative. Women’s concerns, up to now, have been ignored or if any attention is given to it, their concerns are belittled to be insignificant. Elliot Rodger is a product of the rape culture–I’ll take what I want if she won’t give it to me willingly.
My other posts on rape culture:
A father is harassed after his daughter is not only raped, but bullied afterwards.
Promoting rape culture in popular media. And...joking about raping others….
The police ask “why didn’t you try to get away?” when she is beaten within an inch of her life.
In India.
In France.
In Australia.
Native American women, who, until very recently, could be raped without retribution.
Boasting about rape on social media.
They’re only raping prostitutes…
The alleged abuse of Terry Richardson….and how he’s allowed to get away with his predatory behavior by those that employ him and even praise him.
Lastly, the alleged abuse of Dylan Farrow by Woody Allen.
Eagle 
You must be logged in to post a comment.