Incompetent Japan?

At least 56 people are confirmed dead on Japan's Mt. Ontake (御嶽山) after a sudden volcanic emission of gas, steam, rock & ash on 27th September. Many more people remain unaccounted for and are presumed dead. As of today, more than three weeks have passed since the explosion.

Japanese rescue workers are doing their best in adverse conditions: hiking into a dangerous volcanically-active area now covered with thick, sticky ash. Bad weather and poor visibility have greatly prolonged search efforts. But part of the disaster can be blamed on poor preparation.

Both low & high tech responses are sorely needed. Japan should be able to rally robots and drones that can operate in poor conditions and bad weather, using infrared and other sensors to find survivors and victims. We've sent such machinery to Mars; why can't Japan create appropriate search & rescue technology? (or buy-in needed competency)...

Finding victims could be sped up by using trained birds (raptors) or dogs or foxes that can detect smells or terrain anomalies.

The well-intentioned Japanese search & rescue teams are being filmed from above, and appear rather foolish tramping about and sliding around in the mud.

Japan should be able to better respond in times of trouble. This is an area where Japan should invest its "peace dividend" and lead the world. Instead, Japan looks incompetent and pitiful.

This problem is worse in the face of concerted efforts by ruling-party LDP politicians to massage the way Japan is portrayed in the media: sudden concern with depicting Japan positively, for international audiences to see the nation in the best way possible. That idea is not bad - when based on fact. Japan could be much more competent, a global model for search and rescue, a nation where militarism was rejected, where swords were turned to serve society.

Japan can convert military technology to peaceful uses and ultimately global service; "Peace Technology" creates lasting friends to ensure the nation's long term security & success.

Welcome to Japan!

Tokyo has been chosen to host the 2020 Summer Olympics. There are some efforts already towards generating a more global outlook in Japan. But regressive and xenophobic elements of Japanese society are blatant and remain in plain sight.

Biased View of Foreigners, Ministry of Foreign Affairs pamphlet

Will Japan be allowed to hold the Olympics? The biggest threat just now is nuclear fallout and radiation pollution from the leaking Fukushima reactors. Japanese people are told there's no danger. Nobody believes that. But while local residents have no escape,  athletes of the world cannot be eager to expose themselves to poisons...

Japan excuses it's 34 years delay ratifying & implementing the Hague Convention

Nobel Peace Prize to Japan?

Supporters of Article 9 of Japan's Constitution have reportedly been nominated for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. The war-renouncing clause has been under serious threat by the ruling LDP and aggressive Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The loosely organized grass-roots effort begun by housewife Naomi Takasu and other common citizens is a longshot for the Nobel Peace Prize, but we can only hope the world notes that very many in Japan resist & condemn the belligerence of certain Japanese government employees. Resist Militarism!

"Aggressive Abe" threatens to wield any and all weapons for Japan's resurgence

Nobel Laureate Nakamura is Angry

U. Cal. Santa Barbara Prof. Shuji Nakamura took time to criticize Japan's rigid business culture the day after learning he was awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize for Physics. A naturalized American, Nakamura claimed what encouraged him in his work was "anger."

Nakamura insists (link) Japan is a stifling environment for entrepreneurs.

Such words largely echo those of another Nobel Prizewinner who fled Japan: Prof. Susumu Tonegawa of MIT asserted in 1987 that (link) "Japanese culture remains a major block to true creativity. Scientific thinking ... is a product of individualism, and in Japan, individualism has never been of personal value."

Nobel Laureate Tonegawa's warnings, made 27 years ago when Japan's economy seemed golden, were largely ignored. The subsequent economic crash and decades of stagnation have greatly weakened Japan. Will Nobel Laureate Nakamura's cautions get more respect? One dimension of his vision is stated clearly: "If Japanese companies don’t reform drastically and implement English as their daily business language, the economy will only continue to contract."

In 1989, New Scientist magazine pointed to the growing number of foreign researchers in Japan, citing Tsukuba Science City especially. But 25 years later in some key areas, divergence from Japan's homogeneity is still proudly smothered: multiple nationality is generally disallowed, and there are still confusing claims that foreign researchers cannot apply for and receive tenure at Japanese national universities.  Though in fact there seems no legal barrier to regular employment of gaikokujin by universities, confusion & uncertainty hurt recruitment. Both students and Japanese colleagues are weaker because of shortsighted policies and continuing discrimination against outsiders. There still remain huge access barriers in housing and finance for foreigners in Japan.

Japan suffers from mismanagement in a large part because policy inputs flow only from domestic, home-grown sources. Nobody champions great ideas already successful elsewhere. Japan's leadership wove a costly cocoon for itself, and still delays emerging to engage with the wider world.

Legal reference to public universities in Japan hiring foreign nationals:
公立の大学における外国人教員の任用等に関する特別措置法
http://www.houko.com/00/01/S57/089.HTM

Korean Government Overreach

The Korean government is persecuting a university teacher for "impure lectures" in a misguided attempt at interference that mocks & undermines professional freedoms. Higher education institutions & professors worldwide should vigorously protest Korean government censorship in university education.

Prof. Yoo So-hee (영남대 사회학과 강사였던 유소희; link), was accused of violating Article 85 of the Public Official Election Act. In a Yeungnam University class on "Understanding Contemporary Popular Culture" she reportedly distributed & discussed newspaper clippings, including some that were critical of Park Geun-hye, then a candidate for President of Korea. After Park was elected, Prof. Yoo was charged as a criminal; her students testified she'd not tried to dissuade them from voting for Park Geun-hye, nor had she sought to persuade them to vote for another candidate (link). But she was found guilty. No longer lecturing, she's appealing her conviction.

Meanwhile, the right-wing government of Korean President Park Geun-hye owes it's very existence to orchestrated interference in the democratic process. In late 2013, Korea's National Intelligence Service worked systematically and officially (but secretly) to create massive internet support for presidential hopeful Park Geun-hye, and to vilify and smear her rival. Korea's Cyber Warfare Command, Psychological Warfare Division of the National Intelligence Service, performed shamefully (link). Government operatives should have refused to conduct such blatantly illegal operations, even when commanded by higher-ranked officials. Mass conformity & indifference to injustice weaken Korea.

In Israel, they use hasbara ("explaining"  הַסְבָּרָה in Hebrew) for national goals. Korea has studied hasbara methods, good, bad & ugly. The Korean right-wing has perhaps gone far beyond in underhandedly promoting partisan politics and one favored political party. This is bad news for Korea, where anti-democratic repression by the authoritarian right-wing is ultimately unsustainable. The eventual housecleaning will bring about unwelcome repercussions and dangerous political & economic instability. 

Japan Forgives BadBoy?

Scientist Shuji Nakamura (中村 修二) did his best work in Japan, at Nichia Corporation. His groundbreaking research on blue LED was today honored with the 2014 Nobel Prize for Physics.

Nakamura now works in the USA, and on becoming a US citizen would have been typically forced by Japanese law to drop his Japanese citizenship.

What led one of Japan's star scientists to abandon his home?  Nakamura was working for Nichia Corporation of Tokushima when in 1993 he developed & patented his key nitride LED technology. Nichia Corp. was estimated to have benefited 60.4 billion yen (US$600 million) from Nakamura's contribution by 2004. They kindly offered him a bonus of 20,000 yen (US$200).  Nakamura ultimately left the company, sued for additional compensation, and won a sum of approximately a third of the calculated benefits.  But the corporation appealed, and ultimately Nakamura accepted a court-mediated settlement only some 4% of the original judgement. Nakamura was quoted in LEDs Magazine (link) as being "totally dissatisfied"...

Prof. Shuji Nakamura is now based at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Discussion on Japanese television the day of the Nobel announcement gave no hint of past struggles and frictions, simply and proudly stating "three Japanese" won the Nobel Prize for Physics.

Spammers Thank Politicians

Neo-conservatives tell us government is BAD. We should & must do everything ourselves. Free choice and more choices.

This is bullshit. We need protection from sharks & thieving cheating scoundrels. Otherwise, one-by-one we're weakened by parasites & scavengers, before a Social-Darwinist Republican predator executes each final slaughter.

The goddamned TARP program gave hundreds of billions of dollars to politico friends. You, dear reader, likely got nothing. You continue to pay usurious interest on debts; thieves sap your life. Others were unjustly gifted with huge wealth by Democratic & Republican Congressional bloodsuckers.

Every time you see spam mail, remember: in the eyes of both marketers & politicians, you're a schmuck. Dupe, patsy, victim, target...

Core Industry? WAR

On Tuesday the new one-day-old puppet government of Afghanistan was corralled into signing an agreement with the USA offering their nation as a battlefield for ten more years to 2024.

US Field Marshal Barack Obama, elected president on pledges to end America's wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, did not attend the signing ceremony.

The US military meanwhile continues bombing Iraq (and now Syria), in a war stretching back to the late 1980s.

America's military provides jobs, but it's a filthy business. Bring our troops home!

Abe the Fool Boy

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has shown he's not only a fool, but a danger to people in Japan.

Abe & Co. are working hard to get Japan's nuclear reactors back online, and beefing-up Japanese military efforts overseas. Politicians politicians pushing policies both unpopular & dangerously foolish.

Japan's nuclear industry is a bastard offspring from decades of LDP rule, and Japan's Liberal Democratic Party continues to poison the nation with feeble leadership. Abe is like George W. Bush: privileged thin-blooded child of a mediocre politician; more concerned with media & image than with the well-being & survival of his constituents.

Meanwhile, a volcano erupts in the center of Japan, killing dozens of day hikers. The government had offered no warning, provides minimal assistance, and now merely states Japan has lots of volcanoes...



We see twenty people lined-up holding blankets to screen victims being carried from helicopters to ambulances. At the same time, an unknown number of people remain trapped & unhelped on the mountainside.

We hear reports over many days of people found with no heartbeat and not breathing - but not considered dead (Days have passed - where are the Japanese government-licensed medical practitioners who can formally declare death?)  Japan has a huge "self-defense" or military budget, but we see minimal rescue effort using mobile breathing systems & infrared goggles to find living victims. Why is robotic monitoring wholly beyond Japan's capability? And the people trapped would be thankful of rescue from any source - why not utilize the U.S. military, with many thousands of troops in Japan?

The world watches & wonders at Japan's bureaucracy & the inhumanity of government.

Japan looks uncaring, slow and foolish; politician Abe is poster boy.

Overdose

Many people around the world have experienced overdose with alcohol consumption. It's odd that in English we rarely use that term overdose in such circumstances, even when drunkenness results in death.

Alcohol is a dangerous drug. What level of consumption amounts to overdose?

Surely someone who drinks alcohol, falls down and injures themselves can be considered to have overdosed? Or vomits from drink? What of the case when a drinker feels slightly nauseous the following day?

More carefully designating OD (overdose) might put a damper on partying. Would you modify your alcohol intake behavior to avoid admitting to overdose? There are many ways to have fun without Bacchus at center stage (Stockholm's alcohol-free club made news today). Dig deep and be more creative when partying... I'm personally unwilling to say booze is always bad, yet I try to design drinking patterns to limit my own consumption.

Welfare Profiteering?

Swedish Social Democrat leader Stefan Löfven and the Green Party (Miljöpartiet) never promised to bring Vänsterpartiet (the Left Party) into government, but they all collaborated in opposition prior to this last election day. Now that the Moderate Alliance is defeated, Löfven and the Greenies have fully rejected the Left, which attracted 5.7% or 355,576 votes. Vänsterpartiet's main platform criticized social welfare profiteering as supported by more mainstream parties.

With a hobbled minority government, the crafty Social Democrats & Greens should have the Left inside their tent pissing out, rather than outside pissing in.

Löfven's government, starting badly, may not last long...

Ghost of Gary Webb

Garry Webb was a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter from California who linked the CIA, the Contras, and crack cocaine trafficking in a "Dark Alliance" series of articles for the San Jose Mercury News.

Webb's work reportedly greatly upset both the CIA and bigger mainstream media (link). These establishment forces largely managed to crush both the story and the reporter, as described in the book (now also a film) Kill the Messenger.

Did Gary Webb himself contrive to bring further suspicion on his (now largely admitted) persecutors? Is he a vengeful ghost? Webb was found dead in December 2004. His death was ruled a suicide, and the bullets that killed him were fired from a .38 caliber pistol recovered near his body. Cause of death unusual for suicide: two shots to the head.

A French website (link) published this photo as "webb.jpg"

 

Was Webb suicided? The French ask, American big media don't...

Does Webb's drastic downfall discourage investigative reporters?

Carl Bildt Fails

Carl Bildt, Sweden's outgoing Foreign Minister, was reportedly behind efforts to bully the Swedish Right Livelihood Award foundation for choosing to award the 2014 prize to Edward Snowden. The prize announcement, traditionally held at the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in central Stockholm, was hurriedly banned. National broadcaster SVT was uncommonly blunt to report criticism of Bildt's interference (link; although this report itself has been toned down & edited subsequent to first publication, dropping mention of unattributed comments by Bildt's colleagues).

Yet not all Swedes are butt-buddies of the USA and keen on secretive government.

Snowden, the American whistle-blower who exposed global mass surveillance, is joint honorary laureate with Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian. Edward Snowden will hopefully accept his prize this December in Sweden's Parliament.

Right Livelihood Award Laureates (link) have often been under personal threat. Many patriotically call attention to illegal operations by rogue elements in their own government. Bildt & company's censorship tactics would seem to give Sweden a black eye, but it shows we must struggle to maintain independence & transparency. Surely many Swedes don't grovel  & submit to the USA's New World Order like Carl Bildt.

Karzai Kicks

Hamid Karzai, outgoing President of Afghanistan, declared after 13 years he was done pimping for American military interests in Afghanistan and the wider region: "This is not our war - it is a foreigners' war."

US Ambassador James B. Cunningham proclaimed Karzai "ungracious and ungrateful"...

Yankee highrollers feel their own dog's bitten them. But Karzai is surely correct to warn his successors. "My advice to the next government is to be very careful with America and the West..." 

Bravo Hamid Karzai !

America's held hostage by militarists (as is Afghanistan). Industrialists and their parasites keep America permanently at war. Unnecessary, brutal, costly, and foolish, every American becomes a target of those who survive our repeated tramplings. The US Government has no proper business with distant tribal disputes, and should leave local people to find their own solutions. We're told repeatedly - Get Out ! Yankee Go Home. Let's stop the madness and bring our armies home. We should fully withdraw from Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and other killing fields.

Cosigned by Me?

The secret militarism of the USA and allied governments involves us all. We don't know the goings on, but it's done in our name.

We pay for these adventures - not only financially.

We're not really "innocents" when we connive to allow warmaking & massacres. We cosign the checks buying bombs and bullets, bribing foreign officials, and undermining societies overseas.

"Outgoing Afghan President Hamid Karzai will step down next week after a 13-year reign that has seen only limited improvements in infrastructure, health, education and women's rights despite billions of dollars of aid."
"This is not our war, it is a foreigners' war - it is based on their goals," Karzai told government officials as he bid them goodbye at the presidential palace in Kabul on Tuesday." (see related BBC link here)

We bad. ...sure to get hurt again & again.

The dirty, crazed & unwelcome Bull in a china shop, America's wars should stop - now. Bring the troops home!

Voturd?

Democracy may make a majority of voters satisfied or excited.

Many are thrilled at election results, only to be soon frustrated.  "Voturd" is to be disrespected and treated like shit by elected winners soon after a vote. Voturd is recognizing the people you elected are lying sacks of dung.

Voturd - Special this week in Scotland, Sweden & Afghanistan.

Smeared with voturd? A stinking voturd?

People must eat voturd?

Run Rocky Run

Three military officers from Afghanistan disappeared from "cooperative training exercises" on Cape Cod. They'd spent the day shopping at the Cape Cod Mall, and failed to report for duty at Joint Base Cape Cod, under U.S. Central Command, as expected.

Now they could be anywhere in America. Perhaps they're trying to apprehend a dangerous individual.

Or perhaps they're eating pancakes somewhere, happy to avoid the long lonely return flight to a dusty battlefield. Their pitifully besieged nation is now a doormat for Uncle Sam. Scraping shit from boots is rough to handle for a once-proud people...

Nader Raps Our Rulers

Good article by Ralph Nader (link):

"Damaging Our Country from Wars of Choice"

(excerpt) "...Will our media resist hyper-focusing on the “war on terror” and give us other important news about ongoing American life? Will our government pay more attention to preventing the yearly loss of hundreds of thousands of American lives from hospital infections, medical malpractice, defective products, air pollution, unsafe drugs, toxic workplaces and other domestic perils?"

"Not likely."


In fewer words:
-- Bring our soldiers home.
-- Shut down US militarism.
-- Stop funding enemy-creation.
-- Promote social necessities & real safety

Babylon Beware

Militaristic colonial powers, led by the USA, UK & France, once again battle in Babylon.

Our bombing & killing will accomplish nothing in this 6000-year-old killing ground. The area now Iraq and Syria is like quicksand: disagreements abound; foresaken armies, mired in dust, die on the trail of past invaders. We've no place there.

Bring our armies home.

Democracy Sweden

The people of Sweden have gone to the polls & voted for leadership. Turnout was 85.8%

Details can be seen here in English:
http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/val2014/valresultat/?node=n00&mode=area&disp=percent&lang=en&type=nation

A new government is likely. This is good because mass surveillance and lack of transparency were characteristics of the old government, with secret entanglements to foreign intelligence services & militaristic business interests. We might hope our new bosses quickly learn what's been happening.

It's probably too much to hope spying & surveillance will stop, but at least more people will know the extent of Sweden's secret entanglements...

Militarism is dirty business - let's have much less of it.

Baby scotland?

Why's scotland continual junior "partner" ?

Why's government so rigidly in England?

Would the redcoats switch overall administration each 10 years between London & Edinburgh?

Scuzzy big money media won't supply truth.
Vote your heart. Vote for your children's future:

Free Scotland.
Vote Yes

ayeland.com

'Scotland' is a brand of little bitty dog back in Texas ...

See the Moon, only $10

Our societies are dangerously mercantilist. When profit motive underlies most interaction, our humanity suffers.

Sure we need tools for living that cost money. But social leadership can & should limit annoyances. Persistent & repeated marketing calls; beggars camped on every main street; tricks & scams of puffery and advertising and spam; the public needs protections -- but monied interests never cease huckstering. Nothing is sacred. Try buying quiet: all the world's For Sale


• Expect Generosity and exemplify civility

• Constrain Commercialism

• Don't Vote Huckster.

Scotland Corgi

Scotland can soon choose freedom, or continue as lapdog of bigger interests. The Queen keeps her dogs; others keep a donkey in their garden. Too often & for too long, English nobs kept a Scot as bootblack and butler, kept at the edges of the country estate as a beater for the hunt.

Ayeland - vote YES

We can't fully know what will happen, but the bosses are irritated. MegaMedia Corp. paints images of danger. But generations of English dominance haven't stripped-away the pioneering spirit. Scotland as junior partner? No thank you Mum.

Brit politicos love the Treaty of Union while government resides rigidly in London; are they willing from 2020 to switch overall administration between London & Edinburgh every 10 years?

Scotland can afford independence. It's now a colony.

Scotland the Brave

vote YES

AYELAND.com

Rösta för skolan

The Alliance rules Sweden with an iron fist, encouraged by secret agencies of the US government. In eight years they've done nothing positive for Sweden's schools. Jackshit.Now they pretend to care?

School rust & decline is due to the Moderates, Kristdemokraterna, Center & Folkpartiet, who focus on dealmaking among their own elite. Professed care for schooling is fake & soon abandoned. They've immersed schools in the political process. School owners withdraw government-supplied funds as profits, and do so now when threatened. The kids are simple poker chips.

Good teachers now have impossible jobs.

Rusted Swedish schools only exist because of an uncaring & profit-hungry political Alliance. Don't be deceived by SPAM messages & sudden smiling politico posters. Our ruling class will suck you dry. Modest savings = honey to such parasites. We've a gamble.loving Alliance fueled only by Wealth. With rot hastily painted-over, they push advertising at us: professional politicians boldly insist (after eight years of free lunches) they now ready to work.

Folkpartiet especially is a zombie, diseased & dangerous to all. They're already an eight-year illness afflicting Sweden's children ...

( reproduce images freely! )

Sweden Needs New Leaders

Look at the smiling blank faces of most politicians - especially the ruling mercantilist Alliance.

Creepy. Their claims are empty - pushing us SPAM.

Aggressive Salespeople dressed as sheep --- Press DELETE

Benchmarking Sweden

Election season in Sweden brought out a wide range of promise posters. Unfortunately after eight years in power for the ruling coalition (Moderates, Kristdemokraterna, Center & Folkpartiet) many voters will question bold political promises by Alliance weasels.

"From now we will do this." Maybe... Why not in the last eight years?

Folkpartiet seems the biggest pack of liars - suddenly "strong for education" when their present policies have created the money-grubbing struggling school system...

I'd like to see a major expansion of non-partisan benchmarking studies by government. Surely many of the lessons of Norway, Denmark and Finland are useful to Sweden, as well as systems and experiments in other parts of Europe and elsewhere.

We need data & reliable studies backing policy. Moderaterna are like smiling salespeople - nice, but citizens shouldn't forget they work for their own profit and will stretch truth to make a sale. We need facts and more transparency.

Instead of struggling after shrinking budgets, survey & evaluation activities should be greatly expanded at Statskontoret (Swedish Agency for Public Management). Hire hundreds more analysts, preferably including many "new Swedes" with overseas training and experience, and on a project basis fund dozens more studies by external researchers. Publish these analyses online in English to be useful as well for other nations.

Japan developed a great system of Special Zones for Structural Reform (構造改革特区) allowing local areas and small-scale citizen groups to test new ideas & initiatives under careful evaluation. If successful, wider national implementation could follow.

Sweden has many such possibilities for deregulation. A simple example is cellar-door wine & liqueur sales by local producers. Finland has instituted such a system; at what cost & with what benefits? Such experiments promise to boost local & regional tourism, but with monitoring and a proper benchmarking study we could & should know specific details, instead of politicized half-truths and rumors.

Statskontoret should be renamed, revamped & better funded.
"Public management" and public administration are now nasty words to laissez-faire capitalists. "Swedish Agency for Policy Analysis" is a better name. Sweden can usefully build its reputation as an analytic & scientific nation.

Influencing US Think Tanks?

Who truly employs America's policy analysts? Opinions for sale in the USA? 

Great article (link) in The New York Times:
Lipton, Eric, Brooke Williams & Nicholas Confessore. (2014)"Foreign powers buy influence at Think Tanks." in The New York Times. (6 Sept 2014).  Online at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/us/politics/foreign-powers-buy-influence-at-think-tanks.html

But what of Israel?
Why is Israel so little mentioned in the article and accompanying documents? Is the State of Israel missing an important opportunity for influencing opinion in the USA? In the midst of anti-Semitism, terrorism, investment divestment, boycott movements, etc., surely Zionist interests would support positive and friendly analyses.

Don't disregard Israel.

Sweden's Beggar Ombudsman

Important elections in Sweden this month may sweep the present US-leaning government from power.

Bravo. The Alliance centre-right coalition (Moderate Party, Centre Party, Folkpartiet (Liberal Party) and  Christian Democrats) has brought about mixed results, but after eight years in power their new election season promises now seem empty.

One area of poor performance:

Beggars - Sweden now has thousands more beggars than when "Moderaterna" took power. In Stockholm pitiful beggars have settled-down on the pavement outside virtually all the big shops and supermarkets. Our leadership has done virtually nothing about this; it becomes more of a problem with homeless beggars camping in parks and shitting among the bushes. I don't believe it's proper to allow unrestricted use of public spaces for camping and fundraising. Impoverished people can enroll in assistance programs. A dynamic society should plan how to assist the weak.

Begging is a type of fundraising open to abuse; these conditions need monitoring. Is there a Beggar Ombudsman? Many local people are concerned for beggar welfare, but we need not allow such people to take over our passageways without restriction. Surely we can require enrollment, and also impose controls.  
Some may object that many beggars are not local people. If poor people are coming to Sweden for begging, our response (or lack of response) is all the more important. Apparently the present government has done little or nothing. 

Ayeland the Brave

Scotland Independence
AYE !

Bound No More to London (& secretly to Washington)

Vote Yes for Independence

ayeland.com

Ayeland the Brave image free to use for freedom !                            

Radiation Enema

It's Bad News when the nuclear energy industry builds near your home.

PR on job creation & economic benefit is garbage. Visit Fukushima and judge for yourself - hurriedly evacuated dead zone, a leaky poisoned waterfront: a running gash of failed technology polluting mobile marine life and all the ocean.

Regardless of nuclear reactor safety, the commercial nuclear industry irresponsibly continues to store their nuclear waste in close proximity to their nuclear furnaces. Now the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has decreed that even in cases of nuclear reactor shutdown, local-based nuclear waste dumps can continue same-site for 160 years. Unbelievable.

Industry calls this radioactive waste "spent fuel" - but it's deadly poison for centuries. There is no federal repository for these poisons; there's no consensus on providing truly safe systems. Anyone should know to keep a volatile dump far away from the generating furnaces, and keep it all far away from the seaside, far from public water systems, and far from population centers to minimize airborne pollution dangers. These basic points are typically ignored.

Profit-seeking corporations are a disastrous management formula, and cannot guarantee safety.

People in nuclear neighborhoods and districts either live in great fear, or they live in denial. The businessmen running the nuclear plants can simply declare corporate insolvency and skulk away (the executives don't live nearby)...

Renegotiated Union

What will happen when USA states begin seriously considering costs & benefits of union? Many local regions might do a better job with education, criminality, health care, immigration, defense, economics, etc. than Congress can capably provide, even when not deadlocked. Is the only choice to accept US Federal mandates?

Might states, regions, or sub-regions renegotiate their membership in the federal union?

The Federal budget is unaffordable.

The US central government gave private industry insiders huge monies via the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. Not all lawmakers supported those "bailouts" + subsidies. The economy still has not recovered (not surprising - those who caused the crisis kept their jobs through the bailout).

Obama's government has done little to change a foul rot in Washington. Global empire bankrupted and targeted America.

There are dozens (or hundreds, or millions) of reasons people might wish to renegotiate the US federal union. Best consider arguments now for a revised USA. California may divide into six states (ballot initiative upcoming). Others seek to secede completely from the USA (see link to petitions throughout the nation). No doubt our overweight nation needs better care - many stars now shine dimly, or are partly obscured.

Geronimo Bin Laden

Geronimo, Pocahontas, Che Guevara, Malcolm X, Bin Laden ...
America's vanquished enemies.

Resist US military occupation, prepare to be hunted & killed. Our righteous leaders repeat the warning again & again & again.

But our military has no proper business in far-flung places. Shut-down the colonial outposts which cost too much money & blood. Build society on sustainable, humane & progressive domestic foundations. Bring our troops home !

Funny Pigs

(click to enlarge)