Sunday, April 21, 2013

Molesting Migrants

Republican Party Briefing Points:  Immigrants

Let's take off the white gloves and talk of illegal migrants.

  • Migrant labor is often cheap
  • Employers favor hiring undocumented migrants as these people have little leverage and are unable to negotiate.
  • Home-grown labor expects minimum wage (or more), costly health & safety protections; seniority benefits; etc.
  • Home-grown workers expect respect.  (Boorrinngg!)
  • Illegal immigrants have no such entitlement expectations.
  • Good workers shut up - and work.
  • Hiring illegal workers lowers local labor salary expectations & job prospects - cutting costs, padding our profits
  • Migrant workers are more easily manipulated than locals
  • Sexual exploitation of immigrants is very often unreported (tragic!)
  • Migrants can easily disappear; few questions are raised
  • Illegal migrants often don't know / won't use the law

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Haiku



Haiku for birthday girl. Sorry not more romantic. B

Distant past monsoon
April Stockholm birthday rains
Vasanthi swimming


Echo fuelled blossoms
Squawk of Daughter's discoveries
Eco fueled blossoms


Amidst all of this
A moment's gap. Moisture smell
What I have is now.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Finding a Bomber

Three days ago, bombs ripped through the Boston Marathon -- an outrage.

Video evidence is cited of a possible bomber, with confusion today over whether a suspect was arrested. Law enforcement ultimately said no arrests have been made.

Can we trust Justice officials? Might they manipulate this situation?

Remember the hurried evacuation abroad for at least 140 Saudis on eight aircraft within days of 9/11 (link), when the rest of the USA was forbidden to fly?  Proper procedures were neglected.

The scariest 1% of official strategists play grand games with our lives. They okay collateral damage. Wag the dog.

In this case, who knows who committed the crime? The perpetrator(s) themselves know, they're already alert, and until law enforcement makes an arrest, bomber freedom endangers the community, with growing risk for escape. Hiding details of these criminals intensifies our unease & terror. Better the public sees potential evidence and helps justice find these bombers - before they disappear.

Update:
After officials published photos of suspects, public response provided key information & pressure toward resolution.


Saturday, April 13, 2013

Angels & Demons

Mrs. Gina Marie Clark (age 42, Marstons Mills, MA, USA), founder of Touched By Angels, is now on trial in Barnstable Superior Court. She's charged with 15 counts of larceny over $250, one count of larceny under $250, one count of larceny under $250, one count of gross fraud over $250, one count of operating an illegal lottery scheme, 10 counts of failing to pay minimum wage, two counts of failing to pay overtime, one count of failing to furnish suitable pay stubs, and one count of independent contractor misclassification.


Mrs. Clark worked with broken families that suddenly lost a loved one, and with the gravely ill. Using the family tragedy to generate local sympathy, she raised money for survivors and their crucial needs. She's under indictment for how she distributed the monies raised ("the split") and how she managed the charity operations. More about Touched by Angels (now defunct) is here (link); and also here. Here (link) is an Aug. 2010 interview with Gina Clark. Video interviews critical of Gina & her husband Chris Clark are here (or here at Vimeo).

It's claimed the Clark family "Angels" operations generated more pain than help. Justice will soon decide.

Well, that sounds good... But the bottom line is:
"Don't hold your breath waiting for Justice to arrive" 

It's unjust those families are in distress. It's unjust their friends are bled for money. It's not justice when innocent children die. The bottom line: we've chosen to justify a dog-eat-dog system where we're cruelly chomped by dirty dogs.

Many people in our communities are kind & honorable, helpful to their neighbors. (Surely Mrs. Clark has helped some people). But there's an abundance of desperation and unnecessary suffering. Weasels run the country. Cronyism & corruption are common. Unapologetic conquerors such as Dick Cheney are manipulative predators. Many more people & scummy organizations persist as opportunists & parasites, feeding on scraps of human misery.

Gina Clark is not an angel; neither is former NASDAQ boss & flim-flam weasel Bernie Madoff & Company. Defrauding the needy is vile & ghoulish. But we all suffer from more widespread ills: militarism, big bank deprivations, the infamous & illegal robo-signing, and other mega swindles. Far darker forces continue profiting from such frauds; remaining in the shadows and celebrating the troubles of small-scale grifters. Minor demons are a sideshow of distraction. Meanwhile, the worst devils continue to suck dry community energies & livelihood, polluting minds to ensure our continuing servitude. We envy the wealthy lifestyles of overabundance, though the excesses often leech from exploitation and victimization of neighbors. We support freedom of choice, but nobody chooses to be defrauded. What disincentives might minimize predatory behavior & discourage fraud?



Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Margaret Thatcher Dead

Margaret Thatcher's finally dead.
Our privations on her head.

Was she wickedly misled?
Or outmaneuvering us instead?

victims of The Iron Lady
Know her reputation's shady.

Fueled by media mystique
Utter disdain for the weak.

Avaricious prime offender
Trailblazer of her gender

Resolute to court the rich
Middling ogress; fiscal witch

By our bootstraps, we're despised,
Bled by poll tax, much chastised

Commons oft encroached upon
Tory cronies, Cousin Ron

Wealth forked out for guns & swords
Wily at the House of Lords

Entitlement's presumptive curse
Wry Baroness or prancing purse?

Friend of Pinochet & Reagan
Dear Suharto - Fan unshaken

Cruelly treated? Dear departed!
Crabby Queen of all hard-hearted

Must her name be venerated?
Rename Heathrow? Why's she hated?

List her victims. Do them honour.
Bloody Thatcher's now a goner.


Jump !
( Swede request )



Monday, April 08, 2013

Rite of Passage

An article on today's BBC website speaks of the fake ID as an American rite of passage (link). What archetypical rites of passage exist in other societies & cultures? (Or what are others from the USA?). What signifies a young person is 'cool' -- or what becomes important for self development?

When I was a USA young'un,  getting a drivers license as soon as possible was important. In my state, earliest possible was 16½ years old if completing certified driver's education training. I got my license the first week eligible.

Stories of owning (and using) a fake ID strike a chord... back when drinking age was 18.

The above two 'rites of passage' don't mix well together. Fortunately, I've no personal horror stories to relate.

Sunday, April 07, 2013

Chosen to Suffer

How dangerous are conditions in Korea today?

In the midst of massive USA & South Korea military operations which an emasculated press is instructed to label "war games" -- the DPRK has been strident & condemnatory.

So-called defensive joint operations Exercise Key Resolve 2013 and Foal Eagle Exercise 2013 may be designed to distract. Who knows? Surely the North Koreans remember the Mukden Incident when the Imperial Japanese Army created a lame excuse to invade a neighbor... Similar cases of deceptive aggression are easy to uncover. As always: War is misrepresented and common people suffer.

The leaders of both segments of divided Korea are novices at steering global power politics & directing warfare. Both leaders spent childhood as a member of their nation's First Family, with unique entitlements. Due simply to leadership inexperience, each is now highly exposed to being strategically stifled by menacing influences. Recognizing weakness, either might prevaricate, or suddenly issue capricious commands to challenge enemy psychologists & strategists, or to outmaneuver domestic resistance.
  • South Korean (ROK) President Park Geun-hye (박근혜) is daughter of ROK former military ruler Park Chung-hee (박정희) who was assassinated while in power; her mother had been assassinated five years earlier. President Park has not yet completed two months in office, and has yet to finalize many key appointments to government.
  • North Korea (DPRK) Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un (김정은) is 30 years old, in power for about one year. He spent some of his school years in Switzerland. Kim Jong-un follows his father Kim Jong-il (김정일) and grandfather Kim Il-sung (김일성) in leading his nation.

War is sure to be horribly cruel to Korea.
Let's sincerely hope further hostilities can be avoided.


Friday, April 05, 2013

Hawaiian Power

Bravo to Hawaii State Senator Russell Ruderman and Senator Will Espero, who persevered through the US Federal smokescreen to interview Hilo political prisoner Roger Christie.

Reverend Christie, a US Army veteran, has been imprisoned for over three years in the grim US Federal Detention Center, Honolulu. He's held without opportunity for bail and without trial, accused of marijuana crimes. Christie, now 63,  is not charged with using or advocating violence. But every day as an inmate, violence and cruelty are imposed on him, and on his distant family. Many in his community now fear the perverse & arbitrary central government. Terrible!

Christopher Deedy, the 3AM McDonalds killer, walked free on bail after a few hours, and flew off home to the mainland, but a popular local guy is forced to rot for years awaiting trial in the despised federal fortress. Pretrial inmates are not generally allowed visits by other than their immediate family (who in Roger's case live on a distant island). So cruel!

Mahalo to Russell Ruderman & Will Espero for standing up and refusing to be bullied. Federal employees Michael Kawahara and Beverly Sameshima, both Assistant U.S. District Attorneys, and judges Alan Kay, Gary Chang and Alan Ezra reportedly serve as point persons for the Federal Government. Roger sadly remains an imprisoned hostage, held three years without trial, basically incommunicado, a non-violent Island Warrior in distress. Talk & reason with his captors. Do something to help him!




Wednesday, April 03, 2013

Nuclear Waste Dumps

Yesterday a number of worried Cape Cod (Massachusetts) residents had opportunity to air their fears & frustrations in a meeting at Plymouth Town Hall with U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) officials.















Plymouth is home to the infamous Pilgrim Nuclear Generating Station, an aging nuclear plant the same type & design as Japan's disabled Fukushima Daiichi that suffered meltdown due to earthquake & tsunami. Pilgrim is also perched at beachside. Their license to operate was due to expire in 2012, and although the Massachusetts Attorney General opposed re-licensing, the State's objections were overturned by the NRC.

Anyhow, two important strategies worth recording were employed in yesterday's meeting:
1) The NRC refused to offer a normal question-and-answer session, instead seeding the room with officials who could answer individual questions. This is great for shy people afraid to speak in front of a crowd. But the negative dimension is that discussions with individuals are mostly unrecorded. Officials brush-off individual questions & complaints with any type of bullshit, avoid accountability, and others with concerns learn nothing of or from the exchange.

2) Plymouth Selectman (town official)  Belinda Brewster raised the key point that Pilgrim is now a de facto nuclear waste site. This perspective is important: nuclear generating stations should be required to admit they are nuclear waste storage facilities. Waste storage is related to power generation, but they are not the same thing. Sites are chosen for the generating business, not as ideal permanent nuclear waste dumps. They've become terribly dangerous.



Pilgrim Power Plant sounds like a whitewash. There are very real dangers from the combined Pilgrim Nuclear Generating Station and the Pilgrim Nuclear Waste Storage Site. We know from Fukushima the downside to these plants is death & destruction, evacuation & no return.