Tag Archives: incompetence

Business/Economics, International, Technology

Government & Corporate Incompetence: TEPCo says new radiation leak is pouring Strontium into the Pacific Ocean

On December 4, Tokyo Electric says they found a leak in a desalinization unit.  It’s not a small leak, so far 45 tons of contaminated water has poured out.

What’s really interesting is that the de-salting unit is supposed to be treating water that had already had radioactive contaminants removed.  TEPCo is saying the water is contaminated with 130,000 becquerels per cubic centimeter of strontium!

Company officials say it is highly likely that the strontium contaminated water made it into the Pacific Ocean, because there is a drainage ditch nearby leading to the ocean.  It’s most likely strontium 90, which has a half life of 28.8 years, and causes many cancers including bone cancer.

TEPCo also made confusing statements; one said workers had checked the unit just 21 hours prior and found no signs of leaking, but then in another statement TEPCo officials admitted they did not act fast enough (a now typical trait of TEPCo management) as it was known that water was building up inside the unit, but they thought it would not leak out.

TEPCO says it will take them two weeks to improve their leak detection of the water treatment units.

Business/Economics, International

Government Incompetence: 25,700 Brits froze to death because they could not afford to heat their homes! Charles Dickens where are you?

“According the national office of statistics, there were 25,700 deaths relating to fuel poverty in 2010-11, this is shameful. And sadly is likely to rise in line with the fuel poverty figure increase.”-Mike Jeram, UNISON, the U.K.’s biggest public sector trade union

According to U.K. government reports, the number of people who can not afford to heat their homes, called fuel poverty, makes up about one quarter of the British population, an increase from the previous winter.

“The government has yet again made false promises, as it looks likely to fail its legal duty to end fuel poverty by 2016….the government is pushing people further into poverty with its austerity agenda!”-Mike Jeram

The Institute of Fiscal Studies predicts that British households’ incomes in 2015 would be worse than their income in 2002!

Business/Economics, International, Opinion, U.S.

Government Incompetence & Global Economic War: U.S. wants other countries to stop buying Iranian oil, U.S. conspiracy to drive up the price of oil

The U.S. Treasury Department is asking other countries to stop buying Iranian oil, as part of increasing sanctions against Iran.

Here’s the problem: Iran has already adjusted its oil business so that sanctions don’t have any affect. They don’t take the U.S. dollar anymore (the real reason U.S. officials want to attack Iran), and they even let countries pay for oil purchases with barter (by trading for other petroleum related products/services). If enough countries stop taking Iranian oil it will only drive up the price of oil for everyone!  In fact, just the U.S. Treasury Department suggesting this will cause market oil prices to go up.

Who’s side is our government on anyway?

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: TEPCo admits lack of communication caused Reactor 1 to melt down and explode, evidence it was a man made disaster!

On 02 December 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company officials admitted that lack of communication resulted in Fukushima Daiichi’s Reactor 1 melting down and exploding, on 12 March 2011.

Former plant manager, Yoshida Masao (who recently resigned due to health problems, which might be caused by exposure to radiation, which TEPCo denies) said he, and other officials, were not told that Reactor 1’s cooling system was manually shut down.  He realized the cooling system was not working a little more than six hours after it had been turned off. By then it was too late.

Just a few days ago TEPCo admitted, after an independent investigation, that 100% of the fuel rods in Reactor 1 melted.

The irony is that Reactor 1 had the only operable cooling system after the 11 March earthquake and tsunami hit the nuclear disaster reactor plant.  Reactors 2, 3 and 4 lost their connections to electrical power, but Reactor 1 was still connected.

This could add some fuel to the conspiracy theories out there (that it was intentional, after all, look how long they’ve dragged this out!).

Business/Economics, U.S.

Government Incompetence, What Economic Recovery? IRS fails to refund millions in taxes, blames postal addresses. Part of scheme to shut down U.S. Postal Service?

There are reports that the tax collector of the U.S. government, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), is holding back on refunding $153 million in overpaid taxes!

IRS officials claim it’s because of postal addresses they just don’t trust.  So they’re not going to mail them out!  99,123 U.S. taxpayers are waiting for those refunds!

Here’s the sinister answer the IRS has for solving the ‘problem’: Everyone needs to stop using the postal system and use direct deposit!

To check the status of your tax refund click on the “Where’s My Refund” at the IRS website.

Business/Economics, U.S.

Government Incompetence, What Economic Recovery? Reports say Congress will let Postal Service default on December 16

“It feels like Helena and Cosby are caught in the cross hairs. There is a big battle going on and we are the ones that are going to suffer.”-Marianne Price, Montana resident who relies on the U.S. Postal Service

Recently, the President of the National Association of Letter Carriers, Fred Rolando, said certain actions by Congress, or lack of action, could put the USPS into a “…death spiral…”.

A CNN Money report says political analysts have reason to believe the U.S. Congress will not consider any more bills to save the U.S. Postal Service, until after the 2012 elections.  That guarantees the USPS will default.

The U.S. Postal Service, which does not use taxpayer money to operate, employes 557,000 people directly.  Several companies, like FedEx, also provide service under contract.  South eastern Idaho postal workers told me that if the USPS defaults, at least 200,000 postal workers will immediately lose their jobs!  It will also mean cut backs for those contractors working for the Postal Service.

The USPS is actually a contractor itself.  Under President Richard Nixon today’s Postal Service was created (it was the Postal Department before then).  The Postal Service operates on money that comes from you and me buying postal products (not taxes).  Under President Ronald Reagan stamps were added to the list of products the Postal Service could make money from (before that the government got the money from stamp sales).  The only tax money used for postal services are for mail for the blind, for mail in election ballots sent from U.S. citizens living overseas, and, for providing address information to state and local child support enforcement agencies.

For reasons not publicly known, some elected officials, and the main stream media, are misleading the public into thinking that cuts to the USPS would save taxpayer money. It won’t!

A Cornell University professor says the U.S. Congress is fully to blame (as I’ve stated in past postings): “A lot of these decisions are fundamental business decisions about quality and frequency of service, and they should be in the hands of the executives running the Postal Service. But Congress won’t let them do that!”-Richard Geddes, Cornell University associate professor

While many officials blame the Postal Service management and the unions, the fact is that USPS management and unions have been working together to make drastic cuts. Their latest agreement could cut $20 billion in postal worker health care benefits, but Congress has to sign off on it.

Just a couple of weeks ago, President Barack Obama extended the deadline for default by the U.S. Postal Service.  The new deadline is December 16.  If the CNN Money sources are right, then bye bye USPS (unless Obama just keeps extending the deadline)!

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: Tokyo Electric can’t explain the high levels of radiation from Reactor 2!

During the week that followed the March 11 earthquakes and tsunamis that hit Japan, reactors 1, 3 and 4 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant exploded.  Yet Reactor 2 spewed the most radiation.

Contract workers at the plant say they heard an explosion inside Reactor 2, but TEPCo officials swear no explosion took place.  Independent researchers claim that Reactor 2 has emitted more radiation than the reactors that exploded!

Scientists (not working for TEPCo) say the most probable reason is that the containment vessel around the core was breached.  TEPCo also denies that.

TEPCo officials simply state that “somehow” radioactive gas escaped Reactor 2.

Fukushima

Government & Farmer Incompetence: More cesium contaminated rice, new farms affected!

Three farms in the city of Date, Japan, harvested rice that was found to be contaminated with cesium, up to 1,050 becquerels per kilogram.

Earlier in November as many as six farms in Oonami district were found with contaminated rice.  Those farms did not sell their rice, but the farms in Date did.

Now officials are trying to track down who bought the cesium contaminated rice.

Date, and Oonami are in Fukushima Prefecture, where the Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant continues to emit high levels of radiation.  Originally officials were testing rice just from the 154 farms in Oonami, but will now test more than 2,300 farms in the prefecture.

Business/Economics, International

Corporate Incompetence: Another Japanese company loses millions in cash, this time in Casinos! Call it a family affair?

The Japanese paper company, Daio Paper, is in financial trouble after it was discovered that a, now former, executive borrowed millions of company dollars to gamble in overseas casinos!

Tokyo prosecutors are investigating Mototaka Ikawa.  They say Ikawa borrowed more than U.S.$128 million from seven subsidiary companies between May 2010 and September of this year.  They believe he spent the money in casinos in Macao and Singapore.

Unnamed sources claim that Ikawa actually borrowed much more, all from subsidiary companies that are run by his relatives!  In a specific case, a Kagawa Prefecture golf club owned by the company, says $6.8 million of their money is missing.

Prosecutors say Ikawa thought it was a safe bet to borrow from his own company, because he didn’t think the missing cash would be reported!  Some gambler!

Business/Economics, Technology, U.S.

Corporate Incompetence: Hewlett Packard cancels TouchPad, turns out it’s the number two selling tablet in the U.S.!

“76% of consumers who purchased a non-Apple tablet didn’t even consider the iPad, an indication that a large group of consumers are looking for alternatives, and an opportunity for the rest of the market to grow their business.”-Stephen Baker, NPD Group

On August 18, HP announced it was stopping production of its TouchPad tablet, citing poor sales.   Yet a survey by NPD Group says the HP TouchPad was the number two selling tablet in the United States, in 2011!

HP’s decision to cancel their TouchPad came just seven weeks after it was released.  That’s not long enough to give a new product a chance.  However, part of the reason for the HP TouchPad grabbing the number two spot, is that the price was dropped from $499 to an incredible $99!

This just seems like Corporate Incompetence to me.