All posts by Hutchins AAron

Born in Deutschland 1965, hometown was Bütthart, parents were not U.S. government employees. However, when father was tricked into joining the U.S. Air Force Civil Service, in 1969, with the promise that we could remain in Germany, we were promptly shipped off to Iran. Due to one of my Iranian educators being disappeared, along with her husband, by the U.S. ally Shah of Iran's Israeli & U.S. created Savak (for the then official terrorist act of promoting the idea that women can vote), and due to my U.S. citizen mother being placed on Savak's Terrorist Arrest List (for supporting the idea that women should vote, at that time the U.S. ally Shah of Iran did not allow women to vote, now they can) we left Iran for the United States in 1973, literally in the middle of the night. At the U.S. Embassy airbase the CIA operated Gooney Bird (C-47) was so packed with other U.S. citizens fleeing our ally Iran (because the Shah gave the OK to arrest any U.S. citizen for such terrorist acts as promoting the concept of voting) that we were turned away by the Loadmaster and had to take a chance on a civilian flight out of Tehran's airport. My father told me he and my mother had three culture shocks; first when they arrived in Germany as civilians, then after being shipped off to Iran as U.S. government employees, then again returning to the United States as unemployed civilians (because so much had changed in the U.S. while they were gone, their only news source was the U.S. Armed Forces Radio & Television Service which heavily censored information about the home front). Since I graduated high school in 1982 I've worked for U.S. government contractors and state & local government agencies (in California), convenience store manager in California, retail/property management in Georgia, California and Idaho. Spent the 1990s in the TV news business producing number one rated local news programs in California, Arizona and Idaho. 14+ years with California and Idaho Army National Guard and the U.S. Air Force. Obtained a BA degree in International Studies from Idaho State University at the age of 42. Unemployed since 2015, so don't tell me the economy has recovered.
International, Technology, U.S.

No Economic Recovery for U.S.: Desperate for sales, Lockheed pushes Japan to buy controversal F-35 jet

Steve O’Bryan, vice president for F-35 business development at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, was in Japan, trying to push them to buy the controversial jet.

The main reason the F-35 is so controversial is that it’s taken far longer to develop, and it has cost U.S. taxpayers far more than originally estimated.

O’Bryan is hoping Japan will buy the F-35 to replace it’s aging F-4 Phantom 2 jets.  Japan is one of the last countries still using the F-4.  Also, some of Japan’s newer F-2 jets (a bigger version of the F-16) were destroyed by the March 11 tsunami.

Japan also uses the F-15 Eagle.  In 2009 U.S. officials tried to convince Japan to buy the F-22 Raptor, but that deal fell through.

Lockheed Martin is selling the F-35 on the grounds that Japan needs to meet the growing threat from China’s latest aircraft designs.  The problem is that Japan is already developing a stealth fighter of its own.

Lieutenant General Hideyuki Yoshioka says Japan’s prototype stealth fighter is expected to make its first test flight in 2014, about the same time that Lockheed Martin thinks it will be ready to finally mass produce the F-35.  So much for the U.S. trying to sell the F-35 to Japan.

 

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: Major grocery store chain admits to selling cesium contaminated beef

Grocery chain operator Ito-Yokado says it sold over 2,600 kilograms (5,732 pounds) of beef contaminated with cesium.  The beef was sold at 94 outlets in Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, as well as on the northern island of Hokkaido, between April and July.

Ito-Yokado is not the only store that has admitted to selling the contaminated beef.  Two other grocery/department store operators, Seiyu and Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings, have admitted to selling the meat.

Consumers are being asked to bring the meat back, but many analysts think that too much time has gone by and that most of the beef has been eaten.

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: Cesium contaminated beef served to children at elementary schools

Japan’s Education Minister Yoshiaki Takaki is demanding action after it was discovered that three elementary schools served children beef contaminated with cesium.  The schools are located in Chiba, east of Tokyo.

Takaki has ordered local schools to check the source of the food they serve.

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: Professor demands that Japanese government check for cesium even hundreds of miles from Fukushima Daiichi!

22 July 2011, the Japanese government is only conducting radiation checks in the Fukushima area, but one professor says they need to check the whole of Japan.  Especially after it’s become clear that cows and cattle feed are contaminated with extremely high levels of cesium.

Niigata University Professor Nonaka Masanori, says radiation levels were never checked in farmland, especially those areas that produce rice straw for cattle feed.

Nonaka says the cesium is spread by snow and rain, which is being absorbed into the soil and taken up by plants.  The government needs to check for contamination no matter how far away from Fukushima Daiichi.

 

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: Electric power to damaged Fukushima Daiichi has been cut!

22 July 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company says external power, needed to support efforts to control the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant, has been cut.

There was a sudden surge of electricity which tripped a breaker controlling power to reactors 3 and 4.  They are now using back up generators, and they are trying to find out why external electric power failed.

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Weekly first time unemployment claims go up, “experts” surprised (again), unemployment really at 20%

The U.S. Department of Labor reported that first time state unemployment claims jumped by 10,000, to 418,000.  The numbers are for the week ending July 16.

The previous week’s drop in first time claims is due to the shortened work week (July 4 holiday).  That means it’s very likely that the first week of July could have seen an increase in unemployment as well.

Once again, many “expert” employment annalists did not expect such a large increase in unemployment claims, for the week ending July 16.

The latest weekly first time unemployment claims numbers, continues a trend, now 15 weeks on.  15 weeks in a row that first time unemployment claims is above 400,000.

The current official unemployment rate is 9.2%.  If our government was using the same unemployment rating system that was used during the time Bill Clinton was President, then official unemployment would be at 20%!

 

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

Government Incompetence: U.S. taxpayers lose $1.3 billion to Chrysler

So what about all the noise about Chrysler supposedly paying off its bailout loan?  In the end the U.S. taxpayers lost $1.3 billion.

The pay off was in the form of stock buy back.  The United States government sold its remaining shares of Chrysler stock to Fiat.  The result was a net loss for U.S. taxpayers.  The U.S. Department of Treasury called it a “major accomplishment”!

Maybe if the federal government wasn’t so busy bailing out banks and corporations (along with its increasing war budget) it wouldn’t be in so much financial trouble right now.

 

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: Nearly 200 TEPCo workers missing, TEPCo made no effort to explain their whereabouts

For months now, Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has been demanding that Tokyo Electric Power Company improve working conditions for their employees, including contractors.  Officials have also been demanding to know why TEPCo is taking so long to get all the employees tested for radiation exposure (at least 1,500 are still awaiting tests).  Now it turns out that 198 newly hired employees are missing!

The Japanese government has given TEPCo until 29 July 2011 to get all workers tested for radiation.  The government is also demanding an explanation for the disappearance of 198 workers who were hired AFTER the 11 March disasters.

Earlier in the week TEPCo admitted that it could not find 132 employees, but after the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency investigated it turns out that 198 are missing.

Government officials are concerned that TEPCo’s lack of accounting for its employees is just par for the course; from day one of the nuclear disaster TEPCo officials have proven they have a lackadaisical attitude towards managing all aspects of running a nuclear plant.  (or maybe they’re what are called ‘ghost workers’, they never existed, they were created on paper to ripoff taxpayers)

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: Cesium contaminated cows hits 1400, Mother Earth helps spread the radiation!

Japanese officials now say at least 1,400 contaminated cows made it to consumer markets.  More and more rice hay is being found contaminated.

Rain and wind are helping to spread radiation, from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, all over Japan.

The Japanese government is considering a beef buy back program, to help the stricken cattle industry.  No one in government ever considered the effects of radiation on cows, and now the Japanese cattle industry is crashing.

It’s now clear that no one in government was concerned about the effects that rain and wind would have, on spreading radiation across Japan.

Idaho, U.S.

What Global Warming? E Coli contamination in Idaho blamed on cooler than normal weather

An outbreak of e.coli in the water at Sandy Point Beach, at the Lucky Peak State Park in Idaho, could be caused by colder than normal weather.

Officials with Parks and Recreation think cold weather delayed the circulation of water through the swimming area.

Because winter like conditions lasted well into spring, the Army Corps of Engineers were not able to create the usual lagoon current, that normally flushes out the swimming area.  The result is that officials suspect geese droppings built up in the water, resulting in high levels of e.coli.

The swimming area is now being flushed.