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.
U.S.

Obama lies about freedom of speech, bans two newspapers from White House

“We support a set of universal rights. Those rights include free speech…”-President Barak Obama, May 19 Middle East speech

Obama talks about freedom of speech, while at the same time bans reporters from being present at White House press briefings.

Reporters from the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Boston Herald, are the latest to be banned from the White House.

White House spokesman Matt Lehrich, admits the move regarding the Boston Herald, was a purely personal decision.  Basically Obama didn’t like the editorial decisions of the paper: “I tend to consider the degree to which papers have demonstrated to covering the White House regularly and fairly in determining local pool reporters. My point about the op-ed was not that you ran it but that it was the full front page, which excluded any coverage of the visit of a sitting U.S. President to Boston. I think that raises a fair question about whether the paper is unbiased in its coverage of the President’s visits.”

In other words, Obama was mad that the Boston Herald didn’t make his visit to Boston a front page story!

Regarding the San Francisco Chronicle, reporters were banned after the SFC posted video of a protest in which Obama was heckled (bad a poorly sung song) for failing to come through on many promises, and on the treatment of Army Private Bradley Manning.

The amazing thing, if you watch the video, is that It doesn’t really make Obama look bad.  He wasn’t trying to avoid their questions, or sending his goons to squash the protesters.  So why did he ban the SFC reporter who posted the video?  The official White House response was that the SFC is part of the “print pool”, meaning newspaper reporters should not be making and posting videos!

Wake up people of the United States, Obama is a hypocrite, just like most presidents before him.

Business/Economics, International

Global Food Crisis: Drought puts France in state of crisis

French environment minister, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, declared a “crisis situation” because of the ongoing drought.  She explained that current water levels are the same as if it was July, instead of May.

She has ordered a third of all French administrative departments to cut back on water use.  Two-thirds of the country’s groundwater reserves are reported to be below normal.

International, U.S.

Korea investigates U.S. Army base for Agent Orange dumping

Korean media reporting the three U.S. Army veterans have testified that they were ordered to dump 250 55-gallon barrels of Agent Orange on a U.S. base in South Korea.

“They just told us it was going to be used for disposal.”-Steve House, veteran

South Korea’s environment ministry will take soil samples at Camp Carroll in Chilgok County, North Gyeongsang.  The local government wants the United States to pay: “If the news report is true, the U.S. military must take responsibility, pay compensation and conduct regular Korea-U.S. joint inspections.”

International, U.S.

Japanese to pay for part of BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil disaster

While British Petroleum fights to pin blame on others for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, they somehow have convinced one of its Japanese business partners to pay for part of it.

MOEX, a unit of Japanese trading firm Mitsui and Company, will pay just over $1 billion to cover damages and clean up.  MOEX is a 10% shareholder of BP.

British Petroleum is struggling to come up with an estimated $40 billion to pay for damages and clean up.

Fukushima

TEPCo president resigns, TEPCo losses big money

Tokyo Electric Power Company president, Shimizu Masataka, has resigned, and will step down in June.

TEPCo has lost $15 billion.  $12 billion of that is directly due to dealing with the ongoing nuclear disaster at their Fukushima Daiichi plant.

In order to pay compensation to people affected by the radiation disaster, TEPCo will sell off $7 billion in property, and cut $6 billion in operating expenses by laying employees off, and ending research & development.

Fukushima

Reactor 2 & 3 risk of more hydrogen explosions!

20 May 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company says they will resume nitrogen injection in Fukushima Daiichi’s reactors 2 and 3.  There is a fear that hydrogen gas is building to explosive levels.

The explosions of the reactor buildings, back in March, is blamed on hydrogen gas build up.  TEPCo also said they were installing lead shields in Reactor 3, because of extremely high radiation levels.

Business/Economics, International

Control of Oil rights behind Scotland’s latest push for Independence

Scotland has oil, lots of it.  And the Scottish people say they’re tired of the English controlling it.  After all they were told they would benefit, but they haven’t.  Scottish rebels point to Norway as an example:  “Scotland and Norway discovered oil at the same time. Some years ago, Scotland was turned into an industrial desert and Norway has transformed its society and its economy, they have billions in the bank, whereas we have seen ours wasted on missiles and weapons of mass destruction and illegal wars.”-Kenny MacAskill, Scottish Justice Minister

The recent Scottish elections saw the Scottish National Party dominate.  The SNP ran on a promise to make Scotland independent: “We have been elected with two mandates: one is to pursue our claim for an independent Scotland in the right for a referendum. Equally, we have been elected as a government to make Scotland a better place and we seek to do that by driving our economy forward and making our country a fairer, greener, safer, wealthier and healthier.”-Kenny MacAskill

International, Opinion, U.S.

Obama to write off $1 billion in Egyptian debt, what about us little people here at home?

President Barak Obama wants to write off $1 billion in debts that Egypt owes the U.S.  Then he wants to give Egypt another $1 billion in credit!

Here’s two reasons taxpayers of the United States should be pissed off:  According to the U.S. Department of State: “U.S. military aid to Egypt totals over $1.3 billion annually.” And: “…the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has provided over $28 billion in economic and development assistance to Egypt since 1975.”

In other words Egypt is getting a deal that no creditor will give the average U.S. citizen!  Forgive our debts AND give us money?  Obama is playing with our tax money!  Why can’t he use our tax money to give us a break?

Business/Economics, Idaho, International

Canadian oil company equipment stuck in Idaho, Montana suing

Canadian Imperial Oil (a subsidiary Exxon Mobil Corp) has massive equipment, called modules, stuck in Lewiston, Idaho.  They need to get it to their Kearl oil sands project in northern Alberta, Canada.

The problem is their size.  Idaho Transportation Department has yet to approve transportation of the equipment through Idaho, one of the problems is that the modules won’t fit under any overpasses in Idaho.  Oil company officials say they will have to cut them in half.

In Montana, there are lawsuits to stop the transportation through its territory. Montana officials say the size of the Imperial Oil equipment will require burial of overhead power lines, upgrading existing roads and building new turnouts (who’s gonna pay for that?).  Montana environmentalists say the company needs to do an environmental impact assessment.

Imperial Oil is complaining that their construction schedule is being compromised.  Maybe they should have worked this out before hand?

Imperial Oil does not have a good business track record, or a good safety track record.  Recently they’ve apologized for the release of a mile-long plume of sulfur dioxide, in Ontario, Canada.

Idaho

Albertson’s tries to make up for Idaho education budget cuts

The J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation is donating $21 million to help fund the Idaho SchoolNet program.

The Albertson Foundation is a supporter of current Idaho education reforms.  They felt the donation was necessary after state legislators cut taxpayer funding for the SchoolNet program.

The Foundation says the $21 million donation is part of a total $25 million grant for the next school year.