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

Anti-drug Police ‘Accidently’ shoot family on fishing trip

“I want them to answer for my son, please, we’re a humble family, I need my son alive, I want justice, how can they just murder my innocent son?”-victim’s father

Bolivian anti-drug police shot and killed a 13 year old boy, and wounded five others, including the boy’s brother.

The father of the killed boy said he sons were going on a fishing trip with relatives.

Witnesses say the police drove along side the victim’s vehicle and started shooting with M16s. No warning was given, and no attempt to pull them over was made. At least 27 rounds were fired into the vehicle.

Angry residents protested by blocking off the highway where the shooting took place.

Police say they thought the family were drug dealers. The Official Bolivian government statement is that the police claimed the family shot at them first. Typical.

 

 

International

Mexico’s biggest wild fire in their history

So far nearly 43 thousand hectares (106,255 acres) of Coahuila, Mexico has burned. The fire still rages.

“This is an unprecedented display. Surely we have not had so much equipment and so many people working in a fire.”-Juan Manuel Torres Rojo, CEO of the National Forestry Commission (Conafor)

Rojo says wildlife is being killed by the fire. They found a black bear that died from smoke inhalation. So far mostly wild grasses and similar plants have burned, but now the fire is getting close to Arizona Pine forest.    


Fukushima

Rice planting banned in Japan, Cesium to blame

Thanks to the nuclear crisis, rice planting has been banned in Japan.

The problem is that the areas directly affected by the 11 March 2011 quake, actually sunk. Add to that the tsunami destroyed the sea walls. Now high tides have been flooding the land with ocean water contaminated with cesium-137 (as I warned in an earlier posting). There is also airborne cesium being detected, falling onto the ground.

The Japanese government will now test farm soils for cesium contamination. Any farm found to have cesium will be banned from planting. Cesium contamination is why Chernobyl city is still uninhabitable almost 30 years after that nuclear accident in Soviet Ukraine.

Rice planting normally begins by May. Rice is important to Japan: 8.5 million tons of rice were produced in 2010, and almost all of it stayed in Japan. The current situation will now make Japan dependent on foreign sources of rice.

Cesium is still found in soil in Germany, Austria and France 25 years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Chernobyl is 1,160 kilometers (720 miles) from Germany.

Fukushima

Erecting Steel Fence around nuke plant, Radiation Levels too high!

Tokyo Electric Power Company says workers are now building a steel fence around the water inlets and outlets of the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

They are attempting to block highly radioactive isotopes from getting out into the currents of the Pacific Ocean. They are also using silt fences.

One report says the steel fences are seven steel sheets thick, and the fence will cover an area 120 meters (393 feet) wide.

Recently officials admitted that radiation reports were faulty because the radiation levels are so high that monitoring devices are basically wigging out, and unable to give accurate readings. They stopped short of saying the levels are so high that they peg their meters.

They are hoping to use a UAV (drone) to monitor levels over the plant. It depends on the weather, unmanned aerial vehicles need good weather to fly.

International, U.S.

Another broken Obama Promise, Gates says we will stay in Iraq

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was in Iraq today. He gave a speech to U.S. troops, but it wasn’t about leaving Iraq, it was about staying.

U.S. forces are scheduled to be out of Iraq by the end of 2011, under a 2008 deal negotiated by George Bush Jr.

But Gates told troops that the Iraqi government now wants the U.S. to stay longer, and Gates said: “We’re open to that.”

About 10,000 Iraqis protested Gate’s visit, demanding that U.S. “get out”.

 

International, U.S.

Iraq attacks Pro-U.S. Iranian base

Iraq invaded the base of the Pro-United States People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran. The base is located inside Iraq, and has been there for 25 years (even during Saddam Hussein’s time, more proof how much the U.S. was involved with Saddam).

The U.S. has been supporting, covertly, the People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran for decades, in their attacks against the Islamic Republic of Iran.  Even though the U.S. supports the Iranian rebels, the U.S. also lists them as terrorists.

Iraqi forces claim they attacked the Iranian rebels because they rioted, and started throwing rocks at them. There’s no explanation of why they rioted.

The Iranian rebels say the Iraqi government was acting on the behalf of the Iranian government.

Iraqi forces say they killed at least 25 Iranian rebels, and wounded 320.

International, U.S.

NATO says No Military Solution to Libya, avoids questions about arming Rebels in violation of UN Resolution

In an interview on al Jazeera NATO secretary-general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said the solution to the civil war in Libya will come only through political discussions.

For some reason al Jazeera (who supports the UNSCR 1973) did not mention the statement in the text of their posting. You have to watch the video of the interview. It’s about 1:50 into the interview.

“I hope to see a political solution, sooner rather than later. Obviously there’s no military solution, solely.”-Anders Fogh Rasmussen

Al Jazeera then pointed out that despite the arms embargo, which is part of the UNSCR 1973, Libyan rebel leaders openly state they are getting weapons from the UN coalition (which includes NATO). Rasmussen was asked why, seemingly, NATO was not enforcing the UN arms embargo when it came to the rebels.

“We participate in the arms embargo, and to my knowledge there has been no bridge to the arms embargo.”-Rasmussen

Al Jazeera pressed the NATO leader about the arms embargo, while showing video of rebels receiving new weapons. They also pointed out that UN coalition member Qatar (which is Wahhabi Arab, same as al Qaeda), is openly providing weapons to the rebels. They tried to get a simple yes or no answer, this is what they got: “We participate in the enforcement of the arms embargo in strict conformity with the text of UNSCR 1973.”-Rasmussen

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Toyota says planned North American plant closures will last 5 days in April

“There are problems with parts supply. But each day, we are doing our utmost to improve the conditions so that we can deliver cars to many customers.”-Akio Toyoda, Toyota President

Toyota is having trouble getting around 150 components, but that’s down from 500 components after the March 11 quake.

Toyota said it will halt North American production starting on April 15.  It doesn’t look like production will be shut down for five days straight, instead it will be spread out, one day here, one day there.
Assembly line workers may report for training, use vacation days, or take unpaid time off.

Fukushima, Idaho, U.S.

Idaho RadNet 2 Days Behind, confusing info!

I’ve been checking the Idaho RadNet web site and have gotten frustrated because it’s become clear Idaho DEQ is not updating the site. I checked it today, 08 April 2011, @ 11:00AM Mountain Time, and the RadNet posting is still for 06 April 2011.

Recently the Associated Press reported how the RadNet monitors are not reliable.

On top of the Idaho RadNet web site not being updated, the text portion seems to be the same as it was last week, or, Idaho is still getting hit with iodine-131 and xenon-133.

The numbers that RadNet posts are in Beta counts per minute, which is how a Geiger counter reads. The problem, reveled by University of California Santa Cruz professor, Daniel Hirsch, is that there are no set universal standards regarding how much radiation exposure is “bad”.

One source says they consider 100 counts per minute as “bad”. Well, if you look at the Idaho RadNet web site, you’ll see counts as high as 300. However, if you try to use the RadNet web site explainer pages, to figure out if you’re safe or not, you only get more confused.

 

Fukushima, U.S.

Don’t trust EPA RadNet radiation monitoring, No set standard in Radiation Exposure Limits

“The monitoring system isn’t functioning fully.”-Daniel Hirsch, University of California Santa Cruz

Hirsch said that EPA is too slow in releasing data about the radiation from the nuclear accident in Japan.  Some RadNet monitoring systems have been offline for months.

The Associated Press, quoting the Environmental Protection Agency’s own website, said as many as 20 of the RadNet sites were down. Also, 38% were under “review”.  When a RadNet site is under review, it means that the officials are doubting the readings.

Daniel Hirsch pointed out that radiation exposure standards from one government agency to another are different, which adds to the problem of letting people know if they are at risk or not. It also explains why some “experts” disagree with other “experts” about the dangers from Japan. There is no set standard for radiation exposure!

This explains a lot of the confusion in Japan during the first two weeks of the nuclear disaster. I remember watching press conferences where it seemed  officials from one agency contradicted officials from another agency. You’d think when it comes to nuclear power there would be a set universal standard regarding radiation exposure!