Tag Archives: debt

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: More proof radiation spreading across Japan, rice feed for cows 440 miles away contaminated!

Yet another prefectural government announced they will begin radiation checks of their cows, after they discovered their cattle feed is contaminated with cesium.

That prefecture is Shimane, and it’s 708 kilometers (440 miles) south west of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant!

Shimane officials say they will begin blanket tests of their cattle starting next week.

Tests of cattle feed, at the end of July, came back showing high levels of contamination.  As a result prices for cows from Shimane crashed.  Officials are hoping their cows are not contaminated, because cattle farming is an important business for them.

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: Japan government cannot logistically conduct radiation monitoring, must rely on local governments and NGOs

Another example of the lack of preparedness of the Japanese government; promised increases in radiation monitoring have not materialized, because the government can’t handle it logistically.

02 August 2011, the Japanese government announced that in order to increase radiation monitoring they will now rely on non governmental groups, many of which have already been conducting their own radiation monitoring.

Many of Japan’s citizens have complained about the lack of response from the national government.  Official government reports concerning radiation levels have been contradicted, and even proven wrong, by local governments, as well as the NGOs.

Many of the national government reports relied on data from Tokyo Electric Power Company, and it’s obvious TEPCo is totally unreliable.

Agencies of the Japanese government are now going to work with the NGOs, and local governments, to set up a large network of 250 radiation monitoring sites, which will include schools and libraries.  They will check air, ground, water, plants and food for radiation contamination.  The government hopes to have a web site set up by mid August, so that everyone in Japan can see the results.

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: Ban on fertilizers used for farming, ban on livestock feed, radioactive, finally establish standards

The Japanese government established radiation contamination guidelines for determining whether fertilizers, and livestock feed, contaminated with radiation are safe to use, or not.

The new safe limit for contaminated fertilizer is 400 becquerels of cesium per kilogram.  Farmers are asked to use humus and compost that contains less than that.

The new standard for fertilizer comes after it’s become clear that many crops around Honshu are contaminated, internally, with radiation.  Many of those crops are fed to cows, which in turn become internally contaminated.

Also, the government established, for the first time, safe limits on cattle and fish feed.  300 becquerels of cesium per kilogram in cattle feed is the max, and 100 becquerels for fish feed.

Government officials say they will start explaining, by next week, how farmers can check for such levels.

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: Highest INDOOR radiation levels found in Reactor 1 building!

On 01 August 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company revealed that a venting pipe coming off Fukushima Daiichi’s Reactor 1, was emitting 10 sieverts per hour of radiation.  According to government officials that can kill you in one to two weeks, after one hour of exposure!

Now TEPCo says they’ve conducted radiation checks inside Reactor 1 building, and bingo…5,000 millisieverts (5 sieverts) per hour, the highest indoor reading yet!

The readings were taken on the second floor of the reactor building.  TEPCo has ordered the area blocked off.  They say the high radiation readings in that area are because the venting pipe, that’s emitting 10 sieverts per hour, runs through that room.

 

Fukushima

Fourth Prefecture makes cesium cattle ban list, within 24 hours of the third Prefecture!

Within 24 hours of banning cattle from two locations in Iwate Prefecture, the Japanese government is also banning cows from Tochigi Prefecture.

Just like Iwate, the ban affects two areas within Tochigi Prefecture, after cesium contamination was found in cows and plants.  Tochigi has a much bigger cattle industry than Iwate.  As many as 55,000 head of beef cattle are shipped from Tochigi, and they process (slaughter) another 30,000 per year.

The national government is asking Tochigi officials to step up voluntary cesium inspections with the farms that are not in the two cesium affected areas.

The prefectures that are now under beef bans are Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate and Tochigi.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? & Government Incompetence: U.S. to cut trillions in government spending, except for the billions going to Israel

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a debt limit bill that would see more than $2 trillion cut from government spending over ten years.  But those cuts won’t affect the billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars Israel gets.

U.S. politicians said hands off U.S. taxpayer money going to Israel.  Hypocritically, the United States is cutting aid to Palestinians.

It’s being reported that when the Republican party took control of the House of Representatives, they told AIPAC (formerly known as Jewish Defense League) that financial aid to Israeli would not be affected by spending cuts.

Israel gets tens of billions every year from the United States.  That includes money for Israeli companies, the Israeli military, money that’s not officially reported, and interest on some of the money.

Can you believe that, Israel actually gets interest payments on the free money from U.S. taxpayers!  The way that works is that some of the money is held back, and interest is accrued on the funds that have yet to be paid.   One report said that between 2006 and 2008, $2.089 billion in interest was paid to Israel.

Isn’t obvious who really controls the United States government?

 

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: More cesium contaminated beef!

The Japanese government has made it official, and banned beef from Iwate Prefecture.  Iwate is the third prefecture to have its cattle banned from market.  Fukushima and Miyagi are the other two prefectures.  Iwate normally ships out 36,000 head of beef cattle every year.

The ban doesn’t affect all cattle from Iwate, just those from farms in two areas that have already tested positive for cesium contamination.  Other cattle farms, in Iwate, are being asked to step up cesium inspections.

The problem with the Japanese government’s response to the contaminated cattle, is that it is reactive.  They only take action after contaminated beef has made it to market.

It’s so obvious that massive cesium contamination has spread over a large area of Honshu.  It’s time to become pro-active and stop all agriculture shipments now!  Do contamination inspections on everything coming from farms.

I know for most agriculture products time is important because they can spoil, but spoiled food is better than letting highly contaminated food make it to market.  Again, it is so obvious that massive radioactive contamination has occurred.

 

 

 

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: TEPCo thinks there are more radiactive Hot Spots, can kill a person within one week!

On 01 August 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company detected a massive radiation leak from a pipe between reactors 1 and 2.  It’s emitting 10 sieverts (10,000 millisieverts) per hour.  The Japanese Science Ministry says anyone who is exposed to such levels can die in one to two weeks!

Now TEPCo says it’s possible there are other radioactive hot spots within the Fukushima Daiichi compound.  They claim they will check for more hot spots.  The amazing thing is that time after time, whenever a massive amount of radiation is detected, TEPCo says they will conduct better monitoring, yet it’s starting to look like they lie about it.

This latest radiation hot spot was found by a gamma ray camera, but apparently the pipe has been emitting the deadly levels for months.  TEPCo now speculates that the pipe is full of material from melted active nuclear fuel rods from Reactor 1.  Reactor 1 melted down just hours after the 11 March 2011 quake and tsunami.  TEPCo says the pipe was used to vent the reactor after the melt down.

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: Highest radiation levels yet coming from Fukushima Daiichi, higher than what instruments can read!

01 August 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company reporting that they’ve recorded the highest radiation levels yet at their damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

A pipe located between reactors 1 and 2, is emitting more than ten sieverts (not millisieverts but the larger measurement of sieverts) per hour of radiation!

Most measurements have been given in the much smaller millisieverts range.  One millisievert equals 0.001 sievert.   One microsievert equals 0.000001 sievert.  So you can see a reading of ten sieverts is huge!  It is so huge, that the Geiger counters used to take the measurements max out at ten sieverts, which means the level of radiation being emitted could be higher.

As usual, TEPCo officials don’t understand why they’re getting such high radiation readings!  TEPCo sent workers to inspect the pipe, after a gamma camera detected extreme radiation.  The workers could not stay long, leaving after being exposed to 4 millisieverts per hour of radiation.  TEPCo says the area around the pipe is now a No Go area.

 

 

Business/Economics, Opinion, U.S.

U.S. government debt limit increase will NOT save economy, will only provide corporations will cheap loans, perpetuate downward spiral

Claims by the main stream media, and politicians at the Federal level, that raising the government debt limit is necessary to save the economy, is a lie.

We’re being told that people will lose jobs.  People ARE losing jobs.  Since the beginning of the year dozens of companies have announced job layoffs.  The latest is British company HSBC, which says it will layoff 25,000 employees around the world, by 2013.  Raising the U.S. government debt limit will not stop that.

By raising the debt limit, the U.S. Treasury can issue more bonds (which means taking on more loans/debt).  The Treasury can then loan that money at ridiculously cheap rates to U.S. corporations.  Those corporations are not using that money to hire more people, they’re using it to pay their own debts!

We’re also being told that without a debt limit increase interest rates on our loans will go up.  So what!  Many of us little people lost our credit back in 2007/2008!  Many of us little people that still have credit saw our rates skyrocket already!  What our leaders really mean is that U.S. corporations, and the government, will finally have to pay higher rates on their loans!

The latest reports are that the debt limit increase will come with the slashing of $2.1 trillion in government spending.  That can only happen with thousands of government employee layoffs!  So how does raising the debt limit prevent job layoffs?

A debt limit increase will not stop cuts to government programs!  We’ve already seen huge cuts to social programs, and we’re going to see more cuts to government services, because you can’t cut $2.1 trillion in spending without drastically cutting funding for programs!

And don’t think you’re not going to be paying more taxes.  It’s the only way the government can pay down its increasing debt.  But our leaders are ignorant of the fact that as more people lose their jobs, that’s less people that can pay the higher taxes!

The bottom line is that a debt increase will not save the economy.  We are seeing people continue to lose jobs, and it’s clear that people will continue to lose jobs even with a debt limit increase.  There can be no economic recovery with such huge and continuing job loses!   We’re just picking up speed in our economic downward spiral.