Tag Archives: employment

Fukushima

What Economic Recovery? New Japan Prime Minister says no recovery without Fukushima

“Without the revival of Fukushima, there will be no revival of Japan.”-Noda Yoshihiko, Prime Minister of Japan

The new Japanese Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko, said there will be no recovery for Japan, without the recovery of Fukushima Prefecture.

Hello, Fukushima is contaminated with radiation! The Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant is still out of control!  Latest cesium readings show at least six towns in Fukushima Prefecture have radiation levels higher than areas around Chernobyl!

The nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, Ukraine, happened in the 1980s and it still has not recovered!  I guess this means Japan is toast?

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Corporate America screws us over, again, ZERO jobs created in August 2011!!!

“The last time the government reported exactly zero jobs added in a month was in February 1945.”-CNN

“We expected a weak report, and what we got was even weaker…” and  “It’s still a skunk and it still stinks.”-Patrick O’Keefe, economic researcher at J.H. Cohn

The United States Department of Labor says Corporate America has let the country down again, zero jobs created in the month of August!!!

President Obama said his advisers expect the official unemployment rate to stay well above 6% until 2017!!!

When you factor out the 45,000 striking Verizon workers, and the temporarily laid off 22,000 state workers in Minnesota, the jobs creation numbers for August are a piddly 23,000.  Remember, most economists say at least 150,000 new jobs MUST be created every month, and that is not happening.  A more recent study by the Economic Policy Institute says 400,000 new jobs must be created every month!!!

This crappy August jobs report surprised the hell out of many economists.  CNN asked 22 economist what they thought the jobs creation number for August would be.  They thought at least 75,000 new jobs would be created, not ZERO!!!

It’s time they start calling this possible double dip recession what it really is, a depression!  I guess if  you look at it optimistically, the job numbers could have been worse, they could have gone negative!  So much for being optimistic!

 

Fukushima

Typhoon Talas hitting Japan with heavy rain, warnings issued, school hit by landslide

Typhoon Talas is coming ashore between Shikoku and Hiroshima.  Heavy rain, flooding and landslides being reported from Tokyo area, and several hundreds of miles north east to the island of Hokkaido.

Rain warnings for the hardest hit areas: Tokai (Nagoya) and Kinki (Osaka, Kobe, & Kyoto), may get drenched with 800mm (31 inches) of rain in the next 24 hours!!!

Landislide warnings for the following prefectures:  Tokushima, Wakayama, Nara, Mie, Shizuoka, Yamanashi, Saitama, Gunma, Tochigi, Iwate and Hokkaido.

There are reports that a school in Nabari, Mie, has been hit by a landslide.

Wind damage to buildings in Kobe, Osaka and Wakayama.

Air travel canceled, some roads closed.

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Corporate America says ‘If you’re unemployed don’t bother applying’, some States pass laws making it illegal for Corporate America to discriminate aginst the unemployed

“But we have seen instances in which employers are explicitly saying we don’t want to take a look at folks who’ve been unemployed. Well, that makes absolutely no sense, and I know there’s legislation that I’m supportive of that says you cannot discriminate against folks because they’ve been unemployed, particularly when you’ve seen so many folks who, through no fault of their own, ended up being laid off because of the difficulty of this recession.”-Barack Obama, President of the United States

What irony, Corporate America are deliberately discriminating against unemployed people.  Many want adds state “Must be currently employed”!

How’s that going to turn around the economy?  More proof the economic depression/recession is the fault of Corporate America!

A couple of months ago the National Employment Law Project found 150 online job adds that specifically discriminated against unemployed people.  Those discriminatory employers included Universities!

Some states, like New Jersey, are fighting back by making it illegal to require job applicants to be already employed.  The U.S. Congress is considering a bill that would do the same: Fair Employment Opportunity Act 2011, HR 2501.

Even Monster.com is being sued for posting help wanted adds that require current employment.  Monster.com says they’re just the messenger.

Fukushima

Pacific Ring of Fire: Japanese University says big quakes are coming for Tokyo

“If there is drastic plate movement, there is no guarantee that the scale of the quake will be in line with the government’s prediction of up to magnitude 7.3.”-Hirata Naoshi, Earthquake Research Committee

The University of Tokyo’s Earthquake Research Institute believes that major earthquakes are in the near future for Tokyo city, and Ibaraki Prefecture, no thanks to the 11 March 2011 9.0 quake.

Even though the 11 March earthquake was at least a hundred miles north of Tokyo, it was so powerful that the tectonic plate under Tokyo has changed so dramatically, that scientists think a massive quake caused by action on two or more areas of the plate is highly likely.  Since 11 March, the number of Tokyo quakes of magnitude 3 or greater has increased by fourfold.

Tokyo is subject to earthquakes that are located along plate boundaries, as well as quakes that happen along fault lines within a single plate.

Ibaraki Prefecture, just south of Fukushima Prefecture, is even worse off.  Since 11 March, quakes of magnitude 3 or greater have increased by 20 times!

The high tectonic activity is on the coastline, inland quake activity has not increased, but it has changed.

Japanese scientists say that recent inland quakes are much more shallower that past earthquakes.

Fukushima

Pacific Ring of Fire: 14 previously dormant fault lines now alive and threatening in Japan!

14 fault lines in Japan, which were thought to be ‘safe’ are now considered dangerous, potentially producing a 7.6 earthquake.

The other problem is that they all run near nuclear power plants.

A survey of the fault lines were undertaken by nuclear power plant operators, like Tokyo Electric Power Company.  They concluded that the fault lines are a real threat.

Nine fault lines are near Japan Atomic Power Company’s Tokai Number 2 power plant, and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency’s Tokai reprocessing plant in Ibaraki Prefecture.

The other five faults are near Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima Number 1 (Daiichi) and Number 2 (Daini) nuclear power plants in Fukushima Prefecture.

 

Fukushima

Government & Corporate Incompetence: Fukushima exceeds radiation levels at Chernobyl!

Six towns in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, have soil that is contaminated with Cesium levels far higher than those at Chernobyl.  The levels exceed that which forced mandatory evacuations around Chernobyl back in the 1980s.  Some areas around Chernobyl are still off limits.

Japan’s Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry put together a soil contamination map.  Six municipalities recorded more than 1.48 million becquerels per square meter of Cesium 137.

The Cesium hot spots are in no-entry and expanded evacuation zones around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was damaged by the 11 March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

 

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Latest survey shows there are less jobs now, than in 2008, study says Corporate America is Lieing when they use the excuse “they can’t find qualified workers”

“To fill the gap by mid-2014, three years from now, 400,000 jobs would need to be created each month.”-EPI study titled: Sustained, high joblessness causes lasting damage to wages, benefits, income, and wealth

The latest Economic Policy Insitute study shows there are 6.8 million fewer jobs now, than when the recession officially started in 2008.

The study also indicated that it was a pipe dream to some how create 400,000 new jobs every month.  So far, evil Corporate America has been hiring a paltry average of 144,000 jobs each month.  The EPI authors say at that rate it’ll take 15 more years to get the United States back to its pre-2008 glory.  And this study doesn’t take into account all those federal and state government jobs that will be lost due to budget cutting.

Another aspect of the study showed that Corporate America’s claim that there are no qualified workers to hire, is a lie!  That type of unemployment is called Structural Unemployment.

The study found that the ratio of job openings, to job seekers, is one opening for every four applicants.  It’s been that way for at least two years now.  With an average of four unemployed people applying for one job, how can Corporate America say they can’t find any qualified workers?

Here’s another reason: The unemployed include people from every education group, including college graduates with Masters degrees.  This means Corporate America has a vast pool of trained and educated people to pick from, yet Corporate America isn’t hiring!

 

 

 

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: TEPCo throwaway subcontractors contaminated with radiation!

In less than two weeks, four contractors working at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant, have been contaminated with radiation.

All four were contaminated by water from the defective water decontamination system.

Two workers were contaminated when they replaced defective parts, the other two were contaminated when water surged out of a valve that was mistakenly left open.

Tokyo Electric Power Company has been constantly criticized for how it handles its contracted employees.  Many former employees claim TEPCo provides no training, and even no protective gear.  One government agency backed up those claims a couple of months ago.

The Japanese government is still waiting for health screenings for hundreds of TEPCo employees, as well as the whereabouts of 200 missing employees.  In one public meeting, Tokyo Electric officials said the missing 200 employees were probably terrorists!

 

 

Fukushima

Tropical Storm Talas heading for nuclear damaged Japan, will become a Typhoon before landfall

Tropical storm Talas, directly south of Japan, is heading right for the center of the nuclear damaged island nation.

It’s predicted that by 29 August 2011 Talas will be a category 1 typhoon.  Japan is still recovering from the 11 March 2011 quake and tsunami. Also, the damaged nuclear plant Fukushima Daiichi could get hit.