Tag Archives: employment

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: TEPCo knew explosion could occur, but just didn’t want to believe that it would!

In a case of hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil, a Japanese government investigation into the corporate mind of Tokyo Electric Power Company revealed that officials just couldn’t believe the worse case scenario could happen at Fukushima Daiichi.

TEPCo officials admitted that they discussed the possibility of explosions inside the reactor buildings, but dismissed the possibility as unlikely.

Then, just one day after the 11 March 2011 quake/tsunami, Reactor 1 exploded.  TEPCo officials were focused so much on other concerns, that it took the second explosion, in Reactor 3 on 14 March, to wake them up.

Some government officials conclude that Tokyo Electric officials don’t realize just how dangerous a nuclear reactor can be.

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: Nuclear Plant workers say Reactor 1 was already melting down even before the Tsunami hit, decreasing radiation levels due to fuel rods being washed away

Many workers who were at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant the day of the 11 March 2011 quake and tsunami, say reactor 1 was already in trouble and possibly melting down, immediately after the 9.0 quake.

“There’s certainly a great deal of evidence that appears to suggest that the first reactor, reactor number one, was melting down by the time the tsunami hit. So, if that’s the case that the reactor was melting down as a result of the earthquake, and not as a result of the tsunami, a nine-point earthquake is something that has the potential to happen throughout Japan, and that would put the reliability and the design safety of all of these reactors in question.”-Robert Jacobs, Hiroshima Peace Institute

Also, Tokyo Electric Power Company has been reporting decreasing radiation levels coming from Pacific Ocean water inlets and outlets.  It’s not a sign they have things under control, because they certainly don’t.  Rather, after 5 months of ongoing nuclear disaster, what’s happened is that the remains of nuclear fuel rods have been washed out into the Pacific Ocean by TEPCo’s continued water injection.

“When you have a fragile structure that’s already suffered a great deal of damage and when you have continual aftershocks at the level of six-point, or there’s been some even higher, what we have now is we have the radioactive core that has melted down into the basement, into the bottom of the containment vessel of these reactors, and if the radiation level is going down, where it’s been monitored inside the buildings, and if the water pressure is going down, and the temperature is going down, it’s not that the radiation is just suddenly going away, it means that the radioactive material, the melted core, is simply moving further away from where it’s been measured.”-Robert Jacobs

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? WalMart says the economy still sucks, 9th straight quarterly decline in sales, blames you!

August 16, WalMart reporting their sales have dropped for the 9th straight quarter!  And that’s with higher sales than the same time last year!

WalMart blames us shoppers!  Just like most of Corporte America, WalMart says we shoppers aren’t doing our job spending money we don’t have!

To be fair, WalMart execs realize the bad economy has something to do with us shoppers not spending money: “We remain concerned about the economic pressure on our customers and the uncertain impact it can have on their shopping behavior.”-Bill Simon, CEO

Bill Simon’s statement also shows ignorance when he says a bad economy has an “uncertain impact” on shopping.  Hello, mister Simon, bad economy means no money, no money means a no shoppin’ ina you store!

This past quarter includes the coveted Back to School sales.  Back to School sales are the second most important for retailers, after the November/December holiday season.  Guess what, their Back to School sales sucked!

 

 

 

Idaho, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Idaho economic forecast good on one hand, bad on the other, and completely dependent on a U.S. economic recovery

The Idaho Division of Financial Management revised its projected economic outlook, no thanks to the recent U.S. debt limit debacle.

Officials still project increased tax revenues, but now think employment will be down.

Some reasons they hope tax revenues are up; previous tax collections were higher than predicted, and they expect personal income to increase (somehow).

The drop in employment is expected in the construction industry.

These latest revisions are assuming the U.S. economy actually grows for the rest of the year!  If the U.S. economy continues to go south, forget it.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? 2.5 million new jobs, not for the U.S., for Iran

The Iranian government is working to create 2.5 million jobs in the Iranian calendar year 1390 (March 21, 2011 – March 19, 2012).

The Iranian government claims to have the essential human and financial resources to achieve this goal.  Iran created 1.6 million new jobs last year.

To do what the United States government can’t seem to do, Iranian labor unions, and companies, are cooperation with their government.  It’s all part of a strategic 20 year socio-economic plan.  The 20 year plan is broken up into smaller tactical five year plans.  Iran recently started its fifth five year plan, which ends in 2015.

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

The Golden State lacks the Golden Rule: California finally admits high student drop out rate, as early as 8th Grade, all those decades of increased taxpayer funding wasted

California is now the first state in the Union, that admits that grade school students drop out of school as early as 8th grade.  In the latest survey it was revealed that more than 17,000 8th graders quit school in 2010.

Also, more than 94,000 California High School students dropped out in 2010.

Prior to this survey most drop out rate surveys were considered unreliable.  They varied greatly from 11% to 22%.  In 2009 California legislators actually passed a law dictating how the drop out rate survey would be conducted.

To many employment analysts the latest California drop out numbers prove what many employers have been complaining about; not enough high school graduates to fill open positions in California.  And to make it worse, the high drop out rates continued even though more and more taxpayer money was being spent on education year after year.

In fact, in the past the California Department of Education actually worked to keep drop out rates from being made public.

One result of the waste of taxpayer money, and degrading public education in California, was the creation of the Parent Empowerment Law, in 2010.  The law gives parents the right to convert a public school into a charter school, if 51% of the parents of children in that school sign a petition.  An elementary school in Compton will become the first school converted to a charter school under the Parent Empowerment Law.

One commentator in California said it’s ’bout time the Golden State learned the Golden Rule: “What America desperately needs is an educational system that cherishes each child as an individual, that recognizes each child has needs that must be met and gifts that deserve to be nurtured. When families have freely chosen the best school for their children, there is a sense of community, of belonging, even of family, that keeps our kids in school and gets them safely to graduation.”-Alan Bonsteel, San Francisco Chronical

 

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: Agency deliberately erased human radiation contaminaton data!

The Japanese Nuclear Safety Commission deliberately erased all the data collected regarding the radiation contamination of children in Fukushima Prefecture!

Officials claim that since the date was public it threatened the privacy of the families!

Since the nuclear disaster following the 11 March 2011 quake and tsunami, more than 1,000 children, aged 15 or younger, were being monitored for the effects of radiation on their thyroid.

The problem is that no one else was keeping such data, and now it’s gone!  The decision to delete the data is only justifying the growing lack of trust the Japanese have in their government.

Fukushima

Government Incompentence: Japanese official does 1-80, stops promoting Japanese food, now says no guarantee it’s safe to eat

Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto has been working hard promoting Japanese food products to other countries, despite overwhelming evidence of radiation contamination.  Now Takeaki has ordered his own ministry to stop vouching for the safety of Japanese food products.

Takeaki Matsumoto says his 1-80 is the result of increased demands for food safety information from other countries, and the fact that it’s become impossible to guarantee food being exported from Japan is safe from radiation.

This is because many of the contaminated food products sold within Japan, were discovered after they were sold to consumers.

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: Reactor 3 melt down actually breached containment vessel, plutonium contamination!

First Tokyo Electric Power Company said there were no melt downs, as they struggled to cool the Fukushima Daiichi reactors with salty sea water.  Then TEPCo admitted there were melt downs in reactors 1 and 3, but said they were contained by the water at the bottom of the containment vessels.  Now an independent study says not so.

Tanabe Fumiya, an expert in nuclear safety, studied data from Reactor 3.  Reactor 3 uses MOX fuel.  Most of Reactor 3’s mixed uranium-plutonium oxide fuel might have made it through the containment vessel.  Fumiya says on 21 March 2011 TEPCo was unable to inject water to cool the reactor.  Over the next four days the fuel reheated and melted through.  This explains why plutonium is being found outside the reactors.

Business/Economics, International, Opinion

Violent Riots spreading through London, started by police shooting, continuing because there are no jobs, British leaders on luxury vacations

“Officers responding to sporadic disorder in a number of boroughs made more than 100 arrests throughout last night and early this morning.” Scotland Yard statement, August 8

The violence that started in Tottenham has spread to Enfield and Brixton.  The riots started on Friday August 5, after police shot and killed a man in the back seat of a taxi the day before.  Police say he was a gun runner, locals say it was police brutality. Tottenham, a borough of London, has a decades long history of police brutality.

The riots are spreading and become more about the lack of jobs, and the severe cuts to social programs made by the British Parliament.

Another factor could be that British Prime Minister, David Cameron, is on a luxury vacation in Italy, while Chancellor of the Exchequer (kinda like the U.S. Treasury), George Osbourne, is on vacation in California.  This after they told British taxpayers to make more financial sacrifices.

Police feel targeted, and who wouldn’t be surprised at that since London police have powers even U.S. cops don’t.  The United Kingdom uses Orwellian tactics in their law enforcement.  One bobby said: “Officers are shocked at the outrageous level of violence directed against them.”

An immigrant from Africa said: “I can imagine this kind of thing happening in Somalia but to see it in London was strange.”

Of course the elected and appointed officials in Britain are calling the rioters “petty criminals”, but local residents say people are finally fed up with the system: “Unemployment is very, very high … they are frustrated.” Uzodinma Wigwe, age 49, recently laid off

History shows that peaceful protest does not work.  History shows that it always takes violent protest to make the leaders realize the people want change.  In some cases leaders are so arrogant they end up going to their death thinking there is nothing wrong (French Revolution). The Civil Rights laws in the United States did NOT come about because of the peaceful protests led by Martin Luther King Jr, but because of the violence that took place after Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated.  That’s the part they don’t teach about in the United States, but the info is there, do your own research.