Tag Archives: occupy

Fukushima

Pale Green Horse & Government Evil: Japan breaks own laws and destroys Nuclear Disaster meeting records!

I looked and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him.  They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

The Japanese news media agency, NHK, has discovered that the Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has destroyed (or never kept) records of at least 21 nuclear disaster meetings, in direct violation of Japanese law!

NHK discovered the illegal act when it demanded to see the public records of the meetings.  What NHK got was a list of items discussed at the meetings, but no detailed minutes.

NHK was told no records of the actual discussions were kept.  NHK says Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency officials told them they were too busy to keep records!

The meetings took place after the General Electric designed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant went critical following the 11 March 2011, earthquake and tsunamis.

Also missing are records of government meetings with the operator of Fukushima Daiichi, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCo).

NHK says they wanted to see the documents because they were part of the government’s disaster reaction decision making.  Both the Japanese government, and TEPCo, have been accused of dragging their feet, taking too little action in dealing with the ongoing nuclear disaster.

 

Fukushima

Pale Green Horse & Corporate & Government Incompetence: Radioactive construction gravel shipped all over Japan!

I looked and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him.  They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

Japan’s Industry Ministry now admits that since the March, 2011, nuclear disaster in Fukushima Prefecture, construction gravel from that area has been shipped all over Japan, and it’s radioactive!

The ministry was forced to make the admission after an occupied apartment building tested positive for high levels of cesium (more on the inside of the building than on the outside).

Industry officials said they did not think there would be a problem with the gravel since it is first dug up out of the ground.  Apparently they didn’t think it would be contaminated while sitting on the ground waiting to be shipped out, after all the Fukushima Daiichi reactors are still spewing radiation!

The gravel quarry operator said at least 20 construction companies took on large amounts of gravel just from the end of March through April, 2011.

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Pale Green Horse & Government Incompetence: Idaho inspectors tip off schools before “surprise” food safety inspections. Do you know what your kids are being fed? Idaho health districts not on the same page when it comes to inspections.

I looked and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him.  They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

Lincoln Elementary School, in Twin Falls, Idaho, has several complaints about food safety violations, however, state health officials actually tipped off school officials before their so called “unannounced” inspection.  As a result, no violations were found.

Current Idaho regulations state that food inspections must be “unannounced”, yet health inspectors for Idaho’s South Central Public Health District violated their own rules, warning Lincoln Elementary officials of the inspection, saying it was common “courtesy”: “We want to maintain a good partnership with the schools.”-Melody Bowyer, South Central Public Health District

That’s your taxpayer dollars at work!  The whole idea of surprise inspections is to catch the food service off guard, to see how they really operate on a day to day bases. It’s even more important when you get several complaints from the taxpaying public!

But Idahoans should be concerned even more, because even with the “courtesy” warnings of inspections dozens of schools have failed inspections (according to a Times-News report)!

Another problem is school officials. Take Wendell School District, they hired a new food service director a month ago, but when asked by local media she revealed that she was not aware that the school had food safety violations in the recent past.  She’s not concerned because: “Schools have to hold themselves to a higher standard. In my experience, that’s what I’ve seen and that’s what we’re going to do in Wendell.”-Michelle Shady

Parents don’t know who they can trust: “Knowing the schools are clean is important, it would be foolish to say otherwise, but I don’t know who to contact to make sure. I guess it’s one of those things you don’t talk about until a problem comes up.”-Jerry Evers, children attend Wendell High School

If you live in Idaho you can go here to find your Public Health District.  There are links to each of the seven districts in Idaho.  However, I found it hard to find the so called public food inspection reports alluded to in a Times-News article.  In fact there is no standardized presentation of each of the seven health districts’ websites.

The Times-News (covering South Central Idaho, District 5) article said food inspections are to be unannounced, yet, on the Central Idaho (District 4) website they said only one unannounced inspection per year was required.

It’s the Central Idaho District 4 website that is the most helpful, as they do make access to their food inspections easy.  You click on “Environmental Health”, then click on “Food”, then click on “Inspections”.  You then get to a page that has links to recent District 4 inspection results.  However, this is not possible on most of the other districts’ websites!!!

Southwest Idaho’s District 3 asks you to conduct a search by name or city, in order to find out inspection results.

Idaho’s Panhandle District 1 has a Quick Link titled “Restaurant Inspections” on the Environmental Health page, requiring a search by name or city.

For Districts 2 (North Central), 5 (South Central, so I wonder where the Times-News got their info), 6 (Southeastern) & 7 (Eastern) there were no links to local public food inspection reports under the “Environmental Health/Food” section.

Business/Economics, U.S.

Pale Green Horse & Medical Incompetence: FDA says blood from American Red Cross still not safe to use

I looked and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him.  They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

Yet again, the American Red Cross (ARC) has been fined by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for continued violations of blood safety rules.

“Since the FDA and American Red Cross’s 2003 agreement, the Red Cross has been previously fined $37 million, but the substandard performance of critical Red Cross blood handling functions continues.”-Sidney Wolfe, Public Citizen’s Health Research Group

In an official letter made public on January 13, the ARC was fined $9.59 million for failure to correct violations.  This is not the first time, the ARC has been cited at least 14 times, and fined at least $37 million since 2003!

The ARC insists that the country’s blood supply is “safer today than ever before”, yet implied a confrontational attitude towards the FDA: “We don’t discuss our relationship with the FDA.”-Stephanie Millian, Red Cross spokeswoman

Problems listed include improper training of ARC volunteers in handling blood, and lack of staffing due to consolidation (downsizing?) of facilities in Philadelphia and North Carolina.

 

 

International, U.S.

White Horse & World War 3: Iran and the United States make rare exchange of official letters, what do they say?

I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.

On January 15, Iranian officials confirmed they’ve received an official, and rare, letter from the President of the United States.  Iranian officials have not said what is written in the letter, but: “We are in the process of studying the letter and if necessary we will respond.”

So far there is no indication from Barack Obama what the letter is about.  Some analysts speculate that it concerns Iran’s threats to close the Hormuz Strait if oil sanctions are fully imposed.

“We have reliable documents and evidence that this terrorist act was planned, guided and supported by the CIA.”-Iranian letter to the U.S.

Also on January 15, Iran sent the United States an official letter saying they have evidence that the U.S. and Israel are behind assassinations of Iranian scientists, and explosions at IRGC camps.

“Our enemies, especially America, Britain and the Zionist regime (Israel), have to be held responsible for their actions.”-Massoud Jazayeri, spokesman for Iran’s Joint Armed Forces Staff

 

 

Fukushima

Pale Green Horse & Corporate & Government Incompetence: New Japanese apartment building is radioactive, residents contaminated with Cesium!

I looked and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him.  They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

In Fukushima Prefecture, a newly built apartment building has proven to be highly radioactive.  In fact, local Nihonmatsu City officials say the building emits more radiation on the inside, than on the outside!

Construction of the three story building was finished in July, 2011, almost four months after the beginning of the on going nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi.  People are already living in the apartments!

Officials found that the inside of the building, on the first floor, is emitting 1.24 microsieverts per hour of cesium.  It looks as if the foundation of the building is the source of radiation, because radiation levels decrease as you go to the upper levels.

Turns out the construction company got its foundation material from inside the 20km no go evacuation zone around the nuclear plant!  But why did Nihonmatsu City officials wait until the end of December to inspect the building for radiation, after people had moved in? Apparently no one thought about it, until children living in the building turned out to have more cesium contamination than other children in the city! Can you say incompetence?

International

Global Climate Change Extremes: While one South American country is freezing, several others are heating up, Brazil flooding

Peru is experiencing extreme cold weather, so far 2,500 baby Alpacas have frozen to death.  Yet Columbia and Argentina are on fire!

The heat is so intense in Argentina that demand for electricity to run air conditioners has hit record levels.  Several areas experienced power outages that lasted 12 hours, some areas were without power for 48 hours.

In Columbia three sections of the country are on alert for extreme fire danger.  The Caribbean, Andean and Orinoco regions are under Red Flag fire alerts.

In Brazil, landslides and flooding due to heavy rain has caused at least 13 deaths.  Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes.

Business/Economics, International

What Global Warming? It’s Summer in South America, yet 2,500 Alpacas die due to extreme cold

When it’s winter time in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s summer time in the Southern Hemisphere, yet it’s so cold that animals are freezing to death in one South American country.

In the Cusco region of Peru, officials are reporting that at least 2,500 baby Alpacas froze to death.  That’s based on the areas that Civil Defense authorities could get to, most roads are blocked because of heavy snow: “There are 700 families who are dedicated breeders in the area, but we can not get to them because of the snow….we might discover even more deaths.”-Jose Suyco Quispe, Civil Defense Technical Secretary of Espinar province

International, U.S.

World War 3: U.S. accuses Venezuela of cyber war, Venezuela closes consulate in Florida

Livia Acosta Noguera, Venezuela’s consul general in Miami, Florida, was accused by U.S. President Barack Obama of being a cyber terrorist!  She left Florida this week.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he will now close down their consulate in Florida.  Chavez said his intelligence officials discovered that Obama was going to make the accusation back in December: “We already knew this was going to happen.”

 

 

International

Red Horse & False War on Drugs in Mexico: 13,000 people killed in the first 9 months of 2011. Prepare for U.S. invasion

Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other.

The Mexican attorney general released an official death toll for the first nine months of 2011. It’s 11% higher than the same time in 2010.  2010’s death toll was 70% higher than 2009!  So far the official death toll in the so called Mexican war on drugs is 45,515! That’s not a war on drugs, that’s an all out civil war!

In May, 2011, I wrote that what was going on in Mexico was actually a civil war between the pro-U.S. government, and ultra right wing nationalist.  One reason is that the majority of people getting killed are not drug dealers or police, but migrant workers from Central American countries, as well as a few tourists from the United States!

In a 1998 book (called The Next War), co-authored by former U.S. Secretary of Defense under Ronald Reagan, Caspar Weinberger listed which countries the United States was going to go to war with (so far he’s been right, one being Iraq, the other [most likely] being Iran), and that includes Mexico!

“…an American expeditionary force invades Mexico to topple a corrupt and recalcitrant drug-running regime…”-Amazon book review

Weinberger’s scenarios are based on actual Department of Defense war scenarios.  In the case of Mexico, the scenario says that nationalist drug lords take over Mexico and begin nationalizing the oil industry (which the U.S. oil companies had worked so hard to take over).  Under the pretext of stopping masses of refugees flowing into the U.S., and to restore democracy, the United States invades Mexico.  The invasion is launched from Texas.

By the way, Weinberger also says we are going to attack Russia, Korea and Japan.  The 1998 book also talks about cyber warfare and Arab uprisings (what is now called The Arab Spring in the West).  Mmmm, are our leaders using this book as a guide?