Tag Archives: taxes

Fukushima

National Government Incompetence: City 124 miles away from Fukushima contaminated, residents will conduct self monitoring

A group of residents of the city of Moriya say they will begin monitoring radiation levels, because the central government can not.

Moriya is 200 kilometers (124 miles) from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, yet it is showing some of the highest radiation levels in the area.

Residents say when they approached the central Japanese government with their concerns, they were told their government was being overwhelmed by the nuclear crisis, and did not have the man power to conduct the radiation monitoring in their area!

Fukushima

National Government Incompetence: Japanese city will decontaminate self, will send TEPCo & the national government the bill

The city of Date, 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, will undergo intensive decontamination.  This announcement comes after the central Japanese government announced the evacuation of 113 more households.

City officials, and residents, are not happy with the central government’s targeted evacuations.  Many residents want a mass evacuation, because radiation levels are on the increase all over the city.

To try and alleviate the concerns of the people living in Date, city officials have decided to undertake decontamination efforts, on their own.  They claim they will decontaminate every building and home in the city.  They also claim they will decontaminate the surrounding mountain sides.

How are they going to pay for it?  No worries, they plan on sending Tokyo Electric Power Company, and the central Japanese government, a huge bill.

Business/Economics, International

Communist China’s experiment with U.S. style capitalism a failure, only the rich got richer, created more poor

The Chinese government announced that they must revise their income tax laws, to account for the huge increase in poor people.  Their experiment with capitalism only created more poor people while a minority of people got rich.

Beginning in September the minimum income level for exemption from paying income tax will be raised, to the equivalent of $540.00 per month.  Currently it is $300.00 per month.  It will affect about 60 million workers.

Also, people making between $540.00 and $700.00 per month will see a decrease in the percentage they must pay; dropped to 3% from the current 5%.

This comes after riots by workers in several regions of China.  They are protesting low wages, no benefits, and they wanted to know where all the wealth was going, because after all these years most workers still aren’t seeing an improvement in their lives.

The Chinese government admits only a small portion of China’s people are benefiting from the U.S. style of doing business.

Fukushima

Japanese children contaminated with Cesium 134!

A group of concerned parents, not happy with government response, formed an organization called The Fukushima Network for Saving Children from Radiation.  They took urine samples from 10 kids, from elementary to high school age, and had a French company test them.

The result showed that all the kids are internally contaminated with cesium 134.  An eight year old girl has 1.13 becquerels of cesium-134 per liter.  The children live in Fukushima City, which is 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

The Fukushima Network for Saving Children from Radiation says this is proof that radiation is continuing to be emitted by the damaged nuke plant, and it is spreading.

 

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: Nuclear agency spokesman fired for creating a sex scandal during Japan’s nuclear crisis

Nishiyama Hidehiko, spokesman for Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, has been removed from his job.  It turns out that while the Japanese people were looking to the government for information on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, Nishiyama was having an affair with a young woman.

A Japanese magazine broke the story.  The woman said Nishiyama was worried about loosing his hair and thought “vigorous sex” would prevent it.  He apologized for the media finding out about his affar, and said: “I am sorry if this gave any misperceptions or concerns that I have been laying down on the job.”

I think he should have said something other than “…laying down on the job”.  Talk about ‘fiddling’ while Rome burns!

 

Fukushima

Radiation evacuations expanded!

About 90 households have been told they need to leave, because of increasing radiation levels.  The evacuation affects three districts in the city of Date.  The city is 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

The Japanese government is trying to minimize mass evacuations by testing each residential property when radiation levels near unsafe limits.  The government explained the new evacuation determination to about 400 people in the affected districts.  If a residential property is determined unsafe then the people living there will evacuate, the government promises to provide support to them.

Most of the people at the meeting basically said they think they should just mass evacuate all the families, after all what if you live in a house next to another house that’s just been evacuated, but you’re told you’re going to stay?  The increasing, and spreading radiation levels shows that Fukushima Daiichi is still spewing radiation into the air.

Fukushima

Corporate Incompetence: TEPCo still can’t get its water decontamination system to work

For at least the third time Tokyo Electric Power Company had to stop water decontamination at Fukushima Daiichi, this time because pipes were leaking.

You might not think that’s such a big deal, but how does one ton of radioactive water leaking out within two minutes sound?  That’s what happened. But to make that worse it didn’t have to happen.  Turns out that TEPCo decided to skip what should have been a routine check of pipe fittings before starting the decontamination.  According to an NHK report, four kilometers (8 miles) of pipe were loose (that’s how you dump one ton of water in two minutes).

Fukushima

Radioactive Cesium still being found at Japanese waste incenerators!

A few months ago it was reported that waste incinerators (which is how Japan handles its trash) were finding high levels of radiation in the ash of the burned trash.  The disaster at Fukushima Daiichi was blamed.

Today, waste incinerators as far south as Tokyo are still emitting cesium through their exhaust stacks.  One incinerator in Edogawa ward registered 9,740 becquerels of cesium per kilogram!  The incinerator handles only household trash.  This is an indicator that cesium is still being spewed into the air, and it’s settling as far south as Tokyo.

Fukushima

Strontium 90 found in Pacific seabed!

For the first time strontium 89 and 90 have been found on the seabed near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Tokyo Electric Power Company tested the soil at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, on 02 and 03 June 2011, at locations 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the nuke plant.

While this is the first time strontium has been found in the seabed, it is not the first time it’s been found in the water.

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? California Dreamin’ turned into Hotel California nightmare, yet people are escaping

It’s now official, for the first time since 1850 the number of people moving to California has declined!  People are actually leaving!  That’s according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

California is still the most populated state: 37 million.

According to the Public Policy Institute of California, 1.5 million middle class people left California in the past ten years.  Where are the people leaving to?  Anywhere that the taxes and cost of living are lower than in California!  (mostly Texas, Colorado, Nevada and Arizona)

Immigrants now make up the majority of people moving to California.  But that is on the decline as well.  Why?  Most migrants from south of the border are saying they can’t find any work!  Those that have work say the cost of living in California is not worth it!

The problem now, is that California is becoming a state of extreme wealth and extreme poverty.  According to the American Human Development Project, the exodus of middle class Californians is creating a state of two classes; rich and poor.

From 2009 to 2010, California’s GDP was in stagnation mode; at 1.8%, lower than many other states.  By the way, when the media calls 1.8% “growth” it shows their economic ignorance.  Anything from 2.9% to 0% is not growth, it’s stagnation.

I luckily escaped California in 1997.  I’m now in Idaho, things are getting bad here as well (economically) but I’ve run out of escape money.