Who’s screwed? All of us who don’t want to be poisoned!
Who’s screwed? All of us who don’t want to be poisoned! Republicans are trying to defund an online database set to launch in a few weeks that would make public safety complains against companies available for the public to view. Republicans argue the database will lead to companies having to pay to fight lawsuits. Currently – complaints are kept secret. On top of that – Republicans are working to stamp out new safety regulations that stop toxic products from being brought in from overseas – claiming these new regulations cut into the profits for their CEO buddies.
Do these guys have amnesia?
Remember the more than 80 American who died from the blood thinner Heparin – which was manufactured in a pig farm in China and contained lethal chemicals? Or the 3,600 dogs and cats that died because their pet food – also made in China - contained the poisonous chemical melamine. Or the 25 million children’s toys found in American stores that were laced with illegally high levels of lead. Toys that were manufactured in…you guessed it…China! Or how about the 450,000 faulty tires we bought FROM CHINA that could have killed American drivers? The lessons are pretty obvious here – maybe we should stop buying from China and start building stuff in America again.
Is that too much to ask from our bought-and-paid-for politicians and greedy CEOs?? Apparently?
Comments
As usual, the free market is busy solving the China Problem: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/02/ff_madeinamerica/
"When you include all the various drawbacks and costs that don’t appear in a factory’s price quote, manufacturing certain high tech goods in China can end up being surprisingly expensive. In 2008, three McKinsey consultants analyzed the production of midrange servers, taking into account everything from shipping to quality to exchange rates. They concluded that fabricating such devices in China made sense in 2003, when the required labor was 60 percent cheaper there than in the US. At that time, they estimated, the per-unit savings ran about $64. But this advantage, McKinsey concluded, had vanished by 2008: “After factoring in the higher labor and freight costs, we find that the former offshore savings have turned negative—a burden of an extra $16.”
And its not just theoretical or limited to small companies bringing production back stateside - " In October 2009, NCR decided to stop manufacturing its North American-market ATMs at facilities in China and India and make them instead in Columbus, Georgia. Last October, General Electric elected to invest $432 million in four new US manufacturing facilities that will build environmentally friendly refrigerators and water heaters. These are precisely the sort of companies that stand to benefit the most by heading overseas. But they determined that the smarter long-term play was to narrow the physical distance between R&D and production. “By colocating all the people who are involved in bringing a product to life, we increase collaboration and problem-solving and shorten development time,” says Kevin Nolan, GE Appliances’ vice president of technology."
Its a lengthy article, well worth a read.
Unfortunately I believe the conservatives will prevail. No one has figured out that neo-liberalism was first and foremost "liberalism", which began in 1875 and led to the Great Depression. They will not stop until Social Security and Medicare are killed.
By the way, you left out the Chinese wallboard that was used in constructing homes in the US. The fumes from the wallboard make residents sick and their homes uninhabitable.
The republicans will fail because the dems have the whitehouse and house of congress. However if it went to the supreme court as an environmental protections thing, the republicans would probably win.
I fought an environmental fight here in New Mexico and then Governor Bill Richardson really did clean up the nastiest duck, rabbit, turltle, fish and other annual wildlife kill off I have ever seen or heard about, at the golf course/country club I live on.
We only won our fight thanks to Governor Richardson (it was over a 1 million dollar re-engineering)
Do you guys have someone like him on your side here? I dont know that you do.
John McKinney of Rio Rancho New Mexico
Sorry another though
Tom as long as corporations are treated like living people there will be these profit vs risk to human life arguments. If they arent arguing on behalf of the stockholders whom are THE PEOPLE and so on and so forth, the republicans soon will be. It is obvious to any one with a brain the answer is fund that website and empower the consumer to protect themselves from profiteering wolves as it were.
Last and Final
Good Day Sir!
Public opinion among the general population regarding safety and environmental regulation is fractured into splinters of opinions intentionally manipulated by media misinformation in order to discourage any general consensus which could rally opposition to the corporate agenda. That Corporate agenda for all practical definition may as well be described as government take over. 911 was in fact the take over of America and what we have now is the new reality of life. The standard of living for the middle class, the hope for opportunity, and the health and well being for our citizens have already been defined by an elite royal aristocracy.
Baseball is defined as the American sport yet at least in Oregon the nations premier pitching and training products industry is all manufactured in China. The original company that developed and manufactured the Jugs radar gun and the original pitching practice machine is nothing more than a sales office, and distribution center for Chinese manufacturing with a red white and blue logo. The company is run by heirs who show up for work maybe three days max per week. One shows up once in a blue moon driving a Ferrari while some of the lower level assembly employees can be found at the local grocery stores using food stamp cards to buy groceries. The president of the company disgracefully and unprofessionally displays effigy's of democratic elected officials in offensive positions in and outside his office. Higher paid company officers have established an elite formation of cronies (mostly relatives) who are vastly unqualified for the positions they occupy and are compensated with money and power for their loyalty to the owner and the bottom line. Like many corporations in America they sacrifice efficiency for cronyism and make up the inefficiency and loss with outsourcing.
How many occupations traditionally held by US professionals will be outsourced in the future due to mismanagement by under qualified and greedy executives ? The process of outsourcing that is brought into our ports duty free. Printing in America has environmental standards using vegetable dyes and recycled paper. Pressmen, graphic designers, shippers, workers, paper mills etc have all been affected negatively by huge outsourcing of printing in the east. Large commercial photo studios for product and catalog photography have been set up by Wall Mart and other corporations to avoid paying commercial rates for local professionals. How much of the printing from the east is done with chemical inks contaminating our environment with lead and other contaminates which is impossible the check for in or duty free outsourcing practices ? Yes and even much of the printed material for baseball pitching machines , and sporting goods is imported from the east.
Thom: I really like your show on RT, but please get rid of the green color on the streaming headlines. Not only is it hard on the eyes, but it's hard to read, even blurry. Otherwise, it's a great addition to TV.
In the long run the gop. More and more Americans are seeing them for what they are, and it's very disturbing. I believe most of them who didn't vote in 2010 regret they didn't, and many will make sure they won't make the same mistake in 2012. But they need to be reminded from time to time.
That's where you and others on the radio, t.v. and print come in, but also people like me and your other listeners do too.
Newsletter Spelling & grammatical errors. You loose a lot of credibility with constant spelling errors. Spell Check doesn't pick up on everything!
"Republicans are trying to defund an online database set to launch in a few weeks that would make public safety complains against companies available for the public to view."
"Remember the more than 80 American who died from the blood thinner Heparin."
Though I'm a progressive, and I think the database is a great idea, I can tell you that the conservatives argue against this is because it is a government funded database. They'll say: "government is broke, we can't afford it", and then: "just join to Angie's List". This is just another case of the Republican's pro-corporation, anti-public agenda. To them, consumer protection and preventative safeguards should not exist; if you get sick or injured from a product, just hire a lawyer (that is, if you can afford one with your ever-diminishing paycheck), but just remember, your lawsuit is limited to $200, 000 thanks to tort reform!
Chinese drywall has poisoned many new homes built in South Florida leaving owners with a mortgage worth more than their home was to begin with, as well as a poisoned home in which to live their American dream.
XXXXX
Who's screwed? Everyone! Why? Mainly because modern people have become lazy, complacent, and ignorant of the way politics work. Who wins? In the end, Mother Earth wins because we will render this planet inhabitable and the earth will eventually recover from the filthy waste of our consumption.
They are the carrion men
of the walled streets and glass spires
Oh it calls to all
that we take wing as ravens
and of feast we make marry
of such dire wicked souls
So as to save mankind from the clutches
of our impending doom
For alas the carrion men
have made us all but pawns and minionettes
in the looting of our mothers bosom
And her now cancerous remains
under great debate
fall ever more the victim
of the carrion men
and in the distance
through the orange murk of the day
I hear the ravens
call...
I suppose that in a truly free market society one would be allowed to sell pure arsenic as a cure for acne .
We have very very shallow people running the show today and thats very ugly . Shallow Shallow Shallow gets paid too and forget they are loved . So why should a skelton paid Ooops! I mean care? It seems already yesterday, we are being vaccinated in many ways and in many ways people don't even know about. Our authorities seem to never grow up and listen to the people! Supervisers are mostly blinded, very shallow ,almost skeleton like . (Money and power blind) We are living in a Skeleton and narrowing thinking times) We are being Supervised as if we don't know anything.
Let's put this "Government Is To Big" nonsense to rest! What the repugs mean is that it is too big for the Democrats and Liberals. What they mean is that When WE, the repugs, take over, it will be WAY MUCH BIGGER as we, the repugs, will have to create a POLICE state, hugh in structure and TOTALITARIAN, so we, the repugs, can control everyone!
DO NOT believe for a moment any of this repug nonsense - it is simple a POWER GRAB.
If you think I'm making this up, witness WISCONSIN! That is what is in store for AMERICA when the repugs gain complete control!
Walker and his repug politicians up there in Wisconsin are the scum of the earth! You’d think you were in RUSSIA or CHINA!
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
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Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
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I realize that I'm probably preaching to the choir but I think my following rant should be circulated.
I’m tired of hearing journalists talk about the promises that “government” can’t afford. The “government” seems to be able to afford whatever the “people in power” want. And the interests of “people in power” are usually much narrower than those of the citizens or the voters. The Republican politicians always trot out the “fiscal responsibility “ mantle when the economics don’t favor their ends or their friends or the people they hope to become in the future. It’s just as fiscally responsible to increase government revenue through taxes and fees as it is to cut expenditures. If we are going to cut expenditures, then in addition to the entitlements, our misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan and the many examples of corporate welfare must also be on the table. To increase government revenue, why not follow Bernie Sander’s advice and do the following:
I think this is a reasonable place to start. Regardless of your philosophical bent, the actions of government must be perceived as “Fair” by most Americans. If we continue to try to balance the budget on the backs of the middle class, we will see an “Egyptian like” or worse response in the not to distant future.