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Listening to Thom's guest discuss the failing and failures of the Nuclear power plant in Japan brings to mind some of the tragedies in history wrought by human hubris. I think socially we are plagued by the "Babel Syndrome", as in the "Tower of Babel". Our faith in technology has lead to numerous tradgedies, such as the Titanic, the Hindenburg, Chernobyl, etc... this is just a short list. We rarely seem to learn the main lesson in all these situations, as Murphy's Law puts it, "If something can go wrong with a design, eventually it will go wrong".
N
jib TV in Japan has been reporting a 6.4 earthquake centered in Shizuoka south of Tokyo at 10:31 PM Japan time, electrical poles are down and many without power because of it.
http://jibtv.com/program/?page=0
Derrick Jensen enviornmental expert. Please have Derrick Jensen on! He is very informative and articulate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxnjc4pFPWo
After Chernobyl, the evening news in Chicago, IL, USA the weather forecaster instructed Chicagoans not to go outside unless needed, and if they did go out, to use an umbrella because the rain was radioactive.
Koch Broths -- and all billionaires. I call on you as a citizen of planet to help us.
What would happen if the Koch Broths. gave millions to relieve the suffering in Japan, and to help kick start the desperate need planet-wide for localized solar, wind, and algae power, and localized vertical greenhouses?
What if they invested their billions in saving the planet instead of destroying the families of Wisconsin?
What if they had a change of heart?
I believe in miracles and the possibility of awakening for all humans.
Sigh, my point was that if all we'd managed to turn out was the claimed numbers, the biggest election in over a century would not have happened. They really important number was the down ticket, the state houses - 695 state house seats, resulting in 22 state legislatures changing to republican hands is an enormous swing, that's what really showed how big the Tea Party is.
The current mess in Wisconsin will make sure that the 2012 elections are just as large. The American people can plainly see that those protestors are just paid professionals, since ordinary people cannot be gone from their jobs for weeks on end. If the unions had been clever enough to cut their demonstrations short, the paid professional charge would not have stuck.
The Tea Party's most noted national figures include Republican politicians such as Sarah Palin and Dick Armey. As of 2010, the Tea Party movement is not a national political party, but has endorsed Republican candidates.A Gallup poll shows almost 80% of Tea Partiers consider themselves to be Republicans.Commentators, including Gallup Editor-in-Chief Frank Newport, have suggested that the movement is not a new political group but simply a rebranding of traditional Republican candidates and policies.An October 2010 Washington Post canvass of local Tea Party organizers found 87% saying "dissatisfaction with mainstream Republican Party leaders" was "an important factor in the support the group has received so far".canvas paintings
Well, I hope that whatever Democrats, who manage to oust Republicans, are true Democrats and not sell-outs to the rich. But I believe that we shouldn't have the wool pulled over our eyes in thinking that just because Democrats are in the majority everything will change. We voted on change once and had a majority; but, Blue dog Democrats...including Obama... sold us out. I think that that's how the rich play the game. They'd love to have hard core Republicans in overt control but they will settle for useful idiot Democrats that can be bought off, sell out their base, and act as a sort of temporary buffer to keep the people temporarily stymied so that they can then, covertly, use the bait and switch tactics to get what they want anyway. They can always continue to play the game of keeping just enough hope alive that things will be different if we can just gain a Democrat majority and know that they can use that smoke and mirrors tactic over and over again as long as the people continue to believe that they have no other choice. The uprisings in the streets are a great first step to fight back.
The president who said that, like you, was a jackass.
I have a feeling that the supreme court will decide this, and you will be even unhappier than you are now. We shall see what the will of the people actually is after the recalls are tallied.
"The People" did not want this. The assholes wanted this. The republicans lied to get elected. Pick a side... although I already know where you stand.
"....the rise of amoral politicians such as Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, who posed as liberals while they sold their souls for corporate money, have left us largely defenseless."
"The only hope now is more concerted and militant disruptions of the systems of power."
"The only place left for us is on the street. We must occupy state and federal offices. We must foment general strikes."
"All we have left is the capacity to say “no.” And if enough of us say “no,” if enough of us refuse to cooperate, the despots are in trouble."
---Chris Hedges... http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/power_concedes_nothing_without_a_dem...
That's a good idea. Let's only have people in office who agree with the simple minded Dane.
The ones who have acted undemocratically are the coward Democratic senators who turned tail and ran to subvert the will of the people. As a certain president once said, "elections have consequences, and in the end, I won." Yes, elections have consequences, not only when someone on the left wins. Scott Walker won. Get over it.
The problem of the Republicans being so much above the law and the ethics and the reasonable conduct and conversation with everyone goes back to when Richard Nixon, the crook, was pardoned by Ford.
That we let them get by with that told them all that they needed to know, and Reagan and the Bushes romped, much to the detriment of our nation. They think that they are beyond punishment for literally anything that they do... and that seems to be true.
Bush & Cheney should be tried by the world court... they would be found guilty of war crimes, and most likely executed, if not just imprisoned for life. The bankers that caused the collapse of the economy should be jailed for life. The senators and congressmen that let them get by with it should join them.
Lying to the public, whether if be campaign promises that are impossible to keep or completely untrue slurs on your opponent or taking bribes from businesses either while or after holding office should reap prison sentences.
We need to clean up our government, from the top to the bottom, starting at the top. Otherwise we will rapidly sink into a fascist hole that is impossible to dig ourselves out of.
LindawyethWell, I was in Madison for
The Utah bit - is that legal? How can out of staters collect signatures that would recall Wisconsin Senators?
They should also recall the repug representatives - they are also not innocent in this travesty!
What is more frightening about all this is ALL those totally CLUELESS repugs who voted for this scum! Don't they know that when (NOT IF) the next great DEPRESSION arrives, they will also be part of the rubble? I will not give them that much intelligence nor foresight!
Well, I was in Madison for the rally on Saturday and the get-together in the evening at the Barrymore Theater with speakers including our own Tammy Baldwin and Ed Garvey, as well as Laura Flanders of GritTV (she did a live streaming broadcast so check her web site for video), Jim Hightower, and Dennis Kucinich. It is very clear that ALL of the "Republican 8" will be successfully recalled -- more people than needed have volunteered to sign the recall petitions in the next 6 weeks or so. I am thinking none of the Democrats will be recalled. That effort is being led by a group out of Utah. The Koch brothers' fronts do not have the passion we progressives do at this point. At the various rallies I have attended in Madison and Eau Claire, there were very few Tea Party folks, compared with thousands of protesters on our side. On Saturday, I did see one person with a pro-Walker sign. Wisconsinites need to remember to get out the vote and vote on April 5 for JoAnne Kloppenburg for Wisconsin Supreme Court to replace David Prosser. Prosser says his job is to maintain the court's conservative majority and to "complement" our Republican governor and legislature. Hey Prosser! What about separation of powers and checks and balances?
I hope each and every one of them will be recalled and not only lose there jobs, but get themselves a hugh fine to pay also. I would even support prison time for what they pulled. Of course, justice does not belong to the people of America nor has it for many years, so, I would'nt doubt an extreme outcome as far as this story goes and that the people were to once again receive the shorter end of the stick. The shorter end of the stick is all I would need if I were to get my hands on some of those (B-word)'s.
Neither of the above. They are all covering the disaster in Japan. But the other two choices are also a big preference for many in the main stream media.
I cant answer that, but I hope every republican is recalled,and then the rest of the republicans replaced in 2012,I hope the rest of the country finally wakes up and does the same.
RE: Martin
So, who was it that said "You can fool some of the people all of the time" ? Good 'ole Abe ! He was referring to the 1860 version of the Tea Baggers. NO repuitable survey of the 9/12 fiasco even comes close to 2 million. . Re-check the photos for palm trees, there might be some in the background of the pictures.
There was one person stopping a tank in Tiananmen square, against the whole Chinese government, Because he was only one person, did that mean he was wrong?
If you're foolish enough to believe Beck, Hannity and Fox & friends, good luck.
On deck: Gov can dissolve local government.
What's happening in Wisconsin is evil but you ain't seen nothing til you see what the GOP is doing in Michigan. Chilling!
From Forbes Magazine online.
http://blogs.forbes.com/erikkain/2011/03/11/michigan-governor-plays-fast-and-loose-with-democracy-invokes-radical-new-powers/
And from The Michigan Messenger:
http://michiganmessenger.com/47203/emergency-managers-bill-sweeps-toward...
Power Concedes Nothing Without a Demand
The pillars of the liberal establishment, which once made incremental and piecemeal reform possible, have collapsed. Let Wall Street loot the national treasury with impunity. Let sleazy con artists use lies and deception to carry out unethical sting operations on tottering liberal institutions, and you roll out the welcome mat for fascism. The liberal class has busied itself with the toothless pursuits of inclusiveness, multiculturalism, identity politics and tolerance—a word Martin Luther King never used—and forgotten about justice. - Chris Hedges
http://www.truthdig.com/report/print/power_concedes_nothing_without_a_demand_20110314/
Using Michelle Malkin's math, there were 4 million on the streets of Madison, last Saturday, Martin...
Hmmm.. So just a little rally of 60,000-70,000 of us tea partiers managed to produce the biggest election in over a century - 6 Senate seats, 65 House seats and most incredibly - 695 State House seats. How could that possibly happen? Imagine what would have happened if there had been twice as many of us - oh wait there were over a million of us: http://michellemalkin.com/2009/09/12/celebrating-the-912-rallies/
Ah - NOW the election result isn’t so mysterious after all. .
Radioactive release from Japan may continue for a year.
- NY Times:
Japanese reactor operators now have little choice but to periodically release radioactive steam as part of an emergency cooling process for the fuel of the stricken reactors that may continue for a year or more even after fission has stopped. The plant’s operator must constantly try to flood the reactors with seawater, then release the resulting radioactive steam into the atmosphere, several experts familiar with the design of the Daiichi facility said.
...But all weekend, after a series of intense interchanges between Tokyo and Washington and the arrival of the first American nuclear experts in Japan, officials said they were beginning to get a clearer picture of what went wrong over the past three days. And as one senior official put it, “under the best scenarios, this isn’t going to end anytime soon.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/world/asia/japan-fukushima-nuclear-rea...
-- we are one planet, one world, one air and water system, one atmosphere, one human species -- with one giant mental illness: believing we can live in an insane way and not experience insane results. Time for a true revolution of the soul -- to live in an authentic manner, in accordance with the laws of Nature, not laws written by bankers and war-mongering necromancers who cannibalize their own species.