Maps of the 2012 US presidential election results

This site provides some interesting ways of looking at the results of the 2012 presidential election. Click here.

Bugger The Bankers

Here’s a witty little ditty from over the sea that you might appreciate too.

Groundhog Day and the State of the Union

This year, 2013, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union address will occur on the same day.

This is an ironic turn of events. One involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to an insignificant creature of little intelligence for guidance…

The other involves a groundhog. — anonymous

Organic Consumers Association calls for boycott

Payback Time: Boycott the Brands that Helped Kill Prop 37

They stomped on our right to know. Now it’s time to get even.

Prop 37, the California Right to Know GMO labeling initiative, was narrowly defeated last week thanks to a relentless, deceitful $46-million advertising blitz. Among the largest bankrollers of the NO on 37 campaign were huge multinational food and beverage companies whose subsidiaries make billions  selling some of your favorite organic and “natural” brands.

Brands like Kashi. Honest Tea. Naked Juice. Muir Glen and Morningstar Farms.

It’s time to boycott the companies whose dirty money confused and scared millions of California voters into voting No on Prop 37.  It’s time to plaster their facebook pages with this message: We won’t support you until you support us. It’s time to call their consumer hotlines, complain to their store managers. It’s time to tarnish their holy organic and natural images, to expose their hypocrisy and greed.

It’s time to raise a little hell.

The OCA is calling on all consumers to boycott these 10 organic and natural traitor brands:

• PepsiCo (Donated $2.5M): Naked Juice, Tostito’s Organic, Tropicana Organic • Kraft (Donated $2M): Boca Burgers and Back to Nature • Safeway (Member of Grocery Manufacturers Association, which donated $2M):”O” Organics • Coca-Cola (Donated $1.7M): Honest Tea, Odwalla • General Mills (Donated $1.2M): Muir Glen, Cascadian Farm, Larabar • Con-Agra (Donated $1.2M): Orville Redenbacher’s Organic, Hunt’s Organic, Lightlife, Alexia • Kellogg’s (Donated $791k): Kashi, Bear Naked, Morningstar Farms, Gardenburger  • Smuckers (Donated $555k): R.W. Knudsen, Santa Cruz Organic • Unilever (Donated $467k): Ben & Jerry’s • Dean Foods (Donated $254k): Horizon, Silk, White Wave Tell these companies that if they want your loyalty – and your grocery dollars -  they must do two things:

1.  Speak out publicly in favor of the pending GMO Labeling Ballot Initiative (I-522) in Washington State in 2013, as well as the pending GMO labeling bills coming up in Vermont and other states.

2. Contribute as much or more money to the Yes on I-522 Campaign in Washington than their parent corporations spent to defeat Prop 37.

Prop 37 was narrowly defeated, by dirty money and dirty tricks. But it spawned a huge, national consumer movement that is fired up and more determined than ever to fight this battle until we win the right to know if our food has been genetically modified.  We’re already collecting signatures in Washington State, talking to legislators in Vermont and Connecticut. A 30-state coalition is formulating a plan to collaborate on GMO-labeling laws and initiatives.

You are a part of this movement, and today we’re calling on you, on the millions of consumers who were outraged by the NO on 37′s dirty campaign, to send a clear message to the traitor brands who helped kill Prop 37, in the only language they understand: lost profits and lower sales.

TAKE ACTION: Join the Boycott!

An avowed anarchist speaks out

Say what??

Daniel Ellsberg Arrested Protesting the ‘American Nuclear Doomsday Machine’

According to Nation of Change, Daniel Ellsberg, who became famous for leaking the Pentagon Papers to the press during the Viet Nam war, was  arrested along with several others on Saturday at Vandenburg Air Force base in California for protesting the test of the Minuteman III InterContinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). The complete report and background details can be seen here.

Federal government arrogates more power to its corporate clients

Federal Judge Strips Vermont of Power to Terminate Nuke: State Government Diddles but Vermonters Take Matters into Own Hands

Fri, 02/10/2012 – 18:24

by Dan DeWalt

Entergy Nuclear of Louisiana, which operates the Vermont Yankee (VY) nuclear reactor in Vernon Vermont has launched an attack on the state of Vermont with the help of the federal courts.

Vermont state law gives the state the power to decide whether to allow further operation of the reactor past March 21, 2012 (the expiration date for VY). When Entergy bought VY, they agreed to this law and swore that they would not try to abrogate it. This was an outright lie on Entergy’s part, and they sued the state as soon as it was decided that further operation of this crumbling, leaking and led-by-liars reactor would NOT be in the interests of the state and they were not given permission to continue operation past March 21.

Federal Judge J. Garvan Murtha, an George W. Bush appointee to the federal bench in 2002, gave Entergy all that they wanted and denied Vermont the right to legislate on this matter. The judge misconstrued testimony and completely ignored the case presented by the state to show that the Vermont legislature acted within the purview allowed by federal law. In his decision he cites quotes referring to safety that are either unattributed or taken out of context, having been expressed outside of the actual process of crafting the legislation. Some quotes cited even fail to distinguish between legislators and advocates who were speaking in committee hearings.

This ruling goes hand in glove with current Federal policies that enrich the 1% and keep power firmly in the hands of America’s largest corporations. It affirms that corporate profits trump the interests of the citizenry. And it’s based on the laughable notion that only the Federal government can be trusted to keep us safe from radiological accidents caused by corporate malfeasance and profit-driven lax practices.

Entergy’s aging Vermont Yankee nuke plant has been plagued with accidents including this 2005 fire and a cooling tower collapse

The executives of Entergy have lied under oath repeatedly to the Vermont legislature. Reactor officials testified that there were no pipes in the ground underneath the plant, but that falsehood was exposed when the source of tritium leaks at the reactor in 2011 were found to be coming from a network of underground pipes located precisely where they claimed there were none.

Entergy repeatedly warned that VT would lose a reliable energy provider if VY went off line, but VT utilities have chosen to buy future power elsewhere and not one watt of VY power will be purchased by any Vermonter. Entergy tried to bribe the legislature (in Louisiana talk, they called it a gift offer) and have run roughshod over every aspect of the state’s self governance, relying on their tight association with the NRC, which abets rather than regulates the industry, to ensure that their reprehensible actions are allowed to occur unchecked.

The state of Vermont is fighting back, considering all possible moves that can be made to rein in this corporate behemoth, but Federal law and the courts are limiting the State’s possible responses. It is an outrage that a federal judge would ignore a lengthy and well documented trail of lies and deception on the part of a powerful corporation, and choose instead to basically accuse the Vermont legislature of lying about its intent when passing the legislation. He chose to accept Entergy’s lawyers’ claim that the legislature was trying to address radiological safety issues, which are exclusively under federal jurisdiction, and he rejected the legislature’s defense that they were responsibly considering issues of environmental safety and economic benefit to the the state.

In the past, when the federal government passed heinous legislation that flew in the face of decency and common sense, such as the fugitive slave act, Vermont took appropriate and defiant action. The legislature responded to that abomination with the swift passage of a habeas corpus bill that effectively prevented a fugitive slave from being returned. President Millard Fillmore threatened to call out the U.S, army to enforce the law, but Vermont didn’t flinch, and his threat came to naught.

Direct defiance (or nullification) of the federal government edicts by states was somewhat common in the pre-civil war days. Today, the legislature feels more timid about direct defiance, thinking that the legal appeals process is the only avenue that they can realistically utilize.

But Vermont citizens are seeing it otherwise. Thoroughly fed up by the brutish greed and callous disregard shown to them by Entergy, they are organizing to take direct action against the corporation, both in Vermont and elsewhere in the country. Citizens in VT, NH, MA and NY will be targeting Entergy corporate headquarters and other installations from March 22 onward.

Luckily for them, Entergy is further alienating the citizenry by attempting to leverage their district court victory into a scorched earth devastation of the state, demanding no further accountability to the state’s Public Service Board, denying the state’s request to access radiated water wells on the reactor site for further testing, demanding that Connecticut River water quality and temperature permits be nullified and that the state pay over four million dollars to the corporation to pay for their high priced lawyers during the trial.

This brazen, relentless and vicious assault is irritating Vermonters of all stripes and it seems that Entergy will soon feel their wrath. While the corporation may feel secure with the federal court (so far) protecting them from the civilly obedient legislature and governor, it remains to be seen if they will be able to withstand the storm of protest that is brewing over the horizon.

Dan DeWalt is an activist and journalist based in New Fane, VT. He wrote this article exclusively for ThisCantBeHappening!

Unemployment figures explained

Bud Abbot and Lou Costello were one of the most popular comedy teams of the 1940′s and 1950′s.

COSTELLO: I want to talk about the unemployment rate in America.

ABBOTT: Good subject. Terrible times. It’s about 9%.

COSTELLO: That many people are out of work?

ABBOTT: No, that’s 16%.

COSTELLO: You just said 9%.

ABBOTT: 9% Unemployed.

COSTELLO: Right 9% out of work.

ABBOTT: No, that’s 16%.

COSTELLO: Okay, so it’s 16% unemployed.

ABBOTT: No, that’s 9%.

COSTELLO: WAIT A MINUTE. Is it 9% or 16%?

ABBOTT: 9% are unemployed. 16% are out of work.

COSTELLO: If you are out of work you are unemployed.

ABBOTT: No, you can’t count the “Out of Work” as the unemployed.  You have to look for work to be unemployed.

COSTELLO: But … they are out of work!

ABBOTT:   No, you miss my point.

COSTELLO: What point?

ABBOTT: Someone who doesn’t look for work, can’t be counted with those who look for work. It wouldn’t be fair.

COSTELLO: To who?

ABBOTT: The unemployed.

COSTELLO: But they are ALL out of work.

ABBOTT: No, the unemployed are actively looking for work. Those who are out of work stopped looking. They gave up. And, if you give up, you are no longer in the ranks of the unemployed.

COSTELLO: So if you’re off the unemployment roles, that would count as less unemployment?

ABBOTT: Unemployment would go down. Absolutely!

COSTELLO: The unemployment just goes down because you don’t look for work?

ABBOTT: Absolutely it goes down. That’s how you get to 9%. Otherwise it would be 16%. You don’t want to read about 16% unemployment do ya?

COSTELLO: That would be frightening.

ABBOTT: Absolutely.

COSTELLO: Wait, I got a question for you. That means there are two ways to bring down the unemployment number?

ABBOTT: Two ways is correct.

COSTELLO: Unemployment can go down if someone gets a job?

ABBOTT: Correct.

COSTELLO: And unemployment can also go down if you stop looking for a job?

ABBOTT: Bingo.

COSTELLO: So there are two ways to bring unemployment down, and the easier of the two is to just stop looking for work.

ABBOTT: Now you’re thinking like a president.

Ralph Nader’s critique on Iran attack plans

The war mongers have been beating the drums, trying to persuade Americans that we must attack Iran. In this OpEd piece from Eurasia Review, Ralph Nader lays out some critical facts that need to be considered.

Ralph Nader: Iran, The Neocons Are At It Again – OpEd

What we think and what we do — addendum

Here is some further input from Richard Moore about how to engage in productive dialog with people holding widely different beliefs and models of the world.–t.h.g.

I agree that defense of dogmas is a key concept. We all need to have a ‘working model’ of the world, in order to get along in it. If we can hold it as a model, something useful but not final, then we are in a position to learn and to converse openly and creatively. In the case of most people, and we must simply accept this, models are held to one degree or another as ‘truth’, and the less deeply a model is rooted in real understanding, the more intense the defensiveness when challenged, creating barriers to both learning and productive dialog. 

If we accept this reality, then it becomes clear that productive dialog, among people with differing models, can only happen in the right kind of ‘container’ for that dialog. It’s not about getting clever about ‘breaking down the defensive barriers’, rather it’s about providing a ‘safe space’, where each person is listened to with respect, and challenges to beliefs are avoided. When people feel ‘heard’, and they are not attacked, then their ‘defend’ button does get not pressed; they begin to relax, and pay more attention to what others are saying. In fact, much of the content in people’s dogmas turns out to have little relevance to the real world or to the problems we face as a society.

best wishes,

richard