Saturday, May 30, 2015

Fellow Californians, Fukushima Is Here Now

28 Signs That The West Coast Is Being Absolutely Fried With Nuclear Radiation From Fukushima

Global Research, June 07, 2014

The Truth 21 October 2013

The map below comes from the Nuclear Emergency Tracking Center. It shows that radiation levels at radiation monitoring stations all over the country are elevated. As you will notice, this is particularly true along the west coast of the United States. Every single day, 300 tons of radioactive water from Fukushima enters the Pacific Ocean. That means that the total amouont of radioactive material released from Fukushima is constantly increasing, and it is steadily building up in our food chain.

Ultimately, all of this nuclear radiation will outlive all of us by a very wide margin. They are saying that it could take up to 40 years to clean up the Fukushima disaster, and meanwhile countless innocent people will develop cancer and other health problems as a result of exposure to high levels of nuclear radiation. We are talking about a nuclear disaster that is absolutely unprecedented, and it is constantly getting worse. The following are 28 signs that the west coast of North America is being absolutely fried with nuclear radiation from Fukushima…

1. Polar bears, seals and walruses along the Alaska coastline are suffering from fur loss and open sores…

Wildlife experts are studying whether fur loss and open sores detected in nine polar bears in recent weeks is widespread and related to similar incidents among seals and walruses.

The bears were among 33 spotted near Barrow, Alaska, during routine survey work along the Arctic coastline. Tests showed they had “alopecia, or loss of fur, and other skin lesions,” the U.S. Geological Survey said in a statement.

2. There is an epidemic of sea lion deaths along the California coastline…

At island rookeries off the Southern California coast, 45 percent of the pups born in June have died, said Sharon Melin, a wildlife biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service based in Seattle. Normally, less than one-third of the pups would die. It’s gotten so bad in the past two weeks that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared an “unusual mortality event.”

3. Along the Pacific coast of Canada and the Alaska coastline, the population of sockeye salmon is at a historic low. Many are blaming Fukushima.

4. Something is causing fish all along the west coast of Canada to bleed from their gills, bellies and eyeballs.

5. A vast field of radioactive debris from Fukushima that is approximately the size of California has crossed the Pacific Ocean and is starting to collide with the west coast.

6. It is being projected that the radioactivity of coastal waters off the U.S. west coast could double over the next five to six years.

7. Experts have found very high levels of cesium-137 in plankton living in the waters of the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and the west coast.

8. One test in California found that 15 out of 15 bluefin tuna were contaminated with radiation from Fukushima.

9. Back in 2012, the Vancouver Sun reported that cesium-137 was being found in a very high percentage of the fish that Japan was selling to Canada…

• 73 percent of mackerel tested

• 91 percent of the halibut

• 92 percent of the sardines

• 93 percent of the tuna and eel

• 94 percent of the cod and anchovies

• 100 percent of the carp, seaweed, shark and monkfish

10. Canadian authorities are finding extremely high levels of nuclear radiation in certain fish samples…

Some fish samples tested to date have had very high levels of radiation: one sea bass sample collected in July, for example, had 1,000 becquerels per kilogram of cesium.

11. Some experts believe that we could see very high levels of cancer along the west coast just from people eating contaminated fish…

“Look at what’s going on now: They’re dumping huge amounts of radioactivity into the ocean — no one expected that in 2011,” Daniel Hirsch, a nuclear policy lecturer at the University of California-Santa Cruz, told Global Security Newswire. “We could have large numbers of cancer from ingestion of fish.”

12. BBC News recently reported that radiation levels around Fukushima are “18 times higher” than previously believed.

13. An EU-funded study concluded that Fukushima released up to 210 quadrillion becquerels of cesium-137 into the atmosphere.

14. Atmospheric radiation from Fukushima reached the west coast of the United States within a few days back in 2011.

15. At this point, 300 tons of contaminated water is pouring into the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima every single day.

16. A senior researcher of marine chemistry at the Japan Meteorological Agency’s Meteorological Research Institute says that “30 billion becquerels of radioactive cesium and 30 billion becquerels of radioactive strontium” are being released into the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima every single day.

17. According to Tepco, a total of somewhere between 20 trillion and 40 trillion becquerels of radioactive tritium have gotten into the Pacific Ocean since the Fukushima disaster first began.

18. According to a professor at Tokyo University, 3 gigabecquerels of cesium-137 are flowing into the port at Fukushima Daiichi every single day.

19. It has been estimated that up to 100 times as much nuclear radiation has been released into the ocean from Fukushima than was released during the entire Chernobyl disaster.

20. One recent study concluded that a very large plume of cesium-137 from the Fukushima disaster will start flowing into U.S. coastal waters early next year…

Ocean simulations showed that the plume of radioactive cesium-137 released by the Fukushima disaster in 2011 could begin flowing into U.S. coastal waters starting in early 2014 and peak in 2016.

21. It is being projected that significant levels of cesium-137 will reach every corner of the Pacific Ocean by the year 2020.

22. It is being projected that the entire Pacific Ocean will soon “have cesium levels 5 to 10 times higher” than what we witnessed during the era of heavy atomic bomb testing in the Pacific many decades ago.

23. The immense amounts of nuclear radiation getting into the water in the Pacific Ocean has caused environmental activist Joe Martino to issue the following warning…

“Your days of eating Pacific Ocean fish are over.”

24. The Iodine-131, Cesium-137 and Strontium-90 that are constantly coming from Fukushima are going to affect the health of those living the the northern hemisphere for a very, very long time. Just consider what Harvey Wasserman had to say about this…

Iodine-131, for example, can be ingested into the thyroid, where it emits beta particles (electrons) that damage tissue. A plague of damaged thyroids has already been reported among as many as 40 percent of the children in the Fukushima area. That percentage can only go higher. In developing youngsters, it can stunt both physical and mental growth. Among adults it causes a very wide range of ancillary ailments, including cancer.

Cesium-137 from Fukushima has been found in fish caught as far away as California. It spreads throughout the body, but tends to accumulate in the muscles.

Strontium-90’s half-life is around 29 years. It mimics calcium and goes to our bones.

25. According to a recent Planet Infowars report, the California coastline is being transformed into “a dead zone”…

The California coastline is becoming like a dead zone.

If you haven’t been to a California beach lately, you probably don’t know that the rocks are unnaturally CLEAN – there’s hardly any kelp, barnacles, sea urchins, etc. anymore and the tide pools are similarly eerily devoid of crabs, snails and other scurrying signs of life… and especially as compared to 10 – 15 years ago when one was wise to wear tennis shoes on a trip to the beach in order to avoid cutting one’s feet on all the STUFF of life – broken shells, bones, glass, driftwood, etc.

There are also days when I am hard-pressed to find even a half dozen seagulls and/or terns on the county beach.

You can still find a few gulls trolling the picnic areas and some of the restaurants (with outdoor seating areas) for food, of course, but, when I think back to 10 – 15 years ago, the skies and ALL the beaches were literally filled with seagulls and the haunting sound of their cries both day and night…

NOW it’s unnaturally quiet.

26. A study conducted last year came to the conclusion that radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster could negatively affect human life along the west coast of North America from Mexico to Alaska “for decades”.

27. According to the Wall Street Journal, it is being projected that the cleanup of Fukushima could take up to 40 years to complete.

28. Yale Professor Charles Perrow is warning that if the cleanup of Fukushima is not handled with 100% precision that humanity could be threatened “for thousands of years“…

“Conditions in the unit 4 pool, 100 feet from the ground, are perilous, and if any two of the rods touch it could cause a nuclear reaction that would be uncontrollable. The radiation emitted from all these rods, if they are not continually cool and kept separate, would require the evacuation of surrounding areas including Tokyo. Because of the radiation at the site the 6,375 rods in the common storage pool could not be continuously cooled; they would fission and all of humanity will be threatened, for thousands of years.”

Are you starting to understand why so many people are so deeply concerned about what is going on at Fukushima?

About the author: Michael T. Snyder is a former Washington D.C. attorney who now publishes The Truth. His new thriller entitled “The Beginning Of The End” is now available on Amazon.com.

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Teamster Labor History - Pres. Daniel Tobin

Daniel Tobin and the Rise of the Teamsters Union
http://inthesetimes.com/…/entry/17996/daniel_tobin_teamsters
BY BRUCE VAIL

Tobin, left, was the president of the Teamsters for 45 years.

When Daniel J. Tobin was inducted in the Labor Hall of Fame last week, few modern Americans had any idea who he was.

This is understandable, as Tobin, who died in 1955, retired uneventfully from the Teamsters union more than 60 years ago. And even in his heyday as a labor leader in the New Deal and World War II eras, he was overshadowed by more flamboyant union figures like John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers, or Harry Bridges of the West Coast longshore workers. But Tobin well deserves recognition in the Hall of Fame, according to some modern observers, for laying the foundations for one of the country’s largest and most powerful unions.

What stands out initially about Tobin’s career was his extraordinary longevity as Teamsters president, says Karin Jones, director of the Teamster History Project. First elected as union president in 1907, he would serve in that role until 1952, a full 45 years. Although nominally the union’s second president (the first, Cornelius Shea, was driven from office by charges of criminal misconduct), Tobin emerged as the dominant figure of early Teamsters history, presiding over its astonishing growth—from 40,000 to 1.1 million members—and its development into a truly national organization, Jones says.

With 45 years in office, there is a lot of material to work with, Jones says, so the Teamster History Project has created a special section on the Teamsters web site to educate modern union members on his history at the union’s helm. It traces the evolution of the union from a handful of widely scattered locals of barely organized transport workers into a modern labor organization—with Tobin providing a steadying hand through some turbulent times.

Tobin’s personal story begins as an immigrant’s tale, not unlike famed 20th century union leaders Samuel Gompers of the American Federation of Labor, or Sidney Hillman of the Clothing Workers, or many others. Born in County Clare, Ireland, in 1875, Tobin’s parents brought him to Boston when he was 15 years old. He seems to have adapted easily to life in Irish Boston, becoming a truck driver and an early member of Teamsters Local 25, which was a union stronghold then and now. His first union office came in 1904 when he was appointed business agent for the local. From there, it would be a rapid rise to the top.

By 1907, Tobin was president of both Local 25 and the regional New England Joint District Council. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) had only been in existence for four years, but was in deep crisis over the continued criminal behavior of President Shea, who had allied himself with the notorious Chicago “Outfit.” In a closely fought convention battle, Tobin defeated Shea for election as president by a vote of 104-94.

Like other unions, the Teamsters were buffeted by the shifting winds of the World War I era. Woodrow Wilson, elected in 1914, was far friendlier to unions than any of his predecessors in the White House, and sought active partnership with organized labor in the war years. But the sense of strength and promise of the Wilson years came to an abrupt end in 1920, when the Republican Party regained control of the White House, and the post-war recession hit all unions hard.

The modern Teamsters are proud to say that some important civil rights precedents were set at this early stage in the union’s history, Jones says. For example, in 1906, the union decided there would be no color bar to union membership (as was common in other unions, especially the big railroad unions), nor would the IBT permit segregated locals.

“That’s the reason we had a lot of trouble organizing in the South: We refused to follow the Jim Crow laws,” she says. In 1919, the union embraced a policy of “equal pay for all,” an early affirmation that female workers were entitled to equal pay for equal work, Jones says.

A less generous view of Tobin and Teamsters racial policies is offered by Dan La Botz, an activist, author and journalist who was a co-founder of the dissident Teamsters for a Democratic Union.

“The union was founded as a bunch of white Irish guys like Tobin, and that was the ethnic glue that held it together. In general, they didn’t have black members, or any other minorities, because the unwritten rule among the employer companies was that you didn’t let black men handle machinery,” La Botz says. “It may have been open to integration on paper, but that wasn’t the way it worked in practice, at least not in the vast majority of the locals.”

Union members were hit hard by the Great Depression that followed the Wall Street crash of 1929, and Tobin became an early and enthusiastic supporter of Franklin Roosevelt. A lasting personal friendship developed between the two, contrasting sharply with FDR’s relationship with the Mineworkers’ Lewis, who soured on Roosevelt as the New Deal lost energy in the late 1930s. According to Teamster historian Jones, Roosevelt was offering Tobin a cabinet position as Secretary of Labor at about the same time that Lewis was endorsing Republican Wendell Willkie against FDR in the critical presidential election of 1940.

But the defining event of Tobin’s career was actually the Minneapolis General Strike of 1934, La Botz suggests. Tobin was strongly anti-communist, and was disturbed by left-wing influences in Minneapolis IBT Local 574, led by Trotskyist Farrell Dobbs and the Dunne brothers, Ray, Miles and Grant. In May 1934, Dobbs and the Dunnes led the Teamsters out on a city-wide strike, which quickly turned violent. Two strikers were shot dead by local police and the strike spread, paralyzing the entire city. Minneapolis was put under martial law and occupied by some 4,000 National Guard troops.

Violence and martial law notwithstanding, the strike was largely successful—one of three general strikes across the country that year. Tobin, however, determined to rid the union of the troublesome Trotskyists and soon succeeded in driving the Dunnes out. Dobbs would stay with the Teamsters for several more years but ultimately quit to work as an organizer for Socialist Workers Party.

According to La Botz, the success of the Minneapolis strike was the moment when the Teamsters should have surged forward, embracing an inclusive strategy of organizing and a more militant approach to defending worker rights. Instead, Tobin pulled the union back, La Botz says, retreating to an overly narrow concept of craft union organization that stressed friendly cooperation with employers and a junior partnership with the U.S. government.

La Botz and others also take Tobin to task for allowing organized crime to take root in the Teamsters over the course of his long tenure. That failure came home to roost for the union after Tobin’s retirement when two of his successors as president—Dave Beck and Jimmy Hoffa—were both driven from union office and jailed, making the union synonymous with organized crime for generations of Americans.

Tobin was never charged with any personal corruption, and the consensus of historians is that he was personally honest, Jones says. But it is undeniable that he looked the other way as gangsters and labor racketeers exercised control of key IBT locals in Chicago, New York and elsewhere.

Vincent Tobin, one of the Dan Tobin’s grandsons, agrees with that assessment, not from personal recollection, but from years of research. The retired lawyer is currently finishing work on the first full-length biography of his grandfather and says that Dan Tobin deserves recognition for leading the union from its shaky beginnings to prosperity and stability.

The Tobin grandson says he has only vague recollections of his grandfather, but was inspired to write the biography as a way to tell the union story without concentrating on the personal shortcomings of men like Beck, Hoffa or others who have been tainted with criminal connections. The national Teamsters organization was a sprawling and complex institution under Tobin’s direction, as it is today, he says, and any president must take responsibility for the failures as well as successes.

Based on the 45-year tenure at the head of the union, Dan Tobin deserves a full-length biography, he concludes—as well as place of honor in the Labor Hall of Fame.

Daniel Tobin and the Rise of the Teamsters Union - Working In These Times

Wednesday, May 27, 2015, 4:54 pm Daniel Tobin and the Rise of the Teamsters Union BY Bruce Vail Tweet Email Print Tobin, left, was the president of the...

INTHESETIMES.COM

New Nicaraguan-China Canal

Should the U.S. Worry About China’s Canal in Nicaragua?

BY DANIEL RUNDE
MAY 26, 2015 - 4:56 PM

Following an agreement between the Nicaraguan government and shadowy Chinese billionaire Wang Jing, there may be a new canal in the Western Hemisphere. The possibility of a transoceanic canal through Nicaragua has been discussed for almost 400 years. Nicaragua was almost the place for the U.S.-built canal until, for a number of reasons, Panama became more attractive. Wang Jing and Nicaraguan officials envision a competitor to the Panama Canal built for supertankers and cargo ships too large to pass through Panama, and insist that the megaproject would spur economic development by transforming Nicaragua into a global trade hub. Work on the project is already underway.

Still, some serious questions remain unanswered.

Plans for a Nicaraguan canal have been drawn up and scratched many times, but this latest attempt likely has the political and financial backing necessary to make it through to completion. President Daniel Ortega has made the canal a centerpiece of his legacy. Ortega, who recently made changes to Nicaragua’s constitution that will allow him to hold office for life, has the parliament in lockstep behind him. In a 2013 vote the parliament agreed to offer Wang Jing a 100-year concession to build and operate the canal. The vote went through without debate, public consultation, or feasibility/environmental impact studies. There is virtually zero chance of Daniel Ortega leaving office prior to the end of the project’s projected 5-year completion timeline.

Wang and his Cayman Island based firm, the Hong Kong Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Company (HKND), appear capable of providing the estimated $50 billion project cost. Wang, who rapidly rose to wealth after working for a government telecom company that went private in 2009, has indicated that he’s already found outside investors to meet the canal’s massive price tag. He has yet to name any of these investors, and there is speculation that the Chinese government is underwriting the project. Like many of China’s leading tycoons, Wang Jing has close ties to the Chinese political apparatus, and has promised that Chinese firms will take the lead on construction. Wherever it is that the money is coming from, it appears that finance will not be a concern.

The project has met resistance due concerns around national sovereignty, ecological impact, and social disruption. The concession signed by President Ortega gives HKND broad authority over land tapped for use in the project, and will result in forced relocations of an estimated 100,000 Nicaraguan citizens. The environmental repercussions, even if the project is managed to the highest standards, will be severe. The canal will cut across Lake Nicaragua — the largest fresh water body in Central America and a pristine ecological site — and dredging could transform the lake into a “dead zone.” When construction began last December, clashes between police and protestors led to dozens of injuries, including reports of two dead protestors. Nicaraguan policed denied these claims.

Ortega’s former vice president, Sergio Ramirez, is so concerned by the project that he drafted a manifesto (signed by many prominent Nicaraguans) accusing Ortega of violating national sovereignty for his own political and financial gain. Ramirez called the project a white elephant, and said that the project’s opaque nature has made it impossible to know “what kind of business deals or financial manipulations are hiding behind the curtain.” In return for their concession, Nicaragua will receive only $10 million annually for the first decade while controlling no ownership. Following the first decade of operation Nicaragua will be granted a 10 percent increase in ownership stake every 10 years.

The canal’s construction should be seen as a geostrategic probe by China. The depth of the canal, a reported 28 meters, should also raise eyebrows as it would be deep enough for Chinese submarines to quickly and covertly cross between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. While China has denied involvement in the project, the scale of construction and investment paired with Wang Jing’s opaque personal history and rapid rise to wealth, make this claim very dubious.

The other way that the canal might be stopped is progress on further expansion of the Panama Canal and the power of the free market. The Panama Canal is in the process of finishing a third set of locks by the end of 2016. There is also discussion of building a fourth set of locks. The Panama Canal leadership thinks that the construction timeline and the acceptable returns needed by the unnamed investors in Nicaragua (if they are private sector investors) will imply toll fees double that of the Panama Canal. If that is the case then the Nicaraguan canal will be uncompetitive. If the investors aren’t looking for a market return, however, than all bets are off.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Elizabeth Warren Criticizes Criminal Banksters

Elizabeth Warren Strikes At Market-Manipulating Wall Street Cartel, Calls for Public Hearings

— May 26, 2015

“When banks plead guilty to a crime, federal agencies must do more than look the other way,” said Warren. “The SEC has already granted waivers to each of these banks without any detailed explanation, but it is not too late for the Department of Labor to hold a public hearing before it decides that such brazen lawbreakers can be trusted managing Workers’ retirement accounts.”

JPMorgan Chase, CitiGroup (CitiBank), and other large, international banks pleaded guilty last weekto manipulating the foreign currency exchange markets and rigging interest rates on various loans. In response, authorities fined the banks a collective total of $5.7 billion dollars for their crimes, but no one will be prosecuted it seems.

Reuters reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission allowed waivers for the banks to continue their business after they agreed to pay the penalty, an obvious sign that the “too big to fail” mantra is still in effect. However, the banks have to separately apply for waivers to keep handling retirement accounts.

Despite banks having to apply for the privilege to handle their customers’ retirement accounts, the SEC is still allowing banks to handle them during the application process. Really, nothing much has changed. SEC Commissioner Kara Stein has criticized the agency for “rubber stamping” bank applications.

Big banks have “rigged the game,” as Warren would say, against low- and middle-income people in order to become wealthy. Everything big banks do is designed to serve the interests of rich executives and increase their bottom-line.

Warren is demanding transparency, and until we get it, banks will continue to do as they please and break the law.