Tag Archives: disaster

Fukushima, International

One Year Later: Remember Miki Endo, Fujio Koshita, and the dozens of others who lost their lives trying to save others

In one city, Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, there are 26 statues.  They represent the bodies who could not be identified.  1,555 residents of Rikuzentakata died on March 11, 2011.

Al Jazerra Rikuzentakata report.

Visit Foreign Volunteers Japan.

In Minamisanriku Town, Miyagi Prefecture, relief volunteers are still working there one year later.  Before they started yet another day of work, 300 volunteers gave a sunrise prayer for the thousands of missing and dead.

Minamisanriku Town was one of the hardest hit by the tsunami. It’s where Miki Endo stayed at her Disaster Center post blasting evacuation orders over the town’s loudspeaker system, until the tsunami blasted away the three story building she was in.   Watch haunting Japanese video report here: Minamisanriku, hometown of Heroine Miki Endo is becoming Atlantis

But Miki was not alone in that Disaster Center, she had dozens of co-workers as well as her boss, all hoping they could help.

One co-worker was at the hill top Evacuation Center, but he couldn’t bear seeing what was happening and returned to the Disaster Center.  He led many of his co-workers to the top of the three story building, unfortunately the tsunami was four stories tall, and all were killed.

The skeletal remains of the Disaster Center has become a shrine.

Visit savemiyagi.org.

Don’t forget the eight firefighters of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture.  The 57 year old firefighter, Fujio Koshita, rang a warning bell even as the tsunami headed right for him!  Seven other firefighters died helping people get to higher ground.

They say Fujio violated his own rule about personal safety: “Don’t die. Rescuers must stay alive.”

Watch the Brian Barnes video of Otsuchi tsunami. In the video you can see that water levels rose even before the tsunami hit, it caught videographers by surprise.  At 6:20 into the video they realize the city was already flooding.  At 8:00 in the tsunami finally hits, you can hear cracking sounds as buildings break.

Visit otsuchi.org

According to the latest official Japanese government numbers, more than 19,000 people were killed.  Many more are still without permanent places to live.  3,000 people are still listed as missing.  I’m sure there are many dozens of other heroes and heroines that we will never hear about.  But true heroes never die: “…The fireman was brave. I’m proud of him.”-16 year old Kaito Yamasaki

International, U.S.

Government Evil: U.S. soldiers go renegade in Afghanistan shoot into homes, at least 15 women & children killed

“When the Americans are killing civilians intentionally, this is called terror and it is an unforgivable act!“-Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan

On March 11, 2012, U.S. soldiers fired randomly into the homes of Afghans!

Local U.S./NATO/ISAF officials claim it was one renegade U.S. soldier, but witnesses say there were several U.S. personnel firing into houses.  Even the U.S. Ambassador indicated there was more than one shooter: “We assure the people of Afghanistan that the individual, or individuals, responsible for this terrible act will be identified and brought to justice.”

At least 16 people were killed, Afghan President Hamid Karzai says most of them were women and children.

“The so called American peacekeepers have once again quenched their thirst with the blood of innocent Afghan civilians…avenge every single death inflicted by the savage murderer invaders.”-“Taliban” statement

Fukushima

Government/Corporate Incompetence: Nearly One Year Later & officials still don’t understand the magnitude of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear diasaster!

I’ve been following this tragedy since March 11, 2011, and the one constant in all this is the unbelievable level of incompetence within the government leadership, and with the corporations in charge of the nuclear power industry in Japan!

Today, March 11, 2012, an official report says the corporate & government leadership of Japan still don’t know what is really going on with the General Electric designed nuclear disaster reactors at Fukushima Daiichi!

Dozens of government sanctioned investigation teams have revealed the insufficient measures against tsunami, and the inadequate responses to the nuclear accident.  But, no one knows just how bad it is inside the reactor units!

Of major concern: Radiation levels emitted from the power plant are still so high that TEPCo still doesn’t know where the high levels of radiation are actually coming from, so far everything they’ve been telling the media has been a wild ass guess!  TEPCo (Tokyo Electric) has recently admitted that radiation levels are so high around some areas of the nuclear compound that they can not send people in to find out what’s going on!

You know, I’ve said it many times before, Bill Nye (that old science guy) has said it many times, the Ukrainians and Russians have said it: Why don’t they dump sand, lead and concrete on the damn thing?

Business/Economics, International, Technology

One Year later: Tourist bus finally removed from top of two story building in Japan

On March 11, 2011, a 17 ton tourist bus was left on top of a two story community hall building, after the tsunami sucked itself back out to sea.

That was in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, Honshu, Japan (Nippon).

On March 10, 2012, nearly one year later, the bus was finally removed from the roof.  Many survivors said it was a bad reminder of the tsunami.  The owner of the bus company said the sight of his bus on the roof drove him to swear that he will operate his bus line again.

The bus had been sitting in a garage, 500 meters (1,640 feet) from its resting place, when the tsunami swept it away.  Watch NHK reporter who filmed as she ran from disaster video to see the bus immediately after the tsunami.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

No True Economic Recovery: Renowned Economist says this is totally the Banks’ fault, nothing can be done by governments, working class been paying for it, it’s called Deleveraging and it’s a sign we’re in a “Terminal Downturn”!

Steve Keen is Professor of Economics & Finance at the University of Western Sydney, Australia.  He was named by Forbes as the most accurate economic forecaster in this economic disaster.  He received the Revere Award from the Real World Economics Review, also for his accurate predictions. He wrote the book Debunking Economics.

Now in a recent interview with former Wall Street broker, Timothy Maxwell “Max” Keiser, Keen says there is nothing governments can do to save the economy, because it is actually an inherent part of the banking system’s sinister operations!

No amount of tax increases, or government spending cuts (austerity), or government spending increases (Keynesian spending), or even corporate bailouts will help save the economy.  It’s called deleveraging: “The reason it hasn’t worked….this is massive deleveraging. The private sector has borrowed its way into enormous levels of debt over about 40, 50 year period….from owing about half a year’s GDP as the debt level in the 1950s to [owing] three years GDP now!”

I’ve already written about the IMF’s order to continue deleveraging of households (that’s you and me), Keen is saying this is part and parcel of the too big to fail banks policies.

Deleveraging (retracting credit) means the banks try to get rid of their debts.  Those debts include the mortgages and credit cards they’ve issued to the general public.

They deleverage households by calling in your chips, saying pay up now.  It doesn’t matter if you’re credit rating is good or not.  Many of the foreclosures involved people who had never missed payments, even people who had paid off their homes!  And deleveraging attacks corporations as well.

A recent case of deleveraging, involving a major corporation, was the shut down of Air Australia. The airline was shut down when it’s creditors (too big to fail banks) refused to leverage (issue credit) for Air Australia’s fuel purchases.

Steve Keen says the too big to fail banks are now deleveraging everyone because the too big to fail banks became addicted to debt themselves!  This goes back to the 1980s, and includes personalities like Alan Greenspan and Mitt Romney.

Keen says it’s the vulture capitalist mentality that is destroying the country: “…capitalists in euphoric states, and certainly finance capitalists…they borrow money, they gamble on asset prices, they’ll cause a bubble…of course the borrowing is badly thought out, projects don’t work, they’re ponzi schemes in many ways to begin with…you go through periods of ratcheting up levels of debt, until you get to the point that there’s so much debt the system simply can’t cope with it and you go into a terminal downturn, and that’s where we are right now.”

The 1980s saw the beginning of the trend of vulture capitalists, like Mitt Romney, using leverage (loans) to take over companies, carve them up and sell them off.  Not only did it make big money for people like Mitt Romney (while causing millions of U.S. workers to lose their jobs between the 1980s and now) it made big money for the too big to fail banks.

In steps Alan Greenspan.  The Federal Reserve is the central bank of the U.S.  It actually makes money off issuing loans to the too big to fail banks.  So, it is in the interest of the Federal Reserve to keep this game going.  It’s not about jobs at all, it’s about making money purely through loans.

Presidential candidate Ron Paul is correct about the Federal Reserve being part of the problem, because Keen says Greenspan is responsible for what is about to become the biggest depression ever: “…Alan Greenspan turned what would have been a garden variety small depression, back in 1987, into the biggest depression in human history by rescuing the financial industry from each of its mistakes.  Which simply meant that it [finance industry] would go looking for another social class to lend money to, expanding the level of debt…If the central banks hadn’t been trying to rescue us from each of the individual financial crisis we would’ve had a minor depression…we’re now in for the biggest of all time…now we’re dealing with the biggest financial crisis ever, and we can certainly blame the central banks for the scale of it.”

Keen also discovered, while working through his mathematical models, that when the shit hits the fan it’s not the banks and vulture capitalists who pay for the debt they themselves created, it’s the working class: “…So, as the level of debt rose, it wasn’t the capitalists who paid for it, even though they were the ones doing the borrowing, it was the workers in terms of their income share…the ones who are now paying for it through austerity actually are the ones who’ve been paying for it through a lower share of income, not the capitalists….” 

Here’s what Keen had to say about the too big to fail banks: “Having a large financial sector is a sign of a sick economy.”  Because banks represent finance capital and “…finance capital doesn’t make money!”  Keen explained that banks are there to help true industries operate, and make money the old fashioned way, by earning it through providing products or services.  In other words you should not have too big to fail banks making up the majority of your country’s GDP, which is in fact what’s happening in the U.S.

Towards the end of Keen’s interview with Max Keiser, he predicted that Australia’s economy will begin to crash within six to 12 months, and he thinks the Australian government will attempt the same pro-bank, anti-worker, rescue policies as that of the United States.  Keen calls the U.S. policy “…rescuing the parasite [banks, Romney style capitalists, etc] rather than rescuing the host [true industries, working class].”

In the early 1990s Keen came up with an economic model that takes into account vulture capitalist debt financing.  He used mathematical chaos theory to prove what film maker Oliver Stone tried to warn about in his movie Wall Street: Mitt Romney style capitalism doesn’t work, and doesn’t create more jobs in the long run.  Back in 1993 Keen warned that any apparent tranquility caused by the out of control crony capitalist debt financing was actually “…the lull before the storm.” 

Check out debtdeflation.com

 

 

 

 

International, U.S.

World War 3: Afghans attack Bagram again, civilians continue anti-U.S. demonstrations, more foreign fighters captured in Afghanistan

March 10, 2012, “Taliban” claim they’ve launched two rockets against Bagram airfield. As usual the rockets didn’t do much damage.  Bagram is under almost continuous attack from rockets, suicide bombers or other forms of attack.

Hundreds of unarmed Afghans continue to protest the United States.  The latest rally took place in the town of Tagab in Kapisa Province. This comes after a U.S. terror drone attack in the same province earlier in the morning.

March 9, 2012, Afghan officials admitted that U.S. led commandos, from the 9th Commando Kandak, were ambushed by “Taliban”.  It happened on March 6, near Sakharai village, Murghab district.  But this case is a great example of overkill by U.S. led forces.  The commandos were first attacked by only two freedom fighters.  Under the guidance of U.S. troops they called in an air strike, for just two insurgents!

But that only made the locals more angry and six more insurgents showed up! Afghan and U.S. officials say they called in another air strike and killed the six new insurgents.   A second air strike to handle six people?  This makes the Vietnam War look efficient.

On March 8, 2012, U.S./NATO/ISAF officials announced they captured two “Taliban” who were actually from Uzbekistan.  They say both were involved in planning suicide attacks.

 

 

 

International, U.S.

World War 3: War back on between Israel and Palistinians, Egypt condemns Israel

“This round in Gaza is far from being over….They will pay a heavy price, and no one will have immunity!”-Ehud Barak, Israeli Defense Minister

After years of Israeli harassment (since the 2008/2009 Gaza war) in the form of occasional air strikes, ground raids, economic blockades, humanitarian aid blockades, a reneged prisoner swap deal, cutting off fuel and electricity, and in the past few weeks non stop Israeli terror drone strikes, Palestinian leaders in Gaza Strip have almost declared war on Israel!

Since last week more than a dozen Palestinians have been killed by Israeli air strikes, finally, in recent days, Gazans are retaliating by launching rockets into Israel.

The latest Israeli air strike took place March 10, 2012, using a terror drone they killed at least one man, and wounded 15 people (some reports say 15 people were killed).  An Israeli ground operation saw a tank blasting away at Palestinians, possibly killing as many as 13 people.  An Israeli infantry attack was launched against a funeral procession.

Its being reported that the mourners in the funeral procession were chanting “No more truce with Israel!” Various Palestinian groups are saying they’re mad as hell and they’re not gonna take it anymore: “We won’t give this occupation a free truce while our leaders and heroes are being killed!”-Abu Mujahid, Popular Resistance Committee

Israeli officials say that more than 65 rockets from Gaza Strip hit Israeli territory on March 9, 2012.  Palestinians said the rocket attack was in retaliation for several days of air strikes by the Israelis.

Egypt’s Foreign Minister, Mohamed Kamel Amr, is demanding that Israel stop its aggression towards Palestinians: “Egypt is highly distraught by the Israeli attacks. Egypt is currently exerting efforts and making crucial calls for an immediate end to this Israeli escalation, to end the bloodshed of our brothers!”

 

 

 

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

FBI takes Murdoch investigation to Russia, Murdoch price fixing e-books, BSkyB could lose license, Fair & Balanced?

March 10, 2012, Canadian media reporting that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is expanding their investigation of Rupert Murdoch into Russia!

Murdoch’s News Corp controls several Russian media organizations, including News Outdoor Russia (NOR). NOR says they “…continues to operate in accordance with the laws of jurisdictions relevant to its operation, including those applicable to Russian operating companies and subsidiaries of U.S. listed publicly traded companies.”

This follows news that the U.S. Justice Department intends to sue several e-book publishers for price fixing, one of those include HarperCollins Publishers, a unit of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp (by the way, it also includes Apple).

Reuters also reporting that James Murdoch might be forced to resign from the satellite TV provider BSkyB.  The “independent” U.K. broadcast regulator Ofcom is investigating connections between James Murdoch, News Corp and BSkyB.

That investigation could revoke BSkyB’s license to operate.

I bet the Murdoch family is hoping that the investigations into their empire are, just as Fox News arrogantly claims for itself, “Fair and Balanced”.

 

 

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

Government Incompetence: After arresting WikiLeaks founder, now the U.K. government asks WikiLeaks for help!

“Leveson Inquiry has asked WikiLeaks for a submission on corruption in the UK press. We have submitted over 100 pages.”-WikiLeaks statement

The British government is now asking its enemy, WikiLeaks, for help in uncovering the ongoing Rupert Murdoch, police/News Corp corruption scandal!

Murdoch’s  (an Australian who became a U.S. citizen just so he could legally start Fox News in the U.S.)  media empire is being investigated for bribing police and government officials (even here in the U.S.).  Already several police officials have lost their jobs in the U.K., including the boss of Scotland Yard.

Back in January 2011, Julian Assange (also from Australia) told British investigators that he had “insurance files” on Rupert Murdoch: “There are 504 U.S. embassy cables on one broadcasting organization and there are cables on Murdoch and News Corp.”  

It’s only now that hypocritical, and incompetent, British officials are turning to WikiLeaks for help in their investigation of Murdoch!

 

International

Military Incompetence: Italy says the U.K. Royally F—ed Up a hostage rescue mission in Nigeria

“The behavior of the British government in not informing Italy is inexplicable.”-Giorgio Napolitano, President of Italy

In Nigeria two hostages were killed when the British tried to rescue them.  One hostage was a Brit, the other Italian.  Italian officials are pissed off to say the least.  They claim they were not told about the rescue attempt until afterwards.

The arrogant British defense secretary, Philip Hammond, swears they kept the Italian government informed, but then admits the Italians never agreed to such an operation: “I don’t think they specifically approved it.”

With friends like the United Kingdom, who needs enemies?