What The Fucks Going On Blog

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Regarding Food Safety Bill

Dear Earl:

You neglected to include this portion of the WSJ article:

"Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D., Conn.), a longtime advocate of tougher food-safety laws, said the legislation already addresses smaller producers’ concerns. For instance, farms selling products directly to consumers from a fruit stand or farmers market would be exempt from some fees and requirements.

“We’ve made all kinds of accommodations to small farmers so that they are not put at risk,” she said.”

As someone who has read the bill, let me address your points.

1. No facility not already registered will be required to register. There will be no fees imposed.

2. This is a ridiculous idea. Conspiracy theory and not based on anything within the bill.

3. The increase in FDA inspectors will allow the FDA to conduct regular inspections of high-risk facilities that are what you might consider “big business”. Additionally, more FDA inspectors are needed to fulfill this bills direction to inspect foreign facilities that export to the US.

4. Once again, food processing facilities of the highest risk factor will garner the more frequent inspections. All facilities already registered will be inspected regularly.

5. The FDA has the power to exempt small, low-risk facilities under this bill. The fees and paperwork are explicitly required to be responsive to the size of the business and flexible so that small businesses are not burdened. It is written in S. 510.

6. The DHS would only get involved if necessary. Since DHS was created, it has had authority and/or involvement in many major departments within the executive branch. This bill is nothing new in that respect.

7. It does not mandate harmonization. It requests that FDA receive comment and advice as to whether or not it should harmonize.

8. Once again, no registration fees are included in S. 510. Nor is there any mention of the level of any fines.

9. S. 510 calls for the establishment of “minimum safety standards”. These standards cannot conflict with the standards of the National Organic Program. Since organic standards disallow GM seed, it is extended that FDA’s standards must not include GM seed.

10. In the event of a major emergency, the FDA, USDA, and DHS will work with the public to coordinate a collective response.

11. The FDA will have access to paperwork involving production safety procedures and purchase and sale records. This will assist FDA in tracing the source of an outbreak and making sure contaminated products don’t continue to pose a threat.

12. Opponents to S. 510 are wrong. It does not deal with the cleaning of seeds."

http://thehill.com/images/stories/blogs/smallfarms.pdf

You can sign SlowFood USA’s petition to pass S. 510 here: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5986/p/salsa/web/common/public/signup?signup_page_KEY=2652

"Dr. Doom" sees “double dip” recession in last quater of 2010

"Bleak" is how "Dr. Doom," noted economist Nouriel Roubini sums up the economic forecast for the rest of 2010 in a speech at the Ambrosette Forum economics conference in Italy.

NYU professor Nouriel Roubini

The only man to see the First Dip in the US economy says there’s a 40 percent chance of a “double dip” recession for the second half of 2010.  “Double dip” means that there’s a recession, some recovery, and then another recession.  This prediction is nothing new; many other economists have been forecasting this as well because of the high unemployment and faltering housing market.  Polls show that a majority of Americans also see a double dip coming.

Here is what Dr. Doom has predicted:

- There will be a downturn in markets, which will hurt the bond, equity and credit markets.

- We’ll see no job growth in the private sector.

- Consumption, exports and housing will remain weak.

- Both corporate and consumer debt will worsen.

- The residential and commercial property markets will continue to slump.

- Worst of all, many small and medium-sized banks will fail.  Among a critical list of 800 banks that are at risk now, over half will go belly up.

Roubini used a term we’ve all gotten familiar with in recent years—the “new normal.”  He said that these trends are all things we’ll have to get used to.  Deleveraging (which means dumping bad debt) is a necessary step to getting some growth going.

According to Roubini, whether we double dip or not, it will feel like a recession.  In his words, there will be “no more cash for clunkers” and “headwinds will become tailwinds.”  He predicted some growth, but not the kind we’re used to.

As the U.S. economy sags, the whole world will feel it.  The slowdown in the U.S. will drastically affect the economies of China, Japan and Europe.  In spite of predictions by economists in the 2008 recession that the economies of Asia and Europe would soldier on despite America’s economic problems, their stocks suffered much worse, and Roubini predicts that we’ll see the same thing here.

Among European countries, we can expect to see the most growth in Germany, which is doing quite well in spite of things.  Roubini predicted seven percent growth in China.  He also predicted that Brazil’s economy will outgrow China’s.  Brazil, and other countries that are domestically focused and rely little on foreign markets, will not be as drasticallyaffected.

 Roubini says that government policy makers are running out of ideas.  What’s needed, he said, is fiscal consolidation, and not more debt.  He called it a “liquidity trap” and said that we have “insolvency problems.”

 

S. 510: 12 Reasons Why The Food Safety Bill From Hell Could Be Very Dangerous For The U.S. Economy

The Economic Collapse

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S. 510: 12 Reasons Why The Food Safety Bill From Hell Could Be Very Dangerous For The U.S. Economy Posted: 26 Sep 2010 07:38 PM PDT As you read this, there is a bill before the U.S. Senate that has the potential to change the U.S. food industry more than any other law ever passed by the U.S. Congress. In the name of "food safety", the U.S. government would be given an iron grip over the production, transportation and sale of all food in the United States. Hordes of small food producers and organic farmers could potentially be put out of business.  If this bill becomes law, the freedom to grow what you want, eat what you want and to share food from your gardens with your neighbors could be greatly curtailed.  It would give the FDA unprecedented discretion to regulate U.S. food production.  A version of this bill was already passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last summer, and now S. 510, also know as the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, is in front of the U.S. Senate and it is expected to pass easily. Because of how vaguely it is written and because of how much discretion it gives to the FDA, it is potentially a very, very dangerous law. So who is actually in favor of it? Well, big food corporations and big agriculture are actually very much in favor of this bill. Why? Is it because they are so concerned about food safety? No. In fact, virtually every major case of food contamination in recent U.S. history has come from large-scale industrial agriculture or large-scale industrial food production. The real reason why they are backing S. 510 is because it will devastate their primary competition - small food producers and organic farmers. In recent years, the demand for organic food has skyrocketed as the American people have learned the truth about how our food is actually made.  Big agriculture and the giant food producers are losing profits as Americans increasingly vote with their wallets. So now the food giants are using "food safety" as a way to get market share back.  It is an open secret that many of those involved in drafting this bill and in pushing it through Congress have ties to food industry giants. Thousands of small food producers and organic farmers will have their very existence threatened by this bill.  It imposes a bureaucratic nightmare on all food producers that the big corporations will be able to handle easily but that will cripple much smaller operations. Already, many farmers can see the writing on the wall.  One small farmer recently described the mood among her fellow small farmers to the Wall Street Journal.... "I know people who have been small farmers for 25 to 30 years who are looking to get out of the business because food safety is becoming so alarmist." But the bureaucratic nightmare is just the tip of the iceberg.  To get an idea of just how dangerous S. 510 could potentially be to the already staggering U.S. economy, just check out the following quote from one opponent of this bill.... "If accepted [S 510] would preclude the public’s right to grow, own, trade, transport, share, feed and eat each and every food that nature makes. It will become the most offensive authority against the cultivation, trade and consumption of food and agricultural products of one’s choice. It will be unconstitutional and contrary to natural law or, if you like, the will of God." -Dr. Shiv Chopra, Canada Health whistle blower It would be hard to understate how dangerous this bill potentially could be.  This bill gives the FDA the ability to exercise a ton of discretion.  The FDA could end up exercising that discretion in a very reasonable way, or they could use it to shut down small food producers left and right. When it comes to S. 510, the question that you need to ask yourself is this.... Do you trust the FDA? If not, then there are some very real reasons for you to be concerned. The following are 12 reasons why S. 510 could be absolutely disastrous for small food producers and for the U.S. economy....  #1 All food production facilities in the United States will be required to register with the U.S. government.   No food will be allowed to be grown, distributed or sold outside this bureaucratic framework unless the FDA allows it. #2 Any food that is distributed or sold outside of U.S. government control will be considered illegal smuggling. #3 The FDA will hire an army of new inspectors to enforce all of the new provisions in the bill. #4 The FDA will be mandated to conduct much more frequent inspections of food processing facilities.    #5 The fees and paperwork requirements will be ruinously expensive for small food producers and organic farms. #6 S. 510 would place all U.S. food and all U.S. farms under the Department of Homeland Security in the event of a major "contamination" or an "emergency".  What exactly would constitute a "contamination" or an "emergency" is anyone's guess. #7 S. 510 mandates that the FDA facilitate harmonization of American food laws with Codex Alimentarius. #8 S. 510 imposes an annual registration fee on any facility that holds, processes, or manufactures food.  It also includes draconian fines for paperwork infractions of up to $500,000 for a single offense.  Just one penalty like that would drive a small food producer out of business. #9 S. 510 would give the FDA tremendous discretion to regulate how crops are grown and how food is produced in the United States.  Basically, small farmers and organic farmers will now be forced to farm exactly how the federal government tells them to.  It is feared that the U.S. government would soon declare that many organic farming methods are "unsafe" and would outlaw them.  In addition, there is the very real possibility that at some point the U.S. government could decide that the only "safe" seed for a particular crop is genetically modified seed and would require all farmers to use it. #10 S. 510 will give the FDA the power to impose a quarantine on a specific geographic area.  Basically the FDA would have the power to stop the movement of all food in an area where a "contamination" has been identified.  This would be very close to being able to declare martial law. #11 S. 510 will give the FDA the power to conduct warrantless searches of the business records of small food producers and organic farmers, even if there has been no evidence at all that a law has been broken.  #12 Opponents of S. 510 believe that it would eliminate the right to clean and store seed.  Therefore, control of the U.S. seed supply would be further centralized in the hands of Monsanto and other multinational corporations. As mentioned above, this bill gives the FDA a ton of discretion.  It is written very broadly and very vaguely.  It opens the door for all kinds of abuses, but that doesn't mean that the FDA will behave unreasonably. So should we trust the FDA? Is there a viable future for small food producers and organic farmers in America? Or is the handwriting already on the wall?  "If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny." -Thomas Jefferson

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REVEALED: Mainstream Media Suppression of Only Proven UFO Contactee - Oct 15-17, L.A.

U.S. spokesman for Swiss man claims decades long news blackout on only authentic, still ongoing UFO case orchestrated by government and media

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The internet revolution cannot be undone and now each person who comes upon the Meier information can 'publish', text and tweet it freely and wake up countless others...it will ultimately overwhelm the media suppression...in time, the truth will prevail.

Playa Del Rey, CA (PRWEB) August 30, 2010

With the sudden surge of interest in UFOs, are the government and media deliberately suppressing the one case that would blow the cover-up wide open? Michael Horn, the U.S. spokesman for Swiss UFO contactee, Billy Meier, will present supporting evidence for that theory in two upcoming public appearances.

According to Horn, the whole UFO topic has been turned into little more than entertainment with the media comfortably promoting only anecdotal and inconclusive evidence. "The fact is that while there has been some actual extraterrestrial UFO activity in the past, most sightings are either secret military craft or explained by natural causes. The clear exception, the Meier case, has been the one cause of concern for the CIA and other intelligence agencies for over 35 years. The 21 documented assassination attempts on Meier's life show that someone's been taking it very seriously."

Horn thinks that the governmental powers that be are glad to see people chase what he calls "lights in the sky" but want to make sure that Meier's documented, advance knowledge of hundreds of important scientific discoveries, from black holes, dark matter, water on Mars, to the deadly threat of the Apophis asteroid, don't get their attention.

When asked why they would want to cover up such ironclad evidence, Horn said, "They believe that Meier's proof of still ongoing extraterrestrial contact would overturn our religions, even stop wars and reinforce the oneness of, and need for peace between, all peoples on Earth. They also fear that it would destabilize society to admit that advanced, space traveling human beings operate freely without any terrestrial control. But the Plejaren extraterrestrials emphasize that we, the people of Earth, are the biggest enemies to our own future survival...and they're trying to help us to avoid self-destruction."

Horn feels that those who could have made a real difference failed to do so. "There's no shortage of so-called 'UFO experts', authors and others who've jumped on the UFO bandwagon despite not having any real extraterrestrial related evidence. And they avoid the Meier case for one simple reason - they can't make a profit from it. So they don't mention Meier's contacts in their media appearances, preventing people from benefiting from the information. Those who are most vocal about 'ending the UFO cover-up' are, ironically, most actively perpetuating it because, like the media, they see Meier as...bad for business."

Horn - who says he has personal proof the ET contacts are authentic - claims there's another reason why the Meier case is strictly off limits. "The media and the powers that be know that if people realize just how badly they've been lied to about things like the coming worldwide consequences of the BP Gulf disaster, the anger and frustration could really boil over.

"But they've overlooked one important thing. The internet revolution cannot be undone and now each person who comes upon the Meier information can 'publish', text and tweet it freely and wake up countless others. Initially it's a slow process but it will ultimately overwhelm the media suppression and, in time, the truth will prevail."

Michael Horn will be appearing at the:

ASPE Symposium September 9 - 12, 2010

Los Angeles Conscious Life Expo October 15 - 17, 2010

Press Release Archives

The Michael Horn Show

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/08/prweb4436884.htm

Why Revolutionary Acts and Martial Law are in your future, "Mr. Jones"

Violence on the Horizon

As the entrenched global banking cartel continues to control domestic political policy, the next phase of this crisis will inevitably feature an escalation into mass violence. As the Army War College stated, the Pentagon is preparing for “violent, strategic dislocation inside the United States” and “widespread civil violence” due to “purposeful domestic resistance.”

In clear signs of what is to come, rioting and violence as a result of economic turmoil has already been experienced in many countries throughout the world. However, civil unrest has not yet occurred within the United States. There are many theories as to why there has been so little resistance from the US population thus far, and several factors play into it.

The most significant factor is that social safety net programs have been vital in preventing people from resorting to extreme measures. Currently, a stunning number of Americans, 52 million, are receiving life-sustaining assistance from government “anti-poverty” programs, such as food stamps, unemployment benefits, Medicaid and Medicare. This has already stretched a social safety net system that is designed to handle significantly less people to its limit. This safety net system has now been drained of all reserve resources over the past two years, and is obviously not sustainable under current economic and political conditions.

As social safety net programs have been drained of reserves, many US citizens have also been burning through their personal savings. Over the past few years the percentage of Americans living paycheck to paycheck has dramatically increased. In 2007, 43 percent of Americans were living paycheck to paycheck. In 2008, the percentage increased to 49 percent. In 2009, the number skyrocketed up to 61 percent. The most recent number for 2010 has exploded to a shocking 77 percent. This means in our nation of 310 million citizens, 239 million Americans are one setback away from economic ruin and millions more are in danger of having to rely on government assistance for survival.

So as this prolonged economic crisis continues, these safety nets, that are already overwhelmed, will have to support more and more people and will inevitably break down. As we have just begun to see, budget cuts to vital social programs on the state and federal levels will become increasingly severe right at the point when many more Americans will need them. As the 52 million Americans currently surviving in “anti-poverty” programs are gradually cutoff from life-sustaining government assistance - and as the 239 million people now living paycheck to paycheck, buried in debt, stressing out and working their asses off just to make ends meet realize that things are not going to be getting any better — and are only going to get worse — social unrest and outbursts of violence will eventually start to bubble up to the surface and the ruling elite will no longer be able to maintain power by simply deceiving the masses via mainstream media propaganda.

When an overwhelming majority of the population directly feels negative effects upon their own living standards, the propaganda system collapses. The illusion comes crashing down and people will finally start to get wise to the horrific scam that is being played on them. When they wake from their media-induced American dream state and realize that they are now living in a nightmare, as crazy as it may sound, people will actually stop voting against their own interests. The apathetic majority, that doesn’t vote, will become active in the interests of self-preservation as their survival instincts kick in.

The handwriting is on the wall and the ruling class has to realize that by the time 2012 rolls around, their puppet politicians will be voted out of office, or their heads will roll, quite literally.

Looking at this from a purely technocratic sociological viewpoint, avoiding mass riots and violence while this many desperate people lose life-sustaining programs appears to be an impossible task, and given our current economic and political environment this seems inevitable.

In an article titled “A Planet at the Brink: Will Economic Brushfires Prove Too Virulent to Contain?” Michael T. Klare explained:

“As people lose confidence in the ability of markets and governments to solve the global crisis, they are likely to erupt into violent protests or to assault others they deem responsible for their plight, including government officials, plant managers, landlords, immigrants, and ethnic minorities. (The list could, in the future, prove long and unnerving.) If the present economic disaster turns into what President Obama has referred to as a ‘lost decade,’ the result could be a global landscape filled with economically-fueled upheavals.”

Former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski expressed his fears:

“I was worrying about it because we’re going to have millions and millions of unemployed, people really facing dire straits. And we’re going to be having that for some period of time before things hopefully improve. And at the same time there is public awareness of this extraordinary wealth that was transferred to a few individuals at levels without historical precedent in America….

And you sort of say to yourself: what’s going to happen in this society when these people are without jobs, when their families hurt, when they lose their homes, and so forth?”

Outbreaks of civil unrest are something that the US government and Pentagon have been expecting, and preparing for. Former US Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee stating that the greatest threat facing the US is not terrorism, it’s the current economic crisis:

“The primary near-term security concern of the United States is the global economic crisis and its geopolitical implications. The crisis has been ongoing…. Of course, all of us recall the dramatic political consequences wrought by the economic turmoil of the 1920s and 1930s in Europe, the instability, and high levels of violent extremism.”

Intelligence Committee Vice-Chair Christopher Bond said the economic crisis is now “the primary focus of the intelligence community.” As the Army War College has warned, the response to this coming phase of the economic crisis “might include use of military force against hostile groups inside the United States. Further, DoD [the Department of Defense] would be, by necessity, an essential enabling hub for the continuity of political authority in a multi-state or nationwide civil conflict or disturbance.”

Journalist Chris Hedges summed up this report:

“The specter of social unrest was raised at the US Army War College in November in a monograph titled ‘Known Unknowns: Unconventional ‘Strategic Shocks’ in Defense Strategy Development.’ …

The ‘widespread civil violence,’ the document said, ‘would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security.’

‘An American government and defense establishment lulled into complacency by a long-secure domestic order would be forced to rapidly divest some or most external security commitments in order to address rapidly expanding human insecurity at home,’ it went on….

In plain English, something bureaucrats and the military seem incapable of employing, this translates into the imposition of martial law and a de facto government being run out of the Department of Defense. They are considering it. So should you.”

A long read: See the rest of this interesting and informative article at: http://www.zerohedge.com/article/introduction-road-through-2012-revolution-or-world-war-iii

Def. Dept. Buys and Burns all copies of book, fearing 9-11 revelations - redacted version, best seller?

Fearing revelations about the 9-11 attack, the Defense Department spent $47,000 to burn all 9,500 copies of "Operation Dark Heart," Army Reserve Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer's memoir about going undercover in Afghanistan that the Pentagon claims revealed too many national security secrets.

The Defense Intelligence Agency objected to the book's publication, spurring a review that resulted in its being blocked over recollections in the book about the controversial pre-Sept. 11, 2001, data mining project called "Able Danger." 

Shaffer claimed in the book that Able Danger had successfully identified hijacker Mohammed Atta as a threat to the United States nearly a year before the Sept. 11 terror attacks but that information -- shared with the Sept. 11 commission after the attack -- was left out of the commission's final report.

Among the information DIA objected to including in the book were references to a meeting between Shaffer and Philip Zelikow, the executive director of the Sept. 11 commission. 

In that meeting, which took place in Afghanistan, Shaffer alleges he told Zelikow about "Able Danger" and Atta, the ringleader of the Sept. 11 hijackers who piloted American Airlines Flight 11 into the World Trade Center. 

Shaffer, who was undercover at the time, said there was "stunned silence" at the meeting after he told Zelikow and others that Atta was identified as early as 2000 by "Able Danger." 

"Dr. Philip Zelikow approached me in the corner of the room. 'What you said today is very important. I need you to get in touch with me as soon as you return from your deployment here in Afghanistan,'" Shaffer said.

But once back in the U.S., Shaffer says he contacted the commission. Without explanation, the commission was no longer interested in his statement. 

No mention of Atta's early detection was made in the final Sept. 11 commission report.

Shaffer said the Able Danger information was "clearly one of the issues" DIA had a problem with but he fought back when the Pentagon tried to strip out one paragraph since the information he included was the same as testimony he gave on Capitol Hill.

"Apparently, Defense Intelligence Agency took exception to the way the Army cleared the book," Shaffer told Fox News in an interview conducted before he was asked by the military not to discuss the book. He confirmed efforts to block the book, a move he called "highly unusual."

However, Shaffer explained on Sunday that the distinction between the Army and DIA's rules on redaction are traced to the public domain argument. He said while the Army review found that everything he puclished is in the public domain in some form, DIA notes that much of it is still classified. 

"So that's the difference in standards," he said.

A new version of the book has been published, which the book's publisher "voluntarily agreed" to do, Shaffer said.

The Pentagon is currently working with the publisher to "mitigate the resulting effects of the disclosures," a Defense Department official told Fox News

"Given the sensitive nature of this request and the potential damage to national security, the Department of Defense had every reason to believe that this would be handled with the utmost discretion by all of the parties. Unfortunately, someone disclosed to the press these ongoing efforts before the Department of Defense had the opportunity to finish working with the publisher on a corrected version," the official said.

But the Pentagon's claims about national security breaches are still very much in dispute, and the Defense Department had been forced to abandon its request and a majority of others because the information was already public. 

I just said, 'This is beyond the pale,'" he said, adding that other similar demands were just as "loony."

But Shaffer said the Pentagon couldn't have timed its announcement any better for Shaffer, whose book was just released and has already shot up to No. 6 on Amazon's best seller list. A check after his appearance on Fox News showed the book had reached No. 2 on Amazon.

An inspector general report by the Department of Defense concluded there was no evidence to support the claims of Shaffer and others. But Fox News has obtained an unredacted copy of the IG report containing the names of witnesses, who backed up Shaffer's story when contacted for comment.

The documents and exclusive interviews, including an Army data collector on the Able Danger Project, are part of an ongoing investigation by the documentary unit "Fox News Reporting" which uncovered new details about American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and efforts by the FBI to track and recruit Awlaki for intelligence purposes after Sept. 11.

Fox News' Catherine Herridge and Jennifer Griffin contributed to this report.

Possible peril from 2013 solar flare activity = "Here Comes The Sun..."

SPACE | 24.09.2010

Scientists warn of possible peril from 2013 solar flare activity

 

Researchers warn at a London conference that a large-scale solar flare could disrupt satellites in orbit and power stations on Earth.

 

Earlier this week, scientists attending the Electric Infrastructure Security Council conference in London warned that a massive solar flare may trigger global chaos by causing blackouts and wrecking satellite communications. 

Solar flares are large explosions on the surface of the Sun, powered by the sudden release of magnetic energy that has built up in the Sun's atmosphere. They can last just a few seconds or up to an hour, and can occur in smaller intensities as often as several times per day.

The researchers say that this potential disaster could occur within three years, which is when astronomers forecast a peak in the Sun's magnetic energy cycle. They say that the resulting solar storm could potentially cause geomagnetic mayhem on earth, knocking out electricity grids around the world.

"As that magnetic field gets tangled up it gets more and more energetic, and that leads to an eleven year cycle of activity," explained Chris Davis, a scientist on the Solar Stormwatch project at the British Royal Observatory, in an interview with Deutsche Welle.

"We're on a low level of activity at the moment but sunspots are starting to appear again, and spots are the manifestation of this magnetic field poking through the surface of the Sun."

One of the expected effects of the 2013 solar flare is that the Northern Lights will be able to be seen at higher latitudes

Previous large solar ejection occured in 19th century

Astronomers say that the current cycle of solar flare activity started around 2001 and they expect it to reach a peak sometime in 2013. But what's different about this peak is that it could be quite devastating.

The coronal mass ejection could release large amounts of matter, intense magnetic fields and other radiation into space. Typically, some scientists say, ejections of this size only occur approximately every 150 years – the last one was in 1859.

"The world's skies were bathed in a blood red aurora – the Northern and the Southern lights," said Stuart Clark, a British astronomy journalist and author of "The Sun Kings", which details the event and its impact on modern astronomy.

"And at the same time as these lights appeared in the sky, the nineteenth century equivalent of global communications and navigation just completely stopped working."

In other words, Clark explained, compasses spun uselessly and the telegraph – cutting-edge technology at the time – crashed.

A solar flare in 1989 caused the disruption of power plants and transmission stations in Quebec, Canada

Solar flares have disrupted power transmission before

Today, given that the 21st century relies so heavily on other technology like communications and entertainment satellites, the world is more at risk from damage caused by high-energy particles and other disturbances, said Avi Schnurr, who organized the conference. He is a former US Department of Defense analyst, and current executive director of the Israel Missile Defense Association, a lobbying organization.

In addition to affecting spacecraft, such magnetic storms can affect power transmission behavior on the Earth, because they cause "transformer saturation," which reduces or distorts voltage. That could mean the disruption of power plants and transmission stations, which happened in the province of Quebec in Canada during a solar flare in 1989. 

"The electric grids when they go down, they bring with them our capability to produce water and send water to homes, to produce food, communications, medical care. All the things we depend on." Schnurr said. "And if it's down for months or years, it's very painful to think what that would mean."

An Australian government scientist dismissed Schnurr's claims as 'overstated'

Author Stuart Clark says it would be foolish of governments to ignore warnings about solar flares

I

And, with so many governments slashing their budgets in the United States, Europe and around the globe, it's still not clear whether governments will actually spend money on an event of which the consequences are not predicted with 100 percent certainty.

After all, similar warnings were made over the Y2K bug, the massive worldwide computer glitch, that seemed to be overblown. Still, Stuart Clark said that governments cannot afford to ignore these warnings.

"The consequences if this does happen are just unbelievable," he said. "The loss of the power grid for years, loss of the ability to perform any kind of finance or electronic transfers or anything like that, if we don't do anything to protect ourselves now."

Author: Stephen Beard /http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6041386,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf

FBI, guns drawn, break into home of Peace Activist, who lead protest at Rep. Nat. Convention

http://www.youtube.com/user/saorsa64

"People with pre-existing conditions are like houses that have already burned down." Huckabee

 

 

People with pre-existing conditions are like houses that have already burned down.

                                    DIE HARD

(Huckabee) says and explains:

"It sounds so good, and it's such a warm message to say we're not gonna deny anyone from a preexisting condition," Huckabee explained at the Value Voters Summit today. "Look, I think that sounds terrific, but I want to ask you something from a common sense perspective. Suppose we applied that principle [to] our property insurance. And you can call your insurance agent and say, "I'd like to buy some insurance for my house." He'd say, "Tell me about your house." "Well sir, it burned down yesterday, but I'd like to insure it today." And he'll say, "I'm sorry, but we can't insure it after it's already burned."  

Well, no pre-existing conditions."

To hear a man who gets treated like a legitimate voice in American politics basically consign my wife and millions of other Americans to suffering and death is to hear nothing more or less than flat-out hate speech from a presidential candidate. What Mike Huckabee suggested is tantamount to eugenics, to the extermination of "weaker" people simply because they are ill.

All of them, every single one of them, are like a house that has already burned down, according to Mike Huckabee and the sick bastards who cheered his comments. All of them, every single one of them, are not worthy of health insurance because they had the misfortune of getting sick before they got insurance. All of them, every single one of them, therefore, are not worthy of health care in any real form, unless, of course, they are wealthy and able to afford the staggering cost of ill health in America.

 

http://www.truth-out.org/sick-bastards63456

B of A collections agency use N and B word to threaten customers - $1.5 million awarded

 

"What's up, you f---ing n-----r?" said one of the collection agents in a message to 32-year old Allen Jones of Dallas, who owed $81 on his Bank of America credit card.

"This is your f---ing wake up call, man," the debt collector said in a message left at Jones' home at 6:30 a.m.

In a message left a few minutes later, the debt collection agent told Jones,

"You little, lazy ass bitch, get your mother f---ing ass up and go pick some mother f---ing cotton fields, bitch."

Jones said the calls continued even after he told the debt collection company he had paid his credit card bill.

"The representative acted like, oh, we can call you as many times as we want," Jones said in an interview to be broadcast Friday on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer and Nightline.

Two days after being confronted by ABC News, Bank of America has fired a debt collection agency after several of its operators were caught using racist and obscene phone calls to collect debts from bank customers.

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