Ending illegal e-waste dumping

I just found out about the Basel Action Network, http://www.ban.org which is an organization in Seattle doing great work. I have an old keyboard to dispose of, and though I take it to my City e-waste Recycling Center in Durham, NC, I don't really know where it will end up. Hopefully not creating toxic fumes or land poisoning in Africa or Asia.
Here is some e-waste in Nigeria in 2005

NPR has a show about this issue:

After Dump, What Happens To Electronic Waste?

Say NO to Fracked Gas Plant at Duke University

There was a public hearing last night (Mar 27) at Duke for community stakeholders to weigh in on Duke's plan to partner with Duke Energy to build a new power plant on campus. It is called a CHP plant (Combined Heat & Power) and will run on fracked gas.

 Not many people at this last minute hearing. Duke has an alliance with nearby neighborhoods, but I guess they *forgot* to alert them about this to avoid negative press. Most of the affected community in Durham has no idea that Duke has plans to pollute our neighborhoods with toxic fracked gas emissions.

Please check the talking points at NC Warn.  and contact Duke immediately. 
There is an advisory subcommittee that is making recommendations on Friday, Mar 31.
Here is where you can submit comments:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeJ7LnzcRXsVrHSofYWjH09WkvJOcqUGespOzdxhHsc3-yXMw/viewform?c=0&w=1

If you can do this before Friday, we might get them to reconsider, and  e-mail  your message directly to President Brodhead also. President@duke.edu.

Duke claims it will reduce their carbon footprint, but it seems that they have some tricky way of calculating that, ignoring some types of emissions, and that in actuality, it will increase air pollution. There was a representative from NRDC (National Resources Defense Council) there who said they had offered to help evaluate the project repeatedly over the last 7 months and that Duke has not cooperated. Jim Warren and others from NC Warn spoke about the harm this plant will cause and the secrecy in the way it has been planned.

It is not a done deal yet, so you can help stop it by contacting Duke's President Brodhead at President@duke.edu. Duke prides itself on its efforts to be a leader in climate protection, but this is really a major step backwards, that will cost $55,000,000 dollars, largely paid by Duke Power customers throughout NC for the next 35 years.

Duke has been considering a project to capture methane from hog farms and use that as a bio fuel instead of the fracked gas. That would be awesome, but they should not build the plant first before making sure the captured methane supply will be reliable. There is a lot of room for more solar power at Duke also.

The Nightmare of Trump's America

"Alternative" Facts?

 
"President" followed by "Trump" seems like an oxymoron to me. No one is more the antithesis of Presidential, so I will refer to him as T.

Everything he does seems Orwellian. His dark vision of America in carnage, people jobless, beset by gangs, murderers and rapists who invaded our formerly safe, wonderful and wealthy home is a trope that his supporters lap up and believe. He talks in doublespeak, as does Fox News.
In his essay "Politics and the English Language", George Orwell said,

In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible … Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness … the great enemy of clear language is insincerity. Where there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms

T has gaslighted his way into the most powerful position in the world... which matches his narcissistic view of himself as the great savior. As he said, "Only I can fix this."

Gaslighting is a form of manipulation that seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or members of a group, hoping to make targets question their own memory, perception, and sanity. Using persistent denial, misdirection, contradiction, and lying, it attempts to destabilize the target and delegitimize the target's belief.

T said he would release his taxes as soon as the audit is done. Another lie! Perhaps a judge can order the release of his taxes, but before that happens T and the Republican congress will appoint conservative judges to hundreds of court vacancies that they refused to fill throughout President Obama's tenure.

  A Fox for Every Henhouse

His cabinet picks at best have little to no experience or training for the departments they are going to lead. At worst they have promised to dismantle the very agencies they will now lead (to ruin?), as in Rick Perry wanting to eliminate the Department of Energy. Or take Betsy DeVoss who has never attended public schools, did not send her children to public schools, and is an activist for privatizing schools, now is in the most powerful position to supposedly protect our system of free public education?
As Michael Moore tweeted,
If you're still trying to convince yourself that a 21st century coup is not underway, please, please snap out of it.

Sister March in Raleigh

It's come to this. With Trump's win, I will have to take the time to start blogging again. I was heartened to take part in the Sister march in Raleigh, NC, where 17,000 worried and angry women and their allies marched on January 21st, the first day after that Gloom and Doom inauguration.

Watch Out for Nuclear Dust

oops, you can't watch them because they are nano-particles we can ingest in our air and food. Detected in the West Coast, by a scientist Marco Kaltofen's monitoring stations, this could be a hazard throughout the Northern Hemisphere. gee, some of the produce I buy is grown in California.

Where is all that Fukushima radiation going, and why does it matter? from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.

Action item this video suggests: pester your congress people and safety regulators to start monitoring for small radioactive dust particles. This is different from an x-ray or a plane flight... they last for a short time. In contrast, an ingested radioactive particle can continue to emit radiation to your body for the rest of your life.
I checked on google maps, and I am sorry to say that my nearest nuke is only 23.5 miles away:

This nuke, Shearon Harris, has a terrible safety record.

" Harris has been in violation of federal fire regulations since at 

least 1992, and ranks worst in the nation in at least two critical fire safety criteria. "

Zoom in, Durham, and wake up and smell the steaming potentially radioactive coffee:

The irony is that we wouldn't need the nukes if we went ahead with energy conservation and solar and  wind power generation, according to NC Warn.

Radiation Danger from Japan

I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop in Fukushima Daiichi, worrying about what is too frightening to tell the public, and Arnie Gundersen just dropped it for me. He is a nuclear engineer who had worked at Three Mile Island, and is clearly explaining the science of the leakage of radiation in Japan.
http://www.fairewinds.com/

Astounding Stats on how few Americans are Rich

Mother Jones magazine/website has created these 11 charts that explain the gross inequality in the United States today, a big shift from how things were 30 years ago.

It's the Inequality, Stupid

Eleven charts that explain everything that's wrong with America.
In Colombia, it was obvious that the vast majority of people are poor, and a small percentage of wealthy people run the show.  In America, it is far less obvious, because so many people have homes. But we work all the time to keep them. I was really shocked to see that 1% of Americans own over one third of our country's wealth, and that the next 9% of the richest people own another third, with the rest of us 90% owning the last third, and these 90% have an average income of $31,244.
So I checked the GINI index at the CIA World Factbook. The GINI index measures how evenly the GNP is distributed among the population of each country. The higher the number, the more concentrated the wealth is, in the hands of a few.

Yes, Colombia has an even more unequal income distribution than the USA. But geez,  a few of the countries with a more equitable distribution than us are Cameroon, Iran, Nigeria, Kenya, Guyana, Thailand, Morocco, Turkey, Tunisia, Ghana, Burkina Faso...not just the obvious like Sweden and Norway.
So what income qualifies you as part of the middle class? It seems that America will soon have only the upper classes, and the working class and poverty levels left. A sure sign of a decaying economy.

In Colombia, a sugar cane cutter's house

abandoned home in Detroit, USA

back from Colombia

quick suggestion: tell your congress people to vote NO to the Colombian FTA (Free Trade Agreement). Clinton and Obama and backing free trade, but this will be as bad as NAFTA.
Here is a letter from the Washington Office on Latin America to Congress with more details.
Wondering how was my trip?
I've been home nearly two weeks now, but I feel like I absorbed so much that I have had difficulty summarizing it. I nearly filled a notebook with notes. Compared to the problems and injustices that so many of the people we met are facing, any concerns of mine seem trivial. Although I feel physically safe with enough income to live in a big comfortable house, I saw a richness in spirit, and communities so tightly-knit, which I admire and even envy. The people I am closest to (including myself) spend more time at computers alone in rooms than with other people. Of course we do make many connections with friends in this cyber-world. But the contrast of spending 10 days with 12 people in close quarters, talking, listening, sharing experiences, meeting so many fine brave people, this was really different, both fun and challenging. I wished I could have rewound and edited a few things I said, but, oops, in RL we just have to blunder on.
About half the people in this photo are our Witness for Peace delegation, and the rest are Colombians who have lost family due to state violence by military, paramilitary, or police.

I can see how common dire straits can deepen a community's bonds. Also, it makes sense that life threatening situations cause trivial concerns to slip away, and bring people in close touch with what is of real value in their lives. But returning to the USA has been an adjustment. I am so busy, running from errands to half-planned tasks. So much of American lifestyle (meaning United Statesian) is filled with trivial pastimes that promise self-satisfaction..... shopping, the latest gadget, TV, movies, the prescription drug which will fill that need you didn't know you had until the ad "educated" you. Not to mention all the illegal drugs consumed by US citizens which keeps up a high demand for cocaine, of which 90% comes from Colombia.

This line of thought about consumerism and profit vs an enlightened loving healthy planet of people and all living beings co-existing in peace reminds me of the "Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream Symposium" (which I highly recommend). It seems clearer than ever to me that the USA with it's tax dollars and many powerful Americans working within trans-national corporations are perpetuating a system that is harming the planet, and directly causing misery to the majority of people on earth.

Here is a painting by Jafeth, an internationally acclaimed but humble Colombian artist, who is working to build a better world within a violence torn rural area. This painting shows planting Seeds of Corn, which is the name of a school he founded, which teaches children art, dance, ecology, theatre, and ethical values. It was so healing to meet this wonderful artist after having heard of many atrocities throughout the week.

 Photo op: Susan with Jafeth :-)

So I don't want to rant on in generalities. Over the next few weeks I will try to squeeze in the time to blog about the various people we met, and places we saw.

  But if you have read this far, Thank You!

Here are more pictures of Jafeth's School, community murals and the Magic Pathway to the mother nature  goddess called Pachamama.

Immunizations Daily!

geez, I feel like a pin cushion, and worse, these shots are expensive! Yellow fever $164, Malaria meds $134, typhoid $69, hepatitus A $80, hepatitus B $51 x 3, polio, and a few more I can't remember. I think Blue Cross will cover the polio booster, but they said they don't cover travel vaccines. That is just stupid, because it will cost Blue Cross a lot more if I came home with these diseases than to prevent them. Anyway, I have been warned to drink only bottled water and to do without ice, so with all these precautions I expect to stay healthy throughout the trip. Most of these shots give immunity for at least 5 years or more, so I guess I should become a world traveler soon!

I've been walking with my backpack nearly every day to prepare for my trip to Colombia on Jan 13. Hiking in Sedona was good practice, because it is a high elevation. There are 11 interesting people going on this trip with me... a diverse spread of age range from 21 -71, and from various parts of USA. One man is a lawyer for men held in Guantanamo. Also a union rep, a journalist, an artist, a business owner, and others. I can't wait to meet them... 11 days with these 11 people would be interesting anywhere, but sharing what we learn from the people in Colombia will be amazing!

I'm grateful to all my friends and family who donated to Witness For Peace to help fund this trip.

Thank You, and Happy New year!

my trip to Colombia

I am thrilled about going to Colombia this coming January on a Witness For Peace delegation.
http://witnessforpeace.org/article.php?list=type&type=111
We will meet with indigenous people and afro-colombians who are negatively affected by US trade policies.

Globalization & Immigration

I was so impressed by Marisol Jiménez McGee's presentation that I asked her permission to put her whole talk on Globalization & Immigration on Youtube. She is advocacy director for El Pueblo, and a passionate speaker with an easy-to-understand analysis of a complex situation. It is 24 min long in total, but in four 6 min parts.


It's well worth the time if you want to get the big picture, right from the formation of the UN, World Bank, and IMF to the effect of the wall and militarization at the U.S./Mexican border. The event was held at my UU Fellowship, ERUUF, to raise money to send two 18-24 yr olds on a Witness For Peace expedition to Mexico.

Economic Hitman

I've been thinking more about the grip that multi-national corporations have on how prosperity flows and poverty perpetuates. I googled Bill Perkins, who wrote "Confessions of an Economic Hitman". He also is active in the Awakening the Dreamer effort. In fact, they said he was one of the first to go down to Ecuador and meet with the tribal leaders there.

Here's a 2 minute cartoon narrated by Perkins, which explains the enormous dilemma in an amusing nutshell.

but what can we do, personally, to change this power dynamic?

Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream

I trained as a facilitator for this workshop a few months ago, and finally had the wonderful experience of leading it with four friends on May 16. We had 17 people attend and most people stayed for the whole session and seemed to really appreciate it. Here is a video about a typical Symposium:

Awakening the Dreamer Symposium Trailer from Pachamama Alliance on Vimeo.

The main idea is to awaken people to the necessity of living in balance with nature, and with social justice for everyone. .. and also to empower them to be engaged with being part of the solution.

There's an amazing story of how the organization got started, by indigenous people in the rainforests of Ecuador in 1995. The first group they started is called the Pachamama Alliance.

Palin Quits for Alaska's Sake?

Wow. If she can help more by not governing, will everyone please remember that if she makes a grab for POTUS in 2012?
Her long, rambling and inconsistent resignation speech
showcases her folksy mumbo-jumbo politco-speak. Rah rah, just keep repeating it long enough and your audience absorbs your talking points.
I watched a video of her speech, and could not detect any reason why she chose to quit before completing her first term as governor, nor any explanation why this is best for Alaska. Yet she said:

"...besides faith and family, nothing's more important to me than our beloved Alaska. Serving her people is the greatest honor I could imagine...
And there is such a need to build up and fight for our state and our country.
I choose to fight for it!
But I won’t do it from the Governor’s desk.

I've never believed that I, nor anyone else, needs a title to do this - to make a difference... to help people. So I choose, for my State and my family, more "freedom" to progress, all the way around... so that Alaska may progress... I will not seek re-election as Governor.

I have given my reasons candidly and truthfully"

"candidly and truthfully?" yeah right!
After reading the entire speech, I think the reason is her concern that her legal battles are costing the Alaskan taxpayers ( and her family) too much money. This part of her incredibly long and rambling speech had been left out of the video:

Every one – all 15 of the ethics complaints have been dismissed. We’ve won! But it hasn't been cheap - the State has wasted thousands of hours of your time and shelled out some two million of your dollars to respond...
Todd and I are looking at more than half a million dollars in legal bills in order to set the record straight...
It’s pretty insane – my staff and I spend most of our day dealing with this instead of progressing our state now...
I choose to work very hard on a path for fruitfulness and productivity. I choose not to tear down and waste precious time; but to build up this state and our country, and her industrious, generous, patriotic, free people!
I'll work for and campaign for those proud to be American, and those who are inspired by our ideals and won't deride them...

as Governor, I love my job and I love Alaska. It hurts to make this choice but I am doing what’s best for Alaska.

I think she is sincere.. a delusional pathological manipulator, but she believes her own hype. That was the problem with W. These people are dangerous, when backed by ignorant masses.
There are so many bible conservatives who adore her... I hope enough people will recognize her lack of judgement to keep her out of any future political office!
P.S.
More ethical scandals brewing. This Kos blogger says David Shuster of MSNBC may break news of criminal charges soon. See video in his post:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/7/4/45050/74116

Health Care Reform

President Obama encouraged us to make a YouTube video with questions for him, so here goes!

I had given up blogging last year, since I was so busy... in part volunteering with the Democrats during Obama's campaign. Now that he is in office, I feel the need to rally all of Congress to support him. As he said, the goal wasn't just to get elected. It is for the real change we can make in this country together. I really want to see affordable health care for all people in this land. we need to fight against the power of greed and self interest. If a huge number of citizens speak up, I think we can do it!
The environmental legislation is even more important. If the biosphere of the planet collapses, no health care can save us!

Have you heard anything from the 200 men released from Guantanamo?

Well here is an interview on "This American Life" (a radio show aired on NPR) that was produced last year, and won awards. They have re-released it with updates about a few of the many men who were mistakenly detained and tortured.
Not in the mood for something depressing?
Don't worry, it is actually funny. Ira Glass is like that.
These guys were totally innocent(big surprise), but sold by Pakistanis to collect the American bounty.
One of the guys they detained was a joke writer (for the Pashtu version of The Onion), and the other a rich Bahrainian 19 yr old who spent Spring Break in Daytona Beach with his college buddies (he attended college in Virginia- remind me not to vacation in Pakistan!)
The good news is that they were released after four years.
and there is an amusing part of the show by a bbc reporter about the origin of Habeous Corpus in the 1600's.
Go to this link http://thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Archive.aspx?year=2007#4
and choose the show called "Habeous Schmabeous"
If the link doesn't get you there just go to http://thisamericanlife.org and look in archive for 2007 shows in April.

Warmongers

"A Collapsing Presidency", optimistically titled, by Paul Craig Roberts, reveals how dangerous our Warmongering administration has become. The whole article is worth a read, here's a taste:

"Neocons don’t believe in diplomacy. They believe in coercion. Neocons denigrate diplomacy as the epitome of weakness. Neocons slap down diplomacy before it can rise. The Iranians offered talks, and neocon National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley immediately slapped down the offer as "simply a device by the Iranians to try to divert pressure that they are feeling." The Bush neocons are bent on war with Iran."

If Iran is Bush's next target, will he restart a draft? We must get them out of office!
I spoke with a friend tonight who knows a contractor who is helping build tons of new barracks in Fayetteville, NC. He thinks the draft is coming. Surely that would decimate a lot of the Republican's support.
In January 2006, the North Carolina State Executive Committee of the Democratic Party (about 300 Democrats who come from all over the state) unanimously passed a resolution calling for impeachment of Bush and Cheney, and also to remove Alberto Gonzalez from office. The press was there, but they didn't report it. hmmm...
It blows my mind that Bush still has so many loyal supporters. After what he has done, I wouldn't think there would be any left at all. Ah, but the corporate media does put such an appealing spin on our cowardly cowboy.
Even Martin Luther King Jr's children succombed to the crushing pressure of the Bush administration. I heard a poignant interview of Harry Belafonte by Amy Goodman last night on Democracy Now, explaining how they first invited him to give one of the eulogies for his friend, Corretta Scott King. Then a couple days later, President Bush announced that he planned to attend the funeral. The next day the family called Harry to uninvite him, because had spoken his mind about Bush. Last January, when Belafonte was in Venezuela visiting democratically elected Hugo Chavez, he called Bush 'the greatest terrorist in the world'. Belafonte didn't want to embarrass the King family by talking about it at the time, but I'm glad he finally did come forward. It is courageous and probably dangerous to criticize our Tyrant. To hear Harry Belafonte tell it, go to http://www.democracynow.org/ and search for Belafonte, it's worth a listen. He is a loving soul.

Howard Dean Speaks at Durham Precinct Event

Precinct Leaders Troy and Milo had planned a fun local event at a bar called "Satisfactions". They invited all of Durham County's Democrats to come suffer together through the State of the Union speech by you know who, and then listen to the Democratic response in a conference call with Howard Dean, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi. Next thing you know, Howard Dean decides to attend!
Apparently the DNC had put out an e-mail asking if there were any interesting Precinct events happening, for Dr. Dean to drop in on. Troy (now known locally as "The Man"), replied and the rest is history. Here's Troy getting interviewed by one of the TV networks.

The day before the great event, I wrote a note to Dr. Dean, with a gift of two of my "Definition of a Democrat" t-shirts. Some of the ringleaders who were going to meet with him first, gave him the tees. They say he opened it up, read the t-shirt, and really liked it. That was exciting moment numero uno.
At Satisfactions, I volunteered at the Voter Education table which gave me a chair to stand on, so I could see him speak. What an inspirational speaker. He had solid ideas for universal healthcare, saying "36 other industrailized countries do it while balancing their budgets, and we can too." He said that in Vermont they used gov't money to insulate homes of the elderly, rather than subsidizing fuel. He said, "think of how many jobs it would create if we insulated every home and building in America!". wow, exciting moment number two, that's what I'm always saying. And he mentioned biofuels and other clean energy sources. In contrast, Bush said we need to break our addiction to oil by using "clean coal" and nukular powr. Puh-leaze!

But the third exciting moment happened two days later, and really knocked my socks off. I thought someone returned a t-shirt with no return address, and I opened it up to find this:


He was so thoughtful to mail this one back to me, signed.
More comments and photos are at durhamdemocrats.org. If you are a Durham Democrat, please browse through the site, they have just added a lot of useful info about local organizing.

The national website, Democrats.org has also posted pictures and comments at"State of the Union Watch Party Recap"

I heard they were talking about us at Daily Kos too. This guy came to North Carolina to attend, and said
"I witnessed, in North Carolina, the template for rebuilding the Democratic Party and reclaiming the country ..."
The grassroots keep getting stronger!

FEMA thwarted Local, National, and International Relief

Not only did FEMA prevent the Red Cross from delivering food and water to people trapped in the Superdome and Convention centers, (see post below for details), but they have denied aid all over the place.
Andrew Sullivan has links to lots of info about FEMA and Michael Brown's incompetence, including the following:
http://femafailures.blogspot.com/
Articles exposing FEMA's failures in Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and more.
Constructive Interference
This site lists many of the relief workers and aid supplies that were refused entry to New Orleans and/or the Gulf area. FEMA also blocked civilian response, both neighbors from the region and Americans from all over the USA were turned away, even if they had boats, supplies, medical training, whatever.
But a few Duke students managed to sneak in and help:
In the Durham Herald Sun, Sept 4, 2005
Three Duke students, disgusted by the inadequate relief effort, drove to the Gulf on Friday, posed as jounalists, got past the National Guard and evacuated 7 people from downtown New Orleans in their little Hyundai.
Fire Brown Now
Spin First, Save Lives Later
FEMA Director Michael Brown's memo to Chertoff shows the focus was not on getting rescuers in there right away.
Check the local news for best coverage and photos:
The Times-Picayune http://www.nola.com
New Orleans WWL TV http://www.wwltv.com
What does this sad pic of New Orleans remind you of?