Badlands Journal

A few tools for digging our own graves
Submitted: Dec 29, 2012
By:
Badlands Journal editorial board

Cities with highest unemployment:

    El Centro, Calif. 27.2
    Yuma, Ariz. 23.7
    Merced, Calif. 16.9
    Yuba City, Calif. 16.8
    Fresno, Calif. 15.7
    Modesto, Calif. 15.5
    Stockton, Calif. 15.5
    Visalia-Porterville, Calif. 15
    Hanford-Corcoran, Calif. 14.7
    Madera-Chowchilla, Calif. 14.3

Cities with the lowest unemployment rates were as follows:

    Bismarck, N.D. 2.8
    Fargo, N.D. 3.1
    Lincoln, Neb. 3.2
    Burlington-South Burlington, Vt. 3.7
    Sioux Falls, S.D. 3.8
    Iowa City, Iowa 3.8
    Ames, Iowa 3.8
    Logan, Utah 3.9
    Mankato-North Mankato, Minn. 4
    Midland, Texas 4.1

(www.californiacitynews.org, 1-4-12)

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So, the “Farmer Assurance“ thing – using farmers as their poster children — is
quite disingenuous. The biotech industry cares about farmers because farmers are their meal ticket.
Farmers are not stupid; we've learned that the promises of biotech were short
lived at best and to various degrees, simply false. The new GE crops are
basically the old GE crops, just redesigned to resist different, more toxic
herbicides while having become less effective at killing insect pests...Goodman, 12-14-12

If farmers aren't stupid, why have they planted GE crops from Saskachewan to Argentina? Why do Monsanto and their fellows in the Biotech Industry Association figure it is worth millions in bribes to Congress to make official the federal government failure of oversight concerning the health and environmental damage done by GE crops? Given that they know their business and have test marketed SWAT teams invading alleged seed saving farms and have streamlined their legal and propaganda operations to a point far more effective than their science ever was, the only way to figure their behavior is that they are betting on a near sure thing: the stupidity of farmers.

________ has to grow (or else it is in crisis) and its very logic and motivated force impels growth.

________ has to grow (or else it is in crisis) and its very logic and motivated force impels growth.

In the Great Age of Electrical Deregulation that has brought such benefits to California since 2001 that the state treasury has been in debt billions ever since, the Committee of crisis Capitalists, speaking through their mouthpiece du jour, Junior Brown, age 75 but still a brat, has decreed that all solar projects proposed by plutocrats should be built regardless of the cost to local government because they are "green," the new "small is beautiful" in Jr's playbook.

In the case of Inyo County (high desert east of the Sierra) they have a pretty good idea how much it is costing; in Merced it is a little bit obscure because of various bribes paid the county by Tsakapoulos that will insure that the county will not push too hard for the Quinto Solar Project to complete its mitigation, 2:1 prime farmland in perpetual agricultural easements to placate the farm bureau, which would be unlikely to be fulfilled in any event for lack of available and willing landowners. (The gesture is about as symbolic as the local farm bureau president's hay bale house that she will be vacating this damp winter for sunny Costa Rica.)

But everyone has covered their embarrassing parts and LA gets more electricity. It's a genuine WIN-WIN/PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP FOR GROWTH at the expense of the environment and endangered species.
AGAIN.

Badlands Journal editorial board

11-25-12
Los Angeles Times

In this hideous age of plutocracy and religious bigotry, there are very few writers who can maintain and expand their level of care for humanity and the planet the way Chris Hedges continues to do in a stream of books and articles on our most serious themes: perpetual war; relgious hypocrisy; consumer madness; and indigenous fascism, to name a few.

Below, Hedges reviews the World Bank's latest, most drastic report on global warming

11-29-12
Associated Press
Drought threatens to close Mississippi to barges
Drought could make Mississippi impassable to barges just as 2012 harvest heads to market
By Jim Suhr and Jim Salter
http://weather.yahoo.com/drought-threatens-close-mississippi-barges-200450700.html

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- After months of drought, companies that ship grain and other goods down the Mississippi River are being haunted by a potential nightmare: If water levels fall too low, the nation's main inland waterway could become impassable to barges just as the harvest heads to market.

Any closure of the river would upend the transport system that has carried American grain since before steamboats and Mark Twain. So shipping companies are scrambling to find alternative ways to move tons of corn, wheat and other crops to the Gulf Coast for shipment overseas.

"You can't just wait until it shuts down and suddenly say, 'There's a problem,'" said Rick Calhoun, head of marine operations for Chicago-based Cargill Inc. "We're always looking at Plan B."

The mighty Mississippi is approaching the point where it may become too shallow for barges that carry food, fuel and other commodities. If the river is closed for a lengthy period, experts say, economic losses could climb into the billions of dollars.

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“In the end,” says Davidson, who spent a month in Germany studying the Energiewende, “it isn’t about making money. It’s about quality of life.” -- Thomas Hedges, Truthdig, Nov. 15, 2012