Category: Idiocy

Posted on

Lynn Wheeler: Fukushima Lies Continue

03 Economy, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude
Lynn Wheeler

Deception Confirmed by UN

Government and Industry Still Denying Science at Fukushima

John LaForge

CounterPunch, 5 December 2012

EXTRACT

Disinformation and denials confounded by science

Official lullabies, denials and attempted cover-ups are desperate shields against the enormous economic and legal liability that would follow any acknowledgment of the depth and breadth of radiation’s likely effects. Tepco said Nov. 6 that it may need 11 trillion yen, or $137 billion, to cover its damages. Tokyo already set aside ¥9 trillion in July as part of the federal bailout and takeover of the utility. Minister Edano hinted last May that the government may cover some of the costs of decontaminating certain limited areas. Comprehensive decontamination is not even being considered because, as the science ministry reported in Nov. 2011, radioactive fallout from the triple meltdowns was found in every one of its 57 prefectures.#

The journal Science reported this fall that 40% of the fish caught off the coast of NE Japan are contaminated with radioactive cesium at levels well above what the government allows.** Author Ken Buesseler of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution concluded that there is either a source of cesium on the seafloor, or it is still being dumped into the ocean by Tepco.

Read full article.

Posted on

Marcus Aurelius: New America Foundation Sucks Up – 10 [Paid For] Reasons a Woman Should Head CIA

Cultural Intelligence, Idiocy, Non-Governmental
Marcus Aurelius

Gag.

  • By
  • Tara Maller,
  • New America Foundation blogged to CNN, November 21, 2012 |
A woman at the helm of the CIA wouldn't simply make another crack in the intelligence glass ceiling, it could effectively shatter it.

One of the most high-profile appointments President Obama will make in his second term is the director of the CIA. Here's a tip for the president: The time is ripe for the first woman to head the agency.

Choosing a woman isn't just about narrowing the intelligence community gender gap. It's also about drawing from the whole pool of talent to ensure the best national security apparatus and responding to Americans' apparent desire for more women in government. Here are the Top 10 reasons President Obama should name a woman as the next CIA director.

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: New America Foundation Sucks Up – 10 [Paid For] Reasons a Woman Should Head CIA”

Posted on

Marcus Aurelius: Petraeus, The Comeback General [with Assist from “The Clinton Rule”

Ethics, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude
Marcus Aurelius

Hope article below turns out to be true.  If President Clinton gets a pass on Affair Lewinsky, conducted in Oval Office, then GEN Petraeus certainly deserves a restart after Affair Broadwell.  While no basis for a major decoration, I see that mistake as principally a matter between GEN Petraeus and his family and not necessarily something justifying LTG Clapper's call for his resignation as Director of the CIA.  Once publicly acknowledged, not sure matter generated vulnerability to hostile exploitation, which is principal national security concern with sexual misbehavior.)

Petraeus, The Comeback General

He may benefit from the Bill Clinton rule: Adultery is no longer a political disqualifier.

By Doyle McManus

Los Angeles Times, November 25, 2012

Gen. David H. Petraeus, long the most famous overachiever in the U.S. Army, is already on his way to a new career distinction: breaking the land speed record for rehabilitation from a scandal.

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: Petraeus, The Comeback General [with Assist from “The Clinton Rule””

Posted on

SchwartzReport: Marijuana Prohibition Fuels Lawlessness, Violence

Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Law Enforcement

Marijuana Prohibition Fuels Lawlessness, Violence

ROBERT SHARPE, Policy Analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy – The Baltimore Sun

This is the truth that is becoming increasingly apparent.

WASHINGTON — If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize Mexican drug cartels, prohibition is a success (“The nonsense of marijuana busts shown,” Nov. 11). The drug war distorts supply and demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees. There is a reason you don't see drug cartels sneaking into national forests to cultivate tomatoes and cucumbers. They cannot compete with legitimate farmers.

If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to deter use, prohibition is a failure. The United States has double the rate of marijuana use as the Netherlands, where marijuana is legally available. Spain legalized personal use cultivation and has lower rates of use. Portugal decriminalized all drugs and still has lower rates of use than the U.S. If anything, marijuana prohibition increases use by creating forbidden fruit appeal.

Thanks to honest public education, tobacco use has declined, without any need to criminalize smokers or imprison tobacco farmers. This drop in the use of one of the most addictive drugs available has occurred despite widespread tobacco availability. The only clear winners in the war on marijuana are drug cartels and shameless tough-on-drugs politicians who've built careers confusing the drug war's collateral damage with a plant.

Continue reading “SchwartzReport: Marijuana Prohibition Fuels Lawlessness, Violence”

Posted on

David Isenberg: Warlords Inc.

Commerce, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Military
David Isenberg

Make no mistake — the PSC industry in Afghanistan is enormously powerful, having grown from nothing to immense in a decade of war that the invaders wanted to wage with as few uniformed troops as possible. As in Iraq, they are linked to a privatized model of military and development contracting in a highly insecure post-invasion environment.

Afghanistan

Warlords, Inc.

By

Huffington Post, Nov. 13, 2012

While it’s only one among many factors bedeviling Afghanistan, its substantial private-security contracting industry warrants attention. It’s made up of tens of thousands of Afghan employees, mostly armed guards.

Bear in mind that 2014 is the deadline for Afghanistan assuming responsibility for its own security. This is a date the whole world has an interest in because either Afghanistan will be a more or less stable country — or it will lapse back into the chaotic and destabilized state it was after the Soviets left in 1989.

We all recall how that turned out.

Posted on

Marcus Aurelius: Thomas Ricks on Generals “Casual Arrogance”

Corruption, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Military
Marcus Aurelius

Combine this with the reporting on toxic leadership (e.g. by LTG(R) Walter Ulmer) and you have the whole picture.  Emphasis added below.

Questioning The Brass

By Thomas E. Ricks

New York Times, November 12, 2012
Pg. 29

Washington–OVER the last 11 years, as we fought an unnecessary war in Iraq and an unnecessarily long one in Afghanistan, the civilian American leadership has been thoroughly — and justly — criticized for showing poor judgment and lacking strategies for victory. But even as those conflicts dragged on, our uniformed leaders have escaped almost any scrutiny from the public.

Our generals actually bear much of the blame for the mistakes in the wars. They especially failed to understand the conflicts they were fighting — and then failed to adjust their strategies to the situations they faced so that they might fight more effectively.

Even now, as our wars wind down, the errors of our generals continue to escape public investigation, or even much internal review. As the Vietnam War drew to an end, the Army carried out a soul-searching study of the state of its officer corps. To my knowledge, no such no-holds-barred examination is under way now. Instead, the military’s internal analyses continue to laud the Pentagon’s top brass while placing almost all of the blame for what went wrong in our wars on civilian leaders.

As Paul Yingling, a recently retired Army colonel, noted during some of the darkest days of the Iraq war, a private who loses his rifle is punished more than a general who loses his part of a war.

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: Thomas Ricks on Generals “Casual Arrogance””

Posted on

Eagle: Department of Justice Defendes Controversial Unlimited Military Detention

05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, IO Deeds of War, Law Enforcement, Military, Officers Call
300 Million Talons…

DOJ Defends Controversial Military Detention Provision

As presidential election returns rolled in Tuesday night, the U.S. Justice Department filed its opening brief defending a controversial military detention provision that a trial judge in Manhattan declared unconstitutional earlier this year.

The suit, filed in Manhattan federal district court by a group of journalists and activists, challenges a section of the National Defense Authorization Act that DOJ lawyers said reaffirms presidential detention authority under the Authorization for Use of Military Force, or AUMF. That authorization was passed in response to the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Government lawyers said in the papers filed last night in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that the plaintiffs “are in no danger whatsoever of being subject to capture and detention by the U.S. military.” The provision in question allows the detention of people who “substantially supported” al-Qaeda or “associated forces.”

“The district court nonetheless issued an extraordinary and sweeping injunction at their behest,” DOJ lawyer August Flentje of the Civil Division said in the brief filed last night. Flentje said the trial judge, Katherine Forrest of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, “entered a sweeping and permanent injunction against the president.”

Continue reading “Eagle: Department of Justice Defendes Controversial Unlimited Military Detention”