by FRANKLIN C. SPINNEY and WILLIAM R. POLK, Counterpunch
Attached beneath my introductory comment is an essay by the American historian William R. Polk. His subject is the American predilection for non-learning in foreign policy. My comment is intended to set the stage by summarizing the dangerous shambles that now passes for foreign policy in the United States.
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Here is the latest on Fukushima, and it is tragically sad. Remember that radiation contamination sourced at the site continues to pollute Japan, Japanese waters, and the world ocean. Note the last paragraphs. In American nuclear accidents the government has been similarly duplicitous. That's because nuclear accidents are so horrible governments everywhere don't want the information to get out. That alone is an argument against nuclear power. !
Some 39 months after the multiple explosions at Fukushima, thyroid cancer rates among nearby children have skyrocketed to more than forty times (40x) normal.
More than 48 percent of some 375,000 young people-nearly 200,000 kids-tested by the Fukushima Medical University near the smoldering reactors now suffer from pre-cancerous thyroid abnormalities, primarily nodules and cysts. The rate is accelerating.
More than 120 childhood cancers have been indicated where just three would be expected, says Joseph Mangano, executive director of the Radiation and Public Health Project.
Here is some very good news. It is wonderful to watch the speed with which solar technology is advancing, now that it is getting decent funding. This is exciting news about the trend of transitioning out of the carbon energy age. I find stories like these also very poignant because if we had started seriously focusing on non-carbon energy in the 70s, when President Jimmy Carter put solar panels on the White House, imagine where we would be today. How much pain we would have saved ourselves. But profit was and remains for a critical mass more important than wellness. Click through to see the very useful diagrams and the video or the facility in operation.
A solar thermal test plant in Newcastle, Australia, has generated ‘supercritical” steam at a pressure of 23.5 mpa (3400 psi) and 570°C (1,058°F).
CSIRO is claiming it as a world record, and it’s a HUGE step for solar thermal energy.
“It's like breaking the sound barrier; this step change proves solar has the potential to compete with the peak performance capabilities of fossil fuel sources,” Dr Alex Wonhas, CSIRO’s Energy Director, told Colin Jeffrey for Gizmag.
Attached for your information is a press release from Glevum and our Afghan partners, which presents the findings of two exit polls that we conducted during and after the June 14th election. Our teams conducted 2,206 face-to-face interviews at 51 polling stations in ten provinces on the 14th. At the same time we also conducted 2,749 telephone interviews from June 14th to June 16th, with respondents who confirmed they had voted at the election. The results are as follows:
Face to Face Exit Poll Ashraf Ghani – 53%
Abdullah Abdullah – 47%
Telephone Exit Poll Ashraf Ghani – 54%
Abdullah Abdullah – 46%
These results are in line with our polling last week and suggest a conclusive victory for Ashraf Ghani.. Below is our documented report.
Editor's Note: We invited the Relgious Action Center of the Reform Movement and J Street, both of which have opposed the Presbyterian divestment resolution, to respond to those who support the Presbyterian resolution. Neither agreed to do so. Tikkun has sought to be a safe space in which both sides could present their thinking. But it's hard to get the two sides in the Jewish world to sit together and discuss the issues, since anyone who supports even the very limited form of divestment proposed by the Presbyterians is, as J Street's Jeremy Ben Ami said recently in explaining his opposition to any form of Boycotts, Divestments or Sanctions,, crossing “a red line” and hence, in the view of the Jewish establishment, automatically suspect of being anti-Semitic. We believe a public debate is a more healthy way to conduct this discussion, and so we are disappointed that neither J Street nor the Reform Movement accepted our invitation.
–Rabbi Michael Lerner RabbiLerner.tikkun@gmail.com
Full articles below the line:
Presbyterian Divestment – A Jewish Perspective
To Support Israelis Fighting The Occupation, Presbyterians Should Vote “YES” On Divestment
“I have a lot of sources in regards to as to what’s going on with the president and the administration and so on, and every one of my sources said it was a false flag”--Paul Preston
