Journal ISSN 1078-1935 – Page 1764 – Public Intelligence Blog

Baltimore's poorer neighborhoods have been dealing with Martin O'Malley for years and years, as I can recall from when I worked in ACORN's national office and heard all about the trouble this man was from our Maryland chapter. O'Malley, once mayor of Baltimore and now governor of Maryland, may run for president of the United States on a what's-left-of-the-left-wing-of-the-Democratic-Party kind of platform. His current and former constituents will have the usual warnings about who the newly packaged candidate has really been. Perhaps they'll be heard, although that's not usually how these things work.

One of many angles worth observing about O'Malley is his position toward the natural environment. He's been pushing for fracking and for a coal terminal on the Chesapeake Bay at Cove Point (Obama just approved it!). My friend and Baltimorean Diane Wittner says she thinks O'Malley is after campaign money “at the expense of a livable bioregion.”

One of O'Malley's destructive proposals is of particular interest because of the resistance to it organized by young people. O'Malley wants to stick a giant incinerator into a poor neighborhood in Baltimore. This monstrosity, called the Energy Answers Incinerator, would be the largest trash-burning incinerator in the nation, consuming 4,000 tons of trash a day including plastic, rubber, vinyl, metal, and household waste. In violation of state law this worse-than-a-major-coal-plant pollution machine would be situated less than a mile from Benjamin Franklin High School and Curtis Bay Elementary School. The incinerator would flood the air with mercury, nitric oxide, lead, dioxins, and particulate matter, producing cancer, heart disease, diabetes, asthma, respiratory problems, and — if all the stars align — just possibly a single uncomfortable question in a presidential “debate.”

The neighborhood to be victimized, Curtis Bay, already has the highest toxic air pollution in Maryland and among the worst in the nation. Here's a map I've just made because I think people who visit Baltimore's tourist area would appreciate knowing how close this less favored area is:

Now check out this great website where I've learned about this outrage:

Stop the Incinerator:

“For the health of our community and our children we are calling on Governor Martin O’Malley to stop the proposed trash burning incinerator from being built in Curtis Bay. If built the Energy Answers Incinerator would be the largest of its kind in the nation, producing more pollutants per hour of energy produced than the largest coal plants in Maryland. Worse still, the project is set to be built less than a mile from Benjamin Franklin High School and Curtis Bay Elementary School, in violation of Maryland state regulations. It is this kind of recklessness that has led Baltimore to be ranked number one in air pollution related deaths per capita.

“Energy Answers was required to begin construction in August. While the Maryland Department of Environment investigates if they failed to do so, we are calling on Governor O’Malley to intervene and protect our children’s health and the health of our community.

“Please contact Governor O’Malley if you want to stop the nations’ largest incinerator from being built less than a mile from schools. Let him know that our community is not a dumping ground. Let him know that the Energy Answers incinerator needs to be STOPPED.”

Governor’s office phone # 410.974.3901 / 1.800.811.8336
Governor O’Malley’s contact page: http://www.governor.maryland.gov/mail/

Watch this terrific video:

http://vimeo.com/74501368

2013/10/10

Owl: Republicans are Crazy Like a Fox

Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Idiocy

Shivani: Republicans are Crazy Like a Fox

“If we discount the doubtful elections of 2000 and 2004, the Republicans have not won a national contest fair and square for more than twenty years; and they'd be hard pressed to do so in the foreseeable future, because of demographic shifts that are now an accomplished fact. So what is the party of the elite to do, how can it face electoral realities and yet make progress toward its goals of privatizing, defunding, and delegitimizing essential social functions? Viewed from this angle, the fact that defaulting on the national debt is being discussed as a real possibility is the kind of chaotic development that can bring more recruits of a simplistic mindset to the Darwinian ideology. The classes are being pitted one against the other, there is a distinct racial taint to the whole theater of absurdity, and when values are upset in such a radical way that no historical precedent has any meaning, then the disaffected are free to form incongruous political alliances. This is still not sufficient to offset the overwhelming demographic disadvantage, but it is enough to keep things in play, close enough to harm any emerging liberal consensus. The result of all this frantic activity is to set course for the next stage of neoliberal economics. After we have come this far in thirty years, what else remains to be done? A lot, really. Exactly what Ted Cruz and his compatriots are seeking, a total abandonment of government's commitment to ensuring a level playing field, so that class and inheritance once again become, as they already have to a very large extent, the ultimate determinants of one's place in society. This final stage of neoliberalism looks suspiciously like a return to feudal arrangements, as one can tell by a cursory look at, for example, private school admissions stakes in Manhattan or Los Angeles, or who gets the desirable entry-level jobs that lead to social prestige.

It is a rhetoric so extreme — deport every child of every undocumented parent, leave sick people to die on the streets, lock them all up, shoot before thinking, sacrifice every freedom for security, blame yourself if you're not successful — that it actually begins to sound logical to those on the outs already, those without a substantial economic stake. It is a rhetoric meant to make the center-right look positively socialist, and it is the perfect governing strategy when demographics and cultural democracy are absolutely stacked against you. Don't count on them buckling before the debt ceiling deadline. Going over would serve their purpose quite well, and Wall Street, despite some expressions of worry, wouldn't be entirely displeased with its revolutionary arm in Congress. When Republican leaders assure the public that they will not let default happen, what they mean is that theoretically there is enough revenue to make interest payments; it is a radical reprioritization of government, just as the partial shutdown favors the militarized functions of government. To inject this idea alone into the public bloodstream, to make people think that everything but militarism is redundant, is a success of the advance guard of the Republican party, which continues to set the agenda for the rank-and-file.

Does the ruling class know what it's doing, is it really coherent, or is there a civil war in progress, befuddling and confusing them, so that they're split in two directions? Alas, there is no civil war. They are very much in control, precisely when it seems they've lost control.”

More:

Republican Extremists Know Exactly What They're Doing

2013/10/102013/10/10

4th Media: US and Saudi Responsible for Chemical Weapons in Syria?

Peace Intelligence

Top US and Saudi Officials Responsible for Chemical Weapons in Syria

Evidence leads directly to the White House, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey, CIA Director John Brennan, Saudi Intelligence Chief Prince Bandar, and Saudi Arabia´s Interior Ministry. The Strategic Situation, leading up to the Use of Chemical Substances in the Eastern Ghouta Suburb of Damascus on 21 August 2013.

On 21 August 2013, the Syrian Arab Army launched a major military campaign in Damascus. The campaign, called “Operation Shield of the Capital”, was the largest military operation of the Syrian Arab Army in the Damascus region since the beginning of the war in 2011.

Although U.S. Intelligence reports repeatedly stressed that the opposition was incapable of launching a major, well coordinated attack, the Syrian Army was confronted with an organized fighting force of 25.000 men under arms.

The Saudi Arabia backed Jihadist front had amassed 25.000 fighters, organized in 13 battalions or kitab, to to launch a major assault against the capital Damascus. Most of the brigades belonged to Jabhat al-Nusrah and Liwa-al-Islam. The other brigades, which took part in the campaign, were Abou Zhar al-Ghaffari, al-Ansar, al-Mohajereen, Daraa al-Sham, Harun al-Rashid, Issa bin Mariam, Sultan Mohammad al-Fatih, Syouf al-Haqq, the Glory of the Caliphate, the Jobar Martyrs.

During the night of 20 to 21 August and during the early morning hours of 21 August, the Syrian Arab Army broke through the insurgent lines in the area near the Jobar entrance. The breakthrough resulted in a collapse of the jihadists defensive positions, leading to a crushing and decisive, strategic defeat of the Jabhat al-Nusrah led brigades.

Continue reading “4th Media: US and Saudi Responsible for Chemical Weapons in Syria?”

2013/10/10

Mini-Me: DC Driver a Patsy? Other Person in Car? Say What?

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Corruption, Government

Was D.C. Driver Targeted Individual for Zionist Helter Skelter?
The following videos were discovered by my friend Glenn Canady and brought to my attention.

Video line up and explanations

2013/10/10

SchwartzReport: Peak Soil – The End of Natural Nutrition

Earth Intelligence

Back in the early 70s my good friends Christopher Bird and Peter Tompkins wrote a bestseller, The Secret Life of Plants. I learned many things from their research, often talking to the people they were writing about who were visiting. What really came through to me during those exchanges was the importance of microbial life in the soil. They went on to emphasize this in a second book, Secrets of the Soil.

A few years later I saw the potential of a soil based agriculture up close watching what my friend Alan Chadwick, perhaps the most famous biodynamacist of his day, accomplished in small fields. And I have come to know the benefits first hand through my wife Ronlyn's lovingly cared for biodynamic organic gardens built on a foundation of healthy soil. Her beds produce fantastic vegetables, and I feel notably healthier eating them.

I have never understood why it was not transparently obvious that the use of herbicides, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers would eventually result in a field becoming “dead” soil. Here is a report explaining what I mean.

Peak Soil: Why Nutrition Is Disappearing From Our Food
MONICA NICKELSBURG – The Week

2013/10/102013/10/10

NIGHTWATCH: Pakistan, Taliban, Peace Talks

08 Wild Cards, Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence

Pakistan: Security. Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud told the press in a recent interview that he is open to “serious talks” with the government, but says he has not yet been approached. Mehsud said: “We believe in serious talks but the government has taken no steps to approach us. The government needs to sit with us, then we will present our conditions. The proper way to do it is that if the government appoints a formal team, and they sit with us, and we discuss our respective positions.”

Mehsud said he would guarantee the security of any government negotiators.

Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH: Pakistan, Taliban, Peace Talks”

2013/10/09