Is this your community? How are we protected?

Middleboro's freight line carries.....?

What is going through your community? and who is pretending this is 'safe'?

Peaceful Uprising shared Tar Sands Blockade's photo.

 

 

A giant fireball and huge plumes of black smoke shot into the sky today when a train carrying crude oil derailed near Casselton, North Dakota. "The sky is to...tally black from smoke,” Casselton homeowner Eva Fercho told WDAY News, and said that when a second explosion hit she "could almost feel the house shake." The derailment reportedly occurred about one mile from the city's ethanol plant. Black smoke could be seen 15 miles from the scene of the accident.

 

Read more about the dangerous transport of petrochemicals by rail: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/12/30-9Watch video of the derailment: http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/north-dakota-freight-train-explodes-derailment-21374459

Candidates for Hampden County register of probate will see a boost in pay and pension, if they win

They raise the pay and run for the positions?

FROM SHNS:

JUDICIOUS PAY: When the Legislature
boosted judges' pay by $30,000 over the summer, it also hiked the salaries of
clerks and registrars (Registrars? Registerers?). The new income levels now look
pretty good, especially to some of the lawmakers and other
officials who are interested in taking the open Hampden County register of
probate job.

Candidates for Hampden County register of probate will see a boost in pay and pension, if they win

By Shira Schoenberg, The Republicanmasslive.com
on December 29, 2013

Any one of the three likely candidates for Hampden County register of probate would see a significant jump in their pay should they win the job, due to a new salary increase passed by the state Legislature.

A vote by the Legislature this summer to increase the salaries of state judges by $30,000 drew discussion among court officials and taxpayer groups. Less talked about was the fact that the raise will also boost the pay of court clerks and registers of probate, which are tied to judicial salaries.

The Hampden County register of probate job is open after 22-year register Thomas Moriarty retired in 2012. The full impact of the salary increase will go into effect six months before the new register takes office. Although the likely candidates - interim register Suzanne Seguin, outgoing Chicopee Mayor Michael Bissonnette and state Sen. Gale Candaras, D-Wilbraham – say the money is not a significant factor in their decisions to run for the job, it will mean a large raise for any one of them.

"It's an appealing salary for the position," said Seguin.

In 2013, a register of probate in Massachusetts earned $110,221. That amount will increase in two stages, to $122,456 on Jan. 1, 2014 and $130,613 on July 1, 2014, according to a court spokeswoman. The salary is the same across counties.

The impact is greater than just salary. For any state employee hired before April 2012, his pension benefits are calculated based on his average salary during his three highest-paid consecutive years, so a higher salary means a higher pension. The actual pension payout depends on a number of factors, including age and years of service.

State Sen. Gale Candaras, D-Wilbraham

The Republican

File Photo

Candaras, for the 2013-2014 legislative session, is drawing a salary of $75,032. She has served in the state Senate since 2007 and before that spent a decade in the state House.

As Senate vice chairwoman of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary, Candaras supported the judicial salary increases in 2013. "They're long overdue," Candaras said. "The judges in particular were the focus of the salary increase, and they had sought an increase for many years."
Candaras, who said she is taking time over the holidays to decide whether to run, said, "When professionals are looking at changing careers, the salary always enters into it. But is it dispositive in my case? No. I've had many opportunities in 18, 20 years of being in elected office to enhance my salary."

Seguin, before she took over as interim register of probate, was earning around $79,000 a year as an employee of the Probate & Family Court, where she had worked for 14 years, most recently as office manager and head administrative assistant.

Seguin has recently said she is seriously considering running for the seat in 2014. Asked whether the raise would make a difference, she said, "For me, I'm happy with making what I am making…It doesn’t really matter."

Bissonnette earns $85,000 as the mayor of Chicopee. Bissonette said generally, the salary increases could create more interest in court openings for those earning six figures in private practice. "Having salary ranges that are competitive may prompt more mid-career professionals to consider public service in the judicial branch," he said.

Mike Bissonnette

 

Bissonnette said for himself, "salary is not a consideration." Bissonette, a lawyer, said he took a substantial pay cut to become mayor. He said he is "thinking more along the lines of how the position would allow me to continue serving the public."

All three of the candidates would see significant pension boosts if they win the job. With eight years in public service, Bissonnette, who recently lost his bid for re-election, needs another two years as a public employee to become eligible for a public pension when he retires – something he will get if he becomes register of probate. Candaras would see a boost because of both her age and length of service – she would be over 70 when she finishes her first term, with more than 30 years in public service (counting her time in local government), so her pension benefit would likely be 80 percent of her salary. Seguin would also benefit due to her length of service, since she has already worked for
the court system for more than 30 years.

The salaries of Massachusetts judges were last increased in 2006. Adjusted for cost of living, judicial salaries ranked 49th out of all states plus the District of Columbia, according to the National Center for State Courts' 2013 survey of judicial salaries.

Michael Albano, a member of the Governor's Council and former Springfield mayor, who advocated for the judicial pay increases, said most of the discussion in the Legislature was about the need for higher judicial pay. The trickle down effect to clerks and registers of probate goes back to the 1970s, he said, when clerks and clerk magistrates had a strong lobby and were able to tie their salaries to judicial salaries. Under state law, clerk magistrates and registers of probate receive 81.57 percent of a chief justice's salary. Assistant clerks receive 77 percent of a clerk's salary and first assistants, 83.5 percent of a clerk's salary.

Albano said he does not think the clerks had the same need for a pay increase as judges. "Look at the ramifications relative to a clerk magistrate's responsibilities and one who sits on a bench. I'm not sure they're comparable," Albano said. "I don’t think there was any shortage of applicants for clerk magistrate. There was a shortage for judges."

The National Center for State Courts does not compare different states' salaries for clerks or registers of probate.

In 2008, a state commission recommended decoupling the salaries and giving a raise to judges but not clerks. However, neither the raise nor the decoupling of salaries passed.

This time, state Rep. Sean Curran, a Springfield Democrat and member of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary, said there was no discussion on the floor about raising the salary only for judges, not clerks.

"That’s the way it's been for years," Curran said.


http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/12/candidates_for_hampden_county.html#incart_river?utm_source=ML+13%2F12%2F30&utm_campaign=20131230ML&utm_medium=email

McGee paid $225,000 to Resolve Deceptive Marketing Allegations

[posted on facebook]

From: Raynham Selectmen question legitimacy of Rte. 44 Chevrolet dealer


For Immediate Release - May 11, 2012

Car Dealership to Pay $225,000 to Resolve Deceptive Marketing Allegations

Allegedly Charged Higher Rates than Originally Negotiated with Consumers

BOSTON – A family of car dealerships with locations in Hanover and Raynham has agreed to pay $225,000 in restitution, civil penalties and attorney fees to resolve allegations that it used deceptive marketing tactics, Attorney General Martha Coakley announced today.

“We are pleased that the company has agreed to provide restitution to consumers and has taken important steps to make sure that misleading business practices do not occur in the future,” AG Coakley said.

According to the AG’s complaint, filed yesterday in Suffolk Superior Court along with a consent judgment, McGee Wholesale Cars, McGee Motorcars, Inc. and McGee Chevrolet, Inc. (collectively, the “dealership”), placed advertisements online and in print publications that misrepresented the actual prices of automobiles. Often the advertisements listed the so-called “dealer’s cost” rather than the actual sale price of a car, misleading buyers into believing the car was being offered at low prices that the dealership would not meet.

The complaint further alleges that on several occasions, dealership employees asked consumers to sign incomplete documents with the understanding that they would be completed using the negotiated vehicle price, and later entered information which called for a higher price. Employees also allegedly charged consumers fees for unwanted or undisclosed warranties and services.

The consent judgment orders the dealership to pay $125,000 in consumer restitution, $85,000 in civil penalties and $15,000 to cover attorney fees and costs. The judgment also prohibits deceptive marketing and sales practices. Under the settlement, the dealership also will implement a formal training program for all staff members involved in the sales or financing of motor vehicles to educate them on proper compliance with state regulations.

The dealership cooperated with the AG’s investigation and, once the investigation was initiated, the dealership implemented managerial and procedural changes to address issues raised by the investigation. The dealership denied all allegations of wrongdoing, though it agreed to resolve the matter with the Attorney General’s office.

This case was handled by Assistant Attorney General Amber Anderson Villa with the assistance of Paralegal Krista Roche of the AG’s Consumer Protection Division and Investigators William Mackay and Kristen Metzger.

http://www.mass.gov/ago/news-and-updates/press-releases/2012/2012-05-11-mcgee-deceptive-marketing.html

 

Koch drops price of Cape home $2.5 million

Interesting article if you're looking for a bargain 'mansion.'

Billionaire Bill Koch chops $2.5 million off the price of his Osterville "Yachtman's Paradise"

A million here, a million there, pretty soon we're talking about real money

Article | News | December 30, 2013 - 6:00am | By Walter Brooks

 

You can save $2.5 million now on William Koch's "Yachtsman's Paradise" in Osterville. Photo from the Robert Paul Properties website.

How many waterfront mansions does a billionaire need?

Will Billionaire Bill use a few million more to save his oceanview?

Two weeks ago we published a story about Bill Koch entitled "Fighting Cape Wind $1 million at a time", see that story below. It's difficult not to imagine there may be a connection between that and the fact that Bill Koch has reduced the asking price of his Osterville mansion by $2.5 million.
His property in Oyster Harbors in Osterville was put on the market last year for $15 million, and according to the Robert Paul Properties website, the price has been reduced to $12.5.
He has voiced his anguish at having to see a wind farm in the distance.

Billionaire is not wining

This is almost the same loss Koch suffered a few years ago when he admitted in court that he was conned into paying $2.1 million for fake bottles of wine, see the Palm Beach News story below.
As one commenter on the CBS News story about Koch's phony wine said, "One plus, seeing Mr. Koch show the world his intellectual prowess when he bought 4 bottles of wine supposedly owned by Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson had marked his name on the bottle with an electric etching tool. A very common practice in the late 1700's... writing ones name on wine bottles with ELECTRIC tools! Please let Mr. Koch know I have a 1st edition bible autographed by Jesus for sale. What a pathetic fool..."
Koch's 8,600 square foot Oyster Harbors home is on a one and a half acre waterfront lot, has its own dock, 9 bedrooms, 8 full baths and 4 half-baths, with taxes of $66.398 a year and it's assessed at $6.3 million.

Bill Koch is most famous around here as the major backer and the money behind the one remaining group fighting to stop Cape Wind - the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound.

Although that group will not release the names of its financial supporters, Commonwealth Magazine says it’s a good bet the big donor is Koch, a Floridian who summers in Osterville on the Cape. Koch runs Oxbow Corp., a major energy conglomerate, and is worth almost $4 billion.

In an interview with CommonWealth Magazine earlier this year, Bill Koch said he had donated more than $5 million to that organization as part of a strategy to keep delaying Cape Wind in the courts and in the court of public opinion until the proposed wind farm’s owner, Jim Gordon, calls it quits.

Maybe one waterfront mansion is enough
Of course, perhaps Bill Koch cut the price of his "Yachtsman's Paradise" because he recently bought Bunny Mellon's waterfront mansion nearby. Bunny, who prosecutors say gave millions to help former Democratic Sen. John Edwards cover up an affair, sold a 25-acre portion of her waterfront Cape Cod compound to Bill Koch for $19.5 million.

Forbes claims that Bill Koch is worth $3.8 billion, and they rank him as number 122 on the Forbes 400, down from number 92 a year ago.

So what's a couple million one way or another for one of the wealthiest men in America. The only thing I have in common with Koch is that we both graduated from Culver Military Academy. Bill is listed as one it Culver's "Notable Alumni". I am not.
Robert Paul Properties describes Bill Koch's Osterville digs as "Yachtsman's Paradise on Nantucket Sound... On the south coast of Cape Cod, on the renowned private island of Oyster Harbors, only a few rare properties offer views of Nantucket Sound, a private sandy beach".

See these related stories:

• Listing: 177 Seapuit River Road, Osterville [Robert Paul Properties]
• Wine collector who defrauded Palm Beacher Bill Koch convicted in N.Y. [The Palm Beach Post]
• Sandwich Demolition; Bunny Mellon's $19.5M Sale; & More! [Curbed Cape Cod]
• Bill Koch Lists His Osterville Compound For $15 Million [Curbed Cape Cod]
• Fighting Cape Wind $1 million at a time [Cape Cod Today]

Related Content:

Bill Koch buys a chunk of Bunny's Osterville land

Osterville oil-i-garth, Bunny Mellon, financed Edwards love child

Koch will have a great view of the wind farm - Guv misses big private sector paycheck

January 31 - Today in Cape Cod History

Chapter 3 - I never met a school I couldn't hate

 

 

http://www.capecodtoday.com/article/2013/12/30/23352-billionaire-bill-koch-chops-25-million-price-his-osterville-yachtmans-parad

 

 

Our focus should be on renewable sources of energy and would be were it not for the Regressive Party and their wealthy Dirty Energy Patrons like the Kochs.

File photo, gas station. (photo: Getty Images)

Former BP Geologist: Peak Oil Is Here and It Will 'Break Economies'

By Nafeez Ahmed, Guardian UK

27 December 13

Industry expert warns of grim future of 'recession' driven 'resource wars' at University College London lecture

former British Petroleum (BP) geologist has warned that the age of cheap oil is long gone, bringing with it the danger of "continuous recession" and increased risk of conflict and hunger.

At a lecture on 'Geohazards' earlier this month as part of the postgraduate Natural Hazards for Insurers course at University College London (UCL), Dr. Richard G. Miller, who worked for BP from 1985 before retiring in 2008, said that official data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), US Energy Information Administration (EIA), International Monetary Fund (IMF), among other sources, showed that conventional oil had most likely peaked around 2008.

 

Dr. Miller critiqued the official industry line that global reserves will last 53 years at current rates of consumption, pointing out that "peaking is the result of declining production rates, not declining reserves." Despite new discoveries and increasing reliance on unconventional oil and gas, 37 countries are already post-peak, and global oil production is declining at about 4.1% per year, or 3.5 million barrels a day (b/d) per year:

"We need new production equal to a new Saudi Arabia every 3 to 4 years to maintain and grow supply... New discoveries have not matched consumption since 1986. We are drawing down on our reserves, even though reserves are apparently climbing every year. Reserves are growing due to better technology in old fields, raising the amount we can recover - but production is still falling at 4.1% p.a. [per annum]."

Dr. Miller, who prepared annual in-house projections of future oil supply for BP from 2000 to 2007, refers to this as the "ATM problem" - "more money, but still limited daily withdrawals." As a consequence: "Production of conventional liquid oil has been flat since 2008. Growth in liquid supply since then has been largely of natural gas liquids [NGL]- ethane, propane, butane, pentane - and oil-sand bitumen."

 

Dr. Miller is co-editor of a special edition of the prestigious journal, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, published this month on the future of oil supply. In an introductory paper co-authored with Dr. Steve R. Sorrel, co-director of the Sussex Energy Group at the University of Sussex in Brighton, they argue that among oil industry experts "there is a growing consensus that the era of cheap oil has passed and that we are entering a new and very different phase." They endorse the conservative conclusions of an extensive earlier study by the government-funded UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC):

"... a sustained decline in global conventional production appears probable before 2030 and there is significant risk of this beginning before 2020... on current evidence the inclusion of tight oil [shale oil] resources appears unlikely to significantly affect this conclusion, partly because the resource base appears relatively modest."

In fact, increasing dependence on shale could worsen decline rates in the long run:

"Greater reliance upon tight oil resources produced using hydraulic fracturing will exacerbate any rising trend in global average decline rates, since these wells have no plateau and decline extremely fast - for example, by 90% or more in the first 5 years."

Tar sands will fare similarly, they conclude, noting that "the Canadian oil sands will deliver only 5 mb per day by 2030, which represents less than 6% of the IEA projection of all-liquids production by that date."

 

Despite the cautious projection of global peak oil "before 2020", they also point out that:

"Crude oil production grew at approximately 1.5% per year between 1995 and 2005, but then plateaued with more recent increases in liquids supply largely deriving from NGLs, oil sands and tight oil. These trends are expected to continue... Crude oil production is heavily concentrated in a small number of countries and a small number of giant fields, with approximately 100 fields producing one half of global supply, 25 producing one quarter and a single field (Ghawar in Saudi Arabia) producing approximately 7%. Most of these giant fields are relatively old, many are well past their peak of production, most of the rest seem likely to enter decline within the next decade or so and few new giant fields are expected to be found."

"The final peak is going to be decided by the price - how much can we afford to pay?", Dr. Miller told me in an interview about his work. "If we can afford to pay $150 per barrel, we could certainly produce more given a few years of lead time for new developments, but it would break economies again."

 

Miller argues that for all intents and purposes, peak oil has arrived as conditions are such that despite volatility, prices can never return to pre-2004 levels:

"The oil price has risen almost continuously since 2004 to date, starting at $30. There was a great spike to $150 and then a collapse in 2008/2009, but it has since climbed to $110 and held there. The price rise brought a lot of new exploration and development, but these new fields have not actually increased production by very much, due to the decline of older fields. This is compatible with the idea that we are pretty much at peak today. This recession is what peak feels like."

Although he is dismissive of shale oil and gas' capacity to prevent a peak and subsequent long decline in global oil production, Miller recognises that there is still some leeway that could bring significant, if temporary dividends for US economic growth - though only as "a relatively short-lived phenomenon":

"We're like a cage of lab rats that have eaten all the cornflakes and discovered that you can eat the cardboard packets too. Yes, we can, but... Tight oil may reach 5 or even 6 million b/d in the US, which will hugely help the US economy, along with shale gas. Shale resources, though, are inappropriate for more densely populated countries like the UK, because the industrialisation of the countryside affects far more people (with far less access to alternative natural space), and the economic benefits are spread more thinly across more people. Tight oil production in the US is likely to peak before 2020. There absolutely will not be enough tight oil production to replace the US' current 9 million b/d of imports."

In turn, by prolonging global economic recession, high oil prices may reduce demand. Peak demand in turn may maintain a longer undulating oil production plateau:

"We are probably in peak oil today, or at least in the foot-hills. Production could rise a little for a few years yet, but not sufficiently to bring the price down; alternatively, continuous recession in much of the world may keep demand essentially flat for years at the $110/bbl price we have today. But we can't grow the supply at average past rates of about 1.5% per year at today's prices."

The fundamental dependence of global economic growth on cheap oil supplies suggests that as we continue into the age of expensive oil and gas, without appropriate efforts to mitigate the impacts and transition to a new energy system, the world faces a future of economic and geopolitical turbulence:

"In the US, high oil prices correlate with recessions, although not all recessions correlate with high oil prices. It does not prove causation, but it is highly likely that when the US pays more than 4% of its GDP for oil, or more than 10% of GDP for primary energy, the economy declines as money is sucked into buying fuel instead of other goods and services... A shortage of oil will affect everything in the economy. I expect more famine, more drought, more resource wars and a steady inflation in the energy cost of all commodities."

According to another study in the Royal Society journal special edition by professor David J. Murphy of Northern Illinois University, an expert in the role of energy in economic growth, the energy return on investment (EROI) for global oil and gas production - the amount of energy produced compared to the amount of energy invested to get, deliver and use that energy - is roughly 15 and declining. For the US, EROI of oil and gas production is 11 and declining; and for unconventional oil and biofuels is largely less than 10. The problem is that as EROI decreases, energy prices increase. Thus, Murphy concludes:

"... the minimum oil price needed to increase the oil supply in the near term is at levels consistent with levels that have induced past economic recessions. From these points, I conclude that, as the EROI of the average barrel of oil declines, long-term economic growth will become harder to achieve and come at an increasingly higher financial, energetic and environmental cost."

Current EROI in the US, Miller said, is simply "not enough to support the US infrastructure, even if America was self-sufficient, without raising production even further than current consumption."

In their introduction to their collection of papers in the Royal Society journal, Miller and Sorrell point out that "most authors" in the special edition "accept that conventional oil resources are at an advanced stage of depletion and that liquid fuels will become more expensive and increasingly scarce." The shale revolution can provide only "short-term relief", but is otherwise "unlikely to make a significant difference in the longer term."

 

They call for a "coordinated response" to this challenge to mitigate the impact, including "far-reaching changes in global transport systems." While "climate-friendly solutions to 'peak oil' are available" they caution, these will be neither "easy" nor "quick", and imply a model of economic development that accepts lower levels of consumption and mobility.

 

In his interview with me, Richard Miller was particularly critical of the UK government's policies, including abandoning large-scale wind farm projects, the reduction of feed-in tariffs for renewable energy, and support for shale gas. "The government will do anything for the short-term economic bounce," he said, "but the consequence will be that the UK is tied more tightly to an oil-based future, and we will pay dearly for it."

 

 

The rest from RSN:

 

Elizabeth Warren | Protect, Expand Social Security

Elizabeth Warren, Reader Supported News
Warren writes: "One major consequence of these increasing pressures on working people is that the dream of a secure retirement is slowly slipping away."
READ MORE

US Judge Says NSA Phone Data Program Is Lawful
Jonathan Stempel, Reuters
Excerpt: "A U.S. judge ruled the National Security Agency's program that collects records of millions of Americans' phone calls is lawful, rejecting a challenge by the American Civil Liberties Union to the controversial counter-terrorism program."
READ MORE

Obama Signs NDAA 2014, Indefinite Detention Remains
Natasha Lennard, Salon
Lennard writes: "The troubling NDAA provision first signed into law in 2012, which permits the military to detain individuals indefinitely without trial, remains on the books for 2014."
READ MORE

There's an Alarming Number of Deaths in US Jails
Cara Tabachnick, Guardian UK
Tabachnick writes: "There is great hesitancy on the part of security to address sick complaints as seriously as they should be, especially in jail where the churn of people is endless, with most disappearing quickly."
READ MORE

Obama Signs Bill to Combat Sexual Assault in the Military
Carimah Townes, ThinkProgress
Townes reports: "The day after Christmas, President Obama signed a defense bill with provisions to curb sexual assault in the U.S. military."
READ MORE

Medea Benjamin | 10 Good Things About the Year 2013
Medea Benjamin, Pink Tank
Benjamin writes: "It's also been a year of extraordinary activism: whistleblowers, DREAMers, Walmart workers, peacemakers, gay rights advocates, garment workers."
READ MORE

Boeing: Corporate Welfare At Its Best!

There's a good book, easily understandable, "The Great American Jobs Scam" by Greg LeRoy, about corporate tax dodging and the myth of job creation.

When you hear JOB CREATION and TAX BREAKS, run like hell because they don't work!
American taxpayers are left holding the bag while the already wealthy reap the benefits.....just like the phony Casino rhetoric.  

Boeing is just one egregious example:

Ralph Nader. (photo: unknown)

Letter to Boeing's Boss: Squeezing Workers for Corporate Welfare

By Ralph Nader, The Nader Page

29 December 13

Jim McNerney, CEO
The Boeing Company
100 North Riverside
Chicago, IL 60606

ear Mr. McNerney:

The squeeze that you and Boeing are putting on your machinist workers' pensions, pay scales and your stance on other labor issues regarding the assembling of the new 777X airliners is unseemly for several reasons.

 

First, consider your pay this year of $21.1 million, a 15 percent increase from the previous year, and much higher than your predecessors. That sum does not demonstrate a moral authority to require sacrifices from your workers at a time of rising Boeing sales and profits, dividend increases, cash hoard, and another notorious $10 billion stock buyback. I say notorious because stock buybacks per se do little for shareholder values and a lot for the enlarged stock options of top executives.

 

Second, you're holding an auction for your long-time workers jobs in other states, inciting a bidding war whereby states are giving away taxpayer assets to lure your 777X assembly factory with huge tax holidays and other subsidies. Washington state outdid itself with a new law, signed by Governor Jay Inslee with the largest state business tax break package for Boeing in history. The tax escape law "will give Boeing and its suppliers about $8.7 billion in tax breaks between now and 2040," according to the Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ) calculations. CTJ adds that "Boeing has managed to avoid paying even a dime of state income taxes nationwide on $35 billion in pretax U.S. profits."

 

Boeing also received tax advantages from the federal government, including $1.8 billion in federal income tax rebates on its $35 billion in U.S. profits between 2003 and 2012.

 

Third, in 1997 the Justice Department allowed Boeing to merge with McDonnell Douglas, making Boeing the only manufacturer of commercial jet planes in the United States - a domestic monopoly, justified by the only other foreign competitor - Airbus Industries in Europe. Another valuable gift by Uncle Sam brought about by your company's Washington lobbyists.

 

Fourth, recall Boeing's contract with the Department of Defense for the initial phase of Air Force's KC-46 aerial tanker program that provoked sharp criticism by Senator John McCain in July 2011 for the excessive burdens on American taxpayers from cost over-runs in a supposed "fixed price" contract. In a letter to Department of Defense Undersecretary Ashton B. Carter, Senator McCain wondered "why under a fixed-price, relatively low-risk contract, taxpayers may have to pay 60 percent of any overrun within that band - up to $600 million."

 

A book could be written about the Boeing company's strategy for externalization of a variety of its costs onto innocent, defensely people - whether workers or taxpayers. Boeing's systemic campaigns for corporate welfare are shameful. Your company is one of the major corporate welfare kings in America, running a close race with the champion - General Electric. As CTJ wrote: Boeing "employs an army of site location and tax consultants, whose job has been to blackmail states into giving Boeing lavish tax breaks." These include sales and property tax breaks which drain communities' ability to provide for school and other public facilities (http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/corporate-subsidy-watch/boeing).

 

Fifth, there is the gigantic subject of your outsourcing to foreign suppliers, in particular Japan where your technology transfers, damaging the longer term viability of U.S. competitiveness in the aerospace sector for short term gains favoring Boeing, merit thorough examination by the Congress.

 

As you know Boeing's foreign outsourcing brought your company considerable quality control and delay troubles with the Dreamliner.

 

You need to read the 2005 report by the Defense Science Board about the hollowing out of domestic capability in the electronics industry from this kind of overseas outsourcing migration by U.S. companies.

 

For starters read the current copy of The American Conservative magazine's cover story titled "Japan's Plan to Unmake Boeing," describing the full assistance of Boeing. No doubt, if your further cruel downward pressure on your machinists culminates in your destroying their union local and their jobs by leaving the state of Washington and going for example to the anti-union state of South Carolina, there will be further public inquiries. Such as how perverse incentives provided by your suppliers in Japan and elsewhere have furthered job losses here and accelerated your company's technology transfers perhaps beyond the tipping point against the U.S. national interest.

 

Sincerely yours,

Ralph Nader



The rest of RSN's thought-provoking articles:

Noam Chomsky: Governments are Power Systems, Trying to Sustain Power

Natasha Lennard, Salon
Excerpt: "Governments are power systems. They are trying to sustain their power and domination over their populations and they will use what means are available to do this."
READ MORE

Charles Pierce | Judge Rules on NSA From Under His Bed

Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "Let us congratulate U.S. District Judge William Pauley III. It cannot be easy issuing an important ruling while hiding under your bed."
READ MORE

Ezra Klein | Why Shouldn't You Just Pay the Individual Mandate?
Ezra Klein, The Washington Post
Klein writes: "Most people don't buy insurance because they expect to need it. They buy insurance in case they need it."
READ MORE

UN Hopes for South Sudan Reinforcements Within 48 hours
Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols, Reuters
Excerpt: "[The United Nations] hopes to begin receiving within the next 48 hours critical reinforcements of military hardware and personnel for its overstretched peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, which is on the verge of civil war."
READ MORE

Philly's New Land Bank: Will It Give Blighted Communities a Boost?
Jake Blumgart, YES! Magazine
Blumgart writes: "The city is home to more than 40,000 vacant properties. Now neighborhoods are hoping a new public entity can help them bounce back from the post-industrial blues."
READ MORE

Ken Butigan | Conscientious Objectors Needed Now More Than Ever
Ken Butigan, Waging Nonviolence
Butigan writes: "In our time of permanent war, the Edward Snowdens and Chelsea Mannings are showing us how powerful conscientious objection still is."
READ MORE

6 Crimes Against Nature Perpetrated by the Factory Farms
Martha Rosenberg, AlterNet
Rosenberg writes: "While many procedures on factory farms are cruel, some practices ... are truly crimes against nature."
READ MORE

 

 

Robert Reich | Don't Succumb to Defeatism About the Affordable Care Act

Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog
Reich writes: "Whatever happened to American can-do optimism? Even before the Affordable Care Act covers its first beneficiary, the nattering nabobs of negativism are out in full force."
READ MORE

John Nichols | Congress Chooses Austerity Over Job Creation and Economic Growth
John Nichols, The Nation
Nichols writes: "Most members of Congress were pleased with themselves Thursday. They agreed to agree - crossing lines of partisanship and ideology - on an austerity budget that, as Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio has noted, 'won't create jobs, get the economy back on track, or meaningfully cut the deficit.' That's not the worst of it."
READ MORE

Benefits Ending for One Million Unemployed
Annie Lowrey, The New York Times
Lowrey reports: "An emergency federal program that acts as a lifeline for 1.3 million jobless workers will end on Saturday, drastically curtailing government support for the long-term unemployed and setting the stage for a major political fight in the new year."
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Strange Bedfellows: Pat Buchanan and Putin
Harold Meyerson, The Washington Post
Meyerson writes: "While Buchanan's pugnacity in the culture wars has long since ceased to be news, his latest entry is jaw-dropping nonetheless. Writing last week on a right-wing Web site , he announced he'd found a new star in the paleoconservative firmament: Vladimir Putin."
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Homeless Couple Gets a Home on Christmas Eve, Thanks to 'Occupy' Group
Scott Keyes, ThinkProgress
Keyes reports: "For many couples, the thought of living together in a 96-square-foot house sounds awful. But for Chris Derrick and Betty Ybarra, it's a Christmas miracle."
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Global Warming Will Intensify Drought, Says New Study
John Abraham, Guardian UK
Abraham reports: " ... what matters most in our day-to-day lives is extreme weather. If human-caused climate change leads to more extreme weather, it would make taking action more prudent."
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Destabilizing the Middle East.....

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December 29/30, 2013

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Syrian Rebels Get Arms and Advice Through Secret Cmmand Centre in Amman By Phil Sands and Suha Maayeh A secret operations command centre in Jordan, staffed by western and Arab military officials, has given vital support to rebels fighting on Syria's southern front, providing them with weapons and tactical advice on attacking regime targets. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37246.htm Beirut Murder: Dirty Tricks Get Dirtier By Finian Cunningham This pattern of sectarian destabilization within Lebanon and across the Middle East by external forces is consistent with the latest murder of Mohamad Shatah in Beirut. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37249.htm New Iran Sanctions Bill Could Drive Wedge Between Israel Lobby, U.S. Public By Chemi Shalev Americans couldn't care less about AWACs - but are dead set against war with Iran. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37239.htm Mandela Is Dead: Why Hide The Truth About Apartheid? By Fidel Castro The Apartheid regime -that brought so much suffering onto Africa and arouse so much indignation in most nations throughout the world- was the fruit of European colonial powers and was turned into a nuclear power by the United States and Israel. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37250.htm I Worked On The US Drone Program. The Public Should Know What Really Goes On By Heather Linebaugh Few of the politicians who so brazenly proclaim the benefits of drones have a real clue how it actually works (and doesn't). http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37241.htm The US is a Knuckle-dragging, Low Grade Moronic Culture - George Galloway By John Robles "Saudi Arabia is a gangster state and Bandar is increasingly the chief capo. He is the man who goes around delivering the severed horse's head into the bed of whomsoever they wish to intimidate." http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37245.htm NSA Reportedly Intercepting Laptops Purchased Online to Install Spy Malware By T.C. Sottek The NSA, in collaboration with the CIA and FBI, routinely and secretly intercepts shipping deliveries for laptops or other computer accessories in order to implant bugs before they reach their destinations. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37240.htm Put the NSA on Trial By David Sirota With potential perjury by top officials, and new questions about spying, let's stop assuming everything is legal. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37242.htm Could Edward Snowden get a fair trial in the U.S.? Video NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake and Edward Snowden's legal advisor Jesselyn Radack explain why they believe the NSA leaker wouldn't get a fair hearing in the United States. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37244.htm What If? A New Years Dream By Emanuel E. Garcia What if Mr. President went to battle Against secrecy in government And commanded that each Meeting, council, caucus, courtroom and committee Be televised and recorded For the citizenry? http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37248.htm Forty Percent Of Workers Made Less Than $20,000 Last Year By Bryce Covert Nearly 40 percent of all workers in the country made less than $20,000 last year, more than half of all workers made less than $30,000. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37243.htm Christmas Versus Xmas: A Political Reading By James Petras The Christmas story does not resonate with the owners, investors and publicists of big commercial enterprises who have converted the multitude into worshipers of their little plastic cards. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37247.htm

Hard News 19 Syria rebels killed in fight for air base: monitor: At least 19 rebels were killed in eastern Syria on Sunday in clashes for control of Deir Ezzor military air base, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2013/Dec-29/242612-19-syria-rebels-killed-in-fight-for-air-base-monitor.ashx EU leaders should 'hang heads in shame' over failure to take in Syrian r efugees -Amnesty says: UK one of ten EU countries which has failed to resettle vulnerable Syrian refugees http://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/syria-eu-leaders-should-hang-heads-shame-over-failure-take-refugees-new-briefing Nigel Farage calls on government to let Syrian refugees into UK: "I think refugees are a very different thing to economic migration and I think that this country should honour the spirit of the 1951 declaration on refugee status that was agreed," he told BBC News. http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/dec/29/nigel-farage-syrian-refugees-uk?CMP=twt_fd Iraq attacks kill at least 18, including army general: police, medics: At least 18 people were killed in attacks across Iraq on Sunday, including a military general in a bombing in the northern city of Mosul, police and medical sources said. http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/29/22098476-iraq-attacks-kill-at-least-18-including-army-general-police-medics Yemeni army tank shells funeral: death toll rises to 20: The death toll from the army shelling of funeral tents on Saturday in South Yemen has risen to 20. Shells hit a gathering of men and children paying condolences to the family of a secessionist protester who died in a clash with the government forces. http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/yemen/funeral-tent-death-toll-rises-to-20-1.1271682 Yemeni gunmen strike Hadramawt oil pipeline: "Gunmen belonging to an alliance of Hadramawt tribes blew up the oil pipeline linking Masila oilfield to al-Daba port in the town of Shahr," the unnanmed official said on Saturday. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/12/yemeni-gunmen-strike-hadramawt-oil-pipeline-2013122882114666618.html Saudi Arabia pledges $3bn to Lebanese army: Lebanese President Michel Suleiman announces largest grant ever given to the country's armed forces. He said the funds would allow Lebanon's military to purchase French weapons. He did not provide any further details of the deal. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/12/saudi-arabia-pledges-3bn-lebanese-army-2013122916819356742.html French president to meet Hariri in Riyadh: French President Francois Hollande will meet former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Syrian opposition leader Ahmed Jarba in Saudi Arabia, where he arrived Sunday, said a member of his entourage. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2013/Dec-29/242570-french-president-to-meet-hariri-in-riyadh.ashx Lebanon rocket fire draws Israeli artillery strike: Rockets launched from south Lebanon struck northern Israel on Sunday and Israel responded with artillery shells across a border that has been largely quiet since a war in 2006. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/29/us-lebanon-israel-rockets-idUSBRE9BS01C20131229 Palestinians have no partner for "Peace" Haaretz Editorial: - Even Israel's friends have given up on defending its positions, and some are already supporting sanctions against Israel. http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.565938 Palestinian villagers' complaints of squatter violence are going unheard: Residents of the West Bank village are repeatedly attacked, but very few complaints to the Israeli police and army produce indictments. http://www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page/.premium-1.566019 Fact or propaganda? US deal will trade off 'Jewish' Israel for 1967 lines - report: US Secretary of State John Kerry will offer Israeli and Palestinian negotiators a political trade-off: Israeli recognition of the 1967 lines as a basis for the future Palestinian state, in return for Palestinian recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people http://www.timesofisrael.com/us-deal-will-trade-off-jewish-israel-for-1967-lines-report/ Kerry reportedly says he will consider freeing Israeli as part of prisoner swap: Israel's Channel 10 TV station first reported Friday that Kerry offered to free Pollard as part of an exchange for the release of a fourth group of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails as peace talks resume between the two sides. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/12/29/kerry-returns-to-israel-to-talk-with-leaders-about-peace-negotiations-amid-new/ PLO urges Hamas to sever ties with Muslim Brotherhood: A Fatah representative in the PLO executive committee said Hamas should detach itself from the Brotherhood, warning of political, economic, and security consequences if Hamas remained "subordinate" to "this banned terrorist group." http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=660789 Bahrain opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman charged: Sheikh Ali Salman has been charged with "incitement to religious hatred and spreading false news likely to harm national security", state media said. It comes after Mr Salman was detained for a day and questioned over a sermon he delivered on Friday. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25542387 Female suicide bomber kills 15 in Russia's Volgograd (VIDEO): Another 34 were injured, 8 of them more critically, including a girl of 9. The child has been taken to a local hospital. Her mother died in the blast, according to the Committee. http://www.rt.com/news/volgograd-blast-victims-russia-937/ 7 Insurgents Killed, 2 Injured in Operations: Seven insurgents were killed and two were injured during a series of coordinated operations over the past 24 hours carried out by the Afghan National Army (ANA), Afghan National Police (ANP) and National Directorate of Security (NDS), the Afghan Ministry of Interior said in a statement on Sunday. http://www.tolonews.com/en/afghanistan/13258-7-insurgents-killed-2-injured-in-operations Time to own up: who really killed UK army captain Richard Holloway in Afghanistan?: Who was it that sent him and ten thousand other British troops to fight a war which for years has clearly been both pointless and unwinnable. http://stopwar.org.uk/news/time-to-own-up-who-really-killed-uk-army-captain-richard-holloway-in-afghanistan Taliban back in the saddle in Afghanistan by 2017 - leaked intel report: Any success the US and its allies have enjoyed in Afghanistan in the past three years will be dramatically reduced by 2017, even if a US military presence remains in the country, according to a US intelligence report. http://rt.com/news/us-afghanistan-military-taliban-943/ Protester killed during clashes in Bangladesh: Clashes erupt between security forces and opposition protesters calling for elections to be postponed. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2013/12/protester-killed-during-clashes-bangladesh-2013122984511139648.html United Nations: 2 peacekeepers killed in attack on convoy in Sudan's South Darfur: A statement Sunday on behalf of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said a Jordanian and a Senegalese peacekeeper were killed by "unidentified assailants" while in a convoy travelling near Greida, South Darfur. The statement said peacekeepers killed one of the assailants and wounded another. http://www.canada.com/news/United+Nations+peacekeepers+killed+attack+convoy+Sudans+South+Darfur/9332227/story.html Egypt: student killed as police open fire on protesters: Buildings at Al-Azhar University, the world's most important Islamic school, were set on fire by students who have been protesting against the coup that ousted President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood from government. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/28/egypt-student-dies-police-open-fire-protesters-muslim-brotherhood Egypt security forces arrest suspect in Sharqiya blast: Egyptian security forces have arrested a suspect in Sunday's explosion targeting the Military Intelligence Headquarters in Egypt's Nile Delta Governorate of Sharqiya, the third attack on the country in under a week, a security official told state news agency MENA. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/90301.aspx The existential struggle for the heart of political Egypt: Op-Ed: The violence itself is merely a symptom - and only one of them - of a deepening divide cutting Egyptian society into at least two, if not more, hostile factions that view themselves as exclusively legitimate and the other as entirely illegitimate. http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/the-existential-struggle-for-the-heart-of-political-egypt#full US army personnel briefly detained in Libya: Four members of the United States military have been released after briefly being taken into custody by the government, US officials have said. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/12/us-army-personnel-briefly-detained-libya-2013122852537210875.html US "embassy security" staff released after arrest near Sabratha: Some mystery still surrounds the details of the arrests. The men were said to have  been travelling in two vehicles when they were stopped. One of these was reportedly later set ablaze. http://www.libyaherald.com/2013/12/28/us-embassy-security-staff-released-after-arrest-near-sabratha/ Thousands protest against Niger's president: At least 20,000 people march against Mahamadou Issoufou's rule, accusing government of corruption and media censorship. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/12/niger-protest-2013122818045873463.html Judge Says the NSA Can Look at Your Phone Records Because They're Not Yours: Pauley said, no one has a Fourth Amendment right to stop the government from examining his telephone records, which are not really even his: http://reason.com/blog/2013/12/27/judge-says-the-nsa-can-look-at-your-phon Documents Reveal Top NSA Hacking Unit: The NSA's TAO hacking unit is considered to be the intelligence agency's top secret weapon. It maintains its own covert network, infiltrates computers around the world and even intercepts shipping deliveries to plant back doors in electronics ordered by those it is targeting. http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-nsa-uses-powerful-toolbox-in-effort-to-spy-on-global-networks-a-940969.html Glenn Greenwald: 'A Lot' More NSA Documents to Come: "This is a digital agent orange. It took the leaves from the forest where we used to live and flourish," said Tim Pritlove, one of the annual event's organizers. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/12/greenwald-lot-nsa-documents-come/ Military sex assault reports jump by 50 percent: The number of reported sexual assaults across the military shot up by more than 50 percent this year, an increase that defense officials say may suggest that victims are becoming more willing to come forward after a tumultuous year of scandals that shined a spotlight on the crimes and put pressure on the military to take aggressive action. http://news.yahoo.com/military-sex-assault-reports-jump-50-percent-165235599--politics.html Texas Pastor John Hagee Tells Atheists To Get On A Plane, 'Leave The Country' - Video - John Hagee, began by declaring that America was founded as, and still remains, a Christian nation. As such, if atheists and humanists don't like being wished a "Merry Christmas" ... well, they can just get out of the country. http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/hagee-people-who-dont-hearing-merry-christmas-should-leave-country As Federal Prison Population Spiked 790 Percent, Average Drug Sentences Doubled: The prison population explosion was not driven primarily by a spike in crime, but by a change in punishment. Over a 25-year period, average drug sentences doubled from 38.5 months in 1984 to 74 months in 2011. http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/11/06/2895301/federal-prison-population-spiked-average-drug-sentences-doubled-report-finds/ Police Salaries and Pensions Push California City to Brink: Though few elected officials in America want to say it, police officers and other public-safety workers keep turning up at the center of the municipal bankruptcies and budget dramas plaguing many American cities - largely because their pensions tend to be significantly more costly than those of other city workers. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/28/us/police-salaries-and-pensions-push-california-city-to-brink.html High Stakes for Families Losing Jobless Benefits: 'We Could End Up Homeless': The end of unemployment checks for more than a million people on Saturday is driving out-of-work Americans to consider selling cars, moving and taking minimum wage work after already slashing household budgets and pawning personal possessions to make ends meet. http://www.moneynews.com/Economy/Unemployment-Benefits-Jobs-Labor/2013/12/28/id/544181 'Embarrassed' to use Facebook: Teens shift to other sites to 'unfriend' with parents: 2013 marked the start of what looks likely to be "a sustained decline" of what had been "the most pervasive" of all social networking sites. http://rt.com/news/embarrassed-facebook-teens-parents-942/ === "Let us be peace and joy" Tom Feeley

Cost Of War Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered In US War And Occupation Of Iraq "1,455,590" Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America's War On Iraq: 4,883 Number Of International Occupation Force Troops Slaughtered In Afghanistan : 3,409 Cost of War in Iraq & Afghanistan Total Cost of Wars Since 2001 $1,501,037,662,408 http://www.costofwar.com/

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