Wednesday, May 21st, 2014
DAVE JOHNSON, - Salon/AlterNet (U.S.)
Stephan: Privatization, one of the Right's beloved economic principles, has shown itself to be of great benefit to the uber-rich who control the Republican Party, and a disaster for ordinary citizens. Here are some examples of what I mean.
For decades we’ve been subjected to constant propaganda that government is inefficient, bureaucratic and expensive. We’re told that the answer is to ‘privatize,” or ‘outsource” government functions to private businesses and they will do things more efficiently and everyone comes out ahead. As a result we have experienced decades of privatization of government functions.
So how has this wave of privatization worked out? Has privatization saved taxpayers money and improved services to citizens? Simple answer: of course not. If a company can make a profit doing something the government had been doing, it means that we’re losing out one way or another. It’s simple math. And the result of falling for the privatization scam is that taxpayers have been fleeced, services to citizens have been cut way back and communities have been made poorer. But the companies that convinced governments to hand over public functions have gotten rich off of the deal. How is this a surprise?
Here are 5 privatization horror stories, where government outsourcing has gone terribly wrong. (Or maybe you’d say it has gone terribly right if you are one of the companies getting the taxpayer dollars.)
1. Chicago Parking Meters
The mother of all privatization horror stories is what happened […]
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Wednesday, May 21st, 2014
MIKE LEE, Reporter - Environment & Energy Daily
Stephan: North Carolina citizens voted into officer politicians completely in the pocket of the uber-rich, and utterly contemptuous of the wellbeing of ordinary citizens. Voter suppression has been one result. Less well known is that the North Carolina Senate passed a rule that climate change could not be considered as a factor by cities and towns in planning for the future. Now we have this. And, as this report details, North Carolina is far from alone.
I think one of the most important political facts in America today is that voters routinely vote year after year for people who make their lives miserable and, I suspect, in the Red value states they will continue to do so. It is becoming a determinant factor in the Great Schism Trend.
People who disclose confidential information about hydraulic fracturing chemicals in North Carolina would be subject to criminal penalties and civil damages, under a bill in the state Legislature.
The “Energy Modernization Act,” which was introduced yesterday, would make it a Class I felony to disclose trade secrets related to hydraulic fracturing, while spelling out how the information is supposed to be provided to emergency workers. Class I is the lowest-level felony, punishable by a few months’ imprisonment.
“It is very concerning,” said Hope Taylor, executive director of Clean Water North Carolina. “That could have a very chilling effect on folks in the agencies who want to help emergency responders.”
It’s the latest twist in North Carolina’s quest to write rules allowing drilling and fracking for natural gas. The state has a potential shale field called the Deep River formation, but it passed a moratorium on development until it can establish regulations to control the industry.
The state’s Mining and Energy Commission, which is writing the regulations, drew criticism earlier this month when it rejected a proposal on chemical disclosure under pressure from the oil and gas industry, the Raleigh News & Observer reported. The subcommittee’s proposal would have allowed exemptions from disclosure for chemicals […]
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Wednesday, May 21st, 2014
CHARLES Q. CHOI, Contributor - Live Science
Stephan: Here is another confirmation of a prediction SR made years ago, based on my reading of the primary data. This one confirms my belief that one of the consequences of ice melt would be shifts in tectonic plates. Expect more earthquakes and volcanic activity as the other plates move to adjust to this. And once again it is happening faster than was thought possible.
Antarctica is rising unusually quickly, revealing that hot rock in the Earth’s mantle hundreds of miles below the icy continent is flowing much faster than expected, researchers say.
Antarctic ice is more than 2.6 miles (4.2 kilometers) thick on some parts of the continent, a reminder that glaciers that were miles thick once covered many parts of Earth’s surface. When these ice sheets shrink, as is happening now in the world’s polar regions due to climate change, the underlying Earth rebounds upward, like how mattresses typically decompress after people get off them.
Past research suggested this rebound involved very slow uplift of the Earth’s surface over thousands of years. However, an international research team now reveals that at GPS stations on the Northern Antarctic Peninsula, the land is actually surging upward at the rate of up to 0.59 inches (15 millimeters) a year. [Vanishing Glaciers: Stunning Images of Earth’s Melting Ice]
Furthermore, “closer to the site of the ice loss – that is, right next to the thinning glaciers where we do not have any GPS sites – the Earth is likely to be rebounding significantly more than 15 millimeters [0.59 inches] per year,” lead study author Grace Nield, a geophysicist at Newcastle […]
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Wednesday, May 21st, 2014
Stephan: America has the largest gulag the world has ever seen. We have literally millions of people incarcerated. Other countries have taken a different path. Here's an example.
Why aren't our politicians asking what the Dutch are doing right that we aren't doing? Even if they aren't moved by the human suffering, and unfairness that often attends these cases, every person warehoused costs tens of thousands of dollars per year.
In 2009, the Dutch justice ministry announced the planned closing of eight prisons in the Netherlands due to a declining crime rate which was expected to continue.
In 2013, a staggering 19 prisons were scheduled to be closed. This is caused, in part, by a continued decline in crime rates. Additionally, those who are convicted are choosing electronic tagging instead of incarceration. This allows people to go back to work and continue as productive members of society. It also saves about $50,000 per year per person (about $50 million saved per year for every 1000 people).
Johnson County and the Netherlands have something in common. The average incarceration rate in the Netherlands is about 163 people per 100,000. (Source) In Johnson County, we have about the same rate of incarceration – slightly lower. (Source: 2012 Annual Sheriff’s Report – PDF)
Counties and countries with low incarceration rates typically take a different approach to criminal justice and their investment in social services.
In the Netherlands, for example, the focus is on ‘deterring and mitigating crime” as well as ‘sanctioning those who violate laws with … rehabilitation efforts.”
This is similar to the approach taken in Johnson County with jail alternatives and investing in local social […]
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Wednesday, May 21st, 2014
THALIF DEEN, - Common Dreams/Reader Supprted News
Stephan: That water is destiny is becoming clear to all but the dimmest minds. By the end of this decade we will be seeing water wars.
The United Nations, which is trying to help resolve the widespread shortage of water in the developing world, is faced with a growing new problem: the use of water as a weapon of war in ongoing conflicts.
The most recent examples are largely in the Middle East and Africa, including Iraq, Egypt, Israel (where supplies to the occupied territories have been shut off) and Botswana.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last week expressed concern over reports that water supplies in the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo were deliberately cut off by armed groups for eight days, depriving at least 2.5 million people of access to safe water for drinking and sanitation.
“Preventing people’s access to safe water is a denial of a fundamental human right,” he warned, pointing out that ‘deliberate targeting of civilians and depriving them of essential supplies is a clear breach of international humanitarian and human rights law.”
In the four-year Syrian civil war, water is being used as a weapon by all parties to the conflict, including the government of President Bashar al-Assad and the multiple rebel groups fighting to oust him from power.
The conflict has claimed the lives of over 150,000 people and displaced nearly nine million Syrians.
The violation of international […]
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