Rio Tinto shareholders not convinced on nuclear future (via Antinuclear)

A nuclear future is inevitable? I don’t think so.

Apparently the actual owners are not so sure it’s a great idea.

The cost of a nuclear plant is staggering and other kinds are cheaper, sometimes  a lot cheaper.

James Pilant

Tom Albanese, Rio’s chiefexecutive, said uranium from the Ranger mine had been exported to Japan, although commercial confidence prevented him from confirming whether it was being used at Fukushima… ”Even before the Fukushima disaster, investors and insurers in the US, for example, could not be coaxed to back nuclear power.” – Scott Ludlam A nuclear Australia is inevitable: Rio chairman, Sydney Morning Herald, Courtney Trenwith, May 6, 2011,  A … Read More

via Antinuclear

Japan, Not TEPCO, Liable For Nuclear Damage, Official Says (via crisisjones)

Well, this is interesting. The TEPCO company’s unionized workers are calling for the government to assume responsibility for the costs of the disaster. There are those that claim the disaster could not have been anticipated.

This is just sad. After TEPCO is drained, the Japanese government will have to assume the costs. But there is no way that TEPCO should be able to escape its mammoth incompetence. The Japanese government is also incompetent and also deserves a great deal of blame but governments do not disappear with as little trouble as an incompetent corporation with a loyal but misguided body of workers.

James Pilant

AFP / NEWSCORE Last Updated: 3:35 PM, May 2, 2011 Posted: 3:34 PM, May 2, 2011 Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/japan_not_tepco_liable_for_nuclear_sE8OkBcmMp1fKxFdi6p6nJ#ixzz1LXL705DT PARIS — The head of the Japanese employers’ federation on Monday defended Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), owner of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, saying the state and not the company should compensate disaster victims. Hiromasa … Read More

via crisisjones

Cultivating hatred through “personal responsibility.” (via Check Your Premises)

This is delicious. I have heard many of the rationalizations that are righteously clobbered in this posting. The only thing that bothers me is he is clobbering them better than I am. Nice stuff.

James Pilant

The best way to generate hatred towards an identity (any of the myriad arbitrary ways we have to classify people) is to claim that “those people” have made the conscious decision to bring it upon themselves, that they are explicitly immoral. It is very difficult to generate hatred for people who didn’t choose their fate, and therefore it is always found necessary to place upon them some imaginary responsibility. Personal responsibility and the ab … Read More

via Check Your Premises

The Agenda Shaping Our Worldview (via It Could Be Simpler)

The idea of a “comforting illusion” is one you can easily think of when confronted by the apathy of so many. Myself I’ve studied the mortgage crisis (more like crimes) and have seen how little it bothered so many that this was going on. So many people still say, “They made a contract, they owe the money, things didn’t work out, they should pay up or get out of the houses.”

No one seems to care whether the original contract was fair, laden with fraud, or sold to those least able to understand what they were signing.

I see a lot of comforting illusions. I don’t like them. This fellow doesn’t either.

James Pilant

My thanks to “It Could Be Simpler.”

“If we choose, we can live in a world of comforting illusion.”- Noam Chomsky Manufacturing Consent For the majority of people journalism is still the primary source for their view of the world, it doesn’t just show how events unfold from day to day, but how the world is defined. This obvious power has not gone unnoticed, since the inception of mass media governments have understood the abilities of radio, TV and print to enhance the propaganda el … Read More

via It Could Be Simpler

LOST INTERNET

My main computer will not load the new wireless driver software. I’m writing this from another more primitive computer without my files or any of the other stuff I use. I’m sorry. I’m working on the problem.

James Pilant