Monsanto’s growing monopoly

Monsanto’s growing monopoly

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snip


When the Supreme Court unanimously sided with Monsanto recently, it upheld the company’s right to prohibit the replanting of patented seed – handing the biotech giant a major victory. The court ruled that the doctrine of “patent exhaustion,” which an Indiana farmer argued should apply after the first sale of patented seed, “does not permit a farmer to reproduce patented seeds through planting and harvesting without the patent holder’s permission.”

It’s not surprising the court ruled in Monsanto’s favor. Still, the case had merit: The farmer, Vernon Hugh Bowman, wasn’t challenging Monsanto’s claims that he knowingly planted seed with its protected genetics. Instead, he challenged the way patent law is currently applied to self-replicating products – a worthy effort, considering the injustices patents on seed have sown across America.

It’s relatively well understood that simply using seed with patented genetics – especially widely planted genetically engineered varieties, such as Roundup Ready soybeans – enters the user into a restrictive licensing agreement. Farmers sign these agreements at the time of sale, which includes a prohibition on planting more than one crop. The seed packaging also states that simply opening the bag binds the user to the agreement.
But Bowman thought that by purchasing soybean seed from a grain elevator he had found a legal way to plant seed from subsequent generations. He assumed the seed contained patented genetics but argued that the patent exhaustion doctrine allowed him to plant them anyway. Nevertheless, the Federal Circuit Court ruled, and the Supreme Court agreed, that Mr. Bowman must pay Monsanto more than $80,000.

ALEC is NOT OK

Bachmann: I'm Definitely NOT Leaving For All These Reasons

Seeds of Death: Unveiling The Lies of GMO's - Full Movie

World’s richest 8 percent earns half the planet’s income

World’s richest 8 percent earns half the planet’s income

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snip

For example, the World Bank’s list of “GDP per capita (current US$)” shows that in 2011 this annual-income figure ranged from $231 in Democratic Republic of Congo at the Equator, to $171,465 in Monaco within Europe. The second-poorest and second-richest countries respectively were $271 in Burundi at the Equator, and $114,232 in Luxembourg within Europe. For comparisons, the U.S. was $48,112, and China was $5,445. Those few examples indicate how widely per-capita income ranges between nations, and how more heat means more poverty.

Wealth-inequality is always far higher than income-inequality, and therefore a reasonable estimate of personal wealth throughout the world would probably be somewhere on the order of the wealthiest 1% of people owning roughly half of all personal assets. These individuals might be considered the current aristocracy, insofar as their economic clout is about equal to that of all of the remaining 99% of the world’s population.
Milanovich says: “Among the global top 1 per cent, we find the richest 12 per cent of Americans, … and between 3 and 6 per cent of the richest Britons, Japanese, Germans and French. It is a ‘club’ that is still overwhelmingly composed of the ‘old rich’,” who pass on to their children (tax-free in the many countries that have no estate-taxes) the fortunes that they have accumulated, and who help set them up in businesses of their own – often after having sent them first to the most prestigious universities (many in the United States), where those children meet and make friends of others who are similarly situated as themselves.

Congressional Voting Record

Congressional Voting Record

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alliance retired americans

note:  some of the fearless leaders in Missouri and Illinois do not fare well

Michele Bachmann to leave Congress, won’t seek another term

Michele Bachmann to leave Congress, won’t seek another term

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BBC Radio 4 Extra - Machiavelli - The Prince, Episode 1

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Machiavelli - The Prince, Episode 1:

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note:  will not be long on the net

note 2  most excellent and short

Can Unions and Cooperatives Join Forces? An Interview With United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard

Can Unions and Cooperatives Join Forces? An Interview With United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard

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snip


"It has evolved slowly," he continued. "I'd rather go slow and build a good foundation than go fast and fail. We've developed a pretty broad network of allies and supporters. We've got some projects going on, including a green laundry concept in Pittsburgh. In almost every major city, there are industrial laundries. The work is hard, it's dangerous, and it doesn't pay very well."

The Steelworkers have helped launch a cooperative laundry in Pittsburgh that allows workers to benefit from the profits of the business and that uses environmentally friendly technologies.

"It's going to have roots. It's going to have customers. It's going to have structure," says Gerard of the Pittsburgh laundry. "We're talking to universities, hospitals and hotels. They get the advantage of being in a green laundry that's efficient. They get to be in a progressive organization like a co-op and then build forward."

In Bangladesh, Workers Escalate Demands for Better Working Conditions

In Bangladesh, Workers Escalate Demands for Better Working Conditions

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snip

Up to 20,000 people took part in the protests, with more than 50 people injured by police intervention. Ashulia chief police Badrul Alam defended the action, arguing that workers had attacked police, throwing stones and striking police vehicles.

 

"They were demanding higher wages. We fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse them after they became violent and occupied a road," he told the AFP.

The demonstration is part of a rising string of protests over the past month. Since the April tragedy, a million people have signed petitions calling on global corporations like Gap and Walmart to end unsafe labor practices in Bangladesh, with hundreds protesting at stores across the country.

Members from United Students Against Sweatshops and Jobs with Justice were arrested at demonstrations at the Gap shareholder meeting in San Francisco where they were calling upon the company to sign the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh aimed at improving worker safety conditions.

Fox News Faults Obama For Not Saying What They Edited Out?

Ephren Taylor Accused of Ponzi Scheme watch

6 things you need to know about dark money groups

6 things you need to know about dark money groups

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snip 2. Donors to social welfare nonprofits are anonymous for a reason.

Unlike donors who give directly to politicians or even to super PACs, donors who give to social welfare nonprofits can stay secret. In large part, this is because of an attempt by Alabama to force the NAACP, then a social welfare nonprofit, to disclose its donors in the 1950s. In 1958, the Supreme Court sided with the NAACP, saying that public identification of its members made them at risk of reprisal and threats.
The ACLU, which is itself a social welfare nonprofit, has long made similar arguments. So has Karl Rove, the GOP strategist and brains behind Crossroads GPS, which has spent more money on elections than any other social welfare nonprofit. In early April 2012, Rove invoked the NAACP in defending his organization against attempts to reveal donors.

The Federal Election Commission could in theory push for some disclosure from social welfare nonprofits — for their election ads, at least. But the FEC has been paralyzed by a 3-3 partisan split, and its interpretations of older court decisions have given nonprofits wiggle room to avoid saying who donated money, as long as a donation wasn’t specifically made for a political ad.

New rulings indicate that higher courts, including the Supreme Court, favor disclosure for political ads, and states are also stepping into the fray. During the 2012 elections, courts in two states – Montana and Idaho – ruled that two nonprofits engaged in state campaigns needed to disclose donors.

Republican Hypocrisy on Oklahoma Relief Aid

American exceptionalism is a dangerous myth

American exceptionalism is a dangerous myth

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snip


The various symptoms of America’s dysfunctional relationship with its past are all in evidence in the Tea Party, the political movement formed in 2009 and named for the Boston Tea Party of 1773. It would be remiss not to note this. Much has been written about the Tea Party’s political positions: Its members are radically opposed to taxation and favor a fundamentalist idea of the infallibility of markets and an almost sacramental interpretation of the Constitution. They cannot separate religion from politics, and they consider President Obama either a socialist or a Nazi or (somehow) both. They hold to a notion of the individual that the grizzliest fur trapper west of the Missouri River 170 years ago would have found extreme. When the Tea Party first began to gather national attention, many considered it a caricature of the conservative position that held too distorted an idea of American history to last any consequential amount of time. Plainly this has been wrong, at least so far, given the number of seats the movement won in the legislative elections of November 2010: At this writing, they number sixty-two in the House of Representatives.

“Take our country back” is among the Tea Party’s more familiar anthems. And among skeptics it is often asked, “Back to what?” I have heard various answers. Back to the 1950s is one, and this is plausible enough, given the trace of the movement’s bloodlines back to the John Birch Society and others among the rabidly anticommunist groups active during the Cold War’s first decade. But the answer I prefer is the eighteenth century—or, rather, an imaginary version of the eighteenth century. A clue to the collective psychology emerged in the movement’s early days, when adherents dressed in tricorn hats, knee breeches, and brass-buckled shoes. This goes to the true meaning of the movement and explains why it appeared when it did. One cannot miss, in the movement’s thinking and rhetoric, a desire for a mythical return, another “beginning again,” a ritual purification, another regeneration for humanity.

GOP: Party of crybabies

GOP: Party of crybabies

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snip

 Mitch McConnell, John Boehner(Credit: Jeff Malet, maletphoto.com)

It’s time to call out a major Republican theme of how politics should be practiced in a democracy: the supposed right to be free from criticism. It may sell wonderfully inside the conservative closed-information loop, but it’s a nasty idea that sorts exceptionally badly with democratic politics.
In case you’re unfamiliar, the right to be free from criticism is the core idea behind what used to be complaints about “political correctness” and which have now morphed into the conviction that some accusations are too terrible to be made. See, for example, former Heritage immigration expert (or is that race-and-intelligence obsessive?) Jason Richwine. As he told conservative reporter Byron York:

The accusation of racism is one of the worst things that anyone can call you in public life … Once that word is out there, it’s very difficult to recover from it, even when it is completely untrue.

What does “difficult to recover” mean in this context? Richwine, after all, is the protégé of none other than Charles Murray, who has been accused of racist writings for … well, for decades. And yet Murray has “recovered” just fine, at least if book sales and think-tank posts and other traditional markers of success are concerned. Richwine surely knows that. So what’s his complaint? It is the same as most complaints about political correctness: that some people won’t consider his actions respectable.

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some of the dems are crybaby folks as well

Washington Tells Wall Street...Have At It Hoss!!!

Washington Tells Wall Street...Have At It Hoss!!!

Cashing In On Students

The Secret World of Gold (Full Documentary)

Who are The Monarchs of World Banking? CBC News

War on Journalism: FBI accuses FOX reporter of aiding espionage

Is It Unconstitutional For Cops To Read Text Messages Off Your Phone Wit...

Documentary The Japanese Bullet Train Shinkansen

we need a few of these in america

Unions Make the Middle Class: Beresford's Story

Voting is not a right

Voting is not a right

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snip

Not according to the Supreme Court. In Bush v. Gore (2000), the Court ruled that “[t]he individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for the President of the United States.” That’s right. Under federal law, according to the Supreme Court, if you are a citizen of the United States, you have a right to own a firearm that might conceivably be used in overthrowing the government. But you have no right to wield a vote that might be used to change the government by peaceful means.

FairVote, a nonprofit organization that leads the fight for electoral reform in the U.S., points out:

The right to vote is the foundation of any democracy. Yet most Americans do not realize that we do not have a constitutionally protected right to vote. While there are amendments to the U.S. Constitution that prohibit discrimination based on race (15th), sex (19th) and age (26th), no affirmative right to vote exists.

Illegal construction, shoddy materials at fault in Bangladesh factory disaster

Illegal construction, shoddy materials at fault in Bangladesh factory disaster

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snip

The dangers identified by the report could have been prevented by regular inspections, advocates say. These inspections, along with other building safety and fire prevention measures, are mandatory under a sweeping worker safety agreement — signed by six European retailers and American companies like Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and Abercrombie & Fitch (a good P.R. strategy, considering its current troubles) — but major retailers like Gap, Wal-Mart, Target and others have refused to endorse it.

An analysis by the Worker Rights Consortium estimates that ensuring worker safety in Bangladesh would cost retailers an additional 10 cents per garment, as executive director Scott Nova and Sweat Free Communities director Liana Foxvog noted in a recent editorial for the New York Times.

Nicaraguan Garment Workers Beaten at Walmart Supplier Factory

Republicans and Democrats vs. The Press

Workers Uniting - Fighting Back Globally

The IRS Is Targeting The Tea Party | The Rubin Report

IRS Scandal, 'Inappropriate, But Not Illegal'

FBI Hiding "Known Terrorists" In The Witness Protection Program

"It's Un-American" - The Marcus Hedger Story

Amid Scandal On Every Forefront Obama Releases 2012 Financial Disclosure...

Sen. Warren Introduces the Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act

Nurses Explain the Healthcare Law in 90 Seconds

note: obamacare is inferior to almost any single payer plan.

Editorial: The IRS scandal: Profiles in profling : Stltoday

Editorial: The IRS scandal: Profiles in profling : Stltoday

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snip


Under IRS rules, (c)4s could not donate money directly to candidates, but could donate half of their income on certain “educational activities” without reporting it to the Federal Election Commission. Direct or indirect, if a corporation is buying an attack ad, it’s a distinction without a difference.

In 2010, (c)4s spent some $89 million on political campaigns, 83 percent of it for Republican causes. That went up to $250 million in the 2012 election cycle and the percentage stayed roughly the same. Studies have traced much of the tea party funding to corporate-funded 501(c)4s.

So if you’re an IRS investigator in Cincinnati, charged with examining the legitimacy of tax-exempt organizations, you decide to hunt where the ducks are. You think, “Most of this money is going to conservative causes. There’s a lot of stuff with ‘tea party’ and ‘patriot’ in it. Let’s check ‘em out.”

Like a cop in Missouri stopping black drivers 70 percent more often than white, you profile. Like former GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum and U.S. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., who want to focus on Muslims in terrorist investigations, you profile. Like Missouri GOP chairman Ed Martin, who once observed, “if there’s a bunch of Mexicans out there, I guess some of them are probably not legal.” You profile. As George Clooney said in “Up in the Air,” “I’m like my mother. I stereotype. It’s faster.”

It doesn’t make it right, but the guess here is that nearly everybody profiles, at least a little bit. But the IRS can’t. Not only is it unethical, unfair and remarkably stupid politically, it undermines confidence in the tax system. There’s little enough of that already.

INDIANA FARMER vs MONSANTO (I'M SHOCKED! SCOTUS SIDES WITH MONSANTO!)

The Biggest, Most Corrupt Bank Scheme That's Not Being Stopped

Radioactive Leak Coming From U.S. Nuclear Power Plant

Ambercrombie & Fitch CEO Is A Dick

Frack Corporate Personhood - In These Times

Frack Corporate Personhood - In These Times

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snip
 BY Anthony Mangini
 
Do corporations count as people? The Supreme Court said as much in Citizens United, but a Pennsylvania judge recently issued a resounding “no.” On March 20, Judge Debbie O’Dell-Seneca ruled that the state’s constitution doesn’t guarantee corporations a right to privacy—because that’s a privilege reserved for people.
Two local newspapers had petitioned O’Dell-Seneca to unseal a 2011 settlement between a western Pennsylvania family and several fracking companies. The Hallowich family had sued over charges that hydraulic fracking operations on their land were causing them chronic nosebleeds, headaches and sore throats. The companies agreed to settle but imposed a strict gag order—something the fracking industry regularly insists upon in health-related lawsuits.

Gas extraction company Range Resources Corp. argued before O’Dell-Seneca that the companies’ privacy rights protected them from disclosing the details of the settlement. But the judge disagreed, finding the argument “meritless” because the companies have no right to privacy.

In fact, Judge O’Dell-Seneca spent roughly one-third of her 32-page decision forcefully articulating the reasons why corporations are not considered legal persons under the state’s constitution, observing that, “the constitutional rights that business entities may assert are not coterminous or homogeneous with the rights of human beings.” She continued, “It is axiomatic that corporations, companies and partnerships have no ‘spiritual nature,’ ‘feelings,’ ‘intellect,’ ‘beliefs,’ ‘thoughts,’ ‘emotions’ or ‘sensations,’ because they do not exist in the manner that humankind exists.”

Jailed Enron CEO To Get Prison Term Reduced

Survivor freed from Bangladesh factory rubble

Survivor freed from Bangladesh factory rubble:

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snip

Updated: 7:41 a.m. ET

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A woman buried in the wreckage of a collapsed garment factory building for 17 days was rescued Friday, a miraculous moment set against a scene of unimaginable horror where the death toll is more than 1,000 and still rising.

The woman survived in a Muslim prayer room in the basement of the eight-story Rana Plaza building, where crews have been focused on recovering bodies, not rescuing survivors, for days. Trapped in wreckage finally exposed by heavy equipment, she waved a pipe to attract attention.

The crews ordered the cranes and bulldozers to immediately stop work and used handsaws and welding and drilling equipment to cut through the iron rod and debris still trapping her. They gave her water, oxygen and saline as they worked to free her.

When the woman, whom soldiers identified as Reshma, was freed after 40 minutes, the crowd erupted in wild cheers. She appeared to be in remarkably good shape despite her ordeal, and was rushed to a military hospital in an ambulance.

Impeach Obama Over Benghazi? Republicans Hope So

Wall Street Deregulation Coming Soon!

Hoyer: Republicans' Pay China First Bill Is Not A Feasible Solution To O...

Lack of Regulation Cost Lives in West Texas

Opinion: American security should be homemade - Brig. Gen. John Adams and Scott Paul - POLITICO.com

Opinion: American security should be homemade - Brig. Gen. John Adams and Scott Paul - POLITICO.com

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snip


There’s more, though. The U.S. has no domestic production of the high-tech magnets required to manufacture military-grade Humvees, Apache helicopters, or Virginia-class submarines. And there is only a single domestic manufacturer of the large-diameter copper-nickel tubing used in U.S. Navy ships. The sole alternative – a European conglomerate – has been cited for anti-competitive practices including price fixing and dumping.

This near-total dependence for critical components and raw materials creates worrisome risks. For example, Beijing could withhold access to lanthanum or other raw materials over which it exercises a near-monopoly to force up the price; inhibit a U.S. technological advantage; pressure the U.S. to resolve disputes on terms favorable to China; or worse, completely withhold supplies.
These are serious gaps in our armor. Our security and our ability to develop future battlefield capabilities are dependent on potentially unreliable supplier nations who might not have our best interests at heart in a crisis situation.

We didn’t
reach this position of dependence overnight. In truth, a combination of inattention and uncoordinated U.S. policy responses to global economic challenges has resulted in the hollowing-out of our high-tech manufacturing base.

U.S. manufacturing has gradually migrated offshore. And though U.S. manufacturing remains highly productive, and accounts for nearly 70 percent of all private sector research and development, the fruits of our R&D (like the smart phones in our pockets and the GPS navigation in our cars) have been commercialized overseas.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/american-security-should-be-homemade-91017.html#ixzz2Sn0CJm3u

H.R. 1406: More Work, Less Pay

Bangladesh factory death toll passes 800 - Central & South Asia - Al Jazeera English

Bangladesh factory death toll passes 800 - Central & South Asia - Al Jazeera English

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snip


The death toll following the collapse of a building last month in Bangladesh has crossed 800, becoming the country's worst-ever industrial disaster.

Rescuers are continuing to pull dozens of bodies from the rubble of the nine-storey building which collapsed outside the capital, Dhaka.

Officials overseeing the disaster operation said on Wednesday that a total of 2,437 people were rescued from the ruins of the building, which housed a total of five garment factories in Savar, a suburb of the capital.
"The death toll now stands at 803," with 790 bodies recovered from the wreckage and 13 victims who died in hospital, said Lieutenant Mir Rabbi, an official in the army control room set up to coordinate disaster relief efforts.

More than 3,000 garment workers were on shift when the Rana Plaza complex collapsed as they were turning out clothing for Western retailers such as Britain's Primark and the Spanish label Mango.

Cranes and bulldozers kept clearing debris as relief workers drawn from the army and fire service wore masks to ward off the smell of decomposing bodies.

Million Moron March: 'SHOOT Government Agents'

Obama Zombie Target That Bleeds When Shot Sold At NRA Convention

Senate Passes Internet Sales Tax Bill! "Is This The First Step To A Nati...

Why Does Ted Cruz Think He Won on Guns?

Birther Hypocrisy? Canadian-Born Republican For President

Hundreds Killed in Bangladesh Factory - Govt Demands Accountability!

White collar workers are exploited too

White collar workers are exploited too

click link

snip

At the moment, the Fashion Police writers have an Unfair Labor Practice complaint filed against management for intimidation and threatened retaliation — the message received by the writers over the past weeks was that they would lose their jobs if they sought union contracts. As the legal process works its way through the system, Skinner urges her fellow comedians to voice their support for the strikers, get in touch with advertisers, and avoid watching the show. Most importantly, of course, is the need to discourage any potential scabs from crossing the picket lines.

Thus far, it seems that the “Fashion Police” writers are succeeding in winning public support and disincentivizing scabbing. With any luck, actions such as this might even lead to a radicalization of the underpaid creatives who provide so much of the content of the current media landscape.
For labor intellectuals who often reside in the intemperate zone that Jodi Dean calls “left melancholia,” it is a wonder to behold the resurgence of labor politics in a location that we usually presume to be a hotbed of toxic individualism. “Unions,” as Skinner stresses, “are our only hope for setting and maintaining standards, so that we can live off of our work.”

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not uncommon story.  I have heard of many such firms actively smashing union activities.

alas, some of them are left wing

Revising History, Part 2 | Ideas with Paul Kennedy | CBC Radio

Revising History, Part 2 | Ideas with Paul Kennedy | CBC Radio:

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note:  part one on last month's blog

What happens when historians go searching for new evidence about the nation's past? It can change the way its citizens think about their country as well as their identity. And it can upset both citizens and those who govern them. Historian Robert Johnson speaks to some American historians who are asking us to reconsider America's role in the Vietnam War.

--- note:  most history will  be revised, but we will not be around to read the book or watch the documentry

Patriot Coal, employees face grim future without agreement : Business

Patriot Coal, employees face grim future without agreement : Business

click link

snip

 ST. LOUIS • No matter how a judge rules on Patriot Coal Corp.’s request to cut union wages and benefits, the coal producer and employees could face a grim future, the company and the United Mine Workers of America told a judge overseeing Patriot’s bankruptcy.

Approval of Patriot’s motion could lead to a crippling strike that would likely force the company into liquidation, UMWA attorney Fred Perillo said.

And if Patriot’s motion is rejected, it is a “mathematical certainty” that the company will run out of cash early next year and be forced to sell off its mines and lay off 4,000 employees, said Benjamin Kaminetzky, a lawyer representing the company.

The doomsday scenarios featured prominently during Friday’s closing arguments in a week-long hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

Judge Kathy A. Surratt-States didn’t immediately issue a ruling.

6 insidious ways you’re getting ripped off

6 insidious ways you’re getting ripped off

click link

snip

 The out-of-network doctor trap
The rip-off: You need medical treatment. You dutifully check the listings from your insurance provider to choose an in-network doctor or hospital. After your treatment, you receive a surprise in your mailbox—a giant bill, perhaps for many thousands, or even tens of thousands of dollars. Why? A person involved in your treatment, unbeknownst to you, is considered out-of-network. This is the out-of-network doctor trap, a.k.a. the surprise billing scam.

This can happen in a doctor’s office for a simple scheduled procedure or in a hospital for an emergency. Sometimes it’s the assistant surgeon. Others times it’s the radiologist, pathologist or anethesiologist. In a practice called “balance billing,” you get billed the difference between what your insurance chooses to reimburse and what the provider chooses to charge. You may think that your insurer is supposed to reimburse you for 70 percent of out-of-network costs, but that really means only 70 percent of what the insurer determines is “usual, customary and reasonable.”

And what does reasonable mean? Whatever the insurer says it means, which is often far less than what the out-of-network doctor charges. Insurers often manipulate claims and data just to screw you: In 2009,UnitedHealth had to pay a big settlement for this type of fraud when then-New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo investigated and sued. But fines don’t stop these big insurers – the money they make from scamming is too good.

The Haymarket Tragedy ~ MAY DAY

Anarchists Topple Peaceful May Day Protests

Leo W. Gerard: West Blast Obliterates Safety Lie

Leo W. Gerard: West Blast Obliterates Safety Lie:

click link

snip

Either way, the owner of the West fertilizer plant never reported to Homeland Security that it routinely stored 540,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate next to a school, playground, apartment building and nursing home in the town of 2,800. So, of course, Homeland Security didn't know.

Long before 9-11 or Oklahoma City, long before the current owner bought the fertilizer plant, OSHA inspected it in 1985. OSHA didn't return in the ensuing 28 years. But that's not surprising considering OSHA has so few inspectors that it would take 131 years for it to examine every American workplace one time.

The West plant did submit a risk management plan to the EPA because it kept 54,000 pounds of another hazardous fertilizer, anhydrous ammonia, which could kill large numbers of people if leaked. In its most recent plan, the plant reported no risk of fire or explosion, saying the most serious threat was a 10-minute release of anhydrous ammonia.

The underfunded and overworked CSB, which has only 20 investigators nationwide, recommended in 2002 that the EPA require reporting of hazardous materials like ammonium nitrate. But agriculture and fertilizer lobbyists opposed that, and the anti-regulation Bush administration took no action.

Over the years, the plant in West vented anhydrous ammonia in violation of its permits and moved tanks without informing authorities as required, but encountered only finger wagging and minor sanctions from state regulators in Texas which boasts of its anti-regulatory regime.

Corporations aren't moral entities. They won't follow safety rules unless forced.

Workers Memorial Day Reminds Us of Safety Risks, Hazards, Atrocities and Death

Workers Memorial Day Reminds Us of Safety Risks, Hazards, Atrocities and Death:

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Progressive talk show host Leslie Marshall and USW International Vice President of Human Affairs Fred Redmond discuss Workers Memorial Day and the recent events in Texas and Bangladesh remind us that safeguards are necessary to protect employees in the workplace. In addition, lack of regulation and compliance also puts communities at-risk as well.

•    14 people killed in a devastating explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas.

•    340 people dead after Bangladesh building collapse.

•    13 Americans killed every day which translates into 4,000 workers killed each year.

•    Millions at risk of a hydrofluoric  acid (HF) release

The President Leo Gerard’s Blog addresses these issues:  West Blast O

Anonymous - #MayDay

I am ready to go if they are buying the beer

#May1TO - Join us in the streets for May Day 2013 Toronto - Workers Powe...

around the world, big day