This just gets to me

E waste

If you look to the left of the buildings in the photo you'll see a smoldering pile of trash. That pile is made up of all the computer monitors and components, TVs and cell phones that the U.S. and other countries throw away. Dumping them on China where they make one of the most toxic places on earth is not being a nice neighbor. I know of all the chemicals they speak of in this article. I've dealt with them all in my eighteen plus years of removing hazardous waste. What saddens me is that in spite of cheap labor that this is a very expensive way to do the job. The costs will be in terms human life and the clean up of the ground and water at some point.
As I said I've done this for many years. So how do I know the nasties I've handled didn't land up being dumped by the side of the road? First the way the paper trail is set up it wouldn't be in my best interest financially to just dump it. Hazardous waste has a cradle to grave paper work. What's that mean? It means that the person who owns the property where the waste was removed is the legal owner of that waste from the time it's removed until it is put into an industrial land fill or recycled. There are criminal charges for doing otherwise. I'll be damned if I'd go to jail for some lazy supervisor or corrupt company owner.
Now there are those that just hate government getting involved in anything we do but to go back to when there was no EPA would not be a smart move. In the past companies dumped their waste in their own backyards because they didn't know better. It was out of sight out of mind until people started getting sick.

All it will take to end the dumping problem here in the U.S. will be for a couple of company executives to do some hard prison time. They would be, by their actions, comitting a form of murder. Economic penalties aren't going to do it. With the protection of the corporate structure and legalities a company can go bankrupt, forfiet any assets as penalties, then open its doors under a different name. We've seen that enough times in the past

Here's one I know I'll want to miss

Jenna Bush Hager will be doing work for the Today show. I believe the photo above was taken just before the country they were visiting asked them to leave.

And it seems Jenna has her father's mastery of the English language by the following:

"I hope to focus on what I'm passionate about because I think I'd do them best job on them — education, urban education, women and children's issues and literacy," Hager said.

God and she's a teacher!!?

Idiots on the freeway

Last night we got to watch live breaking news of shots fired near a mall in Seattle. Two guys described as being in their late teens or early twenties. One was arrested shortly after it all started while it took police a few hours to round up the other. Here's a note to all the dumb criminals out there. The technology that the state and local police have far out weighs anything you might have. They have night vision on planes and helicopters as well as infared sensors and dogs. Today I don't think Houdini could get away from them.
Police car chases are so common anymore that I don't consider that news because we all know how it ends. The perp rams a few cars, hits a few light poles and it all ends with a pit manouver or at the end of a cul de sac after a foot chase. Give it up guys. You're not about to out run a police cruiser in your souped up Honda because they have an eye in the sky and wait until they upgrade to drones. They'll be able to phone in your location while eating donuts at their desks. That is unless you're a sex offender with young girls living in your backyard then you're safe.

Beaver friday

A fine wet on for a friday night.

I told her not to try and fix the car

Or add you own caption in the comments.

Lying with statistics

Call it what you will my father was a numbers cruncher statistical anaylist statistical engineer bean counter. He always said you could make numbers say anything you wanted to. I see the numbers for new unemployment claims dropped this week and you'd think that was a good thing but the way numbers are kept I wouldn't be so sure. On the surface it might look good but then there's the underlying factors that they never seem to talk about. You'd think that the rise in unemployment is slowing. What they don't tell you is how many fell off the rolls because they ran out of unemployment.They aren't counted you know. And there's ones that couldn't get quite enough hours to reapply and of course the temp workers that fall through the cracks or could be considered underemployed. So they say the national unemployment rate is at 9.4% when in actuality it's more like 15 or 16%. I've also heard of some small towns at 25 or 30%. And of course you have Michigan that's been well over the national average for quite some time
So how does this all end? What will happen that will be the turning point. To know that is to look back at what happened. This is in many ways a repeat of the 1930s. Greed and speculation took hold. The rules were eliminated so that leverage was the king for a day but then fear set in and the great financial house of cards collapsed. So where are we now? The banks got a nice bail out but rather than use the money to get things going they went out like a teen with his first pay check and blew it. They bought other banks in hopes of being king of the hill when it was all over. Consumers aren't spending for fear they may be the next to hit the unemployment line so they're saving like never before. All that cash is being parked in the banks that still won't make very many loans so the banks are busy making the next bubble. The only thing keeping the economy going at present is the government but even the bulk of its' spending won't kick in until next year. That should give the banks plenty of time to become bloated to the point where they have no choice but to lend again. Even the federal reserve is playing along by keeping rates at near zero. So with one foot on the brake and one on the gas it should be interesting next year when the brake is released.
Now if you'll excuse me I need to get on the phone to some potential employers because I just love hearing those three magic words "No work here".

Persuasion Kitty

We're sending persuasion kitty to see you senator Grassley. He'd like you to change your mind.