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More on Reid Ribble’s comments about hunger

June 20, 2013 at 5:39 am in Hunger, Poverty by IfLizWereQueen

Although a representative of Wisconsin, apparently Mr. Ribble considers himself an authority on hunger and those who “deserve” food assistance in Oklahoma:    Reid Ribble*, R-Wis., said food stamp enrollment has continued to grow even though the economy has been recovering for the past few years. In Oklahoma, there were about 613,000 recipients in March — 16 percent of the population.  Apparently Mr. Ribble doesn’t realize that  hunger patterns differ all over the USA.

First of all, as mentioned in a previous post, it is highly debatable as to whether the economy is improving.  Most reports indicate that the vast majority of jobs trickling in are low wage jobs that do not pay a living wage.

Over 675,000 Oklahomans are at risk of going hungry every day.  Of households experiencing hunger, less than 20 percent are classified as unemployed.  (So what does that tell you about jobs that don’t pay a living wage.)   In Oklahoma, the number of children who struggle with hunger recently jumped from 18 percent of all children to 26 percent.  [SOURCE]

TEXAS IS EVEN WORSE OFF THAN OKLAHOMA FOR FOOD INSECURITY.  20% OF TEXAS ARE FOOD INSECURE.

According to a new study (June 10, 2013) by hunger-relief charity Feeding America, nearly 20 percent of Texans are food insecure, the condition of being unable to provide adequate food for a healthy life for all members of a household due to lack of money or other resources.

The number of food insecure grows even higher with regard to food insecurity rates of children, which in Texas is 27.6 percent, or 5.2 percent above the national average of 22.4 percent, according to the study.

Collin County: 14.7 percent food insecurity, 18 percent food insecurity in children  (NOTE: Collin County is the second most wealthy county in the state of Texas.)

Dallas County: 20.6 percent food insecurity, 26.6 percent food insecurity in children

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    The people we send to Washington need to be replaced with real Americans.

    June 20, 2013 at 4:16 am in Class War, Hunger, Is Poverty a Forgotten Issue?, Poverty by IfLizWereQueen

    These people that we continue to send to Washington year after year are so vile and evil and greedy they no longer even care how they look to the rest of us.  One piece of legislation after the next is nothing but another big “F you” to the American people–especially to those who can least afford it.   When are the American people going to wake up?   

    A proposal yesterday to restore the $2 billion to food stamp spending failed 234-188, with nearly all Democrats in support and most Republicans in opposition.  The U.S. government spends $2 billion a week on aid to a “corrupt” government in Afghanistan and the majority of those in our House of Representatives would end nutrition assistance to 2 million people and 200,000 children who get subsidized meals at their schools.  That is nothing short of disgusting–particularly when one considers that many of the people voting to take food out of the mouths of need American children personally benefit with hundreds of thousands of dollars from this same farm bill. Utterly disgusting!

    Reid Ribble*, R-Wis., said food stamp enrollment has continued to grow even though the economy has been recovering for the past few years. In Oklahoma, there were about 613,000 recipients in March — 16 percent of the population.

    First of all every statistic out there is telling us that the economy is recovering at a snail’s pace AND furthermore, the majority of the jobs are low-wage jobs such as those offered by Walmart, other retail and fast-food chains .  Walmart does not pay its employees a living wage and thus taxpayers must supplement the wages chains like Walmart don’t pay with food stamps so that working people are able to put food on the table for their families.  Less needs to be going to the shareholder/investors/owners and more to the people who produce the goods and deliver the services.

    These people that we send to Washington DC are, by an overwhelming majority, members of the investor class.  They don’t earn their bulk of their annual income with money paid to them by their salary as do the majority of Americans.  Instead, these people, the majority of whom are millionaires, earn their income through their investments, much of which was made possible by inherited wealth.Thus they do not represent the majority of Americans.

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    *Iflizwerequeen comments on Reid Ribble

    To become self-sufficient, Ribble also wants to expand the usage of both renewable and fossil fuels, so that the U.S. will not rely too much on any single source or foreign region. In June 2012, he voted for the Domestic Energy and Jobs Act, which would increase oil and gas drilling in the U.S., and decrease environmental restrictions:

    Representative Ribble and people like him are either dumber than a rock, or they think the majority of Americans are dumber than a rock.  Increased drilling in the USA will not increase the “self-sufficiency” of the USA and make our national energy secure.  It would make the Koch brothers and the Exxon-Mobil and BP investors more “self-sufficient”; however, as for securing our nation’s energy–that’s just another myth, another bill of goods sold to the American people by jackasses like Ribble who are either stupid or outright liars.  Oil and gas are sold on the international market to the highest bidder.  Just because these oil companies take the oil from our land, a natural resource that should belong to all the people of the USA,  it does not follow that this oil will be used by the citizens of the USA.  In fact, most of this oil would be shipped overseas to China.

    As for removing environmental laws regarding drilling for fossil fuels.  Every member of Congress should be required at their own expense to travel up to the tar sands site in Canada and look at that devastation.  Thousands and thousands of ruined acreage.  Holding ponds of polluted water, some as large as nine thousands acres.  This water is no longer fit for human or animal use–nor will it be for generations to come.  It is incredible the amount of water that the oil and gas industry have ruined and continue to ruin at an alarming rate.  The fact that we have even one person like Ribble who want to speed up this ruination is bad enough, but we have several hundred of them in Washington.  If you count the oil and gas lobbyists, then the number rises even higher to over a thousand such jerks who don’t give a damn about much more than their own personal worth.

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    Another Congressional Skunk – Stephen Fincher

    Representative Stephen Fincher (R-TN) over the past 10 years has taken almost $4 million in Farm subsidies.  And do you believe it!  This lowdown skunk has the nerve to talk about “taking other people’s money.”  Think Progress reported that Rep. Stephen Fincher ranted against food aid for poor Americans included in the Farm Bill during last week’s House Agricultural Committee debate.  Specifically, Fincher accused the government of stealing “other people’s money.

    While Fincher interprets food assistance for the needy as “stealing,” he has supported a proposal to expand crop insurance by $9 billion over the next 10 years.

    You see, Rep. Fincher is the second most heavily subsidized farmer in Congress and one of the largest subsidy recipients in Tennessee history.  USDA data collected in the EWG’s 2013 farm subsidy database shows that Fincher collected a staggering $3.48 million in “our” money from 1999 to 2012.

    Rep Fincher even thumped the Bible to make his points as to why the poor deserve nothing.  READ MORE

    The ONLY way that elections of people like Ribble and Fincher can be explained is ignorant Party Brand voter willful blindness  combined with a total unwillingness to look at the facts, the history, the records of these men, because neither of them represent the best interests of the majority of Americans.

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    NOTE:  Democrats in the House do tend to be more progressive and representative of the majority.  However, in the Senate, there is little difference between the Democrats or Republicans.

    In the Senate the Democrats are in the majority and yet no less than 28 of them voted on May 21 to reject an amendment by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N,Y., that would block a 10-year, $4.1 billion cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (also known as SNAP or the food stamp program) that was included in the farm bill that is now up for reauthorization. Twenty-eight Democrats sided with all 42 Senate Republicans in opposing this amendment, which if passed would have prevented thousands of low-incomehouseholds from losing as much as $75 a month in benefits.

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    Judging from some of the comments regarding these votes against the poor, it looks like at least some voters are waking up.

    “I have a neighbor whose only income is Social Security, less than $5000 a year. He lives alone, and now receives food stamps after much encouragement by his friends. The neighbor I mention is not even the only one I know nor even the neediest. I live in a poor rural county. Every one of those 28 Democrats NEEDS to leave Washington, and get out here and find out what is going on in this country. Then they need to vote to cut their own office budgets in order to contribute to those that need help in this country. I’m sick and tired of the privileged going about their business without any sacrifice on their own part, who create sacrifices for us to manage. Let them manage.”

    Disgusting! 28 Dem Senators vote to CUT Food Stamps (aka SNAP)… Any voter who still equates the Democrats with liberalism needs to pay a lot more attention… Nowadays the two parties can best be described as reactionary (GOP) and callously conservative (Dem).”

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      Freedom in the USA is largely an illusion–especially when it comes to food choice.

      June 19, 2013 at 5:50 am in Food by IfLizWereQueen

       

      Today, a view emerging from neuroscience understands capitalism as an immersive form of market totalitarianism. We see that advertising and commodities are designed to get us to a “bliss point,” to stoke a chemical blaze in our brains that incrementally robs us of the ability to choose. And this is the paradox; American culture is based on the ideal of freedom — freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom to choose — but its economy is increasingly based on targeting the unconscious and addicting our bodies. Corporations use science to ensnare deep evolutionary impulses. We are left with a tragic contradiction; the very act of consumption that we are taught is our freedom is also what most enslaves us

      Why We’re All Addicted to Texts, Twitter and Google.” It spelled out why I slept with my phone at night like a teddy bear. Written by Dr. Susan Weinschenk and based on research by Terrence Robinson and Kent Berridge, the article said our brains squirt dopamine not to make us feel pleasure (a concept still used but debated) but to make us seek it out.

      This February, the New York Times ran an article with a disturbing scene. Entitled “The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Food,” it opened with a meeting of the 11 heads of America’s major food corporations. The vice president of Kraft told attendees that the industry had gone too far in producing foods that excite hunger and overwhelm the body’s controls on overeating. He cited statistics showing more than half of Americans were overweight and nearly one-quarter were obese. The head of General Mills, Stephen Sanger, got up and said, “Don’t talk to me about nutrition. Talk to me about taste, and if this stuff tastes better, don’t run around trying to sell stuff that doesn’t taste good.” The meeting took place in 1999. In 2010, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 35.7 percent of Americans are overweight, along with one third of our children.

      Read the entire article:  Society of Addiction.

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      iflizwerequeen comments

      You cannot trust a Wall Street Corporation to produce healthy food.  They are not in business to nourish human beings.  They are in business to increase profits for their shareholders.

      The best food for you and your family is fresh food from your garden.  Processed food corporations like General Mills have gotten on the “health bandwagon”  just as big box corporate chains like Walmart are promoting “local” (an absurdity since 85% of all they sell comes from China).

      For example, under the leadership of Stephen Sanger, General Mills has overtaken not just the cereal aisle but other sections of the grocery store. The company’s Yoplait brand had transformed traditional unsweetened breakfast yogurt into a veritable dessert. It has twice as much sugar per serving as General Mills’ marshmallow cereal Lucky Charms. And yet, because of yogurt’s well-tended image as a wholesome snack, sales of Yoplait  soar with annual revenue topping $500 million.

      A disgusting example of Fast Food approval for school children from my own community of Garland Texas.

      This spring the mayor and the city council voted to approve the award of a contract to the multinational fast food chain, Pepsico.  Yes, junk food manufacturer, Pepsico was awarded a  $177,000 contract to deliver summer meals to food insecure school children.

      Not only will Pepsico be building their junk food brand with these children, most likely, not a penny  of that $177,000 will be recirculated into our local economy.   Whereas if that contract had been given two or three local caterers, a great deal of that money would have been recirculated into our local economy.  People who live here spend money here–certainly more so than a corporation headquartered in  Purchase, New York.

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        Corporate Greed is Starving our Public School System

        June 19, 2013 at 5:36 am in Class War, Corporations, Economy by IfLizWereQueen

        We hear a lot about corporations avoiding federal taxes. Less well known is their non-payment of state taxes, which along with local taxes make up 90% of U.S. education funding.

        Pay Up Now just completed a review of 2011–12 tax data from the SEC filings of 155 of the largest U.S. corporations. The results show that the total cost of K-12 educational cutbacks in recent years is approximately equal to the amount of state taxes left unpaid by these companies.

        For 2011 and 2012, the 155 companies paid just 1.8 percent of their total income in state taxes,    Imagine what would happen to you if you only paid 1.8% of your income in taxes.   [Read the entire article here.]

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          Middle Class? The USA ranks 27th.

          June 19, 2013 at 5:23 am in Class War, Economy by IfLizWereQueen

          America is the richest country on Earth. We have the most millionaires, the most billionaires and our wealthiest citizens have garnered more of the planet’s riches than any other group in the world. We even have hedge fund managers who make in one hour as much as the average family makes in 21 years!  [MORE]

          If you want to see a real strong middle class, you better move to Australia or any one of those “socialist” European countries as they are all far ahead of the USA.

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            Freedom and the “free” market and other myths supporting capitalism

            June 18, 2013 at 8:05 pm in Class War, Real Change by IfLizWereQueen

            “. . .

            MYTH:   Freedom can only be realized through a free market.

            Attaching our values of freedom to the market is not just dehumanizing. It also fails to recognize how one person’s “freedom” of economic choice is another’s imprisonment in a life of exploitation and deprivation. There is no possibility for true freedom until we are all free, and this will only come through a much richer and deeper conception of human freedom than one that consists of going to a grocery store and “choosing” between 5,000 variations of processed corn. . . .”

            Things could be worse–REALLY?

            They could. But they could also be better. Does the fact that we’ve lived through bloody dictatorships mean that we should settle for a representative democracy where the main thing being represented is money? Fear of change is a great tool to limit our imagination about human possibilities.

            TO SEE MORE taken-for-granted “truths” that support the beliefs that capitalism .

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              More on the upcoming US Mayors Conference this Week in Las Vegas

              June 18, 2013 at 12:38 pm in Local by IfLizWereQueen

              I am so excited about the upcoming U.S. Conference of Mayors June 21-24.   Here is the link to the complete agenda:  http://usmayors.org/81stAnnualMeeting/media/proposed-resolutions.pdf

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              All the resolutions look great, but the ones that impress me the most are the following three.  Too bad our national government in Washington is not as focused on the needs of the people as our mayors seem to be as reflected by these agenda items.

              Resolution 3:  FURTHERING THE URBAN FOOD REVOLUTION
              (See full inclusion of this resolution below.)

              Resolution 8:  SUPPORT FOR URBAN AQUACULTURE DEVELOPMENT
              excerpt:   US Conference of Mayors urges cities to examine regulations and zoning ordinances to determine the feasibility for local urban aquaculture development, and streamline, update and modify regulations, codes and ordinances where applicable to encourage increased aquaculture production to better and more affordably provide healthy aquatic animal protein to their residents; and. . .  the US Conference of Mayors urges cities to develop markets for sustainably produced aquaculture, so that their residents may have greater access to healthy and sustainably produced aquatic animal protein.

              Those on the Garland City council who have read my proposal for a Garland Urban Agriculture Center that I submitted last February know how excited I am about aquaponic agriculture.  In fact, I have a small system operating on my front porch.

              Resolution 13:  IN SUPPORT OF THE PARTNERSHIP FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES
              I was puzzled that this resolution focused only on housing and transportation.  There was one brief mention  ”. . .  be more economically resilient  . . .” as part of the definition of a sustainable community, but no real direction as to how to attain that.  [As I see things, the only ways to be more economically resilient is to 1) grow more food locally and 2) create business models that are anchored in the local economy as opposed to Wall Street--cooperatives, locally held corporations, and employee-owned companies.]

              NOTE:  I  was also amazed and disappointed to not see the word “solar” mentioned under the resolutions from the energy committee. I wonder why?

              _________________________________________________________

              Full inclusion of Resolution 8 –  FURTHERING THE URBAN FOOD REVOLUTION

              1. WHEREAS, Mayors around the country are implementing creative local food policies that improve health, create jobs and economic activity and enhance the quality of life of our cities; and

              2. WHEREAS, too many American families, urban, suburban and rural, are still struggling to put nutritious meals on the table for their families; and

              3. WHEREAS, there is great potential for an urban-rural partnership that works together for comprehensive food legislation that combats hunger, promotes economic opportunity and builds linkages between farmers and consumers; and

              4. WHEREAS, Mayors recognize the many important potential benefits from the farm and food policy support in the reauthorization of the “Farm Bill”, including federal nutrition assistance programs, access to healthy foods for under-resourced communities, promotion of environmental stewardship and protection of our food supply; and

              5. WHEREAS, Senator Sherrod Brown and Representative Chellie Pingree have once again introduced the “Local Farms, Food and Jobs Act” to support local food systems; and

              6. WHEREAS, Mayors continue to express a need for strategic focus through a lead point of contact within the US Department of Agriculture for the growing number of creative city-based initiatives which promote a healthy food system, ranging from urban agriculture and aquaculture, greenhouses, business incubators and a low/no cost program to provide electronic benefit transfer readers in order to expand SNAP purchases at farmers markets; and

              7. WHEREAS, public-private partnerships can significantly improve access to healthy food and job development, from efforts in Pennsylvania, California, New York and other states to expand inner-city retail food to new state legislation submitted in Massachusetts by the City of Boston which would create a Food Innovations Trust Fund for economic development; and

              8. WHEREAS, the federal Healthy Food Financing Initiative has increased access to healthy food in America’s cities; and

              9. WHEREAS, a growing number of charitable and social venture organizations are also committing more resources to urban food system development,

              10. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the United States Conferences of Mayors supports the development of a comprehensive national food policy, that feeds the hungry, supports the small farmer in urban and rural areas, promotes access to healthy and affordable foods for all residents, including strengthening incentives and infrastructure to encourage more local food production and distribution, environmentally sustainable farming practices, better access to fresh foods and investment in programs providing healthy food, expansion of programs that help communities invest in retail markets, food-based businesses and increased access to farmers markets and farm to cafeteria programs that bring the freshest, local grown food into school lunch programs, hospitals and other institutions; and

              11. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the US Conference of Mayors supports the promotion of food security through the passage of a Farm Bill that maintains sufficient levels of funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). All Americans deserve a decent meal on their tables; and

              12. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the US Conference of Mayors supports the continued funding of the Healthy Food Financing Initiative; and

              1313. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the US Conference of Mayors supports preserving and expanding existing USDA programs such as the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program, the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Snack program in schools, and programs that advocate for the increased use of Electronic Benefits at farmers markets; and

              14. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the US Conference of Mayors support the establishment of an “Office of Urban Agriculture” to help lend strategic focus to systems innovations in cities across America and provide mayors and city officials with an information resource and an advocate for building partnerships – within USDA, with other relevant federal agencies, with philanthropic donors and social venture investors, and with rural interests; and

              15. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the US Conference of Mayors urges the inclusion of provisions of the “Local Farms, Food and Jobs Act” that support and strengthen local food systems and increase access to healthy and affordable food, especially in low-income and under-resourced communities.

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                One Good thing about Obama’s presidency.

                June 18, 2013 at 11:41 am in Local, Politics by IfLizWereQueen

                I think that more Americans now realize what little daylight there is between the leadership of the Republican and Democratic Parties.

                The BIG question is:  What will the people do about it?

                There are three doors of possibility:

                1.  Do nothing and continue in willful blindness to pretend that the leadership of your party is the best one, a really good party–much in the same way that we cheer on a football team or claim that the brand of soap we use is superior to all.  Then there is the slight variation of this  path: “Gee I have to choose between the lessor of the two evils.”   No you don’t–unless you continue to allow other people to define the choices.

                2.  Realize what a farce our government in Washington is and stop voting at all

                3. Disengage from either party and try to encourage people you admire to run as independents.  [ This third choice is difficult to attain at a national, or even state level.  However, it is not difficult at a local level and perhaps that is where we should begin the long process needed to transform our government.  We can attend our city council meetings.  We can speak up.  We can offer our ideas locally and people will actually listen.  Furthermore, city and municipal governments have a lot more clout than many may realize.  City government leaders can do just about any of the same things that state and national governments can.  For example, if your city government wanted to raise the minimum wage within your city limits,  They could do so and likely with just one vote.  In some cases it might be necessary to amend the city charter--but not all cities. ]

                I think the solution may be to regain our control and strength as a democracy at the local level and then network the power from there.  The infrastructure for this connectivity of local government is already there with the United States Conference of Mayors  We need to start using the muscle of local.  State governments have universally become as self-serving and criminal as our National government.

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                The leadership of BOTH parties exists for one purpose:  to maintain the status quo for the investor class while at the same time creating the impression that “compromises” for democracy and the people have been made.  The truth is that the leadership of the Democrat AND the Republican party all belong to the same investor class.  They have more in common with each other than they do with any of their constituents.

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                  It will be interesting to see how the Obama Administration responds to six people blowing the whistle all at once.

                  June 18, 2013 at 11:22 am in Banks, Class War, Corporations by IfLizWereQueen

                  This morning Alternet reports  more on the Bank of America whistleblowers:

                  “Bank of America’s mortgage servicing unit systematically lied to homeowners, fraudulently denied loan modifications, and paid their staff bonuses for deliberately pushing people into foreclosure: Yes, these allegations were suspected by any homeowner who ever had to deal with the bank to try to get a loan modification – but now they come from six former employees and one contractor, whose  sworn statements were added last week to a civil lawsuit filed in federal court in Massachusetts.

                  “Bank of America’s practice is to string homeowners along with no apparent intention of providing the permanent loan modifications it promises,” said Erika Brown, one of the former employees. The damning evidence would spur a series of criminal investigations of BofA executives, if we still had a rule of law in this country for Wall Street banks.  .   . ”   MORE

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                  iflizwerequeen comments

                  It would be one thing if only one employee were blowing the whistle on alleged criminal activities of Bank of America.  We could count on members of the investor class Congress and the Obama administration to attack the whistleblower.  But with SIX people blowing the same whistle at once?

                  It will be interesting to see how they skirt around this one.

                  I believe their story.  I personally know of one couple who did qualify for a loan modification program and were given the run-around by Bank of America.  They were “lucky” in that they were able to sell their home at a fire sale price only a week before Bank of America foreclosed on it.   Many other Americans were not so lucky.

                  If the Obama administration and Congress follow their current policy of punishing the whistleblowers instead of the guilty party, we can expect all six whistle blowers to go to jail and Bank of America to pay some nominal fine.

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                    With the potential for Solar and Wind Power, why are fracking and tar sand mining even still on the table.

                    June 17, 2013 at 10:16 am in Class War, Corporations, Economy by IfLizWereQueen

                    To listen to the oil and gas industry one would think that our only hope for the future is to continue to wring every last drop of fossil fuel from the earth, regardless the cost to our water supply and environment,   But that’s just another lie from those who stand to have their personal fortunes diminished from the end of the fossil fuel market.

                    As for solar power, Texas has the potential to generate 22,786,750 million kWh/year, more than any other state.  We’re leading the nation in wind power generation with a total installed capacity of 12,212 MW from over 40 different projects. a further 21,000 megawatts of wind projects are under consideration, much of which could be accommodated by the “Competitive Renewable Energy Zones” high-voltage transmission projects scheduled for completion by the end of 2013.

                    __________________________________________________

                    Earth Techling reports that instead of being “too expensive”  Solar is now saving money in California.

                    With an abundance of sunshine, it’s no wonder that some of the most innovative and successful solar power installations are found in California. Recently, the City of Perris, located in green energy-friendly Riverside Countyannounced that it would use solar power to transform its ordinary bus stops into miniature power plants.

                    The cost of each solar-powered bus stop is about $17,000 while the cost of a traditional shelter ranges from $7,000 to $17,000. While the cost difference may be negligible, the benefits are quite clear: “The solar bus shelters will be able to generate approximately 25 percent of the electricity needed to power the traffic lights,” Miramontes said.

                    The City is working with Greencrest Energy Solutions on the design and installation of the solar bus shelters. Amrita Holden, senior managing partner at the energy firm, says that excess solar power collected throughout the day will be stored in an on-site battery so that the sun can continue to offset the lights’ energy use, even at night.

                    “The city will save not hundreds, but thousands of dollars in electricity costs per shelter,” she said. “The sun is paying for that electricity.”

                    According to city planner Clara Miramontes, six solar-powered bus shelters, similar to these in Japan, will be erected in different locations around the city. Each will have 1.2-kilowatt solar arrays on their roofs and the energy will be used to power nearby traffic lights.

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                    Why an oil-based economy no longer works for us and why we need to move to a plant-based economy ASAP.

                    First there are the basic economics of it all.  There is no such thing as “cheap” oil and gas.  Less than 200 years ago, our economy was a carbohydrate economy. In 1820, Americans used two tons of plant material for every ton of minerals. Plants were the primary raw material in the production of dyes, chemicals, paints, inks, solvents, construction materials, even energy. Cotton and wood pulp provided the world’s first plastics and synthetic textiles. In the mid-19th century, two New Jersey printers produced collodion, a cotton-derived cellulose nitrate (aka gun cotton), that was as strong as ivory.

                    So what happened to our plant-based economy and the growing market for bioplastics?

                    By late 1940s, crude oil dropped so low in price that bioplastics virtually disappeared.  Now, due to economic forces as well as political factors and technological advances, the pendulum swings back to bioplastics and a plant-based economy.

                    This morning’s price of oil at $97.80 a barrel makes it a much less viable source on which to base and grow our economy than it was in the 1940′s when oil was priced at $1.02 a barrel.  The materials we use to construct our products cost more than the maximum retail price we can get away with charging for the product.   DUH!  We cannot move forward in rebuilding our economy until we move off the oil standard and back onto the plant standard.

                    But you have to give the Wall Street pigs and the politician puppets an “A” for effort.  In order to continue their oil based economy, they have gone all out.  By shipping US jobs overseas where slave labor can be used, they can keep the manufacturing costs within reasons.  Then by going to ridiculous efforts to extract oil from tar sands and frack gas from shale strata, they show they really don’t given one damn about anything but their own personal fortunes.

                    If you haven’t seen the damage that tar sands mining has done in Canada, you really should take a long look at some of the photos of that place. What was once a pristine forest that supported diverse plant and animal life now looks like a giant ant hill with the top cut off.  Holding ponds of polluted water (mixed with toxic carcinogenic chemicals used to wash the tar) are everywhere and these ponds are not small.  The average 9,000 acres to give you the magnitude of it.  Furthermore this water is no longer fit for ANY use, nor can it be purified.  It will take generations if ever to be anything more than what these people have created–a toxic hazard.  All the streams and rivers nearby are polluted.  The fish that are still alive can’t be eaten.  And why is this being done?  To make a few people like the Koch brothers even richer.

                    Many of these people should be put in prison for what they have done because the nature of what they have done and continue to do with the blessings of BOTH houses of Congress and the leaderships of BOTH parties is to commit crimes against humanity.

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