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Nuclear Shutdown News – November 2016

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By Michael Steinberg / Black Rain Press

Nuclear Shutdown News chronicles the decline and fall of the nuclear power industry in the US and abroad, and highlights the efforts of those working to create a nuclear free world. Here is our November 2016 issue:

Fukushima quake rock’s Japan’s and the globe’s psyche.

On Tuesday, November 22, at 5:39 a.m., a strong earthquake hit Japan’s southeast region, including the devastated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, causing widespread panic and immediate tsunami warnings.  The 11-23 Japan Times reported:

“Sirens rang continuously along the coast, and on TV screens a red banner read”Flee  immediately!”   [Read more…]

Layla and the Owl’s Eyes: Ecopsychology and Being Human

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Recently walking up Main Street in Park City, Utah, I saw in the Visitor’s Center doorway what looked like a man holding a great-horned owl surrounded by children. As his voice carried across the street, I heard the man explain that this owl had been found with an injured wing after being struck by a car.

I love owls. I love the haunting sound of their hoots in the darkest hours before dawn. I love the joy that accompanies the lucky sight of a splash of brown feathers against newly-fallen snow when an owl makes the rare decision to reveal herself in winter daylight. I love how owls’ mysterious nature have made them omens in so many cultures’ imaginations. So, when I saw what I thought was a great-horned owl, I automatically crossed the street with a feeling of anticipation.   [Read more…]

One Million People Demand Republicans Keep Their Hands Off Medicare

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This morning Democratic party leaders from the House and Senate, along with representatives from seniors and activist organizations, delivered more than one million petition signatures demanding that President Elect Donald Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) keep their hands off the American people’s earned Medicare benefits.

Medicare and Medicaid provide health insurance to one-third of all Americans.

Although Donald Trump ran on a pledge not to touch Medicare, House Speaker Ryan has already announced plans to abolish the program through privatization. Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), one of Ryan’s closest allies and an ardent foe of Medicare, has been nominated to be Health and Human Services Secretary.   [Read more…]

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) Don’t Result in Better Crop Yields

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They Just Increase Amount of Poison We’re Exposed To

The controversy over genetically modified crops has focused on whether or not they were safe to eat. We have to ask ourselves what was the purpose for genetically modifying them in the first place. That was so they could be sprayed with Monsanto’s Roundup and they wouldn’t die. Only the weeds would die. But this leaves the crops, mainly corn and soybeans, with a nice coating of poison. It won’t kill them, but it might kill you.

The next promise of the chemical corporations was that the use of GMO sprayed with weed killers would lead to a significant increase in crop yields, but that hasn’t happened either. The promise was that GMOs would “feed the world”. Monsanto and others pointed to the fact that the world’s population was increasing so we needed a far more abundant food supply, and the only way to get there was by means of GMOs liberally sprayed with RoundUp, the main ingredient of which is glyphosate.   [Read more…]

Get an IUD While You Can

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With a new Congress threatening birth control access, millions of women are looking at long-term solutions.

By Olivia Alperstein / OtherWords

As soon as the presidential election results were announced, alarm bells went off for anyone who cares about reproductive rights.

Lawmakers around the country have been moving for years to restrict abortion rights. But for millions of women who’ve taken proactive steps to prevent unplanned pregnancy, there’s a much more direct threat: the next administration coming after their birth control.

As organizations like Planned Parenthood put out urgent calls for resources and support, ordinary women are asking: What do we do if we no longer have access to affordable birth control next year?   [Read more…]

Too Bad About Your Health Insurance & Other Republican Nightmares

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Ah, reality. The feces is about to hit the fan on healthcare.

After years featuring sixty-plus votes in Congress to end the Affordable Care Act, interminable misrepresentations (remember death panels?), and failing to move on even one alternative plan for legislative consideration, it’s time to put up or shut up.

There are three possible scenarios on paying for health care emerging, none of which bodes well for the more than one in three Californians covered in some fashion by Medi-Cal. All of them will enrich a few at the expense of the many by continuing commodification of what should be a public service.   [Read more…]

Pay More and Get Less: The Ryan Plan to Privatize Medicare

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By David Akadjian / Daily Kos

One of the fights likely to come up early during the next administration is privatizing Medicare.

Tom Price, chairman of the House Budget Committee, has indicated Republicans will try to privatize Medicare in a budget reconciliation bill (a sneaky filibuster proof attack).

You’re going to hear a lot about “choice” and “efficiency” and the amazingness of markets, but Ryan’s plan basically comes down to two things: 1) you will pay more, and 2) you will get less.   [Read more…]

Get Your Birth Control Now, Before Obamacare ‘Reform’

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By Joan McCarter / Daily Kos

While the outlook for Obamacare under the new Republican regime isn’t entirely clear, you can bet women’s health care is not going to survive. The first and foremost casualty: getting prescription birth control without a copay. Long a target of the right (Hobby Lobby, anyone?) the contraception mandate is most definitely a target of the repealers. Planned Parenthood funding, which now comes primarily from Medicaid, will be just as big a target. Expect the Republicans to find a way to shut that down.

So what’s a woman of child-bearing age who doesn’t want a child to do? Give to Planned Parenthood—and get thee to your doctor for an IUD, like all the other women are doing.   [Read more…]

Government Agency Puts Out a Hit on Vegan Mayonnaise Manufacturer

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You Can’t Make This Stuff Up, Folks!

The American Egg Board, which is overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, put out a hit on an eggless mayonnaise start-up which had come up with a product called Just Mayo which contains no eggs. Perceiving this as a threat to the egg industry and the thousands of chickens it represents, Egg Board members exchanged emails asking, “Can we pool our money and put a hit on him?”

This was in reference to the founder of the eggless mayonnaise company, Josh Tetrick. They also suggested that “old buddies from Brooklyn pay him a visit.” Evidently, the $7 billion egg industry saw the vegan start-up as a threat to its profits, and was determined to stop it in its tracks at all costs. The Board’s president, Joanne Ivy, sent an email to her organization’s public relations consultants at Edelman. “It would be a good idea if Edelman looked at this product as a crisis and major threat to the future of the egg product business,” she wrote.   [Read more…]

Fake Abortion Clinics Enabled by The San Diego Foundation “Pass Thru” Funding

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Rewire.news (formerly RH Reality Check) has published a blockbuster expose about California Community Foundations’ role in enabling wealthy donors to fund so-called Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs).

A substantial body of evidence from federal and independent investigators, public health experts, and academics describes how crisis pregnancy centers peddle medically inaccurate information to coerce pregnant people into carrying to full term.

Rewire also discovered that between 2010 and 2014, the San Diego Foundation and California Community Foundation supported another prong of the anti-choice movement: propaganda. The San Diego Foundation gave $1.5 million in 2014 to Live Action, which has produced doctored videos seeking to smear abortion providers.   [Read more…]

On Being Suicidal

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“I am suicidal.”

Three words only — but, the three most difficult words I’ve ever had to say. I did not want to say them. I fought so hard to leave them in the chill darkness of my depressed mind and now their expression feels like a declaration of defeat.

I fear that giving voice to my suicidal thoughts will make them more dangerous. And, when I admit being suicidal, the demonic voices whispering on the edges of my consciousness will escape through my words to materialize as physical shadows hounding me wherever I go.

Because of these fears, I tried desperately to ignore what the words meant. Having already attempted suicide twice in my life, I know what can happen if I deny the words for too long. I know where that seductive path leads.

And so, after several weeks in one of the worst depressive episodes I’ve experienced in years, I sit in the white light of my psychiatrist’s office, head in hands, spitting the words — and their awful taste — out.   [Read more…]

Prop 61 – Big Pharma Promises Revenge If It Passes

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Proposition 61 seems pretty straightforward. The price paid for prescription drugs in California state health care programs must be equal to or lower than what is paid by the Veterans Administration.

Sadly, it isn’t that simple. There’s $101 million (and counting) being spent on this measure, which only directly affects 12% of Californians.

When I saw the words “badly flawed” in ads against Prop 61, I reflexively assumed the bad guys of Big Pharma were desperate to confuse the public… But…   [Read more…]

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