September 17, 2016


News and Views


https://www.yahoo.com/gma/florida-fertilizer-plant-sinkhole-reportedly-leaks-215-million-205305504--abc-news-topstories.html

Florida Fertilizer Plant Sinkhole Reportedly Leaks 215 Million Gallons of Radioactive Water Into Aquifer
AVIANNE TAN, Good Morning America
September 17, 2016
15 hours ago

Video – ABC News of water like a waterfall flowing down into the hole
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A massive sinkhole at a fertilizer plant in Mulberry, Florida, has caused about 215 million gallons of radioactive water to drain down into the Floridian aquifer system, according to ABC affiliate WFTS.

The aquifer system supplies drinking water to millions of Florida residents, according to the St. Johns Water Management District's website. Additionally, water that escapes from the aquifers create springs used for recreational activities like snorkeling and swimming.

The fertilizer company Mosaic wrote on its website that it discovered a sinkhole 45 feet in diameter at its New Wales facility after noticing water levels had dropped in a stack of radioactive waste product known as phosphogypsum in late August.

Phosphogypsum is a waste product resulting from the processing of phosphate to make fertilizers, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The byproduct is often stored by industrial plants in mountainous piles known as phosphogysum stacks.

"Based on the nature of the water loss and what we've learned so far," the sinkhole damaged the liner system at the base of a phosophogypsum stack, Mosaic said on Thursday. "The pond on top of the cell drained as a result" and "some seepage continues."

The fertilizer company added that it believes the sinkhole reached the Floridian aquifer, and WFTS reported that the company told the station about 215 million gallons of contaminated water used to process fertilizer drained had into the hole.

After learning of the water loss, "Mosaic immediately implemented additional and extensive groundwater monitoring and sampling regimens and has found no offsite impacts," the company said. Additionally, Mosaic "began pumping water out of the west cell" of the affected phosphogypsum stack "into an alternative holding area on site to reduce the amount of drainage."

The company has also "begun the process of recovering the water" drained through the sinkhole "by pumping through onsite production wells," it said.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) "confirmed that Mosaic immediately took steps to investigate and initiate corrective action," according to FDEP Deputy Press Secretary Dee Ann Miller.

"As required by their state permit and federal requirements, Mosaic notified both EPA and DEP of a water loss incident at their New Wales facility," Miller told ABC News today. "Mosaic continues to regularly update the department and EPA on progress."

Miller added that along with reviewing daily reports, the FDEP "is performing frequent site visits to make sure timely and appropriate response continues in order to safeguard public health and the environment."



Not only has more ground water been contaminated, it feels especially personal to me because I live on the St. Johns River. I hope this doesn’t become a public emergency within the next months or years, because bottled water is expensive. For reasons like this, I just can’t get behind the classic Republican idea that those who run BIG BUSINESSES are heroes, and should not be REGULATED.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christopher-lamb/mike-pence-opposes-word-vice_b_12029434.html

THE BLOG
Mike Pence Opposes Word ‘Vice’ On Religious Grounds, Doesn’t Want To Be Called Vice Presidential Candidate

Christopher Lamb
Professor of Journalism, Indiana University-Indianapolis
09/16/2016 06:29 pm ET


Mike Pence, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s running mate, told the news media at a press conference Thursday that he no longer wants to be called a vice presidential candidate.

The Indiana governor, an evangelical Christian, explained that he opposes the word “vice” on religious grounds. Pence said that the Bible has strict prohibitions against vice. He said the word “vice” means, among other things, “immoral” or “wicked behavior.”

“That’s not who I am, and that’s not who I want people to think I am,” he said. “I can’t in good faith willingly condone a word I find deplorable without violating my Christian principles.”

Pence’s statement came a few days after he refused to use the word “deplorable” to characterize David Duke, former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, who has endorsed the Trump-Pence ticket.

Pence’s comment about Duke came in response to a question after Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate for president, referred to Trump supporters, including Duke, as a “ basket of deplorables.”

Pence was asked during his press conference if he condemned the word “vice” on Christian principles, why then didn’t he condemn the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist organization, that openly participates in immoral and wicked behavior?

“I would,” he answered. “But if we start criticizing deplorables, we run the risk of losing half our voters.”

Pence, who regularly touts his Christian faith, often describes himself as “a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order.”

Pence’s critics, however, say he uses the Bible to justify his intolerance for gays but ignores scripture when it comes to feeding the hungry, comforting the persecuted, and helping the needy.

A reporter reminded the Indiana governor that he cut tens of thousands of Hoosiers off food stamps in 2014, saying it would be “ennobling” for poor people.

“The Bible says that the Lord helps those who help themselves,” Pence responded.

“But governor,” the reporter responded, “that phrase is not in the Bible.”

“Never mind,” Pence responded, “it’s in the Republican Bible.”

Another reporter asked Pence about his executive order late last year that ordered an end to the resettlement in Indiana of Syrian refugees - most of whom are women and children — who were fleeing their war-torn country.

The Archdiocese of Indianapolis, among other religious organizations, defied the governor and accepted the refugees. A federal judge overruled Pence’s order by saying it “clearly discriminates” against Syrian refugees. Pence challenged the judge’s order.

The reporter then referred to Biblical scripture in a follow-up question: “Didn’t Jesus say, ‘Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me‘?”

Pence was then asked if he considered it hypocritical to claim he was a Christian but refuse to allow desperate refugees to seek sanctuary in his state.

“Absolutely not,” Pence said. “If the Syrian refugees were Christian, we would help them.”



“Pence was asked during his press conference if he condemned the word “vice” on Christian principles, why then didn’t he condemn the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist organization, that openly participates in immoral and wicked behavior? “I would,” he answered. “But if we start criticizing deplorables, we run the risk of losing half our voters.” …. A reporter reminded the Indiana governor that he cut tens of thousands of Hoosiers off food stamps in 2014, saying it would be “ennobling” for poor people. “The Bible says that the Lord helps those who help themselves,” Pence responded. “But governor,” the reporter responded, “that phrase is not in the Bible.” “Never mind,” Pence responded, “it’s in the Republican Bible.” Pence was then asked if he considered it hypocritical to claim he was a Christian but refuse to allow desperate refugees to seek sanctuary in his state. “Absolutely not,” Pence said. “If the Syrian refugees were Christian, we would help them.”



IF THESE QUOTATIONS WERE NOT DISGUSTING ENOUGH FOR YOU, GO TO “http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/mike-pence/” TO READ A NUMBER OF EQUALLY APPALLING ARTICLES ON PENCE. IN SHORT, IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING SHOOTING TRUMP, SHOOT PENCE FIRST!! (LOL)



PARTICIPATION GRADES – FAIR OR UNFAIR? HELPFUL OR DESTRUCTIVE?

http://abcnews.go.com/US/california-teacher-lowers-students-grades-standing-pledge-allegiance/story?id=42110506

California Teacher Lowers Students' Grades for Not Standing During the Pledge of Allegiance
By AVIANNE TAN
Sep 15, 2016, 1:26 PM ET


A Native American high school student in California says a teacher lowered her and a friend's participation grades after they refused to stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Leilani Thomas has been choosing not to stand during the Pledge of Allegiance since the second grade -- way before San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick started doing the same during performances of the national anthem at games, ABC affiliate KXTV in Sacramento reported.

Thomas explained that she is Native American and that she has been sitting out the Pledge of Allegiance as a peaceful protest to the way Native Americans have been historically treated in the U.S.

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"My dad and my mom brought up what [the pledge] meant to us and our people and what happened -- you know, the history," she said. “So I just started sitting down.”

Thomas added that she had never had a problem until recently, when her advisory period teacher at Lower Lake High School in Lower Lake, California, lowered her and a classmate's participation grades.

PHOTO: Leilani Thomas, a student at Lower Lake High School in Lower Lake, California, said a teacher lowered her and a friends participation grades after they both chose not to stand during the Pledge of Allegiance recitation. KXTV

Leilani Thomas, a student at Lower Lake High School in Lower Lake, California, said a teacher lowered her and a friend's participation grades after they both chose not to stand during the Pledge of Allegiance recitation.

The teacher "told me I was being disrespectful," Thomas told KXTV. "I was pretty mad because she was being disrespectful to me also, saying I was making bad choices and I don’t have the choice to sit down during the pledge."

This past week, the issue came to the attention of Konocti Unified School District Superintendent Donna Becnel, who confirmed the incident took place.

"One of the students let a principal know what happened and the principal then informed me," Becnel told ABC News today. "We've since transferred the two students to another [advisory period] class."

The superintendent said she stands behind the students and their right to free speech.

"Students here have First Amendment rights, and they do not lose that when they come to school," Becnel explained. "If any students have any concerns about their right to free speech, they can speak with a site administrator. We also have policies in place to protect their right."

And while Becnel said she took the "unfortunate incident" seriously, she also hoped it "does not overshadow the great work that the rest of the district's staff and teachers have been doing."

Becnel added that the teacher who lowered the students' participation grades had only started working for the district this school year and that the district has never had any First Amendment issues in the past.

Bencel said she could not divulge what consequences, if any, the teacher could face, explaining that personnel matters were confidential.

ABC News was not immediately successful in reaching Thomas or her parents for additional comment today.



First, I must say that a child’s basic rights as a citizen should never show up in a lowered grade. Clearly an extroverted and conforming teacher harshly judged a student of differing characteristics. The article says that she was a new teacher, which I take to mean inexperienced in general, and that there possibly could be “consequences” for her. I hope she isn’t fired, but perhaps the school administration needs to hold some teacher training days for these matters, to make explicit the things which the school does not condone and on the other hand wants to foster. I think first year teachers are left on their own too much. The main reason so many kids are being home-schooled these days is that from the curricula to the participation issues such as this one, the parents are NOT satisfied. If my kid were being bullied, I might home school him for a while, but not for very long. I would want him to learn for fight for himself, and better still, stop the bully short with WORDS. What I think would be good to do is talk to other parents to get up some intervention over the problems, and try to change what the school system is doing. Teaching citizenship should not mean teaching blind conformity and, especially, timidity.

When I was in school there were “popular kids,” and very shy kids. I was neither. What I have always resented, though, was the fact that in 1960/63 teachers often talked openly about a concept called the “good personality.” The clear implication is that anyone who doesn’t fit that mold has a “bad” personality. In those days, conformity and self-confident “poise” were crucial. Our high schools were pushing “leadership” over scholarship. It is generally true, unfortunately, that having a wide grasp on information and the arts is not what our society fosters. We’re deeply into the “winners and losers” mentality due to our highly competitive lifestyle in the US. It’s no wonder many other poorer people around the world consider America and Americans to be bullies. So, we aren’t really WINNING, are we?

The following articles from www.quietrev.com are enlightening and satisfying to me, because the status quo in my day was to a great degree about “leadership” and “fitting in,” rather than really excellent scholarship, the ability to make good decisions on our own, personal creativity, caring about others, and awareness of their needs. To me, however, these things should not be judged by a “grade,” but by helpful personal interaction on the part of teachers and other professionals when needed. We in recent years have begun to have a POLICE OFFICER employed by the school, but as far as I know there are no resident clinical psychologists. Most of the bullying and cheating and poor academic performance is due to depression, lack of hope, and resulting anger.

It would also help, I think, if a permanent sensitivity training, manners and citizenship club were to meet once a week, to build a larger acquaintanceship among the kids and better interpersonal communication skills. That would keep some of those “at risk” kids from joining a gang and beating anyone up or stealing things as their preferred group activity! Shy kids often feel angry, and when they do they may join those negatively supportive groups which do nothing but produce young criminals. Criminals are not the happy and healthy kids, after all, and most of the time they don’t make the best grades either.

A number of types of people don’t “fit in,” in school and in the adult world as well. Unfortunately, the very shy will never be “popular” and are very likely to be bullied by those “leader” kids who are often wealthy as well. What I do want to see all schools do, however, whether they succeed in “socializing” kids to become outgoing and conforming individuals or not; is to teach them all the academic skills to read/write/spell at a high level of competence, to become a decent, kind, open and honest person, think logically, get a good grip on our US history and world history, learn enough math and science to consider a career in those fields and to care deeply about the ecological issues which we are now facing front and center, learn enough psychology to recognize our own serious emotional problems and have empathy for those kids who can’t come forward and speak to a fellow student on the school ground. They need to be inclusive rather than exclusive, and accept skin color/nose type/apparent intelligence for some of the several inherited characteristics that are not related to morals or a to a comparative personal value system at all. Ethnic characteristics need to be distinctly secondary to “the content of our character,” as Martin Luther King said.

The other stories on this quietrev website are all interesting, but I can’t resist giving one caution. It is my opinion that the quietest kids may have emotional problems or even early onset psychotic conditions, just as the rowdiest probably do as well. I think rather than simply trying to CHANGE a child from being one type to the other, adults need to be making meaningful and logical contact with them to detect real pathology if it is there, and to give them the simple confidence which the very shy are probably lacking.

Maybe they have a gift for sports, music, writing or visual art. Schools have begun to drop those activities because it costs extra money, but the function of activities is necessary to produce a mentally healthy person. Most shy people who are NOT actually psychotic, are still bottling up lots of thoughts and feelings and depriving themselves of companionship which will work miraculous cures. If they are LGBTQ individuals, that can be disastrous. That’s why activities like Girl/Boy Scouts are still, in my view, important. Unfortunately, I don’t read much about those in these news articles. I’m afraid that, like so many things these day, they have become “unpopular,” which is the death knell to individuality. For Black children there is something called Jack and Jill, whose purpose, as I understand it, is similar. The point of such things is to build a flexible and instinctive way of dealing with the world and its’ people, rather than just the very hard list of Dos and Don’ts, enforced with beating, shaming or other forms of browbeating.



http://www.quietrev.com/participation-penalizes-quiet-learners/

Participation Penalizes Quiet Learners
Making the Case for Standards-Based Grading
By Emily J. Klein and Meg Riordan
NOTE: None of these quietrev.com articles are dated.
Today is September 17, 2016


When I gave my TED talk back in 2012, I told a story about being at camp as a young girl. In the story, I explained how I had a vision of camp as somewhere that I would be able to peacefully sit amongst other young girls and blissfully read for hours on end. When I got to camp, the reality was far different; I was subjected to activities like loud cheering that were uncomfortable and unappealing to me. However, in order to fit in, I went along with the cheering and other activities and gave up on my books for the summer. This memory of camp has stuck with me because I was pressured to act like an extrovert instead of embracing my true nature. Experiences like these, which I’ve had all throughout my life and know that I share with others, were what led me to eventually quit my job as corporate lawyer, write Quiet, and subsequently to launch Quiet Revolution.

From the moment we started Quiet Revolution, we knew that kids were at the core of our mission. At the heart and center of the Quiet Revolution is empowering the next generation of children to know their own strengths and to be freed of the sense of inadequacy that has shadowed the children of previous generations. We want to give parents and teachers—all of you who have quiet kids in your lives—the help you need to guide your children through a wonderful but sometimes maddeningly extroverted world.

For more, go to website http://www.quietrev.com.



“At the heart and center of the Quiet Revolution is empowering the next generation of children to know their own strengths and to be freed of the sense of inadequacy that has shadowed the children of previous generations.” For all types of kids, it is simply difficult in these times of overcrowded schooling and time pressure, to come out without being forced further and further into our introversion, as the school systems try to get the INDIVIDUALS to fit a convenient group mold that our teachers can handle successfully.

Home schooling isn’t a bad thing, in my view, and for a small or ill child who has been repeatedly bullied it is a life saver (literally, as it may prevent a suicide.) The problem is getting the academic progress to go along apace with the public schools. Of course, in so many public schools the level of actual learning is very inferior compared to an expensive Prep School, while on individual basis a kid may well achieve at a higher level. Give them a set of encyclopedias and a good collegiate level dictionary, or these days of course, a computer with Internet hookup. There are also Internet TEACHING PROGRAMS, that are geared to the local school system or to a standardized curriculum. In that case a child may be starved for contact with their peers and miss the stimulation of discussing the lessons, of course, but introducing them to a peer group club as mentioned earlier, Girl Scouts, 4-H, and so on, can help with that. If we don’t do that, the child may gravitate toward their own unsupervised and undesirable group like the local street gang.



In the first of these three final articles, a WWII POW roundly criticizes the old Trump bravado and lack of respect in the first; then in the next an official predicts that after Trump’s repeated disrespect for our soldiers, members of the military might refuse to obey “unlawful orders.” In the final article, an app which tracks popularity data among Republicans in office is available.


http://www.addictinginfo.org/2016/09/16/watch-this-wwii-vet-shame-trump-to-hell-and-back-for-insulting-pows-and-the-military/

WATCH This WWII Vet Shame Trump To Hell And Back For Insulting POWs And The Military
By Rika Christensen on September 16, 2016 7:45 pm


When Trump insulted John McCain for having been captured in Vietnam by saying, “He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured, okay?” he insulted and hurt our entire military, and he especially hurt former POWs. He showed no respect for the military whatsoever during that interview.

Nobody, except maybe Trump, can deny that being a POW is a harrowing and very traumatic experience. Many, many vets never recover from it, even if they have access to the best help available. Joel Sollender, who served in the U.S. Army in WWII and was captured by the Nazis in 1944, is not thrilled with Trump at all, to put it very mildly. This is what his experience as a prisoner of the Nazis was like:

“It was mainly hunger and cold, and worrying whether the Germans were going to hurt us again…

…My war is 70 years ago, and yesterday.”

Watch the whole emotional, powerful video below (and have some tissues ready):

POWs never stop fighting the war (hell, many vets in general never stop fighting the war), and Sollender’s tears during this video prove that beyond doubt. For Trump to insult John McCain because he was a POW was for him to slam a knife into the minds, hearts and souls of every POW we’ve ever had.

Sollender’s tears, and his heartfelt statement, are why Trump ought to be ashamed of himself for what he’s said and done with the military. It’s not just the statement about McCain. It’s also his comparing his sexual conquests to serving in Vietnam (really?!), and saying being sent to a wealthy boarding school makes him feel like he served. He repeatedly attacked a Gold Star family. He got multiple draft deferments during Vietnam. He thinks he can speak to what all those service members experienced because he’s slept around and been to a military boarding school?

All of that is a hard whack across the face with a two-by-four.

Someone who wants to be President of the United States has to have a lot more respect than this. Trump has less than none – it is, and always will be, about his own self-aggrandizement.



https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/29/donald-trump-disrespect-military-veterans-appalling-unprecedented

Donald Trump's disrespect for the military is appalling – and unprecedented
Scott Beauchamp
Monday 29 February 2016 12.39 EST

So far, Trump has only insulted, abused and patronized service members and veterans on the trail. That’s no way to win our support


Photograph -- No, Donald Trump, attending a behavior modification military academy doesn’t make you a combat veteran. Photograph: Richard Ellis/Getty Images
Related: Who supports Donald Trump? The new Republican center of gravity


Donald Trump has disparaged many a group – most recently, he refused to flat-out denounce white supremacy – but his transgressions against the military have been less remarked upon.

The disrespect that the Republican frontrunner for the presidential nomination has consistently shown towards veterans and service members is unprecedented, especially for a member of the party that, at least nominally, prides itself on being more supportive of the troops.

On Friday, on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, former head of the CIA and NSA Michael Hayden said that the American armed forces would “refuse to act” if a President Trump actually gave some of the orders that he’s been proposing on the campaign trail. Troops are required to refuse unlawful orders (as would be Trump’s proposed targeting of terrorists’ family members), but the statement reveals a deep antipathy that the defense establishment harbors for Trump. It’s an antipathy that I share as a former US army infantry soldier.

Trump’s disrespect of veterans began long before the current election cycle. On the Howard Stern show back in 1997, sandwiched in between a bunch of embarrassing comments about women, Trump compared his sex life in the 1980s to a war experience.

“I’ve been so lucky in terms of that whole world. It is a dangerous world out there – it’s scary, like Vietnam. Sort of like the Vietnam era. It is my personal Vietnam. I feel like a great and very brave soldier,” Trump bloviated. And while it’s true that being crass and disgusting is the entire point of the Howard Stern show, for someone who wants to be commander-in-chief of the armed forces to indulge himself by denigrating the war experiences of veterans is beyond the pale.

Trump has no way to know if dating has anything in common with combat, because he was a draft dodger. As Tim Mak wrote in the Daily Beast: “When Trump had the chance to join the military and fight in Vietnam, he did not take it. Instead, the rich kid got multiple student deferments from the draft and a medical deferment.”

Trump continued to inappropriately compare his civilian experiences to military ones since the Howard Stern appearance. Last year Trump told a biographer that he “always felt like I had been in the military” because of his time at the New York Military Academy, an expensive military-themed boarding school where Trump’s parents sent him because of behavioral problems.

That might be a uniquely idiotic statement from someone running for president, but it’s an attitude that, as a veteran, I’ve seen before. There’s always a guy at the bar sloppily explaining to you how he was in Junior Officer Training Corps during high school so, you know, he gets it. That guy should never run for office either.

A telltale sign that Trump does not actually know what it feels like to be in the military is his denigration of POWs. Last July at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa, Trump said of Arizona senator and former Vietnam POW John McCain: “He’s not a war hero. He’s not a war hero because he was captured. I don’t like people who were captured.” Who would want to go to war for a President Trump knowing that if you were captured in the heat of battle your commander-in-chief wouldn’t “like” you?

When Trump does gesture at supporting the troops, it rings hollow. He offers six figures to buy veterans groups as props to use during campaign rallies, as if risking life and limb for your country can be monetized. And his ads that are meant to show respect to veterans probably shouldn’t feature images of Soviet and Nazi soldiers rather than American troops. To lift one of Trump’s own favorite words: it’s pathetic.

Hayden was quick to point out on Friday that the armed forces wouldn’t foment a rebellion against Trump; they’d just refuse to obey unlawful orders. Nevertheless, it was a big statement that took even the usually nonplussed Bill Maher by surprise.

It shouldn’t have. For all his talk about leadership, something that Trump fails to understand is that real leadership is predicated upon respecting the people that you want to follow you. So far, Trump has only insulted, abused and patronized service members and veterans. It’s shocking that these kinds of tactics have gotten him this close to the White House, but it will never earn him the respect of the armed forces.



https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2016/may/14/who-supports-donald-trump-the-new-republican-center-of-gravity

The new Republican center of gravity
By Tom McCarthy, Ben Jacobs, Rich Harris, Aliza Aufrichtig, Jan Diehm, Nadja Popovich, Kenan Davis and Lauren Leatherby
From 'vehemently oppose' to 'all in': explore the universe of positions on Donald Trump. See which politicians have been sucked into orbit by the gas giant and which ones are resisting the pull. Read more»
Last updated 10 August 2016

To see the chart giving their most recent positions on endorsing or not, go to this website.