Posted in: News | Comments Off on Comments are Off
Sunday, August 11, 2019 –
— I have turned off the ‘Comments’ option because we get too much b.s. spam – If anybody out there has anything worthwhile to say – send email to doug.otterson@aerendel.org
— Thank you,
—djo—
Doug Otterson @ August 11, 2019
Posted in: "Always Question Authority", Conspiracies, Economic Warfare, Politiks | Comments Off on Sunday, August 11, 2019 – The Nasties are Ramping Up Toward Election Days
– Sunday, August 11, 2019 – 77˚F / 25˚C with ‘scattered clouds’ around Ithaca New York @ 4:00 pm –
— I went looking for news about New Haven, Connecticut police claiming they need military grade 30 shot clips for their automatic weapons to go after somebody whose online posts made them think he might have planned to attack a Puerto Rican day celebration in New Haven – { I remember that the New Haven police tried to charge a man they suspected of having the AIDS virus in the late 1980’s/Early 1990’s with attempted murder after he spit at them. }
— What I found was more like, “Politicians going off the rails, lying with impunity and trying to scare the livin’ cement out of their constituents to win votes.”
– Andrew Sheer wants to be the Prime Minister of Canada after Elections this coming autumn – He seems to be trying to use the “Divide and Conquer” tactics that work so well down here in the USA. – —djo—
— A past life regression Doctor in the UK claims that British/UK police plan to assassinate Jullian Assange on orders from the US government.
– A barrage of tweets and retweets from this “Past Life Regression” Doctor indicate that he believes that Julian Assange will be assassinated if he doesn’t sign false confessions –
– Apparently, Julian Assange’s mother believes her son is being tortured and will probably be assassinated for reporting the truth that our not so nice government officials never wanted us to know about…
— If you want to check out the links in these tweets, you can’t get there from here. Go on Twitter, follow the author and read what the links have to say.
– This is another complaint by someone saying she isn’t happy with the way Andrew Sheer is lying, attempting to deceive voters with divisive and untrue accusations against the current Prime Minister of Canada’s track record. –
— And there was a bunch of stuff accusing anybody who is against fracking of being idiotic and ignoring the ‘fact’ that fracking is safer and better for all of us than alternatives. Fracking has caused earthquakes, series of earthquakes, and cracked the underground barriers between aquifer and gas pockets so badly that wells and waterlines have been poisoned and tap-water inside people’s homes can burst into flames.
— And now to support one of my rants:
– Economic Warfare .101 – Why do people go crazy when regular workers ask for a living wage while top executives get $10,000. an hour (or more?) ?
— Shrug – Another day, another reason to pay no attention to anything the main stream media screams at you…
—djo—
Doug Otterson @ August 11, 2019
Posted in: "Always Question Authority", Canada, Conspiracies, Economic Warfare, Uncategorized, We Need More Positive News - | Comments Off on Wednesday, February 20th, 2019 – Patty Hearst’s Birthday
Wednesday, February 20th, 2019 – +27˚F / -3˚C & cloudy in the Ithaca, New York area @ 1:30 pm Eastern Time –
— It’s been a while since anyone’s posted anything new here – and that isn’t because there is nothing newsworthy going on. Real Life has a way of interfering with our blogging / reporting aspirations.
– The CRTC – Canada’s Telecommunications Regulater – { Kind of their version of the FCC } Has found deceptive practices and “misleading, high pressure tactics” are too common among Canadian Companies trying to sell you their telecommunications services. – It’s Official –
–
The CRTC says an inquiry has confirmed allegations Canada’s telecommunications industry used unacceptable sales practices that misled consumers and harmed vulnerable members of the public.
The commission says the misleading and aggressive practices exist in all types of sales channels, including in stores, online, over the telephone and at homes when companies conduct door-to-door sales campaigns.
But the report doesn’t identify which companies or areas of the country have had the worst track record.
The CRTC compiled the report after five days of testimony at public hearings in October and months of information gathering, including more than 1,000 comments from individual Canadians.
The regulator looked into the issue after CBC’s reporting into sales tactics at some of Canada’s biggest telecom companies.
The CRTC says it plans to follow up its report with measures to address the problems identified through the inquiry, but most of them will require additional regulatory proceedings.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission is a semi-autonomous federal agency responsible for upholding the Telecommunications Act and the Broadcasting Act, which are both under review by the federal government.
= = = = =
— Donald J Trump Watch :
– I was in Canada Yesterday – Spending as much quality time with my sweetie as I could and probably woke up the neighbours when I whooped loudly as I heard an FBI spokesperson tell the world that Donald J Trump is being investigated as a possible threat to US National Security. I haven’t been able to find the time after zooming home and getting ready to power nap before work to see it that was reported down here. But –
—
America’s auto industry is bracing for a potential escalation in U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff war with the world, one that could weaken the global auto industry and economy, inflate car prices and trigger a backlash in Congress.
Late Sunday, the Commerce Department sent the White House a report on the results of an investigation Trump had ordered of whether imported vehicles and parts pose a threat to U.S. national security. Commerce hasn’t made its recommendations public, and the White House has so far declined to comment. If Commerce did find that auto imports imperil national security, Trump would have 90 days to decide whether to impose those import taxes.
Trump has repeatedly invoked his duty as president to safeguard national security in justifying previous rounds of tariffs. An obscure provision in trade law authorizes a president to impose unlimited tariffs on particular imports if his Commerce Department concludes that those imports threaten America’s national security.
Whatever Commerce has concluded in this case, Trump has made clear his enthusiasm for tariffs in general and for auto tariffs in particular. Some analysts say they think Commerce has likely endorsed the tariffs, not least because the president has conveyed his preference for them.
Among Commerce’s recommendations “will certainly be tariffs because, hey, he’s a tariff man,” said William Reinsch, a former U.S. trade official and now a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, referring to a nickname that Trump gave himself.
Industry conference call to discuss what might happen
Industry officials took part in a conference call Tuesday to discuss the possible steps Trump could take. They include tariffs of up to 25 per cent on imported parts only; on assembled vehicles only; or on both vehicles and parts — including those from Mexico and Canada. The last option would be an especially unusual one given that the United States, Mexico and Canada reached a new North American trade deal late last year, and the legislatures of all
three nations must still ratify it.
In public hearings last year, the idea of imposing import taxes on autos drew almost no support. Even U.S. automakers, which ostensibly would benefit from a tax on their foreign competitors, opposed the potential tariffs. Among other concerns, the automakers worry about retaliatory tariffs that the affected nations would impose on U.S. vehicles. Many U.S. automakers also depend on imported parts that could be subject to Trump’s tariffs and could become more expensive.
A similar Commerce investigation last year resulted in the Trump administration imposing taxes on imported steel and aluminum in the name of national security. The administration has adopted an extraordinarily broad view of national security to include just about anything that might affect the economy.
In addition to steel and aluminum, Trump has imposed tariffs on dishwashers, solar panels and hundreds of Chinese products. Targeting autos would further raise the stakes. The United States imported $340 billion in cars, trucks and auto parts in 2017.
If this, then that
If the administration imposed 25 per cent tariffs on imported parts and vehicles including those from Canada and Mexico, the price of imported vehicles would jump more than 17 per cent, or an average of around $5,000 each, according to estimates by IHS Markit. Even the prices of vehicles made in the U.S. would rise by about 5 per cent, or $1,800, because all of them use some imported parts.
Luxury brands would absorb the sharpest increase: $5,800 on average, IHS concluded. Mass-market vehicle prices would rise an average of $3,300.
If the tariffs were fully assessed, IHS predicts that price increases would cause U.S. auto sales to fall by an average of 1.8 million vehicles a year through 2026. Auto industry officials say that if sales fall, there almost certainly will be U.S. layoffs. Dealers who sell German and some Japanese brands would be hurt the most by the tariffs.
“The economic fallout would be significant, with auto tariffs hurting the global economy by distorting prices and creating inefficiencies, and the impact would reverberate across global supply chains,” Moody’s Investors Service said in a report. “The already weakening pace of global expansion would magnify global growth pressures, causing a broader hit to business and consumer confidence amid tightening financial conditions.”
Congress could resist the auto tariffs. Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Penn., and Mark Warner, D-Va., have introduced legislation to reassert congressional control over trade. Their bill would give Congress 60 days to approve any tariffs imposed on national security grounds. It would also shift responsibility for such investigations away from Commerce to the Pentagon.
Using tariffs as leverage
Some analysts say they suspect that Trump intends to use the tariffs as leverage to pressure Japan and Europe to limit their auto exports to the United States and to prod Japanese and European automakers to build more vehicles at their U.S. plants.
Reinsch notes that Trump’s top trade negotiator, Robert Lighthizer, worked in the Reagan administration, which coerced Japan into accepting “voluntary” limits on its auto exports.
“This is the way Lighthizer thinks,” Reinsch said.
Even if the tariff threat resulted in negotiations, Europe and Japan would have demands of their own. A likely one: Compelling the U.S. to drop its longstanding 25 per cent tax on imported light trucks.
Trump is “pursuing something that, as near as I can tell, the domestic (auto) industry doesn’t want,” Reinsch said. “Once he pursues it, he is going to be under pressure to give up the one thing the auto industry really does want” — the U.S. tariff on imported light trucks.
For now, many in the industry are upset that the Commerce Department report remains secret, feeding uncertainty.
“The 137,000 people who work for Toyota across America deserve to know whether they are considered a national security threat,” Toyota said in a statement Tuesday. “And the American consumer needs to know whether the cost of every vehicle sold in the U.S. may increase.”
The American International Automobile Dealers Association this week called the Commerce Department’s investigation “bogus.”
“Now, dealerships must continue to operate under a cloud of uncertainty, not knowing if at any moment their products will be slapped with 25 per cent tariffs, raising vehicle and repair costs by thousands of dollars and slashing sales,” the association’s CEO, Cody Lusk, said in a statement.
{ Canadian Auto makers’ Unions have a campaign they’re paying television broadcasters to air – asking everyone up there to boycott any GM products made in Mexico – and/or not to buy any General Motors vehicles unless they have been manufactured in Canada. GM is closing down a long-time auto plant a bit to the east of Toronto in favour of shifting production to Mexico where they can get away with under-paying their workers in factories that do not have to follow as strict safety regulations as Canadian factories need to abide by. I am ashamed to admit that I haven’t been on twitter lately to see what Michael Moore has to say about this. -djo- }
— And I should also be ashamed to admit that I need a little bit of sleep before I have to get up and remain reasonably alert on the night shift down here.
— Above news articles ‘lifted’ / copied and pasted from the
CBC News Web Site : <– That is a link
— Hang in there, America – We need you –
— djo —
Doug Otterson @ February 20, 2019
Posted in: "Always Question Authority", Canada, Conspiracies, Economic Warfare, News, Politiks, Uncategorized, Weird Weather | Comments (0)
Saturday, 01 August, 2015 -( 18˚C /64˚F & clearing after this afternoon’s brief but intense thunderstorm in our neck of New Brunswick, Canada, North America, Earth…. where it is 8:05 pm )-
We’ve just spent two days updating web sites and deleting spam ‘comments’ and have more to do, but we’re still here and still insanely dedicated to trying to get quality news to anyone who wants to read it- Thank you for being there.
If you really have something to say you can get email to me @ jimdaerendel@aerendel.org
Thanks again-,
— jda —
Jim d'Aerendel @ August 1, 2015
Posted in: "Always Question Authority", Canada, Conspiracies, News | Comments (0)
Monday, 23 February, 2015 -( -44˚F / -20˚C & clear @ 10:00 pm near Ithaca )- -( -8˚F / -22°C & clear & windy @11:00 pm Closer to Halifax —jim w—)- — { Headlines compiled by douglas j otterson & jim wellington, with help from —jda— } { Some things change, some articles remain. Do you know where your survival kit is? —djo— } { 7,002 new tweets since 10:00 pm last night – aaaaaaaaa! —djo— }
“Don’t Block My Internet” – New York City demonstrators block entry to a building in support of Net Neutrality —djo—
Ack! This is what happens when parallel worlds collide. Run for cover! Aaaaaaa—– { Wink } —djo—
Net Neutrality – the phrase doesn’t pack the right punch. It sounds ambiguous. Keep the Net Honest and Free. —djo—
Reject the KeystoneXL Pipeline. Put the Tarsands out of business. —djo—
My favourite ‘Significant Other’ gave me the news that Citizen Four won the Oscar for best Documentary and Neil Patrick Harris tried to put the gay rights movement back a few decades by calling Ed Snowden a Traitor. “He couldn’t be here for some treason-” She says she used to like N.P.H. but his jokes are coming out way too mean spirited. & He seems to have forgotten that if it wasn’t for people like Edward Snowden, people like him would be jailed, if not lynched for sodomy and other ‘perversions and unnatural sex acts’ —djo—
And a little encouragement is always a good thing. —djo—
And a bit of Nostalgia/History – & Yoko just had a birthday. —djo—
{ Today’s Birthdays : — You can find all this and more at http://www.historyorb.com/today/birthdays.php
February 23rd: 1633 – Samuel Pepys, navy expert/composer (Diary, Memoirs), born in London, England. 1646 – Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, Japanese shogun (d. 1709). 1685 – George Frederic Handel, Halle Germany, baroque composer and (Messiah, Water Music). 1734 (or 1743?) – Mayer Amschel Rothschild, Frankfurt, founder (House of Rothschild). 1868 – William E B Du Bois, Great Barrington Massachusetts, civil rights activist and writer (Souls of Black Folk). 1889 – Victor Fleming, American film director (“Wizard of Oz”, “Gone with the Wind”), (d. 1949). 1904 – William L Shirer, historian (Rise & Fall of 3rd Reich). 1915 – Paul Tibbets, US Air Force retired Brigadier General and Pilot of B-29 “Enola Gay” over Hiroshima (d. 2007). 1929 – Elston Howard, Yankee catcher (1st African American NY Yankee/1963 AL MVP). 1938 – Sylvia Chase, St Paul Minn, newscaster (ABC Weekend News, 20/20). 1939 – Majel Barrett, Columbus Ohio, actress (Christine Chapel-Star Trek). 1940 – Peter Fonda, actor (Easy Rider, Lilith, Wild Angels, Trip). 1944 – Johnny Winter, [John Dawson], American blues guitarist (Silver Train), born in Leland Miss, (d. 2014). 1949 – Marc Garneau, Quebec City Quebec, Canadian astronaut (STS 13, 77). 1951 – Patricia Richardson, Bethesada Md, actress (Double Trouble, Home Improvement). 1963 – Bobby Bonilla, outfielder (NY Mets, Balt Orioles, Marlins), born in NYC, New York. 1964 – Dana Katherine Scully, fictional character (X-Files). 1994 – Dakota Fanning, American Actress. (& I won’t tell because I don’t know) – Binnie Klein, Poet, Performance Artist and WPKN programmer. }
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If Harper wins another term as Prime Minister I will know this world has gone to hell and they didn’t even offer us a hand basket. What the bleep is a handbasket anyway? —djo—
I hope you can read this. “Born again Fascist Prime Minister guts Environmental and Consumer Protection Laws to fleece the economy of Canada.” —djo—
“The Secret Police Creation Act?” —djo— *** According to this – The Railroad company that tried to sell off its service between Ottawa and Petawawa, where the big army base is, couldn’t get anybody to offer them what they wanted for a price, so they ripped all their tracks out and carted them away to melt them down and sell the metal to the highest bidder — Under item (f) above that makes them terrorists, right? Wanna bet the government would not go after them with an arrest warrant or a snatch and grab them in the night and they wake up in Git-Mo? *** —jim w—
People are really getting angry with their PM in Canada. —djo—
Illegal pesticide killed Fort McMurray baby { }
Mystery tunnel found near Pan Am Games venue { }
Eating peanut products early in life can reduce allergy risk, study suggests { }
CN Railway, Unifor avoid lockout with tentative deal { }
Niagara Falls photo taken on February 17th. I don’t see the falls here, do you?
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Asking if torture works might be the wrong question, but the answer is, “No- it doesn’t work. It’s pure b.s. and makes for good fear tactics, and instant mind control- that’s all it’s good for. Mind Control.” —djo—
– Halifax, Nova Scotia – looks like the Chronicle Herald might have locked out its personnel. —djo—
A couple of my favorite prophecies lately include the one that says that those who believe that knowledge is power and feel they have a right to lie to us to keep that power to themselves will be unmasked and publicly humiliated, & stripped of all power. —djo—
Measles documented among the fully immunized.
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A Florida based artist has been told to stop selling miniature versions of the Super Bowl halftime ‘character’ sharks.
Offbeat News:
Canadian Sniper in the film parody we’ve all been waiting for { }
‘I just totally collapsed,’ says man after 168-hour Nickleback marathon for charity { }
Nonchalant dog shovels backyard hockey rink, wins winter { }
Moose on the loose gets police escort in Ontario { }
Blowtorches being used to melt sidewalk ice in Windsor { * I think I remember a really old issue of Mad Magazine suggesting various ways snow cleanup could be made much more effective and easier – one of them involved flame throwers, but the ‘after’ frame showed an entire city under about 20 feet of water. * —djo— }
Nestlé and Hershey pledge to make their candy bars healthier { * If G.M.O. ingredients are involved, don’t buy it. * —djo— }
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New words to describe extreme weather? = “Freeze-nado” ? Works for me. —djo—
“Telus is cutting off its own nose to spite its face?” Or “Telus commits consumer suicide?” —djo—
==============
The Big Chill – Version 2015 – Hits the Maritimes-
Local / New Brunswick / Maritime News:
Larry’s Gulch junket alternatives in Fredericton come with cheaper price tags { }
Flu-like illness forces closeures at two N.B. hospitals { }
Poverty group prefers income tax increase, not HST { }
Irving pipeline gets retroactive approval fro EUB { * New Brunswick’s Energy and Utilities Board has granted an Irving Oil company retroactive permission to build an oil pipeline that the company already built without permission last year. * —“Not Good,” —djo— }
Larry’s Gulch review findings will ‘absolutely’ be made public { * This is a New Brunswick ‘scandal’ that sounds way too much like a slight of hand distraction to take your attention away from something else. The Province owns a multi-million dollar fishing lodge where they entertained visiting politicians and invited newspaper reporters who were fired for conflict of interest violations. There also seems to be some confusion over when the lodge went from being ‘private’ to ‘publicly owned’ & where the line between private and public functions was drawn. The new Liberal government has decided that the lodge can only be used for functions designed to bring jobs to New Brunswick. *** “Any time I hear a politician utter words like ‘jobs’ or ‘Leadership’ I know my ears are about to be assaulted by pure and utter b.s.” — Douglas Jay Otterson *** * —djo— }
Energy East Pipeline construction training premature, David Coon says. { * The Energy East Pipeline is a project that is being bitterly contested in Quebec. Activists cite dangers to wildlife, and say the claims of loads of jobs for local people is highly over-estimated and point out that New Brunswick will lose money in this deal unless they re-write the agreement with the corporations that will own the pipeline. And instead of refining and distributing the gas/oil the pipeline is supposed to deliver, here, they claim the resources would be exported, benefiting foreign interests at our expense. Oh, and Irving Oil stands to save and reap loads of money if this goes through. * —djo— }
Mounting snow days leave schools scrambling { }
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“Sunrise In Venice” — I used to believe it wasn’t worth the hassle to visit Europe or anywhere else, Venice? I’d probably feel depressed that I had to leave and couldn’t spend several life times watching the sun rise from one of those balconies. Do any of them face the sun rise? —djo—
Canada and the U.S. aren’t the only countries in this world that are in trouble with their Karma. —djo—
End Homelessness Now. It’s much more cost effective to give homeless people a place to live than to leave them out in the cold. —djo—
{ “Perma-Link” to the above article, copied and pasted at “Child Of Light” >>—> http://www.aerendel.org/news/?p=396 <—<< }
India is building the world’s largest solar plant. 🙂 —djo—
Inserted after publication – I thought the plane was headed for India after it was hijacked. Kazakstan? Under water somewhere up near India/Pakistan? —djo—
It looks like more people every day realize that September 11, 2001 was perpetrated, if not entirely by- then with the help of – possibly rogue – US Government Insiders. —djo—
Teddy Roosevelt was a Republican who championed anti-trust laws. —djo—
Effective Cartoon, Surveillance State dark ops goons tear a hole in the Canadian Charter of Rights to further their godless power. —djo—
Conservative Lies cast Environmentalist as terrorists. Well, if the conservative’s jobs are threatened by people telling the truth, maybe they should be in terror. Ya think? —djo—
Government Terrorism = “Governments have killed more of their own citizens than all the wars in the past hundred years.” —djo—
“How to gut oversight .101 – make sure the watchdogs don’t get enough money to function.” = Stephen Harper will leave the PM’s office in Handcuffs. —djo—
“Canada Jettisons Rights and Land Claims in a bid to label environmentalists as terrorists.” —djo—
“Anti-Terror Legislation is aimed at labeling Environmental Activists as terrorists.”
The Harper government’s deregulations seen as the real cause of the Lac-Megantic tragedy.
From OccupyWallStreet-NYC & The Electronic Freedom Foundation, thanks to “—jda—“
-Um, another theory: The ‘War on Drugs’ is a manipulation to keep the ‘street prices’ of drugs high so the C.I.A. and other ‘black-ops’ groups who traffic in those drugs to keep their budgets secret can really cash in on their highly profitable business. They do want a Police State, but the ‘war on drugs’ is just one more strategy designed to bring that about. —djo—
Human Rights are under attack around the world, not just in the USA and Canada
Follow these links, even if you have to type them in manually, this guy is the real thing. —djo—
Strip Mining on the Moon?
Here’s a page for ya- Wow.
“Smart” Phones, “Smart” Meters, “Smart” appliances, “Smart TeeVees spying on You” — “Smart”-Anything is beginning to = “Bad News”. —djo—
God Bless Ed Snowden – And why do those guys on the right look like somebody has a gun pointed at their private parts? —djo—
Keep up the good work 🙂
I wish I said that- —djo—
It is refreshing to see any half-way main-stream news organization showing anything positive about any group that has been targeted for divisive/’divide-and-conquer’ propaganda. “Women and Children First” was just one of many positive philosophical ideas that came from Islam. —djo—
“Happiness can only be found within” —djo—
Liberate yourself from the politix of fear – ignore the main stream news. —djo—
— We should quit here and publish this fiasco before we look at the clock and realize it’s next week already and we haven’t gotten anything done in our ‘real lives’ —djo—
Tags: "We don't want to be 'Allowed' to vote for someone else's agenda- We want to change the agenda-" -Germaine Greer, Banksters, Canada, Canadian Headline News, Economic Warfare, Edward Snowden, Fairness in Reporting, John Lennon - Imagine Peace, New Brunswick, News, Offbeat News, Propaganda, Truth in Reporting
Doug Otterson @ February 23, 2015
Posted in: "Always Question Authority", Canada, Conspiracies, News | Comments (0)
Sunday, 22 February, 2015 -( +24˚F / -4˚C w/ ‘light snow showers’ @ 7:00 pm near Ithaca )- -( +18˚F / -8°C & Dark w/ clear skies & Stars shining @ 8:00 pm Closer to Halifax —jim w—)- — { Headlines compiled by douglas j otterson & jim wellington, with help from —jda— } { Some things change, some articles remain. Do you know where your survival kit is? —djo— } { 5,352 new tweets since 10:00 pm last night – aaaaaaaaa! —djo— }
My favourite ‘Significant Other’ gave me the news that Citizen Four won the Oscar for best Documentary and Neil Patrick Harris tried to put the gay rights movement back a few decades by calling Ed Snowden a Traitor. “He couldn’t be here for some treason-” She says she used to like N.P.H. but his jokes are coming out way too mean spirited. & He seems to have forgotten that if it wasn’t for people like Edward Snowden, people like him would be jailed, if not lynched for sodomy and other ‘perversions and unnatural sex acts’ —djo—
Ack! This is what happens when parallel worlds collide. Run for cover! Aaaaaaa—– { Wink } —djo—
Cool, sensitive, intelligent beings- watching TeeVee- —djo—
And a little encouragement is always a good thing. —djo—
And a bit of Nostalgia/History – & Yoko just had a birthday. —djo—
{ Today’s Birthdays : — You can find all this and more at http://www.historyorb.com/today/birthdays.php
February 22nd: 1403 – Charles VII, King of France (1422-61), drove the English out from Northern France, (d. 1461). 1599 – Anthony Van Dyck, Antwerp Belgium, painter. 1732 – George Washington, Westmoreland, Virginia, 1st American president (1789-97). 1788 – Arthur Schopenhauer, Germany, philosopher (Great Pessimist). 1857 – Robert Baden-Powell, founder (Boy Scouts, Girl Guides). 1883 – Marguerite Clark, voice (Snow White). 1889 – Olave Baden-Powell, English founder of the Girl Guide (d. 1977). 1891 – “Chico” Marx, actor/comedian (Marx Brothers, Animal Crackers), born in NYC, New York. 1892 – Edna St Vincent Millay, poet/dramatist/feminist (Harp Weaver-Pulitzer Prize). 1906 – Gale Gordon, actor (Conklin-Our Miss Brooks, Here’s Lucy), born in Los Angeles, California. 1907 – Robert Young, actor (Father Knows Best, Marcus Welby MD), born in Chicago, Illinois & Sheldon Leonard, actor/director (Danny Thomas Show, Big Eddie), born in NYC, New York. 1908 – John Mills, England, actor (Big Sleep, King Rat, War & Peace). 1918 – Don Pardo, Westfield Mass, TV announcer (Jeopardy, Saturday Night Live). 1926 – Bud Yorkin, producer (All in the Family, 1959, 1960 Emmy). 1929 – Ryne Duren, near-sighted pitcher (NY Yankees). 1932 – Edward M “Ted” Kennedy, Boston Massachusetts Politician (Sen-D-Mass 1962- 2009 ). 1934 – Sparky Anderson [George Lee Anderson], Bridgewater South Dakota, American MLB manager (Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers). 1942 – Christine Keeler, English model and showgirl. 1945 – ‘Oliver’, North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, American pop singer (Good Morning Starshine, Jean). 1948 – John Ashton, American actor (Original Gomez on the original Addams family?). 1950 – Julius Erving, Nassau County New York, ABA/NBA forward (Virg Squirers, NY Nets, Phila 76ers). 1958 – Kyle MacLachlan, Yakima WA, actor (Blue Velvet, Dune, Hidden). 1962 – Steve Irwin, Melbourne Victoria, Australian naturalist and TV personality (The Crocodile Hunter). 1968 – Jeri Ryan, actress (7 of 9-Star Trek Voyager). 1975 – Drew Barrymore, actress (ET, Firestarter, Poison Ivy), born in Los Angeles, California. (& I won’t tell) – Lorraine Armstrong Hildreth, Beautiful Person & Jim W’s cousin. }
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I hope you can read this. “Born again Fascist Prime Minister guts Environmental and Consumer Protection Laws to fleece the economy of Canada.” —djo—
“The Secret Police Creation Act?” —djo—
People are really getting angry with their PM in Canada. —djo—
Oscars 2015: Patricia Arquette, J.K. Simmons win for supporting roles { * And I hear that Patricia Arquette called out for Gender Equality in the Equal Pay for Equal work department and lots of tweeters approve. * —djo— }
-Live Blog- Oscars 2015: Join us [CBC] four our awards show viewing party! { * Why bother? * —djo— }
Meet the researcher who wants to end the cancer that’s been killing her family { * Then she better take on the AMA and the CDC and the Big Pharma companies who have been feeding us lies while hiding technology and herbs that cure cancer because they’re making so effing much money by not curing it when they know there is stuff out there that really works. * —djo— }
Humpback whale freed from fishing lines after 8-day struggle { * Yay! * —djo— }
Niagara Falls photo taken on February 17th. I don’t see the falls here, do you?
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Asking if torture works might be the wrong question, but the answer is, “No- it doesn’t work. It’s pure b.s. and makes for good fear tactics, and instant mind control- that’s all it’s good for. Mind Control.” —djo—
– Halifax, Nova Scotia – looks like the Chronicle Herald might have locked out its personnel. —djo—
A couple of my favorite prophecies lately include the one that says that those who believe that knowledge is power and feel they have a right to lie to us to keep that power to themselves will be unmasked and publicly humiliated, & stripped of all power. —djo—
Measles documented among the fully immunized.
==============
A Florida based artist has been told to stop selling miniature versions of the Super Bowl halftime ‘character’ sharks.
Offbeat News:
Moose on the loose gets police escort in Ontario { }
What goes into the making of an all-out hockey brawl? { }
Regina man goes to extreme lengths to answer online comments { }
Why shooting moose with paintball guns might be a great idea { }
Blowtorches being used to melt sidewalk ice in Windsor { * I think I remember a really old issue of Mad Magazine suggesting various ways snow cleanup could be made much more effective and easier – one of them involved flame throwers, but the ‘after’ frame showed an entire city under about 20 feet of water. * —djo— }
Nestlé and Hershey pledge to make their candy bars healthier { * If G.M.O. ingredients are involved, don’t buy it. * —djo— }
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New words to describe extreme weather? = “Freeze-nado” ? Works for me. —djo—
I’m not watching the Oscars, So I don’t know what Patricia Arquette said or did, but it’s causing quite a stir on the ‘Tweet-Us-Sphere’ —djo—
“Telus is cutting off its own nose to spite its face?” Or “Telus commits consumer suicide?” —djo—
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The Big Chill – Version 2015 – Hits the Maritimes-
Local / New Brunswick / Maritime News:
Weather warnings in store for most of Maritimes { }
Young cabbie looking for Fredericton’s Worst Drivers { }
Another Sunday storm brings slushy mess to the Maritimes { }
Saint JOhn taxi driver dies in car crash { }
Irving pipeline gets retroactive approval fro EUB { * New Brunswick’s Energy and Utilities Board has granted an Irving Oil company retroactive permission to build an oil pipeline that the company already built without permission last year. * —“Not Good,” —djo— }
Larry’s Gulch review findings will ‘absolutely’ be made public { * This is a New Brunswick ‘scandal’ that sounds way too much like a slight of hand distraction to take your attention away from something else. The Province owns a multi-million dollar fishing lodge where they entertained visiting politicians and invited newspaper reporters who were fired for conflict of interest violations. There also seems to be some confusion over when the lodge went from being ‘private’ to ‘publicly owned’ & where the line between private and public functions was drawn. The new Liberal government has decided that the lodge can only be used for functions designed to bring jobs to New Brunswick. *** “Any time I hear a politician utter words like ‘jobs’ or ‘Leadership’ I know my ears are about to be assaulted by pure and utter b.s.” — Douglas Jay Otterson *** * —djo— }
Energy East Pipeline construction training premature, David Coon says. { * The Energy East Pipeline is a project that is being bitterly contested in Quebec. Activists cite dangers to wildlife, and say the claims of loads of jobs for local people is highly over-estimated and point out that New Brunswick will lose money in this deal unless they re-write the agreement with the corporations that will own the pipeline. And instead of refining and distributing the gas/oil the pipeline is supposed to deliver, here, they claim the resources would be exported, benefiting foreign interests at our expense. Oh, and Irving Oil stands to save and reap loads of money if this goes through. * —djo— }
Mounting snow days leave schools scrambling { }
==============
Canada and the U.S. aren’t the only countries in this world that are in trouble with their Karma. —djo—
End Homelessness Now. It’s much more cost effective to give homeless people a place to live than to leave them out in the cold. —djo—
{ “Perma-Link” to the above article, copied and pasted at “Child Of Light” >>—> http://www.aerendel.org/news/?p=396 <—<< }
India is building the world’s largest solar plant. 🙂 —djo—
It looks like more people every day realize that September 11, 2001 was perpetrated, if not entirely by- then with the help of – possibly rogue – US Government Insiders. —djo—
Teddy Roosevelt was a Republican who championed anti-trust laws. —djo—
Effective Cartoon, Surveillance State dark ops goons tear a hole in the Canadian Charter of Rights to further their godless power. —djo—
Conservative Lies cast Environmentalist as terrorists. Well, if the conservative’s jobs are threatened by people telling the truth, maybe they should be in terror. Ya think? —djo—
Government Terrorism = “Governments have killed more of their own citizens than all the wars in the past hundred years.” —djo—
“How to gut oversight .101 – make sure the watchdogs don’t get enough money to function.” = Stephen Harper will leave the PM’s office in Handcuffs. —djo—
“Canada Jettisons Rights and Land Claims in a bid to label environmentalists as terrorists.” —djo—
“Anti-Terror Legislation is aimed at labeling Environmental Activists as terrorists.”
The Harper government’s deregulations seen as the real cause of the Lac-Megantic tragedy.
From OccupyWallStreet-NYC & The Electronic Freedom Foundation, thanks to “—jda—“
-Um, another theory: The ‘War on Drugs’ is a manipulation to keep the ‘street prices’ of drugs high so the C.I.A. and other ‘black-ops’ groups who traffic in those drugs to keep their budgets secret can really cash in on their highly profitable business. They do want a Police State, but the ‘war on drugs’ is just one more strategy designed to bring that about. —djo—
Human Rights are under attack around the world, not just in the USA and Canada
Follow these links, even if you have to type them in manually, this guy is the real thing. —djo—
Strip Mining on the Moon?
Here’s a page for ya- Wow.
“Smart” Phones, “Smart” Meters, “Smart” appliances, “Smart TeeVees spying on You” — “Smart”-Anything is beginning to = “Bad News”. —djo—
God Bless Ed Snowden – And why do those guys on the right look like somebody has a gun pointed at their private parts? —djo—
Keep up the good work 🙂
I wish I said that- —djo—
It is refreshing to see any half-way main-stream news organization showing anything positive about any group that has been targeted for divisive/’divide-and-conquer’ propaganda. “Women and Children First” was just one of many positive philosophical ideas that came from Islam. —djo—
“Happiness can only be found within” —djo—
— We should quit here and publish this fiasco before we look at the clock and realize it’s next week already and we haven’t gotten anything done in our ‘real lives’ —djo—
Tags: "We don't want to be 'Allowed' to vote for someone else's agenda- We want to change the agenda-" -Germaine Greer, Banksters, Canada, Canadian Headline News, Citizen Four, Economic Warfare, Edward Snowden, Fairness in Reporting, John Lennon - Imagine Peace, New Brunswick, News, Offbeat News, Propaganda, Truth in Reporting
Doug Otterson @ February 22, 2015
Posted in: "Always Question Authority", Canada, Conspiracies, News | Comments (0)
Saturday, 21 February, 2015 -( +21˚F / -6˚C Cloudy & ‘dark’ @ 10:00 pm near Ithaca )- -( +25˚F / -4°C w/light snow @ 11:00 pm Closer to Halifax —jim w—)- — { Headlines compiled by douglas j otterson & jim wellington, with help from —jda— } { Some things change, some articles remain. Do you know where your survival kit is? —djo— }
Switzerland 🙂
“Moment of Truth”? – Bear on a horizontal tree. I have no idea where this photo was taken. —djo—
Cool, sensitive, intelligent beings- watching TeeVee- —djo—
Lord Byron quoted. —djo—
And a little encouragement is always a good thing. —djo—
And a bit of Nostalgia/History – & Yoko just had a birthday. —djo—
{ Today’s Birthdays : — You can find all this and more at http://www.historyorb.com/today/birthdays.php
February 21st: 1674 – Johann Augustin Kobelius, composer. 1728 – Peter III, Kiel Germany, Russian Tsar (1762) and husband of Catherine the Great. 1821 – Charles Scribner, US, music publisher (Scribner Catalog). 1878 – The Mother, Indian spiritual leader (d. 1973). 1893 – Andres Segovia, Linares Spain, classical guitarist, (d. 1987). 1897 – Celia Lovsky, Austrian-American actress (Soylent Green, T’Pau-Star Trek). 1903 – Anaïs Nin, French writer (d. 1977). 1910 – Carmine Galante, Italian-born gangster (d. 1979). 1924 – Robert Mugabe, president (Zimbabwe, 1988- ). 1925 – Sam Peckinpah, Fresno CA, film director (Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs). 1927 – Erma Bombeck, Dayton Ohio, humorist (Grass is Always Greener…). 1932 – Harald V, King of Norway (1991- ). 1933 – Nina Simone, [Eunice Waymon], Tyron NC, vocalist/pianist (Porgy). 1934 – Rue McClanahan, Healdton Oklahoma, actress (Maude, Golden Girls). 1937 – Gary Lockwood, Van Nuys Cal, actor (2001, Survival Zone, Lieutenant). 1939 – Richard Beymer, Avoca IA, actor (West Side Story, Diary of Anne Frank). 1946 – Alan Rickman, actor (Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, Harry Potter) & Tyne Daly, Madison Wisc, actress (Cagney & Lacey, Angel Unchained) & Anthony Daniels, British actor (Star Wars – C-3PO). 1958 – Jack Coleman, Easton Pa, actor (Steven Carrington-Dynasty) & Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Princeton NJ, country vocalist (This Shirt). 1979 – Jennifer Love Hewitt, actress (Sarah Reeves-Party of Five). 1987 – Ellen Page, Canadian actress. }
==============
Canadian businessman jailed in Cuba returns home for 1st time in 3 years { }
3 U.K. schoolgirls suspected of joining ISIS in Syria { }
Mother of boy who died in cold thanks people for ‘outpouring of love’ { }
‘Nearly married’: Letters by Princess Margaret reveal romance with former PM John Turner { * “- in the teeth of a vegetarian sea snail.” * —djo— }
Niagara Falls photo taken on February 17th. I don’t see the falls here, do you?
==============
How an Anti Austerity platform can win in Spain.
How to use a cell or smart phone without being spied on? Yay! —djo—
Measles documented among the fully immunized.
==============
A Florida based artist has been told to stop selling miniature versions of the Super Bowl halftime ‘character’ sharks.
Offbeat News:
Regina man goes to extreme lengths to answer online comments { }
Why shooting moose with paintball guns might be a great idea { }
Blowtorches being used to melt sidewalk ice in Windsor { * I think I remember a really old issue of Mad Magazine suggesting various ways snow cleanup could be made much more effective and easier – one of them involved flame throwers, but the ‘after’ frame showed an entire city under about 20 feet of water. * —djo— }
Nestlé and Hershey pledge to make their candy bars healthier { * If G.M.O. ingredients are involved, don’t buy it. * —djo— }
==============
New words to describe extreme weather? = “Freeze-nado” ? Works for me. —djo—
==============
The Big Chill – Version 2015 – Hits the Maritimes-
Local / New Brunswick / Maritime News:
Sussex explosion and fire investigated as a possible drug crime { }
Oromocto West still under a boil water order { }
Maritimes face more weather warnings for Sunday { }
Irving pipeline gets retroactive approval fro EUB { * New Brunswick’s Energy and Utilities Board has granted an Irving Oil company retroactive permission to build an oil pipeline that the company already built without permission last year. * —“Not Good,” —djo— }
Larry’s Gulch review findings will ‘absolutely’ be made public { * This is a New Brunswick ‘scandal’ that sounds way too much like a slight of hand distraction to take your attention away from something else. The Province owns a multi-million dollar fishing lodge where they entertained visiting politicians and invited newspaper reporters who were fired for conflict of interest violations. There also seems to be some confusion over when the lodge went from being ‘private’ to ‘publicly owned’ & where the line between private and public functions was drawn. The new Liberal government has decided that the lodge can only be used for functions designed to bring jobs to New Brunswick. *** “Any time I hear a politician utter words like ‘jobs’ or ‘Leadership’ I know my ears are about to be assaulted by pure and utter b.s.” — Douglas Jay Otterson *** * —djo— }
Energy East Pipeline construction training premature, David Coon says. { * The Energy East Pipeline is a project that is being bitterly contested in Quebec. Activists cite dangers to wildlife, and say the claims of loads of jobs for local people is highly over-estimated and point out that New Brunswick will lose money in this deal unless they re-write the agreement with the corporations that will own the pipeline. And instead of refining and distributing the gas/oil the pipeline is supposed to deliver, here, they claim the resources would be exported, benefiting foreign interests at our expense. Oh, and Irving Oil stands to save and reap loads of money if this goes through. * —djo— }
Mounting snow days leave schools scrambling { }
==============
End Homelessness Now. It’s much more cost effective to give homeless people a place to live than to leave them out in the cold. —djo—
{ “Perma-Link” to the above article, copied and pasted at “Child Of Light” >>—> http://www.aerendel.org/news/?p=396 <—<< }
India is building the world’s largest solar plant. 🙂 —djo—
It looks like more people every day realize that September 11, 2001 was perpetrated, if not entirely by- then with the help of – possibly rogue – US Government Insiders. —djo—
Teddy Roosevelt was a Republican who championed anti-trust laws. —djo—
Effective Cartoon, Surveillance State dark ops goons tear a hole in the Canadian Charter of Rights to further their godless power. —djo—
Conservative Lies cast Environmentalist as terrorists. Well, if the conservative’s jobs are threatened by people telling the truth, maybe they should be in terror. Ya think? —djo—
Government Terrorism = “Governments have killed more of their own citizens than all the wars in the past hundred years.” —djo—
“How to gut oversight .101 – make sure the watchdogs don’t get enough money to function.” = Stephen Harper will leave the PM’s office in Handcuffs. —djo—
“Canada Jettisons Rights and Land Claims in a bid to label environmentalists as terrorists.” —djo—
“Anti-Terror Legislation is aimed at labeling Environmental Activists as terrorists.”
The Harper government’s deregulations seen as the real cause of the Lac-Megantic tragedy.
From OccupyWallStreet-NYC & The Electronic Freedom Foundation, thanks to “—jda—“
-Um, another theory: The ‘War on Drugs’ is a manipulation to keep the ‘street prices’ of drugs high so the C.I.A. and other ‘black-ops’ groups who traffic in those drugs to keep their budgets secret can really cash in on their highly profitable business. They do want a Police State, but the ‘war on drugs’ is just one more strategy designed to bring that about. —djo—
Human Rights are under attack around the world, not just in the USA and Canada
Follow these links, even if you have to type them in manually, this guy is the real thing. —djo—
Strip Mining on the Moon?
Here’s a page for ya- Wow.
“Smart” Phones, “Smart” Meters, “Smart” appliances, “Smart TeeVees spying on You” — “Smart”-Anything is beginning to = “Bad News”. —djo—
God Bless Ed Snowden – And why do those guys on the right look like somebody has a gun pointed at their private parts? —djo—
Keep up the good work 🙂
I wish I said that- —djo—
It is refreshing to see any half-way main-stream news organization showing anything positive about any group that has been targeted for divisive/’divide-and-conquer’ propaganda. “Women and Children First” was just one of many positive philosophical ideas that came from Islam. —djo—
“Happiness can only be found within” —djo—
— We should quit here and publish this fiasco before we look at the clock and realize it’s next week already and we haven’t gotten anything done in our ‘real lives’ —djo—
Tags: "We don't want to be 'Allowed' to vote for someone else's agenda- We want to change the agenda-" -Germaine Greer, Banksters, Canada, Canadian Headline News, Economic Warfare, Fairness in Reporting, John Lennon - Imagine Peace, New Brunswick, News, Offbeat News, Propaganda, Truth in Reporting
Doug Otterson @ February 21, 2015
Posted in: "Always Question Authority", Canada, Conspiracies, News | Comments (0)
Friday, 20 February, 2015 -( +7˚F / -14˚C & clear @ 5:45 ap near Ithaca )- -( +12˚F / -11°C w/scattered clouds & darkness descending @ 6:45 pm Closer to Halifax —jim w—)- — { Headlines compiled by douglas j otterson & jim wellington, with help from —jda— } { Some things change, some articles remain. Do you know where your survival kit is? —djo— }
Switzerland 🙂
“Moment of Truth”? – Bear on a horizontal tree. I have no idea where this photo was taken. —djo—
Lord Byron quoted. —djo—
And a little encouragement is always a good thing. —djo—
And a bit of Nostalgia/History – & Yoko just had a birthday. —djo—
{ Today’s Birthdays : — You can find all this and more at http://www.historyorb.com/today/birthdays.php
February 20th: 1887 – Vincent Massey, Toronto Ontario, Governor General of Canada. 1896 – Henri de Lubac sj, French theologist/anti-fascist. 1900 – Graham Spry, St Thomas Ontario, Canadian radio pioneer. 1902 – Ansel Adams, photographer (1966 ASMP Award). 1904 – Aleksei N Kosygin, Soviet premier (1964-80). 1916 – Jackie Gleason, Brooklyn New York, American comedian (Ralph Kramden-Honeymooners). 1924 – Gloria Vanderbilt, don’t my jeans look great (poor little rich girl). 1925 – Robert Altman, Kansas City MO, director (Nashville, M*A*S*H). 1927 – Sidney Poitier, 1st African American actor to win an Oscar for Best Actor (‘Lillies in the Field’ – 1963), born in Miami, Florida. 1929 – Amanda Blake [Beverly Louise Neill], American actress (Kitty Russell-Gunsmoke), born in Buffalo, New York (d. 1989). 1937 – Nancy Wilson, Chillicothe Ohio, jazz vocalist (Feel Like Making Love). 1941 – Buffy Sainte-Marie, Maine, folksinger (Now That the Buffalo Are Gone). 1946 – J[erome] Geils, rock guitarist (J Geils Band-Centerfold), born in NYC, New York & Sandy Duncan, Henderson Tx, actress (Hogan Family). 1947 – Peter Strauss, Croton-on-Hudson NY, actor (Rich Man Poor Man) & Jennifer O’Neill, Rio de Janeiro Brazil, actress (Summer of ’42). 1949 – Ivana Trump, Gottwaldov Cz, ex-wife of Donald Trump (1st Wives Club). 1951 – Gordon Brown, Giffnock, Renfrewshire, Scotland, British Labour Prime Minister (2007–10) & Randy California, [Wolfe], Cal, guitarist (Spirit-I Got a Line on You). 1953 – Kathy Krafchick, Friend of Jim W’s. 1954 – Patty Hearst Shaw, SF, famous kidnap hostage (Tanya). 1955 – Kelsey Grammer, Virgin Islands, actor (Fraiser Crane-Cheers/Fraiser). 1963 – Charles Barkley, Leads Alabama, NBA forward (Phoenix, Rockets, Oly-gold-96) & William Baldwin, NY, actor (Backdraft, Sliver, Flatliners). 1966 – Cindy Crawford, Dekalb Ill, super model (Sports Illustrated Swimsuit). 1967 – Andrew Shue, actor (Melrose Place) & Kurt Cobain, Aberdeen Washington, rock vocalist (Nirvana). }
==============
Mountie guilty of perjury in Robert Dziekanski Taser death { }
RCMP close investigation into former Alberta premier without laying charges { }
‘Just in enough time’, naked 4-year old found wandering in bitter cold { }
Scientists discover a material stronger than spider silk { * “- in the teeth of a vegetarian sea snail.” * —djo— }
Niagara Falls photo taken on February 17th. I don’t see the falls here, do you?
==============
How an Anti Austerity platform can win in Spain.
How to use a cell or smart phone without being spied on? Yay! —djo—
Measles documented among fully immunized.
==============
A Florida based artist has been told to stop selling miniature versions of the Super Bowl halftime ‘character’ sharks.
Offbeat News:
Why shooting moose with paintball guns might be a great idea { * ???? * —djo— }
Blowtorches being used to melt sidewalk ice in Windsor { * I think I remember a really old issue of Mad Magazine suggesting various ways snow cleanup could be made much more effective and easier – one of them involved flame throwers, but the ‘after’ frame showed an entire city under about 20 feet of water. * —djo— }
Nestlé and Hershey pledge to make their candy bars healthier { * If G.M.O. ingredients are involved, don’t buy it. * —djo— }
Snowpiercing train bowls over rail fans with the white stuff { }
==============
New words to describe extreme weather? = “Freeze-nado” ? Works for me. —djo—
The Big Chill – Version 2015 – Hits the Maritimes-
Local / New Brunswick / Maritime News:
Liberals plan to scrap HST referendum requirement { }
Irving pipeline gets retroactive approval fro EUB { * New Brunswick’s Energy and Utilities Board has granted an Irving Oil company retroactive permission to build an oil pipeline that the company already built without permission last year. * —“Not Good,” —djo— }
Larry’s Gulch review findings will ‘absolutely’ be made public { * This is a New Brunswick ‘scandal’ that sounds way too much like a slight of hand distraction to take your attention away from something else. The Province owns a multi-million dollar fishing lodge where they entertained visiting politicians and invited newspaper reporters who were fired for conflict of interest violations. There also seems to be some confusion over when the lodge went from being ‘private’ to ‘publicly owned’ & where the line between private and public functions was drawn. The new Liberal government has decided that the lodge can only be used for functions designed to bring jobs to New Brunswick. *** “Any time I hear a politician utter words like ‘jobs’ or ‘Leadership’ I know my ears are about to be assaulted by pure and utter b.s.” — Douglas Jay Otterson *** * —djo— }
Energy East Pipeline construction training premature, David Coon says. { * The Energy East Pipeline is a project that is being bitterly contested in Quebec. Activists cite dangers to wildlife, and say the claims of loads of jobs for local people is highly over-estimated and point out that New Brunswick will lose money in this deal unless they re-write the agreement with the corporations that will own the pipeline. And instead of refining and distributing the gas/oil the pipeline is supposed to deliver, here, they claim the resources would be exported, benefiting foreign interests at our expense. Oh, and Irving Oil stands to save and reap loads of money if this goes through. * —djo— }
Mounting snow days leave schools scrambling { }
==============
End Homelessness Now. It’s much more cost effective to give homeless people a place to live than to leave them out in the cold. —djo—
{ “Perma-Link” to the above article, copied and pasted at “Child Of Light” >>—> http://www.aerendel.org/news/?p=396 <—<< }
India is building the world’s largest solar plant. 🙂 —djo—
It looks like more people every day realize that September 11, 2001 was perpetrated, if not entirely by- then with the help of – possibly rogue – US Government Insiders. —djo—
Effective Cartoon, Surveillance State dark ops goons tear a hole in the Canadian Charter of Rights to further their godless power. —djo—
Conservative Lies cast Environmentalist as terrorists. Well, if the conservative’s jobs are threatened by people telling the truth, maybe they should be in terror. Ya think? —djo—
Government Terrorism = “Governments have killed more of their own citizens than all the wars in the past hundred years.” —djo—
“How to gut oversight .101 – make sure the watchdogs don’t get enough money to function.” = Stephen Harper will leave the PM’s office in Handcuffs. —djo—
“Canada Jettisons Rights and Land Claims in a bid to label environmentalists as terrorists.” —djo—
“Anti-Terror Legislation is aimed at labeling Environmental Activists as terrorists.”
The Harper government’s deregulations seen as the real cause of the Lac-Megantic tragedy.
From OccupyWallStreet-NYC & The Electronic Freedom Foundation, thanks to “—jda—“
-Um, another theory: The ‘War on Drugs’ is a manipulation to keep the ‘street prices’ of drugs high so the C.I.A. and other ‘black-ops’ groups who traffic in those drugs to keep their budgets secret can really cash in on their highly profitable business. They do want a Police State, but the ‘war on drugs’ is just one more strategy designed to bring that about. —djo—
Human Rights are under attack around the world, not just in the USA and Canada
Follow these links, even if you have to type them in manually, this guy is the real thing. —djo—
Strip Mining on the Moon?
Here’s a page for ya- Wow.
“Smart” Phones, “Smart” Meters, “Smart” appliances, “Smart TeeVees spying on You” — “Smart”-Anything is beginning to = “Bad News”. —djo—
God Bless Ed Snowden – And why do those guys on the right look like somebody has a gun pointed at their private parts? —djo—
Keep up the good work 🙂
I wish I said that- —djo—
“Happiness can only be found within” —djo—
— We should quit here and publish this fiasco before we look at the clock and realize it’s next week already and we haven’t gotten anything done in our ‘real lives’ —djo—
Tags: "We don't want to be 'Allowed' to vote for someone else's agenda- We want to change the agenda-" -Germaine Greer, Banksters, Canada, Canadian Headline News, Economic Warfare, Fairness in Reporting, John Lennon - Imagine Peace, New Brunswick, News, Offbeat News, Propaganda, Truth in Reporting
Doug Otterson @ February 20, 2015
Posted in: "Always Question Authority", Canada, Conspiracies, News | Comments (0)
Thursday, 19 February, 2015 -( +7˚F / -14˚C w/’Blowing Snow’ @ 9:30 am near Ithaca )- -( +16˚F / -9°C w/Light Snow @ 10:30 am Closer to Halifax —jim w—)- — { Headlines compiled by douglas j otterson & jim wellington, with help from —jda— } { Some things change, some articles remain. Do you know where your survival kit is? —djo— }
{ CBC is forecasting 2 – 5 cm/ less than 2 inches of snow for our area today. The Weather Network is forecasting 10 – 15 cm/4-6 inches over the next 24 hours. At a little after 10 am I let the boof out to romp in the snow and make some of it yellow. There were two or three flakes per cubic foot in the air. Ten minutes later I had a hungry dog with a wide stripe of wide across his back and it was probably snowing in the ‘moderate’ range. —jim w— }
{ & I thought I could get some novel writing done, but when I sat down there were notices of tweets and I made the mistake of checking them out and they are way too ‘interesting’ – I have to get busy here and tell y’all about them. —djo— }
Let’s start out with a bit of colour – Very pretty autumn leaves, don’t know where or when, except that parts of the west and northwestern U.S.A. never see red autumn leaves because their trees only turn yellow and brown. —djo—
And a little encouragement is always a good thing. —djo—
And a bit of Nostalgia/History – & Yoko just had a birthday. —djo—
{ Today’s Birthdays : — You can find all this and more at http://www.historyorb.com/today/birthdays.php
February 17th: 1781- René-Theophile-Hyacinthe Lannec, France, inventor (stethoscope). 1837- Sam[uel] van Houten, Dutch (lib) minister (child labor laws). 1844- A Montgomery Ward, found mail-order business (Montgomery Ward). 1874- Thomas J Watson, US, representative/founder (IBM). 1908 – Walter L “Red” Barber, Miss, sports announcer (Bkln Dodgers, NY Yanks). 1925 – Hal Holbrook, actor (All the President’s Men, Mark Twain), born in Cleveland, Ohio. 1929- Chaim Potok, novelist (Promise), born in NYC, New York. 1936- Jim Brown, St. Simons Georgia, NFL running back (Cleveland Browns). 1939 – Mary Ann Mobley, Biloxi Ms, Miss America-1959/actress (Diff’rent Strokes). 1941 – Gene Pitney, Hartford Ct, vocalist/songwriter (Town Without Pity). 1942- Huey Newton, Black Panther leader. 1957 – Loreena McKennitt, Canadian vocalist & musician. 1962- Lou Diamond Phillips, Philippines, actor (La Bamba, Stand & Deliver). 1963 – Michael Jordan, NBA guard/forward (Chicago Bulls) and sports superstar. 1974-Jerry O’Connell, actor (Scream 2, Andrew-My Secret Identity), born in NYC, New York.
February 18th: 1374- Saint Jadwiga of Poland, Queen of Poland (d. 1399). 1486- Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Bengali saint, bhakti yoga developer. 1516- Mary I Tudor, [Bloody Mary], Greenwich, queen of England (1553-58). 1745- Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist and inventor of the 1st [modern] battery, born in Como, Italy (d. 1827). 1836 – Swami Ramakrishna [Gadadhar Chatterji], Hooghly Bengal, Indian mystic/hindu leader (preached unity of religions). 1887 – Nikos Kasandsakis, Heraklion, Crete, Greek writer and philosopher (Zorba the Greek, The Last Temptation of Christ). 1906-Hans Asperger, Austrian pediatrician (d. 1980). 1920- Jack Palance, [Walter Palanuik], Lattimer Pa, actor (City Slickers). 1922 – Helen Gurley Brown, Portland Maine, US author/publisher and editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, (d. 2012). 1925 – George Kennedy, actor (Cool Hand Luke, Airport, Blue Knight), born in NYC, New York. 1927- Luis Arroyo, Puerto Rican baseball player. 1930 – Gahan Wilson, American cartoonist. 1932- Milos Forman, Czech/US director (Cuckoos Nest, Amadeus). 1933 –Yoko Ono Lennon, [Mrs John Lennon], Tokyo Japan, singer and artist. 1950- Cybill Shepherd, Memphis Tn, actress (Moonlighting, Last Picture Show). 1952- Juice Newton, [Judy Cohen], Virginia, vocalist (Angel of the Morning). 1953- Robin Bachman, Winnipeg, guitarist (BTO-You Aint Seen Nothing Yet). 1954- John Travolta, Englewood NJ, actor (Welcome Back Kotter, Pulp Fiction). 1957- Vanna White, [Rosich], N Myrtle Beach SC, TV host (Wheel of Fortune). 1964- Matt Dillon, New Rochelle NY, actor (Flamingo Kid, Tex, Kansas). 1968- Molly Ringwald, Roseville California, actress (16 Candles, Pretty in Pink).
February 19th: 1473- Nicolaus Copernicus, Toruń Royal Prussia, Polish mathematician and astronomer (d. 1543). 1881- Evert Gorter, founder of Dutch medical child care. 1912- Stan Kenton, [Newcomb], Wichita Ks, jazz musician (Music 55). 1916- Eddie Arcaro, jockey (1958 Racing Hall of Fame, 2 triple crowns). 1924 – Lee Marvin, actor (Paint Your Wagon, Cat Ballou), born in NYC, New York. 1930 – John Frankenheimer, director (Birdman of Alcatraz), born in NYC, New York. 1940- William “Smokey” Robinson, Det, American R&B and soul singer-songwriter (The Miracles-Tears of a Clown). 1943- “Mama” Cass Elliot, actress (Mamas & Papas-Monday Monday) & Lou Christie [Lugee Sacco], Glenwillard, Pennsylvania, American singer-songwriter (Lightning Striking Again) . 1951 – Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri (Db), Pakistani Islamic Sufi Scholar. 1955 – Jeff Daniels, GA, actor (Something Wild, Dumb & Dumber, Speed, The News Room). 1960- Prince Andrew, Albert Christian Edward, of Britain/Duke of York. 1930 – Gahan Wilson, American cartoonist. 1932- Milos Forman, Czech/US director (Cuckoos Nest, Amadeus). & I’m not sure of the year, a friend and writer/poet in Vermont- Jeff Bender. }
==============
Boy, 3, who left Toronto apartment at 4 a.m., dies after spending hours outside { 🙁 }
‘This is not a bomb’: Why school strip searches for drugs are legally troubling {* “Police officers and corrections staff across Canada can do strip searches in limited circumstances, but legal experts see little or no justification for school staff strip searching students suspected of carrying drugs, as happened recently with a Quebec teen.” – There is a major controversy brewing over this one. The young woman is 15 years old, was suspended even though no drugs were found. Her parents are suing the school. & I added the linked article to this headline below this section. * —djo— }
Mother of 2 says complaining got her kicked off kidney transplant list { * The 45 year old mother believes she was kicked off the waiting list because she complained about her hemodialsis. Doctors say they decided she is mentally ill. * —djo— }
Niagara Falls a spectacular sight in sub-freezing temperatures { }
Niagara Falls photo taken on February 17th. I don’t see the falls here, do you?
==============
Strip-searched girl suspended by Quebec City school
De la Capitale School Board says it suspects 15-year-old of trafficking drugs
CBC News Posted: Feb 19, 2015 9:46 AM ET Last Updated: Feb 19, 2015 5:12 PM ET
“The family of the 15-year-old girl who was strip-searched is now threatening to sue.”
A Quebec City school board says that the 15-year-old girl who was strip-searched by her female high school principal and another female staff member has been suspended and transferred to another school.
Nadine Genest, the principal at Neufchâtel High School, said in a statement Thursday the school had reason to believe the student “was trafficking drugs in our school for several months.”
The De la Capitale School Board, which released the statement, did not explain the exact reason for her suspension.
In the strip search, the girl was asked to remove all her clothing, including her underwear. No drugs were found.
The school board defended the practice, saying it followed strict guidelines drafted in 2010 by the province with the help of police.
Genest said there was no “visual or physical contact with the student” during the search, and it was only done so that they could search her clothes.
Girl’s family planning lawsuit
Meanwhile, the girl’s mother said the family has felt traumatized by the incident and has hired a lawyer.
The mother said she was particularly upset about not being called before — or after — her daughter was strip-searched.
She said her daughter’s requests to call home were twice denied.
The school board said that is not true.
“Contrary to what the mother said, we did offer the student the chance to call her mother, but she refused to make the call,” said Marie-Elaine Dion of the De la Capitale School Board.
The family’s lawyer said he will file a lawsuit alleging the province misinterpreted a 1998 Supreme Court decision involving the drug search of a student in Nova Scotia when it formulated its search policy.
Premier limits strip searches
In response to the controversy, Premier Philippe Couillard announced Thursday there would be no more strip searches in schools, except in extreme cases where police deem it necessary.
The decision comes after Quebec Education Minister Yves Bolduc initially defended the school and existing policy around strip searches, setting off a firestorm of criticism.
After taking heat from the public, however, Bolduc altered his stance and said he was concerned by the turn of events.
Bolduc said Wednesday the government has asked an independent person from outside the school board to look into what happened.
In the statement released Thursday, the De la Capitale School Board said it would co-operate fully with the investigation.
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A Florida based artist has been told to stop selling miniature versions of the Super Bowl halftime ‘character’ sharks.
Offbeat News:
Nestle and Hershey pledge to make their candy bars healthier { * I can see them now, Chocolate company executives waking up the candy bars at 4:30 in the morning, screaming at them like drill sergeants, and making them run around abandoned World War II boot camps with useless old too-heavy world war one rifles held over their heads, screaming out stupid songs that are supposed to make them feel patriotic instead of idiotic? * —djo— }
Snowpiercing train bowls over rail fains with the white stuff { }
Bison surprises Dryden, Ont. couple in their home, scares cats { }
Happy lunar new year, but is it the Year of the Sheep or the Goat? { }
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The Big Chill – Version 2015 – Hits the Maritimes-
Local / New Brunswick / Maritime News:
Larry’s Gulch review findings will ‘absolutely’ be made public { * This is a New Brunswick ‘scandal’ that sounds way too much like a slight of hand distraction to take your attention away from something else. The Province owns a multi-million dollar fishing lodge where they entertained visiting politicians and invited newspaper reporters who were fired for conflict of interest violations. There also seems to be some confusion over when the lodge went from being ‘private’ to ‘publicly owned’ & where the line between private and public functions was drawn. The new Liberal government has decided that the lodge can only be used for functions designed to bring jobs to New Brunswick. *** “Any time I hear a politician utter words like ‘jobs’ or ‘Leadership’ I know my ears are about to be assaulted by pure and utter b.s.” — Douglas Jay Otterson *** * —djo— }
Energy East Pipeline construction training premature, David Coon says. { * The Energy East Pipeline is a project that is being bitterly contested in Quebec. Activists cite dangers to wildlife, and say the claims of loads of jobs for local people is highly over-estimated and point out that New Brunswick will lose money in this deal unless they re-write the agreement with the corporations that will own the pipeline. And instead of refining and distributing the gas/oil the pipeline is supposed to deliver, here, they claim the resources would be exported, benefiting foreign interests at our expense. Oh, and Irving Oil stands to save and reap loads of money if this goes through. * —djo— }
Cause of death of Moncton man found outside still unclear { }
Dairy farm losses from snowstorm more than a little spilled milk { }
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End Homelessness Now. It’s much more cost effective to give homeless people a place to live than to leave them out in the cold. —djo—
Conservative Lies cast Environmentalist as terrorists. Well, if the conservative’s jobs are threatened by people telling the truth, maybe they should be in terror. Ya think? —djo—
“Canada Jettisons Rights and Land Claims in a bid to label environmentalists as terrorists.” —djo—
“Anti-Terror Legislation is aimed at labeling Environmental Activists as terrorists.”
The Harper government’s deregulations seen as the real cause of the Lac-Megantic tragedy.
-Um, another theory: The ‘War on Drugs’ is a manipulation to keep the ‘street prices’ of drugs high so the C.I.A. and other ‘black-ops’ groups who traffic in those drugs to keep their budgets secret can really cash in on their highly profitable business. They do want a Police State, but the ‘war on drugs’ is just one more strategy designed to bring that about. —djo—
Human Rights are under attack around the world, not just in the USA and Canada
“Happiness can only be found within” —djo—
— We should quit here and publish this fiasco before we look at the clock and realize it’s next week already and we haven’t gotten anything done in our ‘real lives’ —djo—
Tags: "We don't want to be 'Allowed' to vote for someone else's agenda- We want to change the agenda-" -Germaine Greer, Banksters, Canada, Canadian Headline News, Economic Warfare, Fairness in Reporting, John Lennon - Imagine Peace, New Brunswick, News, Offbeat News, Propaganda, Truth in Reporting
Doug Otterson @ February 19, 2015
Posted in: "Always Question Authority", Canada, Conspiracies, News | Comments (0)
Monday, 16 February, 2015 -( +4˚F / -16˚C & overcast @ 4:00 pm near Ithaca )- -( +12˚F / -11˚C & cloudy @ 5:00pm Closer to Halifax —jim w—)- — { Headlines compiled by douglas j otterson & jim wellington, with help from —jda— } { Some things change, some articles remain. Do you know where your survival kit is? —djo— } { & Doug tells me he had some problems trying to get this done this evening. Let’s see how we do at this end? —jim w— }
Between 4 and 4:05 pm – WebCam shot overlooking Ithaca from one of the towers at Cornell U.
Looking north from Fredericton’s Downtown side of the Westmorland Street Bridge @ 5:40 pm today.
{ Weather News? Both New York State and New Brunswick have survived the latest major snow storm event. New Brunswick probably got hit harder than New York State did. }
{ Today’s Birthdays : — You can find all this and more at http://www.historyorb.com/today/birthdays.php
February 16th: 1866- Johann Strauss, Austria, composer (Waltz King). 1884- Robert Flaherty, Mich, father of documentary film (Nanook of North). 1903- Edgar Bergen, ventriloquist (Charlie McCarthy), born in Chicago, Illinois. 1909- Hugh Beaumont, Lawrence Ks, actor (Ward Cleaver-Leave it to Beaver) & Richard McDonald, American fast food pioneer (d. 1998). 1911 – Hal Porter, Australia, writer (Tilted Cross, Paper Chase). 1912 – Machito “Frank Grillo”, Florida, bandleader (created salsa music). 1925 or 1926- John Schlesinger, director (Midnight Cowboy, Darling), born in London, England. 1935- Sonny Bono, vocalist (Sonny & Cher)/(Rep-R-Ca, 1995-98), born in Detroit, Michigan. 1954 – Margaux Hemingway, Portland Or, actress (Lipstick, They Call Me Bruce). 1957 – LeVar Burton, Landstuhl Germany, (Roots, Star Trek Next Generation). 1958- Ice-T [Tracy Marrow], Newark, New Jersey, American rapper and actor (New Jack City, Tank Girl, Crazy Six) & Lisa Loring, actress (As the World Turns, Wednesday-Addams Family) (The original Wednesday Addams on the TeeVee show). 1959 – John McEnroe, Wiesbaden, Germany, American tennis great (US Open 1979-81, 84 Wimb 1981, 83, 84). 1964 – Christopher Eccleston, English actor (Dr Who, Heroes). 1998 – Mr Jefferson, Virginia, 1st cloned calf. }
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Ottawa drops back-to-work legislation as CP Rail, Union end strike { * I capitalized “Union” cbc news didn’t. * —djo— }
Student says U of T failed to help her avoid attacker {* The University of Toronto is investigating the way it handled a report of sexual assault after a student says the school failed to help her avoid her attacker in classes she shared with him, CBC News has learned. * —djo— }
Lesley Gore, singer of ‘It’s My Party’ and ‘You Don’t Own Me’, dead at 68 { * I remember seeing her on a local -New Jersey/New York City area- Rock and Roll teevee program, after lip-syncing one of her hits – smile and give the host of the program a list of reasons why she would make the perfect girl friend for Paul McCartney. One of her reasons was that they were both left handed. * —djo— }
RCMP accused of helping mother abduct baby to Australia { * The father is suing the RCMP, alleging the force helped her commit a criminal offence. * —djo— }
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A Florida based artist has been told to stop selling miniature versions of the Super Bowl halftime ‘character’ sharks.
Offbeat News:
RCMP find stranded seal near Highway 9 in Newtown, N.S. { }
Cocaine found in pocket of jacket at Value Village { }
Mark Critch locks lips with Danny Williams for IceCaps’s kiss cam { }
Scorpion on a plane: Woman stung before flight takes off { }
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-The Big Chill – Version 2015 – Hits the Maritimes-
Local / New Brunswick / Maritime News:
2 Moncton Times & Transcript editors out after ethics probe { }
New Brunswick couple stranded in SUV in P.E.I. for 24 hours { }
Weekend storm blankets parts of Maritimes with 60 cm of snow { }
Moncton’s Claude Gauthier loses Mars One bid { * & Doug Otterson is singing “Mars Needs Ice-Holes, Lets Send Stephen Harper” * —jim w— }
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Some of the most accurate ‘prognosticators’/Futurists/’psychics’ believe there won’t be an election in 2016. Some say there will be a Fascist regime which will have declared Martial Law in the USA. Others believe the USA will be paralyzed from strife and infrastructure collapse and won’t be able to function. —djo—
I thought I should pop something that isn’t completely negative in here before things get out of hand… —djo—
Thunder snow Jim Cantore- the weather channel guy’s reaction in Boston, Mass.
Another non-negative thing, unless this is a galaxy some black ops group just blew up or something… wink —djo—
I believe I will need to copy and paste this story below this Re-Tweet. One Comment reads, “Huge North Dakota fail and sell out to Big Oil!!”
{ – http://www.grandforksherald.com/news/region/3680221-leaky-saltwater-disposal-wells-allowed-inject-fluid-underground-anyway-review :
Leaky saltwater-disposal wells allowed to inject fluid underground anyway, review shows
DICKINSON, N.D. – The North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources’ Division of Oil and Gas has allowed saltwater-disposal wells to continue injecting fluid underground even as mechanical integrity tests – meant to detect weaknesses in the well’s construction – have indicated leaks in parts of the wells’ multiple layers of casing.
—Adverisements deleted—
A review of 449 well files and more than 2,090 mechanical integrity test reports show how state officials conditionally approve disposal wells even after they don’t meet widely accepted pressure testing standards.
Like oil and gas wells, disposal wells consist of multiple layers of steel and concrete tubing that stretch past layers of soil, rock and aquifers, thousands of feet underground. But instead of carrying oil and gas to the surface, injection wells pressurize saltwater – commonly referred to as produced water – shooting it back underground into porous geological formations.
GRAPHIC: Saltwater disposal wells
While the records don’t document any instances of groundwater contamination, they highlight how the agency has allowed wells with structural problems to operate, sometimes for years, even though guidance documents from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommend wells with significant pressure losses be repaired within 270 days and that wells with less than two viable layers of casing be shut down during that time.
Officials with the Division of Oil and Gas said they have the authority to approve the wells for use because they were given primary enforcement responsibilities by the EPA, and that the conditional approval of wells are not considered test failures, suggesting the EPA guidance doesn’t apply to those cases.
Mark Bohrer, the agency’s underground injection control manager, said decisions to conditionally approve wells that lose pressure during testing were based on geology and petroleum engineering, and that if there was any threat to drinking water, the wells would be shut down.
“If we had any inkling that there would be contamination of (U.S. drinking water), the well would be shut in,” Bohrer said. “That is the last thing I want to do is contaminate somebody’s freshwater well.”
However, a review of state and federal documents, as well as interviews with geologists, engineers, environmental policy experts and lawyers who have litigated under the Safe Drinking Water Act, suggests the agency is loosely interpreting guidance and protocols that are meant to maintain the multiple layers of protection that separate aquifers from the toxic saltwater.
In parts of North Dakota, rural landowners rely on underground aquifers as a source of drinking water for themselves and their livestock.
“The reason well integrity is important is because if you develop some sort of leak then you could have fluid that moves, in the worst case, up to an aquifer,” said William Fleckenstein, a professor of petroleum engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. “Typically, that is what you are trying to avoid with the variety of integrity tests that are done.”
While saltwater spills on the surface can contaminate soil, leaving behind withered crops and barren patches of land, scientists have found that saltwater contamination of an aquifer can last for decades, with no economically feasible way to clean it up.
“It doesn’t just flush out and disappear,” said Joanna Thamke, a hydrologist with theU.S. Geological Survey, who has studied saltwater contamination of aquifers in Montana and North Dakota.
Saltwater is a mixture of hydraulic fracturing fluid – the water and proprietary chemicals that companies use to break apart shale deposits deep underground – and produced water – the briny solution trapped with oil and gas in those formations.
The toxic mix often contains significant levels of arsenic, lead, ammonium, benzene, bromide, radioactive material and high concentrations of chlorides. In North Dakota, saltwater has been shown to have ammonium levels at 300 times the EPA-recommended limit and chloride levels high enough that if any more salt was added, it wouldn’t be dissolved in the fluid.
While medical researchers have only begun to analyze how low levels of continued exposure to these oil and gas contaminants through the environment can affect people, medical science has already shown that high concentrations of these elements can cause cancer, neurological disorders and birth defects.
Bohrer said there are no reported cases of a saltwater disposal well contaminating an underground aquifer in North Dakota and at no point has the agency placed underground aquifers at risk to contamination.
But energy and public health experts said the long-term impact saltwater can have on an aquifer and the danger the fluid can pose to public health emphasizes the importance of constantly maintaining the mechanical integrity of disposal wells.
“There is a reason well bore integrity is tested,” said Seth Shonkoff, the executive director of Physicians, Scientists and Engineers for Healthy Energy, a think tank that aims to bring scientific transparency to energy and policy issues.
State officials said the EPA guidance documents related to integrity testing don’t hold the same standing as the administrative rules, and that the agency has the authority to choose which EPA guidelines to follow.
“There is a big difference between guidance and having your own (underground injection control) program,” said Alison Ritter, the public information specialist for the Division of Oil and Gas.
But environmental lawyers who reviewed the guidance documents said the state’s actions were legally questionable and could open the agency up to citizen lawsuits or a review by the EPA if enough people petitioned federal officials.
Bohrer said EPA officials were fully aware of how the Division of Oil and Gas operates the injection control program in North Dakota, but federal reports and email responses from the EPA Region 8 office in Denver suggest the federal agency’s oversight of state injection programs is limited due to staffing and budget constraints.
The findings of a Forum News Service investigation come at a time when landowners and Democratic legislators have called for a performance review audit of the Division of Oil and Gas and as agency officials have resisted legislation that would separate their dual roles as the regulator and promoter of the state’s oil industry.
As large surface spills have flowed onto farmers’ fields and into streams, grabbing public attention and causing lawmakers to rethink regulations over oil and saltwater pipelines, the documents highlight another, largely unseen but vital, part of the agency’s regulatory responsibilities.
The integrity reports raise questions about the agency’s criteria for pressure testing and conditional approvals, as the number of operating disposal wells in the state increased from 293 to 486 in the past seven years and the amount of saltwater disposed of jumped from 94 million to 350 million barrels in 2014.
Officials with the Division of Oil and Gas disagreed with the points raised by Forum News Service and in an email response said that if anyone is to fully understand the agency’s underground injection control program they should have a strong background in petroleum engineering and geology.
“The UIC program is highly technical and complex, with regulatory development and implementation evolving over time,” Ritter wrote in an email.
Regulations covering underground injection control programs began in the early 1980s under the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974, after federal lawmakers recognized the threat that injection wells posed to underground aquifers.
As part of the law, states could apply to take over primary enforcement responsibilities for injection wells, including Class II wells that handle saltwater and other liquid waste produced during the oil and gas drilling process.
When a production well is hydraulically fractured, millions of gallons of saltwater surge back to the surface with the oil, and continue to flow throughout the lifespan of the well. This large influx of liquid waste requires companies to dispose of the toxic fluid as long as the well is in operation.
While injecting saltwater underground has been shown to be a better option than attempting to treat the fluid or storing it in pits, environmental policy experts point out that the strict guidance regarding injection wells is in place to eliminate any chance of the steel and concrete tubing becoming pathways through which saltwater leaks into or near an underground source of drinking water.
In order for the Division of Oil and Gas to take over the underground injection control program in 1983, the state had to adopt rules that met minimum standards for construction, permitting, monitoring, enforcement and plugging of the wells.
But while those rules require wells to pass mechanical integrity tests every five years without a “significant leak,” Bohrer said the agency doesn’t have guidance to define what a significant leak is.
The most common mechanical integrity test conducted is a standard annular pressure test (SAPT) where the annulus, the space between the casing and production tubing, is pressurized with liquid to see if it holds.
Since the 1980s, at least 13 states and the EPA have adopted administrative rules or guidance defining the standards for pressure testing, including some of the country’s largest oil producing states, like Montana, California, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas.
In all of those cases, the rules and guidelines state that tests are considered failures if a well loses more than 5 to 10 percent of the pressure placed on the annulus over 15 to 30 minutes.
Officials with the Division of Oil and Gas took issue with the comparison of rules and guidance in other parts of the country, because those states don’t have the same geology as North Dakota, which they said is well suited for underground injection.
During an interview, Bohrer said the accepted standard for a passing pressure test is less than a 10 percent drop over 15 minutes, but state records show the agency allows companies to continue injecting fluid underground even as wells lose 11, 30 or even 70 percent of the pressure during testing.
Bohrer said the decision to conditionally approve a well is made on a case-by-case basis and that the companies have to accept certain operating rules, like yearly testing and extra pressure monitoring to make sure the production tubing – the innermost layer of steel piping that saltwater is injected through – isn’t leaking. He said operators are ordered to immediately shut in the well if a leak in the production tubing is detected.
During an interview, the Division of Oil and Gas’ staff referenced an EPA guidance document from 1992 to show it had the authority to allow wells to continue operations after significant pressure losses, but when it was pointed out in follow-up emails that the guidance document calls for wells to be repaired or plugged within 270 days, the agency stated the document didn’t apply because conditional approvals were not failures.
That same document also states that if officials can’t handle the “administrative burden” of “additional inspections” and data monitoring, they shouldn’t allow wells to operate within those 270 days.
When state inspectors conditionally approve an injection well for use in North Dakota, it requires integrity tests to be performed annually instead of every five years, and mandates that annulus pressure readings be checked monthly, like the wells’ permitted surface injection pressure.
But officials with the Division of Oil and Gas said they fully accept the extra inspection and monitoring burden and that the agency doesn’t have any problems meeting its existing regulatory duties.
When asked whether the Division of Oil and Gas collects the additional pressure readings from conditionally approved wells for monitoring purposes, Bohrer said that the agency does not and that it is up to field staff to check the readings during monthly inspections. He said companies are expected to keep those readings for several years, but the agency does not collect them as part of the well history.
“These requirements are not considered burdensome to our regulatory program, as we already inspect all UIC wells at least monthly and witness all (mechanical integrity tests),” Ritter wrote in an email response.
According to a 2014 legislative audit, the Division of Oil and Gas agreed that agency-wide inspections were not being completed within the timeframes established, but said that around 75 percent of the injection wells in the state were being visited on a monthly basis, which it said was the best rate in the country.
Ritter said the Division of Oil and Gas has 32 field inspectors and three staff members in the Bismarck office to oversee the operations of the 486 active disposal wells. The field inspectors also have other regulatory responsibilities, like rig and production well inspections.
The Division has requested another 16 full time employees to handle the agency’s permitting, monitoring and enforcement efforts.
Officials with the Division of Oil and Gas said higher emphasis is placed on disposal wells that are conditionally approved and that the monthly inspection of pressure readings and the proper construction of the wells – usually with two outer layers of steel and cement running from the surface to below the aquifer – leaves little to no chance that saltwater can escape the well.
“If your well is properly constructed, there is really no avenue available for that fluid to migrate,” Bohrer said.
‘The absence of adequate data’
While the vast majority of the wells that were reviewed had a surface and production casing running past the aquifer, state records show the Division of Oil and Gas has conditionally approved wells that only have one external layer of casing next to underground sources of drinking water.
Bohrer said there is no rule requiring injection wells to have two or more layers of external casing to operate, but according to the EPA guidance documents, wells that fail an annular pressure test and only have one external layer of casing should be shut in unless officials can verify that the leak isn’t located near the underground source of drinking water.
- In May 2011, the Pan Am 501 disposal well in Burke County failed three consecutive pressure tests, but while the operator was initially ordered to stop injections until it could pass, inspectors allowed the well to operate for four days between the second and third test. It was only after the third test that inspectors noted the well only had one outer layer of casing next to the aquifer. When the well was tested for a fourth time in June 2011, it was conditionally approved after losing 10 percent of the testing pressure. It operated under that conditional approval for 16 months until it failed a test in December 2012. During that failure, the well could not be pressurized, suggesting the leak got significantly worse. After that fourth failure, the company installed a liner inside the production casing.
- The Klandl 26-31X disposal well in McKenzie County has either been conditionally approved or in violation of mechanical integrity rules for much of the time between 2003 and 2012. But while it was noted in July 2007 that the well only had one layer of casing located at the depth of the aquifer, inspectors have continued to allow the well to operate under conditional approvals, even as it has lost significant pressure during testing. Over much of that time, records suggest the operator has injected saltwater at pressures above its permitted limit until March 2014, when state officials finally recognized the violation and the well was shut down.
In an email, Ritter wrote that The Press’ interpretation of the guidance – which was substantiated by lawyers consulted for the story – was flawed because a well’s tubing, casing and cement are each considered a layer of protection.
But the 1987 EPA document states that “if the outer casing is breached, even if there is cement behind the casing,” the well should be considered a significant non-compliance and be shut in until it is repaired or plugged.
In the cases of the Pan Am 501 and Klandl 26-31X disposal wells in Burke and McKenzie counties, pressure testing indicated leaks in the casings, and since both wells only had one outer layer of casing near the aquifers and the location of leaks cannot be determined by pressure testing, it left them with only one verifiable layer of protection remaining – the inner production tubing.
Bohrer said the agency meets all of the minimum standards required by federal law and that EPA guidance documents were drafted for the entire country, not for North Dakota.
“We try to mirror those things that are applicable to our situations in North Dakota,” Bohrer said. “Those are national documents – one size fits all – and we take the parts that are applicable to our state.”
Lawyers consulted for the story said the EPA guidance documents may not have the same legal standing as a rule, but argued those guidance documents are put in place to fill in the administrative gaps that rules don’t address.
“It isn’t an issue of whether there are laws on the books – in this case whether we have laws that regulate underground injection,” said Andrew Reid, an environmental and natural resources law professor at the University of Denver. “The issue is whether the state is going to enforce it and live up to the responsibility of protecting the citizens and the natural resources of the state.”
If the issue was addressed in court, Parenteau said the administrative rules and guidance documents would be reviewed as a whole.
“You have to look at all of these documents together,” he said. “That is what a judge would do.”
Business realities
When an injection well fails a mechanical integrity test and is shut down, it can cost operators tens of thousands of dollars in lost profits and repairs.
The most common repair for a disposal well is a tubing replacement, where a workover rig pulls the internal production tubing out of the well, checking it for holes and weaknesses and replacing the sections of the steel or fiberglass pipe that are leaking.
“At the end of the day, if you have a hole in your production tubing, it’s a simple matter to change that out,” said Fleckenstein, who is currently working on a National Science Foundation project studying the effects of gas development on air and water resources.
But if a pressure test indicates a hole in the well’s casing, which records show is often the case for wells that are conditionally approved, the repairs can be more difficult.
There is no way to replace the casing, Fleckenstein said, but it can be fixed by forcing cement down the well’s annulus to seal off leaks or by installing a liner inside the production casing.
Installing a casing liner the entire length of an injection well, which stretches thousands of feet, can drive up the cost of repairs, Fleckenstein said, and is usually done when a cement squeeze doesn’t work.
“It can start to cost money,” he said.
But shutting in a disposal well can have far bigger ramifications than repair costs for a single operator.
When an injection well shuts down, it can create a ripple effect in the oil industry, Bohrer said, requiring all of the oil wells that pipe or truck saltwater to that disposal site to stop production or find another well in the area.
“Should that be done in certain instances? Certainly,” Bohrer said. “It’s just the price you have to pay.”
But numbers suggest it’s difficult for a disposal well in the state to shut in operations without affecting the production wells that rely on it.
Between 2007 and 2014, the amount of saltwater disposed of in North Dakota increased by 270 percent, while the number of disposal wells handling that fluid increased by only 65 percent.
Bohrer said those business and economic realities and the state’s effort to reach and exceed 1 million barrels of oil produced per day doesn’t play any part in the agency’s decisions to conditionally approve disposal wells for use.
“That is not a significant contributing factor,” Bohrer said.
Shut ins, landowners and coincidences
In Bottineau County, the Division of Oil and Gas has begun to shut down wells that lose significant pressure during testing, even when operators request conditional approvals.
At five saltwater disposal wells in the county, inspectors have issued failures for pressure losses of more than 10 percent and ordered companies to shut down operations until the wells can be repaired or plugged, as EPA guidance recommends.
Prior to those failures, two of the wells were given conditional approvals even as they lost between 26 and 50 percent of the testing pressure.
But over the past year and a half, as members of the Northwest Landowners Association have began monitoring those wells – inspecting publicly available files, requesting documents from the Division of Oil and Gas and testifying at legislative hearings – all five of the wells have been shut in after failures.
- The Jesperson 31-29 disposal well was shut down in November 2013, after losing 28 percent of the pressure during testing. Prior to that, the well had been conditionally approved since January 2007, even as it lost 28 to 50 percent of the pressure during testing.
- The Cramer 1 disposal well was shut down in September 2014, after losing 25 percent of the pressure applied during testing. After the test, the operator had requested a conditional approval from the Division of Oil and Gas but was denied.
- The Leo Hallof 1 disposal well was shut down in November 2014 after losing 30 percent of the testing pressure. The well had previously been conditionally approved after losing 26 percent of the testing pressure in February 2009.
- The Peterson 2 disposal well was shut down in November 2014 after losing nearly all of the testing pressure over several minutes.
- The Lillie Farms Partnership 1 disposal well was shut down in November 2014 after losing 50 percent of the testing pressure. It has since been repaired.
One of the wells, the Peterson 2, is also at the center of an ongoing lawsuit over the cleanup of multiple surface spills.
Officials with the Division of Oil and Gas said they were unaware that the landowners – who are some of the most vocal critics of the agency – were checking on those wells and that decisions to shut down those operations until they could pass integrity tests were based on the wells’ history, performance, geology and construction.
“If there is a lawsuit, that doesn’t tell me that they are monitoring it,” Bohrer said. “That has absolutely no influence on our decisions here in this office.”
Lynn Helms, the Department of Mineral Resources director, was deposed by lawyers representing Daryl Peterson, the landowner in the reclamation lawsuit, the same day that The Press met with Bohrer and the staff of the Division of Oil and Gas on Jan. 27.
Bohrer said the fact that all five disposal wells were shut in, after the landowners began looking into the wells, was a coincidence.
He said the agency’s focus is, and has always been, on protecting underground sources of drinking water.
“We take great pride in our program,” Bohrer said. “We inject well over 1 million barrels of saltwater per day, and I think our track record speaks for itself.” – }
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Radio Canada is the French Language Radio service of the CBC. If they hate Stephen Harper’s values, they have good reason to. He’s trying to unfund and shut them down. A lot of Canadians Hate Stephen Harper. He’s a Fascist dictator pretending to be a 21st century nice guy. & Nice guy He is NOT! —djo—
{ — Experiencing weird problems with this, I better publish now, reboot and try to finish up shortly. —djo— }
Hey, Jim & Cathi – Do you know where your orange cat is? —djo—
If I knew it was this easy to translate stuff I’d have been doing that all along. Even if I have absolutely no use for bing. —djo—
Dang! Too many good ‘fluff’ photos today. Well, maybe it’s more positive and would have a better effect on the collective psyche than sticking to ‘hard core news’. Ya think? & I’ve never been able to follow any of the links on these Buddhist tweets. —djo—
{ Okay, we’ve crashed twice, once when I first tried to include the photo of the orange cat between the horse and the dog, & again when I tried to add the photo of the balloons. && Between those two crashes WordPress told me I had to sign in again. Whattaya think? is there a conspiracy afoot here? 😉 }
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Oil Train derailment in West Virginia – one comment was ‘It should have been shipped via pipeline’ But are pipelines any safer? We need to switch from oil and gas to other, cheaper, more dependable renewable sources. —jim w—
Looks like things are getting nasty in an Australian dispute between coal mining interests and aboriginals and conservationists and others concerned with trying to save a rare Australian forest from destruction by the mining company. —jim w—
Jimmy Carter’s Presidency was cut short by the Iran Hostage Crisis – Which may have been orchestrated with the help of outgoing Republicans? Who knows? Anyway- with Habitat for Humanity and other projects he’s endorsed, Jimmy Carter might be the most popular ex-President alive in the US today. —jim w—
{ I better quit here, too, funny things are happening in the bloggish-sphere — —jim w— }
{ — Quitting while we’re ahead, I think Jim had some stuff to add, but he can do that later. ———djo——— }
Tags: "We don't want to be 'Allowed' to vote for someone else's agenda- We want to change the agenda-" -Germaine Greer, Banksters, Canada, Canadian Headline News, Economic Warfare, Fairness in Reporting, New Brunswick, News, Offbeat News, Propaganda, Truth in Reporting
Doug Otterson @ February 16, 2015
