The Calculation That Proves We're Not Alone in the Universe | Light at the End of the Tunnel

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The Calculation That Proves We're Not Alone in the Universe | Light at the End of the Tunnel
Dec 20, 2013 | breakingtheset

Abby Martin remarks on a recent discovery of five Jupiter sized planets that contain water within our milky way, and outlines the Drake Equation by astrophysicist Carl Sagan.

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Florida: Number of annual manatee deaths top 800 for first time on record

© Wikimedia Commons.
A group of three manatees

Earth Changes: Florida: Number of annual manatee deaths top 800 for first time on record
Dec 19, 2013 | Tampa Bay Times | Craig Pittman

For the first time since records began being kept in Florida in the 1970s, the number of manatee deaths in a single year has topped 800, with two weeks remaining to the end of 2013.

Numbers released by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg this week showed the number of dead manatees at 803 as of Dec. 13. That's about 16 percent of the state's estimated population of 5,000 manatees.

And 173 of the dead were breeding-age female manatees, Martine DeWit of the institute's Marine Mammal Pathology Laboratory said Thursday.

Although it's too soon to say how this will affect the future of the species, she said, "It must have an impact to lose these important breeding females."

For comparison, last year's total number of manatee deaths was 392, which is more in line with what's normal.

The old record for manatee deaths, set in 2010, resulted from a lengthy cold snap that killed hundreds of manatees, pushing that year's number of deaths to 766. That cold snap mostly affected younger manatees that had not yet attained breeding age, DeWit said.

This year's record die-off was driven by two causes - one of which remains a mystery.

First a massive bloom of Red Tide algae along the state's southwestern coast caused 276 deaths early in the year. Red Tide has been around for centuries and has killed manatees before. But this year was the worst Red Tide die-off ever recorded.

Meanwhile, a mysterious ailment has been killing manatees in the Indian River Lagoon on the state's east coast. That's been going on since last year but hit a fever pitch in the spring. Twenty-five died in March.

All told, 117 manatees have died in the Indian River Lagoon since July 2012, including one that died this month, according to Kevin Baxter, spokesman for the state marine science laboratory. No one can explain the die-off, which appears to be unprecedented.

Scientists are also baffled as to why scores of dolphins and pelicans died in the lagoon too, or whether there is any connection among the three unusual events.

The deaths of the three species may be a result of pollution-fueled algae blooms that wiped out some 47,000 acres of sea grass in the 156-mile-long lagoon that stretches along the state's Atlantic Coast.

Manatees normally eat sea grass, but with the sea grass gone they turned to less healthful sources of nutrition. They ate a reddish seaweed called Gracilaria. Tests have found "a suite of toxins" on the Gracilaria, but there is no confirmation that that's what killed the manatees. And that would not normally affect dolphins and pelicans, which eat fish, not sea grass.

There was one piece of good news in the figures. This year, 71 manatees have been killed by boats. That's down from the 81 that were killed by boats in 2012 and well below the record of 95 in 2002.

Fast facts

Through the years

A decade of Florida manatee deaths:

2004: 276

2005: 396

2006: 417

2007: 317

2008: 337

2009: 429

2010: 766

2011: 453

2012: 392

2013: 803 (as of Dec. 13)

Source: Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg

Carl Sagan: The Earth Is Where We Make Our Stand

image source

Carl Sagan: The Earth Is Where We Make Our Stand
Nov 30, 2013 | Information Clearing House

"In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us."

Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.



The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish only home we’ve ever known. The pale blue dot.

Chris Hedges on the Role of Art in Rebellion

Chris Hedges on the Role of Art in Rebellion
Nov 27, 2013 | truthdig

After a talk on the collapse of complex societies, Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges answers an audience question: "Will it take [literature, music and art] to waken us to the empathy of other suffering or hardship?"

Occupy Madison builds 'tiny home' for homeless

Occupy Madison builds 'tiny home' for homeless
Nov 18, 2013 | RT America

A group in Madison, Wisc. is taking an innovative approach to helping the homeless. Occupy Madison, an offshoot of the Occupy Movement, has built its first "tiny home" as part of their initiative called, "OM Build." They hope the house will become part of a cooperative village of eco-friendly homes. The tiny home is less than 100 square feet, and is built largely with recycled materials. RT's Sam Sacks talks with Occupy Madison organizer Luca Clemente about how OMB Build helps the homeless in more ways than just providing them shelter.

Filipino Gov. Misused Public Funds As People Suffer from Post-Typhoon Devastation

Filipino Gov. Misused Public Funds As People Suffer from Post-Typhoon Devastation
Nov 12, 2013 | TheRealNews

Jose Maria Sison: Evidence shows Filpino government set up ghost non-profits that failed to service its most vulnerable citizens


See more videos: http://therealnews.com

Scenes of 'Utter Destruction' as Crisis Grows in Super Typhoon's Wake

Scenes of 'Utter Destruction' as Crisis Grows in Super Typhoon's Wake
Nov 11, 2013 | Common Dreams

Widespread water and food shortages creating impossible conditions survivors, while relief efforts are slow due to destroyed infrastructure

Destroyed houses in the city of Tacloban, Leyte province.
(Photograph: TED ALJIBE/AFP/Getty Images)

As access continues to open to the areas worst hit by Super Typhoon Haiyan in the Phillipines over the weekend, scenes of total destruction are emerging alongside a growing humanitarian disaster.

With the death toll previously reported at 10,000 people or more the new phase of the calamity is now being experienced by those who survived the terrifying storm but now face a crippled infrastructure with little or no access to food, water, electricity, or even basic medical care.

With relief organizations and the government mobilizing to search for survivors and deliver aid to the victims of the storm, the reports, images, and video footage from the islands and communities hardest hit—some of them leveled completely by storm surges and wind gusts from one of the most powerful tropical storms ever recorded—showed the extent of Haiyan's destructive force.

“The scene is one of utter devastation," said Tata Abella-Bolo, a member of Oxfam International's emergency team on the central island of Cebu. "There is no electricity in the entire area and no water. Local emergency food stocks have been distributed but stocks are dwindling. The immediate need is for water, both for drinking and cleaning.”

The team reported that nearly all the houses and buildings in the areas they visited were damaged, with power lines down and no electricity in the entire municipality. The team spoke of seeing children begging for help, holding up signs that read: “Help. We need water, food and medicines.”

Oxfam warns that there at least 18 million people living in the worst affected regions and that millions more have been negatively impacted across the nation.

At a government press conference, Cabinet Secretary Rene Almendras said, "The situation is bad, the devastation has been significant. In some cases the devastation has been total."

"The only reason why we have no reports of casualties up to now is that communications systems ... are down," added Colonel John Sanchez of the Philippines armed forces.

Showing newly available aerial photographs from eastern islands that took the brunt of the storm's wrath, Sanchez added, "One hundred percent of the structures either had their roofs blown away or sustained major damage."

As the Associated Press reports:

Haiyan inflicted serious damage to at least six of the archipelago's more than 7,000 islands, with Leyte, neighboring Samar Island, and the northern part of Cebu appearing to bear the brunt of the storm. About 4 million people were affected by the storm, the national disaster agency said.
On Leyte, regional Police Chief Elmer Soria said the provincial governor had told him there were about 10,000 deaths there, primarily from drowning and collapsed buildings. Most were in Tacloban, a city of about 200,000 that is the biggest on the island.

On Samar, Leo Dacaynos of the provincial disaster office said 300 people were confirmed dead in one town and another 2,000 were missing, with some towns yet to be reached by rescuers. He pleaded for food and water, adding that power was out and there was no cellphone signal, making communication possible only by radio.

Reports from other affected islands indicated dozens, perhaps hundreds more deaths.
Video from Eastern Samar province's Guiuan township — the first area where the typhoon made landfall — showed a trail of devastation. Many houses were flattened and roads were strewn with debris and uprooted trees. The ABS-CBN video showed several bodies on the street, covered with blankets.

"Even me, I have no house, I have no clothes. I don't know how I will restart my life, I am so confused," an unidentified woman said, crying. "I don't know what happened to us. We are appealing for help. Whoever has a good heart, I appeal to you — please help Guiuan."

Photos:

People stand among debris and ruins of houses destroyed
after typhoon Haiyan battered Tacloban city. (Photo: Reuters)

Survivors walk through the rubble of damaged homes and a ship that was washed ashore
in Tacloban city, Leyte province, central Philippines on Sunday, Nov. 10, 2013. The city
remains littered with debris from damaged homes as many complain of shortages of food
and water and no electricity since Typhoon Haiyan slammed into their province. Haiyan,
one of the most powerful storms on record, slammed into six central Philippine islands
on Friday, leaving a wide swath of destruction and scores of people dead.
(AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Destroyed houses lie in Tacloban city, Leyte province, central Philippines on
Sunday, Nov. 10, 2013. The city remains littered with debris from damaged homes
as many complain of shortages of food and water and no electricity since Typhoon
Haiyan slammed into their province. Haiyan, one of the most powerful storms on record,
slammed into six central Philippine islands on Friday, leaving a wide swath of destruction
and scores of people dead. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

A boy who was wounded by flying debris stands at the ruins of his family's house.
(Photograph: Erik De Castro/Reuters)

Residents cover their noses as they walk near dead bodies.
(Photograph: Bullit Marquez/AP)

Farming and Knowledge Monocultures are Misconceived

Farming and Knowledge Monocultures are Misconceived
Sept 9, 2013 | Cornucopia.org | Brian Wynne / Georgina Catacora-Vargas

Speed read:

• The industrial model of producing both food and knowledge is faulty
• Sustainable intensification presents ‘technification’ as an undeniable scientific truth
• Food supply systems and R&D should be reorientated towards real needs

SciDev.net

Image source:
Walters Art Museum, Wikimedia

Food needs can be met with a new vision for agriculture and science, say Brian Wynne and Georgina Catacora-Vargas.

In mainstream policy and corporate thinking, scientific knowledge and global markets are considered key for food security. This has resulted in the industrialisation and laboratory research-led intensification of agricultural systems, inputs and food-supply chains.

But intensified systems do not meet global food needs — they mostly suit export markets and corporate interests. The result is severe physical, but also economic, disconnection between production and consumption, or need, as well as private control of the crucial knowledge base that shapes agriculture.
This is effectively an industrial monoculture model of production — of both food and knowledge — that avoids its ecological and social costs, while suppressing more effective sustainable alternatives, and underexploits science’s potential versatility.


To generate more sustainable pathways to equitable and healthy food production and access, agricultural diversification is needed, with food-supply systems decentralised and a move towards more localised networks.

This includes the strategic reorientation of agricultural research and development towards varied local conditions and needs, and towards farmers’ knowledge — a global science for the public good.

Science as ideological tool

Agricultural systems are under severe, interrelated pressures, including chronic soil deterioration; water scarcity and overuse; chemical pollution; climate change; farmers’ exodus to cities; population growth; and the global financial crisis.

In response to this, policymakers, funders and some scientists promote ‘sustainable intensification’ — which implies that science has a well-defined understanding of the technologies needed to overcome such challenges.

But while this approach builds on innovations from intensive laboratory-based research, it neglects the extensive diversity of local conditions and knowledge systems. And by presenting ‘technification’ as an undeniable scientific truth, it leads to one particular vision of so-called agricultural modernisation.
Proponents of this approach ideologically deploy ‘science’ against other types of knowledge and visions of innovation, dismissing alternatives as antiscience and antimodernisation.

In June, for example, UK environment secretary Owen Paterson, speaking on expert advice, exclusively equated genetic modification (GM) technology with ‘science’. In doing so, he ignored the well-demonstrated scientific and practical credentials of non-GM, ecological approaches to agriculture, effectively villifying them as anti-science.

But recent research shows that this type of modern agriculture does not perform any better in terms of yields and reduced pesticide burdens than non-GM, especially for commodity crops such as soybean and maize. [1]

Unsustainable industrial agriculture

The Vision 2020 programme of the Andhra Pradesh state government in India is another example of promoting agroindustrial models. Supported by the Indian and UK governments, together with Monsanto, the world’s largest GM seed and agrochemical company, the programme’s stated aim was to reduce the state’s rural population by 30 per cent as part of efforts to ‘modernise’ agriculture by minimising labour and eradicating so-called inefficient peasant agriculture.

The more than 25 million people designated for removal from the land were not included in any social impact assessment of this plan.

A similar scenario was articulated in a 2012 World Economic Forum report, which projected that small-scale farming’s contribution to global food production would fall from 40 per cent in 2010 to zero by 2030 — being replaced by industrial large-scale (likely monocrop) farming. [2]

The report offered no comment on this — yet if the small-farm agriculture estimated as providing 70 per cent of current local food supply is intended to disappear, then who will produce food for most small-scale markets and poor people around the world?

These are symptoms of science understood and practised predominantly as technoscience — ignoring local conditions where food is produced, distributed and consumed, and devaluing less mechanistic and less reductionist forms of knowledge, production, exchange and access to food.

This technoscientific commercial vision also shapes technologies and production primarily for global market demands, which does not reflect diverse real needs.

Agroecology is effective

The alternative agroecological vision for agriculture and food supply is not just theory. Local expertise and knowledge integrated with leading scientific research have demonstrated a capacity to increase yields sustainably, decrease polluting inputs, promote food security and improve livelihoods.

One analysis compared 293 farms globally and concluded that agroecological farms can produce 96 per cent of a conventional yield while improving soil fertility. [3] A separate study reported that, under severe climate conditions, two different agroecological systems of maize and soybean yielded 137 per cent and 196 per cent more than conventional systems, respectively. [4]

In India, small-scale farmers are increasing productivity by up to 43 per cent using the System of Rice Intensification, which is based on low external input methods akin to agroecological ones. [5]

And in 2008, the UN reported cases where organic family farming doubled yields in Kenya, raised income by up to six times more than comparable conventional agriculture in Malawi and improved nutritional levels by 70 per cent in Ethiopia. [6]

These are only some indicative examples — there are many more.

Towards sustainable agriculture

How to strengthen these sustainable approaches? The key is a critical analysis of how science is understood, channelled and practised, and how it links with industrialised agri-systems and global markets. Socially and environmentally responsible food production and distribution requires global science policy  to be reorientated towards locally adapted farmer knowledge, and essential local and regional networks.
As a first step, researchers, funders and policymakers need to identify and then re-evaluate assumptions about science, innovation, and food supply and access.

Second, they need to ask the right questions about sustainable global food security, which is more than a short-term production issue. Instead of asking almost exclusively how to increase short-term yields, we should ask why even existing global production is denied to many needy people, while generating mass obesity and enormous amounts of food waste elsewhere.

Third, they need to support small-scale and low external-input farming — both in terms of food production and research — providing tangible support for grassroots innovation. This will help integrate local practical knowledge systems with innovative scientific research and diverse food networks.

It is already known that scientific research can be integrated with grounded and farmer-orientated innovation systems. This approach could not only strengthen food security but also promote responsive food-supply networks more connected to real needs. And it could help initiate an authentic, sustainable science for society.

Brian Wynne is professor of science studies at the Centre for the Study of Environmental Change, Lancaster University, United Kingdom. Georgina Catacora-Vargas is a researcher at the SEED (Society, Ecology and Ethic Department) of GenØk — Centre for Biosafety, Norway. Wynne can be contacted at b.wynne@lancaster.ac.uk

References

[1] International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability doi: 10.1080/14735903.2013.806408 (2013)

[2] World Economic Forum Putting the New Vision for Agriculture into Action: A Transformation Is Happening (World Economic Forum, 2012)

[3] Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems doi: 10.1017/S1742170507001640 (2007)

[4] American Journal of Alternative Agriculture doi: 10.1079/AJAA200345 (2003)

[5] World Bank Institute System of Rice Intensification (World Bank, video accessed 29 August 2013)

[6] UN Conference on Trade and Development and the UN Environment Programme Organic Agriculture and Food Security in Africa (UN, 2008)

Compassionless Humanity: The Reality Detached American

Compassionless Humanity: The Reality Detached American
June 8, 2013 | SGTbull07

Devastating Tornado Cuts Path of Death in Oklahoma

A child is pulled from the rubble of the Plaza
Towers Elementary School in Moore, Okla., and
passed along to rescuers Monday, May 20,
2013. A tornado as much as a mile (1.6 kilometers)
wide with winds up to 200 mph (320 kph)
roared through the Oklahoma City suburbs Monday,
flattening entire neighborhoods, setting
buildings on fire and landing a direct blow on
an elementary school. (AP Photo Sue Ogrocki)

Devastating Tornado Cuts Path of Death in Oklahoma
May 21, 2013 | Common Dreams | Jon Queally

Officials in Oklahoma have confirmed the death of 91 people, including 20 children, following a tornado on Monday that devastated the town of Moore and other suburbs outside Oklahoma City.  Hundreds more are injured and the death toll is expected to rise as the search for survivors continues.

Reports indicate the tornado was more than a mile wide at times, contained winds of over 200 miles per hour, and simply destroyed everything in its path. Whole neighborhoods were flattened, cars flung, roofs ripped off and even schools where children huddled for safety were not spared.

As The Oklahoman reports Tuesday morning:

As Monday turned into Tuesday, the town of Moore, a community of 41,000 people 10 miles south of the city, braced for another long, harrowing day.

“As long as we are here … we are going to hold out hope that we will find survivors,” said Trooper Betsy Randolph, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.

More than 120 people were being treated at hospitals, including about 50 children. Amy Elliott, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Medical Examiner's Office, said Tuesday that there could be as many as 40 more fatalities from Monday's tornado.

Families anxiously waited at nearby churches to hear if their loved ones were OK. A man with a megaphone stood Monday evening near St. Andrews United Methodist Church and called out the names of surviving children. Parents waited nearby, hoping to hear their sons' and daughters' names.

The New York Times reports:

Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore was reduced to a pile of twisted metal and toppled walls. Rescue workers were able to pull several children from the rubble, but on Monday evening crews were still struggling to cut through fallen beams and clear debris amid reports that dozens of students were trapped. At Briarwood Elementary School in Oklahoma City, on the border with Moore, cars were thrown through the facade and the roof was torn off.

“Numerous neighborhoods were completely leveled,” Sgt. Gary Knight of the Oklahoma City Police Department said by telephone. “Neighborhoods just wiped clean.”

This time-lapse video shows that path the tornado cut:
Action News 5 - Memphis, Tennessee

Action News 5 - Memphis, Tennessee

Photos:

This photo provided by KFOR-TV shows homes flattened outside Moore, Okla., Monday, May 20, 2013. A monstrous tornado as much as a mile wide roared through the Oklahoma City suburbs Monday, flattening entire neighborhoods, setting buildings on fire and landing a direct blow on an elementary school. (AP Photo/KFOR-TV) 

Aerial view of homes hit by a massive tornado between SW4th and SW 19th in Moore, Monday May 20, 2013. (Photo By Steve Gooch, The Oklahoman)

This aerial photo shows the remains of homes hit by a massive tornado in Moore, Okla., Monday May 20, 2013. A tornado roared through the Oklahoma City suburbs Monday, flattening entire neighborhoods, setting buildings on fire and landing a direct blow on an elementary school. (AP Photo/Steve Gooch)

Why Logic Alone Is Not Enough (With James Corbett)

Why Logic Alone Is Not Enough (With James Corbett)
May 8, 2013 | SchoolSucksPodcast

A conversation about the importance of defining terms, checking premises and monitoring emotions in the pursuit of truth.

While Wronged Homeowners Got $300 Apiece in Foreclosure Settlement, Consultants Who Helped Protect Banks Got $2 Billion

© Rolling Stone

While Wronged Homeowners Got $300 Apiece in Foreclosure Settlement, Consultants Who Helped Protect Banks Got $2 Billion
Apr 26, 2013 | Rolling Stone | Matt Taibbi

The obscene greed-and-arrogance stories emanating from Wall Street are piling up so fast, it's getting hard to keep up. This one is from last week, but I missed it – it's about the foreclosure/robo-signing settlement that was concluded earlier this year.

The upshot of this story is that in advance of that notorious settlement, the government ordered banks to hire "independent" consultants to examine their loan files to see just exactly how corrupt they were.

Now it comes out that not only were these consultants not so independent, not only did they very likely skew the numbers seriously in favor of the banks, and not only were these few consultants paid over $2 billion (over 20 percent of the entire settlement amount) while the average homeowner only received $300 in the deal – in addition to all of that, it appears that federal regulators will not turn over the evidence of impropriety they discovered during these reviews to homeowners who may want to sue the banks.

In other words, the government not only ordered the banks to hire consultants who may have gamed the foreclosure settlement in favor of the banks, but the regulators themselves are hiding the information from the public in order to shield the banks from further lawsuits.

Secrets and Lies of the Bailout

To recap: in the foreclosure deal, 13 banks agreed to pay a total of $9.3 billion to settle their liability in a number of areas, including robo-signing, which is just a euphemism for mass-perjury – robo-signing is the practice of having low-level bank employees sign documents attesting to full knowledge of case files in court foreclosure actions, when in fact they were signing hundreds of files per day, often having no idea whether the paperwork was correct or not.

It was done across the industry and turned housing cases across America into nightmares of jumbled and/or forged paperwork, in which even people who did not deserve to be thrown out of their homes were uprooted thanks to systematic errors by faceless bureaucrats who cut legal corners purely to save money.

All the major banks were guilty on a mass scale, but they worked with federal regulators like the Fed and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to secure this wide-ranging, industry-saving settlement, which not only covered the robosigning epidemic but a host of other bad or illegal practices, like the wrongful denial of modifications and the improper levying of (often hidden) fees.

Minus this crucial settlement, banks would have faced enormous uncertainty about their legal liability going forward, and getting a deal that not only gave these companies some legal closure but allowed them to pay pennies on the dollar for their illegal activity was a massive coup for the whole finance sector.

Only $3.6 billion was earmarked for cash payments to the nearly 4 million homeowners covered in the settlement. Most of the remainder of the deal was in other forms of non-cash relief, i.e. modifications or principal reductions.

Now, at the time of the deal, press releases by the Fed and the OCC stated that part of the reason they'd fixed on that particular settlement amount was that regulators had uncovered that banks had made errors or committed illegal acts in about 6.5 percent of the mortgage files reviewed. In other words, the error rate was an important component of this calculation.

But it turned out that this error rate had been calculated with the help of several consultant firms regulators had ordered the banks to hire. Regulators had mandated the hiring of these "independent" consultants back in 2011, and the list of companies included Promontory Financial Group, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, and Deloitte & Touche. These private firms were hired to review the banks' loan files in search of errors, and collectively were paid by the banks over $2 billion, a staggering sum which ultimately worked out to over $20,000 per file.

With such highly-paid help, it would seem impossible that these consultants could screw up so simple a task as figuring out how many of these mortgage files were corrupt. Regulators came up with the 6.5 percent number this past January, then shortly afterward revised the number downward, saying that only 4.2 percent of some 100,000 mortgage files reviewed were compromised.

But that low number stank so badly that even the Wall Street Journal was moved to check it out, and in late February, in a story called "Foreclosure Files Detail Error Gap," the paper discovered that the error numbers were almost certainly very much higher. From that piece:

A breakdown of the information provided to the regulator shows that more than 11% of files examined for Wells Fargo WFC +0.39% & Co. and 9% of those for Bank of America Corp. had errors that would have required compensation for homeowners, said people who have reviewed the figures. A narrower sample of files – representing cases selected by outside consultants – showed error ratios of 21% for Wells Fargo and 16% for Bank of America, the people said.

The OCC findings appear skewed by the outsize contribution of one bank, J.P. Morgan Chase JPM -0.39% & Co., which reported an error rate far below rivals that oversaw a much larger universe of loans.

J.P Morgan was responsible for more than half of the completed files counted in the OCC review and reported compensation-worthy errors in just 0.6% of cases, according to people familiar with the figures.

So you have numbers from all of these other banks coming in at 9 percent, 11 percent, even 21 percent, and yet somehow J.P. Morgan Chase came in at 0.6 percent. The OCC just took the Chase numbers and averaged them together with the rest and ultimately came up with the 4.2 percent number.

So how did Chase come out so squeaky clean? Well, it seems they developed quite a rapport with the government-mandated consultants who were hired to review their loan files. This is from that WSJ report:

Two Deloitte employees who performed the review for J.P. Morgan in a Brooklyn office building said workers were encouraged by supervisors to examine pools of loans they knew would be less time-consuming or error-prone as they tried to hit loan quotas.

One of these employees said that at an event last year known in the Brooklyn office as "March Madness," Deloitte officials encouraged reviewers to avoid problematic loans originated by EMC Mortgage, a troubled mortgage lender J.P. Morgan acquired in 2008.

So basically Chase allegedly warned the consultants off their problem loans and incentivized the consultants to examine the less-fucked-up loans. Employees of another of Chase's auditors, Promontory, were reportedly given gift cards of up to $500 for "completing a certain number of files quickly."

The whole thing was a joke. Government orders banks to hire auditors to investigate robosigning, then banks induce said auditors to robosign the investigation! Because that's exactly what that would mean, if there were financial incentives to finish masses of files quickly. It's horrible, obviously, but on another level, it's so ingeniously corrupt, one almost has to tip a cap to whoever thought of it.

Incidentally, what were Chase's real numbers? I mean, if it hadn't been a consulting firm hired by Chase for buttloads of cash to do the study, what might an auditor have concluded? Well, as reported by (among others) David Dayen at Naked Capitalism, we got a glimpse into one possible truth when the HUD Inspector General released a report that included an ad-hoc survey of Chase loans:

For Chase, we also reviewed 36 affidavits for foreclosures in judicial States to determine whether the amounts of borrowers' indebtedness were supported. Chase was unable to provide documentation to support the amounts of borrowers' indebtedness listed on the affidavits for all except four. When we reviewed the four affidavits, three were inaccurate. Specifically, the amounts of the borrowers' late charges and accumulated interest did not reconcile with the information in Chase's mortgage servicing system.

As Dayen jokingly pointed out, that means the gap in the stats was relatively small – Chase's loans were either 97.2 percent fucked (as HUD found), or 0.6 percent (as Chase/OCC found). Somewhere in between there.

Anyway: In March, a Washington law firm called Williams and Connolly sued the OCC for failing to properly ensure that the auditors would be truly "independent." The firm declined to say on whose behalf it was suing. Around the same time, members of congress like the House's Elijah Cummings and new Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren started to become interested in these consulting arrangements, expressing concern that perhaps the settlement number had been reached in error.

Fast forward a few weeks. It's April 11th, and Warren, along with Sherrod Brown and Jack Reed, held hearings on this whole issue, bringing in officials from the OCC along with some of these consultants to get to the bottom of a number of issues, including, most importantly, how the settlement was calculated, and who decided who would receive how much compensation.

There were two major revelations from these hearings, in addition to the ongoing revelation that the suits who people the country's financial regulators are sniveling, obfuscatory weasels who clearly view the banks they're supposed to be regulating as a bunch of stand-up dudes while the taxpayers who are always demanding this or that (and the politicians who represent them) are humorless pains in the ass.

In terms of new revelations, the first was this one, a real shocker: that apparently, it was not even the obscenely overpaid, lapdog consultants who made the final decisions about which homeowners fell into which boxes in terms of settlement compensation. Incredibly, it appears that the banks themselves were allowed to do that sorting process!

This came out when Warren was interviewing private consultants from PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Promontory, and Deloitte and Touche:

Senator Warren: I just want to take a look at the Independent Foreclosure Review Payment Agreement details. I think you've probably all seen this one page agreement that lists all of the things that the banks did wrong and then boxes for how many people fall into each category and how much money they're going to be paid. Is that right? You've all seen this? [Panel indicates they have seen it.] And this was put out – who put this out? I think this is put out by the OCC and Federal Reserve. Is that right? As part of the settlement details.

In the settlement there is a one-page document that lists all the various misdeeds the banks engaged in during the foreclosure process, then goes on to list how many homeowners were victimized by each activity. Warren is showing this document to these consultants and she's asking them, did you prepare these statistics? She goes on – listen to the answers from the auditors:

Senator Warren: So I just want to ask you about this. It has some pretty amazing categories here. The first category is about service members who were protected by Federal law whose homes were unlawfully foreclosed. It's got people who were current on their payments whose homes were foreclosed. It's got people who were performing all of the requirements under a modification who lost their homes to foreclosure. And it tells how many people fall into each category and how much money the people in that category will receive. And, it ultimately resolves what will happen to 3,949,896 families. So the question I have is having resolved this for nearly 4 million families, who put the people, the families, into each of these boxes. Is that what your firms did, Mr. Ryan?

Owen Ryan, Partner, Deloitte & Touche LLP: No, Senator, we did not.

Senator Warren: So who put them in?

Ryan: I'm not sure how that schedule is prepared. I saw it for the first time yesterday.

Senator Warren: Mr. Flanagan?

James Flanagan, Leader, U.S. Financial Services Practice, Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP: Same response. We were not involved in the accumulation of that information.

Senator Warren: Mr. Alt?

Konrad Alt, Managing Director, Promontory Financial Group: Senator, I've seen the schedule but I'm not familiar with the basis for its preparation.

Having established that the consulting firms did not do this sorting, Warren presses toward the obvious conclusion:

Senator Warren: So that leaves us with the banks that broke the law, were then the banks that decided how many people lost their homes because of their lawbreaking. And, as a result, how many people would collect money in each of these categories. Is that right,Mr. Alt?

Alt: Senator, I'm not familiar with the basis for the scheduling.

Senator Warren: So far as you know, there's no independent review of the banks' analysis . . . You looked at 100,000 cases, and the banks have now put 4 million people into categories and resolved finally how much they will get from this review by the OCC and the Federal Reserve.

So that's bombshell Number One – it wasn't the auditors who decided which homeowners fell into which categories, it appears to have been the banks themselves. Bombshell Number Two? The representatives of the OCC and the Fed – remember, federal regulators whose job it is supposedly to protect ordinary people – flatly refused to give any information about the real results of their surveys, i.e. their inquiries into what the real error rates were.

Even worse, when pressed on the question of whether they would deliver any evidence of wrongdoing they uncovered to private parties who might want to sue, they hedged.

In these exchanges, Warren questions Daniel Stipano, deputy chief counsel from the OCC, and Richard Ashton, Associate General Counsel for the Board of Governors at the Fed. There are two key sequences.

In the first, Warren asks both men if they will make public what they know about the extent of the illegality and errors – whether the real error rate was, as she put it, 1 percent or 90 percent. But the two officials respond in gibberish legalese (if you watch the video, Ashton in particular seems to take pleasure in dicking the Senate around with his verbose non-answers), repeatedly forcing Warren to pin him down to their actual concrete position, which turns out to be, "Fuck you." For example:

Senator Warren. So let me just make sure I understand this completely. I want to know on a bank-by-bank basis the number of families that were illegally foreclosed on. Will you give me that information?

Mr. Stipano. Eventually, we are going to issue a statement to the public where we provide additional information, but if we go through the processes that I described previously, we can share it to Congress in its oversight capacity.

Huh? I have no idea what that means, but it sounds positive – it did to Warren, too:

Senator Warren. So you are saying you will make that information publicly available?

Mr. Stipano. I did not say that. I said that we are planning on issuing a public statement that wraps up the IFR that provides additional information . . .

Ultimately, both the Fed and the OCC turned out to be united on the issue. They'll release something, but it won't be the real numbers. Frustrated, Warren asked them where the public is supposed to get the numbers, if not from them. Their answer is, well, they can maybe pull it out of their butts, if they get lucky – not our problem:

Mr. Stipano. Well, sometimes you get information through third parties, through outside sources. But in this case, that is not the case.

Senator Warren. So unless someone throws a rock through the window with this information tied to it, you will not release it, is that what you are saying?

Stipano here replies with more gibberish:

Mr. Stipano. To the extent that the information is confidential supervisory information derived from the exam process, it is subject to privilege.

From there, Warren asks a more specific question. What if someone wants to sue a bank for illegally tossing them out of their home? And what if you have evidence in such a case? Wouldn't such evidence be, you know, helpful to those people? Stipano helpfully agrees, yes, it would be helpful:

Senator Warren. All right. So let me ask it from the other point of view. You now have evidence in your files of illegal activity, I take it, for some of these banks. I get that from the evidence you have released about the charts, who is going to get paid what. So if someone believes that they have been illegally foreclosed against, will they still have a right under this settlement to bring a lawsuit against the bank?

Mr. Stipano. Yes.

Senator Warren. All right. Now, if a family wants to bring a lawsuit--you are both lawyers--would it be helpful, if you are going against one of these big banks, would it be helpful for these families to have the information about their case that is in your files? Mr. Ashton?

Mr. Ashton. It would be helpful, obviously, to have information related to the injury. Yes, it would.
Which leads to the next question – having acknowledged that it would be helpful, will you help?
This seems like it should be an easy answer, but it isn't:

Senator Warren. Okay. So do you plan to give the families this information? That is, those families that have been victims of illegal foreclosures, will you be giving them the information that is in your possession about how the banks illegally foreclosed against them? Mr. Ashton?

Mr. Ashton. I think that is a decision that we are still considering. We have not made a final decision yet.
Senator Warren. So you have made a decision to protect the banks but not a decision to tell the families who were illegally foreclosed against?

Mr. Ashton. We have not made a decision about what information we would provide to individuals, that is true. Yes.

Senator Warren. Mr. Stipano?

Mr. Stipano. We are in the same position.

Obviously these guys can't come out and say, "We're not giving anybody anything. Blow us." That would cause too much of an uproar. So they just say they haven't decided, and we all know what that means. Warren tries to frame the issue in the most embarrassing way possible, but the witnesses prove immune to such embarrassment:

Senator Warren. So I want to just make sure I get this straight. Families get pennies on the dollar in this settlement for having been the victims of illegal activities or mistakes in the banks' activities. You let the banks, and you now know individual cases where the banks violated the law and you are not going to tell the homeowners, or at least it is not clear yet whether or not you are going to do that?

Mr. Stipano. We have not made a decision on what we are going to tell the homeowners.

All of this just confirms what we already suspected about the foreclosure settlement. This whole enterprise was conceived by the government solely as a means of dealing with the explosive problem of containing the private liability of these "systemically important" companies. Not only are we not prosecuting these firms anymore, we're also actively in the business of protecting them from litigation.

No other conclusion is possible from this testimony, which shows that our two primary regulators not only withheld information about bank illegality and errors prior to the settlement, but plan on continuing to do so going forward. There can be only one reason for concealing that information from the people affected by those "errors."

Robert Redford Calls for Horse Slaughter Ban

© Food Safety News

Robert Redford Calls for Horse Slaughter Ban
Apr 25, 2013 | Food Safety News

Just as the U.S. Department of Agriculture recommended a grant of inspection for what could become the first U.S. horse slaughterhouse following a five-year federal ban, actor Robert Redford has made a public call for banning horse slaughter, via a letter written to horse welfare organization Equine Advocates.

“Horses have always been very important in my life and I feel strongly that they need our protection from any kind of abuse, especially slaughter,” Redford begins. He goes on to compare the treatment of horses in the U.S. to the treatment of dogs and cats, and laments the desire of a “small group of special interests” who want to breed horses to profit from their meat.

“The entire slaughter process is cruel and inhumane and perpetuates abuse and neglect without consequences, in addition to condoning a violation of our nation’s cruelty laws,” he continues. He also highlights the concern that horse slaughter allows for a “swift cover-up” of horse theft.

For now, the future of U.S. horse slaughter remains up in the air, as the Obama Administration has suggested excluding money for inspectors at horse slaughterhouses from the 2014 budget. Beyond that, Congress may choose to extend the five-year ban.

Food Safety News published a report on the potential for horse slaughter to begin in New Mexico yesterday.

© Food Safety News

Sea Lion Strandings Climb, Scientists Still Stumped

This year, an unusually high number of sea lion
pups have stranded on southern California's shores,
overwhelming marine mammal rehab centers.
CREDIT: Pacific Marine Mammal Center

Sea Lion Strandings Climb, Scientists Still Stumped
Apr 17, 2013 | Live Science | Megan Gannon

Scientists still don't know why nearly 1,300 sickly sea lions have beached themselves on the shores of southern California since the beginning of the year. However, they think some weird oceanic phenomenon may be blocking off the sea lion pups' source of food, scientists reported today (April 17).

The stranded sea lions — mostly pups born last summer — are typically turning up alive, but severely emaciated, some weighing less than 20 pounds (9 kg) when they should be well over 50 pounds (22 kg), marine officials say.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) declared an "unusual mortality event" last month in light of the spike in strandings. Since the beginning of the year, 1,293 sea lions have washed ashore from San Diego County to Santa Barbara County. That's more than five times higher than the region's historical average of 236, averaged from the same period of time (January through April) from 2008 to 2012, said Sarah Wilkin, NOAA's marine mammal stranding coordinator for California. [Marine Marvels: Spectacular Photos of Sea Creatures]

The problem is most pronounced in Los Angeles County, where 459 strandings have been reported this year as of April 14. During the same period last year, 60 strandings were reported.

California hasn't seen a spike in starving sea lions on this scale since El Niño warmed up Pacific waters in 1998. El Niño conditions can diminish the upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich water needed to support large populations of fish that are eaten by other animals like sea lions.

"In the words of some of the other biologists, if this was an El Niño year, it would still be overwhelming but it wouldn't be all that surprising," Wilkin said. But this isn't an El Niño year, so the mystery remains.

Wilkin told reporters today (April 17) that biologists think an unseen oceanographic or environmental phenomenon is likely cutting the sea lion pups' supply of food, much like El Niño would. While adult sea lions and other marine mammals may be able to adapt their feeding habits in the face of a shortage, pups are more limited in how far they can travel for food and what they can eat.

A localized anomaly like that happened in 2009, causing an above-average number of strandings.

"The prevailing onshore winds did not blow as strongly as they usually do and it resulted in a lack of upwelling, which created a foraging difficulty for California sea lions," Wilkin explained.

Toxic algae blooms and infectious disease outbreaks also can trigger mass pup strandings. Researchers don't have evidence that either of those factors are contributing to the problem this year, but scientists are still waiting to see if tests on blood and tissue samples turn up bacterial, viral and other infectious agents or radioactive traces.

In a good sign, there has been a slowdown in the number of stranded, starving sea lion pups being admitted to rehab facilities, Wilkin said. At the same time, other animals are washing up. Northern elephant seals have just entered their stranding season and biologists have found a few adult female sea lions suffering from seizures, suggesting they may have been poisoned by the neurotoxin domoic acid, which is produced by multiple species of the genus Pseudo-nitzschia, a type of algae.

Follow Megan Gannon on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.

Ron Finley: A Guerilla Gardener in South Central LA

Ron Finley: A Guerilla Gardener in South Central LA
Mar 10, 2013 | TEDtalksDirector

"Growing your own food is like printing money."

Censoring Animal Cruelty | Interview with Will Potter

Censoring Animal Cruelty | Interview with Will Potter
Mar 6, 2013 | breakingtheset

Abby Martin talks to journalist & author, Will Potter, about Ag Gag laws and the implications of treating undercover investigators of animal cruelty as 'terrorists'.



Related:   

Green is the New Red: An Insider's Account of a Social Movement Under Siege

Cats Take on Owners' Habits (Good and Bad)

Close-up of a cute cat face.
CREDIT: © Pavalache Stelian | Dreamstime.com

Cats Take on Owners' Habits (Good and Bad)
Jan 19, 2013 | Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News

Cats really do become part of our families, to the point that they take on human habits -- good and bad -- and adapt their lifestyle with that of their owners, says new research.

The finding shows how profoundly captivity can affect certain animals. While genetics help to explain some aspects of personality and behavior, an individual's environment clearly is a factor too.

"Our findings underline the high influence of human presence and care on the amount of activity and daily rhythm in cats," concluded Giuseppe Piccione and colleagues of the University of Messina's Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.

Dogs and Cats Help Prevent Infections in Kids

For the Journal of Veterinary Behavior study, the researchers studied two groups of cats. Each group received excellent care, in terms of food, medical attention and grooming. The owners of all the cats worked during the day and returned home in the evenings.

The first group of cats, however, lived in smaller homes and stayed closer to their owners. The second group lived more of an indoor/outdoor lifestyle on larger property. These cats were also kept outside at night.

Over time, the cats in the first group mirrored the lives of their owners. Their eating, activity and sleeping patterns were very similar. The cats left out at night became more nocturnal, matching the behaviors of semi-dependent farm cats with more feral ways.

"Cats are intelligent animals with a long memory," Jane Brunt, DVM, and the executive director of the CATalyst Council, told Discovery News. "They watch and learn from us, (noting) the patterns of our actions, as evidenced by knowing where their food is kept and what time to expect to be fed, how to open the cupboard door that's been improperly closed and where their feeding and toileting areas are."

Cats Do Roam, Tracking Shows

Piccione pointed out that cats' food intake is associated with that of owners, perhaps explaining why human and cat obesity rates seem to so often match. Cats may even match their elimination patterns with those of their owners.

"It's always interesting when I hear about people who have the litterbox in their bathroom and the cat uses it when the owner is on the toilet," Brunt, a past president of the American Association of Feline Practitioners, said.

Another recent study, published in Applied Animal Behavior Science, looked at personality in cats. Many of the primary traits -- arrogant, social, shy, trusting, aggressive, calm, timid, excitable, dominant and curious -- apply to humans as well.

Authors Marieke Cassia Gartner and Alexander Weiss of The University of Edinburgh believe that the environment in which a feline lives "is one possible explanation for the variance in results in the domestic cat, as personality may not be completely comprised of genetic makeup."

Humans even serve as role models for their cats.

"While it's commonly thought that cats are solitary and aloof and can take care of themselves, studies have shown that cats are social animals and when people are their main social group, it's important for owners to understand that they are the role model and we have to encourage their activities with proper play/prey techniques," Brunt explained, adding that when owners take time to play with their cats, the felines are more motivated to stay active.

While it's now known that owners greatly influence their cats, the reverse is true as well. Cats can influence that habits and lifestyle of their owners. Brunt said that we often adjust our schedules to fit theirs, such as getting up earlier and responding to their needs.

"I also think we can learn a lot from cats," she added. "When they sit on our lap softly purring with rhythmic breathing and half-closed eyes, the sense of serenity and calm that comes over us is like a private lesson in inner peace and meditation."

The moral roots of liberals and conversatives - Jonathan Haidt

The moral roots of liberals and conversatives - Jonathan Haidt
Dec 31, 2012 | TEDEducation

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/jonathan-haidt-on-the-moral-roots-of-liberals-and-c...

Psychologist Jonathan Haidt studies the five moral values that form the basis of our political choices, whether we're left, right, or center. In this eye-opening talk, he pinpoints the moral values that liberals and conservatives tend to honor most. Jonathan Haidt studies how -- and why -- we evolved to be moral. By understanding more about our moral roots, his hope is that we can learn to be civil and open-minded.

Talk by Jonathan Haidt.

10 Girls Dead Following Deadly Blast in Afghanistan

The body of a girl killed when a landmine
exploded is loaded into a vehicle in Jalalabad.
(Photograph: Noorullah Shirzada/AFP/Getty Images)

10 Girls Dead Following Deadly Blast in Afghanistan
Dec 17, 2012 | Common Dreams | Andrea Germanos

As US mourns 20 children killed in gun massacre amid calls for greater gun control, landmine blast leaves Afghans mourning

At least 10 young girls in Afghanistan were killed on Monday from what is believed to be a landmine explosion.

 The girls, aged 9-11, were collecting firewood in the eastern section of the country.

Reuters reports:

Relatives and villagers carried the bodies of the girls - aged between nine and 11 - from the site of the blast on simple wooden beds on their shoulders. They were covered in thick bedspreads.

Hundreds of mourners prayed near their corpses, spread out on the dirt floor out before burial.

Agence France-Presse reports that "despite international clearance efforts, more than three decades of war have left Afghanistan one of the most heavily-mined countries in the world."

Following its latest annual report by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), Mark Hiznay, editor of the report, said that despite the "great gains" made towards achieving a mine-free world, "eliminating the daily impact landmines have on countless communities will require a sustained international effort for years to come.”

The US is not a signatory to the landmine treaty, thus maintaining the right to produce them.
In a separate incident on Monday, a suicide bombing in Kabul that targeted US contracting company Contrack International Inc. left two civilians dead.

Human rights lawyer and law professor Bill Quigley writes that while the President offers condolences to the families of the 20 children shot in the massacre in Newton, Connecticut, he must also remember the countless children across the globe who die in tragedies every day, including "the 231 children killed in Afghanistan in the first 6 months of this year."

And on Friday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated in a report that ongoing violence in Afghanistan was taking an “unacceptable toll” on civilians, with an increase in civilian casualties of 28 per cent between 1 August and 31 October compared to the same period last year.

"Women and children are often the victims of the war between the Taliban and US-led Nato and Afghan forces, now in its eleventh year," the Irish Times writes in a report on Monday's blast.

The Strange Case of Wal-Mart and the National Labor Relations Board

image source

The Strange Case of Wal-Mart and the National Labor Relations Board
Nov 22, 2012 | John Logan

For the first time in its half-century history, Wal-Mart is facing the prospect of significant labor strife. Wal-Mart workers throughout the country have been participating in short strikes and other workplace actions for the past two months. They are demanding higher wages, better benefits, more full time work, and respect on the job. And for the first time in five decades, Wal-Mart is deeply concerned, fearing these actions will escalate to something beyond its control. In many ways, however, they already have – the protesting Wal-Mart workers have attracted support from a wide variety of women, immigrant, civil rights and community organizations, as well as tens of thousands of allies on social media.

In addition to responding the way it has always responded to worker protests – asserting that it offers attractive positions, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, and that the overwhelming majority of its associates have no interest in union membership – Wal-Mart has also responded in another, more surprising, way: last Friday, it filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) accusing the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) of violating labor law by orchestrating workplace protests for more than 30 days without petitioning for a NLRB election to represent the workers.  Wal-Mart wants the labor board to seek an injunction in federal court to block the worker protests on Friday.

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It seems unlikely that Wal-Mart will get support for an injunction from the board – the protests are not about union recognition, but about respect on the job, and the protesting employees are not a union “subsidiary” as Wal-Mart contends — and it is almost impossible that it will get one before Friday. But senior management in Bentonville likely has another reason for going to the board: by filing the charge, Wal-Mart is sending a clear warning to employees thinking of participating in Friday’s action. And if employees had any lingering doubts about the company’s determination to squash the growing protests, a Wal-Mart spokesperson warned workers on national television news on Tuesday that “there could be consequences” if they fail to turn up for work on Friday – a statement that may well constitute an illegal threat under the National Labor Relations Act.  According to employees, local mangers have been holding meetings with groups of employees to reinforce the message that workers who participate in protests will face “consequences.” In response, the organization representing employees, United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart), has filed a changed with the board, which could rule that senior management is attempting to intimidate employees from participating in a legally protected activity.

It is deeply ironic that Wal-Mart is now turning to the NLRB to prevent its employees for taking action to protest against poor conditions and management retaliation for speaking up. Wal-Mart is certainly no stranger to the labor board. According to the respected international organization Human Rights Watch, “Wal-Mart has repeatedly used tactics that run afoul of US law and directly infringe on workers’ right to freedom of association.”

So what is Wal-Mart’s record before the board? Between 2000-2005, NLRB regional directors issued 39 complaints accusing the retail giant of unlawful anti-union behavior. These complaints involved 101 separate incidents of anti-union conduct at dozens of Wal-Mart stores across the country. The allegations of unlawful conduct included discriminatory hiring, firing, disciplining, and policy application; “unit packing” and worker transfers to dilute union support; illegally addressing worker concerns to undermine union activity; workplace changes motivated by an anti-union animus; illegally soliciting and remedying grievances; threatening benefit loss if workers choose to organize; interrogating workers about union activity; illegal no-talking rules; discriminatory application of solicitation rules; discrimination against union hand-billers; discrimination against pro-union workers; and illegal no-solicitation rules, including bans on union insignia, bans on discussing unions, and the confiscation of union literature. The number of NLRB complaints against Wal-Mart declined after 2005 only because efforts by employees to organize at the workplace also declined – in other words, the unlawful anti-union behavior had the intended effect.

Many of the NLRB complaints – mostly dealt with by the Bush NLRB, which was certainly no friend of unions — were eventually resolved by settlements that required the company to remedy the alleged violations and post notices in its stores promising not to engage in any further unfair labor practices charged. Unfortunately, this penalty that acts as no deterrent against unlawful behavior by powerful corporations such as Wal-Mart.

After years of intimidating employees who have tried to speak up against low wages and poor conditions, Wal-Mart has now turned to the NLRB and courts to prevent its associates from taking a stance for respect at the workplace. But this time round, as the company clearly understands, the ongoing protests will not be so easy to crush. This time the “consequences” might just backfire on the bully of Bentonville.

John Logan is Professor and Director of Labor and Employment Studies at San Francisco State University.