In today’s On the News segment: the CIA has been paying AT&T $10 million dollars a year for access to their overseas metadata; workers at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant are getting ready to move tons of dangerous, radioactive fuel rods; the Energy Department is making solar energy more affordable; and more.
TRANSCRIPT:
Thom Hartmann here – on the news…
You need to know this. The Central Intelligence Agency has been bribing AT&T to help them spy on international communications. According to a new report in the New York Times, the CIA has been paying that company $10 million dollars a year for access to their overseas metadata. By accessing that data, the CIA is spying on private communications, including the date and length of calls, and the phone numbers involved, all without a warrant. Although the CIA claims that only foreign-to-foreign call data is being collected, they admit that calls made to and from the US to another country are also included. AT&T claims that they’ve imposed strict privacy safeguards to protect Americans, like masking several digits of a phone number and withholding the identity of any numbers from the United States. However, if the CIA wants that information, they simply ask the FBI to issue a subpoena and force AT&T to hand over the details. Essentially, our tax dollars are being used to bribe a private, for-profit company to help the government spy on foreign citizens. And in the process, Americans’ private communication data can be collected. After all the NSA spying scandals, it’s hard to believe that this isn’t simply another program that the government uses to violate our Fourth Amendment rights. To add insult to injury, we’re the ones paying yet another for-profit company to hand our private information over to the government.
In screwed news… In Japan, workers at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant are getting ready to move tons and tons of dangerous, radioactive fuel rods. As part of the decommissioning the plant, the rods must be moved from their current storage pool, which sits about 100 feet in the air, to a more secure, indoor pool. The fuel rods are each about four-meters long, they are filled with uranium pellets, and many are badly damaged and corroded in the wake of the 2011 tsunami and earthquake. The current storage pool contains 15,000 times as much radioactive material as Hiroshima, and an accident during the process could put billions of people in danger. However, leaving the rods in their current location is just as risky, because a future storm or earthquake could bring the entire pool crashing down. A TEPCO official said, “It’s going to be very difficult, but it has to happen.” Hopefully, this process goes smoothly, and officials in our country are learning valuable lessons about the danger of nuclear power. No nukes!
In the best of the rest of the news…
The Energy Department is making solar energy more affordable. Despite local rebates, federal tax credits, and lower solar panel prices, the cost of installation can still run a homeowner as much as $20,000 dollars. A large portion of the costs – as much as 60% – are so-called “soft costs,” like the permits and inspections needed to install the panels. To lower those costs, the Energy Department just made a $12 million dollar investment in a program called “Rooftop Solar Challenge,” which is designed to lower the administrative barriers to solar installation. The challenge involves eight teams of experts, who are tasked with finding ways to make it easier, faster, and cheaper for businesses and homeowners to make the switch to solar. The overall goal, they say, is to make solar panels cost-competitive with fossil fuels. However, when the cost of pollution, clean up, illness, and climate change are factored in, solar is already more affordable. A streamlined process and lower prices just make solar an even better deal.
According to RadCast.org, radiation levels around our nation are pretty calm today. The West Coast is seeing levels like 32 counts per minute in North Portland, Oregon, and 31 in Bellingham, Washington. Near the East Coast, levels are slightly higher, but still close to average. Graham, North Carolina is hovering at 43 counts per minute, and Huntsville, Alabama is at 36. Even in the Midwest, levels are lower than they’ve been for several days. Frederic, Wisconsin is seeing 49 counts per minute, and the reading is 51 in South Dakota. RadCast.org says that the alert level is 100 counts per minute, but it looks like most of our nation is far below that today.
As if genetically modified food wasn’t bad enough, not they want our trees. The Department of Agriculture is reviewing a plan to allow the biotech company, ArborGen, to plant genetically engineered Eucalyptus all around our nation. The trees are genetically modified to grow in colder climates than standard Eucalyptus, and the company hopes to commercially farm the trees for paper and “wood pellets” – which are used for fuel. Debbie Barker, of the Center for Food Safety, warns that “commercializing GE trees could be devastating to the environment.” Millions of Americans want GMOs out of our food and our environment, and they are demanding that the USDA says ‘No’ to genetically modified trees as well.
And finally… After all the whining about the healthcare website, you’ll never guess which company had a few technical issues. That’s right – Fox so-called News. On Tuesday, the Fox News Channel website warned users about “World Zombie Day,” and Twitter users were quick to spread the word of the site’s problems. In addition to the apocalyptic warning, the website also encouraged people to watch “STUFF YO,” and check out a live feed of Apple unveiling a sea lion. Several website experts explained that someone at Fox News likely published the “place holder” text, instead of the actual news and headlines, and the website was fixed shortly afterward. You’d think that the embarrassing experience would make some Fox hosts think twice about criticizing Healthcare.gov… but it’s Fox after all, and they’ve never been afraid of a little hypocrisy.
And that’s the way it is today – Thursday, November 7, 2013. I’m Thom Hartmann – on the news.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.