Author: Michael Steinberg

Recent building takeovers have exposed the role of rich non profits in promoting homelessness by deliberately keeping vacant perfectly good structures that could provide homes for many without a roof over their heads.

Most recently, the April 1 takeover of 888 Turk Street in San Francisco by Occupy SF revealed the duplicity of the Archdiocese of San Francisco in this shameful situation.

The Archdiocese initially was caught by surprise on the day of the takeover, as hundreds streamed into the building and set up the SF Commune, a free space that was to serve as a community center and home to homeless people in cooperation with Occupy SF.

OSF invited the Archdiocese to participate in discussions and planning for the project, saying that the building had been empty for five years and needed a, well, resurrection.

With the first anniversary of the Fukushima disaster approaching, expect a barrage of “experts” braying that there was little to no damage to human health as a result of Fukushima’s radioactive releases.

But others say thousands have already died in the US alone as a result of Fukushima fallout.

This coming March 11 will mark the first anniversary of Fukushima’s multiple meltdown nuclear disaster.

The mainstream media has already begun trotting out assorted “experts” to assure us all is well and no one’s been harmed by all the radiation the reactors released. For example, on March 2, The Wall Street Journal-Japan ran a piece, “Fukushima Health Impact: Minimal?”

It lead off, “The health threat from radiation in the wake of the Fukushima accident is extremely low…according to a panel of American radiation experts who studied the Japanese case for the past year.”

As the first anniversary of the Fukushima disaster approaches, recent developments in the nuclear power world at locales thousands of miles apart once again teach us the high prices societies pay for depending on atomic power to generate their electricity.

Fukushima

Nearly a year after a devastating earthquake and catastrophic tsunami crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northeastern Japan, tens of thousands are still unable to return to their homes.

Children in the city of Fukushima were largely prohibited from going outside last summer.

Radioactive contamination has been found in local beef, rice, milk, vegetables and tea.

Most recently, the January 28 Mainichi Daily News reported, “Radioactive testing facilities have been inundated with requests to check gravel after it was revealed on January 15 that high radioactive levels were detected in gravel quarried near Fukushima Unit 1 and used in construction projects across [Fukushima] prefecture.”

Editor: Check out the following report by former OBcean Michael Steinberg who now lives in San Francisco. Apparently, the Occupy movement in San Diego is not the only one with problems with the daily fishwrap.

On January 20 Occupy protestors took over a 600 unit vacant hotel in San Francisco. But the San Francisco Chronicle missed the point. Actually it missed a lot of them.

As the final action of January 20th’s Wall Street West San Francisco protests, activists marched to the former Cathedral Hill Hotel at Geary and Van Ness and took it over.Why? The San Francisco Chronicle’s report the next morning only informed us that, upon arriving and being greeted by riot cops, “Some activists threw bricks and bottles, injuring two officers, one in the chest and one in the arm.” Also that “40 people broke in through a back entrance and loudly cavorted in the 600-room hotel for two hours. When they threw furniture from the roof, several dozen police cleared the building.”

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee’s minions attacked Occupy SF on the 70th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Just a coincidence?

In the wee hours of this December 7 just past, over 100 SFPD riot cops invaded Occupy SF, gave the sleeping campers 5 minutes to clear out, arrested 70, supervised the destruction of their belongings in trash crusher trucks, and supervised the obliteration of the suddenly most offensive structures ever to grace the grounds of San Francisco: Tents.

Was it just a coincidence that this happened on the 70th anniversary …

On Saturday, December 3, Occupy San Francisco united with San Franciso Housing Rights organizations to oppose evictions, foreclosures and other housing injustices across the city. The day began with actions in the Bayview, Mission, Castro and Tenderloin, and culminated with a mass march from the Occupy SF site through the financial district to confront banks that put up the bucks that fuel these abuses.

A statement from a flyer promoting today’s action declared:

“From the subprime mortgage crisis that began our current recession, to bank bailouts, the rising rates of homelessness and policies like the Ellis Act that prioritize profit over people, housing has been central to the occupy movement in San Francisco, and around the country.”

Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Three Mile Island and Chernobyl—and now Fukushima.

This latest and hopefully last nuclear disaster ironically has struck the very land first devastated by two US atomic bombs.

Unlike those first two horrors, however, those of late in Japan were never supposed to happen.

The six nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, like all others around the planet, were deemed safe and robust.

Two weeks into Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant crisis, the situation continues to worsen.

Among the headlines in today’s paper is “Breach feared at reactor—radiation high.” The Associated Press reported “Plant operators don’t know the source of radioactive water discovered in at Units 1 and 3.” The utility, Tokyo Electric Power Co., suspected that water found in Units 2 and 4 was similarly contaminated.

As the first Fukushima radioactive plumes hit the West Coast of North America, “leaders” and “experts” try to reassure us there’s no danger. But it’s become painfully obvious that it’s up to us to determine the real truth, and to take action to stop this nuclear madness.

“We do not expect harmful levels of radiation to reach the United States, whether it’s the West Coast, Hawaii, Alaska, or US territories in the Pacific,” he said.

Tuesday Mar 15th, 2011 8:25 PM

As the nuclear disaster in Japan intensifies, US Secretary Steven Chu calls on Congress for $36 billion to build new nuclear plants in the US.

Tuesday, March 15—Today at Fukushima’s desperate deteriorating nuclear complex in Japan, there was a fire in Unit 4 for the second time in as many days.

Two workers have been missing since the first fire yesterday.

As a result of the 8.9 earthquake and subsequent tsunamis in Japan, the 40 year old Fukushima No. 1 nuclear…

Editor: This nostalgic-seeming post by former OBceian now living in the Bay Area Michael Steinberg got to us a little…