http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl’s hockey team died in a plane crash earlier in the week as they were flying to their season opener with Dynamo Minsk.  Dynamo decided to hold a ceremony to honor their fallen opponents.  The game was sold out ahead of the tragedy, and the crowd showed up for the ceremony.

The embed is only the short type, and it didn’t want to work.

The whole ceremony is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

http://wsws.org/articles/2011/…

For a good look at the upcoming auto worker contract cuts talks and how the UAW looks to continue the betrayal of the workers who provide its very reason for being, read this article.

(From the link.  ek)

US auto workers face historic struggle

Jerry White, wsws.org

8 September 2011

On September 14 the four-year labor agreements covering 114,000 US auto workers at GM, Ford and Chrysler expire. Although the companies have raked in more than $7 billion in profits this year, they have made it clear that workers-who have not had a raise since 2003-will see no improvements in wages or working conditions.

On the contrary, with the full backing of the Obama administration and the United Auto Workers (UAW), the auto executives are pressing ahead with plans to drive out the remaining better-paid workers and create a low-paid, casualized workforce.

http://socialistworker.org/201…

Glenn Greenwald’s speech from Socialism 2011.  Highly reccomended. If you haven’t been paying attention, Obama belongs in jail, as does Bush, as do their cronies who are implementing this.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-1…

Who would have thought that Hugh Grant would be one of the major players in bringing down one of the Fleet Street tabloids?  Amazing. Good for Hugh!

http://socialistworker.org/201…

This was quite the conference (I attended…YAY).  As always, Haymarket Books ( http://www.haymarketbooks.org/ ) had their bookstore open (I bought 10 books and 4 DVDs), and they have many good titles you should look up.

Wearemany.org ( http://wearemany.org ) already has some of the talks up for your edification!

If you haven’t been to a Socialism conference before, I would say go if you get the chance.  You can keep up to date at http://www.socialismconference… to see when next year’s conference is scheduled (usually announced Feb or March and held in June or early July).

http://socialistworker.org/blo…

This is a good read about the current President of the good ol’ US of A.  The only question remaining is are we going to have a moderate Republican warmonger as President after 2012, or will we have a reactionary Republican warmonger as President?  The only one running who’s even close to decent is Ron Paul, and I don’t trust anybody who calls themselves a libertarian (think Capitalism with no restraints).  It’s sad that no Democrat from what is whistfully called the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party is willing to stand up and run against Obama.  At least then we’d have a possibility of someone who’s not concerned about lining their pockets as President.

Worth a watch again…

Except for Up With Obama/Biden (which is a failed team), Dennis was pretty much on the mark.  More to the point, and I’m sure he realizes this now, what he said can pretty much be tacked on to Obama/Biden as well as both of the business/war/bankster/bosses parties.  Oh well….

Just in case you haven’t read about it…

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/l…

Don’t be worried.  It’s only the natural progression of the national security state.  And guess what?  Mitch Daniels, Indiana’s governator, wants to run for President, and apparently he has money to back him (don’t worry about pharma buying him out, he used to be head of Eli Lily, so he’s already sold himself).

Coming to state near you, if its not already there.

http://socialistworker.org.uk/…

Now that The Wedding is over (I didn’t watch), it might be fun to take a look at what the Royals are raking in from the British public.

Although we’re told Kate made quite the fetching bride, her averice appears to be in keeping with the Royals standards.

By Hirose Takashi: http://counterpunch.com/takash…

The Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant: Have you ever heard of it?  If not, you may want to know about it.

The Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant is where expended nuclear fuel from all of Japan’s nuclear power plants is collected, and then reprocessed so as to separate out the plutonium, the uranium, and the remaining highly radioactive liquid waste.  In short, it is the most dangerous factory in the world.

And…

At the Rokkasho plant, 240 cubic meters of radioactive liquid waste are now stored.  A failure to take care of this properly could lead to a nuclear catastrophe surpassing the meltdown of a reactor.  This liquid waste continuously generates heat, and must be constantly cooled.  But if an earthquake were to damage the cooling pipes or cut off the electricity, the liquid would begin to boil.  According to an analysis prepared by the German nuclear industry, an explosion of this facility could expose persons within a 100 kilometer radius from the plant to radiation 10 to 100 times the lethal level, which presumably means instant death.

Not good, but then again neither is this…

On April 7, just one month after the 3/11 earthquake in northeastern Japan, there was a large aftershock.  At the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant the electricity was shut off.  The pool containing nuclear fuel and the radioactive liquid waste were (barely) cooled down by the emergency generators, meaning that Japan was brought to the brink of destruction.  But the Japanese media, as usual, paid this almost no notice.

Rokkasho sits near a fault.  It’s a fault where the North American and Asian land plates come together.  Think of it…the world’s most dangerous factory sits on a fault where two of the major tectonic plates come together.  Somehow, this seems to me to be not a very good thing.

By Eóin Gilligan:

The recent election results and the demonstrations and public sector strikes of 2010 showed the willingness to struggle, only a leadership dedicated to taking over the major parts of industry and the banks under workers’ control can truly make the causes of Ireland and labour one. The events of 1916 marked a major development in the struggle for a socialist, united Ireland. We must finish what Connolly and the working people of Dublin began!

Good reading.  There’s more about 1916 on Socialist Appeal’s front page.

I’ll add one point.  Notice that the reaction of Labour (the party) is much the same as the reaction of the Dems in the US.  They run and sound as if they support a Left platform, and then scurry to the right as soon as the votes are counted.  The disillusionment with the Dems right now is because they, as a national party, have done this since 2008.  Should they be successful in 2012, it is likely that they will do so again.

http://wsws.org/articles/2011/… by Patrick Martin.

Don’t trust Obama (or the Dems, for that matter) for a second on this.  Period.  He may not support Medicare’s destruction until after the election, but he’ll support it under some guise should we make the mistake of re-electing him.  The ‘progressive’ wing (well…the ‘bots) are thrilled that this has passed the House because they think that it ensures Obama’s re-election, but having it pass is to get the public ready for when it really does get cut.