TOXIC WASTE FROM FARMS!

Where is the EPA? Are they asleep?
Toxic waste from U.S. pot farms alarms experts.
Do you think anyone will get busted?
toxic waste

Lol they should legalize it like they're doing here and get high off more tax income lol

I doubt anybody will get busted in large part due to them being illicit therefore operating by stealth. Tax money I am skeptical about as the black market will stay healthy. MJ has had a long history here as an outlaw drug so the network is there. People will buy from the black market especially since in most communities a person does not have to buy from a criminal especially where it is legal. The person who would sell to you illegally under those conditions is only trying to avoid paying tax to the government which is why they often will sell for less than a licensed operator. 60 minutes had a story several years ago about bootleg liquor making a comeback because the producers and sellers were not charging a tax on their product.

They are probably at I Falls MN! We heard the paper mill there dumped a whole tanker of sulfuric acid my mistake! At least that's my excuse for not being able to catch any fish downstream.

I'd heard on the news about a week ago that the dope growers are already producing about 8 times as much as they're able to sell legally. They said it's illegal for them to transport it and sell it in another state where it's legal,even if they share a border.

That caught my interest since one of them here who grows "medical marijuana" bought a place in Oregon with three other guys and took some of his plants out there. I said at the time that I wondered how many state lines he crossed where it wasn't legal.

Around here you don't have to buy from an inner city-type person. The Cheech and Chong stereotype is no longer representative of who is selling MJ in most cases. I've had three people try to sell to me in the last several years not that I use the stuff. All pretty ordinary looking people if you looked for them in a crowd.

They are talking about putting in a grow operation a couple miles from me. I went to the meeting where they were telling all the money it would bring in. I told the one lawyer that was talking they did not need it, just go harvest it from the areas where it being grown now on state land. You could have heard a pin drop in the room. Every year the National Guard flies over the swamps south of me looking for it and they find large fields of it. I live south of camp Grayling training center where they flyout of

As bad as this is, the now-emasculated EPA has <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/08/03/541222717/the-gulf-of-mexicos-dead-zone-is-the-biggest-ever-seen">more serious problems to deal with</a>.

I find myself agreeing with you more and more lately,but as far as the "Now emasculated EPA" goes,they kind of had it coming. They just got way too cocky and heavy handed for their own good. Somebody was going to rein them in eventually if they didn't back off,and it happened.

The unions did the same thing. They couldn't be happy with their victories and had to push it. Now,with a lot of union manufacturing gone,the whole economy is paying the price. Maybe if they'd been made more humble a lot sooner,we wouldn't be in the shape we're in.

Let's hope the EPA can be brought under control and returned to common sense (if anybody there ever had any) before the scales tip too far one way or the other.

ON NO.....THE SKY IS FALLING!

They are in Alexandria looking if any sediment from the road construction made a frog jump.

It may be a true story...maybe not. Anything out of California is a red flag.

I usually enjoy what you have to say, especially you seem to have a little broader perspective than some others. This comment of yours is bollocks, though. The idea that unions weren't humble enough and that's why manufacturing is gone is nonsense, as I suspect you know. Non-union manufacturing is gone, too, and the reason all of it is gone is twofold. One, automation worked its way through the system, and what used to take 50 people in a factory now takes five. Second, business waged a war that lasted decades and still continues to keep people from organizing, and once the trade barriers to overseas manufacturing went away, they figured that if they're paying two cents on the dollar in wages for what amounts to slave labor in a country that lets them dump paint thinner in the river, they can afford to pay a little trucking.

I'm a union member, and my union does things that make me shake my head occasionally, but my union dues are the best money I spend every month. History says that when more people were paying union dues, this country was one heck of a lot better off.

Again, I like your Olivers, you would be welcome in my home or at my table any time, and I wish you nothing but the best- but you're dead wrong about this.

> ON NO.....THE SKY IS FALLING!

If you were a commercial fisherman or shrimper working in the gulf, and your livelihood depended on fish being able to stay alive in those same waters, that's EXACTLY what you would say. (That, and "MAGA". Commercial fisherman generally don't understand the concept of supporting gov't regulation when it's in one's own self-interest.)

You never know when the winds will shift and blow from the left.

Be interesting if there is a shift in 18 months.

IS THIS FAKE NEWS OR NOT FAKE NEWS? PLEASE prove it
wrong.

Unfortunately, times were different then and it had nothing to do with the Union dues being paid. The Unions are one of the main reason all of our Industry went overseas. And if you think different, I have a bridge to sell you.

Unions were a great idea when they started out. But as other things normally are as well, the power went to their heads. When factories realized they didn't have to pay the higher prices in the US for industry, overseas it went. When the Unions were great, so was the Country is true, but the greatness went to the Unions heads.

Back in the 80's Case made payloaders for government in Terre Haute. About 3 miles from my place up north. Workers were told if they go out on strike clean out your lockers. We will close the plant and move. Union went on strike. Plant closed. Never reopened.

Air traffic controllers were told if they went on strike, they would be replaced. They went on strike and they were replaced.

Two cases where the union cost the workers their jobs.

A third plant in town resisted the union. Each time their was a vote to become a union shop. Many of the jobs were moved to another plant in another town. Sometimes the plant was sold to another company. Name change only. Hired new workers at lower wage. This practice is still going on at same plant. Now they hire temporary help through an employment agency at a lower wage. Even buss in help from other towns.

I'm not saying that you're totally wrong about what unions have done for workers,and maybe I painted with just a little bit too broad of a brush in an attempt to come up with an analogy,but as an outsider who's never belonged to a union,let me just tell you how it looks to an outsider.

The unions seem to have achieved their goals when it came to worker safety,wages,benefits and hours. Those were all good things for the workers and for the economy,in that it put money in the pockets of workers and the time to spend it. It just seems like after they achieved those goals,the leaders had nothing to do,so they became just a political special interest. They got union friendly candidates elected,and those politicians made worker safety,minimum wage,etc,the law,giving the unions even less to do. By being a special interest that only supported one side,they kept putting a bigger and bigger bulls eye on their backs until it made them a "Must destroy" target of the other party. The loss of UAW manufacturing jobs has pretty much ruined the economy and things will never be the same as the "Post war" baby boom years again.

Now fast forward to me trying to make the same point about the EPA. Did they do good things? You bet they did. Unfortunately,they've become nothing but a political special interest too. I'd direct you to what they did in the public comment period for the new WOTUS rules. They were found guilty of what amounted to political lobbying. They support a political cause. They're not a neutral government agency. They've painted the same bulls eye on their backs and have become a target for the opposing political party.

They're like that old math problem where you have two bugs in a jar and the population doubles every 20 minutes. If it takes three hours to fill the jar half full,it doesn't take three more hours to completely fill it,it takes 20 minutes. The EPA regulation jar is half full. I'm not saying we should put a lid on the jar and suffocate them,but it's time to introduce a sterilant to their environment and stop them where they are. In fact,it probably should have been introduced four or five breeding cycles ago. If we have to take some bugs out of the jar,then that's what we have to do.

If they go the way of union manufacturing,I fear that the results won't be good.

The wind needs to stop blowing. One extreme seems to feed another and the pendulum keeps swinging harder and farther each way. The whole American machine is so out of balance that it's about to shake itself apart.

Two things I have learned in this life.

When it happens to you it is always someone else's fault.

When it is your fault it is someone else's problem.

The dead zone is extra big this year because of abundant rain fall over the entire river basin.
Damming of the river for flood control does more damage than the dead zone.

(quoted from post at 12:54:50 08/07/17) I usually enjoy what you have to say, especially you seem to have a little broader perspective than some others. This comment of yours is bollocks, though. The idea that unions weren't humble enough and that's why manufacturing is gone is nonsense, as I suspect you know. Non-union manufacturing is gone, too, and the reason all of it is gone is twofold. One, automation worked its way through the system, and what used to take 50 people in a factory now takes five. Second, business waged a war that lasted decades and still continues to keep people from organizing, and once the trade barriers to overseas manufacturing went away, they figured that if they're paying two cents on the dollar in wages for what amounts to slave labor in a country that lets them dump paint thinner in the river, they can afford to pay a little trucking.

I'm a union member, and my union does things that make me shake my head occasionally, but my union dues are the best money I spend every month. History says that when more people were paying union dues, this country was one heck of a lot better off.

Again, I like your Olivers, you would be welcome in my home or at my table any time, and I wish you nothing but the best- but you're dead wrong about this.

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DITTO! :evil:

It's called critical thinking Geo, to believe all news nowdays is not only dangerous it's just plain stupid. I'm not going to waste my time trying to prove it either way but I am skeptical.

I call it truth decay in the news. Some
truth, some made up news.

Some people like to also discredit
everything too without proof.

Saw lots of the last election.

Right off the bat the story is slanted by calling these illegal grow operations "farms."

The narrative that this story wants to push is that farmers are out to POISON the general public. Pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers are EVIL, and we need to ban them all.

(quoted from post at 14:24:02 08/07/17) &gt; ON NO.....THE SKY IS FALLING!

If you were a commercial fisherman or shrimper working in the gulf, and your livelihood depended on fish being able to stay alive in those same waters, that's EXACTLY what you would say. (That, and "MAGA". Commercial fisherman generally don't understand the concept of supporting gov't regulation when it's in one's own self-interest.)

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And if you were a farmer in MS Delta with your livelihood coming growing crops--------well you get the idea. You would go broke

(quoted from post at 11:54:50 08/07/17) I usually enjoy what you have to say, especially you seem to have a little broader perspective than some others. This comment of yours is bollocks, though. The idea that unions weren't humble enough and that's why manufacturing is gone is nonsense, as I suspect you know. Non-union manufacturing is gone, too, and the reason all of it is gone is twofold. One, automation worked its way through the system, and what used to take 50 people in a factory now takes five. Second, business waged a war that lasted decades and still continues to keep people from organizing, and once the trade barriers to overseas manufacturing went away, they figured that if they're paying two cents on the dollar in wages for what amounts to slave labor in a country that lets them dump paint thinner in the river, they can afford to pay a little trucking.

I'm a union member, and my union does things that make me shake my head occasionally, but my union dues are the best money I spend every month. History says that when more people were paying union dues, this country was one heck of a lot better off.

Again, I like your Olivers, you would be welcome in my home or at my table any time, and I wish you nothing but the best- but you're dead wrong about this.

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Actually you are ill informed. After WWII was over there was only one nation with the manufacturing ability to produce the goods the world needed and wanted, the US. Every other place where those goods could have been made was bombed out rubble. Although efforts to rebuild began quickly that sort of this takes time. They, the other countries, finally got everything back together enough to not only make what their counties needed but enough to export in the mid 70's. They not only no longer needed our goods they were making enough to sell on the open markets and to compete against us. This means that US manufacturing has to be able to compete to sell. Now you make something overseas you have to transport that item here to sell it. This is where cost of production comes into play. Wages are a big part of those costs. Minimum wage laws and the unions both drive up the cost of manufacturing. Even on larger things like steel. For a while mostly union wages drove the cost of steel up that it became cheaper to import it than it was to produce it here. That was in fact largely due to unions. For example: Iron ore was mined by union miners, moved from the mine by union rail worked to ports where it was loaded on ships crewed by union workers by union dock workers. At the end of the voyage it was unloaded again by union workers and again transported on union rail. Then it was turned into steel by union workers. The imported steel came from either recycled steel or from mines in countries without unions. Transporting it to the steel mill, making it into steel, transporting it to the port and loading all again without a union in sight. Most likely on foreign bottom ships with non union crews. The only time a union had anything to do with it was when it was off loaded at an American port. And even after shipping across an ocean it was still cheaper to by than US produced steel. You can say that the stock holders or company owners should take a smaller cut all you want. But consider this, it's their money, that they invested, at risk of going broke, is what created those jobs in the first place. So just why should they invest, create jobs, risk that money for a very small return? The average person doesn't put money in the bank when interest rates are low because of a very poor return. Why should people with money invest with the knowledge that they are going to get poor returns?

Picture this. For an example I live on the Tex/Mex border in the Tex side. I'm building a small factory. I put out for bids to do the plumbing. I get 4 bids from licensed pluming contractors. One a union shop that's 100% legal. One from a non union shop again 100% legal. One from a shop that hires illegals and the last from a Mexican contractor who has the needed licenses in the US and a crew who all have work permits who cross the border daily to work. Who do you think is going to have the cheapest bid?

Another point that bothers me greatly. To my understanding any company that meets the legal requirements can bid on a federal government contract. The catch is that non union companies have to agree to pay union scale should they win the contract while the contract is in effect. This cost us, the tax payer more money than needed for a new building or highway or anything else the government issues a contract for. IMO it should be illegal.

Rick

[color=blue:cbc4ef6a5e]The catch is that non union companies have to agree to pay union scale should they win the contract while the contract is in effect.[/color:cbc4ef6a5e]

Just what is union pay scale??? Not all union jobs pay the same. Does the Gov. just pick some arbitrary amount? What about benefits? That is part of pay that is union negotiated. Does Gov. make the contractor workers, for example, get 3 weeks vacation instead of 2. Sounds like a bucket of worms to me.

> And if you were a farmer in MS Delta with your livelihood coming growing crops--------well you get the idea. You would go broke

Actually, most of the fertilizer runoff comes not from the Delta but rather from the upper Mississippi. Which is not too surprising, given that the Delta comprises only a very small fraction of the land area drained by the Mississippi.

As the article notes, the Chesapeake Bay also had a "dead zone" problem. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth by agricultural interests when strict regulations were enacted to control fertilizer runoff, but today the bay is in much better shape. And agriculture in the Chesapeake Bay watershed is doing just fine.

I disagree about "all" the unions did for labor, the middle class we once enjoyed was as much the result of Henry Ford as it was the unions. I'm currently reading a book written in 1953 about Henry Ford and the auto firms he started (the Ford Motor Company was the 3rd firm he started, and was one of 4). Even before the unions got involved the auto plants were paying above average wages. The issue I have is with the government passing all the laws they have like Fair Labor Practices, OSHA and a host of others the government is now doing what the unions once did. So riddle me this batman, what in the hack are the Unions doing now? I don't know if my opinion of the Unions has been a shift in my attitude OR a shift in their function/attitude. My Dad was a Teamster and when I was in grade school was the shop steward, my only experience working in a union environment was in a county government and it was a lot different than the union activities of my Dad's day. I can remember one of the grievances my Dad settled, He worked at UPS and during the Christmas rush hey put a porter out in a truck to deliver packages. My Dad's response was if the company did that they had to pay the porter full driver's wages for the time he was on the truck, today's union would want the manager/supervisor fired and the practice outlawed and the company to hire an additional driver. An example or two from my county Government experience the contract we had with AFSCME clearly stated that "Maintenance overtime would be paid on the basis of a 40 hour week" I had 4 full time custodians working for me and one part time 15 hour a week custodian. 3 of the full timers worked 40 hour weeks, one 35 hour weeks. Weekend check of the county buildings was a task I assigned to a volunteer, but if no one volunteered I wasn't allowed to force anyone to do it. The 35 hour a week guy was volunteering for week end check and taking comptime rather than pay. My comptime balance number didn't match his, seems he felt he should be paid overtime for the 4 hours he worked on the weekend, I said no, they grieved it and lost, then filed another grievance asking I make the 35 hour week guy a 40 hour a week employee so he could get overtime for weekend check. Well I was 3 months into a budget and the county board had a new position/additional hours freeze in effect, so the only way to get the 35 hour week guy 40 hours was to take 5 hours from the part timer. The un-intended consequence was that with all custodians being 40 hour employees the part timer's benefits were figured on him being a 10 hour employee in a position where all full timers were 40 hours instead of him being a 15 hour a week employee with his benefit percentage being 43% figured as 15 hours against a 35 hour work week so my part time employee goes from being a 43% of full time to a 25% of full time (10 hours against 40 hours) so the amount of vacation he got was halved and his insurance cost tripled. So of course I'm the bad guy, I schedule the guy who went from 35 to 40 hours for weekend check and get another grievance, not from an employee but from the Union itself, the union wants all the additional or overtime hours to go to the part timer, but I'm not allowed to work him over his 10 hours a week. So the union negotiated away half of an employees benefit package so another employee could get overtime THEN negotiated away any over time for the employees and forced the part time employee to work every weekend and holiday. Today's union endorses politicians and ideologies that are contrary to the interests of the rank and file members (okay that's MY opinion), I mean how can a union representing coal miners endorse and support Barrack external_link and his environmental agenda? How can the UAW endorse and support Al Gore who wanted to eliminate the automobile? And how can any Union support candidates who want unrestricted immigration of minimally skilled workers into the US?

(quoted from post at 09:57:12 08/08/17) [color=blue:1cc03a2c6d]The catch is that non union companies have to agree to pay union scale should they win the contract while the contract is in effect.[/color:1cc03a2c6d]

Just what is union pay scale??? Not all union jobs pay the same. Does the Gov. just pick some arbitrary amount? What about benefits? That is part of pay that is union negotiated. Does Gov. make the contractor workers, for example, get 3 weeks vacation instead of 2. Sounds like a bucket of worms to me.

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I not sure how it works, I'd guess they, that is the government, would take an average of union scale for the type of work being done. It makes then news every now and then when things are slow or people are angry about government waste. Kinda like the crop insurance subsidies. When they get bored the news media covers it, when more interesting stuff is going on it's stays on the back burner.

Rick