by Walter Brasch
Writer, Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
November 2, 2013
Image by dragontoller via Flickr
Three-fourths of all Pennsylvanians want to see an end to live pigeon shoots.
A statewide survey by the Mason-Dixon Polling and Research Company reveals not only do 75 percent of Pennsylvanians want to see legislation to ban live pigeon shoots but only 16 percent of Pennsylvanians oppose such a ban.
by Walter Brasch
Writer, Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
October 26, 2013
Image by Chiot’s Run via Flickr
Monday morning, Oct. 21, 2013. Vera Scroggins, a retired real estate agent and nurse’s aide, was in Common Pleas Court for Susquehanna County, Pa., to explain why a temporary injunction should not be issued against her.
Before her were four lawyers and several employees of Cabot Gas and Oil, who accused her of trespassing and causing irreparable harm to the company that had almost $1 billion in revenue in 2012. They didn’t want her on their property they owned or leased in the Marcellus Shale.
by Walter Brasch
Writer, Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
August 19, 2013
Image by euthman via Flickr
Sen. Diane Feinstein and a horde of members of Congress of both parties want to decide who is and who isn’t a reporter. Sen. Feinstein says a “real” reporter is a “salaried agent of a media company.”
She mentions the usual suspects—New York Times, ABC News. She dismisses part-time staff. She dismisses freelancers. She dismisses those who write, often without pay, for the hundreds of alternative publications, and often break news and investigative stories well ahead of the mainstream media. She dismisses anyone who, she says, “have no professional qualifications.”
by Walter Brasch
Writer, Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
July 13, 2013
Image by Francis Storr via Flickr
Pennsylvanians want to put a moratorium on fracking.
And it’s not just a few thousand, but a majority of the state’s residents.
Pennsylvania lies in the heart of the Marcellus Shale, possibly the most productive shale for gas in the country.
A joint University of Michigan/Muhlenberg College study reveals that only 49 percent of Pennsylvanians support shale gas extraction and 58 percent of all Pennsylvanians want the state to order “time out” until the health and environmental effects of fracking can be fully analyzed. That same study revealed that 60 percent of Pennsylvanians believe fracking poses a major risk to ground water resources, only 28 percent disagree; 12 percent have no opinion.
by Walter Brasch
Writer, Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
June 21, 2013
Image by Free Press Pics via Flickr
It makes no difference if Edward Snowden, who had fled to Hong Kong and revealed that the American government was spying upon American citizens, is a traitor or a hero.
Intelligence agencies from China, Russia, England, Israel, and maybe even Lichtenstein, probably already know that the National Security Administration (NSA) is collecting data of all the phone calls and emails of Americans, and linking them to conversations with foreign nationals. Continue reading
by Walter Brasch
Writer, Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
June 7, 2013
Image by dgrinbergs via Flickr
Fracking—the process the oil and gas industry uses to extract fossil fuel as much as two miles below the ground—may directly impact the nation’s water supply, reduce water-based recreational and sports activity, and lead to an increase in the cost of food.
The cocktail soup required for each well requires about two million pounds of silica sand, as much as 100,000 gallons of toxic chemicals, and three to nine million gallons of fresh water. There are more than 500,000 active wells in the country.
Image by 350.org via Flickr
by Walter Brasch
Writer, Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
May 19, 2013
Julia Trigg Crawford of Direct, Texas, is the manager of a 650-acre farm that her grandfather first bought in 1948. The farm produces mostly corn, wheat, and soy. On its north border is the Red River; to the west is the Bois d’Arc Creek.
TransCanada is an Alberta-based corporation that is building the controversial Keystone Pipeline that will carry bitumen—thicker, more corrosive and toxic, than crude oil—through 36-inch diameter pipes from the Alberta tar sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast, mostly to be exported. The $2.3 billion southern segment, about 485 miles from Cushing, Okla., to the Gulf Coast is nearly complete. Continue reading
Image by e izzo via Flickr
by Peter Rugh
SocialistWorker.org
First published at Waging Nonviolence, May 7, 2013
May 9, 2013
SMOKEY THE Bear thought he smelled a fire in the woods. But as he approached the clearing and saw a giant derrick jutting out into the sky, he realized that what his nose had picked up was the scent of hydrocarbons. It was another piece of evidence that the increasingly widespread method of oil and gas extraction known as fracking was poisoning the environment that he and his human friends depend on. He decided something must be done.
Image by Marcellus Protest via Flickr
by Walter Brasch
Writer, Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
April 22, 2013
The history of energy exploration, mining, and delivery is best understood in a range from benevolent exploitation to worker and public oppression. A company comes into an area, leases or buys land in rural and agricultural areas for mineral rights, increases employment, usually during a depressed economy, strips the land of its resources, creates health problems for its workers and those in the immediate area, and then leaves.
by Walter Brasch
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
February 23, 2013
Image by Marcellus Protest via Flickr
José Lara just wanted a job.
A company working in the natural gas fields needed a man to power wash wastewater tanks. Clean off the debris. Make them shining again.
And so José Lara became a power washer for the Rain for Rent Co.
“The chemicals, the smell was so bad. Once I got out, I couldn’t stop throwing up. I couldn’t even talk,” Lara said in his deposition, translated from Spanish.
The company that had hired him didn’t provide him a respirator or protective clothing. That’s not unusual in the natural gas fields.
by Walter Brasch
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
Originally published September 7, 2009
Sept. 3, 2012
Image by Kheel Center, Cornell University via Flickr
It’s Labor Day, and that means millions of Americans are celebrating. Most Americans have no idea what Labor Day is, other than self-serving political speeches, hot dogs, burgers, a pool party, and the last day of a three-day holiday. Few even know that Labor Day exists to allow people to remember and honor the struggles for respect, dignity, and acceptable wages and working conditions for the rank-and-file employees.
by Walter Brasch
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
August 2, 2012
Image by dragontoller via Flickr
Shortly before the Pennsylvania House of Representatives was scheduled to vote on an amendment last December that would ban pigeon shoots, the Pennsylvania Flyers Association sent out a bulletin it marked as “urgent.”
“We must act now to preserve our sport,” the Flyers screeched. In a separate letter, the Flyers told its members they “should be very proud that your association has been able to keep the sport alive in PA [sic] for the last 27 years.” For added support, the notice referred to an NRA release, which called pigeon shooting a “Pennsylvania Sporting Tradition.”
by Walter Brasch
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
June 1, 2012
Image by Focx Photography via Flickr
A national animal welfare organization has filed an ethics complaint against a Pennsylvania district attorney.
SHARK (Showing Animals Respect and Kindness) charges Bucks County DA David Heckler with conflict-of-interest, favoritism, and failure to fulfill his professional responsibilities. The ethics complaint was filed with the Disciplinary Board of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Detail of Tower for drilling horizontally into the Marcellus Shale Formation for natural gas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
by Walter Brasch
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
March 21, 2012
The history of energy exploration, mining, and delivery is best understood in a range from benevolent exploitation to worker and public oppression. A company comes into an area, leases land in rural and agricultural areas for mineral rights, increases employment, usually in a depressed economy, strips the land of its resources, creates health problems for its workers and those in the immediate area, and then leaves.
Detail of Tower for drilling horizontally into the Marcellus Shale Formation for natural gas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
by Walter Brasch
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
March 20, 2012
The natural gas industry defends hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, as safe and efficient. Thomas J. Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, a pro-industry non-profit organization, claims fracking has been “a widely deployed as safe extraction technique,” dating back to 1949. What he doesn’t say is that until recently energy companies had used low-pressure methods to extract natural gas from fields closer to the surface than the current high-pressure technology that extracts more gas, but uses significantly more water, chemicals, and elements.
Dandelion Salad 