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Natural History Museum Bonds Lowered to Junk Status
Response to post #16: THANK GOD FOR THE U.S. MILITARY, it's the only institution in America that still works as the best in history in spite of betrayals and failures by White House and the GOP Congress to support them properly during the Cheney-Bush-GOP years. Meanwhile, the failures by Washington, Sacramento and San Diego politicians and judges, failures by our religious and educational institutions, all failures due to greed and corruption are indeed destroying the fabric "soul and fabric" of American Democracy as the FBI said.— December 14, 2009 12:34 p.m.
Natural History Museum Bonds Lowered to Junk Status
Response to post #14: "we will be considered a world of giants" It really depends on how large the aliens who discover our fossils and failed institutional relics are. They'll most likely determine that our prefrontal cortex was too small to prevent our being the cause of our own extinction, that no religion truly obeyed the simple warning "Peace on Earth Good Will Toward Men." Actually, since they shall most likely be much smarter than we were, they will probably post "WARNING: Toxic Planet" warnings in outer space.— December 13, 2009 6:13 a.m.
Natural History Museum Bonds Lowered to Junk Status
Response to post #12: With total failures of our political, judicial, economic and academic institutions in California, it's like we are witnessing the decline and fall of California. California universities must start taking responsibility and accountability for their failures that have precipitated all the other failures, but their academic welfare state has blinded them to reality of the failures they have caused and they are so arrogant they are like the imperial Romans who refused to see it coming. To bad our universities have failed more than any other institution to learn from and heed the lessons of history. If our universities don't immediately heed the many warnings of Professor Eger and many others, we can forget out a quality of life future for the most recent and future generations in California. Just as the imperial Romans failed, the FBI warning is probably the most grave warning about cultural and moral breakdown that our California universities have enabled: "Corruption threatens "soul and fabric" of U.S.: FBI" http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091208/ts_nm/us_usa_… A far future exhibit at some museum like our SDNHM may most certainly be fossils of extinct humans whose cultural institutions failed the test of survival.— December 12, 2009 3:38 p.m.
Natural History Museum Bonds Lowered to Junk Status
Response to post #8: The real losers in all from all these cultural failures of San Diego leaderships are our children. As Professor Eger said this morning in his U-T Opinion, our universities are crashing and burning due to cultural failures of administrators and faculties, and college students are getting far fewer benefits from the effort and expense of obtaining a college degree than ever before. And our grade schools can't even afford to make sure every child goes to our museums because of Draconian cutbacks that don't have quality education as their highest priority for all children. Thus our economic and social systems are in the failure mode because America's political, judicial and corporate leaderships today are so universally corrupt that they no longer give a damn about quality of life in America as long as they can suck the blood out of what remains of the Land of Opportunity.— December 11, 2009 2:45 p.m.
Natural History Museum Bonds Lowered to Junk Status
It's really too bad that the SDNHM is in financial trouble, along with the Museum of Man. The current Darwin exhibit is a most excellent primer that all children in San Diego should learn from but school programs are undergoing Draconian cutbacks that are killing education in a time when quality education is more important than ever before. Also SDNHM has most certainly undercut the SDMOM many times with programs that SDMOM should have at least consponsored, and that is inexcusable. SDNHM and SDMOM must be combined but their feifdom cultures are killing both.— December 11, 2009 1:58 p.m.
Sempra, RBS Consider Selling Commodities Trading Unit
Response to post #18: Thank you for following up Don, there is just too damn much larceny going on today by every corporation that has the ability to corrupt politicians and judges. Today more than ever since WWII we must "Fight Like Hell For The Living" as Mother Jones used to say. The pen is no longer mightier than the sword, especially now that print journalism and literature are dying because too many people don't want to bother to read and think. It's much easier to believe the hate/fearmongers and allow corruption to triumph until global warming destroys all our opportunities and future. The U-T had a great opinion by SDSU J-school professor Eger "Tie to rethink the university" which in essence said that our current university majors are "silos" inhibiting learning, making it difficult for administrators and faculty to make meaningful changes in a time of rapid changes. Far too many graduates today are not learning information that is truly relevant, not motivated to be creative and innovative enough to deal with the overwhelming challenges of change we are are experiencing, not competitive, and not able to get a good job that makes a college education worth the effort.— December 11, 2009 1:40 p.m.
Sempra, RBS Consider Selling Commodities Trading Unit
Response to post #15: "If the PUC is giving utilities rate breaks to compensate for its failings in non-regulated activities, that should be exposed." I agree with you wholeheartedly Don, and there is no one better than you to expose the obvious failures by our government to protect ratepayers from predator executives than you Don. You might want to form an investigative alliance with organizations like TURN and UCAN on this because San Diego ratepayers have most obviously not been protected by courts and regulatory agencies for far too long. And the increasingly negative consequences have not only outrageously impacted ratepayers for far too long, but the environmental consequences of firestorms, increasingly unsafe water supplies, drought and lost agricultural productivity are out of control because of political, judicial and economic corruption. The future quality of life, economic and social stability of your Reader constituency is under attack by these forces of corruption, and totally unacceptable consequences that are already occurring.— December 10, 2009 3:22 p.m.
Sempra, RBS Consider Selling Commodities Trading Unit
Response to post #10: Yes Don, and I don’t believe in the Easter Bunny any more than I do "walls". As you have documented many times over the years, “walls” are all too easily disintegrated by high priced lawyers in a city where the Rule of Law no long exists except to serve the interests of the most corrupt and powerful. I just thought that a corporation that caused the 2000 San Diego energy crisis that we are still paying an outrageous premium for, especially in a city now officially characterized as Enron by the Sea where corruption reigns supreme, might make you a lot more skeptical because I feel like I graduated from your Skepticism 401 course. I also thought Sempra’s latest larceny by shafting all low usage customers who took energy conservation seriously after the 2000 Sempra energy crisis and charging them a penalty for low energy usage, and then passing that larceny on to their profligate user class should be enough to update your investigations every time they hit the headlines. Doesn’t Sempra’s never-ending larceny of ratepayers make it worth an update to past Follow The Money Trail investigations by San Diego’s premier investigative reporter? Or do you believe in the integrity of Mike Peevey's "walls"?— December 10, 2009 1:25 p.m.
Sempra, RBS Consider Selling Commodities Trading Unit
Response to post #7: Re: "I'm not sure you can argue that ratepayers get taken because of this activity." Geez Don, you've got to be facetious, do you also believe in Santa Claus again? With a corrupt CPUC, especially with Peevey still President, anything is possible in this age where even the FBI admits 'Corruption threatens "soul and fabric" of U.S'. You are facetious, right??? Again, with Roberts and Scalia overthrowing the Rule of Law, championing corruption by politicians, judges, corporate execs, etc., etc. what are you thinking???— December 9, 2009 2:44 p.m.
Sempra, RBS Consider Selling Commodities Trading Unit
Response to post #2: RBS Sempra Commodities "has generated big profits for Sempra" plus "managing directors of RBS Sempra Commodities may receive $5 million each this year" equals more screwing than ever before of SDG&E ratepayers. The Reuters-FBI article I referenced on another of your blogs yesterday definitely applies here also: 'Corruption threatens "soul and fabric" of U.S.: FBI' Reuters, by Pascal Fletcher, Tue Dec 8— December 9, 2009 1:14 p.m.