So much seems to be going on at present that it looks like a cock fight. I'll just run a small list. As Billy might say this is just the monkeys fucking around.
Iraq Afghanistan Pakistan Libya And not much but still changing Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco,
Then there's little talked about Bahrain, Yemen, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia
And now we have the Ivory Coast, Syria and who know what other countries are fed up with their governance.
Not to forget Japan (earthquakes tsunami and meltdown)
And the long forgotten Haiti, Chile (earthquakes)
Oil spill in the Gulf? What oil spill?
And the well forgotten Hurricane Katrina
Oh well just shut her down. Government doesn't do anything for the people unless you rely on one of those monthly checks.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
I just love how the rest of the world responds to various crisis. When the U.S. has an economic meltdown or major disaster it always seems like volunteer groups get stuck with the clean up unless of course you're a major corporation in which case the government is more than happy to bury you in shekels with no strings attached. After all it's not their money they're giving away. And what do these fine upstanding corporations do with such a windfall? Do they make whole those who have been damaged by their misdeeds? Of course not it's just another excuse to celebrate the cash influx with bonuses for the boys at the top. Thinking of how you'll pay for the summer home in the Caymans? Worry no more. And who gets the blame for your debauchery? The victims you simpleton or the messenger, take your pick. Does said corporation experience so much as the minimum of punitive damage awards to their bottom line? Never going to happen in this present day and age. The whores and Johns on capitol hill would never let that happen.
So just how do other countries deal with a major corporate screw up? They get their company taken away from them and placed in more responsible hands. Japan seems to have the right idea. Even if they were suckered into building a substandard reactor in one of the most earthquake prone regions of the world. Oh, but we all know how the corporate U.S. media will try to spin this one. Don't need a dosimeter to see this one coming. Who put the generators in the basement? The containment vessel should have held even at a 9.0 earthquake and other BS that they can think up. Wouldn't be surprised if they tried to blame the local children if they thought they could get away with it. I know it's all Obama"s fault because you know, they have nobody left to blame.
No it's not the name of a new minor league baseball team here, it's what's happening in various parts of the country. I have to think that working outside in the rain may have the added benefit of softer skin until levels reach dangerous proportions at which point one won't have to worry about skin as it will be sluffing off in large quantities. Ladies that will save you quit a bit on the make up bill and I hear zombie is going to be the new look for this year. Maybe this is payback for end of WWII but worse is becoming the new norm. Regulations? Regulations? We don't need no stinking regulations. And Dickens thought he lived in hard times. If the dictators of corporate America have their way Charlie's day will seem like a picnic. When all goes to hell who do you think will be looking desperately for that Nanny State? There's more so much more but who has the time unless you're one of the unfortunate 99ers with too much time on your hands after all with a library net connection and a half hour (that's all it takes to surf the job boards) there's more than enough time to know which celebrity apprentice is frequenting a Sheen coke party. But I don't follow that and couldn't care less. It's enough work just trying to find out the radiation levels to know when to pull out the lead rain gear.
And as Randal would say this is all the result of not having a better idea for a post. Yes I do have a few but what's better than watching the makings of a disaster film in real life and in real time? And Hollywood thought they had reached their drug induced pinnacle.
The beavers are about to make their spring appearance but in the mean time we have radioactive cat to deal with.
Me thinks we're being fibbed to on the situation in Japan all in the name of not loosing face. Forget the face boys and tell the truth. The truth we can handle, lie and you will lose face. Funny how many foreign stations are presenting far more news about this than the American press. Wouldn't want to taint the reputation of that nice clean energy industry. Hey John McCain you wouldn't mind if we throw up one of these plants next to one of your six homes and bury the waste in your backyard? I thought not. NIMBY!
My tin foil hat gene is starting to kick in about Libya. As I recall there were only several hundred demonstrators at the opening rallies. It seemed that after a week the rally was crushed by Gadaffi forces sending the rebels to other places. This is looking more and more like a scheme cooked up by agencies at the fringe of the arab world. Would it be a CIA operation or some underhanded plot by the oil companies we may never know, but on the face of it it sure looks shady. Here we have a very small group of lesser armed civilians trying to overthrow a dictator with a well armed military. All of Gadaffis' weapons are Russian made. What the rebels are using is what they've managed to capture or commandeer from defecting soldiers. This was not a well planned operation but thrown together at the last second. Even the Russians are not sure how to deal with the situation which is surprising considering their investment in the country.
In other news we find that the Deepwater Horizon spill was caused by a bent drill pipe that prevented the cut off rams from doing their job. I question that analysis on the grounds that the operators were told by BP to do something that was not standard procedure. Using sea water to do the job of concrete just reeks of incompetence. We've all heard such instructions by a boss under pressure at one time or another. That "get her done" attitude, safety be damned request when money is at stake usually results in somebody getting hurt or killed. Sad part is when all is said and done and a few meager fines paid it's just a matter of calling "the Hall" for another body to replace the last poor slob who followed stupid instructions. Sad to think to have a choice between a job and your very life but that's what it comes down to
More oil spills in the Gulf. A Swiss consortium has been identified as the culprit behind the latest spill. Seems they were able to cap and put to bed a finished well. This was said to be about 30 miles off the coast and not in deep water. Humm, I wonder how many other wells weren't retired properly?
Must run busy day or two. Life goes on when you have to do the work of three people.
First Tunisia then Egypt then Yemen then Bahrain then Libya. Then there was volcanoes and earthquakes and tsunamis and now maybe the largest nuclear melt down in world history. It's getting to the point where you either hide in the closet or just say the hell with it and go about your day. Have we reached fright fatigue yet? Can't scare us with terrorists any more. On the bright side jobs seem to be coming back but tell that to somebody who's about to lose their home. Some good news and bad news on an anecdotal scale. I'm seeing the day workers back at Home Depot. Was a time when they didn't bother because nobody was buying hardware or fixing their homes. That's the good news. The bad is an increase in guys at the exit ramps with "will work for food signs".
What no SARS or swine flu scare to have us running to the docs for shots? Maybe the IRS can inflict some dread into your life. No not for me. They can't tax what I didn't make last year. The first time ever that I'll be like the large corporations and pay zero in taxes but I'd sure like their profits as I had none.
So here I sit watching the circus of life go by and wonder what's next? Life is after all what you do while you're waiting to die.
There was a time during your grandparents' lifetime that life was much harder. What we take for granted now was not so back then. A work day was long. Fourteen hours was quit common then and there were no breaks. If you had to use the restroom your pay was docked a nickel (an hours' wages). Weeks were six work days with Sunday off. When you punched in in the morning the doors were locked behind you to prevent you from leaving. Nice idea unless there was a fire which happened. Don't consider calling in sick because that would result in your termination. Many industries were mill towns where the mill rented out homes to their workers. Pay was given out as script that could only be used at the company store and no where else. Food could cost up to 50% of a weeks pay. With little extra left over it's no wonder people paid the doctor with chickens. Outhouses were common even in big cities. Garbage was thrown in the street that was until sanitation laws were enacted. There was no minimum wage or child labor laws. No safety rules either. Workers never used a safety harness and hard hats didn't come into use until they built the Bolder Dam. Even then it was the workers who made the first versions by gluing and doping two baseball hats together. It made for a hard double billed hat with hard shell to protect against falling rocks.
And we wonder why the life expectancy back then was 48 years. All of the advances and benefits we enjoy today as workers union or not was due to the fights of the unions. Take away that bargaining power and we'll return to that not so good yesteryear that I'm sure grandpa would like to forget.
Can you blame anyone for not trusting anyone these days? With politicians and used car salesmen at the head of the list or have car dealers moved up in the honesty rankings these days? Were they replaced by bankers and investment swindlers? Then there's the information or should I say misinformation gurus who when peeling back the thin vail of anonymity turn out to be a pimply face twenty something with a degree in political science from some unheard of community college. They only got the job because Uncle Harry was in office and needed a quick fall guy he could pretend was an "expert" in the field of global warming.
I realize that some information is difficult to pin down. Trying to get an accurate radiation reading from an ongoing event is like trying to catch milkweed on a windy day. But it shouldn't be that hard to pass on what information you have gained in trying to protect yourself and your workers. Panic? I think the cat is out of the bag on that one. We can only assume the worst and make preparations for it. There's no embarrassment or cause for anymore alarm there. They say you can't handle the truth? I say we can and you look a whole lot smarter in the long run if you tell us that up front. People can deal with the truth. What they can't deal with are lies, innuendoes, and rumors. But what infuriates the unwashed masses is some wheezily politician who says how he's going to do one thing and does just the opposite. I refer to one slimy Wisconsin governor who's about to have one of the shortest terms in public office short of death by assassination or pneumonia.
Then there's the slime behind the slime. There's the Roves and the Kochs and the Lansings who'd think nothing of stealing your last cent and demanding the shirt off your back to boot. They got their pound of flesh and then some with a tax robbery by Bush. Steal from the poor and give to the rich. That will make for a wonderful society. What lesson does that teach our children? Crime pays if you're high enough in office?
Haven't checked the computer models lately but I have to assume that this radiation event will be reaching our shores in the next few days. Here's a little advice I gained from a Ukrainian gentleman at work yesterday while we were discussing the issue. Don't eat any local dairy products for a while when this thing hits. Cows after all eat the grass that's contaminated and that gets passed on to the consumer in short order. My Ukrainian friend lost several members of his family for that very reason. All because of lies and misinformation again. And it's now looking more like not if this process will occur but when.
On a bright note there were no bank fails this week.
In just a little over a week we've had revolutions, earthquakes, tsunamis, and now a nuclear melt down. And you think your week went poorly. As for me I went through another week with all limbs intact so I guess that's a positive note. Of course we never know what tomorrow brings so keep your fingers crossed. And remember no matter how well you're prepared there's always worse. That demon of the best laid plans of men and mice.
So enjoy your day while you still have it. Which reminds me of when doing an asbestos job when a woman onlooker asked " Are we going to die?" "Why yes" replied the supervisor "we're all going to die".
I just love how the main stream media tries to spin a story to the advantage of the "haves" when it's in their best interest. Or to put it another way in the interest of their corporate masters. Oil as we've all seen has been climbing in price for weeks but if you asked any of the major network stations that's all due to market forces. What a load of bull! Like some drug crazed junkie the boys on Wall Street are looking for the next bubble to pad their portfolios and impress their clients. All the while Main Street is getting hit with higher taxes, fees, cuts to wages and a higher work load. But we who carry the load are being blamed for the problems they create. Next I expect we'll hear that it's because workers drive to work that's causing a spike in gas prices. All the while when governors rejected money and a plan for high speed rail that would have been a more energy efficient way of getting to work.
So now we have the crisis in Japan with the yen taking a beating but rather than blame the real causes of the psychological effects of such a disaster we're hearing it's the speculators who are driving up prices. I'm sure they are in the game because after all they'd bet on when your grandmother is going to die if they could make a buck. They could care less about human life. And I think that may be the reason we're seeing the beginnings of a rising up of Main Street. Being fed up with this lack of compassion and being blamed for something they did not cause.
And if you look at the root causes of so many disasters of the last 10 years or so you'll note that the primary reason was that those making the decisions were not the ones responsible for the actual process but a bunch of bean counters who only know how to shave a few more cents off the bottom line to make the CEO another sweet bonus, human life be damned.
Two phrases that stick indelibly in my mind are "that would never happen" and "we need to do something so that will never happen again". Enough said.
Some 88% of 200,347 voters elected to oust Republican Carlos Alvarez, with 707 of 829 precincts reporting, along with early and absentee ballots.
This was a Dade County Florida mayor who became unpopular because of his republican ideals and policies. Your party says it speaks for the people? I think not. And the carnage to your party is just beginning. Wait until Wisconsin has its' way with you. I believe they almost have the necessary signatures or should by weeks' end to remove eight of your senators and the governor. Let this be a wake up call to the republican party. The theft and name calling of those who had nothing to do with our present economic melt down will stop or we will get rid of you and anyone professing such ideas.
From what I'm reading of the Japan Times things are not looking good for them or the rest of the world. If this isn't a time for swift world action then I don't know when is. There are so many things going wrong in Japan at the moment I see no good outcome and this will affect all of us if we don't rally the best minds in the world. Here's a thought if the details could be worked out. Pump liquid nitrogen into or near the reactor core to bring down the temperature. There is the danger of course of making the metal brittle causing it to crack but I think seeing as how the containment structure is some six inches of hardened steel it just may have a chance of working. The problem would be getting that much liquid nitrogen to the location. Maybe by ship?
According to the Times all personnel have been evacuated from the plant. It has been deemed unsafe for any workers to be in the area. Elevated levels of radiation has been recorded as far away as Tokyo 150 miles away.
So you have about 10 days depending on the weather and when a meltdown will occur to decide what you will do. Will you stay and try and ride out the fallout or head for some safer area? Anyway you look at it this will affect us all in one way or another. 750 rads is enough to give you cancer down the road. And I'm sure when the estimates from my last post were done they were a best case scenario.
Details are sketchy but the latest news from Japan is that the fourth reactor has exploded and is leaking radiation. Hard to say what will happen next. Even the experts are stumped. This is after all uncharted territory. One question I'd like to know is what the radiation levels being released are. I've been hearing 150 milrems per hour. That's from the old method but at least it's a frame of reference. As they say there's always worse but this is ridiculous. First earthquake then tsunami and now a nuclear disaster. If anything good can come of this it will be a wake up call on preparedness and what to do in a disaster. As we sit here on the west coast on several faults we know it's just a matter of time before we experience a very large quake. What can we expect? Impassable roads No electricity No Gas No Communications (cell phones) No gasoline (power for the pumps) Food shortages Trapped people Injuries Limited access to medical
Something to think about going forward. It's not a matter of if but when this will happen. The Alaska quake of the 1960s had one thing going for us. The population was less than half what it is now.
This is a bit out of my area of expertise. I've never had a need to take another 120 hours of specialty training to work at Hanford but some of my cohort have.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and other U.S. and international agencies, require that licensees limit radiation exposure to individual members of the public to 1 mSv (100 mrem) per year, and limit occupational radiation exposure to adults working with radioactive material to 50 mSv (5 rem) per year, and 100 mSv (10 rem) in 5 years.
What the hell does all this mean you might be asking? As simply as I can say it works like this. We are being exposed to radiation on a regular basis from what's called background radiation. That can be naturally occurring radiation from radon gases, X-rays from the doctor or dentist and other sources like the burning of coal just to name a few. Fortunately most of these doses are very small in the fractions of an Sv. Radiation used to be measured in rads but that didn't take into account what was being exposed and what possible damage it might be doing to a human body. An Sv is a Sievert is named after Rolf Sievert, a Swedish medical physicist famous for work on radiation dosage measurement and research into the biological effects of radiation. It takes into account what part of the body or combination of body parts are effected. Were the exposures from ingestion, inhalation, or skin contact? Not something you can put your finger on with ease but easily measure with a photo sensitive badge like the type atomic workers are required to wear.
So should we be concerned about the releases in Japan? That will depend on many factors but judging from the distance from here to Japan it's likely that most of the radiation will dissipate before it reaches our shores. Rain would wash it into the ocean which would dilute it further. Remember the Russians were noted for dumping their nuclear waste in the oceans off their coast for years. Not a good thing I know but a fact none the less.
On the matter of nuclear power plants I've always been against them. Not that I'm a purist in terms of environmental issues but even from a economic sense they make no sense. The amount of energy and materials required to build, operate and then dismantle a plant is far more than the amount of energy they can produce in 25 years (their lifespan). There are several such plants that are ticking time bombs operating well beyond their useful lives. Then there's the issue of the waste because no body wants it in their backyard.
An Update on the Fukushima Daiichi plant: Seems the 40 year old plant had some safety violations in the past. 29 violations to be exact. And the president and several of his board members were forced to resign because of this. A few things to consider are that the plant is operating beyond its' life span as I pointed out earlier and that safety inspections were falsified. A nice invitation for disaster. But as we all know money and profits come first even in a global market place.
Update 2: Here's a video from Russia Today of the explosion hope it works.
Everything's got to go at rock bottom prices. Be the first to own the State of Liberty. Want to legally own the Brooklyn Bridge? Well now's your chance. Hurry before the lessor dictators snatch up all the good stuff. You want land cheap? We have national parks in near move in condition. Just need to get rid of those pesky drug runners first. What you say that you don't have money for a down payment? No problem. We'll arrange for one of our payday lenders to set you up with easy weekly payments, repackage the loan and sell it to the highest bidder over seas.
So Hurry on down to the republican Privatization Sale. All sales final void where prohibited and don't worry about the fine print you wouldn't understand it anyway.
There's a bunch of things I wanted to comment on this week but just haven't had the time or energy. Being back in the workforce is what I expected it would be with me and many others doing the work of three or four people. Productivity they call it. I'd say it's more closer to slavery only with a small stipend at the end of the week. All I know is that age and the past have caught up to me. The joints hurt, my hands and fingers are swollen and it's getting harder to fall out of bed in the morning. So it's another day of pain and torture with two more to follow. And you thought you had it hard pounding the keyboard trying to think of your next post. Ahhhh poor babies!
(Editors' note: With lack of time I'm not going to bother to proof read any of this so if there are typos and bad grammar then so be it. Get over it. You get my drift.)
Tired of a governor who's drank the Kool Aid and thinks he's the next Mubarak? Facing a tough bill that strips your constituents of their rights? It's time to hit the road. With our deluxe extended stay suits you can sign in as Mr. Miss or Mrs. John or Jane Smith or you can use the name Doe if you prefer no questions asked. Your anonymity is paramount with us. We'll even screen all visitors and calls for your protection. Our highly trained pit bulls can smell a republican spy miles away. To make reservations just order a cab to the airport when your cab arrives tell the driver "Joe sent me". He'll take you to our undisclosed location in a neighboring state.
Amenities include free Wi Fi with secure private browsing and email. Cable with neighboring state local government access. Shredders in every room. And a free disposable untraceable cell phone just to keep in touch.
Watch as your rating soar among those who actually have to work for a living.
This was the second mission of the Air Forces' space plane but no indication as to what the Air Force plans to do with it. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what their plans for this thing are. First is establishing a space platform from which to operate. The beauty of the plan is that since this is all robotic it won't require a pilot and all the expensive training and life support. Second what a perfect way to knock out an adversaries satellites and cheaply too. This does however I believe violate some long standing agreements of not turning space into a battle ground. But have little things like international law and treaties stood in our way before? Of course not! Laws? We don't need no stinking laws! With a little more research I'm just about sure I could give you a line up of this things' capabilities. Lasers have come a long way in the last 20 years.
And yes with a little bit of research I believe I've found their little secret: Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL). The original fixed location design eliminates most weight, size and power restrictions, but is not compatible with the fluid, mobile nature of modern combat. The initial MTHEL goal was a mobile version the size of three large semi trailers. Ideally it would be further downsized to a single semi trailer size. However, doing this while maintaining the original performance characteristics is difficult. Furthermore, the Israeli government, which had been providing significant funding, decreased their financial support in 2004, postponing the IOC date to at least 2010.
I'm sure the money to continue the project turned up somewhere. After all exactly where did those billions in Iraq go when they went unaccounted for at the start of the war? Funny too how we can spend billions for weapon systems to kill people but we must cut out health care and housing for the poor.
And why would our military pursue such an endeavor? Because every boy in this country just loved growing up with Star Trec. They had the coolest weapon systems. Now if they'd just be so kind as to beam me to another planet so I wouldn't have to get caught in their cross fire...
Actually this isn't about coke cats it's about the Koch brothers who are in the background of Wisconsin politics leading Gov. Walker around by the nose. Nothing more slimy than that kid in grade school who would do anything if you gave him a quarter. Always wanting to fit in by doing anything the bullies wanted him to do. I have to ask what the Brothers Koch have in mind for this country when they've gained all the power and money. Doesn't Monopoly become boring when one player has nearly all the assets and prevents the other players from doing any deals? That is just plain unadulterated greed and nothing more. Do they expect to be buried in diamond studded coffins? But there is one concept that they can not sell us and that would be self loathing. To say that the bulk of the middle class should be ashamed and the cause of our current economic situation is a flat out lie. To saddle the middle class and the poor with the burden of our economic crisis is what dictators and tyrants do. These morally destitute elected officials are not working in the best interests of "We the people". They are supposed to work for us and not the other way around. So now it's time to start a little justice and I'm not talking about the 2nd amendment kind like their side had proposed. There is a process to remove an elected official and it's called recall. Yes it is slow and will take time but it is the legal way to accomplish the end of a tyrannical leader. And by the way isn't this what we've been fighting against in the last oh how many wars?
Right is wrong War is peace etc ect. As for Wall Street and government oversight it's go after the Low hanging fruit. Of all the blather about the con game on Wall Street we have yet to see one soul see the inside of a federal penitentiary. Yes there was Bernie but the only way he was caught was he gave himself up when he realized that he couldn't keep the game going. And now we have Mr. Gupta being the easy mark for federal investigators. I guess he didn't know how to fully erase his hard drives. I thought that was one of the first things they taught in business schools these days.
But I'd sure like to see the electronic trail left from the years leading up to the financial meltdown. And it's far from over. There is still all those mortgages to unwind if even they can be. This may take half a lifetime to get to the real truth and scope of the situation. And it's funny that there are now classes in forensic computer analysis and people trained to do the job but very few job offerings from what I'm hearing.
Truth? You can't handle the truth! So carry on nothing to see here. Every thing is just ginger peachy.
Once again it looks like the Dems are being led around by the nose by the Rethuglacons. They are about to accept the rethuglacon plan for an extenuation on the budget. If memory serves correct there are more cuts in this temporary plan than one might think. And as any fool knows if you cut back to the bone even before the final budget then you'll have to go after the carcass the next time around. This is beginning to look like a one party system so why bother to vote if those you support are doing the bidding of the opposition. If all these cuts are enacted now and then more in two weeks there won't be anything left of the economy. You don't create jobs by laying people off and when you do lay people off it only adds to the budget defect with less taxes collected. That would result in yet more cuts. It's become obvious that the rethuglacons could care less if anyone but their own chosen few survive the economic nightmare. And what we'll land up with is a country like Egypt before the ouster. Makes me wonder when more rational heads will prevail if t all. Or will we be called the United States of South America as in those Banana Republics you heard about as a kid? And for those of you out there who think a union worker has some gravy job with benefits out the ying yang think again. The reason unions were started was to prevent the slave like conditions experienced by our forefathers. But with Reagoon the days of a really decent job and thoughts of retirement are near a faded memory. The incomes and bennies, factoring in inflation, have not kept up for the average union worker in the private or public sector. There was a time Dad could send his son to college with a union job but not any more.There was a time that a union job would mean looking forward to retirement and that too is nearly gone. As for myself I have only been able to get back to work because I don't look my age. Amazingly no grey hair yet has made me employable. I left a whole bunch of guys and gals at the unemployment office standing in line who are younger yet look older. And I don't think many of them will be making a paycheck any time soon. So to both parties I say wise up and start doing the right things or this country will rise up and there will be change WE can believe in.
