Reminder: Your humble blogger is trying to get off the vampire shift. That will likely mean fewer posts by yours truly and/or thinner Links over the next few days. Please be patient.
Also, Lambert is taking a day off from his horserace coverage. I anticipate that he’ll continue to take Saturdays off until we are closer to real action (conventions and the election itself).
Is the Kentucky Derby still decadent and depraved? BBC
Holy hell, this 15-pound giant crab isn’t done growing yet io9 (Carol B)
Why Verizon Doesn’t Want You to Buy an iPhone PC Magazine
Amazon spoof reviews bring art of satire to website Guardian
The Lengthening Arm of Uncle Sam’s ‘Pirate’ Justice TorrentFreak. Holy shit.
Greece Votes in Elections With Euro Future at Stake Bloomberg
Citing Security, U.S. Abandons Consulate Site In Afghanistan Huffington Post
Japan nuke-free for first time since ’70 Japan Times (YY)
Senator: Fukushima Fuel Pool Is a National Security Issue for AMERICA George Washington
Bad week may haunt Warren and Menino plays hard to get in Senate race Boston Globe
More federal judge abdication Glenn Greenwald
A Battle With the Brewers Nicholas Kristof, New York Times
Number of the Week: Nice Place to Do Business, but Wouldn’t Want to Live There WSJ Economics
Jobs Few, Grads Flock to Unpaid Internships New York Times
A Rising Tide Against Class-Action Suits New York Times
The frequent fliers who flew too much Los Angeles Times
Bank of America’s Protection Detail Abigail Field, Firedoglake
Thoughts on the Berkshire meeting and a comment on long term care reinsurnace John Hempton
Impact of pensions deficits on corporate behaviour Ian Tonks, VoxEU
How to Live Unhappily Ever After Wall Street Journal. Is this considered to be good writing in some circles?
Antidote du jour:
119 comments
Comments are closed.
Oakland’s Treasurer Recommends Terminating Goldman Sachs Deal
Re: Oakland and G.Sachs interest rate swaps.
Thank You for posting the link to that article .
Re Jobs few …
“Unpaid” internships are also used in Germany where employers use the scheme to transfer non-payroll labor costs to the governmemnt. These costs include health insurance premiums and social security tax, both of which are typically paid for by the government while the “student” completes the internship.
Interesting to note that these are costs in Germany, not liabilities. Their assumption by the government and the exploitation of the arrangement by employers is a negative externality associated with the “common good” approach to higher ed: years devoted to earning professional qualification are part of the calculation of an individual’s public pension (social security) claim. As I understand it, in the US interns have neither health insurance nor social security benefits as a result of their work. Employers and individuals transfer the associated liabilities to the taxpayer.
I can see a situation where you have people paying employers to give them jobs before this particular trend plays out.
As it is, right now people go into debt to pay large amounts of money to schools, in order for the schools to give them work. They do this in the hopes that they will get a degree from the school and get a higher paying job later.
Reduce the number of jobs a bit, and for awhile it may become accepted that after you pay the school to give you work, in the hopes of using the credential to get a higher income later, after you graduate from the school you will pay the employer to give you work. This could be as a part of an internship program set up by the employer, or an internship program that is set up by the school and part of the curriculum. After all, if you do this, you have an inside track to a real job at that company, and given the shortage of jobs there is really no way to get hired.
And in pre-industrial times, people would borrow to bid large amounts of money to get jobs (like tax collector) that were considered to be particularly renumerative.
Now if this trend continues, at some point an intelligent person will drop out of the game. Either the changes of finally winding up with paid work drop to the point that this process amounts to buying a really expensive lottery ticket. Or the net present value of the returns from the eventual salary, minus all the investment, becomes negative. But the trend will likely continue sometime past that point.
Ed, this has been happening. I heard on NPR an interview with a young woman who had just graduated from college. During college, she worked for a “tech” company for free, while taking courses in formal education so as to become qualified to hold a position at the company after graduation. She has graduated with a diploma in the “tech” field, and is about to embark on her “career” with the company for whom she “interned” while a student, with a beginning salary the College and employer find satisfactory: @ $35,000-40,000/year.
This scheme is set to work at every level: from the boonies to NYC and beyond. “It’s a Wonderful World.”
It would be ironic if the ‘tech’ company was founded by two guys who did not graduate from college but requires you to have a BA or BS now.
It’s not “involuntary servitude” if the slaves “volunteer”.
This reminds me very much of the process by which the descendants of the free Roman citizens of late antiquity became the serfs of medieval Europe.
“Forward” – into the past! (pace Firesign Theater).
Reminds me of S. Cal in the 90s. There was such a glut of rock “garage bands” that the night clubs were able to get away with “pay to play” – bands payed for the privilege of putting in a 4 hour set a night to get “exposure”.
Some of the musicians were already accomplished studio musicians and had done work on “name band” albums.
I saw Larry Carlton this way, but for some reason I still had to pay a $10 cover. Damn trickle down never works!
re: Fukushima Fuel Pool Is a National Security Issue for AMERICA – George Washington
Thanks for the capslock to let me know, GW. It really makes things readable and calm and non-hysterical. I don’t know or want to know who the Washington blogger is, but the infestation of NC with hysterical capslocky Washington posts is the reason I hardly ever read here anymore. I find the writing of the GW posts so utterly annoying that I want to stay away. Does the site need these continual cross-posted blogs? Isn’t NC Yves Smith, not endless streams of guest posts? This is my problem of course and I’ll just have to deal with it. I just felt like moaning here. Sorry.
“I hardly ever read here anymore.”
because of capitalized letters?
go elsewhwere… you won’t be missed.
MaYbE he wOUlD liKe THe mORe FRiVouLOus mIxED cAps lOOk fROM williambanzai7 aT zH?
We’ve already had this item about the senator speaking out of his ass a few weeks back. #4SFP has turned into a apocalyptic meme to stampede fear, at the same time not really help solve any problems. The worst part I find is that there seems to be secret pleasure in wishing/predicting disasters.
In the meantime we have sick fraudsters like this: http://www.japanprobe.com/2012/05/06/american-claims-children-in-chiba-are-sick-from-radiation-poisoning-raises-thousands-of-dollars-online/
“.. to stampede fear, at the same time not really help solve any problems. ”
YY posits problems exist ??
Regale us, YY, the true nature of your “problems”.
Another YY nothingburger.
http://grist.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/istock_000015463688small.jpg?w=315&h=315
Of all the problems at Fukushima, the question of how to remove spent fuel from pools must be one of the most straight forward. While there is construction involved, the methods removal of fuel is a known procedure. Of all the spent fuel pools, while it may contain the most in quantity, #4 SFP is in the least contaminated area as there was no reactor activity in #4. #2 is more a problem as the entire building that was left intact by Gods of irony is the most radioactive environment. Still removal and storage (in another pool) of spent fuel is a known procedure.
The rest of the problems are not that simple. Before we get to the reactors (another 10-20 years) there are huge problems of unprecedented amounts of tainted water. And because the buildings leak there is a problem of leakage of ground water into the facilities, adding to the accounts of water that need storage and treatment. Stopping ground water inbound seepage can reverse the process as pressure then will probably encourage seepage out. While there is much publicity around the frequent leaks, there does not seem to be much reporting about the accounting for water and how the problem maybe (to mix metaphors) snow-balling and painting them into the corner.
Then there is the issue of contaminated debris and equipment. This is also one of those problems that grow with time.
To use issue of SPF#4 as a means to alert the public about the problem of spent fuel is a fundamentally dishonest way of raising awareness. The very reason why all the nuclear power plants have stored, on site, right next to the reactors, spent fuel is because it is least path of resistance politically expedient against opposition to movement and storage. One can guess right now what will happen to fuel in #4, it will probably for most part end up in a pool in a nuclear facility somewhere if not at Fukushima.
If people do not learn that panic is just an invitation to politically expedient solutions that make things worse (WAR ON TERRA) and that some panic calls are just too fraudulent to take seriously, we’ll just keep repeating stupid mistakes.
#4SFP will empty sometime in 2013 but they’ll still have problems accessing #2 reactor building let alone the reactors. What is your solution?
“.. to stampede fear, at the same time not really help solve any problems. ”
Fear, and problems, like this ? ,
“Homes full of the most grossly deformed children we have ever seen in the history of pediatrics — all around Chernobyl”
http://enenews.com/pediatrician-homes-full-grossly-deformed-children-history-pediatrics-all-around-chernobyl-video
Here.
Your price of admission has been refunded.
Yeah, lighten up, GW. It’s not like there was a meltdown or anything. Oh, wait…
You make the conventional assumption that the use of upper case letters is “hysterical” — just as others assume that the use of caps is “shouting.” This is not so. Expand your scope of possibilities. Perhaps YOU will find that caps can be employed for emphasis, for ironic effect, to call the attention of skimming eyes to risk or to danger (i.e. “AMERICA”).
The say that “texting” is a “new form” — “speech in writing.” Some speakers in text tend to use caps for emphasis, to catch the EYE, since the vocal emphasis otherwise might not be “heard.” Others use underscoring on either side of a word for emphasis, yet others use asterisks to set an emphatic word apart. All of these devices are means to an end: to convey emphasis of living speech in text. Since the “text” medium is VISUAL, not audible, it is difficult to convey the emphasis without drawing visual attention somehow. There are no rules.
Many, like YOU, make false, conventional (perhaps self-referential) assumptions about the use of upper case letters as a means of drawing the attention of the wandering eye.
Please reconsider your assumptions.
Exactly.
These newbies to Western Civilization are so anxious to impose their netiquette rules on us as though they were really important…i.e.”all caps is SHOUTING!…”
How about they take a piece of paper (without lines) and a pen and compose a thoughful letter to someone?
How about they dress for dinner and know how to eat with something other than their fingers?
Technology gives you the freedom to do whatever you want. It’s an open canvas with no dimensions.
i second this actually. caps lock is just a symptom. Its more the hysterics behind it for me. There are many unacceptable things going on yes, but nothing good comes of an emotional response. Some would say that emotional responses are illicited just to steer people the way you want. Also the general vibe of the blog is extremely pessimistic. Everything focuses on worst possible outcomes and whoa is me the sky is falling. Ill tell you what..if this blog resonates with you, go see an accupuncturist once a week for 3 months. I bet they will be treating you for excessive liver energy, and at the end of those 3 months look at this blog (and the world) again with new eyes. Just try it if you think I am nuts..
Recognizing rather than ignoring hazard is adult, not hysterical. A My Little Pony pastel world is good to comfort small children, we’re the taxpayers talking to the taxpayers.
Actually, GW has done great service bringing ignored research into the light. If that includes the occasional emotion into the information, he’s not contradicting himself. Maybe he’s just ahead of the curve again.
You guys in the nuclear industry have successfully externalized all hazards onto the public. At least let us look at the hazards as they are.
Why do you assume an “emotional” impulse is behind the use of caps? Emphasis in speech (and “texting: speech in writing”) is a RHETORICAL device to those who are not infantile.
NOW do you git it?
I consider the use ALL CAPS, “quotes”, and *asterisks* in a blog comment to be indicative of an inability or unwillingness to use language for emphasis. In spoken language, there are many forms of emphasis. All these attempts to emphasize in writing come across as one. “*SHOUTING*”. If you don’t think your words are strong enough to stand by themselves, at least learn some HTML.
When TSHTF wimps like you are going to be appetizers for the thugs. If you put that much importantce in caps then you are to sensitive.
BOOOOOOOOO!!!!
@Ned, thanks. You’ve illustrated my point perfectly.
O Dear, the CAPSpolice are out in droves, making their ONE point, their point, their one POINT! “Caps = SHOUTING!” Their way or the highway. They insist, in their top-down way, on their rhetorical rectitude.
We got a problem with that? Are they from Bully Central? Will they find their natural home in Utah? Maybe that’s where they are from? Are they out in force to clean up the streets in the badass hoods?
Citizens, what next?
If you’re worried about emotion in discussion, perhaps you’re also worried about the nuclear flacks trying to make concern for hazard the basis for social ostracism. Uncool, true, but necessary. The fast crowd might center on white caps and unconcern, but the rest of us don’t have to be irrelevant. Left the Jr. High lunchroom years ago.
For the most part, the passive voice is a facade. As my kids say, “That’s so postmodern!”
neVERThelESS, it’S A pRettY WELL-EsTABlisheD CONVENTION In tYpOGRAphy to AVoid eXCESSIVE or unORthoDOX CAPITALIZATION, SInce IT’s tHoUGht TO MAke teXT LESS REadable.
THAT’S WHY NEWSPAPERS TEND TO AVOID USING ALL-CAPS FOR HEADLINES.
EXCEPT FOR THE NY POST, OF COURSE!!!!!!!
I suspect it also tends to make text seem less credible to readers, much as unusual spacing and punctuation or overuse of exclamation points does.
I think that’s the point most “capitalization cops” are trying to make.
None of this has anything to do with the merits of George’s post, of course. I find him/her to be one of the more interesting contributors here.
Well said, thanks.
Hippie in denial.. most of my best friends are hippies in denial. I love them dearly, but they are as difficult as any tea-bagger when it comes to facing the reality of our body neoliberal politic.
Not to far from a concern troll.
“Why are American nuclear authorities ignoring this threat?”
i doubt that they are ignoring it among themselves. i believe they are quite aware of it and watching the situation in japan closely.
and i believe that they are attempting to maintain as long and widespread a silence about it as they can, in precise correspondence to the size of the danger they perceive.
the more silent they become, the more afraid i believe we all have reason to be.
but above all, we must not let our emotions come too much into play–emotions like grief for physical and intellectual freedoms our children will not be able to enjoy, rage at how much damage a minority’s craving for power and wealth (not emotion-driven, of course, like other cravings–this is a craving that is beautifully rational) has done to our society and our planet.
it’s true–we must keep our heads.
i believe they are quite aware of it and watching the situation in japan closely.
That you can count on.
They are equally dedicated to sidestepping any blame, so you may watch that, as well.
Concern is not hysteria. On the other hand, lack of emotion is, in the end, disempowering. There’s little difference between abstraction and indifference.
Eventually, caring or not has an emotional, nonrational component to it. Just as the nuclear industry is holding on to a hazardous, uneconomic technology to keep their social status, the rest of us are opposing it to preserve life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, none of which are mathematically provable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descartes%27_Error
to clarify, what I am saying is that the emotions infused/invoked are not helpful. We have all been sensitized/traumatized by the events of the last few years. Following the news of the world in micro detail will do that to you. I am by no means preaching apathy here, but a level head is a requirement for clear sight. Being addicted to news is to be kept in a responsive reactive mode, its like a form of an adrenaline state. I lived in that place for years. Putting off primary things like health is a clear indication of that state. I did it, I am super guilty. refocus on life, health, living, slowing down, trying to find clarity. More things come into focus. Let the distractions drop away. And to reiterate, only because I have experienced the difference, i cant recommend acupuncture enough.
Dear Kingbadger;
Stop complaining. Exactly such behaviour, taken to truly ABSURD heights, by the likes of Beck, Limbaugher, and other cheesers, has given certain, umm, shall we say, REACTIONARY ELEMENTS, in our society control. This, in general terms, ain’t no Country Club buddy. We’re all in the same sinking lifeboat.
haha…
And this is how it goes
in the end.
Some guy
is pissed about the crackers,
and never questions
the soup.
The fox has eaten every chicken,
but the guy insists
on painting the coop.
We’ve all been raped,
and he’s mad
about all the poop.
Do you have the foggiest idea how much effort it takes to do this blog, even with the guest posts you deride? Clue: it takes an hour or two alone to deal with my inbox. I have no personal life, I can’t even get my taxes done on time and am chronically behind on medical maintenance. It’s much harder to be competitive than before given that 1. the stories are more diffuse than in the runup to the crisis (where you had tidy 2 week to 4 month episodes: Paulson’s failed SIV rescue plan, the Bear Stearns hedge fund meltdown, the death of the monolines, mass quant blowups in August 2008, the liquidity seizures, Lehman, etc). and 2. there are more people doing “easy” posts (quick summaries of breaking news, with maybe a clever observation as value added), particularly Clusterstock, so less value added in my doing them.
As for GW, he does have a tendency to overwrite, but I notice you went nuts about his use of caps in a mere post in links, and did not, for instance, complain (save indirectly, as to it being a guest post) about his featured post on the impact of corruption on the economy. GW is good for thorough, well documented compilations on various news issues. I don’t have any problem using him for that purpose, and more important, most readers don’t either.
I have no personal life, I can’t even get my taxes done on time and am chronically behind on medical maintenance. Yves Smith
Ouch! We love you Yves so please take good care of yourself, rest up, lean on others etc.
And personally, I ain’t much (rather too much!) and I don’t have much but if you’re ever in Auburn, AL or near abouts we could eat out somewhere, my treat!
(I’m sure you’ll get much better offers but there it is. :) )
It hurts my heart to read that Yves. I wrote this. I give it to you:
Behold.
I throw my love to the ground,
and it returns to my heart
a living thing.
You are trembling ash
and a blade in my sleep,
in my dreams.
Your magic and beauty is carved in me,
and all that I am is still.
So still.
This seems quite unfair to kingbadger. He appears to have created a new art form, the Capitalization Troll. Judging from the volume of response, it was quite successful.
If it was sincere, I certainly apologize. But that raises the question of personal stability in having an excessive response to a font faux pas. The phrase that comes to mind is “WIRE COATHANGERS!”
yes, Mommie Dearest.
Yves, if it helps, I just bought your book, it’s great. I’m buying another copy for a mate.
Is there no tax type around here who can help you sort your tax affairs?
And for god’s sake, don’t let your health go. (Just found out 17yo family member has suspected gallstones FFS, about to undergo ultrasound, with possible organ removal slated. Makes me so mad, it’s the junk food diet: too much sugar, too little fibre, and this is the result. At 17.)
Also, we are all drowning in infos from every conceivable direction. Some days I don’t come here because I know I’ll get sucked in, and once in the link vortex, it’s hard to get out. I don’t know what best pays the rent, but fewer links, permanently, maybe? We’re all burning out, same as you. Let’s not go down in flames together.
GW has a lot of good stuff. His writing style and occasional fact-free discourses on technical issues leaves him open to critique, if only because we’d like to see him become less vulnerable to smackdowns from “the dark side”. We’re (mostly) all on the same side here.
This has been a public service message from
Exelon.
Exelon: Better living through teratogenic mutations
[cut to attractive young mother dandling two-headed baby]
cut to here,
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/05/links-5612.html#comment-708509
“A Battle With the Brewers”
“Yet Bald Eagle, like many others, had simply walked into Whiteclay and didn’t have ready access to a car. Certainly it would be more difficult for young people to start on the road to alcoholism if they had to drive to get beer.”
Or, it puts a bunch of drunks in cars….
Very good for the pison industrial complex.
Don’t know that answer to these problems, but this whole piece seems forced. There are much better, clearer, targets in the fraud filled corporate world today.
Is this how the times hopes to get some ‘cred’ back?
“We’ll go down, once a month, and throw a few stones at the castles.”
Well, it’s a way of showing your heart’s in the right place. And an answer to those who dismiss corporate malfesance by claiming that maybe rules get broken, or at least bent, but it’s no skin off anyone’s nose. Here, it’s perfectly legal capitalist behavior killing people.
As to driving between the Rez and Whiteclay, the problem is actually in the winter when blizzards hit the walkers on the highway. People freeze to death every year, both in Whiteclay and on the highway going north. It’s a law you have to pick up hitchhikers during Winter, a matter of life and death. Drunken drivers tend toward getting stuck in the ditch.
Reg the Alexander Higgins link t a video on police drugging Occupy Minnesota protesters , there were 2 interviews with the guy who made the video :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcrYxZ4qEAE&list=UUczrL-2b-gYK3l4yDld4XlQ&index=4&feature=plcp
This from the ALyona show :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU1Ivg_loSo&list=UUa4-HJHEZ1YUBp5xWNHYJPQ&index=1&feature=plcp
re: Verizon/iPhones
I just got a 4S and was hit w/ an “upgrade” fee of $30 even though my previous phone (demolished b/c I’m a clutz) had a free hotspot and the iPhone doesn’t. So that’s one way how they’re getting around the subsidies.
I thought this might be your cup of tea, Yves.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/liamhalligan/9248115/Bankers-vitriol-has-masked-Sir-Mervyn-Kings-uncomfortable-message.html
re How to Live Unhappily Ever After [from the] Wall Street Journal:
Haha! A ton of spiritual advice without one mention of God or in this traditionally Judea-Christian country, the Bible.
But I suppose promoting the Bible would be uncomfortable for a pro-banker rag. Let’s not give the population ideas about usury, counterfeiting or justice. No, instead give them cheap consolation for their stolen birthright.
Look for more pious (but amazingly empty) hypocrisy from the bank apologists as this Depression continues. “Be content with your misery, slaves, and sing Master a sad song for his pleasure”.
I’ll just pick on one thing: the phrase “Judeo-Christian tradition” with reference to the US is a culture war slogan popularized by James Dobson to herd the Jewish vote into the republican shute.
Visit the Jewish museum in NYC some time to learn just how traditional the Judeo part is. Or ask any Jew.
OK two things: With hate-mongers like Dobson already promoting the bible, we don’t need the newspapers joining in. They’re bad enough already.
With hate-mongers like Dobson already promoting the bible, we don’t need the newspapers joining in. John L
That’s sad because the Bible is very sympathetic to liberal causes such as equal justice, concern for the poor AND debt forgiveness.
Want to fluster the Religious Right? Quote the Bible back to them. In principal, they are bound to respect its authority. If nothing else, you’ll (properly) make them rethink their interpretation.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. Hosea 4:6
I’ll stick to flustering them with reason and compassion. Seems to be working. Those who attempt to use the bible need to beware of ceding the terms of the debate.
Those who attempt to use the bible need to beware of ceding the terms of the debate. John L
One need not believe in the Bible to point out the hypocrisy of those who claim they do. And in principal, they CANNOT resist what the Bible says without effort. As for your “reason and compassion”, they might easily have their roots in the Bible anyway since the Bible is a foundational Western document. If so, then why not use those roots?
As for ceding, that is my point. The Left has ceded the Bible to the Right for THEIR interpretation. And don’t forget the Bible promises eternal life to believers. Are you willing to let the Religious Right corner that “market” by default?
If “eternal life” means listening to the likes of James Dobson drone on about the “Judeo-Christian traditions” of heaven, you can keep it. I prefer liberation as a concept over eternal life, but I’m not in a hurry to prove it one way or the other.
And if you’re watching from the CAPS thread above, yes I used quotes. Because I was quoting. Not emphasizing.
If “eternal life” means listening to the likes of James Dobson drone on about the “Judeo-Christian traditions” of heaven, you can keep it. John L
“Eternal life” is by definition not boring, don’t you think?
As for James Dobson or any other interpreter of the Bible I learned over many years that NO human interpretations of the Bible of the Bible are to be trusted.
Here’s one for you Mr. Beard,
“A fool returnith to his folly as a dog returnith to his vomit”
Thank God there is a cure for foolish – Bible reading.
Thanks for reminding me.
Shoot. Shute should be chute.
And I used “principal” for “principle”.
Dmitry Orlov addressed the issue of fuel rods recently, and the fact that no-one will “do the right thing” because there’s no money in it.
http://cluborlov.blogspot.it/2012/04/fundraising-in-extremis.html
There are some important projects that need to be up and running starting like yesterday, because they are key to human survival. Unfortunately, they cannot be funded in the usual ways because of the warped nature of market economics and global finance, which dictates that the only goal of investing money is to make more money. The project of averting disastrous outcomes is not a money-maker, per se, and does not get funded. But shipping in millions of plastic orange Halloween pumpkins from China every year is a sure bet, and so the free market prioritizes orange plastic pumpkins above doing what is essential to keep us all alive. The invisible hand of the free market, it turns out, is attached to an invisible idiot.
A good example of this sort of project is shutting down nuclear power stations before the electric grid goes down and they all melt down à la Fukushima Daiichi, poisoning land and sea around them for thousands of years. The electric grid is indeed going down: the rate of power supply disruptions has been increasing exponentially in the US. Just recently a large and important piece of central Boston went dark because of a transformer explosion. The response was to roll in diesel generators to provide emergency power.
The transformers within the grid tend to be old, sometimes decades old, are at this point only built overseas, and, since they are expensive, there aren’t too many spares sitting around. As this infrastructure ages (as it does, and will continue to do, since there is no money to update it) such incidents increase in frequency, putting greater and greater pressure on already scarce and expensive diesel supplies. Already in many places emergency diesel generators are run not just in emergencies, but to fill in gaps in the power supplied through the grid during peak load hours. Diesel is already used for sea and land freight, as well as for most other heavy machinery, and there is not much of it to spare anywhere in the world, so the idea of replacing the electric grid with local diesel generators runs into a very serious problem almost immediately. In fact, looking at the many reports of diesel shortages around the world, it already has.
An extended blackout is fatal to a nuclear power plant. Without a grid to power, the reactors have to be shut down, but they still need to be cooled in order to avoid a meltdown. The power to run the cooling pumps comes from the power plant itself, or the electric grid, or, if both are down, from, you guessed it, diesel generators. There is usually only a few days’ worth of diesel on hand; beyond that, cooling water boils out, the zirconium cladding of the nuclear fuel assemblies catches on fire, and the whole thing melts down and becomes too radioactive to even go near, never mind clean up.
Worse yet, most of the 100 or so nuclear power plants in the US are full of spent fuel rods. The spent fuel is no longer potent enough to generate power, but a lot of it is still quite hot, and so the rods are kept in pools of water, which has to be circulated and cooled to keep it from boiling away. The spent fuel contains decay products that span the entire periodic table of elements, many of which are both radioactive and toxic. If the water boils away, the fuel rods spontaneously combust, blanketing the surrounding countryside with a plume of radioactive and toxic products of nuclear decay. The solution is to fish the rods out of the pools, put them into dry casks, and place the casks deep underground in geologically stable formations away from seismic zones. This is a slow and expensive process, for which there is currently no money.
… since there is no money to update it) Lidia
Some don’t like MMT but here is an obvious need for it. No borrowing just spend new money into existence to fix the problems. And if the banks try to start another bubble then restrict credit creation to compensate for the new reserves.
I think I agree with Dmitry Orlov.
I see it this way: The market is as dumb as our ape ancestors -or dumber, depending on your spiritual viewpoint-* because it is incapable of understanding the concept of self-destruction.
This does not make the market suicidal, necessarily, but the market will pursue self-destruction -will poison/consume itself to death- as long as it remains profitable, which is tantamount to the same thing.
Unfortunately for us (and the planet, if your spirituality leans towards earth as Life Mother), and I think Dmitry would agree, this particular market is clearly far too large and ravenous for this tiny finite planet of ours.
*The market can never evolve to contemplate the concept “To cease to be,” so I personally believe the market is much dumber than any of my ancestors, human or ape.
Readers of this blog are no strangers to chronobiology issues.
Dateline: Louisville…
Subject: “I’ll Have Another” —
Following up on the BBC reference to the 1970 Kentucky Derby coverage by Hunter S. Thompson and Ralph Steadman, I spotted the “first example of Gonzo journalism” at Steadman’s website:
http://www.ralphsteadman.com/KYDerby.asp
It doesn’t disappoint. This stuff is mind-bendingly depraved and demented. Just the sort of Sunday reading all jaded naked capitalists richly deserve. Enjoy! :)
Awesome link on Steadman, thanks. Here’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights . Article 9:
Words for the Charlotte City Council to ponder.
LS, isn’t this already covered in our Constitution?
@Lidia (previous comments got eaten… let’s see)
Preventing Armageddon
“The congressionally mandated EMP Commission has studied the threat of both EMP and extreme GMD events, and made recommendations to the US congress to implement protective devices and procedures to insure the survival of the grid and other critical infrastructures in either event. John Kappenman, author of the Metatech study, estimates that it would cost on the order of $1 billion to build special protective devices into the US grid to protect its EHV transformers from EMP or extreme GMD damage, and to build stores of critical replacement parts should some of these items be damaged or destroyed. Kappenman estimates that it would cost significantly less than $1 billion to store at least a year’s worth of diesel fuel for backup generators at each US nuclear facility and to store sets of critical spare parts, such as backup generators, inside EMP-hardened steel containers to be available for quick change-out in the event that any of these items were damaged by an EMP or GMD[24].
To me, this is a no-brainer. For the cost of a single B-2 bomber or a tiny fraction of the TARP bank bailout, we could invest in preventative measures to avert what might well become the end of our civilization and life as we know it! There is no way to protect against all possible effects from an extreme GMD or an EMP attack, but certainly we could implement measures to protect against the worst effects. Since 2008, Congress has narrowly failed to pass legislation that would implement at least some of the EMP Commission’s recommendations[25].”
http://whentechfails.com/node/1545
Rene, your last paragraph repeats Eisenhower’s point about the cost to society of M-I Complex “goods and services.” He emphasized the gross transfer of wealth from the People to the war profiteers, and the risk of absolute tyranny that this transfer of wealth posed. We can see from examples given, that the cost to society of M-I profiteering by “the few” is monstrously disproportionate to the cost of building and maintaining a prosperous, peaceful social environment for “the many.”
Clearly, the M-I Complex, now the Security State, is filled with “perverse incentives” within the “Chicago Capitalist” frame. Ironically, the “unintended consequence” of the nuclear power industry (derived from M-I Complex research & praxis)–fuel rods exposed to air by catastrophic “weather”–threatens global human life imminently, but no M-I profiteer will address this consequence of their profiteering, because “there’s no money in it.”
The above shows the height of insanity to which the “criminogenic” system of “Chicago Capitalism” has brought us. Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove” now seems quaint.
When will the psycopaths and sociopaths be yanked off the stage?
Hopefully soon, Leonova!
It is really starting to look like the Twillight Zone.
Fukishima
“When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and you argue about what to do about it only after you have had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.”–Robert Oppenheimer
This is why we need more women in science.
My experience at MIT was that the ladies were just as prone as the fellows to go off and work for Lockheed if that meant they could work on a really cool switch. They didn’t care if the switch activated a bomb or a blender, it was just a cool switch! They followed the money and the recruiting efforts. They were glad, also, of the chance to be taken seriously along with the men, understandably.
Another lady sociopath of my acquaintance went to work for Bain. She was giddy with the magical power of “cost-cutting” and did not feign her incomprehension of externalities when I argued them with her. There were another couple that went into this type of predatory “consulting”.
Thinking of my female cohort (the ones who didn’t drop out like I did) I can’t come up with any who rejected Business As Usual; most went into destructive professions, the most benign being a podiatrist and an accountant at a software company.
Worse, there were (inexplicably) some who were hyper-religious (inerrant Bible belivers at a science school?) and others who went into the military (one gal fell into both of these categories). There was a group who prayed in order to receive the answers to chemistry problem sets directly from God. They fought with the orthodox Jews over leaving the burners on (which “Kosherized” them) in the communal kitchen. The orthodox Jews complained about the Campus Crusade for Christ contingent’s hall christmas tree.
Women are just as fucked up as men.
Women are just as fucked up as men. Lidia
Except hopefully we balance each other’s flaws and provide both negative and positive feed back to each other.
I stand corrected. You tend to prove my belief that “there is something about” scientists, quants, engineers, that draws them to fields in which “unintended consequences” catastrophic to humanity are ignored or dismissed. Let us hope that neuroscientists will find the “switch” of irresponsibility toward humanity that seems to dwell in the brains/nervous systems of these reckless pursuers of scientific dreams of glory. Maybe “playing god” is addictive to those drawn to these fields, and “the devil take the hindmost.” Poets, artists, and other “Cassandras” can go straight to hell, when the god-player is “due for glory.”
They aid and abet the depraved thinking of M-I Destroyers of Humanity.
Oppenheimer saw he was a “Destroyer of Worlds,” but could not bring himself to say, perhaps even to think: “I’m sorry.” He was not sorry. He was a “scientist: a god of Elohim.” He was Lucifer. He was proud.
So are they all: “Male and female, he made them.” Bringers of eternal woe.
So your “Tyranny of the Phallus” has met the wayside, I take it ?
This is good, we mustn’t disturb the apparatchiks needlessly, right ?
:)
Oh, no. There a “phallic women.” “Tyranny of the phallus” drives societies at the most basic, primal level (the “fight or flight” fear level that propagandists provide), as is made clear in the book, “ADAM’S CURSE,” by Bryan Sykes.
So far, “Biology is destiny.”
What draws them is money and the freedom to pursue knowledge and build cooler toys. Psychopathic organizations exploit them as they do everyone else. Some are able to break free and pursue science in the interests of the planet.
“Oh, no. There a[re] “phallic women.”
Of that, I’m sure.
““Tyranny of the phallus” drives societies at the most basic, primal level (the “fight or flight” fear level that propagandists provide), as is made clear in the book, “ADAM’S CURSE,” by Bryan Sykes. ”
Granted, I am not familiar with Sykes’ book, but the viewing of it as a ‘tyranny’ seems a choice, variously encouraged, even by onesself, that denies acknowledgement of the engagement as a two-way street w/2-way rewards.
Men, who you’ll rarely hear talk from about ‘tyrannies’ of such sorts, could even be encouraged to speak of ‘tyrannies of diminu-phalli’.
Rest assured, the LOLS are growing too large to contain at this point.
FYI, most modern men would be inclined to say the phrase ‘tyranny of the phallus’ would be best left in adolescence.
So far, “Biology is destiny.”
I can’t believe somebody went to MIT and then became a podiatrist.
If anybody thinks women can’t be as screwed up as men, read the news. Why just today in the New York Post there’s some woman who fried her daughter on a tanning bed. Just looking at her picture you can tell she’s an extreme lunatic. Just from the look on her face.
Usually there’s a few each week. Last week the one about the Dutch female denist who pulled all her boyfriends teeth out because he dumped her. But he still kept his appointment as her dental patient. Can you imagine? That’s a guy for you. Trying to be responsible till the bitter end and beyond. He’ll probably pay for the extractions unless the police intervene.
Then there was the one a few weeks ago about the one who bit off her boyfriend’s you know what. I’m too prude to say it.
I don’t know why anybody thinks women or men are any saner than men or women. Just thinking that, itself, makes somebody a nut job in my book. All you have to do is look around.
There’s one I see a few times a week when I jog on the East River. She trots along in her running clothes with a baby carriage for her dogs who trot along behind her. She has the look in her eyes and on her face, stretched hard, and hunted, the eyes a bit sunken and bright with something that isn’t light. God knows what a risk one takes with somebody like that. It makes me nervous just to think about it.
When you’re in your 20s you think everyone is sane. And most are. Even the women. But by the time they hit 45, if they’re not married or content with some career that hugs them like a lover, most are long gone.
“Just looking at her picture you can tell she’s an extreme lunatic. Just from the look on her face. ”
“She has the look in her eyes and on her face, stretched hard, and hunted, the eyes a bit sunken and bright with something that isn’t light [or right!]. ”
Now admittedly, I’ve never met Leonovaballetrusse, but your description quoted may be it. I suppose it’s OK if she speaks of “Tyranny of the Phallus” as long as she doesn’t say 2 spaces later “World without End”.
And craazyman, stay away from that woman I GUARANTEE she’s not right.
lmao
Re: podiatry. I don’t think you understand how competitive the medical schools were at the time. Straight As were required. I don’t think you understand how easy it is NOT to get straight As at MIT. This gal was pretty crushed.
Just to precise: podiatry schools are separate from, and have less stringent requirements than, general medical schools. My friend had wanted to be an MD.
Re “Amazon spoof” reviews: Human brains trump fake brains still. New motto: “Bust algos.”
And, hey, how do you think lawsuits will affect F-bk stock prices, when parents discover pots of gold under the Tort Rainbow. Ask: how many F-bkers under the “age of majority” will have “donated their organs” without parental consent, enticed by the perverse incentives to “hedged” minors to “Friend” themselves for fun, fame, and glory? Whose deep pockets are behind Fbk’s “organ donation” algo putsch? Who profits, who pays? Cui bono?
Question: Need your kid be “dead” before his/her organ donation ensues? If so, will “dead” mean whatever the algo says it means?
“Bust algos” — Defend human life against Algoprofiteers: “Citizens Against Algo Tyranny” — “CAATness” for the People.
Lengthening Arm of Uncle Sam’s Pirate Justice
“Midway through 2010, Napolitano’s department used America’s control of the .net domain name register to extraterritoriality seize the TVShack domain.”
Okay that freaks me out.
Friends;
Re. the Australian ‘extradition’ piece off of TorrentBit; such behaviour is a perfect example of a Hegemon and its’ Client States. Sorry to point it out to you mates, but you’re still being treated like Transportees by the Old Boy Net. (Not that we here in the States have fared any better; quite the opposite.)
Cheers.
RE: Whieclay
Once thing Kristoff didn’t note was that the Rez is in South Dakota and Whiteclay is a few feet over the border in Nebraska. This adds an entire level of complexity to the problem. Gives the sellers an another reason to shrug their shoulders and keep on taking the money.
As much as I admire and respect Glenn Greenwald, it is rather baffling how an intelligent person can write column after column after column, year after year after year about how since that fateful day of 9/11 our entire system has basically abandoned any semblance of being a democracy without looking at the actual “event” itself and calling bullshit.
Don’t want to keep screaming into the wind, Glenn?
Don’t want to keep writing about each new abrogation of our social contract by the elite psychopaths?
Then be one of the first established writers to delve into the farce that is the official story concerning 9/11.
Intelligent citizens having only been waiting a decade for someone to support us in breaking through the miasma of lies and make-believe that we’ve been suffering under.
I mean, Glenn, if you’re going to write about the consequences and after-effects of 9/11 anyways – as you’ve already been doing for years – then for Christ’s sake, quite effing around and go to the source.
It could be that Greenwald’s problem (which could be shared by many) is that there is such a staggering volume of dis- and misinformation around the event, produced by so many factions, whether well- or ill-motivated, that the truth of the event virtually impossible to disentangle.* The whack-a-mole campaign that bloggers (successfully) ran against the Bush WMD disinformation campaign was child’s play by comparison.
It would be really helpful (but not in detail on this thread, please) if there were a link to a dispassionate source that gave, say, six iron-clad reasons the official account is not credible, from material that’s as close to the ground and the event as possible, whose provenance is strong and ideally not digital, and which doesn’t attempt to produce A Theory Of Everything (“prove that Christ was born on Christmas day”).
I’m not saying that such a simple entrance to the story isn’t possible to build; in fact, I think it’s extremely desirable. But in the world in which Greenwald (and others) exist, with brutal daily production requirement of material for beats that are in themselves vital, it’s almost impossible to know which thread to pull on from the giant ball of yarn, and stories that look like they lead down epistemological and ontological rat holes tend to get short shrift. (Readers are now free to join the chorus that I am a replicant, in on the plot.) We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.
NOTE Adding… I’m a LIHOP person, not a MIHOP person (“You’ve covered your ass, now”). That’s bad enough.
UPDATE * And adding: If the truth simply isn’t discoverable (cf. the modeling permathread), then “our one demand” might be for a Truth Commission. That would demand might include a lot else, including financial crisis material, stolen elections, and so forth. One possible way, er, “forward.”
‘It would be really helpful (but not in detail on this thread, please) if there were a link to a dispassionate source that gave, say, six iron-clad reasons the official account is not credible, from material that’s as close to the ground and the event as possible, whose provenance is strong and ideally not digital, and which doesn’t attempt to produce A Theory Of Everything (“prove that Christ was born on Christmas day”).’…
agreed. my simple suggestion: building 7. the closest thing to a 9/11 ‘smoking gun’ that currently exists, &, to me, the single strangest, most inexplicable, thing that happened that day…
WTC 7 WORLD TRADE CENTER SEVEN
How did it collapse?
220+ Senior Military, Intelligence Service, Law Enforcement, and Government Officials
1,500+ Engineers and Architects
250+ Pilots and Aviation Professionals
400+ Professors Question 9/11
300+ 9/11 Survivors and Family Members
200+ Artists, Entertainers, and Media Professionals
400+ Medical Professionals
http://patriotsquestion911.com/
Wow, I can’t link to the Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth here on this blog. Unbelievable.
I checked the spam and the pending queues. There’s nothing there. So whatever the problem is, it has nothing to do with “this blog.”
So this would be helpful… Because a lot of people believe it…
Rene’, Google: “Screw9/11 mysteries” and watch
the 2.5 hour take down of ALL 9/11 Truther BS.
Every technique (edited audio and video,false
arguments and logic etc.)is covered. If after
watching it you still question how WTC7
“really” came down may God have mercy on your
soul.
WTC seven came down because there was nothing known underneith it. It was coming down, one way or another. They chose to pull it, and therefore take control of an unknown.
Very simple, and looking at the issue mires every one in NYC politics.
There are many more lines of questioning worth putting energy into.
Why were no military airplanes availiable? Why hasn’t at least a general had to answer for this?
What is the ongoing policy USG with respect to hijacked planes in flight? If a plane is taken over, is it even worth having the passengers fight back? Or will policy dictate the distruction of the plane?
The “hero” plane was shot down over PA, would this happen again under the same circumstances?
Perhaps here is something close to the succinct summary you seek:
http://tinyurl.com/nzkrme
Alas, no. It’s a fail at paragraph 1(a):
So “well documented” there’s no linky goodness. Come on. Stuff that’s easy to do one expects to be done. Cf. Luke 16:10.
Cf. Luke 16:10 Lambert S
Zing!
(And thanks for the reminder.)
Lambert,
There was no “reply” button to your reply, so here goes:
Re: “So ‘well documented’ there’s no linky goodness. Come on.”
I think you misunderstand the indexing at the 911truth.org website. What I linked you to is the elementary version of introductory concepts to understand 9/11. The website itself is chock-a-block with plenty of citations and URLs on the AWOL command structure on 9/11. Some of that would be the erratic behavior of the President flying from Ft. Lauderdale to Barksdale to Offutt before returning the D.C. to take command 11 hours after the start of the operation. Or how about the various discrepancies relating to Cheney’s whereabouts the morning of 9/11, along with Don Rumsfeld’s bizarre choice to abandon his command post for the sake of succoring a handful of the wounded. It’s all there at the website. You simply need to search for what you seek and ye shall find. Keywords you might search on include “Richard Myers”, “Ralph Eberhardt”, “NEADS” and “NORAD” among others.
I’m a bit surprised at how quickly you attempted to dismiss that website’s data indexing and search features.
If that’s not your style, then perhaps you’d care to dive into the deep end? In that case, let me encourage you to immerse yourself at the History Commons “Complete 9/11 Timeline”. You’ll have thousands of excellent verifiable citations to choose from. Give it a whirl, old boy…
http://www.historycommons.org/project.jsp?project=911_project
You are only 6,918 completely indexed, URL linked event entries away from enlightenment. :)
“no linky goodness” ?
Come, come, Lambert, surely you’ve read by now Michael Bronner’s Vanity Fair piece, one of the earliest and best ?
The “AWOL chain of command” spent their time Talking on the Phone w/each other instead of responding.
Do I sense disingenuousness on the topic of “truthers” ? If so, enlighten me as to the process whereby one ‘earns’ disingenuity.
cont.,
“no linky goodness”
Washington’s Blog had a good page on 9-11, it’s now been reduced to this,
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/09/anniversary-of-911.html [??] [no linky goodness, is it?]
Here’s some gristle for the seeker of ‘linkys’,
Data block on 9-11 airliners ??
http://www.rutgerslawreview.com/2011/full-audio-transcript/
re: Supervisor of Flying
an article by Matt Wald of the NY Times that gives details on the type of military training exercises occurring on 9-11. Wald’s article describes the process that the Air National Guard goes through a week before and on the day of the exercise. In short, NEADS knows exactly what assets are available as they are the ones in command of every exercise in their sector. The exercise is confirmed with NEADS on the day it is conducted.
The exercises were ongoing at the time of hijacks.
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/10/nyregion/military-air-controller-is-criticized-in-close-encounter.html
the co-opting of dissent
I agree about much of what you said concerning Glenn and I truly am an admirer of his.
It’s just that there are too many intelligent people with too many justifiable reasons for doubting the official fairy tale that it’s way past the time for someone within the “system” to start acting like an adult and broaching the “unmentionable” subject of what went on that day and quit ignoring both common sense and their better angels.
Yes, I know, they’re in the “system” for a reason but it’s getting to be a bit ridiculous.
I my opinion, there is no reason to argue between LIHOP or MIHOP or anything else right now when nearly everyone can agree that what we were told simply is not the truth.
That is more than enough to consolidate a group.
Let the investigation of the facts lead where they may but everyone has to take that first step.
Taking the first step in admitting that we were all lied to that day is still unfortunately a huge step for many to take even after 10 years.
If someone of the prestige of a Greenwald or Hedges or Chomsky would be brave enough to fill that vacuum and provide the “legitimacy” that some people need then we could start moving forward.
Until that time, however, we’re continually treating the symptoms and not the disease.
If it is all lies and has been from that day, then everything changes immediately and people like Greenwald and others no longer have to futilely attempt to document every new instance of criminality.
I know that some here are going to say that the Chomskys, Hedges, etc are either dis-info agents or what have you but the questions they must ask themselves are:
In your life, when 9/11 comes up – with your family, your friends, etc. – do you state unequivocally that you feel the official story is a lie?
If not, why not?
If a person is not doing this in their own life, then they themselves could be considered “disinfo” agents, right?
Adding:
Everyone’s mantra concerning the official 9/11 story should be one word:
UNACCEPTABLE
Given what that day has done to this country and the world it is beyond unacceptable that we can’t see all evidence.
The explanations are unacceptable.
The secrecy is unacceptable.
The consequences are unacceptable.
When anyone tries to demean a person as a “truther” or bolsters the official story, everyone’s response should simply be “Unacceptable”.
Excellent point!
There should be been an open and EXHAUSTIVE search for the truth to lay all doubts to rest. That there wasn’t speaks volumes.
Those responsible for that lack are traitors.
So the link I asked for is where?
I misread your post thinking it said that I shouldn’t post a list of sites but the ones that others have provided – including the one you dismissed – are as good as places as any to start.
For example, regarding the point 1a, I don’t need links because I already know that Rumsfeld was photographed carrying stretchers on the Pentagon lawn doing triage, Myers claims he was in a meeting on Capitol Hill and no one informed the JCOS about the hijackings until the Pentagon was hit, Bush was in FL where he claimed he saw the 1st plane hit the towers on TV which was an obvious lie and then he was flown around the country and Cheney was supposedly in the WH but according to testimony by Mineta it appears that he had been in the underground control bunker for a longer period of time as Mineta reports that Cheney had already been issuing commands by the time that he – Mineta – got there.
Again, this stuff is well-documented and part of the base knowledge of that day yet you and most Americans don’t even know those facts.
I mean, what more do you want?
People have been doing A LOT of research and documentation already and one would think that you might give these people the benefit of the doubt when they say something’s well-documented.
Here’s a link to the above info:
http://911research.wtc7.net/disinfo/alibis/index.html which does have links to other sources.
Are war profiteers ever a bashful bunch? Then why would they have been on 9-11 ?
For anyone who is interested, here is a short overview of the LIHOP, MIHOP issue.
LIHOP vs. MIHOP {and MIHOP masterlist} http://they-let-it-happen.blogspot.com/2007/01/lihop-vs-mihop.html
Like the blogger, I’m a LIHOP/MIHOP fence sitter… I’m too much a student of history to believe it was purely an accident.
Well, Lambert, you may already be aware of David Ray Griffin, he has covered the absurdity of the Official Version any number of times.
A good place for those new to the Official Conspiracy to start is David’s characterisation of the absurdity of the Air National Guard’s lack of response re official-dumb’s reply to the effect of ‘We Mustn’t Disturb the Air Force [on 9-11]’.
Previous decades heads would have rolled for non-performance. Under W, they were rewarded for non-performance.
I will mention something I’d seen in the last year or so on aluminum fires burning hot enough to melt steel in the towers.
Don’t have a link. Haven’t seen that debunked yet. I still doubt it’d be enough to melt that much steel.
RE: “How to live unhappily ever after”:
As a Clinical Psychologist who worked for the military (as a civilian) for most of my career, and who did a lot of psychotherapy with soldiers and civilians who were wounded, I found this article to capture much of the mystery and paradox of which human emotional life is comprised.
For one of the strongest of examples, loving parents are never healed from the loss of a child, but they go on, feeling still incomplete even decades later, particularly true for mothers.
Not all humans can be enclosed in any one “scientific” observation or description, so scientific observation by itself is woefully inadequate in observing, describing or “treating” our complexity.
This article attempts to describe just a piece of us, using poetic and emotional language, rather than scientific constructs. Very often, that’s the truer picture.
BTW, I don’t read the WSJ, as it’s a Wall St organ, and thus found this article to be surprising.
I don’t read the WSJ, as it’s a Wall St organ, and thus found this article to be surprising. Bill the Psychologist
Sucker!
During the last Great Depression, a lot of moralistic propaganda to keep the masses pacified was dispensed from Hollywood, magazines, newspapers, etc.
About Japan’s nuke shutdown:
Our family is now going to take a trip to Japan …Southern Japan. If they ever start up another nuke we will not spend one tourist penny traveling there.
We have a grandchild who was going to attend California Polytechnic at San Luis Obispo before he realized that it just downwind from two nuclear reactors built right on the beach on top of an earthquake fault. We will never travel through the central coast of California for that reason. Monterey or Big Sur and no further. No further north than Santa Barbara.
These reactors are “managed” by Pacific Gas and Electric, a company that is absolutely incompetent when it comes to managing and maintaining complext systems. An entire neighborhood near San Francisco was destroyed by their gas pipleline. Allegations of sloppy record keeping turned into testimony and now point to outright fraud and homicide.
These idiots actually flipped the blueprints and built part of the reactors backwards…how’s that for care and attention to detail?
They are the most corrupt and dangerous utility in America.
These reactors need to be shut down permanently.
You may want to extend that reasoning to the Japanese reactor builders.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/leesheppard/2012/05/03/economists-malign-influence-on-taxes/
Libertarians nominate ex-Governor Gary Johnson for president http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/sns-rt-us-usa-libertariansbre8440bz-20120505,0,4652982.story
Ron Paul wins big in Maine and Nevada http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/President/2012/0506/Ron-Paul-wins-big-in-Maine-and-Nevada
Breaking news: Ron Paul wins Iowa! (Yes, Iowa) http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2012/05/breaking-news-ron-paul-wins-iowa-yes-iowa/
Did Joe Stiglitz suddenly convert to MMT?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZqFaZUOhhw