Anti-progressives always want to use the term 'socialism' when describing all of the social contract programs they completely disdain:
Medicare For All.... Social Security.. Creating Decent Jobs & A Living Wage.. Free College Education.. Income & Wealth Equality... Getting Big-Money Out of Politics... Combating Climate Change... Fair & Humane Immigration Policies.. Racial Justice.. Reforming Wall Street... et al.
When anti-progressives hear the terms: socialist, liberal, and progressive, they equate them equally to the ideology of that of Lenin, Marx, and Mao... but they are NOT similar.
Definition of Socialism (Merriam-Webster):
1 : any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2 a : a system of society or group living in which there is no private property
b : a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
3 : a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done.
Definition of Liberalism
1 : the quality or state of being liberal
2 a : a movement in modern Protestantism emphasizing intellectual liberty and the spiritual and ethical content of Christianity
b : a theory in economics emphasizing individual freedom from restraint and usually based on free competition, the self-regulating market, and the gold standard.
c : a political philosophy based on belief in progress, the essential goodness of the human race, and the autonomy of the individual and standing for the protection of political and civil liberties; specifically : such a philosophy that considers government as a crucial instrument for amelioration of social inequities (such as those involving race, gender, or class)
d : the principles and policies of a Liberal
Progressive Approach is very simple to summarize..
..and is built upon the ideas of generations of progressives from Theodore Roosevelt & Franklin Roosevelt to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. & Barack Obama:
"Everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does his or her fair share, and everyone plays by the same rules."
1. Everyone deserves a fair shot at a decent, fulfilling, and economically secure life.
2. Everyone should do his or her fair share to build this life through education and hard work and through active participation in public life.
3. Everyone should play by the same set of rules with no special-privileges for the well-connected or wealthy.
4. Successful families & communities cannot exist without cooperation.
5. Progressives value human interdependence on a larger scale, and accept the importance of looking beyond their own needs to help others and find global solutions to global problems.
6. Purpose of government is to advance the common good, to secure and protect the rights of its citizens, and to help to create a high quality of life and community well-being.
7. An economy that works for everyone, not just the few.
8. And belief that all nations should uphold universal human rights, and to work together to solve common challenges.
... This is what a progressive America looks like.
.
Tuesday, August 14, 2018
..in defense of social-media
..having an opinion and a voice.. it should be expressed on social media..
..I will not always believe in all being said, but everyone has a right and should lay out and defend their positions..
..telling another friend the same thing.. he would refer to me as a 'hater'..
..I will not always believe in all being said, but everyone has a right and should lay out and defend their positions..
..telling another friend the same thing.. he would refer to me as a 'hater'..
...and un-friended me on fb, so as not to see-hear any more of what I was posting..
..extreme unyielding zealotry is an exceptionally dangerous belief-system..
..extreme unyielding zealotry is an exceptionally dangerous belief-system..
..I'd suggest anyone becoming part of social-media.. facebook.. twitter.. blogging..
..defending ideals and principles out in an open forum makes one step back to examine their validity, and it gives others a free opportunity to respond..
..having what may be questionable beliefs is one thing..
...making an open defense of them is another entirely....defending ideals and principles out in an open forum makes one step back to examine their validity, and it gives others a free opportunity to respond..
..having what may be questionable beliefs is one thing..
facebook.com/bj.arias.usa
twitter.com/bjarias
bjarias.blogspot.com
.
Sunday, August 5, 2018
Comments on a recent trip to Scandavia..
Each of the eight countries visited this past three weeks (Norway Denmark, Germany, Poland, Estonia, Russia, Finland, and Sweden) are having similar issues, and the people in all these countries are making similar comments.
Climate:
By far the most pressing issue on their minds ,as for the past three months all this region has been undergoing extreme heat and drought. Century old records are being, not just broken, they are being shattered, by double digit temperature increases. What were regularly beautiful summers are now hot and humid to everyone's dismay. Most all th population has no air conditioning.. they have never needed it.. no longer.
Forest fires are now occurring in areas where they never did before..and they are ill equipped to handle the growing crisis.
Evacuations ordered in Sweden as fires rage as far north as Arctic Circle.
There's growing concern across the region that 'Climate-Disruption' has brought us to a new era that we are ill prepared to enter.. and it is going to be getting much, much worse as temperatures steadily keep rising year after year.
The Growing Challenge of Living and Working on a Sweltering Planet
Tourism:
Since the last time we traveled to Europe a decade ago, the surge in tourism has been remarkable!! The numbers of people swarming over towns and cities is staggering. The major tourist draws are packed, to the point of being 'unfriendly.'
An unfair paradox: summer is when most people take vacations, but summer is also pretty much the worst time of year to visit a lot of places. Now visiting Europe in the summer is a lot like visiting Disney World in summer: unbearably hot, you have to wait in line for everything, and it's crowded shoulder to shoulder with other miserable people who just wish they could go somewhere with a/c.
Easiest way around this is to travel during the shoulder season in spring and fall, when the weather is still good but the hordes haven’t yet arrived, or have gone.
We.decided that should we return to this part of the world once again, it would not be during the very crowded summer months.. climate and swelling tourism are just becoming too much to handle, and definitely negatively impact the overall travel experience.
Over-tourism: a growing global problem.
Immigration:
For the most part these are progressing thinking societies that care for their populations and the people of other countries. And they have an inner desire to help and lend assistance whenever they can. But these beliefs are now being challenged, as the needs of so many are pushing the boundaries of fiscally being able to afford the growing need.
Overwhelmed by Refugee Flows, Scandinavia Tempers its Warm Welcome
Inequality:
Likely to seriously surprise some people. Scandinavian inequality seriously stands out. The top 10% of wealth holders in three Nordic countries (Norway, Sweden and Denmark) hold between 65 and 69 per cent of those nations' wealth. In a major economic downturn, with governments necessary belt-tightening, this could spell real trouble for the general populations within these countries.
Why Socialist Scandinavia Has Some Of The Highest Inequality In Europe
'Trumpocracy':
Most all the people with whom we spoke very much like Americans, but have a general disrespect and fear of the current administration, unlike the previous Obama administration.
Lengthy anti-Trump hysteria has struck home with Scandinavia's traditionally left-leaning population. Opinion polls indicate increased fears among the Nordics. Forty percent of Norwegians believe the risk of WWIII has increased with Trump as POTUS, and his increasing ties with the Russia-Putin dictatorship significantly worry them.
Trump is feared to make a new dynasty take root in the US. His overwhelming power in office, which no US president has enjoyed since the 1930s is greatly feared. At present, the Republicans enjoy a majority in all instances, and their dominance may be further enhanced as Trump is poised to nominate a new judge to the Supreme Court.
In Norway's neighbor Sweden, the percentage of panic-mongers appears to be even higher. A total majority of 83% of respondents voiced concern about the implications of the Trump presidency.
Fears of 'Trumpocracy' Sweep Scandinavia
What makes sense for the common good.. the general population... NOT one small, rich & powerful segment of society. Call it liberal.. progressive.. socialistic.. call it whatever you like.. all I know is that when there are 40+ MILLION Americans living in
poverty, in what is supposed to be the richest country on the planet...
while spending two-thirds of our annual budget on war and the
military... there's something SERIOUSLY wrong with our politics and government.
Having just returned from visiting these eight European countries over the span of our three week trip, they all are in shocked disbelief what is happening to us.. and they are VERY concerned about the world's future.
Russia & China are now licking their chops, reaping huge benefits from our sheer arrogance & stupidity... and unless we send this cabal of 'leaders' to the trash heap... the grim future they see for us just might be our continuing reality.
Climate:
By far the most pressing issue on their minds ,as for the past three months all this region has been undergoing extreme heat and drought. Century old records are being, not just broken, they are being shattered, by double digit temperature increases. What were regularly beautiful summers are now hot and humid to everyone's dismay. Most all th population has no air conditioning.. they have never needed it.. no longer.
Forest fires are now occurring in areas where they never did before..and they are ill equipped to handle the growing crisis.
Evacuations ordered in Sweden as fires rage as far north as Arctic Circle.
There's growing concern across the region that 'Climate-Disruption' has brought us to a new era that we are ill prepared to enter.. and it is going to be getting much, much worse as temperatures steadily keep rising year after year.
The Growing Challenge of Living and Working on a Sweltering Planet
Tourism:
Since the last time we traveled to Europe a decade ago, the surge in tourism has been remarkable!! The numbers of people swarming over towns and cities is staggering. The major tourist draws are packed, to the point of being 'unfriendly.'
An unfair paradox: summer is when most people take vacations, but summer is also pretty much the worst time of year to visit a lot of places. Now visiting Europe in the summer is a lot like visiting Disney World in summer: unbearably hot, you have to wait in line for everything, and it's crowded shoulder to shoulder with other miserable people who just wish they could go somewhere with a/c.
Easiest way around this is to travel during the shoulder season in spring and fall, when the weather is still good but the hordes haven’t yet arrived, or have gone.
We.decided that should we return to this part of the world once again, it would not be during the very crowded summer months.. climate and swelling tourism are just becoming too much to handle, and definitely negatively impact the overall travel experience.
Over-tourism: a growing global problem.
Immigration:
For the most part these are progressing thinking societies that care for their populations and the people of other countries. And they have an inner desire to help and lend assistance whenever they can. But these beliefs are now being challenged, as the needs of so many are pushing the boundaries of fiscally being able to afford the growing need.
Overwhelmed by Refugee Flows, Scandinavia Tempers its Warm Welcome
Inequality:
Likely to seriously surprise some people. Scandinavian inequality seriously stands out. The top 10% of wealth holders in three Nordic countries (Norway, Sweden and Denmark) hold between 65 and 69 per cent of those nations' wealth. In a major economic downturn, with governments necessary belt-tightening, this could spell real trouble for the general populations within these countries.
Why Socialist Scandinavia Has Some Of The Highest Inequality In Europe
'Trumpocracy':
Most all the people with whom we spoke very much like Americans, but have a general disrespect and fear of the current administration, unlike the previous Obama administration.
Lengthy anti-Trump hysteria has struck home with Scandinavia's traditionally left-leaning population. Opinion polls indicate increased fears among the Nordics. Forty percent of Norwegians believe the risk of WWIII has increased with Trump as POTUS, and his increasing ties with the Russia-Putin dictatorship significantly worry them.
Trump is feared to make a new dynasty take root in the US. His overwhelming power in office, which no US president has enjoyed since the 1930s is greatly feared. At present, the Republicans enjoy a majority in all instances, and their dominance may be further enhanced as Trump is poised to nominate a new judge to the Supreme Court.
In Norway's neighbor Sweden, the percentage of panic-mongers appears to be even higher. A total majority of 83% of respondents voiced concern about the implications of the Trump presidency.
Fears of 'Trumpocracy' Sweep Scandinavia
************************
Having just returned from visiting these eight European countries over the span of our three week trip, they all are in shocked disbelief what is happening to us.. and they are VERY concerned about the world's future.
Russia & China are now licking their chops, reaping huge benefits from our sheer arrogance & stupidity... and unless we send this cabal of 'leaders' to the trash heap... the grim future they see for us just might be our continuing reality.
Tuesday, July 10, 2018
If you were once a Trump supporter and now no longer are.. it's time to 'come out of the closet' and face reality!!
... doesn't matter how.. like the slogan goes... "JUST DO IT"..!!!
.. it will be good for you and good for all you know.. (and don't know)... and it's well past time..!!
Like at AA.. get up in front of the group and declare.. "My name is... and I was once a Donald Trump supporter.. but NO longer..!!"
The reason(s) don't matter, just the fact that you're no longer willing to go along with all of his complete insanity is enough. No longer willing to see the country destroyed from within. No longer willing to see that smirky-Putin-grin.. knowing he's deliberately engineered the making of a complete fool of the POTUS, and the changing of the world order, with him finally in 'the-deckchair-position.'
It won't be easy, admitting one of the greatest miscalculations of your entire life, but there's no other way it can go. Taking longer changes nothing.. the inevitable must happen.
Be brave, and declare your allegiance to the real America... not DJT's Reality-Con-Game America. The one he's fleecing every day for his (and his crappy family's) personal, narcissistic gain.
Repentant sinners are eventually forgiven, but should your pride and ignorance still get the better of you, forgiveness will be more withdrawn, and might not come until it holds little meaning. Especially should he continue on his Sherman's 'march-to-the-sea' campaign through our government. There might not be allot to salvage.. and we might need to win independence and build government all over again.
There is a group of supporters will never relent, they will go down with him. And that is very troublesome, as it could get exceptionally ugly with them. They are hate filled ignorants, with little care for themselves, and especially others who are threatening to them. We let him open that door, and that's all they needed. Civil-war would be quite attractive to them. They'd LUV an opportunity playing with all the guns & ammo 2nd Amendment rights have afforded them over the years. Firearms stocks would go through the roof !!
Started writing this piece as satire.. the more re-reading it.. the scarier it becomes. Never thought a fraction of what's happening.. could ever happen.. so much for that.
Friend once said.. "anything you can think is feasible".. this one lunatic has proven that time and again to be true.
... Time to switch back over to the side of reality, and hope & pray it's not too late.
.. it will be good for you and good for all you know.. (and don't know)... and it's well past time..!!
Like at AA.. get up in front of the group and declare.. "My name is... and I was once a Donald Trump supporter.. but NO longer..!!"
The reason(s) don't matter, just the fact that you're no longer willing to go along with all of his complete insanity is enough. No longer willing to see the country destroyed from within. No longer willing to see that smirky-Putin-grin.. knowing he's deliberately engineered the making of a complete fool of the POTUS, and the changing of the world order, with him finally in 'the-deckchair-position.'
It won't be easy, admitting one of the greatest miscalculations of your entire life, but there's no other way it can go. Taking longer changes nothing.. the inevitable must happen.
Be brave, and declare your allegiance to the real America... not DJT's Reality-Con-Game America. The one he's fleecing every day for his (and his crappy family's) personal, narcissistic gain.
Repentant sinners are eventually forgiven, but should your pride and ignorance still get the better of you, forgiveness will be more withdrawn, and might not come until it holds little meaning. Especially should he continue on his Sherman's 'march-to-the-sea' campaign through our government. There might not be allot to salvage.. and we might need to win independence and build government all over again.
There is a group of supporters will never relent, they will go down with him. And that is very troublesome, as it could get exceptionally ugly with them. They are hate filled ignorants, with little care for themselves, and especially others who are threatening to them. We let him open that door, and that's all they needed. Civil-war would be quite attractive to them. They'd LUV an opportunity playing with all the guns & ammo 2nd Amendment rights have afforded them over the years. Firearms stocks would go through the roof !!
Started writing this piece as satire.. the more re-reading it.. the scarier it becomes. Never thought a fraction of what's happening.. could ever happen.. so much for that.
Friend once said.. "anything you can think is feasible".. this one lunatic has proven that time and again to be true.
... Time to switch back over to the side of reality, and hope & pray it's not too late.
Sunday, July 8, 2018
Geoengineering & Chemtrails.. what we are now not being told will eventually be unable to be hidden any longer. ....KEEP LOOKING UP...!!!
It took decades before we came around to admitting ACD - Anthropogenic Climate Disruption was being caused by human activity. There's now LOTS more misinformation and 'fake-news' regarding chemtrail geoengineering than hard news.
All those involved make a supreme effort to keep all of it away from the general population for the obvious reasons..but more is continually coming out.. about this largest unauthorized experiment the world has even seen.
The world is battling another MASSIVE disinformation campaign..and it would be laughable, if it were not sooo deadly serious.
.."76 out of 77 scientists".. sounds like the early days of the debate on climate change.. when 98% of scientists proclaimed climate change was not caused by human activity.. now most all are entirely in agreement climate disruption is assuredly human induced.
Articles like this USA Today piece doing sooo much harm, delaying our understanding of the reality that is occurring:
Still, ever slowly there are voices being heard regarding what will one day be known as a great worldwide catastrophe of humankind's making.
Although reasons for the experiment might never be clearly known.. could it really have population control motives as part of it.. or is it just a grand scheme to rid fossil fuel companies of millions of tons of unwanted waste.. saving them billions in removal costs... or would it be to control weather patterns.. or refract sunlight from the earth in a final desperate and doomed attempt to stave off further global warming. It's probably some of 'all-of-the-above.'
Here are some recent and pertinent articles:
More will come out, of that there is no doubt, and the continued effects of the pollution of our planet and all who live on it will be felt for generations into the future.. what we have remaining of it.
ALL YOU NEED DO MOST ANY DAY.. ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.. JUST LOOK UP AT THE SKY..!!!
These are NOT images of 'water-vapor' trails.. for anyone to believe such a lie is completely ludicrous !!!
We are being systematically bombarded and polluted by thousands of tons of toxic chemicals dumped into the skies ALL over the world every day..!!!..
..the effects of which over time will be absolutely devastating to all of us.
....KEEP LOOKING UP...!!!
All those involved make a supreme effort to keep all of it away from the general population for the obvious reasons..but more is continually coming out.. about this largest unauthorized experiment the world has even seen.
The world is battling another MASSIVE disinformation campaign..and it would be laughable, if it were not sooo deadly serious.
.."76 out of 77 scientists".. sounds like the early days of the debate on climate change.. when 98% of scientists proclaimed climate change was not caused by human activity.. now most all are entirely in agreement climate disruption is assuredly human induced.
Articles like this USA Today piece doing sooo much harm, delaying our understanding of the reality that is occurring:
Still, ever slowly there are voices being heard regarding what will one day be known as a great worldwide catastrophe of humankind's making.
Although reasons for the experiment might never be clearly known.. could it really have population control motives as part of it.. or is it just a grand scheme to rid fossil fuel companies of millions of tons of unwanted waste.. saving them billions in removal costs... or would it be to control weather patterns.. or refract sunlight from the earth in a final desperate and doomed attempt to stave off further global warming. It's probably some of 'all-of-the-above.'
Here are some recent and pertinent articles:
- International Journal of Environmental Research & Public Health - Evidence of Coal-Fly-Ash Toxic Chemical Geoengineering in the Troposphere: Consequences for Public Health
- Natural News - Chemtrails news, articles and information:
- Natural Society - Chemtrails: An Obvious Overhead Pollutant Ignored and Denied
- Collective Evolution - Pilots, Doctors, & Scientists Tell The Truth About Chemtrails/Geo-Engineering
- YourNewsWire.com - The United Nations Admits Chemtrails Are Real
- Natural Society - The World Awakens: America Sleeps – Chemtrails from Around the Globe, a Satellite View
- StopSprayingCalifornia.com - Chemtrails - What are they Spraying?
- ChemtrailsMustStop.com - Chemtrails Make Organic Agriculture Impossible
More will come out, of that there is no doubt, and the continued effects of the pollution of our planet and all who live on it will be felt for generations into the future.. what we have remaining of it.
ALL YOU NEED DO MOST ANY DAY.. ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.. JUST LOOK UP AT THE SKY..!!!
We are being systematically bombarded and polluted by thousands of tons of toxic chemicals dumped into the skies ALL over the world every day..!!!..
..the effects of which over time will be absolutely devastating to all of us.
....KEEP LOOKING UP...!!!
Saturday, July 7, 2018
Crop Circle Formations - 2017
..while not a banner year for crop circle formations there were yet some stunning creations..
..and once again they show the differences..
..looking at a few one can readily see flaws, while others are perfect in their design and execution..
..those are the ones cannot be explained..
..man-made and 'unexplained' becoming easily apparent..
.. here are several of 2017 that stand out..
The Rollright Stones, nr Little Compton, Oxon
Cley Hill, nr Warminster, Wiltshire
Bydemill Copse, nr Hannington, Wilts
Target Wood, nr Badbury Rings, Dorset
Langdean Bottom, nr East Kennett, Wiltshire
..and once again they show the differences..
..looking at a few one can readily see flaws, while others are perfect in their design and execution..
..those are the ones cannot be explained..
..man-made and 'unexplained' becoming easily apparent..
.. here are several of 2017 that stand out..
The Rollright Stones, nr Little Compton, Oxon
Cley Hill, nr Warminster, Wiltshire
Bydemill Copse, nr Hannington, Wilts
Target Wood, nr Badbury Rings, Dorset
Langdean Bottom, nr East Kennett, Wiltshire
Friday, March 2, 2018
CRISIS... when I was a kid...some of these were the same as all of us are facing today.. but oh, there's now so many more!!!..
..we had some really pressing 'on-your-mind' issues those decades ago..
...and guess what, they are all still on our list, and on our minds today:
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
When I was a kid.. this was a HUGE deal.. vividly remember diving under the desks whenever tests of the outdoor street sirens went off. (warning of a possible nuke attack.. like those desks were capable of holding back the building to be landing on top of us...sure.)
- and now we have over 60,000+ nukes.. and our (I-I-C) Idiot-In-Charge wants a massive increase in those numbers !!
- and the two infantile-morons eager to play 'chicken' with each other, and with the world.. with all lives on it at stake !!
- declared by both sides..a new nuclear arms race is now in the making.. led by unenlightened, belligerent leadership, once again we are testing fate.. at some point with all that keeps pushing the world in confrontational directions, how long will it be before we enter nuclear war.
OVER-POPULATION - FOOD & WATER
With the one never having gotten under control.. it is not to be too much longer, hell, it's NOW.. we're going to be running out of the others. This was another 'biggie' from childhood. Yea.. they were screaming about it even when the population was a third of what it is today.
- 8,760 species die off per year..because ya know, the 'infinite' resources are only 'infinite' when the world population leveled at around one and a half billion.. (like what's China alone today).
- We are WAY overpopulated, and STILL growing.
"As long as the Earth is viewed as the personal property of the human race.. we are destined to soon inhabit a biological wasteland."
MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX (MIC)
- In his famous farewell address to the nation in 1961, Ike warned us loud and clear. And only the MIC took notice, and while everyone else was asleep at the wheel, they took over control of the country. And don't let anyone tell you different...need proof..
- just look at our annual federal budget.. year-after-year!! (amounts going to the military are ABSOLUTELY STAGGERING!!!)
- they're loads of VERY wealthy men in the high-upper ranks of the armed forces luvin every conflict we can get ourselves into. Why all those private mercenaries now wanting in on the action...
- for all those hundreds-of-millions/billions 'go-missing' every war.
MAJOR WAR (& THE DRAFT)
The draft is included here as really a major item, for its elimination opened the door for the military to take over.. pretty much everything.
Their purpose and paychecks swell on conflict... they thrive on it, and should they trip over peace, they'd just ignore it, and keep right on fighting.
So now we're into a half-dozen MAJOR conflicts.. and they're itching to start new wars with..
- North Korea & Iran... the new 'profit-centers.'
- From all appearances, a war with Russia is also in the making.. such a conflict would not be like any of the others.. major powers with enormous weapons systems will have a hard time fighting 'limited' wars with each other.
- We have to End-War... with so much at stake in our war-machine, until we do, solving all other issues will just be continually delayed.
- Media & Conflict.. when media 'sells' news for ratings.. stories that ratchet up intensity levels will push us in directions extremely harmful to the country.
RACISM.. MISOGYNY... BIGOTRY.. EXTREMISM.. ETAL
We've never truly made a serious dent in R-M-B in this country. We talk a good game, but reality proves otherwise. We're completely ineffectual at altering the status-quo belief system.
And probably extremism should be out in its own major category, for many times in history it's been an underlying central cause of World War conflagrations.
- Today, it has taken over front-row-center.. as a U.S. President leads the extremist charge.
- White supremacists are becoming emboldened and more violent. There are millions more poor people today.. greater child poverty..more living in deep or extreme poverty.. income equality is worse and worsening.
We tackle it right, and head-on.. or it has the power to overwhelm and destroy us.
- They're will be no U.S. to come to the rescue... 'civil war' has potential to be exceptionally horrendous.
___________________________________________________________________
..then came along some new additions to be added to all of the above..
..some were present already, although not like the intensity levels they have reached today:
GLOBAL WARMING & CLIMATE DISRUPTION
We haven't that long left to get our act together, and the way things are now accelerating, in all probability, it might be extremely optimistic it could happen at all.
So the climate were now experiencing is really from what happened 30-40 years ago. We stop burning ALL fossil fuels tomorrow.. we'll still have to deal with temperature increases for all that upcoming time.
And we have not really figured in the rise of methane gases.
- The 'methane-bomb' is real, and most likely will be the deal-breaker.. getting that genie back in the bottle requires technology we've yet to invent... and we'd need it.. FAST !!!
- Why all those ranches in NZ are being bought up by the super-wealthy.. for their 'bolt-holes.'
- Scientists around the globe are stunned with the warming at the North Pole and Greenland. Daily mean temperatures across the region were comparable to those usually seen in May. February 25, at the North Pole rose above freezing. February 23 saw northern Greenland at 43°F. The average high there for that month is -20°F.
- "an anomaly among anomalies"... for such a crisis to come at the absolute WORST time possible !!
- Enormous world-wide changes are happening.. many don't want to admit their permanence.. or that they could accelerate and get much worse. "Common climate models are underestimating the change we’re facing."
- Living like there is no tomorrow.. well there is a tomorrow, and we are living in it.
CAPITALISM - CONSUMERISM
We can't keep chewing up resources world-wide at present rates.. NOT even close to them.. we're running out of some already. We are 5% of the world's population, and every one of the seven and a half BILLION people on the planet want our 'lifestyle.'
You don't need to be very in-tune to dope this one out.
TERRORISM
We're amplifying this issue by our direct hand in so many different wars all over the globe.
- We now have 'boots-on-the-ground' in 150+ countries.. you read that right !! .. (How many countries in total are there??)
...what would be your thinkin about the U.S. being one of the 'good-guys.'
Much is now working in terrorists' favor.. their message craves conflict.. and our present system of government is now all to willing to give it to them in spades.
Talk about the endless ramifications of 'Blowback-War.'
- It was bin-Laden’s genius... for a mere $400-500K
- goading Washington into spending Trillions of dollars ..across significant parts of the Islamic world fighting conflict after conflict
- all of which only creates yet more rubble, terror outfits
- and refugees ..who, in turn, helped fuel yet more
- right-wing populist movements from Europe to DJT’s America.
ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHE - 6TH MASS EXTINCTION
Earth is suffering... badly!!..
- Overfishing...Pollution...Acidification...Coral Bleaching...Depleting Mangroves...Species Extinction
- (MME's)-Mass Mortality Events
- The guys in charge totally knew what was happening with climate decades ago.. and they chose GREED !!
- This ain't goin away.. and can't be hidden & ignored much longer.. the 6th MASS-EXTINCTION!!
The kids & grand-kids might not yet fully understand how badly they're being screwed, but they surely will soon enough.
Pollution of all types in this country (and around the world) is reaching exceedingly dangerous levels:
- Groundwater Monitoring Reveals Widespread Radioactivity at Duke Energy Coal Plants.. Data shows high levels of radioactivity at 11 of 18 plants. Drinking water of more than half the population is radioactive enough to increase the risk of cancer. Highest levels of radioactivity were found at Duke Energy’s Asheville Power Plant, with levels of radium in groundwater 38 times what EPA considers safe for drinking water. Even in the face of these findings..the current EPA has just released revisions showing its intent to cripple the very rule that requires this sampling and the release of these data.
- Plastic is destroying our world... 8.3 BILLION TONS.. of which 6.3 Billion has already become trash, with almost 80% in landfills or out in the environment. As a young kid packaging was paper bags, cardboard boxes, wood, and glass... then beginning in the '50's plastic exploded onto the scene.. and has not let up on bit.
GEOENGINEERING
This is going to very soon sneak up on us, and become one of the leading causes of healthcare crisis IN-THE-WORLD !!!
For every square inch of the planet is being bombarded by toxic chemicals nearly 24/7... in the desperate & false-futile hope of staving-off global warming.
- The chemical list is long and very dangerous.
- Symptoms vary among individuals.. children and those with health issues are most at risk.
- Most still don't know much at all about 'Anthropogenic-Climate-Disruption (ACD).
- Talk to them about CHEM-TRAILS and you will have completely lost them !!
DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT - HUMAN RIGHTS
We're on the cusp with this one.. and once again, it's self-inflicted agony. And with only a quarter of the population unwittingly pulling the trigger on everyone.. (including themselves).
We're in a precarious situation:
- a majority of leadership is under direct control of oligarchs...
- with a majority of the population in considerable disagreement with most all current government policies and/or proposals.
- do we return to democracy.. or follow the current trend towards 'authoritarian-oligarchy.'
INEQUALITY - GREED
The 99.0000%-whatever are 'getting-by'.. some LOTS better than others..
- and having to live with the other .01%+/- that are taking in EVERYTHING.. while giving back less..and less..and less, to keep government and society functioning properly!!!
- Greed now rules most all major decisions by large corporations and the super-wealthy.. involving the entire society.
- For nearly a decade, companies have taken advantage of extremely cheap money set by the Fed and foreign central banks trying to pump up sluggish growth.
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."
ENERGY - FOSSIL FUELS
This is as important as climate, and mass species-extinction, for it is so tied together with these other issues.
If we have not already reached and gone over 'the edge'.. we're very close to that apocalyptic time.. and advancing at a rate of speed that has hardly slowed one bit since the dawn of the industrial revolution. Today, it takes about one barrel of conventional U.S. oil to produce the equivalent of nine barrels, or 378 gallons of gasoline. When it comes to shale oil.. it's a loss.. one barrel produces less than five (the loss point).
And have been resisting, trying to kill-off all the ones would get us longevity.. renewable-energy. When the guys in charge first knew 40 years ago about ACD, had they gone huge into alternate-energy, they'd be even wildly richer than they are today... and it would have been sustainable.. infinite sources of energy!!
- It forever will remain the most costly/short-sighted/greedy decision humankind has made...ultimately forcing humanity to an early exit.
MASS MIGRATION
All these peoples do not readily 'choose' to leave their homes & homeland!!
They'll be ten of millions.. then hundreds of millions of migrants.. with no end in sight.
- We are now starting to enter the era of millions of people in forced-migration, for a whole host of reasons (wars-famine-climate).
- Mass-migration will completely transform every country on the entire planet. The stresses and issues will be unimaginable and appear insurmountable.
GUNS - 2nd AMMENDMENT
Right now issues deal with them are a major category:
- In the past decade 280,000 Americans have been killed by guns, along with tens of thousands injured.. (remember, Vegas had nearly 10x the number injured than killed. Automatic assault weapons MUST be banned!!).
- "Republicans are not going to do anything on gun control." If we are not able to have our leadership begin bending to the will of the people on this massively critical, no-brainer issue.. than all the others are going to be losing propositions as well.
- Right now GOP PAC money is preventing much needed legislation from even being proposed & considered, much less enacted...
...THIS MUST STOP !!!
GOVERNMENT-IN-CHAOS
When first starting to write this post, did not have intention of including this as a 'crisis.' But in the course of the last year.. and in the course of putting together this recap.. it has become quite evident.. a very grave and dangerous one.
The chaos and corruption are getting worse and there's no end in sight. And when considering how serious all the other major crisis are.. this only makes them all THAT MUCH MORE INCREDIBLY WORSE!!!
The chaos and corruption are getting worse and there's no end in sight. And when considering how serious all the other major crisis are.. this only makes them all THAT MUCH MORE INCREDIBLY WORSE!!!
- "we're over a year into the Trump presidency and it's only getting more chaotic. There's a desperate quality to it that hasn't been there before and people are beginning to wonder if the administration is even minimally functional."
- evident for quite some time things were NOT going to turn around and magically get better. "Even by Trumpian standards, the chaos and the unraveling at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue are a stunning -- and recurring -- problem."
- it's well past time that ALL those still supporting him... STOP !! And start understanding and admitting the very serious harm that is being done to the country.. and it could in his hands get MUCH, MUCH WORSE !!
- and that it is also well past time for him to be removed from office.
All this mayhem really falls squarely on the shoulders of the Democrats. They once had on the ticket, while not the most perfect of candidates (none ever are or will be).. but he was the embodiment of what this country needed at this precise point in history (and he would have won!).. and they got totally GOP stupid, and royally fucked it all up.
God do we desperately need another major political party!!
..you're getting the picture, right.. we can keep adding on without any problem..
.. what we appear incapable of doing is knocking any of the items off the list..
..right now there's a bakers-dozen-plus, and God that sure is enough.. but if history teaches us anything, man is not capable (especially at this present moment) of not adding more items to this apocalyptic list..
..and there must be a point when we get all ages up-to-speed-educated & intensely involved in all these issues.. maybe now's gotta be that time..
.. it's not just about guns... it's WAY-MORE-BIGGER than that !!!!
..and believe me.. we'd give every dime owned to be wrong on all or any of this..
..but.. the obvious is just that.
This is being posted as a work-in-progress.. there's LOTS of links here, with more being added. So take your time reading them.. and frequently return to see what's been added/altered/deleted..
...and feel free to send comments by social media, or personal correspondence.. to get something said/added/debated.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Wednesday, February 14, 2018
..Happy Valentines Day..
..there are too many political leaders having no business holding office.. as their politics stink!!!
..she's not perfect but her beliefs in helping average Americans set her apart..
..on her subscription list, this is her most recent email..
But I did take a little time this weekend – while watching Pittsfield’s own Chris Mazdzer win the silver medal in men’s luge (WOO-HOO!) – to bake a heart-shaped cake.
My mother was born on February 14, 1912 – 106 years ago today. She loved her special connection to Valentine’s Day, and when I was a little girl, I bought some heart-shaped pans at the dime store to bake her birthday cake.
Many years later, when my mother was in her 80s, she had some surgery for a cancerous polyp – nothing serious. The day before she was scheduled to go home, the whole family came to the hospital, had wheelchair races in the hallways, and laughed and joked and had good fun.
Later that night after Daddy sent all of us home, she was watching TV in bed with Daddy holding her hand. She sat up and said, “Don, there’s that gas pain again.” Then she fell back dead.
The autopsy showed that my mother had advanced heart disease – never diagnosed and never treated. My daddy had a heart attack when I was 12, and my mother and I had spent our whole lives worrying about him. No one had any idea we should worry about my mother.
Too often we think of heart disease as a “man’s disease,” but it’s the #1 killer of women – causing 1 in 3 deaths every year. 90% of women have one or more risk factors for heart disease or stroke. But because heart disease can often go undiagnosed, and because the symptoms of a heart attack can be different for men and women, fewer women than men survive their first heart attack. African American and Latina women are especially at risk.
Access to good medical care – regular check-ups and preventative care – is the first step to fighting heart disease. That’s why I fight so hard for community health centers. They provide the best possible basic health care at lower costs to anyone who walks through their doors.
Part of what makes community health centers special is that each one adapts to their community’s needs. In Brockton, Massachusetts, for example, the community health center partners with a local, family-owned Cape Verdean supermarket to teach residents about healthy cooking and active lifestyles. In East Boston, which is geographically isolated from the rest of the city, the community health center operates a 24/7 emergency room. And community health centers like the one in New Bedford have a pharmacy right on-site, so patients can pick up their medications right away with less chance that they’ll go unfilled.
For more than four months, the Republicans let federal funding for our community health centers expire. They were so focused on stripping health care coverage from many of the people who rely on community health centers that they ran right past the funding deadline. The community health center professionals that I spoke to from Massachusetts and across the country were horrified that they’d have to lay off doctors and nurses, cut services, or reduce hours.
We fought tooth and nail for that funding for more than 100 days, and I have some good news: as part of last week’s budget deal, we secured $7 billion for community health centers over the next two years. That was a $600 million bump in funding to support their powerfully important work.
I still have my heart-shaped pans – and even though my mother is gone now, I still bake a heart-shaped cake every Valentine’s Day to remember her. But now I’m doing something more: I’m fighting to make sure everyone’s mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, wife, partner, friend and neighbor can get the basic health care they need to live long, healthy lives with the people they love.
Thank you for being a part of this, and Happy Valentine's Day!
Elizabeth
..she's not perfect but her beliefs in helping average Americans set her apart..
..on her subscription list, this is her most recent email..
******************
BJ
I’m fighting my heart out this week to
pass a clean Dream Act – to keep our country’s promise to 800,000 young
people who have grown up herein America and who want to stay in the only
home most of them have ever known. And I’m fighting my heart out in a
zillion other ways to level the playing field for working families in
Massachusetts and across the country.But I did take a little time this weekend – while watching Pittsfield’s own Chris Mazdzer win the silver medal in men’s luge (WOO-HOO!) – to bake a heart-shaped cake.
My mother was born on February 14, 1912 – 106 years ago today. She loved her special connection to Valentine’s Day, and when I was a little girl, I bought some heart-shaped pans at the dime store to bake her birthday cake.
Many years later, when my mother was in her 80s, she had some surgery for a cancerous polyp – nothing serious. The day before she was scheduled to go home, the whole family came to the hospital, had wheelchair races in the hallways, and laughed and joked and had good fun.
Later that night after Daddy sent all of us home, she was watching TV in bed with Daddy holding her hand. She sat up and said, “Don, there’s that gas pain again.” Then she fell back dead.
The autopsy showed that my mother had advanced heart disease – never diagnosed and never treated. My daddy had a heart attack when I was 12, and my mother and I had spent our whole lives worrying about him. No one had any idea we should worry about my mother.
Too often we think of heart disease as a “man’s disease,” but it’s the #1 killer of women – causing 1 in 3 deaths every year. 90% of women have one or more risk factors for heart disease or stroke. But because heart disease can often go undiagnosed, and because the symptoms of a heart attack can be different for men and women, fewer women than men survive their first heart attack. African American and Latina women are especially at risk.
Access to good medical care – regular check-ups and preventative care – is the first step to fighting heart disease. That’s why I fight so hard for community health centers. They provide the best possible basic health care at lower costs to anyone who walks through their doors.
Part of what makes community health centers special is that each one adapts to their community’s needs. In Brockton, Massachusetts, for example, the community health center partners with a local, family-owned Cape Verdean supermarket to teach residents about healthy cooking and active lifestyles. In East Boston, which is geographically isolated from the rest of the city, the community health center operates a 24/7 emergency room. And community health centers like the one in New Bedford have a pharmacy right on-site, so patients can pick up their medications right away with less chance that they’ll go unfilled.
For more than four months, the Republicans let federal funding for our community health centers expire. They were so focused on stripping health care coverage from many of the people who rely on community health centers that they ran right past the funding deadline. The community health center professionals that I spoke to from Massachusetts and across the country were horrified that they’d have to lay off doctors and nurses, cut services, or reduce hours.
We fought tooth and nail for that funding for more than 100 days, and I have some good news: as part of last week’s budget deal, we secured $7 billion for community health centers over the next two years. That was a $600 million bump in funding to support their powerfully important work.
I still have my heart-shaped pans – and even though my mother is gone now, I still bake a heart-shaped cake every Valentine’s Day to remember her. But now I’m doing something more: I’m fighting to make sure everyone’s mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, wife, partner, friend and neighbor can get the basic health care they need to live long, healthy lives with the people they love.
Thank you for being a part of this, and Happy Valentine's Day!
Elizabeth
Sunday, January 21, 2018
... stop accepting the extremes of capitalism... CivicAction.com
The top one percent controls nearly 40% of the wealth in the United States. Globally, eight men -- and yes, they’re all men -- now own the same amount of wealth as 3.6 billion people.
What. The. Heck.
It’s not just ridiculously rich individuals who are taking advantage of the system. Corporations are not sharing the prosperity, either.
Corporate profits are at all-time highs, while most Americans don’t have $1,000 in savings.
Has it finally come to this -- do we just accept this behavior as “just how the economy works”?
Only a few people are really benefiting from today’s economic gains. That must change.
We’re not talking about creating a purely equal society. We’re simply suggesting that the prosperity needs to be widely shared.
We’re not simply making a moral argument -- we’re making an economic one.
Our economy will grow much faster if more Americans are included in the economy. When people have enough money to not go shopping for new shoes, or go on a vacation.
Right now, due to corporate greed, people are living paycheck to paycheck. And guess what? They don’t buy as many things! When a large number of people are excluded from the economy as consumers, growth slows down and the economy weakens.
It’s ultimately in the best interests of all of us -- working class, middle class, and yes, businesses -- for people to be paid more.
That’s why you need to support a higher minimum wage, paid paternity and maternity leave, and time-and-a-half pay for every hour worked over 40 hours.
These are policies which empower Americans up and down the economic ladder.
The engine of our economy is you -- not some corporation.
Remember that. Remember that every time a politician tells you that small businesses drive an economy. Or when they prioritize policies that place profits above your economic well-being.
You are the economy. It’s time our politicians prioritize your bank account, not corporations.
Let’s re-imagine what a “successful” economy looks like.
-
Thursday, December 28, 2017
..this could be our Fukishima.. and much more..
Should you have decided not to read (or not all of it) Michael Lewis's brilliant article..
"Why the Scariest Nuclear Threat May Be Coming from Inside the White House"
I'm sharing this blog post with you, in hopes of changing your mind.
Here below is just a briefly outlined facet of his insightful, very important piece. It is so much more than just about Hanford, on several different levels.. and maybe helps gets the world to understand and question what we need to know and do heading towards our very dubious future.
The Hanford Site (here are pictures) is a mostly decommissioned nuclear production complex operated by the United States federal government on the Columbia River in the state of Washington.
The Hanford Site occupies 586 square miles —roughly equivalent to half of the total area of Rhode Island—within Benton County, Washington. Closed to the general public, it is a desert environment receiving under 10 inches of annual precipitation, covered mostly by shrub-steppe vegetation. The Columbia River flows along the site for approximately 50 miles, forming its northern and eastern boundary.
Established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project in Hanford, south-central Washington, the site was home to the B Reactor, the first full-scale plutonium production reactor in the world. During the Cold War, the project expanded to include nine nuclear reactors and five large plutonium processing complexes, which over almost a half-century produced plutonium for most of the more than 60,000+ weapons built for the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
The weapons production reactors were decommissioned at the end of the Cold War, and decades of manufacturing left behind 53 million gallons of high-level radioactive waste stored within 177 storage tanks, an additional 25 million cubic feet of solid radioactive waste, and 200 square miles of contaminated groundwater beneath the
site.
“Nobody in the world has waste like ours”.. No one has so much strontium 90, which behaves a lot like calcium and lodges inside the bones of any living creatures it penetrates, basically forever. Along with chromium and tritium and carbon tetrachloride and iodine 129 and the other waste products of a plutonium factory, it is already present in Hanford’s groundwater.
In 2007, the Hanford site represented two-thirds of the nation's high-level radioactive waste by volume. Hanford is currently the most contaminated nuclear site in the U.S.
Beneath Hanford is a massive underground glacier of radioactive sludge moving slowly, but relentlessly, toward the Columbia River.
The place is now an eerie deconstruction site, with ghost towns on top of ghost towns. Much of the old plutonium plant still stands: the husks of the original nine reactors, built in the 1940s, still line the Columbia River, like grain elevators. Their doors have been welded shut, and they have been left to decay—for another century.
Three years ago the D.O.E. sent local Indian tribes a letter to say they shouldn’t eat the fish they caught in the river more than once a week. And downwind of Hanford, people experienced unusually high rates of certain kinds of cancer, miscarriages, and genetic disorders that went largely ignored.
They call it T-plant, the long gray concrete building where they brought the irradiated material from the reactors, to cull the plutonium that went into the bomb that destroyed Nagasaki. Because it, too, is cold and dark, it is of less concern than the land surrounding it, for that is where the waste from the plant got dumped. The Nagasaki bomb contained about 14 pounds of plutonium (each gram of plutonium leaves a ton of solid and liquid waste), and the radioactive waste generated fills acres of manicured dirt (plutonium production ended in 1989 after 70 metric tons of plutonium had been produced), the texture of a baseball infield, just downhill from the plant. “The tank farm,” it's called.
On these farms lay buried 177 tanks, each roughly the size of a four-story apartment building and capable of holding a million gallons of “high-level waste.” Fifty-six million gallons now in the tanks are classified as “high-level waste.” What, you might ask, is high-level waste? “Incredibly dangerous stuff,” says Tom Carpenter, executive director of the Hanford Challenge, the organization which has monitored the site since the late 1980s. “If you’re exposed to it for even a few seconds you probably got a fatal dose.”
Hanford turns out to be a good example of an American impulse: to avoid knowledge that conflicts with whatever your narrow, short-term interests might be. What we know about Hanford we know mainly from whistle-blowers who worked inside the nuclear facility—and who have been ostracized by their community for threatening the industry in a one-industry town.
One hundred and forty-nine of the tanks in the Hanford farms are made of a single shell of a steel ill-designed to contain highly acidic nuclear waste. Sixty-seven of them have failed in some way and allowed waste or vapors to seep out. Each tank contains its own particular stew of chemicals, so no two tanks can be managed in the same way. At the top of many tanks accumulates a hydrogen gas, which, if not vented, might cause the tank to explode. “There are Fukushima-level events that could happen at any moment,” says Carpenter. “You’d be releasing millions of curies of strontium 90 and cesium. And once it’s out there it doesn’t go away—not for hundreds and hundreds (or thousands) of years.”
The people who created the plutonium for the first bombs, in the 1940s and early 1950s, were understandably in too much of a rush to worry about what might happen afterward. They simply dumped 120 million gallons of high-level waste, and another 444 billion gallons of contaminated liquid, into the ground. They piled uranium (half-life: 4.5 billion years) into unlined pits near the Columbia River. They dug 42 miles of trenches to dispose of solid radioactive waste—and left no good records of what’s in those trenches.
In early May of this year a tunnel at Hanford collapsed, built in the 1950s to bury low-level waste. In response, the workers dumped truckloads of dirt into the hole. That dirt is now classified as low-level radioactive waste and needs to be disposed of. “The reason the Hanford cleanup sucks—in a word—is shortcuts,” said Carpenter. “Too many goddamn shortcuts.”
As of April 2017, 31 countries worldwide are operating 449 nuclear reactors for electricity generation.. and 60 new nuclear plants are under construction in 15 countries. It was not that long ago, that there were nine processing reactors at this one site in Hanford.
All of these nuclear reactors, as they keep aging (shelf-life is 40-50 years) become greater and greater risks. Hanford is so dangerous, because it just contains so much more radioactive material.. is so old.. and may soon be, through the actions of this administration, without necessary funds to do the utmost to contain itself.. to ultimately protect all of us.
It might take a little while (or not), but this Pandora's box definitely has all the earmarks of becoming the largest man-made disaster the world has ever seen, or potentially ever will see... and NO one wants to deal with that possibility... not yesterday, today, not ever.. as always, nature eventually will.
The Pacific Ocean is being attacked by Fukushima on one side, and still to come, Hanford on the other. Over time all the oceans, and then the entire planet will be subjected to ever increasing levels of deadly radiation... taking hundreds, thousands, even millions of years to lessen the threat to life.
Were we the 'intelligent' species we claim to be, we would have understood nuclear technology is distinctly two-fold.. to get energy... you also get massive amounts of extremely dangerous radioactive waste as a by-product from production of that energy.
Trying to have the one without the ability to control the other was (and is) insanely dangerous, and completely reckless to start with. Yet here we are.. continuing to try and use a technology we might not have effective control over for a completely undetermined length of time.. if ever. And whenever it is the real sh*t-hits-the-fan in Hanford, it's then going to be way too late to put the genie back in the bottle.
Either way, we'll probably all eventually come to realize, it would have been our unwavering demand for energy (fossil fuels and nuclear) that was to bring about our ultimate demise.
"Why the Scariest Nuclear Threat May Be Coming from Inside the White House"
I'm sharing this blog post with you, in hopes of changing your mind.
Here below is just a briefly outlined facet of his insightful, very important piece. It is so much more than just about Hanford, on several different levels.. and maybe helps gets the world to understand and question what we need to know and do heading towards our very dubious future.
**********
The Hanford Site occupies 586 square miles —roughly equivalent to half of the total area of Rhode Island—within Benton County, Washington. Closed to the general public, it is a desert environment receiving under 10 inches of annual precipitation, covered mostly by shrub-steppe vegetation. The Columbia River flows along the site for approximately 50 miles, forming its northern and eastern boundary.
Established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project in Hanford, south-central Washington, the site was home to the B Reactor, the first full-scale plutonium production reactor in the world. During the Cold War, the project expanded to include nine nuclear reactors and five large plutonium processing complexes, which over almost a half-century produced plutonium for most of the more than 60,000+ weapons built for the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
The weapons production reactors were decommissioned at the end of the Cold War, and decades of manufacturing left behind 53 million gallons of high-level radioactive waste stored within 177 storage tanks, an additional 25 million cubic feet of solid radioactive waste, and 200 square miles of contaminated groundwater beneath the
site.
“Nobody in the world has waste like ours”.. No one has so much strontium 90, which behaves a lot like calcium and lodges inside the bones of any living creatures it penetrates, basically forever. Along with chromium and tritium and carbon tetrachloride and iodine 129 and the other waste products of a plutonium factory, it is already present in Hanford’s groundwater.
In 2007, the Hanford site represented two-thirds of the nation's high-level radioactive waste by volume. Hanford is currently the most contaminated nuclear site in the U.S.
Beneath Hanford is a massive underground glacier of radioactive sludge moving slowly, but relentlessly, toward the Columbia River.
The place is now an eerie deconstruction site, with ghost towns on top of ghost towns. Much of the old plutonium plant still stands: the husks of the original nine reactors, built in the 1940s, still line the Columbia River, like grain elevators. Their doors have been welded shut, and they have been left to decay—for another century.
Three years ago the D.O.E. sent local Indian tribes a letter to say they shouldn’t eat the fish they caught in the river more than once a week. And downwind of Hanford, people experienced unusually high rates of certain kinds of cancer, miscarriages, and genetic disorders that went largely ignored.
They call it T-plant, the long gray concrete building where they brought the irradiated material from the reactors, to cull the plutonium that went into the bomb that destroyed Nagasaki. Because it, too, is cold and dark, it is of less concern than the land surrounding it, for that is where the waste from the plant got dumped. The Nagasaki bomb contained about 14 pounds of plutonium (each gram of plutonium leaves a ton of solid and liquid waste), and the radioactive waste generated fills acres of manicured dirt (plutonium production ended in 1989 after 70 metric tons of plutonium had been produced), the texture of a baseball infield, just downhill from the plant. “The tank farm,” it's called.
On these farms lay buried 177 tanks, each roughly the size of a four-story apartment building and capable of holding a million gallons of “high-level waste.” Fifty-six million gallons now in the tanks are classified as “high-level waste.” What, you might ask, is high-level waste? “Incredibly dangerous stuff,” says Tom Carpenter, executive director of the Hanford Challenge, the organization which has monitored the site since the late 1980s. “If you’re exposed to it for even a few seconds you probably got a fatal dose.”
Hanford turns out to be a good example of an American impulse: to avoid knowledge that conflicts with whatever your narrow, short-term interests might be. What we know about Hanford we know mainly from whistle-blowers who worked inside the nuclear facility—and who have been ostracized by their community for threatening the industry in a one-industry town.
One hundred and forty-nine of the tanks in the Hanford farms are made of a single shell of a steel ill-designed to contain highly acidic nuclear waste. Sixty-seven of them have failed in some way and allowed waste or vapors to seep out. Each tank contains its own particular stew of chemicals, so no two tanks can be managed in the same way. At the top of many tanks accumulates a hydrogen gas, which, if not vented, might cause the tank to explode. “There are Fukushima-level events that could happen at any moment,” says Carpenter. “You’d be releasing millions of curies of strontium 90 and cesium. And once it’s out there it doesn’t go away—not for hundreds and hundreds (or thousands) of years.”
The people who created the plutonium for the first bombs, in the 1940s and early 1950s, were understandably in too much of a rush to worry about what might happen afterward. They simply dumped 120 million gallons of high-level waste, and another 444 billion gallons of contaminated liquid, into the ground. They piled uranium (half-life: 4.5 billion years) into unlined pits near the Columbia River. They dug 42 miles of trenches to dispose of solid radioactive waste—and left no good records of what’s in those trenches.
In early May of this year a tunnel at Hanford collapsed, built in the 1950s to bury low-level waste. In response, the workers dumped truckloads of dirt into the hole. That dirt is now classified as low-level radioactive waste and needs to be disposed of. “The reason the Hanford cleanup sucks—in a word—is shortcuts,” said Carpenter. “Too many goddamn shortcuts.”
Toward the end of his time as secretary of energy,
Ernie Moniz suggested the department, for the first time ever,
conduct a serious study of the risks at Hanford. Once the risks were
spelled out, perhaps everyone would agree that it was folly to try to
turn it into, say, a playground. Maybe the U.S. government should just
keep a giant fence around the place and call it a monument to
mismanagement. Maybe the people at the labs could figure out how to keep
the radioactivity from seeping into the Columbia River and leave it at
that. Maybe it shouldn’t be the D.O.E.’s job to deal with the problem at all,
as the problem had no good solution, and the political costs of constant
failure interfered with the D.O.E.’s ability to address problems it
might actually solve.
It turned out no one
wanted to make a serious study of the risks at Hanford. Not the
contractors who stood to make lots of money from things chugging along
as they have. Not the career people inside the D.O.E. who oversaw the
project and who feared that an open acknowledgment of all the risks was
an invitation to even more lawsuits. Not the citizens of Eastern
Washington, who count on the $3 billion a year flowing into their region
from the federal government. Only one stakeholder in the place wanted to know what was going on beneath its soil: ..the local Indian tribes. These tribes have inhabited these lands for thirteen thousand years, and they deal with this incursion with the dignity and determination of an ancient people.
A radioactive
ruin does not crumble without consequences, and yet, even now, no one
can say what these are.
Here is where the Trump
administration’s willful ignorance plays a role. If your ambition is to
maximize short-term gains without regard to the long-term cost, you are
better off not knowing those costs. If you want to preserve your
personal immunity to the hard problems, it’s better never to really
understand those problems.
There is a downside to knowledge. It makes
life messier. It makes it a bit more difficult for a person who wishes
to shrink the world to a certain worldview.
***********
All of these nuclear reactors, as they keep aging (shelf-life is 40-50 years) become greater and greater risks. Hanford is so dangerous, because it just contains so much more radioactive material.. is so old.. and may soon be, through the actions of this administration, without necessary funds to do the utmost to contain itself.. to ultimately protect all of us.
It might take a little while (or not), but this Pandora's box definitely has all the earmarks of becoming the largest man-made disaster the world has ever seen, or potentially ever will see... and NO one wants to deal with that possibility... not yesterday, today, not ever.. as always, nature eventually will.
The Pacific Ocean is being attacked by Fukushima on one side, and still to come, Hanford on the other. Over time all the oceans, and then the entire planet will be subjected to ever increasing levels of deadly radiation... taking hundreds, thousands, even millions of years to lessen the threat to life.
Were we the 'intelligent' species we claim to be, we would have understood nuclear technology is distinctly two-fold.. to get energy... you also get massive amounts of extremely dangerous radioactive waste as a by-product from production of that energy.
Trying to have the one without the ability to control the other was (and is) insanely dangerous, and completely reckless to start with. Yet here we are.. continuing to try and use a technology we might not have effective control over for a completely undetermined length of time.. if ever. And whenever it is the real sh*t-hits-the-fan in Hanford, it's then going to be way too late to put the genie back in the bottle.
Either way, we'll probably all eventually come to realize, it would have been our unwavering demand for energy (fossil fuels and nuclear) that was to bring about our ultimate demise.
 |
(June 2017)
"...a dreadful feeling we’re going to end up with a new pile of orphan waste"
(June 2017)
"...a dreadful feeling we’re going to end up with a new pile of orphan waste"
(June 2017)
(now seriously.. be sure to read carefully the entire article by Michael Lewis)
Wednesday, December 27, 2017
“Michael Lewis knows how to tell a story. ” —Vanity Fair
Michael Lewis has published many New York Times bestselling books on various subjects. His most recent works are Flash Boys, The Big Short, and Boomerang, narratives set in the global financial crisis. The Blind Side,
published in 2006, tells the story of Michael Oher, a poor, illiterate
African-American kid living on the streets of Memphis whose life is
transformed after he is adopted by white Evangelical Christians.
Before that he wrote Moneyball, a book ostensibly about baseball but also about the way markets value people. Both of his books about sports became movies, nominated for Academy Awards, as did his book about the 2008 financial crisis, The Big Short. His other works include The New New Thing, about Silicon Valley during the Internet boom; Coach, about the transformative powers of his own high school baseball coach; Losers, about the 1996 Presidential campaign; and Liar’s Poker, a Wall Street story based in part on his own experience working as a bond salesman for Salomon Brothers.
Before that he wrote Moneyball, a book ostensibly about baseball but also about the way markets value people. Both of his books about sports became movies, nominated for Academy Awards, as did his book about the 2008 financial crisis, The Big Short. His other works include The New New Thing, about Silicon Valley during the Internet boom; Coach, about the transformative powers of his own high school baseball coach; Losers, about the 1996 Presidential campaign; and Liar’s Poker, a Wall Street story based in part on his own experience working as a bond salesman for Salomon Brothers.
Mr. Lewis is a columnist for Bloomberg View and a contributing writer to Vanity Fair. His articles have also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Gourmet, Slate, Sports Illustrated, Foreign Affairs, and Poetry Magazine. He has served as editor and columnist for the British weekly The Spectator and as senior editor and campaign correspondent for The New Republic. He has filmed and narrated short pieces for ABC-TV’s “Nightline;” created and presented a four part documentary on the social consequences of the internet for the British Broadcasting Corporation; and recorded stories for the American public radio show, This American Life.
Mr. Lewis grew up in New Orleans and remains deeply interested and involved in the city. He holds a bachelor’s degree in art history from Princeton and a master’s degree in economics from the London School of Economics. He lives in Berkeley, California with his wife, Tabitha Soren, and their three children: Quinn, Dixie and Walker. In 2009 he published Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood, about his attempts to raise them.
Mr. Lewis grew up in New Orleans and remains deeply interested and involved in the city. He holds a bachelor’s degree in art history from Princeton and a master’s degree in economics from the London School of Economics. He lives in Berkeley, California with his wife, Tabitha Soren, and their three children: Quinn, Dixie and Walker. In 2009 he published Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood, about his attempts to raise them.
...the one to read first is the July 26th, 2017 piece.. 'Scariest Nuclear Threat'...
..understandably it has caused quite the stir.. you know where.. to you know who !!
..understandably it has caused quite the stir.. you know where.. to you know who !!
..right now, as a species... we don't appear to be quite ready for what we have conceived..
Climate Change Is Happening Faster Than Expected, and It’s More Extreme
...human-caused emissions will lead to bigger impacts on heat and extreme weather, and much sooner than expected
..if we had really been concerned, we would have taken this last election to act..
..and now it's most evident we're not going to be making meaningful change in time..
..the leadership in charge at the moment does not have the spine to go up against the oligarchs bribing them and leading them on, and so our fate is sealed..
..ten more years of this.. twenty at the most, and miracles will be necessary..
..there was a candidate that could have started enacting the changes needed, but his party was shortsighted and would not heed the message, and get behind the progressive cause..
..money without wisdom always makes bad decisions.. why so many with it are not capable of such insight is a question for the ages..
..civilizations before us have come to similar ends.. but this time the scale will be unmatched in human history..
..there are billions of us, and no way to guess how many, if any, will pull through.. and what their life will be like in a very dubious future..
..but getting there is going to be long, and hell-on-earth.. many of those futuristic films we've been watching for all these years will have been windows into our future..
.."the most ominous risks of surprises like "tipping points" or "compound extremes"—sucker punches, combination punches, and even knockout punches...the more climate changes, the greater the potential for these...
...uncertainty is not our friend... we are seeing increases in extreme weather going well beyond what has been predicted or projected in the past... we're learning that there are factors we were not previously aware of that may be magnifying the impacts of human-caused climate change"
.."increasingly, science suggests many of the impacts are occurring earlier and with greater amplitude than was predicted..
...there should be more monitoring of global warming impacts, but all those programs are threatened under the current administration.. continued funding to support research is critical.. and here, again, we encounter a very unfavorable political environment where fossil fuel-beholden politicians that run the White House and Congress are doing everything they can to defund and suppress research on climate change science and impact assessments."
... "climate change threatens us all, regardless of political affiliation... with serious consequences for people and the ecosystems of the only planet that can support us."
..we are nothing short of.. 'very serious trouble'.. and as every time-frame gets shortened, eventually there comes an end.. and none is left for us..
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