Who Made the Debt, Again?

At last – a clear answer to “Who made this mess.”

It was Bush, and the Bush Tax cuts for the wealthy. Republicans trashed America’s economy, and conservative policies have been a disaster since Raygun.

 

How the Deficit Got This Big

With President Obama and Republican leaders calling for cutting the budget by trillions over the next 10 years, it is worth asking how we got here — from healthy surpluses at the end of the Clinton era, and the promise of future surpluses, to nine straight years of deficits, including the $1.3 trillion shortfall in 2010. The answer is largely the Bush-era tax cuts, war spending in Iraq and Afghanistan, and recessions.

Despite what antigovernment conservatives say, non-defense discretionary spending on areas like foreign aid, education and food safety was not a driving factor in creating the deficits. In fact, such spending, accounting for only 15 percent of the budget, has been basically flat as a share of the economy for decades. Cutting it simply will not fill the deficit hole….

First, the Bush tax cuts have had a huge damaging effect. If all of them expired as scheduled at the end of 2012, future deficits would be cut by about half, to sustainable levels. Second, a healthy budget requires a healthy economy; recessions wreak havoc by reducing tax revenue. Government has to spur demand and create jobs in a deep downturn, even though doing so worsens the deficit in the short run. Third, spending cuts alone will not close the gap. The chronic revenue shortfalls from serial tax cuts are simply too deep to fill with spending cuts alone. Taxes have to go up.

Third Reactor at Fukuchima Dai-ichi Goes Into Meltdown

There has been another explosion at the stricken Japanese Nuclear Power Plant in the last hour or two. This is the third explosion in the reactor complex since the earthquake. The complex is made up of 8 reactors. By some reports, this one is by far the most serious explosion – with the fuel rods exposed, releasing highly radioactive material.

This video is from the second explosion -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dytttMoivoQ&feature=player_embedded#at=155

New Explosion Rocks Japanese Nuclear Plant

An explosion that released radioactive material occurred in reactor No. 2 at the nuclear center at Fukushima, in northeastern Japan, on Monday.

The blast damaged part of the primary container surrounding the reactor’s core and caused an escape of an undetermined quantity of radioactive material, the Nuclear Security Agency said.

The Kyodo news agency reported that radiation levels in the vicinity “exceeded the legal limit” after the explosion, which occurred at 6:10 a.m. on Tuesday local time (2110 GMT on Monday), shortly after the Japanese government admitted that the reactor continued to be unstable after it suffered damage in Friday’s magnitude-9.0 earthquake.

The operating crew at the plant worked all night to inject seawater into the secondary containment structure in an attempt to cool down the core and prevent a meltdown that could emit radioactive material, but that did not have the desired effect and the reactor was not able to be stabilized.

If the nuclear fuel in the core begins to melt down, that would constitute an emergency situation of the highest order because of the potential for a severe radioactive leak that could contaminate the area.

Reactor No. 2 at Fukushima on Monday suffered a failure of one of the 10 valves associated with its cooling system, something similar to what occurred before reactors 1 and 3 at the same center exploded after the quake.

 

Japanese Reactor Goes Into Meltdown in Japan After Quake

This one is going to meltdown. The big question is whether they can cool the core off fast enough to prevent any (additional) major release of radiation… Hopefully, they can prevent another Chernobyl. Apparently, they have already lost some workers, either badly injured or killed courageously trying to get this back under control.

This is despite the best building codes and system in the world to prevent just the sort of damage we are seeing from an earthquake or natural disaster. Because earthquakes are so common in Japan, major structures and buildings are designed to extremely high standards – higher than the US California Standards, which are the best in the US and generally accepted in much of the world. The fact that (possibly) only a few thousand people have been killed in an earthquake an order of magnitude stronger than that which hit Haiti is due to that. Most of the victims are likely from the Tsunami, despite the fact that a number of the towns and villages in the area have 10-30′ seawalls designed to protect them from just such an occurance.

To understand how violent this earthquake was, geographic sources are now reporting that the coastline of Japan was actually moved 8 feet! And shifted the entire planet on it’s axis by 4 inhces!

25 Years ago, a reactor outside of Detroit, Michigan had an “incident”…

 

Huge Earthquake, Tsunami Strike Japan

Our prayers go out to the Japanese people.  The scenes of devastation are incredible… The 10 Meter waves sweeping inland they are talking about are as high as 3 story building…

 

 

Haiti on the Edge

Been to Haiti several times now, working on various projects. Never seen anything like this, short of walking through a war zone. The Haitian people are an amazingly resilient group. Unfortunately, after 300 years of failure, much of it induced by larger, more powerful countries – there just aren’t any easy fixes.

The Cholera issue has been a disaster waiting to happen – sans any human malefactor, the tent cities are unsustainable. The earthquake which destroyed so many buildings didn’t do the creaky, antiquated, already overwhelmed infrastructure any favors. If you know what to look for driving down the street (not recommended for the faint of heart!) you will notice huge chunks of the core infrastructure are just…

Gone.

Whether storm drains, septic line, water mains, telecom facilities, or electric lines there are just huge missing chunks – some of which have been patched over with makeshift fixes which would make McGuyver proud by ever-inventive Haitians. The good news is that work crews are steadily removing the rubble. The bad news is that there isn’t anywhere to put it, and the roads system, designed for light commuter traffic now have potholes the size of Grand Canyon everywhere you go from the heavy trucks. Getting from place A to B is an adventure in spinal readjustment.

The even worse news is that sans the myriad of other problems – to fix these core infrastructure components takes years. Building a new septic plant, water treatment facility, underground distributions system, power plant(s), etc. aren’t things that, even if all the other problems went away and you could start tomorrow…

Could be done in a few months. Projects on that scale tend to take YEARS.

Mega Disaster in Pakistan – Why No One Cares…

What would happen if there were a mega-disaster…

And no one came to help?

Three major reasons Aid to Pakistan is limited:

1. The Money Well is tapped out. The World economic crisis has limited the ability of nations, including the United States, to respond.
2. Pakistan was responsible for the distribution o Nuclear Weapons making technology to other Islamic countries, and terrorist organizations, They have so far, refused to punish those responsible.
3. Islamofascism is alive and well in Pakistan, with the Taliban and Al Quaeda both having bases in the country and successfully hiding.  Some of that ability is based on support by a portion of the Pakistani people. The country could very easily become another Islamofascist state under Islamic Fundamentalist control.

WHY ISN’T THE WORLD RUSHING TO RESCUE PAKISTAN?, posted with vodpod

New Projections Show Gulf Oil Surging Up Atlantic Coast

Just in case you thought the worst was over with the Oil disaster in the Gulf, new projections now call for the spill to travel up the Atlantic coast, possibly all the way to Delaware or New Jersey.

Potential Map of Oil Spill Route

New Projections Show Gulf Oil Surging Up Atlantic Coast

New projections show that currents will soon carry oil from the Gulf of Mexico into the Atlantic Ocean and up the Eastern seaboard — but won’t hit New York, probably.

The projections, released today, on day 45 of the BP oil spill, come from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) — which, despite its name, routinely studies ocean currents as well.

The NCAR released a video from a computer model, which shows that the oil will begin to drift around the tip of the Florida Peninsula around day 72 of the spill — and then currents will quickly carry it around Florida and up the East coast.

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It will reach North Carolina by day 80 and then flow east into the Atlantic Ocean.

“I’ve had a lot of people ask me, ‘Will the oil reach Florida?’ Actually, our best knowledge says the scope of this environmental disaster is likely to reach far beyond Florida, with impacts that have yet to be understood,” said NCAR scientist Synte Peacock, in their report.

However, Peacock and the other researchers also emphasize that this is a “simulation” and not a “forecast.”

The results were achieved using a computer program that simulates dye traveling through ocean currents. So no actual dye was released into water; the computer instead reached its projection by calculating the dispersal rate of a “dye tracer.”

The report admits that the programmed “dye” has little physical similarity with oil. The dye in the model “has the same density as the surrounding water, does not coagulate or form slicks, and is not subject to chemical breakdown by bacteria or other forces,” the report indicates.

“It is impossible to accurately predict the precise location of the oil weeks or months from now,” NCAR said in its report, instead calling its projections “an envelope of possible scenarios for the oil dispersal.”

Nevertheless, Tri-Staters are on alert.

“I think everybody who has a fishing boat or goes fishing is thinking about it a lot,” New Jersey fishing boat captain Howard Bogan told NBCNewYork last week.

Sean Penn Lays it on the Line About Haiti Aid

There is a huge stinking dead elephant in the room right now concerning Haiti. BTx3 has been working on this since shortly after the quake in January – so I’m fairly well versed on the problems (an there are a mess of them).

The issue here is that after committing nearly $10 billion to a 10 year recovery plan for Haiti, things hit a roadblock. The inborn corruption which has dominated Haiti’s serial failure for the past 80 years showed no sign of abatement in the face of the country’s most terrible catastrophe. Indeed – by some estimates over $150 million worth of the delivered $850 million in AID so far has been “disappeared” either by street “pirates” or by a group of corrupt Government officials (who by no means represent anything but a portion of the Government officials in the country)…

Resulting in the promised AID being suspended. There was a meeting at the United Nations back on April 30th where the 22 Nations which are footing the $10 billion laid down the law. There would be no more money as long as the corrupt officials held power. The donor nations KNOW WHO THEY ARE. The crooks got to keep what they stole, as long as they just left…

The problem is – the corrupt officials are sitting on lots of ill gotten gains. They are not the ones living under blankets strung out over the mud in the massive refugee “cities” which have sprung up full of people displaced by the quake damage. They also know that under current conditions an additional 200,000 or more could die due to typhoid or some other epidemic embarrassing the first world countries into acquiescence.

Business as usual in Haiti.

In the meantime, some basic shit isn’t happening. The 1.3 million folks living under blankets in “tent” cities aren’t seeing much hope of getting out of those cities, they aren’t getting enough food, and the medical support is strained to the limit. Violent criminal gangs are again roaming the streets, while the police – who lost 2,000 of their 8,000 man force and nearly half their equipment are struggling just to provide basic law enforcement, against at leat one, and possibly two “super gangs” who now outnumber the police force.

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Second Civil War In Virginia – McDonnell Supports Offshore Drilling

Decided to take a few days of down time combining two of my favorite things – a relaxing view of the ocean, and fishing. Limited out yesterday on Flounder Fishing in the Intercoastal back bays of the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and I’m headed out this evening to (try and) catch some Drum surfcasting. The Land that time forgot, indeed!

Fortunately, time didn’t forget Internet Service, which in my case is DSL provided (barely) by Verizon – and is about a crappy as it gets and still be sorta functional. I’ll probably do a blog later about how, in the US, the quality (not quantity) of DSL Service in the areas reached is the worst in the world.

IN any event, the news from the Gulf of Mexico continues to be bad. As I gazed out over the beach to the surf, I tried to imagine the beaches covered in black oil, the birds dying, fish kills – and the oyster and clam beds destroyed…

For no other reason than greed and avarice.

This area has survived numerous hurricanes, and the even more destructive NorthEasters, and just off the coast is one part of the Graveyard of the Atlantic, where German UBoats during WWII sank hundreds of ships, spilling their contents (and fuel bunkers) along the coast. It is not unusual even today to see the imprint of man along these beaches with parts of those ships washing ashore – and every once in a great while, even a Spanish Piece of Eight from a bygone era. These disasters large and small have, over time been swallowed by the winds and the waves. IN the 20 years I’ve been coming here, I’ve watched the crash site of a WWII Douglass Dauntless Bomber, which splashed down in one of the back bays, degrade each year – until only a few rusty colored spars are left from this intrusion by man 65 years ago.

But what of an environmental disaster the size of the Gulf? Will it be 20-30-40… 50 or 100 years before the fisheries recover? Will they ever recover?

This area is the center of the major migratory path for everything from fish to Butterflies. Our last Republican pro-business Governor damn near killed off the Bluefish fishery by allowing the Japanese Fleet to stretch a net across the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. That has still not recovered 15 years later.

Governor Bob McDonnell in the face of this disaster recently re-iterated his support for oil drilling off Virginia’s Coast.

Bob McDonnell Reaffirms Support for Offshore Drilling

Now, we had on Civil War fought in majority in this State…

Maybe it’s time for another.

Shrimp Oyster Production In Gulf Dead Due to Oil Spill

And they want to do this shit off the East Coast of Virginia? The rig that blew up is one of the new deep water rigs of the type which would be used to drill off of Virginia’s coast. Anybody out there know where I can get a few dozen unused Exocet missiles…

Cheap?

Oil spill changes everything

The oil disaster plaguing the Gulf of Mexico and our coastal states puts our desperate need for a new clean energy economy in stark relief. We need to move away from dirty, dangerous and deadly energy sources.

We are pleased that the White House is now saying it will suspend any new offshore drilling while the explosion and spill are investigated, but there should be no doubt left that drilling will only harm our coasts and the people who live there.

Taking a temporary break from offshore drilling is an important step, but it’s not enough. We need to stop new offshore drilling for good, now. And then we need an aggressive plan to wean America from dirty fossil fuels in the next two decades.

This BP offshore rig that exploded was supposed to be state-of-the-art. We’ve also been assured again and again that the hundreds of offshore drilling rigs along our beaches are completely safe. Now, we’ve seen workers tragically killed. We’ve seen our ocean lit on fire, and now we’re watching hundreds of thousands of gallons of toxic oil seep toward wetlands and wildlife habitat.

This rig’s well is leaking 210,000 gallons of crude every day, wiping out aquatic life and smothering the coastal wetlands of Louisiana and Mississippi. As the reeking slick spreads over thousands of square miles of ocean, it rapidly approaches the title of worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, even worse than 1989′s Exxon Valdez oil spill. The well is under 5,000 feet of water, and it could take weeks or even months to cap it.

This disaster could unfortunately happen at any one of the hundreds of drilling platforms off our coasts, at any moment. It could happen at the drilling sites that the oil industry has proposed opening along the beaches of the Atlantic Coast.

Indeed, even before this spill, the oil and gas industry had torn apart the coastal wetlands of the Louisiana Bayou over the years. These drilling operations have caused Louisiana to lose 25 square miles of coastal wetlands, which are natural storm barriers, each year…

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Video: Blame game in oil spill//

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RELATED TOPICS

• // Oil Spills
• // Offshore Drilling
• // Exxon Valdez
• // Accidents and Disasters

Indeed, even before this spill, the oil and gas industry had torn apart the coastal wetlands of the Louisiana Bayou over the years. These drilling operations have caused Louisiana to lose 25 square miles of coastal wetlands, which are natural storm barriers, each year.

Oil Disaster Threatens Gulf Coast Fisheries

Get ready for a little WD40 with those Oysters on the half shell…

How did we get here?

Pat Robertson Claims Haitians Had “Pact With the Devil”

This one is singularly stunning.

Pat Robertson: Haiti “Cursed” After “Pact to the Devil”

Pat Robertson, the American Christian televangelist and host of “The 700 Club,” said that Haitians need to have a “great turning to god” while he was reporting on the devastating 7.0 earthquake that shook the island nation — the most powerful to hit the country in a century.

As Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said “well over” 100,000 people may have died in the national disaster, Robertson took to the airwaves Wednesday on his show and said that the country has been “cursed by one thing after another” since they “swore a pact to the devil.”

“Something happened a long time ago in Haiti and people might not want to talk about,” Robertson said Tuesday.

Photo: Pat Robertson.

“They were under the heel of the French, you know Napoleon the third and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said ‘We will serve you if you will get us free from the prince.’ True story. And so the devil said, ‘Ok it’s a deal.’ And they kicked the French out. The Haitians revolted and got something themselves free. But ever since they have been cursed by one thing after another,” Robertson said.

About 80-85% of Haitians are practicing Catholics, and 10 -15% are Protestant.

So THAT’s what he means…

Massive Earthquake in Haiti

This a few minutes ago -

Olbermann: Ruined Senate Bill Unsupportable

Olbermann sums it up…

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The Flooding In Atlanta – 6 Flags Underwater

Flooding the Georgia has reached serious proportions with the State being declared a Disaster Area with 7 dead due to the lingering storm. The Chattahoochee River in northeast Atlanta rose to a height not seen since 1919 -

Six Flags plans to be open this weekend…

Here is a slide show of the local flooding from wsbtv.