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Derrick Jensen - Endgame
If you don't believe our culture is going to undergo a voluntary change, then what do you do?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9os1GFuWJ0
Thom is right once again!!!
Thom,
While we are all being consumed by the Nuclear catastrophe in Japan presently, we in America have a larger problem right here at home, namely, the Los Alamos National (Nuclear Weapons) Laboratory (LANL).
According to Lead Quality Assurance (QA) Auditor Don Brown an accident at LANL could be 3 to 4 times Chernobyl. Mr. brown addressed the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board's Safety Report below in a three segment CBS Investigation Interview.
All this while LANL rushes to complete the construction of the new CMRR multibillion-dollar project that will enable production of up to 200 new plutonium pits a year at Los Alamos National Laboratory. [ http://www.sfreporter.com/santafe/article-5528-its-the-pits.html ]
I thought we in America were moving towards nuclear nonproliferation per an President Obama statement, well, his administration has forked over BILLIONS of our tax dollars for this project, DAH. President Obama, should have read the report below, and seen Don Brown's CBS interview? Why is it "ALL ABOUT THE $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$", and not the welfare of the American, "We the People"?
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board ( http://www.thebridgetonowhere.org/pdf/rem_info.pdf )
- Safety Report on Los Alamos National Laboratory by the Board [* note Rem graph on page #8]
More information, and Don Brown's "White Paper" and Resume, can be found at www.TheBridgeToNowhere.org/nuclear
Sincerely,
Dan Williams
Founder/TheBridgeToNowhere
www.TheBridgeToNowhere.org
Risk vs. Reward – We may not be technologically ready yet.
Nobody has a complete understanding of what it cost to fully deploy a nuclear energy program. Issues that must be considered:
• Start up costs of a nuclear project.
• Safely operating the program with upgrades as needed.
• Ameliorating the random risk possibilities due to the extreme negative consequence to life in the operational zone.
• Neutralizing the nuclear waste and its safe disposal.
• Closing the complex at the end of the production life cycle.
Yes, I understand we may have detailed projections of various sections of the above life cycle scenario but not all of them. Considering this is a technology which requires heavy public subsidizes, why do we need to add crushing debt (Wallstreet & Banks won’t finance these projects without the guarantees) when there are many other robust solutions regarding our energy alternatives?
Folks, does building a nuclear reactor with all of its unknown factors in a dangerous world to boil water really make a lot of sense ($ cents) at this time?
Jim Monachino
Sometimes it is just common sense. This was a disaster of tremendous proportion. Of course this nuclear disaster is going to be horrific. Strangely enough, what troubles me more is that in 2011, we as a civilization, seem to pretend to be unable to distribute food to the cold and the hungry. I would imagine that every person on earth should be ready, on any given day, to be written off. Simple as that.
I think the Japanese and American government officials will lie to us, and the executives of the corporation that owns the nuclear plant will continue to lie to everyone, and the corporations that want more nuclear power in America will continue to push American politicians to lie to us. This is how they have always behaved in catastrophic events like Three Mile Island, 911, and on and on. What sign have they given us that they have changed? None.
Nuclear power plants are like a guy running around while holding a loaded, cocked gun pointing at his head and he's saying, "See? It's perfectly safe to do this, nothing has happened to me." And then of course he trips on a rock or slips on some of his own bull____ rhetoric, and blammo. But this metaphor falls short of what's happening with nuclear power, because whenever a nuclear power plant blows up, the people who designed the power plant incorrectly, the corporate executives who knowingly insisted on the unsafe design in order to save money, the contractors who knowingly built the wrong design and probably cut corners in the construction as well, the inspectors and other government officials who knowingly signed off on the bad design and bad construction, and the banking executives who agreed to pay for it, are ALL safe in their homes far, far, far away from the nuclear power plant. The only people who are hurt are the entirely innocent. As usual.
It is impossible to be sure that any particular nuclear power plant is correctly designed, built, run, and maintained, because when there is that much money involved, almost all of the corporate executives who make the decisions are certifiable sociopaths who have consistently demonstrated their willingness to ruin or end the lives of any number of innocent people.
If wind power, solar power, geothermal power, and other safe, renewable, non-polluting sources of power were given all the tax breaks and other government giveaways that nuclear power gets, non-polluting power would be very profitable. And if congress did what it did for the nuclear industry, giving all of the profit to the corporations that own nuclear power plants and forcing the taxpayers to assume over 90% of the liabilities, why, non-polluting power would be so profitable that corporate sociopaths would want to control the corporations that make wind, solar, geothermal, and other forms of non-polluting power-generating equipment, so they could give themselves multi-billion-dollar bonuses and drive renewable power into a ditch the same way they have done with our stock market, housing market, and banking system.
Generating power and the stock market and banking system should all be run by the government. Corporate executives will NEVER be trustworthy enough to handle large sums of money or the responsibilities that go with handling large sums of money.
The republicans rule when in the minority and they rule when in the majority, that's why they need to be completely voted out of office or incarcerated for their crimes - they are masters at manipulating public sentiment. I can hear it now, "why should the US fund a tsunami warning system that will help OTHER countries" - heaven forbid.
It seems the Wisconsin awakening may not be enough, I am afraid people won't really wake up until ONE person has ALL the money - all the while brainwashed into thinking they are going to be that one person.
Dr. Helen Caldicott is a great resource on this issue -- and I have heard her address the high cost factor. The co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility (educating their colleegues on nuclear power, nuclear weapons and nuclear war), she's got a Statement on Japan on her website and you can check out her available books. I am sure she must be on YouTube.
17+ Years for Extra Energy?
Several times on the air I've heard Thom say that it takes 17+ years for a new nuclear plant to start producing "new" energy -- that is, "extra" energy, beyond what it took to build the plant in the first place (over a number of years).
I have used this factoid in several discussions this week, but I don't have a source (other than "I heard it on the Thom Hartmann show"). I wonder if anyone has a link to a source for this information. Or maybe Thom could suggest one on the air (though I don't get to listen most of the week, due to work).
Thanks!
-- Alan
What is in the waters of the Great Lakes that is making Republicans go crazy? Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio. This is getting spooky.
Thom's letter from the NY teacher needs to be posted and linkable so we can share it on Facebook, Twitter, etc.,
Thanks for the wonderful coverage of Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan....not available too many places. Knowing John Nichols and Matt Rothschild's work made Michigan more immediate to me. It has been awesome getting regular reports from John.
Continuing to send healing thoughts to Japan even as I remember Three Mile Island and activism then (and ongoing by some of us),
Kate Anne
I have the option of shooting at my TV. I haven't exercised it, and in my self-restraint have put my .44 Colt away and went to the picket line or the keyboard.
Shunning might work. Everyone send back their Royal Invitation with regrets!
XXXXX
Corporate taxes are down also which increase profits. We the blue collar are beening
held accountable by the blunders and greed with big banks, lending companys and wall
street. We need a radical change in our tax structure. "A Flat Tax" for every individual
collecting a pay check, hourly or salary, no loop holes. Vacation pays, bonuses, gifts,
company paid items, welfare checks, social security payments, and disabled peoples
restitutions. This "FT" would come on off the top before any exclusions. Probably 1%
nation wide would resolve our national budget. Roy Boy...
Unfortunately, the Dems are almost as bad as the "Repugs", in many areas. Nothing short of a complete takeover of the Democratic Party, or creating a new powerful third Party will do. The problem is getting enough power together in one place, so that the vote is not diluted.
However, I think the main issues are common to a large majority of Americans, even Tea-Party-ites, and our first effort, already begun by Hartmann and others, is to combat the huge amount of propaganda spewing out from right-wing outlets and candidates, whose main and overriding purpose is to keep us divided.
I can tell you from personal experience, "divide and conquer" is a favored tactic of the "corporotocracy". We need the American public to become more and more aware of how truth is being distorte for pure financial ends.
The ultimate goal is to remove as much as possible financial influence from governance, and to show people how this is harmful. Financial influence is the sole cause of government's irrational actions. "Big government" is not the problem. It is financially corrupted government.
1st, we need to take money out of politics. i envision an election cycle like england has...1 month. also, all candidates get the same amount of money/media time... free!
2nd, make it illegal for a corporation to own any media, and enforce the anti-trust laws we have now to break up all the murdochs and clear channels.
3rd, raise taxes of people making 1 mil/yr to 40%, 2 mil...50%, 5 mil...60%, 10 mil...70%, top bracket...80%. those in this top bracket can claim a 10% tax cut from the eisenhower years.
4th, dissolve wall street and jail the offenders, nationalize energy, health, housing, jobs for starters.
5th, no more computer voting machines because they undermine 1 person, 1 vote. we need open elections with reciepts.
6th, jail the enemies of the people/war crimminals like the bush administration, ALL of them, clinton, boehner, grassley, kissinger, the koch bros, the BP brass, beck, rush, hannity, oreilly...etc etc.
7th, if ANY candidate for ANY office promises something during an election campaign, and doesn't come thru, for whatever reason, they go to jail.
just for starters.
Where are the voices for wind and solar? How clean and safe they are. I live near a proposed wind farm, and solar is propsed elsewhere in the state unless our rethuglican govenor puts the kabash on it--like anything else progressive. Ignorant residents are bitching about how the turbines will spoil the landscape (no more than the stobe-light cell towers on nearly every horizon) and the noise. Really, they are upset because they won't be paid to have one on their property. There will be 6 or 8 within site of my house. I won't mind it a bit. I've seen them in Europe. I welcome the prospect of clean energy and a better future for my children and grandchildren.
Well, said. Let's take the money out of the election process. We CANNOT get anything accomplished until we do that first. When the politicians have no incentive to listen to money, they will have to listen to those who vote and ACUTALLY pay taxes.
Sorry, but the answer is "None of the above". Confidence/Trust in government was bad long before "Citizens United".
The reason public confidence in government is at a 35-year low is because Republicans repeatedly tell them "Government can't do anything right", then they elect those same Republicans that end up only confirming/reinforcing that belief.
Someone mentioned the other day how "If government can't do anything right, why do we look to them in emergencies, send troops to resolve conflicts, and the National Guard to Japan to aid in the disaster?"
we need to know more about the radiation from Japan and how it is traveling in The North Pacific Current which is formed by the collision of the Kuroshio Current, running northward off the Eastern coast of Japan In the eastern North Pacific, it splits into the southward California Current and the northward Alaska Current. It is heading straight into one of the biggest fisheries. Alueutian Island. Alaska is closer to Japan then it is to Eurecka, California. Would you be worried if you lived in California Washinton State or Oregon and Alaska had a nuclear accident on the coast? The water that was contamindated last week in Japan is now off the coast of alaska and is heading south alond the western coast line . Please all of you check the currents and start asking questions
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THP is in the toilet. This is what your show used to be like. Now, you have few good guests, and aren't telling me anything I don't already know. I think you are starting to miss "the big picture." Listen to this very informative hour from truthdig.com and remember how good your show used to be.
http://www.truthdig.com/podcast/audio/truthdig_radio_osama_bin_laden_and_nuclear_meltdown_20110316/
."..that mad novelist, Ayn Rand, picked up the gospel of Calvin and made it almost seem real. "
The "Novel" part is what is completely lost on the ayn rand fanatics! Just like Mickey Mouse, it's all Made Up!