#3
*shrug* This is a short term, localized problem. If the radiation levels really are debilitating to the fish, they will quickly die off. The animals and plants around Chernobyl are healthy and thriving -- and perfectly normal ten years later, even the peak predators, where the radiation problems should have accumulated.
A halt in fishing the area will allow seriously depleted fish stocks to rebuild, which is all to the good. The Japanese can live off American and Australian beef for a while, which will do them no harm.
#5
As of an interview this morning with Japan's leading radiation specialist the radiation is almost entirely from iodine whitch will be gone in a few weeks. Fish caught in the imediate area coould be unsafe but fish from further away are OK. The ocean is very large and the water dilutes the radioactive iodine. It's algea that are most infected with the iodine and there again it's half-life is 8 days. It's not a big deal. Yet.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/05/2011 11:00 Comments ||
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#6
Maybe the contamination will kill off the worms in sushi.
#8
Maybe the contamination will kill off the worms in sushi.
Now maybe y'all will consider that the stray molecule of Polonium in sushi isn't Putin's fault, and may actually increase the quality of the sushi by killing the worms.
#9
Back when this started, and people were downplaying it, saying radiation you get when you eat bananas....
And when THIS turns out to be Yet Another Goddamn Exaggeration, you won't say shit about it, no retraction, no apology, no nothing... just silence. Until the next exaggeration needs to be repeated.
Yeah, man. Don't be trying to inject no facts into this discussion. You can use facts to prove anything that is even remotely true.
(cue Streisand singing "Feelings")
#18
A couple of weeks ago I tried to inject some facts into this discussion and I was just about hooted off the blog. Well, here are some more facts from WHO.
sarc Yeah, I know, all these studies are bogus except for the ones that you agree with. /sarc
WHO seems to understate the consequences of Chernobyl, citing a large increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer but not much else that can be definitively proven. Thyroid cancer is one of the most survivable of cancers if detected and treated properly. But survivors have to live the rest of their lives taking a pill every day to "replace the loss of thyroid function"...not exactly a picnic, not to mention worrying about recurring tumors.
The WHO goes on to state:
Projections concerning cancer deaths among the five million residents of areas with radioactive caesium deposition of 37 kBq/m2 in Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine are much less certain because they are exposed to doses slightly above natural background radiation levels. Predictions, generally based on the LNT model, suggest that up to 5 000 additional cancer deaths may occur in this population from radiation exposure, or about 0.6% of the cancer deaths expected in this population due to other causes. Again, these numbers only provide an indication of the likely impact of the accident because of the important uncertainties listed above.
Chernobyl may also cause cancers in Europe outside Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine. However, according to UNSCEAR, the average dose to these populations is much lower and so the relative increase in cancer deaths is expected to be much smaller. Predicted estimates are very uncertain and it is very unlikely that any increase in these countries will be detectable using national cancer statistics .3
So, no big deal, huh? Except that Fukushima has not exactly been given the all clear yet and the jury seems to still be out on the question of how this accident compares to Chernobyl. And, of course, unless you are one of the tiny minority of individuals who do get leukemia, breast cancer or some other really nasty type of illness. I certainly wouldn't want to be a TEPCO executive trying to explain it to the mothers in Tokyo who are wondering what they can feed their babies so they won't get cancer. I think you risk losing credibility if you belittle their concerns.
Then, you might ask, at least I do, how does Fukushima compare with our own little accident with oil in the Gulf of Mexico? I dunno. I doubt if anybody does, really. I know about all the guys who died of Black Lung. That's what got my grandfather. I'm glad I never had to mine coal. I'm glad I don't live on the Gulf...or in Chernobyl or in Fukushima.
Don't get me wrong, folks. I make a living by working with computers so I know I need electricity. I know that America's superior understanding of energy, whether nuclear or oil or coal or whatever, gives us a technological and therefore a military edge over the bad guyz in this world. So it's risk vs. reward.
Maybe I'd rather be a fisherman with a wooden boat who reads books by candle light. I don't believe that conservation is a sin. But Mrs. Uluque probably wouldn't be happy with the kind of money I'd make that way. She likes her car and her television, the brat. She likes her refrigerator and her microwave oven. I sincerely believe that I could do without them, but not without her.
Anyway, for me, here is one of the most disturbing aspects of the Fukushima accident:
#19
But survivors have to live the rest of their lives taking a pill every day to "replace the loss of thyroid function"...not exactly a picnic, not to mention worrying about recurring tumors.
Ebbang Uluque6305, a study of cadavers done some years ago showed that some 20% of the U.S. population has a symptom-free, unsuspected brain tumour at death, of less consequence than a hang-nail. I would have been one of them, but I developed symptoms. As a result, I now take a thyroid pill every morning, a pituitary hormone injection every night, and an MRI annually to see if the benign little tumour inside my pituitary has grown. Should it ever do so, the pituitary will need to be removed, and then my life will get truly interesting.
Taking a thyroid pill is like taking a multi-vitamin, only considerably smaller. And cheaper -- a prescription costs about $3/month. The old-style ones are made of pig thyroids left over from the slaughter houses; there are also artificial thyroid pills, which are also fairly inexpensive. A simple blood test determines if supplementation is needed, but the clinical symptom is overwhelming and chronic fatigue, and the signal that the dosage is too high is an excess of nervous energy and an inability to sleep -- much like drinking too much coffee.
There are about 5,000 people in the U.S. who've been diagnosed with my condition, and likely considerably more who quietly die of exhaustion undiagnosed, which is why that 5,000 increase in cancer deaths due to Chernobyl hasn't hit me as hard as it has you.
The thing about statistics is, someone gets to be on the wrong side of them. And that stinks. But considerably more than 5,000 are likely to die this year from food shortages or Muslim riots, or tainted milk in China -- pick your poison.
Ebbang Uluque6305, I haven't functioned normally since shortly after my 40th birthday, with children in elementary school, just because I got caught on the wrong side of the fucking statistics. For me supplementation doesn't make me able to live life normally, it takes me up to "less bad" -- that whole nap thing is not a joke, it's what I do instead of a job or housekeeping. If my husband hadn't been so demanding, and my doctor hadn't happened to remember that cadaver study and sent me for an MRI, I'd have been one of those who quietly faded away and died for no discernible reason. As it is, they won't sell me life insurance because there aren't enough cases for the computers to work up any statistics on longevity... and because the pituitary hormone supplement increases my odds an unknown amount for growing new tumours.
#20
the problem with radiation, trailing wife, is that it's long-term. IT takes years for cancers to develop.
So a child may eat a fish with low-level radiation, which knocks out the wrong bit of DNA but it takes a long time for cancers to grow, maybe 7 years or longer.
Short-lived creatures such as say: a fish with a lifespan of 8 years, that receives its radiation dose in year 4 of life, may not die from it, just carry that radiation in its body.
You catch the fish and eat it, but you are still alive years later when the cancer gestates.
Or if you are 10 years old and you eat it, it may knock out a bit of the dna in your eggs in your ovaries. Later you give birth to a monster. Radiation is terratogenic. It causes birth defects. Two-headed children and so forth.
That is the risk of radiation. It doesn't kill short-lived creatures except in very high doses that would kill everyone straight away. It's the low-level doses that cause ongoing misery for years on affected human populations.
Once it is in the food chain you can't get it out.
As the half-life of many of the radioactive elements stretches into the millions of years, it doesn't just go away. It hangs around and around and around.
#21
Apologies Thing From Snowy Mountain, maybe I didn't read something right, time is tight I might have skated over your real meaning somewhere. Apologies if so. I read the bananas thing as in radiation is nothing to worry about.
#23
Maybe I'd rather be a fisherman with a wooden boat who reads books by candle light
IF I had a nice habitable planet to myself choosing between computer programming with radioactive food and fishing in a wooden boat and reading by candlelight (or not reading at all) would be very easy.
Our choices are: produce our own energy, or be the damn miserable serf of those who do produce energy. None of the population of the United States of America slowed their consumption of oil ONE DAMN IOTA when exploration in the Gulf was shut down as a result of the spill. They just decided to pay the higher prices and keep shoveling money to Saudi Arabia. Money that since they don't produce anything here anymore themselves, is worth less day after day. All the manufactured consumer goods come from China - which is going to keep making massive investments in nuclear power (and drilling for oil, and burning coal) NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS IN JAPAN.
#24
I am aware of all that, anon1. My father and my husband did cancer research, and my mother spent a good portion of my childhood studying for degrees in health education. So I was immersed in the subject during my formative years, even spending the occasional school holiday at my father's lab, playing with the tumour-ridden experimental rodents to our mutual satisfaction while Daddy did whatever it was that he did at the other end of the room. You and I approach the subject from different perspectives, dear anon1. I am beginning to think no amount of well-intentioned mutual explanation will bridge the gap in our Weltanschauungs.
#26
and am absolutely clueless as to why it was sinktrapped.
I sinktrapped it, Uncle Phester. It was an emotional outburst that on reflection didn't add to the conversation. Just because I'm feeling sorry for myself today doesn't mean y'all should have to deal with it, and I should have thought again before hitting Submit. My story is only really of interest to a few experts as a longitudinal study, I'm afraid, and we haven't enough data yet for that.
#27
And many of the longer lived isotopes are also emitting much less radiation per unit time than the iodine is. Reporting like this is taking the short term spike from the iodine and reporting it next to the millions-of-years half-life of the transuranics, thereby magnifying the total dose considerably.
#28
First surprise of the day - trailing wife is a TROLL?
Second - I scanned a bit of it at sinktrap, and it didn't sound like TW, so I assumed someone had abused her nym. {Fred - can that be prevented? Could *I* post as TW????}
Third surprise - it really WAS TW. Well, I shant go back and read it again. If trailing wife wants it in the sinktrap, there it shall live.
Until midnight.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/05/2011 19:29 Comments ||
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#29
I had some Basal Cell Carcinoma removed at Bethesda a few years back. Beyond the obvious cause of that, I know dreadfully little about radiation. Someone sent me the followint chart yesterday. Sort of puts it in layman's terms.
#32
While anon1 is not my fav, I do appreciate having had the article posted. Furthermore, I appreciate that the conversation has moved from hysterics about any radiation to discussion about specific contamination. So let's review.
I131 and C137 emit beta and gamma. Beta can barely penetrate clothed skin, and gamma generally goes right on through. The energy density of I131 is much higher than Cs137 because its half-life is so much shorter. Being near a lot of either is not good but the vast majority of the energy from the radiation will not have any affect on a person.
However, the energy problem is turned around if the radioactive material is on the inside of a person instead of on the outside. Most of the beta radiation energy from these will affect the interior of a person. Just as the beta radiation can't get inside from outside, it can't get outside of the body once inside. While these isotopes don't concentrate in eggs or sperm when in the body they do concentrate in certain tissues: iodine concentrates in the thyroid, and cesium concentrates in bone.
So, reasonable people should avoid getting an unusual amount of these isotopes into their bodies from any source including food, water and airborne particles. The key here is to understand the meaning of an unusual amount.
Every year average people are exposed to about 2.6 mSv of radiation from natural sources and another 4 mSv from other things. Some get 10-100 times more, some less. People who get a choose to get a mammogram add about 3 more mSv and double their natural exposure. Choosing to smoke or get a CT scan would add another 10-20 and increase exposure by a bigger factor. These people are normal and don't have children with three heads or other terrible problems.
It is not all good though, the above ground nuclear testing in the 50's exposed everyone in America to about 20 mSv of I131 over the decade with some people getting a lot more. This is estimated to have caused about 50,000 excess cancer cases out of the 160 million people in the country or one in 3000. So while the world didn't come to an end due to the exposure, it really was too much.
So how much is in those contaminated fish? The article says 4,000 becquerels. This is a unit of radioactive decay rate. We want to talk in terms of impact on people so the sievert (Sv) is the right unit. The conversion factor is based on a lot of things, but for this isotope it is 49,000,000 becquerels per sievert. So, eating that whole fish, scales and all is 2 mSv of exposure. Those 2 mSv wouldn't happen all at once like a mammogram, but over the course of a few weeks. In all it would just about double someone's natural dose of radiation. About the same as a mammogram would.
As a result, it is reasonable to be concerned about radioactive contamination of the food that we eat. The Japanese government appears to be acting reasonably in banning sale of fish that have been contaminated to this degree. Remember what the Thing From Snowy Mountain said, because the half-life of the I131 is 8 days, if someone were to freeze the currently banned fish, it would be legal to sell in about a month. This radiation quickly comes out of the food chain over time by itself.
The article also mentions Cs137 at 400 becquerels. That is about 10 times less than the I131, and the conversion from becquerels to sieverts is about 20 times less for it. The total radiation impact from consuming such a fish is 200 times less from the cesium than the iodine right now. There is a bit of a concern with Cs137 though, in that its half-life is 30 years rather than 8 days. Next month while most of the iodine131 will be gone, the cesium137 will still be there. Perhaps if someone ate a lot of fish contaminated with Cs137 for a lot of years they could get their total exposure up to an unhealthy level. But the Japanese have years to monitor for this problem and address it.
The really long lived radioactive elements with half-lives in millions or billions of years like uranium have very low rates of decay and have very low becquerels and very little exposure from radiation. Again these would take a long time of serious and continuous exposure to start to add up.
It seems as if the situation being described in the press is being addressed reasonably. The situation could change tomorrow to become truly dangerous, but it hasn't gotten too bad yet.
Hundreds of bodies have been found after an Ivory Coast massacre that took place around a Salesian compound in the city of Duékoué.
Large mainstream news organizations such as BBC and CNN refer to the victims as civilians while smaller media and Catholic news outlets are reporting that Catholics or Christians were killed.
The BBC and CNN have style books, the Catholic news outlets do not.
According to the statement from the Salesian Info Agency (ANS), Almost single-handedly the Salesian house is providing refuge and help but the situation seems to be developing into a humanitarian crisis, following attacks (witnessed by the Salesian missionaries) by supporters of Ouattara, who for months has been in contention with Gbagbo for the Presidency of the country.
According to the statement, refugees began to flee to the Salesian Missions compound for safety as the Carrefour district was looted and houses set on fire. Some witnesses report they were told to go to the compound, but by who is unclear at this time.
Exactly what happened also remains unclear. The Herald Scotland is reporting that more than 800 people were killed in a single day around a Salesian Missions compound in Duékoué (300 miles west of Abidjan towards the Liberian border), calling it a massacre. The newspaper reports that the attackers seem to have largely been soldiers descended from Burkina Faso immigrant Muslim families loyal to Ouattara.
The Herald Scotland also reported that events at the Italian Salesian Roman Catholic mission in Duékoué increasingly echo a notorious church massacre during the Rwandan genocide in 1994.
Business Week reported that local civilians ran to seek shelter at the Salesian compound when the attack began March 29. The more than 800 bodies found so far are thought to be people who did not reach sanctuary with the Salesians in time.
According to the International Committee for the Red Thingy Cross, the victims were mainly men who had been shot and left where they fell, either alone or in small groups dotted around the town (which lies at the heart of Ivory Coasts economically crucial cocoa producing region). They were killed despite 200 United Nations troops reportedly operating what it said were robust patrols from its base on the outskirts to protect civilians in and around the compound.
The UN said on Saturday that more than 330 people had been killed mostly by Ouattaras forces. However, the Caritas aid agency estimated as many as 1,000 that may have been killed. The UN is reporting that hundreds of bodies have been found. What is clear is that it will take days, if not weeks, to determine the death toll as well as the circumstances. Currently, a humanitarian crisis worsens with each passing day.
There are conflicting reports about the number of refugees. Somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000 civilians are essentially trapped in the Salesian compound.
Caritas reported what missionaries are saying that the fighting trapped 30,000 people in a church compound in Duékoué. Many reportedly had gunshot wounds but could not reach hospitals on the other side of the front line.
International Organization for Migration (IOM) spokesman Jean-Philippe Chauzy told a news briefing in Geneva that some 20,000 Ivorians and West African migrants (in Duékoué) had found refuge in an overcrowded Catholic mission with little or no access to shelter, food, water and health facilities.
Col. Chaib Rais, the U.N. military spokesman, told The Associated Press that nearly 1,000 peacekeepers at Duékoué are protecting the Catholic Church with more than 10,000 (refugees) inside, and we have military camps in the area.
Most likely, what began as approximately 10,000 refugees has grown in the last few days, as indicated by an official report by the ANS on March 31: The flow of refugees is extraordinary. The arrival of those from the Carrefour district together with those from other parts of the city means that the courtyard of the parish has quickly become totally occupied.
In an April 4 statement, ANS reported at present there are only two Salesians there who have to try to respond to the appeals for help from about 20,000 people. The UNO is helping to provide some provisions for the mission but distribution is not easy and the quantity is not sufficient to satisfy all the needs.
ANS reports an urgent cry for help, to cope with this tragic situation, the Salesians and the refugees are in urgent need of help from the main humanitarian aid agencies.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/05/2011 14:31 ||
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#1
Did Sarkozy start the Libyan operation as cover for French complicity in the upcoming genocide of Catholics in the Ivory Coast? It's not enough that they're aided and abetted the Rwandan genocide - they want yet another genocide credited to them?
[Ay Pee] - Huddling with his family in a bunker at his home, President Gbagbo is trying to negotiate terms of surrender to the UN and French forces surrounding him.
The attack on Monday involved French and UN helicopters attacking Gbagbo military garrisons, arms stockpiles, and the presidential residence itself, backed by columns of incoming President Ouattara's fighters.
France reorganizing one of its former colonies to suit itself again. Once this is settled the cocoa will once again flow freely.
Ouattara will have control, Muslims will attack Christians, Gbagbo will live comfortably in Haiti retirement, ordinary people will suffer terribly, and the cocoa will flow. Sounds like a French deal to me. Toss in a Scottish deal for an airplane boomer dying of prostate cancer and it'll be pan-European.
KINSHASA: A United Nations plane crashed while trying to land at the airport serving Congos capital Kinshasa on Monday, killing around 20 people, a government official said.
Air Ukraine or insha-allan maintenance?
The plane lost control in high winds as it came in to land and left the runway, a Health Ministry official, Joseph Kiboko, said. He said that at least 20 of the 32 passengers and three crewmembers had died. We sent eight people to hospital who were still breathing, but I do not know whether they survived. Both the pilots were killed, Kiboko added.
A UN source, said, The plane landed heavily, broke into two and caught fire.
The plane was coming from Goma, in the east of the country, the source said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/05/2011 00:00 ||
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ABIDJAN, April 4 (Reuters) - United Nations helicopters fired four missiles at a pro-Gbagbo military camp in Ivory Coast's main city of Abidjan on Monday, witnesses said.
"We saw two UNOCI (U.N. mission in Ivory Coast) MI-24 helicopters fire missiles on the Akouedo military camp. There was a massive explosion and we can still see the smoke," one of the witnesses said.
The camp is home to three battalions of the Ivorian army.
Calls to the U.N. forces commander in Ivory Coast went unanswered.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/05/2011 00:00 ||
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Plans for a new flat-rate state pension and a system to automatically raise the pension age have been published. Under government proposals, the existing means-tested arrangements would be replaced for new, but not existing, pensioners.
The current full state pension is £97.65 a week, but can be topped up to £132.60 with pension credit. This could be replaced by a new £140 flat rate, with inflation expected to push this up to £155 by 2015 or 2016.
A second, less radical option would see a set amount of state second pension paid for each qualifying year of National Insurance contributions.
No set date for implementation has been revealed.
The plans are aimed at simplifying the system, and encouraging people to save for their retirement by knowing exactly what they would get from the state.
#1
The plans are aimed at simplifying the system, and encouraging people to save for their retirement by knowing exactly what they would get from the state.
#2
Ah, yes the California model where bright Asian [Japanese-Chinese-Korean-Vietnamese] females with high scores and merit are passed over for underachieving 'victim' class applicants. Punish merit, reward special interests. Always a sound political approach to minimize future productivity and wealth.
#3
In that part of a prestigious English university degree is to learn the "school accent", I wonder how long it will be before the Oxbridge accent is reduced in stature, to say,
Cockney or Liverpool?
WASHINGTON -- The United States said Monday it is "deeply concerned" about the rising trend of disappearances and arrests of human rights activists in China after one of the country's most famous artists was detained.
We're deeply concerned. The Chinese jug the activists anyway. This is what happens when your opponents don't respect you.
Ai Weiwei, 53, an avant-garde artist who helped design the futuristic Bird's Nest stadium at the Beijing Olympics, has been missing since he was stopped Sunday while preparing to fly to Hong Kong. Police also raided his Beijing studio.
The Olympics are over, so he's not needed any more.
Dozens of Chinese lawyers and activists have vanished, been detained or held under house arrest since February when online calls for protests similar to the pro-democracy uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa started cropping up. At least three people have been indicted for subversion. No major public protests have taken place in China.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner called for the immediate release of Ai, an outspoken government critic who has been keeping an informal tally of the detentions on Twitter, where he has more than 70,000 followers.
"We obviously continue to be deeply concerned by the trend of forced disappearances, extralegal detentions, arrests and convictions of human rights activists for exercising their internationally recognized human right for freedom of expression," Toner told a news conference.
"Our relationship with China is very broad and complex but it's an issue where we disagree and we continue to make clear those concerns," he said.
We dare not interrupt the flow of goods from China to the U.S., and dollars from the U.S. to China, and the trade for those dollars for U.S. Treasuries. That's what he just said, right?
During a January state visit to Washington, Chinese President Hu Jintao said that his country needed to "do more" on human rights. The White House played up the significance of that admission and said it would be watching to see the Chinese government acted on those words.
Detentions of rights activists have since increased.
Get the message, Mr. President?
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/05/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Progressives are just jealous that they can't treat right-wingers this way in America.
#2
Chin = Russia = fears the Islamist MilTerr conventional + nuclear threat, even iff Beijing doesn't want to admit it.
ION PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > LEE KWAN YEW: CHINA WILL TAKE MORE THAN TEN YEARS [20 Years] TO BE THE [World's]GREATEST POWER.
ARTIC > YEW =
> State-led Capitalism is typically inferior to Private Capitalism [regardless of the merits?].
> IIUC, TO BE THE WORLD'S GREATEST POWER, CHINA MUST UNILATERALLY DEV + "PERFECT" INDIGENOUS STEALTH TECHNOLOGY, + DITTO BE ABLE TO SAFELY EFICIENTLY SEND A MAN TO THE MOON [Outer Space] + BACK AGAIN.
IOW, it must be able to do on its own + BETTER what the US + other Major Powers are able to do.
* CHINA-DEFENSE-MASHUP > US [futurist]AIR-SEA BATTLE CONCEPT IS FOCUSED ON CHINA.
* SAME > {2011 Guam Governor-elect EDDIE] CALVO: CHINESE MISSLE THREAT SERIOUS, as per agz Guam.
* SAME > ARMING TAIWAN IS IN US INTEREST: ANALYST [Rick = Richard? Fisher], whom believes that Beijing = Rising China will soon negotiate for a Taiwan treaty expressly formalizing lateral desires + intentions as per [Re]UNIFICATION OF TAIWAN WID THE CHIN MAINLAND.
* WAFF [old]> CELESTIAL DRAGON [China] WILL BE ABLE TO DESTROY GUAM IN TIME OF WAR!
POSTER > argued that US econ woes is such that the needs to close down most of its overseas Milbases anyway, + rely on Regional Allies for its Security.
* PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > JAPAN TO DUMP 11,500 TONNES OF RADIOACTIVE WATER INTO SEA.
* SAME > FUKUSHIMA MARKS A "NUCLEAR ICE AGE".
"Nuclear Rennaisance" is over - any new post-Fukushima major nuclear accidents from now on will be a "WORLD/GLOBAL ACCIDENT" BEYOND THAT OF STATE OR REGIONAL???
ARTIC = SOUTH KOREA = running low on domestic space to store spent nuclear fuel.
Ditto PRE-03/11, POST-FUKUSHIMA JAPAN?
* WAFF > [Video]HAARP: PERSIAN GULF WITNESS. Dead Fishies + mammalian Dolphins allegedly showing signs of being mysteriously "burned" while underwater???
* WAFF > [2007 docs]UN: HAARP CAN SIMULATE THE DETONATION OF A HEAVY-TYPE NUCLEAR DEVICE, which has mil utility for purposes of ...
> BMD.
> ANTI-AIRCRAFT DEFENSE = AAD.
> Interception + Disruption of various WEATHER, SUBMARINE = UNDERWATER, + SUBTERRANEAN COMMUNICATIONS.
> Related sub-applications.
Background: Geithner says the feds will run out of money about May 16.
As the government nears the debt ceiling, the Treasury has authority to take certain extraordinary measures to postpone the date the United States would default on its obligations. Something I like to think of as "Reality Day".
However, those actions would be exhausted after about eight weeks and there would be "no headroom" to borrow after July 8, Geithner said. Something I like to think of as about two months worth of rope. More than enough to pop your heads clean off your shoulders.
Some lawmakers have called for legislation to force the Treasury to first pay interest on U.S. bonds before other obligations, such as unemployment benefits and Social Security and Medicare payments, as a way to stave off a debt default. Now why on earth would they need to consider common-sense legislation like that? Unless you're using it as a teaching tool, of course.
They have also asked Treasury whether financial assets such as the country's gold reserves or the government's portfolio of student loans could be sold to avoid raising the debt ceiling. Why don't we sell off your office buildings, cars, houses, bank accounts, pensions, family heirlooms and photos, healthcare plans, and other belongings first? And your children's as well? Oh, I forgot, that's already been done, we're just waiting for "Reality Day" to make it more apparent to y'all.
Treasury has rejected the proposals as unworkable. Mind if we take a little peek inside Fort Knox?
"To attempt a fire sale of financial assets in an effort to buy time for Congress to act would be damaging to financial markets and the economy and would undermine confidence in the United States," Geithner said. Confidence? Oh yeah, that thing we until shortly before W et. al. wrote a $3T+ check for everyone to cash as frosting on the political cake we've been working on for the last 60 years or so.
Based on estimates last year from the International Monetary Fund, U.S. debt as measured against the size of the economy is higher than in France, Canada and Germany, but less than in Italy and Japan How comforting. So we're stuck somewhere between being able to salvage what's left of our country or watching it sail off the Niagra Falls. Too bad we've got a pilot who acts like momentum and gravity don't apply to what he does.
Geithner said that while the debt ceiling projections could change, the Obama administration does not believe they could change in a way that would give Congress more time to raise the debt ceiling. He said Treasury would provide updated projections in early May. Those @$$holes just keep doubling down with a losing hand. All I can imagine is that they think that if they can just get the economy working again they can pay off all this debt in a few years. I don't think they understand how debt works, both economically and on people's thinking. Team Obean is both clueless and rudderless. Shut them down and don't bother to check on them until they figure it out and come begging.
The state governments will work just fine until then. Maybe even better. They'll be able to operate without the feds getting in the way of what should be done. Hopefully folks are in for a reawakening of the idea of being a citizen of the state they live in more than being a citizen of some construct that is supposed to be there just to help them work together for the common goal of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
#2
Let's sell off this utterly useless and wasteful federal government and all of the ass maggots that work for it to China. Does anyone want a $4 trillion dollar miter stone?
We will keep our military of course, thats all we really need.
#3
I like the idea of selling public lands, though we shouldn't be forced to do it at fire sale prices.
For example: we could sell leases for land under which oil is likely to be found. Then we could let the oil companies drill for oil and if they find it charge a royalty for production. I know, I know, crazy idea but I'm thinking out of the box here.
We could sell leases (or the land outright) where one might find minerals. Timber. Sell the land on which ski resorts have been built -- let them pay for the land and pay taxes.
Go through each parcel of land. Keep Yellowstone, keep Yosemite, keep the national parks. But the rest? Feel free to start selling it off, not at fire-sale prices but for good money, and use that money to reduce the deficit.
Our children will thank us.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/05/2011 14:13 Comments ||
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#4
Maybe Obumbles can lease out the Lincoln bedroom like Clinton did.
#5
All of the so-called Federally owned land belongs to the States in which it resides and therefore the citizens of those States.
In my mind all Federal land holdings are illegitimate, as is the Federal Government.
Gut the FedGov, shutdown D.C. and relocate the Capitol to the center of the country. All politicians live in dorms and eat in a gov cafeteria. I have lots more...very severe.
Time to put the "service" back into Public Servant. Heads on pikes.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man (at large) ||
04/05/2011 16:24 Comments ||
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#6
Great idea, Steve - but not until AFTER spending has been cut drastically and permanently. Otherwise it's the same as "one more amnesty, and then we'll secure the borders."
I have a family member who is a spendaholic. I helped her to the tune of $20,000 over two years so she wouldn't lose her house or her car. I am not rich and made sacrifices to provide that help (I don't even own a house or a car myself). But no matter what I did, she couldn't stay current on her mortgage. When I discovered she'd charged up my credit card too, I realized the behavior was an addiction she couldn't control, any more than an alcoholic. I told her, "I love you, but not another dime."
Within three months, she was current on her mortgage, and doesn't need my help anymore.
Moral of the story: pumping extra revenue into the government coffers sieve strikes me as a bad idea, until the spending problem is dealt with first.
#7
"Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them."
The Prophet Ronald Reagan(PBUH)
"Ground-rents are a still more proper subject of taxation than the rent of houses. A tax upon ground-rents would not raise the rents of houses. It would fall altogether upon the owner of the ground-rent, who acts always as a monopolist, and exacts the greatest rent which can be got for the use of his ground. More or less can be got for it according as the competitors happen to be richer or poorer, or can afford to gratify their fancy for a particular spot of ground at a greater or smaller expense. In every country the greatest number of rich competitors is in the capital, and it is there accordingly that the highest ground-rents are always to be found. As the wealth of those competitors would in no respect be increased by a tax upon ground-rents, they would not probably be disposed to pay more for the use of the ground. Whether the tax was to be advanced by the inhabitant, or by the owner of the ground, would be of little importance. The more the inhabitant was obliged to pay for the tax, the less he would incline to pay for the ground; so that the final payment of the tax would fall altogether upon the owner of the ground-rent."
Adam Smith , The Wealth of Nations, Book V, Chapter 2, Article I: Taxes upon the Rent of Houses
#2
The strategic purpose of the boats is also contested. Thailand has extensive maritime interests, including offshore natural gas fields and a huge fishery, as well as unresolved boundary disputes with neighbouring countries. These roles are already being met by surface warships and land-based aircraft, which offer effective and proportionate means to patrol Thailand's territorial waters and offshore extended economic zones.
Mr. Greenwood sort of left out something in "strategic": denial of transit. Thailand sits on the western end of the Malacca Straits. Considering who lies to the north and west of the Thais, it might be a valuable tool, one of influence if nothing else.
That said, the Thai navy's history of not being able to support its existing assets doesn't bode well.
#3
Thai subs could rapidly become Taiwan's subs if the Chinese were to push hard enough, and the Thais can buy new non-nuke boats whereas the Taiwanese cannot at the moment. A nice little threat to the ChiComs, let the Taiwanese "joint training teams" operate on the boats with the Thais and if the ChiComs push too hard, the Thais declare the boats surplus and sell them to the Taiwanese.
#4
That said, the Thai navy's history of not being able to support its existing assets doesn't bode well.
Get rid of their useless aircraft carrier and they will have both the money and manpower. Subs are very useful in that crowded area, a small, decrepit aircraft carrier is a target for everyone.
The United States voiced concern Monday over the sentencing of a prominent Vietnamese dissident to seven years in jail, and said the case raises questions about the Asian nation's commitment to reform.
"We're deeply concerned," State Department Mark Toner said of the conviction earlier Monday of Cu Huy Ha Vu, the son of a Vietnamese revolutionary leader, in one of the communist nation's most politically charged cases in years.
"We're also troubled by the lack -- apparent lack of -- due process in the conduct of the trial and the continued detention of several individuals who are peacefully seeking to observe the proceedings," Toner added.
"Vu's conviction runs counter to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and raises serious questions about Vietnam's commitment to the rule of law and reform. No individual should be imprisoned for exercising the right to free speech."
Okay, we're 'troubled'. We're 'concerned'. Do we plan to do anything about it? Vietnam isn't China. We could freeze relations, hold up trade agreements and so on until the Vietnamese get the message.
The comments came after Vu was convicted of advocating an end to one-party communist rule in a trial where his lawyers walked out.
"Cu Huy Ha Vu's behavior is serious and harmful to society. His writings and interviews blackened directly or indirectly the Communist Party of Vietnam," said Nguyen Huu Chinh, the head judge.
His case led to "an unprecedented movement of popular support," much of it on the Internet, from a cross-section of society, said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Vu is the son of Cu Huy Can, who was a member of revered founding president Ho Chi Minh's provisional cabinet from 1945 and remains a celebrated poet. Vu was born into "a revolutionary family" but he failed to follow that tradition, the head judge said.
Prosecutors accused him of spreading propaganda against the state through writings, interviews with foreign media, and Internet material since 2009.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/05/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
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