Category: Global

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Nuclear Power Plants and Their Relevance to Nuclear War

The remains of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The radiation leakage has now been covered by a stainless steel roof, but the city of Chernobyl will essentially remain a ghost town for thousands of years.

If you missed the first three episodes of “Chernobyl” on HBO, at least try to find a way to watch the last one, which aired tonight. I am sure it will be replayed for several days or weeks. Watch it if you can.

And then you will know that nuclear power is not safe, contrary to what the industry and our government would have you believe. Humans, intentionally or not, can interfere, mistakenly or deliberately, with anything that has lethal power, whether for good or for evil, and all nuclear plants are as dangerous and life-threatening as any nuclear bomb. They are a part of America’s power grid system and grid systems can be tampered with and attacked by ideologically or politically opposed foes in today’s cyber warfare world. It’s not just elections we have to worry about.

The midwest and eastern United States are dangerously infested with nuclear power plants.

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Having spent nearly two decades as an administrator in the production end of the nuclear industry–uranium mining and milling, including a knowledge of enrichment fundamentals–I recently began writing a critical book about the serious international problem the world has with nuclear power plants and their strategic relationship to nuclear bombs, especially as the problem applies to the possibility of imminent nuclear war. I hope to finish it and find a worthy publisher before the crucial year of 2020 begins. ~llaw

 

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Democrats Shooting Themselves in Foot Over Trump Impeachment

The House Democrats are being far too polite, patient and subservient toward Trump’s, Barr’s, and McConnell’s gaslighting and stonewalling over the Mueller Report and the White House’s blanket refusal to honor subpoenas, court orders, our Constitution, and the “Rule of Law”, which makes the Dems look tentative and unsure of their Constitutional mandate to defend America against autocratic tyrants like TraitorTrump and his imperialist master Putin.

You and I may understand the Democrat’s caution and patience, but the general public and voter looks at their procrastination and apparent lack of anger or urgency, including hesitant use of their new-found power from the 2018 election’s political mandate to rapidly ameliorate a bad situation, as essentially offering credence to Trump’s claim of a ‘witchhunt’.

Then too, every day lost by following this courteous protocol and court procedures that would be proper during normal times with a normal president is critical in dealing with this dangerous criminal Trumpian organization that, for now at least, serves as anoter propaganda weapon for Trump and his mob, including Fox News and their right-wing conspiratorial affiliates, Russian cyber attacks, and the complicit GOP.

The mainstream media is only just now beginning to realize that these are not normal times, and they, too, will soon react negatively, adding more fire to the argument against the Dem’s perceived lack of concern and aggression to diligently expedite official impeachment investigations, charges, and proceedings, making it even more difficult, if not impossible to sway enough GOP senators to vote to impeach Trump.

Congressional Democrats cannot continue to bow to Barr’s and Trump’s feigned authority any longer or our government “by and for the people” will soon be nothing more than a sad and distant memory. ~llaw

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What is Happening to the Oceans’ Plankton, and what the Hell is Ecocide?

Two recently recognized and extremely important global related issues with seriously concerning elements and rapidly encroaching ecologic disasters are embedded as links in this post. First, If plankton provides nearly 70% of the oxygen that humans breathe and if all the fish in the sea depend on it as a food source, this first story seems more like the beginning of a dystopian novel than a scientific article. We need to keep a close eye on this dangerous development, and hope that a cause is quickly found and that it can be promptly corrected.

Or will we simply go on treating our environmental crises with a yawn and a shrug? Our ecological and environmental world is rapidly coming apart at the seams, including human apathy and neglect, mostly resulting from economic or financial greed, or  “Ecocide” as described in this second important article, but also in a large part from a general attitude of denial and knowledge. ~llaw (12/23/18)

 

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Why the 4th Estate, the 4th Reich, and the Environment are Closely Related Crises

Apollo’s Muses. Calliope, the muse of eloquent epic poetry and writing, is under attack in today’s world. . .

Writing allows us to more precisely and eloquently express ourselves, humorously or seriously, with neutrality or prejudice, happily or angrily, or even indifferently or passionately concerning those categories of issues we like and love, or disdain and hate, The latter includes journalistic opinions concerning and considering all the current administration’s political high crimes and misdemeanors such as cronyism, conspiracies, corruption, collusion, covert crime, and perhaps treason, placing America and the world in a dangerous and desperate place that threatens our questionable culture and social fabric as people —presumably civilized human beings.

Then, too, there is Gaia’s world for us to protect and advocate for, because Mother Earth is life’s common home at a time when we humans are ravaging Her once pristine habitat to the point that we, our children, and our fauna and flora friends may soon no longer be able to survive on this human-polluted planet — and there is nowhere else to go. There are already huge ocean dead zones along the continental coastlines, particularly along America’s eastern and southern coasts and along the northern Mediterranean coast, where no sea life can survive, and obviously, environmental death is rapidly coming ashore. We all have an obligation to protect the natural environment that was gifted to us so long ago in the latter stages of creation. Yet we, the self-proclaimed intellectual ones, are demeaning, damaging, despoiling, and even destroying the only home we have. We call it progress, but it is really just mankind’s parasitic gluttony and greed. Extinction is not a pretty word, and it is sad that we continue to forever fail to learn from our mistakes of the past. When we become too much for Mother Earth to be comfortable with, She will shake off our parasitic pandemic like water off a dog.

As for the the Fourth Estate, in 1839 Edward Bulwer-Lytton declared that ”the pen is mightier than the sword.” We shall see. The 4th Estate is under an overt brutal full-frontal attack in America and other countries, and I, for one, am here to defend and help fight for the cause of freedom of speech and our First Amendment liberties.

The court of public opinion may have to be the final judge against the rise of the 4th Reich’s fascist authoritarian rampage of chaos and anarchy that could be the most serious issue to threaten the concept of a self-governing democracy and our inalienable rights and freedoms since the American Revolution. But thankfully, at least in those days, we had a few leaders with a common sense of values, and especially, a President, on our side. ~llaw

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The Immanent Takeover of America

This, the immanent takeover of America by subversion, is precisely what I have been whining about for more than three years, and my concern has only grown since then. The validity of the upcoming mid-term election scares the hell out of me, and even if the Dems gain control of the house, it may be just a Trojan Horse. The seeds of absolute fascism have been well-planted and are being nurtured with overt aplomb while we watch with our eyes wide open. ~llaw

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John McCain’s Final Message to Trump

“We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe. We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals.”

Although there was more to his farewell statement, this part  seems to be intended solely for Trump without mentioning his name, but Trump will probably say that McCain’s statement was not directed at him because he is the one bringing the people together. But, regardless, he will ignore the message. ~llaw

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The Most Vital Aspects of Sustaining Human Life

A friend asked me a while back if there was anything more important than politics, money, corporations, religion, and philosophy concerning the fate of our future on the planet. This was my response: “There are three things–respect for science and the feminine way, and hope like hell for help from above.”

There are many apolitical and economically frugal things we can do to improve all of our lives, both individually and collectively, but the most important issue right now and on into the foreseeable future is to reverse our environmental relationship with Mother Earth before it is too late for politics, religion, money, or anything else to matter.

The summer months in the northern hemisphere over he last five years (2014–2018) comprise the five warmest June through August global temperatures recorded in scientific history, and the entire 2018 year was globally the fourth warmest ever, only cooler than the three previous years. We know that the cause is because of human activity despite what climate change deniers and conspiracy theorists (like our president, his administration and sycophants) would like you to believe.

We are fouling our own nests here on earth, not to mention the natural sanctuaries andrefuges of our innocent victimized fauna and flora. We are on the verge of making our planet uninhabitable. Why and how are we doing this? The answer is simple. We have lost touch with our once natural affinityto respect and love our Mother Earth, long forsaken in exchange for insatiable greed and unsustainable personal comfort. We have given virtually nothing back to her, failing to recognize her for all that she has given us to prosper and thrive. But our constant abuse of her for the sake of  human consumption, coupled with our growing lack of thought, appreciation, or consideration for the critical balance between humanity and nature, has resulted in her rebellion, not because she is vengeful or unwilling to help, but because she is ill, infected by viral hordes of human parasites, so she has no choice but to fight back against us in order to survive.  Yet the wealthy tycoons, the arroghant politicians, the behemoth corporations and their minions pay no attention except to ignore, refute, hide, or destroy the scientific warnings, evidence, and data..

As global warming continues to heat up, mainly from carbon emissions, we are faced with growing pollution of air, water, and soil (even the ocean has become a contaminated waste dump), rapidly rising sea levels, wild atmospheric conditions including more severe droughts, tornadoes, hurricanes, forest fires, freakishly intense any-season storms, and unbreatheable air. And all this is happening at a rate almost exponential from climate change models of just a decade or two ago. No longer can we  afford to ignore or deny climate change or global warming r, yet the Trump administration is feverishly rolling back environmental regulations, deleting EPA, NOAA, and NASA historical records, and purging scientific data from government records, libraries and websites.

If we are to survive as a species here on earth–and not take down millions of other species right along with us–our most important mission, bar none, is to reclaim that old natural affinity of respect and love for Mother Earth and hold her in the highest esteem because she is the only one who ultimately provides us with a home that allows us to continue to exist and even thrive on her soil. But if we continue rebukng, procrastinating and ignnoring her modest expectations, we–according to  our most recent scientific evidence–face extinction in the imminent future. We are already feeling the effects, and science is telling us that global warming may be irreversible in less than a decade. Keep in mind that this planet is the only home we have and we cannot survive Mother Nature’s wrath if we continue to despoil her–unless we are  somehow awakened, blessed with a highly unlikely epiphany of some kind– or maybe even a tough-love intervention by a wiser life form from somewhere else in the universe. What are the odds? ~llaw (updated 05/10/2019)

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Nuclear Deterrence or Nuclear Disarmament?

 The attached opinion article offers well-considered food for thought on the question of nuclear deterrence or nuclear disarmament, something that I will explore in depth on this website as time goes by.

In a truly sophisticated civilized world there would be no question that disarmament is the only choice, but we have a world full of governmental leaders who are full of megalomaniacal hubris who cheat and lie behind the scenes of public discourse, so it would seem that true disarmament could never be achieved.

But by the same argument, how much faith can we have in deterrence when we already have a world with nuclear missiles pointed and poised to fire at each other? ~llaw

The attached article was written by Matthew Bunn, who is a professor of practice at Harvard Kennedy School and is co-principal investigator for the Project on Managing the Atom at the Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

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Why the World Cannot Survive Trump

Three years ago–when Donald Trump was still just a candidate for the presidency–on the eve of the American congressional ratification of the Iran Nuclear Agreement between them and the free world, I  wrote this:

Continue reading “Why the World Cannot Survive Trump”

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Trump’s Treason Becomes More Evident Every Day

A child walks past a graffiti depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, on the walls of a bar in the old town in Vilnius, Lithuania, Saturday, May 14, 2016. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

Anyone who believes Trump’s excuse for his treasonous comments in Helsinki were simply a result of misspeaking just one word doesn’t deserve to be an American citizen, just like Trump doesn’t.

Continue reading “Trump’s Treason Becomes More Evident Every Day”