Another week loaded with shiny objects. Trump letting loose a series of crackhead tweets, conducting his campaign-style Klan rallies, stoking conspiracy theories tweeted by his mutant son. But in the midst of all of this (and so much more), a lot is happening throughout this administration that is threatening to do lasting, perhaps permanent damage to the nation and the world. Most of this is not even reported on, mainly because the Trump/Russia investigation and related prosecutions provide such an attractive source of content for our TV networks in particular. CNN, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, etc. …. they have been pointing cameras at this guy since he started his run for president in 2015. As I’ve said before, it’s the reality show that took over the universe, and since the networks love the reality TV format (and viewers tune in), they are taking this opportunity to expand their audiences and rake in some serious bank.
They have been busy as hell, too. Just this week, the unbelievably clueless energy secretary Rick Perry (about whose idiocy we did an entire album a few years back) was tooling around upstate New York, stopping at the aging Fitzpatrick nuclear power plant, not so very far from where I’m sitting now. Perry, who originally thought the Energy Department was some kind of lobbying job (!), spouted off about how essential nuclear power is and that investing in it is a “national security” issue. He told our dimwitted local media that the only two types of power sources that are “uninterruptible” (i.e. less vulnerable to attack) are nuclear and coal. This being New York, he probably had to duck while saying it to avoid being hit in the head by a wind turbine … which is more “uninterruptible” than either of his examples. Then there’s solar. (Like I said …. idiot.)
The point being, while Trump fiddles, his minions are burning the nation down, either by pushing world-crushing retro technologies like coal and nuclear, or by packing the courts, or by deregulating the hell out of everything. The press needs to report on this shit. They can STILL talk about the Mueller probe … just not every hour of every day. If we are going to survive this insane presidency, we have to build awareness around these crucial issues. We need to get our neighbors to think about the courts, think about the environment, think about potential war with Iran or whomever, and we need to come up with solutions that move us in a progressive direction. If we don’t do that, losing Trump won’t get us very far at all.
Look away from the shiny objects. That’s my advice, for what it’s worth.
luv u,
jp
Nuclear summer. Here in New York State, our always forward-looking government recently decided to sink up to around $7 billion over the next dozen years to subsidize our aging nuclear power plants, particularly the Fitzpatrick plant up in Scriba, NY. Part of an effort to advance so-called “clean” energy, we will now be further subsidizing this moribund industry, underwriting the transfer of this 40-year-old plant to another massive electrical utility. Meanwhile, in my home county, they have canceled a major solar energy generation project. What’s wrong with this picture? (Actually, what’s right with it?)
Of course, we have similar reactors here, ludicrously close to major population centers, whose operating permits are based on equally ludicrous 50-mile perimeter population evacuation plans – eerily similar to the old Civil Defense evacuation plans that were on hand during the Cold War, when the entire population of, say, Utica, NY was instructed to head to shelters in nearby Frankfort, NY, and stop by a McDonald’s on the way for refreshment (I am not making this up). I’m glad that NY Governor Andrew Cuomo is at least looking at the Indian Point plant a bit more closely. There is no realistic evacuation scenario for this, nor is there one for the Diablo Canyon plant, conveniently located on two fault lines in southern California. Some people talk like we’re married to nuclear power. ‘Til death do us part? Really?
Clearly no reactor is designed to withstand 9.0 earthquakes and colossal, history-making tsunamis – this one least of all, which at last look appeared from above like an ashtray at the end of an all-night poker game. One can only guess at what the long-term effects of this disaster will be. As one commentator recently put it, we all (those here since 1986, at least) have a piece of Chernobyl in us. Likely we will soon have some Fukushima Daiichi alongside it. (The knowledge that structurally similar plants are operating all over the U.S. is particularly sobering, as well.)