Archive for the ‘Op-eds’ Category
Russia’s Radioactive Fires
Fallout from Chernobyl/BBC
by Timbre’ Wolf, Contributing Writer for AnaiRhoads.org
Russian authorities have declared a state of emergency for a large area around the closed city of Ozersk “due to a complicated fire hazard situation.” Ozersk’s Mayak plant produced bomb grade Plutonium-239 during the cold war.
After a serious radiation leak in 1957, of approximately 20 million Curies, Russia was forced to close the city of Ozersk. It is now a depot for used nuclear reactor cores. According to The Times of India the wildfires “have already badly damaged military depots and threatened other atomic facilities.”
An English woman, and her five-year-old daughter, have a holiday residence in Moscow but have been ordered to stay indoors. The woman is quoted as saying, “You can taste chemicals and metal on your tongue. Moscow is like a ghost town.” A metallic taste in one’s mouth is a result of exposure to radiation – one can actually taste the tiny metallic radioactive particles.
The number of Deaths in Moscow has doubled in recent days. This has been blamed on the “smog” from the peat bog fires around the city and the inexplicable heat wave (nod, nod, wink, wink). While smoke is a danger, in-and-of-itself, fires laced with radioactive materials are a far more likely candidate as a cause for the fatalities. This would also go a long ways toward explaining the taste of “chemicals and metal on your tongue.”
Sarov, a city wherein Russia’s top secret nuclear facility is located (and closed to all foreign persons), is being threatened by the wildfires which are only a few kilometers away. Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of Russia’s nuclear energy agency, has said, “All explosive and radioactive materials have been taken away [from the Sarov facility]. I can guarantee that even in an extreme situation with squalling winds there is no danger to nuclear security, no threat of radiation, explosions, or environmental consequences.”
But consider that Russia’s President, Dmitry Medvedev, has publicly reprimanded head of the Russian Navy, Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky, as well as his deputy, Alexander Tatarinov, due to a lack of professionalism regarding the fires last week. He also fired a number of senior Defense Ministry officials over a fire at a naval base near Moscow. Medvedev has fired the head of the Russian Navy’s logistics division Sergei Sergeyev and the head of the Navy’s aviation Nikolai Kuklev as well. Does one fire a half dozen, or more, senior officials over an “act of God?”
It is noteworthy that, on the presidential website, Medvedev gave the government two days to draw up a list of potentially dangerous sites. In other words, the president himself doesn’t know where all of the nuclear material is and heads are rolling.
It is doubtful that Moscow’s nuclear material is “secure.” But, even if it is, remember that the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl also left loads of radionuclides on the ground, and in plant materials, which are now burning as well. The radiation metals and aerosols are slowly reduced by radioactive decay. “Only” 400,000 Curies of the radioactive metal Cesium 137 are thought to remain. Exposure to even one Curie for a few minutes can cause very serious illnesses.
As an aside it is ironic, to this writer at least, that nuclear power is currently being paraded about as a “green” or “alternative fuel” by people whom we thought that we could trust. The recent freon leak (a dangerous “CFC” which is devastating to the protective ozone layer of the Earth itself) at a nuclear facility in Allentown, PA should serve to remind us that, despite claims by the nuclear industry (and government spokesmen) that nuclear power doesn’t produce greenhouse gasses, only the nuclear industry has a pass for the continued use of planet killing CFC’s.
Bob Nichols, a Project Censored award winner and writer for the San Francisco Examiner, told me that, depending on whose formula you used, the current fires in Russia could release radioactive substances four-and-half to seven-and-a-half times as deadly as those of Chernobyl. (Be on the lookout for his upcoming article!)
Mother Russia is on the brink of extinction as we speak. These fires do not bode well for the rest of the planet either.
On a personal note I have been recently diagnosed with insulin dependent diabetes. I have had high blood pressure since I was 25. Neither the blood pressure nor the diabetes “run in the family.” These diseases, and many more, have been connected with exposure to radiation. Have I, or have you (for that matter), been exposed to too much radiation? I gave guitar lessons to a man who wanted to learn to play guitar before he died. He had hauled radioactive medical waste. He had large lumps all over his body. I can’t remember if he “had a glow” about him. How many trips did I make through radioactive sights in New Mexico, Arizona, or Nevada? Did my grandparents have a radium “glow in the dark” watch or other object that fascinated me as a kid? Probably.
The nuclear trajectory that we are on is beginning to get very personal for me.
Don’t Celebrate the 4th of July
By: PunkJohnnyCash, (GonzoTimes) Contributing Writer for AnaiRhoads.org
It is July 3rd. I went to get a haircut yesterday. The barber was a great guy. The small talk began. I mentioned my time in the Marines and it happened. The most awkward thing that always happens and I have no idea how to respond. He thanked me for “my service.” I just didn’t know how to respond. I was the oppressor. I was the part of the government whose job it is to commit mass murder around the world. Still, it could have been worse, I could have been a Pig. The small talk continued on with everyone talking about the same general things. Family and friends at BBQ’s and fireworks or holiday plans was the general topic of the barber shop.
I was asked what I was planning on the 4th. I had no idea what to say so I simply said”I’m not really into that kind of thing.” This is the dilemma I face often. The majority have never examined the system or even questioned outside of learning the apologetics of the left or the right. What was I to say? Your flag represents the largest criminal syndicate in the history of mankind. Your “Independence day” is a lie, there is no independence within a state. You will be extolling the virtue of mass murderers.
I passed on explaining. I knew the patriotism they had would only be offended, and I don’t really want to upset the community barber shop. I really just want to get along and help them have a nice day. It upsets people if you speak against what they have been taught to believe.
So…
Tomorrow is July 4th. They call it Independence day, which could not be further from the truth. Some of you Anarchists will go to back yard BBQ’s and some will visit family. Most of us won’t make an upset because the people we love are enjoying the moment. They are having fun with their food and fireworks.
But….
I plan on doing my celebration on the 5th. July 5th is my new day to celebrate. It won’t be too big, something little maybe some veggie burgers because the red blooded American would cringe at that. Maybe I will do something more elegant with wine, cheese and a fruit & veggie platter. That does sound really good and I would like my anarchist holiday to be a little more sophisticated than ground dead cow and Budweiser beer.The statist can celebrate the union of their states. I will celebrate ‘after the states rule. I will celebrate after the state when we will abolish the state. They will celebrate the birth of the unholy union of their states on the 4th of july. I will take the 5th of july to celebrate anarchy.
Join me on the 5th in your own celebration. Celebrate the 5th of July this will be the true “independence day”.
The European and U.S. Economies: Falling Dominoes
Unraveling the global trillions of dollars of bad debt must take the whole system down with it; no amount of “stimulus” will do the trick. Tinkering with the money supply is no fix either. Mountains of fake wealth (debt) need to be destroyed, taking real wealth down with it, since products (real wealth) were being produced with the idea that the fake wealth would gobble it up.
As wealth — both real and imaginary — is destroyed, a battle is being waged as to “whose” wealth will be eliminated as a result: that of the corporate-elite or the rest of us.
This fight is apparent for anyone reading the news of any national paper, anywhere. Bank bailouts are the most blatant example: bank shareholders receive taxpayer money to compensate for their destroyed wealth (bad loans).
The European Union’s giant bailout package is such an example. The European bankers and corporate-elite in general will have their billions in bad loans repaid by governments. Meanwhile the taxpaying workers of Greece, Spain, Ireland, Italy, etc., are having their wages reduced, their pensions slashed, their retirement age raised, all to pay for a crisis they did not cause.
It is unknown if Europe can punish its workforce enough to push profits back up to competitive levels; there is a long and turmoil-filled road ahead.
The corporate-elite of the U.S. is watching closely, since they’ll have to eventually fight a similar brawl with their working class. Not a day goes by without some politician or corporate-media hack talking about U.S. workers needing to payback the national debt, accumulated through bank bailouts, multiple wars, and years of receding taxes for the rich.
To pay for these corporate policies, U.S. workers are being told that Social Security and Medicare will need to be reduced, as will social services and public education. This policy is already underway on a state-by-state level, and wages for all public workers are already under attack as a result. Obama’s Race to the Top education policy is decimating the public school system nationally.
The situation can be expected to worsen. Much of the U.S. “recovery” was predicated on increasing exports (Obama’s goal was to increase exports five fold).
Europe’s collapse will keep the U.S. export business in a coma, since the Euro is plummeting — closing off U.S. exports — while global investors stick with the dollar, boosting its price and thus hurting U.S. corporate exports by making them more expensive. China will not re-evaluate its currency in this climate.
Now U.S. government and corporate officials are lecturing the Europeans on how to conduct economic policy, when only months ago the tables were turned. In reality, the downturn will be protracted, spreading to different areas of the global economy at different times, since both the U.S. and Europe were long-term players in the corporate globalization game that turned millionaires into billionaires.
There are still many bad loans that will require reconciliation, and workers will be asked to do the “sacrificing.” The delicacy of the situation is described in a recent article of the corporate Washington Post, titled One False Move in Europe Could Set Off a Global Chain Reaction. The article states:
“ If one or more [European nations] fail to make the expected progress on cutting budgets, [cutting wages, pensions, etc.] restructuring economies or boosting growth, it could drain confidence in a broad and unsettling way. Credit markets worldwide could lock up and throw the global economy back into recession.” (May 24, 2010).
Ultimately, global “investors,” i.e. capitalists, will force governments everywhere to protect their unearned money by destroying the miniscule wealth of the European and U.S. working class. Workers everywhere must demand that the corporate-elite pay for the crisis they created. An international slogan is already making its appearance: Tax the Rich and Corporations!