A Real Plan
So far we have seen the “Ryan un-Plan” that steals money from the Social Security trust fund to give to the oligarchs, but doesn’t actually deal with the deficit.
Then there was Zero’s un-plan that is slightly kinder to the trust fund, but thinks that closing “tax loopholes” is the way to go, without mentioning that the only “loopholes” apt to be closed are those that are useful to the middle class, and doesn’t really show an obvious path to deficit reduction.
Finally there is The People’s Budget which was prepared by the Progressive Caucus in the House. This is a real budget that is serious about fixing things. Of course, Very Serious People don’t want to talk about it because it requires them to share in the pain.
Jobs are the best answer, but no one is interested in creating jobs.
April 26, 2011 2 Comments
Chernobyl
As the BBC reports, it is the 25th anniversary of one of the worst nuclear disasters in the world: the failure of the number four reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power facility [Чернобыльская АЭС им. В.И.Ленина] near Pripyat, Ukraine. The West found out about the problem from alarms at Swedish nuclear facilities due to the fall out from Chernobyl. The Soviet authorities did not admit the problem for three days.
The BBC put up one of their excellent In Depth sites for the 20th anniversary that features great slide show that helps you to understand what happened, if not why.
The concrete cap over the destroyed reactor is cracking and must be replaced, but the site is still radioactive and can’t be worked on directly without killing people. There is still a 10-mile exclusion zone around the plant itself.
This is the future for Fukushima Daiichi.
April 26, 2011 4 Comments