Quote of the Day
To reach a great height a person needs to have great depth.
Source Unknown
Is the Trump Presidential Bid a Conspiracy to Reelect Obama?
I haven't seen any speculation about Sarah Palin joining the race; perhaps that's because Tea Party favorite Michele Bachmann is all but certain to join into the race. Mitt Romney has announced an exploratory committee, a clear signal he is running.
Romney's biggest problem (and this is reaffirmed by a recent hostile IBD editorial) is the unpopular health care reform--in particular, the individual mandate. My understanding is that Massachusetts was pushed into a reform using Medicaid funding and Romney wanted to allow a certification of financial responsibility in lieu of a mandate. It's very clear that Romney is itching to debate the differences between RomneyCare and ObamaCare, but I think he's got to explain why Massachusetts needed that reform.
Donald Trump is clearly not qualified to be President: he doesn't have any public sector experience, he's engaging in absolutely irresponsible rhetoric with China-bashing and long-discredited birther nonsense. Perhaps this vulgar populism plays well with many people, but he has permanently lost his credibility with me. He has said that he might pursue an independent bid, even if he pursued the GOP nomination and lost: why the Republicans would let someone run in their primaries whom will not even commit in advance to supporting the nominee if he was to lose is beyond me...
Mr. Trump is badly overestimating his appeal. This is not the stuff of a second coming of Ross Perot. Assuming Trump has modest support, it only serves to split the center-right vote next year and help reelect Obama. I don't see a single state Trump can win on his own.
VP Joe Biden Contemplating Obama's Deficit Reduction Speech
(In all fairness, he must have been preparing for his visit to air traffic controller training facilities...)
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Courtesy of ABC News |
Obama's Deficit Reduction Plan:
Failure of Presidential Leadership of the Highest Order
Thumbs DOWN (on the ground)!
I only saw a portion of the speech live because of other priorities, but I found myself literally screaming at the Empty Suit at the top of my voice (there were a number of expletive deleted's). It was all very predictable (whether I actually posted them, I certainly believed them in advance): it was class warfare (again), using the Ryan budget plan as a whipping boy, and the same divisive political talking points he's been repeating for years.
I am sick and tired of the Democrats repeating Clinton and investor Warren Buffett's open invitation to tax themselves more. Let me first point out to all such hypocrites: put your money where your mouth is. The IRS will gladly accept gifts. Obama is not talking about his money but stealing other people's money.
Now these partisan Democrats are trying to co-opt language about "shared sacrifice"--there is no "shared sacrifice" when half of workers pay not a dime in income tax towards government expenses (payroll taxes are an investment for future benefits) and Obama is trying to extract more money from the very people whom pay a disproportionate amount of tax revenues. I have repeated the same point several times before in my posts: over 75% of the Bush tax cuts go to the middle class. I don't care if nearly 60% of the public are okay with picking their richer neighbor's pocket: the fact that one-third, most of which are not in that high income category, oppose it speaks volumes.
But if I hear this disingenuous demagogue talk about $1T in tax cuts (over 10 years)--when he's added over $4T to the debt in just the first 3 years of his Presidency, and he doesn't pursue rolling back enrollment criteria for, e.g., Medicaid.... He is simply lying about making the hard choices the American people are ready for.
As I watched this rehash of same old same old rhetoric, I kept asking, "Mr. Obama, if you were truly concerned about the future of certain progressive programs, why didn't you shore up the domestic programs so they were sustainable over the long term?"
GET A CLUE, MR. PRESIDENT. What do states do? (You might not know because you've never been a governor having to do with federal government mandates...) In Massachusetts, they filtered some people from their health care entitlements. Others have applied something like a 9% spending cuts across the board.
I will write more on the President's speech in later posts; I wasn't really surprised by the lack of proactive leadership.
Fukushima Nuclear Incident Update
Fox News, as usual, is promoting the latest scaremongering rumor involving higher than expected iodine and cesium levels in a sample of spent fuel pond 4 (recall the core was removed from the reactor 4 RPV during maintenance last November). There is an inference of possible fuel cell damage with respect to a hydrogen explosion in the area early in the crisis. Note that whatever speculated damage is attenuated by ongoing watering of the spent fuel pool for weeks now (look for Fox News to rehash old news out of context--it attracts many more eyeballs to hype the crisis is "worsening". Shame on you, Roger Ailes!)
NEI notes:
- daily: As usual coolant injections of coolant into reactor pressurized vessels 1 through 3 and watering (versus spraying) as needed spent fuel ponds 1 through 4; nitrogen injections into primary containment for reactor 1 continue as well. Contaminated water in a trench for reactor 2 is being pumped into the relevant condenser.
Atomic Power Review notes:
- afternoon updates: There is some discussion of the spent fuel report (referenced above), around-the-clock dewatering of the reactor 2 trench, and some investigation in looking at any necessary reinforcement of structures to control for any subsequent earthquakes/aftershocks.
IAEA notes:
- daily: Sometimes the most telling thing is when the boilerplate changes. For weeks now in discussing Fukushima Daiichi, IAEA has stressed the situation remains very serious. Note the subtle change in tone with today's description: "The situation at the Fukushima Daiichi plant remains very serious but there are early signs of recovery in some functions such as electrical power and instrumentation." Among other things, they discussed a brief fire at housing for cooling water supplies (not affecting regular activities) and mentioned the two TEPCO subcontractors whom got treated several days back for standing in contaminated water for a long period without adequate footwear are in good health, no complications.
The Hiroshima Syndrome blogger wrote another informative post (unlike most I've seen on the web). Among other things, he pointed out Tokyo's largest paper noted the Western news organizations have suggested there are only 50 TEPCO/subcontractor workers on site, when in fact there have been 700 and only one evacuation of note of non-essential personnel, on that day we saw black smoke coming out of the reactor 3 facilities. He also discusses the kinds of things that happen when politicians insert themselves into crises better handled by trained professionals. For example, the prime minister of Japan had pushed for venting of the RPV's early in the crisis, ignoring practical considerations in manuel venting. Shortly after venting, there was a hydrogen explosion.
Political Humor
"Economists say sharp increases in energy and food prices could lead to higher inflation. But prices are falling on a lot of items, like Charlie Sheen tickets." - Jay Leno
[Fed Reserve Chief "Helicopter Ben" Bernanke is worried about deflationary pressures in the economy. But I've been arguing for a while that he needs to look at more than the resale value of vintage Obama "hope and change" bumper stickers...]
"According to a CNN poll, Trump nearly doubled his support from March. Actually, he just combed his March numbers over his current ones." - Conan O'Brien
[Trump brushed off criticism of his candidacy and isn't happy with the IRS taking a haircut on overdue tax revenues.]
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
ABBA, "Chiquitita". The harmonies are heavenly, and I love the tempo and arrangement. If I could tweak it, I would have less of a polka sound and made more use of the violin and/or acoustic Spanish guitar and drums with a starker, sparing backdrop, with more hushed, mournful vocals before the uptempo chorus.
