Free Trade, Oil And Nuclear Meltdowns Collide

There is some rising discontent with the global economic system.  It grows in significance as inflation of most commodities rise.  The Saudis deliberately cut oil production this last month in order to pay for the King’s promises to the people for more benefits and money sharing.  This increased energy inflation significantly.  China has inflation and the hidden inflation in ZIRP Japan is very much there today especially due to the collapse in exports last month.  The power plant problems are cumulative and a growing burden there.  And US public support for free trade is beginning to flag despite 100% full throttle support by US media owners and our government which works for foreigners, not Americans.

It is amazing watching this video showing the president of TEPCO bowing literally to the floor in abject submission:  YouTube – Evacuees aim their anger at stricken power plant president

The suppressed anger of the Japanese displaced people is just beginning to show.  Discrimination against them is growing, too.  Fearful of invisible, insidious radiation contamination, the people forced to flee Fukushima’s meltdowns are now being harassed, discriminated against and rejected in various communities.

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One school boy was seriously injured by other students who wanted to drive him out of their school, for example.  Many can’t find replacement housing due to this and are being kept for a long, long time in refugee camps of very poor quality.  Just this week, they were issued these 4 foot tall plastic playpen-type privacy (sic) corrals to set up in huge auditoriums.

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Far from reassuring the displaced people, this looks suspiciously like a temporary measure that will be allowed to grow more permanent.  Unlike the other victims of the tsunami and earthquake, they can’t go home to rebuild and in most cases, don’t have to rebuild anything, their homes were intact.  No, they are being displaced forever.  This is just beginning to sink in.  The farmers are the first to begin to show anger about this for they are helplessly watching their animals die.

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YouTube – Abandoned Cattle Lay Dead and Dying Near Fukushima – April 10, 2011 – Sad 😦

US regulations for evacuating nuclear power plant disasters is quite clear, you cannot take even your favorite pets.  Of course, in reality, the government might let people take some pets out with them.  But farm animals most certainly will be abandoned.  We saw this at Chernobyl.  The Soviets, at least, sent in the army to shoot the abandoned farm animals.  But not Japan.  The government didn’t dare do this so instead, they let them die the horrible way, via starvation and lack of water, etc.  NHK WORLD English

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Fukushima Prefecture authorities say there were about three-hundred livestock farms with three-thousand cows, 30-thousand pigs, and 600-thousand chickens.  A veterinarian who inspected barns and chicken coops on Friday last week, before the area was designated off limits, says almost all the chickens had died.

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He says about 70 percent of the pigs at barns with automatic feeders were alive. But most pigs in other barns were dead.  Most of the beef cattle had been let out to graze, and were still alive. But about 60 percent of the dairy cows in barns had died.

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This shows the level of paralysis of the Japanese government.  Far from being straightforward and fast moving, the parts barely grind ahead.  The Japanese bureaucracy has long needed to be upgraded and fixed.  Instead, it is a literally a dead hand resting on society.  One thing any society needs most is to be honest with itself about the future.  In Japan, the future has been put on total denial since this means thinking about the failure of free trade, the failure of taxation, the failure of how society has been ordered, the failure to reproduce, etc.

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Fear of the future is quite intense.  This is why the government has not spoken an honest word about what lies ahead for the Fukushima victims.  The truth is slowly eking out.  Here is one recent example in the US news that is very significant:  Japan faces lengthy recovery from Fukushima accident – CNN.com

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As for Fukushima Daiichi itself, fully closing up the crippled plant may take decades, said Jack DeVine, a U.S. nuclear engineer who helped lead the cleanup of the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania. There, it took about three years for engineers to get a look inside the damaged core of the reactor that suffered a partial meltdown in 1979 — and what they found was “absolutely shocking” at the time, he said…..Cleaning up and shutting down the damaged Unit 2 took 10 years, Devine said — and unlike Fukushima Daiichi, little radiation was released at Three Mile Island. In Japan, workers are dealing with “essentially four Three Mile Islands,” plus levels of radioactivity “which will be an impediment for all the work on-site.”

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The Three Mile Island event didn’t feature a series of major explosions that blew up the buildings.  The explosion was mostly internal.  It did damage the reactor significantly and did deform the innermost container significantly.  We can see from the few exterior shots of the innermost container systems of Fukushima that there was a major internal explosion in at least one of these reactors.

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The meltdown at TMI was partial whereas I am presuming the ones that blew up at Fukushima are full meltdowns.  We don’t know because it took THREE YEARS for the engineers to see what happened at the much less dangerous TMI facility!  Not three weeks, three years.  When has anyone seen inside of Chernobyl?  That was simply entombed.  I see no possibility to see inside of Fukushima, ever.

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Unless we develop robots that can endure super-high levels of intense radiation, it is unlikely we shall see exactly what went on.  Back to TMI, the cleanup took a very, very long time and during that time, people forgot to pay much attention to the point, all was seemingly well except for some underlying anxiety which effectively froze the very ambitious nuclear power programs for several decades.

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This wore off over time and with the ‘greens’ who were more worried about global warming rather than nuclear destruction were able to effectively sell the concept of nuclear power as the best solution for CO2 problems.  Now, this has been pretty much killed by Fukushima’s agonies.  Which are international.  Below is a chart of nuclear pollution in Arizona’s milk cows:  http://www.azein.gov/azein/2011/Milk%20Data_3.pdf

The EPA and the health organizations have differing nuclear pollution standards.  This is due to the idea that some deaths from drinking nuclear milk are OK.  Just not too many versus other standards whereby any deaths from drinking milk are not OK.  The government prefers to have the lower standards whereby if some children drinking poisoned milk die is OK so long as it isn’t a major epidemic of deaths.

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Ask any mother what the standard should be and it would definitely be ‘zero deaths’ not ‘some deaths’.  Note from the list above how there has been surges in pollution.  This is due to the wind and conditions in Japan.  These sudden surges are a problem for the US since mothers can’t tell when they happen until after the milk is sold and the data is released.

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We can’t tell honestly how many children died of childhood cancers much less, adults dying of say, breast cancer later thanks to several thousand nuclear bomb tests.  The cancer epidemic certainly gives us a good clue.  Many people don’t die today so fast thanks to vast advances in cancer cure technologies.  But the cures are no fun and take a big toll on one’s health.

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Thanks to the tsunami and nuclear power plant problems, Toyota Says No Full Production Until Year’s End.  This is a huge slice of Japan’s economy.  Making millions of cars and exporting them mainly to the US is what Japan is all about.  And now, this is falling apart rapidly.   The fiction that Japan builds cars in the US is on the line, too.  No Toyota vehicle can roll off the assembly lines here without many key parts (usually, the most sophisticated parts!) from Japan.

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Now off we go to visit England to talk about global warming, oil and why warm weather leads to pollution:  Smog alert: Britain’s lung weekend -The Independent

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Air pollution is likely to rise significantly this weekend because of the warm, still weather and heavy holiday road traffic – leading the Government to issue a “summer smog” warning.

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The East coast communities where I live are still quite cool if not downright cold.  We had snow here yesterday, for example.  The waters off the ocean next to where New England lies is rather cold right now.  But due to spring changes in the jet stream, England is not getting our cold, wet weather anymore, it has shifted to the north of England.

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So it is hot in England and as per usual, the population doesn’t wail in despair, they all jump for joy and go rushing outside to have fun in the sun.  This causes pollution to rise.  The more they drive their cars to go to the beaches and mountains to have fun in the hot sun, the more pollution their cars create and the more energy they use to keep cool so they can have fun in the sun (one of the greatest paradoxes of all time is how we love heat and hate to be hot at the same time!) the more the air is polluted.

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Usually, when it is warm, the wind slows down and so pollution collects instead of breezing off to unknown locales.  So people complain about smog.  I am against cars that burn oil for cities because they are very polluting.  But they are cheap and cheap always  beats all other solutions.  In general, we tend to stay home when it is snowy and cold and run around a lot when it is warm and dry which is why humans adore warm and dry and hate cold and wet.

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Since we love to use cars to rush around when warm and dry, we have to deal with this in some creative ways.  Telling people we have to be cold and wet isn’t one of them.  This is why even people who profess to be frightened of global warming will still, personally, run off to have fun in the dry sun whenever humanly possible.  It baffles me as to how we can deal with this basic contradiction in human desires.

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The oil pumping nations don’t care, they just want to make more money.  The key nation here is Saudi Arabia.  They can change world oil prices very easily and last month, they did exactly this:  Saudis Slash Oil Output; Say Market Oversupplied – CNBC

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“The market is overbalanced … Our production in February was 9.125 million barrels per day (bpd), in March it was 8.292 million bpd. In April we don’t know yet, probably a little higher than March. The reason I gave you these numbers is to show you that the market is oversupplied,” Naimi told reporters.

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Two Saudi-based industry sources told Reuters last week the kingdom had cut output due to poor demand, prompting selling by traders who saw it as a sign of a well-supplied market.

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HAHAHA…it is rather funny how they lie!  Production was cut to raise the price of oil so they could have peace at home via the King’s promise to give his people $30+ billion in welfare hikes!  Yes, this is all about social services to the people there.  The riots and insurrections that continue to broil across Muslim lands terrifies the Saudi royals.

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They do have the wit to see they will fall, too.  Yemen’s leaders are going under.  And that is right next door.  Syria is being wracked with riots and demonstrations where hundreds of citizens are being shot dead.  This only infuriates the demonstrators all the more.

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Saudi Shares Climb After Petrochemicals Exceed Profit Estimates – Bloomberg

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Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC), the world’s largest petrochemicals maker, rose to the highest since September 2008, while National Industrialization Co. (NIC) climbed to a three-year high. Rabigh Refining and Petrochemicals Co. surged by the maximum allowed in a single trading session….Sabic said this week that first-quarter profit surged 42 percent, while Rabigh’s net income more than doubled.

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Analysts love to think that SA won’t raise oil prices deliberately because they are so very entangled in Western business deals, they would want to keep oil cheap.  But this is all falling to the wayside as the royals know for certain, if they can’t raise an extra $30+ billion fast, they are doomed.  So they are doing this the easiest way possible.  Not by clipping their own wild spending but via higher oil prices.

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We cannot expect the Saudis to bail us out.  They don’t fear a US public uprising, they fear their own people.  Here in the US, all is amazingly quiet.  Except for the madcap social service cutters on the US right, the public here is quiet about very high oil prices.  So far, that is.  This could change over time.  Right now, people here are hoping this is just another short surge brought about by Goldman Sachs traders, not Saudis cutting oil production.

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As I keep pointing out, Chinese workers are not snoozing away like US or Japanese workers:  Shanghai Cuts Fees for Truckers Following Strike, Xinhua Says

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Shanghai container-truck drivers were reported to have won cuts in port fees after a sometimes violent protest against rising costs highlighted the risk of inflation triggering unrest in the world’s most populous nation.

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The local government will lower or remove some fees after drivers stopped work on April 20 because of the levies and increased fuel costs, Xinhua News Agency reported, citing an unidentified spokesman. The city’s ports are operating normally, the report said.

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They may be living in a dictatorship but at least they know how to make a government respond to popular demands!  In the US, we are attacking each other over inflation and other costs.  So killing off the teacher’s unions is very popular.  Killing off all unions is extremely popular.  Jobs here move to states what hate unions and prevent workers from doing what Chinese workers do, that is, organize strikes.

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It is rather pathetic that Chinese workers wring concessions and more money out of the system via strikes whereas in the US, we no longer have any strikes at all and workers here get poorer and poorer but not poor enough for our masters who continue to move jobs away.  India’s workers strike, too, as I have pointed out in the past.  Fleeing to India and China to find cheap labor isn’t working so hot since the workers resent this and want higher, not lower wages.

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Just as the fear of uprisings is forcing the very greedy, self-centered Saudi royals to bequeath more loot for the poor there, this motivates the Chinese dictators the same way.  Here in the West, we are moving in the opposite direction, cutting social services and killing unions while arrogantly telling everyone to go eat dirt and die.

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One thing is certain: the breaking point is slowly being approached even in Japan.  It will be swift once it takes off.  Here is a graph taken by a polling group showing a Sharp Drop in American Enthusiasm for Free Market

Both export giants, Germany and China, support free trade very enthusiastically.  What is amusing is, they support it the same exact level as the US support!  The US support has begun to fall pretty fast but not fast enough to motivate people to fight off free trade.  Those of us who are against this business are few in number still.  I have been against this for many years.  A voice in the wilderness, indeed.

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What amazes me is how the Japanese people are giving it the least support of all nations!!!!  Wow!  Virtually no one is enthusiastic about free trade there!  Now, I believe this is due to fear of imports, not disgust with an export-heavy economy.  The Japanese people fear the importation of foreign goods in general.  Perhaps some far-thinking Japanese are fearful of being too much an export nation seeing how this is ravaging their countryside and driving down wages, etc.

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France, like Japan, is very proud of its own production and also hates imported goods.  So support in France is near Japanese levels of support, that is, there is virtually none.  But like Japan, France does like exporting stuff.  If support for free trade must come at the expense of social services and jobs at home, there should be a tendency to go against free trade.  Right now, this is barely dawning on people that exports will not lead to great jobs but rather, exposes even export industry workers to dropping wages due to competition for markets against cheaper labor systems.

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Eventually, when everyone finally learns that there is no real upside for free trade within working communities, the business will reverse rapidly due to riots, insurrections and other events which we see unscrolling across Muslims lands this spring.

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The right wing Republicans are very ferocious in denying even the most limited social services at this point and I do hope that even deluded racists in the South finally wake up and smell the sewer waters and rejects this sort of mindless hatred of modern social services:  Extended Benefits: Confusion As Federal Jobless Aid Expires In Tennessee

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Tennessee is one of three states where where the EB program ended this month. These federal benefits expired less because of job gains than because state lawmakers let them die….Its benefits are not funded with Tennessee state tax dollars, and the federal money hasn’t run out. Even though the EB program expired in Tennessee, with little to no public debate, it didn’t have to. State lawmakers could have passed a law to keep the program….Yet Tennessee’s Republican House Speaker Beth Harwell didn’t see things that way. Reached at home on Friday morning, Harwell told HuffPost in a brief conversation that there was no reason for the state legislature to get involved, because it’s up to Washington to determine whether the EB program expires.

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Even as the Deep South former slave states whoop it up with Civil War celebrations and their schizoid hatred of the Federal Government while celebrating military spending up the wazoo…wake up and begin supporting socialism.

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The GOP politicians are paid to be in office by rich people who fund their campaigns.  They support the very rich.  They don’t care about anything else.  Since only a minority of voters are unemployed right now, it is OK to cut them off from survival funds because this pleases employers greatly.  Employers need the unemployed in order to keep wages down, after all!

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At the same time, employers hate paying social taxes.  Unlike the Saudi royals, they don’t fear any uprisings since they have the gigantic US military and police systems in place to shoot any rioters dead.  The workers taking over Wisconsin’s state house worried them slightly but they are confident that if teachers tried this in say, Texas, they would be dealt with harshly and replaced with other teachers or everyone can just homeschool their brats.

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The idea that we need any sort of government is laughed at even as the south lives increasingly in a police state where might makes right.  This is most peculiar to me.  Police and military are expensive!  But then, this is paid for via debt piles on all the government.  And so why not have endless suppression, endless police, endless prisons, endless military interventions in Muslim lands?  It makes the south richer and it employs cheap southern labor!

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The idea that this will bankrupt the nation is exploited by the southern politicians to kill off the last remains of civilized forms of social services.  If this were Chinese communists doing this, there would be riots there.  Here, there are no riots, yet.  And this is due to the fact that social service cuts have not appeared too much on the streets right now.

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The near-elimination of energy subsidies for people living in the cold north here (yes, the people in hot places are cheerfully cutting social heating services to people living in the cold climates!!!!) won’t bite until next winter which won’t be a warm world winter but a classic Ice Age Interglacial winter which means we hope the snow will melt in spring again.

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The internal war of the cold north versus the comfy, warm south will continue to rage even as Texas begs for Federal dollars to fight fires in Texas.  Let it burn!  These fires raged around McDonald Observatory where I lived once as a small child.  Even so, let them all burn to the ground, the entire state should be ashamed of asking for social aid during fires.  After all, fires are natural.  They belong in Texas.  Texas is all about expensive oil.  They can afford to fight their own fires.

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Or they can all grow up and be civilized again.  They could admit that having a Federal Government is smart, not stupid.  But then, I sometimes ask too much of people.

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