Wasserman writes: "As you read this, a terror attack has put atomic reactors in Ukraine at the brink of another Chernobyl-scale apocalypse."
Harvey Wasserman. (photo: rosencomet.com)
Nuclear Reactors Make ISIS an Apocalyptic Threat
26 November 15
s you read this, a terror attack has put atomic reactors in Ukraine at the brink of another Chernobyl-scale apocalypse.
Transmission lines have been blown up. Power to at least two major nuclear power stations has been �dangerously� cut. Without emergency backup, those nukes could lose coolant to their radioactive cores and spent fuel pools. They could then melt or explode, as at Fukushima.
Yet amidst endless �all-fear-all-the-time� reporting on ISIS, the corporate media has remained shockingly silent on this potential catastrophe.
Nor has it faced the most critical step needed to protect our planet in a time of terror: shutting all atomic reactors.
The world�s 430-plus licensed commercial nuclear plants give terrorists like ISIS the power at any time to inflict a radioactive Apocalypse that could kill millions, destroy huge parts of the Earth and devastate the global economy.
Fallout from Chernobyl�s 1986 disaster has killed more than a million people.
Cancer rates among children and others near Fukushima are soaring.
Americans downwind from Three Mile Island died in droves.
Major scientific studies in Germany and elsewhere link soaring cancer and other human death rates to nearby reactor emissions even without an accident.
The 1966 melt-down at Fermi I, near Detroit, cost at least $100 million. Three Mile Island�s 1979 melt-down converted a $900 million asset into a $2 billion liability. Chernobyl has cost Ukraine, Belarus and the former Soviet Union at least $500 billion. Fukushima wiped out a $60 billion asset and may cost Japan trillions, permanently crippling its economy.
All imposing inestimable damage to the global ecology. The radioactive carbon and raw heat reactors emit unbalance our weather, irradiate the oceans, create waste that cannot be managed.
The ability of ISIS and other terrorists to cause more such catastrophes is unquestioned and escalating.
Despite ISIS�s bloody warning in Paris, all commercial reactors are still at risk.
They are crumbling on their own. The shield building at Ohio�s Davis-Besse is literally disintegrating.
Diablo Canyon is surrounded by a dozen California fault lines.
Fort Calhoun in Nebraska has been flooded.
Earthquakes have damaged Ohio�s Perry and North Anna, in Virginia.
And official reports on the 9/11 attacks on New York�s World Trade Center confirm that Al Quaeda also considered targeting atomic reactors.
Had they hit Indian Point, 45 miles north of the twin towers, millions of Americans would now be dead. Trillions in property damage would have decimated the nation�s economy. Billions of acres would be contaminated, along with countless lakes, rivers and much of the Atlantic Ocean.
The screaming heads at CNN, Fox et. al. say this kind of Apocalyptic event is exactly what ISIS seeks. But they avoid the obvious connection to the world�s increasingly fragile reactors.
In Ukraine, Deputy Director Yuri Katchich of the Ukrenergo power company said the �emergency unloading� at the South Ukrainian and Zaporozhskaya nuclear sites forced by terror attacks on far-away power lines is �very dangerous.� We can only imagine the damage direct attacks on the reactors themselves might have done.
The 2011 earthquake and tsunami took out back-up generators at Fukushima, followed by three melt-downs and four explosions.
Tsunami-like flooding caused by busted dams upriver from at least three dozen U.S. reactors could replicate much of what happened at Fukushima.
There are 58 reactors in France, 99 in the U.S. If ISIS is as reckless and relentless as it seems, the safety of none of them can be guaranteed.
So as our governments, politicians and media scream for security, we must free ourselves from the nuclear curse.
We must also remember that ISIS grew out of an U.S. invasion of Iraq based largely on our corporate addiction to fossil fuels.
The obvious answer to this global nightmare is to speed the transition to a renewable energy world.
No terror group can ever cause an apocalypse by blowing up a solar panel.
Harvey Wasserman wrote SOLARTOPIA! OUR GREEN-POWERED EARTH. His AMERICA AT THE BRINK OF REBIRTH: THE ORGANIC SPIRAL OF U.S. HISTORY will be published next year. EcoWatch is the publication of origin for this work.
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And/or a general strike!
Some people may be familiar with that term but unable to explain just what it means!
It is, in principle, a mass revolutionary act intended to shut down the country - nominally until certain massive grievances are remedied, preferably with the resignation of the whole government.
To my knowledge, a successful general strike has never occurred (though France came close in 1968).
In the US, there numerous attempts in the late 19th century, but no revolution occurred.
Apart from a 5-day strike in Seattle in Feb., 1919, the only thing close in 20th-century North America happened in Canada (also in 1919). Called the "Winnipeg General Strike" (because it started in Winnipeg, Manitoba) it won some support across the Canadian west, in Ontario and in Montreal.
It was, however, not well enough organized (although the strike committee did take over the government of the City of Winnipeg) and not well enough supported to win.
Today, trade unions are at their weakest point since before the Great Depression. In the US, I doubt if 10% of the labor force is organized. And, without the workers, there's not much of a strike.
A general strike is a tactic familiar to both anarchists and socialists (with predictable differences of intent and method).
Prime writers? Probably Georges Sorel & Rosa Luxemburg. And, of course, there were America's beloved "Wobblies" - the Industrial Workers of the World, still active after all these years!
True enough. Until we recognize our power is our labor and refusal to purchase goods we will not win. The following is from IWW organizer Joseph Ettor:
"If the workers of the world want to win all they have to do is recognize their own solidarity. They have nothing to do but fold their arms and the world will stop. The workers are more powerful with their hands in their pockets than all the property of capitalists..."
It takes great organization and without unions I am not sure we can achieve a general strike but that is what it will take. Half of America went with trump and I can't help but wonder when and if they will figure out what is happening. I don't hold out much hope without solidarity.
I started my own strike the day he was elected. If I don't need something to absolutely survive, I don't buy it. Remember the Boston bombing and the lockdown that followed. The shelter in place was lifted, not when the culprits were caught, but when the people in power realized a couple of days without spending cost business over $300,000,000.
Need I remind anyone George W Bush told people to go out and shop after 911. Use the money you save to hit 'em twice by paying off debt. Resist anyway you can.
The Trump Presidency is brought to you by the dishonesty of Hillary Clinton and the DNC!
We could have had Bernie!
Go on, you phoney, call your local FBI office...no, no, not to turn yourself in!
to explain all the real and true proof you have AGAINST the woman you love to hate, (but never met) HRC. You're not just lying again, are you?
Do you hate OTHER WOMEN TOO?
Go on, call the FBI. They're on YOUR side, you know. Go ahead, turn ME in if you want. They used to know ME pretty good in the local office.
Add to that Republicans have never been "soft" on crime; and with penal colonies being one of the two largest growth industries in the U.S.(the other being the police, security & surveillance industry), Republicans can support their business buddies with more privatized prisons.
Never forget, fighting crime, administering justice and operating prisons are big, profitable businesses in the U.S. So the more laws you make, the more laws get broken and the more people you can prosecute and imprison and the more profit there is for the criminal-justic e industry.
And as we all wince with horror at what will be happening please NEVER forget...
The Trump Presidency is brought to you by the dishonesty of Hillary Clinton and the DNC!
We could have had Bernie!
Amen!!
Yes, if only arithmetic could be suspended to allow Sen Sanders to accept the nomination with 4 million fewer votes than Sec'y Clinton. And the appeal of a Socialist Jew would have stilled the Republican smear machine. This frantic insistence that HRC voters actually voted for Trump is dishonest, delusional, or both. Lose the fairy dust and find some place to oppose Mr Trump.
But trying to use Bernie's unsuccessful campaign to insult Hillary Clinton insults Bernie more than it does the intended object of scorn.
The primaries are over , and so is the 2016 presidential election. It's time to start living in the present -- maybe by persuading Senator Sanders to give it another try in 2020.
We're IN one of THOSE...you know, when you go to a strange door because your car broke down in the rain with you and your girlfriend, and a hunchback named Sessions opens the door and wants you to step inside...bwahah a...
Now he gets to make so many of us hurt more than we wanted or needed to.
Let's just keep on keeping track of who and what class of people he improves the lives of...a few years after somebody unnecessarily dies in those families, the ugly ones may wake up. They won't get any smarter, but they might have learned more...