14 Days After an Event

The Sensible Mountain Preparedness Seminar at the Haywood County Community College was held on June 18th. The keynote speaker was Dr. William Forstchen who wrote the best selling novel “One Second After“. The following video covers a question poised by Dr. Forstchen at a meeting at the US Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Would I hold my grandchild up? Would I let the children in? Although these questions are ones we hope to never have to answer, the reality is that the premise is not “if” but “when”.

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POLITICS: THE ACT OF COMPLAINING

Frank Roche has written a commentary (reprinted below) that we should all consider. I agree with his point concerning solutions. If we are not providing or supporting solutions, then the problems will not be solved and the complaining will continue. Imagine a world where politicians actually did what they were elected to do and provide solutions to problems. After a period of time, no problems would exist as would the need for politicians. Kind of a self fulfilling prophecy or “never let a crisis go to waste” mentality. Solutions are easy, the sacrifices to implement them are not.

Do we want to be like Greece? Or are we already worse than Greece as reported this week? The question is really simple: will we stand up for our future or will we sit back and complain?

David DeGerolamo

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Missouri River Flooding – Nasa Satellite Images

The following two satellite images show the level of flooding on the Missouri River as of June 15, 2011 compared to June 17, 2010. Whether the Army Corps of Engineers made a conscience decision to withhold the release of water to ease the flooding of the Mississippi or just made an error in judgment, the consequences will be felt at least until mid-August.

The Fort Peck Dam is a catastrophe waiting to happen at the top end of this waterway in Montana. Bernard Shanks is an expert in land and resource management who has put forth one possible scenario:

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Fort Calhoun’s Levees Need to Be Upgraded

Officials hope temporary levee will save Iowa town

The Fort Calhoun nuclear power station in Fort Calhoun, Neb., currently shut down for refueling, is surrounded by flood waters from the Missouri River, Tuesday, June 14, 2011. On Tuesday, the releases at Gavins Point Dam in South Dakota hit the maximum planned amount of 150,000 cubic feet of water per second, which are expected to raise the Missouri River 5 to 7 feet above flood stage in most of Nebraska and Iowa.

The following excerpt is being reported by several sites concerning a finding by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that the facility failed to maintain procedures against external flooding:

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The Most Expensive Election Ever Bought in History

To understand what $1 billion in campaign funds (along with labor unions supported with our tax dollars), click here to see a list of upcoming my.barackobama.com events. Narcissism aside, this list shows events within 350 miles of Raleigh. The events nationwide are staggering. The snapshot below shows one of these events to register Latino voters.

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Senate Hearing on North Carolina Voter ID

This coverage of the Senate Hearing for HB 351 on June 14, 2011 shows the Democrat opposition to implementing photographic voter identification. I find it incomprehensible for anyone to suggest that we do not need to pass this legislation. We have people voting who are over 120 years old in North Carolina. Either they are voting illegally or we have a zombie problem as reported by the News & Observer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNUhdOQzNog

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No Fly Zone Over Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant Due to “Hazards”

 

Update June 20th: Cooper Nuclear Station Issues “Notification of Unusual Event” and Is Under a No Fly Zone
Click here for more information.

Why is Minot, ND Under a No Fly Zone for Hazards?

June 22nd Update

The Federal Aviation Administration issued a temporary flight restriction over the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant until further notice due to “Hazards”. This would normally be a precautionary measure after an electrical fire disabled cooling for the spent fuel rod pool as outlined below. The question is why is this still in effect?

As reported previously, this facility is surrounded by sand bags as the Missouri River rises.

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State Senator Accuses Republicans of Voter Fraud

Sen. Josh Stein accused Republican voters of casting fraudulent absentee ballots as shown in the video below. I encourage the people of North Carolina to call this senator at (919) 715-6400 to ask for a clarification of this statement.

Mr. Stein represents District 16 in Wake County and may be correct in the fact that we are not confronting another part of voter fraud: absentee ballots. Since our active military are fighting for our freedom in five different wars (not counting Pakistan), maybe our soldiers are casting Republican votes on their absentee ballots because they recognize the real threat to our freedom. While Mr. Stein thinks we are fighting “phantoms” with this legislation, I think we are fighting for the future of our state.

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Two Tales for Retail Sales

The report for retail sales came out this morning and I have included two reports outlining the information. Retail sales dropped 0.2% last month and was the first decline in eleven months. The first report from Bloomberg.com outlines why this is good news as a larger drop was expected. The second report from CNBC.com gives a more accurate report. My thoughts:

  1. I am not spending money because I have no discretionary money left after food and gas.
  2. I am not spending money because I do not have any idea what tomorrow will bring.
  3. I am only spending money on goods that can be used for barter or rebuilding.

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Sand Bags and Nuclear Power Plants Don’t Mix

The levee breach today near Hamburg, Iowa is only the beginning of the story. What do you need to know concerning the flooding of the Missouri River?

The Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant sustained a fire last week and is now under emergency status “due to imminent flooding from the Missouri River”. On June 7, an electrical fire at the plant resulted in the plant’s evacuation and the NRC has confirmed a loss of cooling for the reactor’s spent fuel pool as a result. The following account outlines this nuclear plant surrounded by sandbags and the hazards facing it.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jEEgpoKw0E

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Quantitative Easing 3 or Bust

The New York Stock Exchange has posted losses for the last six consecutive weeks. Quantitative Easing 2 has failed and the federal reserve has no choice but to implement Quantitative Easing 3. Mr. Bernanke knows the QE 3 is only a stopgap but what is their alternative? Our fiscal policy is backed into a corner based on a list of economic indicators that are all bad: unemployment, discount rate, housing collapse, federal debt ceiling and consumer confidence.

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Tea Party Blues

In my travels across North Carolina since February 2009, I have attended patriot group meetings across the state. For various reasons, the idea that we should follow the same principles as our founding fathers is not well understood. The colonists rallied around the slogan “Unite or Die” because they knew the price of freedom AND what they had to do to achieve it.

The Tea Parties across the country were usurped by the Republican Party and TPINOs (Tea Party in Name Only) in 2010. “Leaders” argued against any talk of a third political party or the necessity to join forces to be united. How easily we forget (or wish to conveniently forget) that the strength of our country is that we were the “United” States of America. The forces aligned against our future and freedom understood and implemented the basic transformation of our country into the Divided States of America. This has effectively caused our economic and moral collapse without a single shot being fired. As we maintain a course of individualism and personal agendas, the only focus that we can agree on is who will be the Republican Party’s presidential candidate in 2012.

The excerpt from the article below outlines the flaws of the larger Tea Party movements across the county. As shown in Raleigh at the General Assembly, the Tea Party movement in the eyes of the Republican Party has been marginalized and of no further consideration. As I wrote in an earlier article, our founding fathers warned us about political parties and politicians:

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Bottom Up Republican Results

Chatham County elected three new commissioners (out of 5) in the November elections of 201. All three were Republicans who ran as a team to restore fiscal responsibility and conservative values to the county. The following video shows the latest victory in their determined efforts to accomplish these goals.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCmO4VeQfBc

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Social Networking Or Social Unrest

What do the following list of people have in common?

Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO, Amazon.com
Reid Hoffman,  Co-founder and Executive Chairman, LinkedIn
Chris R. Hughes, Co-founder, Facebook
Craig J. Mundie, Chief Research and Strategy Officer, Microsoft Corporation
Eric, Schmidt,  Executive Chairman, Google Inc.

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The Consequences of the Mississippi Flood and Ethanol

The price of corn hit a new record price today as the 2011 harvest has been compromised by the Mississippi River floodand the government’s unceasing penchant for making ethanol. We will be reading more stories on the continued consequences on the flood’s impact on other agricultural products including wheat and rice.

What does this mean to the American consumer? Higher costs for cereal, soft drinks and corn fed livestock. What does this mean for the rest of the world?

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