Winter always seems to linger & linger. The long awaited spring now upon us is enough to lift anyone’s spirits, especially here in the Northeast, where winters in general, the past one in particular, tend to be brutal. There seems to be a feeling of relief looking forward & hope of better days to come.

I’m trying! As the disaster in Japan, directly affecting the lives, safety & well being of its residents & neighbors, as well as the far-reaching & world-wide implications of unknown proportion become an aside & moved to the back page by msm, it cannot be ignored, at least by me.

News of Fukushima disaster all but vanishes leaving few lines to read between in favor of the typical frivolous fare (no, I didn’t watch the wedding). Our daily news, the important information we need, marginalized by mainstream media, scrubbed, sanitized, spun then spoonfed to the sheepled masses & gullible public.

We know this to be the standard. Nothing new & no surprises here. But when important news events are not being covered & information deliberately withheld, it becomes more noticable.

The msm news of continuing disaster in Japan which does reach us is delivered with the matter-of-fact calmness of a weather report. If not for the Gundersen’s regular & trustworthy reports we would be in the dark. We’re missing something but unsure of what that might be. We are aware this can’t be good, but how bad is it?

Four nuclear reactor containments, all in a neat row, looking like artillery-riddled bombed out buildings in a war zone from the explosions, fires, floods & resulting meltdowns serve to show the magnitude. What we do know of what is going on, is that it is still far from over. The latest report from Arnie shows the plan to cap the damage & contamination is inadequate & will probably not work.

Searching for other accurate & informed sources I stumbled upon “COTO Report”, my kind of news, hardhitting & edgy.

Recent claims regarding the time frame supplied by Japanese officials supposedly necessary to bring the present situation in Japan under control is nine months. A link to a website, blogger Lucas Whitefield Hickson, “Information Architect” out of Chicago provides a resource including many related links & information.

A recent blog post, first of three-part series, is an in-depth look at the first three of the next nine months. By analyzing the information & extrapolating from these sources he gives his take on what could be expected during this time frame.

Spotting Arnie Gundersen in his ‘tags cloud’, who he uses as a resource in other work, I knew I was on the right track.

Surviving Planet Earth in the Next 90 days…

April – July 2011 (3 Months)

Thanks to Rubicon Decision and SEH, without them this investigation wouldn’t be possible.

Earlier this week, TEPCO released its two step plan for bringing the Fukushima Daiichi emergency under control.  The plan is already in motion, and it has been stated that it will be completed within 9 months.

For everyone else, the question remains:

How will the world look in 9 months?

Japan undoubtedly will experience many more earthquakes, monsoons, and volcanic activity during the time required to bring the situation back under control.  It is unclear still how much radiation has been released, and an exact list of the radioactive isotopes that have been introduced to the environment is still not forthcoming.

http://lucaswhitefieldhixson.c…

This Sunday May 1st  it will be eight years since then-President George W. Bush made what is called an arrested landing (aircraft caught, stopped by tailhook and cable) on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln. Several hours later the huge carrier was maneuvered into the setting sun for perfect camera lighting so he could be filmed making his speech. Standing below a banner declaring Mission Accomplished Bush declared major combat operations in the Iraqi war were over.

He and his team had started a war and now he declared it was over.

The Nation’s Greg Mitchell has some of the gushing quotes heaped on the boy king by the fawning media. Here’s two that capture the insanity well:

Maureen Dowd in her column declared:  "Out bounded the cocky, rule-breaking, daredevil flyboy, a man navigating the Highway to the Danger Zone, out along the edges where he was born to be, the further on the edge, the hotter the intensity.

Chris Matthews on MSNBC called Bush a "hero" and boomed, "He won the war. He was an effective commander. Everybody recognizes that, I believe, except a few critics." He added: "Women like a guy who's president. Check it out. The women like this war. I think we like having a hero as our president. It's simple."

Mitchell also writes:

When Bush's jet landed on the aircraft carrier, American casualties stood at 139 killed and 542 wounded. That was over 4000 U.S. fatalities ago, and hundreds of thousands Iraqis.

Yes, as it happens, this is serious.

In case you hadn’t heard, two rich people got married in England today. If you’ve had any awareness of the celebrity news, as carried by every goddamn publication in the world, you already know this, even if you don’t know why you should give a rat’s ass about it.

I find it particularly mystifying that anyone in the United States, or any other civilized country, would care, and I’m not just grousing about it.

You see, a couple of hundred years ago some brave Americans stood up to an English king (well, he was German, really, like the current occupants, but he was the king of England) and announced what was at the time a radical proposition:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. . .

They view things differently over in England. They believe that a king or queen is entitled to rule by an accident of birth. Or, to be more specific, the English dogma is that the incumbent inbred king or queen, whoever he or she might be, is given authority by god to rule over the country.

When people, whether they be the yammering twits on the Today Show (Motto: “Just pretend you’re watching the news”) or the throngs of people lining the streets of England, celebrate or give any credence to the monarchy, they are saying that the Declaration of Independence is wrong. We’re not all created equal, some lucky few families are inherently superior to everybody else in the world. They deserve everything they have because they, well, just because.

So if you see me scowl or grimace at every mention of one more undistinguished rich guy marrying one more conventionally attractive woman, or when you express similar feelings of disgust, that’s standing up for American principles.

If the English are stupid enough to buy into their royalist ideology I can’t stand in their way, but the world will be better off when nobody claims or recognizes any title of royalty.

If you really must have a wedding fix this morning, consider one of the following after the flip (or add your own)…

Yeah…that will be us soon.  And meanwhile, who knows what the ghouls are up to?  This is one of my favorite poems.  If we ever learn to treat animals decently, maybe we’d have half a chance.  Well…

 The Animals

when you cut them open

you can not find

where this unconditional

love comes from

we have even tried

torture but they will not

give up their secrets

yet we know it is there

a product for enormous profit

you can see it in their eyes

when you tie them down

so far all we have are scents

and fashion statements

we need more government funds

imagine what we could do

with this power in their eyes

we would be like gods

a science from the heavens

the fools who picket our lab

do not understand

what we are all up against

our enemies are working too

whole species have disappeared

our time is running out

you can see it in their eyes

Peter Buknatski

Montpelier, Vt.

You know, there are moderate Republicans. There are even socially liberal folks who consider themselves Republicans due to their financial misconceptions or some sense of family or social-group loyalty. Not so many these days, but they’re out there – largely in Vermont, but still.

These must be bittersweet days for that crowd. The massive pendulum-power surge of their party is underway nationally (joy!)… but in the process, many of their party-mates around the nation are feeling unencumbered by the need to look civilized due to the euphoria of their newfound power. Here are some examples via TPM. One:

Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern (R) says that she’s seen “a lot of people of color who didn’t study hard because they said the government would take care of them.”

…Kern also claimed that “gays are infiltrating city councils” and gay people are “the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam, which I think is a big threat.”

Two:

“I gotta tell you something: if you support Medicare the way it is now, you can kiss the United States of America goodbye,” (GOP US Congressman from Florida Allen) West said

And then, of course, there’s this guy:

“Today I am very proud of myself because I have accomplished something that nobody else has been able to accomplish.”

Hey Moderate Rs: is it really worth empowering these types of people with your dollars, your votes, and your institutional allegiance? Really?

Senator Sanders hit the national airwaves hard yesterday, with a stint on the Rachel Maddow Show and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Here are a couple videos for those who missed it (sorry, can’t help the ads in these network embeds)

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

UPDATE: Blue Mass Group is also covering this.

A reasonable approach to an increasingly difficult matter, or a midnight power grab by a cabal of political Judases, turning on their erstwhile constituents (see “Corporate Lawyer Chides Union Reps for Language” by esteemed BMGer sabutai)

 I would say the answer is obvious.

Is anyone following this?

House lawmakers voted overwhelmingly last night to strip police officers, teachers, and other municipal employees of most of their rights to bargain over health care, saying the change would save millions of dollars for financially strapped cities and towns.

I don't have many ties to Massachusetts, but WTF is a majority Democratic legislature doing to screw union workers out of their collective bargaining rights?

( – promoted by Sue Prent)

Russia Today: Gundersen First to Say Fukushima Worse than Chernobyl from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.

April 27th was the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident. Six weeks ago, when Gundersen first appeared on Russia Today, he said that Fukushima would be “Chernobyl on steroids”.  Japanese authorities are now admitting Chernobyl-level releases as the plant continues to leak radioactive gases and liquids

.

Again, and I know I’m not alone here, extremely grateful for the continuing updates as surely it is alot of work for the Gundersens. “Labor of love”, none of which they are paid to do.

To those following the Entergy/VY continuing saga, Mr. Gundersen has become well known for an uncanny ability to foretell events & partly why his information is highly regarded. And so, this most recent one that Fukushima would be “Chernobyl on steroids”, comes as no surprise.

As writer-turned-senator Phillip Baruth, D-Chittenden district remarked recently:

“Post-Japan, everyone wants Gundersen’s number, because our reactor down in Vernon is the same make and generation as those melting down across the Pacific. And Arnie has called every major debacle at Vermont Yankee over the last six years, one after the other after the other. Collapsing cooling tower? Check. Underground piping, both existence of and tritium pluming from? Double check.”

http://vermontdailybriefing.co…

One year ago to the day, Mr. Baruth posted a story to his blog, “Vermont Daily Briefing” revealing yet another inconvenient truth discovered by Arnie, this time it’s a state-of-the-art new reactor, the Westinghouse AP1000:

“[..]the whole structure is in effect a 130-foot high chimney, radioactivity could then be vented directly into the atmosphere.”

China has snapped them up & reportedly has 5 AP1000s under construction, and one more firmly planned, but I digress.

http://vermontdailybriefing.co…

Once again, Mr. Gundersen calls it as he sees it which was in fact yet another prediction,  Fukushima “Chernobyl on steroids”, present disaster worse than Chernobyl. Interestingly, events unfolding precisely at the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. The catastrophic events at Fukushima Daiichi in Japan continue.