Nuclear (Again!)

                                                                                                     written 18 September 2022

                                                                                                 published 25 September 2022

                                                          

            The climate crisis recently delivered record breaking heat, threatening the California electricity grid, creating official panic after decades of denial.  One manifestation was the sudden, last minute extension of the operating permit for the Diablo Canyon nuclear complex.

            A recent UDJ editorial described nuclear power as renewable (false), although the actual electricity produced is non carbon.  However, a whole life assessment shows a nuclear plant releases as much carbon as a natural gas peaker plant, when considering the energy used in mining and enriching the uranium, the production of concrete and steel, and the construction of the plant.  That doesn't include the carbon released in decommissioning a large plant (never been done yet), nor the centuries of high level nuclear waste disposal (also never been done yet).

            Nuclear energy is the most expensive electricity on the market today, part of why the industry is declining.  The Diablo Canyon facility has two 1100MW, Westinghouse reactors, each contains 4500 tons of enriched uranium.  When uranium fissions (splits), energy is released and fission byproducts are created.  These byproducts degrade the energy efficiency of the fuel, requiring fuel replacement after five years, even though only 5 percent of the uranium has been consumed.  Enriched uranium has low levels of radiation, but once the fuel contains fission byproducts, the radiation levels are dangerously high, with the potential to kill a human within minutes.  With no disposal site available, this "spent" fuel is stored on site, with 43,000 tons now at the Diablo Canyon facility.  Nuclear power is not only expensive, it has serious consequences if anything fails.  The nuclear industry assures us they have it "all under control", but reality differs.

            The Fukushima nuclear complex had six General Electric reactors go online in 1971.  The 2011 quake generated a 30' high tsunami, which flooded the emergency cooling pumps, leading to reactor cores melting, with subsequent hydrogen explosions, in the three units operating at the time.  While the wind was blowing mostly offshore to the east, highly radioactive contamination was detected 150 miles south in Tokyo.  The full extent of the reactor damages are still unknown, but repair costs are expected to exceed $1T.

            Design for the Diablo Canyon reactor complex began in 1965, with construction beginning in 1968.  It was known that the San Andreas fault was 45 miles to the east, but in 1969 the Hosgri fault was discovered 2.5 miles to the west, requiring plant redesign. 

The units went online in 1985, with final costs increasing from $376M to $5.5B.  In 2008 the Shoreline fault was discovered less than a mile to the west.  The National Regulatory Commission, with the contradictory goals of both regulating nuclear power and promoting it, voted 3-2 that the design was "good enough".  In 2015, the Diablo Cove fault was discovered, which runs directly under the foundation of the facility.   

            Normal reactor design life is about 40 years, and PG&E had been planning to shutdown in 2025, due to failing economics and expensive upgrades required because intense radiation makes metal brittle and weak.  In addition, the wrong welding rod was used during construction, further increasing risk of embrittlement.  A recent UDJ article argued that the expected seismic movements on the various known faults were adequately calculated in the plant design, but there is no public assessment of how the reactors have been degraded by embrittlement.  PG&E says their reactor embrittlement report is "proprietary", even though a seismic or thermal shock could cause massive failure.  San Francisco is 240 miles north, Los Angeles is 150 miles south, and Central Valley agriculture is 100 miles east.  As a long standing gift to the nuclear industry, no insurance written covers losses due to nuclear contamination.  None!   

            The recent 5 year extension agreement provides an initial $1.4B payment, with an open check for further upgrades, paid for by all California ratepayers, with all work exempt from California Environmental Quality Act.

            We are being asked to choose between killing the planet with carbon or risking wide spread nuclear contamination from an aging, compromised reactor.  We can choose "none of the above".  The recent threat to the grid was avoided by timely reduction of demand.  Like cranky infants, we want electricity whenever we want it.  Perhaps we can learn to live within our power income, living more modestly when required, while we create a safe, sustainable power system.

 

 

 

Awakened Activism

                                                                                                     written 11 September 2022

                                                                                                 published 18 September 2022

 

            Humanity is in the midst of an evolution of consciousness, emerging from the illusion of separation, awakening to unity reality.  The climate crisis demands a unity response.

            As climate destruction breaks new records, climate action is hindered primarily not by deniers and skeptics, but by business and political "leaders" who support only incremental solutions, saying we can’t move too quickly lest we disrupt the economic order.  But as Swami Beyondananda says: "With no livable Earth, there is no GDP."  Decades of corporate greed wasted the opportunity for gradual change.  Avoiding collapse now requires radical change and radical thinking, with new forms of activism.  

            Patricia Pearce, in her 24 August 2022 WE Awakening podcast, describes old school activism as a type of toxic energy, using domination and violence in the streets to accomplish ends.  An awakened activism needs to be visionary, speaking to the heart, presenting what is possible, inspiring each person to unifying their temporal and eternal parts. She presents the image, "when chopping wood, aim for the chopping block, not the firewood."  Clara Vondrich, published in Resilience, 25 August 2022, describes the aim as "quantum social change".

            "This [r]evolutionary new academic discipline, pioneered by social scientist Karen O’Brien, PhD, panpsychologist Zhiwa Woodbury, science journalist Lynn McTaggart, and others, suggests that the mind-bending principles that describe the subatomic world are also relevant to our daily lives.  Just as quantum physics disrupted our view of matter and energy, smashing the Newtonian paradigm of a fixed physical reality, quantum social change disrupts our beliefs about what’s possible, how fast, and by whom.  Albert Einstein said: We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them."

            The world of quantum mechanics demonstrates Entanglement and Non-locality, Complementarity, Potentiality and Indeterminacy. 

            Entanglement occurs when a group interacts in such a way that they become interconnected, even when separated by a large distance.  Non-locality means this interconnection transcends space/time.  It has been demonstrated that not only is matter non-local, but consciousness is as well. 

            However, unfettered individualism, rooted in the illusion of separation, is behind the destruction of human rights, the rise of domination autocracy, the decimation of Indigenous cultures, and the unrestrained plundering of the natural world.  In contrast, community and connection are proven to insulate us from stress, give our lives meaning and allow us to be part of something “bigger.”  The more entangled we are, the better we seem to do.

            For example, the divestment movement to pull money out of coal, oil, and gas started slowly in 2012.  Ten years later, 1,500 institutions have divested assets exceeding $40 trillion.  Once the idea was planted, campaigns popped up simultaneously all over the world.  What we do has far-flung, unseen, and unexpected consequences.  The connective quality of computer technology, totally dependent on quantum hardware, is a great demonstration of non-locality today.

            Complementarity holds that objects behave as either particles or waves, depending on how they are observed.  As humans, we each exist as both individuals and as cells in the meta-organism that is Gaia.  This means that we all have agency to join in and help power social movements.  When complementarity is nurtured, “I” becomes “we” and our capacity for change grows exponentially.

            Quantum potentiality, different from classical probability, means many possible outcomes all exist simultaneously.  Indeterminacy means nothing is fixed.  Nothing is predictable.  A higher order can quite suddenly emerge from apparent chaos.  A radical shift from our current trajectory is always possible.  In a chaotic world, the right catalyst creates unpredictable outcomes, and quantum leaps (non-linear changes) are possible when people and movements embrace potentiality and the hope it can bring.  

            With a naive understanding of space/time, our ignorant arrogance is killing the planet for the profit of a few.  The climate crisis demands our awakening to the infinite possibilities of our quantum paradigm; the unstoppable power of individuals within a collective.  As we allow ourselves to experience this quantum reality, awakening from the Newtonian delusion of separate "self", we help shift our society toward manifesting the deeper unity.  We all have this power, because we arise out of this unity.  When a bubble pops, the surface thins, and then ruptures at a single spot, which propagates throughout the entire structure.  Every moment of individual practice of unity awareness is an active force toward thinning the illusion of separation.  This is awakened activism.

 

 

Flooding

                                                                                                      written 4 September 2022

                                                                                                published 11 September 2022

 

            One of the consequences of the disrupted climate is wild swings in the weather.  For example, this summer, Dallas, Texas has been suffering from heat and drought conditions that have threatened the integrity of their electric grid.  Wildfires burned through a Dallas suburb a month ago, destroying 15 homes.  Two weeks later, that same area was flooded when a record breaking 15" of rain fell in 24 hours.  Such massive rainfall is considered a 1,000 year event, but was intensely localized, with only 2" falling just 25 miles away.  Roads turned into rivers, a State of Emergency was declared, hundreds of flights were cancelled, and one person died. 

            A similar 1,000 year flood hit Jackson, the capitol of Mississippi, population 153,000.  In August, almost 13" fell in four days, about three time their normal monthly rainfall.  Decades of structural racism had underfunded the city, causing decaying infrastructure, with 40 percent of treated water lost due to broken pipes and inefficient equipment.  Consequently, the sudden influx of rainwater adversely impacted the city's water treatment plant, slowing down water production at the plant to the point of collapse.  Throughout the entire city, there is now insufficient water volume, or quality, to fight fires, flush toilets, drink, cook or bathe.  What city water is available must be boiled before use.

            But flooding this August was not limited to the United States, and the worst has been in Pakistan, population 230 million.  Since June, it has been raining for over 3 months, and monsoon storms have occurred twice as often as usual, delivering 5 times as much rain.  This was on top of a record breaking heat wave from March to June, hitting 124°F at times, which caused massive glacier melt in the northern part of the country.  The monsoon inundation caused many of the glacial melt lakes to burst their bounds, adding to the downstream disaster. 

            All of Pakistan is affected, but the south and northwest were hit the hardest.  One third of the country is now flooded, displacing 33 million people, leaving 20 million homeless, with 1,200 dead so far.  In the northwestern mountainous region, roads, bridges, and building have been destroyed, as raging rivers flowed through normal city streets.  The southern portion is now a flooded lake, destroying the agricultural output of the country, which used to export rice, wheat, and sugar.  

            This flooding, the largest in living memory, is expected to cost more than $10B.  Already a poor country, Pakistan is now dealing with not only the massive infrastructure destruction but a huge population that has lost everything, with no food, shelter, or potable water.  The flood waters are contaminated with raw sewage and chemicals, insect populations have exploded, and water borne diseases are spreading rapidly.

            This kind of inundation is referred to as an "atmospheric river".  The warming atmosphere and oceans increase the volume of water carried in these systems.  A recent study from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography indicates that flooding damages from these events now cost more than $1B per year in the 11 western American states.  Lead author Tom Corringham said, “The threat of a megaflood in the western United States is very real.  As atmospheric rivers become more intense, flood damages are on track to triple by the end of the century, but the impacts will be felt sooner."  

            The California counties identified most at risk of increased flood damages are Sonoma, Yuba, Sacramento, and Los Angeles.  Reductions in greenhouse gas emissions could reduce damages, as would investment in floodplain restoration and flood-managed aquifer recharge.  The researchers project that, if no action is taken, expected atmospheric river related flood damages will increase by 10 percent each decade until the 2050s, rising more steeply as the century progresses.

            But the damage could be much larger.  In 1861, it rained in California for 43 days, flooding more than 3/4 of the California Central Valley, taking 6 months to drain away.  This was the first such event since the Europeans had arrived, but subsequent research has shown they happen every 150-200 years.  Climate change will make things worse.

            It's hard for humans to consider low probability, high risk future events such as the adverse impacts of climate change, and our economy is oriented toward short term benefits.  Although we can now see the problem, are we wise enough to make the effort?

 

 

Heat And Drought

                                                                                                         written 28 August 2022

                                                                                                  published 4 September 2022

     

            So far this summer, we in California have been fortunate, with none of the massive fires that have defined "summer" for the last half decade.  However, heat and drought have hit extremes all over the planet, affecting not only the US, but Europe and China.

            The decline of the Colorado River leaves Lake Mead and Lake Powell at 25 percent of capacity, affecting water supplies for over 40 million people.  Since 80 percent of the water goes to agriculture, this will affect food production. The Northeast had a "flash drought", very intense and destructive regional heating.

            Heat in Texas has stressed their electrical system to the point of rolling cutbacks to preserve grid integrity.  The Austin area had over 35 days of triple digit heat, with lows above 88°.  Throughout the mid-west, crops are dying in the fields, and livestock is being culled due to lack of water and feed.  Hydroelectric production is reduced and thermal power plants are affected by lack of water for steam production.  

            In Europe, heatwaves are hitting countries like England, which rarely experience such heat and don't have widespread air conditioning.  Major rivers in France, Germany, and Italy are so low that barge transportation is severely curtailed, and nuclear power plants have to shut down due to lack of cooling water.  Salt water intrusion up river is killing fish populations.

            China is having such a widespread heat and drought that large portions of their manufacturing infrastructure have shut down due to lack of water, depressing the global economy, and crop losses are beginning to threaten Chinese food security.

            Despite what climate deniers want you to believe, the climate crisis is already here.  More distressing, there is a decade long time lag between when carbon dioxide is injected into the atmosphere and when the temperature reflects that increase.  Half the carbon dioxide humans have emitted during the industrial revolution has come in just the last 30 years.  That means we are already committed to another 15 percent increase in warming, and every year we continue to add even more carbon dioxide.  As one climate researcher put it, "this isn't just the hottest year to date, but is the coolest year for the rest of your life." 

            Sarah Trent, wrote the following in the 25 August, 2022 High Country News; 

"Climate change is causing overnight lows to rise at a faster clip than daytime highs.  Human mortality rates will rise, because people don’t sleep as well in heat and their bodies are less able to recover from daytime heat stress."

            "Staple crop yields will shrink: rice, corn and wheat yields will all drop by 5 percent to 40 percent because plants, like people and animals, require a state of rest at night.  Fruit, vegetables and wine will change, because many require cool nights to develop the qualities and flavors people like."

            "Invasive species will continue to expand northward, because the coldest winter temperatures won’t kill as many of them.  Even more salmon and trout will die, because night temperatures play an outsized role in keeping rivers cool.  Wildfires will get harder to fight, because nighttime fire activity is on the rise."

            Weather and health experts are beginning to categorize heat waves, making it possible to warn people in advance.  A tentative system has been implemented in Spain, after their heat experience this summer.  Category 0: High temperatures: health risk for vulnerable communities.  Category 1: Very high temperatures: avoid prolonged exposure to heat, inform vulnerable community members.  Category 2: Exceptionally high temperature: health risks, take precautions, prepare to help most vulnerable.  Category 3: Extreme temperatures: major health risk, take maximum precautions.  The specifics will vary by location, based not only on temperature, but also humidity.  A recent Harvard report indicated lethal heat days will increase by a factor of ten in the next 30 years, making working outdoors more difficult, particularly in the tropics.

            The coal mine canaries are all dead, and alarms have been ringing for decades, yet the world is still more concerned with partisan politics and increased economic consumption, oblivious to the fact that all this is at risk of collapse.  If there is any chance of avoiding the worst of what is already in motion, we will have to act decisively and globally, starting now.  We have squandered the opportunity for gradual changes.  Are we up for it?

 

 

 

Shifting Toward Violence

                                                                                                         written 21 August 2022

                                                                                                     published 28 August 2022

                                                                                                 

            A Utah based pro-Trump group, fundraising by selling apparel, was recently fined for replacing "Made In China" tags with "Made In USA" tags.  The grift and fraud were not remarkable, but I was struck by the T-shirt slogan: "Give Violence A Chance".  Haven't thousands of years of violence been enough to show the abject failure of this path?  America was designed as a system for the peaceful resolution of differences.  Granted, this works better in theory than in practice, but why the push for violent overthrow?

            J. Keplar, writing in the 7 August, 2022 Daily Kos, lays out why the Republicans, formally a party of law and order, increasingly advocate for violence.  He addresses it in a series of five questions and answers, excerpted here.

            "Q1: Why did Republicans become so extreme?"

            "A1: Because they wished to tap into the fears of white, rural and small-town Americans against a changing nation."

            "Q2: Why did they want to tap into this fear?"

            "A2: Because fear and rage more reliably turn out voters.  No matter its source, and no matter how 'illegitimate' the fear’s foundations may seem, the fear itself is real and it has an impact."

            "Q3: Why do they use these tactics?"

            "A3: Because emotion clouds reason.  Strong emotions short circuit our ability to think long-term and more rationally about the information presented.  This has the effect of making the lie more believable, and the truth feel more dangerous.  Similar to a drug, the longer you use this tactic the more of it you have to use to get the same effect.  The GOP's positions have become progressively more irrational and indefensible."

            "Q4: Why don't they want voters to use reason?"

            "A4: Because they might notice the policies the GOP are pursuing are not for the benefit of a majority of the voters, their communities or the country as a whole.  Strong majorities support reducing fossil fuel usage, stricter gun control laws, and keeping abortion legal, all opposed by Republicans.  In a clear-eyed democracy, the party promoting the more popular policies would have the upper hand.  But a large portion of the populace isn’t clear-eyed, due to tactics that keep them from fully understanding the costs and consequences of their votes."

            "Q5: Why don't they want to pursue policies that would benefit the majority of their voters?"

            "A5: Because the majority of their voters at not providing the majority of their funding.  Upton Sinclair said, 'It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it'.  No other quote seems to encapsulate the psychology at work within the GOP.  While this situation is not unique to the Republicans, it is not accurate simply to say 'both sides do it'.  The GOP have deliberately pursued funding sources that have driven them to extremes to which there are no comparisons on the left.  This has resulted in a process of artificial selection over the decades, where the party funnels the most support to the most extreme candidates in every election.  Each generation becomes more willing to go further to put party line above principles and ignore the consequences to their country and their constituents."            Keplar concludes, "the GOP is being driven to greater and greater extremism due to the party’s desire for ever more money, power and influence in the midst of the dwindling popularity of their policies."

            We are experiencing the conflict between separation and unity.  The illusion of separation, which necessarily demonizes the other, is fundamental to a mindset of violence.  Only very sick people do violence to themselves.  Capitalism is based on the illusion of separation and exclusive gain.  Jeff Bazos is worth more than $387,000 for every hour he has been alive.  Society defines him as a success, but how can that be beneficial for the rest of us, or the planet?  

            Every day, the ravages of the climate crisis are becoming more obvious.  This is the unity of realty demanding acknowledgement for the centuries of ignorance and planetary violence.  We may have only a decade to make changes significant enough to maintain our technological society, yet 100 percent of Senate Republicans refused to support any effort to make those changes.  That is not party over country, but party over sanity.  The only question is: how sane are the majority of US voters?

  

 

 

Inflation

                                                                                                         written 14 August 2022

                                                                                                     published 21 August 2022

                                                                                                 

              Price inflation is the result of changes in three factors: currency value, demand, and supply.

            In 1963, my mother bought a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom tract house in San Diego for $14,000, which Zillow values today at $688,800, almost a 5,000 percent increase.  Despite being remodeled over time, the house is still the same basic structure on the same sized parcel as it was in 1963.  Some of the increase in the price is due to the steady decline in the value of the dollar since 1972.

            Demand is the second factor affecting pricing.  In the 1940's, there were 2 billion people on the planet, and we will hit 8 billion this November.  California has experienced the same four fold increase.  But demand has increased even faster than population growth would indicate.  

            The entire economy had shifted to massive war time production during World War 2, and there was concern about returning to recession after the war.  To avoid this, the government changed us from "citizens" to "consumers", pushing everyone to buy more goods to keep the economy humming.  The GI bill funded education and low interest home loans, making the transition relatively painless.  Everyone was eager to start families and live the American Dream.  

            Because capitalism defines itself in terms of growth, demand must increase even if the population is stable.  US consumers take a quarter of the global economy, while making up less than 5 percent of the global population.  Since we advertise our standard of living all over the world, everyone wants to live more like an American, making hyper-consumption a global force.  Unfortunately, we live in the real world, with finite boundaries and resources.

            Supply is the third factor in pricing.  One of the flaws of capitalism is the assumption that the "free market" balances everything out.  When demand exceeds supply, the price goes up, reducing the demand.  This is satisfactory for some items, but is unacceptable for essentials, such as clean air, potable water, healthy food, adequate housing, or affordable health care.  When the demand for these exceeds the supply, people begin to die, or go to war.

            For millions of years, Earth's annual biological productivity supported all life forms.  In the 1970's, when global human population hit 4 billion, we exceeded that productivity limit.  Since then, we have begun consuming the fundamental biosphere of the planet, in addition to the declining annual harvest.  We have increased our population and per-capita consumption by driving other species to extinction, and now risk our own extinction as well.  At today's level of consumption, we use 1.75 times the annual productivity of the planet.  If everyone consumed like Americans, it would take 5 Earth's to support us.  Part of the denial of capitalism is that there is little value assigned to the future, so this over consumption is not factored into the pricing structure until part of the system crashes completely.  We are beginning to see the economic consequences of a system long out of balance with reality.

            Take the recent rise in the price of gasoline as an example.  Oil is a limited resource, but we assume we will always "find" more when our current supply diminishes.  Most of the land based "conventional" oil has been found in about 120 large fields, which have produced for decades.  But new discoveries fell behind consumption rates over 50 years ago, and most of those large fields are now in steep decline or are already depleted.  Newer, "unconventional" oil is found in much smaller quantities, where production declines in a few years, demanding new developments and increasing costs.

            Conventional oil production peaked in 2005.  To fill demand, US fracking boomed, despite increased costs.  Money poured into fracking on the hope it would "turn around", but $30B was lost in a decade.  By 2018, all oil production had peaked.  The recent sanctions from the Russian invasion of Ukraine cut about 10 percent from the global market.  Prices rose abruptly because no other country could increase production to cover that loss.  We have a limited supply of our most common energy source.  The issue is not really price, but availability. 

            Like a naive spendthrift, we have been burning through our finite inheritance of stored solar energy.  If we are lucky, we will make the shift to prudent living on our annual solar income, but time is running out.

Showing True Colors

                                                                                                          written 7 August 2022

                                                                                                    published 14 August 2022

                                                                                                 

            Such interesting times!  Reality is demanding we look deep inside and decide from our heart who we are as a nation.   

            Climate deniers are twisting into pretzels to ignore the heat, fires, and floods that are destroying communities and portions of the economy everywhere.  Extreme heat has increased in extent and duration, hitting parts of the country not tooled up with wide spread air conditioning, killing people, crops, and livestock while disrupting the economy.  Fires in the west have been relatively modest, so far, with nothing like the million acres California blazes of the last few years.  However, there is a new fire east of Eureka and over 100 fires are currently burning in Alaska.  

            The flooding in the east just keeps coming.  This is the result of the wide swings of a jet stream weakened by higher Arctic temperatures, combined with massive moisture from a warmer ocean coming from the monsoons in the southwest and the regular input from the Gulf of Mexico.  The Gulf is so warm that any hurricanes that come through there could accelerate from category 1 to category 4 within a matter of hours, giving little warning.

            Most Republican "leaders" still proclaim it is all a hoax, and oppose any efforts to do anything different.  Not to be outdone, corporate Democrats like Senator Manchin, with coal wealth, held up climate progress to allow more oil and gas production, and Senator Sinema, funded by Wall Street, protected wealthy hedge fund managers rather than her constituents.

            But the oil industry already knows the end game is near, and exhibits little interest in developing new oil leases.  These multi-decade projects are financially risky, because new fields are more expensive to develop, since the easiest oil has already been produced and depleted.  What we see instead are massive corporate stock buy backs, using the extreme profits from high oil prices to pay off stockholders while there is still value left in the industry.  The fossil fuel corporations have known for decades that they are killing the planet, but they don't care.

            After decades of effort, the Republican packed Supreme Court overturned the right to abortion.  They rarely campaigned on the issue overtly, except when speaking to the faithful, while assuring the general population that they accepted the established legal precedent.  The three Trump Court appointees skillfully avoided declaring their abortion positions to get through the Senate confirmation process.  However, once on the bench, forming a solid 6-3 majority, they ignored the popular support for abortion and overturned 50 years of legal rights, simply because they wanted to.  Suddenly, people are reacting to the reality of dealing with a forced pregnancy, not just the possibility.  

            I was encouraged by the abortion vote in Kansas, where Trump had won by 15 percent in 2020, but a solid 59 percent supported keeping abortion legal.  The Republicans tried to sneak this through in a minor election year, during a Republican primary, expecting mostly Republican voters.  The outcome was the result of hard work by abortion rights supporters to make sure they got out the vote, suggesting the election this fall could be quite different from a typical midterm election.  

            Republicans have also exposed their fundamental fascist inclinations.  The recent week long, Fox News tribute to Hungarian fascist president Victor Orbán, followed by Orbán's keynote address to the Conservative Political Action Committee, shows the party's extreme disrespect for democratic traditions.  Authoritarian 2020 election deniers have become the Republican primary winners in many states, and a significant portion of the party believes QAnon conspiracies.  Fascism incites violence, and per capita murder rates in states Trump won are 40 percent higher than blue states.  The election this fall will determine if this is really the will of America, or just a very vocal, crazy subset, destined for abject failure.

            As I have stated in several previous articles, I believe that America is better than what Republican extremism represents.  Winston Churchill once said, "you can always count on the Americans to do the right thing, after they have exhausted all the other possibilities."  Not very complimentary, but hopeful in the end.  We have accepted decades of self-serving principles from the post Reagan Republicans; greed is good and government is bad.  But now the social bankruptcy and cruelty of those limited views are open for all to see.  It's time for something different.