RattlerGator Blog

America, Again

While racing through some of the morning papers and websites, I ran across this article in the London Telegraph, World Power Swings Back to America. Here's a representative sampling:

As Cleveland Fed chief Sandra Pianalto said last week, US manufacturing is "very competitive" at the current dollar exchange rate. Whether intended or not, the Fed's zero rates and $2.3 trillion printing blitz have brought matters to an abrupt head for China.

Fed actions confronted Beijing with a Morton's Fork of ugly choices: revalue the yuan, or hang onto the mercantilist dollar peg and import a US monetary policy that is far too loose for a red-hot economy at the top of the cycle. Either choice erodes China's wage advantage. The Communist Party chose inflation.

Foreign exchange effects are subtle. They take a long to time play out as old plant slowly runs down, and fresh investment goes elsewhere. Yet you can see the damage to Europe from an over-strong euro in foreign direct investment (FDI) data.

Flows into the EU collapsed by 63 [percent] from 2007 to 2010 (UNCTAD data), and fell by 77 [percent] in Italy. Flows into the US rose by 5 [percent].

The current China fixation is the "Japan, Inc." phenomenon from the 1980s all over again with a major, extended worldwide recession thrown in right now, rather than looming on the horizon. I haven't been able to watch this video (embedding of the video has been disallowed) from one of the authors of the book that serves as much of the basis for the article, The American Phoenix: And Why China and Europe Will Struggle After the Coming Slump, but I'm sure it's an interesting five minutes.

Rarely is it a good bet to wager against the United States of America. However, as the article concludes:

The switch in advantage to the US is relative. It does not imply a healthy US recovery. The global depression will grind on as much of the Western world tightens fiscal policy and slowly purges debt, and as China deflates its credit bubble.

Yet America retains a pack of trump cards, and not just in sixteen of the world’s top twenty universities.

It is almost the only economic power with a fertility rate above 2.0 - and therefore the ability to outgrow debt - in sharp contrast to the demographic decay awaiting Japan, China, Korea, Germany, Italy, and Russia.

Europe's EMU soap opera has shown why it matters that America is a genuine nation, forged by shared language and the ancestral chords of memory over two centuries, with institutions that ultimately work and a real central bank able to back-stop the system.

The 21st Century may be American after all, just like the last.

Hubba Hubba !!!

Turning the Corner at Fukushima?

UPDATE:

Yes, we have apparently turned the corner in this fight to neutralize the nuclear reactors. Read this dispatch from M.I.T. NSE.

* * * * *

This is the latest update from just after midnight last night via the folks at the Nuclear Science and Engineering program at M.I. T. in Cambridge, Massachusetts:

UPDATE AS OF 9:00 P.M. EDT, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16:

 Crews began aerial water spraying operations from helicopters to cool reactor 3 at Fukushima Daiichi shortly before 9 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, March 16. The operation was planned for the previous day, but was postponed because of high radiation levels at the plant. News sources said temperatures at reactor 3 were rising. Each helicopter is capable of releasing 7.5 tons of water.

Spokesmen for TEPCO and Japan's regulatory agency, Nuclear and Industry Safety Agency, on March 17 Japan time refuted reports that there was a complete loss of cooling water in the used fuel pool at Fukushima Daiichi reactor 4.

The spokesmen said the situation at reactor 4 has changed little during the day today and water remained in the fuel pool. However, both officials said that the reactor had not been inspected in recent hours.

"We can't get inside to check, but we've been carefully watching the building's environs, and there has not been any particular problem," said TEPCO spokesman Hajime Motojuku.

At about 7 p.m. EDT, NISA spokesman Takumi Koyamada said the temperature reading from the used fuel pool on Wednesday was 84 degrees Celsius and that no change had been reported since then. Typically, used uranium fuel rods are stored in deep water pools at temperatures of about 30 degrees Celsius.

Recent radiation levels measured at the boundary of the Fukushima Daiichi plant have been dropping steadily over the past 12 hours, Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said on Wednesday night (U.S. time).

At 4 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, a radiation level of 75 millirem per hour was recorded at the plant's main gate. At 4 p.m. EDT, the reading at one plant site gate was 34 millirem per hour. By comparison, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's annual radiation dose limit for the public is 100 millirem. Radiation readings are being taken every 30 minutes.

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yukio Edano, said earlier today a radiation level of 33 millirem per hour was measured about 20 kilometers from the Fukushima Daiichi plant earlier this morning. He said that level does not pose an immediate health risk.

Edano said that TEPCO has resumed efforts to spray water into the used fuel pool at the damaged reactor 4.

TEPCO also continues efforts to restore offsite power to the plant, with up to 40 workers seeking to restore electricity to essential plant systems by Thursday morning, March 17.

http://nei.cachefly.net/newsandevents/information-on-the-japanese-earthquake-and-reactors-in-that-region/

The Wall Street Journal confirms the report, but suggests an external power line will be connected on Thursday afternoon (local time).

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704261504576205363484153564.html

Godspeed to all involved. Best-case scenario, obviously, is if that external power line is, in fact, connected today or tonight.

The Hate for Sarah Palin

I'm inspired to memorialize a fantastic post on my blog so that I'll have easy reference to it in the future, *and* because I'm inspired by the evident hatred tossed in the direction of one Sarah Palin. Therefore, I'm going to post the blog I'm referencing in full and insert a few comments along the way. 

So, what post? Mark Levin decided to write a necessary (and truly outstanding) post on the outrageous slandering campaign against Sarah Palin. Here's Levin's first line:

The corporate hate for Sarah Palin at Politico is obvious.  The latest is here. 

It's not just Politico, obviously. But they are quite representative of the odd and visceral negative response to her. I've seen a similar reaction to Congressman Allen West. Very interesting, don't you think?

But if you google Politico and Palin, the evidence of a Politico agenda is overwhelming.  And the manner in which Politico's editors pursue their hate-Palin agenda is to cherry-pick the individuals they quote to make the point they want made.

The fear they have of her is palpable. The junior-high derision of her intellectual capabilities is quite telling. Levin, however, reaches back to describe the lay of the land, especially for those far too young to remember when this playbook was last *best* utilized.

A couple of quick things: 1. As I demonstrated last week, remarkably George Will missed the Reagan Revolution not only in 1976 but as late as 1980.  In the 1979 Republican Presidential Primary, his first choice was Howard Baker, his second choice was George H. W. Bush, and his third choice was Reagan.  Not until days before the 1980 general election did he write on November 3, 1980 that Reagan deserved election.  For all his wonderful columns, the Republican electorate better understood the needs of the nation and the excellence of a potential Reagan presidency than Will.  It is hard to believe he was so wrong about a matter of such great import, despite Reagan's presence on the national scene for many years. 

My, my. Context required, context provided. It was used, and used quite well (I was on the other political side at the time) but it did not prevail. Keep the faith, Sarah.

2. Charles Krauthammer was not only wrong about Reagan, as late as 1980 he was a speech-writer for Vice President Walter Mondale.  Krauthammer, like Will, not only missed the significance of the Reagan candidacy, but was putting words in the mouth of a terribly flawed politician from a philosophical perspective. I certainly do not begrudge, but in fact encourage, liberals becoming conservatives or Democrats becoming Republicans.  Reagan was a Democrat who famously changed parties.  But I do not believe that individuals touted by a left-wing "news" site as two of the leading conservative intellectuals, who stunningly opposed Reagan's candidacy while both were of mature age and mind, are necessarily reliable barometers in this regard.  The "non-intellectual" voters knew better.

Hmmm, I resemble the transition Krauthammer made, so to speak, but I didn't know that particular factoid about Charles Krauthammer. That makes Levin's point a very valuable one for me.

3. It is apparent that several of President George W. Bush's former senior staffers are hostile to Sarah Palin, including Karl Rove, David Frum, and Pete Wehner, to name only three.  Pete is a good friend and a very smart guy.  That said, Bush's record, at best, is marginally conservative, and depending on the issue, worse.

I'm on record as loving Dubya. I still do, and will forever defend him as President. That loyalty is primarily due to his steadfast and clear understanding of his job as Commander-in-Chief. Plus, he always seemed to be an eminently decent guy to me. So did his father. His aides are individuals, and they surely will have their own political points-of-view.

In fact, the Tea Party movement is, in part, a negative reaction to Bush's profligate spending (including his expansion of a bankrupt Medicare program to include prescription drugs).  And while Bush's spending comes nowhere near Barack Obama's, that is not the standard. 

True. I still say you govern with the Congress you're given, and since it is Congress that appropriates -- and when you must govern first as a wartime Commander-in-Chief (9/11 mandated this to Dubya) and, as a result, you desperately need real appropriations to properly prosecute necessary military action -- the spending under Dubya's administration is not his true fault but is, instead, something of a historical necessity, required by circumstances. That's my honest opinion on the matter, but I do have a greater understanding and appreciation these days of the conservative critique against Dubya.

Moreover, Bush was not exactly among our most articulate presidents, let alone conservative voices.  I raise this not to compare Bush to Palin, but to point out only a few of the situational aspects of the criticism from the Bush community corner.  (If necessary, and if challenged, I will take the time to lay out the case in all its particulars, as well as other non-conservative Bush policies and statements.  No Republican president is perfect, of course, but certainly some are more perfect that others, if you will.)

Understood. And I think I understand what Levin is getting at with respect to the curious "situational aspect" of the disdain coming from some of the Bush crowd. It's much the same as I felt toward Peggy Noonan (very much part of the Reagan crowd) and her curious bashing of Palin in the 2008 campaign.

This is not to say the folks cherry-picked by Politico are without accomplishment and merit.  They clearly are accomplished.  But that's not the point.  Most were not involved in either the Reagan Revolution or the Tea Party movement, and were not, to the best of my knowledge, early outspoken supporters of either.  

Exactly.

What is necessary is a fulsome debate on each candidate's substance and policy positions.  Most of these Politico stories are little more than excuses to attack Palin, intended to damage her early on in case she should decide to run.  This has been going on for some time now. 

Absolutely true. They have been desperately trying to knee-cap her since she first arrived on the national stage. This was obvious from the very beginning but absolutely made clear after she made the brilliant decision to step down as Governor and therey deny these idiots a platform to slime her with phony baloney, made-up non-scandals in Alaska. It was an absolutely brilliant move, and they hate her for it.

If she is as weak as some think, why the obsession?  Why the contempt? 

Precisely.

Moreover, Palin has used social media and other outlets to comment substantively on a wide range of issues and policies.  In fact, she has spoken on a wider array of issues than YouTube governor Chris Christie, popular among most of these folks, and her positions have, for the most part, been solidly conservative.  (Christie's positions on numerous issues important to conservatives are all but ignored by some of those complaining about Palin; indeed, the same could be said of potential presidential contenders Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, and Mitch Daniels, among others.) 

Booyah!

It is transparently clear, and no one is genuinely being tricked by this foolishness (Jennifer Rubin demonstrates the problem, and her move to the Washington Post sounds something of an alarm; I still love most of her stuff, however).

My purpose in mentioning Christie here is to juxtapose the demands by "the intellectuals" on one politician versus another.  Their inquisitiveness seems influenced by their political bias.  That's not unusual, but it requires underscoring lest their opinions be viewed or promoted as objective.

Seems influenced by their bias? Yeah, we should definitely underscore the subjectivity involved.

As a Reaganite pre-dating Reagan's 1976 candidacy, the contempt for Palin does, in fact, remind me of the contempt some had for Reagan, especially from the media and Republican establishment, although no comparison is exact. 

Of course not. The parallels, however, are striking.

I've not settled on a favorite would-be presidential candidate, but I also know media hit-jobs when I see them.  I am hopeful more conservatives will begin to speak out about this or, before we know it, we will wonder why we are holding our noses and voting for another Republican endorsed by "the intellectuals" but opposed by a majority of the people.

Well done, Mark Levin, well done. You've provided some very good context that should help counterbalance the slandering campaign against a fine woman.

Target Acquired: Public-Sector Unions

I've had enough. It's time for the union-bragging to end:

Power, indeed. And it's about time the American taxpayer took back that power, with gusto.

Still Badgering the Witless

Here's more on the continuing issue of comparing educational attainment in the K-12 schools, collective bargaining and unionized sovereigns versus the non-collective non-unionized sovereigns. Take it away, IowaHawk:

Well, now. Apparently that last post struck some sort of nerve, as it resulted in a record one day traffic spike at Iowahawk (don't like to brag, but it was up there in the multi-dozens). It also resulted in an email tsunami. The correspondence included a few critiques, some thoughtful, some stupid. Let's dispense with the stupid one first.

via iowahawk.typepad.com -- Do read it all.

Bill Whittle: The End of the Beginning

A great Gator, Bill Whittle, frames things nicely in this video:

Amidst all the inflammatory and over-the-top hate speech hurled at the Tea Party, the truth will out. The lies are increasingly losing their force. And these unions can stomp around and chant as much as they want, history is against them. Their time has passed. The end of their beginning is near. And it isn't politics that is demanding the end, technology is. The politics, like a meandering river, is simply following the demands and contours wrought by the development of the technology. That is the fact of the matter.

Englishman Praises America's Tea Party

This, today especially, is a must-read: James Delingpole in the London Telegraph sounds the right note on the cause of freedom and liberty. On his return flight back to Britain from the United States, this is his first thought: "God how I wish I were American right now." That's quite a statement and, in truth, he's written quite a column in praise of the grassroots tea party movement. Of America, he writes:

[T]hey do still understand the principles of “don’t tread on me” and “live free or die.” Not all of them, obviously – otherwise a socialist like Barack Obama would never have got into power. But enough of them to understand that in the last 80 or more years – and not just in the US but throughout the Western world – government has forgotten its purpose. It has now grown so arrogant and swollen as to believe its job is to shape and improve and generally interfere with our lives. And it’s not. Government’s job is to act as our humble servant.

Roger that.

What’s terrifying is how few of us there are left anywhere in the supposedly free world who properly appreciate this. Sure, we may feel in our hearts that – as Dick Armey and Matt Kibbe put it in their Give Us Liberty: A Tea Party manifesto – “We just want to be free. Free to lead our lives as we please, so long as we do not infringe on the same freedom of others”. And we may even confide it to our friends after a few drinks. But look at Australia; look at Canada; look at New Zealand; look at anywhere in the EUSSR; look at America – at least until things begin to be improved by today’s glorious revolution. Wherever you go, even if it’s somewhere run by a notionally “conservative” administration, the malaise you will encounter is much the same: a system of governance predicated on the notion that the state’s function is not merely to uphold property rights, maintain equality before the law and defend borders, but perpetually to meddle with its citizens’ lives in order supposedly to make their existence more fair, more safe, more eco-friendly, more healthy. And always the result is the same: more taxation, more regulation, less freedom. Less “fairness” too, of course.

Damn, he seems to get it entirely. Later, he explains why he's so passionate about this moment in history:

[S]ince Climategate (RattlerGator: Delingpole blew the lid off the scam that is the insistence that modern humans are causing "global warming") I’ve been dedicating far more of my time than is healthy to exposing the great Global Warming scam. This is not because I’ve suddenly realised I’m a scientist manque who wants to spend the rest of his life obsessing about forcings, feedbacks and solar radiation. It’s because I understand that “Environmentalism” is but one strategically significant theatre in a much greater ideological war being waged across the world. It’s the same one Toby Young is fighting over education; the same one the likes of Rod Liddle, Andrew Gilligan, Nick Cohen and Mark Steyn are fighting over political Islam; the same one Melanie Phillips is fighting over Israel; the same one Douglas Murray is fighting on pretty much everything.  And its ultimate outcome is at least as important as those of the ones we fought in 1914-1918 and 1939-1945. At stake is exactly the same thing the Greek alliance fought for when Western Civilisation was born at Salamis in 480 BC; the same thing we citizens of the West have been fighting for ever since: the right to forge our own destinies as free men and women, rather than remain infantilised, oppressed and enslaved as vassals of a tyrant state.

The greatest civilization in the history of the world has improbably been built and a dedicated caste of "professional political mandarins" disrespect what built, and what maintains, that civilization and have embarked on a worldwide quest to tear it down and substitute it with their perceived utopia.

No, thank you.

Stark Warning from Mark Steyn

Mark Steyn:

[T]he decline of great powers invariably starts with the money. When government spends on the scale Washington’s got used to, that’s not a spending issue, it’s a moral one. There’s nothing virtuous about “caring” “compassionate” “progressives” being caring and compassionate and progressive with money yet to be earned by generations yet to be born. That’s what “fiscal conservatives” often miss: This isn’t a green-eyeshade issue. Increasing dependency, disincentivizing self-reliance, absolving the citizenry from responsibility for their actions: The multitrillion-dollar debt catastrophe is not the problem but merely the symptom. It’s not just about balancing the books, but about something more basic and profound.

In a two-party system, you have to work with what’s available. In America, one party is openly committed to driving the nation off the cliff, and the other party is full of guys content to go along for the ride as long as we shift down to third gear. That’s no longer enough of a choice. If your candidate isn’t committed to fewer government agencies with fewer employees on lower rates of pay, he’s part of the problem. This is the last chance for the GOP to restore its credentials. If it blows it, all bets are off for 2012.

Message received.

But very few people in Black America are comprehending any of this; few Democrats, too.

Innovation Saved the Chilean Miners

Innovation that is the hallmark of capitalism, that is.

Daniel Henninger in the Wall Street Journal has the interesting take on the rescue this morning.

If those miners had been trapped a half-mile down like this 25 years ago anywhere on earth, they would be dead. What happened over the past 25 years that meant the difference between life and death for those men?

Short answer: the Center Rock drill bit.

This is the miracle bit that drilled down to the trapped miners. Center Rock Inc. is a private company in Berlin, Pa. It has 74 employees. The drill's rig came from Schramm Inc. in West Chester, Pa. Seeing the disaster, Center Rock's president, Brandon Fisher, called the Chileans to offer his drill. Chile accepted. The miners are alive.

Longer answer: The Center Rock drill, heretofore not featured on websites like Engadget or Gizmodo, is in fact a piece of tough technology developed by a small company in it for the money, for profit. That's why they innovated down-the-hole hammer drilling. If they make money, they can do more innovation.

This profit = innovation dynamic was everywhere at that Chilean mine. The high-strength cable winding around the big wheel atop that simple rig is from Germany. Japan supplied the super-flexible, fiber-optic communications cable that linked the miners to the world above.

The profit = innovation dynamic is the path forward, and we caricature it (as President Obama is given to do) at our own peril.

Great Podcast You Should Listen To

Just in case you didn't notice my tweet, I want to draw your attention to a podcast I was especially pleased to come across today. Coffee & Markets with Francis Cianfrocca; the podcast from the first week in February is hosted by Ben Domenech and is titled, It's Not About Him: America's Decline is About a Lot More Than Obama.

The discussion is engaging and helps to explain why Obama and his agenda must be defeated.

Productivity.

Their use of "decline" is relative, I do believe. But "it" surely isn't about Obama -- he's simply the manifestation of the problem

When the majority of Americans come to believe (heaven forbid) that it is the job of government to make things right in their world -- rather than they, themselves, or their kinfolks or workmates -- we will be screwed.

This is a very serious problem the left-wing (in all of their altruism) is almost completely blind to. We cannot allow this problem to cross the tipping point and Obama made a huge play to do just that.

Maybe, just maybe, he's been stopped in his tracks.