TL;DR
Okay, I am about 3/4 of the way through one of the most informative yet chilling articles I have read on the Trump administration.
This stuff scares me to death. I know I try to be funny here because Lord knows we all need it, but this is not funny. The Department of Energy does some serious stuff and nobody in the Trump administration – especially Rick Perry – is a serious person.
Here’s just a small snippet from the article I decided to stop and share with you. Rick Perry.
Since Perry was confirmed, his role has been ceremonial and bizarre. He pops up in distant lands and tweets in praise of this or that D.O.E. program while his masters inside the White House create budgets to eliminate those very programs. His sporadic public communications have had in them something of the shell-shocked grandmother trying to preside over a pleasant family Thanksgiving dinner while pretending that her blind-drunk husband isn’t standing naked on the dining-room table waving the carving knife over his head.
But, this is not the worst part. It’s about #18 on the scary as crap list.
Its a very long read so wait until you can pour a cup of coffee and give yourself at least 30 uninterrupted minutes. And then another hour to cry.
I don’t think I’m overreacting, but please read it yourself and talk me down if you can.
I haven’t read this article yet, but I will. Have you seen the Danish documentary on Drumpf’s ties to Russia? It’s pretty frightening, too. Shows that the election meddling is but a small part of something a lot bigger than we may have imagined.
http://www.salon.com/2017/05/16/watch-dutch-documentary-investigates-trumps-links-to-russian-mob/
1I saw the article Isak referenced several weeks ago and wondered why this documentary hasn’t received more attention. Many strange happenings in our mixed up universe. Have read the article Juanita, but will soon.
2http://www.hanford.gov/
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/10/hanfords-nuclear-option-2/
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/09/good-news-and-bad-news-at-hanford-americas-most-polluted-site/
http://www.naturalnews.com/053920_nuclear_disaster_Hanford_Fukushima.html
Jeffrey St. Clair has written a series of articles about Hanford and related travel along the Columbia River. “Down the Atomic River” would be a learning trip for pRick Perry. https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/09/02/down-the-atomic-river/
Yes Ms. Juanita Jean herownself, thinking about Dolt45 and pRick at DOE does bring about a range of emotions. You’re correct that there is nothing funny about any of it. Best way to stay calm is contacting Congress varmints; not necessarily from your own state, but those you think might give pause to approving some of Donnie’s nominations. Meanwhile, in the short term relax with a nice beverage of your choice. Then back to what you do best: preparing us for a future and 2018.
3I know you asked for something Juanita, anything, to revive your confidence in the manhandling of our nuclear fuel supply, but as usual, it’s another day so Rick Perry just made it worse.
He was prank called recently, and asked to comment about an incredible new fuel source invented by combining alcohol and pig… waste. He strolled right into it and then must have taken his glasses off for a moment as he didn’t have an immediate opinion, saying he’d require some more information on this fantastic “scientific development.” Yes, why don’t you “look into it” Secretary Perry. Don’t forget to scrape your shoes off on the way out:
http://theslot.jezebel.com/rick-perry-earnestly-discussed-pig-shit-with-a-couple-o-1797249780
4I’m sorry, JuanitaJean, but there’s no happy ending to this horror story. As long as the RWNJ apparatchiks are in charge, the actual work of the DOE will suffer.
I have a BIL who was a Navy Nuke sailor, and he refuses to acknowledge that the half-life of U-235 is a problem, much less that poisoning our good Earth and all of the biome in existence upon it is actually a problem. The only good thing is that these fools will suffer along with the rest of us. Not much consolation, I fear.
I weep for my planet.
5No, you’re not over reacting. Any sane person should be having some very depressing days, wondering how we got to this state, and if there’s any hope we can dig ourselves out of it. And if, when we do, it’s not too late to undo all the harm Trump and crew have done.
6Nope, JJ, if anything, we need to be even more scared. I read probably about as far as you did and I’m ready to find a cave to live in.
7I just read the Vanity Fair article, which will make your hair stand up, or I don’t know what will. I’ll just paste in its last few sentences:
8“Indeed, if you are seeking to preserve a certain worldview, it actually helps to gut science. Trump’s budget, like the social forces behind it, is powered by a perverse desire—to remain ignorant. Trump didn’t invent this desire. He is just its ultimate expression.”
I was educated as a physicist (although in real life I never actually played one) and this article scared the hell out of me.
But this is just a symptom of putting a neophyte in charge of the gov’t and letting him lay waste to everything associated with his predecessor. It smacks of the very same thinking in NOLA where Mayor Nagin threw out everything associated with emergency management, communication, and evacuation because he didn’t create it. Then along came Katrina.
My fear is that it will take an actual DISASTER to force any change and that people will focus on recovery with little thought given to making the necessary systemic changes.
I’ll also say this: This is one helluva fine piece of reporting.
9Mz Juanita, this is not news. It is, rather, a detailed history of news we’ve already seen and recoiled from. I thought in the beginning, when reports that the Trumpistas were going to gut all of the federal government departments they could, that that was probably not as bad as all that.
However, as time has passed and the deconstruction continues, I keep looking for a rider on a pale horse. He’s coming.
10Good God! Trump and his minions are even more stupid than previously thought. There should be a nuclear physicist and full staffing of scientists in the DOE to prevent a global crisis, not just here in America. I am forwarding this to Senator Robert Casey, just in case he hasn’t recently thought about this scary state of affairs.
11The only course we’ve got is what PKM already stated. Administrations write the budgets they’d LIKE to see. Congress writes budgets. So breathe regular folks. At least for a little longer. Not sure when this story broke, but given the breadth of it, it’s bound to be picked up by a lot of other outlets. Journalism has never been more important. Obviously, which is why it’s under such attack. Now, I wonder if anyone else thought of something that I did. Maybe I’m being paranoid. But the facts of this story are giving Putin an erection. Reporting it? Probably notsamuch. I wouldn’t be surprised if he weren’t at least partially responsible.
12Everybody, keep breathing! I’ve been in and around government for a long time. What the noodniks in this administration don’t know is that the real power is not actually wielded from the top but rather further down. And how is this power exercised? Well, think of all the damn memos et al. that get lost or damaged in some way that they can’t be used. Thats just one example. And remember, people, even the ones like Perry, keep moving in and out of government. The whole thing actually bores them, or so they claim. They are simply not up to the job. It involves stuff like simply reading. I can guarantee you that none of them ever read the official government job description. They’re all in a book and it is totally available. Even for wimpsh*tts.
13And you just know that similar travesties are going on in every other branch of federal government. The arrogance, and aggressive ignorance of these Trumpians is absolutely gobsmacking.
14To;dr:
We’re f#%€ed.
15More fuel to the fire, Richard! Throw some climate scientists on, for good measure!
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/perry-energy-department-boost-climate-skeptic-column
16I just read this (partially) and it scared me almost to death. I will have to wait another day before finishing the entire article.
All my life I have been certain that education is the answer to most of the world’s problems. We have failed miserably to educate all our young people everywhere and now we have indeed seen that the barbarians are at the gate. The world as we know it may not be here much longer.
I have to go and cry as JJ said before I can fully digest this horror story.
17Thanks a lot, JJ! I won’t be able to sleep again for days.
Still, you need to remember a couple of things. 1) It was Barack Obama who selected Ernie Moniz to run DOE. And, both of them are still alive and in the pink (so to speak). 2) there are a lot of career people at DOE who know stuff and aren’t going anywhere. They are, after all, the folks who collected the relevant material and sent it to Canada for safe-keeping. Stupid, they ain’t. 3) the Trump budget was declared DOA by the Rethugs in Congress, no less, and, on that note, there are people on the staffs of pertinent Congresscritters and the committees upon which they sit who also know a lot of this stuff.
We simply have to wait out the Orange One’s tenure (may it be very brief) and do our best in the next election. There will always be another election–that’s been our saving grace.
Miss Lindsey–of all people–fired the first shot across the bow today. Even the Rethugs seem to understand what they’re up against with the collection of fools in the White House. After the apology from the Boy Scouts today for the VTY’s speech, there will be no more benefits of the doubt for that collection of nepotistic nincompoops.
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