The Result Of Obama’s Socialist Vision Is A Double-Dip Recession

Loading

As Obama vacations the economy continues to slide further into recession:

The sputtering economy may be headed for a double-dip recession after the government revised the nation’s gross domestic product downward for the second quarter to 1.6 percent from an initial estimate of 2.4 percent.

The first quarter grew at a 3.7 percent annual rate, the second quarter 1.6 percent, and this quarter is not likely to be anything worth bragging about, with economists forecasting growth of only 1.7 percent. GDP is the value of all goods and services produced in the U.S. and it’s the key indicator of the nation’s economic health.

The numbers are numbing — not nearly strong enough to give the recovery enough stride so that employers will want to hire, consumers will have the confidence to spend, or for businesses to invest robustly in equipment.

As a result the Chairman of the Federal Reserve said they will do whatever “is necessary” to prevent a further slide, including the purchase of more longer-term securities and easing the interest rates it pays on bank reserves.

What they aren’t admitting is that interest rates are already at their lowest level in memory and it’s still not helping. The confidence in our economy just isn’t there due in large part to Obama and his policies. The country now understands the man wants to tax everyone and their mother, except for the very poor, and give it away. What business owner wants to put more capitol into a venture that is sure to get taxed more?

Recall that the CBO said the economy will fix itself if Government just stays the hell outta the way. But nooooooo. Obama’s remaking of the United States into a Socialist paradise just couldn’t wait.

And now we got a double-dip recession.

Thanks Mr. President.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
73 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Suek; (Please forgive my typos and errors . . . the editor function would not allow me to change them all)

I am also an engineer, so the indepth medical aspects of contamination by radioactive material is not my area of expertise. I can say a few things about what is happening and the concerns with wild life and domestic animals, any animal that eats biological plant matter, walks through it, or collects it . . . this would include farmers and those that camp, hike or otherwise spend time outdoors. This could include walking around in your own backyard or doing gardening.

The radioactive material that was released by Chernobyl was released as a result of a “graphite fire”. The type of reactor at Chernobyl is unique to Soviet design. No other country in the world uses graphite in their commercial reactor designs. Why graphite is used by the Russians is a very lengthy discussion about nuclear physics and would take many long paragraphs to explain it fully. However if you are interested in why graphite is used refer to the following link at wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RBMK

Graphite is essentially a highly refined carbon material and is commonly used as the lead in wooden pencils. The graphite inside of the RBMK reactor is exposed to a high neutron flux. What this means is that it is actually inside the reactor and is exposed to the radiation produced inside the reactor. Graphite when exposed to radiation experiences a very unique change in the energy of the electrons associated with each carbon atom. When the graphite is heated up to a certain point, all these excited graphite atoms suddenly begin to give off heat as the electrons associated with the atoms return to lower energy levels. Sufficient energy is given off that if it is not removed by water cooling the graphite catches on fire and burns. Graphite burns at such high temperature that it can not be extinguished very easily and the usual approach is to just let it burn until all the graphite is burned up by the fire.

So the RBMK reactor which has graphite was burned up by a graphite/carbon fire. There was no nuclear generated fire, only by the carbon burning. But since graphite burns at such a high temperature, some of the highly radioactive fuel and other structural metals were also burned and the smoke from the fire was released to the atmosphere.

This smoke containing radioactive material was carried Westward toward the from where Chernobyl is located (near Kiev). As the smoke and radioactive material dispersed it spreads out in kind of a fan shape centered on Kiev. That put the Western parts of German into the fan shaped spread. Those in the areas of Germany close to the Baltic Sea, there is some low probability that contamination from Chernobyl may have been deposited there due to fallout.

As the cloud or plume of materail moved Westward and spread out over larger areas the concentration of radioactive material became more diluted. Because of this dilution effect, the amount deposited in Germany would be very small, but it still could happen.

The radioactive material would fall to the ground and any wild life that eats the grass that it is on would consume it. After a few years the material would be washed from the grass and foliage and be in the earth beneath the grass. Wild pigs break the ground up and surprisingly eat a lot of dirt. Thus they would be, probably, the last wild life to have any access to the radioactive material that is in the dirt. Other animals that dig in the dirt, including insects could also consume or carry the radioactive material on them.

Genetic mutations induced by radiation exposure are most likely to result in deformities and birth defects in the pigs. Thus, if mutations in the pigs actually occur, the chances are very high that the deformed new borns would not survive to adulthood. It is highly unlikely that such mutation would be passed from the adult pig to the off spring. Keep in mind this is principally when the adult pig is exposed while early in their gestation cycle when the fetus pig is undergoing rapid cellular growth and cells are specializing into various body organs.

If a hunter kills a wild pig and takes it in to be tested it is not a very difficult process to determine if the pig is contaminated by radioactive material. A sample of intestinal contents is easily placed inside of a specialized machine that will provide a full spectrum analysis of any radioactive material inside of the pig. A device called a frisker which detects radiation can be simply passed over the carcass and if there is radiation emitted from the carcass it will be immediately detected. This same device is used by workers at nuclear power plants anytime they go into then come back out of any area that is “potentially” contaminated.

Thus, IMHO, the pigs that are tested are not really being tested for the safety of the hunter, but more so for the determination of if there is any residual contamination in the area. Sure, if a contaminated pig is found, of course it would be probably risky to eat the animal, but in all likelyhood the amount of contamination that a human would ingest would be minimal.

There is also some concern about the type of radiation being given off by the pig, as you can see I can talk a lot about this and probably not get everything said.

I will stop here and if you have another question I will give you my best shot at answering it for you.

@Curt: #46 Why did it have to land on me?

You reminded me of the two story outhouse. http://media.photobucket.com/image/two%20story%20outhouse/dcscott44/OutHouse.jpg?o=1

Smorgasbord;

If there was a nuclear storage facility at the plant site that is 2000 yards my home . . . I would not mind living next to it, I would be overjoyed in fact. Note the power plant that was being built near my home was cancelled. As far as living near a government owned facility the closest proximity that anyone could “live” is probably several miles. That is not to say that workers at such facility might not spend the night at the facility, but they would still not meet the criteria for “living there”.

Life time of the nuclides that make up waste material is very dependent on the specific nuclide. Thus the overall life time of the radiation level is dependent on the specific mix of nuclides in each unit of stored material.

Thus to say that the waste is going to be radioactive for thousands of years or hundreds of thousands of years is kind of like saying water will be wet for hundreds of thousands of years.

Yes, there will be some nuclides that are radioactive for a very long time, but the overall radiation levels is kind of like a battery inside of a flashlight. If you leave the flashlight on the battery slowly dies to the point that no light is given off, but the electrons in the bulb filiment are still flowing. See what I mean? The waste may intially be highly radioactive . . . over a period of even a few years the level of radioactivity will decay to the point that it is not nearly so dangerous . . . to eventually reaching a point that it is not dangerous at all. The material would even then continue to be stored . . . as it would be considered “potentially radioactive” material.

If you really want to know more about the storeage technology there is lots of information available.

The government storage facilities that are being built for high level waste are built in very well understood geological areas. Formations that have not changed for MILLIONS of years . . . thus there is a high level of confidence that no change in those formations will occur for 10,000 years or more.

My grandpa’s infinite wisdom was . . .”Before you get down on something . . . it is best to get up on it first”. If you have a fear . . . why not go find out exactly why you are afraid of it . . . you might find that your fear is founded on misunderstandings or someone elses perspectives. No I am not trying to disrespect you . . . all I am really saying is that the information is readily available and easy to understand. Or, you can just continue to be afraid . . . truly it is a personal thing after all.

TALLGRASS: hi, I think you’r GREAT, bye

TALLGRASS: now it’s getting more complicated, because if I find
some “NUCLIDES” in my garden earth, how I am suppose to know, which one is alive and which is not; DO they look difrent enough that we can separate them from the soil?, and
they must be quite smal as a speck that the eye can pick. bye thank you.

@Suek: There’s a good map showing the parts of the European continent contaminated by Chernobyl. It can be found here:

http://www.chernobylee.com/chernobyl/maps/map—european-continental-sca.php

: I read that the radioactive isotopes released by the explosion at Chernobyl have a longer life than those released by a nuclear bomb. Do you know anything about that?

Side note: I understand that in the old Ukrainian dialect “Chernobyl” translates to “wormwood.” This is interesting to Christians because Revelations speaks of a third of the earth’s waters polluted by “Wormwood,” a burning star that falls from heaven. Maybe “wormwood” is a symbol for nuclear fallout.

>>Thus, IMHO, the pigs that are tested are not really being tested for the safety of the hunter…>>

Now that’s an interesting statement. So basically, they’re using the concern people have about the possibility of consuming the contaminated meat in order to track the presence and/or levels of contamination in the vegetation and soils. Very clever.

And thank you, Toothfairy, for the link. That’s a surprising map – I thought that the radiation would be carried eastwards. I guess I assumed…and we all know about assumptions!

@Tallgrass: #54 I remember the scientists using the term half-life because they knew the waste would take a long time to deteriorate. We don’t know how long a half-life is for the stuff, so we don’t know how long the next half-life is. Do we have containers that will last the thousands or possibly hundreds of thousands of years that will be containing the waste, or will they have to be replaced on a regular basis?

Some plant seeds are known to secrete an acid that can eat away concrete and grow through the concrete vault a casket was buried in. Can some do the same with metal? There is always the possibility of an earthquake or sink hole or landslide or volcanic eruption that has never happened in an area before.

This is one of those things that you have your opinion and I have mine. I won’t change my mind and you won’t change mine. Let’s drop the subject and stay friends.

Smorgasbord;

I understand completely about beliefs and fears and understandings and I do respect your rights to the opinions that you have. In every industry there is always room for the perspective of safety. It serves a very valuable purpose, kind of like having a watch dog that keeps the house safe when you are not at home.

Half-life is a scientific term that means “the length of time necessary for a known level of radiation, as measured by a radiation detecting instrument, for that level of radiation to decrease to one half the original level”.

With a specific isotope the rate and type of radiation that it gives off as it seeks a more stable condition is a very well understood process.

As an example Cobalt 60 has a half-life of about 5.7 years, thus if in our initial sample we had 100 atoms of Cobalt 60 at the end of 5.7 years we would have only 50 atoms remaining, at the end of the next 5.7 years (total expired time = 11.4 years) we would have only 25 atoms, at the end of the next 5.7 years only 12 or 13 atoms . . . so on and so forth until all the Cobalt 60 is gone.

Cobalt 60 is used for medical treatment of cancer. It decays by first emiting a beta particle and becomes Nickel-60 . . . the Nickel 60 then gives off two gamma rays to achieve a stable condition.

Term Nuclide: Note that in the above description of how Cobalt 60 changes into Nickel 60 . . . each of these atoms would be most correctly called Nuclide when studying the decay process. This term allows a specific atom to be studied with consideration of the nucleus of atom considering the number of neutrons and protons in the nucleus.

Please see the following wikipedia link for more details:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobalt-60

@ Greg

I think there are some threads mixed up here. Anyway, I’ve read the report you cited before and it fails to take into account certain factors. Curt linked a post that Mata did that explains it very well in post #46. One of the factors your report cites that wasn’t taken into account is the all of these lending practices were enabled by the CRA. When Bubba improved the CRA in ’95, the push from congress and community organizers against banks went through the roof. The little to no down payment and relaxing of the credit standards can be tied directly to the CRA. The fact that everyone else took advantage of relaxed lending practices doesn’t negate that fact. As I said before, there were other contributing factors, but they can all be tied back to the CRA, except the federal reserve dumping loose money into the market. That just added fuel to the fire that CRA started.

@ Greg

By the way Greg, this is how the “anti-environmentalist” wingnuts left the National Mall after their rally:

And this is how the “environmentally conscious left,” left the National Mall after their rally.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMrJE7J3fWU&feature=player_embedded

@Aqua: We will never see pictures of how Air Force One and the White House looked after Bill Clinton left them. Even the propaganda media reported how filthy and damaged they were. I can only imagine how they will look after King Obama has to give up his crown.

Most of us know how he likes to get even with those who go against him. That is one clean up bill I will be glad to pay. It will be worth it.

Mainstream American consumers are no longer willing to run up unsustainable levels of personal debt to fund their discretionary spending, or to live on a scale that’s beyond their means.

Instead, they’re paying off personal debt and saving their money at a current rate of 6 percent per year. They don’t even require an interest incentive to do it.

The bubbles of the past decade were largely driven by carefree borrowing. People were running up personal debt as if there were no tomorrow. Now people are realizing that tomorrow will actually arrive, and yesterday isn’t coming back again.

Welcome to the new economic reality.

Greg;

Can we expect the same “economic reality” from our government?

Are you telling us “Oh Happy Days” are coming . . . or are you say “look at the grasshopper gettin ready to pounce on the ant?

@Greg: #64 When I worked at a Montgomery Ward store as a salesman we were told that the ones who made the most money, owed the most on their credit card. I wonder if that is still true.

: A power company worker recently told my mom that the new McMansion neighborhood in town had the greatest number of power shut offs due to non-payment.

@Toothfairy: #67 I am guessing you meant that because of the economy there are more disconnects for that reason. Don’t worry. Our King-in-Chief hasn’t forgotten about them. Or has he?

One thing I will say is that anyone who voted for him shouldn’t complain. If you go back and listen to his campaigning he basically said he was going to do most of what he has done. You just had to have your brain in neutral mode when you listened to him.

I am guessing a lot of people voted for him because they were getting Federal money of some kind and figured they would be guaranteed to keep getting it if he were elected, and maybe even get more. You know, “Spread the wealth” to them.

He and his wife sure know how to “Spread the wealth” when they party and vacation as much as they do. I would like to know how much the average party that he throws costs the taxpayers.

@Greg

Mainstream American consumers are no longer willing to run up unsustainable levels of personal debt to fund their discretionary spending, or to live on a scale that’s beyond their means.

Damn! That is funny! Why, you ask? Because you implied that responsible financial actions like paying off debt and limiting spending to what you actually have is mainstream. If that is true, then what do you call Obama and Co.?

The bubbles of the past decade were largely driven by carefree borrowing.

As for that, well, you must also consider the lower interest rates that during the time were not high enough to cause financial pain to the consumer who borrowed. While we still have low interest rates, the fear of rising rates is ever present and people are unwilling to incur longterm debt due to that fear.

johngalt;

The credit card world has gone just as nuts as the rest of the economy. Intrest rates have gone up substantially, all kinds of fees have been created (when I use my cards internationally I now pay extra charges), there are all kinds of penalities for late fees (escalting interest rates the most commmon), annual membership charges, then the virtual deluge of special offer telephone calls (Bank of America has called me 20 times this week alone, and the pressure to take their insurance is ungodly). If I did not have to have credit cards, because of my international travel, I would have none.

Top that off with less salary . . . my income has decreased to less than half what it was 20 years ago.

Sure I have my savings, but I am old now, 60 now, and the only thing that I know I can count on is myself.

Do I want to take Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, VA benefits, Indian Health Service . . . Hell NO . . . I am a US Citizen, a Viet Nam Era Vet (Submarine Service) . . . I am very proud of what I have accomplished . . . what I have done for MY COUNTRY . .. and now I am going to soon have to be a FREE LOADER (just my views about it)

I am scared shitle$$ that my electric bill is going to sky rocket. My property tax has already gone up (how much, who knows since I will not get the bill until Jan 2011). The crackheads that live in the house down the road (I live in a rural area) set my tractor on fire, inside the barn . . . lucky it did not burn down my barn, but I had to file my first claim ever on my home owners insurance (so my insurance is going up for sure, how much who knows, I will not get the bill for next year until Jan.) Even my job is in serious trouble, the company I work for has NO work for me (International business sucks right now). I work for a company that employees less than 50 people and the owners have a line of credit at the bank and are drawing on it (the owners have mortgaged their houses and property to keep the company alive). And they are scared shitle$$ to.

I am one of those that believed in the American Dream . . . I have no mortgage, my cars are paid for, no credit card bills . . . and now I am going to be forced to sell everything . . . at a time that can not get much worse to sell anything. The major percentage of my net worth is my property . . . and now that is worth less than half what it was only two years ago.

It is tough out here . . . none of us want to take fed money . . . and in the end we probably will not . . . we will not qualify anyway . . . we will just fade away into the land of oblivion that the fed calls “un-un-un-employed” since we will never be on the dole.

@Tallgrass: #70 60 ain’t old. I’m 64 and don’t intend to grow old without a fight.

If you put your money in an IRA for 40 years and than start drawing some out on a regular basis, are you a freeloader? No. You paid into SS all of your working life. Your employer paid in the same amount you did. How do you figure you are a freeloader if you start drawing some of YOUR money out once a month? You will never get back as much as you put in.

The freeloaders are the politicians who kept drawing YOUR money out of the SS account that doesn’t exist on a regular basis. You’re old enough to remember when there were billions of dollars in the non-existent SS account. If the politicians would have put YOUR money in a SEPARATE SS account and used it for what it was meant for, there would still be billions in the account. You know politicians (democrat and republican) can’t stand to see a money account INCREASE, so they came up with programs that came out of the SS non-existent account. Programs they create to help us usually wind up either helping the politicians or a certain target group to get their vote or to reward them for contributions to the politicians.

I suggest that you retire at 62 if you can. You won’t get full SS payments until age 66.
Go to http://www.socialsecurity.gov/planners/calculators.htm and see what the difference will be between you retiring at age 60 and 66. For me it is 65 and it was just $50 dollars a month difference. Estimates are that it would take 9 years to come out even. That would make me 71 before the break even point. The law has changed so that you can make a lot more money without a penalty.

There is a Federal law that says SS payments have to be made to qualified recipients. The longer you wait, the more likely that that can change, so I suggest you apply at age 62.

I don’t like to take money I haven’t earned either. I have helped women and older people change tires and wouldn’t let them pay me for it, partly because I would report it on my Federal Income Tax and that could knock me into a higher tax bracket and I would wind up paying more in taxes than if I didn’t take the money, and partly because I feel good when I can help people.

Get it in your head that SS money is YOUR money and if you don’t take it then you are donating YOUR MONEY to the politicians, including the ones you don’t want in Congress, and you can’t claim the money you donated that way as a deduction.

Tallgrass ,hi, I was reading your comment written back then, and today jan. 31st 2011, got me to wonder if all turned out to be okay at the end, as we know your comment is still of the same position the COUNTRY is in, and not have recover yet on the 2 years that you where very worry,
I sure wish that this year will bring some releif to the AMERICANS in the same situation and for you most of all. bye SR and best to you