All posts by Hutchins AAron

Born in Deutschland 1965, hometown was Bütthart, parents were not U.S. government employees. However, when father was tricked into joining the U.S. Air Force Civil Service, in 1969, with the promise that we could remain in Germany, we were promptly shipped off to Iran. Due to one of my Iranian educators being disappeared, along with her husband, by the U.S. ally Shah of Iran's Israeli & U.S. created Savak (for the then official terrorist act of promoting the idea that women can vote), and due to my U.S. citizen mother being placed on Savak's Terrorist Arrest List (for supporting the idea that women should vote, at that time the U.S. ally Shah of Iran did not allow women to vote, now they can) we left Iran for the United States in 1973, literally in the middle of the night. At the U.S. Embassy airbase the CIA operated Gooney Bird (C-47) was so packed with other U.S. citizens fleeing our ally Iran (because the Shah gave the OK to arrest any U.S. citizen for such terrorist acts as promoting the concept of voting) that we were turned away by the Loadmaster and had to take a chance on a civilian flight out of Tehran's airport. My father told me he and my mother had three culture shocks; first when they arrived in Germany as civilians, then after being shipped off to Iran as U.S. government employees, then again returning to the United States as unemployed civilians (because so much had changed in the U.S. while they were gone, their only news source was the U.S. Armed Forces Radio & Television Service which heavily censored information about the home front). Since I graduated high school in 1982 I've worked for U.S. government contractors and state & local government agencies (in California), convenience store manager in California, retail/property management in Georgia, California and Idaho. Spent the 1990s in the TV news business producing number one rated local news programs in California, Arizona and Idaho. 14+ years with California and Idaho Army National Guard and the U.S. Air Force. Obtained a BA degree in International Studies from Idaho State University at the age of 42. Unemployed since 2015, so don't tell me the economy has recovered.
Fukushima

New threat from Tsunami: Fire

Japanese scientist say there is a new threat associated with tsunamis: Fire.

Thanks to our reliance on petroleum products, especially fuel, coastal cities face destruction by fire, as well as water.

Several Japanese coastal towns burned to the ground because of fires started by the tsunami.  Boats, cars and fuel storage facilities hit by the tsunami, spilled fuel onto the water, catching fire, apparently by sparks from metal being clashed together in the tsunami, or electrical shorts in boats and cars.

Those fires then spread to buildings.  Local fire departments discovered that water lines for fire hydrants had been destroyed by the quake/tsunami.

Hardest hit by the fires, Kesennuma, suffered intense fire. Witnesses say that fire spread throughout the city in less than 3 hours after the tsunami hit. The city was still burning 5 days later.

Fukushima

Nuclear Safety Officials admit they never planned for multiple Reactor Failures

A nuclear safety expert in Japan admitted that no one prepares for more than one reactor failure.  Multiple reactor failures have always been considered highly improbable.

NHK obtained video of last year’s emergency training at a nuclear plant in Japan.  It is obvious that they did not expect anything but a low level emergency involving only one reactor.

Fukushima

Efforts to evacuate people still in evacuation zone finally begining

Japan government officials announced that efforts will be made to get stranded patients out of hospitals in the evacuation zone, as well as other people who did not have a way to self evacuate (remember Hurricane Katrina?).

Local city governments are now joining together to help each other,  now that it has become clear the national government is not prepared to help them.

Just like people in the United States are justified in questioning their government’s ability to help after a natural disaster (Hurricane Katrina), the Japanese have every justification to lose faith in their government.

I’ve said this before, it is clear that the most prepared nation in the world was NOT prepared.

Fukushima

60 tons of water sprayed, more Fire Fighters on their way

Officials say the water trucks sprayed about 60 tons of water, so far, on reactor 3 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

That isn’t going to be enough:  Each spent fuel pool can hold up to 2000 tons of water, so you can see it’s going to take a lot of water (there are 6 reactors and several spent fuel pools).

Another problem is that even if they get outside power hooked to the plant, most of the power panels, and cooling pumps, have been destroyed by the tsunami.  So they are now working to fix that problem as well.

Business/Economics, Fukushima

Japanese Banks limiting access to cash

NHK has been reporting that banks around Japan are limiting ATM withdrawals.

Many Japanese are angry because they are having a hard time getting access to their money, in order to buy necessities.

Banks say their clients can still walk in, during limited hours, to make larger withdrawals.  The banks are blaming the disaster situation, including power outages, for the reason for limiting access to ATMs.

Just one more reason to keep your money under the mattress.

Fukushima

Hospitals within evacuation zone still waiting for help, More proof you can’t rely on the government

A hospital in Minami-Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, inside the zone where people have been instructed to stay indoors, more than half the hospital’s staff have evacuated.  But, about 170 inpatients are still at the hospital.

“We’re reaching the limits of our ability to provide treatment,” hospital director Yukio Kanazawa said. Only a small number of hospital staff stayed behind to care for the patients.

Ohmachi Hospital staff is now less than 40%.  The hospital is rationing meals for patients, two meals a day.

Doctors who normally work at Tono Hospital, cannot get there because of a fuel shortage.

Ninohe Hospital has run out of supplies, including heating fuel.  “It’s as if some enemy is starving us out,” a hospital official said.

Kunihiro Mashiko, chief of the emergency treatment center of Nippon Medical School Chiba Hokusoh Hospital says “Lives that were saved once may be lost because of the shortage of both doctors and medicine.”

At Ishinomaki Hospital, tap water, electricity and gas have been cut off.  Requests for help with about 120 inpatients were declined.

 

 

Opinion, U.S.

.45 Caliber Pistol now official Gun of Utah

The governor of Utah made it official, the Browning M1911 .45 caliber pistol is the Gun of Utah.

I like the M1911A1.  Back when I was in the California Army National Guard (and later the Idaho Army National Guard) we used the M1911A1, and I always scored expert.  Then we switched to the Beretta M9, and I never scored expert again.

Utah has bragging rights because John M. Browning designed the gun, and he was born and raised in Utah.  The M1911, with .45 ACP ammo, came in response to a U.S. military search for a gun with the stopping power to bring down drugged up tribal rebels during the U.S. occupation of the Philippines, after the Spanish American War in the late 1800s (yes the United States has been an empire for a while now).  When you get knocked down by the .45 you don’t get up.

The U.S. military switched to the Beretta M9 in the 1990s. It uses a higher velocity 9mm ammo, and carries more rounds in its magazine.  The M9 has always had problems.  I’ve always wondered why I could not score expert with the higher velocity 9mm, but had no problem scoring expert with the lower velocity .45.

Despite my affection for the M1911A1, I have to question why state lawmakers would spend time trying to make an official state so and so.  Don’t elected officials have more important things to address?

International, Opinion, U.S.

Ivory Coast, more proof of U.S. & French Hypocrisy

The UN is expressing shock at the violence in Ivory Coast (Cote d’Ivoire). Yet, where’s the U.S. pushing for no fly zones and military action? Hypocrisy!

If the violence in Libya warrants military action by the UN, then why not in Ivory Coast?  Where’s war mongering French President Sarkozy?  Ivory Coast used to be a colony of France, yet Sarkozy has been salivating at the prospect of military action against Libya (a former Italian colony).  He’s been working hard to get support for war against Libya, he even convinced the Arab League to join in.

2010 election results, in Ivory Coast, were basically thrown out by the ruling party, and that started what now looks like a second civil war.   Hello, President Obama, what about the rights of the “people”?  Obama is quick to use such reasoning in regards to attacking Libya, but not Ivory Coast.

The United States Department of State estimates that at least 75,000 people have fled Ivory Coast into Liberia (a former U.S. colony).  Recent reports say dead bodies lie in the streets of the capitol.  An attack by government forces, on March 17, is being called a crime against humanity by the UN, but where’s the U.S. and France on this one.  Oh yeah they’re getting ready to bomb Libya.