The situation in Japan is clearly anything but good and who would want to be Prime Minister of that unlucky country. It appears that the nuclear threat is now solely from the crippled Fukushima Daiichy plant for there is no Media reporting on the others, some of which were damaged by the record-breaking earthquakes. The horrendous damage caused to towns and populations by the quakes and tsunamis is being overshadowed by the news from this one plant.
Here in California and all along the US West Coast, thinking citizens will be very closely watching the news from all sources and especially that on the Internet. The situation is a grim reminder that the Mainstream News can no longer be trusted at all. Once upon a time, perhaps as long ago as the early 1960’s, the Mainstream Media (MSM) could be more or less relied upon to reliably report all news. The only concern in those days was that some Newspapers and TV stations might collude with Government to play down some issues. No-one would have suggested that the whole Media was pursuing a revolutionary Leftist agenda for which it was constantly manipulating news, hiding news and regularly plain lying. That is the situation today, for the MSM is no longer about news but is in the business of propaganda. There is no topic that is spared. Just as in the old Soviet Union every issue was subject to the Communist political agenda, so too today, every issue is filtered through the MSM and all Media Class mechanisms and delivered to fit a largely hidden agenda.
And so we come to the Japanese radiation threat and the difficulty that is posed for those of us without a vested interest in the Leftist/Media Class agenda. That agenda has, for complicated political reasons, taken on board an anti-nuclear power stance. It has thus turned nuclear power into a Left/Right issue, just as it has drawn in climate change, abortion, homosexuality/perversion, immigration, agriculture and everything else into a seamless struggle between two warring sides. The rise to ruling power of the Media Class has inevitably created a revolutionary situation. The result is an undeclared civil war here in the USA and it is becoming more open by the day.
I am sure that many on the Conservative Right share my long-held reservations about nuclear power. Genuine Conservatives will always put concerns about the countryside and environment, the integrity of the Nation State, the conservation of traditional culture and a suspicion of ‘progress’ to the fore. Unlike those who consider themselves only ‘fiscally’ Rightwing, we are not for unlimited growth, whether it be of the population, of cities or of the economy. We are not in favor of a free-for-all in society and the kind of moral anarchy that Libertarians favor. The explosive population growth of the Western Nation States through uncontrolled Second and Third World immigration, and the Government-fuelled rampant consumerist economies needed to keep the immigrants in employment, have put tremendous pressure on power supplies. How can it be otherwise? Reckless growth has many dangers, moral as well as economic and environmental, but an obvious one is that risky decisions about power supply are taken. Japan, a heavily populated country without coal and oil, has, in view of its history of major earthquakes, probably been reckless in its embrace of nuclear power.
Nuclear power is now unavoidable in the USA for we have, with our massive cities and conurbations full of needy and unassimilated people, too many risks involved in reversing ‘growth’. To be sure this Obama Government and the long-dominant Democrat Party have made things much worse by halting oil drilling and coal mining, not out of concern for the environment and the American people, but to increase, for political reasons, Government control of the people. The plain truth is that the Media Class which for 40 years increasingly exerted its influence on politics, has eagerly built coalitions with any groups that represent the dysfunctional, the dishonest and the subversive. Thus it has embraced the abortion/child-hating Feminazis, those who love the criminal and hate the law-abiding, the public service unions that are ruining the tax-payer, the Greens whose real agenda is Socialism – the list is endless. We are being ruled by an irrational Class and we therefore have irrational policies.
Our ruling Media Class has built a coalition with those who irrationally oppose nuclear energy because they seek a return to primitivism. Instead of a cautious development of nuclear power in the US there has been a long moratorium. In support of this the Media Class has been busy slanting news with anti-nuclear bias. In response, many on the Right have dismissed the real threats that nuclear power poses. We are now in the position where we cannot believe the MSM reports about Japan because we know that the MSM is using the situation to underpin its anti-nuclear agenda. At the same time we know that many on the Right are so committed to nuclear power and ‘growth’ that they will deny or minimize real dangers. Who are we to believe? Most will search the Internet in the hope of getting answers.
Meanwhile, President Obama, who repeatedly tells the American people how he is working for them night and day, is off on another joy-ride, this time to Brazil. I suppose that after much mid-night oil spent on the Libya problem, on the Federal judge rulings about the illegality of Obama-care, on the housing slump, on the chronic unemployment stats and on the Japanese radiation threat, he feels the need to take Michelle away from it all. Clearly, frequent visits to golf courses and parties with celebrities are not enough.
Last week, a drummer called Joe Morello passed away. He was in his eighties and probably unknown to jazz lovers under 60. His passing reminded me that our music slot on this website has not included pianist Dave Brubeck and his long partnership with the late alto saxophonist Paul Desmond. Morello joined the Brubeck Quartet long after it became well-known but enjoyed its most famous times. Brubeck, who was born in Concord, California, joined forces with Paul Desmond in San Francisco and it was there that they developed a very distinctive brand of modern jazz in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. Brubeck’s piano style was superficially influenced by his classical background but beneath the surface he was very much a jazz pianist though not in the jazz mainstream. Desmond was also not in the mainstream of sax players and wholly different from the robust style of Charlie Parker and the East Coast Beboppers. Nevertheless, the Brubeck Quartet played some outstanding and very original jazz and I was fortunate to hear it on several occasions when Morello was the drummer. His drumming was too fussy for my tastes but Brubeck must have been happy with it. I preferred the Brubeck Quartet in its formative days (long before ‘Take Five’ hit the pop charts) when its music was more open, free-swinging and un-self conscious and so I recommend the album “Jazz at the College of the Pacific” from 1953. This was originally an LP titled “Jazz Goes to College”. It has Ron Crotty on bass and the excellent Joe Dodge on drums. Nothing fussy about Dodge! Every number is inspired and especially the exciting “Le Souk”. “Jazz at Oberlin” recorded the same year is nearly as good with drummer Lloyd Davis. Both albums are live. This was a time when college audiences were musically informed. Not any more!
Here in California I am once again looking out at snow-capped mountains. This has to be the longest, wettest and coldest winter for many decades. Nevertheless, once the radiation panic has been discarded by the MSM, you can be sure that man-made global warming will be back in the ‘news’.