Robert E. Kelly's Blog (25)

 

Japan almost blew itself up during March, 2011 because of the impact a giant-sized earthquake and a subsequent tsunami had on four of its 52 nuclear plants.   This would have been a horrendous problem for any nation, but it is more so in Japan, a nation with few energy resources of its own.   

 The loss of production from four nuclear facilities will require Japan to add to its massive imports of natural gas and oil (it is the third largest consumer of petroleum products in…

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It is fashionable to say that defense spending has caused America’s ever rising debt, or that the debt problem began with President George W. Bush.  Such positions remove responsibility from current policy makers and place the blame on the bad guys who lured America into wars, or on a president who served for eight years.

 Unfortunately, the cause of debt is more complex than that, and it is important to identify it very clearly because…

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The Social Security program was a highlighted issue during the 1999 presidential campaign.  George Bush claimed that the program was going broke and it needed restructuring; Al Gore denied Bush’s claim, and for proof of his position he pointed to the Social Security “lockbox” in Washington.  History, before 1999 and since, has proved that Bush was correct – the lockbox is a myth.

 

Gore didn’t specifically say that Washington’s “lockbox” was made…

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Newly elected governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker (R), is supporting a bill that would remove from the collective bargaining process everything except wage levels for most of the state’s employees, and he has the votes to pass the proposed legislation.  

 

This bold action, however, cannot become law unless it is voted upon.  Fourteen Democratic senators have road-blocked that possibility by leaving the state, thus making it impossible for the senate to form a quorum…

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Egyptians are in the street in Cairo, demanding that President Mubarak step down. The rebellion was initially described by observers as a popular movement, much like the one that began in 1979 in Iran. There was good reason for the initial description of the rebellion because of the results of the parliamentary election that took place in December of last year.



Mubarak was brutal during that election. There were mass arrests of those who opposed him; the media were muzzled. And… Continue