An interesting perspective from a USS Ronald Reagan sailor.

All,


Just thought I'd send an update from life today on USS Reagan. Some of you have seen of this and some haven't. Its been quite a week. Many challenging times, avoiding radioactive plumes and contamination in the environment both air and water. Sailors here are happy to help in such a trifold disaster but its also been pretty scary at times for us too. I think all the rad we've seen is safe low levels but we do hear of high levels now and again.

Since we are a nuclear carrier we have all the requisite devices to measure radiation in the environment and keep the ship safe, however, not sure the chain of command ever considered having to use these devices in a situation quite like this. Literally, our chain of command was the resident experts on things nuclear until task forces started to get set up and organized.

We had a rough time trying to figure out where to go at first but have nestled into an area north of Sendai that saw much damage and is also a safe distance from the reactors at Fukishima.

We found many people at first, ~ 10-20 landing zones, then the past few days were quieter and today we found more people that needed to be rescued.

The helos and airplanes go out and look at the country looking for people with cameras and stuff. Japanese are really smart at disaster prepardness. The displaced people that need help write sos on the ground in big fields or drop lots of stones on the ground in an helo pad shape or spell out S O S . Then the helos know there are people nearby that need help so they land and look and bring back supplies. Many, many Japanese have been helped in this way. I'm guessing they are without power but yet they inherently know to do this.

When the helos land on the ground the japanese come out and stand in a perfect line and help the helo guys unload all the goodies out of the helo in an assembly line as fast as possible. They have been ever so respectful, patient and humble. They are such an amazing people. Even in this horrible time, they maintain such respectability.

My friend who is a helo pilot told me tonight that as they were taking off after unloading supplies, a man got down on his knees and prayed to the helo guys (like a buddhist praying motion). Other Japanese have all waved, clapped, and given many types of thanks to our helo squadrons.

I saw pictures tonight from the helo's and airplanes. The pictures are amazing. I've never been to Japan but its so beautiful, the mountain sides are breathtaking and the ocean on the northeast coast is SO BLUE! There is a lot of destruction in the pictures. Towns just wiped out and houses remaining where the water stopped. I also heard the Japanese had a lot of  water walls to help protect them from tsunamis and this helped in many locations but not all of course. I haven't had much time to watch the news and all we get is cnn so these pictures today were unique to me.

Today at sea I saw a LOT of trees in the ocean. It looked like a lumber yard, logs and trees everywhere. Many trees have the root systems attached. I swear, I'd bet money that chunks of land lifted up from the seaside with the trees attached because some of the trees stick straight up and down out of the water as if they are solid in ground (but the water depth is 1000-2000' in those spots. The ocean is littered with connex boxes, I've seen soooo much debris out here, I wish we could have blown some of it up so that at least they weren't hazards to navigation.

There are media from the NYTimes here today so maybe there will be more news about us coming.

The guys on the flight deck have been working so hard, its really cold outside, they have to wear overboots over their boots to protect from contamination and they return back into the skin of the ship through the foc'sle which is now a decontamination station. I've heard that line lasts an hour to get through. If your clothes or boots are too high then they take them from you and issue you new gear. Fibers and clothes hold radiation moreso then hard surfaces and so I think some things like halyards and lines may have to be thrown away. Our 'lookouts' have been inside the pilothouse almost this entire time now and believe the island structure has some contamination on it. My forecasters stopped launching weather balloons.

My team has been working so hard and sleeping so little and giving everything they've got. The forecasts for the helos are paramount and CAG is definitely concerned for his guys. The captain has told me repeatedly to keep him abreast of the winds and call him anytime when we will be 'downwind' from the reactors. There are people making 'plumes' models of the air and sea, some are good, some are great, and some are not. Its all very complicated. And the jets, well, they haven't really been flying so who knows what will happen with them.

When this is all over I intend to travel back here and find a place in the country that is clean and safe to be and enjoy everything this beautiful country has to offer.

Yesterday everyone dontated supplies from their personal stashes. I'm hoping we do that again.

All for now, sorry if this email is kind of choppy just wanted to pass along the latest.

Peace,
S........
LCDR, USS RONALD REAGAN

Please pray for the people of Japan and our Service men and women where ever they are!

The Economic Collapse

19 Facts About The Deindustrialization Of America That Will Blow Your Mind



The United States is rapidly becoming the very first "post-industrial" nation on the globe. All great economic empires eventually become fat and lazy and squander the great wealth that their forefathers have left them, but the pace at which America is accomplishing this is absolutely amazing. It was America that was at the forefront of the industrial revolution. It was America that showed the world how to mass produce everything from automobiles to televisions to airplanes. It was the great American manufacturing base that crushed Germany and Japan in World War II. But now we are witnessing the deindustrialization of America. Tens of thousands of factories have left the United States in the past decade alone. Millions upon millions of manufacturing jobs have been lost in the same time period. The United States has become a nation that consumes everything in sight and yet produces increasingly little. Do you know what our biggest export is today? Waste paper. Yes, trash is the number one thing that we ship out to the rest of the world as we voraciously blow our money on whatever the rest of the world wants to sell to us. The United States has become bloated and spoiled and our economy is now just a shadow of what it once was. Once upon a time America could literally outproduce the rest of the world combined. Today that is no longer true, but Americans sure do consume more than anyone else in the world. If the deindustrialization of America continues at this current pace, what possible kind of a future are we going to be leaving to our children?

Any great nation throughout history has been great at making things. So if the United States continues to allow its manufacturing base to erode at a staggering pace how in the world can the U.S. continue to consider itself to be a great nation? We have created the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world in an effort to maintain a very high standard of living, but the current state of affairs is not anywhere close to sustainable. Every single month America goes into more debt and every single month America gets poorer.

So what happens when the debt bubble pops?

The deindustrialization of the United States should be a top concern for every man, woman and child in the country. But sadly, most Americans do not have any idea what is going on around them.

For people like that, take this article and print it out and hand it to them. Perhaps what they will read below will shock them badly enough to awaken them from their slumber.

The following are 19 facts about the deindustrialization of America that will blow your mind....

#1 The United States has lost approximately 42,400 factories since 2001.

#2 Dell Inc., one of America’s largest manufacturers of computers, has announced plans to dramatically expand its operations in China with an investment of over $100 billion over the next decade.

#3 Dell has announced that it will be closing its last large U.S. manufacturing facility in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in November. Approximately 900 jobs will be lost.

#4 In 2008, 1.2 billion cellphones were sold worldwide. So how many of them were manufactured inside the United States? Zero.

#5 According to a new study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, if the U.S. trade deficit with China continues to increase at its current rate, the U.S. economy will lose over half a million jobs this year alone.

#6 As of the end of July, the U.S. trade deficit with China had risen 18 percent compared to the same time period a year ago.

#7 The United States has lost a total of about 5.5 million manufacturing jobs since October 2000.

#8 According to Tax Notes, between 1999 and 2008 employment at the foreign affiliates of U.S. parent companies increased an astounding 30 percent to 10.1 million. During that exact same time period, U.S. employment at American multinational corporations declined 8 percent to 21.1 million.


#9 In 1959, manufacturing represented 28 percent of U.S. economic output. In 2008, it represented 11.5 percent.


#10 Ford Motor Company recently announced the closure of a factory that produces the Ford Ranger in St. Paul, Minnesota. Approximately 750 good paying middle class jobs are going to be lost because making Ford Rangers in Minnesota does not fit in with Ford's new "global" manufacturing strategy.

#11 As of the end of 2009, less than 12 million Americans worked in manufacturing. The last time less than 12 million Americans were employed in manufacturing was in 1941.

#12 In the United States today, consumption accounts for 70 percent of GDP. Of this 70 percent, over half is spent on services.

#13 The United States has lost a whopping 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.


#14 In 2001, the United States ranked fourth in the world in per capita broadband Internet use. Today it ranks 15th.

#15 Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry is actually lower in 2010 than it was in 1975.

#16 Printed circuit boards are used in tens of thousands of different products. Asia now produces 84 percent of them worldwide.

#17 The United States spends approximately $3.90 on Chinese goods for every $1 that the Chinese spend on goods from the United States.

#18 One prominent economist is projecting that the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2040.

#19 The U.S. Census Bureau says that 43.6 million Americans are now living in poverty and according to them that is the highest number of poor Americans in the 51 years that records have been kept.

So how many tens of thousands more factories do we need to lose before we do something about it?

How many millions more Americans are going to become unemployed before we all admit that we have a very, very serious problem on our hands?

How many more trillions of dollars are going to leave the country before we realize that we are losing wealth at a pace that is killing our economy?

How many once great manufacturing cities are going to become rotting war zones like Detroit before we understand that we are committing national economic suicide?

The deindustrialization of America is a national crisis. It needs to be treated like one.

If you disagree with this article, I have a direct challenge for you. If anyone can explain how a deindustrialized America has any kind of viable economic future, please do so below in the comments section.

America is in deep, deep trouble folks. It is time to wake up.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/19-facts-about-the-deindustrialization-of-america-that-will-blow-your-mind