Obscurity Assured

Washington is comfortable that this technology provides no opportunities “for nuclear proliferation or advancement of other country’s weapons capability,” said Dunne. The development of commercial fusion, he says, has no defense applications.

(from)

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/innovation/06/27/fusion/

**

Well, aside from the fact that I have very few readers and sit in the middle of nowhere USA – and the facts that a multitude of people world over are working on various things they want published and another multitude of companies along with individuals are working to get the world to recognize them and their work -

I’ve thought about it (as per my last post) -

And, my obscurity is rather assured.

Since that is no longer a consideration, and in honor of CNN’s nice little story about fusion linked above -

I might as well add my two cents worth.

- cricketdiane

**

Here is my two cents worth . . .

First, by way of my rights to know anything about it, I just want to say that I had nothing better to do and it was important to me.

Second, by way of knowing anything about it, I’ve been researching fusion energy concepts for awhile, like most of my life.

And, third – by way of accepting responsibility for what I am about to do – let me say, that the only thing in it for me is likely a trip to a mental hospital and some chemical lobotomy forced upon me, losing everything I own out into the street and more poverty *isn’t that a shame. However, that being what I expect and knowing that it in all likelihood will never yield anything else to me – I’ll tell you what I know. At least my children will know I was actually working on it.

So , that said -

Let me get my notes.

About nuclear fusion -

When electricity is “created” in a power system – there is no actual conversion of that power from nothing. It is literally a change from one source of power or energy into another. In hydro-electric systems, the power of the moving water is transformed into electricity. In nuclear power, the use of plutonium and uranium rods is for the heat generated to make steam, thereby turning the turbines for that conversion.

In nature, that conversion does not happen in those ways. In nature that conversion in energy is more direct and amplified. It is done in a number of different ways, and within a vast majority of natural systems those conversions have a greater stability and recurring cycle without the conversion losses our human made systems endure.

It is actually the conversion that we want; the transfer of one type of work energy into the form of electricity, heat, power, light, energy, locomotion, speed and velocity generally, along with control of it that our systems are designed to do. The idea that a system to be viable must produce more energy than is consumed is a misleading concept at best. There is no greater energy in a hydro-electric system coming out than going in. There is, in fact, less energy converted into electrical power than the consummate energy of the water’s motion would be calculated to produce directly. There is a loss by the conversion being used at every stage of the process.

These systems we have for producing electricity (and other forms of power, such as gasoline to power vehicles and machinery), are literally transferring one type of energy into another. That is true for every type of “energy source” we are currently using, (by utilizing them in the current manner we are doing it.)

With ITER and at Livermore, their energy conversions are requiring mega-power going in and after their “conceptual” processing, the amount of power coming out is about enough to light a few lightbulbs and run a few toasters, and does so at a cost of several hundred billion (with a “b”) dollars over the life of the experimental phases, the startup capital building requirements and through the life of the operating usefulness. It compares with the $10 billion dollar plus steam kettle systems that we’ve designed called “nuclear power” as well.

In nature, considering that we haven’t had to go to the sun and stir it even once to keep the fusion reactions occurring, at least not in any lifetimes found in science or mythical literature, there is something to be said for creating similar dynamic and robust systems which, in my opinion – are an asymmetrical equilibrium maintained which continuously feeds both the reactions and the physics-based attributes of the system making the reactions viable within the system. We don’t try to do that in our systems and process designs thus far.

As a result of our ways of approaching power “generation” which is simply to convert one potential or kinetic energy source into another (of electricity, for instance) with our fairly systemically symmetric, stable and forced system dynamics in a linear configuration, the power lost at each stage is tremendous. The actual system itself depletes some of those energy conversions rather than to help sustain the conversion by its basic design and concept.

(part one, introduction of ideas – cricketdiane, 06-27-11)

**

So, what if -

We design a dynamic fusion system based upon a mechanically asymmetric process.

That, the attempt is not made to convert through steam, fire, temperature changes or the kinetic energy of motion from water or air.

That, the conversion be made more directly – since, only the stripped electrons at the molecular and atomic level are actually desirable or needed from the system.

And, those harnessing mechanisms be controlled and safely contained with all their possible by-products from the reaction. It isn’t safe to have neutrinos running around loose. The by-products must be contained within the system and harnessed as a possibility for managing them safely while gaining what possible work can be derived from them.

(Note, the word “mechanically” is used in the sense of physics – not in the sense of physical mechanical substrates within the system.)

**

Known Quantities -

A.) The commercial realm, business arenas and government agency directives are targeted at the exact physical engineering applications of fusion intended for massive power generating stations on a commercial basis.

B.) Experimental, academic, research, quasi-commercial/governmental and international efforts have continued to be massively scaled and massively funded projects with 25 years from now expected returns of possible power generation on any scale.

C.) Wind, solar, nuclear, gas-fired, coal-fired, and hydro-powered plants are currently funded to take the lion’s share of projected funding and to provide both the current increasing requirements for, and the expected near future needs for electricity.

D.) A concurrent system to be placed alongside these systems in no way receives any adequate promise of funding. That is a fact.

However, there are a few other known facts to contribute to the above list including some of the drawbacks of each type of electricity / power generating scheme that is currently in use.

( as an aside, without proving that I’ve actually studied these drawbacks by listing them here – they can easily be found online in an infinite array of discussions, science, physics and engineering dialogues along with the studies to support them.)

**

And, before going any further -

Note – this is not a garage project to be done at home. It is not an appropriate hobby project in anything I might discuss here in this set of posts about fusion. What can be done, is to follow along with the links to references as I include them and start thinking about the theoretical implications of designing something useful that works (on paper.)

- cricketdiane

***

The list above, did not include geothermal power sources which are both actively engaged in generating power today and, it is safe to assume, will be used to generate electric power in the future. These sources are simply using a different initializing source for a temperature change to steam as a method of turning the turbines to generate electricity. In these systems, they are using the earth like a hot springs tap to engineer the steam desired. They are very effective, but not as well funded and pursued as other “energy sources.”

As I said, there are drawbacks to every one of the systems which is not included in this discussion. The idea that we need another option is fairly well grounded in reality and there are many good reasons for this.

When I first started looking at the options for fusion energy / electricity generation, I thought that the first line of options would include the radioactive decay from uranium and similar elements which, I discovered, had been tried with dismal results. There was no possible control mechanism that could be adequately safe for those decay particles to be harnessed to gain the electrical “work” available in them. They are dangerous, unstable, not user friendly to human beings and human life, along with being unpredictable inside a very slim margin of error. They were in use for some lighthouses and other similar direct energy products including some uses for satellites and space program interstellar research missions’ onboard power needs. These sources rely on a more direct approach to harnessing the energy from these sources but are so dangerous as to make them impractical on any massive scale. It has been tried.

Sodium reactors were a hoped for answer with its own inherent problems. Nuclear “catalytic bed” styled reactors are a new hoped for answer which promises more stability, but in each case – as with the sodium reactors and the traditional reactors like GE’s Fukushima, each one relies upon heating water, some other liquid or gas, to become high temperature, high pressure steam to turn turbines and generate electricity. The radioactive elements being used in them and their heat generating radioactive decay are simply being used to create that steam from a very expensive and consummately radioactive water bath.

Now, at Lawrence Livermore laboratory’s research facility, they intend to power up a multitude of lasers all targeted at a pea-sized encapsulated micron or smaller sample of an element which they believe will cause fusion to occur generating excess energy from the actual fusions of atoms in the material. Its well-funded, massive, an absolute energy hog and when it works, there will be a traditional targeted reaction occur within the confines of their facility’s well-built and well-controlled environment. They can measure it, study it and possibly even manipulate it when it does occur. The science is sound, the reasoning is optimal and the configurations for it have been all mapped based on known quantities and accepted theories. It could work eventually and it does still have some unknowns. My question of course, is that once the fusion of atoms starts, then what? Does it start and stop when the power to the lasers turns off? Are we within five years or twenty-five years of seeing some commercially viable electric generating station from this source of fusion?

And, then there are the other types of bombardment procedures for creating fusion which abound, including the ITER project. The atom smashers and colliders style research facilities which have yielded surprising and exceptional results in our understandings of the molecular interplay at the atomic level. These have given troves of information with some theoretical science proven while yielding some interesting surprises. They were exceptionally expensive to operate, and undeniably worth it, but did not yield the fusion dynamics that could actually work on an industrial scale.

(and to be honest, they probably weren’t even designed to do that either. But the information gleaned from those experiments and facilities could yet yield our next power “source”.)

Then, as the article suggests at the top of this post from CNN – there is the magnetic bombardment concept for generating fusion – and although it didn’t say it, there is a research study from India which indicates a fusion process for spent nuclear fuel rods to be robbed a little further of their radioactive heat and energy. All good projects and every one of them will work in some measure eventually. And, in the meantime, energy needs are being fulfilled by fairly traditional sources of steam or falling water turning turbines to make electricity, or coal-fired and petroleum fired power plants doing it nearly the same way with nothing more than a different starting point fuel making fire to make steam to turn the turbines – and nuclear rods in nuclear power plants doing basically the same thing.

Meanwhile, our sun keeps on making fusion reactions a multitude of times per second across its entire surface and dimensionally through its gaseous structure, maybe to several earth’s deep or more without one bit of help from us. When a lightning bolt strips through the air on our planet, it is neither in a high-pressure confined and contained environment nor in a high temperature and high pressure environment. Its entire system neither requires extreme conditions of pressure such as those used in our labs nor relies upon an intense high temperature environment to occur. Admittedly, lightning is a direct current system, however, it is fusing, altering, fissioning, and changing atoms as it goes along its path as well as impacting the surrounding air molecules in chain reactions as a result.

- ** -

So, on a scale of 1 to 10 – with 10 being the most efficient of the lot -

10 would have to go to the sun and other naturally occurring fusion and energy conversion systems.

and 1 or 2 would have to encompass where our designed systems are operating.

**-

From the CNN article -(by Thom Patterson)

“Whatever the case, China and India’s huge populations will need more and more energy each year and climatologists fear the worst from continued reliance on fossil fuels.”

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/innovation/06/27/fusion/

And, my note – that whatever the case, there are huge populations around the world in every country, including this one – which will be needing ever increasing amounts of electricity and fuels for greater numbers of cities, commercial centers, businesses, industries, homes and communities over each year progressively from this day forward. And, that is good. It is a good thing to include more of the world in prosperity and opportunity but with that comes an even greater need for energy resources to be available and massively generating power.

**

Therefore, we are all agreed that new ways of developing and harnessing energy resources are desirable and much needed. The idea that the concept of fusion promises viable solutions to these energy needs has been around for a long, long time. The first such candidate for inclusion in this article is Sergei -

I did a google search right quick rather than trying to find anything in my documents which takes forever -

using the search terms -

sergei 1827 engineering fusion

Very interesting results – but especially this one -

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.riam.kyushu-u.ac.jp/public/publish/mokuroku05.pdf&ei=9FcJTratJMWz0AHFwZFl&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CC0Q7gEwAjgU&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsergei%2B1827%2Bengineering%2Bfusion%26start%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D580%26prmd%3Divns

That is the google translation page to see it in English – it is a 2005 paper.

**

And this one – also from those search results -

http://www.scribd.com/doc/58342978/52/Piotr-Leonidovich-Kapitza-1894%E2%80%931984

A quote from the text linked above -

By early August Kapitza, at Rutherford’s suggestion, was studying how the energy of the alpha particle falls off at the end of its range. This project was brought to a successful conclusion with amazing rapidity. (etc.)

And this one -

He had to convince the authorities that his work lay primarily in pure rather than applied physics and that he could do nothing useful unless he had equipment and other facilities comparable with those he had enjoyed in Cambridge. Negotiations were begun to bring him what he required.

So Kapitza settled down to research again and within a year made his greatest discovery, the superfluidity of liquid helium. However, he lacked the freedom he had enjoyed in Cambridge. From the mid 1930s Soviet scientists found themselves increasingly cut off from their colleagues in other countries.

( .  . . )

Although he was no longer head of the Institute of Physical Problems, Kapitza retained his position and salary as a full academician and went to live at his country house at Nikolina Gora, where he managed to carry on scientific work while virtually under house arrest. Most of his effort went into building up a laboratory in various outhouses where, aided by his sons, particularly Sergei, he could continue experimental work, albeit only on relatively unexciting projects. While atomic physics elsewhere was moving rapidly ahead using particle accelerators and other new equipment, he was unable to contribute to this. Even after he had been reinstated in 1954 and could return to Moscow,he was still without  the facilities he needed for the kind of experimental work at which he excelled. Nevertheless, he began to think about the possibility of developing a defence against atomic bombs using extremely powerful microwave emissions. Later he transferred his attention to the problem of generating energy through nuclear fusion.

(from)

http://www.scribd.com/doc/58342978/52/Piotr-Leonidovich-Kapitza-1894%E2%80%931984

Also – this note from the article above – (about who Sergei is – one of two children born to Piotr and his wife, Anna) -

Two children were born in their Cambridge period: in 1928 Sergei, who became a distinguished physicist and successful popularizer of science for Soviet television, and three years later Andrei, who became a well-known Antarctic explorer and geographer.

**

There’s more.

From the other linked document -

http://www.riam.kyushu-u.ac.jp/public/publish/mokuroku05.pdf

(for which there is a google translated document link above the article about Piotr Kapitza,)

page 22 – along with some of the non-linear dynamic system materials

高エネルギープラズマ
High Energy Plasma Physics
教授 伊藤 早苗，助教授 矢木 雅敏
Professor Sanae-I. Itoh, Associate Professor Masatoshi Yagi
Zonal flows in plasma –a review,
Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion Vol.47, No.5 (2005), R35-R161,
P. H. Diamond, S.-I. Itoh, K. Itoh and T. S. Hahm

Two decades of plasma physics – Turbulence and structure formation – (in
Japanese)
Parity Vol.20, No.11 (2005) 36-38
K. Itoh and S.-I. Itoh
Progress of the theory of zonal flow (in Japanese)
J. Plasma and Fusion Research Vol.81 No.12 (2005) 972-977
K. Itoh and S.-I. Itoh

(etc.)

**

And this -

(from the CERN materials found on this page link below it)

HEAVY ION PROGRAM AT BNL: AGS, RHIC*
D.S. Barton

AGS Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory
Associated Universities, Inc.
Upton, New York 11973

http://accelconf.web.cern.ch/accelconf/p87/PDF/PAC1987_0804.PDF

(from the CERN materials found on this page – despite it being an early document among them)

http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/112546

**

Which States – (interestingly enough)

Low Mass Heavy Ion Acceleration
The acceleration of oxygen ions in the AGS in
Oct. 1986 initiated the program of relativistic heavy
ion physics at BNL. This project encompassed the
installation of pulsed negative ion sources at the
two BNL Tandem machines, ( . . . )

**

(etc. – will come back to that part – )

And from this page -pg 25 of the document

http://www.riam.kyushu-u.ac.jp/public/publish/mokuroku05.pdf

極限構造材料
Extreme-Circumstances StructuraI Materials
教授 吉田 直亮，助教授 渡邉 英雄，助手 岩切 宏友
Professor Naoaki Yoshida, Associate Professor Hideo Watanabe,
Research Associate Hirotomo lwakiri

Xu, Qiu, N. Yoshida, T. Yoshiie : Dynamic Simulation of Multiplier Effects of
Helium Plasma and Neutron Irradiation on Microstructural Evolution in
Tungsten, Materials Transactions, Vol. 46, No. 6, pp.1255-1260, 2005.

Nishijima, D., H. Iwakiri, K. Amano, M.Y. Ye, N. Ohno, K. Tokunaga, N. Yoshida,
S. Takamura : Suppression of blister formation and deuterium retention on
tungsten surface due to mechanical polishing and helium pre-exposure, Nuclear
Fusion 45, pp. 669-674, 2005.

**

To describe the contributions made by Piotr Kapitza in physics as it pertains to this discussion of fusion -

(from a biographical sketch about him online)

In 1934 he returned to Moscow where he organized the Institute for Physical Problems at which he continued his research on strong magnetic fields, low temperature physics and cryogenics.

In 1939 he developed a new method for liquefaction of air with a lowpressure cycle using a special high-efficiency expansion turbine. In low temperature physics, Kapitsa began a series of experiments to study the properties of liquid helium that led to discovery of the superfluidity of helium in 1937 and in a series of papers investigated this new state of matter.

During the World War II Kapitsa was engaged in applied research on the production and use of oxygen that was produced using his low pressure expansion turbines, and organized and headed the Department of Oxygen Industry attached to the USSR Council of Ministers. Late in the 1940′s Kapitsa turned his attention to a totally new range of physical problems.

He invented high power microwave generators – planotron and nigotron (1950- 1955) and discovered a new kind of continuous high pressure plasma discharge with electron temperatures over a million K. Kapitsa is director of the Institute for Physical Problems.

Since 1957 he is a member of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He was one of the founders of the Moscow Physico-Technical Institute (MFTI), and is now head of the department of low temperature physics and cryogenics of MFTI and chairman of the Coordination Council of this teaching Institute. He is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics and member of the Soviet National Committee of the Pugwash movement of scientists for peace and disarmament.

http://kapitsa.nbaoh.com/1.htm

**

And this discussion has some interesting information pertinent to this particular discussion about fusion -

http://www.physicsforums.com/archive/index.php/t-175477.html

And, I’ll add this one thing before heading off to try and get some sleep for an appointment that I have to keep tomorrow somehow -

http://accelconf.web.cern.ch/accelconf/p87/PDF/PAC1987_0804.PDF

page 4 has a very nice picture worth studying – and this note from the text -

In the second phase of the program, the AGS
booster [5] will accelerate partially stripped ions
to energies at which they can be fully stripped for
injection to the AGS. This will extend the accessible
physics to that of ions from the full periodic
table, with a top energy of about 11 GeV/nucleon
for gold. Collisions at this energy on fixed targets
are expected to produce rather low nuclear temperatures,
but baryon densities of approximately 5 to 10
times nuclear density. The dashed trajectory labeled
“Nuclear Fragmentation” in Fig. 1 illustrates a
possible probe of the quark-gluon plasma at high
baryon density in such collisions. These conditions
may be similar to those found in neutron stars.

And this part -

Stripping in a thin foil at the terminal produces
several positive charge states, of which the
0(7+) state is selected in the first stage of the
beam line to the AGS, whereupon it is stripped of its
remaining electron.
(etc.)

**

I’m just saying – there are direct routes for stripping electrons from existing quantities of materials and gases using known physics applications and harnessing them. This includes plasma arc welding which contains in a small controlled space, the same temperatures as the surface of the sun. There have already been studies made including the theoretical work on them such as, the Confinement of a Hot Plasma in a Solid Dielectric Container – and containment has been managed within certain RF frequency fields, magnetic fields, electromagentic fields, neutron colliders, and on and on and on – at what point do we use this information and create something ingenious with it to produce electricity on the scale and with the level of control that we need it?

Also – there is obviously more, but I’m stopping for now to maybe sleep in preparation for tomorrow. I’ll add some more later, maybe even get out some of my documents to include references from them for this article.

(To be continued . . . )

- cricketdiane

***

Oh yes, and do be sure and read this -

http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Meetings/FEC2008/ov_4-2.pdf

which explains a lot of it – in about the most current understanding of it with very clear explanations that are easy to follow -

Later . . .

**

Back of the Envelope Calculations –

Have been trailing our family history for the last week and a half.

Have helped with plumbing at parent’s house before that. (for two weeks.)

Studied a bit on Wales and Welsh history, then American History (and Southern history in America.)

I’ve been thinking and sorting it out.

Also made some notes about the business stuff. (concerning the projects I own, like the America the Beautiful Show websites.)

Twittered a little. (noted the SecurID algorithm sets theft and Fukushima reactor 2 being injected with nitrogen as last resort – news.)

Cleaned some of the house, built a tremendous Lego construction, then took it apart. (took pictures, it was room size.)

Crunched some numbers. (about various things from family dates to paying my bills to designs for equations I’m studying.)

 

Defined some possibilities and set up the sequences for it. (Could sell the equations outright as a business, maybe – blueprints.)

Met with my son for awhile one day, talked with my daughter, emailed some friends (but that has been about three weeks ago now.)

Can’t get there from here.

In fact, wherever it is – can’t get there from here.

Maybe.

(Might be that everywhere could get here easier than that, in fact.) (or rather, everyone could get here from there easier.)

 

Back of the envelope figuring – doing it this way would take thirty more years to get anywhere from here.

And, I’m considering what to do with my research notes. Mom wants me to write a book – but not about anything I’ve researched.

Figures.

She thinks it should be about my life story. And, my life experiences. Wouldn’t that be a lark?

- cricketdiane

**

So, that said and all of that said -

I’m thinking.

. . .

. . .

. . . .

Just thinking some more.

. . . .

and some more.

And, what do I want to do?

. . .

None of the above.

**

See, here’s the thing. I bitch about not having money, but I like obscurity. There is a freedom in obscurity that doesn’t come from anywhere else in America this day and age. If I take my research and post it or sort it out into some dynamic paper, I risk being something somewhere no longer in obscurity. I like the freedom of walking down the street and nobody knowing I do anything of merit. It has some risks, like being mistaken for somebody that doesn’t give a damn by police or storeowners occasionally, but for the most part, I can dress how I please, walk where I want, and not have to answer dumb questions just because I can since nobody thinks I would know the answer anyway.

I have found that it is easy to say, look at this and nobody look at it come hell or highwater. I can do that with my art, with my research, with projects, with business ideas, or with the papers I write. It is easy to say, “listen to this” and literally have no one listen simply because they’re not going to be told what to do and when to do it. But, that same thing makes it easy to hide damn near everything. And, to hide in obscurity where it is safe(r). It isn’t safe from some things like people who would abuse me, however. I’ve found that out in difficult measure. And, it isn’t safe from the very worst of what humanity can do (as a group) simply because I’m poor.

Sometimes though, it feels like I want to join the world in their endeavors and lend a hand. Sometimes, it feels like I would be happier if I had money and acknowledgment and were known for what I do – or for what I can do. And, sometimes (especially when I want to buy something or go see places and do things like that), it seems like I should be making money for the things I can do. And, then I try to come out of obscurity while trying to hold onto it at the same time. Doesn’t work, but I retain my precious freedom to be myself.

So, in some sense it does work and in some sense, it does not. Like with the America the Beautiful Show project, I had hoped to sell it and not be associated with it so that it could be brought to America without being wrapped up in my past and my personal frailties. But, to do that requires getting very public with the project personally in order to promote what it is and tell about it and simply to come out of obscurity in order to do that. Nope, that does not sound like fun. And, it defeats the purpose of trying to sell it in the first place. Yet, that is what it would take in order to find a buyer for it and substantiate its value in the public marketplace. Its the only way to give it a track record of any kind to prove there is an interest in it, therefore a value for it.

You know, I’m not shy. I’m not agoraphobic. I like to talk just fine with people and find it easy to make lasting friends. However, the idea of being a public target of ridicule and scorn, doesn’t sound very appealing. And, with the past I have, ridicule, scorn, contempt, misunderstanding, opinionated assumptions, and pre-judgements are pretty much all that I can expect to get from people, especially “the public” at large. Even in obscurity, I deal with that and have for many, many years. I cannot expect the public to be any kinder and generous than the people who I’ve known at my elbow all my life and they don’t mind not being “nice” to me about who I am, about who I think I am trying to do something, and about what right I have to be trying to do it. Being public with my projects would simply invite those things on a much larger and more intense scale, nothing more.

I’m thinking about it.

Do I really want the America the Beautiful Show, for instance (although it is one of many “projects” which would require a more public stance in order to accomplish the next stages of them), to be available to help America if it means I would have to go running around the country publicly promoting what it is? Do I care that much about any of it – or would it be easier to let it go never seeing the light of day?

Hmmmm…………..

Not just easier, more preferable?

Do I feel that way about all the projects – does it matter to me if they end up in the landfill rather than becoming an asset to America and the world – (and to my children)?

Damn it – I don’t know.

- cricketdiane

***

 

Yes, I’m here – still here.

Yes, my email is not accessible to me and neither is my twitter account. After Comcast screwed up my email account access, well – nothing can be done.

Now, when I try to see my twitter account at AmBeautifulShow – there is nothing but a white screen. And, on the Comcast.net, when I try to access my email account, it doesn’t allow me to sign in – even though they told me I would have no change in my email, as I was changing from their high speed internet service to strictly the mobile 4G.

Damn them.

- cricketdiane

**

Now, I’ve spent two more hours dealing with them over at comcast – after several phone calls to their service and tech support over the past week. It still isn’t resolved. Apparently they are holding my email account hostage until I sign up for their high speed internet service again – Unbelievable. Didn’t the Secretary of State’s office, or the FTC or FCC or Congress make that law about email access from internet providers that allows the client / end user rights to access, and rights to the valid email address? That is the law isn’t it?

Regardless – there are no words to describe the asinine abomination that comcast is perpetrating with this and then to not tell their employees at the service centers to let customers know that dropping the high speed internet service will destroy access to their valid email account? What kind of shit is that?

Who would have made such a decision over at comcast corporation? Do they not want customers at all? How could they get away with holding people’s valid email addresses and email accounts with all of the information contained in them as if the comcast corporation owns them and everything in it? What gives them any right to do that? Or to deny access to the email account once the customer has established it in good faith?

What kind of people would do such a thing?

And, after spending thousands of dollars with them over the last six plus years, month after month, year after year – they would treat me this way?

Yes, that is exactly what they’ve done to me in this situation. What gives them the right to do that? Why do they get to do that to anyone’s email account?

- cricketdiane

***

 

 

New York City Work Advantage Program put people in apartments they can’t afford with the promise of economic help then cut funds to zero

NYC – Close to Ending Key Housing Program – article in the NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/01/nyregion/new-york-city-close-to-ending-key-housing-program.html

By MOSI SECRET

Published: May 31, 2011

With New York City’s shelter population near all-time highs, the Bloomberg administration is on the verge of ending its signature housing program for homeless families, saying the program’s generosity might have contributed to the problem.

Multimedia

Hanging by a Thread

Hanging by a Thread

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The program, called Advantage, started in 2007 and offers subsidies for up to two years to help people in shelters afford their own apartments, provided they work or take part in job training. (etc., )

(article linked above – my brief explanation on the article’s subject below) -

NY State, Federal funding and NYC funding for the Work Advantage Program which helps homeless families get their own apartments with a short-term (2 yr) financial aid for it, has been de-funded leaving the participants homeless in the streets of New York. At one time, New York was a shooting gallery where tourists were mugged and looked more like a war zone than a city. Apparently, that is a more desirable way to handle poverty in the over-priced housing market there, than to give people a hand up and inclusion in their society.

My Note -

Reading the comments on this article has been very disgusting and disheartening because of the cruelty expressed, the narrow-minded misogyny blatantly obvious in so many of the comments, and for the obscene level of prejudice and intolerance shown in such a vast number of them. It reminded me of listening to am talk radio, almost any Christian church program on tv or in person and at least a few of the right-wing websites. Not all the comments were like that, but so many were and so many included assumptions about the people in the story, the people in the shelters, the people in the Advantage program and the people who are homeless in general. It doesn’t set the blame for our economic Depression on those whose bad plays and bad policies created it, but rather on those who had nothing to do with it but are suffering as a result.

This isn’t America anymore – it is nothing but a place where the right-wing conservatives constantly scream, talk and write some excuse for ethnic, religious, moral or “other” cleansing of all those who don’t measure up to their idea of valuable Americans, including those who are simply homeless, elderly, disabled or economically disadvantaged. That is wrong. It doesn’t matter if that attitude is present as the reason for exclusion, for genocide, for rounding up people as they did in Nazi Germany, or here in America promoting cruelty, intolerance and denying people even the most basic needs of survival – it is wrong.

I’m lucky – I personally know the girl in the story and in the video. The people making those comments could not even begin to imagine what the import of their words mean. Nor could they begin to understand because they don’t want to know. The cruel and intolerant comments make it obvious that they have already decided about the people around them and it doesn’t matter if those are fellow Americans or not. There is no enemy who would need to destroy our nation when we have community members like those who would turn on anyone as if their life were not worthwhile simply because they have sorry economic conditions and few economic opportunities.

- cricketdiane

**

And then there’s this -

The Real Housewives of Wall Street

Why is the Federal Reserve forking over $220 million in bailout money to the wives of two Morgan Stanley bigwigs?

By Matt Taibbi
April 12, 2011 9:55 AM ET

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-real-housewives-of-wall-street-look-whos-cashing-in-on-the-bailout-20110411

Most Americans know about that budget. What they don’t know is that there is another budget of roughly equal heft, traditionally maintained in complete secrecy. After the financial crash of 2008, it grew to monstrous dimensions, as the government attempted to unfreeze the credit markets by handing out trillions to banks and hedge funds. And thanks to a whole galaxy of obscure, acronym-laden bailout programs, it eventually rivaled the “official” budget in size — a huge roaring river of cash flowing out of the Federal Reserve to destinations neither chosen by the president nor reviewed by Congress, but instead handed out by fiat by unelected Fed officials using a seemingly nonsensical and apparently unknowable methodology.

Now, following an act of Congress that has forced the Fed to open its books from the bailout era, this unofficial budget is for the first time becoming at least partially a matter of public record. Staffers in the Senate and the House, whose queries about Fed spending have been rebuffed for nearly a century, are now poring over 21,000 transactions and discovering a host of outrages and lunacies in the “other” budget. It is as though someone sat down and made a list of every individual on earth who actually did not need emergency financial assistance from the United States government, and then handed them the keys to the public treasure. The Fed sent billions in bailout aid to banks in places like Mexico, Bahrain and Bavaria, billions more to a spate of Japanese car companies, more than $2 trillion in loans each to Citigroup and Morgan Stanley, and billions more to a string of lesser millionaires and billionaires with Cayman Islands addresses. “Our jaws are literally dropping as we’re reading this,” says Warren Gunnels, an aide to Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. “Every one of these transactions is outrageous.”

(etc., etc., etc., – including – )

“That doesn’t seem like a whole lot, considering that Goldman Sachs alone received roughly $800 billion in loans from the Fed.”

and the two housewives of Morgan Stanley who received loans without any business background whatsoever.

**

The writer says -

“This is what welfare for the rich looks like.”

**

And from the last page of the article, this note -

Even more disturbing, the major stakeholder in the Bahrain bank is none other than the Central Bank of Libya, which owns 59 percent of the operation. In fact, the Bahrain bank just received a special exemption from the U.S. Treasury to prevent its assets from being frozen in accord with economic sanctions. That’s right: Muammar Qaddafi received more than 70 loans from the Federal Reserve, along with the Real Housewives of Wall Street.

Perhaps the most irritating facet of all of these transactions is the fact that hundreds of millions of Fed dollars were given out to hedge funds and other investors with addresses in the Cayman Islands. Many of those addresses belong to companies with American affiliations — including prominent Wall Street names like Pimco, Blackstone and . . . Christy Mack. Yes, even Waterfall TALF Opportunity is an offshore company. It’s one thing for the federal government to look the other way when Wall Street hotshots evade U.S. taxes by registering their investment companies in the Cayman Islands. But subsidizing tax evasion? Giving it a federal bailout?

(and there’s more . . . )

**

Apparently our Treasury is a private banking club for the wealthy and Wall Street, including New York’s most elite who got in over their heads on bad bets and lost their money making risky gambles. But, the taxpayers bought those risky assets that weren’t worth the paper they were written on – and put hundreds of billions (which added up, are the trillions we now owe in deficits across every state and the federal budget, along with creating the unimaginable US debt which we, the taxpayers are paying out more in interest than nearly our entire revenues combined . . . – and that is my note about it.)

But, for some reason – the value of those people who put our nation into financial meltdown is considered “above reproach, above the law and above the rest of us” and every other human life in America, especially those of the poor, elderly, disabled, economically disadvantaged, economically struggling, young mothers, children and babies is disdained with no considered value whatsoever. The comments on the NY Times article about the Work Advantage program being suddenly de-funded along with a multitude of other social safety net programs being de-funded by Republican budget cuts recently, including the WIC program to ensure milk, eggs, cheese, cereal and fruit juice is available to pregnant women, babies and toddlers across America – make it obvious that NY and Washington believe the “bad guys” are the economically impoverished, not Qaddafi or hedge funds or mega bankers or Wall Street who actually devised the consummate downfall of the world’s economic foundations, including our own.

That was a handful of a sentence to say this – Our politicians are serving those bastards that sit at the table with them and Americans aren’t at that table – but they are using our money to do it. And, out of everyone in New York including the richest 1% who hold nearly all the US funds available to anyone for anything – if there is anyone who is preventing the recovery of our nation’s economy, it is them – not someone who needs an extra $400 a month to afford a single room apartment in New York in order to live there, work there and care for herself and her child. If New York City hadn’t diverted the Section 8 housing vouchers’ money to their rich friends wanting to use it to buy and refurbish real estate in the city, their wouldn’t have been the kind of homeless problem there is now.

If the Governor’s financial team had included American citizens instead of financial brokers from Wall Street, the Federal and State’s matching funds for the Advantage program wouldn’t have been decimated to divert it to cover Nassau County’s Wall Street portfolio losses and costs that cover the richest suburban county in the world. It rather decries of ineptitude and complacency that people don’t even know that. It doesn’t matter to them as long as they believe what they are told to believe by some high school graduate on a right wing talk radio show making millions sponsored by gold and silver traders like most of them are. The hate perpetrated by the conservative right and threaded through the comments on the article about the homeless in NYC, indicates an unwillingness to deal with reality which, in every way imaginable states factually, that we are all in the same boat. It was not the homeless individuals, the disabled, disadvantaged, elderly, infirmed or single mothers that caused the boat to be sinking – and not one of us, including those making snide hateful comments on the article are at the table with the bankers, insurance companies, CEOs, Wall Street firms, hedge funds, large corporations, commercial real estate developers, oil speculators, options traders, or gold traders that have run this country into the ground. Not one of us sits at Mayor Bloomberg’s table or Governor Cuomo’s table when decisions are made. Neither the homeless, nor the average financially stable American citizen is at that table, nor invited to be. They are serving Moammar Qaddafi, not us. They have been serving Hosni Mubarak, not us. They are in love with the thinking of vile dictators whose favor they want, not ours. They are worshiping Exxon and BP and anyone else that represents a corporate interest who were given the greater rights as citizens than the citizens themselves in America, as of many years ago during Republican administrations which have been ruling America.

So, after insisting that “every life is valuable” with a “unique and valuable contribution” to make in America and for America, the real deal described by the conservatives and right-wing policy makers, talk show hosts, comments such as those on this NY Times article, Christian churches across America, Tea Party candidates and other ultra right wing Republicans is that – What?

What does it say actually? That the real deal according to them AS SHOWN BY THEIR ACTIONS AND WORDS  – is What exactly?

I think it does not make it right or accurate or factual or “the truth” or correct or best for America – regardless of what that attitude conveys . . .

And, I will say that first – because it looks like “they” are saying, “the girl in the NYTimes story and everyone like her anywhere in America, along with their children, are not valuable to America, nor to their fellow Americans, nor to the communities in which they live and work, nor valuable as contributors, nor valued as a part of America.” And, it implies as well as states and re-states, that the ruling class, money hungry and never satiated, consider the people of America to be in “their way across their America and in their New York and at any place anywhere in America where these less than millionaires might be hanging on by a thread.”

Hmmm……….

Aren’t those the same right-wing conservatives whose children beat a homeless man to death for “fun”? And, the same ideologically based group of people whose words perpetrated dragging a gay man behind a truck for several miles after nearly beating him to death and then left him on a barbed wire fence to die in the middle of nowhere? Aren’t they the same ones who frequent the expensive and most perverted of all madame services in Washington, New York and elsewhere and the only ones who are running lines of cocaine up their own and their children’s noses? Aren’t they the same ones supporting the re-invention of the American dream to exclude every single American family, except their own? And, aren’t these the same thinking people whose ideas, voices, talking points and politics are given to them in an endless stream of talk radio right wing conservative intolerance, prejudice, bigotry, misogyny and demands for the separation of our nation into 50 sovereign nation states rather than one great indivisible nation?

Aren’t they the same ones who make money off prisons as a business, divert funds for community social nets into conservative think tanks instead, and talk endlessly about whatever soap opera or reality show or Jerry Springer type show draws their attention while shunning any news shows that don’t tell them what to think and how to think about the news stories of the day? And, aren’t these the same ones that preached from their Christian church pulpits, every reason in the world to hate those around them for being homeless, for being smelly, for being badly clothed, for being a member of some other church or some other faith, for being different, for thinking differently, for being gay, for being of a different race or nationality, for being an immigrant, for being fat, for being anorexic, for being a single mother, for being a woman out of wedlock, for being unemployed, for being underemployed, for being old, for being ill all the time, for being on crutches holding up all the regular people trying to get in the door, for being mentally disabled, for being a person with a menial job, for being a person with only a part time job, for being a temporarily employed person, for not having a pension, for not having a car, for not being a property or land owner, for not being a Republican, for not being a conservative, for not being a right wing believer and supporter, for not being passive enough, for not being cooperative enough, for not being socially fit, for not being blonde, for not being manicured, for not having on the right shoes, for not having on the right clothes, for not being a member of the church, for not being as well-off financially as the church’s general membership, for not being the “right color”, for not saying the right things, for not thinking the “right” things, and generally for not getting up at 7 am to live on the regular schedule used by everyone else in the same manner and time that everyone else in America (according to them) are using it.

Yep, those are the same people who have run this nation for the last thirty years, during administration after administration of Republicans and state upon state run by Republicans – and when did the jobs leave America? While the Republicans were running things. And, why is that?

- cricketdiane

***