It’s 2 1/2 Minutes to Midnight, Part I

The famous Doomsday Clock was the idea of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. It’s now 2 1/2 minutes to Midnight. The Atomic Scientists — some of them worked on the Manhattan Project — have set the Clock 1/2 minute closer to the extinction of people. Also: polar bears, orangutans, and the EPA. 

Are they worried about Global Heating and Climate Chaos reaching the Point of No Return? Perhaps — the greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are now above 400 ppm for the first time in many millennia. But, the major concern of the Atomic Scientists is nuclear radiation. Lately, they’ve been reminded of the fallibility of mankind re: 1) nuclear weapons and 2) nuclear power plants.

First, the bombs and missiles. Nowadays, the nuclear weapons of US and Russia add up to  about 1400; France, UK, China, India, Pakistan, and Israel together have another several hundred. Poor North Korea has only about 5. Lowering the total by even 5 would matter.

So, how crazy (stupid?) is it for the US not to negotiate a peace treaty to officially end the Korean War, when Kim Jong Un has said several times that he will undo his nation’s nuclear program the moment a treaty is signed?  You mean there’s only a cease fire between the US and North Korea all these decades?  Of course, we must be officially at war to make “overflights” of North Korea with B2, nuclear-capable bombers?  That’s just politics??

Whom else are we targeting with our nuclear missiles? Not Russia now that Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump are friends and have business together. Not China — Walmart would never agree to that. Did anyone suggest dismantling the US nuclear arsenal? 

     Perhaps the Atomic Scientists read some of President Trump’s tweets with no semblance to reality, posted in the small hours of the night,. 

    Perhaps they read the recent reports that a diver may have discovered a nuclear bomb lost off British Columbia in 1950. It was reportedly marked with the identification M IV. The diver was scared to death it might go off if he touched it. He came to the surface and called the Mounties who called in the Royal Navy.

    

The Atomic Scientists were also aware there have been more than 32 other “significant incidents and accidents” with nuclear bombs, six never recovered. Several were well known to the public at the time they were lost. The short list includes: 

    The day in 1958 that two planes collided off Savannah, GA — one carrying an H-Bomb. The B47 was damaged badly and decided to drop its Bomb into the sea near the Savannah River. Search teams were quietly sent to cordon off Wassaw Sound. They searched underwater, from the surface, and from the air, but couldn’t find the Bomb or the plutonium trigger. Two months later, the search was suddenly called off — the teams had to be sent to South Carolina where another B47 accidentally dropped its H-Bomb. 200 lbs of TNT (part of its trigger) exploded on impact, scattering radioactive debris across the landscape. Fortunately, the core of the bomb didn’t detonate. The Air Force sheepishly requested one replacement bomb. The Savannah bomb is still missing. 

      In 1961, a B-52, carrying 2 nuclear bombs, exploded and crashed near Goldsboro NC, ejecting its H-Bombs. One landed in a swamp and broke apart without blowing up; the other deployed its parachute and landed tangled in a tree. Incredibly (or not so), 5 of the 6 fuses inserted to prevent an unintended detonation failed. [Sometimes, failure can be good.]

    In 1966, near Palomares, Spain, a B 52, carrying 4 H-Bombs, crashed while trying to refuel midair. One bomb hit the ground and was recovered smashed up a bit; the TNT of two exploded, scattering radioactive debris everywhere; and one landed off shore in almost 3,000 feet of water. A mini-submarine located it several months later. Whether it was ever recovered depends on whom you ask. That “significant incident” on foreign territory, not under the authority of the CIA, could not be hushed up and remains in the folklore of the villagers of Palomares.

    Two years later, a B-52 carrying four H-Bombs caught fire and crashed in Greenland (Danish territory) near Thule Air Force base. The TNT of the plane’s 4 bombs exploded strewing radioactive uranium, tritium, and plutonium across the ice.

    Also in 1968, the nuclear attack Submarine, Scorpion, carrying two nuclear torpedoes, sank in 9,800 feet of water near the Azores. Both (torpedoes) are still there.   

    Several extra nuclear bomb "accidents" of US origin have also occurred. A bunch of  nuclear military catastrophes of the Soviet Union have added to the total. Now, we must include radiation on the list of man-made environmental dangers in the world.

    The US government has so many incidents and “accidents” with nuclear weapons that it had to create a file — they call it Broken Arrow.

   A few years ago, I published a cartoon showing a building with many towers and transmitters. Nearby, an ICBM had just been sent off to a target. A voice from the building says, “Lunch? I thought you said Launch.” 

    That’s just the military side of the madness. Next issue of the Sylvanian, Gadfly sets its satirical eye on the civilian side. Watch this space for Part II.

Health Care

Health care is complicated  … if you insist on attaching ring-o-levio capitalism to it. Even Donald Trump, who likes things as simple as capitalism unencumbered by rules and regulations, has said “I have to tell you, it’s an unbelievably complex subject. Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated.”

Gadfly dissents. Health Care can be as simple as Medicare for All. You may call it by other names such as: National Health Care, Universal Health Care, or Single Payer Care. Most folks, even Seniors who object to socialist anything, such as socialized medicine, are passionate about Medicare. At a town hall in Oklahoma, held by a Congressman in his home district, he was told by a voter, “You tell the government to keep its hands off my Medicare.” Oklahoma, as we know, is a very red state.

In the previous Administration, President Obama took a baby step in the direction of National Health Care with the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Republicans maligned it, calling it Obama Care. Strangely, it was much favored by most corporations whose costs for employee benefits were getting exorbitant. But, for the Americans included in the ACA, if you didn’t like any of the private plans offered in its marketplace concept, there was no public option.

You still had to navigate through the jungle of deductibles, co-pays, co-insurance, and out of pocket expenses. You would need a Humvee with a PCP (primary care physician) co-pilot at the ready with a laptop computer and a 7-column spreadsheet. The HMOs, PPOs, EPOs, and POS plans are ever on the prowl, and those carnivores view you as prey. 

The private insurers insist that private industry will always be more efficient than the government and produce better results less expensively. Let’s see. The private health insurance industry has administrative costs (beyond what they pay to doctors and hospitals) of 15 to 25%. These include: salaries paid to senior executives, salaries of clerks who check on the accuracy of medical claim forms, dividends paid to stockholders, marketing costs, and the cost of hired guns known as lobbyists. The administrative costs of Medicare include none of the above and are kept down to 3% (three percent). 

The US health care industry is costly, but how about the excellence of the care? We can look at the rate of infant mortality and the rate of healthy life expectancy. The US does not do well in either — not even in the best 25 of nations surveyed. You might expect Japan and Iceland and Finland and Norway to do better than the US; but Italy and Greece? Yet. the US spends more, per person, on private health care than anyone else does on national health care. Even Maggie Thatcher didn’t try to privatize Great Britain’s National Health Service.

How do we get more health for our dollar? First, we must change to some system of universal health care coverage. Call it “Medicare for All” so no one will scream Socialized Medicine. Then, make it true health care, not just medical care. preventive care must have at least equal status with medical care. What we eat, how we move (exercise), and how we relax are generally more important than any medications we may use. Add eliminating abuse to the lifestyle list — don’t take heroin, cocaine, psychedelic (hallucinogenic) drugs; don’t smoke; always wear a seat belt riding in a car, even in an armored HumVee. Don’t drink alcohol to excess — more than 2 glasses of (red) wine is excessive.

Physicians are very good at examining and testing — they generally get paid for each. They think that prevention is mostly a matter of more examining and testing. On a large scale, it’s called screening. But, it’s all just finding disease early, not actually preventing it. Establishing a diagnosis, and then treating the disease (usually with prescription meds) doesn’t pay so well (except for the pharmacist and pharmaceutical company).

It is known that lifestyle factors, as noted above, can be preventive for most  chronic disease: 

   Diet that is largely plant-based (but low in carbohydrates) and free of toxic chemicals is a good starting point. Then, to insure getting all the 5,100 vital nutrients, a Variety Diet is key — not the same old favorite foods.  

   As to effective exercise, strength training (weights & machines) will maintain muscle mass and bone density. But, to beneficially change carbohydrate, fat, and protein metabolism and to better balance the neurotransmitters of the brain — high grade aerobic exercise is needed. The definition of high grade aerobic specifies: a rhythmic use of  the large muscle groups in a weight bearing way, far enough, fast enough, and often enough. I have seen a physician prescribe exercise for prevention only once. She wrote on her Rx pad: “Exercise.” When a medical insurance company recognizes that exercise can be preventive, they offer a six month membership in a fitness center. All the while, the medical literature reports that aerobic exercise will reduce the incidence of breast cancer by over 50%, and colorectal cancer by as much as 75%, and hypertension, diabetes 2, obesity, coronary heart disease …

   Relaxation, while less effective than exercise and diet, is also important. Meditation is the one procedure that has been tested in the clinical laboratory and should be included in the Wellness Triad. 

   

There you have it. CDC&P (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, after an extensive review of the medical literature, concluded that 70% of all chronic disease can be prevented by lifestyle means. Dr. Koop, in an article in the JAMA, was in full agreement, yet ignored by the medical profession.

So. here in the US, we have an opportunity to do better than France, Germany, Britain, Canada, Australia, and all the other industrialized nations. The answer is Medicare for All for medical insurance and the Wellness Triad for preventive care. We need not feel sorry for the poor pharmaceutical companies which will cease making obscene amounts of profit. They can just cut down on costs such as hiring such an expensive cadre of lobbyists.