Updated post:

“There is a possibility, we see the possibility of a meltdown,” said Toshihiro Bannai, director of [Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency] international affairs office, in a telephone interview from the agency’s headquarters in Tokyo. “At this point, we have still not confirmed that there is an actual meltdown, but there is a possibility.”

A meltdown doesn’t necessarily mean a major radioactive release, although cesium has been detected in the air. Depends on how well the containment vessel holds up.

Official: ‘We see the possibility of a meltdown’ [CNN]

Nuclear plant blast ‘appears to have caused meltdown’ [Sydney Morning Herald]

In Japan plant, frantic efforts to avoid meltdown [AP]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6K6JcAB9T0

That’s disturbing. And it’s more than 200 miles from the main event.

And my girlfriend flew from Okinawa, where it’s safe, to Tokyo yesterday – she’s there on business. The Japanese are like the Brits – carry on! I hope nothing bad happens.

Senator James Mountain Inhofe (R-OK) -because everybody knows there’s no such thing as climate change:

This shitbag lies while his state burns – just terrific:

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The world you grow up in is the world you take for granted. It’s the baseline for all that follows. That’s what fascinates us about generations — the world of foiks ten or twenty years older or younger than us is a different world than ours. They overlap like circles in a Venn diagram, but they’re not identical.

When we were ten, we saw live video from the surface of New Mexico the Moon. We were old enough to know it was Important, but TV itself was a given. It’s not like we grew up in a radio culture. Or with gramophones.

As we grew aware of these things, it was a commonplace observation that folks a few generations older had really been on a ride — from the Wright Brothers to Apollo 11. We had missed most of the Twentieth Century action. We were late to the party.

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Live or Memorex?

One of my assistants on WRR has contacts in the Highway Department who are most unhappy. This is a real sign out there, more are on the way.

Live, then, until we hear otherwise. Either way, somebody’s a genius.

Wisconsin Resistance Radio [via Weigel]

Let’s face it, there’s a lot left to do. Climate change, the economy, immigration reform, two wars we shouldn’t be fighting – you know the drill. And let’s face another fact: as long as the GOP and conservatives have any political power, nothing will get done. They will block any reforms and enact laws that drag us back to the Jim Crow past they love so well. We are effectively ruled by sociopaths.

Conservatives exist to question, and undo, any sort of progress.  Abortion finally legal?  Not so fast, lefty. Segregation ended?  Not according to Rand Paul and other bigots. Evolution and climate change proved real? Not according to the GOP. And the gold standard, attacking  immigrants, immediately using their new House majority to target women, children, gays, and unions, and on and on.

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The earthquake destruction in Japan, especially from the tsunami, has been devastating. Now we wait for the waters to hit – CNN saying they’ll hit Vancouver and Seattle by 8 am PDT, and then sweep down the west coast. Meanwhile, in Japan, they’re digging through the damage and trying to get the nuke plants shut down before their cooling systems fail. Friend in Tokyo’s FB update said this was a more violent and longer earthquake than any she has been in (and she went through the Northridge quake in LA).

And yesterday I was planning to post a piece today making fun of the “Supermoon will Trigger Earthquakes” kook.

ADD: Updated to include some tsunami maps from NOAA after the jump.

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