From an American reader living in Japan:
Hope all is well. I got to witness first hand how the MSM is breathing fire. When I went to lunch today Rachel Maddow was on the big screen. She was full of what if’s and possibilities and explanations for those who are not physicists. During her third breathless declaration about just how bad it is in Japan a Japanese spouse with child in tow happened in and started to watch the program and could not pull herself away from the Ms. Maddow’s pronouncements and displayed quite the frightened expression. While I did not approach the young woman, not wanting to be accused of stalking, I did loudly proclaim Ms. Maddow didn’t know what she was talking about. The young Japanese woman turned to look at me and then hustled her child away.
As for Yokosuka and Atsugi, the news today is that either they are going to abandon the bases destroying everything as they leave or they are not. Everyone here thinks that we will start receiving displaced military tomorrow, however an associate and friend who works in Atsugi told me that he heard that the whole get out of Dodge thing had been canceled. He did confirm that the intent was to destroy everything if the bases were abandoned. Considering the distance the two bases are from Fukushima this is the most asinine thing I have ever heard in 38 years of being associated with the Navy.
If I survive the giant green and yellow clouds of radioactive material enveloping Japan like “The Fog” I will let you know if we get out of town
Why would they abandon bases on Honshu? Over fears of radition which are way overblown? Jesus, we dropped two bombs on Japan and it was relatively safe to go to ground zero in a matter of weeks? It is Okinawa were there are complaints of too much U.S. miltary and too many bases–which is what, like over a 1000 miles away. Are they insane?
Meanwhile, Qadaffi continues is assault on the rebels. Hillary did not managed to get her no-fly sorties done last night.
The White House is even more disfunctional than Patterico, EricPWJohnson, daleyrocks and dustin. And that is frightening.
When I went to lunch today Rachel Maddow was on the big screen
Attack of the 50 Foot Womyn?
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/235196/Barack-Obama-The-Weakest-President-in-history-
This seems to dovetail into the sentiments from the Reader in Japan.
The stylish manly haircut with the self-satisfied smirk takes a rhetorical dump on the TV. That would not have been good for my digestion…
As Cranky pointed out in the prior entry:
This has been my experience as well, and I used to be in the news business. It’s amazing how a small-town paper can get a story right, but then the big city teevee guys come in and get it fucked up three ways to Sunday.
Even this much has not been my experience every time there is a local story that I know the facts personally. Other than sports scores I don’t believe they can do any story without factual errors either inadvertent or due to an agenda. I buy the newspaper only on Sunday for the sales inserts.
OK, geoffb, I’ll rephrase that:
It’s amazing how, even when a small-town paper gets it right, …
Small town newspaper folks usually have to live around the folks that they are writing about and most folks in the town have already got a pretty good bead on who is trouble and who is not.
Not a small reminder of why all politics and big decisions should be brought back down to the local level.
I might add that if they would just consult the local Grandmother’s Club, they would get the real scoop on stories. Those ladies could teach the newsers a thing or two about sources.
Let’s just say that when the local rag wrote a really unfair piece on my dad’s company, without ever contacting my dad for comment, there was a certain amount of stink raised. Not least ‘cuz they’re in the same bowling league.
‘As a final caveat, let me add that every time the media discusses something within my fields of expertise, it gets the facts wrong every time.’
Tell me about it. The whole Toyota scandal had me screaming IT’S NOT POSSIBLE every time I heard about it…I wrote on the blogs, presented facts and evidence, but no, I was a knee-jerk mechanic, not worth listening to.
Don’t even get me started on all the equipment that reporters call “bulldozers”.
IT’S A BACKHOE, DUMBASS!
WHO is this “american reader” in Japan? As a member (stationed in Yokosuka, works with classified material), I’d like to rebutt by saying… STFU. There’s enough panic locally, even though there is absolutely no need for it, without people talking out their ass.
The VOLUNTARY evacuation is still going on, matter of fact… just started. They are NOT receiving “displaced” personnel because there are NO displaced personnel. There are, however, plans for military aircraft to arrive in Atsugi to fly those that wish to VOLUNTARILY evacuate to head to CONUS. It will be scheduled and somewhat orderly. It won’t be a mob rush to NAS Atsugi. They will bus in from Yokosuka to the air terminal and then onto awaiting planes. Your precious golf course is safe.
Destroying CLASSIFIED material, as opposed to “everything” , is typical when a MANDATORY evacuation of EMERGENCY ESSENTIAL personnel occurs. In other words, when and IF (EMPHASIS ON THAT SMALL WORD…. “IF”) things get so bad that EMERGENCY personnel have to leave, they will be required to destroy any on-hand classified material. Not buildings, not unclassified, and certainly not “everything”.
I’d like to say that in “28 years of being associated with the Navy”, I’ve never felt more embarassed to see someone try and talk intelligently about something they have no knowledge of.
Loki,
Jeff probably knows who the “American reader” is. And it really doesn’t appear from your comment that you read the whole post. “American reader” doesn’t claim special knowledge — you do (“stationed in Yokosuka, works with classified material”). None of us has any way of knowing who you are.
I assume you have good, legitimate reasons for concealing your identity, but doing so makes claims of special knowledge worthless to those reading what you have to say.
And “STFU” is not a rebuttal.
Loki —
I think you might have misread. Here’s what was said:
So… the “American reader” is credible… but “Loki520” is not. Got it. Concealing an identity is allowed when making ridiculous statements, but not when responding to ’em.
Yes, my “special knowledge” was trotted out to denounce a few points.
1) The evacuation is NOT canceled.
2) The only policy concerning final evacuation involves destroying classified material, as opposed to “everything”, which as Jeff pointed out…. he “confirmed”.
3) There will be NO displaced personnel, which they “think” is going to happen. Mainly, they won’t receive them because there are NO “displaced” personnel to begin with.
You’re free to post your observations, Loki. In fact, I encourage it. I’m not there. Both of you are. It seems to me that the contradictions match well with much of that in the other kind of media coverage we here have been getting.