Is anyone comprehending this new reality?

Clearly we’re not going see 20% yearly increases in the NNSA budget. I suspect the pit facility plans are going to be put on hold. Maybe we’ll have to reduce the nuclear Triad to only one system, like submarine-launched missiles. There are some big choices that are going to have to made because of our drastic reduction in GDP and tax base. Is anyone comprehending this new reality?

Is LA County's Inaction CRIMINAL?

Anonymous said...

Is LA County's Inaction CRIMINAL?
For more than a week the Los Alamos county leaders were informed about high risk for COVID-19 exposure of public servants in Shops (Smith, Pharmacy, Post-Office ..etc), and they will transmit the virus to the public and produce an avalanche of sick people.
The county were made aware that covering the mouth and nose with some paper towel, mask may reduce the probability of spreading the disease by more than 100 times.
This is necessary to be done by the entire community only when entering public spaces, not on street or inside own cars. Customers' and employees fever will be good to measure before being admitted in the shop.
By imposing these measures only, it might reduce transmission factor by 100 to 1000 times, and with "social distancing" the numbers may be much lower, most of the threat coming from outsiders in Santa Fe and Espanola.
A leaked LANL estimation predicted that about 5000 cases and >200 dead will be until September and I think taking these measures we may reduce the number well under 500 cases, with few or no death.
The difference is the cost of inaction or the reward for preemptive action.
I hope they will take the right decision, and not wait for instructions from a bunch of incompetent, inexperienced people.

Pension Status

Ironically, every year in April since 2009, LANS/TRIAD has published a perfunctory status of the Defined Benefit Pension. Given the hit on the market I do no expect good news. As a reminder, last April 2018 TRIAD published a 104% funding attainment. Prior to 2018, there has a been a 5% per year decline in value from 134%, in spite of bull markets. When the attainment is 80% or below TRIAD will "punt" the pension to the federal government (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation) and pay a portion or all benefits would we have received from the plan. It should be noted that this is huge difference between the UC pension and the private LANS/TRIAD pension. My understanding is that UC pension will stay with UC through "thick and thin". I will never forget Tyler conveying "substantially equivalent in the aggregate", we will soon see what "aggregate" means. Buckle up everyone; we've been living on borrowed time.

I should also mention that LANS/TRIAD is very secretive about how (and who) they manage this private pension. I've tried without success to determine the qualifications and credentials of the personnel that manage the pension, let alone specifically where the investments.

Racist Acts Surge Against Asian Americans

The FBI warned Friday it has seen a surge in alleged hate crimes and racist incidents targeting Asian Americans as the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to grow.

https://www.ibtimes.com/racist-acts-surge-against-asian-americans-during-coronavirus-pandemic-2948149

SNL employee tests positive

SNL employee tests positive for COVID-19 - https://share-ng.sandia.gov/alerts/2020/03/26/sandia-national-laboratories-evacuates-two-buildings-following-confirmed-case-of-covid-19/

National lab supercomputers to help fight COVID-19

https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/US-National-Laboratories-supercomputers-to-help-CO

Bonuses first

I think this guy is dead-on about the bonuses:

https://losalamosreporter.com/2020/03/20/time-to-pause-operations-at-los-alamos-national-laboratory/