17-02-2010, 04:18 AM
Hi, Helen,
Port Chicago is a story worth digging in to- for the civil rights issues. There's not a vapor of evidence about nukes...but there is a travesty of justice for black seamen who tried to do the right thing by not sacrificing themselves for "White Men's Follies". There is no question that the people loading arms into ships on that pier were being abused, discriminated against, and ramrodded in the name of "The War Effort." There is no question that there was no concern about safety. There is no question that the priority was "tons loaded."
We can all agree that the final months of the war were before them and the supply of munitions was critical, but that does not excuse lax safety standards and a competitive atmosphere among "divisions" of black men under the authority of white commanders who pushed for faster and faster loading of arms. And documented cases of armaments that leaked their high explosive contents...And documented cases of cranes with faulty brakes? Is it any wonder that something horribly bad happened?
"A column of smoke billowed from the pier, and fire glowed orange and yellow. Flashing like fireworks, smaller explosions went off in the cloud as it rose. Within six seconds, a deeper explosion erupted as the contents of the E.A. Bryan detonated in one massive explosion. The seismic shock wave was felt as far away as Boulder City, Nevada. The E.A. Bryan and the structures around the pier were completely disintegrated. A pillar of fire and smoke stretched over two miles into the sky above Port Chicago. The largest remaining pieces of the 7,200-ton ship were the size of a suitcase. A plane flying at 9,000 feet reported seeing chunks of white hot metal "as big as a house" flying past. The shattered Quinault Victory was spun into the air. Witnesses reported seeing a 200-foot column on which rode the bow of the ship, its mast still attached. Its remains crashed back into the bay 500 feet away."
Holy cow, 4600 tons of high explosive ordinance going off at once doesn't need a nuclear conspiracy to explain a mushroom cloud.
The reason I posted this story was not so much about whether or not the actual nuclear secerets were at stake. It seems to me that the fact that Bohr met with the Soviets unilaterally was interesting...and was not an easily uncovered part of history. And, like you pointed out, the Rosenbergs got the shaft, while the Nobel Prize winner got the pass.
Port Chicago is a story worth digging in to- for the civil rights issues. There's not a vapor of evidence about nukes...but there is a travesty of justice for black seamen who tried to do the right thing by not sacrificing themselves for "White Men's Follies". There is no question that the people loading arms into ships on that pier were being abused, discriminated against, and ramrodded in the name of "The War Effort." There is no question that there was no concern about safety. There is no question that the priority was "tons loaded."
We can all agree that the final months of the war were before them and the supply of munitions was critical, but that does not excuse lax safety standards and a competitive atmosphere among "divisions" of black men under the authority of white commanders who pushed for faster and faster loading of arms. And documented cases of armaments that leaked their high explosive contents...And documented cases of cranes with faulty brakes? Is it any wonder that something horribly bad happened?
"A column of smoke billowed from the pier, and fire glowed orange and yellow. Flashing like fireworks, smaller explosions went off in the cloud as it rose. Within six seconds, a deeper explosion erupted as the contents of the E.A. Bryan detonated in one massive explosion. The seismic shock wave was felt as far away as Boulder City, Nevada. The E.A. Bryan and the structures around the pier were completely disintegrated. A pillar of fire and smoke stretched over two miles into the sky above Port Chicago. The largest remaining pieces of the 7,200-ton ship were the size of a suitcase. A plane flying at 9,000 feet reported seeing chunks of white hot metal "as big as a house" flying past. The shattered Quinault Victory was spun into the air. Witnesses reported seeing a 200-foot column on which rode the bow of the ship, its mast still attached. Its remains crashed back into the bay 500 feet away."
Holy cow, 4600 tons of high explosive ordinance going off at once doesn't need a nuclear conspiracy to explain a mushroom cloud.
The reason I posted this story was not so much about whether or not the actual nuclear secerets were at stake. It seems to me that the fact that Bohr met with the Soviets unilaterally was interesting...and was not an easily uncovered part of history. And, like you pointed out, the Rosenbergs got the shaft, while the Nobel Prize winner got the pass.
"If you're looking for something that isn't there, you're wasting your time and the taxpayers' money."
-Michael Neuman, U.S. Government bureaucrat, on why NIST didn't address explosives in its report on the WTC collapses
-Michael Neuman, U.S. Government bureaucrat, on why NIST didn't address explosives in its report on the WTC collapses