alias Bruce.

If you want to hear Governor Chris Christie ferociously blow the "populist" cover of the Republican Party over Hurricane Sandy,

watch Christie's Wednesday news conference in which he called his own party and its congressional leader, John Boehner, what they are: a den of amoral mercenaries more beholden to their own crooked loyalties than anything remotely resembling the public interest. This truth is no secret, to be sure. But to hear a solid corporate-political functionary so bluntly and bitterly call out his colleagues is pretty remarkable.

In my lifetime, I have seen few mainstream politicians speak with such candid fury. I sat transfixed in my parked car listening to the C-SPAN broadcast of Christie's news conference. In response to congressional leadership's refusal to act on relief for Sandy victims after more than 60 horrific days had elapsed, Christie was beyond infuriated. He was a man willing to bear enraged witness to the tangible human casualties of an inhuman political regime.

It's interesting what the raw reality of an overwhelming natural disaster will do to create political fractures in corporate monarchy.

Expect to see more of this as climate change intensifies.

What Hurricane Sandy brought to the presidential campaign

was an unscripted dose of reality. As the deadly wind and water flattened homes and flooded the Jersey shore and streets in Queens and lower Manhattan, Americans saw, courtesy of Mother Nature and climate change, precisely the purpose and necessity of a well-funded and capable government.

Every nationally-televised image of hundreds of submerged homes and thousands of pedestrians trudging across bridges might as well have had a caption reading, "Are you sure you don't like government?"

In 48 spectacularly tragic hours, the roof was swept off of a year's worth of lies about self-reliance and "freedom" from government and the virtue of going it on your own. This false narrative was always a temporary ruse, you understand; the Mitt Romneys and Donald Trumps of the nation, who make their fortunes from the political and military force of big government, have always understood that trashing the idea of government in order to deceptively flatter working- and middle-class whites' sense of individual power would only work in the window between revelatory catastrophes. The rich were betting, understandably, that this window would extend at least beyond the election. They bet wrong.

President Barack Obama cannot take credit for this instant's storm of clarity, although he certainly benefits (check out Republicans Chris Christie and Michael Bloomberg lately!). Mitt Romney cannot be blamed for it, although splinters of his rottenly dishonest platform about the venality of government are now among the flotsam being carried down the Hudson. And it remains to be seen how much this profound lesson will register next Tuesday. 

But talk about an October surprise.

The problem with nuclear power

is that its inherent danger – radiation – is simply too great a liability for it to be a viable long-term source of energy.

To be sure, no energy source is immune to natural or man-made disasters. Earthquakes happen. So do floods, tsunamis, accidents, malfunctions, human errors, fires, and terrorist and military attacks.

The difference between nuclear power and other major energy generators, though, is this: When a coal or hydroelectric or wind or solar plant blows up, there is a conflagration and a loss of power and perhaps an awful loss of life in the immediate area. But when a nuclear plant blows up or melts down, there is a threat to life for a radius of potentially thousands of miles affecting possibly millions of people for decades or longer.

A disaster with non-nuclear energy is a terrible thing. But for all practical purposes – as the jewelry ads once said about diamonds – a nuclear disaster is forever.

No matter what the nuclear industry and a corporate-corralled President Obama tell you about the "necessity" and the "safety" of American nuclear power, you should know that when some awe-inspiring calamity wrecks a nuclear facility in New York or Michigan or California, we will fare little better than Japan, and perhaps worse. Any gambler knows to never put more on the table than you are prepared to lose. Nuclear power, by its very nature, puts more at risk than we are actually ready to give up. It sets up consequences that we are unwilling to live with, and it, foolishly, props them up against forces we cannot control. It is a classic case of the worship of pure luck.

If we continue to significantly rely upon nuclear power, the question of a true nuclear disaster in America is not if, but when.

Alan Botsford has been blogging from Kamakura, Japan

since the earthquake, writing about everything from public life to private fears and travails. Kamakura is about 30 miles south of Tokyo. Alan's blog is here.

As Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier faces corruption charges,

photo: Guardian/AFP/Getty

his return to Haiti is as strange as ever. The Guardian reports that the notoriously brutal former dictator met both "cheering and jeering" from crowds as he was driven from his hotel to face charges of corruption and theft before a magistrate. The prosecutor spoke sternly about bringing Duvalier to justice, but the ex-ruler's French companion, Veronique Roy, laughed when a reporter asked her about Duvalier's being detained.

Speculation is rampant as to why Baby Doc – viewed as responsible for the murders of thousands during his reign, in which he continued the bloody tactics of his father, autocrat Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier – chose to now return from exile in Europe. What is clear at this point is that he had exhausted his ample wealth and was in fairly dire financial straits. Beyond that, everybody knows something's up, but nobody knows what yet. It seems to make sense for him to return to Haiti at a time of utter chaos, when he might hope to gain some leverage in a country devastated by last year's earthquake and wracked by a cholera epidemic. Perhaps he also hopes – or is trying to clandestinely arrange – to evade serious legal punishment and rebuild a comfortable life there. Maybe the currently beleaguered President, René Préval, is in on the ploy because he needs to create a distraction from his own troubles. Maybe Duvalier even believes he can seize the moment to regain power as a political figure, since the nation is in such a desperate state and many younger Haitians do not remember the brutality of Baby Doc's regime. Perhaps Duvalier himself is desperate for a place to start over, and is willing to take his chances with Haiti's currently shaky legal system.

Any way you look at it, it's hard to see any good in his presence.

The Chilean earthquake

is now estimated to have killed more than 300 people and affected more than 2 million. Although far more powerful than the recent Haitian earthquake (8.8 versus 7.0), it is far is far less deadly because its epicenter was both deeper and farther away from densely populated areas than the Haitian quake, which to date has killed more than 200,000 people in that desperately poor nation. Chile, though, was the site of the strongest recorded earthquake in human history, a 9.5 monster in 1960.

With the wave of strange and extreme weather in recent years and its implied links to global climate change, the rash of recent earthquakes might also have you wondering about human damage to the planet. But a piece in Slate refutes this, saying that earthquakes have been relatively consistent for ages and that human activity has had minimal seismic impact. You can't blame we consumer bipeds, though, for feeling more and more these days as if the planet is trying to shrug off the influence of modern human industry.

The Hawaiian tsunami warning was lifted without significant damage to the islands. A friend of mine in Hawaii told me earlier that 10-foot waves were predicted. But the actual waves were reportedly much smaller, and the islands have apparently dodged the bullet.

Today's massive Chilean earthquake

of 8.8 magnitude has caused devastation throughout the central part of the country: collapsing bridges, roads, buildings. The death toll, already above 100, is expected to increase. There is also a tsunami warning for the entire Pacific Basin, including Hawaii. I am trying to touch base with a friend in Hawaii to get some direct information; nothing yet.