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"A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it."

-- Albert Einstein

News and Opinion

Here’s the real reason the EPA doesn’t want to test for toxins in East Palestine

The decision to release and burn five tanker cars of vinyl chloride and other chemicals at the site of a 38-car derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, just over three weeks ago unleashed a gigantic cloud full of particulates that enveloped surrounding neighborhoods and farms in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

It is well documented that burning chlorinated chemicals like vinyl chloride will generate dioxins. “Dioxin” is the name given to a group of persistent, very toxic chemicals that share similar chemical structures. The most toxic form of dioxin is 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin or TCDD. TCDD is more commonly recognized as the toxic contaminant found in Agent Orange and at Love Canal, New York and Times Beach, Missouri, both sites of two of the most tragic environmental catastrophes in US history. ...

And now, we are asking, why isn’t EPA testing for dioxins in East Palestine, Ohio? Are dioxins present in the soil downwind from the site of the accident? ... These are important questions that deserve to be answered. Today there are no clear answers. Why? Because no one has done any testing for dioxins anywhere in East Palestine. No one. And, it seems, that the EPA is uninterested in testing for dioxins, behaving as though dioxin is no big deal. ...

There is no question that dioxins were formed in the vinyl chloride fire. They would have formed on the particulate matter – the black soot – in the cloud that was so clearly visible at the time of the burn. Now, the question is how much is in the soil where people live in and around East Palestine. Without testing, no one will know and the people who live there will remain in the dark, uncertain about their fate. This is important because of the adverse health effects associated with exposure to dioxins. Exposure to dioxins can cause cancer, reproductive damage, developmental problems, type 2 diabetes, ischemic heart disease, infertility in adults, impairment of the immune system and skin lesions. ...

So why is EPA unwilling to test for dioxins in the soil? My guess is because they know they will find it. And if they find it, they’ll have to address the many questions people are asking. It will not be easy to interpret the results of the testing for dioxins in soil, but to avoid testing is irresponsible. The EPA’s mission is to protect human health and the environment. Clearly the situation in East Palestine is the place where EPA should follow its mission and do right by the people who live in this town.

US Ambassador To China: “We’re The Leader” Of The Indo-Pacific

A recent US Chamber of Commerce InSTEP program hosted three empire managers to talk about Washington’s top three enemies, with the US ambassador to China Nicholas Burns discussing the PRC, the odious Victoria Nuland discussing Russia, and the US ambassador to Israel Tom Nides talking about Iran.

Toward the end of the hour-long discussion, Burns made the very interesting comment that Beijing must accept that the United States is “the leader” in the region and isn’t going anywhere.

“From my perspective sitting here in China looking out at the Indo-Pacific, our American position is stronger than it was five or ten years ago,” Burns said, citing the strength of US alliances, its private sector and its research institutions and big tech companies.

“And I do think that the Chinese now understand that the United States is staying in this region — we’re the leader in this region in many ways,” Burns added emphatically.

The “Indo-Pacific” is a term which has gained a lot of traction in geopolitical discourse in recent years, typically describing the vast multi-continental region between Australia to the south, Asia to the north, Africa to the west, and the middle of the Pacific Ocean to the east. It contains half the Earth’s population, and it very much includes China.

After making the rather audacious claim of being “the leader” of a region which China is a part of but the United States is not, Burns went on to claim the US does not want any kind of confrontation with the Chinese government.

“We want a future of peace with China,” Burns said. “As President Biden makes clear every time he talks about this, we don’t want conflict, but we’re gonna hold our own out here. And I feel optimistic, just concluding my first year as ambassador, about the American position in this country and in this region.”

Again, Burns is saying this from China, so by “in this country” he means in China.

Burns supported the Iraq war and is on record saying that “China is the greatest threat to the security of our country and of the democratic world,” and he was appointed to his current position for a reason. Though especially hawkish and American supremacist, his comments are entirely in alignment with official US foreign policy; here’s an excerpt from a White House strategy published last year titled “Indo-Pacific Strategy of the United States“:

The United States is an Indo-Pacific power. The region, stretching from our Pacific coastline to the Indian Ocean, is home to more than half of the world’s people, nearly two-thirds of the world’s economy, and seven of the world’s largest militaries. More members of the U.S. military are based in the region than in any other outside the United States. It supports more than three million American jobs and is the source of nearly $900 billion in foreign direct investment in the United States. In the years ahead, as the region drives as much as two-thirds of global economic growth, its influence will only grow—as will its importance to the United States.
…

In a quickly changing strategic landscape, we recognize that American interests can only be advanced if we firmly anchor the United States in the Indo-Pacific and strengthen the region itself, alongside our closest allies and partners.

This intensifying American focus is due in part to the fact that the Indo-Pacific faces mounting challenges, particularly from the PRC. The PRC is combining its economic, diplomatic, military, and technological might as it pursues a sphere of influence in the Indo-Pacific and seeks to become the world’s most influential power. The PRC’s coercion and aggression spans the globe, but it is most acute in the Indo-Pacific. From the economic coercion of Australia to the conflict along the Line of Actual Control with India to the growing pressure on Taiwan and bullying of neighbors in the East and South China Seas, our allies and partners in the region bear much of the cost of the PRC’s harmful behavior. In the process, the PRC is also undermining human rights and international law, including freedom of navigation, as well as other principles that have brought stability and prosperity to the Indo-Pacific.

Our collective efforts over the next decade will determine whether the PRC succeeds in transforming the rules and norms that have benefitted the Indo-Pacific and the world. For our part, the United States is investing in the foundations of our strength at home, aligning our approach with those of our allies and partners abroad, and competing with the PRC to defend the interests and vision for the future that we share with others. We will strengthen the international system, keep it grounded in shared values, and update it to meet 21st-century challenges. Our objective is not to change the PRC but to shape the strategic environment in which it operates, building a balance of influence in the world that is maximally favorable to the United States, our allies and partners, and the interests and values we share.

As we discussed recently, history’s unfolding has shown us that the US empire’s plan to “shape the strategic environment” in which China operates has meant continuing to encircle China with war machinery in ways the US would never permit itself to be encircled. So when men like Joe Biden and Nicholas Burns claim the US does not seek a confrontation with China, what they really mean is that they hope China just sits back without responding to the confrontation the US is already inflicting upon it.

The way US empire managers talk about “leading” ostensibly sovereign states with ostensibly independent governments shows you they really do think they own the world. We see this in news stories like US officials admonishing Brazil for permitting Iran to harbor military ships thousands of miles away from the US coastline, while continually shrieking about China asserting a small sphere of influence over the South China Sea which the US continually transgresses by sailing and flying its own war machinery right through it.

We also see US empire managers claiming ownership of the entire planet in instances like when they drew a “red line” on China providing Russia with military assistance even as the US and its allies pour weapons into Ukraine, or the time Biden said that “everything south of the Mexican border is America’s front yard,” or the time then-Press Secretary Jen Psaki remarked on the mounting tensions around Ukraine that it is in America’s interest to support “our eastern flank countries”, suggesting that the eastern flank of the United States is eastern Europe and not its own geographic eastern coastline.

They claim ownership over the entire planet while pretending that they do not seek confrontation with the nations they try to subjugate, and interpret any refusal to be subjugated as an unprovoked act of aggression. This is taking our world in a very dangerous direction, and we need to do something to stop it.

China leading US in technology race in all but a few fields, thinktank finds

The United States and other western countries are losing the race with China to develop advanced technologies and retain talent, with Beijing potentially establishing a monopoly in some areas, a new report has said. China leads in 37 of 44 technologies tracked in a year-long project by thinktank the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. The fields include electric batteries, hypersonics and advanced radio-frequency communications such as 5G and 6G.

The report, published on Thursday, said the US was the leader in just the remaining seven technologies such as vaccines, quantum computing and space launch systems. It said the findings were based on “high impact” research in critical and emerging technology fields, focusing on papers that were published in top-tier journals and were highly cited by subsequent research.

“Our research reveals that China has built the foundations to position itself as the world’s leading science and technology superpower, by establishing a sometimes stunning lead in high-impact research across the majority of critical and emerging technology domains,” the report said.

“The critical technology tracker shows that, for some technologies, all of the world’s top 10 leading research institutions are based in China and are collectively generating nine times more high-impact research papers than the second-ranked country (most often the US).”

The Chinese Academy of Sciences ranked first or second in most of the 44 technologies included in the tracker, the report added.

Washington Seeks to Drum Up Support for Sanctions on China

The Joe Biden administration is pressuring allies to sanction China if Beijing decides to send arms to Russia, Reuters reported on Wednesday. Top American officials have claimed the Chinese government is considering providing weapons for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

According to the outlet, the talks on expanding the economic war with China are in the preliminary phase. It is unclear what sectors of Beijing’s economy the US will seek to blacklist. The White House hopes at least its allies in the Group of 7 will agree to sanction Beijing.

Bakhmut widening cauldron, Kupyansk offensive. Scholz visits Biden

Ukraine official: Forces may pull out of key city of Bakhmut

The Ukrainian military might pull troops back from the key stronghold of Bakhmut, an adviser to Ukraine's president said Wednesday in remarks that suggested Russia could capture the city that has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance. ...

“Our military is obviously going to weigh all of the options. So far, they’ve held the city, but if need be, they will strategically pull back," Alexander Rodnyansky, an economic adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told CNN. “We’re not going to sacrifice all of our people just for nothing.” ...

Analysts say the fall of Bakhmut would be a blow for Ukraine and offer tactical advantages to Russia, but would not prove decisive to the war's outcome.

Blinken Briefly Meets With Lavrov on Sidelines of G-20 Summit in India

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday briefly talked with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in New Delhi on the sidelines of a G20 meeting, marking the first in-person meeting between the two diplomats since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The two diplomats only spoke for less than 10 minutes, and there was no sign any breakthrough was made. According to Blinken’s account, he told Lavrov Russia should stop fighting in Ukraine and resume participation in New START, the last remaining arms control treaty between the two powers.

Blinken also said he discussed Paul Whelan, a former US Marine who was arrested on spying charges in Moscow in 2018 with a USB that contained classified information and was handed a 16-year sentence in 2020. He said the US has put forward a proposal to exchange Whelan and that Moscow should accept it.

'Huwwara should be wiped out', says Israeli minister

Israeli far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said on Wednesday that the state of Israel should "wipe out" the Palestinian village of Huwwara in the wake of a violent rampage through it by settlers on Sunday.

Speaking at a forum hosted by the Marker business newspaper, Smotrich - who is responsible for Israel's civil administration in the occupied West Bank - said: "The Palestinian village of Huwwara should be wiped out. The state needs to do it and not private citizens."

At least one Palestinian was killed and nearly 400 were wounded in settler attacks on Huwwara town and other West Bank towns and villages in the Nablus area on Sunday.

Hundreds of Israeli settlers, flanked by soldiers, attacked Palestinian towns and villages near Nablus following a shooting that killed two Israelis in Huwwara town earlier in the day.

Before and after the mob violence took place, several Israeli politicians - including Smotrich - seemed to encourage or support the settlers' actions.

US teachers grapple with a growing housing crisis: ‘We can’t afford rent’ | California | The Guardian

In her first year as a student teacher, Gina Gray also delivered groceries for Instacart. She was driven to give back to the city that raised her, but also needed help with the bills and rent.

Now Gray, a Black English teacher at Middle College high school in Los Angeles, takes on additional work in the district such as teaching summer and Saturday schooling and commutes one hour each day from her rental in Norwalk-La Mirada, a district near Los Angeles.

“A new teacher with a starting salary in [Los Angeles unified school district] can’t afford rent,” Gray says. “That’s just the facts of it. When you come in, to know that you can’t afford to live on your own, that’s a huge reason why you would choose another career. We’re not even talking about home ownership. We’re just talking about comfortable rental accommodation.”

In California and across the country, teachers are navigating a difficult terrain: making enough money to afford living in the districts where they serve. Research by the Economic Policy Institute’s Sylvia Allegretto found that public school teachers nationally make nearly 24% less in weekly earnings than similarly credentialed college graduates in other fields. When benefits such as healthcare were taken into account, the total compensation penalty was 14%, the widest gap since 1979.

Ohio takes crucial step towards public vote that could secure right to abortion

Reproductive rights groups in Ohio cleared a significant hurdle on Thursday in their effort to bring a ballot initiative before voters that would secure a constitutional right to abortion.

The Ohio attorney general, Dave Yost, approved a petition brought by campaigners looking to bring the ballot initiative to voters in November 2023. The petition will now go to the Ohio ballot board for approval, which has 10 days to approve or reject it.

The two groups submitting the petition – Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom and Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights – gathered thousands of signatures from voters in the state to get the petition process started. The groups believe voters want the chance to vote directly on whether abortion rights should be protected in the state’s constitution.

Meet the Bronx Activists Who Won a Historic Settlement for NYPD's Violent Attack at 2020 BLM Protest

New York to pay millions to protesters mistreated in 2020 George Floyd protest

New York City has agreed to pay millions of dollars to hundreds of protesters who were arrested, detained and subjected to excessive force during a protest over the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

According to the lawsuit against the New York police department, the city and several high-ranking officials, an estimated 320 protesters were subjected to “kettling”, a controversial police tactic in which officers encircle protesters. Once the protesters were “kettled”, the lawsuits states, police zip-tied them, hit several with batons and used pepper spray, ABC News reported.

“The NYPD in an operation planned by the highest levels of police officials, kettled protesters on East 136th Street between Brook Avenue and Brown Place and unleashed a brutal assault on more than 300 people, who were injured, arrested, and detained for hours,” attorneys for protesters said. ...

The settlement to the protesters’ suit will see the city pay more than $6m to 320 people, each individual receiving $21,000. An additional $2,500 will be paid to protesters who were served a desk appearance ticket, NBC reported.

How Obama – Not Russia Or Racism – Gave Us Trump!

CO2 emissions may be starting to plateau, says global energy watchdog

Global carbon dioxide emissions are still rising but may at least be reaching a plateau, research from the International Energy Agency has shown.

CO₂ from energy – by far the biggest source of emissions – increased by less than 1% in 2022. This was despite the turmoil in energy the markets caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The rise is smaller than the 6% increase in emissions from energy recorded by the IEA in 2021, a leap that came on the back of the rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic. However, a 7% reduction is needed every year to meet the goal of halving emissions this decade.

Many experts had feared the soaring price of gas could push countries back towards using coal, which has much higher carbon emissions. But renewable energy seems to have been a big beneficiary, as countries opted for solar and wind power, and encouraged the take-up of heat pumps and electric vehicles (EVs). A mild start to Europe’s winter also helped to save energy across the EU.

Costa Rica, a renewable energy paradise

Not a breath of fresh air: study finds sewage bacteria in ocean spray

After a rainstorm passes, the air coming off the ocean just feels different – cleaner and fresher. But a first of its kind study shows how bacteria from sewage in the ocean can get whipped up in salt spray and blow into coastal communities miles away, a phenomenon exacerbated by storm runoff.

The study, released on Thursday by researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, looked at an area south of San Diego near the US-Mexico border, where a Mexican wastewater treatment plant often becomes overwhelmed and spews sewage into the Tijuana River. That river then flows north into Imperial Beach on the northern side of the border. The beach there was closed 249 days last year due to high levels of pathogens like E coli, norovirus and salmonella – but until now, little was known about what happened when crashing waves sent salt spray into the air.

A team of researchers sampled coastal aerosols at Imperial Beach and water from the Tijuana River for 26 days between January and May 2019, focusing on times after storms. They used DNA sequencing to match bacteria and chemical compounds in coastal aerosols back to the sewage-polluted Tijuana River flowing into the ocean.

They found that three-quarters of the bacteria in the air came directly from the sewage in the surf zone. It’s not yet clear whether these bacteria can make people sick, and experts are exploring the possible harms. “Are they potentially infectious? Some are pathogens and some are not. That’s something we’re working on now,” says Kim Prather, an atmospheric chemist at Scripps who led the work, which was published today in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

While the degree of risks remain unknown, the study is significant because it is the first time scientists have linked such pollution to coastal sea spray. It’s also the first time scientists have been able to quantify how much of the microbes in the air are traceable back to microbes in the sewage contaminated water, says Rob Knight, a researcher at San Diego School of Medicine and Jacobs School of Engineering, who worked on the study. “Now we know this is a real phenomenon, we need to figure out the impacts for human health,” he says.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Ukraine, Russia, China, and Dealing With Crazy People

Sanctions On Russia Come Back To Bite Their Issuers

Patrick Lawrence: The Return of Non-Alignment

US Official Falsely Claims Iran Is 12 Days From Nuke Material Production

As six Jewish settlers are arrested for Hawara 'pogrom', critics doubt serious accountability by Israel

SCROTUS Declines Arkansas Case on Boycotting Israel

Wayne Shorter, icon of jazz saxophone, dies aged 89

Human augmentation with robotic body parts is at hand, say scientists

National Geographic Traveller Photography Awards 2023 – the winners

Scientists discover hidden corridor inside Egypt's Great Pyramid

Meet Thelma Cabrera, the Indigenous Leader Barred from Running in Guatemala's Presidential Election

How the US missed a chance to improve Soviet ties after death of Stalin

A Little Night Music

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio - Fried Soul

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio - Fo Sho

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio - Memphis

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio - Jimmy's Groove

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio - Between the Mayo and the Mustard

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio - Ain't It Funky

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio - Blues Alive 2022

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio - Inner City Blues

Amazing Guitar Solo ala Hendrix with Seattle's Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio

NVCS Presents DLO3