Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues guitarist Mike Bloomfield. Enjoy!

“Decisions to cut aid for the terminally ill, for the elderly, for dependent children, for food stamps, even school lunches, are being made by men with full stomachs who live in comfortable houses with two cars and umpteen tax shelters. None of them go hungry to bed at night.”

-- Audre Lorde

News and Opinion

Trump takes aim at Covid stimulus bill, raising specter of veto

President Donald Trump on Tuesday blasted the $900 billion coronavirus relief package passed by Congress, calling it a “disgrace” and asking for amendments to the bill to increase stimulus payments to Americans. While Trump did not directly threaten to veto the bill, his message raised the possibility that he might do so.

pic.twitter.com/v9Rdjz6DNu

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2020

In a video tweeted by the president Tuesday evening, Trump delivered a four-minute speech listing his many grievances with the bill — which would send much-needed aid to Americans struggling amid the pandemic. Trump specifically criticized the relief package for including “wasteful spending” on issues unrelated to Covid-19, only providing $600 to individuals and families, and not giving enough emergency aid to small businesses.

Trump said the package provides too much funding to foreign countries and should include more for American families and small businesses. He asked that Congress amend the bill to increase the $600 stimulus payments going to individuals and families to $2,000, or $4,000 for couples. “Congress found plenty of money for foreign countries, lobbyists and special interests, while sending the bare minimum to the American people who need it,” he said.

Only $600 For You -- What's In The New Covid Relief Bill

Force The Vote On Direct Aid

Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to veto emergency stimulus legislation unless lawmakers increased direct payments to millions of families facing the prospect of eviction, loss of health insurance, unemployment and starvation. Lawmakers had settled on meager one-time $600 checks but the president demanded $2,000 payments — a proposal that was championed months ago by congressional progressives but that was ignored by both parties’ legislative leaders.

The declaration from the GOP president follows his other recent statements in support of bigger checks. The entire situation shows that Joe Biden and Democratic congressional leaders either could have driven a much tougher bargain in their negotiations over new COVID-19 relief legislation with Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — or they actually deliberately prioritized austerity and didn’t want a bigger spending package in the first place. ...

The question now: Will Pelosi, Schumer and Biden do everything in their power to call Trump’s bluff and force a vote to increase the $600 checks to $2,000?

Pelosi clearly feels the heat — she is suddenly pretending she’s always been ready to take Trump up on his offer to support $2,000 survival checks, even though prior to about an hour ago, she had never tried to triangulate Trump against McConnell on the issue. Earlier this month, she supported a deal that did not include checks at all, and just yesterday she insisted that $600 checks were “significant.” ...

However, Pelosi’s statement of support includes a bit of a hedge. She says she wants to bring it up by unanimous consent — a process that gives any single member of the House the ability to raise an objection and block it. That could let her pretend she tried to force a vote, but was thwarted by a Republican dissenter. But she is House Speaker — there are ways for her to truly force a vote.

Much more detail at the link.

Covid-19 catch-22: Regime-change policies come packed with US pandemic relief

The longest piece of legislation in United States history, containing both a coronavirus relief package and the annual omnibus spending package, quickly passed through Congress on December 22, with little opposition. While technically separate bills, the omnibus and stimulus were debated and passed together, at the same time.

The massive piece of legislation — a staggering 5,593 pages in length — lays bare the priorities of the US government, prioritizing regime change in foreign nations and the imperatives of empire over the basic needs of Americans.

In just a few hours, it passed through the House of Representatives by 359-53, and through the Senate by 92-6.

While the US public was forced to grovel for months for a $600 direct payment, the same piece of legislation pumps billions of dollars into “democracy programs” — US government code for regime-change operations via civil society NGOs — and foreign military assistance. The measly $600 survival checks pale in comparison to the massive foreign spending on regime change and titanic allocations to prop up US-friendly authoritarian militaries. On so-called “Democracy Programs” alone, the legislation appropriates $2.417 billion, and $6.175 billion on the “Foreign Military Financing Program.” Another $112.9 million is appropriated for “International Military Education and Training.”

$6 billion more is allocated toward the domestic procurement of US Air Force missiles and US Navy weapons of war. This is in addition to the $740 billion defense bill passed earlier in December. By contrast, the stimulus package comes at a value of $900 billion, with the largest portion devoted to business bailouts. The Federal News Network reports that the $1.4 trillion omnibus includes $671.5 billion allocated to “base defense spending,” with another $77 billion going to “overseas contingency operations.”

Biden’s Austerity Zealotry Helped Cut The Stimulus Bill In Half

If there is any consistent throughline in Joe Biden’s long career, it is his commitment to the ideology of austerity. He has obsessively pushed for Social Security cuts for decades, and he is stocking his administration with deficit hawks - including today’s announcement that notorious Social Security cutter Bruce Reed will be White House deputy chief of staff. Biden has even threatened to veto Medicare for All legislation on the grounds that it costs too much (even though Congress says it would actually save a lot of money). ...

As pain and suffering is crescendoing across the country, Biden refrained from aggressively pushing the bipartisan initiative for $1,200 survival checks. Indeed, at a time when there was a legitimate chance to flip some Republicans — including Donald Trump! — against McConnell and push for a more robust stimulus, he demurred. However, the New York Times reminds us today that Biden was “not an idle bystander in the negotiations.” On the contrary, the paper of record tells us that the president-elect played a decisive role in making sure the legislation was cut in half. Here is the key excerpt:

With Republican and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate far apart on how much they were willing to accept in new pandemic spending, Mr. Biden on Dec. 2 threw his support behind the $900 billion plan being pushed by the centrist group. The total was less than half of the $2 trillion that Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, had been insisting on.

Mr. Biden’s move was not without risks. If it had failed to affect the discussions, the president-elect risked looking powerless to move Congress before he had taken the oath of office. But members of both parties said his intervention was constructive and gave Democrats confidence to pull back on their demands.

Read that again, just so it sinks in: Biden endorsing an initiative to slash the stimulus bill in half “gave Democrats confidence to pull back on their demands” for a much more robust rescue package at a time when America faces rising food insecurity and poverty. His enthusiastic lauding of the final bill underscores the role he played.

Trump vetoes huge US defense spending bill but Congress set to override

Donald Trump vetoed a $740bn bill setting policy for the Department of Defense on Wednesday, despite its strong support in Congress, raising the possibility that the measure will fail to become law for the first time in 60 years.

Trump said he vetoed the annual National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, because it “fails to include critical national security measures, includes provisions that fail to respect our veterans and our military’s history, and contradicts efforts by my administration to put America first in our national security and foreign policy actions”.

Although Trump’s previous eight vetoes were all upheld thanks to support from Republicans in Congress, advisers said this one looked likely to be overridden, just weeks before Trump leaves office on 20 January.

“Worse Than Being in Iraq”: Veteran & ER Doctor Says Pandemic Is Pushing Hospitals to Breaking Point

US poised for deadliest year ever as pandemic cuts life expectancy, experts say

The US is on track to record its deadliest year in history, largely due to the pandemic, as public health experts say overall life expectancy for 2020 could drop by as much as three years.

Final mortality data for this year will not be available for months, but preliminary numbers suggest the country will see more than 3.2 million deaths this year. That would be the first time annual deaths have cracked 3 million and would make 2020 the deadliest year on record.

US deaths increase most years, so some annual rise in fatalities is expected. But the 2020 numbers are expected to amount to a jump of about 15%, which would mark the largest single-year percentage leap since 1918, when tens of thousands of US soldiers died in the first world war and hundreds of thousands of Americans died in the 1918 flu pandemic.

Biden Taps Bruce Reed, Deficit Hawk and Longtime Enemy of Social Security, for Deputy Chief of Staff

President-elect Joe Biden announced Tuesday that he has selected longtime adviser and notorious deficit hawk Bruce Reed to serve as deputy chief of staff, alarming progressives who have warned for weeks that the Democratic operative's record of commitment to austerity and support for Social Security cuts should disqualify him for any role in the White House.

Originally considered a leading contender to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) before Biden selected Neera Tanden for that role, Reed is one of the architects of former President Bill Clinton's disastrous "welfare reform" as well as the 1994 crime bill, which Biden helped craft.

More recently, Reed served as executive Director of the Bowles-Simpson commission, an Obama administration initiative that in 2010 recommended slashing Social Security benefits and raising the program's retirement age. Reed was the lead author of the commission's report, "The Moment of Truth" (pdf).

A bio distributed by Biden's team notes that Reed "has spent 12 years working on domestic and economic policy in the White House," but does not mention welfare reform, the crime bill, or the Bowles-Simpson commission.

Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works, part of a coalition of advocacy groups that urged Biden to keep Reed away from the White House, said the selection of Reed is "inconsistent" with the president-elect's "campaign promise to protect and expand Social Security benefits."

"During the worst national crisis since the Great Depression, the last thing we need are Social Security cuts—or any other form of austerity. We are extremely disappointed by this selection," Lawson said in a statement. "Fortunately, many other top appointments, including Ron Klain as Chief of Staff, are far more consistent with the platform Biden ran on. Bruce Reed needs to conform to the path laid out by President-elect Biden and build back better, without even a tiny hint of cruel cuts and devastating austerity."

"Austerity is a pathway to disaster," Lawson added. "Biden should listen to the voices telling him to turn the page on the austerity economics of the past."

Amira Hassan, political director for Justice Democrats, warned in a tweet Tuesday that Reed "has not evolved from his views in the slightest," citing a 2018 interview in which he touted the Bowles-Simpson commission report and said "everything should be on the table."

"He is an ideologue who has never apologized or distanced himself from the many policy failures he helped create," said Hassan. "Seeing him named as Deputy CoS is not encouraging. He should be kept as far away from Congressional negotiations as possible. He believes in austerity for working people and hand-outs for corporations."

In a statement announcing his selection of Reed and others for White House staff posts, Biden described the new picks as "respected leaders whose values and priorities align with my own"—words not likely to reassure progressives, given Reed's history of deficit hawkery and attacks on the remnants of America's social safety net.

"Bruce Reed is no team player—his whole project in politics has been slapping down the left," the Revolving Door Project, a watchdog group that scrutinizes the executive branch, argued at the end of a Twitter thread on Tuesday detailing Reed's policy record. "If Joe Biden wants a paradigmatic infighter in his inner circle, why should the left think Biden will ever act in good faith?"

Deputy chief of staff is not a particularly powerful position and likely not the role Reed preferred, as The American Prospect's David Dayen pointed out on Twitter. But with Tanden likely to face confirmation troubles if the GOP retains control of the Senate, it is possible that Reed could be put forth as the alternative for OMB chief.

Regardless of which post he ultimately ends up holding, the prospect of Reed being in the White House and having the ear of Biden was enough to concern progressives.

"You cannot have Bruce Reed in your administration and pretend Social Security is safe," tweeted Tyson Brody, former research director for Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) 2020 presidential campaign.

Thomas Frank: 2020 Review; 2021 Preview

Trump loyalists aim to block Biden's goal to rejoin Iran and Paris agreements

Two prominent Trump loyalists in the US Senate, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, are reportedly pressing the president to submit the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate agreement to the chamber for ratification, in a last-minute attempt to scupper Democratic plans to take America back into the accords.

In a letter obtained by RealClearPolitics, Cruz, from Texas, urges both Trump and Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, to plant the seeds of an eventual showdown over the two critical international agreements in the early days of the Biden administration.

As Cruz describes it, by submitting the pacts to the Senate, Trump could pave the way for a vote that would fail to achieve the two-thirds needed to ratify them – thus blocking Joe Biden’s efforts to bring the US back in line with international allies.

Cruz sets out the cynical ploy in his letter. He begins by praising Trump’s decision to pull America out of both the 2015 Iran deal, which restricted its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions, and the 2016 Paris accords on reducing global emissions of pollution responsible for the climate crisis.

“I urge you now to remedy the harm done to the balance of powers by submitting the Iran deal and the Paris agreement to the Senate as treaties,” Cruz writes. “Only by so doing with the Senate be able to satisfy its constitutional role to provide advice and consent in the event any future administration attempts to revive these dangerous deals.”

'DeJoy Is the Real Life Grinch': Postmaster General's Pre-Election Sabotage Fuels Christmas Delivery Delays

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's sweeping and destructive effort to slash operating costs at the U.S. Postal Service has made an already difficult time of the year even more chaotic for the beloved agency, threatening the prompt delivery of millions of Christmas-time packages as strained postal employees tirelessly work their way through mounting backlogs.

The Washington Post reported late Monday that a "perfect storm of crises"—the coronavirus pandemic, an unprecedented level of online orders, and DeJoy's operational changes—is wreaking havoc on the agency, which has seen drastic performance fall-offs since the postmaster general began implementing his agenda over the summer.

"Mail performance has plummeted: Only 75.3 percent of first-class mail, such as letters and bills, arrived within the standard one- to three-day delivery window the week of December 5, according to the most recent agency data available," the Post reported. "This time last year, the mail service's on-time score was closer to 95 percent."

"Adding to the slowdowns," the Post noted, "is on-the-ground confusion over the cost-cutting initiatives that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy implemented during the summer and then paused at the direction of five federal courts. The Postal Service has appealed several of those rulings."

A Michigan postal worker told the Post that "as bad as you think it is, it's worse."

"No parcels are moving at all," said the unnamed worker.

Mark Dimondstein, national president of the 200,000-member American Postal Workers Union (APWU) stressed that postal employees are doing their absolute best to ensure that Christmas gifts and other packages—including prescription medications and benefit checks—are delivered as quickly as possible. As the Post reported, mail carriers in busy areas are "working upward of 80 hours a week, including some who have worked every day since Thanksgiving without a weekend."

"This is a long, hard struggle," said Dimondstein. "We're asking for your patience, and no delayed gift should take away from the valuable family time and the reason people come together and celebrate. Hopefully everything will make it there on time. But if it doesn't, it'll still get there."

In the wake of the presidential election, DeJoy—a Republican megadonor to President Donald Trump—swiftly resumed his push for a major operational overhaul at the Postal Service, brushing aside evidence that his original effort caused massive mail delays across the nation before it was temporarily suspended by DeJoy himself and federal judges.

DeJoy, who took charge of the Postal Service in the middle of June, "left his initiative seeking to eliminate late and extra mail transportation trips in place, but courts subsequently ordered USPS to walk it back," Government Executive reported last month. "USPS will now likely seek to resume those efforts, with DeJoy saying... USPS can 'operate with much greater precision.'"

Given that the postmaster general serves at the pleasure of the USPS Board of Governors—which is currently dominated by 4-2 by Trump appointees—it is unclear how much the incoming Biden administration will be able to do to stop DeJoy from taking a sledgehammer to postal operations.

As the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month, Biden vowed during the presidential campaign to fill the three vacancies on the nine-member Board of Governors with the hopes of forestalling DeJoy's agenda and potentially removing him from office. Last week, Trump moved to fill one of the board's three vacancies by nominating Roy Bernardi, who must be confirmed by the Senate.

"Like much else in Washington, DeJoy's fate may be linked to the outcome of the Georgia runoffs for U.S. Senate," the Journal noted. "Democrats on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which oversees the USPS, are eager to fill the vacant seats on the board and move away from the 'cost cutting mentality' among Postal Service leadership that has contributed to declines in service."

How Elites Sold American Workers Out And How To Fix It

From "Day One" to We Will "Need Time," Team Biden Walks Back Vow to End Trump Attack on Asylum Seekers

Two of President-elect Joe Biden's top incoming advisers on Tuesday appeared intent on lowering expectations about Biden's plans to roll back President Donald Trump's anti-immigration rules, which have been condemned internationally as violating human rights.

Susan Rice, who Biden has named as his domestic policy adviser, and incoming national security adviser Jake Sullivan told Spanish wire service EFE that policies including "Remain in Mexico," officially known as Migration Protection Protocols (MPP), will not be immediately suspended, contrary to Biden's campaign promise to "end the MPP program" on "day one" of his presidency.

Donald Trump has slammed the door shut in the face of families fleeing persecution and violence. On day one, I will eliminate President Trump’s decision to limit asylum and end the MPP program. #RestoreAsylumNOW https://t.co/3KLjtwEtNE

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) January 30, 2020

Saying Biden will "need time" to undo Trump's immigration policies, Sullivan acknowledged that the Remain in Mexico policy—under which more than 66,000 asylum-seekers have been turned away at the U.S.-Mexico border and forced to live in tent cities without access to sufficient medical care, suitable shelter, or legal aid—"has led to a humanitarian crisis in northern Mexico" as people wait for their asylum claims to be processed in U.S. courts.

"But putting the new policy into practice will take time," he added, saying Biden will end the program "early in his administration."

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) accused the incoming administration of "a classic bait and switch."

This is a classic bait and switch. It perpetuates Trump’s dehumanization of migrants and breaks a core campaign promise. Democrats lose big when administrations won’t fulfill their promise. I urge the Biden transition team to reconsider this position. https://t.co/8BcztVHJMl

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) December 22, 2020

Rice cited public health concerns in explaining why the policy will continue for an unspecified period of time under the Biden administration, but on Monday public health experts issued a statement urging the incoming Biden administration to use "effective, evidence-based public health measures" to mitigate the spread of Covid-19 at the southern border—not "bans, expulsions, and asylum denials."

"The Trump administration has misused public health authority as a ploy to attempt to justify expulsions that endanger human lives," said Monette Zard, associate professor and director of the Program on Forced Migration and Health at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. "The Biden administration should end this abuse of public health authority, ensure public health decisions are made by public health officials without pressure to advance migration policy or other political objectives and use public health measures to safely process the cases of families, adults and children seeking protection at our borders." ...

Rice indicated that the Biden administration may focus on changing immigration policy through legislative steps rather than executive authority.

While "there are areas that can be addressed administratively, and the president-elect has plans to begin tackling those areas right away," Rice said, "the Biden administration will not be able to fix everything on our own."

"We need legislative changes to make enduring repairs to our immigration system, and the president-elect will share his vision with Congress," she added. "He is committed to working collaboratively with Members of Congress to achieve the needed reform that has long eluded the country."

The Washington Post noted Tuesday that Biden's immigration reform proposals, including a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants currently in the U.S. "will face long odds in a divided Congress."

French policemen held over assault of music producer are released

French investigating judges have ordered the release under judicial supervision of two policemen detained last month in connection with the beating of black music producer Michel Zecler, a judicial source said.

Both officers will be barred from having any contact with Zecler or anyone else connected with the case. They will also be banned from carrying firearms and all police work and will have to stay clear of the 17th Paris arrondissement where the assault, caught on video, occurred (on 21 November), the source said.

Four policemen were indicted over the assault, which triggered protests across France.

They are under investigation for intentional violence by a person holding a position of authority. The two had requested conditional release, granted on caution of €5,000, after appearing before magistrates Friday and Monday.

Zecler’s lawyer, Caroline Toby, said she was “astonished that these releases come even before a confrontation between the victim and the police officers while they continue to contest certain facts despite the evidence”.

Trump pardons ex-campaign aide, Blackwater contractors and disgraced lawmakers

Donald Trump approved a wave of pre-Christmas pardons, granting clemency to a former campaign aide caught up in the Russia investigation, disgraced Republican lawmakers and several contractors convicted in a massacre in Iraq.

The White House announced on Tuesday Trump has granted full pardons to 15 people and commuted all or part of the sentences of five others. The beneficiaries include George Papadopoulos, a former campaign aide who pleaded guilty to lying to federal officials as part of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and Alex van der Zwaan, who pleaded guilty to a similar charge in the Russia investigation and is the son-in-law of Russian billionaire German Khan.

The three former Republican US representatives who were pardoned or had their sentences commuted on Tuesday were Chris Collins of New York, Duncan Hunter of California and Steve Stockman of Texas.

Collins, 70, had been the first sitting member of Congress to endorse Trump’s candidacy in 2016 and was a strong defender of the president. He pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit securities fraud and making false statements to the FBI. Hunter, 44, pleaded guilty in 2019 to conspiring to convert campaign funds to personal use and received a full pardon. Stockman, 64, was convicted in 2018 of misuse of charitable funds and had his sentence commuted after serving two oof ten years.

Also pardoned were Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard, former contractors at Blackwater Worldwide who were serving lengthy prison terms in connection with the killings of civilians in a 2007 massacre in Baghdad. Among those killed by the Blackwater contractors were children, including a nine-year-old, and a mother who was clutching an infant. Two former border patrol agents were also among those pardoned. Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean were found guilty of crimes related to shooting an unarmed man who was smuggling marijuana in 2005. George W Bush commuted their sentences in 2009, but did not grant a full pardon.

'Our blood is cheaper than water': anger in Iraq over Trump pardons

Iraqis have reacted with outrage to Donald Trump’s move to pardon four security guards from the security firm Blackwater who were jailed for a 2007 massacre that sparked an outcry over the use of mercenaries in war.

The four men were part of a security convoy that fired on civilians at a central Baghdad roundabout, killing 14 people including a nine-year old child and wounding many more.

The four guards – Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, Dustin Heard and Nicholas Slatten – opened fire indiscriminately with machine guns, grenade launchers and a sniper on a crowd of unarmed people at a roundabout, known as Nisour Square.

The killings were one of the lowest points of the US-led invasion of Iraq, and many Iraqis saw the convictions as a rare occasion where US citizens had been held to account for atrocities committed during the aftermath. Baghdad residents who spoke to the Guardian described the outgoing US president’s announcement as a “cruel slap” and an insult. ...

Private security contractors, supporting logistics companies, or in some cases the US military, were a frequent source of complaints about heavy-handed and disrespectful behaviour towards locals. “We used to be terrified of them, especially Blackwater, who were the nastiest of them all,” said Ribal Mansour, who heard the chaos at Nisour Square on 16 September 2007, and ran to the scene. “What I saw there will haunt me for ever. It should have been a red line. For them to be freed by the US commander-in-chief is shameful.”

‘Forever chemicals’ pollute water from Alaska to Florida

More than 200 million Americans may be drinking PFAS-contaminated water, suggests research by the nonprofit Environmental Working group (EWG), an advocacy group which is collaborating with Ensia on its Troubled Waters reporting project. As studies continue to link exposures to a lengthening list of potential health consequences, scientists and advocates are calling for urgent action from both regulators and industry to curtail PFAS use and to take steps to ensure the chemicals already in the environment stay out of drinking water. ...

Once PFAS gets into the environment, the chemicals are likely to stick around a long time because they are not easily broken down by sunlight or other natural processes. Legacy and ongoing PFAS contamination is present across the US, especially at or near sites associated with fire training, industry, landfills and wastewater treatment. Near Parkersburg, West Virginia, PFAS seeped into drinking water supplies from a Dupont plant. In Decatur, Alabama, a 3M manufacturing facility is suspected of discharging PFAS, polluting residents’ drinking water. And in Hyannis, Massachusetts, firefighting foam from a firefighter training academy is the likely source of well-water contamination, according to the state. Use of PFAS-containing materials such as firefighting foam at hundreds of military sites around the country, including one on Whidbey Island in Washington state, has also contaminated many drinking water supplies.

“It works great for fires. It’s just that it’s toxic,” says Donald (Matt) Reeves, an associate professor of hydrogeology at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo who studies how PFAS moves around, and sticks around, in the environment. It can be a near-endless loop, he explains. Industry might discharge the chemicals into a waste stream that ends up at a wastewater treatment plant. If that facility is not outfitted with filters that can trap PFAS, the chemicals may go directly into a drinking water source. Or a wastewater treatment facility might produce PFAS-laced sludge that is applied to land or put into a landfill. Either way, PFAS could leach out and find its way back in a wastewater treatment plant, repeating the cycle. The chemicals can be released into the air as well, resulting in some cases in PFAS getting deposited on land where it can seep back into drinking water supplies. His research in Michigan, he says, echoes a broader trend across the US: “The more you test, the more you find.”

In fact, a study by scientists from EWG, published in October 2020, used state testing data to estimate that more than 200 million Americans could have PFAS in their drinking water at concentrations of 1 part per trillion (ppt) or higher. That is the recommended safe limit, according to some scientists and health advocates, and is equivalent to one drop in 500,000 barrels of water.

“This really highlights the extent that these contaminants are in the drinking water across the country,” says EWG’s Andrews, who co-authored the paper. “And, in some ways, it’s not a huge surprise. It’s nearly impossible to escape contamination of drinking water.” He references research from the CDC that found the chemicals in the blood of 98% of Americans surveyed.

Alaskan tribes, activists and businesses sue to save America's biggest national forest

A coalition of Alaskan native tribes, conservation groups and small businesses have filed a lawsuit in an effort to save America’s largest national forest by overturning one of the Trump administration’s most contentious environmental rollbacks. Protection for the Tongass national forest in Alaska, one of the world’s last intact temperate rainforests, which plays a crucial role in fighting climate change, has been gutted by a recent US government decision to overturn a two-decade ban on logging and road building.

The widely condemned rollback jeopardizes the ancestral homelands of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people, and threatens the culture and food security of many indigenous communities who rely on the Tongass for hunting and gathering. The decision to exempt the Tongass from the Roadless Rule, which protects millions of acres of pristine forest nationwide, came after Trump personally intervened following a private meeting with the Alaska governor, Mike Dunleavy, aboard Air Force One. ...

Now Earthjustice and co-counsel Natural Resources Defense Council are suing the US Department of Agriculture and the Forest Service on behalf of small businesses in south-east Alaska, more than a dozen conservation organizations and five tribes: the Organized Village of Kake; Organized Village of Saxman; Hoonah Indian Association; Klawock Cooperative Association; and Ketchikan Indian Community. “The Trump’s administration’s ignored input from tribes and the impact on tribes who rely on the Tongass for hunting, gathering and fishing. It ignored the impact on fishermen, the tourist industry, and the impact on the climate for the whole world,” said Kate Glover, a lawyer with legal nonprofit EarthJustice. “Essentially the decision did not make sense, it was arbitrary.”

The Tongass is considered the “crown jewel” of national forests, sequestering huge amounts of carbon dioxide to keep the global-heating greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere.

Also of Interest

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

New museums and Smokey Bear: what's in the $900bn US stimulus package?

Where In The World Is Kamala Harris?

Top UN Anti-Torture Official Urges Trump to Send Message of 'Justice, Truth, and Humanity' by Pardoning Julian Assange

Caitlin Johnstone: Everyone Was Wrong About Trump

Liberal Legal Organization Renews Amazon VP’s Position on Its Board Despite Member Protest

Abortion, gun control: conservatives steer pet cases towards supreme court with Barrett on bench

White supremacists plotted attacks on US power plants, FBI alleges

Class-Action Suit Sought Over 'Disturbing Pattern of Inhumane Medical Abuse' of ICE Detainees Including Forced Hysterectomies

The Language Toomey Inserted into the Stimulus Bill Enshrines a $681 Billion Trading Slush Fund for Mnuchin with the NY Fed

Biden must be our 'climate president'. He can start by ending pipeline projects

Jupiter and Saturn's great conjunction – in pictures

Democracy Npw: Diane Ravitch: Biden's Pick for Education Secretary Must Overturn DeVos's Attack on Public Schools

Jimmy Dore w/Dylan Ratigan: "Blow Torching The Economy" COVID Relief Bill is Disaster for America

A Little Night Music

Paul Butterfield & Mike Bloomfield - Walking by Myself

Mike Bloomfield - Blues On The Westside

Janis Joplin & Mike Bloomfield - One Good Man

Paul Butterfield & Mike Bloomfield - Shake Your Money Maker

Mike Bloomfield - Blues For Roy

Mike Bloomfield - Juke Joint Blues

Mike Bloomfield - Blues For Nothing

Sunnyland Slim with Mike Bloomfield - Brownskin Woman

Mike Bloomfield - Paul Butterfield - I've Got a Mind to Give up Living

The Electric Flag - Goin' Down Slow, Killing Floor