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"Media manipulation in the U.S. today is more efficient than it was in Nazi Germany, because here we have the pretense that we are getting all the information we want. That misconception prevents people from even looking for the truth."

-- Mark Crispin Miller

News and Opinion

Pentagon Wants To Return Special Ops Propagandists To Ukraine

An article by The Washington Post titled “Pentagon looks to restart top-secret programs in Ukraine” contains some interesting information about what US special ops forces were doing in Ukraine in the lead-up to the Russian invasion last year, and what they are slated to be doing there in the future.

“The Pentagon is urging Congress to resume funding a pair of top-secret programs in Ukraine suspended ahead of Russia’s invasion last year, according to current and former U.S. officials,” writes the Post’s Wesley Morgan. “If approved, the move would allow American Special Operations troops to employ Ukrainian operatives to observe Russian military movements and counter disinformation.”

Much further down in the article we learn the specifics of what those two top-secret programs were. One of them entailed US commandos sending Ukrainian operatives “on surreptitious reconnaissance missions in Ukraine’s east” to collect intelligence on Russia. The other entailed secretly administering online propaganda, though of course The Washington Post does not describe it as such.

“We had people taking apart Russian propaganda and telling the true story on blogs,” WaPo was told by a source described as “a person in the Special Operations community.”

Social media warfare. US Special Operations: "Before the invasion, US Special Operations troops were running two irregular warfare surrogate programs in Ukraine. In one, “We had people taking apart Russian propaganda and telling the true story on blogs." https://t.co/IXFI7Q48Mb

— Ivan Katchanovski (@I_Katchanovski) February 11, 2023

US special ops forces “employing Ukrainian operatives” to “take apart Russian propaganda” and “tell the true story on blogs” is just US special ops forces administering US propaganda online. Whether or not they actually see themselves as “telling the true story” or “taking apart Russian propaganda” does not change the fact that they are administering US government propaganda. A government circulating media which advances its information interests is precisely the thing that state propaganda is.

The US government is theoretically prohibited from directly administering propaganda to its own population (though even that line has been deliberately eroded in recent years with measures like the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act and US government infiltration of the mass media and Silicon Valley), but there’s nothing stopping the funding and directing of foreign bodies to circulate propaganda on the internet, which has no national borders. Back when US propaganda was limited to old media like the CIA’s Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia it was possible to claim that the propaganda was solely being targeted at the populations where that media was broadcast, but propaganda circulated online will necessarily trickle over everywhere, including to US audiences.

The Washington Post explains that these secret programs were discontinued ahead of the Russian invasion last year because a stipulation in the 2018 NDAA law which permitted their funding forbids their use during a “traditional armed conflict,” so the Pentagon is working to persuade congress to repeal that condition. Part of its sales pitch to congress to get these secret operations restarted is that they will be “what the U.S. military calls ‘non-kinetic’ — or nonviolent — missions,” which the administering of propaganda would certainly qualify as.

As we discussed recently, it’s very silly that there’s a major push in the US power alliance to begin administering more government propaganda in order to “counter Russian propaganda” when Russian propaganda has no meaningful influence in the western world. Before RT was shut down it was drawing just 0.04 percent of the UK’s total TV audience. The much-touted Russian election interference campaign on Facebook was mostly unrelated to the election and affected “approximately 1 out of 23,000 pieces of content” according o Facebook, while research by New York University into Russian trolling behavior on Twitter in the lead-up to the 2016 election found “no evidence of a meaningful relationship between exposure to the Russian foreign influence campaign and changes in attitudes, polarization, or voting behavior.” A study by the University of Adelaide found that despite all the warnings of Russian bots and trolls following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the overwhelming majority of inauthentic behavior on Twitter during that time was anti-Russian in nature.

In reality, this push we’ve been seeing to pour more and more energy into propaganda, censorship, and other forms of narrative control has nothing to do with “taking apart Russian propaganda” and everything to do with suppressing dissent. The US empire has been frantically ramping up propaganda and censorship because the “great power competition” it has been preparing against Russia and China is going to require economic warfare, massive military spending, and nuclear brinkmanship that no one would consent to without lots of manipulation. Nobody’s going to consent to being made poorer, colder, and less safe over some global power struggle that doesn’t benefit them unless that consent is actively manufactured.

That’s why the media have been acting so weird lately, that’s why dissident voices are getting harder and harder to find online, that’s the purpose of the new “fact-checking” industry and other forms of narrative control, and that’s why the Pentagon wants congressional funding for its propaganda operations in Ukraine. The fact that the empire’s “great power competition” happens to be occurring at the same time as widespread access to the internet means that drastic measures must be made to ensure its information dominance so it can march the public into playing along with this agenda. The more desperate our rulers grow to secure unipolar planetary domination, the more important controlling the narrative becomes.

Running out of ammo

Worth a full read, here's an interesting portion of the article, there's much more at the link:

On the Legal Question of Russia’s Military Intervention

In his impassioned address to the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday, in which he appealed to the council’s humanity to bring about a ceasefire in Ukraine, British rock legend Roger Waters called Russia’s military action “illegal.” That has gotten some attention and raised the question again of the legality of the military operation according to international law. As is often the case with law, the question is not as simple as it might seem.

The U.N. Charter has something to say about the legal use of military force. It allows it in two cases: when it is authorized by the Security Council and when it is legitimately used in self-defense. ... So, on these narrow legal grounds, the U.N. Charter only permits the use of force after authorization by the Security Council or in self defense by a “member state.” ... As the self-defense article pertains only to U.N. member states, it could not apply to Donetsk and Luhansk. ...

However, states are not prohibited by the Charter to request the presence of foreign forces on their territory. There is no language in the Charter about it. Officially inviting foreign forces onto one’s territory would not be considered an illegal occupation. ... The Russian army is certainly not seen as hostile in Donetsk and Luhansk. The murkiness of the legal issue arises then on the question of whether Donetsk and Luhansk were independent states in February of last year — states that could invite foreign forces onto its territory — or were they at the time still part of Ukraine? (Ukraine and the West argue they still are today. The republics passed referenda in September 2022 to join the Russian Federation.)

So what makes an independent state?  According to the Montevideo Convention of 1933, “The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications:

a permanent population;

b. a defined territory;

c. government; and

d. capacity to enter into relations with the other states.”

This is key: Article 3 of the convention adds, “The political existence of the state is independent of recognition by the other states.” That means no other other country has to recognize their independence if the above criteria are met. According to Montevideo, Donetsk and Luhansk met the four requirements of the Convention including capacity to enter into relations with other states, as it has relations with the Russian Federation. The Convention says a state need not be recognized by other states. They have been recognized by Russia, Syria and North Korea. ...

A legal argument based on the Montevideo Convention would be that the two territories were independent states at the time of Russia’s intervention and had the right to request foreign forces to enter their territory. In that sense, it would seem that Russia’s military action in February a year ago was legal.

Ukraine Relies on Intelligence from US for HIMARS Rocket Strikes

The Washington Post reported Thursday that Ukraine is reliant on coordinates provided or confirmed by the US and its allies to launch strikes using the US-provided HIMARS rocket systems, a revelation that demonstrates Washington’s deep involvement in the war.

The HIMARS is a precision-guided artillery system, one that Ukraine has employed quite a bit in its fight against Russia. One example is a January 1 HIMARS strike on a facility housing Russian forces in Donetsk that killed at least 89 Russian soldiers, one of the deadliest Ukrainian attacks of the war.

Citing three unnamed Ukrainian officials and one unnamed US official, the Post reported that Ukraine also relies on the US for targeting coordinates for similar precision weapons, including the M270 Multiple-Launch Rocket System. One senior Ukrainian official said that Ukrainian forces almost never launch strikes using these weapons without coordinates provided by US military personnel that are located at a military base in a different country in Europe. ...

Russia has made clear it views the US and Ukraine’s cooperation on targeting as an example of Washington’s direct role in the war, and Moscow isn’t alone in its assessment. Back in March 2022, Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), former chair of the House Armed Services Committee, said the US wasn’t providing “real-time targeting intelligence” because that kind of cooperation “steps over the line to making us participate in the war.”

Matt Gaetz Tries To End Ukraine War Funding!

Take with very large grains of salt, comes from propaganda outlet The Guardian:

Iran smuggled drones into Russia using boats and state airline, sources reveal

Iran has used boats and a state-owned airline to smuggle new types of advanced long-range armed drones to Russia for use in its war on Ukraine, sources inside the Middle Eastern country have revealed. At least 18 of the drones were delivered to Vladimir Putin’s navy after Russian officers and technicians made a special visit to Tehran in November, where they were shown a full range of Iran’s technologies.

On that occasion, the 10-man Russian delegation selected six Mohajer-6 drones, which have a range of around 200km and carry two missiles under each wing, along with 12 Shahed 191 and 129 drones, which also have an air-to-ground strike capability. Unlike the better-known Shahed 131 and 136 drones, which have been heavily used by Russia in kamikaze raids against Ukrainian targets, the higher-flying drones are designed to deliver bombs and return to base intact. ...

Russia may have been keen to obtain the more advanced drones, loosely comparable with the Turkish Bayraktar TB2, because Ukraine has become increasingly effective in stopping the smaller suicide drones, which have to fly in low before striking. ...

Iran sits on the southern border and Russia on the north-west border of the Caspian Sea, the world’s largest inland body of water, making the physical transfer between the allied nations relatively straightforward.

Lula SHOCKS CNN: REFUSES Weapons To Ukraine

US shoots down ‘octagonal’ flying object near military sites in Michigan

The US military shot down a fourth flying object over North American airspace in a week on Sunday over Lake Huron in Michigan, confirmed the state’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer. Whitmer said on Twitter that federal officials had been “tracking an object near [Michigan’s] airspace”.

“I’m glad to report it has been swiftly, safely and securely taken down,” she said.

The high-altitude unidentified object, described as an “octagonal structure” with strings attached to it, is understood to have been the same item that was picked up by radar over Montana on Saturday. At the point it was struck by an air-to-air missile launched by F-16 fighter jets, it had been flying across the Great Lakes region at 20,000ft, a height that could have posed a risk to civilian aircraft.

The Pentagon said the object appeared to have traveled near US military sites and posed a threat to civilian aviation, as well as being a potential tool for surveillance.“We did not assess it to be a kinetic military threat to anything on the ground, but assess it was a safety flight hazard and a threat due to its potential surveillance capabilities,” the department of defense said. “Our team will now work to recover the object in an effort to learn more.” ...

The octagon was the fourth unidentified flying object to be downed by US or Canadian fighter jets this month. ... On Friday, an object about the size of a small car was downed off the coast of Alaska, followed by a similar flying object over Yukon in Canada on Saturday.

Top General: CANNOT Rule Out Aliens In UFO Shoot Downs

Mystery surrounds what exactly was object US jet shot down over Alaska

Questions remain after the US government shot down two high-altitude objects, one near Deadhorse, Alaska along the north-eastern Alaskan coast and a second near Yukon, Canada, that have yet to be identified. Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau tweeted on Saturday afternoon that he had ordered the takedown of an unidentified object in Canadian airspace.

Though efforts by the navy, coast guard and FBI are under way to recover the object shot down near Alaska, officials had yet to identify its owner or purpose on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) confirmed to Canadian news outlet Global News that another “high-altitude airborne object” had been detected over northern Canada on Saturday. NORAD officials said that military aircraft are “currently operating from Alaska and Canada in support of [NORAD] activities”. American officials have not publicly commented on the airborne object seen near Canada.

The separate object that was ultimately shot down near Alaska flying at an altitude of 40,000ft, about the same level as commercial planes, and was travelling at about 20 to 40 miles per hour before it was struck down. Officials say the object had flown over parts of Alaska but was heading toward the north pole before it was struck down. American radars first identified the object’s presence around 9pm Alaska time on Thursday evening. A US warplane shot it down about 1.45pm ET on Friday. ...

Officials have yet to publicly give further descriptions of the object that was travelling over Alaska besides its size, altitude and speed. Still, officials have been speculating in various reports about the nature of the object. One official told ABC News that the object was “cylindrical and silver-ish gray” and gave the “balloon-like” appearance of floating without “any sort of propulsion”. Another official from the Department of Defense told the New York Times that the object broke into pieces when it hit the frozen sea.

Millions displaced in Turkey and Syria after earthquake

A week after two 7.8- and 7.6-magnitude earthquakes levelled swathes of southern Turkey and northern Syria, hundreds of thousands of people are sleeping in the open in often sub-zero conditions.

In Turkey’s southern province of Hatay, one of the areas hardest hit by the quake and where some citizens said it took emergency teams days to arrive, many sleep in their cars or in makeshift tents under market stalls, with nowhere else to go.

In a speech last Wednesday at a tent city in Kahramanmaras, close to the quake’s epicentre, the president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, pledged that the state would provide immediate help to the displaced. Those whose homes were destroyed or who did not know if it was safe to return would be housed in hotels, he said. “We can never let our citizens stay on the street.”

The vice-president, Fuat Oktay, said more than 1 million people were living in tent encampments. At night, the temperature dips to as low as -9C .

The situation is even worse in Syria. “As many as 5.3 million people in Syria may have been left homeless by the earthquake,” the Syria representative of the UN high commissioner for refugees, Sivanka Dhanapala, told a press briefing. “That is a huge number and comes to a population already suffering mass displacement.”

Former Cyprus top diplomat Christodoulides elected youngest president

Nikos Christodoulides elected Cyprus’s president with 52% of vote

Nikos Christodoulides, a former foreign minister, has been elected the eighth president of Cyprus, beating the career diplomat Andreas Mavroyiannis in a high-stakes, closely fought race. Christodoulides, 49, won 51.92 per cent of the vote compared with 48.09 per cent for his opponent, who had been backed by the leftist party AKEL. A mere 15,041 ballots had divided the loser from the winner.

“Tonight a long but beautiful journey has come to an end,” said Mavroyiannis, a former chief negotiator in peace talks with Turkish Cypriots, conceding defeat. “It gave me the opportunity to meet thousands of people and hopes and dreams for our country.”

The result was immediately met with jubilation by supporters of the new president, as fireworks lit up the Nicosia sky and supporters clapped and danced.

But in an election filled with rare drama and suspense, it was also quick to elicit dread. Christodoulides, who ran as an independent, had been backed by groups that take an openly hostile stance on talks to reunify the Mediterranean island.

For many his victory dashed hopes of a solution being found in the near future to the decades-long dispute that has left Cyprus, the EU’s most easterly state, bitterly divided. “Today Greek Cypriots have voted in a government with very nationalist tendencies,” said Cleopatra Kitti, a Cypriot policy adviser at the Athens-based thinktank Eliamep. “It is unlikely to back a bi-communal, bi-zonal federation any time soon which means this is likely to be another wasted opportunity.”

Nearly 1 Million March Against 'Unjust and Brutal' Plan to Raise French Pension Age

Nearly a million people took to the streets of cities across France on Saturday during the fourth round of nationwide protests against President Emmanuel Macron's plan to raise the country's pension eligibility age from 62 to 64.

The French Interior Ministry said an estimated 963,000 protesters rallied in Paris, Marseilles, Nantes, Nice, Toulouse, and other cities and towns large and small for the fourth straight day of demonstrations, Agence France-Presse reports.

Authorities in Paris said nearly 100,000 people turned out to Saturday's demonstrations, which included many young people who could not make it to the previous three days' protests. Union leaders said the number of Paris protesters was five times as high.

One teen protesting in the capital's Place de la République carried a placard reading, "I don't want my parents to die at work."

Others held banners declaring, "No to working longer," Not one year more, not one euro less", and other slogans.

There were reports of police brutality in cities including Rennes, where water cannons and other "less-lethal" weapons were used against protesters, the overwhelming majority of whom marched peacefully.

The massive demonstrations are a critical test for Macron's government, and for the opposition. Macron's centrist Renaissance party faces an uphill battle to get the pension plan passed in a parliament where it no longer enjoys majority control. Renaissance needs the support of right-wing opposition lawmakers in order to avert a highly controversial constitutional measure that would allow the pension reform to be forced through without a vote.

Macron steadfastly insists he's delivering upon a campaign promise to reform France's pension system, one of the world's most generous. The president asserts raising the retirement age is an "indispensable" move to guarantee the future survival of the pension system, while pointing to higher retirement ages in other European Union countries.

An inter-union coalition of 13 labor groups said in a joint statement on Saturday that "since January 19, the population has continued to demonstrate its very strong determination to refuse the government's pension reform project through strikes, demonstrations, and also the online petition, which has reached one million signatures."

"Over the weeks, the polls also show an increase in this massive rejection since now, more than 7 out of 10 French people and 9 out of 10 workers say they are opposed to the reform project," the coalition continued. "This social movement, unprecedented in its scope, is therefore now anchored in the social landscape. The government, like parliamentarians, cannot remain deaf to it."

The inter-union coalition said it would meet Thursday evening and that "in the meantime, we call on the government to withdraw its bill and on parliamentarians to take their responsibilities in the face of the massive rejection of the population [of this] unjust and brutal project."

"If, despite everything, the government and the parliamentarians remained deaf to popular protest, the inter-union would call on workers, young people, and retirees to harden the movement by bringing France to a halt in all sectors on March 7," the unions vowed, adding that the coalition "will take advantage of March 8, the international day of struggle for women's rights, to highlight the major social injustice of this reform against women."

Republicans REALLY Want To Cut Social Security

Republicans attack US child labor laws as violations rise

As child labor law violations have been on the rise in the US, some state legislators are pushing for changes at state and federal levels to roll back protections in what some see as a threat to return child labor to the country. The laws aim to expand permissible work hours, broaden the types of jobs young workers are permitted to do, and shield employers from liability for injuries, illnesses or workplace fatalities involving very young workers.

Child labor law violations have increased in the US, with a 37% increase in fiscal year 2022, including 688 children working in hazardous conditions, with the number likely much higher as the recorded violations stem from what was found during labor inspections.

The Department of Labor issued a press release in July 2022 noting child labor violations and investigations have increased since 2015. Several high-profile investigations involving child labor have been exposed over the past year, including the use of child labor in Hyundai and Kia supply chains in Alabama, at JBS meatpacking plants in Nebraska and Minnesota, and at fast-food chains including McDonald’s, Dunkin Donuts and Chipotle.

Amid these increases in child labor violations, legislative efforts have been introduced in several states to roll back child labor protections.

Officer involved in Tyre Nichols arrest previously accused in assault of prison inmate

Years before Memphis police officer Demetrius Haley pulled Tyre Nichols from his car on 7 January, setting in motion a deadly confrontation, Haley was accused of taking part in the savage beating of an inmate at a county prison.

The 2015 assault of the inmate was so disturbing that 34 others – the entire cellblock – signed a letter to the corrections director.

“We are truly asking that this matter gets looked into before someone gets hurt really bad or lose their life because of some unprofessional officers,” the letter stated.

The warning from dozens of inmates at the Shelby county prison is the clearest indication yet that one of the five officers who took part in the violent beating of Nichols had an event in his past that should have raised concerns before he was hired as a police officer. Nichols died three days after the beating. The letter asks how the inmates are supposed to feel “safe and secure when the staff members at the Shelby County Correctional Center are assaulting and threatening us”? It concludes, “Please put a stop to this madness.”

Shelby county did not respond to a request Friday seeking information about its investigation into the beating allegations, so it is unclear if Haley was disciplined or cleared of the assault. An email was sent Friday to a police spokesperson asking if the department knew about the allegations when Haley was hired. There is no national database of officers found guilty of misconduct who resign or are fired, meaning in a lot of cases they can apply for jobs in other police agencies and departments.

Ken Paxton to pay 3.3m taxpayer dollars to ex-staffers who accused Texas AG of corruption

The attorney general for the state of Texas, Ken Paxton, has agreed to apologize and pay $3.3m in taxpayer money to four former staffers who accused him of corruption in 2020, igniting an ongoing FBI investigation of the three-term Republican. Under terms of a preliminary lawsuit settlement filed on Friday, Paxton made no admission of wrongdoing to accusations of bribery and abuse of office, which he has denied for years and called politically motivated.

But Paxton did commit to making a remarkable public apology toward some of his formerly trusted advisers whom he fired or forced out after they reported him to the FBI. He called them “rogue employees” after they accused Paxton of misusing his office to help one of his campaign contributors, who also employed a woman with whom the attorney general acknowledged having an extramarital affair.

In all, eight members of Paxton’s senior staff joined in the extraordinary revolt in 2020, and they either resigned or were fired. The attorney general said he settled with the four who sued under Texas’s whistleblower law to put to rest “this unfortunate sideshow”.

“I have chosen this path to save taxpayer dollars and ensure my third term as attorney general is unburdened by unnecessary distractions,” Paxton said in a statement.

The $3.3m payout would not come from Paxton’s own pocket but from state funds, which means it would still require approval by the Republican-controlled Texas legislature. Settlement of the case, which Paxton’s office fought in court for years, means he will avoid sitting for a civil deposition at a time when a corruption investigation by federal agents and prosecutors remains open.

Climate breakdown could cause British apples to die out, warn experts

Classic British apples may die out and be swapped for varieties from New Zealand and Japan, as climate breakdown means traditional fruits are no longer viable.

Apples such as pippin or the the ancient nonpareil, grown in Britain since the 1500s, are struggling in the changed climate because there are not enough “chilling hours” for the trees to lie dormant in winter and conserve energy for growing fruit.

Scientists at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, are planting 40 apple trees, a third of which are heritage varieties that once grew in its Georgian kitchen gardens. Another third are new varieties bred to need less cold over winter, and the final third are from warmer countries including South Africa. The varieties will be compared to see which has the best crop in London’s warming temperatures.

In January, the Met Office announced that 2022 had been the sixth warmest year on record, and it looks as if 2023 will be another record-breaker. But though many crops are affected by the summer’s intense heat and drought, apple trees are struggling because they need a period of cold over the winter.

In autumn, they store enough energy to see them through the dormant period, and then burst into action again in spring. Perfect chilling hours for apples are those below 6C but above freezing, and most traditional apple trees need about 1,000 chilling hours. If temperatures remain above 6C then they have to respire, using up energy stores throughout the winter period, which in turn limits the stores available in spring, meaning fewer apples grow.

Cacti replacing snow on Swiss mountainsides due to global heating

The residents of the Swiss canton of Valais are used to seeing their mountainsides covered with snow in winter and edelweiss flowers in summer. But as global heating intensifies, they are increasingly finding an invasive species colonising the slopes: cacti. Authorities say cactus species belonging to the genus Opuntia, or prickly pears, are proliferating in parts of Valais, encroaching on natural reserves and posing a biodiversity threat.

“A lover of dry and hot climates, this invasive and non-native plant is not welcome in the perimeter of prairies and dry pastures of national importance,” the municipality of Fully in the Rhone valley said in a press release announcing the uprooting campaign in late 2022.

Opuntia species and similar cacti have also proliferated in some of the hills around the capital of Valais, in Sion, where estimates suggest Opuntia plants now make up 23-30% of the low vegetation cover. Their presence has also been reported in neighbouring Alpine regions, including Ticino and Grisons in Switzerland, and the Aosta valley and Valtellina in Italy.

“In some parts of Valais, we estimate that the cacti can occupy one-third of the available surface,” says Yann Triponez, a biologist who works in the canton of Valais’ nature protection service. He says Opuntia have been present in Valais at least since the late 18th century, when it was imported from North America. But authorities believe that a warmer climate in the Alps, allowing for longer vegetation periods, and the diminishing snow cover might be creating the ideal conditions for them to spread.

“These species bear -10C or -15C without any problem,” says Peter Oliver Baumgartner, a retired geology professor with a longstanding side interest in botany who has been commissioned by the canton to study and write a report on the plants. “But they want to be in a dry place and don’t like snow cover.” Snow is becoming rarer at lower altitudes, even in the Alps. According to Meteo Swiss, the number of snow days under 800 metres of altitude in Switzerland has halved since 1970. A recent study published in Nature Climate Change said snow covers the Alps for about a month less than historical averages and called the situation “unprecedented in the last six centuries.”

Ohio catastrophe is ‘wake-up call’ to dangers of deadly train derailments

Five days after a train carrying vinyl chloride derailed and exploded near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, crews ignited a controlled burn of toxic chemicals to prevent a much more dangerous explosion.

Thousands in East Palestine, a town of about 5,000 people, evacuated, and officials warned the controlled burn would create a phosgene and hydrogen chloride plume across the region. Phosgene is a highly toxic gas that can cause vomiting and breathing trouble, and was used as a weapon in the first world war.

Though no one died in the accident, the catastrophe serves as a wake-up call to the potential for more deadly freight rail derailments, public health advocates warn. By one estimate, 25 million Americans live in an oil train blast zone, and had the derailment occurred just a few miles east, it would be burning in downtown Pittsburgh, with tens of thousands of residents in immediate danger.

Ineffective oversight and a largely self-monitoring industry that has cut the nation’s rail workforce to the bone in recent years as it puts record profits over safety is responsible for the wreck, said Ron Kaminkow, an Amtrak locomotive engineer and former Norfolk Southern freight engineer. “The Palestine wreck is the tip of the iceberg and a red flag,” said Kaminkow, who is secretary for the Railroad Workers United, a non-profit labor group that coordinates with the nation’s rail unions. “If something is not done, then it’s going to get worse, and the next derailment could be cataclysmic.”

About 4.5m tons of toxic chemicals are shipped by rail each year and an average of 12,000 rail cars carrying hazardous materials pass through cities and towns each day, according to the US Department of Transportation.

Also of Interest

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

Craig Murray: Sy Hersh & The Way We Live Now

Sen. Mike Lee ‘Can’t Rule Out’ That the US Blew Up Nord Stream

Russia: Nato should hold emergency summit over Nord Stream after Hersh revelations

Kremlin reacts to Nord Stream sabotage claim

Israeli PM Bombshell: US KILLED Ukraine Peace Deal

SpaceX Limits Ukraine’s Use of Starlink, Says It Shouldn’t Be ‘Weaponized’

The Calamity of America’s ‘Divine Mission’

How Did the German Greens Become the Party of Warmongers?

Twitter Censorship And The Crapification Path Of Social Media

Freelancers Wanted: Help Knock Out the Mainstream Propaganda Machine

US Eases Some Sanctions on Syria for 180 Days After Earthquake

Pete Buttigieg’s Transportation Department has not moved to revive an Obama-era safety rule that could help prevent future train accidents.

Hit With Extreme Weather, Texas Cities Debate Cost of Adaptation

Auckland Just Had Its Wettest Month in Over 170 Years, and More Rain Is on the Way

Bad taste? McDonald’s vows to remove McCrispy ad next to crematorium sign

"Crisis on Top of a Crisis": Syrians Displaced by War Now Dealing with Earthquake Devastation

Thousands march in Israel as Netanyahu allies push overhaul

AOC Is STILL Lying About Hunter Biden Laptop!

A Little Night Music

Wynonie Harris - Keep On Churnin' (Til The Butter Come)

Wynonie Harris - Around The Clock Parts 1 and 2

Wynonie Harris - Put It Back

Wynonie Harris - Sittin' On It All The Time

Wynonie Harris - Wynonie's Blues

Wynonie Harris - All She Wants To Do Is Rock

Wynonie Harris - Shake That Thing

Wynonie Harris - Everybody's Boogie

Wynonie Harris - Don't Take My Whiskey Away From Me

Wynonie Harris - Hey Ba Ba Re Bop