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“A lobby is like a night flower: it thrives in the dark and dies in the sun.”

-- Steven Rosen (Director of Foreign Policy Issues AIPAC)

News and Opinion

Meet Mark Mellman: the Centrist, Pro-Israel Operative Behind the Anti-Sanders Ads in Iowa

The 2018 election of a number of outspoken progressives to Congress opened the door for a previously unprecedented conversation about the special relationship between the United States and Israel. But for longtime Democratic pollster Mark Mellman, a top consultant for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, it was a warning sign. This week, the political action committee affiliated with Mellman’s new group, the Democratic Majority for Israel, is spending at least $800,000 on ad buys in Iowa to go after presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who is polling as the frontrunner for Monday’s early-state caucus. At least one of the ads mentions Sanders’s heart attack. The ad campaign, which the Daily Beast initially reported Monday, is the first attacking Sanders by name so far in either of his presidential campaigns.

The ads deal with electability and Sanders’s identification as a “socialist” label, but the name of Mellman’s group points to another motive for going after Sanders: the shifts in how Democrats, especially progressives, are approaching the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As rote Democratic defenses of Israel’s actions become increasingly untenable with a rising progressive wing of the party, longtime party strategists are pushing back.

Enter Democratic Majority for Israel. Mellman and several strategists close to the Democratic Party launched the group last year. DMFI aims to curtail criticisms of Israel from the party’s left flank by targeting primary challenges against pro-Israel Democrats. The group’s political action committee, which formed in July, has only spent money in Iowa so far. The PAC “does plan to spend in other races in other places, on behalf of pro-Israel Democratic candidates for House and Senate,” Mellman said. “We are still determining exactly which races we will be involved in.” On Friday, DMFI PAC, which put out the anti-Sanders ad, released its donor list in a Federal Election Committee filing. The donor rolls include several overlaps with major AIPAC funders and activists. Though Mellman has denied that his new group is affiliated with the flagship Israel lobby, DMFI’s ties to AIPAC run deep, including a lucrative relationship between the lobby group and Mellman’s consulting firm. ...

Mellman’s experience is varied, but his work rarely, if ever, extends beyond achieving centrist, moderate, and center-right aims. Along with his longtime Israel activism, he’s consulted for a number of clients including moderate Democrats, like then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., as well as a number of other federal and local officials. And his consulting firm’s clients have included pharmaceutical industry giants, health insurers, and Wall Street firms. Mellman’s centrism has even extended beyond U.S. borders: he worked for Israel’s centrist Blue and White party. On the Middle East, however, Mellman’s advocacy has sometimes sided — and overlapped — with right-leaning groups. Mellman worked hard to defeat former President Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear deal in 2015, despite the consultant’s ties to Democratic leaders who overwhelmingly supported the accord.

Mellman’s opposition, however, was in line with one of his highest profile clients: AIPAC.

Krystal Ball: Why Bernie is the real winner out of Iowa

Palestinians cut ties with Israel, U.S. after rejecting peace plan

The Palestinian Authority has cut all ties with the United States and Israel, including those relating to security, after rejecting a Middle East peace plan presented by U.S. President Donald Trump, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday.

Abbas was in Cairo to address the Arab League, which backed the Palestinians in their opposition to Trump’s plan. “We’ve informed the Israeli side ... that there will be no relations at all with them and the United States including security ties,” Abbas told the one-day emergency meeting, called to discuss Trump’s plan. ...

Israel and the Palestinian Authority’s security forces have long cooperated in policing areas of the occupied West Bank that are under Palestinian control. The PA also has intelligence cooperation agreements with the CIA, which continued even after the Palestinians began boycotting the Trump administration’s peace efforts in 2017.

Bloc of Muslim Nations Warns Trump Israel-Palestine Plan 'Destroys the Foundations of Peace'

Joining global critics of a plan that President Donald Trump unveiled last week to address the decades-long Israel-Palestine conflict, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation on Monday rejected the "biased" proposal and urged members states not to cooperate with U.S. efforts to enforce it.

At a meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the OIC executive committee adopted a resolution which decried Trump's so-called "Deal of the Century," reaffirmed support for the Palestinian people and the Palestine Liberation Organization headed by Mahmoud Abbas, and emphasized that "peace and security in the Middle East region, as a strategic option, will only be achieved with the end of the Israeli occupation."

The 57-member body of Muslim-majority countries declared that Trump's plan "lacks the minimum requirements of justice and destroys the foundations of peace, including the agreed legal and international terms of reference for a peaceful solution and the need to respect and recognize the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to national independence and of Palestine refugees to return."

The resolution expressed "regret at the biased approach of the 'plan' that fully adopts the Israeli narrative and endorses the annexation of vast areas of the occupied land of the State of Palestine, under the pretext of security for Israel, the illegal occupying power, in flagrant violation of the principles of international law, the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force, the United Nations Charter, and relevant international resolutions."

According to the resolution, Israel is "responsible for the deterioration of the situation on the ground because of its denial of relevant agreements, its defiance of international legitimacy and the continuation of the policies of colonization, annexation, settlement expansion, discrimination and ethnic cleansing, which have been perpetrated against the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem."

Along with warning Israel against making any further moves "to consolidate its colonial occupation in the territory of the State of Palestine," the OIC called on the international community to reject and confront "any action or proposal that is inconsistent with international law and relevant United Nations resolutions."

The resolution came just two days after the Arab League also rejected Trump's proposal, concluding that "it does not meet the minimum rights and aspirations of Palestinian people," and vowed to not cooperate with the U.S. efforts to implement the plan.

Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, announced at the Arab League meeting that in the wake of the plan's unveiling, "we've informed the Israeli side ... that there will be no relations at all with them and the United States including security ties." The Palestinian leader has declined to communicate with Trump by phone or letter.

Other critics of the proposal—which Trump introduced at the White House week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by his side—have denounced it as an "annexation plan." Last week, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) called it "shameful and disingenuous" while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a 2020 White House hopeful, warned that the plan "will only perpetuate the conflict."

The OIC resolution also came as Agence-France Presse reported that the United States requested a closed-door United Nations Security Council meeting Thursday for a presentation by Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, who oversaw the development of the administration's plan.

That meeting would occur just days before Abbas is set to arrive at the U.N. on Feb. 11 "to express opposition to the U.S. plan and to demand adherence to international law," AFP noted. "On the occasion of Abbas' visit, the Palestinians have indicated they plan to submit a draft resolution to the Security Council, through Tunisia, a non-permanent member of the council."

Democrats look to ramp up fight over Trump's war powers

A pair of House-passed bills seeking to rein in President Trump on Iran are dead on arrival in the Senate, but Democrats say the fight over the issue is not over. The Senate still has to vote on its version of a different measure, the so-called war powers resolution, which the House will then have to pass too. And Democrats are looking to the annual defense policy bill, which will likely provide the next battleground over Trump's Iran strategy.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who sponsored one of the bills approved this past week, is vowing to address Iran war authorities in the defense legislation. "I do think it's going to be a huge issue in this year's NDAA," Khanna said, referring to the National Defense Authorization Act.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said he’s open to including both measures that passed this past week in his defense bill even though that would reignite a fight with the Senate that contributed to slowing down the bill last year.

“It’s absolutely relitigating the same fight we had with the Senate last year, but it’s a fight worth relitigating,” Smith said. “The Congress should have some say in when we commit our troops to fight, and that ability of Congress to have a say has been steadily eroded, for decades really, and we need to find a way to reassert it."

Jacinda Ardern faces Maori wrath over 'inhumane' treatment of families

Jacinda Ardern will face the anger of Maori leaders when she visits Waitangi this week after a report branded her government’s child services agency “inhumane” over its removal of children from Indigenous families. “There’s been unprecedented breaches of human rights,” said Naida Glavish, the head of a Maori-led inquiry into the practices of New Zealand’s child services agency, Oranga Tamariki.

The investigation, which began six months ago, is one of five being conducted into the organisation, sparked by a documentary in 2019 that depicted social workers’ repeated attempts to seize a Maori baby from its mother shortly after birth. The report details what families describe as racial profiling, widespread fear among Maori families that their children will be taken away, and abuses of power by social workers. It details incidents in which armed police, with dogs, were sent to seize babies from their families.

Glavish said the inquiry, which spoke to about 1,000 families, showed last year’s documentary about the attempt to take a child into custody was not an isolated case. It included claims that women’s babies were taken into custody over cleanliness of their homes, their past records even though they had changed their behaviour, and the gang affiliations of former partners. It also accused the agency of not allowing extended Maori families to care for children – an established cultural practice – when relatives thought that was the best option. ...

Glavish added that five Maori leaders would meet Ardern and other ministers to discuss the issue next week. Along with other Maori leaders and groups, she urged the prime minister to dismantle Oranga Tamariki in its entirety and allow Maori communities to develop their own solutions to care for children. That goal has always been at odds with the views of Ardern and her government, who believe there will always be cases where a state child services agency is necessary. The prime minister told TVNZ on Monday that she accepted there was more work to do on the agency but that progress had been made.

$15bn a year: YouTube reveals its ad revenues for the first time

Google’s YouTube advertising revenues topped $1bn a month in 2019, the company announced on Monday, the first time it has revealed how much money the streaming service brings in.

But the news was not enough to satisfy investors who sold off shares in Alphabet, Google’s parent company, when it announced revenues for the last quarter that were below expectations. Shares fell 4% after the markets closed. ...

In his first quarterly earnings release as head of Alphabet, Sundar Pichai revealed YouTube had revenues of $15.15bn in revenue in 2019, with $4.72bn in the fourth quarter alone. The figures do not include YouTube’s non-advertising revenue, like subscriptions for YouTube TV, which are included in Google’s other revenue segment.

"Digital Inquisition"- Twitter restricts account of popular Venezuelan citizen journalist

Trump impeachment trial: Democrats warn Trump 'will do it again' if acquitted

Warning that “history will not be kind to Donald Trump,” the Democratic representative Adam Schiff mounted an impassioned closing argument in the Senate impeachment trial on Monday, urging the chamber to hold the president to account.

The House impeachment managers, who are prosecuting Trump, pleaded with Senate Republicansto find Trump guilty of the charges in the two articles of impeachment: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

“History will not be kind to Donald Trump,” Schiff said. “I think we all know that. And if you find that the House has proved his case and still vote to acquit, your name will be tied to his with a cord of steel for all of history.”

Schiff blasted Trump in personal terms, warning that Trump had tried to cheat in the 2020 election and will keep trying if acquitted.

“He has not changed. He will not change,” said Schiff. “A man without character or ethical compass will never find his way. He has done it before and he will do it again. What are the odds if he is left in office that he will continue to try to cheat? I will tell you: 100%.

“He will continue to try to cheat in the election until he succeeds. Then what shall you say?”

Sen. Joni Ernst Warns GOP Could Weaponize Impeachment 'Immediately' If Democrat Wins White House

Republican Sen. Joni Ernst warned Sunday that the GOP could swiftly move to weaponize the impeachment process if a Democrat wins the presidency in 2020, proclaiming "this door of impeachable whatever has been opened."

Specifically invoking former Vice President Joe Biden, Ernst told Bloomberg News in an interview that "we can have a situation where if it should ever be President Biden, that immediately, people, right the day after he would be elected would be saying, 'Well, we're going to impeach him.'"

The Iowa Republican, who has said she plans to vote to acquit President Donald Trump this week, claimed Biden could be impeached "for being assigned to take on Ukrainian corruption yet turning a blind eye to Burisma because his son [Hunter Biden] was on the board making over a million dollars a year."

House Oversight Committee to DeVos: Skip Stumping for Trump and Show Up for Testimomy—or Face Subpoena

House Oversight Committee Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney on Monday accused Education Secretary Betsy DeVos of abdicating her duty to testify before Congress, saying DeVos has "stonewalled" in response to the committee's repeated requests for her to provide testimony all while making plans to hit the campaign trail for President Donald Trump's 2020 reelection bid.

"If you will not agree to testify voluntarily, the committee will have no choice but to consider issuing a subpoena to compel your appearance," Maloney (D-N.Y.) wrote in her letter to DeVos.

Maloney pointed to her Dec. 23, 2019 letter to DeVos asking the Education secretary to testify Jan. 29, 2020 with regards to "critical" matters including "oversight of federal student loans, policies on campus sexual harassment and assault, protections for students at for-profit colleges, the independence of the Department's Inspector General, compliance with collective bargaining requirements, and other matters."

Responses to that letter and follow-up attempts to confirm DeVos's testimony were "wholly inadequate," wrote Maloney.

The Education Department refused "for weeks to confirm your attendance or to provide any other possible dates that you would appear," Maloney wrote.

“Unfortunately, it now appears that rather than agreeing to testify before Congress—which is your obligation as a public servant of the American taxpayers—you made plans to appear at multiple political events for President Trump's re-election campaign," she said.

"Instead of testifying before Congress, you are now apparently going to Iowa to campaign on behalf of President Trump today and then to Pennsylvania for another campaign event for him on Wednesday," Maloney added.

The new letter calls for a new date for testimony March 3, and asks Devos to confirm her appearance by Feb 7 or "the committee will need to consider compulsory process to obtain your testimony."

Keiser Report: Bad news is the best possible news

Why is LA's cannabis industry devastating black entrepreneurs?

A Los Angeles government program set up to provide cannabis licenses to people harmed by the war on drugs has been plagued by delays, scandal and bureaucratic blunders, costing some intended beneficiaries hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses. Black entrepreneurs and activists across LA told the Guardian that the city’s embattled “social equity” program has left aspiring business owners on an indefinite waiting list, causing potentially irreparable damage to their families’ finances and preventing them from opening marijuana shops they have been planning for years.

Fewer than 20 of the 100 businesses on track to receive a license through the program appear to be black-owned, according to estimates from advocates, who say the community most disproportionately targeted by marijuana arrests is again facing discrimination. And even some of those applicants now face precarious futures.

Meanwhile, the existing LA industry is thriving – with many white business owners at the helm.

“How do you get to come and make millions of dollars off of our misery?” said Lanaisha Edwards, a south LA native who had applied for a cannabis license through the program. “The war on drugs destroyed so many families. We should at least get to come out on the other end and create some wealth out of it. But it’s not gonna happen the way this is going.”

Formally launched in 2018, LA’s social equity program received national attention and praise from activists as a potential model for the rest of the nation as more states move to legalize cannabis. The city aimed to right some of the wrongs of criminalization by giving new retail licenses to people from communities historically harmed by marijuana laws, and by eliminating some of the traditional barriers in opening small businesses. Residents would be eligible if they were low-income and had cannabis arrests or convictions on their records, or lived in LA neighborhoods that were disproportionately targeted by the policing of pot.

“This was supposed to be our reparations,” said Rabin Woods, 57, who was arrested in 1983 for a marijuana offense and is now struggling to open a dispensary in LA.

"Don't Look Away": Cages Across Des Moines Remind Iowa Caucus-Goers of Trump's Mass Detention of Migrant Kids

An immigrant rights advocacy group on Monday installed chain-link cages at a dozen locations throughout Des Moines, Iowa with the goal of ensuring that Democratic voters are greeted with a reminder of President Donald Trump's mass detention of migrant children—and the enormous stakes of the 2020 elections.

Each cage set up by RAICES, a non-profit immigrant advocacy organization, contains doll children covered by the same mylar blankets used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detention facilities across the nation. The cages also play on a loop an actual audio recording from 2018 of migrant children sobbing after being separated from their parents by the Trump administration.

"The horrors at our border and throughout our immigration system are too often ignored by the public and politicians," Erika Andiola, chief advocacy officer for RAICES, said in a statement. "We're asking people in Iowa and across the country: Don't look away from the terrors enacted in your name. Don't look away from the kids in cages, the asylum-seekers turned back at our border, the deportation raids destroying communities across the country."

"This anti-immigrant crackdown has to end," said Andiola.

The Associated Press reported last November that the United States held a record 69,550 migrant children in detention in 2019. RAICES wrote in a series of tweets Monday morning that the crisis of children being locked in cages "cannot be pushed under the rug."

As a Prosecutor, Amy Klobuchar Went After Somali Users of Khat, an Herbal Stimulant

Some two decades ago Minnesota’s Hennepin County attorney, now-Sen. Amy Klobuchar, prosecuted the possession of khat, an herbal stimulant grown in Northeast Africa and the Arabian peninsula. It is used widely in social gatherings as an equivalent to drinking coffee or tea, and has also been used as an Indigenous tribal medicine. Though khat is an illegal narcotic in the U.S., with its most active chemical prohibited by the Drug Enforcement Administration alongside heroin and LSD, there’s a widespread understanding among communities using khat socially, criminal justice reform advocates, and scholars that its potential harms are similar to those of chewing tobacco.

At a time when khat-related prosecutions were rare, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported in 1999 that as county prosecutor, Klobuchar defended charging people for using it “despite the cultural usage of khat and its legal status in the offenders’ native country.” An attorney for six Somali defendants she prosecuted said it made little sense for law enforcement to expend resources on a drug that has effects similar to that of “a Scandinavian cup of coffee.” ...

Klobuchar, who is now running for president, was Hennepin County’s top prosecutor from 1999 to 2006, the year she was elected to the U.S. Senate. She has faced criticisms on the campaign trail for aggressively pursuing drug prosecutions that disproportionately impact black and brown communities, and for declining to prosecute a number of controversial police shootings. In 2002, for example, Klobuchar declined to prosecute six police officers who shot a mentally ill Somali man who was walking down the street, wielding a machete and a crowbar. More recently, the senator has been accused by former staffers of physical and emotional abuse. ...

The AP report led to prominent Minnesota activists, including the Twin Cities Black Lives Matter chapter, the Minneapolis NAACP, and Communities United Against Police Brutality, calling on the senator to drop out of the presidential race.

Chaos in Iowa: Caucus Results Delayed, But Bernie Sanders’ Internal Data Shows He May Have Won

Pork Plant Workers Turn Out for Sanders in First Caucus in Iowa

The first caucus in Iowa was held at noon at a union hall in Ottumwa, about an hour and a half from Des Moines, where meatpackers and other workers unable to vote in the evening’s official caucuses were given the chance to cast ballots at a satellite caucus.

Just over a dozen workers gathered at the headquarters of the local United Food and Commercial Workers, with 14 casting their votes for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. One attendee cast their vote for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Satellite caucuses will continue to be held at union halls, senior centers, and universities throughout the afternoon, leading up to the regularly scheduled caucuses on Monday evening at 7 p.m. central time.

The caucus in Ottumwa, population 24,550, on the banks of the Des Moines River, will net Sanders four delegates for their congressional district, according to caucus chair Frank Flanders, the political director for the UFCW Local 230. The Warren supporter said she would not realign, meaning that her vote effectively won’t count toward anything.

The turnout for Sanders among union members reflects the campaign’s strategy of mobilizing nontraditional voters. Many of the Ottumwa meatpackers are immigrants, largely of Ethiopian origin or descent — not the corn-fed farmers typically associated in the popular imagination with the Iowa caucuses.

Iowa Democrats delay results: "It looks very bad"

'My Word Stands': Sanders Co-Chair Nina Turner Offends MSNBC Pundits by Calling Billionaire Bloomberg an 'Oligarch'

Nina Turner, a national co-chair of the Bernie Sanders campaign, left an MSNBC panel in shock Monday evening after she referred to billionaire Mike Bloomberg as an "oligarch" who bought his way into the presidential race.

"We should be ashamed of that, as Americans, as people that believe in democracy, that the oligarchs—if you have more money, you can buy your way," said Turner.

Turner referred specifically to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) opening the door for the billionaire financier and media mogul to participate in upcoming debates. The allowance for the former mayor of New York City was not one afforded to Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) or to former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, as Turner pointed out when pressed on her language by MSNBC's Chris Matthews.

"He is" an oligarch, said Turner. "He skipped Iowa. Iowans should be insulted. Buying his way into this race, period. The DNC changed the rules. They didn't change it for Senator Harris. They wouldn't change it for Senator Booker. They didn't change it for Secretary Castro."

Lmao I clipped this too early. Jason Johnson manages to sound even more idiotic during another part of his MSNBC appearance tonight. https://t.co/bmmnmZpTH6

— Lee Fang (@lhfang) February 4, 2020

"Not sure why this is even a discussion but by any reasonable historical or comparative standard Michael Bloomberg is literally the definition of an oligarch," tweeted historian Patrick Wyman.

Intercept editor Glenn Greenwald, quoting Wyman, explained why the term was under discussion: American exceptionalism and centrist fears of a rising Sanders.

It’s under discussion for 2 reasons:

1) Americans have long been trained to believe only the Bad Countries, not the US, has “oligarchs” (and thus it’s been taboo to say it in US media);

2) Bernie haters may have to rely on Bloomberg, so don’t want that label applied to him: https://t.co/OhWMDPcDa9

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 4, 2020

Turner's response provoked outrage and upset from MSNBC contributor and The Root editor Jason Johnson, who took issue with Turner's assertion that Bloomberg, who has spent $250 million of his own money on his campaign and whose exception to the debate rules came just months after donating $325,000 to the DNC, was an oligarch.

“BERNIE WILL NOT BE PRESIDENT!” Says Chris Matthews

Despite Impeachment and Family Being Targeted, Joe Biden Still Believes He Can Work With Republicans

Despite Republican senators marching in lockstep to protect President Donald Trump from impeachment over a scheme to withhold military aid from Ukraine to pressure the country into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden in order to damage Biden politically, the Democratic presidential hopeful on Monday claimed that if elected he would be able to work with the GOP.

"It hasn't shaken my faith in being able to work with at least somewhere between seven and 15 of the Republicans who are there" in the Senate, Biden told NBC News reporter Savannah Guthrie.

Biden did not say which senators he was referring to. ...

As Common Dreams reported, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said in an interview Sunday that the GOP could act to impeach a Democratic president—specifically Biden—immediately. 

"Joe Biden should be very careful what he's asking for," said Ernst, "because, you know, we can have a situation where if it should ever be President Biden, that immediately, people, right the day after he would be elected would be saying, 'Well, we're going to impeach him.'"

Cenk Uygur: If Pete's lying, he's the 'world's biggest cheese ball'

Sea level rise accelerating along US coastline, scientists warn

The pace of sea level rise accelerated at nearly all measurement stations along the US coastline in 2019, with scientists warning some of the bleakest scenarios for inundation and flooding are steadily becoming more likely. Of 32 tide-gauge stations in locations along the vast US coastline, 25 showed a clear acceleration in sea level rise last year, according to researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (Vims).

The selected measurements are from coastal locations spanning from Maine to Alaska. About 40% of the US population lives in or near coastal areas. The gathering speed of sea level rise is evident even within the space of a year, with water levels at the 25 sites rising at a faster rate in 2019 than in 2018.

The highest rate of sea level rise was recorded along the Gulf of Mexico shoreline, with Grand Isle, Louisiana, experiencing a 7.93mm annual increase, more than double the global average. The Texas locations of Galveston and Rockport had the next largest sea level rise increases. Generally speaking, the sea level is rising faster on the US east and Gulf coasts compared with the US west coast, partially because land on the eastern seaboard is gradually sinking.

Researchers at Vims said that the current speed-up in sea level rise started around 2013 or 2014 and is probably caused by ocean dynamics and ice sheet loss. Worldwide, sea level rise is being driven by the melting of large glaciers and the thermal expansion of ocean water due to human-induced global heating.

Japanese Officials Do PR for Plan to Dump Fukushima Water Into Ocean

As cleanup of the 2011 Fukushima disaster continues, the Japanese government made its case to embassy officials from 23 countries Monday that dumping contaminated water from the nuclear power plant into the ocean is the best course of action.

According to Kyodo News, officials from the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry claimed releasing the water and evaporating it are both "feasible methods" but said the former could be done "with certainty" because radiation levels could be monitored.

There's more than one million tons of contaminated water already stored at the plant, with 170 tons more added each day. Utility TEPCO says there will be no more capacity for tanks holding contaminated water by 2022.

As Agence France-Presse reported, "The radioactive water comes from several different sources—including water used for cooling at the plant, and groundwater and rain that seeps into the plant daily—and is put through an extensive filtration process."

That process still leaves tritium in the water and "has been found to leave small amounts of other radioactive materials," Kyodo added.

The session for embassy officials followed Friday's recommendation by a Japanese government panel that releasing the water into the ocean was the most feasible plan. As Reuters reported Friday:

The panel under the industry ministry came to the conclusion after narrowing the choice to either releasing the contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean or letting it evaporate—and opted for the former. Based on past practice it is likely the government will accept the recommendation.

Local fishermen oppose the plan and Reuters noted it is "likely to alarm neighboring countries."

They're not alone.

Nuclear policy expert Paul Dorfman said Saturday, "Releasing Fukushima radioactive water into ocean is an appalling act of industrial vandalism."

Greenpeace opposes the plan as well.

Shaun Burnie, a senior nuclear specialist the group's German office, has previously called on Japanese authorities to "commit to the only environmentally acceptable option for managing this water crisis, which is long-term storage and processing to remove radioactivity, including tritium."

The ‘forever chemicals’ fueling a public health crisis in drinking water

Throughout 2019 and now in 2020, the staggering scope of the new American health crisis has come sharply into focus. About 700 PFAS-contaminated sites have been identified nationwide, while more than 110 million people may now be drinking contaminated water. More recent testing found high PFAS levels in drinking water in 34 major US cities. Some researchers say nearly every source of surface water in the country is contaminated.

Recent tests revealed dangerous levels in rain, a range of foods and sewage sludge that farmers spread on cropland as fertilizer. It is estimated that PFAS are in 99% of Americans’ blood, and the chemicals have been found in Arctic animals. In short, “it’s nearly impossible to escape contamination”, said David Andrews, senior scientist for the Environmental Working Group.

“The more you try to study it, the more you try to understand how widespread this contamination is, the more you realize how the entire globe and all of our drinking water and food systems are contaminated,” he said.

PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a class of about 5,000 fluorinated compounds whose nickname as “forever chemicals” comes because they don’t naturally break down and there is no known way to destroy them. The ubiquitous compounds are used to make products water- and stain-resistant, and are commonly found in Teflon, Scotchgard, waterproof rain gear, dental floss, eyeliner, food packaging, carpeting, firefighting foam and a wide range of textiles. The chemicals are particularly dangerous because they are water soluble and easily move through the environment. Landfills, military bases and industrial sites frequently contaminate soil from which the chemicals move into groundwater and aquifers, then pollute nearby wells or municipal drinking sources. ...

Still, PFAS production continues unabated. Those calling for a ban charge that the Trump administration is putting chemical companies’ financial interests first – Chemours, DuPont’s PFAS arm, recorded $6.6bn in revenues last year. Donald Trump has threatened to veto the PFAS Action Act, which the House passed with bipartisan support in January. Among other provisions, the act would require the EPA to limit two types of PFAS discharges in drinking water and emissions, place a five-year moratorium on new PFAS production and authorize hundreds of millions of dollars for clean-up.

Second monarch butterfly sanctuary worker found dead in Mexico

A second worker at Mexico’s famed monarch butterfly sanctuary has been found murdered, sparking concerns that the defenders of one of Mexico’s most emblematic species are being slain with impunity.

The body of Raúl Hernández Romero, a part-time tour guide, was found on Saturday, showing injuries possibly inflicted by a sharp object, according to prosecutors in the western state of Michoacán.

Hernández had been reported missing on 27 January in the town of Angangueo, in the heart of the federally protected Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, a Unesco world heritage site some 180km west of Mexico City.

His death came just days after the body of Homero Gómez González, who managed the El Rosario monarch butterfly reserve, was discovered floating in a well with a head wound. Gómez Gonzalez had been reported missing two weeks earlier.

Also of Interest

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

New Details Show How Deeply Iowa Caucus App Developer Was Embedded in Democratic Establishment

Chris Hedges - America: Land of Make-Believe

Amy Klobuchar, endorsed by New York Times, denounced for railroading black teenager to prison for life

Trump’s Weakness for Power

How Trump's Middle East plan would violate international law

Putin In Israel

Turkey Kills Scores of Syrian Troops in Heavy Fighting in Idlib

Aaron Maté: Democrats Need to Break Their Cold War–Addled Impeachment Fever

HuffPost UK editor works with gov’t censorship program while smearing anti-war scholars as tools of Russia

Amazon tracked my last two years of reading

Shakira and JLo Sent Trump Some Not-so-Subtle Messages in Their Super Bowl Show

The judge whose bail requirements leave cash-strapped defendants in jail

In Michigan, Where Pot Is Legal, Will Gov. Gretchen Whitmer Take Up Case of Man Serving Decades for a Weed Offense?

News Flash: Billionaires Don’t Like Socialism

‘Uninsurable and Unhedgeable’: Central Banks Warn of Financial Crisis from Climate Change

Divestment Fever Spreads as 'Eco Radicals at Goldman Sachs' Downgrade Exxon Stock to 'Sell' Status

Only Assholes Bitch About Sanders Supporters Being Rude Online

Jimmy Dore: Sure Sign Bernie Won Iowa Caucus

Krystal and Saagar's takeaways from Iowa Caucus disaster

Steyer Senior Press Secretary: How Steyer is breaking through Biden's firewall

Warren Surrogate Adam Green: Pete is just a spoiler at this point

Saagar Enjeti: Media, Dems rob winner of the Iowa Caucus

Michael Brooks: The path forward for Bernie

Rising: Is it over for Biden?

Nina Turner calls Bloomberg an oligarch, MSNBC melts down

BERNIE SANDERS responds to PETE BUTTIGIEG declaring victory in Iowa Caucus

A Little Night Music

Walter Vinson - Rosa Lee Blues

Walter Vinson - Can't Get a Word in Edgeways

Mississippi Sheiks - Kitty Cat Blues

Mississippi Sheiks - Bed Spring Poker

Walter Vinson - Rats Been On My Cheese

Walter Vinson - Mississippi Low Down

Walter Vinson - How Did It Happen

Mississippi Sheiks - She's Crazy About Her Lovin'

Walter Vinson - The Wrong Man

The New Mississippi Sheiks - I'll Be Glad When You're Dead