Whatever you think happened that awful day, the conduct by this skinflint Congre$$ is beyond shameful:
"Jon Stewart tears into Congress over 9/11 victims fund" by Marisa Iati Washington Post, June 11, 2019
WASHINGTON — Comedian Jon Stewart took members of Congress to task on Tuesday, blasting the House Judiciary Committee for its low attendance at a hearing to discuss reauthorizing the Sept. 11th Victim Compensation Fund.
Congress created the fund after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to help anyone injured or sickened in the attacks or in the response process.
‘‘As I sit here today, I can’t help but think what an incredible metaphor this room is for the entire process that getting health care and benefits for 9/11 first responders has come to,’’ Stewart told a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee. ‘‘Behind me, a filled room of 9/11 first responders, and in front of me, a nearly empty Congress.’’
The firefighters, police officers, and others came to the hearing despite illness and injuries, Stewart said, but some members of the committee chose not to show up. The first responders attended the hearing to advocate for the financial compensation they are due, Stewart said.
‘‘I’m sorry if I sound angry and undiplomatic,’’ said Stewart, the former host of ‘‘The Daily Show’’ on Comedy Central. ‘‘But I’m angry, and you should be, too.’’
I have been for 12 years now, and welcome aboard.
He berated the lawmakers for what he called their ‘‘callous indifference’’ and ‘‘rank hypocrisy,” campaigning on first responders’ issues and commending their heroism, yet not acting in Congress to support them.
‘‘There is not a person here — there is not an empty chair on that stage that didn’t tweet out, ‘never forget the heroes of 9/11; never forget their bravery; never forget what they did, what they gave to this country,’’’ Stewart said, then motioned to the crowd of first responders behind him. ‘‘Well, here they are.’’
He has a point there. Politicians demagogically wave people around like props to further their careers, and then forget them once they become ensconced in the office in favor of corporate and foreign lobbyists and interests.
The fund was most recently reactivated in 2015 as part of the reauthorization of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which provides health care and financial assistance to first responders, volunteers, and survivors. The Victim Compensation Fund was supposed to allow people to submit claims until Dec. 18, 2020, but the fund’s leadership said in February it would reduce awards because of ‘‘funding insufficiency.’’
That's when I fell off the beam, and they sure seem to have enough money to feed the war machine (is that where the Congre$$critters were instead?).
Stewart has been advocating for the Victim Compensation Fund since at least 2010, when he devoted nine minutes of ‘‘The Daily Show’’ to criticizing members of Congress who opposed the Zadroga Act. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters at the time that Stewart’s activism may have caused ‘‘a breakthrough’’ on the issue.
Stewart did not speak from a written statement, like many who appear in front of committees tend to do. At times, the former late-night host raised his voice. He came close to crying. He begged the committee to take their issues seriously.
‘‘They responded in five seconds — they did their jobs. With courage, grace, tenacity, humility,’’ Stewart said, tearing up and dropping his pen onto the desk. ‘‘Eighteen years later, do yours.’’
The first responders behind him rose to their feet, erupting into sustained applause as some lawmakers clapped slowly from their seats.
Representative Steve Cohen, a Tennessee Democrat and the chairman of the subcommittee, pushed back against Stewart’s criticisms to defend Congress as ‘‘the bulwark of democracy’’ and added that other committee meetings take place at the same time.
There he goes, waving the flag in your face, as he spouts platitudes and pablum about "democracy" -- which is becoming more and more a hollow buzzword and war cry to advance interests that are antithetical to the very notion.
‘‘Some members are in their offices visiting with constituents, or they may be watching on television, because this is broadcast. . . . Our attendance was pretty good,’’ Cohen said. ‘‘All these empty chairs, that’s because it’s for the full committee. It’s not because of disrespect or lack of attention to you.’’
Those are the lamest excuses I've ever seen, and enough to make one sick.
As for those "con$tituents" they are meeting with.....
Jimmy Kimmel, a popular comedian and host of ABC’s ‘‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’’, weighed in on Twitter: ‘‘thank you Jon Stewart, for making sure ‘‘never forget’’ isn’t just a nice-sounding slogan.’’
The 9/11 terrorist attacks have always been personal for Stewart, who said in 2001 that he could see the World Trade Center from his apartment in Lower Manhattan. Nine days after the attacks killed nearly 3,000 people, Stewart appeared behind his wooden desk on ‘‘The Daily Show,’’ stumbling at first to shirk the awkwardness that comes naturally with a late-night comedy show in the wake of the nation’s most unfathomable tragedy. ‘‘Tonight’s show is obviously not a regular show,’’ he said.
The implication is that he's not rational in his criticism, and that is coming from a pre$$ that has helped to cover-up and conceal whatever happened down there while pushing the government narrative and official story nonsense that defies the immutable laws of physics.
Then came an unforgettable monologue.
‘‘Any fool can blow something up. Any fool can destroy. But to see these guys, these firefighters, these policemen, and people from all over the country, literally, with buckets rebuilding . . . that is . . . that’s extraordinary. And that’s why we’ve already won,’’ he said, his voice cracking. ‘‘It’s light. It’s democracy. We’ve already won. They can’t shut that down.’’
No, only Russian meddling (ha-ha) can do that!
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Related:
"Hyannis Fire Captain Tom Kenney, who saved lives and taught others how to do so, too, dies at 65" By Bryan Marquard Globe Staff, June 9, 2019
Of all the frightening places Hyannis Fire Captain Tom Kenney bravely strode into during his storied career as a paramedic and firefighter, nothing compared to the crater at Ground Zero in New York City, where he arrived just hours after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
“They should have told us, ‘Hey, you’re going to the end of the world,’ because that’s what it looked like when we got there, and nobody was prepared for that,” he would say later for a documentary directed by his brother John.
That’s saying something, because to those who knew him, Mr. Kenney seemed prepared for anything. With a paramedic partner, he had once even saved the life of a man whose head was pierced, through and through, by a crowbar in a car accident.
On Wednesday, Mr. Kennedy died in his Hyannis home of pancreatic cancer, less than eight months after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 65 for the community’s Fire Department. He had been diagnosed with the cancer in January.
“My dad, he was the best,” said his daughter Meaghann Kenney. “He was my hero, and then after 9/11, he became everyone else’s hero, too.”
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Well, you can chalk up another death to that toxic dust pile that was demolished on that fateful September morning.
"The pilot killed Monday when his helicopter slammed into the roof of a New York City skyscraper was not authorized to fly in limited visibility, according to his pilot certification, raising questions about why he took off in fog and steady rain. It briefly triggered memories of 9/11 and fears of a terrorist attack, but authorities said there is no indication the crash was deliberate....."
So don't concern yourself with it.
Incredibly, located just below the Stewart article on page A2 of the Globe was this:
"Former Bush, Reagan EPA heads warn on Trump rollbacks" by Ellen Knickmeyer Associated Press, June 11, 2019
WASHINGTON — Environmental Protection Agency heads under three previous Republican presidents joined their Democratic counterparts Tuesday in telling lawmakers they were concerned by the Trump administration’s rapid rollbacks of environmental protections.
‘‘The EPA on the track it’s on . . . is endangering public health,’’ Christine Todd Whitman, EPA administrator under George W. Bush, told the House Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittee. Whitman said she was ‘‘deeply concerned that five decades of environmental progress are at risk because of the attitudes and approach of this administration.’’
When I read the name my first reaction was OMG!
Christine Todd Whitman is the one who told everyone in New York that the air was safe to breath (never forget, right?) and to just wipe everything down as that toxic stew was still smoldering and making first responders and city residents sick, and don't worry, she won't be held responsible for the lies (that is why Hellerstein is there, to cover up any court cases that could lead to further information or investigation and the truth coming out). She is in that cla$$ of people that are above the law in AmeriKa.
Turns out Whitman is also a supporter of nuclear power (talk about endangering public health!) and a Never-Trumper.
Lee Thomas, and William K. Reilly, EPA chiefs under Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, respectively, also spoke, as did Obama-era EPA leader Gina McCarthy, who is a professor at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The unusual testimony came after seven of the 10 surviving, Senate-confirmed heads of the 49-year-old EPA signed a letter urging lawmakers to make the EPA focus on its mission of protecting public health and the environment.
Yeah, sure it is.
That's why they withhold what chemicals are in so many products you buy, and they don't even care about what is in the water and food.
More like their mi$$ion is to run interference for corporate conglomerates.
‘‘I’ve never seen a situation where three Republicans and one Democrat come in and sound the alarm the way they have today,’’ subcommittee chairwoman Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat, said after the hearing.
Much of the criticisms from the former EPA heads focused on perceptions that the Trump administration was focusing on economic and financial interests, sidelining or rejecting science, and minimizing environmental and health effects in moving to ease dozens of regulations.
They were doing the same thing when all these $cum were running the agencies, indu$try executives appointed to regulate their own, meaning this is nothing more than pure political bull$hit.
Republicans on the subcommittee said the EPA under past presidents had grown uncommunicative or adversarial with businesses and ordinary people.....
Oh, they were able to attend this hearing, huh?
Couldn't walk down the hall to where the first responders were?
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This last article is an in-your-face laugher because THEY KNOW:
"Brayton Point cooling towers implode in Somerset"by Laura Crimaldi Globe Staff, April 27, 2019
FALL RIVER — The most prominent vestige of what was once the largest coal-fired power plant in New England crumbled Saturday morning as thousands of spectators cheered the collapse of two 500-foot cooling towers.
A controlled implosion of the concrete towers at the former Brayton Point Power Station in Somerset began just before 8 a.m. and was complete within seconds, sending a plume of smoke toward the Braga Bridge.
The rumble of the towers crashing to the ground could be heard throughout Mount Hope Bay. Crowds watched the spectacle at waterfront restaurants, parks, and aboard the USS Massachusetts at Battleship Cove in Fall River.
In the moments before the 2,000 pounds of dynamite did its work, onlookers trained camera phones on the towers to capture the event. Conditions were windy and temperatures hovered in the 40s. Some people wrapped themselves in blankets. The towers’ demise did not disappoint.
“It was great,” said Ricardo Serrano, who videotaped the implosion from Kennedy Park in Fall River. “I never thought it was going to be so fast.”
Steve Collins, executive vice president of Commercial Development Company, Inc., the St. Louis, Mo., business redeveloping Brayton Point, said he was thrilled with the outcome.
About 50 to 60 feet of concrete on one tower survived the blast and will be demolished later, he said.
“Overall we feel really good about how it went,” said Collins, who watched the implosion from a ferry in the bay.
Somerset police and fire officials said the implosions unfolded as planned.....
As they did on 9/11, and WTC7 is a good place to start.
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I'm going to close this post by noting that, unlike the JFK, RFK, and MLK assassinations, Congre$$ has failed to follow up on all the anomalies of that awful day and investigate despite the magic bullet of free-falling towers caused by jet fuel fires.
Now why would that be (it's the 800-pound gorilla in the room)?
Just trying to ascertain who did 9/11, folks.
UPDATES:
"The goodbye will be short and sweet. Ten seconds to be exact. That’s how long it’s expected to take for a pair of 500-foot concrete cooling towers to implode Saturday morning. The event planned for 8 a.m. is expected to draw thousands of spectators and set a new world record, giving Brayton Point the distinction of being the tallest cooling towers ever imploded. Restaurants with views of the towers are hosting brunches with implosion-themed dishes and cocktails like the “New View Mimosa” and the “Towering Bloody Mary.” In nearby Fall River, SALT Fitness Company, a gym, and The Herald News, the city’s newspaper, are hosting implosion parties, according to their Facebook pages....."
It was like the “Fourth of July.”
I'm sure EPA will make sure they clean up the mess:
"EPA declines to make GE restart Hudson dredging, for now" by Michael Hill Associated Press, April 11, 2019
The Environmental Protection Agency declined for now to make General Electric restart dredging in the Hudson River, triggering a wave of condemnation Thursday from New York officials and environmentalists who say contaminant levels from its industrial pollution remain too high.
The EPA issued a certificate to Boston-based GE saying that it has completed its remedial action under the federal Superfund program. Critics of the cleanup wanted the EPA to withhold the certificate and to demand further dredging. EPA regional administrator Peter Lopez said more time and testing are needed to fully assess the $1.7 billion cleanup that GE has done, and he stressed that the company can still be compelled in the coming decades to do more work, including additional dredging.
“GE is not off the hook,” Lopez told reporters during a conference call. “If new information comes in that causes EPA to conclude that more work is needed to protect public health and the environment, we can and will require GE to take that action.”
Governor Andrew Cuomo and state Attorney General Letitia James, both Democrats, promptly announced they intend to sue the EPA over its decision. They claim levels of the contaminating polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, remain unacceptably high in the river sediment and in fish. Scenic Hudson and Riverkeeper, two environmental groups lobbying for additional dredging, said they would support litigation.
‘‘Since the EPA has failed to hold GE accountable for fulfilling its obligation to restore the river, New York State will take any action necessary to protect our waterways and that includes suing the EPA to demand a full and complete remediation,’’ Cuomo said. ‘‘Anything less is unacceptable.’’
Cuomo accused the Republican Trump administration of putting corporations’ interests ahead of public health and the environment. EPA officials said their decision was guided by Superfund law and science.
The EPA said in a ‘‘five-year review’’ of the river released Friday that there is not enough testing data on fish, water, and sediment yet to determine if the cleanup will succeed in its goal of protecting human health and the environment. Lopez said that will take more time and monitoring before a conclusion could be reached.
The review found some signs of progress in removing highly contaminated sediment, though it found three spots in the upper river with slightly elevated levels of PCBs.
Until the mid-1970s, GE factories discharged more than 1 million pounds of PCBs into the river. The probable carcinogen, used as coolants and lubricants in electrical equipment, was banned in 1977.
GE said the EPA’s decision confirms the success of the project, and wrote in a statement that the company will continue to collect environmental data to assess river conditions.
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Yeah, forget about the poisons under your feet and in the water, worry about the carbon in the air!
