Showing posts with label U.N.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label U.N.. Show all posts

Friday, June 18, 2021

Morning Sunrise

I'm usually up before it.....

"Israel strikes Gaza after Hamas fires incendiary balloons" by Joseph Krauss The Associated Press, June 17, 2021

Israel launched airstrikes on the Gaza Strip late Thursday for a second time since a shaky cease-fire ended last month’s 11-day war. The strikes came after activists mobilized by Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers launched incendiary balloons into Israel for a third straight day.

[That is Palestine's version of an air force]

There were no immediate reports of casualties from the strikes, which could be heard from Gaza City. Israel also carried out airstrikes early Wednesday, targeting what it is said were Hamas facilities, without killing or wounding anyone.

[How would they know?]

Surveillance camera footage obtained by The Associated Press showed what appeared to be heavy machine-gun fire into the air from Gaza, a possible attempt by Palestinian militants to shoot down aircraft. Other footage showed projectiles being fired from Gaza, but it was unclear what kind or where they landed.

[It's Israeli aggression, and yet the AP -- who had their offices taken down by Israel -- is on their knees and spins the story to make it sound like Palestine is the aggressor.

Honestly, folks, the American jew$media has become so atrocious that the sun is setting on it. I'm probably the only one left reading them.

Beyond that, there is NOT ONE PEEP from the DEMOCRATS or BIDEN regarding the NEW ISRAELI GOVERNMENT BREAKING THE CEASE FIRE!]

Tensions have remained high since a cease-fire halted the war on May 21, even as Egyptian mediators have met with Israeli and Hamas officials to try and shore up the informal truce.

Israel and Hamas have fought four wars and countless smaller skirmishes since the Islamic militant group seized power from rival Palestinians forces in 2007.

[That's a lie and the pre$$ knows it's a lie because Hamas won elections -- Hamas overwhelmingly won Palestinian Parliament elections in 2006Hamas won Palestinian parliamentary elections in early 2006, in 2006, Hamas won Palestinian legislative elections, Hamas won the last parliamentary elections in 2006, Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006, Hamas won a majority in 2006 elections, won a parliamentary election in 2006but the pre$$ keep on repeating it -- just like the Russian annexation of Crimea and incursion into Ukraine that wasn't.

So WHAT DO YOU DO when the PRE$$ CONTINUALLY LIES?]

Earlier, Israeli police used stun grenades and a water cannon spraying skunk water to disperse Palestinian protesters from Damascus Gate in east Jerusalem, the epicenter of weeks of protests and clashes in the run-up to the Gaza war.

After the crowds were dispersed, Palestinians could be seen throwing rocks and water bottles at ultra-Orthodox Jewish people walking in the area.

Calls had circulated for protesters to gather at Damascus Gate in response to a rally held there by Jewish ultranationalists on Tuesday in which dozens of Israelis had chanted “Death to Arabs” and “May your village burn.” The police had forcibly cleared the square and provided security for that rally, part of a parade to celebrate Israel’s conquest of east Jerusalem.

In a separate incident, a Palestinian teenager died Thursday after being shot by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank during a protest against a settlement outpost, the fourth demonstrator to be killed since the outpost was established last month.

The Israeli military said Wednesday that a soldier stationed near the wildcat outpost in the West Bank saw a group of Palestinians approaching, and that one “hurled a suspicious object at him, which exploded adjacent to the soldier.” The army said that the soldier fired in the air, then shot the Palestinian who threw the object.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Thursday that Ahmad Shamsa, 15, died of a gunshot wound sustained a day earlier.

Settlers established the outpost, which they refer to as Eviatar, near the northern West Bank town of Nablus last month and say it is now home to dozens of families. Palestinians say it is built on private land and fear it will grow and merge with other large settlements nearby.

Nearly 500,000 Jewish settlers live in some 130 settlements across the occupied West Bank. The Palestinians and much of the international community view the settlements as a violation of international law and a major obstacle to peace.

Israeli authorities have evacuated the outpost on several occasions. They appear reluctant to do so this time because it would embarrass Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and other right-wing members of the fragile government sworn in over the weekend.

[OMFG!

The NEW ISRAELI GOVERNMENT is WORSE THAN THE LAST ONE!!]

Palestinians from the nearby village of Beita have held several protests in which demonstrators have hurled stones and Israeli troops have fired tear gas and live ammunition. Four Palestinians have been killed since mid-May, including Shamsa and another teenager.

Palestinians and Israeli human rights groups say the soldiers often use excessive force and could have stopped some assailants without killing them. In some cases, they say that innocent people have been identified as attackers and shot.

The Palestinians seek the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority exerts limited self-rule in population centers, as part of a future state along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. Israel captured all three territories in the 1967 war and says Jerusalem is indivisible. There have been no substantive peace talks in more than a decade.

The Israeli military also shot and killed a Palestinian woman on Wednesday, saying she had tried to ram her car into a group of soldiers guarding a West Bank construction site.

In a statement, the army said soldiers fired at the woman in Hizmeh, just north of Jerusalem, after she exited the car and pulled out a knife. The statement did not say how close the woman was to the soldiers, and the army did not release any photos or video of the incident.

The family of Mai Afaneh insisted she had no reason or ability to carry out an attack.

In recent years, Israel has seen a series of shootings, stabbings, and car ramming attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians in the occupied West Bank. Most have been carried out by Palestinians with no apparent links to organized militant groups.

[Yes, it is Israel who is the perpetual victim as usual]


Related: Evening Sunset

Also see:

"The United Nations’ office in Myanmar expressed concern Thursday about escalating human rights abuses after reports that a group opposed to the junta may have executed 25 civilians it captured and allegations that troops had burned down a village. The struggle between the military regime that took power in February after ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and those opposing it has sharpened in recent months. Elements of what had initially been a nonviolent civil disobedience movement have evolved into a fledgling armed resistance force in response to harsh repression from police and soldiers who killed hundreds of peaceful protesters and bystanders. The statement by the U.N. office cited abuses by both sides, calling on “all actors in the current crisis to ensure that international human rights norms and standards are respected.” “This includes upholding the obligation to minimize collateral harm to civilians and to civilian infrastructure, and prohibiting the application of collective punishments against communities, families or individuals,” the U.N. office said....."

Israelis do that shit all the time and not a word from the JU.N., so f** them!

Also see:


Right, the Jew York Times is going to tell me what is going on in Iran.

Want to buy a bridge?

The Iranians are apparently disillusioned with the system as a whole -- just like the rest of us!

Might be harder to get that war off the ground, though:

"As wars wind down, Congress revisits presidential powers" by Jennifer Steinhauer New York Times, June 17, 2021

[It's about 20 years too late and comes after the mass-murdering war crimes in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, and Syria have resulted in MILLIONS DEAD  -- and now Congre$$ is trying to wash the blood off its hands!]

WASHINGTON — The House voted on Thursday to revoke the authorization it gave in 2002 to invade Iraq, a step that would rein in presidential war-making powers for the first time in a generation.

The bipartisan action reflected growing determination on Capitol Hill to revisit the broad authority that Congress provided to president George W. Bush following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks through measures that successive presidents have used to justify military action around the world.

The 2002 authorization was repeatedly applied well beyond its original intent, including in a campaign much later against the Islamic State group in Iraq and for the killing of the Iranian general Qasem Soleimani last year. 

The debate now moves to the Senate, which is expected to take up similar legislation as the US military completes its withdrawal from Afghanistan after nearly two decades of fighting there.

Biden said this week that he would sign the House measure, making him the first president to accept such an effort to constrain his authority to carry out military action since the war in Afghanistan began 20 years ago. Biden’s decision came on the heels of announcing a full troop withdrawal from the country.

The congressional action amounts to a rare debate over presidential war powers and the degree to which the conditions that led the House and Senate to give Bush broad authority after Sept. 11, 2001, should be left in place. Over many decades, Congress has effectively ceded much of its power to declare war to the presidency, leaving some lawmakers in both parties uneasy.

Even if the Senate joins the House in repealing the 2002 authorization, Congress would still leave in place a much broader authorization, passed three days after the Sept. 11 attacks, on approving the use of force against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Successive presidents have cited the 2001 authorization to justify operations against “associated forces,” and critics say it has given presidents excessive latitude to wage “forever wars” without further congressional approval in the Middle East and beyond.

[This is for show and a total piece of crap then.

That's what passes for "journali$m" in the pre$$ these days!]

Until now, the Senate has refused to bring up legislation to repeal the authorization of military force, and the House has done so only as an amendment to broader legislation that never went anywhere, but recent support for repeal of the 2002 authorization — once almost nonexistent in either party in the Senate — has greatly increased across the political spectrum, a product of war fatigue among lawmakers, a majority of whom were not in office in 2001 and 2002, and the veterans who fought in them.....

[We are more than tired of it, too]


Why leave when we will have to go right back in?

"An extremist group like al-Qaida may be able to regenerate in Afghanistan and pose a threat to the U.S. homeland within two years of the American military’s withdrawal from the country, the Pentagon’s top leaders said Thursday. It was the most specific public forecast of the prospects for a renewed international terrorist threat from Afghanistan since President Joe Biden announced in April that all U.S. troops would withdraw by Sept. 11. At a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., asked Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark Milley whether they rated the likelihood of a regeneration of al-Qaida or the Islamic State group in Afghanistan as small, medium or large. “I would assess it as medium,” Austin replied. “I would also say, senator, that it would take possibly two years for them to develop that capability.” Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, said he agreed. “I think that if certain other things happen — if there was a collapse of the government or the dissolution of the Afghan security forces — that risk would obviously increase, but right now I would say ‘medium’ and about two years or so,” Milley said. Their responses underscored the overall military fears about the consequences of a complete, unconditional withdrawal. Military leaders over the past few years have pushed back against administration efforts to pull out of Afghanistan by a certain date, rather than basing troop numbers on the security conditions....."

Yeah, AL-CIA-Duh might attack us again and what the hell did we really see that day?

Maybe they should stay there:

"The U.S. Embassy in Kabul went into lockdown on Thursday, citing a surge in coronavirus cases that has swamped the medical facilities that remain open to American diplomats as the U.S. military and international forces depart the country. The notice said that one person associated with the embassy had died, several had been medically evacuated and 114 people were infected and in isolation. The document said that 95 percent of the current cases were in people who were “unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated,” even though vaccines were available at the embassy. It noted that 90 percent of the Afghans and people from other countries on the embassy staff had been vaccinated. In Washington, the State Department’s spokesman, Ned Price, said the embassy could not require its employees to be vaccinated and confirmed that nearly all of the cases in this “significant outbreak” were among those who were not fully immunized. He said that Covid vaccines had been made available to the Kabul embassy workers over the last several months. Embassy operations have been adjusted as a result of the outbreak, Price said, with employees required to work from home and take all necessary precautions, including wearing masks and social distancing, as Afghanistan grapples with what he described as its third wave of coronavirus. The Afghan ministry of public health recorded more than 2,000 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, along with 101 deaths, the most in a single day since the beginning of the pandemic. Overall, 98,844 cases have been reported in the country....."

The infection spikes around the world are coming from the most heavily vaccinated places!
{@@##$$%%^^&&}

Time to get back to work:

"Many executives don’t expect business travel to return to pre-pandemic levels for several years — if ever" by Jon Chesto Globe Staff, June 17, 2021

“The world of business has changed because of COVID, and it’s never going to go back to the way it was before,” said Jeff Leiden, the Mass. Competitive Partnership’s chairman and the executive chairman at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. “We’ve learned that there are different ways to cost-effectively and efficiently do our work that don’t have to involve in-person meetings.”

Leiden said cutting back on travel will provide a better quality of life for employees, while offering companies continued cost savings.

There’s also the environmental benefit. Big publicly traded companies in particular are under pressure to reduce their carbon footprint to help slow global warming. One way to do that: put the brakes on travel.

[Per Great Re$et!

Of course, they mean for you, not for them, as the $tinking ruling cla$$ will continue to jet-set their way around the world]

State Street, for example, is among the big companies that have committed to becoming “net zero” in terms of their carbon impacts. Chief executive Ron O’Hanley said the Boston financial services company will take a number of steps to reach that goal over the next decade, but looking at ways to curb jet travel will certainly be one.

[That's right. At bottom are the BANKS who CALL the $HOTS!]

At Citizens Financial Group, chief executive Bruce Van Saun envisions travel eventually rebounding to 75 to 80 percent of pre-pandemic levels. Mike Volpe, chief executive of Boston corporate travel firm Lola.com, said his team expects to see fewer business trips when video is a good substitute.

[Did the airlines know this when they signed up for the Great Re$et, or were they out of the loop?

Look at the silver lining: less chance of a "terror attack" using planes]

Sure, some bosses are itching to hit the road, to catch up with employees and clients face-to-face after a grueling year. Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase & Co., said he fully expects to return to his pre-pandemic travel time within two years — in addition to all the obligatory Zoom calls.

“I will do just as much [travel],” Dimon said. “It’s tiring but it’s uplifting, too,” but Dimon might be in the minority. Many other CEOs don’t expect to ever spend as much time on a plane again, and they’re not complaining about it.....

[Don't worry; you will be on a no-fly list if you have gotten the "gene therapy" they call a vaccine]


Related:

"Bank of America expects all of its vaccinated employees to return to the office after Labor Day in early September, and will then focus on developing plans for returning unvaccinated workers to its sites. More than 70,000 of the firm’s employees have voluntarily disclosed their vaccine status to the bank, chief executive Brian Moynihan said in a Bloomberg Television interview Thursday. The firm, which has more than 210,000 employees globally, has already invited those who have received their shots to begin returning. Bank of America and its rivals have begun unveiling plans in recent weeks to return thousands of workers to towers in New York and elsewhere in coming months as vaccines abound across the United States. Goldman Sachs asked its New York staff to begin returning this week, marking the most ambitious plan among major Wall Street firms."

It's a minority of more than one!

"Employees are resisting calls to return to the office, but Microsoft wants companies to know it has an answer for smoothing things out while some workers remain remote. The software maker on Thursday showed off design changes to its Teams teleconference and collaboration software meant to ensure remote workers are just as involved in meetings as those seated in company conference rooms."

Yeah, you can work from home if you can afford one:

"The share of home buyers searching for a new place to live outside their metro area dipped slightly in April compared with the first quarter of 2021 but is still well above the percentage of people looking to relocate before the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report by Redfin real estate brokerage. Nationally, 30.6 percent of Redfin users searched for a home outside their metro area in April, down slightly from 31.5 percent during the first quarter of 2021 and up from 26 percent in April 2020. As has been the case for most of the pandemic, many of the most popular markets for buyers looking to leave their metro area have been in warmer climates in the South and Southwest, with Phoenix topping the list."

That's to escape the tyranny of the blue states.

Of course, the economy is booming:

"US jobless claims tick up to 412,000 from a pandemic low" by Paul Wiseman Associated Press, June 17, 2021

WASHINGTON — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week for the first time since April despite widespread evidence that the economy and the job market are rebounding steadily from the pandemic recession.

[I'm SO SICK of being LIED TO by the PRE$$!]

With vaccinations up and more consumers venturing out to spend — on restaurant meals, airline fares, movie tickets, and store purchases — the national economy is rapidly recovering from the recession. All that renewed spending has fueled customer demand and led many companies to seek new workers, often at higher wages, and avoid layoffs.

In fact, the speed of the rebound from the recession has caught many businesses off guard and touched off a scramble to hire, but many economists expect hiring to catch up with demand in the coming months. They note that the economy still has 7.6 million fewer jobs than it did before the pandemic struck, and employers are posting job openings faster than applicants can fill them.

[The LAST PLACE you will find facts is in an AmeriKan jew$papper!]

The rapid rollout of vaccines has brought the number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases down to an average of just over 12,000, from around 250,000 a day in early January.

Though jobless claims have tumbled since the start of 2021, when they exceeded 900,000, they remain high by historical standards. Before the pandemic paralyzed the economy in March 2020, unemployment applications were running at about 220,000 a week.

Many Americans are contending with health and child care issues related to COVID-19 and with career uncertainty after the recession wiped out many jobs for good. Some who have lost work during the pandemic have decided to retire. Others are taking their time looking for work because, in some cases, supplemental federal jobless benefits, on top of regular state unemployment aid, pay them more than their old jobs did.

[Too bad those in the propaganda pre$$ haven't lost their jobs for good!]

Many states, though, are set to begin dropping the supplemental federal jobless aid this month.....


Related:



Also see:

"Governor Charlie Baker on Thursday laid out his own plans for spending billions in new federal stimulus money, offering a rebuke of state lawmakers intent on gaining control over the funding bonanza from Washington. Arguing the state needs to quickly jump-start a pandemic-scarred economy, Baker proposed setting aside $2.8 billion in proceeds from the American Rescue Plan Act to dole out without needing legislative approval, including $1 billion to help ease the state’s housing crunch. Under Baker’s plan, hundreds of millions would go toward job training, water-and-sewer infrastructure, downtown business districts, and other priorities. It marks the latest twist in a tango between the second-term Republican and the Democratic-led Legislature over how to spend the state’s $5.3 billion share of the federal cash. The Legislature earlier this month sent him a bill that would divert the federal money into an account state lawmakers control, where they could spread the money over several years. Baker on Thursday rejected that and instead said he would ask lawmakers to amend it, by carving off $2.3 billion for them to divvy up, leaving the rest for him to put to work....."

The government loot that will crash our economy through inflation is a "bonanza."

The "journali$m" is so insultingly elitist it's an abomination.

{@@##$$%%^^&&}

It's also a heap of Sh!t:


"Prominent voting rights activist Stacey Abrams said Thursday that she could “absolutely” support compromises floated by Senator Joe Manchin III, the lone Senate Democrat who is not sponsoring a sweeping elections bill in the chamber. “No one has ever objected to having to prove who you are to vote,” she said. “What [Manchin] is proposing makes sense.” Though Abrams, a former gubernatorial candidate in Georgia, has no formal say in the Senate process, her support of Manchin’trs proposals could help sway liberal Democrats. Republicans have roundly rejected the voting rights bill and said Thursday that they oppose the Manchin compromise....."

She is FLAT-OUT LIAR regarding Democrats and the voting ID!

Time to read something else:


Not that.

"Officers who serve on a specialized crowd control unit in Portland, Ore., who have responded to the city’s ongoing, often violent protests have resigned en masse after criminal charges were filed against a team member. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports the officers on the Rapid Response Team voted to resign from the team during a meeting Wednesday night. The move by officers and sergeants to disband their own team came a day after a team member, Officer Cody Budworth, was indicted, accused of fourth-degree assault stemming from a baton strike against a protester last summer. A year ago, about 70 members were on the team. The resignations were first reported by radio station KXL. The team has been on the front lines at social justice protests held in the city after the May 25, 2020, murder of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck and pinned him to the pavement. Many demonstrations devolved into clashes with officers late at night and at times ended with vandalism, property damage, and fires. The crowd control team was the unit often directed to disperse crowds after police declared unlawful assemblies or riots....."

[That's when I moved on]


Who cares about the $hithole that is Bo$ton?

"A St. Louis couple who gained notoriety for waving guns at racial justice protesters last summer pleaded guilty Thursday to misdemeanor charges and agreed to give up the guns they used during the confrontation. Patricia McCloskey, 61, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor harassment and was fined $2,000. Mark McCloskey, 63, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor fourth-degree assault and was fined $750. Neither will face jail time. The couple was indicted by a grand jury in October on charges of unlawful use of a weapon and evidence tampering, both felonies, and could have gone to jail if convicted. Special prosecutor Richard Callahan opted to agree to reduced charges. On Thursday, Callahan said in a statement that he considered several factors when deciding how to resolve the case, including “the age and lack of a criminal record for the McCloskey’s, the fact they initially called the police, and the fact that no one was hurt and no shots were fired.” “The protestors on the other hand were a racially mixed and peaceful group, including women and children, who simply made a wrong turn on their way to protest in front of the mayor’s house,” Callahan continued, adding that there was no evidence that any of the protesters were armed. Video and photographs of rifle-wielding Mark McCloskey and pistol-toting Patricia McCloskey in front of their mansion on June 28 captured the attention of the country, including then-President Donald Trump, who spoke out in defense of the couple. Trump and other Republicans considered the McCloskeys law-abiding homeowners defending their property. Others saw the couple as overly aggressive toward protesters who were marching through the gated community to the home of then-Mayor Lyda Krewson amid nationwide protests after a police officer killed George Floyd in Minneapolis....."

Once again, white privilege and racism rears its ugly head as the couple has touted themselves as conservative defenders against “the liberal mob,” earning newfound celebrity status and a speaking slot at the Republican National Convention. In May, Mark McCloskey announced that he was running for U.S. Senate as a Republican, using the images from that tense faceoff with protesters in his campaign ads. In a statement Thursday, Mark McCloskey unapologetically defended his reaction to what he called “an angry mob” that “threatened” his family and home. “The prosecutor dropped all charges against me, except for a claim that I put other people in imminent fear of physical harm,” he said. “That’s exactly what I did, that’s what the guns were for, and any time the mob comes and threatens me, I’ll do the same thing again to protect my family.” St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, who charged the couple in July, was removed as the prosecutor by Circuit Judge David Mason after citing the case in campaign fundraising emails. The judge accepted the couple’s pleas Thursday, but he denied their request to donate Mark McCloskey’s rifle to raise funds, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) said he would pardon the couple if they were convicted. Parson has not received any formal request from the McCloskeys or their attorneys since they pleaded guilty, spokeswoman Kelli Jones said Thursday.

Related:


Also see:

"Rather than a single concept, critical race theory refers to an intellectual movement founded by legal scholars of color in the 1970s and 1980s. It is premised on the belief that race is a social reality, not a biological one, and that racism continues to be a pervasive part of our society despite substantial gains in civil rights over past decades. For critical race theorists, racism is not limited to isolated incidents of individual prejudice. Rather, racism is embedded in the very structure of the United States and its foundational institutions, like the law and the government. Other distinctive features of critical race theory include its recognition of the interconnectedness of various social identities, such as race, gender, sexuality, and class — and its emphasis on the lived experiences of people of color, but the “heart” of critical race theory “is to shed light on the unfair and inequitable ways that racial power has been woven into the fabric of our institutions,” said Kendall Thomas, a professor at Columbia Law School who coedited the book “Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement.”

The intent of the CRT garbage is to start a civil war, and if true, why do so many migrants want to come here?

"There could be $300 billion in annual US spending up for grabs by the Black community because corporate America still isn’t creating enough products that appeal to them. Black Americans are more unhappy with offerings in categories ranging from personal care to financial services and housing than the overall population, according to a report released Thursday by McKinsey and Co. That means Black shoppers are ripe to be poached by other brands and willing to pay as much as 20 percent more for an item that caters to them."

Honestly, I'm $ick of the whining and crying!

Related:


I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that women are still second class citizens in need of rescue:

"L Brands proposed a woman-majority board for Victoria’s Secret as a standalone company and said the plan to separate the lingerie company from Bath & Body Works remains on track for August. Donna James, managing director at Lardon & Associates, will be the chair of the stand alone company once Bath & Body Works is separated from the company. Six of seven of the board members are women, part the lingerie chain’s effort to respond to what female customers want out of the brand. Martin Waters, the chief executive officer of Victoria’s Secret, was the only man named to the board. The other board members are all independent of the company."

Epstein's buddy owned and operated the thing, and maybe you ladies should look elsewhere for clothing.

Also see:


It's a Wa$hington Compo$t eulogy.


She was an inspiration and mentor for women in politics.


She was an investment banker and film producer who worked for decades to help get women elected to office in New Jersey.

I think I will go see a movie today:

"Walt Disney Co. is moving its highly anticipated documentary about the Beatles from theaters to its streaming service, in the latest sign Hollywood is still unsure if consumers are willing to come back to cinemas in large numbers. “The Beatles: Get Back,” a behind-the-scenes peek at the band in its prime, had been scheduled to hit theaters in August. It now will appear as a three-part series on the company’s $8-a-month Disney+ streaming service at no additional charge, the company said Thursday. It was originally scheduled to come out in theaters last year. The picture was created by “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson, based on outtakes from an earlier documentary, 1970′s “Let It Be.” Theaters have had a tough time, with the pandemic scaring fans away from indoor, group experiences. Last weekend, “A Quiet Place Part II,” the horror film in its third week, outgrossed the newly released musical “In the Heights,” a sign that older audiences in particular may be reluctant to return."

On second thought, let's cancel the trip to the theater -- and Disney World, too.

Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Sticking a Toe Back in the Water

Had to let it cool down first:

"Biden wants to move energy offshore, but choppy seas are ahead" by Joshua Partlow The Washington Post, May 9, 2021

DORCHESTER, N.J. - In his three decades servicing oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, boat captain Keith Piper rode out all manner of storms and gales. Still, he had never faced the elements that tested him last winter at a wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island. Subzero temperatures. Snow. A nor’easter blowing 70 miles per hour. Coffee sloshing in the pot and his 500-ton liftboat - propped above the waves on four hydraulic legs - vibrating from the force of the wind.

Given the rock-hard bottom of the continental shelf, unlike the Gulf's forgiving sands, any mistake setting the boat legs down and the impact on board would feel like being slammed head first into concrete. "It shakes everything and breaks everything," he said.

These are the discoveries being made at the dawn of America's offshore wind industry. Up and down the East Coast, developers and government agencies are preparing for the massively complex and costly challenge of placing thousands of wind turbines taller than the Washington Monument miles out into the Atlantic. The Biden administration has set a goal that industry players call highly ambitious, if not unrealistic: to produce 30,000 megawatts of electricity from offshore wind farms by 2030, enough to power 10 million homes. Meeting this goal is one of the few available paths for President Joe Biden to reduce the country's reliance on fossil fuels and fight climate change.

The obstacles ahead are staggering. The United States is decades behind Europe and Asia in developing offshore wind. Only seven offshore turbines are running - the five in Rhode Island, plus two in Virginia - and together the projects produce just 42 megawatts of electricity. China alone installed more than 3,000 new megawatts of offshore wind energy last year, more than half the world's total.

Far larger efforts are on the horizon, though. Vineyard Wind, the first large-scale U.S. offshore wind farm, is expected to receive its final federal permit from the Interior Department within days. David Hardy, chief executive of Ørsted Offshore North America, the U.S. offshoot of the Danish energy giant that has been involved in both existing American projects and has applications pending for several more is encouraged by Biden's interest. A recent call with offshore industry leaders included four Cabinet members as well as White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy, with administration officials vowing to provide federal loans and accelerate permitting, he said. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has committed to processing the 14 pending proposals by 2025.

[It will ruin the view for no good reason. 

What happened in Texas has been all but forgotten (hmmmm), and thank God summer is almost here]

The aggressive timetable will require a massive new industry, with steep investments in new ports, boats, factories, and upgrades to electrical grids. The first U.S.-built vessel capable of installing the offshore turbines is being completed in Texas at a cost of $500 million. Until more ships are ready, projects in this country must rely on boats from Europe, an exchange complicated by the continent's own demand for wind energy and maritime trade laws here.

There are other hurdles, too, particularly intense opposition from some coastal communities and commercial fishermen. Even when that's overcome, construction can only move forward during certain months because of bad weather and the threat to migratory patterns of the North Atlantic right whale, a critically endangered species.

It all makes offshore wind farms - multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects - a still-risky proposition, according to developers and others in the industry.

"Everybody's sticking their toe in the water right now," said Piper, the boat captain who's now based in Dorchester for that very reason, "but nobody wants to stick their whole foot in yet," yet two years from now, Bill White envisions 500 workers - electricians and engineers, longshoremen and seafarers, all tiny specks next to turbine blades longer than a football field, nose cones called nacelles that are large enough to hold elevators and 3.5-million-pound steel columns known as monopiles, which get hammered deep into the seafloor.

[The globali$ts and the bankers are literally making them walk the plank]

It is White's job to make Vineyard Wind a reality, and this lot at the Marine Commerce Terminal in New Bedford, Mass., a historic whaling community, is where it will happen. The site is the first port in the country built specifically to withstand the turbine components' crushing weights. Other facilities are being developed in New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Maryland. In New Jersey, a $250 million factory will be completed in two years and begin building the monopiles that anchor wind turbines in place. Siemens Gamesa is considering a future factory in Virginia to make turbine blades.

"These will be some of the biggest construction projects our country has seen," said White, vice president of offshore wind for Avangrid Renewables, one of two companies leading Vineyard Wind. "This will be a massive mobilization."

He has long envisioned this future. A veteran of the State Department and the Clinton White House, he spent more than a decade trying to advance offshore wind energy with the state of Massachusetts and then the private sector. He lived through Cape Wind, a proposed project off the coast of Nantucket, Mass., that was defeated by lawsuits and well-funded opponents such as the Koch brothers. The first meetings to discuss the location of what would become Vineyard Wind were in 2009.

"It's been a hell of a long road," he said.

[It will be if $elf-$erving $hits like him get their way. It will be a looting if nothing el$e, and we are in the position of hoping that is all it is.

That's when the print edition sank, but the web version stayed afloat for a while]

Thousands of wind turbines are already spinning across the country, but developers see greater potential offshore because of more powerful sustained winds, the proximity to large coastal cities thirsty for electricity and the space for vast activity.

White's company is a subsidiary of the Spanish energy company Iberdrola. Its partner is Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners out of Denmark. So far, European companies dominate these early efforts to bring offshore wind to the United States. Vineyard Wind's onshore substation will be built by a Swedish company, its cables by Italian and Belgian firms. General Electric will supply the turbines.

Developing the domestic supply chain and expertise to get U.S. wind farms up and running is one of the big obstacles ahead. When Dominion Energy in Virginia launched its two-turbine pilot 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, the only boats capable of doing the installation work were in Europe. Because of the project's small scale, it took three rounds of bidding to secure the parts and vessels needed, Dominion senior vice president Mark Mitchell recalled.

Even after a wind farm goes online, much can go wrong. That was why Piper and his men headed out last October aboard the Ram XV, a vessel that resembles a giant floating platform with 175-foot vertical legs. Its wind-energy niche is drilling and cabling work, and it was dispatched to the Rhode Island wind farm to help bury transmission cables that had become exposed by shifting sands.

[PFFFFFFFFFFT]

The liftboat left the dock in Dorchester, making its way down the Maurice River, into Delaware Bay and then up the New Jersey Coast before turning east. During the four-month assignment, several major storms hit, at times forcing the crew to shelter in the Block Island harbor, Piper recalled. Temperatures plummeted to minus-10 degrees at one point, freezing the boat's water-making machine. A sewage line had to be thawed with an acetylene torch. "It was brutal," said David Morgan of Aries Marine, the oil services company that owns the boat. "Very, very difficult job. Right through the worst time of the year."

Those who oppose wind farms find many reasons to do so. The sight of them can be enough to sour a waterfront homeowner's mood, although the projects in the pipeline are slated for many miles offshore and so turbines will appear tiny, if not invisible, from land. Environmentalists, who support moving away from fossil fuels to combat climate change, are torn. They worry about risks to birds, fish and marine mammals, particularly the North Atlantic right whale.

Only about 360 of the whales remain, migrating every fall from New England to as far south as Florida. Noise from underwater construction and increased boat traffic is the most serious threat posed by the new crop of wind farms, according to Mark Baumgartner, a marine ecologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute who uses buoys and underwater gliders to monitor right whale sounds.

The Biden administration’s goals will face the determined resistance of commercial fishermen, whose trawl nets and lobster pots ply the same stretches of ocean as several of the areas designated for future wind farms. This is no small business. New Bedford, Mass., with its scallop industry, has been the most lucrative fishing port in the country for the past two decades, taking in more than $430 million in 2018.

Wind farm developers have been negotiating extensively with fishermen, with Ørsted taking hundreds of meetings with them "to understand their concerns and try to adapt to work with their needs," Hardy said.

Vineyard Wind's developers have agreed to pay $37.7 million to commercial fishermen in Massachusetts and Rhode Island to compensate them for future losses. They also reduced the size of the project by 60 percent and agreed to place turbines one nautical mile apart.

"This is an unknown to them," White said of the fishermen, "and we've had them at the table, but there's still a lot of uncertainty."

[So go whichever way the wind blows?]


I'm told it’s crunch time and Biden’s climate gambit (a device, action, or opening remark, typically one entailing a degree of risk, that is calculated to gain an advantage, typically associated with chess where a player makes a sacrifice, typically of a pawn, for the sake of some compensating advantage) faces steep hurdles despite it allegedly being a broadly popular idea without any details.


Amazing how that unprecedented disaster under the Obama/Biden regime has sunk to the bottom of the pre$$ sea of slick propaganda, 'eh?

Now go worry about melting glaciers.

{@@##$$%%^^&&}

Here is a tall glass of water for you:

"More communities are finding toxic chemicals in their drinking water" by David Abel Globe Staff, May 23, 2021

In Wayland, local officials had been distributing cases of bottled water to 1,400 households a week — nearly a third of the suburb’s residents — and may have to seek a new water source that could cost more than twice the town’s annual budget.

Facing similar contamination in their drinking water, Natick officials plan to spend millions of dollars on a high-tech filtration system. In Wellesley, after shutting down the primary well that provided water to half their residents, officials are contemplating strict water-use limits for the first time.

“We’re definitely concerned,” said David Cohen, Wellesley’s public works director. “We’ll take all the steps we need to to address this.”

[Welcome to the planned communi$t takeover because this is how it is done.

The WEF-sponsored cyberattack will crash the economy as well as shut of the power, with food and water shortages resulting.

Oddly enough, as the state hollered drought the skies opened up this spring. He does indeed work in mysterious ways]

Since Massachusetts enacted new safety regulations last fall, more communities have found elevated levels of toxic chemicals known as PFAS in their drinking water.

Results are now available from half of those public water sources required to start testing — those that supply more than 10,000 people. Of them, 20 percent have reported concentrations above what state regulations allow.

[I need to stop here and bring something to your attention before continuing. The ‘forever chemicals’ pervading the drinking water are directly related to the pesticide used on millions of Mass. acres when spraying for mosquitoes.

Let that sink in for a moment. The GOVERNMENT POISONED THE WATER then TIGHTENED the STANDARDS so they could declare it undrinkable.

This is the same government pushing genocidal gene therapy upon you for your own protection, blah, blah, blah, and now, once again, they are poisoning and killing you for your own good out of a public health concern.

The only words one can use to describe it is CRIMINALLY EVIL!]

Many, including Easton, Holbrook, and Randolph, are continuing to deliver the water, despite a growing body of research that links PFAS exposure to health risks. Known as “forever chemicals” because they never fully break down in the environment, polyfluoroalkyl substances have long been used in everything from non-stick pans to water-repellant clothing. They have been linked to cancer, compromised immune systems, and a range of diseases.

[Diagnosed as CVD now, no doubt.

With all due respect, this is MUCH MORE of a DANGER than the ESOTERIC and INVISIBLE climate change crap and it doesn't get nearly as much attention from the pre$$. Yeah, they write a couple of articles and then turn off the faucet]

Last fall, state officials implemented some of the nation’s most stringent rules, which require public water systems to test for six of the more common chemicals. If their concentrations exceed more than 20 parts per trillion — the equivalent of about 20 grains of sand in an Olympic-size swimming pool — water providers must alert their users and reduce the concentrations as soon as possible.

The number of communities in Massachusetts — and beyond — with elevated levels of PFAS has increased the concerns of scientists.

Some assert that the chemicals are so toxic, no quantity is safe in drinking water.

[Never mind all the crap in the gene-therapy injection.

That's the other thing. Everything in the pre$$ is usually some sort of limited hangout for ulterior motives. Here, the goal is for the state to take control of the water, thus the people, and provides a possible cover for what is really being dumped on us.

Remember, colony collapse amongst the bees is due to pesticides, not GMOs. You need to see what ISN'T THERE when you read the pre$$]

Last year, a study in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters estimated that as many as 80 million Americans could be exposed to more than 10 parts per trillion of just two of the chemicals in their drinking water. Scientists and environmental advocates are urging federal and state regulators to do more to protect the public, noting that there are no federal rules regulating PFAS and arguing the state’s standards should be more stringent.

“It is extremely concerning to see such a potent and persistent class of toxicants that are pervasive in drinking water remain unregulated at the federal level,” said Elsie Sunderland, a professor of environmental chemistry at Harvard University.

Kyla Bennett, a former scientist at the US Environmental Protection Agency, noted that Massachusetts requires testing for just six of more than 9,000 known PFAS, some of which were recently detected in breast milk.

[Just like the injections, and these are the same monsters pushing the Great Reset agenda and the genocidal jabs -- all to protect us!]

“We are only measuring a tiny fraction of potential contamination,” said Bennett, who now serves as director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility in New England, an advocacy group. “While Massachusetts has one of the strictest PFAS limits in the country, it is still not protective of human health. Scientists have yet to find a safe PFAS.”

As of mid-May, of 242 public water sources in Massachusetts that had reported test results, 50 had concentrations of PFAS that exceeded state rules. More than 1,000 smaller public water sources will be required to start testing later this year or next year.

State environmental officials say they’re constantly reevaluating their standards but have no plans to change the rules to make them more stringent or ban the chemicals in specific products, as have several states. Last week, Vermont became the first state to ban PFAS in ski wax, carpets, and after-market treatments to carpets. It also joined several others in prohibiting the chemicals in food packaging.

“Massachusetts is aggressively addressing PFAS,” said Martin Suuberg, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection. “We will continue to work with communities and water suppliers to find these contaminants and ensure that all residents have safe water.”

[They are the ones who made it unsafe!]

The state is allocating $2 million to help water systems with elevated PFAS levels, he said. Communities can use the money on short-term measures, such as providing bottled water or renting temporary filters. The state had previously set aside more than $28 million to help communities test for PFAS and improve their water systems.

“PFAS contamination poses a significant risk to public health, so it is imperative that public water suppliers address elevated PFAS levels in a timely manner,” Kathleen Theoharides, the state’s secretary of energy and environmental affairs, said in a statement.

[These people are un-f**king- believable!

The open their mouths and the lies spill forth]

While most suppliers have found ways to reduce their PFAS levels — either by blending contaminated wells with others that have lower concentrations of the chemicals or by connecting to alternate sources — at least 21 have had no choice but to continue delivering the contaminated water to residents, state officials said.

Among the communities still delivering water with elevated PFAS levels are Acton, Ayer, Dudley, Easton, Holbrook, Natick, Randolph, and Wayland.

“We’re in non-compliance,” said Louise Miller, town administrator of Wayland, which provides water to about 14,000 residents. “We need to provide another source of water.”

[How about desalination? 

What to do with all the soil-destroying salt is another matter, but keep whacking the carbon mole]

With repeated tests this year showing their wells exceeding the state limit, and no other viable options in the near term, the town has been spending $20,000 a week to provide thousands of residents with bottled water — a significant cost for a community with an annual budget of $4 million. The town recently switched from giving out bottled water to a rebate program for residents.

For a permanent solution, the town is debating whether to buy a special filter that would likely cost millions of dollars or connect to pipes from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, which could cost Wayland as much as $10 million, Miller said.

Like others, she worries what will happen if the federal government imposes more stringent regulations or the state stiffens its rules. It’s unclear whether they would have to spend more to ensure they remain in compliance.

“To impose all of it on ratepayers at the local level seems unfair and really burdensome,” she said. “I think both the federal and state government should look at spending more on specific water infrastructure. We’re talking about a lot of money.”

[Stolen elections do indeed have con$equences. 

ENJOY the THIR$T!]

In Natick, officials had to shut down their largest well, which pumped as much as 5 million gallons a day to many of the town’s 36,000 residents. They’re now planning to spend at least $3 million on a carbon filtration system.

In recent weeks, as more people learn that their water had elevated levels of PFAS, town officials have been receiving more calls.

“They want to know how detrimental it is to their health,” said Bob Rooney, Natick’s interim town administrator. “People are really concerned, and all we can do is direct them to places where there’s more information.”


At least it still makes the grass grow, and the first ad said price drop $o..... 

"As contaminated water concerns grow, Massachusetts towns urge the state to stop spraying pesticides in their communities" by David Abel Globe Staff, May 31, 2021

After announcing that the town’s water supply contained elevated levels of the toxic chemicals known as PFAS, selectmen at a recent virtual meeting in Pepperell turned to another thorny subject: Should the town try to opt out of state-mandated aerial and roadside spraying of pesticides?

[Mine did, thankfully]

The issues, in significant ways, were connected.

To reduce the spread of eastern equine encephalitis and other mosquito-borne diseases, the state has sprayed millions of acres in recent years with a pesticide found to contain significant amounts of PFAS. The PFAS leached into the pesticide from its packaging.

“Not only is this bad for human health and the environment, for the long-term effects it causes, but [the pesticides] can also pose an immediate danger to vulnerable populations, including children with chronic health problems,” Renee D’Argento, chair of Pepperell’s Board of Health, told selectmen.

Soon afterward, selectmen in this town along the New Hampshire border voted to make Pepperell one of at least 13 municipalities in Massachusetts to take advantage of a new law that allows communities to request the state’s permission to forgo pesticide spraying.

Over the years, residents throughout the state have complained about the potential health risks of widespread spraying of pesticides, especially from the air, and their concerns have only intensified as more communities have found elevated levels of PFAS in their drinking water.

Environmental advocates fear the broad dispersal of the pesticide, and the large amounts used over the years, may have resulted in the chemicals leaching into groundwater.

“I have yet to be convinced that blanketing the state with pesticides is a good public health strategy,” said Julia Blatt, executive director of Massachusetts Rivers Alliance. “It seems crazy to me that we’re asking water suppliers to spend millions of dollars to remove PFAS from public water supplies to make them safe, while continuing to spread pesticides, some of which we know contain PFAS.”

[No, it is CRIMINAL!]

Last summer, a year after six people died from EEE, the state’s deadliest outbreak since the 1950s, Governor Charlie Baker signed a law that gave state regulators new powers to fight mosquito-borne diseases.

[They are blanketing us with who knows what because SIX PEOPLE DIED?

They make a mountain out of a molehill and then use it to poison the water!]

For the first time, state officials could “engage in preventive, management, and eradication methods” in any municipality — without permission from local officials. Previously, the state could only spray pesticides from the air without local authorization if the governor declared a public health emergency.

Under pressure from environmental advocates who have long raised concerns about the ecological dangers of pesticide spraying, lawmakers added a provision that allows communities to seek exemptions from spraying, but the state can reject their requests.

[And they call it a self-governing democracy!]

“Any application will be reviewed with consideration of historical arbovirus risk, the impact of the opt-out application regionally, and the implementation of an alternative mosquito management plan,” said Craig Gilvarg, a spokesman for the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. Arboviruses include mosquito-borne diseases.

Alternative management plans “must contain a detailed public outreach and education component,” he said. That includes alerting residents to the risks of mosquito-borne diseases in the summer and if such disease is detected; reminding them to use insect repellent and dump standing water around their homes; and advising those who are vulnerable, such as the young and infirm, to avoid outdoor activity between dusk and dawn, but the state didn’t give municipalities much time to decide, notifying them in March that they had to vote on the matter and submit an alternative plan by this month. The state, facing complaints, extended the deadline by two weeks to Friday.

“There was physically no way [some] could have scheduled the necessary votes, written the opt-out application, and voted by the deadline,” said Kyla Bennett, director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility in New England, an advocacy group.

Environmental activists who oppose the widespread use of pesticides, which they contend is not only harmful to people and animals but also ineffective, have been prodding municipalities to opt out. 

The communities that have sought permission to forgo spraying are mainly in Western Massachusetts. Joining Pepperell are Ashby, Erving, Gill, Gloucester, Greenfield, Harvard, Montague, Orange, Pittsfield, Plainfield, Wendell, and Whately.

At least eight others were considering asking for a waiver, Bennett said, while another four voted against opting out.

Officials in Halifax, which rejected a proposal to opt out, said a resident had died several years ago of EEE, which has been most prevalent in the surrounding communities of Southeastern Massachusetts. In 2019, six of the 12 people who contracted the disease died.

“There’s a huge amount of swampland here, and we’re a hotbed for West Nile virus and EEE,“ said Charlie Seelig, town administrator of Halifax. “The board felt that the dangers from mosquitoes and the diseases that they carry were enough of a concern to be more important than any potential downside from the program,” but environmental advocates and officials in other towns said they are more concerned about the risks of spraying than mosquito-borne diseases, which remain rare in Massachusetts but are likely to become more prevalent as a result of climate change.

[PFFFFFT!

It's not worth POISONING the WATER, you MONSTERS!]

They noted that the primary pesticide the state has used to spray, Anvil 10+10, was found last year to have PFAS concentrations that exceed the amount the state allows in drinking water. The so-called “forever chemicals,” which never fully degrade in the environment, have been found in other consumer products, such as non-stick pans, furniture, and food packaging. Scientists have linked the chemicals to cancer, compromised immune systems, and a range of diseases.

[They didn't care about it when it came to the con$umeri$m they pu$hed for so long.

Nw go get the kill shot so you are protected, blah, blah, blah

The BS runneth over like a waterfall]

The state has been reviewing whether to continue using Anvil, after state and federal regulators confirmed that PFAS in the packaging leached into the pesticide. Officials said they would decide whether to use Anvil — which they found didn’t contain the toxic chemicals when it came in new packaging — or other pesticides before spraying resumes this summer.

In Montague, local officials said their decision to opt out was based on advice from their Board of Health, Conservation Commission, and concerned residents.

“Montague is not the type of community to allow unproven pesticides to pollute our drinking water and pristine wetlands,” said Walter Ramsey, the town planner.

In Gloucester, there were other concerns, especially from the lobster industry.

Patti Page, an outspoken resident who works for a local lobster business, noted that mosquitoes and lobsters are both arthropods and vulnerable to the same threats.

“What kills a mosquito kills lobsters just as effectively,” she said.

[Aaaaah, a roundabout way to destroy the food supply as well!]

Before the new law took effect, she noted, Gloucester didn’t allow spraying and has seen no reason to change.

“This took away all local control,” she said. “This was very concerning to me.”

[But this is Ma$$achu$etts, the best state in the whole world!]


{@@##$$%%^^&&}

Believe it or not, the problem doesn't end if they stop dumping poison on us:

"Thousands of homes in Massachusetts still have lead water pipes, and many residents don’t know" by David Abel Globe Staff, April 29, 2021

For much of the past three years, they lived in fear of their water.

After buying a home in Chelsea, Nathan Seavey and his wife learned their water pipes were lined with lead, and replacing them would cost thousands of dollars. Even though they had a newborn, they resigned themselves to live with it, filtering whatever they drank and relying on the city’s assurances that their water was safe.

[You thought it was only Flint and Newark, but no!

Now take a big gulp and go fight climate change!]

Despite the grave dangers of lead, which can cause lifelong health problems, especially for children, there are as many as 10 million lead service lines in the United States, with an estimated 220,000 in Massachusetts, according to state and federal environmental officials.

Now, years after public health officials determined that no amount of lead in the blood is safe, President Biden has proposed eliminating the nation’s remaining lead pipes, calling them a “clear and present danger to our children’s health” during his address to Congress this week.

[Once again, an Obam/Biden regime scandal that swirled down the pre$$ drain after I was told managing water is the government’s most important policy challenge.

Look, I know he ate lead as child (explains a lot, really) because he said, with a chuckle, that ‘‘I'm sure when I was 2 years old I was somewhere eating a paint chip, and they will be fine . . . as long as we’re looking after them’’ as he encouraged parents to get medical checkups for their children.

The damage from lead poisoning is irreversible, jerk, and don't you miss him?]

In addition to replacing service lines to millions of homes, the president’s $45 billion plan would reduce lead exposure in some 400,000 schools.

“It’s just plain wrong that in the United States of America today, millions of children still receive their water through lead service pipes,” Biden wrote on Twitter last month. “It’s long past time we fix that.”

[This from the guy who wants to get a gene therapy injection that they don't need it to them.

He is without a doubt one of the scummiest creatures to come along in a long time]

As the dangers of lead exposure became clear, Congress banned its use in house paint in 1978. Eight years later, lawmakers banned lead — a malleable, leak-resistant metal — in newly installed plumbing systems, but officials allowed existing lead lines to remain, with the prevailing view that slight changes in the chemistry of drinking water and lubricants would prevent the pipes from corroding. The limits of that approach became tragically evident when officials in Michigan seven years ago failed to apply the necessary corrosion inhibitors to a new water source for Flint, exposing about 100,000 residents there to elevated lead levels.

[What were we drinking all those years?]

The Environmental Protection Agency is now reviewing regulations approved in the final days of the Trump administration that would reduce the percentage of lead pipes that public water systems must replace every year, but advocates and attorneys general from Massachusetts and eight other states have urged the EPA to make the rules more stringent by lowering the maximum concentrations of lead allowed before triggering a requirement that municipalities replace the pipes.

[There she goes again with the political grandstanding while ignoring the corruption in the state. I gue$$ she just doesn't have the energy for everything, so the maybe the possible bid for governor and changing of the guard should be stayed for a while] 

A report by the Natural Resources Defense Council estimated about 5.5 million people between 2015 and 2018 consumed excessive amounts of lead from public water systems.

“We have myopically focused on the risks from lead paint and have underestimated the risks of lead in water,” said Tom Neltner, chemicals policy director for the Environmental Defense Fund, a Washington-based advocacy group. “We were way too confident that corrosion control would solve the problem in water, but we now realize we’re vulnerable.”

The full extent of lead pipes remains unknown, given the lack of requirements for surveys. State environmental officials noted that many of the lead pipes in Massachusetts were installed nearly a century ago and acknowledged the limits of previous surveys.

Part of the problem of replacing them has been that few municipalities cover the full cost. Most only pay for the section of pipe that runs from water mains to the curb, leaving the private portion to homeowners, at an average cost of about $5,000.

In recent years, public water suppliers in Massachusetts have replaced more than 8,000 lead lines, costing about $40 million, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection. In 2019, state officials launched an incentive program to replace private lines, and last year they used a federal grant to increase testing of drinking water at schools and child-care facilities.

In Boston, which has been replacing lead lines with copper for decades, city officials have been scouring their records to identify the remaining lead pipes, an effort John Sullivan, chief engineer of the city’s Water and Sewer Commission, called a “massive undertaking.”

[It's a “systemwide problem that must be fixed, but it shouldn’t be this way.”]


How long before the plumbing is ripped out by the roots?

Also see:


Came out of nowhere, huh?

Then there was the explosion halfway around the world in the Congo:

Was quickly covered by lava from the volcano.

Here is what washed up on the shores of Sri Lanka:


That's going to be tough to clean up; however, it is now the new definition of ‘normal’ for weather.

UPDATES:


Leave it to the New York Times to divide us over the most basic of small talk.

See ya' at camp:

"The Biden administration said it would spend $1 billion to help communities prepare for worsening disasters, the latest sign of the toll that climate change is already taking across the United States. The change will double the current size of a Federal Emergency Management Agency program that gives money to state and local governments to reduce their vulnerability before a disaster happens — for example, building sea walls, elevating or relocating flood-prone homes. The new money is less than what some disaster experts had said is needed, especially because the warming planet is making storms, flooding, wildfires and other disasters both more frequent and destructive. The formula that determines funding would have allowed the administration to put as much as $3.7 billion toward the program, which FEMA officials considered in the early days of Biden’s administration, but cities and states might struggle to spend that much money on climate resilience projects, according to Craig Fugate, who led FEMA under President Barack Obama and led President Biden’s transition team. “It’s a good start,” Fugate said of the new money announced Monday....."

Related:


That'$ what it i$ all about, and that is when I got out of the water.