Yesterday, I finally got to see Virgil. He had a new haircut and is looking good. I unfortunately had to leave early, but I didn’t feel terribly bad about that because this facility has a 7 and a half hour visiting day, and the longest anywhere else is six hours – the last one had only a 3 hour partial day, and I stayed long enough to exceed that. The reason for my leaving was a pain which I have always called a stitch in the side, but in looking ut up, I see that a side stitch is abdominal, and mine is not that – it is definitely above my waist. It is connected to the diaphragm somehow, because a deep breath temporarily worsens it. But it’s not exercise related – unless moving a couple of small tables is considered exercise – I certainly wouldn’t consider it so. It requires noticeable effort for me because of my miscellaneous mobility issues, but exercise? No. Whatever it is, it responded to ice and compression. A couple of other aches were also acting up, though not as badly, so after sending the weekly email I took a break.
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Short Takes –
The Conversation – Faced with a rise of extremism within its ranks, the US military has clamped down on racist speech, including retweets and likes
Quote – A blue ribbon committee called the Countering Extremist Activity Working Group was quickly commissioned in April 2021 to evaluate the extent of the problem. The group found about 100 substantiated cases of extremism in the U.S. armed forces in 2021. The latest instance occurred in July 2022, when Francis Harker, a National Guard member with white supremacist connections, was sentenced to four years in prison for planning an anti-government attack on police. Harker, who carried a picture saying “there is no God but Hitler,” was planning to attack police officers in Virginia Beach, Virginia, with Molotov cocktails and semi-automatic rifles. Click through for story. It has always been necessary for anyone serving in the military -an anyone employed by the Government in any way – to limit heir use of free speech. Back in the day, however, the concern was that someone might mistake personal views for government policy. Now the concern is that worng use of free speech could get spmeone killed – or the government overthrown. Of course the military must clamp down. Hate speech IMO is not part of appropriate free speech.
Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”
Even before climate change – before the Industrial Revolution, in fact – floods posed health hazards far beyond the possibility of drowning. Think for a moment about where you live, and consider what a flood, even one with relatively narrow range, affecting your residence would to to the sewage system underneath. But some of the industrial contaminants which we never even think about (possibly don’t even know about) which get deposited into land throgh normal industrial procedures make sewage look like Play-Doh. Many of these contaminants got deposited before anyone had any idea they might be harmful – it takes us a while to realize that these things may cause harm. Look how long makers of hats were allowed to work with mercury; even though it was known that hatters were at risk of brain damage, it took a long time before that damage was identified with mercury poisoning. Nor do we have seemed to learn much even in comparatively recent years. Napalm. Burn pits. And those are fairly obvious.
Now, climate change is bringing the risk of floods, including to areas where no one ever expected flooding. Who paid attention to what was going into the ground?
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Flood maps show US vastly underestimates contamination risk at old industrial sites
In 2019, researchers at the U.S. Government Accountability Office investigated climate-related risks at the 1,571 most polluted properties in the country, also known as Superfund sites on the federal National Priorities List. They found an alarming 60% were in locations at risk of climate-related events, including wildfires and flooding.
As troubling as those numbers sound, our research shows that that’s just the proverbial tip of the iceberg.
Many times that number of potentially contaminated former industrial sites exist. Most were never documented by government agencies, which began collecting data on industrially contaminated lands only in the 1980s. Today, many of these sites have been redeveloped for other uses such as homes, buildings or parks.
For communities near these sites, the flooding of contaminated land is worrisome because it threatens to compromise common pollution containment methods, such as capping contaminated land with clean soil. It can also transport legacy contaminants into surrounding soils and waterways, putting the health and safety of urban ecosystems and residents at risk.
New York developers are planning thousands of housing units along the Gowanus Canal, a notoriously contaminated industrial area and waterway. Epics/Getty Images
We study urban pollution and environmental change. In a recent study, we conducted a comprehensive assessment by combining historical manufacturing directories, which locate the majority of former industrial facilities, with flood risk projections from the First Street Foundation. The projections use climate models and historic data to assess future risk for each property.
The results show that the GAO’s 2019 report vastly underestimated the scale and scope of the risks many communities will face in the decades ahead.
Pollution risks in 6 cities
We started our study by collecting the location and flood risk for former industrial sites in six very different cities facing varying types of flood risk over the coming years: Houston; Minneapolis; New Orleans; Philadelphia; Portland, Oregon; and Providence, Rhode Island.
These former industrial sites have been called ghosts of polluters past. While the smokestacks and factories of these relics may no longer be visible, much of their legacy pollution likely remains.
In just these six cities, we found over 6,000 sites at risk of flooding in the next 30 years – far more than recognized by the EPA. Using census data, we estimate that nearly 200,000 residents live on blocks with at least one flood-prone relic industrial site and its legacy contaminants.
Without detailed records, we can’t assess the extent of contamination at each relic site or how that contamination might spread during flooding. But the sheer number of flood-prone sites suggests the U.S. has a widespread problem it will need to solve.
The highest-risk areas tended to be clustered along waterways where industry and worker housing once thrived, areas that often became home to low-income communities.
Legacy of the industrial Northeast
In Providence, an example of an older industrial city, we found thousands of at-risk relic sites scattered along Narragansett Bay and the floodplains of the Providence and Woonasquatucket Rivers.
Over the decades, as these factories manufactured textiles, machine tools, jewelry and other products, they released untold quantities of environmentally persistent contaminants, including heavy metals like lead and cadmium and volatile organic chemicals, into the surrounding soils and water.
For example, the Rhode Island Department of Health recently reported widespread drinking water contamination from PFAS, often referred to as “forever chemicals,” which are used to create stain- and water-resistant products and can be toxic.
The tendency for older factories to locate close to the water, where they would have easy access to power and transportation, puts these sites at risk today from extreme storms and sea-level rise. Many of these were small factories easily overlooked by regulators.
Chemicals, oil and gas
Newer cities, like Houston, are also vulnerable. Houston faces especially high risks given the scale of nearby oil, gas and chemical manufacturing infrastructure and its lack of formal zoning regulations.
In August 2017, historic rains from Hurricane Harvey triggered more than 100 industrial spills in the greater Houston area, releasing more than a half-billion gallons of hazardous chemicals and wastewater into the local environment, including well-known carcinogens such as dioxin, ethylene and PCBs.
Even that event doesn’t reflect the full extent of the industrially polluted lands at growing risk of flooding throughout the city. We found nearly 2,000 relic industrial sites at an elevated risk of flooding in the Houston area; the GAO report raised concerns about only 15.
Many of these properties are concentrated in or near communities of color. In all six cities in our study, we found that the strongest predictor of a neighborhood’s containing a flood-prone site of former hazardous industry is the proportion of nonwhite and non-English-speaking residents.
Keeping communities safe
As temperatures rise, air can hold more moisture, leading to strong downpours. Those downpours can trigger flooding, particularly in paved urban areas with less open ground for the water to sink in. Climate change also contributes to sea-level rise, as coastal communities like Annapolis, Maryland, and Miami are discovering with increasing days of high-tide flooding.
Keeping communities safe in a changing climate will mean cleaning up flood-prone industrial relic sites. In some cases, companies can be held financially responsible for the cleanup, but often, the costs fall to taxpayers.
The infrastructure bill that Congress passed in 2021 includes $21 billion for environmental remediation. As a key element of new “green” infrastructure, some of that money could be channeled into flood-prone areas or invested in developing pollution remediation techniques that do not fail when flooded.
The West Calumet Housing Complex in East Chicago, Ind., was built on the site of an old lead refinery. It was closed down after children there were found to have elevated levels of lead in their blood. The sign reads: ‘Do not play in the dirt or next to shredded wood mulch.’ AP Photo/Tae-Gyun Kim
Our findings suggest the entire process for prioritizing and cleaning up relic sites needs to be reconsidered to incorporate future flood risk.
Flood and pollution risks are not separate problems. Dealing with them effectively requires deepening relationships with local residents who bear disproportionate risks. If communities are involved from the beginning, the benefits of green redevelopment and mitigation efforts can extend to a much larger population.
One approach suggested by our work is to move beyond individual properties as the basis of environmental hazard and risk assessment and concentrate on affected ecosystems.
Focusing on individual sites misses the historical and geographical scale of industrial pollution. Concentrating remediation on meaningful ecological units, such as watersheds, can create healthier environments with fewer risks when the land floods.
============================================================== Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, I live within a couple of miles of a former industrial plant which used a contaminant – I have had my home and water tested for it and the test showed it to be safe. But that was 20 years ago. How much of that stuff is still in the ground around that plant, and how far would it get from the plant in a flood? Flash floods have been a possibility as long as I have lived in the state – over 30 years – and that was before we started to see the major weather changes we are now seeing all the time. I’m old – but what will happen to young people including children if flash floods release monsters, not just here, but all over the world?
Yesterday, the radio opera was “Almira” by Georg Friedrich Händel. It was his first, and he was so young when he wrote it that the libretto was in German (which is why I used the German spelling of his name – He was in fact 19), with recitatives in Italian (because he was at the time in Italy, studying Italian opera). The Early Music Society of Boston presented it in Bremen. It was 4 hours 30 munites long (in 1705 they didn’t have many other forms of entertainment to choose from or take up their time.) It’s about three couples, where the men are in love with the wrong women, and it’s complicated by Almira’s father’s dying wish, but everything gets sorted out at the end, through a twist much like Figaro’s birthmark. The music seems quite mature. The human brain may not fully develop until about the age of 25, but it appears that talent and creativity develop faster than logic and reason. If that’s an excuse for poor choices made by our ancestors, particularly in the areas of politics and gocernment, it should be no excuse for us. We live longer, and know better. But I digress. In 1712 Handel arrived in London, preceding George I by two years, where he remained the rest of his life, becoming a naturalized British citizen as George Frederick Handel. King George I latched on to him (as had Queen Anne) – though he had 6 opera coompanies, he also did a lot of work for the throne. There was a popular little verse abou him (similar to being a subjet of a meme today): “Some say compared to Bononcini that Mynheer Handel’s but a ninny. Other aver that he to Handel is scarcely fit to hold a candle. Strange that such difference should be twixt Tweedledum and Tweedledee.” As you see, it had a more lasting impact on the languange than most such verses Also (burying the lede), I got an email response confirming my visit to Virgil who is now in Pueblo (much closer). So I’ll be late commenting.
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Robert Reich – The Worst Memo in American History
Quote – We almost take for granted big corporate money in American politics. But it started with the Powell memo. In 1971, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce asked Lewis Powell, then an attorney in Richmond, Virginia (and future Supreme Court justice) to report on the political activities of the Left. Richard Nixon was still president, but the Chamber (along with some prominent Republicans like Powell) worried about the Left’s effects on “free enterprise.” … Powell urged businesses to mobilize for political combat. Click through for what and why. The United States Chamber of Commerce is not your friend. This was the start of the path to Citizens United.
The New Yorker – State Legislatures Are Torching Democracy
Quote – Longtime Ohio politicians have been shocked by the state’s transformation into a center of extremist legislation, not just on abortion but on such divisive issues as guns and transgender rights. Ted Strickland, a Democrat who served as governor between 2007 and 2011, told me, “The legislature is as barbaric, primitive, and Neanderthal as any in the country. It’s really troubling.” When he was governor, he recalled, the two parties worked reasonably well together, but politics in Ohio “has changed.” Click through for full reporting. Jane Mayer is very good at this, and in fact Steve Schmidt recommended this article. The trend may not surprise you, but how far it has come and how fast may.
“And I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free” goes one line from the refrain of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA,” a song that reeks of patriotism. It’s a lovely song, appropriate to trot out on the Fourth of July, Flag Day, September 11, or any other occasion that calls for waving the Stars and Stripes. Unfortunately, these days it doesn’t ring all that true, as US residents are not all that free, and have many reasons for shame rather than pride.
How can we be proud of a country with a health “care” system that values profits more than patients? Every year around 600,000 people declare bankruptcy due to medical bills, and three-quarters of them have health insurance. How can this be? Health insurance companies offer coverage with beautiful ads showing happy families frolicking and patients with doctors, but when someone files a claim the alleged provider dicks its customers around. Companies in any other industry that behaved that way would lose customers in droves, face lawsuits, and soon go under. But insurance companies can get away with such rotten tactics. Obamacare is, at best, a stopgap measure and a compromise.
One of every three GoFundMe campaigns is to raise money for medical bills. In other words, GoFundMe is essentially the largest health care provider in this country. What kind of nation are we where people have to beg so they can clear medical debt? In a previous essay I wrote about how many “heartwarming” stories, instead of restoring our faith in humanity, should be pissing us off.
How can we be proud of a country whose core culture is still blatantly and shamelessly sexist? The USA has the worst maternal mortality rate of any developed country, and is one of only three countries that provides no maternity leave. It has fewer maternity leave protections and benefits than any other country in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an international alliance including many of the wealthiest and most economically developed countries. Mothers with jobs must return to work within days of giving birth. As for child care, fuhgeddaboudit unless you’re well-healed, because daycare can cost as much as college.
Women had to fight for decades to gain the right to vote. They faced a vigorous anti-suffrage movement, which included a lot of women who had cravenly accepted their status as second-class citizens. Today we are STILL screaming for the ERA to be passed, a full half century after it was first introduced. It should have been added to the Constitution decades ago. At long last we have enough states signed on, but there is still some rigmarole to go through before it takes its rightful place as the Law of the Land.
Since Roe v Wade was overturned, the number of women seeking to have their fallopian tubes tied off has skyrocketed – and many of them run smack into the rampant sexism that pervades the USA’s nefarious health care system. Many a woman seeking to have her tubes tied has gone to one doctor after another, only to get male chauvinist snark such as “You’ll change your mind” or “You’ll meet the right man.” Translation: Women are baby-making machines that have no business thinking of themselves as even remotely human. Meanwhile, if a man wants a vasectomy, he’ll have one scheduled in five minutes.
The medical sexism goes far beyond this, as doctors tend to dismiss women’s suffering and pain. Too many OB/GYNs focus 100% on the fetus and 0% on the one carrying it. Of course, there are some doctors who do actually care about women and realize that us females have legitimate feelings; but they seem to be too few and too far between. And DO NOT get me started on vanishing reproductive rights!
How can we be proud of a country whose working class is being bled whiter than fresh tofu, while the 1% get richer and richer? Once upon a time, a household could live on one income. Now many people work two, three, possibly even more jobs just to make ends meet. Sometimes even if both partners in a household work, they still can barely keep their noses above water.
The minimum wage has not been increased in 13 years, while the price of everything has gone up, and up, and up. Call for the minimum wage to be increased to a living wage, and the brainless parrot stooges of Corporate America belch propaganda about robotized fast-food joints and $20 tacos. Cities and local areas that have increased their minimum wage have not, repeat, NOT seen the massive business closures and job loss that right-wing B.S. has claimed would ensue. In Australia, the minimum wage increases automatically every year; instead of being in worse economic shape than Venezuela, Australia is thriving.
Businesses are howling that “nobody wants to work anymore.” Garbage. The vast majority of US residents want to work. They want to hold jobs and earn money honestly. The problem is, working class Americans are sick of working like mules for chicken feed (pardon the mixed metaphor). No wonder so many businesses in the US are now offering to pay wages appreciably above the current federal minimum.
How can we be proud of a country whose education system is floundering due to sparse budgets? Public schools are crumbling, and their books and equipment are out of date. Teachers are poorly paid so many of them have to moonlight, even after exhausting days of trying to guide their children towards enlightenment and grading papers. Some districts don’t have enough money to purchase supplies, so teachers have to buy them out of their own pockets, or beg for them. Any wonder there is a dire shortage of teachers?
School meals should be free, and in other countries they are – and provide better nutrition. Here, though, kids have to either pay for lunch or bring it from home. Children whose lunch funds have run out see their food thrown in the trash, then come home from school with “I NEED LUNCH MONEY” stamped on their arms. What kind of monsters thought that was a good idea? They make Darth Vader look like a saint.
How can we be proud of a country that is still unabashedly racist? In theory, people of color have the same rights as whites; in practice, they do not have the same opportunities and thus less access to those rights, such as the right to vote. I could write an entire essay about how the Right is trying to squelch voting rights in districts that tend to support Democrats and Progressives – in fact, I just might do that. Righties vigorously oppose voting by mail, opening more polling locations, longer hours and more days for early voting, automatic voter registration, same-day voting, et cetera. In Georgia, when Brian Kemp ran for Governor, he refused to allow over 50,000 voting applications to be processed, and thus as good as stole the election from Stacey Abrams.
People of color still face discrimination in housing, jobs, education, and so on. Blacks have made some progress, finding success in various fields; not too long ago this country had its first Black President. Yet they still have quite a ways to go, as POCs are still under-represented in government, science, and other areas. Though our culture is doing a better job of featuring POCs and women as lead characters and strong characters in movies and TV shows – the late Nichelle Nichols’ portrayal of Uhura in the original Star Trek series was downright revolutionary – the entertainment industry still has room for improvement.
The United States of America has way more than 99 problems, and fixing a lot of them will entail a major overhaul of deeply entrenched systems. Bonne chance getting anything done, unless we have a major, and possibly bloody, revolution! Maybe that is what we have to do – tear down everything and rebuild, not from the original foundations, but from new foundations more in tune with present-day knowledge and attitudes. Meanwhile, if you live in the United States, do your truly patriotic duty and make sure you are registered to vote, then get your bottom to the polls.
In Thursday’s video thread, the video from Beau was called “Let’s talk about an important message from New York. In case anyone missed it, that message was “Polio is back.” He goes into much more detail, of course.
Glenn Kirschner – Donald Trump takes the 5th, while the FBI takes Republican Scott “Pardon Me” Perry’s cell phone.
Meidas Touch – BREAKING: Texas Paul REACTS to attack on FBI building in Ohio amid Republican Rhetoric
The Lincoln Project – Alike
MSNBC – Trump’s Raid Nightmare: The Feds Indicted The Powerful For Spilling State Secrets
Al Franken – The Case for Prosecuting Trump (Preaching to the choir? Sure.Preaching for the choir to sing louder, add some trumpets, drums, and cymbals to the mix. And take that to the voting booth.)
Yesterday, I was hoping for a sort of calm day – but no such luck. I found out Virgil has been moved again, and did not reach anyone to confirm whether I may visit Sunday (I sent an email, and receuived an automated out-of-office message after 5 pm.) So I’ll need to follow up on that today. We shall see. I worked off some of the frustration by rearranging a couple of small tables,which doesn’t sound like a lot of exertion – but was for me. (one was heavier than it looks.)
Cartoon – (Yes, there’s an offensive term here – but TC’s point was tha Republicans ARE offensive.
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Mother Jones – An Obscure Law Is Sending Oklahoma Mothers to Prison in Droves. We Reviewed 1.5 Million Cases to Learn More.
Quote – In Oklahoma, failure to protect is the only child abuse charge levied predominantly against women, and it is disproportionately charged against women of color. People charged with the crime there are less likely to have a previous felony record than defendants in firsthand child abuse cases—a sign of just how much more dangerous abusers are than those accused of failing to stand in the way of their abuse. Since 2009, when the latest version of the state’s law went into effect, at least 139 women have been imprisoned solely for failure-to-protect charges. At least 55 are still incarcerated. Click through for details. Actual failure to protect arguably should be punishable. But the way this law is administered appears to me to be proof that, like abortion bans, the law is not about protection of chilren but rather is a tool to control women.
Crooks and Liars – Bannon Goes There: ‘Deep State May Try To Assassinate Trump’
Quote – Steve Bannon … joined the odious Sandy Hook denier Alex Jones’ BannedVideo podcast to “announce” that the deep state may want to try to assassinate Trump. “I do not think it’s beyond this administrative state and their Deep State apparatus to actually try to work on the assassination of President Trump. I think everything’s on the table. I think his security ought to be at the highest it’s ever been,” Bannon said Click through for story. My instant reaction is “He’s become a liability, so they are going to assassinate him to start a Civil War.” And I didn’t have to go far down the comments before finding another person with a similar thought. So I actally agree with Steve on the security.
For this, I am skipping Glenn for one day only.