TWIT: Friends All Over

credit: S. Sack

The recent expose by The Washington Post of the FBI's willingness to accept the word of a duplicitous sociopath explains in part the extreme delay in holding the Ochre Menace accountable for his crimes. Agents in the Washington DC field office argued with prosecutors who wanted to obtain a search warrant for Mar-a-Lago. They wanted to accept the false certification that there were no more classified documents in Trumpilini's possession at face value. Agents thought conducting an unannounced search to be too aggressive, and potentially bad press. According to the Post reporting, some even tried to shut down the investigation entirely, after Trump's attorneys made the certification. Prosecutors eventually got their way and the "raid" was carried out on August 8th after months of non-cooperation by Trump's team.  Agents found a hundred classified documents still at Mar-a-Lago including some beyond top secret that concerned Iran's nuclear capability and espionage against China. The dispute cost valuable time to the investigation. When federal prosecutors were finally ready to charge the former president and white-collar criminal for obstruction and mishandling highly classified material, the Attorney General decided to appoint a Special Prosecutor, elevating the case even farther into the realm of the political and making it more difficult to bring him to trial.

The fact is our federal government, especially when it comes to law enforcement, is neither politically impartial nor fair. There is one process for the rich and influential and another for the poor and unconnected. Steven D'Antuono, then head of the Washington, DC field office, was among the FBI officials who argued for a consensual search.  But prosecutors, exasperated by dealing unsuccessfully with Trump's attorney Evan Corcoran for months, ordered the search take place. The FBI complied over objections, but only when Trump was not in residence, and they did not wear their usual blue and yellow "FBI" jackets, choosing instead civilian clothes. Clearly, Trump's frequent attacks on the agency during his term in office had the desired intimidation.  Equally clearly, polarization has played a significant role in the several investigations of Trump, who still has not been charged with a crime. After all, the FBI are cops, and cops are mostly conservatives.  For the sake of the order prove US Person wrong!

credit: R. McKee
Wackydoodle sez:  Don't forget the get-out-of-jail card!

COTW: Europe's Energy Mix

The chart shows that Europe's energy portfolio is fairly distributed among the major sources.  Germany is Europe's leading industrial nation and it relies heavily on coal burning to generate electricity (34%).  The government is pledged to change that situation.  Wind power is the country's second largest source of electrical generation at 25%.  The same cannot be said for Poland and Czech Republic where coal still predominates.  A decade ago, coal burning accounted for a quarter of the continent's electrical generation. If Putin thought cutting off oil and gas to Europe would leverage the EU against Ukraine, it has turned out he miscalculated.  What he has accomplished is to push Ukraine farther into the western alliance.

Brazil Drives Out Miners Wrecking the Amazon

The Brazilian federal government under President Luiz Da Silva is using special forces to drive out illegal miners who are destroying large swathes of the Amazon rainforest.  Ibama, the Brazilian environmental protection agency, is attempting to halt the destruction that occurred under former playboy populist Jair Bolsonaro.

credit: T. Phillips/Guardian

The onslaught was particularly harmful to the Yanomami, an indigenous tribe that inhabits the Xitei, a region in the far northwest of the Amazon Basin, bordering on Venezuela.  The miners occupied villages, poisoned rivers and banished health workers while creating ugly, denuded scars on the landscape.  Da Silva has called their destruction, "premeditated genocide".  The Special Inspection Group (SIG) using helicopters have swooped down on fleeing miners starting in February to evict them from indigenous territory, which is about the size of Portugal.  About 30,000 Yanomami live in 300 villages there.  Gunfights have occurred with casualties among the miners. The government has given miners until April 6th to vacate.

A Yanomami leaders described his land that was once pristine rainforest in which his people lived in harmony with Nature as, “so sick. Our rivers are sick. The forest’s sick … the air we breathe is sick, I would describe it as onokãe Yanomami word for genocide.  Miners captured by SIG are unrepentant of their destruction of the rainforest and indigenous culture.  They say that the raids will eventually taper off, and they will return to the forest to resume their multimillion dollar illegal industry.  Indeed, there is evidence of previous enforcement efforts in the form of abandoned airfields scattered around the territory. These airfields were closed in the 1990's. This time the environment minister Marina Silva has said the government plans to stay to protect indigenous people, calling the havoc unleashed by Bolsonaro a crime. 

An anthropologist who has worked with the Yanomami since the 70's said that Bolsonaro attempted to annihilate the Yanomami through intentional neglect citing evidence of severe malnutrition amongst the children and poisoning of the water by the use of toxic mercury to extract gold from the cassiterite ore dug out of the pits. [photo above} Brazil's former president is in hiding in Florida where he has petitioned for a visa to stay in the US.  Bolsonaro called Lula's accusation of genocide a "leftist farce". The US has an extradition treaty with Brazil, which was signed in 1961.

TWIT: Deja Vu Again and Again

Perhaps Jack Smith, the all-American special prosecutor, is reading PNG because he has noticeably speeded up his criminal investigation of Herr Trumpillini.  Two more subpoenas went out to Trump family members this week. Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, were summoned to testify.  Since Pence is fighting his appearance on dubious constitutional grounds, Ivanka's testimony could be significant since she was in the room when her daddy spoke to Pence about throwing out the electoral vote count in several states.  She was also one of several people, including her husband, that attempted to dissuade her father from launching the autogolpé.  Smith is also in court to compel Pence's testimony. 

The last time the 'speech and debate' privilege was asserted by another plotter, it took four months to resolve the issue.  Retired judge Michael Luttig, a respected conservative jurist who advised Pence against participating in the coup, wrote a Times editorial advising Pence to comply with his subpoena and testify.  Lutting sees his resistance as politically motivated. Shape-shifter Pence--now a member of the Executive branch, then a member of Congress as it suits--hopes that his refusal will be credited to him as righteousness by MAGA voters. Lutting also expressed the opinion that federal courts would make short change of his 'hail Mary' defense given the Supreme Court precedents set during the Nixon debacle.

Speaking of that one, a least one pundit thinks that Trump was given societal license to do what he did by the precedent of Dick Nixon escaping prosecution for his criminality while in office. Former Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski did not want to prosecute Nixon for his crimes against the Republic, citing the trauma to the nation. His grand jury, after sitting for 30 months, wanted him to indict Nixon. According to one account, some jurors raised both hands when asked to vote on indictment. The possibility was foreclosed when Gerald Ford pardoned the former president.  US Person thinks to this day elevating Ford to the Oval office was the quid pro quo for Nixon's pardon; Ford was not re-elected primarily, many believe, for that pardon. Fortunately for the nation we got JC-- Jimmy Carter.

Trumpillini, the cunning criminal he is, does not have a pardon, but he is in a position to negotiate one if a Repugnant wins the White House in 2024 by having skin in the game. Let's not make the same mistake again. Either our civil rhetoric--no person is above the law--means something, or it does NOT, and we should all go home and let the sociopaths take control entirely.  Seven months and counting.

Wackydoodle sez:  "Here's the play, Jerry...."

                                                

Another Case of Profit Before Safety

Update:  NTSB has released its preliminary report on the disastrous trail derailment in a small Ohio town. The Board concluded that a overheated wheel bearing in the 23rd car contributed to the accident.  Detectors registered the overheating, at one point 253 degrees above normal.  The crew applied the brakes after an alarm sounded, but the train was unable to stop before derailing.  Overheating ignited a car containing plastic pellets. According to the investigators there is no evidence the train was exceeding the 50mph speed limit.  First responders detonated five tank cars containing vinyl chloride that contaminated the town and surroundings in order to avoid a BLEVE. 

Herr Trumpillini visited Palestine last week, where he handed out bottles of water branded with his name. Voters there supported the huckster in the 2020 election that was not stolen by Joe Biden.  But It was his government that delayed implementation of a regulation requiring more modern brakes on freight trains.    EPA has taken over the clean up and remediation and said it would Norfolk Southern responsible for the cost.

{16.02.2023}The train derailment in Palestine, OH has been in the news cycle for weeks since it occurred on February 3rd.  Ten of the car were tankers caring hazardous chemicals.  Some leaked or burned during the accident while three were blown up three days later to prevent a BLEVE   BLEVE stands for "boiling liquid evaporative vapors explosion.  A BLEVE is frightening as well as destructive--think of a giant napalm bomb exploding before your eyes.  Among the toxic chemicals released into the atmosphere were butyl acrylate and vinyl chloride.  Residents of East Palestine were evacuated but allowed to return after the EPA said it was safe to do so two days later.  Residents have reported burning eyes, sore throats and headaches. About 3500 fish died in nearby creeks after the incident.  Many residents are still confused about whether their water and air are actually safe.  Pets and livestock are experiencing illnesses, owners say are related to the released toxins. The governor has recommended residents drink bottled water.

credit: AP

A contentious town meeting took place on Wednesday in which the train's operator, Norfolk Southern, failed to make an appearance. "They have something to hide. You don't back out of questions if you know how to answer them," East Palestine resident Jaime Cozza told reporters. "It was like a bomb went through our town." NFS cited safety concerns when they announced company representatives would not be attending just hours before the meeting. Some residents are banding together to hire their own experts and attorney to examine water and air safety.

The Leverreports that a lack of safety equipment contributed to the accident. The NTSB announced at a press conference a failed rail car axle caused the accident, but has not yet released its findings. The design of the brakes on the derailedment date from 1868, which operate on air pressure moving through the train, consequently it takes time for the brakes to actuate in the rear. The train was not quipped with modern pneumatic brakes that are fully electric, nor was the train regulated as a "high-hazard flammable train". Records show the company lobbied against more stringent regulation with the result that many trains carrying toxic chemicals were exempted from the high hazard category. The same industry-friendly result occurred with regard to electrically controlled pneumatic brakes, which the railroad once touted at a Congressional hearing as a technological development that would significantly reduce stopping distance. When the federal government moved to make the new brakes mandatory, the industry rebelled. Their' lobby group was successful in getting the Trump regime to rescind the new brake requirement, and it has not been reinstated by the Biden administration.  ECP brakes are still required on high-hazard trains, which are limited mostly to those pulling petroleum tanks. A spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board has confirmed that the wreck was not equipped with ECP brakes. A former member of the Federal Railroad Administration told The Lever ECP brakes would have reduced the severity of the Palestine derailment. The industry donated $6 million to GOP political campaigns in 2017. Apparently it was money well spent*, and a lot less expensive than buying new brakes.

*Norfolk Southern authorized a ten billion dollar stock buy-back that benefits stockholders, including company executives, while neglecting rail repairs and denying workers paid sick days.  It made $4.7 billion in operating profits in 2022.  In 2005 another NFS train derailed in Graniteville, South Carolina releasing a cloud of chlorine gas and diesel fuel.  The town was evacuated. Crops were damaged, wildlife killed, and nine people died.  The company spent $26 million in remediation after being taken to court for violating the Clean Water Act.

COTW: Antarctic. Sea Ice at New Low

This chart shows the level of Antarctic sea ice over the years since the level was measured by satellite since the 1970's:

The last three years of record melt are shown.  Summer has some way to go this year, so the melt can be expected to reduce the record low coverage of 1.91sq km further. That is enough ice to cover Great Britain and Ireland. Only the Weddell Sea remains ice-covered.  Data sources going back to 1900 indicate that Antarctic sea ice has shown great variability in recent years with record maximums in winter and record minimums in summer.  The trend was in decline in the early the last century, but started to increase later, contrary to computer models showing a gradual decline in sea ice.  The annual freeze-thaw cycle in Antartica is hugely important to the ocean conveyor the mass movement of water which regulates global climate. 

Observers think that record sea ice melting is influenced by record temperatures on the Antarctic Peninsula shown in this chart:

Nature is Silent Victim of War

For the first time in history, people in Ukraine are attempting to systematically estimate the damage done to the environment by Russia's War on Ukraine.  Russia's crimes against nature will be included in Ukraine's compensation claim against Russia for its aggression, which stands now at $50bn.  The environment ministry has set up a hotline for citizens to report instances of "ecocide".  The report tally is now 2,303 with weekly updates.

These reports show that about one-third of the Ukraine's surface is potentially dangerous, strewn with ordinance, exploded or unexploded, toxic chemicals, and 230,000 tons of scrap metal--the remains of Russian armour and other equipment. Up to 40% of arable land is not available for cultivation.  Sixteen wetlands are threatened with destruction.  Six hundred species of animals and 880 species of plants are in danger of extinction.  Vast forest fires have been sparked by explosions, particularly in Luhansk Oblast where 17,000 hectares have been burnt.  Over 2m forested hectares have been destroyed. Attacks on industrial centers have released benzopyrene; nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide into the atmosphere.  Russian troops dug trenches in the soil of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, apparently obliviously of the radiation absorbed by the soil.

Perhaps these figures need to be tempered by the potential for propaganda, but clearly counting the biodiversity cost of war is a new development.  During WWII entire cities were flattened by conventional ordinance, and eventually by nuclear weapons.  Russia is not the first nation to employ area bombardment as a means of breaking the enemy's will to fight.  In South Vietnam entire landscapes were subjected to intense chemical warfare to deny the enemy sanctuary beneath the canopy.  The tactic did not work, and the immense biological damage when unaccounted.  More recently the burning of oil wells in the Gulf War was disparaged, but no attempt was made to calculate the costs to Nature.

Legal scholars hope Ukraine can push the development of ecocide as a crime against Nature under international law akin to recognized crimes against humanity.  Collecting data, often by volunteers who risk going near the fighting,  is the first step to quantifying the damage done.  President Zelenskiy is  proposing that protecting of the environment as a key element in his country's proposals for peace.  The prosecutor general of Ukraine is already processing eleven cases under Section 441 of the Ukrainian criminal code; it is one of several former Soviet bloc nations that have nature crimes in their codes.

Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, credit: Reuters

It is axiomatic that Nature is resilient, but even Nature can be pushed too far out of balance as man is finding out to his distress. Ukraine will need help with restoration after the conflict ends.  That restoration must include helping Nature reclaim its former health and diversity. In some cases restoration will mean improving environmental conditions that existed before the war, such as reducing industrial pollution or not re-building dams.  In the end these efforts will help the people of Ukraine return to a sense of normaility.