Grizzlies Get a Reprieve

Grizzly bears living in western Wyoming received a reprieve from a federal Court of Appeals when it ruled that federal officials had to consider the impact of continued cattle grazing  in the mountainous region.  The court asked the wildlife officials to consider limiting the number of female grizzlies that could be killed for preying on livestock.  The ruling sides with environmental groups who sued the US Fish and Wildlife Service in 2020 for female grizzly deaths.

Grizzlies have made a remarkable comeback since they were listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. They are still on the list of protected species, but population growth as much as tenfold since the 1970s have put them in increasing contact with humans.  Grizzly deaths have significantly increased in the Green River headwaters of the Wind River range. In 2019 the Forest Service granted a ten year lease extension that allows 9,000 head of cattle to graze 270 square miles of the Bridger-Teton National Forest.  Under the grazing plan, managers could kill up to 72 bears over ten years, or double the number killed in the previous two decades.  Environmentalists objected, saying that female grizzlies are key to the species success since they bear responsibility for reproduction.  The plaintiffs expressed satisfaction with the Tenth Circuit decision after loosing in the district court.  Previous grazing plans put limits on the number of female bears that could be killed, but the latest plan contained no distinction between the sexes. The panel deemed the plan "arbitrary and capricious" for not considering the impact of killing females. The three member panel also included a requirement that livestock wranglers carry bear spray, to reduce the number of deadly encounters with the big bears.

P-113

In another positive wildlife story, a cougar living in the Simi Hills of Southern California, hemmed in by Los Angeles freeways and tracked by wildlife biologists, has given birth to three healthy cubs.  A five year old mountain lion labeled P-77  has been tracked via a radio telemetry collar since 2019.  She has successfully crossed both the 101 and 118 freeways according to the National Park Service, and has made the patch of forest her adult home.  The female cubs, labeled P-113, 114, 115 were found at about 24 days old.  The photo of one of the cubs shows the characteristic blue eyes of a young lion.  Her father is not known to biologists.  The new births are welcomed given the number of recent mortalities among local lions.  The National Park Service has been studying the Santa Monica Mountains population since 2002 to understand how the cougars coup with an intensely fragmented environment. Santa Monica National Recreation Area is one of only five Mediterranean ecosystems in the world.

Supremes Strike Again

The conservative Court struck another blow against environmental protection by significantly limiting the scope of the Clean Water Act.  On Thursday conservative Justice Alito writing for the majority, ruled in Sackett v. EPA that the Act does not apply to wetlands near water bodies unless they are connected at the surface.  The opinion flies in the face of hydrological science, ignores several decades of prior interpretation of the term "adjacent" and curtails authority of the EPA to enforce the requirements of the law. Conservative policy activists, developers and agriculturalists hailed the decision as a victory for property owners,  The Sackett were represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation, funded in part by the Koch Bros. and Sarah Scaife. It will have major negative impacts on the nation's water quality according to experts.

The case was brought by homeowners who did not want to suffer the oversight of EPA for a "soggy residential lot" on which they wanted to build.  The wetland in question was separated from Priest Lake by a road.  The owners started to fill in the bog in 2007 with sand and gravel until they were ordered to stop and restore the land. Instead the wealthy couple sued the EPA. There was near unanimous agreement that the soggy lot was beyond regulation, but the Court split 5-4 on removing the EPAs authority over wetlands not connected to jurisdictional water bodies at the surface.  Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the minority on this issue.  It was the second time recently the Court has limited the EPA's jurisdiction.  In June it ruled to limit the ability of the agency to restrict power plant emissions contributing to global warming.  

This Court clearly wants to undo the administrative framework of agency regulations governing a wide range of subjects from climate to finance to public health using a legal rubric of a "clear statement" from Congress to delegate authority to administrative agencies.  It used a close cousin of this doctrine known as the "major question doctrine" to invalidate regulation of power plant emissions.  Legal observers note that this doctrine was rarely used prior to this Court, but is a "pop-up" rule utilized recently by conservatives who are anti-regulation.  Environmentalists are calling on Congress to explicitly include adjacent wetlands in an amendment to the Clean Water Act.

Corporate Welfare at Work

Repugnants drone on about out-of-control federal spending except when it comes to corporate welfare and the DOD.  Case in point: Hanford Nuclear Waste Site.  Hanford was the facility for the nation's WWII nuclear weapons production as part of the Manhattan Project. Consequently it is now the nation's most contaminated waste site. Clean up began in 1980 and is still far from complete.  In fact boiling radioactive sludge is leaking out of an underground tank, B-109.  Another leaking take B-211 has been contaminating the ground water and soil since at least 2011 when the leak was discovered.  One hundred and seventy seven underground storage tanks are six decades past their useful life hold 56 million gallons of highly radioactive sludge.  The waste threatens the Columbia River and make the area, half the size of Rhode Island, off-limits to the public. Cleaning up Hanford is estimated to take $677 billion with $177 billion. Each year $2 billion is funneled to the clean up, the costs are embedded in the Department of Energy's budget since remediation is an imperative both parties endorse.  Both the Senate and House appropriations committees recently asked President Biden for more money for the Hanford budget.

The privately owned construction behemoth and prime contractor, Bechtel, is unable to stop the leaks.  It's record of contract performance is particularly bad.  Yet year after year it receives tax dollar for its contract to build a vitrification plant to encapsulate radioactive material that has a half-life of 250,000 years.  Despite working on the plant for twelve years, the waste treatment facility has not processed a single drop of radioactive waste. Estimates put the plant's construction cost at $20 billion, and operating costs at $60 billion.  A very lucrative tab to be running with Uncle Sam.  In 2018 the Energy Department excoriated Bechtel for its shoddy work and lack of corrective actions on the waste treatment project.  In 2020 Bechtel and AECOM Energy and Construction paid $58 million in fines for overcharging the government for extended overhead.  In 2016 the companies paid $125 million for using substandard materials.  Finally in 2019 the Inspector General downgraded performance ratings to "marginal".  Despite these rip-offs, Bechtel continues to get its contracts renewed, probably because no other competent company wants the business.

One of the reasons federal spending seems to be skyrocketing is the lack of accountability and oversight over contractors getting fat on federal largest.  No doubt Hanford needs to be made safe. The corroding  storage tanks also produce hydrogen, which could explode producing nuclear fallout on the level of Chernobyl.  Hanford polluted as a national sacrifice zone in the cause of winning a world war. Consequently remediation is the nation's responsibility.  But the clean up could be accomplished with a lot more efficiency.

TWIT: Hit Him Again!

credit: Rivers
BC Idonwanna sez: Election 2024 is night of living dead!

Trump cannot keep his slanderous mouth shut, so E. Jean Caroll sued him again this time for $10 million. The Orchre Menance called Ms. Caroll a "wack job" and denied knowing her during the CNN town hall broadcast and on his web platform.

Other important events TWIT: Steward Rhodes, leader of the Oath Keepers militia group, was sentenced to 18 years for seditious conspiracy. The prosecution asked for twenty-five, but they got the judge to agree to a sentence enhancement for "terrorism".  Judge Mehta told Rhodes at the sentencing hearing,“I dare say, Mr. Rhodes – and I never have said this to anyone I have sentenced – you pose an ongoing threat and peril to our democracy and the fabric of this country,” A second leader from Florida, Kelly Meggs, was given a twelve year sentence. The convicted felons hope for a pardon from the leader, who is still at large.

Jack Smith may be coming to an end of his investigation of the Mar-a-Lago Papers case according to reports. It seems his prosecutors have interviewed everybody at the resort including housekeepers and maintenance staff about what they know of the classified documents stashed by Individual One. It is undeniably clear he did not fully cooperate with the grand jury when it subpoenaed him in May 2022 to return government records. His staff practiced moving boxes of documents before the subpoena was even received. Boxes were moved by valet Walt Nauta and another staff person one day before the DOJ visited the resort to collect the government records. Smith is inquiring into what his motives were for hoarding classified material. He issued a subpoena to the Trump Organization for financial records, apparently looking for a nexus between classified documents Individual One kept in his desk, and business dealings with the Saudis.

The Saudi Royal family has invested in Trump golf courses through its sovereign fund. LIV Golf is 93% owned by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund. This year Trump golf courses will host three tournaments for LIV Golf. It is no wild speculation to think he may have shown classified material to Saudi representatives visiting his Florida office. Witnesses have testified under oath that he kept classified material in the open on his desk, and showed it to aides and visitors. Some of the classified records he illegally hoarded relate to Iran's nuclear weapons program, which the Saudis would undoubtably be interested to see since Iran is a sworn enemy of the Kingdom. If he did reveal classified information to a foreign government, it would be a serious violation of the Espionage Act, as well as provide a pecuniary motive for his seemingly quixotic refusal to turn over all government records in his possession when the government demanded them. Trump's lawyers are clearly worried about the Papers Case. They asked in a letter to Attorney General Garland to speak to him about the prosecution.

Fanni Willis is gearing up to indict Trumpilini for election interference and RICO charges in Georgia. An indictment is expected to be handed down in August or September. Trump will make history as the only presidential candidate running for office while a criminal defendant. District Attorney Willis has made a reputation for her use of Georgia's Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organization statute. She indicted 35 Atlanta school teachers charged with falsifying test results, and the rapper Young Thug and his alleged gang. Willis hired a known expert on RICO prosecutions, John E. Floyd who wrote the book, to be part of her team of prosecutors According to a Brooking Institution analysis, Trumpillini could be charged with election fraud, forgery, making false statements, and witness tampering. Georgia has precedent for bringing a RICO prosecution against public officials; RICO is no longer just for the Tony Sopranos of the world. It could not happen to a nicer guy!

Of course the ultimate criminal case against the former guy is the January 6th Conspiracy. The investigation is on-going, but does not appear to be close to a conclusion given the breath of the attempted coup and the number of people involved. Prosecuting Trumpilini for leading an attempt to overthrow a national election is a historically momentous prosecution fraught with political overtones. Smith has to get it right the first time.

credit: B. Day

Minnesota Joins Election Compact

The count is now 205 with the addition of Minnesota to the Interstate Voting Compact.  The nation is within shouting distance of the magic 270 electoral votes.  It is possible that USA could exceed that number by 2028.  As US Person told you before {16.04.2007}, the Compact is the only realistic way the anachronistic Electoral College, which facilitated the attempted MAGA Coup of 2020 can be effectively eliminated.  If the 270 vote level is reached by eight more states joining, then the presidency will be decided by a national popular vote, as it properly should be.  Nevada, Maine and Michigan control 25 electoral votes and are in control of Democratic legislatures.  Michigan is set to join later this year. Maine may join next year, followed by Nevada if a 2026 referendum approves joining. Five more states controlling 40 or more electoral votes must be won by state Democrats.  Not an impossible task, but certainly difficult. See the map, below:  

The 100 Year Old War Criminal

Yes, that's right. Henry Kissinger turns 100 this weekend. He has lived an elite, high-profile life of exclusive social events, dating Hollywood starlets, and receiving prestigious awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977. And while he is known for leading the Paris peace talks that ended the Vietnam War, he has a much darker reputation--"Dark Brandon"-- that has been ignored in the last half century since the end of America's most unpopular and controversial war. The Intercept has posted a series of articles concerning his role in Nixon's secret war in Cambodia.  Newly released archive documents show a monstrous bombing campaign on a neutral nation that killed upwards of 150,000 civilian Cambodians living along the Vietnam-Cambodian border [map], a figure much higher than previously reported. Kissinger himself admitted to only 50,000 civilian casualties during the campaign. The US flew over 230,000 sorties over Southeast Asia. Besides killing innocents in great numbers, the secret campaign did not succeed in suppressing communist insurgency. The Khmer Rouge grew from a small force of fewer than 10,000 in 1969 to over 200,000 troops and militia in 1973 using the bombing campaign as recruiting propaganda.

Nixon came to power promising to end the war in Vietnam. But in December 1970 he expanded it by attacking Cambodian border areas [map], allegedly in pursuit of the NVA and Viet Cong seeking sanctuary in the neighboring country. He called Kissinger in a rage demanding, "everything that can fly to go in and crack the hell out of them". Minutes later National Security Advisor Kissinger was on the phone with his military aide, General Haig, relaying the order for attack. Planning for a military campaign had begun two years earlier, just one month after Nixon took office. Kissinger has never been held to account for his participation in what Christopher Hitchens labeled in his book, "The Trial of Henry Kissinger", war crimes. In 2002 an Australian human rights activist attempted to secure an arrest warrant from a British court in 2002 under the Geneva Convention of 1957. Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav President, was on trial for war crimes. The court refused to issue a warrant citing insufficient evidence. Kissenger has enjoyed imputinty for his actions for five decades. The bombing of civilians by the American military can be traced from the Cambodian campaign to the later warfare in Lybia, Somalia, Yemen and Afghanistan. [Peter Sellers as "Dr. Strangelove"]

The new evidence shows villagers in the boarder zone were intensely bombed and strafed by US aircraft, sometimes everyday. One survivor recalls that a US helicopter gunship attacked unarmed farmers working in the rice fields. Surviving military records of the various operations in the border zone are sparse; the military campaign was a secret operation to avoid adverse US public reaction. Some records were falsified to maintain secrecy. American planes taking off on missions to bomb South Vietnam were rerouted in midair to their real targets in Cambodia. Records were altered to show that the sites authorized to be bombed actually were bombed, while evidence of the real bombing runs was destroyed. General Creighton W. Abrams, commander of US forces in Vietnam at that time, told Congress that a furnace dedicated to the destruction of this evidence “burned probably 12 hours a day.” One operation is prominent for its brutality: Operation Menu, B-52 bombing runs against the border region. Another survivor recalls a B-52 strike on the village of Por in which "everything was destroyed". He lost 17 members of his family in the air raid. In the village of Mroan half the residents, about 250 people, were wiped out. Kissenger approved each one of the 3,875 sorties in a region he told an inquiring journalist was "essentially unpopulated". There are more  harrowing examples of the human devastation caused by US bombing raids and ground incursions in the Intercept post. In January 1971 Congress passed the Cooper-Church amendment outlawing US ground operations in Cambodia, but US military incursions did not stop. The Nixon administration lied about their military activity.

Kissenger did all of this for a man he did not respect, and for a cause he thought was lost after his first visit to Vietnam. He declared after his political mentor Nelson Rockefeller lost the nomination that, "Nixon is not fit to be President". Yet he persisted in his support of Nixon's policies of an 'honorable end' to the war that prolonged it and killed millions. His rationale was apparently that US prestige and power wouild suffer irreparable damage if it simply withdrew from the conflict. An interesting footnote to history is that Hillary Clinton wrote in her review of  Kissinger's book, "World Order", that she considers him a friend.

COTW: EV Performance Improving

The chart shows that the median range of electrical vehicles has almost quadrupled in the space of a decade.  Electric vehicles are still expensive despite government tax credits for their purchase. Gas powered cars will still be around in 2050, as people hold on to their conventional cars longer. The average age of light vehicles is now 12.5 years, an all-time high.  There is an argument that running your gas-powered car longer will reduce the impact of mining for battery components, and pollution from manufacturing new EVs, as well as allowing time for the industry to mature.  California, the state with the most vehicles, has banned their sale after 2035. EVs can be expected to last 15 to twenty years; most new ones come with an eight year or 100,000 mile (federal minimum) manufacturer's warranty,  

Ion batteries degrade over time, becoming less efficient and powerful; it is an unavoidable fact of battery chemistry.  Studies based on Nissan's Leaf and Telsa S, which have been on the road for a decade have shown that vehicle batteries are holding up well.  Renault-Nissan Energy Services estimated in 2019 its Leaf batteries could last as long and twenty-two years. There have been two recalls for battery replacement in only two models, Chevrolet Bolt and Hyundai Kona.  This chart shows reported battery replacement by 15,000 owners:

credit: Recurrent

If you are considering buying an EV, you may be doing so partially based on environmental concerns.  One question to ask is, what is your prospective manufacturer doing with used batteries?  A ion battery may be too weak to power a vehicle, but can still hold enough electric charge to do other work.  Nissan estimates that a twenty-year old cell could store 40% of its original energy capacity.  Plans are still being made by manufacturers for reusing a massive amount of discarded batteries as EV fleets age.  These batteries contain toxic materials as well as reusable materials and should not be disposed of carelessly, if EVs are to maintain their clean and sustainable energy reputation.