Said the Intercept: “Its seems
strange…that Democrats…say Trump is an authoritarian, lawless traitor, but…keep
voting to increase his war powers, military budget, and detention and spying
authorities.”
Meanwhile, chugging away,
nuclear
plants continue to supply the needed plutonium to obliterate the life on Earth
and so doing keep piling up more nuclear waste, some 100,000 metric tons of it
and counting.
But the climate has a nasty way of
non-cooperation: in particular, with high temperatures this week in much of
France, some of its nuclear reactors cannot be cooled. Rivers have become too
warm, and EDF has had to cut energy output.
And now before a complaisant congress
is a proposal to truck all that waste throughout the United States to two
temporary dump sites in Texas and New Mexico. Moving it would have to continue
for the next 40 years, there’s that much nuclear waste piled up. To quote the
Nuclear Information and Resource Service: “Thousands
of casks of this waste would move on our roads, rails and waterways! It could
take 40-50 years to move the waste once but then it would all presumably move
again to a different permanent site, [one] as yet to be found…So this could be
the start of a virtually endless campaign of moving insanely radioactive
nuclear waste back and forth across the country.”
So
please, dear reader, especially if you prefer not to read the fine print below,
before doing anything else,
please
send your comment (already written out for you ) to the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission right now.
The deadline is July 30th.
(https://org2.salsalabs.com/o/5502/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=26386)
NIRS lists 9 reasons to oppose the dump
1. The plan cannot go through unless
you and every other taxpayer in the United States, including those not yet born
agree to assume ownership for this waste, and pay to transport it. U.S. federal
laws forbid such an arrangement.
2. Tetra Tech, the contractor Holtec chose to make the
Environmental Impact Report, has a track record of falsifying radiation
monitoring data, hiring unqualified workers to conduct scanning and clean ups;
and suppressing reports for 20 years namey the Navy’s Hunters Point site which
has been converted to San Francisco housing!
3. Proposed storage site in
Texas is home to agriculture, dairy farms. And New Mexico, already
victim of the 94 million-gallon “spill” by Kerr McGee into the Rio Puerco, is a minority
state, and has experienced environmental racism for decades.
4. Canisters as reported in last week’s Tin Can Alley are less than an inch thick, cannot be monitored for
leaks, and do not in any way conform to safety requirements in the case of
fire, road accidents, or extended submersion in water. Contact with water
leading to erosion will ultimately cause leaks, resulting in a nuclear
explosion.
 |
| Break down of rail (red) and highway transportation |
5. Some of these canisters contain high burn up fuel.
6. As of now the nuclear regulatory commission has been
unable to report as to the distantly located emergency response teams, upon
which these sites will rely.
7. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission tends to ignore such factors as high
temperatures, salty dry climates, potential flash floods, lightning, blocked
vents, and other factors contributing to un predictable conditions.
8. So-called “interim” storage could well become permanent.
9. Consolidating this waste raises the specter of
reprocessing to extract the plutonium required
to manufacture nuclear weapons leading to weapons proliferation.
But there is a tenth reason: One site, Yucca Mountain, on
Western Shoshone land, is located in the basement of a mountain slowly swimming
westward. It consists of 10% water, and its drip has been shown to corrode metal
within 20 minutes.
Please send your comment (see above) to The Nuclear Regulatory
Commission at https://org2.salsalabs.com/o/5502/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=26386
Read a book I wish I had authored myself: John D’Agata: About a Mountain.
Judiciary
U.S. Court of appeals rules in favor the Oglala Sioux,
protecting the Black Hills from uranium mining.
Federal Judge Peter Missette allows emoluments lawsuit,
challenging Trump’s refusal to divest assets, to proceed.
By releasing a man awaiting a retrial without bond, Judge
Wm. Hooks of Cook country may have set a precedent.
Court orders NYPD to record all citizen encounters.
North Dakota attorney general sues Dakota Access pipeline,
charging it never acquired legal ownership of the land.
Necessity defense allowed in Resist Spectra/Enbridge AIM
pipeline case.
A new Cuban constitution revises the legal definition of
marriage.
Four years after he murdered Eric Garner, NYPD officer is
finally facing charges.
Judge Dana Sabraw orders temporary halt to deportation of
reunited migrant families.
Polk County District Judge Karen Romano issues temporary
injunction barring the state from implementing some of the provisions of Iowa’s
new voter ID law, restoring the absentee early voting period and blocking
certain ID requirements.
A three-member panel of the 7th Court of Appeals in
Indiana determines that the requirement forcing any woman considering an
abortion to undergo an ultrasound 18 hours before the procedure imposes an unconstitutional
undue burden on women.
Federal Judge, Jesse Furman allows legal challenge to
Trump’s citizen question on the census to go forward.
U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty frees pizza man jailed by
ICE.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denies Trump administration’s
attempt to dismiss suit by 21 kids suing the U.S. government over climate
change.
Resistance
RAICES rejects $250,000 Salesforce Corporation donation over
company’s border agency ties.
In Iowa, the “No Respect” added to the U.S. Army billboard
urges people to oppose the active war zone at Drone Command Center next to Des
Moines International Airport.
White House stenographer quits because “Trump is lying to
the American people.”
Jailhouse Lawyers Speak issues call for National prison
strike August 21 to protest prison slave labor.
Lod stages unique Jewish-Arab LGBTQ Pride event.
Children march through San Francisco Streets and other
cities, demanding adults protect them from a future of climate chaos.
Volos, Greece, resorts to barter to by-pass use of Euro.
In Sweden, Elin Ersson, a college student, stopped a deportation to
Afghanistan by holding up an international flight.
Ahed Tamimi and her mother, Nariman, are released from Israeli
prison where Tamimi was held for slapping an Israeli soldier.
“I am a child”: 100
kids and their advocates fill Senate office building demanding family
unification.
Labor
Famed Seattle fish market sold to longtime employees rather
than highest bidder.
Forbes reports that Vermont’s Putney Food coop produces more
revenue per square foot than fancy chains like Whole Foods.
Starbucks announces it will open it’s first “signing store”
where employees must be proficient in sign language. (Yes, but what minimum
wage will it pay them ?)
NFL rethinks its anthem policy after Miami Dolphins try to
punish protesting players.
New Zealand offers paid leave to domestic violence
survivors.
Environment
UNESCO designates 24 new biosphere reserves.
Estimating that its mean ban will save 16.7 billion gallons
of water, WeWork, a London company, goes
meat free.
31 new solar power plants bring 1 gigawatt of renewable
power to Portugal.
Thanks to 100% wind and solar, Republican Georgetown TX mayor Dale Ross announces his
town has some of the lowest energy costs in Central Texas.
After a long list of violations, Oregon shuts down Lost
Valley mega-dairy factory farm for good.
With tailpipe emissions the largest source of pollutants,
California school districts order all-electric buses.
After first approving
a plan charging ratepayers billions of dollars for the emergency closing
of San Onofre nuclear plant, California Public Utilities Commission trims $750
million from customer bills.
In a grid modernization plan, Dominion of Virginia hopes to
target 3 GW of wind and solar.
Andrew Wheeler, acting administrator of the EPA announces
that he won’t follow Pruit’s order giving super polluting trucks a temporary
pass.
Philanthropy
Aware that it’s not a lack of food keeping people hungry, Atlanta’s Goodr partners with restaurants to
deliver their unused food—already up to 900,000 pounds— to the hungry
while allowing restaurants to reduce their trash bills and increase their tax
write-offs.
Politics
Joint Sanders-Occasion-Cortez Kansas rally is so mobbed, it
has to relocate to much larger quarters.
Democrats demand records for Kavanaugh, Trump’s Supreme
Court nominee before starting the confirmation process. (Duh.)
House progressives, putting common good above billionaires,
introduce “People’s Budget.”
California dental and medical associations announce that
they will pursue a statewide sofa tax initiative on the 2020 ballot.
So far this year, North Carolina has not been guilty of
voter caging.
Recalling Trump’s infamous remarks during his presidential
campaign, Massachusetts’ “Nasty Women” Act, will officially stop a Roe v. Wade reversal from automatically
banning abortion in the state.
Chutzpah
Immigrant parents charged up to $8 a minute to call their
kids.
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