This Blog is created to stress the importance of Peace as an environmental directive. “I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell.” – Harry Truman
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Friday, August 24, 2018
There was a conscientious employee at the USA EPA sending out the warnings about the lead in Flint's water. The name is Miguel del Toral.The full responsibility for the lead in Flint's water is Governor Snyder. He was told and did nothing.
January 27, 2016 By Caitline Keating Miguel del Toral heard LeeAnne Walter’s concerns loud and clear. (click here) “If it weren’t for LeeAnne, this may have gone on a lot longer than it did,” hetold ABC News. Del Toral, a manager at the Environmental Protection Agency, authorized a report in July 2015, noting the high lead levels in Flint. The EPA had previously said that there was likely something wrong with Walters’ pipes that was causing lead in her water, but del Toral told the news outlet that she has plastic pipes, which could not cause the problems she was experiencing. “They certainly didn’t take the actions that I think would have been needed to mitigate the problem,” he said. In a leaked memo written by del Toral, it was revealed that the city s drinking water was not treated for corrosion control which caused the lead to leach out of the pipes. “I think you go back to the beginning and say this should have never happened in the first place,” he told ABC. “It’s inconceivable that you would allow a system with lead service lines – a large system – not to have a treatment in place.”... They knew and did nothing. If there was a cover-up it started at the highest levels of the state government. There is no getting away from the fact there was substantial damage done to the people of Flint, Michigan because of the profound negligence and wrongful priorities of the Governor's leadership. August 23, 2018 By Ron Fonger ...Miguel Del Toral, (click here) a regional groundwater regulations manager for the EPA, testified Wednesday, Aug. 22, before Genesee District Court Judge Jennifer Manley during the preliminary examinations for four current or former state Department of Environmental Quality officials. The four are Stephen Busch, 42, Michael Prysby, 55, Patrick Cook, 54, and Liane Shekter-Smith, 58, and Del Toral said he communicated with each about what needed to be done. In some cases, EPA officials inquired about corrosion control through emails or phone calls, Del Toral testified, and he recalled discussing the issue with Shekter-Smith in person at EPA's regional headquarter in Chicago.....
August 23, 2018 By Sue Halpern ...Voter-registration databases, (click here) like the one in the cyber range and the ones built for the young R00tz Asylum hackers, are rich targets for hackers. “If we look at what happened in 2016, that was all about poking the back-office systems and support systems,” Hursti said. During the 2016 election, Russian operatives targeted election systems in twenty states. Change a letter in the spelling of a voter’s name, change a house number, strike someone from the registry altogether, and when they show up at the polls they’re going to be turned away. This is crucial: votes don’t need to be changed and voting machines don’t need to be tampered with for an election to be hacked....
August 23, 2018 ...The memo claimed that the “communications infrastructure” (click here) that the Obama White House used to “sell Obamacare and the Iran Deal to the public” had been moved to the private sector, now that the former aides were out of government. It called the network the Echo Chamber and accused its members of mounting a coördinated effort “to undermine President Trump’s foreign policy” through organized attacks in the press against Trump and his advisers. “These are the Obama loyalists who are probably among those coordinating the daily/weekly battle rhythm,” the memo said, adding that they likely operated a “virtual war room.” The memo lists Ben Rhodes, a former deputy national-security adviser to President Obama, as “likely the brain behind this operation” and Colin Kahl, Vice-President Joe Biden’s former national-security adviser, as its “likely ops chief.” Rhodes and Kahl both said in interviews that the allegations are false and no such organization exists.... President Obama doesn't have loyalists. President Obama has admirers that care about his dialogue with others. President Obama is a brilliant man with morality to match his intellect. He is no different than President Bill Clinton, Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and all other leaders of the Democratic Party, including the Late Senator Ted Kennedy and his magnificent brothers, the Late Attorney General Bobby Kennedy and President Kennedy. I need not qualify former President Jimmy Carter, he has led the global dialogue regarding very sensitive and humanitarian issues. By the way, has everyone noticed that Israel and it's march into the Syria and it's blaming of Egypt for Gaza has stopped since the Russians arrived as peacekeepers. I just thought I'd bring that to the picture of world leaders past, present and retired that serve as pivotal figures in the world's history. When President Obama went to Australia to speak he was rewarded handsomely and more so than either Clintons bring to their speaking engagements. To think any of these magnificent leaders would actually have time or the notion to lead a stupid loyalist movement is completely bizarre and deranged. ...In May, 2017, that firm, Black Cube, provided its operatives with instructions and other briefing materials that included the same ideas and names discussed in the memo. The Black Cube documents obtained by The New Yorker referred to Rhodes and Kahl, arguing that they were using allies in the media to undermine the Trump Administration. The Black Cube documents use the term “echo chamber” five times, including in a document describing the operatives’ directive as “Investigating the Rhodes’ / Kahl ‘Eco-chamber.’ ” The same document states that “Rhodes and Kahl are suspected to make use of privileged access and information leveraging it against the incumbent administration.”... We know about "Black Cube." It is that dangerous agency created by an former Israeli intelligence officer that ran investigations for folks like Harvey Weinstein. There is no link between some kind of loyalty issue with President Obama. This idea has got to be among the idiotic notions ever created. President Obama's speaking engagements could run circles around the likes of "Black Cube." Enough. .
It must be interesting to be on those Navy ships. They can literally move to sea and observe Lane passing by. Hopefully the ports aren't too damaged in case ships need to move back in to help the people there.
I believer there is a strong possibility it is running rampant in the USA. IPSEITY = The experiential sense of being a vital and self-identical subject of experience or first person perspective on the world Two main aspects of this self- or IPSEITY DISTURBANCE: HYPERREFLEXIVITY = exaggerated self-consciousness involving self-alienation and DIMINISHED SELF-AFFECTION = diminished intensity or vitality of one's own subjective self-presence A third aspect: DISTURBED "HOLD" OR "GRIP" = loss of salience or stability with which objects stand out in an organized field of awareness
August 24, 2018 UNISYS water vapor GOES West satellite (click here for 12 hour loop - thank you) 24 August 2018 1500.18z An overnight brush fire (click here) Friday near Maui’s resort area of Lahaina has forced evacuations as Hurricane Lane approaches Hawaii with life-threatening amounts of rain, officials said. The brush fire, near Lahaina’s Kauaula Valley, is estimated to cover between three and four acres, according to a Maui County emergency alert. A nearby storm shelter has been moved from Lahaina Intermediate School to the Lahaina Civic Center, the alert said. Authorities have begun evacuating residents in the area, and some roads have closed. There are no reports of injuries. A Twitter user named Stephen Lai tweeted a photo of a tower of gray smoke rising into the night sky with the message: “So this is currently happening on our last night in Maui…and no I’m not talking about #HurricaneLane it’s a fire in Lahaina.” Emergency personnel responded to reports of a brush fire about 1 a.m., officials said.... A brush fire on Maui is spreading as Hurricane Lane approaches Hawaii. Latest report is that the fire is spreading. One would expect a fire to be virtually extinguished with such heavy rain, however, that is not the case. I don't recall fire fighter training that encompasses what to do about hot lava balls. They don't become cool rock until all the lava including that which is inside cools as well. The video below is the big island of Hawai'i. I can't believe a person would actually walk on a bridge with such tremendously dangerous water running under it. Americans aren't cautious enough with their own lives anymore. This is ridiculous. The substrate the bridge is built on could be undermined by water this powerful and yet some stupid American doesn't care enough about their own life to stay safe. Amazing. I am surprised they haven't tried white water rafting. Seriously. That is how completely idiotic the American people have become. A buoy recorded 107 mph inside the "eye" of the hurricane as it moved over top of it. The eye is supposed to be calm. 107 mph is equivalent to a Category One hurricane in the eye of Hurricane Lane.
A year is a long time to be treating cancer. Brain tumors can be immediately devastating, but, sometimes the cancer has received enough treatment to be dormant for a length of time. I hope it is the latter. I wish him, his family, friends and colleagues solace through this difficult time. August 24, 2018 By Nicholas Fandos and Jonathan Martin Washington — Senator John McCain of Arizona, (click here) who has been battling brain cancer for more than a year, will no longer be treated for his condition, his family announced on Friday, a sign that the Republican war hero is most likely entering his final days. “Last summer, Senator John McCain shared with Americans the news our family already knew: He had been diagnosed with an aggressive glioblastoma, and the prognosis was serious. In the year since, John has surpassed expectations for his survival. But the progress of disease and the inexorable advance of age render their verdict,” the family said in a statement. “With his usual strength of will, he has now chosen to discontinue medical treatment.” Mr. McCain, 81, had been undergoing treatment since July 2017, and has been absent from Washington since December. Mr. McCain’s family has gathered in Arizona, and people close to him say his death is imminent. From his ranch in Arizona, Mr. McCain had managed to maintain a voice in key foreign policy and military policy debates, sharply criticizing President Trump after his summit meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, an old adversary of Mr. McCain. At home, he has welcomed close friends to renew ties. But after decades as a fixture in Washington and a larger-than-life character, he had largely retreated from the public eye....
