FirstCircle

Richard Spiese, a hazardous site manager with the Department of Environmental Conservation, said that Bennington has the most severe PFAS contamination problem in Vermont due to this groundwater spread.

As an environmental studies professor at Williams College, Martin focuses on environmental justice. She explained that PFAS, known as “forever chemicals,” have been shown to build up in the body over time and to persist in the food chain. However, the community harm and individual health concerns related to chronic exposure to industrial pollutants is hard to prove and quantify.

She added that regulation of chemicals in the United States places the burden of proof of harm on individuals and communities, rather than requiring companies to prove that their products are safe and not polluting the environment.

“There’s a couple of different barriers that rural communities like those in Vermont face when seeking justice for companies exposing them to pollutants,” Martin said. “One of them is the fact that these pollutants like PFOA cause injuries that take years to decades to manifest.”

Martin noted that Vermont’s limit on PFAS contamination in public drinking water — 20 parts per trillion — is currently less strict than federal guidelines. She believes the state should work to align its policies with federal standards.

Bryan Redmond, director of the state’s Drinking Water and Groundwater Protection Division, said the state has been working to come in line with the EPA regulations set by the Biden administration. But a recent EPA lawsuit filing – from new leadership there under the new administration of President Donald Trump, resulted in the court issuing in February a 60-day temporary suspension of the federal guidelines.

Christian fascists distort Christianity to sacralize white supremacy, the U.S. empire and capitalism, as well as demonizing those who oppose them as satanic. These heretics — I speak as a dvinity school graduate — deform the Gospels in the same way Jewish fascists deform the Torah. In fact, according to the eschatology of the Christian fascists, Jews in Israel in the “End Times” will be converted to Christianity or exterminated, which exposes their deep antisemitic roots and open embrace of Nazi theorists such as Carl Schmidt and sympathizers such as Rousas John Rushdoony.

Jewish supremacy, like the supremacy of the Christian fascists, is, these fanatics claim, sanctified by God. The slaughter of the Palestinians, who Benjamin Netanyahu compared to the biblical Amalekites, are the incarnate of evil and deserve to be massacred. Euro-Americans in the American colonies used the same biblical passage to justify the genocide of Native Americans. Violence and the threat of violence are the only forms of communication those inside the magical circle of Jewish nationalism or Christian nationalism speak.

The decision to add the US to the first 2025 watchlist was made in response to what the group described as the “Trump administration’s assault on democratic norms and global cooperation”.

In the news release announcing the US’s addition, the organization cited recent actions taken by the Trump administration that they argue will likely “severely impact constitutional freedoms of peaceful assembly, expression, and association”.

The group cited several of the administration’s actions such as the mass termination of federal employees, the appointment of Trump loyalists in key government positions, the withdrawal from international efforts such as the World Health Organization and the UN Human Rights Council, the freezing of federal and foreign aid and the attempted dismantling of USAid.

The organization warned that these decisions “will likely impact civic freedoms and reverse hard-won human rights gains around the world”.

The group also pointed to the administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters, and the Trump administration’s unprecedented decision to control media access to presidential briefings, among others.

Even those who expected the worst from his reelection (I among them) expected more rationality. Today, it is clear that what has happened since January 20 is not just a change of administration but a change of regime—a change, that is, in our system of government. But a change to what?

There is an answer, and it is not classic authoritarianism—nor is it autocracy, oligarchy, or monarchy. Trump is installing what scholars call patrimonialism. Understanding patrimonialism is essential to defeating it. In particular, it has a fatal weakness that Democrats and Trump’s other opponents should make their primary and relentless line of attack.

The Tesla, the ad promises, "goes from zero to 1939 in three seconds."

The image has been displayed on at least one bus stop in Bethnal Green, London, by a group called Everyone Hates Elon.

Thomas Preston, C. O. Johnson distinguished professor of political science at Washington State University, said in an interview Friday that Baumgartner’s position was “shameful” and the administration’s actions that morning were “disturbing.”

“It’s just an utterly disgraceful comment, and it seems that very few Republicans have any sort of courage or fortitude to actually stand up to what is clearly just a vile and disgraceful performance that we saw today in the White House,” Preston said.

Preston characterized the mineral rights proposal as grossly transactional – pay to use Trump’s fire hose or he’ll let Ukraine burn down – and ultimately a “smokescreen” meant to give Trump an excuse to pull out of Ukraine altogether. He argued acquiring the minerals is significantly more uncertain than Trump has claimed and that there appear to be few guarantees for the security for Ukrainians if they sign a deal.

“Super pigs” wreaked havoc on the U.S.–Canada border; after a second deadly attack, pigs in Piedmont, Alabama, were put down; and a grand jury recommended the abolition of the Hanceville, Alabama, police force after determining that the department, of which every officer is currently on administrative leave, represents “an ongoing threat to public safety.”

Musk wrote he was acting “consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions,” apparently referencing a social media post Trump shared earlier Saturday encouraging the billionaire to be harsher in his efforts to slash the federal workforce.

Trump posted on Saturday morning to Truth Social, his social media platform, commending Musk for doing “A GREAT JOB,” but adding, “I WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIM GET MORE AGGRESSIVE.”

This is kinda regional, but also not, as the Grand Coulee Dam produces a tremendous amount of power for the US.

The third powerhouse ("Nat"), completed in 1974 to increase energy production, makes Grand Coulee the largest power station in the United States by nameplate capacity at 6,809 MW (Wikipedia).

And now the Regime is firing the people who run it.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/26300141

Though we might find it hard to imagine, we cannot now rule it out: the possibility of systemic collapse in the United States. The degradation of federal government by Donald Trump and Elon Musk could trigger a series of converging and compounding crises, leading to social, financial and industrial failure.

Though we might find it hard to imagine, we cannot now rule it out: the possibility of systemic collapse in the United States. The degradation of federal government by Donald Trump and Elon Musk could trigger a series of converging and compounding crises, leading to social, financial and industrial failure.

From Bernie Sanders (video).

The President of the United States is aligning himself with the dictator of Russia, Vladimir Putin, to undermine the independence of Ukraine and its democracy.