1/26/17::End of the Day

The following was shared by author Chris Rodda (Liars for Jesus 1 & 2), "[i]t's a video that Bruce Wilson put together about the Betsy DeVos-funded project, Student Statemanship Institute. This should answer the questions some were asking about Devos's dominionist Christian agenda. This is the kind of indoctrination that DeVos wants to be paid for with public tax dollars."



As Chris notes, SSI isn't the only such program as David Barton and his sidekick Rick Green run one in Texas called "Patriot Academy." There is also the "mission" of Patrick Henry College, "to train Christian men and women who will lead our nation and shape our culture with timeless biblical values and fidelity to the spirit of the American founding". [See also: God's Next Army https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfdFZG8lYJE Listen very carefully to part 3 and especially part 4. In part 3 they do clips of their classes, each class is like a mini Sunday indoctrination session. In part 4 they talk of the internships, listen to what the issues are that they're attacking - privatization of soc security, estate taxes - think "Jesus Camp" on steroids with much broader implications for all of us.] And who can forget Sarah Palin and the Master's Commission [also from Bruce Wilson https://vimeo.com/1679097]

This is what DeVos and her ilk believe and are striving for in our schools. They want to go the charter or voucher route as gov't oversight is very lax to begin with as well as the belief that the "gov't" doesn't have jurisdiction for oversight.


Trump's voter fraud probe could pave way for tougher voting rules

One of the biggest issues to come out of this push for an investigation by Trump into the possibility of "voter fraud", is tougher voting rules. One aspect being more restrictive voter ID laws. We'll leave the discriminatory BS out of the mix for the moment.

Regardless of the fact that Trump's claim is bogus, it is more fuel for the GOTP. Let's throw a kink in that plan and instead of waiting 2 years (mid-term elections). Whether - your Green, Dem, Independent, or whatever - let's get those without proper ID the assistance they need to secure documents needed.

It took me 10 months to replace my BC. I lived 1500 miles away from my home state and I was adopted. Because I lacked photo ID (stolen) I had to rely on my father to secure a certified copy. My roadblock was simple, for others it's not so easy.

South Dakota's antiscience bill passes the Senate | NCSE

Kentucky bill seeks to make the bible part of public school curriculum

Religious freedom bill dies in Colorado House – The Denver Post

This is a good thing people. Simply put, had this bill passed it would have legalized discrimination against LGBTQI people.

",,,a thinly veiled attempt to legalize discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. And, they fear a slippery slope — how far could someone go in claiming religious belief to justify ignoring anti-discrimination laws?"

The Reich has hijacked the phrase "religious freedom", there is no such thing in these type of bills. Remember SB1062 in AZ or the debacle in IN? It's the same.

EPA Scientists' Work May Face 'Case By Case' Review By Trump Team, Official Says : The Two-Way : NPR 

Any review would directly contradict the agency's current scientific integrity policy, which was published in 2012. It prohibits "all EPA employees, including scientists, managers and other Agency leadership from suppressing, altering, or otherwise impeding the timely release of scientific findings or conclusions."

It also would likely have a chilling effect on the agency's ability to conduct research on the environmental issues it is charged with regulating.

Ericksen's comments come just days after Trump's team ordered agencies to limit their external communications to the public. Employees at the EPA, the Department of Agriculture and the Interior Department, among others, have been instructed not to post on social media accounts. At the EPA, the staff was told not to speak to the news media.

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PS::  Going back to an old format to see if that will kick-start my writing juices!!

Rattled By Industry Pollution, Residents Fear Drop In EPA Inspections And Enforcement

In New Mexico, Navajo communities worry that uranium mining could contaminate the aquifer that feeds their drinking water. In southeastern states from Alabama to Virginia, residents fear a cluster of coal-powered plants will impact their health for generations. And in the Harlem section of Manhattan, advocates say the high rates of asthma among residents are a “direct result from breathing dirty air.”

For these communities and others abutting big industry, worry over failing health and pollution has intensified as the Environmental Protection Agency intends to significantly curtail the number of inspections and enforcement cases it brings nationwide over the next five years.

Those cutbacks — continuing a trend, the Center for Public Integrity found, that began in 2006 and accelerated last year — mean the EPA will conduct thousands fewer inspections and evaluations each year, and initiate and conclude thousands fewer judicial and administrative enforcement cases.

Rattled By Industry Pollution, Residents Fear Drop In EPA Inspections And Enforcement

States Eye Toxic Chemical Reform As Washington Fails To Act

In 1976, Congress passed the Toxic Substances Control Act, a federal framework intended to safeguard the public from dangerous chemicals. Yet in the nearly four decades since, TSCA, as it is known, has done little more than gather dust. Among tens of thousands of chemicals in commerce, the Environmental Protection Agency has “only been able to require testing on a little more than 200 existing chemicals,” and banned five, the EPA told The Center for Public Integrity.

Everyone wants to revamp TSCA — from the industry’s $100 million lobbying arm, the American Chemistry Council, to the Environmental Defense Fund, an advocacy group, to the EPA itself.

Yet three years to the month since the late New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg proposed sweeping change through the Safe Chemicals Act of 2011, the TSCA overhaul remains in the works, with proposals, counter-proposals and criticisms about the working draft’s fine print.

Fed up with logjams in D.C., state legislators are filing hundreds of measures in their own states to do what the federal government hasn’t — take action against destructive chemicals, by singling out the most dangerous toxins and seeking to remove them from shelves.

States Eye Toxic Chemical Reform As Washington Fails To Act

EPA Threatens To Charge Farmer $37,500 Every Time It Rains

As read read through this article the last paragraph jumped out at me, "Mrs. Alt has courageously taken on EPA not just for her own benefit, but for the benefit of other farmers. She refused to back down from her principles despite the best efforts of EPA and,,,." Being one that follows those of a conspiratorial mindset, this question came to mind. Why? Why is the EPA so set in making an example of Lois Alt?

I did a quick search out of curiosity, Alt is small fry, 125,000 birds (sorry pun intended), compared to Tyson Foods, Inc and Pilgrim's Corp whose birds number in the 20+ million range. So outside interest or influence doesn't quite fit the scenario. In other words, "big ag" would not gain anything by shutting her down. If anything, I would think that companies such as Tyson would benefit in some way from Alt prevailing in court, but there is so much legalese involved in this case it is hard to follow. So again, I ask why?

This is not normally an area of interest to me and I'm not sure why this story piqued my interest. But is seems that a lot of money and time is being wasted. All I see is the EPA trying to increase the coffers by pushing this into law so they can apply it to the rest of the country and all farms or anyone having farm animals.
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Lois Alt, a chicken farmer based in West Virginia, was threatened in 2012 with a $37,500 fine every time it rained on or near her property due to a federal investigation. The fine was mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency under the guidance of the Clean Water Act, which aims to ensure that certain practices are not detrimental to the environment.

The EPA found that storm water near Alt’s farm would come into contact with dust, feathers and manure before entering a local waterway. The EPA also found high levels of nitrogen in the chickens’ waste, which could threaten the water supply. Alt filed a lawsuit against the EPA, claiming that her farm is exempt from clean water regulations due to its small, independent size. She won the initial case, but an appeal by the EPA has brought the case to a U.S. District Court.

EPA Threatens To Charge Farmer $37,500 Every Time It Rains

See also:

Chicken fight: Study backs farmer in pollution battle with EPA

Alt's case could get a boost from a new University of Delaware study, which shows the EPA has been overestimating the environmental effect of runoff from feedlots and small farms like Alt's for years. The study found that the level of nitrogen found in chicken manure is 55 percent lower than the decades-old standards set by the EPA. Those findings could give Alt and her legal team powerful ammunition when they go to court on behalf of small farmers everywhere.

[,,,]
The Delaware study raises the possibility of many farmers having been wrongly fined for polluting the ecosystem in the past, a prospect that would only confirm the suspicions of farming advocates.

Fracking wastewater contaminated Pennsylvania streambeds, study finds | The Raw Story

Despite being treated, waste water from fracking and other forms of gas and oil extraction can leave elevated levels of contaminants in streambeds at the point they are discharged and well downstream, according to a study published Wednesday.

Among the potentially harmful effects of the waste-water discharges, the study found, is the creation of radioactive hot spots from naturally occurring radium that settles out of the treated water and into streambed sediments.

The study, which tracked contaminants once they become part of a stream's flow, examined the outflow from a waste water-treatment facility on Blacklick Creek in western Pennsylvania and its effects on the creek's water and bottom sediments.

The facility is one of three in the region involved in a settlement with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in May that resulted in a $83,000 penalty for the owner, Fluid Recovery Services, LLC, for violating provisions of its water-treatment discharge permit.

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health found high levels of barium, benzene, chlorides, strontium, and other contaminants at the end of the outflow pipe in excess of state and federal water-quality standards.

They presented their results at an EPA workshop on the fate and transport of waste water from fracking in March 2011 and formally published their results last March in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

Four months after the EPA workshop, Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection collected sediment samples from inside the discharge pipe at the site and found radium-226 levels some 44 times higher than drinking-water standards allow. Several tens of yards downstream, levels were 66 times higher than standards allow. Radium-226 has a half-life of 1,600 years.

[,,,]
The question the team was trying to help address: "What's the larger, overall impact of all this new shale-gas development," Dr. Warner says. "We looked at interactions with shallow ground water and didn't find major impacts. But what happens with surface-water disposal?"

Fracking wastewater contaminated Pennsylvania streambeds, study finds | The Raw Story

See also for a different perspective: Dangerous levels of radioactivity found at fracking waste site in Pennsylvania: Co-author of study says UK must impose better environmental regulation than US if it pursues shale gas extraction

Charged With Illegally Dumping Polluted Fracking Fluid, Exxon Claims 'No Lasting Environmental Impact' | ThinkProgress

",,,[S]hould a small release occur,,,” Last I looked 57,000 gallons of crappy water is not small as they had to remove 3,000 tons of contaminated soil; and what do they mean by "no lasting environmental impact," how exactly is that defined? Whether it be due to negligence or vandalism XTO is responsible for what occurs on their work site. The sites around where I live run 24/7 so the vandalism claim doesn't make sense, though it is feasible. I just can't see any Joe Smoe walking on site and tampering with their stuff.  Then again maybe I could, ",,,[t]he site had no fence, no guards, and surveillance cameras or other security measures." But the vandalism explanation loses face by XTO's own admission when they changed their story ",,,it appears an individual working for the independent contractor managing the site moved water from the affected tank to other tanks on site and did not close the valve,,,"

Also an issue ",,,but XTO continued to use the tanks for storage of waste water without any surrounding impoundment to catch a spill or a leak,,,these back valves usually were fitted with a four-inch threaded plug, which would be installed and removed with a wrench and which would act as a safeguard against accidental opening of a valve,,,[t]he valves could be locked, but none at the XTO site were, according to the presentment."

I think what troubles me in regards to fracking as a whole is the unknowns. (Which for me is many, I will admit I do not understand the whole process and what conceivable benefits there are to this method.) What, if anything, is it doing to our planet? And WTH is in that fracking fluid: ",,,states have allowed minimum disclosure of the chemicals used in fracking fluid,,," According to one article I read, ",,,high levels of strontium, chloride, bromide, barium, and total dissolved solids,,," is what was found in regards to this incident.

As a transplanted flatlander who has come to enjoy what mother nature offers here in PA, I find the lack of concern and pandering to big oil by politicians troubling. This is not a red or blue issue Rendell opened the door and Corbett followed suit, we the people are going to pay the price.

Charged With Illegally Dumping Polluted Fracking Fluid, Exxon Claims 'No Lasting Environmental Impact' | ThinkProgress

See also:

Attorney general files criminal charges against Marcellus gas drilling company

Company facing criminal charges for spill of Marcellus drilling waste blames it on vandalism or negligence of contractor

EPA Requires XTO Energy to pay $20 Million; Fines XTO $100,000 for 2010 Spill