U.S. Cuts Off Federal Aid to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras

Stephan:  This is an appallingly bad policy decision that will result in more not less refugees. Trump's racism, driven by the racism of his "base," and the weakness of the Republican Party to resist him, is going to result in a series of crisis that will haunt the next Democratic president.

Central American migrants are rescued by members of the Beta group of the National Mexican Institute of Migration, dedicated to the protection and defense of the human rights of migrants, as they were trying to cross the Rio Bravo, which divides the cities of Eagle Pass, Texas and Piedras Negras, in Coahuila state, Mexico, on February 15, 2019.
Credit: Juliio Cesar/Getty

The State Department has made clear it was not just an idle threat. The United States will be blocking all federal aid to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras for their failure to address the flow of migrants. The move comes a day after President Donald Trump blamed the countries for being behind migrant caravans that make their way to the United States. “We were giving them $500 million. We were paying them tremendous amounts of money, and we’re not paying them anymore because they haven’t done a thing for us,” Trump said on Friday. Trump also warned he was ready to close the southern border if Mexico […]

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Judge rules Trump executive order allowing offshore drilling in Arctic Ocean unlawful

Stephan:  Here is some good news for the environment and all the beings living in it, including humans. This also illustrates why the Republicans are trying to pack the court with christofascist judges as fast as they can.

Mt.Spurr in background. Oilfields located under the sea are located and exploited by the construction and operation of offshore oil rigs.

A federal judge in Alaska has ruled an executive order by President Donald Trump allowing offshore oil drilling of tens of millions of acres in the Arctic Ocean is “unlawful and invalid.”

The ruling on Friday from US District Court Judge Sharon Gleason means a drilling ban for much of the Arctic Ocean off of Alaska will go back into effect.
On April 28, 2017, Trump issued an executive order reversing three memoranda and one executive order in 2015 and 2016 by then President Barack Obama withdrawing about 125 million acres of the Arctic Ocean from oil leasing. The Obama order also prevented drilling in certain parts of the Atlantic Ocean.
That action by the Obama Administration prompted strong criticism from some Alaska politicians and oil companies that wanted to drill there.
Ten environmental groups, including Greenpeace, the League of Conservation Voters, Sierra […]

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A $3 billion problem: Miami-Dade’s septic tanks are already failing due to sea rise

Stephan:  There are going to be so many unconsidered consequences to sea rise. Here is an example of what I mean. What government official do you know who has even considered the effect of sea rise on residential septic systems?

 

 

 

A Miami-Dade neighborhood that relies on septic tanks experiences flooding during the 2016 King Tide. A new report commissioned by the county shows that half of the county’s septic tanks break down yearly, a problem that sea level rise will worsen. Miami-Dade County. Credit: Miami-Herald

Miami-Dade has tens of thousands of septic tanks, and a new report reveals most are already malfunctioning — the smelly and unhealthy evidence of which often ends up in people’s yards and homes. It’s a billion-dollar problem that climate change is making worse.

As sea level rise encroaches on South Florida, the Miami-Dade County study shows that thousands more residents may be at risk — and soon. By 2040, 64 percent of county septic tanks (more than 67,000) could have issues every year, affecting not only the people who rely on them for sewage treatment, but the region’s water supply and the health of anyone who wades through floodwaters.

“That’s a huge deal for a developed country in 2019 to have half of […]

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Anti-abortion states show contempt for children

Stephan:  Here, based on facts not polemics, we see the stark disgusting truth about the anti-choicers. In reality they care nothing for children. The anti-abortion movement is not about protecting children, it is about controlling and subordinating women. The fact that many anti-choicers are also women reveals how deeply indoctrinated many women are in America.

Mississippi anti-choice demonstration Credit: Slate

There is a profound cynicism, an ugly, jarring hypocrisy, at the heart of the battle to end reproductive rights for women, and nowhere is that fraudulent politics more vividly on display than in Mississippi. The state that brings up the rear on virtually every measure of child vitality and well-being for which we have statistics — behind even my home state of Alabama — has just passed one of the most restrictive anti-abortion measures in the country.

In signing the legislation, Republican Gov. Phil Bryant was able to say this with a straight face: “We here in Mississippi believe in protecting and defending the whole life of that child. … From education to safety to health care, it is the child that we are fighting for here in Mississippi.”

That was incredible, mendacious, indecently contemptuous of the facts. Mississippi is one of the worst places in America for a child to grow up, especially if that child is black and poor. Just take a look at the 2018 […]

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Trump EPA appointees want more air pollution — that’s a very bad idea

Stephan:  Be very clear that your wellbeing, and the wellbeing of your family, are of no interest to the Trump administration. There is simply no question about this, on the basis of the evidence. Here is an example of what I mean.

Credit: shutterstock

Climate change garners most of the headlines, but the Trump administration is pushing a much larger and broader pro-pollution agenda whose latest manifestation is a push at the EPA to overturn a long-established scientific consensus that fine particulate pollution (colloquially “soot”) kills people.

This is critically important for two main reasons.

One is that for decades the EPA has been regulating various sources of particulate emissions and the science around how harmful they are plays a role in driving how strict those regulations become. The other is that particulate emissions play a key role in the bureaucratic politics of climate change.

Because carbon dioxide emissions are global and the consequences of climate change are also global, it is generally hard to demonstrate that cutting a given source of greenhouse gas emissions will have large benefits to Americans. But most regulations that reduce carbon emissions also reduce much more localized soot — and taking into account the fact that soot has a marked tendency to kill people who live […]

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