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Vampire Blues

October 31st, 2023 No comments

It Was Obvious 50 Years Ago

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I’m a vampire, babe, suckin’ blood from the earth
I’m a vampire, baby, suckin’ blood from the earth
Well, I’m a vampire, babe, sell you twenty barrels worth
I’m a black bat, babe, bangin’ on your window pane
I’m a black bat, baby, bangin’ on your window pane
I’m a black bat, babe, I need my high octane
Good times are comin’, I hear it everywhere I go
Good times are comin’, I hear it everywhere I go
Good times are comin’, but they sure comin’ slow. ~~~ Vampire Blues

And this:

An ambulance can only go so fast
It’s easy to get buried in the past
When you try to make a good thing last

I saw today in the entertainment section
There’s room at the top for private detection
To mom and dad this just doesn’t matter
But it’s either that or pay off the kidnapper

So all you critics sit alone
You’re no better than me for what you’ve shown
With your stomach pump and your hook and ladder dreams
We could get together for some scenes. […]

And there ain’t nothin’ like a friend

Who can tell you you’re just pissin’ in the wind

I never knew a man could tell so many lies

He had a different story for every set of eyes

How can he remember who he’s talking to?

‘Cause I know it ain’t me, and hope it isn’t you. ~~~ Ambulance Blues

Listen to the whole album: On The Beach (1974)

Get out of town, think I’ll get out of town

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Murphy DEP Proposed Major Air Pollution Permit For Regional Sewage Treatment Plant In Newark, But Failed To Conduct Environmental Justice Or Climate Reviews

October 26th, 2023 No comments

Passaic Valley Sewage Treatment Plant Is A Major Source Of Hazardous Air Pollutants & Greenhouse Gases

DEP’s Failed Permit Review Contradicts The Spin In A Blizzard Of DEP Press Releases

Major Air Permit Exposes Massive Loopholes and Flaws In NJ EJ And Climate Laws

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While EPA and the Murphy DEP issue a barrage of heavily spun, deceptive, and self serving press releases, their regulatory and permit programs are conducting business as usual and rubber stamping toxic permits that exacerbate the climate emergency.

The Murphy DEP recently proposed a major modification to air pollution permits for the Passaic Valley Sewage Commission’s Newark sewage treatment plant. (read the DEP Public Notice and review the draft permit).

The plant is a major source of air pollution, including emissions of: (see above table)

  • 76.8 tons/year of volatile organic chemicals (some are carcinogens);
  • 64.4 tons of NOx (an ozone precursor);
  • 103 tons of carbon monoxide;
  • 15 tons of fine particulates (a major cause of asthma and respiratory disease);
  • 15.7 tons of hazardous air pollutants (many are carcinogens) and
  • 287,000 tons of CO2 equivalents (greenhouse gases).

Yet despite the huge air pollution emissions – which have significant impacts and pose significant risks for residents of Newark and surrounding areas – the DEP did not conduct an environmental justice review before issuing the draft permit and the draft permit is not governed by the what has been touted as the “landmark” and “historic” NJ environmental justice law and DEP implementing regulations.

Similarly, despite massive emissions of 287,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions, the DEP did not conduct any climate related impact review and the draft permit is not governed by the highly touted NJ Global Warming Response Act.

The DEP draft permit also flies in the face of a blizzard of DEP press releases and major DEP and US EPA funding of environmental justice and climate programs in Newark. (see this, issued today:

  • DEP AMONG NEW JERSEY ORGANIZATIONS, AGENCIES SLATED TO RECEIVE MORE THAN $4.8 MILLION IN USEPA FUNDING TO SUPPORT ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE WORK).

In fact, US EPA just granted almost $2 million to EJ and climate programs in Newark, yet there was no mention of these flaws in DEP’s permit review practices and climate regulations, see:

Recipient: Ironbound Community Corporation (ICC)

Project Title: Advancing Environmental Justice and Climate Resiliency through Increasing Tree Canopy in the Ironbound section of Newark

Project Location: Newark, NJ

Project Description: Ironbound Community Corporation (ICC), Ironbound Business Improvement District (IBID), NJ Tree Foundation (NJTF), and the city of Newark will partner to plant trees throughout the Ironbound section of Newark, which has the least amount of tree canopy in the city. This project will reduce urban heat island effect, mitigate flooding, and improve air quality, while engaging hundreds of residents and businesses. ICC and IBID will conduct extensive outreach to residents and businesses to solicit interest and buy-in to receive a tree, respectively, while NJ Tree Foundation will manage the planting of the trees and offer tree stewardship workshops to residents and businesses who sign up for a tree and to the community at-large. The city of Newark will help facilitate permits and other services, while tying the efforts to its larger sustainability and resiliency plans.

Recipient: New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance

Project Title: New Jersey EJ Education Collaborative Project Location: Statewide, NJ

Project Description: There is a significant need to increase the capacity of communities with environmental justice concerns to empower residents to participate in public discourse on issues affecting them. Residents must be educated on how to advocate for their community’s best interest in dialogue with government and private entities over siting, permitting and other decisions affecting their environment. These communities are historically difficult to reach, engage and organize, which is why grassroots organizations are critical to this mission. The NJ EJ Law requires enhanced public engagement for residents in EJ communities, allowing them to demonstrate local impact and have permits denied. This has accelerated the need to train communities so they can effectively influence this democratic process. The NJ EJ Education Collaborative hopes to address these issues by proposing the development of a NJ-specific hub-and-spoke outreach network to community adults and youth. It will create and provide EJ basic information and a blueprint for navigating governmental processes. This will help demystify the core issues for participants and give them skills to substantively promote their community’s interests.

So while EPA and the Murphy DEP issue these heavily spun, deceptive and self serving press releases, their regulatory programs are conducting business as usual and rubber stamping toxic permits that exacerbate the climate emergency.

Both grant recipients strongly supported NJ’s flawed environmental justice law. So, I doubt they will correctly educate their communities about these flaws, which are documented and exposed by this draft PVSC permit.

The public comment period is open until November 4, 2023 (see above Public Notice link for how to submit comments). I just requested that DEP hold a public hearing in Newark and I urge readers to let DEP know how you feel about this scam.

Dear DEP – I hereby request that DEP hold a public hearing on the subject draft permit in Newark.

The basis for this request include, but are not limited to, major scientific, technical and public policy concerns related to:

1) public health risk assessment from HAP and VOC emissions

2) failure to conduct an environmental justice review

3) failure to conduct a climate review or regulate greenhouse gas emissions

4) failure to impose “State of the Art” emissions controls pursuant to NJ’s Air Pollution Control Act

5) failure to fully mandate air pollution emissions fees, including for greenhouse gas emissions

6) failure to comply with NJ law that governs the 20 year time horizon for conversion of methane to CO2 equivalents.

Thank you,

Bill Wolfe

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The Arc Of Biden Bends Toward Genocide And Armageddon – Beyond The Twisted Dystopian Biden Dementia

October 25th, 2023 No comments

Warmongering Biden Administration Is Morally Bankrupt 

Biden Instigated Ukraine Proxy War, Sabotaged Peace Negotiations, Funded Neo-Nazis, & Used Ukrainian People As Cannon Fodder

Biden Now Green Lights and Provides Billions To Israeli Atrocities, Ethnic Cleansing, & Genocide

[Updates Below]

In his historic 1967 Riverside Church “Beyond Vietnam – A Time To Break Silence” speech – delivered exactly one year to the day before his assassination – Dr. King excoriated the moral depravity of the illegal US invasion and war on Vietnam.

King correctly called the US “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today”.

US military violence has only gotten worse in the 56 years since.

In explaining why he felt morally compelled to “break silence” and speak out in opposition to the war, King applied core Christian beliefs. King said:

This I believe to be the privilege and the burden of all of us who deem ourselves bound by allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper than nationalism and which go beyond our nation’s self-defined goals and positions. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation and for those it calls “enemy,” for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers.

And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond in compassion, my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula. I speak now not of the soldiers of each side, not of the ideologies of the Liberation Front, not of the junta in Saigon, but simply of the people who have been living under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. I think of them, too, because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution there until some attempt is made to know them and hear their broken cries.

Who speaks for the weak and voiceless and victims today?

Where is the compassion today?

Where is the moral courage to speak truth to power?

US Ukraine Proxy War

There is over-whelming evidence, beyond the scope of today’s post, exposing the facts that the US instigated the Russian invasion of Ukraine by seeking NATO expansion and providing billions in funding for “democracy promotion”, military equipment and training, and the 2014 regime change Maidan coup.

Prior to the Russian invasion, the Biden administration ignored Russian proposals to avoid war, and derailed negotiations to end the war shortly after the invasion. Biden knowingly funded Neo-Nazi militias and used Ukrainian troops as cannon fodder in a US proxy war designed to weaken Russia and impose regime change on Putin – all while risking World War III and nuclear armageddon.

As a result, an estimated 500,000 Ukrainian are dead and millions more displaced. Stunningly reckless and morally bankrupt policy.

Israeli Massacres Of Palestinians

Biden has now gone far beyond the reckless and morally bankrupt Ukrainian policies in the Israeli massacre in Gaza.

Biden’s callous disregard for the lives on 2.3 million Palestinians locked in the Gaza open air prison – with no escape from the ongoing Israeli massacre, or any water, food, electricity or medicine as Israel bombs hospitals, apartment buildings, schools and churches and mosques killing thousands – makes a mockery of King’s compassion for the people of Vietnam and their suffering.

Worse, Biden’s White House spokesperson actually called efforts to seek a cease-fire “repugnant and disgraceful”.

The Biden State Department actually issued a memo prohibiting any mention of peace:

State Department officials warned diplomats not to use words such as “ceasefire” in a memo released shortly after the Israeli government ordered over one million Gazans to evacuate their homes within 24 hours late Thursday.

Staff were specifically asked not to publish press pieces containing the phrases “end to violence/bloodshed,” “restoring calm,” and “de-escalation/ceasefire,” according to HuffPost.

How sick is that?

And in another historical contrast with the twisted and depraved politics of the Biden White House, Dr. King linked the military spending on the Vietnam war with abandonment of domestic commitments to “The Great Society’s” social programs. King said:

There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program broken and eviscerated, as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So, I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.

Biden also twisted Dr. King’s moral criticism of spending priorities.

Biden’s speech last week actually celebrates war spending as investment in US manufacturing jobs – and, in what can only be described as depraved, Biden even targeted political swing states in his upcoming ’24 Presidential electoral campaign: (full text of speech here)

And let me be clear about something: We send Ukraine equipment sitting in our stockpiles.  And when we use the money allocated by Congress, we use it to replenish our own stores — our own stockpiles with new equipment — equipment that defe- — that defends America and is made in America: Patriot missiles for air defense batteries made in Arizona; artillery shells manufactured in 12 states across the country — in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas; and so much more.

You know, just as in World War Two, today, patriotic American workers are building the arsenal of democracy and serving the cause of freedom. 

Dr. King’s “demonic suction tube” has now become a jobs program.

Massacres made in America. With manufacturing jobs in swing states, no less.

Biden’s recent budget request seeks another $106 billion in military spending – in addition to $135 billion already  spent in Ukraine – for war in Ukraine and Israel, while millions of Americans lack health care, housing, schools, clean air and water, and even adequate food.

Biden has deployed thousands US Navy, Air Force, and ground troops to the region, at risk of a regional war or WW III armageddon.

The Biden Administration vetoed a UN Security Council Resolution seeking a cease fire.

Biden lied about seeing pictures of 40 beheaded babies.

This is beyond Dr. Strangelove or anything even George Orwell could imagine.

No wonder there is a mutiny at the US State Department. (who will leak the upcoming “dissent channel” cable?)

Listen to Professor Sachs on Biden’s buildup to war.

But where are the voices of all people of good will to call out the massacre, ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Palestinian people?

[End Note: In case readers think I exaggerate, many US military analysts have warned that Biden’s policies risk nuclear war in both Ukraine and the Middle East. In terms of the genocide claim, an Israeli think tank has put the “final solution” in writing: (read the Grayzone report):

In a white paper released over a week after the Hamas-led surprise attack on Israeli military bases and kibbutzes, The Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy outlined “a plan for resettlement and final rehabilitation in Egypt of the entire population of Gaza,” based on the “unique and rare opportunity to evacuate the entire Gaza Strip” that Israel’s latest assault on the besieged costal enclave provided.

[Update #1: 10/27/23 – Speaking of genocide – read this Center For Constitution Rights Report – says Biden is complicit and liable:

There is plausible and credible case, based on powerful factual evidence, that Israel is attempting to commit, if not actively committing, the crime of genocide in the occupied Palestinian territory, and specifically against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.2 The gravest of crimes under international law, genocide refers to specific actions – such as killing or deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the group in whole or in part – taken with the intention of destroying, in whole or in part, the group targeted, including on ethnic or national grounds. […]

Because of the affirmative steps the United States has taken to aid or assist Israel, its breaches of international law must also be assessed as complicity in genocide.252

C. U.S. Complicity in Genocide

Since October 7, 2023, the United States, and its senior officials up to and including President Biden, offered to supply “all appropriate means of support” and did in fact supply material aid and assistance to Israel to further its military campaign in and siege of Gaza.

[Update #2 – 11/21/23 – LA Times Op-Ed:

On Nov. 13, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a lawsuit against President Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III for complicity with genocide. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in San Francisco on behalf of Palestinian individuals and organizations. It requests that the defendants stop “providing further arms, money, and diplomatic support to Israel on grounds that there is an unfolding genocide by the State of Israel against the civilian population of Gaza and the U.S. officials have a legal duty to prevent, and not further, this most serious of crimes,” according to the center

[Update #3 – 11/22/23Jeff St. Clair at CounterPunch tells this disgraceful Biden story:

+ After Israel’s brutal incursion into southern Lebanon in 1982, Israel’s rightwing Prime Minister Menachem Begin appeared before the Foreign Relations Committee of the US Senate, where he was questioned about the high number of civilian casualties inflicted by Israel’s assault under the command of Ariel Sharon. When he returned to Israel, Begin told the Israeli press that one of the senators stood out as an enthusiastic supporter of Operation Peace for Galilee, who said Israel had the unfettered right to defend itself, even if it meant killing women and children. That senator was Joe Biden.

Biden came off as so blood-thirsty in that hearing that Begin later said, somewhat piously as was his manner:  “I disassociated myself from those remarks. I said to him: No, sir. Attention must be paid. According to our values, it is forbidden to hurt women and children even in war. Sometimes there are casualties among the civilian population as well. But it is forbidden to aspire to this. This is a yardstick of human civilization, not to hurt civilians.”

+ Biden: “I have long said: If Israel didn’t exist, we would have to invent it.” Of course, Israel was largely “invented.” Having swallowed and amplified every bit of Israeli disinformation that’s come across his desk, from having seen photos of  beheaded babies to an Islamic Jihad rocket hitting the Baptist hospital to disparaging the Gaza Health Ministry’s casualty numbers to claiming Hamas’ HQ was beneath al-Shifa Hospital, it’s clear that if Israelipropaganda didnt exist, Biden would have to have someone in his administration invent it….”

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NJ SPOTLIGHT IS PRINTING BIG OIL LIES ON ELECTRIC VEHICLES

October 11th, 2023 No comments

Despite Well Known History Of Big Oil Climate Lies, Ad Revenues Trump Science, Facts, and Law

Misleading Readers Is Journalistic Malpractice

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The above “Message” appeared today at NJ Spotlight.

It is a paid advertisement.

It is factually false – there is no “Gas Car Ban”.

Shame on NJ BIA and all its individual corporate members (who hide behind the NJ BIA label to protect their corporate images. They all need to be called out by corporate name as liars and climate criminals.)

There is now a consensus on the well documented fact that the Big Oil lobby lied about climate science for decades.

Several State and local governments are suing Big Oil for those lies.

And they are now lying about climate solutions.

But despite this criminal record of lying and misleading the public, NJ Spotlight – who surely knows of this history – is printing their lies as paid advertisements.

Shame on NJ Spotlight.

I just demanded that the ad be taken down.

All people of good will should make the same demand and the people and foundations that fund NJ Spotlight should do the same:

Dear NJ Spotlight:

The DEP clean car rule proposal (California car) is NOT a “gas car ban”. In fact, current NJ law mandates that DEP adopt California car regulations.

Your “sponsor” add today flat out lies to your readers!

You must take that ad down to preserve your integrity. You must not print factual falsehoods.

Bill Wolfe

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First Weeks With Charlie

October 10th, 2023 No comments

Charlie knows he’s cute:

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Charlie discovers the ponderosa pine:

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Charlie has good form:

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Charlie discovers Joshua trees:

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Charlie sees his first big mountains:

8H1A3816

Charlie is a very smart and athletic dog. He was effectively house trained after one day. He is doing very well in learning basic commands of “sit”, “stay” and “come”. He sleeps well (spoiled, with me in the bed!) and has reduced his nighttime bathroom trips to every 3-4 hours. He eats well. He’s going through typical puppy chewing, but has lots of toys. And he likes to bite too! (my hands are bloody scabs!).

Already, Charlie has traveled through 4 states (Wa., Or., Nv., and Az.) and slept in a few national forests and BLM lands. He has done very well riding in the bus, sleeping right on my lap, for almost 1,000 miles.

It’s gonna be a real adventure traveling with Charlie!

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