Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's Blog: The Most Revolutionary Act , page 452
February 28, 2023
More Than a Decade Later, Workers Battle Illness From Deepwater Horizon. They Want BP to Pay.
By Christopher O’Donnell and Max Chesnes
Kaiser Health NewsMore than a decade after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster — the largest marine oil spill in history — cleanup workers are still reporting cases of respiratory illnesses, skin disorders, dizziness and other medical issues they say were caused by the spill.
The oil washed ashore every day, globs of tarlike ooze blighting sugar-white sand beaches. Rodney Boblitt’s job was to report it.A special agent for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, he was assigned to patrol 14 miles of Panhandle beaches on an all-terrain vehicle, alerting cleanup crews to new slicks from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion.
His 16-hour shifts started at dawn. The air felt greasy; the ATV splashed up oil, he said, soaking his clothes, gun belt, hat and boots.
“The smells were horrendous,” he recalled. “Like the ocean mixed with chemicals.”
About 4 million barrels of crude oil seeped into the Gulf of Mexico and 11 people died in the April 2010 disaster, the largest marine oil spill in history.
Tens of thousands of workers were hired to clean sludge on beaches, mangroves and dunes across Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and the Florida Panhandle.
Boblitt said he wasn’t the same when he returned to his regular job after three months in the Panhandle. He struggled to concentrate. Knowledge gleaned from years of service eluded him. Physically demanding work caused him to shake.
Within two years, he said, he’d deteriorated so much he no longer trusted himself to handle airboats, personal watercraft and his firearm safely.
He took early retirement. He was 43.
More than a decade after the disaster, cleanup workers are still reporting cases of respiratory illnesses, skin disorders, dizziness and other medical issues they say were caused by the spill.
Their health struggles are documented in more than 5,000 lawsuits filed against BP in federal courts in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida, with some workers reporting illnesses diagnosed as recently as 2020.
BP has so far set aside nearly $70 billion for the ecological disaster, including $11.6 billion to businesses affected by the spill, according to its website.
Payouts for cleanup workers’ medical claims make up a tiny portion of that restitution. According to a 2019 report from the court-appointed claims administrator, BP paid roughly $67 million to 22,833 workers to settle a class-action lawsuit, an average of about $3,000 each.
The petroleum giant also agreed in the 2012 settlement that cleanup workers could seek compensation for exposure symptoms that emerged later.
But BP attorneys are aggressively contesting the new lawsuits — despite government-funded studies showing that these workers have higher-than-normal incidences of skin conditions, respiratory issues and heart ailments.
BP officials declined to comment on the health claims filed against them. In multiple ongoing lawsuits, including the ongoing case filed by Boblitt against the oil giant, they maintain there’s no evidence that workers’ health problems were caused by the spill.
That burden of proof has become a very high bar for potential victims seeking compensation, according to plaintiffs’ attorneys. It has led some to stop accepting new cases.
And on Jan. 24, a federal court effectively ended four cases filed by cleanup workers when it ruled that an expert hired by their attorneys had failed to prove their conjunctivitis and sinus problems were a direct result of the spill.
Allen Lindsay Jr., an attorney from the city of Milton in the Panhandle, has represented around 150 cleanup workers. He’s lost a third of those cases and is pessimistic about the remaining ones.
[…]
The legal battle has gotten so heated that attorneys at a Miami law firm have amassed a war chest of evidence — 130,000 samples of contaminated water, sand, sediment, wildlife and tar balls — they believe will give them an edge in the courtroom.
‘Real illnesses’
The cleanup was dirty. Some workers dragged oil booms to contain slicks in the Gulf. Others shoveled oil-soaked sand into trash bags and scrubbed oil from shoreline plants and jetties.
Workers who cleaned up the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska faced similar conditions and have said they were still suffering health issues long after the 1989 disaster. But the medical impacts were never studied, according to a 2010 McClatchy report.
That won’t happen with the BP spill. A year after the disaster, researchers at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences began the Gulf Study, surveying 33,000 cleanup workers.
The largest-ever analysis of the health impacts from an oil spill included home visits to about 11,000 participants, including 3,000 in Florida, to draw blood samples and test lung function and blood pressure.
By that time, oil products such as the carcinogen benzene were no longer present in blood samples, according to Dale Sandler, lead investigator and chief of the institute’s epidemiology branch. That made determining exposure levels a challenge.
The studies have documented several elevated health risks among cleanup workers.
Those with the highest levels of exposure suffered a higher-than-normal incidence of itchy eyes, burning throats, coughing, wheezing and skin irritation, one of its studies found.
In the first three years after the disaster, the researchers found that the workers were 60% more likely than the general population to be diagnosed with asthma or experience respiratory symptoms.
They also faced a higher risk of hypertension. Some reported dizziness, nausea and stumbling.
Workers exposed to smoke and fumes when BP briefly tried burning oil slicks in the Gulf have experienced increased rates of heart disease and reduced lung capacity, the researchers found.
More than a decade after the disaster, researchers have yet to determine longer-term issues, said Sandler. And it’s too soon to say whether exposure will result in higher rates of cancer and lower life expectancy. Cancers can take up to 15 years to develop, she said.
[…]
On the beach
[…]
After clearing tar for hours, Culliver would ball up his stained jeans and T-shirt and leave them in his garage to be washed. A father of five, he didn’t want his soiled clothes indoors.
[…]
For about four months in 2010, Culliver worked in Pensacola, according to his pending lawsuit filed about a year and a half ago against BP.In 2019, a year after marrying, Culliver was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
His lawsuit alleges the BP oil spill “was a substantial contributing cause” of his illness.
[…]
“When you litigate against a corporate giant like this, the common narrative that you’re going to see is a war of attrition. And that’s exactly what BP has defaulted to in this litigation,” said Dylan Boigris, a partner at Downs Law Group in Miami, which represents 50 Florida cleanup workers.
In determining exposure, courts have been relying on water sample data BP collected during the spill. A key argument made by Boigris and his firm is that BP skewed the results to make it seem as if the oil on beaches wasn’t toxic.
“What they try to argue is that what arrived on the beach was “weathered” oil and that it was effectively dead oil — that there’s nothing harmful and that it’s no different than a rock,” Boigris said.
And BP attorneys have convinced courts that those seeking damages must determine what level of exposure to crude oil is harmful, court records show.
That would be like trying to prove exactly how many cigarettes caused somebody’s cancer, Boigris said.
His firm has gone to considerable expense to counter that.
In 2019, BP prepared to dispose of samples from the spill. Boigris and his team drove to Colorado with six refrigerated trucks to retrieve them.
Since then, the firm says, it has paid as much as $150,000 per year to store the samples in a South Florida warehouse. The law firm’s enlisted experts are studying the samples and “unraveling the perception that there was no harmful exposure,” Boigris said.
[…]
The firm plans to have some samples analyzed by independent toxicologists and hopes to use the data as evidence.
It’s why Boigris views his firm as “the last hope” for any workers seeking justice.
“BP went out and hired the indigent and the underrepresented, and they took advantage of those local populations,” he said. “They sent them out there to clean up their oil, and they’ve discarded them.”
Finding an answer
In the years after his stint in the Panhandle, Boblitt, the retired environmental special agent, says he burned through sick leave.
He was diagnosed with chronic rhinosinusitis and other sinus conditions that doctors told him were caused by breathing in fumes, according to his lawsuit. Court records show he was paid $1,300 in compensation in the 2012 settlement.
Figuring out what was wrong with his memory and concentration proved more difficult. Tests for Lyme disease and other neurological conditions came back negative, he said.
[…]
A neurology specialist diagnosed Boblitt with toxic encephalopathy, a brain dysfunction caused by exposure to toxic substances. Now 54, he said he also suffers from depression, sleep apnea and post-traumatic stress disorder, and he pays for life insurance that covers cancer.
[…]
Transgender Hormone Therapy Increases Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke
by Steve MacDonald Puberty blockers and hormone therapy are all the rage among the woke-a-saurs despite the increased risk of death from the drugs, mental health issues, or the exponential increase in likely suicide. Now the American College of Cardiology has more bad news.
In the study, people with gender dysphoria who had ever used hormone replacements saw nearly seven times the risk of ischemic stroke (a blockage in a vessel supplying blood to the brain), nearly six times the risk of ST elevation myocardial infarction (the most serious type of heart attack) and nearly five times the risk of pulmonary embolism (a blockage in an artery in the lung), compared with people with gender dysphoria who had never used hormone replacements.
The trend in “medicine” continues to lean toward the mindless pursuit of profit at the expense of human lives or quality of life, but this instance is insidious.
[…]
And I’m not saying adults should be denied any of this if they’ve been fully informed of the risks and provided consent. Human beings do reckless and stupid things daily, not the least of which involves the consumption of alcohol. If they are still moved by their own will to proceed with the transition, even with the risk of stroke or heart attack, don’t make me pay for it, and we’re good. Children treated in this way are victims of adult fantasies. Toys as test subjects for a medical laundromat that moves millions and whose product they cannot just reverse when they are of age.
[…]
US Dept. of Energy: Wuhan Lab Leak Now Thinkable
If the Wall Street Journal says so, it must be true.
ARREST FAUCI, IMPEACH BIDEN NOW
Do you remember the "institutional" and social media corpo response in the first half of 2020 when someone contradicted the consensus? They were punished for the "crime" of "disinformation."
Corporations must never again be permitted to police speech.https://t.co/0drKmWQaFM
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) February 26, 2023
By March 2020, I had written an extensive article showing the Wuhan lab leak as most likely scenario. Which no one would publish.
Yesterday, the US Dept of Energy was revealed as agreeing.
-jg
Early North America: The Great Mississippian Civilization
Episode 10: The Origin of MIssissippian Culture
Ancient Civilizations of North America
Dr Edwin Barnhart (2018)
Film Review
The Hopewell culture (see When Hopewell Culture Covered Entire Eastern US) seems to have ended around 400-500 AD. As prehistoric North Americans gradually migrated into all habitable areas, trade ended and interest in art and jewelry declined. The Late Woodland period (500-1000 AD) saw an increase in farmsteads, storage pits and pottery suitable for cooking plant foods. As farmsteads expanded, the small fraction of people who owned land became chiefs. At the same time, burial mounds became smaller, typically accommodating a single corpse and their prize possessions.
Mississippian culture emerged slowly as late Woodland culture declined. First came animal effigy mounds (typically lizards, snakes, birds and other creatures from Mississippian creation stores).
By 700-800 AD, corn (via Mexico and the Southwest) had become a common crop throughout the eastern continent, and there were defensive walls (indicative of warfare) around larger towns and a shift of burial mounds to town centers.
By 900 AD early Mississippian villages were using bow and arrows. Violent deaths increased with the advent of the bow an arrow, along with more massive defensive structures, typical embankments were six or more feet high and often featured an adjacent moat.
By 900 AD, Mississippians had reoccupied the Poverty Point site with a smaller town (now known as Holly Bluff).
The Mississippian period is divided into
Early Mississippian period (1000-1200 AD) – with Cahokia (across the Mississippi River from modern day St Louis) as the civilization’s epicenter.Middle Mississippian period (1200 – 1400 AD – Mississippian culture widespread with unified religious practices.Late Mississippian period (1400 -1540 AD) – associated with gradual decline of Mississippian culture.During the Mississippian period, most people lived in villages or on farmsteads. The best remains are found in former Oneota territory in the Great Lakes region (their villages weren’t destroyed by the Spanish conquistadores). The Caddo confederacy in east Texas, southern Arkansas, western Louisiana and southeastern Oklahoma, is still a recognized indigenous nation today.
Commonalities of Mississippian culture (which extended from the East Coast to the Mississippi and from the Gulf Coast to just north of the Great Lakes) included
Tall flat top mounds surrounded by palisades of vertical logs,Housing clusters fronting on an open central plaza.Corn fields.Numerous towns.Far reaching trade networks.Shared religious beliefs associated with a distinctive style of art known as the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex.Some flat topped mounds had houses on top, in some cases for chiefs, in others for council meeting houses or charnal houses (to house the bodies of deceased chiefs). There were also conical mounds used as mass graves.
There was a large body of art with common symbols that are likely linked to modern Muskogean mythology. These include crossed circles (representing the four directions of the wind), swastikas (representing the turning of the stars around the North Star), eye and hand symbols, birds of prey, horned serpents and warriors and are found on necklaces, earrings, arrowhead caches, bracelets, hair pieces, pendants, pipes and pottery and realistic statuettes of men and women. Most Mississippian artists preferred imported exotic minerals for carving, but also used wood, ceramic and stone.
These art forms would later be adopted by the Crow, Pawnee, Caddo, Muskogee and Hochunk (formerly known as Winnebago).
Mississippian culture had a three-tiered cosmos:
The upper world, inhabited by thunderbirds (supernatural birds of prey) who battle the monsters of the underworld to protect humans.The middle world – inhabited by humans.The underworld – ruled by panthers and flying horned snakes, who can be also be accessed by shamans to help human beings.The Hochunk nation in Wisconsin has the best preserved Mississippian creation story. It starts with a group of brothers who bully their younger brother, Red Horn, who is helped by a turtle and a thunderbird that shoots lighting from his eyes.
Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.
https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/5713021/5712756
February 27, 2023
200 Million Americans at ‘Regular Risk’ of Chemical Disasters Like the Train Wreck in Ohio
Photo credit: @TheTravelingMa5/Twitter
By Carey Gillam
An analysis of data collected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and nonprofit groups that track chemical accidents in the U.S. shows accidental releases — through train derailments, truck crashes, pipeline ruptures or industrial plant leaks and spills — occur as frequently as every two days.
Amid fears about the toxic chemicals released in the East Palestine train derailment, public officials have clamored to reassure community members that the resulting contaminated air, water and soil is being cleaned up, and their tiny Ohio town made safe.
In a recent press conference, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine lamented the toll taken on the residents there, saying “no other community should have to go through this.”
But an analysis of a combination of data collected by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and by nonprofit groups that track chemical accidents in the U.S. shows that accidental releases — be they through train derailments, truck crashes, pipeline ruptures or industrial plant leaks and spills — are happening regularly across the country.
One data set shows incidents occurring, on average, every two days.
[…]
In the first seven weeks of 2023 alone, there were more than 30 incidents recorded by the Coalition to Prevent Chemical Disasters, roughly one every day and a half. Last year, the coalition recorded 188, up from 177 in 2021.
The group has tallied more than 470 incidents since it started counting in April 2020.
The incidents logged by the coalition range widely in severity but each involves the accidental release of chemicals that pose potential threats to human and environmental health.
In September, nine people were hospitalized and 300 evacuated in California after a spill of caustic materials at a recycling facility. In October, officials ordered residents to shelter in place after an explosion and fire at a petrochemical plant in Louisiana.
In November, more than 1,100 gallons of firefighting foam containing toxic chemicals spilled out of a U.S. Navy storage facility in Hawaii where a prior fuel leak had already contaminated drinking water and made some people ill.
Also in November, more than 100 residents of Atchinson, Kansas were treated for respiratory problems and schools were evacuated after an accident at a beverage manufacturing facility created a chemical cloud over the town.
Among multiple incidents in December, an explosion at a biodiesel plant in Iowa injured 10 people and forced the evacuation of many others, and a large pipeline ruptured in rural northern Kansas, smothering the surrounding land and waterways in 588,000 gallons of diluted bitumen crude oil. Hundreds of workers are still trying to clean up the pipeline mess at a cost pegged around $488 million.
Locations for chemical incidents, including chemical releases, fires and explosions, that have been reported since January 2022. Credit: Coalition to Prevent Chemical Disasters.[…]
Living in ‘daily fear’
The coalition has counted 10 rail-related chemical events over the last 2-1/2 years, including the derailment in East Palestine, where dozens of cars on a Norfolk Southern train derailed on Feb. 3, contaminating the community of 4,700 people with toxic vinyl chloride.
The vast majority of incidents, however, occur at the thousands of facilities around the country where dangerous chemicals are used and stored.
[…]
In all, roughly 200 million people are at regular risk, with many of them people of color and disadvantaged communities, he said.
There are close to 12,000 facilities across the nation that have on-site “extremely hazardous chemicals in amounts that could harm people, the environment, or property if accidentally released,” according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report issued last year.
These facilities include petroleum refineries, chemical manufacturers, cold storage facilities, fertilizer plants and water and wastewater treatment plants, among others.
EPA data shows more than 1,650 accidents at these facilities in a 10-year span between 2004 and 2013, roughly 160 per year. More than 775 were reported from 2014 through 2020.
Additionally, looking at incidents between 2016 and 2020, the EPA said it found accident-response evacuations impacted more than 56,000 people and 47,000 people were advised to “shelter-in-place.”
Accident rates are particularly high for petroleum and coal manufacturing and chemical manufacturing facilities, according to the EPA.
Chemical industry advocates maintain that accident incidents at these facilities have declined over time, while watchdog groups say that is not true; they say delays in reporting incidents leads to incomplete data and gives a false sense of improvement.
[…]
The EPA says that by several measurements, accidents are growing worse: evacuations, sheltering, and the average annual rate of people seeking medical treatment stemming from chemical accidents are on the rise, according to the EPA.
[…]
In August, the EPA proposed several changes to the Risk Management Program (RMP) regulations that apply to the sites dealing with hazardous chemicals.
The rule changes reflect the recognition by EPA that many chemical facilities are located in areas that are “susceptible to natural hazards from climate change,” including power outages, flooding, hurricanes and other weather events, the agency said in a letter to the GAO.
The proposed changes include enhanced emergency preparedness, increased public access to information about hazardous chemicals risks communities face and new accident prevention requirements.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has pushed back on stronger regulations, arguing that most facilities operate safely, accidents are declining and that the facilities impacted by any rule changes are supplying “essential products and services that help drive our economy and provide jobs in our communities.”
Opponents to strengthening parts of the RMP include the American Chemistry Council, American Forest & Paper Association, American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute
[…]
Many worker and community advocates say the proposed rule changes don’t go far enough, however.
The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace & Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW), which represents roughly a million laborers, said in a letter to EPA that accidents are not truly trending lower and the new rules must ensure hazard reduction and give workers more participation in prevention and response efforts.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and U.S. Rep. Nanette Barragan — along with 47 other lawmakers — also have called on the EPA to strengthen regulations to protect communities from hazardous chemical accidents.
[…]
‘We’re going to be ready’
For Eboni Cochran, a mother and volunteer community activist in Louisville, Kentucky, faith in the federal government is hard to come by. Cochran lives with her husband and 16-year-old son near an industrial zone along the Ohio River that locals call “Rubbertown.”
The area is home to a cluster of chemical manufacturing facilities and curious odors and concerns about toxic exposures permeate the neighborhoods near the plants.
Cochran herself has lodged complaints with local officials with her concerns about chemical contaminants in the air. The East Palestine derailment — though roughly 400 miles north of Louisville — sparked fresh fears about what might be wafting in on the air or contaminating the area’s drinking water, she said.
[…]
Woody Harrelson Sneaks Covid Vaccine Mandate Joke Onto Saturday Night Live
Zero Hedge
On his fifth time as guest host on the now “far-leftist” Saturday Night Live, Harrelson entered into a monologue which seemed to catch the New York audience off guard as the joke ended with a scathing indirect indictment of Big Pharma, lockdowns and vaccine mandates.
The progressive media is, not surprisingly, furious, accusing Harrelson of not only spreading a “conspiracy theory” but being high with the Rolling Sone’s Marlow Stern claiming he was “apparently under the influence.”
Yes, Woody Harrelson went full anti-vax conspiracy theorist during his SNL Monologue tonight https://t.co/rmwm6JIsYh— Marlow Stern (@MarlowNYC) February 26, 2023
The same Rolling Stone, of course, which was caught in that whole Ivermectin fabrication-cum-retraction…
That’s the same reason the hard-core Dem Party media loyalists, led as usual by @Maddow, spread this fake story all over based on what appears to be a fraudulent source without checking. Fake News is 100% acceptable if done with good political motives:https://t.co/lzAXAHKrfN
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) September 5, 2021
As if given a green light by the Pfizer C-Suite, the faux leftist (Daily Beast is CIA) pile-up began…
Still, the trend of celebrities and mainstream figures coming out in opposition to the draconian covid restrictions is growing along with skepticism about the vaccines, though, the starved for ratings and pro-establishment SNL is probably the last place we would expect to see such voices given a “platform.” Unless, of course, this was just a marketing ploy to end the viewership bleeding…
Woody Harrelson’s monologue! pic.twitter.com/FAEcBDnIKu
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) February 26, 2023
And while the old media – a melting ice cube still generously funded by ads from companies such as, oh, Pfizer – is losing its mind, Twitter owner Elon Musk had a clear and sobering reaction to the monologue.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 26, 2023
Anti-NATO Protests Hit France
Multiple mass protests against France’s NATO membership and its continued support of Kiev were held on Sunday in the capital Paris and at other locations across the country.
The demonstrations, taking place for the second consecutive weekend, were organized by the right-wing Les Patriotes party, led by Florian Philippot, who personally attended the rally in Paris.
The politician claimed the event on Sunday, dubbed National March for Peace, attracted even more participants than last week, when some 10,000 showed up for a rally in the French capital. According to Philippot, smaller-scale anti-NATO protests were held at some 30 other locations across France as well.
Protesters marched through the streets of Paris, carrying a large banner reading “For Peace.” The marchers called for the withdrawal of France from both the US-led NATO and from the EU, and urged a halt to supplying Ukraine with weaponry. The protesters also took jabs at the incumbent French President Emmanuel Macron, chanting “Macron get out!” – a slogan commonly used by assorted anti-government protesters throughout his presidency.
Following the march, the protesters held a rally led by Philippot, who was filmed defacing NATO and EU flags alongside his supporters. Footage of the event was shared by the politician himself on social media.
The politician has been actively staging protests against French membership in NATO and the EU since last fall, while arguing against the supply of weapons to Ukraine. Between 2012 and 2017, Philippot was the deputy head of the biggest opposition party in France, the National Rally, led until last year by Marine Le Pen. After leaving the National Rally, the 41-year-old politician established his own right-wing party, Les Patriotes.
France has been among the top supporters of Kiev in the ongoing conflict with Russia, which broke out a year ago. While Macron has repeatedly called for a diplomatic settlement of the hostilities, Paris has actively supplied assorted weaponry to Ukraine, including armored vehicles and advanced self-propelled howitzers.
[…]
Via https://alethonews.com/2023/02/26/anti-nato-protests-hit-france/
Republicans Race to Stop Biden from Giving WHO Power Over Pandemic Surveillance, Controlling Disinformation
Reclaim the Net
The accord is expected to be finalized this week.Republican senators are pushing back against an accord that would give the World Health Organization (WHO) power over member states if it declares a pandemic. The accord, which is legally binding on all member states, will be finalized in Switzerland this week.
The accord will give the WHO power to declare pandemics and require member states to give the WHO the “central role” as “the directing and coordinating authority on international health work” in areas like medical supply chains, treatments and lockdowns. However, the WHO also wants more power over surveillance and controlling “disinformation and fake news” when a pandemic is declared.
17 senators, led by Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson, have introduced the “No WHO Pandemic Preparedness Treaty Without Senate Approval Act.” The bill states that the accord should be called a treaty. As a treaty, it would require approval by two-thirds of the Senate.
We obtained a copy of the bill for you here.
“The WHO, along with our federal health agencies, failed miserably in their response to COVID-19,” Sen. Johnson stated. “This failure should not be rewarded with a new international treaty that would increase the WHO’s power at the expense of American sovereignty.”
However, some legal experts believe the legislation will not stop President Joe Biden from signing the accord as the accord was drafted to bypass Senate approval.
[…]
Via https://reclaimthenet.org/republicans-want-to-stop-biden-giving-who-power
February 26, 2023
US Legislators Propose Ban on Central Bank Digital Currency
Jose Nino
Big League Politics
Minnesota Congressman Tom Emmer recently introduced a bill that would ban the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) directly to anyone, per a report by Bitcoin Magazine.
The bill is titled the “CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act” and outlines that “Except as specifically authorized under this Act, a Federal Reserve bank may not offer products or services directly to an individual, or maintain an account on behalf of an individual, or issue a central bank digital currency directly to an individual.” The bill adds that “The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Open Market Committee may not use any central bank digital currency to implement monetary policy.”
In a tweet that he posted on February 22, 2023, Emmer stated the bill that “Any digital version of the dollar must uphold our American values of privacy, individual sovereignty, and free market competitiveness. Anything less opens the door to the development of a dangerous surveillance tool.”
Today, I introduced the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act to halt efforts of unelected bureaucrats in Washington, DC from stripping Americans of their right to financial privacy.
pic.twitter.com/lONbHFZMk7
— Tom Emmer (@GOPMajorityWhip) February 22, 2023
The bill’s principal objective is to prevent the creation of a CBDC because of the various issues associated with the creation of an American CBDC such as the facilitation of technocratic tyranny and more government control of people’s economic activity.
Other elected officials supporting the bill such as Georgia Congressman Barry Loudermilk issued a statement declaring that he was “Proud to join forces with Rep. Emmer on legislation to keep the Fed from issuing a central bank digital currency. The Fed should be focused on its core mission of stable prices and max employment, not tracking our transactions indefinitely.” On top of that, Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs doubled down on this point, declaring that “unelected bureaucrats are driving us to an authoritarian state. That can’t happen.”
Opposition to a CBDC should be a no-brainer. This is one of the first steps towards building an anti-fiat money movement that has the ultimate aim of capsizing the Fed. Taking down such a monstrosity won’t happen overnight. Let’s keep this momentum going.
[…]
Via https://bigleaguepolitics.com/us-legislators-propose-ban-on-central-bank-digital-currency/
Three Separate Oil Facilities Explode Suddenly in 24 Hours
Frank Bergman
Slay
Three oil facilities in separate locations across Mexico and the United States have suffered huge fires after sudden explosions, according to reports.
The explosions all occurred in the space of 24 hours.
All three facilities, including one in Texas, are controlled by the state-owned Mexican oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX).
On Thursday, three separate fires broke out at PEMEX facilities, resulting in the deaths of two workers, Bloomberg reported.
At least eight people were also injured and several others are missing.
The explosions have resulted in increased scrutiny of the safety record of the Mexican state oil firm in advance of its earnings call on Monday.
The fires broke out at the PEMEX crude oil storage facility in Veracruz, Mexico, at the Combined Maya plant of the Minatitlán Refinery in Veracruz, and in Deer Creek, Texas.
One of the Veracruz locations hit by an explosion is Mexico’s largest oil storage facility.
On Friday morning, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexico’s president, said at a press conference that the fire at the Minatitlan refinery was immediately brought under control.
However, he noted that the fire at the Ixhuatlan storage facility has not yet been extinguished.
He said, “in the case of Ixhuatlan, it will take more time because it occurred at an oil deposit.”
WATCH:
#Russia: A huge Blaze with black smoke clouds at Mexico’s largest Oil storage facility in city #Veracruz.A fire in a pipeline at the facilities of the state-owned oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (#Pemex) was reported today by the Civil Protection Secretariat of Veracruz, Mexico. pic.twitter.com/D7XJ9l7rsC
— Khurram Zubair (@Khurram__z) February 24, 2023
Three fires broke out on Thursday at different facilities in Mexico and the United States operated by state-owned Mexican oil company Pemex.
Five missing, eight injured.pic.twitter.com/GR1AudZ3bz
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) February 24, 2023
UPDATE: Multiple fires ROCK state owned Mexican oil refineries in 3 separate locations… pic.twitter.com/BXYoHHgczO
— The American Tribune (@TAmTrib) February 24, 2023
Así se ven los 9 mil mdp que se destinaron para @Pemex Veracruz en el Presupuesto de Egresos de este año… seguimos esperando un informe oficial de los accidentes del día de ayer en Minatitlán e Ixhuatlán del Sureste.¡Las familias de los trabajadores merecen respuestas! pic.twitter.com/rOIk9uSbqO
— Indira Rosales (@Indira_rs) February 24, 2023
[…]
Via https://slaynews.com/news/3-separate-oil-facilities-explode-suddenly-24-hours/
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