While the GOP are in the pocket of the chemical industry, we can still lobby them as citizens to do something about PFAS chemicals and their impact on us, our children, and our grandchildren
I'm guessing that this article came about from the recent news of the extraordinary amount of PFAS chems discovered in "Simply Orange" juice? It was a shocker and disappointment around our house because we drink those here. I believe the testing was done only for the orange juice, but we've stopped buying all of them.
So here we go again with the Republicans lying and covering up our right to live in a safer country. The people most likely affected will be the poor( the majority in this country now) .
They want the killers protected in order that they can continue to add to the people they can kill for profit.
They will of course be backed by the bought Supreme Court who also has become a rogue out fit.
At least the six that run the show rt now .
Tell me how all these people who portray no aspect of compassion at all got elected and / or appointed to be representatives of of the wealthiest Americans only. In N Dakota they are trying to pass a resolution that will not allow people on SNAP to purchase meat , flour and butter .
Well , of course they care . They want to remove books that have the smallest mention of sex, including education . Any mention of a couple of penguins w an egg.
No exceptions and then these Republican strongholds want a law to back up their blatant abuse of and marginalization of LGBTQ people.
The governor of Florida thinks he’s a king choosing his subjects . And i can tell you he cannot see African Americans, except when he’s eliminating AP programs re :African American Studies. ( truthful history) not allowed . It might upset someones gun toting mother.
Same thing in all schools . No truth about the history of the white population enforcing hate because of skin color or nationality . ( these are Americans they are banning)
They don’t care.
Let me repeat that . They don’t care.
They don’t give a red rats ass about these people.they don’t give a shit about these people.
They only care about Wealthy whites . Cause they don’t care about the poor at all. Whatever color. We are ‘ eaters ‘ .
But our country was founded for us all.
The constitution backs that up .
The wealthy and the Republicans have their own twisted up version of the constitution. The supreme court helped them twist it . The conservatives on the court. They lie . They have a specific gift. They are their own ineffective overseers.
Ask John Roberts.
So the chemicals in our soil our water our food our air . Its ok w them and their mutual protecters.
Go ahead ask them .
Ask Trump
Ask Bill Barr the buffer for all illegal actions of the Republican presidents from Nixon , Reagan, George H W Bush , George Bush Jr who lost to Al Gore ( but thats just a technicality ) ask the Supreme Court again. And all of those criminals protected by Bill Barr.
Phew he’s had a big job to do .
‘The truth will set you free, but first it’ll make you miserable.’
It is my opinion that we are headed towards human extinction, and it is corporate greed that is leading the way, but humanity is willingly being led. Best analogy is the pied piper.
Humans are entranced by our wants and needs, all but the poorest of the poor, live better than medieval royalty, more comfort, more security, more food choices. more toys and gadgets, even the homeless have cell phones. "Peas porridge hot, Peas porridge cold, Peas porridge in the pot 9 days old" is more than a nursery rhyme for serfs.
Bill Maher, Friday, echoed the sentiment of all, including climate activists, he is not willing to give up his private airplane, because he needs it to travel and his travel is to make money.
It is not just our avaricious demand for unhealthy chemicals to eat and use. It is the demands placed on resources for the geometrically expanding population. It took a thousand years for the population of the planet to double,then that contracted to hundreds, now it is down to tens.
With a doubling comes a doubling of demand, for food and for goodies., and a doubling of the demand for not only food, but for minerals and lumber, and with that comes a doubling of activity that depletes the nonrenewable resources, and the depletion of renewable resources that aren't being renewed at a rate sufficient to offset the adverse affect that their depletion has on the environment, especially climate and the life giving oxygen envelope that surrounds this planet with a thin six mile high band.
Combine that with global warming, glacier melt, diversion of the gulf stream, the jet stream and we are on a downward trajectory.
Yep doom and gloom, no room or time for Pollyannas, optimists or wishful thinkers.
There were a lot of optimistic Jews in 1933," this Hitler fella can't be too bad, after all this is a democracy"
Its a week where many important companies are reporting earnings. Exxon just reported a record $56 billion profit for 2022.
Meanwhile the environmental defense fund refers to how its "time for bold action on climate," but has no specific policy for cutting any of the oil exploration, production or pipelines. The last reference to exxon on its website is 2019 and there is nothing about guyana, exxon's big project.
This is one of Mr. Hartman's very best 'Stir-the-Pot' pieces; it touches on almost all the most basic chronic failure patterns of the developed world's households:
Increasingly, physically and mentally, the life styles of urban individuals and households in the developing worlds appear less and less attractive. With a global population of 8 billion fertility rates are dropping-Chinese, American, Japanese and EU young couples are choosing NOT to have children. Relationships don't seem to last very long anymore, and the cohort of elderly without any friends or family to help them is ballooning to epic proportions.
According to Mr. Hartman's citations the lifestyles and choices we have made in the last 80 years are making us sick, and sicker. Do we solve these challenges by 'blaming' industry and corporations, or do we begin changing our life styles?
— In 2015, scientists found PFAS exposure lowered the immune response, making people more vulnerable to a plethora of diseases and cancers.
— A 2016 study found they alter hormones in a way that affects the term of pregnancy and may have an impact on male sperm.
— In 2017 researchers discovered the chemicals could provoke childhood obesity and disrupt human hormones.
— A 2018 study found high levels of PFAS chemicals alter human metabolism so dramatically they’re implicated in weight gain and both childhood and adult obesity.
— And, in 2020, research “revealed associations between exposure to specific PFAS and a variety of health effects, including altered immune and thyroid function, liver disease, lipid and insulin dysregulation, kidney disease, adverse reproductive and developmental outcomes, and cancer.”
While DuPont had known since 1961 that the chemicals could cause cancers and liver damage, according to reporting in The New York Times, they hadn’t bothered to inform or protect their own workers.
That led to a massive lawsuit in 2017 that cost the company $670 million: the jury found the chemicals were linked, the Times noted, to “high cholesterol, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, testicular cancer, kidney cancer and pregnancy-induced hypertension.”
It's always amazing when you hear these statements in respected media to the effect that nobody cares about environmental issues, or nobody votes based on environmental issues.
Protection of the environment has always been a top issue to me, and always totally connected to everything else that's involved in politics. I took environmental history, and environmental law in law school.
This shows whats at stake in terms of the importance of our regulatory state. What we see quite quick clearly from the PR folks at all companies is that they are really concerned about millennials and their viewpoints so there is so much of an attempt to convince people of green claims and such. I noticed the law review article that discusses how the FTC and SEC may pose a risk to companies who are exaggerating their green claims and it mentions these chemicals.
A somewhat related point is that I had been a member of some environmental organizations for many years and unfortunately I have seen how some of the nonprofit organizations have become dominated by market-based strategies and Ivy League hedge fund type boards. I'm not saying this specifically in regard to the sierra club, but I was kind of surprised to see an article on the sierra club website in which it states that the first time the Congress received testimony on climate was from James Henson in 1988.
I had to read this over and over again because I knew that this is completely wrong. For i had recently gotten a big kick out of watching carl sagen on C-SPAN testifying before Dave Durenberger in 1985 all about climate - everything you would possibly wanna know about climate with other top climate scientists.
Ok so just now i found out he died yrsterday. Please watch the 1985 video on cpan with sagen and look into dave durenberger - a minn republican who proposed an economic and womens bill of rights similar to fdr!
OMG yes, potable water, well water of any kind. Israel has used desalinated water to refill the Sea of Galilee which also benefit Jordan. Imagine that, and you don't hear a word of desalinization in America, it is expensive and Americans squeeze a buffalo nickel till it farts. Mention taxes and you get a near revolution.
Water is the new liquid gold. Bolivia needed credit from the IMF, it was told to privatize it's water. It did, Cheney's Haliburton moved in, and started selling water to the natives, water that was once free, and there was a revolt, Bolivia kicked out Haliburton which then took it to the World Court, which made Bolivia pay Haliburton for lost profits. The sword over the head is CIA inspired revolution and denial of credit.
In Africa, some countries have also privatized their water, to the extent that some woman or kid is paid pennies to stand at the local hand pump and charge people for what was once free water. Those that can't pay, drink for the polluted ditches, streams and ponds and die of horrible parasitic infections and diseases.
Saudi Arabia has massive desalinization plants, reverse osmosis I think, but they are expensive, and the filters need to be changed frequently, salt accumulation. But Saudi Arabia subsidizes their plants, via the oil they sell to Europe and the world. I do not think that we rely on Saudi Oil, but we do import oil, not because we need it, but because it keeps the world oil prices high (demand) and we do have the best government that money can buy.
I just can't say enough bad stuff about Republicans. They are so detached from reality, thanks to religion. They will have Americans eating out of garbage cans in no time.
Thom - we’d love to have you guest on our History. Culture. Trauma. podcast. My email is csipp@pacesconnection.com. The hosts could interview you at your convenience though it “airs” on Thursdays at 1 p.m. PT and having guests live is their preference. Would you be willing to email me back and let me know if you’d consider? Thanks. csipp@pacesconnection.com
Thanks for today’s post. Saw Dark Waters when it first came out. Live in Coastal NC where this is a huge issue. Environmental racism drives a lot of the choices made by the violators.
These are just one class of chemicals that are poisoning the planet and everything in on it. We are the only small (300 acres) family farm left in our area and are organic. Surrounding us are nothing but factory farm fields with "king corn" and dead chickens ground up in the manure then spread on the land in winter! Same with the cows minus the carcasses. Those go to rendering. This means we have tons of roundup everywhere. We are a bulls eye for pancreatic, breast, prostate, etc. cancer and auto immune diseases like ALS, MS, etc. Nothing is done by any party or govt entity about this. Our complaints are gone with the wind. Politicians won't even talk about it as they worry about the public getting "cheap" food and heaven help anyone if they point out food is not cheap when you add in subsidies (tax payers), disease, animal abuse, etc. To reverse this after so many years will be difficult. There are inklings of change but are usually drowned out by the almighty dollar.
You ALWAYS hit the important issues in my life..being a cancer warrior,and Democracy proponent..Than you for this♥️☮️🗽
I'm guessing that this article came about from the recent news of the extraordinary amount of PFAS chems discovered in "Simply Orange" juice? It was a shocker and disappointment around our house because we drink those here. I believe the testing was done only for the orange juice, but we've stopped buying all of them.
https://www.classaction.org/news/simply-orange-juice-class-action-alleges-tropical-drink-contains-synthetic-forever-chemicals
Please do not forget Bill Barr fixing investigations for Donald Trump.
He lied, He lied and he’s still lying . He wrote a book . I m pretty sure its a lie.
So here we go again with the Republicans lying and covering up our right to live in a safer country. The people most likely affected will be the poor( the majority in this country now) .
They want the killers protected in order that they can continue to add to the people they can kill for profit.
They will of course be backed by the bought Supreme Court who also has become a rogue out fit.
At least the six that run the show rt now .
Tell me how all these people who portray no aspect of compassion at all got elected and / or appointed to be representatives of of the wealthiest Americans only. In N Dakota they are trying to pass a resolution that will not allow people on SNAP to purchase meat , flour and butter .
Well , of course they care . They want to remove books that have the smallest mention of sex, including education . Any mention of a couple of penguins w an egg.
No exceptions and then these Republican strongholds want a law to back up their blatant abuse of and marginalization of LGBTQ people.
The governor of Florida thinks he’s a king choosing his subjects . And i can tell you he cannot see African Americans, except when he’s eliminating AP programs re :African American Studies. ( truthful history) not allowed . It might upset someones gun toting mother.
Same thing in all schools . No truth about the history of the white population enforcing hate because of skin color or nationality . ( these are Americans they are banning)
They don’t care.
Let me repeat that . They don’t care.
They don’t give a red rats ass about these people.they don’t give a shit about these people.
They only care about Wealthy whites . Cause they don’t care about the poor at all. Whatever color. We are ‘ eaters ‘ .
But our country was founded for us all.
The constitution backs that up .
The wealthy and the Republicans have their own twisted up version of the constitution. The supreme court helped them twist it . The conservatives on the court. They lie . They have a specific gift. They are their own ineffective overseers.
Ask John Roberts.
So the chemicals in our soil our water our food our air . Its ok w them and their mutual protecters.
Go ahead ask them .
Ask Trump
Ask Bill Barr the buffer for all illegal actions of the Republican presidents from Nixon , Reagan, George H W Bush , George Bush Jr who lost to Al Gore ( but thats just a technicality ) ask the Supreme Court again. And all of those criminals protected by Bill Barr.
Phew he’s had a big job to do .
‘The truth will set you free, but first it’ll make you miserable.’
I swear I never know what to eat anymore.
It is my opinion that we are headed towards human extinction, and it is corporate greed that is leading the way, but humanity is willingly being led. Best analogy is the pied piper.
Humans are entranced by our wants and needs, all but the poorest of the poor, live better than medieval royalty, more comfort, more security, more food choices. more toys and gadgets, even the homeless have cell phones. "Peas porridge hot, Peas porridge cold, Peas porridge in the pot 9 days old" is more than a nursery rhyme for serfs.
Bill Maher, Friday, echoed the sentiment of all, including climate activists, he is not willing to give up his private airplane, because he needs it to travel and his travel is to make money.
It is not just our avaricious demand for unhealthy chemicals to eat and use. It is the demands placed on resources for the geometrically expanding population. It took a thousand years for the population of the planet to double,then that contracted to hundreds, now it is down to tens.
With a doubling comes a doubling of demand, for food and for goodies., and a doubling of the demand for not only food, but for minerals and lumber, and with that comes a doubling of activity that depletes the nonrenewable resources, and the depletion of renewable resources that aren't being renewed at a rate sufficient to offset the adverse affect that their depletion has on the environment, especially climate and the life giving oxygen envelope that surrounds this planet with a thin six mile high band.
Combine that with global warming, glacier melt, diversion of the gulf stream, the jet stream and we are on a downward trajectory.
Yep doom and gloom, no room or time for Pollyannas, optimists or wishful thinkers.
There were a lot of optimistic Jews in 1933," this Hitler fella can't be too bad, after all this is a democracy"
Greed and fecundity.
Its a week where many important companies are reporting earnings. Exxon just reported a record $56 billion profit for 2022.
Meanwhile the environmental defense fund refers to how its "time for bold action on climate," but has no specific policy for cutting any of the oil exploration, production or pipelines. The last reference to exxon on its website is 2019 and there is nothing about guyana, exxon's big project.
This is one of Mr. Hartman's very best 'Stir-the-Pot' pieces; it touches on almost all the most basic chronic failure patterns of the developed world's households:
1. We may live longer, but we are chronically ill from a very early age https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2010/03/24/adults-living-with-chronic-disease/
2. Our children are not doing well in our public schools https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/emotional-fitness/201305/top-10-reasons-why-moms-are-important and https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/11/20/246400702/this-is-what-america-s-school-lunches-really-look-like
3. Male sperm counts have been dropping for decades https://www.gq.com/story/sperm-count-zero and https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/in-vitro-fertilization-market
Increasingly, physically and mentally, the life styles of urban individuals and households in the developing worlds appear less and less attractive. With a global population of 8 billion fertility rates are dropping-Chinese, American, Japanese and EU young couples are choosing NOT to have children. Relationships don't seem to last very long anymore, and the cohort of elderly without any friends or family to help them is ballooning to epic proportions.
According to Mr. Hartman's citations the lifestyles and choices we have made in the last 80 years are making us sick, and sicker. Do we solve these challenges by 'blaming' industry and corporations, or do we begin changing our life styles?
After a generation of terrific gender challenges, have we all misunderstood and undervalued the roles and influences of 'our mothers'? https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/emotional-fitness/201305/top-10-reasons-why-moms-are-important
Mr. Hartman's Citations:
Now we know better.
— In 2015, scientists found PFAS exposure lowered the immune response, making people more vulnerable to a plethora of diseases and cancers.
— A 2016 study found they alter hormones in a way that affects the term of pregnancy and may have an impact on male sperm.
— In 2017 researchers discovered the chemicals could provoke childhood obesity and disrupt human hormones.
— A 2018 study found high levels of PFAS chemicals alter human metabolism so dramatically they’re implicated in weight gain and both childhood and adult obesity.
— And, in 2020, research “revealed associations between exposure to specific PFAS and a variety of health effects, including altered immune and thyroid function, liver disease, lipid and insulin dysregulation, kidney disease, adverse reproductive and developmental outcomes, and cancer.”
While DuPont had known since 1961 that the chemicals could cause cancers and liver damage, according to reporting in The New York Times, they hadn’t bothered to inform or protect their own workers.
That led to a massive lawsuit in 2017 that cost the company $670 million: the jury found the chemicals were linked, the Times noted, to “high cholesterol, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, testicular cancer, kidney cancer and pregnancy-induced hypertension.”
It's always amazing when you hear these statements in respected media to the effect that nobody cares about environmental issues, or nobody votes based on environmental issues.
Protection of the environment has always been a top issue to me, and always totally connected to everything else that's involved in politics. I took environmental history, and environmental law in law school.
This shows whats at stake in terms of the importance of our regulatory state. What we see quite quick clearly from the PR folks at all companies is that they are really concerned about millennials and their viewpoints so there is so much of an attempt to convince people of green claims and such. I noticed the law review article that discusses how the FTC and SEC may pose a risk to companies who are exaggerating their green claims and it mentions these chemicals.
https://www.natlawreview.com/article/esg-pfas-and-emerging-chemicals-ftc-taking-aim
A somewhat related point is that I had been a member of some environmental organizations for many years and unfortunately I have seen how some of the nonprofit organizations have become dominated by market-based strategies and Ivy League hedge fund type boards. I'm not saying this specifically in regard to the sierra club, but I was kind of surprised to see an article on the sierra club website in which it states that the first time the Congress received testimony on climate was from James Henson in 1988.
I had to read this over and over again because I knew that this is completely wrong. For i had recently gotten a big kick out of watching carl sagen on C-SPAN testifying before Dave Durenberger in 1985 all about climate - everything you would possibly wanna know about climate with other top climate scientists.
Ok so just now i found out he died yrsterday. Please watch the 1985 video on cpan with sagen and look into dave durenberger - a minn republican who proposed an economic and womens bill of rights similar to fdr!
OMG yes, potable water, well water of any kind. Israel has used desalinated water to refill the Sea of Galilee which also benefit Jordan. Imagine that, and you don't hear a word of desalinization in America, it is expensive and Americans squeeze a buffalo nickel till it farts. Mention taxes and you get a near revolution.
Water is the new liquid gold. Bolivia needed credit from the IMF, it was told to privatize it's water. It did, Cheney's Haliburton moved in, and started selling water to the natives, water that was once free, and there was a revolt, Bolivia kicked out Haliburton which then took it to the World Court, which made Bolivia pay Haliburton for lost profits. The sword over the head is CIA inspired revolution and denial of credit.
In Africa, some countries have also privatized their water, to the extent that some woman or kid is paid pennies to stand at the local hand pump and charge people for what was once free water. Those that can't pay, drink for the polluted ditches, streams and ponds and die of horrible parasitic infections and diseases.
Saudi Arabia has massive desalinization plants, reverse osmosis I think, but they are expensive, and the filters need to be changed frequently, salt accumulation. But Saudi Arabia subsidizes their plants, via the oil they sell to Europe and the world. I do not think that we rely on Saudi Oil, but we do import oil, not because we need it, but because it keeps the world oil prices high (demand) and we do have the best government that money can buy.
Thom Hartmann is a boddhisatva.
I just can't say enough bad stuff about Republicans. They are so detached from reality, thanks to religion. They will have Americans eating out of garbage cans in no time.
Does anyone think that PFAS is also in organically labeled products, such as Organic Orange Juice?
Thom - we’d love to have you guest on our History. Culture. Trauma. podcast. My email is csipp@pacesconnection.com. The hosts could interview you at your convenience though it “airs” on Thursdays at 1 p.m. PT and having guests live is their preference. Would you be willing to email me back and let me know if you’d consider? Thanks. csipp@pacesconnection.com
Thanks for today’s post. Saw Dark Waters when it first came out. Live in Coastal NC where this is a huge issue. Environmental racism drives a lot of the choices made by the violators.
These are just one class of chemicals that are poisoning the planet and everything in on it. We are the only small (300 acres) family farm left in our area and are organic. Surrounding us are nothing but factory farm fields with "king corn" and dead chickens ground up in the manure then spread on the land in winter! Same with the cows minus the carcasses. Those go to rendering. This means we have tons of roundup everywhere. We are a bulls eye for pancreatic, breast, prostate, etc. cancer and auto immune diseases like ALS, MS, etc. Nothing is done by any party or govt entity about this. Our complaints are gone with the wind. Politicians won't even talk about it as they worry about the public getting "cheap" food and heaven help anyone if they point out food is not cheap when you add in subsidies (tax payers), disease, animal abuse, etc. To reverse this after so many years will be difficult. There are inklings of change but are usually drowned out by the almighty dollar.
Compassion has passion, no?