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During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three Point Political Program: 1. Austerity, 2. Scapegoating Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal Immigrants’ for Unemployment, and 3. The Iron Heel.
Democracy?: As the Capitalist Robber Barons Steal from the 99% — Only the 1% Voted For Austerity — The 99% Should Decide On Austerity — Not Just Those Who Profit From Austerity! Under Austerity, All of the World Will Eventually Be Pauperized, Humbled, and Desecrated Like Greece and Puerto Rico!
Editorial:
The ‘Chemical Coast’ is a Petrochemical Superfund site: In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, The Entire ‘Chemical Coast’, The Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coasts, should be treated as a massive superfund site! The ‘Chemical Coast’ is home to numerus superfund sites, which have been flooded. Mixed with flooded oil refineries and flooded chemical sites, the whole flooded area has become a super superfund site. Along with the petrochemical industries carcinogenic black plumes, the air, the land, and the water have become a massive toxic gumbo that will spread throughout the area threatening all life. People should be immediately evacuated from the whole area — The petrochemical Chemical companies have to be closed down! It is time to stop using fossil fuels! People should come before the profits of the 1%!
Images of the Day:
The human health consequences from Hurricane and Tropical Storm Harvey will be long lasting and all but incalculable. Houston, Texas and the surrounding Gulf communities comprise the acknowledged petrochemical capital of the world. The Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coasts are commonly referred to as the “chemical coast,” where almost half of all the refining of gasoline and natural gas in the US is done. — The incalculable human health consequences of Hurricane Harvey Fetid floodwaters in the “chemical coast” carry toxins and disease
As the storm approached, energy companies began shutting refineries to protect their operations—emitting toxic gases in the process. Facilities have reported releasing more than 2 million pounds of hazardous chemicals into the air since the shutdowns began last week, according to an analysis of state regulatory filings by the Environmental Defense Fund. That equals nearly 40 percent of all the releases from the facilities in 2016. “On a good day, there’s already a high risk of cancer,” said Luke Metzger, director of Environment Texas, an advocacy group based in Austin. “This amount of pollution in such a short time just makes that risk even higher.” In one of the largest releases, the Chevron Phillips Chemical Cedar Bayou plant estimated that it emitted 28,505 pounds of benzene, a carcinogen, as part of its total release of more than 750,000 pounds of hazardous chemicals. Importantly, these figures are just estimates. State officials shut down air monitors in the area ahead of the storm to protect them, so it’s impossible to know what exactly nearby residents were exposed to. But people reported smelling foul chemical odors. Facilities are continuing to release more pollutants even as the storm has moved out of the region. On Wednesday, Kinder Morgan’s Pasadena Terminal reported that the roof of a tank holding gasoline had been partially submerged. The company estimated that more than 12,000 pounds of hazardous chemicals were released. Elena Craft, a scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund, said the incidents revealed poor planning on the part of the region’s petrochemical infrastructure and the need to rebuild to a higher standard for larger storms. “The reality is these are happening more regularly and they’re larger in magnitude,” she said. “We can’t keep doing our disaster management using the same information we have been for years.” Harris County also has at least a dozen federal Superfund sites that may be leaking, and scores of other industrial facilities. — Harvey Aftermath: A Public Health Crisis in the Making
Refineries Produce Carcinogens: The Gasoline Refining Industry had to post this warning in the February 24, 1999, issue of the San Francisco Chronicle:
Text of Actual WARNING:
Chemicals known to the State to cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm are found in gasoline, crude oil, and many other petroleum products and their vapors, or result from their use. Read and follow label directions and use care when handling or using all petroleum products. Chemicals known to the State to cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm are found in and around gasoline stations, refineries, chemical plants, and other facilities that produce, handle, transport, store, or sell crude oil and petroleum and chemical products. Other facilities covered by this warning include, for example, oil and gas wells, oil and gas treating plants, petroleum and chemical storage tanks, pipeline systems, marine vessels and barges, tank trucks and tank cars loading and unloading facilities, and refueling facilities. The foregoing warning is provided pursuant to Proposition 65. This law requires the Governor of California to publish a list of chemicals “known to the State to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity.” This list is compiled in accordance with a procedure established by the Proposition, and can be obtained from the California Environmental Protection Agency. Proposition 65 requires that a clear and reasonable warning be given to persons exposed to the listed chemicals in certain situations. (Signed by) Aera Energy LCC; Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. SFPP, LP., Operating Partnership; ARCO Atlantic Richfield Company, its affiliates and subsidiaries; Texaco Inc., its affiliates and subsidiaries; Chevron Corporation and its subsidiaries; Time Oil Co.; Equilon Enterprises, LLC (under the trademarks Shell and Texaco); Tosco Corporation, its divisions and subsidiaries (and under the trademarks 76, BP and Circle K); Exxon Mobil Corporation; Ultramar Diamond Shamrock; the Valvoline Company, a division of Ashland Inc.; and Jackpot Convenience Stores Inc. For more information, please call: (1-800) 523-3157. — “Trade Secrets” Cancer and the Environment (What the Bill Moyers Program “Trade Secrets” Revealed)
Videos of the Day:
U.S.
Harvey Victims Face Toxic Pollution as Hurricane Recovery Begins Texas Communities that have long experienced health problems from nearby oil refineries and chemical plants are now facing the fossil fuel industry’s longer-term impacts: storms made more severe by climate change and the painful recovery process that follows their landfall — a recovery made far worse by industrial contamination. By Alleen Brown 
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
Toxic Tempest: Oil refineries in Hurricane Harvey’s path are polluting Latino and low-income neighborhoods Oil refineries and chemical plants are 24-hour operations. They’re not designed to be turned off. But when a hurricane barreled through the refinery and chemical plant capital of the United States, many didn’t have a choice. When refineries are forced to shut down—as were at least 11 along the Texas coast and the greater Houston area, due to Hurricane Harvey—they often release far greater volumes of toxic air pollution than the normal legal limits would allow. In industry parlance, these pollution spikes are called “exceptional events.” The excess pollution is considered an emergency necessity to prevent worse outcomes, like an explosion, so plants are exempt from fines they would ordinarily pay for exceeding their legal pollution limits. By Zoë Schlanger
Environment:
Hurricane Harvey and the Dialectics of Nature Between 1872 and 1882, Frederick Engels worked on a book titled “The Dialectics of Nature” that sought to apply Marxist dialectics to the natural world. Although it was never completed and is filled with dated ideas about science, it is a work that has earned the respect of some of the most important scientists on the left such as Stephen Jay Gould who praised its best known chapter that was issued separately as a pamphlet—The Part played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man. Long before people such as Barry Commoner and Rachel Carson were laying the groundwork for the eco-socialism of today, Engels anticipated the kind of contradictions that have led to three disastrous hurricanes: Katrina, Sandy and now Harvey. Engels wrote: “Let us not, however, flatter ourselves overmuch on account of our human victories over nature. For each such victory nature takes its revenge on us. Each victory, it is true, in the first place brings about the results we expected, but in the second and third places it has quite different, unforeseen effects which only too often cancel the first. The people who, in Mesopotamia, Greece, Asia Minor and elsewhere, destroyed the forests to obtain cultivable land, never dreamed that by removing along with the forests the collecting centres and reservoirs of moisture they were laying the basis for the present forlorn state of those countries.” by Louis Proyect
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
Labor:
Economy:
World:
How Did Anti-Assad Protests Turn to War in Syria? When Nikolaos van Dam was a young diplomat in Damascus, he knew Syria better than many Syrians. A fluent speaker of Arabic, this Dutch scholar’s first book on Syria’s modern history was so well researched that even members of the Baath party would reportedly turn to its pages to understand the history of their institution and the nature of the regime for which they worked. by Robert Fisk
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:
The Arkema chemical plant in Crosby, Texas 
Houston: Crossing the San Jacinto River Toxic Site
Quotes of the Day: 
Harvey Aftermath: A Public Health Crisis in the Making From water contamination to diseases to mold in the walls, dangers continue long after the hurricane. These sorts of risks accompany climate change. By Nicholas Kusnetz 
