The number of U.S. oil refineries exceeding the EPA's action level for cancer-causing benzene in 2023 was cut in half compared to 2020.
These are the kinds of regulations Trump and his minions want to scrap. The very first executive order of Trump's presidency was to relax regulations governing dumping mine waste into rivers
@StillIRise1963 You might like @jpjjr1961's blog about #Libertarian's if you haven't checked it out. He has a whole page dedicated to Libertarians enabling #racism throughout history.
@timkmak
Race and racism are inescapable in this country, unfortunately. Living in Kansas City, a couple years ago I heard this story on our local #NPR station about the man who invented #CashewChicken. He was an #Immigrant from #China who fought during #WW2 in the #USArmy & faced literal #terrorism when he opened a restaurant in #Springfield#Missouri. Not a #War correspondent from #Canada, but interesting nonetheless.
This says a lot about the state of the Russian media landscape. The press secretary of the Russian defense ministry has resigned, and this is a quote from the TASS article about it:
""I will be assuming new duties. Almost 7 years in the Defense Ministry have flown by like a MiG-31. I will remember this time with pride", - she wrote on Instagram (which belongs to the recognized extremist company Meta and is illegal in Russia)"
@anderspuck
Reminds me of all those Chinese officials who used to complain about "Western Censorship" on #BirdChan because they had labels on their accounts. #SpaceKaren removed those labels AND the app is still illegal in China. A win for the authoritaria...uh...I mean "Freedom of Speech."
😆
#Trump pledges to 'roll back' Democratic President Joe #Biden’s #gun#regulations put in place by Democratic President Joe #Biden & to fire the #ATF chief during a lengthy rally speech to the #NRA on Sat, during which he accepted the influential group's #endorsement.
“I’m a German-Polish Jew. My last name is Wexler. …
We are told that we need a state that is based on ethnicity in the 21st century and that’s the only way Jewish people can be safe. But it is really for Britain and America and other imperialist states to have a presence in the Middle East.”
@wdlindsy
🧵
It is ahistorical nonsense to suggest that Israel is somehow the result of a "colonial project"of the US & the UK. It makes for a great story but it's not at all supported by facts. For starters, The UK didn't need Israel to have a presence in the Middle East, it had bases & troops in other "protectorates" all over the region (Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, etc). People will point to the Balfour declaration as proof & then conveniently forget everything that happened for the next... 1/4
...the wishes of the British authorities.
After WW2, the UK abstained from the UNSC votes which were to be the legal basis for the creation of the future state of Israel and did not recognize the nascent state right away. In fact Turkey would have full diplomatic relations with Israel before Great Britain.
The claim about the United States is equally ridiculous. While true that the United States supported the UNSC resolutions & recognized Israel's declaration of statehood...3/4
...35 or so years. The British were far more interested in their relationships with their Arab partners who allowed them access to the region. The British had basically reneged on the Balfour declaration by the outbreak of WW2 & had severely limited Jewish migration to Mandatory Palestine during that period to mollify Arab anger. As a result, Jewish militias waged a guerilla insurgency against the British & also smuggled thousands of Jews into Palestine explicitly against... 2/4
...almost immediately, the same can also be said of the Soviet Union, who viewed Zionism as an inherently socialist movement (many founders of Zionism were indeed socialists) & saw Israel as an "Anti imperialist" project that could counter British influence in the region.
Antagonism between the USSR & Israel developed later after many Arab states became independent & moved closer to the Soviets in the context of the Cold War.
To say otherwise is historical revisionism.
4/4 end 🧵 @wdlindsy
Joe Biden's claim that Hamas’s October 7 attacks were “driven by ancient desire to wipe out the Jewish people" is ahistorical and dangerous. In fact, Jewish history shows that antisemitism is a Western problem.
@mondoweiss
Why does the author feel the need to distort history himself, much as he accuses Biden of doing?
This idea that I hear that there was no "Jewish problem" until "The West" foisted it upon Palestine via colonialism is very problematic to say the least.
Interesting he mentions the infamous MS St Louis, yet fail to consider why millions of Jews were somehow unable to seek refuge in Palestine in the lead up to & during the Holocaust, despite earlier British promises. @palestine@israel
🧵 @gwynnion has blocked me for calling out this 💩 take.
I get that politics is disappointing. No one ever gets everything they want from any politician.
That said, we should be EXTREMELY critical (dare I say suspicious, even) of anyone who'd trivialize voting in a constitutional republic, especially in one where people died for the right to do so within living memory. Let's also not forget that our foreign adversaries are amplifying these kinds of messages to weaken our societies from...
1/2
Therefore you should #vote like your life depends on it.
I understand our system is by no means perfect, and change requires activism beyond the ballot box. But suggesting that voting is meaningless is either woefully ignorant or deliberately malign (in some cases maybe both).
In #Vovchansk, #Kharkiv region, where active hostilities are taking place, the first executions of civilians by #Russian troops have been reported, police said. A man who tried to flee on foot was killed. Civilians are also being captured.
Evacuations had been taking place, but now the Russian military, trying to gain a foothold in the city, is not allowing locals to evacuate.