White Privilege Generalization

Privilege is often about wealth, not race. People with money have more opportunities, better access to healthcare, education, housing, and so forth.

Some of the most privileged people of all races--wealthy and sometimes famous--are at the forefront of white privilege complaining.

Assuming someone is privileged based on skin color alone is a racist generalization.

There are people of all races that have access to opportunities denied to others. There are people of all races in completely opposite situations.

Being an American in and of itself is a privilege not afforded to billions of people in the world. Billions of people not in the United States live without proper shelter, no electricity, no running water, no access to healthcare, no access to dental care, no opportunities for education or decent employment. Billions live without clean water and without access to enough food.

The agenda to further divide Americans on race is furthered by white privilege narratives.

For the millions of white people inside of the United States that struggle economically, many with health issues and other serious problems, white privilege would be laughable if it were not so corrosive and divisive of a concept.

The more some on one political party push the white privileged narrative, alienating millions of whites that struggle daily and that are not privileged, the better it is for the opposing political party.

Reversing Failed Land Protection - Protecting the Planet

Until the day comes, if ever, in which people do not overpopulate the lands upon which they live - where millions flee environmentally degraded, poverty stricken lands for foreign soils- no effort should be spared to protect lands and waters before everything is destroyed.

The more lands and waters are degraded and destroyed, the more desperate people become. They flee for safer lands. Poverty and environmental degradation contributes to social, political and religious instability.

Protecting the environment is not just about a love for nature. It is essential for human survival.

Land protection does not come cheap. Managing and preserving lands and waters that are protected requires money and effort.

Enormous amounts of lands that should be protected never will be under the existing structures of land and water protection.

Business interests develop at will with little resistance.

Conservationists and their organizations are content with their self serving circles and limited achievements. Saving slivers while everything else is being destroyed must stop being acceptable.

True conservation must stop move away from the ineffective hands in which it has rested. Conservation must become an integral part of the political, religious, social and economic focus going forward.

The money is there to save rain forests, coral reefs, and more. Only the will is lacking. Leaving land protection in the hands of a few nonprofit organizations and in the hands of business interests supported by bought and sold political interests will only lead to more of the same - a few places protected and a whole lot more destroyed.

Trillions of dollars are spent on war and preparing for war. If a small fraction of that money was spent on saving rain forests, rain forests throughout the world would not be disappearing every second.

Enormous amounts of money are spent ensuring wealth continues to concentrate in the hands of a few. The small number of people that control the world's wealth have more than enough money to ensure the rain forests of the Amazon, Congo, Southeast Asia and more are protected. Unfortunately, the more people have, the more they want for themselves. The tax structures that allows wealth to concentrate in the hands of a few, and that keeps it concentrated in the hands of an elitist class, must change.

Religions, too often concerned with their own wealth and seductive promise of future paradises, have done little to nothing to protect this planet. The first and foremost thing that all religions must do is to renounce all religious violence and hate, and stop ignoring or being tolerant of those that do promote hate and violence. Otherwise the cycles of violence will continue, and the environment will continue being destroyed in the process.

Land and water protection must stop being a side show, subordinate to mankind's religious, political and social conflicts. It must become a front and center priority.

Environmental degradation is destroying this planet. It just might beat nuclear war as the final destroyer of human life. These two threats - environmental destruction and nuclear war, must be face head on and defeated. Business as usual has failed.

Animal Cruelty, Dog Fighting, Dogs In The Cold, And The Animal Organizations That Profit

When the commercial runs of dogs left out in the cold, and then the animal organization begs for your donation, who is it that benefits - the animal organization or the dogs left out in the cold?

Dogs left suffering out in the cold in harms way is a form of animal cruelty.

Animal cruelty is a crime.

Instead of ensuring a proper police response to animal cruelty and dog fighting, animal organizations professing to be against animal cruelty would rather have the public believe they are the answer to animal cruelty so that the donations keep pouring in.

Crime, including animal cruelty, belongs in the hands of public law enforcement.

If public law enforcement is not doing its job - such as how it was before regarding drunk driving and domestic violence - then it is the responsibility of concerned people and organizations to ensure there is a widespread, appropriate police response.

The only way to seriously fight against animal cruelty and dog fighting is to ensure a widespread, appropriate police response response to these crimes. Not with token forces, whether fielded by an animal organization or an actual police department - and that are only an excuse for larger law enforcement to continue doing little to nothing. Not with ineffective humane investigators lacking law enforcement powers who often provide animal abusers and dog fighters heads up opportunities to move their animals elsewhere.

Anti domestic violence organizations and anti domestic drunk driving organizations do not accept poor police responses to those crimes. And they certainly do not delude the public into thinking that they are the ones doing criminal investigations.

As long as the poor police response continues to animal cruelty and dog fighting, and as long as animal organizations continue to exploit these crimes for their own gain, only harm will continue to animals and the public at large.

Few animal abusers will continue to get arrested, despite the incredible commonness and frequency of animal cruelty. Dog fighters will continue to stand a better chance of getting struck by lightning than ever getting arrested.

Animal organizations using suffering animals to get donations get money by the boatload from an unquestioning public. Too many people follow organizations like blind sheep. Big money is being made in animal cruelty.

The Unaccountable Social Media Monopolies That Control Information

Social media monopolies are unwilling to spend time and money to differentiate between speech that promotes hate and violence, and speech defined as offensive because someone disagrees with the opinions expressed.

They are shutting down legitimate criticisms and enforcing blasphemy restrictions without avenues to contest such decisions.

Since the business interests that control the U.S. government are unwilling to regulate the social media monopolies like a utility company, or break them up, there is a third avenue that should be pursued. These social media monopolies must not continue as anonymous giants in which no human being can be reached by phone. They must be held accountable for their arbitrary censorship decisions, and they must become like other companies in which there are actual people with whom there can be communication. It is inexcusable that these multi billionaire dollar social media monopolies control the flow of information and its dissemination, and yet remain unaccountable and unreachable.

Social Media Monopolies: Voice For Liars And Entrenched Interests

One social media monopoly's CEO declared that spreading lies and disinformation are acceptable in political ads, but woe to the little person that expresses an opinion that is not violent or hateful, but that some entrenched interest does not like. A few corporations control the flow of information and its dissemination, while allowed to be unreachable and unaccountable. Technology was supposed to expand, not kill democracy and free speech.

Nuclear Weapons: Russian TV's Misguided Opinion

On a Russian government television station, one of the talking heads berated the United States. His criticisms went on and on, and are a waste of time repeating. It is not like Russia is without corruption and its own set of problems.

But let us assume on face value that the United States is as rotten of a place as the talking head insisted.

He argued about the necessity for Russia to pursue nuclear weapons advancements due to the threats the United States allegedly poses to Russia and to other countries.

He insisted that civilization advances from the technology that comes from weapons development.

The audience clapped enthusiastically, which people are often mindlessly inclined to do even when what they are favoring means destruction.

The money wasted on arms, nuclear and conventional, if spent directly in the civilian sphere, would provide far greater benefits and outcomes than the residual benefits that comes from defense spending.

Nuclear war ends human history because it ends human existence. Nuclear weapons are the permanent, irreversible response to fleeting problems, grievances and animosities that otherwise would pass in the course of time.

The more nuclear bombs and missiles, the less chance mankind has for a future, let alone a bright one.

The best of leaders wants less, not more of the nuclear weapons demon.

It is hard to understand the complacency from all sides that accepts, even applauds, the nuclear arms race.

Dogs Of Winter Left In Cold Suffering, And The Animal Organizations That Profit

Winter is here, and so are the insufferable ads by an animal organization begging for donations, showing dogs out in the cold without adequate shelter in harms way.

Dogs left suffering out in the cold without adequate shelter in harms way constituents animal cruelty. Animal cruelty is a crime. The enforcement of criminal laws belongs in the hands of law enforcement. Law enforcement continues to minimally enforce animal cruelty laws, with very few exceptions, in the absence of advocacy by anyone to ensure otherwise, and in the face of animal organizations only too eager to present themselves as the answer to animal cruelty.

Until this changes, and so far decades have gone by with nothing changing for the better, few animal abusers will get arrested despite the incredible frequency and commonness of animal cruelty. Few animals will be rescued from abusive situations. Dog fighters will continue to have greater chances of getting struck by lightning than ever getting arrested.

Law enforcement continues to do little to nothing about animal cruelty, other than with token forces fielded here or there that placate the public and that are an excuse for larger law enforcement to continue doing little to nothing.

Despite this massive failure, donations keep pouring in to the animal organizations claiming to do something about animal cruelty, with an unquestioning public ignoring their role in keeping animal cruelty and dog fighting as the least enforced, most exploited crimes. All to the detriment of animals and the public at large.

How No One Wins A Nuclear Weapons War

Explode enough nuclear weapons, and everyone loses. Radiation and the aftermath of nuclear weapon explosions do not remain confined to any one country. Even if Russia completely destroys the United States with nuclear weapons, or vice a versa, all the United States or Russia have to do is explode their own arsenal of nuclear weapons on their own soil, and the contamination and aftermath will destroy Russia, the United States, and everything else.

There are no winners in a nuclear war. Everyone loses. And still the insanity is pursued.

The New Nuclear Arms Race Pursued By Russia, China, the U.S. And Others

Nuclear wars cannot be won. Everyone loses. Humanity and most life on the planet.

There is a new nuclear arms race. Some believe it is a race that can be won.

The stupidity and destructiveness of the nuclear arms race knows no knows no bounds.

Russia and the U.S. justify their madness by their mutual distrust and at times animosity. Other countries have entered the insanity.

Cheer leaders clap at the madness, in their blind loyalty to Putin or another leader.

There is much more to this world than the parochial interests of Russia, China, the United States or any other country. This world is not meant to be destroyed because of the narrow minded and selfish interests of a country or of a religion.

No nuclear weapons advancement should be applauded. Every new missile test, every new way to deliver nuclear bombs and destroy the other side is nothing but a huge step backwards.

Life in the ocean has to contend with enormous amounts of plastic and other pollutants. As humanity continues to pollute and destroy the oceans and environment, guaranteeing further impoverishment and hunger for the future, nations that should be devoting resources to helping the environment instead choose to squander money on the stupidest, most destructive of all races.

When a leader or a country anywhere in the world brags about their nuclear weapons and their missiles, in what appears to be displays of strength, bravado and patriotism, no clearer sign can be given of their moral bankruptcy and stupidity.

Stock Markets: Wrongful Measures of Health And Wealth

Most people in the world do not have the ability to invest in stock markets. Most people in the world live in impoverished places that are increasingly environmentally degraded.

Stock markets suck up the world's wealth. Financial markets, not the environment, are where wealth falsely resides.

Nothing could be more misguided. Stock markets are the illusion of wealth that benefit a few and exclude the many. Real wealth resides in healthy oceans, healthy lands, and in a healthy environment.

Stock markets have risen exponentially, while the health of the environment has fallen dramatically. Coral reefs are disappearing. So are rain forests, biodiversity, and the fate of millions of species. The world is an increasingly contaminated, dangerous place, filled with plastic and man made carcinogens of all sorts. Nuclear weapons are proliferating. Religious and political fanaticism that embraces violence and hate keeps growing like cancer.

More weapons, more contamination, more environmental degradation, while the out of touch with reality stock markets keep climbing higher.

Pensions, retirement accounts, government entities of all sorts, and more, rely upon a rising stock market. The world economy is tied to its fate. The stock market, not the environment, is the wrongful measure of health and wealth.

There are still a few people in this world that live in faraway places that have nothing to do with financial markets. They live off of the land, and the land takes care of them. If the stock market rises or crashes, it does not affect them.

For most of the rest of the world, the stock markets are the only game in town. This will unfold one day into a tragedy.

We must be like sheep, and buy into the casino like reality that shapes our lives, economies and politics. Maybe the federal reserve will make interest rates go negative so more money will pour into the stock markets.

Disclaimer: this is not financial advice. For young people especially that are not gamblers, invest in an inexpensive broad based fund. Your financial health may be bound to the fate of the stock market, but somewhere inside recognize that real wealth exists elsewhere. Fight for a healthy environment.

Social Media Giants Are Killing Free Speech And Religious Freedom

Monopoly power by a few social media giants are killing democracy and free speech. Monopoly power by a few social media corporations ensures only the rich and powerful have a voice. Monopoly power by a few social media corporations ensures a basic tenet of western civilization, the right to criticize religion, ceases to exist and is replaced by blasphemy restrictions. Promoting hatred and violence towards the practitioners of any faith is always wrong, but criticizing any and all religion that people practice is a basic human right. The freedom to reject and criticize religion is an essential part of what it means to have freedom of religion.

The social media monopolies are unaccountable to everyone except the rich and powerful. They routinely suppress the voices of small time insignificant voices. They step on little people, knowing that other than an occasional appearance before a powerful entity such as congress, or an appearance in front a president, they are unaccountable.

Political ads that spread lies and disinformation are acceptable, according to the all too powerful CEO of one social media giant. But woe to the little person that steps out of line, such as this blogger, in a criticism about how plastic pollution is not properly addressed. That earned a permanent Facebook block, without any avenue of recourse.

Criticize the ineffectiveness and harmfulness of certain charities, without actually naming names, or the hatred emanating from some people under the umbrella of a religion, and someone will ensure that the messenger is suppressed. Lying is okay, but seeking a fair and open discussion by a small time person seeking to leave this miserable world in a better way before he departs it, is not.

The social media giants have strangleholds on democracy. The only way for democracy to survive is to regulate these giants, no different than how utilities are regulated. Monopolies kill free enterprise. Social media monopolies are killing free speech, damaging the electoral process, and destroying freedom itself.

Governance By Greed: Biden, Trump, Ukraine

Why was Joe Biden involved in Ukrainian affairs, knowing full well his son sat on the board of a Ukrainian company owned by an oligarch?  Why was his son placed on the board if for no other reason than that his father was vice president? A position that paid him more money in a month than many Americans earn in a year, and that few Ukrainians earn in a year.

Why was Sondland made ambassador? Because he contributed a million dollars to the Trump campaign. Even if it is not impeachable, Trump's dealings with Ukraine should raise eyebrows with anyone concerned about good government.

Many Republicans and Democrats use public office to enrich themselves, to create sweetheart deals, to gain access to channels of wealth available to few others. Presidents, and many other politicians, if they are not rich going in, make sure they are or will be fabulously wealthy by the time they get out.

The two party system fails when it is monopolized by men and women driven by ego, greed and their own self interest. Integrity should matter first, not the party to which a political candidate belongs.

The world is full of greedy, corrupt, selfish men that control countries that they plunder. Corruption is a cancer that ruins countries and kills democracies.

Animals Used for Entertainment, A Mascot, And Animal Cruelty

A university mascot that is a dog has become the subject of a well funded animal organization's latest attempt to gain publicity for itself. The organization is campaigning to stop the dog from being used as a mascot under the notion that no animal should be used for entertainment. Animals used for entertainment, such as dogs used for dog fighting, are a completely different situation than a well cared for dog used for entertainment as a mascot. Trivializing animal cruelty contributes to the continued do nothingness about real animal cruelty.

Real animal cruelty is widespread, horrific, and rarely responded to appropriately.

The absence of a meaningful law enforcement response to real animal cruelty, coupled with the exploitation of animal cruelty by a variety of animal organizations, ensures the continued lack of a serious response to animal cruelty.

Animals used by organizations to promote themselves and obtain money, a common practice among many animal organizations and individuals, is more harmful to animals than the harmless use of a well cared for mascot.

Why Plastic Pollution Is Getting Worse, And What Is Being Done

Billions of people the world over are dependent on plastic. Billions of people plastic dependent live in places that lack the infrastructure to properly dispose of their plastic waste. Until proper waste disposal becomes universal, plastic trash will continue polluting oceans, rivers and lands. No technology, no scientific miracle, no plastic straw ban, no beach cleanup, will amount to anything as long as billions of people use millions of kilos of plastic daily without any way to properly dispose of the plastic they use. And so plastic continues pouring into oceans and rivers by millions of kilos daily. The political will, the economic will, even the religious will to ensure universal proper waste management is absent. No movement exists to ensure billions of people plastic dependent have adequate ways of disposing of their plastic waste. Unless this changes, all the anti plastic pollution well funded organizations and advocates provide nothing more than crumbs or feel good endeavors that do not make a dent against plastic pollution.

The plastic trash and other harmful garbage generated from billions of people that do not have a way to properly dispose of their garbage pollutes rivers, lakes, oceans and lands worldwide. Employing people to do the manual labor necessary to remove plastic trash already in the environment remains virtually nonexistent.  Garbage collection and proper ways to dispose of plastic trash remains  nonexistent for billions of people.

It is easy for many to ignore what happens in developing nations. All the plastic trash and other harmful contaminants that end up in oceans does not stay confined to one geographical area. The modern world is heavily dependent on plastic and on a variety of chemicals and materials that are harmful to human health, animals and the environment. The unwillingness to address what to do with plastic trash and other harmful materials that billions of people use and have no way to properly dispose of ensures the continued destruction of oceans and more.

Most plastic trash cannot be recycled. It is disingenuous, even harmful, to continue the illusion that plastic waste is recycled. The priority must be on ensuring the proper disposal of plastic trash, either by proper burial, or proper burning (such as what is done in Sweden, where plastic is burned and used for energy, and where most of the contaminants are captured and not released into the atmosphere).

This is not a problem that is going away. The dependency on plastic is only increasing. Walk through  supermarkets in developing countries, and there one can see the same thing that can be seen in developed countries. Millions of products packaged in plastic wraps, containers and bottles, and bagged in plastic. Most of the world uses plastic, but most of the world has no way to properly dispose of their plastic. Almost everything that one sees in many developing country supermarkets will end up in rivers, oceans, or openly burned, thereby poisoning people, animals and the environment. No one is held responsible, including the companies that benefit from cheap plastic. The oceans, the environment, human health, animals, pay the true costly price for plastic's cheapness.

The failure to ensure proper waste disposal, now that most of the world is plastic addicted, is beyond disgraceful. The world is being poisoned, and instead of addressing this catastrophe, the catastrophe gets exploited, talked about or ignored. Instead of more ruminations, empty words and gestures, time, effort and money must be spent on ensuring proper waste management worldwide. Anything short of that is nothing but window dressing.

Will Plastic Bracelets And Jewelry Made From Ocean Plastic Save Oceans?

Buying plastic bracelets made from ocean trash may make people feel good, but does it have any impact on saving oceans from plastic trash?

Billions of people depend on plastic. Billions of people that depend on plastic live in places where there is no infrastructure to properly remove and dispose of plastic waste. Most plastic used cannot be recycled. Most plastic trash polluting oceans, rivers and lands cannot be recycled.

Will plastic bracelets made from ocean plastic stop the massive flow of plastic daily entering oceans and rivers by millions upon millions of pounds?  If people in developing countries, already made plastic dependent, had a way of properly disposing of their plastic, their plastic trash would not end up in oceans.

The political will, the economic will, the need to universalize proper waste management and disposal of plastic waste is nonexistent.

The tiny amount of plastic waste removed from oceans and rivers yearly in order to make plastic bracelets or other plastic jewelry does not come to close to equaling the amount of plastic waste pouring into oceans and rivers daily.

People should buy plastic products made from ocean trash because it makes them feel good. But if they think it is making a dent against plastic pollution, they are sadly mistaken.

What is needed is a massively funded employment project in which the manual labor needed to remove plastic waste from the environment is properly funded.

But even if plastic trash is removed from the environment, there has to be a place to properly dispose of it.

There must be a movement, no less important than the movement to address global climate change, in which people fight to ensure that proper waste management and waste disposal is made available to all of the billions of people made plastic dependent no matter where they live.

Fungus And The Nonexistent Anti Plastic Pollution Movement

A fungus discovered in a garbage dump in Pakistan is touted by some as the answer to plastic pollution. Virtually indestructible plastic appears that it can be broken down by the fungus and rendered harmless in the limited environment of the Pakistan garbage dump. But in the harsh environments of oceans and elsewhere, the fungus does not stand a chance.

Instead of waiting for the scientific or technological miracle that will never come, the plastic pollution problem will only get worse until it is treated as the crisis that it is.

Billions of people are plastic dependent. Billions of people are plastic dependent and lack ways to properly dispose of their plastic waste, so it gets dumped into rivers and oceans and on lands. It also gets openly burned, poisoning people, animals and the environment.

Unless plastic trash is properly collected and disposed of, plastic trash will keep accumulating until the oceans are completely destroyed. This means spending trillions of dollars on creating a worldwide proper waste management system. Is mankind anywhere close to properly disposing of its garbage?

World leaders meet and flaunt their greatness. Trillions of dollars are spent on weapons. Billionaires and multimillionaires accumulate more wealth as the world becomes more impoverished.

People that should care settle for crumbs and woefully inadequate feel good solutions.

No movement exists to create universal proper waste management. Therefore plastic will continue pouring into the environment and nothing of consequence will be done to stop it.

South Pacific, China, Russia, Trump

China pursues what it perceives as its self interest, not realizing the destruction it is causing to the South China Sea and to the South Pacific will come back to haunt China and the rest of the world. Each coral reef destroyed, each forest ruined, means less food for the future. Environmental degradation has far reaching consequences that continue to be ignored or dismissed.

Russia aggressively pursues the self interests of Putin.

While China and Russia expand their power, oblivious to environmental costs and prices paid in human suffering, the United States remains bogged down in drama.

It is indisputable that Putin wanted Trump for president. If someone has any doubt, go back to any of the Russian state propaganda networks, including RT, and review their aggressive pre-election peddling and support for Trump.

The parochial desires of foolish leadership weakens the United States. If Trump was not a billionaire, if people did not worship money and power, if Trump was a retired middle class man and not a rich man, he would not be where he is.

Is Red Tide Harmful Long-term?

There is little information about the long term impact of red tide. If people knew the true long term impact, they might be scared away from coasts. Property values would plummet, and places like Florida would lose much of its tax base.

Instead, red tide continues to be ignored. At best, it is studied or talked about, but no meaningful action is taken. Simple things like restricting fertilizers and chemicals on the lawns of people living near the coasts is far too controversial. If the simple, easy to achieve things will not be done, then it is unrealistic that anything else will be done except more talk. 

Red tide kills fish. Red tide kills sea snakes. Red tide kills sea turtles. Red tide kills manatees. Red tide kills dolphins. Red tide kills other marine animals. Red tide kills birds. 

Does anyone honestly believe that red tide - a killer of hardy birds, sea turtles, mammals, fish and other marine life - has no long term harmful effects? 

Continued Failure To Be Serious About Plastic Pollution

Every single day millions of kilos of new plastic trash enters into rivers and oceans.

Thousands, if not millions of people, need to be gainfully employed and paid a fair wage to remove plastic trash already in the environment before there is a positive impact.

Most plastic trash can only be removed from the environment by manual labor, not technology. In developing countries, few can afford to be volunteers. Relying on volunteers or technology and not on employed workers ensures the plastic pollution catastrophe continues.

Billions of people in developing countries are as dependent on plastic as people in developed countries. Proper waste management is not available for most of these people. The plastic waste of hundreds of millions of people living along rivers and coasts goes into rivers and oceans. The plastic waste of hundreds of millions of people living elsewhere goes into land areas and waters not designed for this waste.

There is no movement to ensure proper waste management is available to all.

There is no movement to ensure the proper disposal of plastic waste.

Plastic waste gets openly burned in many places, poisoning people and the environment.

Plastic waste gets openly dumped in many places, ensuring it enters into rivers and oceans.

The high technology employed by certain developed countries to properly dispose of plastic waste and use the plastic waste for energy is absent in virtually all of the developing world and in much of the developed world.

1. Unless proper waste management is worldwide, plastic waste will continue contaminating lands, rivers and oceans. No matter how much plastic volunteers or technology removes from the environment in developing countries, it will all return in the absence of proper waste management.

Ocean devices, river devices, other forms of technology, and volunteer efforts, must not obscure the enormous failure to provide billions of people made plastic dependent with proper waste management.

River devices collecting plastic would not have to exist in the first place if people up river had a way to properly dispose of their plastic.

Some people lobby against plastic straws (which should be banned but is only a tiny fraction of the plastic pollution entering the environment daily and that is already in the environment), but sit idly by unconcerned that literally billions of people relying upon plastic will continue dumping their plastic waste into the environment because no other options exists.

The recycling myth, which includes developed countries shipping plastic waste to developing countries already drowning in plastic, must end. Proper disposal of plastic and keeping it out of the environment must become the priority.

The only way to stop the plastic pollution disaster is to employ people to remove plastic waste from the environment and ensure that proper waste management is available to the billions of people in developing countries that are plastic dependent.

Boyan Slat's Ocean Cleanup: Does Reliance On Technology Increase Plastic Pollution?

It is human nature to seek easy answers to complicated problems.

Technology is often relied upon to provide solutions that otherwise cannot be found.

When it comes to plastic pollution, does the reliance on technology come at the expense of less expensive, more effective interventions?

Most plastic pollution can only be removed from the environment by manual labor. Only manual labor, not technology, can effectively remove plastic pollution from river banks, coasts, and most land areas. Only manual labor, not technology, can effectively remove plastic pollution from mangroves, rocky coastlines, coastal forests, forests in general, urban areas, and pretty much everywhere else except deep waters and a few other locations.

In the developing world, there are high levels of poverty. Few can afford to be volunteers. If only some of the tens of millions of dollars that goes towards organizations offering technological solutions went instead towards employing disadvantaged people paid fair wages to remove plastic pollution, far more plastic trash would be recovered.

Recent news reports state that Boyan Slat's river devices will remove 110,000 pounds of plastic from some of the world's most polluted rivers. Every single day millions of pounds of new plastic trash  enters rivers and oceans. Imagine if there is an employed work force providing the necessary manual labor to remove plastic trash from the environment. Not only would this lift people out of poverty, but the amount of plastic they recover would far exceed what river and ocean devices recover. 110,000 pounds of plastic is not much considering the millions of pounds of new plastic trash entering oceans and rivers daily.  Every single day that there is no serious employment program to remove plastic waste from the environment means millions of pounds of plastic that could be recovered in a single day never will be.

River devices and other forms of technology are tools in the fight against plastic pollution.

But when tools become crutches preventing the use of more effective interventions, then they do more harm than good.

Florida Keys, Coral Reefs Worldwide Need Oxybenzone And Octinoxate Ban

An effort by local government in the Florida Keys to protect their coral reefs has met resistance. The Florida Keys wants to ban the use of oxybenzone and octinoxate, two sunscreen ingredients known to harm coral reefs. Bradley, Republican Chairman of the Florida State Senate Appropriations Committee, wants to take the power away from local governments to implement bans, and have the power rest only with the state. So much for Republican rhetoric about decentralized government.

Bradley argues that if the ban takes place, "the only sunscreen that would be affordable is these luxury boutique sunscreens, which sometimes don't work as well as mainstream sunscreen".

There are plenty of inexpensive, mainstream effective sunscreens sold in non boutique places like Walmart, Target, Whole Foods and many more non boutique stores that use coral reef safe non nano zinc oxide and/or titanium oxide. Furthermore, these physical barrier sunscreens are safer than chemical sunscreens which do get absorbed into the body, and are considered harmful by a number of scientists.

People are better off using non nano zinc oxide and/or titanium oxide. It is better for their health, and better for coral reefs. 

In fact, there is not a single place in the world where there are coral reefs where sunscreen containing oxybenzone and octinoxate should be allowed. These chemicals are bad for people and bad for the environment, especially fragile coral reefs. 

If only people valued environmental protection and human health over business interests.

The Left's Love Affair with Dictators And Demagogues

The left loves fat cat, millionaire and billionaire dictators and demagogues, along with brutal Islamic theocracies, as long as they are anti-west and anti-American.

Gorbachev And The New Nuclear Arms Race

Gorbachev recently said during an interview that the world is more unsafe now than ever before. The nuclear weapons threat is escalating.

Instead of sensible world leadership that seeks the resolution of conflict and the reduction and elimination of nuclear weapons, we have instead the opposite.

The new nuclear arms race between Russia and the U.S. is ignored or applauded, despite its complete stupidity, harmfulness and wastefulness.

Other countries seek to become nuclear powers or expand the nuclear arsenals they already have.

Religion, ethnicity, nationalism and any other reason driving the nuclear arms race means nothing once the weapons are unleashed.

The Gray Zone That Does Not Exist And The Nonexistent Left

The nonexistent left eagerly embraces any and all religious theocracies, tyrants, dictators and oligarchs, just so long as they are anti-American and anti-west.

There is no gray zone for them. They, like their small minded compatriots on the right, are incapable of seeing complexity and shades of gray.

The Left Needs A New Left

During the cold war, the Soviets supported brutal dictatorships as long as they called themselves communists. The Americans supported brutal dictatorships as long as they identified themselves as anti communist. Even though the dictators would speak the jargon their sponsors wanted to hear, there was no difference between them. Dictators on the left and dictators on the right proved to be greedy, ruthless leaders that robbed their countries blind.

Not much has changed in the decades since the end of the cold war. The left supports brutal regimes as long as they are against American interests. The right supports brutal regimes as long as they align themselves with American interests. There is a middle ground that increasingly is disappearing - to not support dictatorships of any sort, including religious theocracies.

The left needs a new left instead of what it has now - apologists for some of the most greedy, ruthless, bloodthirsty tyrants.

Red Tide Is Back, And So Is The Weak-Kneed Response

Red tide is natural occurring but made far worse by human activity. People choose lawns and green grass over healthy oceans. The more fertilizer and other harmful runoff ends up in the ocean, the more red tide flourishes. The Gulf Of Mexico already suffers from the heavy fertilizer and chemical load coming from agriculture and other sources. It suffers from the additional fertilizer and chemical load from millions of people that want to live near the coast, and that want perfect green grass no matter how damaging this is to the gulf.

Restricting the use of fertilizers and chemicals, especially in coastal areas, is too controversial for weak kneed politicians to stomach.

Billions Of People Plastic Dependent, With Nowhere to Put Their Plastic Trash

Billions of people dependent on plastic lack the infrastructure and means to properly remove and dispose of plastic waste.

Hundreds of millions of people live along rivers, lakes and coastlines where they depend on plastic but have no infrastructure for the proper removal and disposal of their plastic waste. And thus, it gets dumped into rivers, lakes and oceans.

The failure to ensure proper waste management and proper disposal of plastic waste in developing countries, where billions of people live and where billions of people depend on plastic, ensures that the plastic pollution crisis only gets worse.

This means that the mass dumping of plastic waste into rivers, lakes, oceans and land areas continues daily.

The failure to do anything about this crisis, the continued feel good measures that are nothing more than putting fingers in small holes of a large dam about to crumble, ensures a future of plastic contaminated rivers, lakes, oceans and lands.

There are those that profit and feed off of this crisis.

There are the many corporations that make fortunes from the use of plastic, but do nothing to ensure its proper removal and disposal.

There are extremely rich people and other entities that talk about the plastic pollution crisis, but do not lift a single finger to ensure the billions of people now plastic dependent have their plastic trash properly removed and disposed.

The plastic addiction is not going away. People got addicted, but the means of properly disposing of the plastic waste generated by this addiction was never considered.

How is it acceptable for billions of people to use plastic daily, and then have no means of properly disposing of it? Why is there no outcry, no movement, no outrage to ensure proper waste management worldwide (which means employing people)? Why is there no outcry to ensure proper removal of plastic waste already in the environment (which means employing people to do the manual labor needed)? Why is there no outcry to ensure proper disposal of plastic waste everywhere in the world (either by proper burial, or by the burning methods used in Sweden)?

This crisis is not going away. People want to address it on the cheap, which only makes the crisis worse.

Plastic Pollution And The Illusion Of A War Not Fought

Plastic waste will only get worse because billions of people are now dependent on plastic and live in countries that lack the infrastructure to properly collect plastic waste and dispose of it.

Hundreds of millions of people living along coasts, rivers and lakes in developing countries are as addicted to the use of plastic as are people in the developing world, except they live in places where there is no way to properly dispose of plastic.

 Plastic pollution will continue to worsen as long as there is no serious effort to expend effort and spend money on the following:

1. Manual labor - employ people and pay them fair wages- to remove plastic waste already in the environment.

2. Proper garbage collection of newly generated plastic waste (waste management in developed countries means garbage is usually collected weekly). Waste management and garbage removal is nonexistent throughout much of the developing world. Despite this, under the guise of recycling, some developed countries ship their plastic waste to developing countries already drowning in their own plastic waste. Keeping plastic waste from further contaminating the environment, not recycling, must be the priority. Recycling has become a euphemism for not prioritizing keeping plastic pollution out of the environment. The effort to shame companies selling products packaged in plastic accomplishes little to nothing as long as billions of people using their products continue to lack a way to properly dispose of plastic. Corporations must stop being free of responsibility for where their plastic products end. Proper waste management and proper waste disposal are critically needed for billions of people plastic dependent in developing countries.

3.Secure sites where plastic waste and other harmful trash are appropriately disposed, either by proper burial or by the Swedish model of proper burning (not the open burning that takes place throughout the developing world, in which people are exposed to toxic smoke and the environment is contaminated by toxic ash). Throughout much of the developing world, there is nowhere to put plastic waste, so it continues to be openly burned, or dumped into rivers, lakes, and oceans in communities living along coastlines or other bodies of water. Plastic waste gets dumped on land in places where people do not live along bodies of water. Winds, storms and time disperses the plastic waste dumped on land.

Unless plastic waste is properly collected and removed, which requires human labor that no one wants to pay for, and unless the plastic waste is properly buried or burned, which no one wants to pay for, then no device, no technology, no volunteer cleanup, no beach cleanup, no sale of plastic bracelets that are supposed to mean the removal of a pound of plastic trash (remember, every single day millions of pounds or kilos of plastic trash newly enters into the oceans), no complete ban on plastic straws, will amount to anything more than a feel good effort that will benefit a few people, but will not help the oceans, environment, or wildlife.

With billions of dollars floating around in the hands of foundations, nonprofits, and with many rich people claiming concern about the environment, it is striking that there is no serious effort to ensure the proper removal and disposal of plastic waste in developing countries.

Hundreds of millions of people continue dumping plastic waste into rivers and oceans, with well funded devices and volunteer cleanups capturing an amount nowhere close to the new plastic waste that enters the environment in a single day.

The plastic industry got the world addicted and dependent on plastic. The nonprofit world gets the world addicted to false illusions.

And so, like so many other serious problems, nothing of consequence will be done.

Plastic pollution is not like animal cruelty, dog fighting and other problems in which voiceless populations get exploited and the truth about ineffective and harmful programs and interventions do not come out.

The plastic waste disaster cannot be hidden.

By the time people finally make proper waste management and waste disposal a priority, it will be too late. Instead, people prefer to be placated by devices, plastic straw bans, sporadic volunteerism, and plastic bracelets.

The time to get serious about plastic pollution has tragically not yet arrived.

Plastic Pollution War Is Being Lost. Big Money Made In The Process

There are three possible ways in which plastic pollution can be removed from the environment - by technology, by volunteers, or by employed labor. Technology cannot remove plastic from mangroves, rocky shores, coastal forests, river banks, and most coastal, water and land areas. It cannot remove the microfibers and micro particles already in the oceans and waters, air and land, with trillions more fibers entering every hour from synthetic clothes and many other sources. Volunteerism is extremely limited in many developing countries where few people can afford to be volunteers. If technology or volunteerism worked in the many developing nations that are being environmentally destroyed by plastic pollution, it would have happened already. 

There is no movement to address poverty and plastic pollution by the widespread employment of disadvantaged people to remove plastic pollution from the environment. People would rather complain, protest, support already wealthy organizations claiming to do something, than actually do anything meaningful about plastic pollution. 

There is no movement to ensure plastic waste is properly disposed of worldwide. The plastic entering the oceans from far away places breaks down and contaminates all environments. It does not remain a localized disaster. 

There is no movement to move away from synthetic clothing and other materials and products that release enormous amounts of micro fibers and micro particles.

There is no movement to wean ourselves from the plastic addiction, or at least keep plastic waste out of the environment in all corners of the world. Most places in the world dump plastic and other contaminants in unsecured landfills, or in open pits or on garbage mountains. Or it gets openly burned, exposing people to its toxic smoke and contaminating the environment with its toxic ash.

There is big money in plastic from every single angle, including those that profit from this disaster by selling themselves as the answer and savior. There is hardly a problem in the world that someone, some organization, does not exploit and profit from.

And so the plastic pollution crisis only gets worse. Hundreds of millions, even billions of people in the developing world have become as addicted to the use of plastic as those in the developed world, with no means to properly dispose of the huge amounts of plastic, almost all of which is non recyclable, on which they now depend. And so the plastic accumulates along coastlines and many other areas, destroying coasts, oceans and wildlife, with millions of kilos added daily, breaking down into ever smaller harmful particles that can never be recovered. 

Fair Wage Employment And Plastic Pollution

There are three possible ways in which the serious issue of plastic pollution contaminating coastlines and other areas can be addressed - technology, relying upon volunteers, or by employed labor. Technology cannot remove plastic from mangroves, rocky shores, coastal forests, and many other areas. Volunteerism is extremely limited in many developing countries where few people can afford to be volunteers. If technology or volunteerism worked in the many developing nations that are being environmentally destroyed by plastic pollution, it would have happened already. 

And so the plastic sits, growing larger every day by the addition of more plastic trash,  with much of it breaking down into smaller pieces that can never be recovered. 

There is a critical need to set in motion the large scale employment of disadvantaged people to remove plastic pollution.

In developing countries, the source of a great deal of plastic pollution, there are high levels of poverty and unemployment. People need work, and the environment needs to be cleaned.

Providing impoverished people with work to remove plastic pollution is a straightforward anti poverty, environmental project. 

The employment must pay a fair wage. It cannot be the piecemeal employment practiced in some places in which people are only paid for the recyclable materials they collect. Almost all plastic waste is not recyclable. All plastic trash must be removed from the environment, which requires a great deal of work and effort. Paying people a fair wage helps not only the people employed, but also the environment.

Right now huge amounts of plastic trash litters coastlines and other areas throughout the developing world, with more added every day. The goal, to start a widespread movement employing disadvantaged people to remove plastic waste is as out of reach as ever. 

Plastic waste gets worse every single day, killing seabirds, sea turtles, dolphins, whales, fish and other wildlife. It harms people also, and still nothing gets done. 

One day, perhaps when it is already too late, employing people and paying them a fair wage to remove plastic pollution from coastlines and other areas will finally happen on the massive scale needed. Every day when people that can be working sit idle is another day in which wildlife, people and the oceans are needlessly harmed.

War Against Plastic Pollution Is Being Lost

The reliance on plastic - the plastic addiction - is only increasing.... Plastic clothes (polyester, nylon, etc.), plastic packaging, practically everything wrapped in plastic. Plastic has become an inescapable addiction -  easy to use, easy to produce, but virtually impossible to get rid of. The world is full of microscopic plastic fibers that come from synthetic clothing, plastic that has decomposed into micro particles and plastic micro particles from many other sources ( many brands of teabags, for example, contain plastic in the bag, releasing billions of plastic particles from a single use teabag).

Plastic pollution removal requires dramatic change on many fronts. Instead, people placate themselves with feel good interventions, underestimating the seriousness and extent of what needs to be done. The plastic addiction is worldwide, but the means of properly disposing of plastic is nonexistent in much of the world. Plastic enters rivers and oceans daily by millions of kilos because hundreds of millions of people have no means of properly disposing of the plastic on which they depend. Proper waste management and proper disposal of plastic waste is virtually nonexistent in many countries. Most plastic waste already in the environment can only be removed by human labor, but there is no serious effort anywhere to provide consistent and fair wages for people to remove plastic pollution. Virtually no money is allocated to ensure that proper waste management and disposal of plastic becomes a universal goal to prevent the further destruction of the oceans. A comprehensive war against plastic pollution remains nonexistent.

Boyan Slat's River Device for Plastic Pollution: Pros and Cons

Plastic already in the oceans and environment, with millions of kilos of plastic trash added daily, cannot be easily removed. A new device that removes plastic from rivers before the plastic enters oceans is a needed technology. But if it fails to become part of what must become a comprehensive attack against plastic pollution, then it will achieve little.

The flow of plastic from certain rivers adds to the enormous daily flow of plastic into the oceans. Removing plastic from those rivers before the plastic enters into the oceans is an important step in the  plastic pollution removal effort.

But an even more important step, which keeps getting ignored by the many well funded organizations concerned with ocean cleanups and plastic pollution, is the failure to remove plastic along coastlines and other areas that can only be removed by human labor. There is no technology that can remove plastic from coastlines, mangroves, river banks ,and land based areas. In many developing countries, the source of most plastic pollution entering into oceans, there is massive poverty and a ready labor force of millions of people desperate for work. Employing disadvantaged people to remove plastic pollution is straightforward and effective. In many developing countries, few can afford to be volunteers. Plastic pollution needs a sustained effort for its removal that only an employed workforce can achieve. There is a role for technology and for volunteers to play in the fight against plastic pollution. But as long as people keep expecting technology to save the day, or that plastic pollution can be removed on the cheap by relying on volunteers alone, then the plastic pollution problem will only get worse.

Employed labor, the most effective way to remove plastic pollution from coastlines, mangroves, river banks, forests and many other areas, means paying a fair wage. Most plastic pollution is not recyclable. Paying people only for recyclable plastic that they recover shortchanges them and the environment. People need stable employment and the environment needs all of the plastic trash removed, not just the minority of trash that is recyclable. Interventions that do not pay a fair, consistent wage are not effective in removing plastic from the environment.

To think most of the plastic pollution originates from certain rivers fails to recognize the enormous amounts of plastic that goes directly into the oceans from coastal communities and cities. The dumping of waste, including plastic, directly into the oceans continues in many places. Many ships, fishing boats and so forth dump their trash directly into the oceans.There are many locations where plastic trash on land ends up in the oceans not by forces of nature. Winds, storms and so forth carry enormous amounts of land based trash into oceans.

The enormous amount of plastic waste entering oceans daily from coastal communities and cities must not be underestimated. A large amount of plastic entering into rivers originates in the communities living along rivers. It is commonplace in many developing countries for people living along rivers to dump their plastic trash and other trash directly into rivers. Likewise, the plastic waste of hundreds of millions of people living in coastal areas have their plastic waste go directly into the oceans. Even if all the plastic that flows into oceans from rivers can be stopped, there will still be millions of kilos of plastic flowing daily into the oceans from coastal communities and cities. Refer to a December 13, 2016 YouTube video under my name called, "Coastal communities and The Failure To Save Oceans From Garbage", which shows the plastic waste from just one small coastal community.

Plastic is everywhere, even in the poorest of communities. In many impoverished areas, there is no waste management and nowhere to put plastic trash. The dumping of plastic into rivers and oceans will continue as long as the plastic addiction continues, combined with having no way to properly dispose of plastic.

Most plastic, including plastic bags, wrappers, packaging materials for candies, crackers, toothpaste, cosmetics, and thousands of other items that people use daily end up in the oceans in many places because they are materials that cannot be recycled, and there is no service to collect and dispose of the waste.

Once the river device removes plastic trash from rivers in developing nations, what happens next? Many landfills in developing countries are places where garbage is openly dumped and not secured. Winds and storms return trash in unsecured landfills and mountains of trash back into the environment.

Ensuring plastic waste is properly removed and buried or burned (such as in Sweden, where plastic is burned, used for energy, and contaminants are captured as much as possible), must be no less of a priority than the removal of plastic trash. Otherwise, plastic trash returns to the environment.

Micro plastics, synthetic clothing, the endless supply chain of plastic materials and failure to keep them out of the environment needs to be addressed. No river device is capable of screening out micro plastic particles and fibers.

Plastic pollution is an enormous problem. Boyan Slat's river device is a step in the right direction. But it is but one small part of what must become a comprehensive war against plastic pollution. Funding technology and volunteerism to the exclusion of employment only makes the plastic pollution problem worse.

Proper collection of plastic trash and properly disposing of plastic trash must become a world wide priority. Employed people must be at the forefront of the effort to remove plastic trash already in the environment. The plastic addiction must end. The companies that produce plastic or use it for their products must bear responsibility for the enormous cost of what plastic pollution inflicts upon the environment. Recycling is only of value if it keeps plastic pollution out of the environment. Thus far, decades of recycling have failed. Developed countries must stop shipping their plastic waste to developing countries already drowning in their own plastic under the pretense of recycling.

Unfortunately, the critical need to address poverty and plastic pollution by employing disadvantaged people continues to be ignored or dismissed. There is no device or machine that can go into mangroves, coastlines and many other places where only people can go and remove plastic pollution. Put river devices into rivers, ocean cleanup machines into ocean garbage patches, but do not continue failing to put people in the many plastic polluted areas where only people can go.

Plastic pollution has become another feel good cause, with people latching on to easy answers and inadequate solutions. Plastic pollution is a disaster. This man made disaster, many years in the making, needs many interventions. It is a war that must be fought on many fronts. Unfortunately, people want to focus on feel good, quick fix interventions.

Will Federal Felony Animal Cruelty Laws Help Animals?

Laws regarding murder, rape, child abuse, domestic violence and other violent crimes are almost always enforced on the state level. Murder, rape and many other violent crimes do not require federal statutes because everyone understands that not only are these laws on the books of states, but the police actually enforce the laws.

Animal cruelty, including dog fighting, is minimally enforced. Anti domestic violence and anti drunk driving organizations advocated for a widespread appropriate police response to those crimes decades ago, and continue to do so today. They did not argue that because there was a minimal police response, a mother from an anti drunk driving organization or someone from an anti domestic violence organization would substitute for the police.

When it comes to animal cruelty, numerous animal organizations fall all over themselves to present themselves as the go to place that investigates animal cruelty. They are enablers helping law enforcement to minimally respond to animal cruelty related crimes.

Many are the times dog fighters and animal abusers move their animals to another location after getting paid a visit from a humane investigator or someone else from an animal organization.

There is no excuse for any animal organization to conduct criminal investigations of any sort, including for animal cruelty and dog fighting. This matter belongs in the hands of the police - this is what animal organizations concerned about animal cruelty and dog fighting should advocate for, and have completely failed to do for decades now.

Token police forces or teams fielded to respond to animal cruelty are ineffective and do little more than placate the public. They, no different than ineffective, often harmful humane investigators, enable larger law enforcement to continue ignoring or minimally respond to dog fighting and animal cruelty.

Because animal cruelty and dog fighting can take place anytime, anywhere, only public law enforcement has the ability to respond appropriately to these crimes. Imagine if special teams were used to enforce drunk driving and domestic violence. This means that when those teams are off duty, or tied up at one location while the crime is occurring at another, no one gets arrested. Over 99 per cent of every drunk driver and domestic violence offender would never get caught or arrested if the police respond to those crimes as they do to animal cruelty.

Absent for decades now is advocacy to ensure law enforcement responds appropriately and in a timely manner to calls of dog fighting and animal cruelty, including when officers during the course of their tours of duty encounter these crimes on their own.

As long as the lack of enforcement continues, as long as animal organizations continue doing ineffectively and disgracefully what the police should be doing, as long as there is no widespread and appropriate police response to animal cruelty and dog fighting, then it does not matter how many more laws are put on the books. Animal abuse and dog fighting will persist as exploited and rarely enforced crimes.

If only group think did not exist, and someone somewhere that truly cares about animals investigated the poor police response to animal cruelty and dog fighting calls, they could expose what I have been unsuccessful in exposing. Animal cruelty and dog fighting continues to have an extremely poor police response, with very few exceptions.  The paper trail of this is easy to locate. Unfortunately, people will complain about animal cruelty, but no one is interested in making sure there is an effective response to it. Token teams fielded by a police department are no better than if token teams exist for drunk driving, domestic violence, murder or any other crime of violence. If most of law enforcement ignores or minimally responds to a crime, that crime will flourish. Widespread appropriate enforcement, not token teams, are needed for all crimes, especially crimes of violence. Animal cruelty should not continue to be the exception.

If that same person also investigates the animal organizations that claim to investigate animal cruelty, they would see firsthand how these organizations are ineffective and often harmful. It is not uncommon for these organizations to provide animal abusers and dog fighters a heads up moment or opportunity to move their animals and continue their crimes against animals elsewhere. Its no different than if they knocked on the door of a drug dealer. The drug dealer will not let anyone in if there is no warrant  (getting warrants often requires a lot of effort and police work ), and will move his drugs elsewhere after realizing he or she has been exposed.

Lessening or stopping animal cruelty and dog fighting will never happen as long as minimal enforcement continues to exist, along with ineffective, often harmful so called investigations by non police animal organizations.

Federal laws, any law, means nothing in the absence of widespread meaningful enforcement.

It is for these reasons that there are few arrests for animal cruelty in relation to how common and widespread are these crimes.

It is for these reasons that dog fighters have a greater chance of getting struck by lightning than ever getting arrested.

Making animal cruelty a federal offense  makes a lot of people feel good. It helps politicians because, after all, who will say this is not a good thing? It will enrich the careers and coffers of certain individuals and animal organizations that will claim success. But for suffering animals, little to nothing will get better because the absence of laws was not the problem. The absence of widespread, appropriate and timely enforcement of new and existing laws is the problem.

Facebook's Arbitrary Censorship About Plastic Pollution: Unlimited Power Granted A Social Media Monopoly

Facebook is a social media monopoly with no competition. How it was allowed to become the all encompassing giant that it is now speaks to the failure of the government to properly regulate and enforce laws and rules pertaining to monopolies.

There are some things that should be done immediately to stop Facebook's unregulated control and power over free speech and the press.  When a supersized corporation controls the press, censoring arbitrarily and without explanation, it kills the first amendment. There is no freedom of the press when the free press no longer exists and is owned by supersized corporations.

I wrote some blogs about plastic pollution. Someone did not like what I wrote, and had Facebook block me. Facebook blocked me without providing an explanation and without providing any avenue by which I could argue why I should not be censored.

In case anyone is interested, the material Facebook found so damaging and worthy of blocking is as follows:

I wrote about how plastic pollution is not properly addressed. I advocated for the widespread employment of disadvantaged people to be paid to remove plastic pollution from coastlines and other areas. I discussed why this is the most effective approach to the cleanup portion of the plastic pollution crisis, and why employment, not technology or volunteerism, must come first. I also wrote about how plastic straw bans are being used to ignore the wider issue of plastic pollution. I support plastic straw bans, but believe the ban campaign must also address the far more urgent need to remove plastic already in the environment, and to stop the daily flood of new plastic into the oceans. Plastic straws are but a tiny amount of the total plastic pollution problem, yet they are far too often used as the excuse to ignore or do nothing about the over 99 per cent of plastic pollution that is not plastic straws. I wrote about how recycling is not working, and how wrong it is for developed nations to ship plastic waste to developing nations already drowning in their own plastic waste. Removing plastic waste from the environment, and keeping new plastic waste out of the environment must be the priority, not recycling. If recycling helps achieve this, then it has a role to play. Properly disposing of plastic waste; getting it out of the environment and keeping it out of the environment must come first. I argued vigorously for the immediate widespread employment of disadvantaged people to remove plastic waste from the environment before the plastic waste breaks down further into unrecoverable pieces. In this way, impoverished people and the environment are helped.

In my writings about plastic pollution, I discuss critically a serious problem that is destroying oceans, wildlife and more. There is no defamation of character. None of my blogs advocate hate, violence, or harm to other people. Instead of refuting my arguments, someone or somebody complained to Facebook, which then blocked me without any explanation.

There is no number or web address that Facebook provides where a live person can be reached.. There is no place to refute Facebook's arbitrary, unexplained censorship.

Facebook must hire live people to respond to their censorship. Censored people must be allowed legitimate avenues to contest Facebook's arbitrary censorship.

Facebook has already done enough damage to American democracy (think of the last presidential elections and Russian hacking and interference).

The overpaid executives at Facebook must employ people to respond to phone calls or online web chats. No company should have so much unlimited power over the media without a live person anywhere in sight to respond to complaints and unexplained censorship.

The War Path That Trump, Ron Paul and Company Chose. Betrayal Of the Kurds

News reports state that an earlier arrangement made between the United States and Turkey meant that certain heavy weapons were taken away from the Kurds, making them even more vulnerable to the present Turkish invasion.

When Ron Paul talks about Americans not engaging in senseless foreign wars, does he not understand the role the United States has played in preventing wars? Why does the U.S. have troops stationed in South Korea and elsewhere? Does he want those troops pulled out?

The small number of American troops that were embedded with the Kurds, one of the most reliable allies the United States had, were not at war. They were, in fact, helping keep the peace.

This is not the same as the American invasion of Iraq, or U.S. involvement in Libya.

The United States has played an important role in keeping the peace and preventing war. Ron Paul isolationists do not understand this.

The Kurds were a U.S. ally. Notice this is written in the past tense. Betraying an ally and leaving them to be slaughtered like sheep is what Trump, Ron Paul and their ilk provided.

Perhaps Kim Jong-un will pick up the phone and call Trump, letting him know that he will invade South Korea and that Trump should remove all American troops.

Workers, Not Technology, Must Be Priority In Plastic Pollution Fight

Technology receives far too much attention and funding to the exclusion of basic employment.


The cleanup portion of the plastic pollution crisis must expand far beyond volunteerism and reliance upon technology into actual employment. Millions of impoverished people the world over desperately need work, and the environment is in critical need of having plastic pollution removed. Employment must become the core element of the plastic cleanup effort. One small nonprofit organization employs disadvantaged people to do plastic cleanups. It can set the spark and be an example of what needs to be done, but this employment effort has to be embraced by larger nonprofits, for profits and government entities. There is far too much plastic pollution already in the environment, with millions of kilos more entering daily. Volunteers and technology can supplement what must become a massive anti poverty/environmental project. There is no technology or volunteer effort that can ever come close to removing the plastic pollution that employed people can remove. Every day in which people are not employed to remove plastic is another day in which enormous amounts of plastic that could have been captured and removed from the environment never will be.

People need work, and the environment needs to be cleaned. Instead of seeking technological miracles, people that truly care about the oceans, wildlife and the environment need to get serious about removing plastic pollution by providing actual employment. There is no technology that can come anywhere near removing the amount of plastic pollution that employed people can remove - especially in developing countries, where there is massive poverty and plastic pollution, and where few can afford to be volunteers. Employed people can remove enormous amounts of plastic along coastlines and other areas that no technology or volunteer effort can ever come close to removing. Technology can be utilized in areas where human grit and labor cannot go, such as in the middle of the ocean. But even then, the plastic that technology can pull from the oceans will never come close to removing what humans can remove from coasts and other areas. Plastic accumulates along coasts, brought in from lands, rivers, and from the oceans themselves that return plastic to the coasts through waves, tides, currents and storms. The more plastic removed from coasts and other areas, the less plastic goes into the oceans or return to the oceans. If plastic is not captured along coasts and other areas by human labor, it will break down into smaller plastic pieces that can never be recovered. Hoping for technology to rescue oceans, wildlife and humanity from the plastic pollution disaster may make people feel good, and it certainly attracts funds, donors and celebrity attention, but it will not rescue oceans, wildlife or humanity from this disaster. Employing disadvantaged people to remove plastic pollution from coasts and other areas needs to be front and center. Helping people rise out of poverty by providing employment while cleaning the environment from plastic pollution makes sense. Why this simple, workable and most productive and effective way to remove plastic pollution from the environment continues to be ignored is disgraceful.

Did Trump Betray The Kurds?

It is said that after a conversation with the Islamist dictator of Turkey, Erdogan, Trump decided to remove the small number of Americans that were assisting the Kurds on the Syrian side. Trump gave convoluted reasons for his decision, including some nonsense about the Kurds not being present during Normandy.

Defense Secretary Esper said that the 50 or so Americans that were with the Kurds were pulled out because the administration knew the Turks and their allied Arab militias were going to attack, and so the Americans were taken out of harms way.

What is the truth? Did Trump's conversation with Erdogan and Trump's decision to pull out the Americans embedded with the Kurds provide the green light for the invasion, and now the administration is covering its tracks?

If Trump knew Turkey was going to attack the Kurds, then what, if anything, did he do to stop the invasion? Trump said he is a masterful negotiator. Are we to assume he could do nothing to stop the Turkish invasion, assuming he did not green light it? Or that he plain did not care?

Why did Trump decide to pull out the small number of Americans, which is now followed up with the removal of the other 1000 or so American troops working with the Kurds?

The argument that Americans must stop being involved in overseas conflicts only makes sense if there was actually a conflict. While the Americans were with the Kurds in the Kurdish controlled zone, there was peace. The American presence deterred Turkey, Assad and Russia. 

If Trump gave the green light to Turkey, then Trump and his administration bear full responsibility for the harm that is now befalling the Kurdish population, for the ISIS Islamist prisoners that the Kurds were guarding and that escaped, and for throwing one of America's most dependable allies under the bus and into the arms of the Russians, Assad regime and Iran. 

Plastic Straw Ban: Helps Or Hinders Fight Against Plastic Pollution?

Reducing plastic pollution will not be helped by expending massive amounts of money and effort on what is not a significant source of plastic pollution - plastic straws. Such an effort may be justified by some that believe stopping plastic straws is the gateway to a greater awareness about plastic pollution. But the opposite is happening, in which plastic straw bans are the excuse by many to continue doing little to nothing about plastic pollution under the pretense that something important is being done.

There is a critical need to remove plastic pollution already in the environment. Nonprofits concerned about plastic pollution should immediately employ disadvantaged people in developing countries to remove plastic pollution from coasts and other areas.

In developing countries, the source of most plastic pollution, many people desperately need work. There is no excuse to not employ this motivated workforce. Technology and volunteer efforts can supplement their efforts but can never achieve anywhere near what motivated workers paid a decent wage can achieve in removing plastic waste from the environment.

Every single day that people in need of work in developing countries and elsewhere are not employed to remove plastic pollution from coasts and other areas is another day in which enormous amounts of plastic trash enter into the oceans that could have been stopped. It is inexcusable to not provide this employment, thereby helping people and significantly decreasing plastic trash already in the environment.

Plastic accumulates along coasts from lands and rivers. Oceans are full of plastic trash. Waves, tides, currents and storms returns plastic from oceans back to the coasts. Removing plastic from the coasts  protects the oceans and lands, and prevents plastic from breaking down into smaller pieces that never can be recovered once they enter or re-enter the oceans.

Ensure plastic is either properly burned, like in Sweden, or buried properly in secured landfills. Far too much plastic waste goes into open pits or garbage mountains in many developing countries, or is burned out in the open, exposing people and the environment to toxic gases and toxic ash.

Prioritize cleaning up the environment from the plastic waste already present. Fight for better collection and disposable of plastic and other oil based waste the world over. Fight to reduce the enormous amount of new plastic waste entering the environment daily. Lead the way to the use of alternative materials to wean humanity from the plastic addiction. There is so much that needs to be done, and this is only a partial list.

Do not allow plastic straws to be a diversion from seriously addressing the catastrophic plastic pollution problem before our oceans, wildlife and more are completely destroyed. If plastic straws cease to exist, it will not make a dent in the millions of kilos of plastic, Styrofoam and other oil based trash pouring into the oceans daily.

Ban the straws, but do so much more.

Rethinking Recycling And Plastic Pollution

An MIT researcher says we should trash all our recyclable plastic.

Most plastic material and oil based non biodegradable material, synthetic clothing included, is not recyclable. Of the plastic that is recyclable, it is important to ask if the benefit of recycling outweighs the environmental cost. In many places where people think there is recycling, there is in fact little to none, or the plastic gets shipped to developing countries already drowning in their own plastic waste.

Sweden generates energy by burning its plastic waste as efficiently and cleanly as is possible with today's existing technologies. This is far preferable to the open burning of plastic that is common in many places, which exposes people to harmful carcinogens and contaminates the environment.

Burying plastic waste in landfills is common, but properly burying plastic waste in landfills is not. Many places bury plastic waste in open pits or in improper sites where winds, rains, storms, waters and time bring it back into the larger environment.

Plastic waste is only getting worse. Recycling is often not working. Furthermore, most plastic waste cannot be recycled. The priority must be on keeping plastic waste out of the oceans and environment and ensuring this is achieved. This, not recycling, must be the goal. If recycling helps achieve this, then it has a role to play. The nonsense that has gone on for years in which developed countries ship their plastic waste to developing countries under the guise of recycling must stop.

The millions of kilos of new plastic trash entering the oceans daily must be stopped or at least slowed.

Effort must focus on cleaning up plastic pollution already in the environment. This cleanup effort must become the most massive anti poverty employment program the world has ever seen, supplemented by the use of technology and volunteers.

Money and resources must be devoted to ensuring plastic waste that does go into landfills is properly buried. The controlled burning that Sweden does must also be considered.

The plastic addiction must be fought. It is hard to understand how technology has come so far in so many fields, and yet the primitive reliance on plastic materials only gets worse. Imagine if the same effort that goes into designing ways to kill each other was instead directed towards finding affordable materials that do not harm oceans, rivers, lakes, wildlife, and people.

The Kurdish People Must Not Be Abandoned

The Kurds have been at the forefront of the fight against ISIS. They have been strong and reliable allies.

Bush attacking Iraq, followed by Obama's hurried retreat and meaningless red lines (which strengthened the hand of the ISIS Islamic fanatics), must not now be compounded by abandoning the Kurds.

More blood must not be shed from foolish, brash decisions.

Boyan Slat's Ocean Cleanup: Garbage Patch, Plastic Pollution And What Is Missing

First, the problem. Trillions upon trillions of plastic particles, pieces and fibers (fibers from synthetic clothing, polyester, nylon, acrylic, etc.) already are in the oceans. Every single day, millions upon millions of pounds and kilos of additional plastic enters into the oceans.
Much of the plastic breaks down and disperses. Waves, tides and storms brings a lot of the plastic already in the oceans back to coasts and rivers. Lands and rivers brings new plastic into the oceans. Meanwhile, plastic, Styrofoam and other oil based non biodegradable materials keep breaking down into smaller and smaller particles that eventually are impossible to capture or recover. Eventually these particles break down into pieces too small to be seen and that never degrade. And so, there they are, trillions upon trillions of plastic particles endlessly polluting the oceans, coasts, lands and rivers and other waters, and endlessly harming wildlife and humans.
A recent study of plastic waste collecting in the ocean garbage patches suggests this waste is coming from ships, and that it is not originating from the land. So where are all the millions of kilos of plastic entering into the oceans daily going? It disperses, and does not make it to the garbage patches.
Even if the garbage patches are completely cleaned, it will not help with the enormous amount of plastic already in the oceans, with millions of additional kilos entering every day.
Plastic pollution cleanup efforts need three strong approaches. Of the three, the one that is most effective and needed the most is the one least funded and least considered.
Volunteer cleanups, such as beach cleanups, receive a lot of attention and funding. These work best in developed countries where people can afford to be volunteers. But even in developed countries, these efforts are often sporadic and not consistent. Many under served areas receive no cleanups.
In developing nations, there is mass poverty. Few can afford to be volunteers.
Employing people in need of work - disadvantaged people - to cleanup coasts and other areas, an actual employment project that can and should employ millions, is near nonexistent.
The much advertised technology that Boyan Slat offers receives millions of dollars of funding.
Just to be clear, if his technology works, as he says it does or will in the future, then let us hope he cleans the garbage patches as he says he will.
But imagine if even one tenth of the millions of dollars his organization receives was directed at employing disadvantaged people to remove plastic from coasts and other areas. An employed force cleaning up plastic pollution from coastlines and other areas will remove far more plastic pollution than any technology or volunteer effort ever can, at far less cost than any technology.
This is not to say Boyan Slat should not continue his effort to cleanup the garbage patches.
But the failure to employ the low tech, far less costly simple approach of providing employment to disadvantaged people to do hands on cleanups means losing the critical opportunity to prevent trillions of kilos of plastic pollution already littering coastlines and other accessible areas from breaking down further into forever damaging unrecoverable pieces.
The plastic pollution cleanup portion of the plastic pollution disaster needs three things:
1. Employed workers doing the cleanups.
2. Volunteer cleanups.
3. Technologies that can clean areas that laborers cannot cleanup, such as ocean garbage patches.

Of the three things needed for plastic pollution cleanups, the core of the effort must be on employed workers because that is what will achieve the most in terms of helping people and in removing the most amount of plastic.
Volunteerism and technology, instead of being the primary focus of the effort, as they are now, must be seen as the supplementation to the core effort.
How effective is Boyan Slat's technology?  There needs to be an objective determination and not rely only on his word or that of his organization. People also need to know clearly that even if the garbage patches of the world are completely cleaned, it will have only removed a small amount of the plastic already in the oceans.
Employed people glad to receive work and that are paid a decent, fair wage, will remove far more plastic pollution than any volunteer effort or technology can ever hope to achieve.
Instead of waiting for a technological miracle and allowing the oceans and coasts to get further destroyed, why not immediately implement what is most effective and works?  An army of people employed to remove plastic pollution from coastlines and other areas is needed now. Every day that passes without this army means another day of destruction to wildlife, oceans, people and more.

Animals,Wildlife, Voiceless Populations Suffer As Nonprofits Profit

The lack of accountability in far too much of the nonprofit world has meant decades of inefficiency, ineffectiveness and harm. This is especially true in the realm of unseen places and in services to voiceless populations.
Conservation, wildlife and animal related organizations are great at pointing out problems. Knowledge and expertise regarding problems and plights does not mean that the programs and services these organizations provide are effective and not harmful.
Regarding the efficacy of these nonprofits - scrutiny and accountability goes out the window, and they say and do whatever it is they want.
And so, they grow and become wealthier while the populations they are supposed to service diminish and suffer. The more there is suffering, the more these organizations capitalize on plights and problems and raise more money for themselves.
Raising awareness and pointing out problems and plights is not the same as concrete, effective action.
If for profit businesses operated the same way; good at talk, pointing out problems and raising awareness but weak at solutions and absent in efficacy, they would quickly go out of business.