US Backs Israel’s Land Grab in Syria

The State Department framed Israel’s incursion into Syrian territory as ‘self-defense’

by Dave DeCamp December 9, 2024. https://news.antiwar.com/2024/12/09/us-backs-israels-land-grab-in-syria/

On Monday, the US State Department backed Israel’s seizure of territory in Syria that came after the collapse of the government of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, framing it as a defensive action.

Israel seized a buffer zone between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and the rest of Syria’s territory that was established in 1974 and also captured several areas beyond the zone. When asked about the land grab, State Department spokesman Matt Miller said it was important to put the situation in “context.”

“First of all, the Syrian army abandoned its positions in the area around the negotiated Israeli-Syrian buffer zone, which potentially creates a vacuum that could have been filled by terrorist organizations that would threaten the state of Israel and would threaten civilians inside Israel. Every country has the right to take action against terrorist organizations,” Miller said.

Miller also insisted the Israeli occupation of the land was temporary. “The second thing that is important is that Israel has said that these actions are temporary to defend its borders. These are not permanent actions,” he said.

Also on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared the Golan Heights would be Israel’s “forever,” although it’s unclear if he was referring to the recently-captured territory.

Several Arab countries, including Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, strongly condemned the Israeli seizure of Syria’s territory. The Qatari Foreign Ministry said it considered the move “a dangerous development and a blatant attack on Syria’s sovereignty and unity as well as a flagrant violation of international law.”

Saudi Arabia said the land grab confirmed “Israel’s continued violation of the rules of international law and its determination to sabotage Syria’s chances of restoring its security, stability and territorial integrity.”

The buffer zone Israel captured is patrolled by a UN peacekeeping force known as UNDOF, and there are signs Israel was looking to make a move in the area before Assad’s collapse.

The Associated Press reported that Israel began construction along the buffer zone in September, citing satellite images. After the report, UNDOF warned that Israel was committing “severe” violations of the deal with Syria that established the buffer zone.

December 13, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Israel, politics international, Syria, USA | Leave a comment

Trump and Nuclear Energy: There Are Questions

By James Pethokoukis, October 29, 2024 https://www.aei.org/economics/trump-and-nuclear-energy-there-are-questions/?fbclid=IwY2xjawHFoTFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHQxPhKajCptbr5dJgCAd1ZhE0x5OIXLC1-lH_txOvx1zcexr7tF8oqHmYQ_aem_Nlh9f2T4vRa-IsURORqqrA

The 2024 GOP platform from the Republican National Convention promises that “Republicans will unleash Energy Production from all sources, including nuclear, to immediately slash Inflation and power American homes, cars, and factories with reliable, abundant, and affordable Energy.” And much the same message from the party’s presidential nominee:

Starting on day one, I will approve new drilling, new pipelines, new refineries, new power plants, new reactors and we will slash the red tape. We will get the job done. We will create more electricity, also for these new industries that can only function with massive electricity.

But what does that scenario look like, exactly? Trump addressed the issue during his recent podcast with Joe Rogan. As reported by E&E News:

Trump told Joe Rogan in an interview released Friday that he thought projects to build more of the large nuclear reactors currently on the grid, while “very clean,” have a tendency to be complex and to go over budget. He also expressed concern over the energy source’s safety implications. “They get too big, and too complex and too expensive,” Trump said of U.S. nuclear reactors. “I think there’s a little danger in nuclear.” … On Rogan’s show, Trump said two failed nuclear projects were evidence of why large reactors may not be the answer to meeting energy demand, likely referencing the Bellefonte Nuclear Station in Hollywood, Alabama, and the V.C. Summer nuclear plant near Jenkinsville, South Carolina. “They did one in Alabama. They did one in, I think, South Carolina. They do them wrong,” Trump said. “They build these massive things. Then the environmentalists get in.” Trump pointed to small modular reactors as a potential answer to long-running cost concerns surrounding the energy source. He believes that smaller reactors, which can be built in a factory, could avoid the complexities associated with large reactors.

As the piece correctly points out, none of the two dozen or so nuclear reactors that generate two-thirds of French energy are SMRs, a technology that optimists hope will be deployed by decade’s end. Those optimists include mega-retailer Amazon, which recently announced it was partnering with Dominion Energy to explore building a small modular reactor near Virginia’s North Anna nuclear plant. The project aims to support Amazon Web Service’s growing clean energy needs, particularly for AI operations. What’s more, Amazon is hardly the only tech company interested in nuclear to power its data centers, as the chart below [on original] outlines:

But Trump’s vote for nuclear energy abundance seems to conflict with his distaste for the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)—despite the considerable IRA funding going to red states—which includes substantial nuclear power incentives, including a production tax credit for existing plants, investment tax credits for new nuclear projects, and support for advanced reactor development and nuclear-powered hydrogen production. That framework might change if Trump wins a second term, but it also seems likely that expanded nuclear power in the US “will require public-private collaboration, regardless of whether we decide to focus on building conventional reactors or next-gen designs,” as energy analyst Thomas Hochman told me back in July. For what it’s worth, some professional Washington observers think incentives for nuclear have enough GOP support to survive attacks on the IRA should Trump win.

December 13, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | Leave a comment

The legal decision on the Murdoch media – what does it mean for us?

NOEL WAUCHOPE, DEC 13, 2024, https://theaimn.com/the-legal-decision-on-the-murdoch-media-what-does-it-mean-for-us/

There is nothing either good or bad, but only thinking makes it so.

Shakespeare’s profound idea applies to that recent legal case, about the Murdoch Family Trust, in the Probate Court in Nevada.

The 93 year-old Rupert Murdoch sought to change the existing “irrevocable trust” which is to govern the arrangements of his media empire, after his death. The issue was that the trust should be in “the best interests” of the Murdoch children.

Rupert Murdoch argued that after his death, his children would benefit best if control of his media empire were to be changed from the existing trust arrangement which gives control to four of his children – Lachlan, Elizabeth, James and Prudence. Murdoch wanted that changed to control by only eldest son Lachlan. The other three disagreed, and took the case to court.

Rupert Murdoch’s given reason was that the whole media enterprise would thus be more profitable, – so all four children would get more money. That way, Elizabeth, James, and Prudence would not have control, but would be richer, and this would be “in their best interest”. Under the present unchanged “irrevocable” trust arrangement, they would share the control with Lachlan, but they would be less rich.

Many commentators are arguing that Rupert Murdoch’s real goal is power and influence – so that is why he wanted the very right-wing Lachlan to be in charge of the media show. Perhaps this is true.

The case was heard in a secret court, but the core of Rupert Murdoch’s argument was that the children’s monetary gain was in their best interest, rather than them having any control of the media and its content.

Apparently the three did not think so, and neither did Commissioner Edmund J Gorman, who ruled in the children’s favour, concluding that Murdoch and his son Lachlan, had acted in “bad faith”, in a “carefully crafted charade”.

Lachlan shares the same right-wing views as his father does, even more so,- while Elizabeth, James and Prudence are reported as having more moderate views. Murdoch has controlling interests in Fox News and News Corp , the Wall Street Journal, in the UK the Times and the Sun, the Australian and others. Apparently it is assumed by all, that the media empire will continue its current record profits only under Lachlan’s leadership. In 2023–24 the Fox Corporation’s net income was US$1.5 billion (A$2.35 billion).

This case raises the question – what is the purpose of the news media ?

According to the Murdoch argument, the purpose is to enrich the owners of the media. That would include all the shareholders, too, I guess. The means by which this is done is to provide entertainment and information to the public. And this is central to Rupert Murdoch’s stated argument.

Some people, including many journalists, and perhaps the Murdoch children, might see the informational role of the news media as its main purpose, with excessive profitability as a secondary concern.

Apparently Elizabeth, James and Prudence preferred to have some control in the media empire, even if that meant less money for them. They thought that “having a say” in the business was in their best interest. It is possible that they might take some pride in news journalism that would be more accurate and balanced than the Murdoch media is now.

Only thinking makes it so

The best example of “Murdoch media thinking” -is in its coverage of climate change. For decades, the Murdoch view was pretty much climate denialism – climate concern seen as a “cult of the elite” and the “effects of global warming have so far proved largely benign”. But more recently, this view was moderated, towards concern that some action should be taken to limit global warming – coinciding with the new right-wing push for nuclear power as the solution to climate change.

In the USA, Murdoch media has a powerful influence, supported by the big corporations, and the right wing in general, and by the Trump publicity machine, but it does have some competition from other right wing outlets like Breitbart and the Daily Wire, and in talk radio, and blogs. It has lost some influence in the UK, following its phone hacking scandal in 2011.

That Murdoch interpretation contradicts the view of thousands of scientists, yet is welcomed by the fossil fuel industries, the nuclear industry, and the right-wing governments that they support. Similarly, the Murdoch media’s view on international politics generally favours military action that the USA supports – on Ukraine’s side, by Israel, and now in Syria. All this is seen to be good – by the USA weapons manufacturers and salesmen, US and UK politicians, and presumably by the public.

In Australia, Murdoch media is far more pervasive, and has been described as a virtual monopoly – with the only national newspaper, newspapers in each state, (often the only newspaper), and News Corp controls radio and television in Australia through a number of assets.

So – what now, after this remarkable probate court decision?

Commissioner Gorman’s recommendation could still be rejected by a district judge. Murdoch’s lawyers can appeal the decision. Even if the decision is finally upheld, it will be a complicated process to rearrange the control of the media in the event of Rupert Murdoch’s death – and that might not happen for a decade or more. News Corp has a dual-class share structure which gives the family 41% of company votes, despite having just 14% of an overall stake in the company. Shareholders might change this arrangement.

In the meantime – fertile ground for endless speculation on what it all might mean – for the share price, for the future direction of the media, for the Murdoch family relationships.

Only thinking makes it so

Some see this legal decision as such a blow to the Murdoch empire – leading to its fatal collapse. And that thought can be viewed as a bad outcome. Even if Rupert Murdoch overturns the decision on appeal, it might have dealt a big blow to the empire.

Some welcome it, visualising a change in direction, with a more progressive media, directed by the three siblings with their more moderate opinions. For Australians who don’t like Donald Trump, and fear a Peter Dutton election win in 2025, well, it really doesn’t matter much. For the foreseeable future, the political right wing is still hanging on to its grip on news and information across this continent, thanks to the Murdoch empire.

December 12, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | legal, media, USA | Leave a comment

Nuclear sector’s views on second Trump administration mixed as Rogan interview raises questions

Donald Trump enacted pro-nuclear policies during his first term and supported an “all-of-the-above” energy policy during the campaign, but some advocates fear a “divide between words and actions.”

Utility Dive, Nov. 8, 2024, By Brian Martucci

Dive Brief:

President-elect Donald Trump in August vowed to “approve new drilling, new pipelines, new refineries, new power plants [and] new reactors” on “day one” of his administration.
But Trump has more recently sounded skeptical about federal backing for large-scale nuclear builds like Vogtle, which he said in an Oct. 25 interview with podcaster Joe Rogan “get too big, and too complex and too expensive,” raising questions about his second administration’s willingness to support the industry.
The nuclear sector has mixed views on the incoming administration’s potential support, with some expressing optimism that Trump would build on pro-nuclear policies enacted during the Biden and first Trump administrations and others concerned about a pullback in federal funding for advanced nuclear development.

Dive Insight:

The second Trump administration is likely to “pursue an overall domestic energy agenda focused on energy production and dominance in the United States” but may not continue the Biden-Harris administration’s “massive appropriations” to the nuclear sector, American Nuclear Society Director of Public Policy John Starkey said.

At least one prominent Trump ally, environmental lawyer and former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has an anti-nuclear track record. Kennedy, a Trump ally who is expected to have an official role in the incoming administration, fought for years to close New York’s Indian Point nuclear plant. More recently, he has voiced opposition to federal nuclear energy subsidies.

“We should have no subsidies … all the companies should internalize their costs in the way that they internalize their profits,” Kennedy told Tesla CEO and fellow Trump backer Elon Musk in an online discussion last year.

But the first Trump administration was broadly supportive of the U.S. nuclear industry. It provided billions in loan guarantees to facilitate construction of Plant Vogtle units 3 and 4; supported the failed Carbon Free Power Project at Idaho National Laboratory, a proposed 462-MW plant that would have used NuScale’s small modular reactor technology; and advanced the pro-nuclear Partnership for Transatlantic Energy Cooperation, the Trump presidential campaign said in 2023.

In 2019, Trump signed the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act, or NEIMA, which paved the way for the technology-neutral Part 53 advanced reactor licensing pathway. The NRC is expected to finalize Part 53 regulations by 2027.

“We look forward to working with the new administration to advance policies that extend the lives of existing nuclear reactors, usher in a new era of advanced technologies and support a global marketplace for U.S. exports,” Nuclear Energy Institute President and CEO Maria Korsnick told Utility Dive……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. more https://www.utilitydive.com/news/nuclear-energy-sector-mixed-views-second-trump-administration-joe-rogan/732407/?fbclid=IwY2xjawHFoYpleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHUakuD2-A16vIr3S063461cig0CymSgxOs5gaAOLJV6GiinQd89Cgy9kBw_aem__hlKjpEPqkmj7Ro11hAMAg

December 12, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Why is Biden cheering terrorist takeover of Syria?

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL, 11 Dec 24

President Biden celebrated the ouster of Syrian rular Basha Assad by US designated terrorist organization Hayat Tahir al-Sham (HTS).

Syria remains one of the longest and bloodiest US regime change operations in history. After 13 years and over a half million dead Syrians, supported by in part by US aid to Islamic Jihadist rebels, America achieved his goal of deposing imagined enemy Bashar Assad.

Biden says Assad’s fall is a “Fundamental Act of Justice.” Justice to Biden is cool even if it involves the US getting in bed with folks who cheered on the 911 attacks. Biden did slip in his congratulations when he inadvertently muttered this colossal understatement, “Some of the rebel groups that took down Assad have their own grim record of terrorism and human rights abuses.”

The group that led the offensive, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), was formed in 2017 by merging al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate al-Nusra Front with other Islamist groups. HTS is a US-designated terrorist organization, and the US had put a $10 million bounty on its leader, Abu Mohammad al-Julani. Now the US mulls removing HTS from its Terrorist List since al-Julani has ascended to power in Damascus.

With the HTS takeover, Syrian minority groups including Alawite, Druze, Circassian, Armenian, Chechen, Assyrian, Christian and Turkoman, protected by Assad, consider heading for safer climes to escape the repressive, violent religious fanatics who have succeeded Assad while America cheers.

To put lipstick on the pig of US regime change, Biden ordered his thousand solider invasion force used to steal Assad’s oil resources, to stay put in eastern Syria to keep watch on the new extremist Syrian rulers. Indeed, he ordered massive bombings of extremist al Qaeda elements with his ancient B’52’s to show HTS who’s really pulling the strings of Syrian rule.

Back in 2011, President Obama caved to the US war party to add Syria’s Assad to America’s ever-growing regime change hit list, regardless Syria posed no threat whatsoever to US national security interests. That policy continued from Trump to Biden, who finally realized the US war party’s cherished dream.

Biden’s Syrian triumph sets the table for Trump’s return to power in 41 days. Who will be Trump’s first regime change target? Iran? Russia? North Korea? China? The way the US war party rolls…maybe all 4.

December 12, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics international, USA | Leave a comment

Rupert Murdoch loses his legal battle, leaving future of media empire in the balance

The Conversation, Matthew Ricketson and Andrew Dodd, December 10, 2024

In the seemingly never-ending psychodrama surrounding Rupert Murdoch and his family, life has imitated art. Again.

A report on December 9 in The New York Times revealed details of the recent secret hearing in a Nevada probate court that was literally prompted by the epic HBO drama Succession…………………………..

The probate commissioner in Nevada who heard Rupert Murdoch’s application, Edmund Gorman “resoundingly” ruled against his attempt to change his family trust in a way that would have secured Lachlan’s position atop the global media empire.

Gorman was scathing in his ruling, saying father and son had acted in “bad faith” in their bid to change an “irrevocable” family trust that divides control of Fox News and News Corporation equally among Murdoch’s four eldest children from his first and second marriages: Prudence, Elisabeth, Lachlan and James.

In the 96-page ruling, Gorman described the plan to change the trust as a “carefully crafted charade” to permanently consolidate Lachlan’s executive roles inside News, “regardless of the impacts such control would have over the companies or the beneficiaries” of the family trust……………………………………….

Gorman’s ruling is not the end of the matter, however. It’s technically a recommendation to the Probate Court, which a district judge will ratify or reject.

Whatever the judge decides is open to appeal, which a lawyer for Rupert and Lachlan has already said they plan to do. Meanwhile, the other three siblings have released a statement welcoming the decision and expressing hope that “we can move beyond this litigation to focus on strengthening and rebuilding relationships among all family members”.

Good luck with that. The strongly worded ruling seems likely only to drive the parties further apart………………………………………………………………………………….

Lachlan’s description of James as the trust’s “troublesome beneficiary”.

By “troublesome” the plan was obliquely referring to the split in the family between Lachlan and Rupert – who are wedded to a media empire that is both right-wing and profitable – and James, who severed all ties with the company over its denialist coverage of climate change and its credulous reporting of baseless conspiracy theories about the result of the 2020 US presidential election………………………………………………………………………………….

If Prudence, Elisabeth and James can assert control, sideline Lachlan, and settle on a unified path forward, they can potentially reshape the company and redefine its journalism.

If they have already war-gamed it, and surely by now they have, the three siblings would know their greatest risk is alienating their current audiences, subscribers and advertisers.

In Australia, News operates in a virtual monopoly, so it can shapeshift with fewer consequences. But the US market is awash with emerging right-wing alternatives, each of which is eager to steal a share of the Fox audience. These viewers are the people who make Fox such a valuable commodity, and they’re the reason why it’s been so hard to stand up to Trump and his anti-democratic tactics, even on the odd occasions when Rupert and Lachlan wanted to.

The challenge is to somehow bring those audiences along for whatever transition the siblings envisage for the company. Can it be done, and if so, how?

The company’s own history suggests editorial change can happen quickly and audiences do tend to retain some loyalty. Murdoch’s takeover of The New York Post in the 1970s shows it is possible to radically change a masthead’s editorial position while expanding its audience, in that case from a mostly Democrat-leaning readership to a larger and more conservative one. But that was a moribund newspaper due for a radical makeover. There’s no guarantee it would work in reverse.

Fox News is arguably at the peak of its powers. The incentive to impose change has everything to do with journalistic standards and nothing to do with finances. In 2023–24 the Fox Corporation’s net income was US$1.5 billion (A$2.35 billion).

Even so, it must be possible to introduce incremental changes that reacquaint Fox viewers with more considered and ethical journalism without scaring them off. This wouldn’t work universally. Some of the demagogues who couldn’t cope would have to go – Sean Hannity springs to mind, as does former Fox firebrand Tucker Carlson.

Under new management, News could reintroduce some of the elements lost to Talk-TV in the mid-1980s, when the US scrapped the fairness doctrine that guaranteed balance and greater civility on the airwaves. It could ensure programs canvas different views, ask devil’s-advocate questions, and investigate issues without fear or favour.

Change of this nature wouldn’t be easy. News Corp has an echelon of editors across its global mastheads, most of whom are culture warriors and battle-hardened loyalists. They can and probably would work together to undermine progressive change.

During his tenure as the Australian head of News Corp, well before he became chair of the ABC, Kim Williams saw how the editors sneeringly white-anted his efforts to introduce reform. Even Lachlan Murdoch discovered that senior staff could undercut him. Paddy Manning recounts in his 2022 biography of Lachlan Murdoch, The Successor, that the infamous Roger Ailes did just this as Lachlan was learning the ropes at Fox in the early 2000s.

The three siblings will need resolve to dispense with those who get in their way, and they’ll need to introduce firm but gradual changes that don’t unduly scare their audiences or the market. But if Prudence, James and Elizabeth do share such a vision and are up for a fight, the world could soon be in for a fascinating media transition. more https://theconversation.com/rupert-murdoch-loses-his-legal-battle-leaving-future-of-media-empire-in-the-balance-245665?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20December%2011%202024%20-%203195432592&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20December%2011%202024%20-%203195432592+CID_9d007a3b0e7578f878c65cbd5b463722&utm_source=campaign_monitor&utm_term=Rupert%20Murdoch%20loses%20his%20legal%20battle%20leaving%20future%20of%20media%20empire%20in%20the%20balance

December 12, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA, media, USA | Leave a comment

Rocket fuel eating away at US, China nuclear weapons

Fast-aging fuel has likely rendered many US and Chinese ICBMs unusable, raising urgent questions about their nuclear arsenals.

Asia Times, by Gabriel Honrada, December 10, 2024

Aging rocket fuel may be quietly crippling the world’s nuclear arsenals, according to a new report exposing the ticking time bomb inside both US and Chinese missiles.

This month, South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that Chinese rocket scientists have discovered that the solid fuel used in intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) ages much faster than previously known, potentially rendering hundreds of missiles unusable.

Research conducted at China’s National Key Laboratory of Solid Rocket Propulsion in Xian revealed that significant changes in the fuel columns can occur within 30 years, making them unable to withstand the loads during flight. This finding could explain the frequent launch failures experienced by some nuclear powers in recent years.

The study, led by senior engineer Qin Pengju, found that while the aged propellant appeared stable during routine storage, it became significantly more brittle under high pressure. It mentions that the research focused on the solid fuel commonly used in ICBMs: ammonium perchlorate, aluminum powder and hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) binder.

SCMP says the study’s findings suggest that the fuel’s ductility under pressure can be compromised after just 27 years, leading to possible rapid fractures during launch. It notes that the issue has raised concerns about the US’s declining nuclear deterrent capability, which relies on Minuteman III missiles manufactured in the 1970s and Trident II missiles that have been operational for nearly three decades.

Perhaps illustrating the unreliability of aging ICBMs, a failed Minuteman III ICBM test in November 2023 has heightened concerns about the US’s aging land-based nuclear arsenal. The unarmed missile was terminated during a launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base due to an anomaly.

While the Minuteman III as a whole is still considered a reliable weapons system, its subcomponents, such as the silo, electronics and warhead, are old and may have been neglected.

Asia Times has previously reported that the US faces mounting pressure to replace its aging Minuteman III ICBMs as delays and cost overruns plague its next-generation LGM-35A Sentinel program.

Budgeted initially at US$95.8 billion, the Sentinel’s cost has surged to an estimated $160 billion, forcing the Pentagon to justify the increase under the Nunn-McCurdy Amendment. Due to Covid-19 disruptions and inflation, production delays have postponed its deployment until 2029. As a result, the US Air Force must extend Minuteman III’s lifespan.

Aside from old delivery systems, Asia Times reported in January 2024 that the aging of plutonium pits in US nuclear weapons poses a significant challenge to the country’s strategic deterrent. Despite plutonium’s 24,000-year half-life, microscopic changes over time can affect the storage safety and explosive yield of nuclear weapons.

The US National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has struggled to produce new plutonium pits, with current production capacity unlikely to meet the goal of 80 pits annually until 2030 or later. This shortfall is attributed to a post-Cold War culture of complacency, a lack of skilled workers and restrictive environmental regulations.

Existing pits, designed for older weapons, may not perform as required in newer systems, raising concerns about the reliability of the US nuclear arsenal.

Keeping the 1970s-era Minuteman III poses significant challenges. In a February 2014 RAND report, Lauren Caston and other writers mention that central to keeping the aging Minuteman III in service is the aging infrastructure and components that require continuous modernization to maintain operability………………………………………………………………………………….. more https://asiatimes.com/2024/12/rocket-fuel-eating-away-at-us-china-nuclear-weapons/

December 12, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

US, UK consider removing Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)from terror blacklist to ‘deepen contact’ with Al-Qaeda offshoot

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham toppled the government of Bashar al-Assad on Saturday, accomplishing a long-time goal of US foreign policy

The Cradle, News Desk, DEC 9, 2024

US officials are considering removing Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) from the US terrorist list after the offshoot of the Islamic State of Iraq (later known as ISIS) helped achieve the long-term US goal of overthrowing the Syrian government led by President Bashar al-Assad, The Washington Post reported on 9 December.

“US officials are in contact with all the groups involved in fighting in Syria, including the main group that ousted Assad, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which was once affiliated with Al-Qaeda and remains on a US terrorist list,” the newspaper wrote.

A US official told The Post that the US government has not ruled out removing the terror designation from HTS to enable deeper US contact and cooperation with the group………………………………………………

The UK government is also considering removing HTS from the list of banned terrorist groups.

………………….“The fall of the Assad regime fulfills a longtime US foreign policy goal, after Russia and Iran supported Assad amid the Obama administration’s efforts to oust him,” The Post added.

The former US special envoy to Syria said in an interview excerpt in March 2021 that HTS was an “asset” to US strategy in Syria. ……………………

………the US has supported ISIS in the past, including providing weapons to the organization to conquer Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, in June 2014. ISIS carried out the genocide of Yezidis in the nearby Sinjar district two months later, in August, with help from Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani, a close US and Israeli ally………………………more https://thecradle.co/articles/us-uk-consider-removing-hts-from-terror-blacklist-to-deepen-contact-with-al-qaeda-offshoot

December 12, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics international, Syria, USA | Leave a comment

Gabbard has more intelligence than entire Intelligence Service she’s slated to head.

Gabbard had the audacity to speak truth against America’s unhinged proxy war against Russia in 2022 that has failed spectacularly while destroying Ukraine as a viable country. She was spot on in declaring US weaponizing its Ukraine proxies against Russia jeopardizes global security. “This war and suffering could have easily been avoided if the Biden Administration and NATO had simply acknowledged Russia’s legitimate security concerns over NATO membership for Ukraine on Russia’s border.”

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL, 8 Dec 24

The US national security state, more appropriately referred to as the US war party, is aghast Trump picked Tulsi Gabbard to be Director of National Intelligence.

John Bolton, correctly nicknamed ‘Bonkers’ over his love of endless, failed US military interventions charged, “Gabbard, like Trump’s failed Attorney General pick Matt Gaetz, is like a hand grenade ready to explode. Republicans who throw themselves on those grenades for Donald Trump are risking their own personal reputations and places in history. Bolton appears oblivious his reputation and place in history rests in the warmonger wing of the American Story.

My Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth warned “I think she’s compromised. The U.S. intelligence community has identified her as having troubling relationships with America’s foes.” Ironically, it’s Duckworth, who exploited her service in America’s criminal Iraq war to gain political power supporting more senseless US wars, who is compromised.

Even progressive hero Elizabeth Warren foolishly bellowed “Do you really want her to have all of the secrets of the United States and our defense intelligence agencies when she has so clearly been in Putin’s pocket.” Warren clearly is in the pocket of US weapons merchants, super hawk congresspersons and their media enablers.

What infuriates these unbridled proponents of US unipolar dominance about Gabbard, a former congressperson, Iraq war vet and current Lt. Col. in the US Army reserve?

Gabbard compounds this inconvenient truth by speaking with rulers of America’s imaginary enemies like Syrian President Bashar Assad. America’s refusal to speak with its long list of enemies is a reckless policy that can easily stumble America into further warfare, even nuclear.

Bravo to Gabbard for pushing back against senseless US foreign misadventures that threaten American security, indeed, all peoplekind.

American intelligence has been exploited by our clueless leaders since the end of WWII to destabilize, overthrow dozens of countries worldwide. It seeks new enemies to expand its power and influence promoting US unipolar dominance. Gabbard threatens that terrible sinecure.

The Senate should confirm Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence to make sensible intelligence Job One in the intelligence community.

December 9, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | 1 Comment

Biden’s Nuclear Going Out of Business Sale

The only way Ukraine wins is for the West to stop the war and negotiate an agreement with Russia which restores Ukraine’s sovereignty, neutrality and way of life. Otherwise, the war grinds on, the casualties on both sides mount, Armageddon looms and the world gets to indulge in thinking the unthinkable, annihilation.

This is real. This is not a drill. The world is teetering on a precipice of nuclear war.

Dennis Kucinich, 7 Dec 24, https://freepress.org/article/biden%E2%80%99s-nuclear-going-out-business-sale

Has the world forgotten the real danger of nuclear war?

Do we live in a fantasy world where we think we can escalate tensions and put entire portions of the world under threat by using Ukraine as a sacrificial pawn (in what is classically sold as providing humanitarian and ally support) in a decades-long psychopathic foreign policy play to destroy Russia?

According to the laws of war, NATO, the U.S., the U.K., and France have determined to become “direct participants” in Europe’s deadly conflict as their home-grown offensive missiles are being launched from inside Ukraine to attack Russia.

Translated, a state of war exists between the West and Russia.

Putin is not absolved for his invasion of Ukraine. But how are western nations, led by the U.S., protecting Ukraine’s or their own national interests by quickening the dialectic of conflict, bringing nuclear weapons into the calculus?

Russian President Putin and his government have experienced long-standing western policies of encirclement and NATO encroachment through Ukraine, something the U.S. government swore would not happen. It did happen, reawakening Russia’s deepest fears of invasion.

Most Americans are unaware that in 2014, the U.S. forced out the elected President of Ukraine, Victor Yanukovych, which resulted in Kiev ordering attacks on ethnic Russian enclaves of Donetsk and Luhansk, baiting Russia into the beginning of a three year war, with the lure of NATO membership fluttering above Ukraine.

As the war barrels to a climactic, perhaps irredeemably fatal stage, the Ukrainian people have lost at least 600,000 of their fellow countrymen and women. Even so, at this late hour, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken demands that Ukraine lower its age of compulsory military service from 25 years of age to 18, to send even more young Ukrainians into the slaughter. Russian casualties will soar past 400,000 dead, with latest reports of 1,000 casualties a day.

One million Europeans have been killed for a war which was not inevitable, should never have been fought and, once it started, could have been brought to a fast conclusion. According to Naftali Bennett, former Prime Minister of Israel, peace talks were sabotaged by the US, just a month into the conflict.

The constitutions of the U.S., the U.K. and France, which forbid executives to unilaterally wage war, are being circumvented. Leaders have gone rogue and are consciously choosing nuclear brinkmanship over diplomacy.

In the past month, escalation is being stoked by the West. The launch of ATACMS and other advanced missiles necessarily involves U.S. personnel and intelligence data. This new phase of the war compelled the Kremlin to lower its threshold for a nuclear strike in an attempt to stop the use of even higher grade weapons against it from the West.

What happened? … The 2024 Presidential Election happened.

The escalation is intended to sabotage President Trump’s stated desire to bring an end to the Russia-Ukraine war and for the architects of the war to try to escape the blame for miscalculations, bumbling and cynical protraction of a bloody conflict. It is clear the West does not want peace.

Remember, the sacrifice of Ukraine and everything that has led up to this point is due to the West’s long time policy to advance the strategic defeat of Russia.

The Cold War never ended. It has given way to a boiling Hot War whose aim is to antagonize, provoke, diminish and conquer Russia. Key elements are the attempted dismantling of Russia’s energy infrastructure, and the massive transfer of arms to our proxy, Ukraine, through US appropriations which are approaching $200 billiion dollars, an amount equal to over $5,000 dollars for every Ukrainian man, woman and child.

In order to set the stage for this war, Western interests resorted to conjuring Putin as a demon, an arch-enemy of freedom, as was done with Hussein in Iraq, Khaddafy in Libya, and Assad in Syria. Once the enemy machine goes to work, military assets are mobilized to advance the overthrow of the noxious government, and the cash registers of defense contractors ring with the energy of a pinball arcade.

The Democratic Party unleashed an entire kennel of the dogs of war upon Russia, often at the urging of warden Hillary Clinton, mastermind of the Russiagate hoax. The nadir of the Dems descent into the indecent was ballyhooing the support of its 2024 presidential ticket by Dick Cheney, the sterling warmonger whose endorsement is to mass homicide what the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval is to stylish domesticity.

Think of the political consequences to the credibility of the entire Western foreign policy establishment if President Trump succeeds in bringing the war to a close. President Biden’s foreign policy, led by Secretary Blinken, will be forever tainted, as will the Democratic Party’s steadfast support for guns over butter.

The overthrow of the elected Ukrainian government in 2014, Russia’s subsequent invasion; the Prime Minister’s Gambit, Boris Johnson’s April 2022 scuttling of a peace agreement; the severe damage to the European economy through the destruction of Nordstream pipeline, by GUESS WHO, [readers hereby invited to guess]; NATO’S teeter-totter, penny-pinching one moment, saber-rattling burlesque the next, and harrowing brinkmanship — misdirecting public attention during the inevitable collapse of Ukraine. All this chest thumping and war pimping will be called into question, presuming there is time.

Another knock-on effect of the war and the failure of sanctions: Russia and China have been pushed together into a deep long-term military and economic partnership. Could the Biden Administration have been unaware of the military, economic and political fallout from a BRICS+-type alliance?

Rational military observers predict the transfer of the newest missiles will not change the outcome of the war, and some Trump advisers believe the next president’s bargaining position vis a vis Moscow will be strengthened as Ukraine’s offensive capacity is temporarily enhanced.

However, a sharp escalation in the next six weeks could result in a devastating response from an increasingly anxious Russia. Biden isn’t trying to help Trump or the process of peace, he’s handing him, and the world, a poisoned chalice.

Rear Admiral Thomas Buchanan of the US Strategic Command, isn’t calling for nuclear war, but he did say at a Project Atom 24 meeting recently, “If we have to have a(n) [nuclear] exchange then we want to do it in terms that are most acceptable to the United States,” where, presumably, even after nuclear war, we still lead the world, or its ashes – in strategic weapons.

President-Elect Trump, has assessed the extreme danger of the moment, saying: “We have never been closer to World War III than we are today under Joe Biden. A global conflict between nuclear-armed powers would mean death and destruction on a scale unmatched in human history.”

Vladimir Putin has clearly stated that Russia would “mirror” or match all escalations. Russia responded to an ATACM missile launch with a new hypersonic intermediate range ballistic missile, the Oreshnik, that reputedly reaches speeds of MACH 11 and delivers some 36 payloads. It devastated a Ukrainian missile factory.

It was an unmistakable message: Those six major payloads with six submunitions within them could be nuclear ones next time.

The next firing of ATACMs could bring a Russian response endangering or killing the American personnel responsible for firing these munitions. Even a skilled negotiator will find it difficult to diffuse the conflict once American blood has been shed. Why in the world would our government cause our troops, let alone our nation, to be so vulnerable?

Eight trillion dollars of our $36 trillion deficit is due to wars of choice since 9/11. The continued failure of American diplomacy, preferring war to statecraft, has been a persistent hubris. Pray that it not be fatal for our nation and the world.

Everyone who loves our country must speak out, now, to help avert a catastrophe.

December 9, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Ukraine, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Trump’s Pro-Israel Dream Team: Patel Nomination Caps Hawkish Cabinet

December 8, 2024, By Kit Klarenberg / MintPressNews

On November 30, Donald Trump nominated Kash Patel to serve as FBI director. A staunch MAGA activist and loyalist with significant standing in Trump’s orbit, Patel aligns closely with the president-elect on both domestic and foreign policy matters. Indeed, he appears to struggle to pinpoint areas of disagreement with Trump’s agenda.

Patel has consistently advocated for a hardline approach to China and is an unabashed supporter of Israeli interests, often prioritizing them over U.S. considerations. On October 7, marking the first anniversary of the Hamas attack, Patel delivered a fiery interview on Fox News. During the segment, he vowed that the incoming Trump administration would intensify its crackdown on anti-Israeli elements.

We should be side by side [with Israel]…When we are back in power with President Trump…we will shut off the machinery that feeds money into Iran…We need America to wake up and prioritize Israel, and that is not what Kamala Harris is about, we need to bring home Americans and end this war, bring home Israelis, and stand by our number one ally in Israel, and people need to wake up on November 5.”

A relative political outsider who has never occupied high office, the media has been awash with profiles of Patel and fevered speculation about what his management of the Bureau could mean in practice ever since. In the process, he has been subject to a level of mainstream scrutiny and criticism that was entirely lacking over recent weeks, as Trump filled his cabinet with a rogue’s gallery of dedicated hawks, hardcore pro-Israeli elements, and characters both unknown and notorious with potential extremist ties and views.

For some, the composition of Trump’s cabinet is a crushing disappointment. On November 9, Trump caused shockwaves when he announced neither Nikki Haley nor Mike Pompeo would be invited to join his administration in any capacity. The news, coupled with comments he made in a late October appearance on Joe Rogan’s popular podcast, perked optimism in some quarters that the President-elect’s longstanding anti-war posturing could produce real-world results in Ukraine, if not elsewhere.

In his discussion with Rogan, Trump professed that “the biggest mistake” of his first term was he “picked a few people that I shouldn’t have picked” – “neocons or bad people or disloyal people,” among them John Bolton. Haley was the U.S. ambassador to the UN under Trump and perhaps the most ardent, outspoken Zionist ever to fill the role. She, Bolton and Pompeo – who personally orchestrated Iranian General Qasem Soleimani’s assassination, among other hostile deeds – were widely regarded as the administration’s leading hawks.

Yet, any slight hope that the pair’s absence from Trump’s new White House might herald an influx of some doves and, in turn, a more peaceful shift from the U.S. government was comprehensively dashed when the President’s transition team nominations began rolling in. Now the cabinet is fully stocked, countless millions around the world have urgent and grave concerns about what the future could hold for them, their families, countries, regions, and more.

In particular, Trump’s prospective government can already claim the mantle of the most fervently pro-Israel in U.S. history. This is despite replacing an administration that has done more than any before to accelerate, encourage, and facilitate Israel’s war on Gaza. The prospect that Tel Aviv’s deadly assaults on Gaza and Lebanon will escalate somehow further is now not only very real but seemingly inevitable. However, as we shall see, there are minor rays of hope among the mass doom and gloom.

‘Promised Land’

New Secretary of State Marco Rubio hardly needs any introduction as one of the most pro-war members of the modern U.S. political class. Since his career kicked off in 2000, he has been consistently among the loudest voices on how America’s officially designated enemy states should be dealt with, be that China, Iran, Venezuela, or otherwise. Threats of sanctions, coups, and military intervention are almost a daily staple of his political oratory.

A close friend of Benjamin Netanyahu, in 2019, Rubio cosponsored a Senate resolution condemning UN Security Council resolutions designating Jewish settlement expansion in occupied Palestine as a violation of international law. He has referred to Israel’s mass murder in Gaza since October 7, 2023, as legitimate self-defense, claimed Hamas is “100% to blame” for any civilian casualties inflicted by the horrific onslaught, and ominously declared Palestinian resistance must be “eradicated,” as Tel Aviv cannot coexist “with these savages.”……………………………………………………………………………………….

The pro-Israel credentials of Senator Marco Rubio and Representative Michael Waltz are unquestionable. Yet their fervor for supporting Israel’s controversial policies pales in comparison to some of President-elect Donald Trump’s other nominees. Take Mike Huckabee, the ultraconservative former Arkansas governor and twice-failed presidential candidate, now tapped to serve as U.S. ambassador to Israel. Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist pastor, wasted no time declaring his intentions. He vowed to publicly refer to Israel in biblical terms, calling it the “Promised Land,” and proclaimed that Jews hold a “rightful deed” to Palestinian territory………………………

Hegseth, a contender for Defense Secretary, has made his allegiances to Israel unmistakably clear. He has described Israel’s settler population as “God’s chosen people.” He has openly advocated for transforming Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque into a Jewish-only recreation of the historic Temple Mount, framing such an act as a “miracle.” At a 2018 National Council of Young Israel gala in New York City, Hegseth left no room for ambiguity:

Zionism and Americanism are the front lines of Western civilization and freedom in our world today.”………………………………………………………………………………………. more https://www.mintpressnews.com/trumps-pro-israel-dream-team-patel-nomination-caps-hawkish-cabinet/288783/

December 9, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | Leave a comment

NRC Finds Apparent Security Violations at Pilgrim

‘Escalated enforcement action’ may be needed to protect spent fuel storage area

By Christine Legere Dec 4, 2024, https://provincetownindependent.org/featured/2024/12/04/nrc-finds-apparent-security-violations-at-pilgrim/?fbclid=IwY2xjawG_bYNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHRMjawO4ghOC07jcvzHdYK-Z08vbUu96Mv-XIptTK2WiXfSaQprWaAR6YA_aem_WZtXDCevpDJCECdblhfnww

PLYMOUTH — Inspectors from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) have found apparent violations in the security measures being used to protect the spent fuel storage area on the grounds of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station.

The problems were found in early November, according to a Nov. 26 letter to Holtec International, which now owns the plant, from Paul Krohn, the director of the NRC’s Radiological Safety and Security Division. That notification letter is publicly available, but details of the violations are not, because the infractions relate to security, according to the letter.

The inspection examined activities related to Holtec’s physical security plan for the area where radioactive spent fuel rods used during Pilgrim’s five decades of operation are stored in mammoth steel and concrete casks. The inspectors looked at procedures and records, conducted interviews with personnel, and observed security activities.

Based on the results of that inspection, “escalated enforcement action” is being considered, the letter says.

Holtec was given 10 days from Nov. 26 to notify the federal agency of its acceptance of the violation finding or to provide a written response contesting the report. The company could also request a pre-enforcement conference within the 10 days. If the NRC does not hear from Holtec by the deadline, the agency “will proceed with its enforcement decision,” the letter says.

NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan told the Independent by email on Dec. 3 that Holtec had not yet responded. Holtec spokesman Patrick O’Brien said in an email that because the matter is security related he could not comment other than to say, “Our focus remains on a safe and secure decommissioning of Pilgrim Station.”

Detection Limits

The day before the letter was sent, at a meeting of the Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel, two scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution gave updates on their assessments as to where the station’s contaminated wastewater would likely flow if it were to be released into Cape Cod Bay.

Holtec is looking to release the wastewater into the bay after filtering it to reduce contaminants including some of the radioactive isotopes it contains.

Initially, Holtec sought to release 1.1 million gallons of radioactive water. That quantity is now down to about 916,500 gallons because some of it has already been released as evaporation, thanks to heaters Holtec is running during the cold months at the former plant. In spite of public criticism of the release by evaporation, those heaters are now running again, according to Dave Noyes, senior compliance manager for Holtec Decommissioning International.

The state Dept. of Environmental Protection has denied the company an amendment to its water discharge permit required to release the water, saying the state Ocean Sanctuaries Act prohibits it.

Holtec has appealed that decision.

At the November NDCAP meeting, Irina Rypina, a physical oceanographer at WHOI, said her models of the currents in the bay, which factor in the seasons, tides, and wind directions, showed the wastewater has a very high probability of flowing toward Provincetown and then hugging the coastline, affecting Wellfleet on both the bay and ocean sides and Dennis inside the bay.

Based on her study, the wastewater would reach Provincetown within a week of its release and would reach the rest of the bay in three weeks.

“We’re talking about putting radioactive material into the ocean,” said Ken Buesseler, a WHOI marine radiochemist. “I can’t do that from a research vessel, and you could not put this material on a ship and take it to the middle of the ocean and release it. It’s not allowed.”

RADIOACTIVITY

NRC Finds Apparent Security Violations at Pilgrim

‘Escalated enforcement action’ may be needed to protect spent fuel storage area

By Christine Legere Dec 4, 2024

Based on the results of that inspection, “escalated enforcement action” is being considered, the letter says.

Detection Limits

Holtec is looking to release the wastewater into the bay after filtering it to reduce contaminants including some of the radioactive isotopes it contains.

The state Dept. of Environmental Protection has denied the company an amendment to its water discharge permit required to release the water, saying the state Ocean Sanctuaries Act prohibits it.

Holtec has appealed that decision.

Based on her study, the wastewater would reach Provincetown within a week of its release and would reach the rest of the bay in three weeks.

The wastewater has not yet been treated to filter out contamination. Test samples drawn and analyzed by both Holtec and the state Dept. of Public Health in May 2023 showed the presence of five radioactive isotopes above detection limits: manganese 54, cobalt 60, zinc 65, cesium 137, and tritium.

The results showed those isotopes in “very high numbers relative to the ocean,” Buesseler said. The level of manganese was two million times higher than what naturally occurs in the ocean’s sediment.

Noyes said the company monitors contamination in the sediment, shellfish, finfish, and other marine life.

Buesseler responded that he was not aware of that specific monitoring program but “what I saw were pretty high detection limits, so a ‘no detect’ doesn’t tell me anything as a scientist.”

The dose to humans and sea life will depend on the treatment system used to clean up the wastewater, Buesseler said. He said he thought the dose would likely be low after the water is treated. “You will be able to swim and be able to boat in Cape Cod Bay,” he said. “I never said Cape Cod Bay will be destroyed.” But he said there were better options for dealing with the wastewater than releasing it into the bay.

“Tritium is difficult to get out of water, but if you just cleaned up things that were more harmful, you would be left with water that’s largely tritium, which you could hold for its decay,” said Buesseler.

The plant’s radioactive spent fuel assemblies are now stored in 62 casks on the Pilgrim plant property. “We’re talking about a site where they will have to maintain high-level waste for decades, centuries, and beyond, until we have permanent waste disposal for commercial reactors,” the radiochemist said. If the wastewater were to be treated and then stored on the site, the tritium level would go down to 6 percent in 48 years.

“In 60 years, less than 3 percent would be left,” he said.

December 7, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

The LA Times Makes the Case for Shutting the Diablo Canyon Nukes

Harvey Wasserman, 4 Dec 24 https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/12/03/the-latimes-makes-the-case-for-shutting-the-diablo-canyon-nukes/?fbclid=IwY2xjawG8YRJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHSQ9odEebiUpHvQEucI8G6sh43u-Rh8KUrx7a82De1V7jLHnoraX19z0Dw_aem_NVnlx2KzztXtkLu2amu4_w

In a landmark front page feature, the Los Angeles Times has made a powerful argument for shutting California’s last two atomic reactors.

The forty-year-old Diablo Canyon nukes are being subsidized by statewide ratepayers to the tune of nearly $12 billion in over-market charges slated to enrich Pacific Gas & Electric through 2030. PG&E’s CEO, Patti Poppe, was paid more than $40 million in 2022. The company has been convicted of more than 90 federal manslaughter charges stemming from fatal fires in San Bruno in 2010, and in northern California in 2017

Taking up a quarter of the Times’s November 25 cover, the feature by Melody Peterson reports that a “glut” of solar-generated electricity is regularly shipped out of state at enormous losses to California rate payers. Green energy capable of powering more than a half-million homes is regularly “curtailed.”

But the cost of generating that electricity with solar panels is a fraction of Diablo Canyon’s hyper-expensive “base load power”, which is currently jamming and jeopardizing the California grid.

During most afternoons, photovoltaic cells in the Central Valley regularly produce electricity “too cheap to meter” (wind turbines in west Texas regularly do the same).

As it pours into the grid, the cheap solar juice is often used to charge industrial-scale batteries that power the state into the evening hours after sunset.

During part of virtually every day now, California’s entire electric supply comes from solar, wind and geothermal sources, at far less cost than what comes from Diablo Canyon. Atomic reactors are shut on average 9% of every year.

A landmark plan to phase-out Diablo Canyon by 2024 and 2025 was signed in 2018 by then-Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom. Compiled through two-years of intense top-level dialog, involving scores of public hearings and countless hours of research, the plan was signed by then-Governor Jerry Brown. It was endorsed by the state legislature and regulatory agencies, neighboring local governments, the plant’s labor unions, a wide range of public safety and environmental groups, leading ratepayer organizations and PG&E itself.

The Diablo phase-out relied on the projected ability of renewable sources and battery back-ups to replace the reactors’ output. As indicated by the LATimes’s cover piece and more, rapid advances in solar, wind, geothermal and battery technologies have far exceeded expectations for replacing Diablo’s base-load output. They’ve also plummeted far below current nuclear price levels…as well as those projected for future Small Modular Reactors in the unlikely event any should come on line within the next decade.

Battery technologies in particular have hugely advanced, all but eliminating the “periodicity” that comes when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow. The industry has been largely dominated by lithium ion technology, which has gotten a huge boost from two major finds in California. But Vanadium, iron air and sodium technologies are also booming toward much cheaper, cleaner and more powerful storage systems that are rapidly accelerating the green-powered paradigm, especially when it comes to the large solid state units that will dominate non-vehicular uses in homes, business and factory settings.

This increasing renewable-based flexibility is accelerating the ability of grid operators synchronize supply with fluctuating demand. By contrast, nuclear power’s rigid base-load mode blocks cheaper renewables off the grid, forcing some to be shipped out of state.

California’s backup battery capability—, much of it decentralized and privately owned—has at least twice saved the state from impending blackouts. The Golden State’s battery-based reserves—-still rapidly expanding—-now exceed Diablo’s maximum output by more than 400%.

But in April, 2022, Newsom shredded the nuclear phase-out plan he signed four years earlier. Allowing no public hearings, Newsom strong-armed the legislature into a widely resented 11th hour rubber stamp.

Newsom’s hand-picked Public Utilities Commission then trashed California’s well-established “Net Metering” system that initially helped foster some two million rooftop solar installations. The moves cost the state more than 17,000 of its 70,000 solar installer jobs (about 1500 workers are employed at Diablo Canyon).

Newsom’s pro-nuclear package gifted a “forgivable” $1.4 billion loan to PG&E. Running the two reactors through 2030 could cost the public $11+ billion in over market billings, a gargantuan hand-out to the state’s biggest private utility. Even consumers who get zero power from Diablo are expected to pay.

Thus it’s no surprise that California suffers the US’s second-highest electric rates (behind only Hawaii, which gets much of its electricity from burning oil…but is rapidly now shifting to renewables).

Newsom has issued an executive order to “research” why our electric rates are so high. But as shown by the LATimes’s cover story (entitled “Solar Power Glut Boosts California Electric Bills. Other States Reap Benefit,” by Melody Peterson) much of California’s solar electricity can’t get access to a grid jammed by a rigid, hyper-expensive nuclear base load.

Diablo now faces federal licensing challenges. Like all commercial US reactors, it has no private liability insurance to compensate the public for catastrophic accidents. Shown to be dangerously embrittled in 2002, Unit One has not been tested since. Some 45 miles from the San Andreas, Diablo is surrounded by a dozen known earthquake faults whose impacts a long-time NRC site inspector (among others) says the plant can’t withstand.

Diablo pours radioactive carbon 14 into the atmosphere along with other greenhouse gasses emitted during the mining, milling and fabrication of its fuel rods. Thousands of tons of radioactive waste sit on site in cracked dry casks with nowhere else to go. .

Diablo’s twin cores operate around 560 degrees Fahrenheit, heating Avila Bay and the Earth in violation of state and federal law.. They kill countless marine creatures with thermal, chemical and radioactive emissions.

Despite their huge economic costs, devastating jobs impacts, and bitter public opposition, Newsom has opted to keep Diablo running.

Without a hint of irony, the LATimes’s latest attack blames the “glut” of green power on the success of renewables.

But it underscores (without ever mentioning Diablo) that Newsom’s $11+ billion “nuclear base-load tax” could be avoided by letting the PV industry fill the grid with its far cheaper power.

The Times also confirms that nothing terrifies the fossil/nuclear industry and its monopoly utilities more than the prospect of a global energy economy run on renewable power produced by rooftop solar, delivered through public-owned green grids and decentralized micro-grids, all backed up by a new generation of advanced batteries.

With the Olympics coming to Los Angeles in 2028, the Games could be totally powered by covering the state’s available rooftops with cheap, reliable, battery-backed solar cells.

The epic drop in electric rates and rise in employment and economic well-being could win the Earth’s ultimate, life-sustaining gold medal.

It would also make great copy for yet another LATimes cover story…this one celebrating rather than denigrating the astonishing success of the Golden State’s sustainable energy industries.

December 6, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | ENERGY, USA | Leave a comment

Why NuScale Power Stock Slumped Today

By Rich Smith – Dec 2, 2024
https://www.fool.com/investing/2024/12/02/why-nuscale-power-stock-slumped-today/

Key Points

GE Vernova is much bigger, with much more cash, and already profitable.

CNBC reported on GE Vernova’s ambitions to dominate the building of small modular reactors.

NuScale Power is a pioneer in this industry, but its business is small and unprofitable.

Will GE Vernova crush NuScale’s nuclear dreams?

NuScale Power Corporation (SMR -0.08%) stock fell 3% through 11:25 a.m. ET — and it has General Electric to blame for it.

NuScale develops small modular nuclear reactors designed to be cheaper and faster to build than traditional nuclear power plants. And as it’s fond of pointing out, NuScale is “the first and only SMR to have its design certified by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.” But leaders aren’t necessarily winners, and as CNBC reports this morning, NuScale faces serious competition from a much bigger nuclear player, GE Vernova (GEV 3.56%), the former energy arm of General Electric.

GE Vernova’s threat to NuScale

NuScale and GE Vernova both aim to develop small modular reactors, but “small” is a relative term. If a standard nuclear power plant produces 1,000 megawatts of electricity, Vernova’s BWRX-300 reactor aims to cut that output to 300 megawatts (which is still substantial, enough to power a small city of 200,000 homes), while NuScale’s Voygr reactor goes even smaller with a 77-megawatt output.

In other respects, the two companies are more direct competitors. Both Vernova and NuScale advertise their ability to deploy multiple modules of their basic SMR in a single location, to amp up total power production capacity.

Both target a global market, with GE Vernova “aiming to deploy small nuclear reactors across the developed world over the next decade,” according to CNBC.

Is NuScale Power stock a sell?

What really sets the two companies apart, though, is their financial capacity to deliver on their promises. While valued at $3 billion in market cap, NuScale boasts less than $10 million in annual revenue and is losing $80 million a year. Analysts don’t expect the company to turn profitable before 2030 at the earliest.

GE Vernova is a $92 billion behemoth earning more than $1.2 billion a year and growing its profits at 40% a year. Just the cash alone on Vernova’s balance sheet is worth twice the price of NuScale’s stock. In any direct contest, I know which stock I’d bet on to win — and unfortunately, it’s not NuScale.,

December 5, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, USA | Leave a comment

The First Seven Billionaires Trump Has Tapped for Top Jobs

Out of America’s 800 billionaires, president-elect Trump has so far plucked seven for top spots in his administration.

by Sarah Anderson, December 03, 2024, https://inequality.org/great-divide/billionaires-trump-has-tapped-for-top-jobs/

President-elect Donald Trump has selected an unprecedented total of seven reported billionaires for senior positions in his administration. Including himself, that makes eight.

This figure could continue to grow as Trump fully staffs up. After all, he has nearly 800 additional U.S. billionaires to choose from.

Here’s a quick rundown of the “original seven” members of the nine-figure club on Trump’s employee wish list:

Elon Musk

Position: Co-leader of a new Department of Government Efficiency, a presidential advisory commission tasked with slashing spending and regulations
Estimated net worth: $330 billion
Source of wealth: SpaceX, Tesla, and other businesses
2024 campaign donations: $200 million

Warren Stephens

Position: Ambassador to the UK
Estimated net worth: $3.4 billion
Source of wealth: CEO of private Arkansas-based investment bank Stephens Inc.
2024 campaign donations: $22.7 million (includes $2 million-plus for Nikki Haley’s failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination)

Linda McMahon

tion: Education Secretary
Estimated net worth: $2.5 billion (with her husband, Vince McMahon)
Source of wealth: World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)
2024 campaign donations: $24 million

Howard Lutnick

Position: Commerce Secretary
Estimated net worth: $2 billion
Source of wealth: majority ownership of investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald
2024 campaign donations: $13.1 million in PAC donations and also hosted a $15 million fundraising event at his home in the Hamptons

Vivek Ramaswamy

Position: Co-leader of the planned Department of Government Efficiency
Estimated net worth: $1.1 billion
Source of wealth: founder of pharmaceutical firm Roivant Sciences
2024 campaign donations: $25,000 (He’d just blown $30.7 million of his own funds on his failed presidential bid.

Doug Burgum

Position: Secretary of the Interior
Estimated net worth: undisclosed. Several media have identified him as a billionaire, while Forbes analysts say he’s worth “at least” $100 million and likely much more if you consider trusts for his adult children
Source of wealth: sold Great Plains Software, which creates accounting packages for small and medium-size businesses, for $1.1 billion in Microsoft stock in 2001
2024 campaign donations: $8,000 (He’d spent $13.9 million of his own funds on his failed presidential bid. This includes the cost of giving $20 gift cards to more than 40,000 donors who gave his campaign at least $1. That expensive but crafty maneuver succeeded in drumming up enough donors to qualify for participation in the presidential debate)

Scott Bessent

Position: Treasury Secretary
Estimated net worth: undisclosed
Source of wealth: Wall Street investments, including as founder of hedge fund Key Square Group
2024 campaign donations: $3.2 million

December 5, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | Leave a comment

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