Entire U.S. Stockpile of VX Nerve Agent Eliminated
BLUE GRASS ARMY DEPOT, Ky. – The last M55 rocket containing VX nerve agent was destroyed at the Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant (BGCAPP) April 19.
“We are celebrating two milestones today,” said Dr. Candace Coyle, BGCAPP site project manager. “First, the entire U.S. stockpile of VX nerve agent is now completely destroyed. Next, this marks the completion of the fourth of five chemical weapons destruction campaigns in Kentucky. The lessons learned will be applied to the last campaign of GB rockets to safely eliminate the remaining U.S. chemical weapons stockpile by 2023.”
The stockpile sites in Colorado and Kentucky account for the last 10% of what was originally a national stockpile of more than 30,000 tons of chemical weapons. The U.S. Army Chemical Materials Activity destroyed the initial 90%, which was stored at seven other sites across the U.S. and on Johnston Atoll in the Pacific. Chemical weapons destruction in Colorado began in 2015. Both sites are on target to complete destruction of chemical weapons by the Chemical Weapons Convention treaty commitment of Sept. 30, 2023, and before the congressional deadline of Dec. 31, 2023.
Ed: Great news. Now let’s destroy nuclear weapons. It’s them or us.
Russian Forces Keep Up Pressure On Eastern Ukraine As Kyiv Offers To Hold Talks In Mariupol
Russian troops continued their all-out offensive in eastern Ukraine as Kyiv proposed to hold a “special round” of negotiations in the besieged port city of Mariupol after an ultimatum issued by Russia for the surrender of the last troops still resisting in the city expired on April 20.
A British military update on April 21 said that Russian forces are advancing from staging areas in the Donbas toward the city of Kramatorsk, which continues to be hit by rocket fire.
“High levels of Russian air activity continue as it seeks to provide close air support to its offensive in eastern Ukraine, and to suppress and destroy Ukrainian air defense capabilities,” Britain’s Ministry of Defense tweeted in a regular bulletin.
Chief Ukrainian negotiator and presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said the Ukrainian side is ready to hold the talks without conditions.
“The fundamental political question is why do people obey a government. The answer is that they tend to enslave themselves, to let themselves be governed by tyrants. Freedom from servitude comes not from violent action, but from the refusal to serve. Tyrants fall when the people withdraw their support.”—Étienne De La Boétie, The Politics Of Obedience
US Preparing New Military Aid for Ukraine
U.S. President Joe Biden is due to speak Thursday about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including U.S. aid for Kyiv as his administration prepares another round of security assistance that is expected to total about $800 million.
The United States announced a similarly sized package last week, and the new aid is expected to include more artillery and tens of thousands more artillery rounds, which will likely be critical to the fighting in the eastern Donbas region.
“Out of the $3.5 billion in drawdown authority Congress granted for this fiscal year, we have used over $2.4 billion to provide Ukraine the military equipment and capabilities they need to defend themselves,” a senior administration official told VOA. “We are continuing to look at additional security assistance we can provide to Ukraine, and there are additional authorities we can draw on if needed.”
The $3.5 billion is part of the $13.6 billion Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act Congress approved in March.
Ed: Ok, now how about a $3.5 Bn appropriation to end houselessnes here in the US?
“The fundamental political question is why do people obey a government. The answer is that they tend to enslave themselves, to let themselves be governed by tyrants. Freedom from servitude comes not from violent action, but from the refusal to serve. Tyrants fall when the people withdraw their support.”—Étienne De La Boétie, The Politics Of Obedience
UK Court Order Moves Julian Assange Closer To US ExtraditioUK Court Order Moves Julian Assange Closer To US Extradition
With Assange supporters gathered outside, the Westminster Magistrates’ court in London formally issued an order on Wednesday to extradite the Australian to the US to face spying charges for publishing a trove of classified information more than 10 years ago.
The order will now go to UK’s Home Secretary Priti Patel, who will decide whether to approve the extradition.
While the move brings Assange closer to facing the US charges, his legal options have not yet been exhausted. His lawyers have four weeks to make submissions to Patel. If she approves the extradition, Assange can also try to challenge the decision by judicial review, in which a judge will examine the legitimacy of a public body’s decision.
US prosecutors allege Assange unlawfully helped US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal classified diplomatic cables and military files that WikiLeaks later published, putting lives at risk. He faces 17 charges of espionage and one charge of computer misuse.
A British district court judge had initially rejected a US extradition request on the grounds that Assange was likely to kill himself if held under harsh US prison conditions. US authorities later provided assurances Assange would not face the severe treatment that his lawyers said would put his physical and mental health at risk.
In December, the High Court overturned the lower court’s decision, saying that the US promises were enough to guarantee Assange would be treated humanely. {Yeah, right. When has the US ever lied?}
Assange’s lawyers say he could face up to 175 years in jail if he is convicted in the US, although authorities have said the sentence was likely to be much lower than that. {So, ok. Maybe on/y a 100 years then?}
Wet’suwet’en protesters face surveillance and harassment on Indigenous lands
Traditional leaders and organizers of the Wet’suwet’en {Wet-SO-eh ten} movement against Coastal GasLink have pointed out constant police incursions since March and heavy surveillance of protest sites
As the Indigenous anti-pipeline resistance against the Coastal GasLink (CGL) continues in the Wet’suwet’en lands in Canada, the police have been intimidating the protesters and residents of the land and conducting surveillance. On Monday, April 18, the Royal Mounted Canadian Police (RCMP) arrested and later released a supporter of the Wet’suwet’en cause over mistaken identification.
According to the Gidimt’en {GIH-dim-den} Checkpoint, a group of Gidimt’en clan members of the Wet’suwet’en organizing the resistance, the arrest is an outcome of more than a month of intimidation and harassment by the police. “This tax-payer funded harassment and intimidation is an explicit attempt to make Wet’suwet’en people unsafe on our own lands,” the group said in a statement.
Gidimt’enCheckpoint stated that since March, the RCMP has been making nearly daily visits to village sites in the lands. The group claims that the federal police force made over 100 visits to residences and congregations in the Indigenous lands. The RCMP visits are made anywhere between four to eight times a day to intimidate and harass leaders, activists and supporters, said Gidimt’en Checkpoint.
Protesters have claimed that the lands have been under surveillance round the clock, since January, when protesters had to make a strategic retreat from a major occupation near Camp Coyote on the pipeline’s drill site to avoid further arrests and legal harassment.
The concerns of widespread state surveillance were only vindicated further when a recent report published on APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network) on April 8 revealed that federal officials have been keeping an eye on possible coalition building among Wet’suwet’en activists and Mohawk groups protesting against logging in Fairy Creek in Vancouver.
The RCMP has in the past employed heavy-handed tactics to break apart sit-ins and demonstrations near the CGL pipeline drillsite. According to reports, the RCMP spent close to CAD 943,234 (over USD 750,000) between November 1 and December 23, 2021, at the height of violent confrontations with Indigenous protesters.
The Gap Between What’s Offered By Our Social Safety Net And What’s Received The People Most in Need Often Don’t Receive Public Benefits
How much support do people actually receive from the social safety net? That’s the question that a recently released report from the University of Southern California’s Price Center for Social Innovation aimed to answer. The report, titled “Examining the Complex Social Safety Net for Low-Income Working Families,” explored what social programs are available to Los Angeles residents and how the support they receive from those programs varies as their wages increase.
One key finding from the report was promising: If a mother with two children received all the benefits her family was eligible for, she would receive a living wage of $66,982 per year — enough to meet the basic needs of her family, based on the regional cost of living. In other words, the safety net would be operating in the way it should, ensuring those who fall on hard times have the support they need.
However, as the report also makes clear, what the safety net promises and what it delivers are vastly different. While a family may be eligible for comprehensive benefits, what they receive in practice is typically far less. CalWORKs, California’s primary cash welfare program, is received by just 60% of the eligible population, and Section 8 housing vouchers are only available to a small percentage of families who qualify (as low as 17% in parts of the state) due to the limited number of available slots. Without those two programs, the total value of benefits received by a Los Angeles-based mother with two children with no earned income drops from around $70,000 down to $15,900 — less than one quarter of a living wage.
As a result of these gaps, along with a high cost of living, California has the highest poverty rate of any state in the country. And it’s not just California — benefits enrollment rates are often as low or lower in other parts of the country. Just 1 in 4 eligible households has been able to access rental assistance nationally, and, as of 2016, less than a quarter of eligible families received Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the national equivalent of CalWORKs.
Social programs don’t always reach the people for whom they are intended. This dynamic needs to change. The first step requires an understanding of why people aren’t accessing the support they need. The answer lies in all the ways our system blocks eligible families from gaining access. Here’s a rundown of the most common impediments:
- Limited Availability
- Overwhelming Bureaucracy
- Complicated and Confusing Eligibility Rules
- Language and Technology Barriers
- Lack of Accurate Program Information
- Stigma
The good news? A growing number of people and organizations inside and outside of government have begun to recognize this problem — and started working on solutions.
Changing our benefits systems is a complex challenge, but we have an important opportunity right now to develop a shared understanding of the problems and build momentum towards comprehensive solutions for a social safety net that actually provides vital benefits for the people most in need.
Parting Shot
“If you don’t know the guy on the other side of the world, love him anyway because he’s just like you. He has the same dreams, the same hopes and fears. It’s one world, pal. We’re all neighbors.” – Frank Sinatra