EPA Discovers Water Flows Downhill

Only the Obama administration, with it’s special kind of incompetence, could turn a mine that’s been closed for 92 years into an environmental disaster today. That’s exactly what happened when the Keystone Regulators at the Environmental “Protection” Agency decided to dig into a dam holding back dangerously polluted water at the Gold King mine.

According to the incomparable Paul Driessen, rather than sink a small diameter pipe into the dam to analyze the water, the EPA “…used an excavator to dig away tons of rock and debris that were blocking the entrance portal.”

That’s like using a badger to do exploratory surgery.

Only the EPA was surprised when 3 million gallons of water, yearning to breathe free, burst from the dam and cascaded 11,458 feet down the mountainside. EPA environmental “protectors” learned firsthand that toxic water filled with heavy metals like lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic flows just as fast as Perrier water and soon the orange flood was far downstream.

To put things in perspective for readers who don’t have much experience with toxic metals or the EPA, a spill of approximately a thermometer’s worth of mercury in a Washington, DC high school resulted in hysteria, immediate evacuation and a school closure that lasted a month.

The water from the EPA’s dump down the mountain, according to Driessen, “is enough to fill a pool the size of a football field (360×160 feet) seven feet deep.” The pollution plume extended from the shattered dam into the Animas and San Juan Rivers and finally washed up in Utah’s Lake Powell.

Residents in the valley, whose river now looked like Rachel Dolezal after her monthly dose of Man Tan, were outraged. First by the spill and then by the 24 hours it took the EPA to notify victims of the scope of the disaster.

Hypocrisy fans will be interested in comparing Obama’s reaction to this environmental accident to that of BP’s Gulf oil spill. After the Deepwater Horizon explosion the president wanted to “know whose ass to kick.” But so far he hasn’t even brandished his putter in the direction of the EPA.

Later when BP CEO Tony Hayward correctly observed that the gulf was “a big ocean” and “the environmental impact of this disaster is likely to be very, very modest,” Obama was outraged. He declared, “[Hayward] wouldn’t be working for me after any of those statements.” Yet when EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy condescendingly explained the EPA was “very careful,” and the mercury and other poisons “are flowing too fast to be an immediate health threat” — Obama didn’t even pause while lining up his putt.

What’s more, pollution caused by private sector chemical releases is uniquely dangerous. EPA regulations embody a concept known as “linear no threshold” that in layman’s terms means there is no safe level of exposure for humans to lead, cadmium and arsenic, three of the multi–metal cocktail in the Gold King spill. But when the EPA dumps identical substances into the river, McCarthy assures us the water is “restoring itself.”

It’s not quite water into wine, but remains a miraculous transformation nonetheless.

Enviro fanatics and other greenies are circling the Prius’ around EPA headquarters to defend the agency. And I haven’t seen so much as a dead minnow floating on the water in mainstream media coverage of the event.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper visited the Animas River last week on a fact–finding mission and drank several glasses of river water. He then started ripping off his clothes to jump in for a bath, before he was wrestled to the ground.

(The governor actually had a good idea. I’ve long contended the majority of rivers in the US could have been cleaned without EPA regulations and bureaucracy if once a quarter the chairman of the board, president and CEO of every company discharging into a river was required to drink a pitcher of water collected downstream from their plant. After the first handful of cancer deaths the river would have been clean enough for Hickenlooper to bathe in courtesy of motivated members of the private sector.)

For the Navajo Nation located downstream from the EPA disaster, it’s just another example of White Eyes perfidy. The Washington Times reports Russell Begaye discovered the tanker trucks the EPA hired to deliver “water for livestock and crops arrived in dirty oil tanks.”

At first glance this appears to be just another instance of EPA incompetence, but when you recall there are plenty more mines upslope from the Navajos and the EPA is still “protecting” and inspecting, the dirty tanks could be a thoughtful effort on McCarthy’s part to help the Indians build up a tolerance for toxics so the next spill won’t be so dangerous.

The VA Declares War on Veterans

Combat veterans are learning the hard way they may cheat death on the battlefield only to find the Grim Reaper saving a seat for them in the Veterans Administration health care queue.

AP found an internal VA report “indicating that nearly one–third of veterans with pending applications for VA health care likely have already died.” It’s difficult to get an exact count for two reasons. Many times the dead so closely resemble living VA employees it’s hard to distinguish between the merely somnolent federal timeserver and the veteran that’s answered his last reveille.

And VA bureaucrats complain it’s hard to know if the vets were really “seeking VA health care or had merely indicated interest in signing up.” Sort of like those affluent mothers who put Chauncey on the waiting list for the best private schools and begin the nanny import paperwork while he’s still just a zygote in the surrogate mother’s womb.

Of course with the VA, it’s probably a good idea to get on the waiting list the day you graduate from boot camp.

The rest of this VA carnival of indifference can be found in my Newsmax column by clicking this link:

http://www.newsmax.com/MichaelShannon/VA-Scandal/2015/07/30/id/659647/

Meet Mom & Dad the Libido Extinguishers

Dad asks, “Who’s your new friend, Sonny?”

Displaying that tone of pretentious concern that its made famous, the New York Times writes that as of 2014 the US birthrate has declined for the sixth consecutive year. One would think the Times, of all papers, would be overjoyed by this development since the decline means a reduction in number of little carbon producers in the future.

Although it’s too late for Cecil the Lion, maybe polar bears will have a fighting chance.

The decline is also counterintuitive “because the number of women in their prime childbearing years, 20 to 39, has been growing since 2007.”

This means the drop in absolute numbers is cushioned due to the larger population of potential mothers. “The National Center for Health Statistics reported Thursday that there were 3.93 million births in the United States in 2013, down slightly from 3.95 million in 2012, but 9 percent below the high in 2007.

Some think this could be a problem in the Boomer’s golden years, when there’s no one around to push the wheelchair even at a $15/hr. minimum wage. Demographer Andrew J. Cherlin assures us, “Americans haven’t worried much about birthrates in the past, because we have the faucet of immigration to turn on and off.” Actually, that’s not true. Every high school kid that’s got it on in the back seat has worried the next morning about birthrates. But for the nation as a whole, Cherlin says we can decide whether we want to become Mexico slowly or rápido.

There is even hope for reinforcements from the hard–boiled egg crowd. The report found an increase of 14 percent in births for women ages 45 – 49, which explains the little guys in the maternity ward that appear to need a shave.

The Times blames the economy for the baby bust, but I blame mom and dad.

The Daily Mail has found “One in three young adults is still living at home with their parents, despite years of economic recovery which have seen more of them bag jobs and bigger pay packets.” And many of them are still leaving their dirty clothes in a pile on the floor.

If that’s not birth dearth cause and effect I don’t know what is.

“Young adults” is defined as the 18 to 34 age group. At the low end you’ve got college students and recent high school grads. It makes sense for them to still be at home. After age 24 though, it’s time to hit the road. One of the few things Obamacare doesn’t require is the kids still be at home to be covered by dad’s policy.

The lack of little bundles of joy prove there are real trade–offs for getting a bundle of laundry done for free. Walking a date of either sex in the front door and seeing pops in bathrobe and slippers watching Duck Dynasty is a rapid romance reducer. Once the introductions are over so is any hope of extra–curricular activity.

A logical solution would be to use dad’s bathrobe as motivation to find someone, fall in love and get your own place out from under the ‘rents prying eyes and ears. But for this generation a tattoo is the only permanent commitment they will ever make.

Explaining the parent’s lassitude is easy enough. If they were okay with everyone getting a trophy on the soccer team, they are probably still okay with junior in the basement.

Eagle–eyed Elizabeth Harrington, of the Washington Free Beacon, spotted a National Science Foundation program that may fill the breach where births have not. Taxpayers are spending $1.2 million on a project to design robots to dress the elderly who don’t have a descendent at home.

The grant explains, “Physical disabilities due to illness, injury, or aging can result in people having difficulty dressing themselves, and the healthcare community has found that dressing is an important task for independent living.”

It goes without saying that if you leave the house naked your days of “independent living” will be drawing to a close. Still the algorithm for coping with “passive–aggressive” oldsters will be an interesting programming challenge. I’d pay money to watch a robot dress my mother while she still has a burning cigarette clutched in her hand.

The grant also has the usual blather about “fruitful collaborations (sic) between robots and humans” and a “simulation that can mix and match numerous outfit combinations.” Maybe if the robots were dressing hipsters and Millennials, but my mother still uses a dial telephone made by Western Electric.

My suggestion is a dual programming effort to solve both problems. A simple switch on the robot for either dress granny or kick junior in the behind and get him out of the house.

Why Do Democrat Big Spenders Fear for the Future in Maryland?

Republican Larry Hogan was elected governor on a pledge to cut taxes, cut red tape and reduce spending. Hogan never held office before, but Maryland voters were evidently weary of the experienced spenders they had.

Voters are reaping the dividends of the upset. Hogan cut charges on every toll road in the state. The cash fee for crossing the Bay Bridge dropped from $6 to $4 and the E–ZPass charge was cut almost in half, to $2.50.

It’s the first time in 50 years tolls have been lowered.

Naturally Democrats are panicked. Voters could get used to paying less money to the state taxman. Then they might start voting for Republicans and Democrats would have to find honest work.

Complete details on this Maryland breakthrough in my Newsmax column, but I warn you the news is not all good…

http://www.newsmax.com/MichaelShannon/Barack-Obama/2015/07/10/id/654444/