Geen evolutie en ecolutie zonder revolutie!

Albert Einstein:

Twee dingen zijn oneindig: het universum en de menselijke domheid. Maar van het universum ben ik niet zeker.

woensdag 13 februari 2019

Venezolaanse verandering van regime bekokstoofd door VS en massamedia

Nadat Maduro vorig jaar de verkiezingen in Venezuela won, zette de VS de volgende stap in haar wil tot verandering van regime, men schoof Guaidó naar voren als de gewenste kandidaat voor de Trump administratie, Guaidó, een man die daarvoor bij minder dan 20% van de Venezolaanse bevolking bekend was..........

Alsof de VS voor het eerst van Maduro had gehoord, begon een nog veel grotere lastercampagne tegen Maduro, die men daarna afschilderde als een paranoïde tiran, alsof men hier van doen had met de kroonprins van Saoedi-Arabië, Mohammad bin Salman (MBS), de smerige schoft die o.a. de genocide in Jemen op zijn naam heeft staan (een genocide die nog steeds wordt voortgezet), voorts is hij verantwoordelijk voor de gruwelijke moord op Khashoggi, eerder een trouwe perslakei van het Saoedische terreurbewind........

Mike Pence, de vicepresident van de VS, had het gore lef te zeggen dat Maduro de verkiezingen heeft gemanipuleerd en daarmee het presidentschap won..... Anders gezegd Maduro heeft op misdadige manier het presidentschap gewonnen.......

De reguliere massamedia in de VS (en in de rest van het westen) hebben de opstand en de 'coup', georganiseerd door de VS, van meet af aan gesteund, sterker nog: de economische oorlog die de VS al jaren tegen Venezuela voerde en voert, was nooit onderwerp in die media, nee de gevolgen van die oorlog, het steeds verder in het slop raken van de Venezolaanse economie, werd door deze media volledig aan het bewind in Caracas toegeschreven........ Terwijl al jaren bekend is dat VS supermarkten met winkels in Venezuela onder druk heeft gezet de voorraden niet langer aan te vullen...... Hetzelfde geldt overigens voor de grote VS farmaceuten...... Let wel: dit was al een 'stiekeme economische oorlogsvoering' onder Obama.....

Edward Herman en Noam Chomksky hebben een studie uitgevoerd naar de rol van de reguliere massamedia bij het omverwerpen door de VS van een haar onwelgevallige regeringen. Als eerste 'vonden ze bewijs voor het feit dat deze media niet onafhankelijk zijn en de belangen van de eigenaren behartigen'. (dit was al lang bekend, 'maar goed') Daarmee behartigen deze media tevens de belangen van andere grote bedrijven die hun reclames tonen in die media.... (bovendien steunen die media het inhumane neoliberalisme, al is dat dan weer logisch, gezien het behartigen van de belangen van grote bedrijven door diezelfde media) 

Waar censuur dictaturen in het zadel houdt, maken de reguliere media in feite ook gebruik van (zelf) censuur, door de manier van berichtgeving, waarbij men de belangen behartigt, zoals hiervoor beschreven.... Bij dit alles maakt men gebruik van personeel dat 'op de juiste manier denkt', aldus Chomski en Herman.

Chomski en Herman hebben drie verkiezingen van de 80er jaren van de vorige eeuw in Latijns-Amerika onder de loep genomen: die in Honduras, Guatemala en Nicaragua.

Het sluitstuk zijn de verkiezingen die vorig jaar plaatsvonden in Colombia en Venezuela. Lees hoe de verkiezingen in Colombia werden gestolen met vals spel, terwijl de verkiezingen in Venezuela door internationale waarnemers als goed en eerlijk werden beoordeeld, uiteraard waren er wat onregelmatigheden, maar naar Latijns-Amerikaanse maatstaven waren die te verwaarlozen......

Beste bezoeker, het hieronder opgenomen artikel is het zoveelste bewijs dat we door de reguliere westerse massamedia en de westerse politiek worden voorgelogen over de werkelijke situatie in Venezuela...... Deze media hebben nu al het gore lef om het woord honger te gebruiken in combinatie met Maduro, terwijl een werkelijke genocide, duizenden kilometers verderop nog amper krantenkoppen haalt en mocht dit wel gebeuren worden de feiten zo verdraaid dat het lijkt alsof Iran in gevecht is met de Saoedische terreurcoalitie, terwijl er niet één enkel bewijs is waaruit blijkt dat Iraanse militairen vechten in Jemen........

Terwijl de mensen in Jemen als vliegen sterven, propageren de reguliere media een militair ingrijpen in Venezuela en staat men achter de coup tegen de democratische gekozen president van dat land...... En dan te bedenken dat die reguliere media de bek vol hebben over 'fake news (nepnieuws) en desinformatie', terwijl ze zelf verantwoordelijk zijn voor deze zaken, zaken waarvoor een enorme berg aan bewijs voorhanden is........

How the Media Manufactures Consent for Regime Change in Venezuela

Juan Guaido swore himself in as "interim president" on January 23 (EFE)
Juan Guaido swore himself in as "interim president" on January 23 (EFE)

February 11, 2019 at 10:54 am
Written by Alan Macleod

(VA) — The latest extraordinary chapter in the bizarre world of Venezuelan politics is playing out before our eyes. After winning the 2018 presidential elections, Nicolás Maduro was inaugurated in January, only for the head of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó — a man whom, at the time, less than 20 percent of the country had even heard of — to declare himself President.

Guaidó was immediately backed by the governments of the U.S. and U.K., with Vice President Mike Pence stating, “Nicolás Maduro is a dictator with no legitimate claim to power. He has never won the presidency in a free and fair election, and has maintained his grip of power by imprisoning anyone who dares to oppose him.”

I’ve previously cataloged how the media has been quick to echo the idea that Maduro is completely illegitimate and has been eager to position America’s stance towards Venezuelan politics as one of a neutral arbiter.

Why do mainstream media outlets, who resist Trump at home, neatly align themselves with his administration’s Venezuela policy? And why has there so little criticism of what is essentially an ongoing U.S.-backed coup attempt?

In a recent study, I analyzed how the media presented the 2018 elections in Colombia and Venezuela. Looking at how these two elections were covered can help us understand why there’s so little nuance in the media coverage of U.S.-Venezuela relations.

A seminal study inspires

To study the 2018 elections, I used the propaganda model media scholars Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky outlined in their book Manufacturing Consent. Their propaganda model contends that mainstream, corporate media is not a neutral venue for truth. Instead, it is a vehicle that advances the interests of media owners and their advertisers.

The authors argue that, in contrast to the top-down censorship of authoritarian states, these outlets achieve uniform opinions through the pre-selection of “right-thinking” editors and reporters who have been trained at the “right” schools. They then disseminate information – or, at the very least, self-censor – in a way that protects or advances the ideology of ownership, advertisers and official sources.

Herman and Chomsky highlight this phenomenon through coverage of elections in three countries: Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

The Guatemalan presidential election of 1982 and the Honduran presidential election of 1984 to 1985 were held under what Herman and Chomsky describe as “conditions of severe, ongoing state terror against the civilian population.” They show how the U.S. media ignored the enormous waves of violence inundating these two elections. CBS’ Dan Rather, for example, described the events in Guatemala as “heartening.”

Meanwhile, Herman and Chomsky explain that the 1984 Nicaraguan elections were won by the Marxist sandinistas in a “model of probity and fairness by Latin American standards.” Yet American media coverage portrayed this election with a relentless tone of negativity. Time Magazine reported that the election mood was “one of indifference,” with voters “too apathetic to go to the polls” and that “the outcome was never in doubt,” suggesting a rigged system, while many articles discussed the “fear” of Nicaraguan voters.

Mainstream media coverage, they concluded, manufactured a reality that was conducive to the interests of the U.S. government – which sought to prop up their client states and demonize Nicaragua – and multinational corporations, who were eager to work with sympathetic right-wing governments to increase their foothold in Central America.

Coverage of two elections: A case study

Using this paired example method to test the propaganda model I studied Western media coverage of the 2018 elections in Colombia – a key U.S. ally – and Venezuela, a sworn enemy. In Colombia, the conservative Ivan Duque triumphed; in Venezuela, the socialist Maduro won.

The elections in Colombia took place under a heightened state of terror, with the left-wing candidate Gustavo Petro narrowly surviving an assassination attempt and right-wing paramilitaries issuing generalized threats to those who tried to vote for him. The incumbent conservative party under President Alvaro Uribe had massacred over 10,000 civilians, while American election observers, such as University of Pittsburgh law professor Daniel Kovalik, were mistaken for voters and offered bribes to vote for Duque. There were over 250 official electoral fraud complaints.

The mainstream media, however, overwhelmingly endorsed the elections in the U.S.-ally state, presenting it as a moment of hope for the country and downplaying any negative aspects, especially violence. CNN reported that “though there have been isolated incidents of violence related to the election, they have been minimal.” The Associated Press went further, claiming the real danger facing Colombia was that Petro would push the country “dangerously to the left” while NPR described Alvaro Uribe as “immensely popular,” and failed to mention any connection to the massacres his government had implemented.

In contrast, the mainstream media virtually unanimously presented the simultaneously occurring elections in Venezuela as a travesty, the “coronation of a dictator,” according to The Independent.

Other major outlets described them as “heavily rigged,” “the fortification of a dictatorship” and a “farce cementing autocracy.” The Miami Herald called them “fraudulent,” a “sham,” a “charade” and a “joke” in one column alone.

There were certainly some questionable aspects to the Venezuelan election. However, the idea of a full-blown “sham election” was flatly contradicted by every international election observation organization monitoring the elections, many of whom produced detailed reports attesting to their exemplary organization and implementation. There were a number of prominent international observers monitoring the 2018 elections, including former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Zapatero, who said he “did not have any doubt about the voting process” and the ex-President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, who declared the “impeccably organized” elections proceeded with “absolute normalcy.”

But you would have been hard pressed to find any acknowledgment of this in Western media outlets.

The administration shows its true hand

Instead, since Maduro’s swearing-in, many seem to have been openly championing regime change in the country. One of the few positive things about the Trump administration is that it does not try to conceal its true intentions behind misleading, flowery words. John Bolton, Trump’s National Security Advisor, has openly described Venezuela as a business opportunity.

It will make a big difference to the United States economically if we could have American oil companies really invest in and produce the oil capabilities in Venezuela,” he said.

With clear parallels to the build-up to the Iraq War, he also labeled Venezuela as belonging to a “troika of tyranny” and recently suggested sending Maduro to Guantanamo Bay. The U.K. government has blocked the transfer of Venezuela’s gold out of the Bank of England after it declared Guaidó its legitimate leader. At the same time, the U.S. has ramped up its sanctions on the beleaguered nation, in spite of pleas from the UN to do the opposite. The Human Rights Council formally condemned them, noting they made the crisis far worse. One Special Rapporteur declared them a possible “crime against humanity”.

And yet the press overwhelmingly abets the pretense of “democracy promotion” and protection of human rights. The Washington Post, for example, applauded the administration’s actions, urging it to work with the body to tighten the sanctions while claiming Guaido had given hope to the people of Venezuela.

The mainstream media seems to ignore the opinions of everyday Venezuelans. Eighty-six percent are against military intervention and 81 percent disagree with the current sanctions, according to a recent local poll. Perhaps there’s a ulterior motive to the mainstream media’s uniform approach in delegitimatizing Maduro’s regime: to undermine and attack the rise of socialist-inspired ideas back home.

When it comes to key issues such as foreign policy, the charade that the media cares about impartiality and truth withers away to reveal its true role in serving the powerful.


By Alan Macleod / Republished with permission / Venezuela Analysis / Report a typo
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Zie ook:
'Venezuela: VS bedrijf dat wapens smokkelde is gelinkt aan CIA 'Black Site' centra'

'Congreslid Ilhan Omar fileert het monster Elliot Abrams, de speciale gezant van de VS voor Venezuela'

'Venezuela >> de media willen het socialisme definitief de nek omdraaien'

'Joel Voordewind (CU 2de Kamer) bakt de 'Venezolaanse vluchtelingencrisis' op Curaçao wel erg bruin en van Ojik (GL 2de Kamer) schiet een Venezolaanse bok'

'BBC World Service radio >> fake news and other lies about Venezuela' (van Ap blog)

'Venezuela zou humanitaire hulp weigeren, het echte verhaal ziet er 'iets anders' uit'

'Guaidó is een ordinaire couppleger van de VS, e.e.a. gaat volledig in tegen de Venezolaanse constitutie'

'Venezuela >> regime change: 'de 12 stappen methode' die de VS gebruikt'

'Venezuela >> VS economische oorlogsvoering met gebruikmaking van o.a. IMF en Wereldbank'

'VS couppleger in Venezuela belooft VS Venezolaanse olie als hij de macht heeft overgenomen'
Pompeo: US Military Obligated to “Take Down” the Iranians in Venezuela
(de opgeblazen oorlogshitser en oorlogsmisdadiger Pompeo beweert dat Hezbollah werkzaam is in Venezuela en daar een leger heeft dat gezien zijn woorden amper onder doet voor de gezamenlijke NAVO troepen... ha! ha! ha! Ook hier is totaal geen bewijs voor deze belachelijke beschuldiging...)

'Halliburton en Chevron hebben groot belang bij 'regime change' in Venezuela'

'Mike Pence (vicepresident VS) gaf Guaidó, de door de VS gewenste leider, groen licht voor de coup in Venezuela'

'VS coup tegen Maduro in volle gang........'

'Antiwar Hero Medea Benjamin Disrupts Pompeo Speech on Venezuela'

'Venezuela’s Military Chief, Foreign Allies Back Maduro'

'Als de VS stopt met spelen van 'politieagent' en het vernielen van de wereld, zullen de slechte krachten winnen......'


'Venezuela: VS verandering van regime mislukt >> de Venezolanen wacht een VS invasie'

Vast Majority of Democrats Remain Silent or Support Coup in Venezuela

'Trump wilde naast de economische oorlogsvoering tegen Venezuela dat land daadwerkelijk militair aanvallen......'

'Venezolaanse regionale verkiezingen gehekeld door westen, terwijl internationale waarnemers deze als eerlijk beoordeelden..........'

'Venezuela: Target of Economic Warfare'

'Venezuela: de anti-propaganda van John Oliver (en het grootste deel westerse massamedia) feilloos doorgeprikt'

'Venezuela: 'studentenprotest' wordt uitgevoerd door ingehuurde troepen.........'

'Abby Martin Busts Open Myths on Venezuela's Food Crisis: 'Shelves Fully Stocked'' (zie ook de video in dat artikel!)

'Rex Tillerson waarschuwt Venezuela voor een coup en beschuldigt China van imperialisme........ ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!'

'Edwin Koopman (VPRO Bureau Buitenland) over Venezolaanse verkiezingen met anti-Maduro propaganda bij de 'onafhankelijke NOS.....'

'EU neemt uiterst hypocriet sancties tegen de Venezolaanse regering Maduro.........'

'Venezuela ontwricht, wat de reguliere media u niet vertellen........'

'VS steunt rechtse coalitie (MUD) in Venezuela.........'





'The Left and Venezuela' (met mogelijkheid tot directe vertaling)


'Venezolaanse regering treedt terecht op tegen de uiterst gewelddadige oppositie!!'

Hawaï: grondwater wordt bedreigd door 'versleten' mega tanks brandstof van VS leger

Het grootste gevaar voor Hawaï komt niet van Noord-Koreaanse 'kernraketten', maar van het VS leger dat daar met enorme aantallen militairen is gestationeerd. 75 jaar geleden werden er enorme ondergrondse brandstoftanks geconstrueerd op het eiland Oahu en zoals te verwachten was, door corrosie dreigen die tanks lek te raken...... 

Eerder gebeurde dit op een Californische luchtmachtbasis, waarna de tanks werden vervangen door nieuwe, lullig genoeg moest daar eerst 1,5 miljoen gallons aan brandstof voor weglekken........ (een gallon is iets meer dan 3,7854 liter ofwel het gaat hier om meer dan 5,5 miljoen liter brandstof.....)

Echter ook op Oahu is in 2014 een hoeveelheid van 27.000 gallons aan brandstof weggelekt...... Intussen worden er al sporen van petroleum gevonden in het drinkwater, wat volgens de autoriteiten geen gevaar vormt voor de volksgezondheid........* De tanks liggen op een zeer korte afstand van het zich daaronder bevindende drinkwater....

Niet vreemd dus dat de bevolking van Hawaï en zeker van het eiland Oahu eist dat het leger van de VS actie onderneemt, voordat de drinkwatervoorraad van Oahu voorgoed is verpest.........

In het volgende artikel van Ann Wright, eerder verschenen op CommonDreams en door mij overgenomen van Greed, beschrijft ze naast het risico die de brandstoftanks vormen, o.a. de situatie op Hawaï waar zoals gezegd een enorm aantal militairen is gelegerd.

IS THE U.S. MILITARY A LARGER THREAT TO HAWAII THAN NORTH KOREAN MISSILES?


Us Military Base in Oahu, Hawaii ( Photo: MilitaryBases.com)

United States (CD) – After the big North Korean missile scare in Hawaii a year ago, one would think that missiles are the greatest threat to the island of Oahu. Yet, it’s not missiles that are the threat, it’s our own U.S. military and its massive jet fuel storage tanks that are leaking into Oahu’s drinking water aquifer.
A complex of mammoth 20-story military jet fuel storage tanks buried twenty stories down in a bluff called Red Hill are perched only 100 feet above Honolulu’s water supply.  The walls on the 75-year-old jet fuel tanks are now so thin that the edge of a dime is thicker.  Each of the twenty tanks holds 12.5 million gallons of jet fuel, although eighteen are in operation now.  225,000,000 gallons of jet fuel in total are a mere 100 feet from causing a catastrophic disaster for the island of Oahu.
In fact, disaster has already struck when in 2014, 27,000 gallons of jet fuel leaked from a tank that had been repaired with a welded patch.  The welding gave way and tens of thousands of gallons of fuel leaked into the water supply.  Over the years, studies have documented leaks dating back to 1947, the continued corrosion of the tank liners and the risk of a catastrophic fuel release.
Drinking water is currently safe to drink, but traces of petroleum chemicals are being detected in the groundwater near the tanks.
Concerned citizens on the island, have for decades been trying to get the U.S. Navy to take the dangerous tanks out of Red Hill.  The military states that the underground fuel tanks are of strategic importance to U.S. national security and they are being maintained as good as 75-year old tanks can be. Yet, those who live on Oahu say: “That’s not good enough! You can’t have national security by jeopardizing the health security of your citizens.”
It is not surprising that the U.S. Navy has made little effort to remove the tanks and put replacements in a less dangerous place.  The military’s hold on the island of Oahu and its politicians is very strong both psychologically and economically. Oahu is filled with U.S. military bases and their accompanying corporations that supply the military with equipment and services.
The state of Hawaii is one of the most militarized states in the nation and Oahu is one of the most militarized islands with seven major U.S. military bases and a total of 36,620 military personnel:  Army 16,313, Navy 7,792 (drop of 8,000 from 2015), Marines 6,370 and Air Force 4,937, Coast Guard 1208.
When the 64,000 military family members and military contractors are added to the active duty military, the military-industrial complex on Oahu numbers about 100,000, which is 10 percent of Oahu’s total population of 988,000. The state of Hawaii has only1.4 million citizens.
The U.S. military installations on the island of Oahu began being constructed soon after the overthrow of the sovereign nation of Hawaii by U.S. businessmen and a small contingent of U.S. Marines:
Pearl Harbor Naval Base- headquarters of the US Pacific Fleet Navy and is the homeport for 25 warships,15 attack submarines, nine guided-missile destroyers and a guided-missile cruiser;
Hickam Air Force Base- headquarters of the US Pacific Air Forces and has squadrons of F-15s, F22, C-17 and B-2 bombers;
Kaneohe Marine Base- Marine Air Station and three Marine Regiments

Schofield Barracks- 25thInfantry Division
And the Tropic Regions Test Center (TRTC)
Camp Smith-headquarters of the United Indo-Pacific Command which is responsible for all U.S. military activity in the greater Asia and Pacific region including India, Camp Smith is also the headquarters of the U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific.
Fort Shafter-headquarters for the U.S. Army Pacific
Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies-military educational facility for military and civilian officials from countries from Asia and the Pacific for courses on international security strategy.
Tripler Army Medical Center and Veterans Administration Medical Center-provides medical assistance to active duty military and veterans.
U.S. Coast Guard 14th District for the Pacific (while not part of the Department of Defense-, during wartime, the Coast Guard can go under command of DOD)- three 225-foot buoy tenders, four 110-foot patrol boats, two 87-foot coastal patrol boats, four small boat stations, two sector commands, an air station, a Far East command, five detachments and over 400 aids to navigation.
Major military installations have been built on other islands of Hawaii. The Puhakaloa Training Area, the largest U.S. military training area in the world with 133,000 acres for artillery, mortar, small arms and crew-served weapons firing is located on the Big Island of Hawaii.  U.S. Air Force bombers flying from the continental U.S. drop ordnance on the area between the two volcanoes of the island of Hawaii.
On the island of Kauai, the Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands (PMRF) is the world’s largest range capable of supporting surface, submarines, aircraft, and space operations simultaneously. PMRF has over 1,100 square miles of instrumented underwater range and over 42,000 square miles of controlled airspace.  The Navy is currently using PMRF to test “hit to kill” technology using direct collision of the anti-ballistic missile with its target destroying the target by using only kinetic energy from the force of the collision. The Navy’s Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System and the Army’s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System, or THAAD are tested on Kauai at PMRF.
On the island of Maui, the Maui High-Performance Computing Center, a Department of Defense Supercomputing Resource Center managed by the Air Force Research Laboratory and supporting the High-Performance Computing Modernization Program, provided DoD scientists and engineers with one of the world’s largest computers to solve war-making computational problems.
According to the Hawaii Chamber of Commerce, the economic direct and indirect impacts of military expenditures in Hawaii generate $14.7 billion into Hawaii’s economy, creating more than 102,000 jobs. The military’s investments in Hawaii totals $8.8 billion. Military procurement contracts amount to about $2.3 billion annually, making it a prime source of contracting opportunities for hundreds of Hawaii’s small businesses, including significant military construction projects.
The power of the U.S. military on issues in the Hawaiian Islands and its politicians at all levels cannot be underestimated, nor can the protection the military is given by its retirees and the citizens who benefit from it. The pressure on city and state officials to accept the status quo is very strong.
Finally, the U.S. government has acknowledged the medical problems the contamination of the drinking supply caused at another community- the huge U.S. Marine Base at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) New River, North Carolina.  From 1953 through 1987, tens of thousands of Marines and their families were contaminated by two on-base water wells that were contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE), perchloroethylene (PCE), benzene, vinyl chloride among other compounds from on-base leaking storage tanks and an off-base dry cleaner.
At long last, the Veterans Administration has acknowledged the dangerous situation on the bases in North Carolina that was ignored for decades.  The VA has declared that a large number of diseases are caused by the chemicals and that military and family members who have contracted these diseases and who are still living will be compensated.  We can expect the same type of diseases with the continuing leaks at Red Hill:
  • Aplastic anemia and other myelodysplastic syndromes
  • Bladder cancer
  • Breast cancer
  • Esophageal cancer
  • Female infertility
  • Hepatic steatosis
  • Kidney cancer
  • Leukemia
  • Lung cancer
  • Miscarriage
  • Multiple myeloma
  • Myelodysplastic syndromes
  • Neurobehavioral effects
  • Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
  • Renal toxicity
  • Scleroderma
  • Parkinson’s Disease
On the other side of the country from North Carolina, the Navy has already closed down one complex of underground jet fuel storage tanks at Point Loma, California, which had 54 storage tanks.  The riveted seams on the underground tanks began leaking as they aged.  When 1.5 million gallons of fuel spilled from the site in 2006, the U.S. Navy was decided to replace the tanks.
For us on Oahu, the bottom line is that when, not if, the massive jet fuel storage tanks leak into the aquifer of Honolulu, city, state and federal officials must be held accountable– the public has given them plenty of warning of their concerns.  As with lead in the water supply in Flint, Michigan lead, officials knew that the drinking water was contaminated but didn’t do anything to stop the community from using it. Remarkably, none of the Flint officials have gone to jail yet, but the community is demanding accountability for malfeasance in office—which would be the same in Honolulu when disaster strikes on the jet fuel storage tanks.
So, we the citizens ask our elected leaders, why do they allow such a disaster continue to threaten our water supply in Honolulu when we know that 75-year-old tanks with corroding walls are continuing to leak.
I will make this personal.
I am 72 years old and served 29 years in the U.S. military. I retired 20 years ago.  The twenty jet fuel storage tanks are 75 years old and have served each of those 75 years and are still serving.
At 72, I have had the normal number of aches and pains including a hip replacement that didn’t turn out the best and skin cancer surgery that left skin grafts and patches on my face, head and leg.
At 75, the twenty-story jet fuel storage tanks also have had aches and pains as well as their skin getting thinner and thinner due to seven decades of corrosion.   Their skin or walls are as thin as the edge of a dime in some places.  Patching of the thin skin of the Red Hill jet fuel tanks didn’t turn out so well either, with the welding on one of the patches giving way in 2014 and 27,000 gallons of jet fuel leaking out of the tanks jeopardizing the Honolulu aquifer.
Those of us in our 70s, whether we are fuel tanks or humans, know all about leaks—it’s a hazard of age.
I retired from the U.S. Army after 29 years of service.  After 75 years of service, it’s time to retire the leaking Red Hill Storage tanks—and protect our precious water supply.

This report prepared by Ann Wright for Common Dreams under a Creative Commons License
Ann Wright Ann Wright is a 29 year US Army/Army Reserves veteran who retired as a Colonel and a former US diplomat who resigned in March, 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq.  She served in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia and Mongolia.  In December, 2001 she was on the small team that reopened the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.  She is the co-author of the book "Dissent: Voices of Conscience."  (www.voicesofconscience.com

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* Het cliché 'geen gevaar voor de volksgezondheid', een cliché dat keer op keer wordt gebruikt door autoriteiten, terwijl dit cliché voor zoveel soorten van chemische stoffen wordt gebruikt, dat men uit het oog verliest dat al die beetjes chemische stoffen, die 'geen gevaar voor de volksgezondheid zouden vormen', zich stapelen in ons lichaam en op den duur uiteraard wel een groot gevaar vormen voor de volksgezondheid........ (neem alle gifsoorten op groente en fruit, gifstoffen in kadaver uh vlees en al het gif dat je uit de buitenlucht in je lichaam opslaat....) Kortom dat 'geen gevaar voor de volksgezondheid' is een dooddoener, terwijl er wel degelijk een bestaand groot gevaar is voor die gezondheid........ (maar ja, probeer maar eens te bewijzen door welke chemische stoffen zich kanker heeft ontwikkeld in je lichaam.....)

PS: overigens totaal belachelijk dat Hawaï een staat van de VS is!