According to the Pentagon, the military is now moving on the problem. "I'm proud of what the Department of Defense has done in the last two-plus years," says the military's deputy assistant for the environment, Maureen Sullivan. But asked how many people could be affected, she replied that she "couldn't hazard a guess -- we're tracking water sources -- not people."
*Catherine de' Medici 1519-1589 was known as the "great poisoner."
The Golden Grinch Award to the Trump administration for cutting food stamps for up to 750,000 people and limiting benefits for an estimated 3.7 million people, while spending $649 billion on this year's military budget. While the government was handing out $28 billion to farmers hurt by the White House's trade war with China (the vast majority of which, according to the Environmental Working Group, went to large, corporate farms), it was altering the poverty index to make it more difficult for the poor to receive nutritional assistance.
In the meantime, Huntington Ingalls Industries was awarded $15.2 billion to build two aircraft carriers to add to the US's 10-carrier fleet. The Russians have one (and it is small, old and recently damaged in a fire) and China has two (with plans for one more).
Great Moments in Science has two winners:
- Republican Senator Mike Lee (Utah), who contends that the solution to climate change won't be found by governments or programs like the Green New Deal, but by having "more babies."
- Republican Representative Mike Kelly (Pennsylvania) who says he is a "person of color, I'm white. I'm Anglo Saxon," and proud to be from "Ireland." Well, Kelly is right about the white and Irish part. The O'Kellys were from Tyrone in the north, but the Anglo Saxons (and Normans) invaded in 1169, drove the Kellys out of Tyrone and ruled the island for more than 800 years. A visit to Geni.com might help.
The Henry VIII Award to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who doubled the number of beheadings in 2018 and is on track to break that record in 2019. Before Salman came to power in 2017, the Saudis had beheaded 67 people in the preceding eight months. He increased the pace to 133 in 2018, and is on pace to behead over 170 people in 2019. While many are South Asians coerced into smuggling drugs, others are oppressed Shiites from Saudi Arabia's oil-rich eastern provinces. Of the 37 beheaded on a single day in April, 33 were Shiites.
Victims are not allowed lawyers and torture is an accepted way of carrying out investigations. Three were minors, a violation of international law. No American administration has protested the execution of the minors or the use of torture to extract confessions.
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