IN THE “FAR AWAY” FROM WAR

 I am far away from war in Israel and Gaza. I am sitting today on my porch in the low sunshine of a warm fall day, yet my thoughts are of the terrible horror and human suffering in that war torn place.  I recognize I have the physical and mental advantage of being safe, not threatened by bombs, collapsing buildings, or saddened by death around me, or targeted by masked intruders with death-dealing weapons..

I have the advantage of thinking clearly—from my position of safety— yet I can imagine the terror, the pain, horror, the sorrow of loss of these two peoples so far away. 

There are many of us like me—far away.  We can see both sides, we are not natural religious or ethnic partisans, we know that killing children, innocents, the elderly by AK47s or by F16s is wrong for whatever purpose respective leaders claim.   There is never justification for engaging in the purposeful or avoidable, even “collateral” death of innocents. 

Yet sadly there are those of us in high places of the far away…who self-serving, hypocritically pander to the combatants and encourage, facilitate, incentivize, support them to greater violence, more death and destruction. They are morally corrupt, more so than those who kill when ravaged by war on their doorstep .  Our most human and moral instincts drive us instead, to end the carnage and killing, and shun or silence the repugnant verbal justifications aired in the yellow media for escalation, more and greater violence and death.  Our goals must be the difficult compromises that will bring stability and peaceful coexistence. 

Those of us in the far away, can see clearly what these objectives are. We must have the political courage and determination to bring that vision to the combatants.  End the support for death—work for peace. In truth, our fragile, dangerous and changing modern world can no longer afford or  survive those who continue to bring us to the brink of world war for the price of an election, or a dusty dessert landscape.    

Yes, we are far away, but from here we can see the wrongs on both sides.

DEATHS OF DESPAIR IN WHITES: NO COLLEGE DEGREE?—OR NO JOB?

 

Deaths of Despair in Young Whites—Related to Communities of Despair—-Offshoring and Outsourcing Jobs

Princeton economists Deaton and Case study Death in America (rf: 2020 publication, 9/28/2023  Brookings presentation). 

The authors  have recently (9/28/23) presented new data at a Brookings Institute seminar where they presented a shocking graph showing a close correlation of “deaths of despair” in young white men (mortality by opioids, suicide, cirrhosis) , with a disparity in college education. Their conclusion: those with college degrees live longer. 

 However, correlation does not prove causation. The authors blithely ignore the great swath of middle America, where in the 1970s to the present, tens of millions of factory jobs were lost when whole industries  were offshored to China. The vast swath of hollowed out “communities of despair” had a devastating and demonstrable impact on young working class Americans of those communities. No doubt, idleness, depression, poverty, despair naturally lead to higher mortality rates.  

These two talented Princeton economists might be well served to get out of their oak paneled offices with whirring computers and visit these devastated communities where factories sit idle, main streets are empty, and the smell of rotting wood mixed with ganja smoke predominates.  The authors should analyze those data. An put the blame where it belongs.  

N Y CITY FLOODS - TOO MUCH UNCOLLECTED GARBAGE

 Saturday, 29, 2023

The recent (Friday 28, 2023) storms which overwhelmed N Y City with heavy rain, flood water flowing into basements, pouring down into subways and pooling up into hip-deep water in low places stranding cars, busses and trucks. Subway trains were stalled and service suspended on ten different Transit lines. Even flights at JFK and LaGuardia were detained by the downpour. At LaGuardia, the historic Marine Air Terminal was flooded and forced to close. 

Nearly 8 inches of rain fell at Kennedy Airport. In Brooklyn, about 4.5 inches fell in three hours (a rate of 1.5 inches per hour) In Central Park rain fell at a rate of about 1.9 inches per hour. Over most of the City, between 6 to 8 inches accumulated over a 24 hour period.

As expected, the “climate catastrophists” were quick to blame this bad “weather” on the warming “climate” (a process which has been going on now for 17,000 years, since the glaciers departed.)  Our climate is warming —the Earth is in a natural warming cycle. But there is no doubt that humans are also responsible for pumping massive amounts of heat absorbing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. But we can not blame all natural and human phenomena on this one very popular environmental cause. The natural world is more complex than that.   As we will see below, recent storms in the present El Nino cycle are more powerful and dangerous. But in this case, we must not ignore other human factors which are very obvious contributors. 

What about the City?   About 72% of the NY City is covered with impervious concrete or asphalt, or is covered by homes or buildings.  Heavy rainfall can not recharge into the ground, and seep downward, but must be directed along impervious surfaces into sewers and drains to avoid floods.  For this purpose New York City is more than adequately covered by a combined sewer and storm water drain system composed of  7,500 miles of subsurface pipes and tunnels which carry the storm and waste water .  Most of the sewers (60 %) carry rainfall from storms directly into the City’s  surrounding rivers and harbors. In recent years an area along the coast (the “Bluebelt”) was designed and installed to capture sewer water and treat it before it is discharged.   

The City’s sewage system was engineered to adequately discharge rain water from a “once in five 5 year storm” having a rate of rainfall at  @1.75 inches of rain per hour or almost at a rate of 2 inches per hour. Though rain a accumulated over the City over the 24 hour period at 6 to 8 inches. Such  accumulations are obviously less  than the 1.75 inches per hour. 

Thus the City’s sewer and drain system is more than adequate to prevent street and subway flooding from the vast majority of storms that may develop over the City’s skies.  The Friday storm had rates of downpour that were at or well below the rate of flow that the system is designed for. So why all the flooding?  

However this most effective system is NOT designed to swallow up big plastic bags of floating garbage, cardboard boxes, old food containers, plastics, and human generated debris.  The system was originally designed to carry away only sewage and surface water. 

The City has over 100,000 illegal immigrants living rough on the streets all of which produce solid  waste. Piles of 50 gallon black garbage bags, old packing, styrofoam, stacks of cardboard on every corner and in-front of each business are legendary. These piles were left for the storm to float away and clog sewer drains.

During this Friday’s storm these plastics, cardboard boxes and other solids simply were floated away and carried along to the nearest sewer grate where the strong current pulled the solids to the grate and obstructed and clogged the water flow. Over a very short period rain water accumulated into hip deep ponds with rafts of floating cardboard, bags of garbage and other human generated debris on its oily surface.  Let’s put the blame where it belongs…poor preparation for the storm, too many people, too much waste, and too much trash and garbage left  on the streets!