Saturday, June 29, 2019

TOXIC 'OIL SNOW' FALLING IN GULF OF MEXICO AS DEAD ZONE & FLESH-EATING BACTERIA AREAS GROW

THE OIL IS STILL OUT THERE AND IS STILL KILLING AND INJURING HUNDREDS OF DIFFERENT MARINE SPECIES TODAY.

COULD IT ALSO HAVE HELPED FACILITATE THE ONGOING SPREAD OF 'FLESH-EATING BACTERIA', aka, NECROTIZING FASCIITIS, ALL ALONG THE BEACHES OF THE GULF STATES? ##

According to the CDC, an average of 50 culture-confirmed cases, 45 hospitalizations, and 16 deaths are reported each year from the Gulf Coast region (reporting states are Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas).

Nationwide, there are as many as 95 cases (half of which are culture confirmed), 85 hospitalizations, and 35 deaths. 



Above: A RECENT photo of a dead bottlenose dolphin from the northern Gulf of Mexico 2019 UME, exhibiting many skin lesions. NOAA asks us to believe those are "freshwater lesions", but they won't specifically call them that.
Notice that this dolphin is NOT "seriously decomposed" NOR "located in a remote area".*** 



Above: Necropsy of a bottlenose dolphin, 2018-2019 Bottlenose Dolphin Unusual Mortality Event (UME), Florida, Gulf of Mexico by NOAA Fisheries. 

[ALSO, NOT decomposed so severely that the examiner needs a facial mask.***]




In 2013, US government scientists, for the first time, connected the BP oil disaster to dolphin deaths in the Gulf of Mexico, after a study finding direct evidence of toxic exposure.

The study, led by scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), found lung disease, hormonal abnormalities and other health effects among dolphins in an area heavily oiled during the BP spill.

"Bottlenose dolphins in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama experienced an “unusual mortality event” beginning in February 2010 and continuing into 2014, according to a study, written by a team of 22 researchers, including scientists with the National Marine Fisheries Service, Audubon Nature Institute’s Aquarium of the Americas, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, and a number of marine laboratories nationwide."                                          

[THE RESULTS OF THAT STUDY ARE VERY HEART-RENDING, BUT AGAIN, NO DATA THAT WAS SPECIFICALLY LOOKING FOR CANCER, EVEN THOUGH 'CANCEROUS-APPEARING' SKIN LESIONS AND BOTH INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL TUMORS WERE FOUND IN ABUNDANCE. MUSTN'T SAY THAT OIL OR CHEMICALS  CAN/DO CAUSE CANCER. CORPORATE MASTERS MIGHT GET ANGRY.]

"I've never seen such a high prevalence of very sick animals – and with unusual conditions such as the adrenal hormone abnormalities," Lori Schwake, the study's lead author, said in a statement.

Schwake explained how she experienced, first hand, dolphins swimming in and out of oil slicks, breathing at the surface which contained hydrocarbons, and eating food that was contaminated. "Not only are these creatures facing a shorter and less functional lifespan, they are far more likely to not reproduce, diminishing the population overall."

[Whales, dolphins, manatees and sea turtles are air breathers and all must come to the surface frequently to take a breath of air. In a large oil spill, these animals may be exposed to volatile chemicals during inhalation. The chemicals used to try to contain/absorb the BP oil spill were highly toxic to all marine life. The same may be said of the 'slicks' left by large ships at sea.]
JUNE 24, 2019

Oil from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill continues sinking to the Gulf of Mexico’s sea floor. Now researcher Andrew Wozniak from the University of Delaware is shedding light on a phenomenon he’s calling 'Marine Oil Snow'.

This 'snow' is a continuous shower of mostly organic detritus falling from the upper layers of the water column. In addition to dead animal and plant tissue, marine snow also includes fecal matter, sand, soot, and inorganic dust.

Wozniak found that, as the oil containing particles make their journey to the ocean floor, they create microenvironments of bacteria that change the oil’s molecular composition.

“The oil that reaches the sediments and the deep coral reef looks slightly different at the molecular level, and that’s important for understanding what happens to that oil and what impacts it might have on the biology down in the deep parts of the ocean and coastal systems," said Wozniak.

The bacteria that feed on the oil add highly toxic oxygenated compounds called 'polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons' or PAH's.

University of South Florida Marine Scientist Steve Murawski says he’s seen elevated PAH’s in marine life in the Gulf of Mexico.

“Certainly we’ve seen higher levels of PAH’s not only in the sediments in the small animals that live in sediments but also in the fishes and the crabs and other animals that we more relate to,” said Murawski.
Those toxic compounds lead to animal deaths, and Murawski notes the effects of the fallout are still being seen.             

“We’re not sure exactly why but it could be that the sediments that have oil contamination are being re-suspended by storms, hurricanes, river inflow, and heavy winds so they keep stirring up the bottom. So we have a feeling that these toxic chemicals are going to be in the system for awhile, they’re not necessarily being buried over by clean sediment,” said Murawski.                   
Though Marine Oil Snow helps with the dispersal of oil at the surface by bringing it down to the ocean floor and away from coastlines, the impacts of the Deep Water Horizon Oil spill are still being felt nine years later.

Other researchers have found that, after oil spills like the Deep Water Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, plankton and bacteria release a substance that merges the oil with the naturally occurring marine snow.

DEATHS OCCURRING MORE OFTEN IN THE NORTHERN GULF FOR THE PAST 2 YEARS.                  

2019 Bottlenose Dolphin Unusual Mortality Event along the Northern Gulf of Mexico. 

Elevated bottlenose dolphin strandings have been occurring in the Northern Gulf of Mexico including Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and the panhandle of Florida (Alabama border through Franklin County) since February 1, 2019. As of June 27th, 2019, 285 dolphins have stranded since February, which is approximately three times higher than the average. This event has been declared an Unusual Mortality Event (UME).


THIS IS A LUDICROUS STATEMENT, USED SO FREQUENTLY BY NOAA, NO MATTER THE SPECIES BEING NECROPSIED:
***  
"Many of the dolphins recovered are very decomposed, limiting the ability to collect samples to determine cause of illness or death. 
In addition, a number of dolphins have stranded in remote locations, which limits the Stranding Network's ability to examine or recover the carcass."

BS, BS, BS! THEY'RE STRANDING AND WASHING UP ON PUBLIC BEACHES, JUST LIKE WHALES, TURTLES, AND OCEAN FISH DOWN THERE.

PEOPLE TRY TO SAVE THESE ANIMALS AND FAIL, SOME NECROPSIES ON VERY FRESHLY DEAD, NON-DECOMPOSED CORPSES ARE COMPLETED WITHIN 2 TO 3 DAYS IN LAB SETTINGS, BUT THEY STILL WON'T NAME A SPECIFIC REASON FOR DEATHS, OR CALL THOSE LESIONS ANYTHING BUT "SUSPECTED" THIS OR THAT? BS!

THERE HAVE BEEN WHALE, SEAL, SHARK, WALRUS AND OTHER NECROPSIES FROM THE GULF AND ONGOING PACIFIC DIE-OFFS THAT WERE COMPLETED 5 TO 8 YEARS AGO AND WE STILL DON'T HAVE SPECIFIC REASONS, JUST THE SAME "CAUSE OF DEATH UNKNOWN".


AND BP IS STILL IN DENIAL THAT OIL AND/OR ITS OIL ABSORPTION CHEMICALS IS CAUSING THIS. 

Government scientists and conservation groups had been concerned from the outset about the effects on marine life of the vast amounts of oil that entered the water. 
But the study published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science and Technology produced the strongest evidence to date of the effects of the spill on marine life. 

"The severe disease documented by this study and the continued elevation of mortalities raise significant concerns regarding both short-term and long-term impacts on the Barataria Bay dolphin population," the study said.


EYELESS, TUMOR-RIDDLED SHRIMP AND CRABS; FISH WITH NO GILL COVERINGS, NO EYES, SKIN LESIONS AND TUMORS. 

Above: Red Snapper caught in the Gulf, skin lesions, deformities.

Above: Gulf shrimp, visible tumors of the head. 

 "I've never seen anything like this," Dr. Jim Cowan of Louisiana State University stated. "The fishermen have never seen anything like this."

Cowan explained: “The fish are being exposed to PAHs, and I was able to find several references that list the same symptoms in fish after the Exxon Valdez spill, as well as in lab experiments. There was also a paper published by some LSU scientists that PAH exposure has effects on the genome.”

The University of South Florida released the results of a survey whose findings corresponded with Cowan’s: a two to five per cent infection rate in the same oil impact areas, and not just with red snapper, but with more than 20 species of fish with lesions.

In many locations, 20 per cent of the fish had lesions, and later sampling expeditions found areas where, alarmingly, 50 per cent of the fish had them.     

Cowan believes chemicals called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), released from BP’s submerged oil, are likely to blame for what he is finding, due to the fact that the fish with lesions he is finding are from “a wide spatial distribution that is spatially coordinated with oil from the Deepwater Horizon, both surface oil and subsurface oil. A lot of the oil that impacted Louisiana was also in subsurface plumes, and we think there is a lot of it remaining on the seafloor”.


“I asked a NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) sampler what percentage of fish they find with sores prior to 2010, and it’s one-tenth of one percent,” Cowan said. “Which is what we found prior to 2010 as well. But nothing like we’ve seen with these secondary infections and at this high of rate since the spill.

“What we think is that it’s attributable to chronic exposure to PAHs released in the process of weathering of oil on the seafloor. There’s no other thing we can use to explain this phenomenon.
Cowan started hearing about fish with sores and lesions from fishermen in November 2010.    

Tracy Kuhns and her husband Mike Roberts, commercial fishers from Barataria, Louisiana, are finding eyeless shrimp.
“At the height of the last white shrimp season, in September, one of our friends caught 400 pounds of these,” Kuhns said when showing a sample of the eyeless shrimp.

According to Kuhns, at least 50 per cent of the shrimp caught in that period in Barataria Bay, a popular shrimping area that was heavily impacted by BP’s oil and dispersants, were eyeless.
Kuhns added: “Disturbingly, not only do the shrimp lack eyes, they even lack eye sockets.”         

“Some shrimpers are catching these out in the open Gulf [of Mexico],” she added, “They are also catching them in Alabama and Mississippi. We are also finding eyeless crabs, crabs with their shells soft instead of hard, full grown crabs that are one-fifth their normal size, clawless crabs, and crabs with shells that don’t have their usual spikes … they look like they’ve been burned off by chemicals.

Keath Ladner, a third generation seafood processor in Hancock County, Mississippi, is also disturbed by what he is seeing.
“I’ve seen the brown shrimp catch drop by two-thirds, and so far the white shrimp have been wiped out,” Ladner told reporters. “The shrimp are immune compromised. We are finding shrimp with tumors on their heads, and are seeing this everyday.”

While on a shrimp boat in Mobile Bay with Sidney Schwartz, the fourth-generation fisherman said that he had seen shrimp with defects on their gills, and “their shells missing around their gills and head”.

“We’ve fished here all our lives and have never seen anything like this,” he added. Ladner has also seen crates of blue crabs, all of which were lacking at least one of their claws.   
                       

Darla Rooks, a lifelong fisher-person from Port Sulfur, Louisiana, told reporters that she is finding crabs “with holes in their shells, shells with all the points burned off so all the spikes on their shells and claws are gone, misshapen shells, and crabs that are dying from within … they are still alive, but you open them up and they smell like they’ve been dead for a week”.


CARCINOGENIC, MUTAGENIC DISPERSANTS 

The dispersants used in BP’s draconian experiment contain solvents, such as petroleum distillates and 2-butoxyethanol. Solvents dissolve oil, grease and rubber,” Riki Ott, a toxicologist, marine biologist and Exxon Valdez survivor, said.

“It should be no surprise that solvents are also notoriously toxic to people, something the medical community has long known."

The dispersants are known to be mutagenic, a disturbing fact that could be evidenced in the seafood deformities. Shrimp, for example, have a life cycle short enough that several generations have existed since BP’s disaster began, giving the chemicals time to enter the genome.

Pathways of exposure to the dispersants are inhalation, ingestion, skin, and eye contact. Health impacts can include headaches, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pains, chest pains, respiratory system damage, skin sensitisation, hypertension, central nervous system depression, neurotoxic effects, cardiac arrhythmia and cardiovascular damage. They are also teratogenic – able to disturb the growth and development of an embryo or foetus – and carcinogenic. 



Given that the Gulf of Mexico provides more than 40 per cent of all the seafood caught in the continental US, this phenomenon does not bode well for the region, or the country.

Whether by contact with those waters or by consuming seafood from them, we seem likely to face health problems akin to those the ocean-dwellers are facing.



## "FLESH-EATING BACTERIA" IN THE GULF OF MEXICO

THE LATEST VICTIM, JUNE 28,2019.

12-year-old contracts flesh-eating bacteria while vacationing in Florida

According to WKRG-TV, doctors noticed an infection between Kylei's knee and diagnosed her with necrotizing fasciitis, a rare flesh-eating disease.

Necrotizing fasciitis (NF), commonly known as flesh-eating disease, is an infection that results in the death of parts of the body's soft tissue. It is a severe disease of sudden onset that spreads rapidly. Symptoms include red or purple skin in the affected area, severe pain, fever, and vomiting. The most commonly affected areas are the limbs and perineum.

Below are two photos of the advanced stages of this horrible disease.
 




[SIDE NOTE: FOR ANY WHO MAY THINK THE PHOTOS FOUND BY WEB-SEARCH ARE NOT QUITE 'REAL', IT CAN BE MUCH WORSE. GO HAVE A LOOK AT THE PICS FROM ONE MAN'S DOCUMENTED ORDEAL, <HERE>.   

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), there are “about 650 to 850 cases” of necrotizing fasciitis caused by group A streptococcus each year. 
Since 2010, approximately 700 to 1200 cases occur each year in the United States. CDC states this is likely an underestimate.           

And the National Necrotizing Fasciitis Foundation notes that the CDC does not track cases caused by the other bacteria.


But the foundation, a nonprofit founded by two survivors of the disease, say the group A Strep statistics combined “with the as yet unquantifiable numbers of people who contract NF from other forms of bacteria” are “frightening.” 



Aside from being contracted via contact, Vibrio vulnificus can also be transmitted by eating raw shellfish, according to the Florida Department of Health.   



May 1, 2019  

Two men recently contracted flesh-eating bacterial infections through water in the Tampa Bay area. Doctors are encouraging residents and visitors to the region to be cautious.
About one-third of the people with necrotizing fasciitis die from the infection, even with treatment.

“I’m part of the community. I have kids and family that go to the beach and I tell my family the same thing: that you always have to be very careful,” said Doctor Seetha Lakshmi is an assistant professor in the University of South Florida’s Infectious Disease and International Medicine Department.

June 17, 2019 
Cases of infection from the “flesh-eating” bacteria, Vibrio vulnificus, are on the rise in coastal regions where the bacteria are not normally found. 

The bacteria wouldn't normally be found as far north as the Delaware Bay that hugs New Jersey's southern coast because the water has historically been too cold.
V. vulnificus typically favors warmer waters, which has caused scientists to blame the uptick in recent infection cases partially on climate anomalies and increasing ocean temperatures. 

June 29, 2015
Two years ago, “the Florida Department of Health reported 11 deaths and 41 infections from v. vulnificus. Texas reported 15 to 30 annual cases 
while Maryland State officials said they saw an average of 25 infections per year.”


IT 'AIN'T' GLOBAL WARMING CAUSING THE RECENT SPIKES IN BEACH-RELATED CASES OF THIS INFECTION UP NORTH, SCIENCE DUDES.
IT LOOKS LIKE IT'S SIMPLY THE CONTAMINATED GULF STREAM CARRYING THE WATERS OF THE GULF OF MEXICO NORTHWARD AROUND THE TIP OF FLORIDA, AND THAT STREAM IS SLOWING DOWN.


The Gulf Stream is a strong, fast moving, warm ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and flows into the Atlantic Ocean. It makes up a portion of the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre.

The majority of the Gulf Stream is classified as a western boundary current. This means that it is a current with behavior determined by the presence of a coastline — in this case, the eastern United States and Canada.


THIS 'STREAM' WAS CHARTED ON SEA CHARTS HUNDREDS OF YEARS AGO.

"Although first observed in 1513 by Ponce de Leon, the Gulf Stream was not charted until the early 1770s by Benjamin Franklin."

GRANTED, NO LESS THAN 33 MAJOR U.S. RIVERS EMPTY INTO THE GULF, BRINGING WITH THEM THE ENORMOUS AMOUNTS F AGRICULTURAL POLLUTION, CHEMICALS, AND HUMAN WASTE/GARBAGE DUMPED INTO THOSE RIVERS EVERY SINGLE DAY, BUT THE SPIKES IN FLESH-EATING BACTERIA CASES DID INDEED ESCALATE AFTER WE BEGAN DRILLING FOR OIL OUT THERE AND CONTINUE TO RISE.
NOTE THAT THE CDC DIDN'T BEGIN KEEPING STATISTICS ON THIS UNTIL ALMOST FORCED TO DO SO IN THE EARLY 1990s AFTER THE PUBLIC BECAME ALARMED.


WEB-SEARCH A FEW OF THESE HEADLINES? 

--Mother Jones: Eyeless shrimp are being found all over the Gulf

--New York Times: Oil Spill Affected Gulf Fish’s Cell Function, Study Finds

--CBS:Expert: BP spill likely cause of sick Gulf fish (and see the Press Register’s report)

--“Study confirms oil from Deepwater spill entered food chain

--Pensacola News Journal: “Sick fish” archive

--Agence France Presse: Mystery illnesses plague Louisiana oil spill crews

--MSNBC: Sea turtle deaths up along Gulf, joining dolphin trend

--MSNBC:Exclusive: Submarine Dive Finds Oil, Dead Sea Life at Bottom of Gulf of Mexico

--Deadly Corexit, Oil Dispersant Used By BP In Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill, Is Destroying Marine Life, Say Scientists

--Halliburton To Plead Guilty To Destroying Gulf Evidence And To Pay Maximum Fine Of $200,000



DENYING THE FACTS WON'T MAKE THEM GO AWAY.
WE'VE ALLOWED INDUSTRY AND OTHER UNCARING HUMANS TO MAKE SEWERS OF OUR OCEANS.

THE TOXIC COCKTAIL CREATED BY DECADES OF ABUSE IS CATCHING UP TO US.

DO I SEE ANY HOPE OF A REVERSAL?
HONESTLY, NO.
IT'S GONE ON TOO LONG.
THERE IS NO TURNING BACK.
WE DIDN'T LEARN AND SO WE WILL PERISH ALONG WITH THOSE WHO HAVE NO ESCAPE FROM THE HELL CREATED BY THE 'TOP OF THE FOOD CHAIN'...HUMAN BEINGS.

POLITICIANS, NOTORIOUS WHORES TO WALL STREET'S CAMPAIGN DONATIONS, WON'T FORCE BIG OIL, BIG AG, BIG COAL, BIG CHEMICAL BIG NUKE AND OTHER INDUSTRIES TO STOP THE ATROCITIES CAUSED BY THEIR COMPLETE AND OFTEN INTENTIONAL CARELESSNESS AND UTTER DISREGARD FOR ALL LIFE.

MY ONE COMFORT IS THAT, WHEN THOSE I JUST MENTIONED ABOVE ARE OVERWHELMED AND BEING DISPOSED OF BY THEIR INTENTIONAL CRIMES, THEY WILL REALIZE THEY WERE RESPONSIBLE.
THAT WILL NOT DULL THE HORROR.









_______________________________


NOTES:

--DEATH TOLL STATS ONLY COUNT FOUND/HANDLED ANIMALS DURING THE FIRST FEW DAYS OF THE BP SPILL.

---Impacts of Oil on Marine Mammals and Sea Turtles (pdf) 

TURTLES

More than 600 turtles were found dead during the oil spill response, of which:
-18 were visibly oiled.
-About 75 percent were Kemp's ridley turtles.

DOLPHINS AND WHALES
More than 150 dolphins and whales were found dead DURING the oil spill response.


--Geography of the Gulf of Mexico

-- The Deepwater Horizon oil drilling platform caught fire and exploded on April 20, 2010, killing 11 people. Nearly 5 million barrels (210 million gallons) of oil spilled from the wellhead into the Gulf of Mexico until the wellhead was PARTIALLY capped in July 2010.

--NOAA is no longer directly responding to injured or dead dolphins and sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico, as direct marine mammal and sea turtle oil spill response efforts ended in May 2011. NOAA currently coordinates the National Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program, including the Southeast Stranding Network and the Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network. These networks have operated for decades and are continuing to respond to marine mammal and sea turtle strandings throughout the Gulf Coast.

NOAA NEVER WAS WORTH MUCH OF A DAMN ANYWAY.
SAME CAN BE SAID FOR THE EPA.







//WW

Monday, June 10, 2019

700 WILD HORSE MARES' OVARIES RIPPED OUT IN STANDING SPAY BY BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT


Fact: Wild horses are present on just 17% of BLM rangelands, where they remain vastly outnumbered by livestock.
THESE ARE PUBLIC LANDS MAINTAINED BY TAXPAYER DOLLARS.
We have the right to have a say in how these wild horses and burros are treated.
[PLEASE, PLEASE NOTE: THERE IS A SLIM CHANCE WE CAN STOP THE BLM FROM CONTINUING TO CARRY OUT THIS HORRIFIC PRACTICE.

Please send your comments to the BLM by end of day June 12.

If mailed they must be postmarked by June 12:

BLM Burns District Office

28910 Hwy 20, Hines, OR 97738

Here is the email address: blm_or_bu_spaystudy@blm.gov]

Please comment today and use your own words. The BLM counts form letters no matter how many are submitted as only 1 comment. Tell the BLM you want to use Alternative A the No Action Alternative, and that you are opposed to spaying wild mares.] 


MANY WILL FIND THE VIDEO BELOW DISTURBING, TO SAY THE LEAST, BUT SOME THINGS ARE TOO BARBARIC, TOO HORRIFYING FOR WORDS. ONE MUST SEE IT TO BELIEVE SUCH CRUELTY EXISTS.

THIS IS WHAT AMERICA'S 'BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT' (BLM) HAS DONE TO OVER 700 WILD HORSE AND WILD BURRO MARES AND WANTS TO DO TO MOST OF THEM.

WHILE THE BLM-PRODUCED VIDEO IS HEAVILY EDITED SO THE MARE'S FACE AND BACKSIDE ARE NOT SHOWN, HER FLINCHING, HER STRUGGLE TO GET FREE AND HER AGONY ARE APPARENT AS HER RESPIRATION AND AGITATION INCREASES.

TRY TO IMAGINE THE PAIN SHE ENDURED AS THIS IS DONE WITHOUT ANESTHESIA AND WITHOUT CAUTERIZATION OR STITCHES.
SHE IS LEFT TO BLEED AND SOME BLEED TO DEATH.
HAD SHE NOT BEEN IN A SQUEEZE CHUTE AND SUPPORTED BY BARS BENEATH HER ABDOMEN, SHE WOULD HAVE COLLAPSED FROM THE TRAUMA.

WE'RE TOLD THE TOTAL TIME FOR THIS NIGHTMARISH PROCEDURE TAKES 15 MINUTES, BUT WE AREN'T GIVEN A TIME FRAME OR SHOWN THE INJURIES MANY MARES SUSTAIN WHILE BEING LOADED INTO THESE CHUTES OR THE PAINFUL DEATH OF SOME FROM HEMORRHAGING OR INFECTION AFTERWORD. 

"We were not taught the procedure in vet school. It’s best left to the large animal surgical specialists in veterinary hospitals and referral clinics.
Spaying a mare is a more complicated medical procedure than gelding, involving entering the abdominal cavity. Although there is more than one way to spay a mare, each resulting in the removal of the ovaries, the procedure tends to be painful and there can be scary complications, such as bleeding from the ovarian artery, which can be difficult to control." -- Dr. Anna O'Brien


THERE ARE ONLY ABOUT 80,000 WILD HORSES AND BURROS LEFT IN AMERICA. THEY SAY THIS IS TOO MANY TO GRAZE ON 26.9 MILLION ACRES OF PUBLIC LANDS IN 10 WESTERN STATES. 


OF THE 
167 MILLION ACRES OF PUBLIC RANGE LAND, LAND ON WHICH AMERICAN RANCHERS GRAZE CATTLE, SHEEP AND DOMESTIC HORSE HERDS, BLM HAS RESTRICTED WILD HERDS MORE EACH YEAR
THE RANCHERS COMPLAIN THAT THE WILD HERDS RUIN THE GRASS SUPPLY AND USE UP THE SCANT WATERING HOLES.
AS YOU WILL SEE BELOW, IT'S CATTLE THAT ARE RUINING RANGE LANDS.

THE BLM HAS CAPTURED OVER 50,000 OF THE REMAINING 80,000 MUSTANGS AND KEEPS THEM IN FEED PENS WHERE MANY MORE DIE.

THEY HAZE THE HERDS BY HELICOPTER SEVERAL TIMES A YEAR, DRIVING THEM AT A GALLOP ACROSS MILES OF DESERT RANGES, KILLING SOME, ESPECIALLY FOALS, BY EXHAUSTION, TRAUMA AND DEHYDRATION.



BLM'S WILD HORSE STERILIZATION PROGRAM IS BARBARIC AND COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY.

THIS "STANDING SPAY" IS DONE AT A COST OF ABOUT $300 PER MARE AND PREVENTS THE BIRTH OF ONE FOAL A YEAR.

THE BLM COULD STERILIZE THE MALES IN THESE HERDS FOR LESS THAN $10 AT BIRTH USING BANDING AND LESS THAN $100 AT A LATER TIME BY "CUTTING" (CASTRATION).
BANDING AND CUTTING IN THE FIELD ARE THE TWO PROCEDURES RANCHERS THEMSELVES USE, BUT THE BLM REFUSES THIS OPTION.

STERILIZING A SINGLE MALE WOULD PREVENT DOZENS OF BIRTHS PER YEAR, DEPENDING ON THE NUMBER OF MARES IN EACH HERD.
THERE ARE MORE MALES THAN FEMALES AT CURRENT TIME BUT THE BLM WON'T FOCUS ON THE MALES.

BLM'S STERILIZATION OF MARES HAS BEEN HALTED BY PUBLIC AND VETERINARIANS OUTCRY SEVERAL TIMES ALREADY, BUT THEY KEEP TRYING TO GET APPROVAL AND KEEP "EXPERIMENTING".

LETTER TO BLM BY A VETERINARIAN SHOWS THE CRUELTY OF THIS.

"The three surgical procedures for permanent sterilization of mares described in the mare sterilization research project, ovariectomy via colopotomy, tubal ligation and hysteroscopically-guided laser ablation of the oviduct papilla all require certain pre-operative and post-operative considerations for aseptic surgical protocol and pain management. Pre-operative bloodwork and a thorough examination are always performed on the relatively few domestic mares which are spayed. Other options other than surgery are always considered first due to the risk involved with any of these procedures. Aseptic surgical protocol and pain management is the standard of care for each and every surgery or the performing veterinarian would undoubtedly be sued by the owner and reprimanded by the state veterinary board. Wild mares will not have their surgeries performed in a sterile surgical suite. Their surgery will be performed in a non-sterile chute or standing in stocks at the local BLM facility without benefit of routine standard of care. Unlike domestic mares who are easily handled, the very handling of these wild mares presents additional pre-operative stressors, which cannot be mitigated. BLM does not possess the statutory authority to treat America’s wild free roaming mares as research test subjects to perform surgeries which are not the standard of care for domestic mares.

Case in point, is a photograph of Dr. Leon Pielstick as he was beginning to perform a surgery attired in bibs used predominately for working cattle and performing the surgery with a non-sterile plastic sleeve that is used to pregnancy check cattle. This is not acceptable for a domestic mare, why wild mares?

[This] is gross negligence and inhumane on the part of the Department of Interior and the veterinarians who performed the surgery in less than aseptic conditions. This type of trial and error butchery is a violation of the least feasible management clause of the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act.

In private practice, colopotomy is considered an inferior procedure with likelihood of post-surgical infections and complications (i.e., colic) especially during these unsterile conditions. Post-operative care usually lasts several days to often weeks and mares are monitored and in most cases are monitored in box stalls or cross ties, which cannot be accomplished with wild mares. Post- operative bleeding is a situation which cannot be easily remedied even in domestic mares.

In recent conversations with Littleton Equine Medical Center veterinarians Scott Toppin, DVM, DABVP and Kelly Tisher DVM the following comments were made to me.
 Dr. Toppin stated he had serious concerns about the dangerous and inhumane conditions under which these surgeries would be performed. He also stated concerns about the sterility of the procedure and pre and post-operative pain control.
Dr. Tisher shared that their practice equine surgeon, Dustin V. Devine DVM, MS DACVS, performs approximately six to twelve of these surgeries with a laparoscope annually.
Littleton Equine is the leading equine veterinary private practice in Colorado.

Mass experimental surgeries performed under these conditions outlined in the proposal, amounts to negligence and abuse. I believe experiments such as this proposal are unethical, inhumane and unwarranted. Any veterinarian(s) who would perform these experiments is in violation of the oath taken as a graduating veterinarian, “above all else, do no harm”. If a veterinarian in private practice performed these procedures in the manner described in this document they would most certainly be reported to and disciplined by the regulatory board of that state. Discipline would likely mean suspension of that veterinarian’s license to practice in that state. All horses should be judged the same when it concerns care.

Elective, unethical treatment should not be performed on either domestic horses or wild horses. BLM gives the impression that all wild horse areas are overpopulated, when in fact, most wild horse areas do not have a genetically sustainable population.
Once again, BLM is exceeding the statutory authority granted by Congress in the management of our wild horses. Since the inception of the WHBA, BLM has practiced a management for extinction policy. It is ever so clear in the “experimental research policy” BLM is now proposing.
Sincerely, Donald E. Moore, D.V.M 1787 K 6/10 Road, Fruita, CO 81521"

BLOCKED BY COURTS AGAIN AND AGAIN. 
U.S. District Court Judge Michael W. Mosman on November 2, 2018 issued a preliminary injunction that blocked a Bureau of Land Management experiment to sterilize mares from the Warm Springs Management Area, at a horse corral facility in Hines, about two miles southwest of Burns, in the eastern Oregon high desert.
The Colorado State University veterinary school, after bidding to participate in the mare spaying experiment in August 2018, had already withdrawn from it, amid a storm of opposition.
The plaintiffs alleged that the proposed horse spaying experiments would “involve performing an outdated surgical procedure called ovariectomy via colpotomy,” described by the plaintiffs as “a blind surgery in which a veterinarian inserts his arm into a mare’s abdominal cavity through an incision in the vaginal wall, an incision is made through the wall of the vagina and then through the peritoneum to access the ovaries, the veterinarian manually (and BLINDLY) locates the ovaries, then twists, severs and removes them using a rod-like tool with a chain on the end.

"Not meant for field application.”

The National Academy of Sciences advised, “episioplasty (suturing to close the vulva) and stall restriction for 2-7 days are recommended to reduce the chance of evisceration.”
“Monitoring for 24-48 hours for signs of hypovolemic shock due to internal bleeding is also recommended. The procedure is not without risk,” the National Academy of Sciences cautioned.

THE BLM DOES NEITHER OF THESE.

“I do not recommend an ovariectomy procedure called a colpotomy,” Peter Knox, DVM, of Nampa, Idaho, said. “Even when performed by very experienced surgeons, it has an increased risk of accidental injury to other organs, bleeding and post-surgical colic.”
“The safest ovariectomy procedure is done laparoscopically, much like a human gall bladder surgery,” Knox advised. “It takes only about an hour with the horse standing in restraints under heavy sedation,” or about four times as long, as Knox would do it by the flank spay method, as the colpotomy procedure recommended by the Bureau of Land Management.

OVER-POPULATION IS A LIE!
Over 70% of the wild horse herds that remain in this country have below the number of 150 breeding aged adults necessary to remain genetically viable, let alone some ridiculous overpopulation.
The BLM is looking for a permanent quick fix, a sterilization, an extinction of wild horses.
If they can get away with sterilizing our wild herds, in 20 years we will not have any wild horses left, especially if they get away with rounding up and removing 20,000 to 30,000 wild horses from our public lands each year.
One of the wild mares being held right now had twins, which is an extremely rare event, and she and her twins were going to go to Skydog Sanctuary for some extra care. However, the BLM then informed Skydog Sanctuary that this mare was in the spay study so she could not be allowed to be adopted. The fact that before the EA has even been commented on by the public and the Decision Record has been issued that the BLM is already planning on this study going forward and already designated which mares will be used in a study that has not even been approved yet is extremely disturbing and possibly a violation of NEPA.

THE LIE OF OVER-GRAZING AND OVER-POPULATION

BLM Grazing in States with Wild Horses

State
% of BLM rangelands occupied by wild horses & burros
Arizona
11.5 million1.5 million13
California
7 million2 million28
Colorado
7.8 million365,0005
Idaho
11.5 million383,000.03
Montana
8.2 million*27,094.003
Nevada
43 million14 million33
New Mexico
13 million24,500.001
Oregon
14 million2.7 million19
Utah
22 million2.1 million10
Wyoming
17.4 million3.6 million21
*includes Dakotas
AS YOU CAN SEE, THE CLAIM BY BLM THAT RANCHERS ARE NOT GRAZING HUGE NUMBERS OF LIVESTOCK ON PUBLIC LANDS IS A LIE, AS IS THEIR CLAIM THAT THE WILD HERDS WOULD STARVE WITHOUT BEING CULLED.

Livestock currently grazes on over 260 million acres of Federal land, 167 million acres administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and 95 million acres administered by the Forest Service.
WILD HORSES AND BURROS ARE CONFINED TO UNDER 30 MILLION ACRES. HOW CAN THE BLM JUSTIFY THIS? 


Horses Versus Cattle: The Truth Behind Grazing Rights

-- A horse drinks approximately 8-14 gallons a day, depending upon the heat and level of exercise. Cattle, on the other hand, need on average approximately 20 gallons of water per day, and may actually consume up to 50 gallons of water per day.

-- Cattle eat consistently for approximately 12 hours a day, and can eat up to 130 pounds of grass and forage per day. Because they will eat almost anything in front of them, they are ideal to clear high grasses that grow out in the wild. Unfortunately, this also clears all of the natural forage for any other wildlife that might live there.
Overall, cattle move very little, but must eat a lot, meaning that they completely consume all of the natural plants and grasses in a small area.
Horses on the other hand, are very picky and roam more when they eat. Horses will refuse to eat a number of different plants, instead feasting on the grasses that are available. A typical 1,000 pound horses will eat approximately 20-25 pounds of grass per day.
That’s 130 pounds of food for cattle versus 25 pounds per horse.

-- Private cattle ranchers are knowingly overgrazing their herds on federal lands. The BLM is allowing the cattle to overgraze and continue to allow the increase of the number of cattle while, at the same time, continue to lower grazing fees.
Some ranchers have grazed their herds on public lands for years without paying a penny.
The BLM has been charged with this failure to collect grazing fees many times.

AN ASSESSMENT OF THE FAILURE OF THE BLM STATES THAT...
 "Public lands ranchers are being subsidized by taxpayers and this is unfair, inefficient, and leads to undue environmental damages."

RANCHERS WANT THE WILD HERDS STERILIZED AND/OR REMOVED.
THE BLM HEARS AND OBEYS.


Most large animal veterinarians agree that the surgical environment [FOR MARE STERILIZATION] needs to be completely sterile and recovery time is at least a month – this is NOT a suitable procedure to do in the field, on wild mares. The risk of infection and death is far too high. Some of the mares may die from shock.
There is only one example of spaying wild mares in the field. This was at the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge in Nevada, where 10% of the mares (30) died. And some of the mares were released into the wild and not tracked to see if they died, so the death rate was probably much higher than 10%.

Why would the BLM use unproven, dangerous and cruel methods of sterilization instead of using safe, relatively unintrusive, proven methods of birth control to control the population of the wild horses in White Mountain?

The BLM is planning 5 more studies of spaying wild mares with USGS. They are planning even more studies using other methods of sterilization on other herds, including chemical sterilization and gelding. This needs to stop. This is BLM’s end game for our wild horses – sterilizing the herds, and ending up with no more wild horses.

In the wild, the ratio of stallions to mares ends up being about 50-50. One of the BLM’s unproven brilliant ideas is that the population will grow less if there are less mares than stallions. In my experience, all it does is create more turmoil, as the stallions spend more time battling other stallions and defending or winning the much fewer number of mares. The mares were also given PZP-22, a two year birth control drug. Again, despite this being a small herd and easy to find and approach, the BLM did not follow up and administer birth control every one or two years to keep the population in check.

2015, and the BLM [was] intent on appeasing the Rock Springs Grazing Association, because a majority of the land in the Herd Management Area is a checkerboard of public and private land, and the Grazing Association, who has the majority of private land and leases on public land in the area want all the horses gone, and/or sterilized.

The BLM did a flyover count of the White Mountain Herd in April 2015 and the “statistician Contractor working under the direction of USGS” came up with 268 adult wild horses in White Mountain. Notice that that is an increase of only 59 horses since 2011. The PZP-22, even though it was not reapplied, did work.

BLM PUTS RADIO COLLARS ON SOME, SOMETHING THAT CAN GET HUNG ON BRUSH AND CHOKE A HORSE TO DEATH.

How about NOT using tracking devices on these wild horses and actually getting out into the field to observe and study them? This is how they can collect useful data. The herd is pretty colorful, and the individual horses are for the most part easy to identify. Photographer Rachel Reeves from Colorado has been observing and visually tracking and photographing the horses since 2010. The horses can be easily approached close enough to identify them. They would need a couple of interns to do the observation. They do not need radio collars.

It is possible to keep the horses rounded up in their families – I have seen it done in only one place, the Pryor Mountains of Montana in 2009. The Catoors brought in each family band separately and kept them in separate pens. They can do it, but it is just too much trouble for them. So do bait trapping instead. This is a small herd with known water sources – it can be done, and it would be less stressful for the horses. Why subject them to the trauma and fear of a helicopter roundup if it is not necessary? It does take longer, yes that is true. But it is much easier to keep the families together.

Government Caught Illegally Selling Wild Horses to Slaughter as Agency Launches Massive Roundup Campaign.

SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR UNDER OBAMA, KEN SALAZAR, BUSTED.
SALAZAR HIMSELF WAS NEVER CHARGED!

The news report, published by ProPublica and based in part on information provided by BLM whistleblowers, revealed that the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM), had sold 1,700 captured mustangs to a livestock hauler named Tom Davis of La Jara, Colorado. The BLM approved the sales to Davis -- a known kill buyer who purchases horses and ships them for slaughter in Mexico -- under the guise that Davis would sell the horses “for use in movies” in Mexico. According to the article, Davis purchased horses for as little as $10 each and “would take males or females, so long as they were big.” It is well known that kill buyers sell horses by the pound to slaughter plants.

The article notes that BLM began shipping “truckloads and truckloads” of horses to Davis after his neighbor and business associate, Ken Salazar, became Interior Secretary in 2009. Salazar is a fifth-generation rancher. Ranchers throughout the West lobby for the removal of mustangs from public lands to make room for cheap, taxpayer-subsidized livestock grazing. The livestock industry has also been a vocal advocate for slaughtering wild horses.

“The BLM turned a blind eye to the intentions of a known kill buyer in selling thousands of federally-protected wild horses for slaughter in Mexico,” said Suzanne Roy, director of AWHPC, whose coalition includes more than 50 horse advocacy, conservation, public interest and historic preservation organizations. “This unconscionable and illegal treatment of these American icons deserves immediate investigation and action. “

““In light of this devastating article, we call for an immediate halt to the roundup, removal and sale of mustangs by the government."

Wild horses & burros being removed for Richfield Tar Sands plan.

In addition to the 'welfare ranchers', here is another major cause of our wild ones being captured & removed & sterilized … please become aware of the Richfield tar sands plan.

The Richfield tar sands has already effected our wild ones and continues to do so as of TODAY with the BLM proposal to rid the White Mountain and Little Colorado of more/all of the wild ones and the same with the Sinbad wild burro HMA (comments due Monday).

The Richfield tar sands plan has been in progress since about 2010 and if you look at the list below you will see that most of these HMAs (plus West Douglas HA) have been heavily captured/removed in recent years.

The document goes so far as to say, “the management of wild horse and burro herds is not compatible within those portions of commercial tar sands lease areas”. How much clearer can it be. They want the wild ones GONE.

(Proof: http://www.riversimulator.org/Resources/BLM/OSTSdeis/OSTSfinal.pdf

TABLE 3.1.3-1 Wild Horse Herd Management Areas within the Oil Shale and Tar Sands Study Area (page 3-167)

INITIALLY KILLED SO AMERICAN INDIANS HAD NO MOUNTS.

Wild horses have long been the victims of U.S. government aggression by intentional slaughter.

In the 1830s the Choctaw Indian Pony was ordered destroyed to separate the Native Americans from their war mounts.
They were the preferred war pony for Native Americans during the Indian/settler wars because of their agility and speed. Some settlers hid a few so that today we have almost 300 surviving Choctaw ponies roaming free on private reserves.

We are now seeing a replay of the 1830s, but now it’s a different story: cattle, oil, gas, mineral rights, solar, and wind farms have made wild horses and the BLM a fatal mix.

Within two weeks of his confirmation in 2009, Ken Salazar began shipping truckloads of horses to Tom Davis, Salazar’s neighbor and business associate. Salazar is a fifth-generation rancher; ranchers throughout the western U.S. lobby for the removal of mustangs from public lands to make room for their cheap, taxpayer-subsidized livestock grazing. The livestock industry has been a very vocal advocate for slaughtering wild horses.

There are about 800,000 livestock operators and cattle producers in the United States. Of those, fewer than 21,000 benefit from the Forest Service and BLM grazing programs in the West. We don’t need these federal land leeches who promote slaughtering wild horses and burros that belong on the land more rightfully than cattle or sheep. The wild horses and burros should rightfully be protected, not slaughtered.

This to me is just another range war, but instead of the cattle vs. sheep wars over government grazing lands in the 1880s, now we have cattle and sheep ranchers against the horse — an animal that has no protection against the rim-rocking of the powerful cattle lobby and no ability to fight back against a worthless BLM that itself is no better than a domestic terrorist.

Tom Davis and other large BLM buyers pay $10 a head for horses captured by the BLM. They sell these horses to kill buyers who pay around $500 a horse. Tom Davis bought 1,794 horses from the BLM and paid them $10 each or a total of $17,940. He sold them immediately to kill buyers, generating $897,000 and a profit of $879,060 through a fraud scheme to acquire slaughter horses that by contract he was not allowed to resell to kill buyers. Yet he did.

There have been no horse slaughterhouses in the U.S. since 2007, when Congress barred funding for U.S. Department of Agriculture horse meat inspectors. Since then horse slaughter has been outsourced.
A 2011 report by the General Accountability Office found the export of horses for slaughter to Mexico shot up 660 percent after the ban.

In Eagle Pass, as at other crossings, slaughter horses are checked by USDA veterinarians. A USDA spokeswoman refused to make veterinarians available for interviews, but confirmed that vets sometimes see wild horses bearing the BLM brand in slaughter export pens.

Brand documents leave almost 1,000 of Davis’s wild horses unaccounted for. That means they should still be within 75 miles of his residence -- if he has complied with state law.

Asked if this was the case, Davis first said the horses were still on 160 acres of land he leases from the state of Colorado. Then he said some had been shipped out of state without brand inspections, a misdemeanor punishable by up to 18 months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

"Since when is anything in this country done legal?" Davis said in a phone interview.

BLM WOULD KILL THEM IF NOT FOR PUBLIC OUTCRY. 

To explore other options for reducing the number of horses in holding, top BLM officials gathered for weekly closed-door meetings from July to October 2008. According to meeting minutes obtained by the Conquistador Equine Rescue & Advocacy Program, they considered selling thousands of animals for slaughter and even large-scale euthanasia, but concluded such actions would enrage animal-welfare activists to the point they might "threaten the safety of our facilities and our employees."

U.S. Horses Sent To Canada Slaughterhouses Suffer Abuse

Maryland-based advocacy group Animals' Angels (AA) has spent the last two years investigating the horse slaughter pipeline to Canada. The group found blind, sick, emaciated and disabled horses with sores and infections packed into trucks, which drove them for up to 20 hours to their final destinations. Some were discovered dead on arrival.

After horses were purchased, investigators found that almost every single kill buyer "demonstrated a complete lack of concern for the well-being and the welfare" of horses in their care. "Horses are routinely kept in overcrowded, filthy conditions without shelter...and wounded or ill horses are often left to die alone."

In March 2013, Oklahoma legalized the slaughter of horses for meat exports (a practice which had banned in that state since 1963), but processing plants there are still awaiting authorization by the federal government to begin operations.

THE BLM HATES WILD HORSES AND BURROS, FACE IT.
THEY ALSO HATE WHISTLEBLOWERS.

BLOWING WHISTLE ON RANGE VIOLATIONS UNWELCOME IN BLM

BLM Fires 21-Year Veteran Whistleblower Rather than Curtailing Illegal Grazing

Posted on May 29, 2019

Washington, DC – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has removed a highly-respected range management veteran who repeatedly reported illegal grazing in the Ely, Nevada, area. In a challenge filed today, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) charges that this discharge was illegal retaliation in violation of the Whistleblower Protection Act.

During 2018, Craig Hoover, a 21-year BLM veteran, reported numerous violations, including grazing trespass in areas outside of permits and in excess of permit limits, and stolen fencing materials. BLM’s Ely Field Office took no enforcement action but instead fired Mr. Hoover.

SEE THIS ARTICLE ON"WELFARE RANCHERS".

In the eleven western states approximately 254 million acres of federal public lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management are grazed by domestic livestock.
To keep that in perspective BLM manages only 26.9 million acres for wild horses (and within the areas managed for wild horses livestock is given more than 80% of available forage). G
DOMESTIC grazing also occurs on many wildlife refuges and within National Parks.

THOSE IN THE BLM APPEAR TO BE WHORES TO RANCHERS, MINING COMPANIES, OIL COMPANIES AND ANYONE ELSE WHO WANTS TO ERADICATE THE NON-GAME WILD ANIMALS OF AMERICA.
THEY TAKE THE SAME APPROACH TO BUFFALO, WOLVES, MOUNTAIN LIONS, EVEN PRAIRIE DOGS AND OWLS, ANY ANIMAL NOT CONSIDERED A GAME ANIMAL, WHICH RANCHERS ALSO MAKE BIG MONEY FROM BY ARRANGING "CONTROLLED HUNTS".

IF WILD MUSTANGS WERE PLACED IN THE WILD GAME CATEGORY, BOTH RANCHERS AND THE BLM WOULD SUDDENLY LOVE THEM.

THESE ANIMALS, LIKE ALL ANIMALS, CANNOT SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES, CAN'T TELL US WHAT ALL THEY HAVE SUFFERED UNDER THE BLM.

IF YOU WANT TO BE A VOICE FOR CHANGE FOR THEM, DO ALL YOU CAN TO STOP THE BLM FROM COMPLETELY ERADICATING THE WILD HERDS.
PLEASE HELP THEM. 










//WW

Sunday, June 9, 2019

MEDIA BIAS IN AMERICA







Why Journalism Is Dead in Modern America
"Journalism is dead because in 2016 America, there simply isn't a market for true and hard hitting reporting. Modern day Americans simply don't like to be told when they're wrong and they certainly don't like being told when the political candidate they're supporting is doing wrong."


RECENT HEADLINES SET ME OFF, MUCH AS THEY DID DURING THE TERMS OF PAST PRESIDENTS SINCE EISENHOWER.
I DIDN'T VOTE FOR A SINGLE ONE OF THOSE GUYS AND SEE NO CANDIDATES ON THE HORIZON WHOM I'D VOTE FOR FOR SEWER INSPECTOR.
MY BEEF IS WITH MAINSTREAM MEDIA (MSM) AND TWO-FACED HYPOCRITES.


A stain on the Lincoln Memorial
"Trump’s insistence on speaking there on the Fourth of July is an affront to a sacred American space and its history.
The white marble steps of the Lincoln Memorial are a sacred place for America.
And they’re about to get stained."

HOW DOES ONE BREAK THE TRUTH TO THE 'LEFT WING'?

First, no, sweetie, the Lincoln Memorial is NOT A TEMPLE, has NO "sacred " status by any government document nor by edict of Heaven. That's delusional BS and a lie.

And before anyone plays that "Lincoln was a devout Christian" card, let's remember the man spent years trying to contact his dead son by occult means  and even encouraged Mary to hold seances in the White House, some that historical documents state he attended. Such was reported in the Boston Gazette. The President had a 'trance sitting' in 1863, and he permitted a correspondent from the Boston Gazette to be present. Abe was enthralled with spiritualism, a definite no-no in Christendom.

Secondly, the Emancipation Proclamation did NOT immediately free a single slave, NOT ONE!

Thirdly, Lincoln was just as racist as any in America today, from any race.

Face it, hypocrites, Lincoln stated succinctly that it was not possible for a negro to be a citizen under the Constitution of the United States and he saw them as dangerous to White America.
But, hallowed be his name and holy be his EMPTY tomb?
Spare us!

The black abolitionist H. Ford Douglas criticized Lincoln’s failure to support black citizenship before the war.
In this dual biography of Abraham Lincoln and John Quincy Adams, Fred Kaplan, who has previously written biographies of both men, compares Lincoln unfavorably with abolitionists on the great issues of the day. Unlike the abolitionists, Lincoln — in Kaplan’s telling — opposed emancipation and black rights through much of his life not because he was an anti-slavery moderate, as most historians have argued, but because he was an incorrigible racist and anti-abolitionist."

From the very liberal 'Huffington Post':
Abraham Lincoln Was A Racist And Other Hard Truths From Our Messy Past

"I grew up believing that the Civil War was fought to end slavery. I grew up believing that the South seceded following the election of Abraham Lincoln because he was going to end slavery. Neither of those are true. The South wanted to maintain a balance of free and slave states in order to maintain their political power in Congress.

And since I’m destroying illusions, I hate to tell you this, I really do, but Abraham Lincoln was, like many white men of his day, a stone-cold racist.

At the fourth Lincoln-Douglas debate, held in Charleston, South Carolina, the “Great Emancipator” began with the following [transcript courtesy of the National Park Service]:

“While I was at the hotel to-day, an elderly gentleman called upon me to know whether I was really in favor of producing a perfect equality between the negroes and white people. [Great Laughter.] While I had not proposed to myself on this occasion to say much on that subject, yet as the question was asked me I thought I would occupy perhaps five minutes in saying something in regard to it. I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, [applause]-that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied every thing. I do not understand that because I do not want a negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. [Cheers and laughter.] My understanding is that I can just let her alone. I am now in my fiftieth year, and I certainly never have had a black woman for either a slave or a wife. So it seems to me quite possible for us to get along without making either slaves or wives of negroes. I will add to this that I have never seen, to my knowledge, a man, woman or child who was in favor of producing a perfect equality, social and political, between negroes and white men. … I will also add to the remarks I have made (for I am not going to enter at large upon this subject,) that I have never had the least apprehension that I or my friends would marry negroes if there was no law to keep them from it, [laughter] but as Judge Douglas and his friends seem to be in great apprehension that they might, if there were no law to keep them from it, [roars of laughter] I give him the most solemn pledge that I will to the very last stand by the law of this State, which forbids the marrying of white people with negroes.
[Continued laughter and applause.]”

There were racists in the North and the South in the 1860s. There were racists in the North and the South in the 1920s. There were racists in the North and the South in the 1960s. There are racists in the North and the South today.
Racists exist in every race, culture, nation on earth.

The Confederate States of America is not the enemy. They were defeated. Slavery was defeated although it existed in ALL areas of America.

Racism has not been defeated.

White supremacy has not been defeated.

Black supremacy has not been defeated.

Nor Latino, Asian, or any other "supremacy".

EVERY race likes to feel that they are #1.

Less than half of the most segregated cities in the United States in 2017 are located in the old Confederacy.
  The two most segregated cities in the United States are Detroit and Chicago. Cleveland is fifth and Buffalo is seventh. These northern industrial cities were intentionally segregated, by private actors and by the local and federal governments, in response to the Great Migration. Many violent and horrific struggles in the civil rights movement occurred in the South, but we cannot forget that desegregation in schools was not exactly accepted with grace and dignity in many places in the North.

From a leading Black newspaper:
'Atlanta Black Star' was created to publish empowering narratives for all people of African descent and everyone who adheres to our culture.

"Lincoln once wrote, “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery.”

Lincoln and His Defense of Scientific Racism
Robert Morgan, a writer for the Institute for Historical Review, confirmed that, on Aug. 14, 1862, Lincoln invited free Black ministers to the White House to have a conversation. Lincoln did not hesitate to convince them of their inferiority when he candidly said the following: “You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two races. Whether it is right or wrong I need not discuss, but this physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think your race suffers very greatly, many of them, by living among us, while ours suffers from your presence. In a word, we suffer on each side. If this is admitted, it affords a reason at least why we should be separated.”

Lincoln’s Promotion of White Supremacy

When addressing the Dred Scott Decision of 1857, Lincoln quoted the following: “There is a natural disgust in the minds of nearly all white people to the idea of indiscriminate amalgamation of the white and black races … A separation of the races is the only perfect preventive of amalgamation, but as an immediate separation is impossible, the next best thing is to keep them apart where they are not already together. If white and black people never get together in Kansas, they will never mix blood in Kansas…”

Lincoln was not firmly insistent on freeing the slaves of the South, his words reveals that he personally did not want to: “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.”

Lincoln believed that Black people living in close proximity to white people would ruin the image of the pure white family that he found ideal. He felt the birth of mixed race children would cause family life to “collapse.” He said, “Our republican system was meant for a homogeneous people. As long as blacks continue to live with the whites they constitute a threat to the national life. Family life may also collapse and the increase of mixed breed bastards may some day challenge the supremacy of the white man.”

Send Blacks Back to Africa

Lincoln believed as Thomas Jefferson, Henry Clay and other founders who were slave-owners did, that colonization, the idea that a majority of the African-American population should leave the United States and resettle in Africa or maybe Central America, was the best way to confront the problem of slavery.

NO SLAVES WERE FREED BY LINCOLN'S PROCLAMATION...NONE.
 

The Emancipation Proclamation as a military measure did NOT apply to ALL slaves. Border slave states like Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri, all of which were loyal to the Union were exempt and allowed to keep their slaves. (Missouri actually had two competing governments; one loyal to, and recognized by the Union, and one loyal to the Confederacy).

Lincoln also exempted selected areas of the Confederacy that had already come under Union control in hopes of gaining the loyalty of whites in those states.
In practice, then, the Emancipation Proclamation didn’t immediately free a single slave, as the only places it applied were places where the federal government had no control—the Southern states listed as currently fighting against the Union."

WHY IS IT SUDDENLY NOT OKAY FOR A PRESIDENT TO MAKE A SPEECH ON JULY 4TH?

House Democratic leaders are protesting President Trump’s decision to place himself at the center of the national Fourth of July celebration on the Mall, saying his planned speech at the Lincoln Memorial would waste taxpayer dollars and impart a partisan flavor to what has traditionally been an apolitical event.

Pssst! Hello, liberals, it is not uncommon for a President to make a speech on the 4th of July.
As usual, you're being hypocritical about this.

And let's simultaneously address sexual misconduct among ALL the Prezzes, shall we, since liberals are screaming their heads off about that "bad orange man Trump" and his affairs, which we should loathe, but let's loathe them all equally? Try it, it works for me!

I won't dive into the racist remarks by each of these past Presidents, but there were PLENTY among this group!

--Listen to Franklin D. Roosevelt's Fourth of July Address
In a broadcast from his home in Hyde Park, New York, on July 4, 1941,
Was that while he was banging his secretary Marguerite in the White House or Eleanor's secretary Lucy? 

--Try to remember the speech delivered by President Woodrow Wilson on July 4, 1918 to the U.S. diplomatic corps at Mount Vernon.
Did the press focus on Wilson trying to dump his fiance Edith Boiling Galt for his mistress of seven years (whom he'd had an affair with while married to his first wife) Mary Allen Hulbert?

--One of the longest Independence Day speeches was delivered by President Harry S. Truman on July 4, 1951 in the shadow of the Washington Monument.
Now Truman didn't appear to fool around on his wife, but there was "the IRS Scandal".

--President John F. Kennedy spoke to a large crowd at Independence Hall in Philadelphia on July 4, 1962.
Awww, that's so nice, yes?
NO GOP riots or media frothing at the mouth, was there? Nope.
How many mistresses did Jack have at that time? Anybody know the count?

--There were no protests when President Ronald Reagan's Address to the Nation on Independence Day, July 4, 1986 was delivered aboard the USS John F. Kennedy in New York Harbor as part of "Liberty Weekend".
One could well argue that "the Gipper" was too old for affairs, but Nancy's with Frank Sinatra carried over into the White House, Nancy WAS pregnant before Ron married her, and there's that White House astrologer thing, but NO MEDIA UPROAR.

- July 4, 1993, REMARKS BY PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON AT PHILADELPHIA LIBERTY MEDAL CEREMONY, Independence Hall Steps, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
(This was before he was sued by Paula Jones for sexual harassment or offered Lewinsky a cigar, lied to the nation about it, and was impeached, right?)

President George W. Bush spoke at Philadelphia’s Constitution Hall on July 4, 2001.
NO media/Democrat outrage.
Too many Bush scandals to count. 
Both Daddy Bush and Junior were above the law, it seems.

--Remarks by President Obama at Fourth of July Celebration
Three cheers, right?
Did ANYBODY protest that?
Nothing has come out yet about 'Big O' cheating on 'Big Mike', but there was plenty sexual misconduct going on in his administration personnel.
Take JOE BIDEN, for example, PLEASE take Joe!

ABOUT IMPEACHMENT FOR TRUMP?
IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN.


Numerous Presidents of the United States have been threatened with impeachment and removal from office.
SEVERAL were Democrats.


Bill Clinton: Released to the public, the Starr Report outlined a case for impeaching Clinton on 11 grounds, including perjury, obstruction of justice, witness-tampering, and abuse of power, and also provided explicit details of the sexual relationship between the president and Ms. Lewinsky. On October 8, 1998, the House authorized a wide-ranging impeachment inquiry, and on December 11, the House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment. On December 19, the House impeached Clinton.

“The fear that Democrats have is that this becomes a partisan brawl, and that it becomes unpopular because a lot of the electorate sees Congress as dysfunctional, as engaging in partisan warfare, and not focusing on the issues that they were elected to focus on: infrastructure, healthcare, jobs,” Dallek said.

BARACK OBAMA:
During Barack Obama's tenure as President of the United States from 2009 to 2017, certain Republican members of Congress, as well as Democratic congressman Dennis Kucinich, stated that Obama had engaged in impeachable activity.

But the effort to impeach Barack but didn't get the necessary votes.


FDR: The impeachable offenses of FDR are much more significant than lying about sex, audiotapes, or what the meaning of the word “is” is.
1-Probably the most serious case against FDR was his attempt to take over the Supreme Court.
When the Court ruled that many of his New Deal programs were unconstitutional, FDR proposed to add six additional justices to stack the vote.

2- Selling/giving arms to nations at war. Congress passed the Neutrality Act, forbidding the US from providing arms to any combatant nation. But when Britain and Germany went to war in late 1939, Churchill and FDR secretly discussed ways to circumvent the Neutrality Acts.
While FDR’s behind the scene dealings have become celebrated in later years as ‘clever,’ he was in fact breaking the law; a law that he himself had created.
The bombing of Pearl Harbor, the official declaration of war, in addition to being a retroactive justification for his actions, provided a distraction to keep FDR free from impeachment worries for years to come.

2-Pearl Harbor warnings ignored.
Two weeks before Pearl Harbor, Secretary of Defense Henry Stimson wrote in his diary that FDR wished to be at war against Japan but that he “did not want it to appear that the United States fired the first shot.”


HERBERT HOOVER:
During the 1932-33 lame-duck session of Congress, Congressman Louis Thomas McFadden twice introduced impeachment resolutions against President Herbert Hoover.The resolutions were tabled by wide margins.

Harry S. Truman: 
In April 1951, President Harry S. Truman fired General of the Army Douglas MacArthur. Congressional Republicans responded with numerous calls for Truman's head. The Senate held hearings, and a year later, Congressmen George H. Bender and Paul W. Shafer separately introduced House bills 607 and 614 against President Truman. The resolutions were referred to the Judiciary Committee which, being run by Democrats, sat on them. However, the US Senate held extensive hearings on the matter

AND IN THE GOP:


Richard M. Nixon :

Survived TWO major attempts to impeach him, 1972 and 1973. On August 9, 1974, Nixon became the first president to resign.


Ronald Reagan: 
On March 6, 1987 Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez, Democrat of Texas, introduced articles of impeachment against President Ronald Reagan regarding the Iran Contra affair, leading to the joint hearings that dominated the summer. A special prosecutor was appointed.


George H. W. Bush: On January 16, 1991, Congressman Henry B. Gonzalez introduced H. Res. 34, to impeach President George H. W. Bush for starting the Gulf War. The resolution was referred to the Judiciary Committee, where it died. Gonzalez tried again with H. Res. 86 on February 21. Both bills were referred to the Subcommittee on Economic and Commercial Law March 18, 1992, where the efforts also died.


George W. Bush:
Due to the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, President George W. Bush and other officials were targets of impeachment efforts. None of these efforts advanced past the hearing stage.

I COULD GO ON FOR YEARS ABOUT ALL THE SCANDAL AND SEXUAL MISCONDUCT IN EVERY ADMINISTRATION SINCE WASHINGTON.

I COULD ALSO LIST FOR MONTHS EVERY HYPOCRITICAL, HATE-FILLED ARTICLE IN OUR MSM AND EVEN BY CURRENT MEMBERS OF CONGRESS, BUT SUFFICE IT TO SAY THAT BOTH PARTIES' INGLORIOUS CROOKS HAVE PILES OF DEEP DIRT ALL AROUND THEM SO THAT NEITHER SIDE WILL SERIOUSLY GO AFTER THE OTHER IN ANY MEANINGFUL, PROSECUTABLE WAY.

DO A WEB SEARCH FOR "SCANDALS OF CONGRESS" OR "SCANDALS OF U.S. PRESIDENTS", SEE WHAT YOU COME UP WITH.

AS FOR THIS "STAIN" THING?
THE STAIN BELONGS TO LINCOLN, MANY OTHER PRESIDENTS AS WELL, BUT IT IS SET IN BY OUR CURRENT PATHETIC EXCUSE FOR NEWS SOURCES.
THE STAIN IS THERE ALSO DUE TO THE GULLIBILITY AND PARTISANSHIP OF THE DUMBED-DOWN MASSES WHO KEEP VOTING FOR CRIMINALS.

LESS THAN 50% OF ELIGIBLE VOTERS ACTUALLY VOTE ANYMORE, BUT JUST ABOUT 100% BITCH, AND BITCH ONLY ABOUT THE OTHER PARTY'S FAILURES WITHOUT MENTIONING THE FAILING OF THEIR OWN.

THAT SAYS HYPOCRITES TO ME.

THE PRESS SHOULD REPORT ALL HYPOCRITES ALIKE, NO BIAS, SINCE HYPOCRISY RULES AMERICA, NO MATTER WHICH 'PARTY' IS IN POWER. 





______________________

FURTHER READING:

How Many Presidents Have Been Accused of Sexual Misconduct?
Quite a few!


Facts about Lincoln.
https://web.archive.org/web/20040607065202/http://ntap.k12.ca.us/whs/projects/history/lincoln.html


Only a few "elegant" speeches listed by past Prezzes.
https://qz.com/1020031/elegant-4th-of-july-speeches-by-past-us-presidents-of-both-parties-remind-us-unity-makes-america-great/


A light look at Presidential scandals, nothing much to write home about.
https://www.deseretnews.com/top/1512/32/Harry-S-Truman-Top-scandals-and-controversies-of-each-United-States-president.html


We may have already had our first gay and/or bisexual President if 'Pink News' can be believed.
https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2016/02/15/7-us-presidents-who-were-rumoured-to-be-gay-or-bisexual/


Hillary Rodham Clinton used New Age psychic Jean Houston, co-director of the Foundation for Mind Research, to talk to the spirit of Eleanor Roosevelt.
[See "Methodist Bishop defends Mrs. Clinton's talks with deceased leaders," Expression, August 1996, p. 8]
Did taxpayer $$$ pay for that?


//WW