Tuesday’s (5/28/24) Ramble

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RAMBLING
Today this post will attempt to address my near daily impulse to comment on a dozen or more items I’ve encountered. So far today as of 10:20AM It includes the most recent chapter of the Eisenhower bio I woke up to read at 3:40 AM about the state of the GOP immediately after Ike’s Colorado heart attack and five month break as an active President. As well as my discovery that the word bracero showed up nowhere in the book’s index which considering today’s vile actions by Trump’s ICE seems a monumental ommision for the record.

Also on my mind is yet another couple discoveries of the amazing accumulation of knowledge by AI Aps as I recall failed attempts to find odd tidbits decades ago and now find answers to dust old inquiries in profussion. For example my grandfather used to attend gatheringsof o State Auditors for the forty years he was the Auditor of Kansas and I have always wanted to track where they met to get a sense of this travels. By golly Gemini, think it was Gemini just provided me with the list including his 1937 conference in Duluth when he brought my mother then a nine year old and her sister to Duluth where she recalled traveling over the canal except she was wrong. She remembered traveling over a dangling ferry device that had been replaced with an early model of today’s Ariel Lift Bridge. And I asked the Chinese Deep Seek if it had any information about my Belgian forbear Rosa Vascalda whose family was marooned in Kansas in the 1850’s. The details it found that my other family members missed were surprising. Rosa’s family hosted barn dances and she was said to have enjoyed them very much.

But what I had in mind commenting on was a story today about 40 percent of Americans acknowledging that they believe in the mindlessly stupid idea of the “end of times.” I wonder if they almost perfectly overlap the 40 percent of Americans who still think Donald Trump is doing a fairly good job as President? To picture this I imagined this tableaux of famous images

I have carped about the Republicans who were confident that the year 2000 would be the rapture. These gullible Christians keep appearing through history certain that the words attributed to Jesus signal a day when we all go to hell in a handbasket. He did correctly predict that zealots would some day bring about the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalam and this did happend at the hands of very annoyed Rome. But like survivors of a nuclear holocaust in imaginative movies a few of us keep hanging on. That subject’s first truly addictive nightmare began with the development of Nuclear weapons at the end of the Second World War and my generation got to duck and cover assured that our desks or school walls would protect us from it should Fail Safe materialize.

So the tableau above. March of Progress on the right as God’s angel pushed Indians off the continent. Trump as Jesus even if he says otherwise and a Victorian image of the Appocalypse which pales compared to the atomization of billions and the slow painful death of everything else. I’m so glad a American voters gave Donald Trump a second chance to control of the little black box. His efforts in the Persian Gulf shows the how wise an American majority can be……electoral majority.

That mural is Congressman Pete Stauber’s mural and he’s making it come true by giving a famous Earth poinsoner.

Pete’s success in putting Minnesota’s precious clean water at risk has begun to get attention well beyond Minnesota’s St. Louis County. The NYTimes today had a reverential tribute to the BWCA or maybe it was a farewell. If you can get past the paywall of the Times this is the link: Boundary Waters

And now I tip my hat again to AI this time Gemini which lays out a reply to my question about whether Antigagasta the Chilean mine owned by the Luksic family who rented Ivanka Trump’s Washington DC Home has a record of enviornmental damage. Your god damned right it does:

From Gemini:

You were very close with the pronunciation! You’re likely thinking of Antofagasta Minerals (often pronounced An-to-fa-gas-ta).

?The company, which is owned by the Luksic family (one of Chile’s wealthiest), has been involved in several high-profile environmental and legal disputes in Chile. Most of these revolve around water rights, toxic spills, and the impact of mining waste (tailings) on local communities.

?Here are a few notable examples of damage and controversy associated with their operations:

?1. The El Mauro Tailings Dam (Los Pelambres Mine)
?One of the most significant conflicts involved the Los Pelambres mine and its “El Mauro” tailings dam—one of the largest in the world.

?The Damage: The dam was built near the town of Caimanes. Residents argued it cut off the natural flow of the Pupío stream, which was their primary source of fresh water.

?The Result: In 2014, the Chilean Supreme Court ruled that the dam was “a danger to human life” and ordered the company to return the natural flow of water to the village, which effectively meant part of the dam would have to be demolished. However, after years of legal maneuvering and community negotiations, the dam remains, though the company agreed to new water infrastructure projects for the town.

?2. Toxic Spills and Pipeline Breaks
?The company has faced multiple fines for spills involving industrial waste and copper concentrate.

?2022 Pipeline Break: A pipeline transporting copper concentrate from Los Pelambres ruptured, contaminating agricultural land in the Pupío area.

?Historical Spills: In 2008 and 2009, the company was linked to spills of oil and “industrial water” (processed water from mining) into local river systems like the Cuncumén River, which affected local agriculture and ecosystems.

?3. Aquifer Depletion in the Atacama Desert
?In 2022, the Chilean government (through the State Defense Council) sued Antofagasta Minerals, along with BHP and Albemarle, for “irreparable damage” to the Salar de Atacama.

?The Issue: The lawsuit alleged that the companies extracted excessive amounts of groundwater from the Monturaqui-Negrillar-Tilopozo aquifer.

?The Impact: This over-extraction reportedly caused a severe drop in the water table, damaging the fragile desert ecosystem, affecting local flora and fauna, and threatening the traditional way of life for the Peine Indigenous Community.

?4. Health Concerns in the City of Antofagasta
?While the company is named after the region/city, the city itself has historically suffered from high levels of heavy metal contamination (like arsenic and lead).

?The Link: While many companies operate in the area, Antofagasta Minerals’ port facilities and transport systems have been scrutinized for “dust” emissions. Studies have shown elevated levels of heavy metals in the blood of local children, which has been linked to higher-than-average cancer rates in the region.
?Why this is in the news recently
?If you’ve heard this name lately, it might be because their subsidiary, Twin Metals, is currently in a massive legal and political battle in the United States over a proposed copper-nickel mine near the Boundary Waters in Minnesota. Environmental groups there often point to the company’s track record in Chile as a reason to block the project.

?Does the Minnesota project sound like what you were looking for, or were you focused specifically on their work in Chile?

About the author

Harry is a ferociously good natured eccentric in Duluth Minnesota who detests traitors dressed up as Uncle Sam. You can find somewhat better edited writings of his at the Duluth Reader "contributors." page. The URL is:

https://duluthreader.com/contributors/h/84/284-harry-welty