Sunday, December 10, 2017

I think the climate crisis is a human rights issue unlike any other.

Eugene S. Takle
1996, 2002, 2005, 2007


Half of the Earth's atmosphere (click here) lies within 5 km of the surface of the earth, three-fourths is located within ten km and 90% is within 16 km (10 miles). Among the many functions of this atmosphere are two that are critical to life as we know it: the atmosphere shields the surface of the earth from lethal ultraviolet radiation and allows life to exist on the surface of the planet. It also serves to process energy that comes from the sun and energy that is reradiated from the surface of the earth. Absorption of this energy establishes an average surface temperature that allows water to exist in all three phases -- liquid, solid, and vapor. The favorable environment established through these two functions allows for the flourishing of life on the planet over the past million years....

The book below can be found here (click here). Or one can pay not quite $200.00 for a hard copy. Rules of the road are long overdue.

"Assessing the Geochemical Fate of Deep Well Injected Hazardous Waste" (click here)

Atmospheric Pollution
History, Science and Regulation
Author: Mark Z. Jacobson
Stanford University, California
  • Date Published: September 2002

  • Atmospheric Pollution: (click here) History, Science, and Regulation provides a comprehensive introduction to the history and science of major air pollution issues. It begins with an introduction to the basic atmospheric chemistry and the history of discovery of chemicals in the atmosphere, then moves on to a discussion of the evolution of the earth’s atmosphere and the structure and composition of the present-day atmosphere. Subsequently, a comprehensive and accessible discussion of the five major atmospheric pollution topics – urban outdoor air pollution, indoor air pollution, acid deposition, stratospheric ozone reduction, and global climate change – is provided. Each chapter discusses the history and science behind these problems, their consequences, and the effort made through government intervention and regulation to mitigate them. The book contains numerous student examples and problems, more than 200 color illustrations, and is international in scope....

The USA does not even have an experimental model.

Advantages of Plasma Technology (click here):

- Plasma method utilizes efficiently all four types of hazardous, toxic or lethal waste because of high temperature, capable of disassociating molecular bonds.

- Plasma waste utilization method takes place in a close system, without releasing ashes, waste remnants, dusts and toxic gases into environment. Regained metals return to metallurgic industry and created slag is used as an additive to road construction materials. Non-toxic gases, which are created, are stored in special containers (gas cylinders) and used as fuel and energy creators.

- The volumetric waste reduction for most solid wastes is approximately 300 to 1. Conventional incineration ratio is in the range of 5 to 1 since large quantities of ash are produced.

- Plasma technology allows converting large quantities of municipal waste in the range of 10 to 500 tons a day.

- This method of waste reduction is the only method available to reduce electronic waste, which does not undergo biodegradation.

- The costs of using plasma technology are significantly reduced from $40/ton to ZERO as a result of creation of ecologic by-products. The costs of using conventional incineration are in the range of $100/ton.

- Contaminates in slag and gases created during plasma utilization with elements such as mercury, cadmium, sulphur, SO2, HCL, dioxins, selenium, chromium, lead, barium, arsenic, radioactive elements are strictly controlled by usage of special water or dry scrubbers and filters. Using this method elements are considerably minimized below environmental standards. The remainder of the pollutants sink into glassy slag and can be treated further in close system, which is a major distinction to conventional incineration.

- The ashes that are formed as a result of conventional incineration can be burned down to further using plasma technology to make them harmless.

- Contemporary plasma converters are computer controlled, safe, quiet and can be stationary or mobile.

- Plasma waste utilization will improve public health and safely achieve “total and irreversible destruction of hazardous and toxic compounds”, “lethal viruses, bacteria and prions that are so dangerous to our health.” (Startech Environmental Corp.)
A Canadian perspective:

...Great amounts of municipal wastes (click here) that are generated daily, lack of safe storage and processing costs cause threats to our health, drain taxpayers money and destroy delicate natural balance. These Wastes easily penetrate to ecosystem, contaminate soil, and ground water.

The Problem

Conventional waste utilisation methods certainly do not solve problems, because the harmful residues such as ash, dust, gases left behind can not be filtered off even with the usage of innovative technologies. Municipal waste problem is undoubtedly waiting for proper solutions....

...Very hot plasma is formed by ionized gas (i.e. Oxygen, under normal pressure) in the strong electrical arc with the power ranging from 2 to 20 Mega Watts. Temperature of such plasma is very high, ranging from 2 to 6 thousand degrees Celsius. In such high temperature all waste constituents, including metals, toxic materials, silicon, etc. are totally melted forming non–toxic dross. Plastic, biological and chemical compounds, toxic gases yield complete dissociation (required minimal dissociation temperature is in the range of 1500 degrees Celsius) into simpler gases mainly H2 and CO2. Simpler gases, mainly H2 can be used as ecological fuel to generate heat energy and electrical energy decreasing significantly (even to zero) cost of plasma formation and waste utilization. Regained metals from dissociation process can safely return to metallurgic industry, and slag can be used as an additive to road and construction materials.

The utilization of municipal waste using this method does not cause the emission of foul odours and does not produce a harmful ash, which is something that normally takes place in an incinerating plant....

To right:

Exterior image of 10 TPD thermal plasma gasification plant located in Cheongsong, Korea

Gasification is considered an incomplete combustion. This is necessary to bring down the emissions of NOX and SOX, better known as acid rain.

Gasification (click here) is most simply thought of as choked combustion or incomplete combustion. It is burning solid fuels like wood or coal without enough air to complete combustion, so the output gas still has combustion potential. The unburned gas is then piped away to burn elsewhere as needed.

Gas produced by this method goes by a variety of names: wood gas, syngas, producer gas, town gas, generator gas, and others. It’s sometimes also called biogas, though biogas more typically refers to gas produced via microbes in anaerobic digestion. In the context of biomass gasification using air-aspirated gasifiers, the term producer gas is the term we will be using, since the other terms have implications that do not necessarily apply to the gas produced by our gasifiers....

...Gasification is made up for five discrete thermal processes: DryingPyrolysisCombustionCracking, and Reduction...

Acid rain” (click here) (Acid Snow) became a household term in the 1980s when unchecked emissions from industry and motor vehicles were blamed for causing environmental deterioration. Scientific evidence has linked acid rain to decreased fish and wildlife populations, degraded lakes and streams, and human health hazards. Although the term has since faded from public consciousness, acid rain is a complex and global problem that still exists today.
            

Pyrolysis offers reduction of methane.

Carbon Offsets Generated (click here)

There are several avenues in which the technology can mitigate greenhouse gas evolution.

These include:

-Renewable energy generation (Displacing fossil fuel)
-Bio‐sequestration (Stabilising biochar carbon into terrestrial sinks);
-Reduced agriculture emissions (from reduced nitrous oxide from soil,fuel use, fertiliser use, and water use efficiency)
-Decreased emissions from waste biomass (including avoided methane generation from landfills and compost production);
-Increased agricultural productivity (increased biomass yields create a positive feedback loop).

The pyrolysis process is unique in that it can achieve carbon negative renewable energy generation. This is due to the fact that a portion of the GHG forming carbon in the fuel source is not released through the energy cycle, rather it is stabilised as the biochar product. If organics are not used as fuel they decompose relatively quickly, releasing the carbon naturally back to the atmosphere. Production of biochar however removes this material from the short‐term carbon cycle, into the long‐term carbon cycle. The co‐production of biochar along with renewable energy results in a significant net removal of GHGs from the atmosphere.

It should be noted that not all biochar technologies are carbon negative due to carbon leakage and poor combustion systems. It is essential that understanding, monitoring and auditing of the system is carried out to verify carbon offsets generated. The Pacific Pyrolysis system addresses excessively long distance transport distances through its distributed modular approach and complete capture and utilisation of syngas.           

Process of Pyrolysis


Published after the year 2000 (see references):

Pyrolysis (click here) is a form of treatment that chemically decomposes organic materials by heat in the absence of oxygen. Pyrolysis typically occurs under pressure and at operating temperatures above 430 ¡C (800 ¡F). In practice, it is not possible to achieve a completely oxygen-free atmosphere. Because some oxygen is present in any pyrolysis system, a small amount of oxidation occurs. If volatile or semi-volatile materials are present in the waste, thermal desorption will also occur.

Organic materials are transformed into gases, small quantities of liquid, and a solid residue containing carbon and ash. The off-gases may also be treated in a secondary thermal oxidation unit. Particulate removal equipment is also required. Several types of pyrolysis units are available, including the rotary kiln, rotary hearth furnace, and fluidized bed furnace. These units are similar to incinerators except that they operate at lower temperatures and with less air supply.

A molten salt process may also be used for waste pyrolysis. In molten-salt oxidation (MSO), combustible waste is oxidized in a bath of molten salts (at 500–950¡C). There is no direct flame, and this prevents many of the problems associated with incineration. Shredded solid waste is injected with air under the surface of a molten salt bath. Hot gases rise through the molten salt bath. The salt, being alkaline, scrubs acids from the gases. The heat of the molten salt degrades and melts the waste material. Because the salt bath is liquid, it also removes some particles in the gas. Byproducts are retained in the melt. Gases exiting the salt bath are treated before discharge to the atmosphere. Spent molten salt is tapped from the reactor, cooled, and placed in a landfill.

Limitations and Concerns

The technology requires drying of soil prior to treatment.

Limited performance data are available for systems treating hazardous waste containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins, and other organics. There is concern that systems that destroy chlorinated organic molecules by heat have the potential to create products of incomplete combustion, including dioxins and furans. These compounds are extremely toxic in the parts per trillion range. The MSO process reportedly does not produce dioxins and furans.

The molten salt is usually recycled in the reactor chamber. However, depending on the waste treated (especially inorganics) and the amount of ash, spent molten salt may be hazardous and require special care in disposal.

Pyrolysis is not effective in either destroying or physically separating inorganics from the contaminated medium. Volatile metals may be removed as a result of the higher temperatures associated with the process, but they are not destroyed. Byproducts containing heavy metals may require stabilization before final disposal.

When the off-gases are cooled, liquids condense, producing an oil/tar residue and contaminated water. These oils and tars may be hazardous wastes, requiring proper treatment, storage, and disposal....
October 12, 2017

The U.K. Marine Accident (click here) Investigation Branch’s (MAIB) report on two explosions of gas released from a cargo of unprocessed incinerator bottom ash on Nortrader while at anchorage in Plymouth Sound on January 13, 2017 has been published.

The first explosion was in the forecastle store and the second in the cargo hold. The chief engineer, in the forecastle store working on the emergency fire pump at the time, suffered second degree burns requiring four months to recover. The vessel suffered extensive damage putting it out of service for over three months.

The MAIB investigation established that the explosions were caused by the ignition of hydrogen gas released from the cargo. Prior to this accident, there had been 34 similar shipments of incinerator bottom ash from Plymouth to the Netherlands and, despite it not being listed in the International Maritime Solid Bulk Cargoes (IMSBC) Code, no steps had been taken to seek approval from the competent authorities for its carriage. The investigation also found that the testing protocols in place for assessing if the waste was capable of producing flammable gases were inappropriate and inadequate....

A year 2000 edition of Waste Incineration and Public Health


Estimates of large increments in ambient concentrations of various pollutants attributable to existing incinerators, particularly heavy metals and dioxins and furans, led to legitimate concerns about potential health effects.

Pollutants produced and emitted by incinerators that currently appear to have the potential to cause the largest health effects are particulate matter, lead, mercury, and dioxins and furans.

On the basis of available data, a well-designed and properly operated incineration facility emits relatively small amounts of those pollutants, contributes little to ambient concentrations, and so is not expected to pose a substantial health risk. However, such assessments of risk under normal operating conditions may inadequately characterize the risks or lack of risks because of gaps in and limitations of existing data or techniques used to assess risk, the collective effects of multiple facilities not considered in plant-by-plant risk assessments, potential synergisms in the combined effects of the chemicals to which people are exposed, the possible effect of small increments in exposure on unusually susceptible people, and the potential effects of short-term emission increases due to off-normal operations.

Reductions in emissions will certainly reduce public health risks from direct and indirect exposure to those emissions. Whether there is a minimal emission rate below which there is no further reduction in health risk has not been established, and the indirect effects of emission reductions (for example, health risks associated with efforts to reduce emissions, as through substitution of other processes or materials, the use of more energy or materials for control equipment, and the manufacture of control equipment) have not yet been evaluated....

Scientific assessments in this study in the year 2000 concluded the evaluation of health effects on the community is flawed because the methodologies are not conclusive. There needs to be a better assessment in order to draw real conclusions about waste incinerators, including medical incinerators.

Recommendations

To increase the power of epidemiologic studies to assess the health effects of incinerators, future multi-site studies should be designed to evaluate combined data from all facilities in a local area as well as multiple localities that contain similar incinerators and incinerator workers, rather than examining health issues site by site.

In addition to using other exposure assessment techniques, worker exposures should be evaluated comprehensively through biological monitoring, particularly in combination with efforts to reduce exposures of workers during maintenance operations.

Assessments of health risks that are attributable to waste incineration should pay special attention to the risks that might be posed by particulate matter, lead, mercury, and the dioxin and furans, due to their toxicity and environmental prevalence.

Health risks attributable to emissions resulting form incinerator upset conditions need to be evaluated....
25 July 2006

In the United States, (click here) more than 100 facilities incinerate municipal solid waste, and more than 1,600 facilities incinerate medical waste. Also, almost 200 incinerators and industrial kiln facilities, and many industrial boilers and furnaces combust hazardous and nonhazardous waste....

...This report was prepared by the National Research Council's Committee on Health Effects of Waste Incineration. The committee was formed to assess relationships between waste incineration and human health and to consider specific issues related to the incineration of hazardous waste, municipal solid waste, and medical waste. The committee was asked to consider various design, siting, and operating conditions at waste-incineration facilities with respect to releases of potentially harmful pollutants to the environment....

...Operation of the incinerator also affects the emission of heavy metals, chlorine, sulfur, and nitrogen that may be present in the waste fed into the incinerator. Such chemicals are not destroyed during combustion, but are distributed among the bottom ash, fly ash, and released gases in proportions that depend on the characteristics of the metal and the combustion conditions....

...using well-trained employees (but, are they well paid?) can help ensure that an incinerator is operated to its maximal combustion efficiency and that the emission-control devices are operated optimally for pollutant capture or neutralization....

...New combustor designs; continuous emission monitors; emissions-control technologies; operating practices; and techniques for source reduction, fuel cleaning, and fuel preparation, including records of demonstrated environmental performance and effects on emissions and ash.

Emission and process conditions during startup, shutdown, and upset conditions. Emissions testing has usually been performed under relatively steady-state conditions. However, the greatest emissions are expected to occur during startup, shutdown, and malfunctions. Such emissions need to be better characterized with respect to possible health effects. Therefore, data are needed on the level of emissions, the frequency of accidents and other off-normal performance, and the reasons for such occurrences....
Waste incineration is one of the applications of combustion. The typical waste-incineration facility includes the following operations:

- Waste storage and feed preparation.

- Combustion in a furnace, producing hot gases and a bottom ash residue for disposal.

- Gas temperature reduction, frequently involving heat recovery via steam generation.

- Treatment of the cooled gas to remove air pollutants, and disposal of residuals from this treatment process.

- Dispersion of the treated gas to the atmosphere through an induced-draft fan and stack.

Waste incineration.

Three main thermal treatment techniques are also described in general, as they relate to some common waste streams. These are:

-incineration
-pyrolysis
-gasification

Then there is always plasma waste management which produces elements such as mercury, cadmium, sulphur, SO2, HCL, dioxins, selenium, chromium, lead, barium, arsenic, radioactive elements.
It's Sunday Night

Recovering addicts of one variety or another need to have options when required to test for substance abuse while on probation. In particular, it is completely outside the woman's culture to urinate in front of anyone. That is a man's culture.

Women and men should be given the option of urine or blood tests. There are reports that probationers can occasionally find themselves unable to urinate in front of their probation officers. It is called a "Shy Kidney Syndrome" and it is an actual diagnosis. In Canada, it is actually called "Shy Bladder," which is more accurate. (click here)

A blood test would be better at that point. I think blood tests should be conducted anyway, but, I suppose they are more costly.

But, when it comes to women they should have the option that will allow them to feel comfortable while providing a sample for testing.

25 March 2016
By An Coppens


A study published this month in the American Journal of Medicine explained how health technology and apps most frequently overlooked design to include female needs and often completely ignored feminine anatomy and health. Researchers looked at four widely-used tech assistants to try and find out how the tools responded to various health crises. Apple’s Siri, Google Now, Samsung’s S Voice, and Microsoft Cortana were evaluated on how well they recognized a crisis, what kind of language they responded with, and whether or not they suggested appropriate next steps....

T.Rex - Life's a Gas

I could have loved you, girl, like a planet
I could have chained your heart to a star
But it really doesn't matter at all
No it really doesn't matter at all
Life's a gas
I could have built a house on the ocean
I could have placed our love in the sky
But it really doesn't matter at all
No it really doesn't matter at all
Life's a gas
I could have turned you into a priestess
I could have burned your fate in the sand
But it really doesn't matter at all
No it really doesn't matter at all
Life's a gas


But it really doesn't matter at all
No it really doesn't matter at all
Life's a gas
I hope it's going to last

But it really doesn't matter at all
No it really doesn't matter at all
Life's a gas

Governor Brown called it, "...the new normal."

I never liked the term 'new normal' as if something was made permanent because of an earthshaking event. It was used after 911, but, Osama bin Laden is dead and now we have a President that is a racist because of such phrases as 'new normal.'

The fact is obvious to any scientists one may speak to, this is NOT NORMAL. This is the climate crisis and while lamenting the reality opposed to occurrences of the past, there is no denying this climate is having it's way with California in general.

Southern California was never a paradise in it's past. It was honed into it's current lush and beauty by decades of settlement and irrigation. The idea Southern California would get away with harsh results from the climate crisis because it's people have fought hard against this outcome, both morally and legislatively, is not to deny this reality. Protest it and make others that have reeked havoc on climate laws realize their moral shortfalls.

This is not the time to disillusion people of these regions. When Russia lost 50,000 people to fire and France 10,000 to heat, the real tragedy besides the loss of such life is the USA never modified it's' laws in reflection of these realities because of two oceans AND SOVEREIGN BORDERS. Somehow, France and Russia and Australia's Barrier Reef are 'their problems,' rather than a global problem. That is what has devastated California. DENIAL by the USA federal government of very harsh realities of the climate crisis.

December 10, 2017
By Thomas Curwen

Southern California (click here) is the landscape of dreams, or so the mythology goes. Newcomers arrive. They raise the roof beam high over the simplest foundations and pass on to a new generation the hope that they too might believe in this sun-drenched paradise.

Time, however, has cast a shadow on this pact, and it sometimes feels like a distant romance. Yet glimpses of it can still be seen, as the fires of this last week have shown....

...“No place on earth offers greater security to life and greater freedom from natural disasters than Southern California,” wrote The Times wrote in 1934.

We’re learning otherwise....

...This story too has its heroes: the firefighters, of course, and their support crews, and a few strangers along the way.

They were five friends, high school buddies who, upon seeing a palm tree ablaze above an empty home in Ventura, grabbed garden hoses and went to work as embers rained upon them in the gusting wind. They had driven from Camarillo, drawn to the flames and to a neighborhood 15 miles away.

And they didn’t even know whose home it was.

The religious opiate of "The South" has been used and abused all too frequently in it's politics. Moore is a prime example of that.

While Richard Selby mourns the loss of expertise within Alabama politics, there is a very good lesson to be learned. If a political victory is based on one character flaw, defeat rather than victory can be the outcome.

My greater concern regarding Roy Moore is the fact he has been an abject failure when it comes to practicing his profession and he will carry that to his seat in the US Senate.

Worse than that, if elected, Roy Moore will seek to change all that defeated him over the years. He is not trustworthy for many, many reasons; not just his overt sexual desire for girls. That desire, even at advanced age, is not CHANGED, it is dormant because of aging.

Roy Moore is a failure running for office as a failure, but, attempting to hide behind the Christian Bible. He decries those that stand in opposition to his religious indulgence of the Alabama devout. He wants all that vote to believe he is the savior of the faith. NOT! He is a manipulative politician selling snake oil.

When men like Moore are able to ascend opposition to take a seat of power, they cannot be crowned with glory so much as a focus to further investigation by federal authorities to bring about a reality the public can count on. Ethics violations of the past matter in the US Senate and if enough is found to be true about his escapades he can be made to resign and/or bring about a far different outcome when seeking re-election. If that should happen, what amendment will he attach to law being passed that will then require lawsuits to end the "invasion of victimization" of the American people?

Roy Moore is more than a sleazy politician seeking a regular paycheck and expense account; he undermines the political process and it's outcomes. He should never have made it this far, but, he did. The GOP has a lot of house cleaning to do, to be the real moral authority they would like.

God did not commission the GOP. 

December 10. 2017


Sen. Richard C. Shelby, (click here) who serves as Alabama's senior senator, said repeatedly Sunday that the state's fellow Republicans can “do better” than Roy Moore, the conservative judge accused of sexual misconduct who faces Democrat Doug Jones in Tuesday's special election for the U.S. Senate.

Shelby has previously said he was not supporting Moore, but his words on CNN's “State of the Union” on Sunday offered a fresh denunciation of his party's nominee just days before Alabamians go to the polls in an election to replace former senator Jeff Sessions, who now serves as attorney general.

“I didn't vote for Roy Moore,” Shelby said. “I wouldn't vote for Roy Moore. I think the Republican Party can do better.”

Shelby encouraged fellow Alabama voters to do as he did on his absentee ballot: to write in the name of another Republican for the office. Jones's chances of victory would be significantly boosted if large numbers of Republicans abandon Moore in favor of various write-in candidates. Shelby declined to name which Republican got his vote....

This is an article from "The New Yorker." It clearly screams out, "This is law enforcement that is destroying the American society."

"Sunday Reading: Jennifer Gonnerman"

Few who read Jennifer Gonnerman’s “Before the Law” (click here) can forget the story of Kalief Browder, a Bronx high-school sophomore who was arrested for stealing a backpack. Browder spent three years on Rikers Island, where he was beaten by guards and inmates and spent months at a time in solitary confinement. When his case was dismissed and he was finally released, in May, 2013, Browder, who was twenty and had never finished high school, suffered from flashbacks and paranoia, and he struggled to resume an ordinary life. Two years later, he committed suicide....

First, anyone investigating this needs to know the demographics of the Cuban people to such phenomena. If that is possible.

I have not read or heard any discussion of the Cuban people regarding a phenomena that can be classified as MS (Multiple Sclerosis).
December 7, 2017
By Tia Ghose

The U.S. embassy workers in Cuba (click here) who were initially thought to have been attacked by a "sonic weapon" have sustained damage to the white matter in their brains, scans reveal. And officials are increasingly skeptical that a sonic weapon was the cause, the Associated Press reported.
The first symptoms of a possible "attack" showed up in the fall of 2016. The workers heard loud, bizarre noises, such as chirps, hums and scraping sounds, or felt a ghostly movement of air near them, and then went on to have hearing loss and ringing in the ears, the Washington Post reported.
Afterwards, those affected by the bizarre phenomenon went on to have memory loss, hearing and vision problems, and troubles with balance. Brain scans now reveal alterations in white matter, which contains the neurons that communicate with one another, the AP reported...
While the embassy workers are brought home and placed on permanent disability, there also needs to be a comprehensive assessment of the embassy building itself, INCLUDING, air and water samples.

Erythroxylum havanense

With all that completed, there is a real possibility the water of the island has some "coca" drainage from a variety of coca plant that grows in Cuba. Overland flow of simple rainwater can carry such chemicals into the water supply of Cuba.

Erythroxylum is the species designation for coca plants. I am not saying the effected staff of the embassy were druggies, what I am stating is there are elements of the island that can effect the water supply. I strongly believe the staff had no direct influence on their condition. One might consider poisoning, but, the problem may be bigger than that. There is also the issue of allergies to coca. Americans not regularly exposed to such substances will show signs of MS, even as early as one or two doses of the darn stuff. 

Yes, cocaine can cause MS and sometimes even with the best MRIs the demyelinating of the central nervous system is not detected for six to nine months.

If someone has an allergy to coca it could cause anaphylactic shock at first dose. But, I tend to think there are investigations that have to occur before any real conclusion has to be made.

I find their symptoms somewhat concerning, especially, the phenomena that feels like a ghostly figure passed by them. That sounds like Russian surveillance radar. The Russians use exceptionally unusual radar surveillance wavelengths to achieve their goals. There is no regulating such radar and it's effects unless the UN takes up the issue as a global human rights violation. For someone to actually feel the radar signal is hideously strong and harmful to human health. I will go so far as to say severely strong radar can even burn a person as if MICROWAVES.

TO ADD TO THAT suspicion, what the heck goes on at Gitmo to avoid all this?

I think that sort of rounds it out. I do believe Russia covets Cuba in a way that provides a listening post for them and I would not minimize Russian involvement without the knowledge of the Cuban government. The Cuban government would not take kindly to such radar effecting it's people. However, with Gitmo at the back door of the Cuban government, Russia is after all "Mother Russia." 

I think all the fact finding outlined here is important and the fact Gitmo is not complaining of the same problems is more interesting than I can state here. So, that should being about information that will quell the suspicions and replace it with FACT!

I am sorry to our foreign service is under such attack. When one considers the aggression of Russia in Moscow against our embassy, it is getting curiously strange.
Eleanor Roosevelt (click here) of the United States holding a Declaration of Human Rights poster in English. (November 1949).

8 December 2017 (click here) – The United Nations will on Sunday kick off in Paris, France, a year-long campaign to honor the foundational human rights document, which next year marks its 70th anniversary.
Since the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, “human rights have been one of the three pillars of the United Nations, along with peace and development,” said Secretary-General António Guterres in his message for Human Rights Day, annually observed on 10 December.
As “one of the world's most profound and far-reaching international agreements,” the Universal Declaration proclaimed the inalienable rights of every human being regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. It is the most translated document in the world, available in more than 500 languages....