The anti-Trump action in the UK prior to, during and after the American president’s visit has been awe inspiring for many of us in America. The grotesque and nauseating Trump has managed to emotionally unify Britain for a time in shared revulsion. Someone said that Trump speaks English like a dog walks on his hind legs.
Trump’s attempt to offer “elder statesman” advice to members of the EU and the greater collection of attendees at the UN actually blew up in his face, though it isn’t likely that he realized it. That said, he is extremely sensitive to perceived slights and is quite thin skinned even by his own admission. At the UN, Trump’s clown car of staff sycophants and pale underlings immediately assumed the escalator and teleprompter incidents malevolent acts meant to humiliate him. If they were acts of protest, then good on them.
It looks like the majority of Americans can see through his charade as a benevolent billionaire, the all-knowing sage of capitalism. If a general election were held now, it is becoming more likely that MAGA would lose control of the House of Representatives. The outcome of the 2028 general election, if Trump doesn’t interfere with it, is in doubt for the MAGA party.
Prior to Trump’s election in 2016, I don’t think he has ever led a publicly owned company. This means that he has never had to be accountable to the public. His actions are always buried within the board of directors of whom he is either the chairman or in control of some relative or other lackey.
I’ve been noticing more examples on YouTube about what foreigners, especially Brits and Canadians, really think about America: And it ain’t pretty either. The negative feelings expressed have torn through the curtain of polite silence to a full venting of the spleen. The traditionally understated Brits are aghast at the boastful American Orange Jesus. This frustration with the USA didn’t suddenly surface from the Trump era. It has been growing quietly for decades. America presumed it’s hegemony and has acted accordingly. Once the sparkling city on the hill, on close inspection we have a darker side, a grubby and mean-spirited side that persists despite all of our self-aggrandizement.
Aren’t Americans themselves embarrassed at Trump’s behavior? Yes, dammit. But due to the election cycle, MAGA congressional support and an impotent judiciary, there seems to be no way around immediate remedy. We must wait for the 2026 midterm elections and hope that the Congressional MAGA monopoly is toppled.
Even if Trump voluntarily resigns, there is the matter of his vice-president, JD Vance. As president, he would be pressured to carry out Trump’s “policies”, which so far have amounted to vengeance and the Project 2025 plan to drown the federal government by holding its head under water in the bathtub to paraphrase a republican strategist. Vance is an unknown quantity to most Americans. He was very critical of Trump before being chosen as the VP candidate. Somehow, he “saw the light” and became Trump’s VP. How would he really behave as president? Connect his dots and project into the future with a linear extrapolation, to begin with.
Trump has already done irreparable damage to US credibility and leadership in the world. I don’t see how this can be reversed back to pre-2015 days. American hegemony has come and gone now that the barnyard gate is open. New alliances in trade, absent US participation, are being set as in the case of Canada. American military leadership will linger well passed the rejiggering trade situation. America has a true talent for the military arts and sciences. Not because of American exceptionalism, but because of the vast sums that we have spent in the past plus our natural resources.
It is good for Americans to see ourselves through the eyes of foreign nations, painful as it might be. Television has a large impact on how we view ourselves. Ever vigilant for new trends or ways of keeping eyeballs fixed on the tube, broadcasters produce content that satisfies by exaggerating our merits or strengths and by burying certain parts of history. Huge corporate news organizations profit by taking a populist political stance and setting inflammatory political content on repeat cycle. Corporations are like a penis- they have no brain and all they want is more.
What is the deal with Russia? Why do the Russian people tolerate the lack of basic freedoms we in the West are accustomed to? Dissatisfaction with their government has been there since the beginning. Hundreds of millions have been deprived of liberty and prosperity following Russian revolution.
The history of early 20th century reveals the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR). Later, after much blood and treasure was spilled after the revolution and then through the cold war, the Soviet Union collapsed after a brief attempt at openness. Many around the world saw the collapse as a positive thing and a sign of better times ahead, especially for the people of the former USSR. There was hope in the West for a transition to some variety of Russian-tinted democracy and for freedoms heretofore absent for the average citizens of the former USSR.
To Russians in power, the very idea of a democratic republic is alien and inconceivable. There is a baseline level of distrust and fear of the infectiousness of the democratic spirit among Russian/Soviet leadership. Even the population has been convinced that the moral collapse of the West would spread to their homeland without an iron-fisted leader.
For a part of the world that has been strangling under autocratic rule and economic stratification since before the time of the Tsars, there has not been a historical Russian-style power sharing agreement between the monarchy and the nobility or the serfs from which to build upon. After generations of polarization by Soviet propaganda focused on Western hegemony and the moral turpitude of the West, there was no likelihood of building upon a Western style democratic model. The Russian propaganda engine continues to this day as strong as ever but with the help of the internet, artificial intelligence and widespread political indifference or gullibility.
The decade of the 1990’s following the collapse of the former USSR was a time of redistribution of wealth for a lucky few. Large Soviet industrial sectors were absorbed by a few private interests, producing fabulously wealthy oligarchs. This did not go unnoticed by the populace, who simmered in anger over it because they expected a freedom and prosperity dividend from the collapse. Amidst the confusion and dissatisfaction with Russian President Yeltsin, there arose a growing sense that Russia needed a strongman leader. Many even spoke admiringly of Stalin.
The collapse of the USSR left an internal power vacuum that would soon be filled by former Soviet citizens. Boris Yeltsin was elected President of Russia in December 1991 and remained as President until 1999 when his selected successor Prime Minister and former FSB director Vlad Putin took over as acting president. Putin was elected president in May of 2000.
I’ve been trying to understand why present-day Russia seems so … belligerent. My focus to start with is Putin. Rather than being a one-of-a-kind freak of nature, Putin is rather ordinary as a dictator except that his regime has a nuclear triad. Until its invasion of Ukraine, Russia also had the benefit of whatever left-over respect it may have had from its Soviet military reputation. But that has changed dramatically.
Putin has long expressed the view that the collapse of the USSR was a tragedy. He wants to rebuild the stature of Russia into a global superpower. Soviet leaders held the view that in order for Moscow to be safe from attack by the West, the Slavic eastern European countries bordering Western Russia had to be under the wing of the Kremlin. It was this deep boundary in combination with the Russian winter that helped to wear down the invasions of Napolean and Hitler. Both armies were substantially weakened by traversing the extensive farmlands and steppes of Ukraine and Poland. It is difficult to believe that this thinking has changed since the collapse.
When the USSR collapsed it left much more than empty senior positions and titles to fill. The Soviet governing apparatus was abandoned when the Kremlin finally conceded that the USSR was economically unsustainable. Even a culture built upon bribery and corruption needs an all-encompassing structural skeleton to manifest its national identity and sustain an economy, security and a global presence. Even a corrupt government needs some sustainability.
Unfortunately for present day Russia, extensive government bribery and corruption in all sectors was already baked in from Soviet times. On a practical level, getting things done involved bribery. Bribes were expected and paid as a matter of routine in the military and all other areas of government. Today there have been show trials with certain high-level officials being tried, convicted and imprisoned on bribery charges. It gives the population bread and circuses to consume and hopefully optimism for a brighter future.
The USSR and later the Russian Federation did not have the benefit of English common law which evolved from the Magna Carta. Born of earlier conquest by the Rus, the Bolsheviks had nothing to build upon for a more democratic legal system like the American colonists had. Overall, Bolsheviks forcibly switched from monarchy to an autocratic socialist empire. Conquest of the tsarist Russian empire by the Bolsheviks was difficult because there were numerous groups vying for power, leading to the Russian civil war following the 1917 revolution.
Although Putin and the cranky Dimitry Medvedev have done a bit of nuclear saber rattling, the West has been concerned about Russian nukes since their very first test in the late 1940’s, so not much new here. Putin’s stern public warnings about nuclear retaliation were not necessary for the Western experts to be on alert. This apparent “virtue signaling” in the form of a public warning by Putin is just a part of Russia’s overall hybrid warfare approach. They’ll use every word and inflection uttered by Russian and Western media as well as the Kremlin to fortify their propaganda with doubt, suspicion and existential threats. They are also actively injecting propaganda into every media stream in the West they can manage. Putin’s dire public warnings about lowering the threshold for a tactical nuclear release were meant to cause a great clenching of public sphincters with the usual fear and loathing leading to internal political pressure for its enemies.
/*begin anecdote/*
Russia’s triad of Soviet-era nuclear weapons have been aging in storage. Are Russian nuclear bomb designs immune to shelf-life issues? By comparison, American-style nuclear weapons have a relatively short shelf-life because of their boosted triggers. According to one source, the entire US nuclear arsenal of nuclear triggers are boosted. American nuclear trigger designs have a short shelf-life stemming from tritium’s 4500 +/- 8 day half-life or 12.32 years (NIST, 2000). US fission triggers have a hollow core which contains a 1 to 1 deuterium-tritium mixture. This booster gas undergoes fusion during ignition in the center of the core and increases the fission yield by the release of abundant 14 MeV neutrons into the surrounding fissile material. With the use of a booster to breed neutrons, the critical mass of fissile explosive is reduced because more neutrons are dispersed to initiate a runaway fission while under intense compression. The reduced mass of fissile material in a bomb is also resistant to unintended ignition by a nearby source of neutrons, like a nearby nuclear explosion.
Tritium is 3H, with 1 proton and 2 neutrons. It undergoes a beta decay where a neutron decays to a proton and an ejected electron, forming 3Helium with 2 protons and a neutron. So, wouldn’t you know, 3Helium is a poison with a very high neutron capture cross section. An aging booster gas loses its tritium potency as well as gaining an effective neutron poison.
But for this application to work, an ongoing supply of tritium is required. Tritium must be produced in a breeder reactor or accelerator. In addition to its short half-life, tritium decay is problematic to monitor because of its low 5.7 keV average beta radiation energy. Tritium atoms or molecules can be detected and measured by mass spectroscopy, but its beta decay radiation requires special equipment to detect. Tritium emits very low energy, low penetrating beta particles which are limited to 6 mm of travel in air and are blocked by the dead layer of skin cells on the surface of the skin. Getting through the window of a Geiger-Muller tube is a problem. So, measurement of tritium activity requires a liquid scintillation detector or an ionization chamber. A sample of radioactive material is dissolved in a vial of scintillation cocktail and run through a scintillation detector which detects faint flashes of light corresponding particle emissions. Perhaps detectors using scintillation crystals like cesium iodide are available for tritium detection.
/*end anecdote/*
A History of Conflict
The lands of Eurasia have, over time, been overprinted with layers upon of layers of conflict over thousands of years. While it may seem reasonable to assume that the current national borders of Europe have finally overcome the urge for military conquest, this seems over-optimistic. The ease with which Putin dashed in to grab large tracts of Ukraine in 2014 show that land-grab invasions are not just left to the past.
The more you learn about the last 4000 years of history of the lands covering the British Isles to Portugal to Mongolia to north Africa and the Levant, the more apparent it is that battles of conquest and defense have overwhelmingly been the norm.
There have been so many armies who have fought bloody battles and died or prevailed on the Eurasian landscape since before Roman times, it is a wonder that there aren’t still great heaps of bones wrapped in rotted battle gear. As always, much remains below the surface in history.
Putin’s Botched War
The Putin-Ukraine war is a war of conquest begun by a dictator who somehow didn’t understand or foresee the accurate weapons made available to Ukraine by the USA and Europe. He misunderstood the willingness of the West to come to Ukraine’s aid, but also and maybe more importantly, the magnitude of the relative sophistication of Western armaments and war materiel. This was a major blunder. While Russian military intelligence should have kept the Kremlin updated on Western weaponry, Putin should have asked more penetating questions. But perhaps most importantly, he underestimated the combative spirit of the Ukrainians and their president.
How did Russia manage to fall so far behind the West in the art of war? A high reliance was placed on its giant fleet of tanks, armored personnel carriers and artillery. Much of this equipment was left over from WWII and the cold war. In contrast to its ground operations, Russia’s use of airpower in the early days of the war was weak and ineffective. Western military strategy has a high reliance on air power.
Russia was completely unprepared for the evolving drone tactics used against them. Drones were able to provide intelligence and pinpoint delivery of relatively small bombs at critical locations on launchers, vehicles, individual soldiers and in trenches. While Russian tanks were covered with reactive armor, the Ukrainian drones could place bombs in weak spots on the vehicles or even drop them through crew hatches to the interior where propellant and warheads could be ignited.
Post-War
To the discredit of both Russia and Ukraine, extensive use of land mines as well as cluster munitions has been made. The immorality of these munitions lies in what happens to the left-over mines and cluster bomblets remaining after the conflict. After the war, the lands are going to be recovered and farmed or rebuilt. Land mines and cluster munitions are well known to remain extremely dangerous for decades. Other conflict zones that have been so mined have left a legacy of death and mutilation for civilians.
At some point, the victor of the Putin-Ukraine war will want to salvage the scrap metal of the many thousands of vehicle carcasses left on the battlefields. One question relates to the explosive reactive armor (ERA) on the exterior of the destroyed tanks. ERA consists of a sandwich of a metal “flyer plate” facing the incoming projectile, a layer of high brisance explosive, and another metal flyer plate facing the tank armor. In order to respond to a high velocity kinetic or shaped charged projectile, a high shock-velocity, highly energetic explosive is needed for fast response to impact by a projectile. The ERA must be insensitive to small arms fire.
A great many videos of the destruction of tanks show that a tank can be destroyed and its crew killed by artillery or drones, but a large fraction of the reactive armor remains. The reactive armor contains enough high explosive to diffuse some of the incoming projectile’s energy release, yet seems to be rather insensitive to the shock of a hit a few feet away. This unexploded reactive armor will need collection and disposal.
Ukrainian farmers will need to level out the thousands of bomb craters in their fields so their equipment can traverse the ground. Obviously, Sappers or bomb disposal crews will need to de-mine the roads and pathways. Extensive trench systems will need to be filled in to recover the croplands. The environmental insult to the bombed-out battlefields is already substantial. The environmental toxicity of explosive residues may need evaluation.
Finally, in victory the brave people of Ukraine face the daunting prospect of rebuilding their homeland. Generations of children have been exposed to serious trauma and violence that no one should have to face. Their childhoods have been stolen from them and their educational prospects badly damaged.
If Russia prevails, the citizens of Ukraine face loss of their national identity and progressive Russification. All of the post-war issues given above will still be present, but the economic and social upheaval resulting from a vengeful Russian takeover will be traumatic. Many Ukrainian fighters and political leaders will no doubt be jailed, sent to gulags or perhaps defenestration.
A Russian victory in Ukraine signals bad times ahead for the rest of eastern Europe and the Baltic states. These countries, Poland in particular, already understand this and are preparing for this eventuality. Putin has previously expressed a kinship with the Slavic peoples of Eurasia and this may be part of his motivation for establishing a Russian empire.
The Fall of the American Empire
As bad luck would have it, this aggressive act of Putin’s Russia coincided with a political catastrophe in the United States. The Republican Party (GOP) in America has adopted the old Tea Party platform including libertarians and ultraconservative evangelical Christians to morph into a party of fanatical fascists, sometimes called Christo-Fascists. This is a reprehensible development that has taken decades to pull off. These Make America Great Again (MAGA) people have decided that American democracy doesn’t work. They favor a weak, authoritarian flavored democracy, similar to what Orban in Hungary has led.
The combination of the election of Donald Trump along with allowance of dark money OK’d by the US Supreme Court, the fanatical support of MAGA voters and a detailed coup strategy penned by the Heritage Foundation and funded by numerous billionaires has turned America around the corner towards an ultra-nationalist dictatorship. Trump ignores the courts, the legal role of the congress, and has lately taken a fancy to sending troops into US cities.
Some knowledgeable scholars have offered that American hegemony, in place since the end of WWII, is all but over. Some estimate that the American empire reached its peak influence perhaps 15 years ago and has been in decline since then but Americans haven’t paid attention. Trump, with his claims on Panama, Canada and Greenland as well as his manic desire to impose tariffs on globally has sent American credibility into the waste bin. The global economic upset caused by Trump has forced former friends to forge new alliances, leaving America behind.
Even if the stars lined up right and Trump and Vance disappeared tomorrow, a return to the previous status quo is unlikely to happen. The rapid trade disengagement by Canada suggests that they have had serious doubts with the USA already and this Trump fiasco was the last straw. There has been grumbling by other nations in the past that the American 4-year presidential cycle leads to excessive and frequent foreign policy changes that cause difficulties for them.
Trump’s “America First” declaration and radical disengagement with previous foreign policy has left an apparent power vacuum in the world. This has not gone unnoticed by anyone. Of course, the BRICS nations (Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russian Federation, South Africa, and United Arab Emirates) are taking advantage of this sea change and are considering moving from the US dollar as the principal reserve currency. America is willingly abandoning its historical global stabilizing ability in exchange for a more libertarian internal structure.
[Note: This post is about replacing the hydrogen atoms along the carbon backbone of a polyolefin polymer with fluorine atoms to produce a fluorocarbon surface on a finished good. Here “finished good” refers to anything from polyolefin pellets, powders, components or blow molded articles such as HDPE bottles.]
Recent news has highlighted the use of fluorinated High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) packaging for pesticides and other products, bringing more attention to the issue of PFAS/PFOS contamination.
What we’re not talking about is a polymer made from fluorinated monomers or comonomers. This refers to a hydrocarbon HDPE bottle made from ethylene (H2C=CH2) monomer that is fluorinated after the bottle is manufactured.
What’s more, the HDPE fluorination process is said to produce PFAS/PFOS (how?) substances that can migrate. Although this technology is not new, and fluorinated hydrocarbon bottles have been around well before the widespread concern over PFAS/PFOS residues, the significance of such contamination was not fully anticipated. As a chemist, the extensive release of fluorinated low molecular weight alkyl derivatives like PFAS/PFOS came as a surprise to me despite knowing that an analogous situation with fluorinated pharmaceuticals that are getting through wastewater plants due to their resistance to microbiological decomposition. For myself only, very little concern for PFAS/PFOS pollution has been noted. You might suppose that chemists could have led the way to understanding. But, not to my knowledge.
The perfluorinated alkyl materials in question bear a close resemblance to TeflonTM which is known for its chemical inertness and lubricity. In chemistry, Teflon is usually ignored as unreactive with most chemicals, except perhaps molten alkali metals. Strategically placed fluorinated features on a molecule can lend the property of greater hydrophobicity or lipophobicity with increased electron withdrawing properties. The high electronegativity of fluorine pulls electron density towards the fluorine atoms through the sigma bonds of a molecular skeleton. Fluorinated organic acids very often have dramatically increased acidity like triflic acid, CF3SO3H, or increased alkylating reactivity like magic methyl, F-SO2(OCH3). By contrast, fluorinated carbon chains themselves are fairly unreactive and quite hydrophobic, as in water repellant. The water repellency of fluorinated hydrocarbons is a very attractive property commercially.
Below are images of the hydrocarbon hexane in ball and stick form and below in a space filling rendering. To the right is perfluorohexane and below that is its space filling rendering. Hexane is just an example of an “ordinary” hydrocarbon that could be perfluorinated.
Graphics by Sam Hill. Hexane (left) and perfluorohexane (right). As can be seen on the right, the green fluorine atoms are rendered larger than the corresponding white hydrogen atoms because fluorine atoms are larger than hydrogen atoms. In some rendering software, the space filling structures are adjusted to show where some percentage (i.e., 95 %) of the electron density is located. These renderings are by ChemSketch so God only knows how atoms are scaled.
A brief interlude on molecular polarity
Before we go on, there is the matter of polarity, dipolarity, dipolar chemical bonds and dipolar molecules. A dipolar polar chemical bond is one in which the distribution of electrons is lop-sided. That is, one atom of a chemical bond has a bit more negative charge than the other, which is thereby deficient in negative charge, or by default carrying a partial positive charge. Chemical bonds, functional groups and entire molecules can be dipolar.
But charge comes in whole numbers, so how can we talk about partial charge? A covalent chemical bond consisting of 2 atoms, same or different, will hold together because the two atoms share a pair of outer electrons. If one of the two atoms in the bond has a greater affinity for negative charge, then the cloud of 2 bonding electrons will spend a bit more time near the more electronegative atom. This shift leaves the other nucleus slightly deficient of negative charge averaged over time meaning that the positive charge of the nucleus is slightly more exposed to the world.
Graphics by Jed Klampett. Polar and nonpolar molecules.
In chemistry there is a saying- “likes dissolve likes”. This means that a polar solvent like water can more readily dissolve polar solids and may mix freely with other polar liquids. Nonpolar liquids like hydrocarbons can dissolve nonpolar solids and may mix freely with other nonpolar liquids. Amphiphilic substances have both polar and non-polar features allowing them to compatibilize polar and nonpolar molecules together. Soaps and detergents are in this category.
We should be careful here. The polar-polar and nonpolar-nonpolar solubility generalizations above are really just bookends across a vast open shelf of partial solubilities between them. Nonetheless, it is a useful rule of thumb.
So, if likes dissolve likes, and the fluorine atoms on a molecule accumulate a bit of negative charge, then why doesn’t a fully fluorinated organic molecule freely dissolve in water owing to fluorine’s negative polarity via hydrogen bonding with water’s positively polarized hydrogen atoms?
Carbon atoms can form bonds with itself or other atoms in several ways that give rise to different overall shapes.
Back to our regularly scheduled content
In situ fluorinated packaging, a niche within the packaging industry, was not something I was fully cognizant of until recently. I have come to understand that HDPE, along with numerous other polymers, can undergo treatment with elemental fluorine or fluorinated reagents to alter the hydrocarbon polymer’s C-H groups and convert them into C-F groups. This alteration gives the HDPE surface properties similar to a perfluorocarbon like Teflon™. For HDPE pesticide packaging, this fluorocarbon layer reduces the product’s permeability to the pesticide’s components. Package fluorination is all about reducing permeability of the container.
Definition: Hydrocarbon. A category of substances composed only of hydrogen (H) and carbon (C). There are 4 main sub-categories: Alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, and aromatics. A hydrocarbon can be composed of any combination of the 4. The principal mineral sources of hydrocarbons are coal, petroleum and natural gas. A hydrocarbon may also be called an organic substance, where organic refers to a carbon-based substance.
HDPE, high density polyethylene, is a hydrocarbon polymer of ethylene gas and often with various hydrocarbon comonomers. Hydrocarbon polymers, also called polyolefins, are notable for their considerably inert chemical properties. Inertness is the resistance to chemical change. However, contact with certain fluorinating agents like F2, ClF3, NF3, etc., diluted in an inert gas can, at relatively low temperatures, exchange the H atoms of HDPE with F atoms. Eventually, all or most of the H atoms on the polymer surface will be exchanged. A carbon molecule that has F atoms replacing all H atoms is said to be perfluorinated.
Pesticides are meant to be spread over selected parts of the environment to do their trick. A great many pesticides are synthetic organic chemicals so naturally there is the possibility of any given pesticide or solvent to diffuse through a hydrocarbon-based container. Migration of product molecules into the polyolefin packaging, in this case (HDPE), can result in the release of the hazardous contents and compromise the overall containment, possibly resulting in exposure to the public and the environment.
It should be possible to slow the rate of diffusion of any given hazardous material through a non-fluorinated container by simply making the container walls thicker. The polyolefin manufacturers would be in favor of this, but the converters who buy the plastic pellets to blow mold the containers may balk. Their raw material costs would rise and they would have to pass the costs to customers, who will resist the cost increase. Then with the increase in mass flow of polymer melt necessary, perhaps the throughput or required extruder torque might change unfavorably. Hard to say.
Some of the small-molecule bad actors
On March 5, 2021, EPA published the list below of PFAS/PFOS compounds found in the 20-50 ppb level in fluorinated HDPE containers used to store and transport a mosquito control pesticide product.
Abbreviated
Full Name
PFBA
Perfluoro-butanoic acid
PFPeA
Perfluoro-pentanoic acid
PFHxA
Perfluoro-hexanoic acid
PFHpA
Perfluoro-heptanoic acid
PFOA
Perfluoro-octanoic acid
PFNA
Perfluoro-nananoic acid
PFDA
Perfluoro-decanoic acid
PFUdA
Perfluoro-undecanoic acid
These are all perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids listed by increasing chain length. Notably the terminal carbon is fully oxidized to the carboxylic acid and is not fluorinated. This acidic end gives a chemically reactive handle for further manipulation of the PFAS/PFOS if desired.
PFOA, perfluorooctanoic acid, has been industrially produced by what is now 3M since the mid-1940s. It has been used to place TeflonTM coatings on frying pans. It was originally prepared by the electrochemical fluorination (ECF) of octanoyl (ock TAN oh ill) chloride, the hydrogen saturated 8-carbon acid chloride. ECF produces the perfluorooctanoyl fluoride which is then hydrolyzed to the acid chloride liberating HF.
Perfluorination of HDPE bottles relies on the most electronegative element, diatomic fluorine gas, F2, or other similarly reactive fluorinating reagents, and does chemistry on a solid polyolefin surface. Fluorine gas is diluted in a suitably noninterfering gas like nitrogen, argon or CO2 and then exposed to the polymer of interest at a prescribed pressure, temperature and exposure time. Fluorine atoms replace hydrogen atoms on the polymer chain. According to one source, the rate of fluorination is diffusion limited. This means that the fluorination reaction is very fast. The presence of molecular oxygen with molecular fluorine had a retarding effect on fluorination proportional to the concentration of oxygen gas. The presence of oxygen led to it being incorporated onto the polymer.
Given the advantage of impermeability provided by fluorinated polyolefin articles, it is clear that there are many excellent applications of in situ fluorinated polyolefins. The replacement of glass and metal with lighter fluorinated HDPE containers may save on transportation costs on a weight basis. Whether or not the economics favor fluorinated polyolefins over glass or metal manufacturing costs kg for kg is unclear.
The range of application categories listed above is quite large. Each entry in the list has many individual components that may be subject to fluorination as well. It is no wonder that PFAS contaminants are spread widely around the world. The US EPA has issued a letter (below) to companies fluorinating HDPE to beware of accidentally producing PFAS/PFOS in their operations. Specifically warning about the connection of PFAS formation caused by the inclusion of oxygen in the fluorination process. The letter specifically cites “EPA’s 2020 long-chain perfluoroalkyl carboxylate (LCPFAC) Significant New Use Rule (SNUR) (40CFR § 721.10536), that are found to be present in or on fluorinated polyolefins may be subject to TSCA regulations and enforcement.”
“It is during certain types of fluorination (e.g., the presence of oxygen) that the manufacture of PFAS has occurred. Manufacturers (including importers), processors, distributors, users, and those that dispose of fluorinated HDPE containers should be reminded of this potential for manufacturing PFAS and comply with any applicable regulations under TSCA, as described in the next section.“
“EPA is aware of alternative fluorination processes that use fluorine gas in the presence of gaseous inerting (e.g., nitrogen) without the presence of oxygen that could reduce the potential for unintentional manufacture of PFAS. These alternative processes for fluorination of polyethylene are highlighted in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) August 2021 letter on this issue as it relates to food contact articles.”
“Requirements under TSCA PFAS Significant New Use Rules. Certain PFAS, including long-chain PFAS as defined in EPA’s 2020 long-chain perfluoroalkyl carboxylate (LCPFAC) Significant New Use Rule (SNUR) (40 CFR § 721.10536), that are found to be present in or on fluorinated polyolefins may be subject to TSCA regulations and enforcement. EPA considers the manufacturing of certain PFAS from the fluorination of polyolefins to be a significant new use under TSCA. LCPFAC chemical substances present in polyolefins due to the fluorination process would be considered byproducts of the manufacturing process because they are produced during the manufacture of the fluorinated polyolefins and do not have a separate commercial intent (40 CFR § 720.3(d)). LCPFAC chemical substances that are byproducts of the manufacturing process for fluorinated polyolefins do not meet the requirements of the byproducts exemption at 40 CFR § 721.45(e)5 and are subject to significant new use notice requirements. Significant new use rules require industry to notify EPA at least 90 days before commencing the manufacturer including import or processing of subject chemical substances for a significant new use. The required significant new use notification (SNUN) initiates EPA’s evaluation of the conditions of use associated with the significant new use. Entities may not commence manufacturing (including import) or processing for the significant new use until EPA has conducted a review of the notice, made an appropriate determination on the notice, and taken such actions as are required in association with that determination. Tala R. Henry, Ph.D., Deputy Director Office of Pollution Prevention & Toxics 2022/03/24.”
Fluorination and fluoridation. What’s the difference?
So we do not make people worried about their fluoride toothpaste or their fluoridated drinking water, let’s sort this out. Toothpaste and drinking water have a soluble ionic fluoride salt like sodium fluoride, NaF, or sodium monofluorophosphate, sodium MFP or chemically Na2PO3F. Sodium MFP is water soluble but not stable in water. It hydrolyzes to release fluoride by displacement by water to form dibasic phosphate. The MFP hydrolysis reaction is: PO3F2− + HO– → HPO42− + F−. The fluoride anion, F–, is not nearly the same as fluorine gas, F2. The F– ion bumps into tooth enamel where it binds tightly with calcium in the tooth: Ca5(PO4)3+(aq) + F−(aq) → Ca5(PO4)3F(s). This is the context in which the word “fluoridation” is used. Fluoride ions bond tightly to calcium++ ions in general. Fluoridation is just a specialized variety of fluorination and is mostly confined to the area of water treatment and toothpaste.
Fluorination is a chemical process wherein fluorine atoms are added to chemical compounds. Contact between organic substances and pure elemental fluorine gas is extremely exothermic and sometimes explosive. The dilution of F2 gas with an inert gas like nitrogen, helium or argon has a thermal safety component as well.
Polymer fluorinationout in the world- Patents
One source of manufacturing information about proprietary articles and processes is the US Patent and Trademark Office, USPTO. In order to secure your legal right to a patent, the patent applicant must disclose the exact art that is being claimed. This is because the world must have a fair chance to avoid infringement. Google Patents provides the exact text of individual patents, US and others. It also provides a timeline showing the ownership of the patent and whether or not the patent is active, expired or abandoned. Google patents also provide links to patents cited in the patent and patents that have cited the instant example.
Being a Google product, Google Patents has extensive and flexible search capacity. Rather than attempt to make a list, it is a better use of the reader’s time to go to the site yourselves and explore. Note that a search will find patents from all over the world as well as patent applications. Google patent provides a English translated version of the patent.
In searching for patents claiming compositions and methods around the fluorination of polymers, more than a few patents can be found. One can search for patents using the USPTO website (obviously) or from Google Patents.
Another good place to look for relevant art is from a patent you have already pulled up in Google Patents. Near the bottom of the patent from Google Patents is a section labeled “Patent Citations.” This section list prior art patents disclosed by the assignee and those found by the patent examiner in the course of the examination process. Prior art is disclosed by the assignee in the granted patent as well, but in Google Patents there are hotlinks to patents to aid the convenience factor.
In situ fluorination
There are companies who will fluorinate the surface(s) of High-Density PolyEthylene (HDPE) and PolyPropylene (PP) containers. HDPE and PP are especially of interest owing to their utility in packaging liquids. These two polymer classes have great rigidity and strength and are in wide use. However, they share certain weaknesses such as air permeability and permeability of the contents. Air permeability is highly undesired in food packaging as it allows for reduced shelf life or customer satisfaction with the contents. Food and drugs may be susceptible to air degradation and possible reduction of shelf life.
Note: The expiration date on a product does not necessarily mean that the product will go bad when that date arrives. The day after the expiration date is that date at which the manufacturer/seller will no longer guarantee “freshness” or some other type of quality. For instance, normal pasteurized milk is not sterile. Pasteurized milk should be good up to 1 week past the code date as long as it has not been allowed to warm up or been contaminated. Once the milk has warmed to room temperature, the normal bacteria loading will enter log-phase growth and could spoil within 1 day.
In situ fluorination is process wherein hydrocarbon polymer containers are exposed to diluted fluorine gas at a specified temperature for a specified time. At the surface hydrogen atoms along the length of the polymer are replaced with fluorine atoms. The result is a polymer along the surface which resembles TeflonTM to some extent. Some of the desirable properties of TeflonTM are then taken on by the HDPE or PP surface. This H/F exchange at the surface does not affect the properties of the base polymer.
There is one caveat, however. The fluorination must be performed with the exclusion of oxygen. One source says that the vacuum chamber in which the fluorination will take place must be pumped down to 0.1 Torr of residual air prior to exposure to fluorene gas.
Fluorination patents
Below us from the description in US5274049A Filing date 1991-07-19, Application filed by SHAMBAN WILLIAM S, W S SHAMBAN AND Co.
A method for the direct fluorination of elastomers “in order to reduce the static and dynamic friction characteristics and to increase the wear life and abrasion resistance of the elastomers. The invention also relates to elastomeric articles modified by the fluorination method.”
“What is claimed is:
1. A method of producing fluorinated elastomeric articles, consisting essentially of the following steps:
providing an elastomeric article, said elastomeric article comprising an elastomeric polymer having a backbone chain having a plurality of hydrogen atoms attached thereto;and
exposing said elastomeric article to gaseous fluorine under conditions sufficient to reduce the friction coefficient of said article without promoting degradation of the tensile properties of said article.”
Claim 8 claims a method using a hydrogen fluoride scavenger …
“8. A method for producing a fluorinated elastomeric article having a reduced coefficient of friction, comprising the steps of:
placing a thermoset elastomeric article and a hydrogen fluoride scavenger in a closed reactor vessel, said thermoset elastomeric article comprising an elastomeric base polymer having a backbone chain, said backbone chain including sufficient carbon atoms having replaceable aliphatic carbon-hydrogen bonds so that a fluorinated matrix of said fluorinated elastomeric article reduces said coefficient of friction;”
In the description the patent cites sodium fluoride, NaF, as an HF scavenger wherein NaF + HF => Na[HF2], sodium bifluoride.
Inhance Technologies LLC filed application US20190040219A1, but it was later it was abandoned due to failure to respond to an office action. The application claimed a multistep method for fluorinating elastomeric workpieces with 20 % F2 in nitrogen and “altering certain mechanical properties such as tensile property [and] the elastic modulus, an impact property, a wear property, etc.“
Systems and methods for processing fluoropolymer materials and related workpieces, US11879025, filed 2021-04-23, Current Assignee: Inhance Technologies LLC. Claims method of removing perfluorinated compounds from fluoropolymers. The core of the art involves placing a fluoropolymer work piece in a thoroughly deoxygenated chamber, heated from 25 C to 300 C and exposed to a fluorinating atmosphere such as F2/N2 for specified time period. This treatment is claimed to remove fluorocarbons like PFOA to non-detectable levels. There is no mention of where the PFOA goes afterwards, but it looks promising if accurate. However, the granted patent is off-limits for 20 years unless a license is obtained or some other arrangement is made.
Fluorination is imbedded deeply into the design of a great many articles of commerce. The water repellency of perfluorinated polymers in fabrics is one of the chief applications of fluorinated organic materials. The inherent lubricity of PTFE, its built-in chemical inertness and its hydrophobicity have ingratiated millions of consumers and have met performance expectations world wide.
Perfluorinated foams for fire protection in aircraft hangers and industrial spaces are valuable for their ability to float on the surface of burning liquid fuels, blanketing the surface as a vapor and oxygen barrier. The suppression of flammable volatiles in a fire by a layer of protective foam can inhibit flashover of the fire, reducing the overall damage of a fire. The fire retardancy of perfluorinated substances inhibits their combustion and discourages continued burning when the flame source is removed. Halogens as a group have been used for fire retardancy and with bromine in particular.
The chemical origin of the fire retardancy properties of perfluorinated organic materials lies in the low reactivity of the -CF2– fluorine atoms with oxygen. In the combustion of hydrocarbons, hydrogen atoms are readily removed by oxygen or radical species to form water. The C-F bond is one of the strongest bonds in organic chemistry and is slow to be removed by oxygen.
Drug molecules are frequently fluorinated in particular locations on the drug molecule. A C-F bond resists catabolic degradation and enhances the local hydrophobicity of the drug allowing for greater half-life and enhanced drug potency. The down side is the resistance to catabolic degradation and excretion. Many drug molecules are released intact into sewage treatment facilities where they also resist degradation, possibly due in part to the fluorinated features. The effect is that fish and other organisms are exposed to the drug. As with humans, fish and other creatures of the waterways and soil did not evolve with biochemical mechanisms to deal with fluorinated organics.
In the in situ fluorination process, PFAS/PFOS side products can form, especially when oxygen is present. This can be monitored by quality control but companies will comply with recommended PFAS/PFOS best practices only if there are regulations or the threat of them. Nations regulating PFAS/PFOS contamination will have to compete with nations who do not impose regulations. This is the usual scenario for nations with heavy reliance on imported articles but uneven regulation.
Colorado, 8/12/25. I find myself in the murky world of the Anti-Trump movement. Millions of voices cry out in opposition of this American President, yet he remains in office supported by the current House and Senate Republican majorities and the election cycle. America is stuck with this condition at least until the 2026 election. At that time the majority leadership of both houses could fall to the Democrats. or not.
The current plague of house and senate MAGA elected officials is with us at least until 2026. The present deconstruction of the US federal government was planned out by the American political group Heritage Foundation and published for all to see in the form of “Project 2025“. Musk’s DOGE may have been connected, but I do not know.
Some people trace the current political catastrophe to President Reagan in the 1980s. This is when he endorsed the trickle-down supply side Laffer Curve to press forward the view that returning tax dollars to the wealthy would in return result in greater general prosperity for all. Wealth would “trickle down” from the wealthy and onto the millions of pointy heads who believed it.
The world should know that a large liberal progressive population still exists in America and is getting stronger. The problem is that the liberal Democratic Party in America has failed to surface any charismatic leadership beyond a few individuals. There are no liberal rallies to attend in my part of the US. Democratic politicians seem to have their heads down trying to plow through endless political outrage.
America’s current president, #47, is a huge embarrassment for most Americans. I can say that we apologize to the western nations for letting this buffoon loose on the world. For America to fall apart because a greedy and precocious real estate developer is building an authoritarian state is just too much to comprehend.
I began to notice cracks in the political foundation around 1976. I stopped at a booth on the July 4th fair fairgrounds and listened to the people there. They were the John Birch Society and were supporting anti-communism, right wing populism and libertarianism. They were unrepentant in their focused anti-establishment views on how to carry out American civilization. What they described resembled anarchism but with close ties to conservative protestant evangelicalism. Never a churchy person or a fan of communism, I stood and listened for a while just to hear their screwy arguments. I found it unworkably utopian and their conspiracy arguments for their ideology too much of a stretch. Their interlocking diatribes match with what I see today.
To my European friends, there is hope for the USA yet in the coming few years. I have to believe that our culture is still strong enough to survive this orange monstrosity in the White House. We cannot allow this guy to convert a long term liberal democracy into an illiberal democracy.
I have noticed that ChatGPT has been visiting this site more and more frequently. I can’t tell what posts they have been visiting. I do write the occasional humorous or lampoon style of post so I hope for the sake of mankind that ChatGPT can tell the difference.
We’ll see if my fictional Poltroon University gains wider recognition from AI.
Getting credible news and commentary from Ukraine can be problematic. I’ve been receiving a newsletter from Ukraine called Kyiv Independent. I also view a Polish Public Television program found on YouTube, Telewizja Polska S.A.(PVT), that has up-to-date military news coverage and action video from the anti-Russian perspective, of course. Poland has a much better understanding of Russia than most of us in the West. During WWII, Poland was savagely occupied first by the Nazis only to be liberated and savaged by Stalin’s brutal Red Army.
Another seemingly straight news and opinion source is called “Inside Russia“. This is found on YouTube and is updated at least weekly. The host evacuated Russia around the time of the invasion of Ukraine and broadcasts his channel from abroad. He speaks excellent English and went to college studying economics in the USA. He combs through news and events in Russia and gives context and interpretation. He seems quite credible.
Usually, TVP military content is dripping with the irony around Russia’s once-feared conventional military collapsing in on itself. Poland has everything to fear from Putin’s imperialism so they are following the Putin-Ukraine war closely. So are the Baltic states and perhaps a few former Soviet states to the south as well.
“Since the establishment of the Tsardom of Russia in 1547 and to the present day, Russia has fought wars every two-three decades, on average, meaning that there was never a Russian generation that lived in peace.” From essay by Oleksiy Sorokin, “WTF is Wrong with Russia?” The Kyiv Independent, January 23, 2025.
“In 1774, Russia decisively won the Russo-Turkish War, obtaining what is roughly today Ukraine’s regions of Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Odessa, Mykolaiv and parts of Donetsk Oblast. The Russian Empire also forced the Ottoman Empire to relinquish control of Crimean Khanate.” Oleksiy Sorokin, ibid.
Much of Putin’s propaganda is anchored in allegations of Western buggery and provocations, spying or otherwise contamination of Russian sovereignty by Western culture which they see as morally corrupt. The former USSR and present-day North Korea built their nations on the fear of America and NATO preparing to invade. The illegal annexing of territory, theft of money and denial of basic human rights is more easily justified if the threat of 10 ft tall foreign soldiers is predicted.
I am unaware of any previous or future attempts by the West to invade Russian territory for any reason. What in the hell would you do with it if you won? Ok, they have minerals and lots of timber which are valuable. Still, the country is crawling with Russian citizens who are, by the way, just as smart as we are and would be highly motivated for self-defense just like the Ukrainians have been. There is no future in a Russia-vs-West major war. The threat of it, however, has value to people like Putin as it did in the bygone days of the USSR.
Putin has done a bit of nuclear saber rattling since his invasion of Ukraine but Western states know that cooler heads in the Kremlin are aware of the consequences of releasing a nuclear war shot even as a demonstration. Everyone knows about Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) but a few on either side have always doubted MAD. Obviously, the ominous warnings of “nuclear weapons” were meant to frighten the citizens of the EU and USA with the hope of weakening anti-Russian sentiment abroad.
In the West we can ask the questions “Why is Russia so paranoid all of the time?” “Why is authoritarian rule so prevalent in Russian history?” Putin has publicly stated that the West wants what they have and he is determined to keep western invaders out. Well, yes this is true as far as market access. Many businesses around the world would love oil & gas or other concessions like Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) or titanium. Russia’s internal markets are underserved and represent opportunities for both Russian citizens and international trade.
I sense there is a fear in Russia that if another country uses Russian raw materials to make a profit elsewhere, that it constitutes a theft directly from them. You know, the zero-sum of “their gain is our loss”. It may be a residue of their long-term dalliance with Marxist-Leninism and Communism.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if only Russia could relax just a bit and join the international community of nations and trading partners. Too idealistic by half? Yes, for now.
Trump’s ill-tempered brinksmanship and his coarse criticism of both long-term allies and old adversaries has begun to cost the US access to strategic materials. In particular, China has announced that it has banned the export of a group of metals and non-metals to the US. Specifically, China had previously imposed export controls on Rare Earth Elements (REE), gallium (Ga), germanium (Ge), antimony (Sb) and graphite (C). More recently it has included tungsten (W), tellurium (Te), bismuth (Bi), indium (In) and molybdenum (Mo) products.
In case the reader is unfamiliar with the uses of the above elements, a list of them with a short description is given below.
Many of the elements listed above are by-products from the refining of other metals like aluminum, copper, lead and zinc. Reduced production of aluminum, copper, lead and zinc will also reduce output of their accessory metals as well.
Gallium– Primarily used in semiconductors; is used to produce the denser, stabilized δ allotrope of plutonium for use in nuclear weapons.
Germanium– Primarily used in semiconductors; a by-product found in copper-lead-zinc ores.
Indium– Primarily used in semiconductors or other electronic applications; it is a by-product found in sulfidic zinc (Sphalerite) and copper ores (Chalcopyrite). Indium tin oxide (ITO) forms a thin, transparent and electrically conductive layer on glass for touch-screen applications such as smart phones.
Tellurium– A scarce element at an average occurrence 1 ppb in the crust and never the primary ore in mining. It is mostly found combined with gold as Calaverite (AuTe2 ), Sylvanite (AgAuTe4 ) or Krennerite (AuTe2 Orthorhombic gold telluride.) Tellurium has use in a large variety of applications. Unfortunately for gold miners, calaverite ore is not susceptible to cyanide extraction for gold recovery. Calaverite can be roasted and tellurium volatiles removed from the gold residues. However, commercial scale roasting of minerals is problematic in the US.
Bismuth– Bismuth is never the primary ore in mining. It is found with lead, copper and tungsten. Broad applications across many domains. No longer produced in US. Bismuth is the highest atomic number element that is not naturally radioactive. Well, it’s half-life has been determined to be 1.9 × 1019 years which is still “pretty stable”.
Antimony– The largest antimony mine in the world is the Xikuangshan mine in Lengshuijiang Hunan, China. This mine produces 50 % of the world’s antimony. The mine produces antimony from 2 different minerals, stibiconite (Sb3O6(OH)) and stibnite (Sb2S3).
Molybdenum– Mined as the primary metal ore. About 86 % of molybdenum is used in metallurgy with the rest used in chemical applications. An important molybdenum mineral is molybdenite, MoS2. Important US mines are the now-defunct Henderson Mine and the now operating Climax Mine, both in Colorado and both operated by Freeport-McMoRan. The Climax Mine resides at the summit of Freemont Pass at 11,360 ft altitude and to the north of Leadville, Colorado. Molybdenite deposits can be found as far away as Questa, New Mexico, with the Chevron Questa Molybdenum mine which is now closed and undergoing reclamation as a superfund site.
Graphite– Natural graphite arises from metamorphization of carbonaceous sediment. It can mined or produced synthetically. Graphite is the most chemically stable allotrope of carbon at standard pressure and temperature.
Tungsten– Also known as wolfram (W), tungsten has the highest melting point and lowest vapor pressure of the elements. As a refractory metal, tungsten us often used in high temperature applications such as welding and for its relative chemical inertness affording high resistance to corrosion. In military applications tungsten is exploited for its combination of high density, hardness and refractory properties in projectiles and other applications. In chemical form, it is often found as a polyoxometallate anion such as WO4−2, “orthotungstate”. These polyoxometallate anions can form higher order cage structures.
All of the above elements are well established in diverse products and are a part of numerous leading-edge technologies in use today. All ores are subject to the market price of their mined and milled products. All of the elements listed above are produced in various simple but purified forms that customers will plug into their own production lines. The economics of their mine operation has a high reliance on the margins offered by their raw material costs. If the raw material supplier goes a step further and captures value-added profit margins by offering an advanced intermediate or even the final product, then the customer faces having to use the more costly value-added materials. The effect can be that they must raise prices on their product or step away from the market. This is just the old familiar path of competition.
As luck would have it, early in geologic history China won the mineral lottery when many ore-forming processes valuable ores in its present territory. We have all heard of China’s supremacy in rare earth element (REE) reserves. China eventually made the choice of halting exports of rare earth minerals as the oxides in favor of offering value added finished products instead. Business-wise, this was a smart and inevitable choice for China, but users who manufactured REE products from their imported REE raw materials were suddenly facing stiff competition from abroad.
Since this policy of China metering closely the export of REE minerals, western countries have made considerable progress locating REE deposits elsewhere. Incidentally, the same holds true for lithium deposits.
From Google Maps. An aerial view (supposedly) of part of the large Xikuangshan mine in Hunan, China.
Restrictions on exports of the above elements will have a large impact on many industries in the US. My question is this: Could a better diplomatic approach to imports from China have been made?
It isn’t all bad news. Difficulties with raw material prices and availability frequently motivate users to invent a way around problematic raw materials. There is nothing like the motivation to fire up the inventive juices than to seek a work-around for a raw material supplier problem.
Manhattan real estate magnate DJ Trump, US President and amateur epidemiologist, has announced that the US will exit the World Health Organization (WHO), according to Reuters.
‘Trump said the WHO had failed to act independently from the “inappropriate political influence of WHO member states” and required “unfairly onerous payments” from the U.S. that were disproportionate to the sums provided by other, larger countries, such as China.’ Reuters, January 21, 2025.
MAGA’s spiritual hero and standard bearer also said that his administration would cease negotiations on the WHO pandemic treaty during the withdrawal process. He still seethes over WHO from his previous administration and claims that they mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic. Trumps words read as pouty and not powerful.
This kerfuffle does not appear to be a bluff. Trump has a long history of refusing to pay contractors who have completed projects for him, claiming that they were attempting to rip him off. This move casts a similar shadow. Even if he personally benefits by the work of others, he has had no trouble stiffing them on their bills. This history of nonpayment blended with his spectacular ignorance of everything technical adds up to this stupid move. His transactional mind is only one dimensional, apparently, and is blind to the importance of WHO. Infectious disease can move beyond national borders and into the US at 500 miles per hour via jet aircraft as was the case of HIV/AIDS. An international entity is needed to intervene, especially in the spread of infectious disease.
One would suppose that the US, as the largest donor to WHO, would have had more leverage in renegotiation on payments or other objectionable issues.
#45-47 is a guy who commuted sentences and pardoned 1500 people who participated in the January 6th, 2021 riot and destructive and illegal entry into the US capitol building. This despite complete video evidence and guilty verdicts. Below is a quote by the QAnon, the horned shaman-
“I JUST GOT THE NEWS FROM MY LAWYER… I GOT A PARDON BABY! THANK YOU PRESIDENT TRUMP!!!” Jacob Chansley, dubbed the QAnon shaman as a reflection of his horned-animal headdress and body paint at the January 6, 2021, riot inside the U.S. Capitol, posted on X shortly after President Donald Trump commuted the sentences of or pardoned all those convicted of crimes related to the events of that day. “NOW I AM GONNA BY SOME MOTHA FU*KIN GUNS!!! I LOVE THIS COUNTRY!!! GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!!” he continued. “J6ers are getting released & JUSTICE HAS COME… EVERYTHING done in the dark WILL come to light!”
So, let the idiot gets his guns. This was his reflex after getting out of prison. Make yer momma proud, bucko.
Thus, a truly ugly chapter continues in the history of our country.
Here is the definition of ethnic cleansing provided by Wikipedia.
Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, or religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making the society ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal such as deportation or population transfer, it also includes indirect methods aimed at forced migration by coercing the victim group to flee and preventing its return, such as murder, rape, and property destruction.[1][2][3][4][5] Both the definition and charge of ethnic cleansing is often disputed, with some researchers including and others excluding coercive assimilation or mass killings as a means of depopulating an area of a particular group.[6][7][8]
Maybe the US is truly concerned about the legality of the millions of illegal aliens within its borders and nothing else. Shipping them out of the country would be an act of law enforcement then. While the GOP members who are spearheading the upcoming mass deportation may be following the letter of the law, the broken laws pertaining to their supreme leader, a felon actually, are easily overlooked. He is more good than bad I suppose.
Given the well-known animus towards those not of European decent, is it just a coincidence that Americans are deporting a very, very large number of them? Certainly, the majority of those to be deported could be identified as coming from a different culture than ours- you know, obese, ignorant and cynical Americans. And, those from Central and South America are likely to be a bit tanner colored than common specimens of the pasty white American couch potato. This alone makes them easier to apprehend.
My guess is that once the Trump manhunt is underway, a place to concentrate them will be necessary. It will have to be a lock-up sort of place because we can’t have them just walking away. A remote location because the NIMBY reflex will not allow them near population centers. I’m thinking the concentrating camps will be along the US-Mexico border.
If we decide to bus them, will Mexico cooperate by allowing the buses into their country? If we fly them, will the Mexican authorities allow the planes to land? And if they do, will they be allowed to deplane and enter passport control? Or will they be denied entry at this point, passport or not? Final question: can they keep the air miles?
If they don’t ship them out right away, how long before the camps become an apartheid situation?
Look at all of the awful words I’ve used- ethnic cleansing, concentrating camp and apartheid. And, all in the context of America, land of the free and home of the brave, and … all men are created equal …
This is not the America I remember going to school in. Half of the electorate has put in place a despicable wannabe dictator and felon plus a republican guard of rabid elected followers. This is a moral disfigurement of the United States of America. Somebody put a drop cloth over the Statue of Liberty until this is over. It’s embarrassing.
This solution of deportation of millions of illegal immigrants certainly has the stink of ethnic cleansing to me. Maybe I’m wrong. I hope so.
California is on fire again. So, what else is new?
The 4000-acre Franklin fire in Malibu, CA, is forcing thousands out of their homes. Cher and Dick Van Dyke had to flee from their homes. Physical reality has come a-callin’ to the world of celebrity.
The other news today is the letter signed by 77 Nobel prize laureates urging the senate not to approve the appointment of RFK, Jr, to head the HHS. The presidential transition team reportedly groused that they weren’t about to take any advice from a bunch of elites who were trying to tell Americans “What to do and how to do it” regarding health care.
We have elite service men and women and elite police officers. Sports has its elite athletes. This is all positive and in common usage. But MAGA GOPers use the word ‘elite’ like a switchblade against liberals and the highly credentialed. To presume that you know a thing or two and have some credentials to back it up is considered a form of public indecency to the GOP Know-Nothings.
The accusation of elitism is ironic coming from Trump’s band of sh*tbirds on the transition team. You don’t think they’re a gaggle of elites?
There has always been a genuine reverence out there for people who are ‘down to earth’. It is part of the inherent goodness-of-the-poor trope where simple folk are praised for their perceived moral purity which is unfettered by the temptations of the world at large. Simple, good and decent folk of modest means who go to church and take care of themselves and their neighbors. You know, the rabble. The privileged sometimes feign noblesse oblige, especially if others are watching. There has always been the poor and the hapless people of the world. But given actual opportunity to improve and enrich themselves, many if not most will take it. Being poor all by itself is an exhausting, soul-sucking life.
I’ve known city people and farm people. The Harvard educated and the 8th grade country school graduates and the many in between. I’ve lived in a very large city and a small Iowa farm. In medium cities and small towns. Everywhere you look you’ll find a statistical distribution of saints and sinners. But among them you’ll also find many of those who are bitterly resentful of another’s success or just disappointed in their lot in life. They slave away at go-nowhere jobs all day and then return home to see television programs packed with beautiful and successful people. Or while shopping they will see products that are wildly out of their price range but nonetheless in common usage. The period of life that they could have gotten an education or training and the resulting opportunities are long gone. They’re stuck. If they had a chance at a better life, it has likely passed.
Then along comes a charismatic character who speaks to you. He is a successful billionaire, businessman and reality TV star who speaks of a mismanaged world where the economically oppressed can stick it to the ‘elites’ in Washington who are keeping them down. The reasoning goes like this: If he is a billionaire, real estate mogul and TV star, he must also be able to apply his business skills to govern the US. Success in business is an all-around qualification for government, right? His language is salty and his accusations are often libelous. Conservative evangelical protestant churches all over the country have come out in favor of the guy. Some are convinced he is heaven sent to trigger the second coming of Christ. If pastors are saying it, it must be true, right?
So, the guy gets elected as chief executive of the US government. Then he is selected as Time Magazine’s ‘Person of the Year’. If you recall, the designation isn’t always a valentine to the person and their impressive deeds. Rather, it is a marker representing the large-scale influence the awardee has had. Just like numbers on the number line, influence can have a positive or a negative sign depending on which direction they’ve taken. Despicable characters like Joseph Stalin (1939 & 1942), Adolph Hitler (1938), Ruhollah Khomeini (1979) and Vladimir Putin (2007) have been selected for this award along with many decent people. That Trump and his flock of sheep will take it as a powerful endorsement should not be a surprise.
The accusation of the ‘elite’ status of an educated person is an attempt to slander a person. It is an ad hominem attack. Rhetorically, it is meant to deflect attention from a person’s argument and instead attempt to disqualify the person themselves. At least since Reagan, GOP has long been fond of attacking academics or other recognized experts in a field because they are able to use established facts and logic to back their arguments. To a populist, this is a type of power that academics ‘elites’ can uniquely wave around that must be overcome. So, when up against facts that argue against the populist, they get dirty. This is Courtroom Drama 101, straight out of law school. You try to destroy the credibility of the contradicting expert, or in this case the elite person or their entire field.
Colleges and universities award diplomas to graduates as only a token of achievement. It is an official endorsement of a person’s education and intellectual growth by their institution. It certifies that the graduate has met a list of standards in their field of education. It is not a certification in all around knowledge. A degree is a union card that helps, but does not guarantee, a person gain entry-level admission into their chosen field.
When I do something stupid, my spouse likes to wave the irony flag with great amusement to contrast my chemistry PhD education with my stupid move. I have to point out that the degree is only for a tiny sliver of a very large and esoteric field, mostly meaningless in daily village life. Actually, the degree is less than meaningless overall, given the amount of time (June 1980 to June 1992) spent on a chemical education versus investing in real estate, contributing to a retirement fund, finance, auto mechanics, carpentry, landscaping and many other useful skills. It’s a big trade-off that I took willingly.
There is a very positive side to elitism. In addition to the negatives like cliquishness and snobbery, people who might be called elite have gone beyond the extra mile to acquire expertise in a particular area which has been endorsed by accredited educational institutions. These people get hired by organizations because their expertise is valuable. People who become immunologists and virologists, for instance, are hired and put to work in public health. These people are highly educated and their opinions should be taken seriously. They are not extruded out of a political party apparatus and placed in health agencies with a political agenda. Ideologs think this way because it validates their half-assed arguments. Of course people will evolve political leanings over time, but doesn’t everybody? Why replace people based on educational merit regardless of their politics with people based primarily on their loyalty? This is how fascism soaks into a society.
Lamentations on Chemistry 