Santa Susana Field Laboratory cleanup activists fear that hazardous materials may have been released when the Woolsey Fire burned a portion of the contaminated site last week.

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control, which is overseeing the long-planned cleanup of the field lab, site of a 1959 partial nuclear meltdown when it was the Rocketdyne/Atomics International rocket engine test and nuclear facility, says it doesn't believe any contaminants that pose a risk to people were released. The site also experienced other chemical and radioactive contamination over the years.

The fire, which started Thursday afternoon near the 2,850-acre field lab in unincorporated hills just southeast of Simi Valley, burned a portion of the site later that day, the state agency said in a news release Friday.

"It is no longer burning within the SSFL site and is moving away from the site," the release stated.

"Our scientists and toxicologists have reviewed information about the fire's location and do not believe the fire has caused any releases of hazardous materials that would pose a risk to people exposed to the smoke," the agency said.

Cleanup activists have their doubts.

"We can't trust anything that DTSC says," one such activist, Melissa Bumstead, said in the activists' own news release. "DTSC repeatedly minimizes risk from SSFL and has broken every promise it ever made about the SSFL cleanup. The public has no confidence in this troubled agency."

Robert Dodge, president of Physicians for Social Responsibility Los Angeles, shares Bumstead's concerns.

“We know what substances are on the site and how hazardous they are," he said. "We’re talking about incredibly dangerous radionuclides and toxic chemicals … and heavy metals."

"These toxic materials are in SSFL’s soil and vegetation, and when it burns and becomes airborne in smoke and ash, there is a real possibility of heightened exposure for area residents," he said.

A third activist, Marie Mason, of Simi Valley, and co-founder of the Rocketdyne Cleanup Coalition, said in a second statement that the fire "may have resulted in even more toxic exposures. We’ve always worried about a fire at SSFL. SSFL could have and should have been cleaned up a long time ago.”

Bumstead said cleanup activists want independent experts, not the toxic substances control department, to determine if the fire caused any contaminants to be released at the field lab.

"We want an independent agency to do the radioactive and air monitoring near the site," said Bumstead, who lives in West Hills, which neighbors the site in Los Angeles County.

Bumstead said she's spoken with the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

"They said only the federal Environmental Protection Agency had the capacity to do the monitoring," she said.

An EPA spokesperson on Monday would only say that she believed the toxic substances control department remained the lead agency for monitoring the site.

Bumstead said State Sen. Henry Stern, D-Canoga Park, said at a community meeting Sunday night that "he agreed that an independent agency needed to look into whether the fire caused hazardous materials to be released at the field lab."

The community meeting was held at Taft High School in Woodland Hills, a section of Los Angeles not far from Simi Valley.

As of Monday morning, the Woolsey Fire had spread to 91,572 acres, killed two civilians and destroyed 370 structures.

Most of the Santa Susana site is now owned by aerospace giant Boeing and is divided into four areas with northern and southern buffer zones.

Boeing is responsible for cleaning up Area 3, its part of Area 1 and the Southern Buffer Zone.

The Department of Energy does not own any land at the site but is responsible for the cleanup of Area 4 and the Northern Buffer Zone.

NASA administers a smaller portion of the site and is responsible for remediating Area 2 and its part of Area 1.

It's not clear when the much-delayed cleanup will begin.

The toxic substances control department said in August it didn't know when it would release its "decision document," which will detail the agency's cleanup plan for the site

https://www.vcstar.com/story/news/local/communities/simi-valley/2018/11/12/woolsey-fire-may-have-released-toxins-santa-susana-field-laboratory/1976845002/

Adam B. Schiff, a Democrat, represents California’s 28th District in the House, where he is the ranking minority member of the Intelligence Committee.

Only hours after the magnitude of Democratic gains in the House became apparent, President Trump ousted Attorney General Jeff Sessions, putting special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation in imminent danger. This represents the president’s most direct challenge yet to the rule of law.

Instead of elevating Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, the most senior Senate-confirmed officer at the Justice Department, Trump circumvented normal succession by handpicking Matthew G. Whitaker, Sessions’s chief of staff and a person who has publicly criticized the special counsel’s investigation and has troubling conflicts of interest.

The president and Whitaker should heed this warning: The new Democratic majority will protect the special counsel and the integrity of the Justice Department. Should Whitaker fail to recuse himself — all indications are that he plans not to — and seek to obstruct the investigation, serve as a back channel to the president or his legal team or interfere in the investigations in any way, he will be called to answer. His actions will be exposed.

It is no mystery why the president chose Whitaker, an obscure and ill-qualified official never confirmed by the Senate, which many legal experts believe makes the appointment itself unconstitutional. Trump chose him to protect himself, his family and his close associates from the special counsel’s investigation and other investigations within the Justice Department.

Though I had many profound disagreements with Sessions, he was correct to follow the rules meant to ensure public confidence in the fair administration of justice and recuse himself, even though the president viewed Sessions’s compliance as a singular act of disloyalty. We must demand the highest ethical standards of everyone at the Justice Department, including the attorney general.

More:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/adam-schiff-matthew-whitaker-were-watching-you/2018/11/12/996bcdf2-e696-11e8-bbdb-72fdbf9d4fed_story.html?utm_term=.fabc542ab7ee

Commenting on Monday's flare-up of rocket fire after a prior Israeli commando raid into Gaza territory to assassinate Hamas leaders, the Jerusalem Post observed that Hamas' retaliation included "the most amount of rockets ever fired into Israel in 24 hours."

Various international reports have cited over 300 rockets and mortars fired into Israeli, which began with a sustained barrage of about 100 within the first hour of the launches alone. What's been dubbed as a "revenge" attack on heels of Monday funeral prayers for slain Hamas commanders killed by Israeli special forces were quickly met with widespread airstrikes on the strip, including on a Hamas television broadcast building, and some 70 targets in total across the strip.

Meanwhile there appears preparations for what could be a major war and full Israeli invasion of Gaza underway as tank units have been observed mustering at entry points into Gaza.

Notably after cutting short his Paris trip Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu held a lengthy meeting with his defense minister and military leaders to consider a response to the escalating violence and rocket attacks — one of which scored a direct hit Monday on what's now been identified as an IDF bus in southern Israel, which injured a 19-year old soldier.

The Times of Israel reports that a major ground offensive is increasingly likely, and with more airstrikes to come:

The army was reportedly given a green light from policymakers to pummel terror groups in the Strip if they continued with the barrages, as the terror organizations in the Strip vowed to do.

Israel's Arutz Sheva reported of the defense and military meeting with Netanyahu: "in the prime minister's consultation with the heads of the defense establishment, operational decisions were made," and indicated "the IDF has been given a green light to launch a heavy retaliation."

This was the moment Israeli air strikes hit the Al-Aqsa TV office in Gaza pic.twitter.com/uohhyM4HnE

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) November 13, 2018

On Tuesday a full Security Cabinet meeting is expected to make final decisions regarding Israel's course of action.

Meanwhile IDF Spokesperson Brigadier General Ronen Manelis warned on Tuesday: "Hamas is leading the Gaza Strip to destruction and will feel the intensity of the IDF's response in the coming hours."

In another indicator of what's to come possibly imminently, Major General Kamil Abu Rokon, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), wrote public comments on an official communications social media account: “Residents of Gaza, look closely at the pictures from Protective Edge in 2014: A picture is worth a thousand words.”

Late in the day Monday Hamas took the provocative step of publishing video of its operation to destroy the Israeli troop bus which had injured one soldier.

#Hamas releases video of Kornet anti-tank missile hitting bus critically injuring an #IDF soldier earlier today. He is seen clearly standing next to the bus when it was hit pic.twitter.com/VG9UrDmNxQ

— Anna Ahronheim (@AAhronheim) November 12, 2018

A Hamas militant had attacked the bus in an ambush from somewhat close range using a sophisticated anti-tank missile.

So far at least 3 Palestinians have died with many more wounded, and an Israeli special forces soldier was killed Sunday during a daring cross border raid on a Hamas HQ. Israeli sources are reporting extensive damage on communities in the south due to incoming rockets from Gaza, and multiple civilians injured.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-11-13/israeli-tanks-prepare-major-gaza-offensive-after-green-light-major-retaliation

Sheikh Nur Baraka, the Hamas commander who was killed in Sunday night's clash with an elite IDF unit in the southern Gaza Strip, was not known to many Palestinians.

They first heard his name when Hamas announced that he had been "martyred" during the clash with the IDF soldiers. Baraka, 37, joined Hamas at the age of 18, according to sources in the Gaza Strip.

But while he was working for Hamas, his older brother, Suleiman, became a famous astrophysicist, who even worked as scientist with the NASA space agency.

Prof. Suleiman, who was born in the Gaza Strip in 1965, returned from the US to the Gaza Strip two years ago to teach at local universities and colleges.

His 12-year-old son, Ibrahim, was reportedly killed in an Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip in 2008. He himself had been arrested at least twice by the IDF during the 70's and 80's for security-related offences.

Prof. Baraka is the only Palestinian from the Gaza Strip who has worked for NASA - an achievement that has been recognized with his nomination for UNESCO's first Middle East chairmanship, among other awards, according to the Middle East Eye website.

“There was always a debate inside my head, tossing around the thought that the missile which hit my son could have been developed by colleagues I lived and worked with on a daily basis. I couldn’t reconcile that thought,” Prof. Baraka told the website upon his return to the Gaza Strip. “I have decided to move from the great expanse of the universe to a small pocket of land on earth."

Prof. Baraka received his Bachelor's degree from Al-Quds University in Abu Dis (south of Jerusalem) in 1987, and later he was offered a place on a PhD study program in France. He later moved to the US, where he briefly worked at the NASA space agency in Virginia.

“That was a turning point in my life - in the life of any young man - to work with an organization that has developed, and is developing, some of the most extraordinary modern-day visions with a real capacity to change history,” he said in the interview.

In another interview with the Al-Jazeera network, the scientist said he had plans to increase Palestinians' education about astronomy, and said he hoped it would become a major program at Palestinian universities.

https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/gaza-news/Brother-of-Hamas-commander-killed-by-IDF-worked-for-NASA-571800

And the hits just keep on coming!

In recent months there’s been an increase in stories in which a follower of radical conspiracies shifts their actions from the web and into the world.

In June, a QAnon conspiracy follower kicked off a one-man standoff at the Hoover Dam. Another QAnon supporter was arrested the next month occupying a Cemex cement factory, claiming that he had knowledge that Cemex was secretly assisting in child trafficking—a theory discussed in Facebook groups, in an attempt to push it into Twitter trending topics.

WhatsApp conspiracy theories about pedophiles in India led to murders. Investigations of Cesar Sayoc, dubbed the “magabomber,” turned up his participation in conspiratorial Facebook groups. There’s the Tree of Life synagogue shooter. The Comet Pizza “Pizzagate” shooter. There are, unfortunately, plenty of examples.

Of course it’s expected that people who commit acts of aggression will also have social media profiles. And most people who believe in a conspiracy are not prone to violence. But these social media profiles bear another common thread: evidence that the perpetrators’ radicalization happened within an online conspiracy group.

We used to worry about filter bubbles, which accidentally trap users in a certain sphere of information. In the era of social networks, the bubble has expanded: People can easily become enmeshed in online communities that operate with their own media, facts, and norms, in which outside voices are actively discredited. Professor C. Thi Nguyen refers to these places as echo chambers. “An epistemic bubble is when you don’t hear people from the other side,” he writes. “An echo chamber is what happens when you don’t trust people from the other side.”

There are some common pathways reported by people who fall into, and then leave, these communities. They usually report that their initial exposure started with a question, and that a search engine took them to content that they found compelling. They engaged with the content, and then found more. They joined a few groups, and soon a recommendation engine sent them others. They alienated old friends but made new ones in the groups, chatted regularly about their research, built communities, and eventually recruited other people.

“When you met an ignorant nonbeliever, you sent them YouTube videos of excessively protracted contrails and told them things like: 'Look at the sky! It's obvious!'" Stephanie Wittis, a self-described former chemtrails and Illuminati conspiracy believer, told Vice. “You don't even go into detail about the matter or the technical inconsistencies, you just give them any explanation that sounds reasonable, cohesive, and informed—in a word, scientific. And then you give them the time to think about it."

This behavior resembles another, older phenomenon: It’s strikingly similar to cult recruitment tactics of the pre-internet era, in which recruits are targeted and then increasingly isolated from the non-cult world. “The easiest way to radicalize someone is to permanently warp their view of reality,” says Mike Caulfield, head of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities digital polarization initiative. “It’s not just confirmation bias … we see people moving step by step into alternate realities. They start off questioning and then they’re led down the path.”

More BS can be found here:

https://www.wired.com/story/online-conspiracy-groups-qanon-cults/

Walmart Inc.'s Flipkart Group, an India-based e-commerce company, disclosed Tuesday Chief Executive Binny Bansal has resigned, effective immediately. The resignation comes after an independent investigation into allegations of "serious personal misconduct." The company said Bansal "strongly denies" the allegations. "While the investigation did not find evidence to corroborate the complainant's assertions against Binny, it did reveal other lapses of judgement, particularly a lack of transparency, related to how Binny responded to the situation," Walmart and Flipkart said in a statement. "Because of this, we have accepted his decision to resign." Walmart had agreed in May to buy Softbank Group Corp.'s 9984, +1.87% stake in Flipkart for $16 billion. Walmart's stock fell 0.6% in premarket trade. It has soared 16% over the past three months through Monday while the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -2.32% has gained 0.8%.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/walmarts-flipkart-ceo-resigns-amid-allegations-of-serious-personal-misconduct-2018-11-13

Since there's usually more than one meaning to things, is Q also implying that these are all the things Mr. Whitaker (AKA "Placeholder") was working on stealthily?

Is Matthew Whitaker a placeholder who can manage Special Counsel Robert Mueller until President Trump decides on a permanent successor for ousted Attorney General Jeff Sessions? It’s possible, but it’s also conceivable that Mr. Whitaker’s temporary gig as acting attorney general is an audition for the job. Feeling like he’s been burned once, and then saddled for the better part of two years with an AG he could no longer abide, the president may want a trial run before he settles on a “permanent” replacement. (I use scare-quotes because what, these days, is permanent?)

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/11/matthew-whittaker-jeff-sessions-replacement-excellent-choice/