in august 2025, the US FDA discovered that shrimp (and later cloves) imported from indonesia were radioactive with cesium-137. food is not supposed to be contaminated with cs-137. there are MASSIVE ongoing recalls of shrimp. over 100 different shrimp products in a shitload of configurations (raw, cooked, skewered, tail-on, tail-off, breaded, etc) sold under a shitload of brands at a shitload of stores all across the US. because the shrimp might be unsafe in other ways considering it was literally radioactive.
…which began an investigation into how precisely the fuck this shrimp became radioactive in the first place. because this type of radioactive contamination, cesium-137, is man-made. usually associated with medical equipment, nuclear weapons, or nuclear power plants. stuff like that.
there are no nuclear weapons or nuclear power plants in indonesia.
the investigation found that in a major industrial area in indonesia, a metal company called peter metal technology received radioactive scrap metal from somewhere and smelted and processed it, which contaminated the surrounding area.
levels of radioactivity at their highest were glow-in-the-dark-shit-your-pants high. radiation of 1,000 millisievert throughout someone’s whole life skyrockets their chance of getting a fatal cancer. the sites that became contaminated due to peter metal technology got up to 1,000 millisievert per HOUR
at least 9 people near the metal plant received specialized medical care for significant radiation exposure.
most people who lived near the fukushima nuclear plant, in the entire year following the disaster, were exposed to 12-25 msv. (this and the three above bullet points are not actually on the massive shrimp recall post, might add it. what do you think?)
the smeltery was within ~2km/a little over a mile from the seafood plant, and it is thought that the cesium became airborne and was carried by the wind to rain down upon the unsuspecting shrimp. the smeltery has been shut down.
levels of radioactivity the US FDA found in the shrimp was around the levels of radioactivity from one single banana. so if you did somehow eat radioactive shrimp, you ate around a banana’s worth.
the radioactive shrimp importer, PT bahari makmur sejati (doing business as BMS foods) and the importer of radioactive cloves, PT natural java spice, are completely banned from selling shit in the US for now. neither of them directly caused this incident but the FDA says they should have caught that their food was radioactive before it reached the US.
there has been no recalls of cloves. but there may be more shrimp recalls. BMS foods was a massive importer of shrimp for the US and recalls have been ongoing since august.
nothing that was confirmed radioactive was confirmed to have been sold in the US. but right now there is a federal fucking government shutdown which is impeding both the investigation and communication of updates regarding the investigation.
it is unclear right now where exactly the radioactive scrap metal originally came from, which should eventually shed a lot more light on this situation. there is way more left to learn about what happened here.
but it is so important for everyone to know: the people who were hurt the worst from this, based off of the currently available information, were NOT anyone in the US. not even if you ate a dozen bags of radioactive shrimp. the people who are the most in danger because of this are the people in indonesia that might die because of safety lapses from peter metal technology, and whoever else was potentially exposed to the radioactive metal.
the Chicago ICE raid also has to do with the landlord wanting to clear the building to liquidate it, btw. Sure, us citizens in camps or whatever but even more simply, landlords, a class of bourgeoisie propertyowning rent-seekers, will use the fascist state to increase their wealth at the cost of the proletariat and racism enables it. Simple as.
40% of US gdp growth this year is from the machine hallucination industry according to FT LOL
two years since Isreal initiated the Hannibal Directive against Hamas and their own citizens and military personnel and used the images of the carnage their helicopters and tanks caused to justify a genocide
“In the twenty-first century, nothing is more indicative of U.S. empire than the global reach of the U.S. military. Much of this power comes from its approximately 800 military bases located in around eighty countries, accounting for about 95 percent of the world’s foreign military bases. No other country comes close to the U.S. level of worldwide military control. … The United States probably has more military bases than any other empire in history, yet most Americans remain largely ignorant of their numbers and location. The history of these bases is an imperial history, tied to war, occupation, and military expansion. Wherever the U.S. military has gone bases have usually followed, giving the United States an ongoing presence long after the war or occupation is over.
The creation of bases has accompanied each wave of U.S. expansion. Military forts enabled continental conquest—255 in total—which functioned as foreign bases on land that was often still controlled by Native peoples. These forts operated as the military outposts of settler-colonialism and were targeted by Native peoples as violations of territorial integrity. The War of 1898 and subsequent occupation of overseas colonies resulted in a global basing system, and by 1938 the United States had fourteen military bases outside its continental borders in Puerto Rico, Cuba, Panama, the Virgin Islands, Hawaii, Midway, Wake, Guam, the Philippines, Shanghai, the Aleutians, American Samoa, and Johnston Island. … The explosion of foreign bases during World War II would be followed by surges during the Korean War, the War in Vietnam, and the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, showing that wars and occupations continue to expand U.S. territory, even if the form of those acquisitions has shifted since the days of settler-colonialism and annexation. The contemporary number, which hovers around 800 to 900, is still an impressive network that places the military within striking distance of every spot on the globe. Historian Bruce Cumings calls the modern form of U.S. empire an ‘archipelago empire,’ small islands of U.S. control from which power can be projected anywhere in the world. It has become increasingly difficult to tell where the boundaries of the United States begin and where they end.
… For most U.S. citizens these bases are either invisible or accepted as a natural part of our national security apparatus. David Vine argues that Americans 'consider the situation normal and accept that US military installations exist in staggering numbers in other countries, on other peoples’ land. On the other hand, the idea that there would be foreign bases on US soil is unthinkable.’”
Stefan Aune, “American Empire,” in At War: The Military and American Culture in the Twentieth Century and Beyond, 2018
“In the twenty-first century, nothing is more indicative of U.S. empire than the global reach of the U.S. military. Much of this power comes from its approximately 800 military bases located in around eighty countries, accounting for about 95 percent of the world’s foreign military bases. No other country comes close to the U.S. level of worldwide military control. … The United States probably has more military bases than any other empire in history, yet most Americans remain largely ignorant of their numbers and location. The history of these bases is an imperial history, tied to war, occupation, and military expansion. Wherever the U.S. military has gone bases have usually followed, giving the United States an ongoing presence long after the war or occupation is over.
The creation of bases has accompanied each wave of U.S. expansion. Military forts enabled continental conquest—255 in total—which functioned as foreign bases on land that was often still controlled by Native peoples. These forts operated as the military outposts of settler-colonialism and were targeted by Native peoples as violations of territorial integrity. The War of 1898 and subsequent occupation of overseas colonies resulted in a global basing system, and by 1938 the United States had fourteen military bases outside its continental borders in Puerto Rico, Cuba, Panama, the Virgin Islands, Hawaii, Midway, Wake, Guam, the Philippines, Shanghai, the Aleutians, American Samoa, and Johnston Island. … The explosion of foreign bases during World War II would be followed by surges during the Korean War, the War in Vietnam, and the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, showing that wars and occupations continue to expand U.S. territory, even if the form of those acquisitions has shifted since the days of settler-colonialism and annexation. The contemporary number, which hovers around 800 to 900, is still an impressive network that places the military within striking distance of every spot on the globe. Historian Bruce Cumings calls the modern form of U.S. empire an ‘archipelago empire,’ small islands of U.S. control from which power can be projected anywhere in the world. It has become increasingly difficult to tell where the boundaries of the United States begin and where they end.
… For most U.S. citizens these bases are either invisible or accepted as a natural part of our national security apparatus. David Vine argues that Americans 'consider the situation normal and accept that US military installations exist in staggering numbers in other countries, on other peoples’ land. On the other hand, the idea that there would be foreign bases on US soil is unthinkable.’”
Stefan Aune, “American Empire,” in At War: The Military and American Culture in the Twentieth Century and Beyond, 2018
ALT
