Aggregated news that corporate media willfully ignores Today's posts in bigger type–> Prior 2/3 days in little type.
Health Care & Environment PROBLEMS: Corporate influence enables life-threatening pollution & highest-profit health care.
Obama's ACA didn't fix this:
The U.S. wastes $1.6 Trillion/yr on bloated health care spending compared with the 2013 OECD per capita average of advanced countries, which becomes extra cost overhead on U.S.exports—resulting in offshoring manufacturing and jobs.Let's end price gouging and adopt efficient practices instead of cutting Medicare and Medicaid coverage as part of some "Grand Bargain"
Hope alone won’t halt climate change but Al Gore’s latest film highlights the role optimism can play
Hope is essential – despair is just another form of denial,” Al Gore said last week, in an interview to promote the sequel to his 2006 climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth. As well as the very bad news of Donald Trump’s science-denying presidency, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, which opens in the UK today, brings good news: the plummeting cost of renewable electricity and the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
In 2017, denial of the facts of climate change – and myriad linked dangers including air and ocean pollution, famine and a refugee crisis the likes of which we can hardly imagine – is in retreat, with the Trump administration the malignant exception. Virtually all governments know that climate change is happening, and polls show most people do too – with those living in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa particularly worried. The question is not whether global warming is happening, but what we are going to do about it. There are, and need to be, many answers to this. Gore believes the solutions to climate change are within reach, if people can only find the political will to enact them. Even if how to whip up sufficient zeal to make this happen remains a puzzle, his essential message is one of optimism.
Others are less sanguine. A widely shared article by David Wallace-Wells in New York magazine last month sketching out some worst-case scenarios included an interview with pioneering climate scientist Wally Broecker, now 84, who no longer believes even the most drastic reductions in carbon emissions are sufficient to avert disaster. Instead, he puts his hopes in carbon capture and geoengineering. Others oppose anything that smacks of a techno-fix, believing the very idea that human ingenuity can get us out of this mess is yet another form of denial.
The human reaction – or lack of one – to climate change is a subject of interest in itself. The novelist Amitav Ghosh wrote The Great Derangement, a book about why fiction writers mostly ignore the subject, and argued that the profound alteration of Earth’s climate is difficult to think about. Wallace-Wells, in New York magazine, refers to “an incredible failure of imagination”. Politics, supposed to help us make sense of the world, has sometimes been more hindrance than help: is climate change really an inconvenient truth, because it means we have to give up eating beef and taking long-distance flights, or a too-convenient truth for anti-capitalists who want to bring down the financial system?
Such left-right binarism, and the relentlessly partisan nature of US politics, is surely why Gore now prefers to frame climate change more as a “moral” issue than as a political one. But the clearest and simplest message from his decade of advocacy is the need for action at every level. Such action takes many forms, ranging from protests against the Dakota Access pipeline in the US to anti-fracking demonstrations in Lancashire. This year the Guardian in conjunction with Global Witness is documenting the deaths of people all over the world who are killed while attempting to defend the environment from damage or destruction.
Malls and office complexes continue to spring up in Kuwait City, built by migrants often working illegally in soaring temperatures. But as oil and water reserves dwindle, the energy-guzzling citystate heads for an existential crisis
It is 9am and the temperature in Kuwait City is 45C and rising, but already people working outside. A row of litter-pickers are already hard at work along a coastal highway, their entire bodies covered to protect them from the sun. Outside one of the city’s many malls, valets hover beside the air-conditioned entrance, while two men in white hats huddle wearily next to their ice cream stands.
Other city residents are luckier. They can avoid the outdoors altogether, escaping the inferno by sheltering in malls, cars and office buildings, where temperatures are kept polar-cold.
For years, Kuwait’s climate has been steadily heating up. In the summer months, the Gulf state now frequently touches 50C, and was last year awarded the grim prize of being the hottest place on earth, when temperatures reached a staggering high of 54C.
But while the capital is making plans to prepare for climate change and the rising heat, there are growing concerns for those residents who cannot afford to shelter inside, and mounting questions about how such an energy-intensive city can survive as resources such as water and oil dwindle.
Nearly 70% of Kuwait’s population is made up of migrant workers, many of whom power the near-constant construction of new office complexes and malls across the state. Though labour legislation now bans work outdoors between 12pm and 4pm, many are seen toiling through the hottest hours of the day regardless.
MIT researchers have found a way to block HCAC2, a key enzyme that causes Alzheimer's disease, without affecting other enzymes critical to organ function. This appears to reverse the disease in mice, and may one day mean a cure for humans.
A TARGETED APPROACH
New research from a team at MIT indicates symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) affecting patient’s memories may be reversible. AD causes memory loss by setting up genetic “blockades” formed when the enzyme HCAC2 condenses the genes of the brain responsible for memory. Eventually, those genes become useless; unexpressed, the genes are unable to cause the formation of new memories or retrieval of existing ones.
Clearly, blocking HCAC2 in the brain is an obvious fix; however, it has to date been impossible, in that all prior attempts have negatively affected the internal organs which require other enzymes in the histone deacetylase (HDAC) family for normal function. Researchers at MIT have now found something they hope might be the answer: LED lights which they use to prevent HCAC2 alone from binding with Sp3, its genetic blockade formation partner in crime (and Alzheimer’s).
This research was spurred by the 2007 discovery that blocking HDAC activity in mice reversed memory loss. Human cells contain around one dozen forms of HDAC, and the team found later that it is HDAC2 that causes the memory-linked gene blockade, and that HDAC2 levels are elevated in Alzheimer’s patients.
Finding The Right Match
The trick was determining a way to target HDAC2 specifically without affecting HDAC1 levels and hurting white blood cell production as a result. To do this, the team analyzed postmortem brain samples of both healthy people and those with Alzheimer’s disease, assessing gene expression data. They found that there were more than 2,000 genes at levels that nearly matched HDAC2 levels. They then needed to test the best candidates; doing this allowed them to isolate the Sp3 gene.
“This is exciting because for the first time we have found a specific mechanism by which HDAC2 regulates synaptic gene expression,” Director of MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and study lead author Li-Huei Tsai explained to MIT News. “If we can remove the blockade by inhibiting HDAC2 activity or reducing HDAC2 levels, then we can restore expression of all these genes necessary for learning and memory.”
This AD research is in the early stages yet, having only been conducted with mice. No usable remedy for humans will be forthcoming for some time, but even so, this is one of the most promising semblances of a cure for Alzheimer’s to date, with the potential to help more than 5.5 million Americans and almost 44 million worldwide.
Researchers from UCLA have found a way to successfully reactivate stem cells in dormant hair follicles to promote hair growth in mice. Through this research, they've developed two drugs that could help millions of people worldwide treat conditions that lead to abnormal hair growth and retention.
Air pollution is driving a global public health crisis. It is responsible for one in nine deaths worldwide, and touches everyone given 92% of the human race live in places that do not meet World Health Organisation guidelines. As it is also driving a climate crisis – with increasingly heavy health implications – doctors, nurses, public health practitioners and other healthcare professionals are coming together to call for practical solutions to cut pollution levels in cities and deal with both.
In a new global initiative called Unmask My City, these health groups are using air quality monitors, smartphones, and innovative LED light masks that change colour according to pollution levels to highlight the preventable and direct impacts of air pollution.
These include asthma attacks, increased risks of heart disease, lung cancer, respiratory diseases and strokes, and climate change-related heatstroke, tropical disease spread, and more. The sources of and solutions to air pollution are clear. It is up to authorities to make better choices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and get our cities into the World Health Organization’s green “healthy” air zone by 2030.
Air pollution is responsible for 6.5 million premature deaths per year. Doctors are at the front lines, and see the increasing impact air pollution has on patient mortality and morbidity. They are now speaking out globally, like they did with cigarette smoking, to demand action from decision makers on this absolutely preventable threat to public health.
Air pollution is not just a problem for China or India. The world is becoming increasingly urban, and as it does our urban environments are becoming more and more polluted. In 1800, only three percent of the world’s population lived in urban areas. Today, more than half do, and by 2050 two-thirds will. Thousands of cities around the world already consistently breach air pollution limits, and this problem will worsen without concerted action.
Eliminating air pollution is a health, climate, and economic imperative. Improving air quality and ‘unmasking’ our cities will save millions of lives, improve the health of billions, reduce health costs, drive new economic opportunities, and address the challenge of global climate change. Solutions to reduce urban air pollution are some of the most effective ways to tackle climate change in the near term. Turning around the global trend of increasing climate pollution by 2020 with the intent on reaching World Health Organization guidelines for healthy air by 2030 is critical.
Environmental Justice Australia report says Australian coal-fired power plants regularly exceed lax limits imposed on them
Pollution from coal power plants kills hundreds of people each year in Australia. In Sydney alone, about 130 premature deaths are thought to be caused each year by coal-fired power stations, with worse impacts in regions near the stations.
Nationally, the health effects from the pollution emitted by coal-fired power plants are estimated to cost $2.6bn – a figure that would amount to $13.20 a megawatt hour if it were added to power costs.
Researchers at EJA collected the individual pollution limits allowed for 10 of Australia’s 17 commercially operating coal-fired power stations, chosen for their high levels of pollution and proximity to populated areas.
Standardising the limits for comparison and collating them with regulations in the US, Europe and China, they found that in almost all cases Australian coal power plants were allowed to emit more toxic pollution.
Mercury emissions compared particularly badly. Coal-fired power is the second biggest Australian source of mercury, which accumulates in the environment, causing significant harm to people.
Some coal-fired power plants in New South Wales were allowed to emit 666 times what would be allowed in the US, and 33 times what is allowed in the EU and China.
Fine particle pollution, which causes hundreds of premature deaths each year, also compared very badly. Every coal power station in Victoria is allowed to emit more particulate pollution than power stations in any of the other three jurisdictions examined, and all in NSW were allowed to emit more than the Chinese limit.
On Egypt's Mediterranean coast, August should be prime tourist season. But the seaside restaurants in Alexandria are almost empty. Worries over security are keeping a lot of foreign tourists away. But there's a much bigger worry looming: that hotter weather and a disappearing shoreline could make Egypt's prospects even worse.
Scientists generally agree that human-made climate change – the effect of greenhouse gas emissions from things like cars and factories – is making the sea level higher and its waters warmer.
Rising sea levels are affecting the Nile River delta, the triangle where the Nile spreads out and drains into the sea. It's where Egypt grows most of its crops. According to the World Bank, Egypt — with its already high poverty rates and rapidly growing population — is one of the countries that will be most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
"Silly Trump wants to use tax dollars to build on floodplains as sea level rises. Damp!"
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that reportedly eliminates flood-risk standards for federally funded public infrastructure projects—in a purported effort to expedite the approval process for projects such as highways and bridges, as part of his $1 trillion infrastructure plan that's been criticized for its reliance on private developers.
"This is yet another outrageous example of Trump's insistence on putting corporate interests ahead of people's health and safety." —Alex Taurel, League of Conservation Voters
Although details of Trump's order were not immediately made public, at a press conference this afternoon, the president called U.S. infrastructure a "massive self-inflicted wound on our country," and said there would no longer be "one job-killing delay after another."
Reuters,New York Times, and the Washington Post reported that Trump's order "revoked an Obama-era executive order that required strict building standards for government-funded projects to reduce exposure to increased flooding from sea level rise and other consequences of climate change."
The Obama-era risk-management standards "required that builders factor in scientific projections for increased flooding and ensure projects can withstand rising sea levels and stronger downpours," Reuters reported.
When Obama signed the order in 2015, he said the goal was to "improve the resilience of communities and federal assets against the impacts of flooding," which are "anticipated to increase over time due to the effects of climate change and other threats."
Just last month, "scientists released findings that up to 668 U.S. communities could face chronic flooding from rising sea levels by the end of the century," Common Dreamsreported. More than 90 U.S. communities are already grappling "unmanageable" flooding that is disrupting "people's routines, livelihoods, homes, and communities."
Obama's order required all federal agencies to apply risk-management standards to public infrastructure projects, but did not regulate private development. It allowed federal agencies to select from three options, as the Times explained:
They could use the best available climate change science;
They could require that standard projects like roads and railways be built two feet above the national 100-year flood elevation standard and critical buildings like hospitals be built three feet higher;
They could require infrastructure be built to at least the 500-year floodplain.
Even though a White House official told the Post Trump's order will not prevent "state and local agencies from using a more stringent standard if they choose," environmentalists swiftly condemned Trump's decision to revoke the flood risk provisions.
"This order will put people throughout the country at risk by allowing developers to ignore potential hazards while muzzling the public's ability to weigh in on potentially harmful projects near their homes," Alex Taurel, deputy legislative director for the League of Conservation Voters, told Bloomberg. "This is yet another outrageous example of Trump's insistence on putting corporate interests ahead of people's health and safety."
"Eliminating this requirement is self-defeating; we can either build smarter now, or put taxpayers on the hook to pay exponentially more when it floods. And it will," Rafael Lemaitre, former director of public affairs at FEMA who worked on the Obama-era order, toldReuters. Trump is undoing "the most significant action taken in a generation" to safeguard U.S. infrastructure, Lemaitre added.
"This is just another example of this administration trying to undo everything the Obama administration did, whether it makes any sense or not," William Robert Irvin, president the conservation group American Rivers, told the Post. "Directing federal agencies to ignore the impact of flooding in spending federal dollars is just a complete waste of taxpayer money and continues this administration's head-in-the-sand approach to the perils of climate change, which is resulting in increased flooding."
....Researchers, Eicke Latz at the University of Bonn and colleagues, followed up onthe parents’ hypothesis and found that in mice, cyclodextrin indeed blocked plaque formation, melted away plaques that had already formed in arteries, reduced atherosclerosis-associated inflammation, and revved up cholesterol metabolism—even in rodents fed cholesterol-rich diets.
Though it won't 'cure' Alzheimer's, tests show compound, similar to that found in energy drinks, clears amyloid beta plaques, whichbuild up in the brain in early stages of Alzheimer’s
A growing body of evidence suggests pollution can do a number on thebrain. The July/AugustMother Jones cover story chronicled the research connecting neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's to the dirtyair we breathe; studies have found that pollution may also age the brain prematurely. And according to new research from the University of Texas-El Paso, pollution's damage to the brain may start even sooner than was previously thought: Fourth and fifth graders exposed toexhaust emissions, researchers found, don't do as well in school as their peers whobreathe cleaner air.
News Media Matters PROBLEM: Media suppresses and 'pences' facts to please/increase advertising markets. The Fairness Doctrine—ended under Reagan—must be reenacted or increasingly one-sided news sources will continue to purposely increase ignorance and hate.
The small Louisiana town of Cameron could be the first in the US to be fully submerged by rising sea levels – and yet locals, 90% of whom voted for Trump, still aren’t convinced about climate change
Cameron, the principal town in this 6,800-person parish (as counties are called in Louisiana), could be the first town in the US to be fully submerged by rising sea levels and flooding. So it’s here one would expect to feel the greatest sense of alarm over climate change and its consequences.
Instead, Cameron has earned a different kind of fame: it’s the county that, percentage-wise, voted more in favor of Trump than any other county in the US in last year’s election. Nearly 90% of the population voted for Trump.
Why would some of the people most vulnerable to climate change vote for a politician skeptical of climate change’s existence? Why would people in Cameron Parish support policies that could ruin them?
PROBLEM: Bribes to gut regulations often harm life on Earth. OUR GOAL: Make corporations help life on Earth. SOLUTION: Cap executive pay @ 100 x median worker pay, allow first 9% of net profit tax-free but tax profits > 9% @ 90% tax-rate to suppress price-gouging and fund saving life.
"The Democratic Party isn't going back to the days of welfare reform and the crime bill."
Elizabeth Warren Gives Trump's "Nightmare" Speech
In a wide-ranging and fiery keynote speech last weekend at the 12th annual Netroots Nation conference in Atlanta, Georgia, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) relentlessly derided moderate Democratic pundits calling for the party to move "back to the center" and declared that Democrats must unequivocally "fight for progressive solutions to our nation's challenges."
"We're not going back to the days when universal healthcare was something Democrats talked about on the campaign trail but were too chicken to fight for after they got elected." —Sen. Elizabeth Warren
As The Hill's Amie Parnes reported on Friday, Warren's assertion during the weekend gathering that progressives are "the heart and soul of today's Democratic Party"—and not merely a "wing"—raised the ire of so-called "moderate" Democrats, who have insisted that progressive policies won't sell in swing states.
For Warren, these are all indicators that those pining for a rightward shift "back to the center" are deeply mistaken.
Specifically, Warren took aim at a recent New York Times op-ed by Democratic commentators Mark Penn and Andrew Stein, who argued that Democrats must moderate their positions in order to take back Congress and, ultimately, the presidency.
Warren ridiculed this argument as a call for a return to Bill Clinton-era policies that "lock[ed] up non-violent drug offenders and ripp[ed] more holes in our economic safety net."
"The larger and more urgent crisis is that a white supremacist sympathizer is the president of the United States."
Chief Strategist Steve Bannon walks behind U.S. President Donald Trump toward Marine One before departing from the White House on February 24, 2017 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
....It is unclear whether Bannon resigned or if Trump, who has of late been under pressure to remove the "nationalist wing" of his administration, ultimately decided to fire him.
The president and senior White House officials were debating when and how to dismiss Mr. Bannon. The two administration officials cautioned that Mr. Trump is known to be averse to confrontation within his inner circle, and could decide to keep on Mr. Bannon for some time. As of Friday morning, the two men were still discussing Mr. Bannon’s future, the officials said. A person close to Mr. Bannon insisted the parting of ways was his idea, and that he had submitted his resignation to the president on Aug. 7.
Bannon made headlines earlier this week after The American Prospect's Robert Kuttner published the details of a phone conversation he had with the former executive chair of the right-wing outlet Breitbart.
During the call, Bannon casually discussed administration in-fighting and mocked the White House's stance on North Korea.
At an impromptu press conference on Tuesday, Trump seemed to express doubt about Bannon's future.
"We'll see," he said in response to questions about Bannon's status.
In a now infamous speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) earlier this year, Bannon described his ambitious plan to fundamentally alter the American political system. He called the end goal of his vision "the deconstruction of the administrative state"—everything from the tax system to trade deals to regulations.
For now, at least, that plan appears to be on hold.
Court ruling "gives hope across the country for people facing the onslaught of oil and gas infrastructure."
Environmental advocates in New York State are celebrating a federal court's decision to allow the state to ban a major pipeline project that the state says would endanger its water resources. (Photo: Riverkeeper/Facebook)
Environmentalists are celebrating a federal appeals court ruling on Friday that reaffirmed New York State's decision to block a 124-mile natural gas pipeline project.
"Today's ruling confirms the independent authority and responsibility of states to protect their waterbodies from natural gas pipelines that carve through and degrade critical watersheds." —Moneen Nasmith, Earthjustice
"This project would have been bad news for New York waters and communities, and the court's decision will help ensure that important waterways in the state, including the Hudson River and Schoharie Creek, will be protected," said Riverkeeper president Paul Gallay.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) had the authority to deny a Clean Water Act permit to four companies planning to construct the Constitution Pipeline, which would have carried fracked gas from Pennsylvania to Eastern New York State.
The pipeline—which would have crossed waterways 251 times and run through more than 80 acres of wetlands—received initial approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the federal agency that regulates interstates pipeline projects. However, it was blocked by NYSDEC last year, when the state agency determined the gas companies had not provided enough information to ensure that the pipeline would comply with state water quality standards.
Ray Kemble of Dimock, Pa., displays a jug of what he identifies as his contaminated well water. (AP/Matt Rourke)
Ever since the dangerous consequences of natural gas extraction via hydraulic fracturing—popularly known as "fracking"—entered the national consciousness, the small town of Dimock, Pennsylvania has arguably been "ground zero" for water contamination caused by the controversial practice.
Now Cabot Oil & Gas, the massive energy company responsible for numerous fracking wells near Dimock, is suing one of the town's residents for $5 million, claiming that his efforts to "attract media attention" to the pollution of his water well have "harmed" the company. According to the lawsuit, Dimock resident Ray Kemble's actions breached an earlier 2012 settlement that was part of an ongoing federal class action lawsuit over the town's water quality. Kemble has stated that Cabot's fracking turned his groundwater "black, like mud, [with] a strong chemical odor."
Earlier this year, Kemble filed a follow-up lawsuit against Cabot, which was based on new findings that could help him prove the link between Cabot's fracking operation and the contamination of his well. Cabot, at the time, argued that the case was built on "inflammatory allegations" intended to "poison the jury pool" and "extort payment" from the company.
Kemble eventually dropped his lawsuit, acting in response to new information that he thought might negatively affect the case. Kemble's lawyers have declined to comment on the nature of that information. Cabot alleged that this lawsuit was a breach of the 2012 settlement contract Kemble had signed, prompting them to counter-sue Kemble.
Cabot's decision to sue Ray Kemble may be motivated by more than their distaste for his now-dismissed lawsuit. In context, it appears meant to intimidate and "send a message" to Kemble and any other resident thinking of voicing similar concerns and objections. Days before Cabot's lawsuit against Kemble was filed, the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry (ATSDR) arrived in Dimock to examine the groundwater of several homes close to Cabot fracking wells, including Kemble's.
Kemble described the state of his groundwater to the Associated Press: "Take a skunk and every household chemical, put it in a blender, puree it for five minutes and take a whiff. It burns the back of your throat, makes you gag, makes you want to puke. It's all still bad. That's why they're back up here."
The ATSDR told the AP that it is testing Dimock's water for bacteria, gases and chemicals in order to "determine if there are drinking water quality issues that may continue to pose a health threat." Their previous study in 2012 found high levels of chemicals such as methane, cadmium, lead and arsenic. They also found that several residences were "at risk of explosion or fire" due to high methane levels. In the past, several drinking water wells in Dimock have exploded due to the high amount of methane now present in the town's water.
Dimock residents have been expressing concern over the quality of their water for nearly a decade. In 2009, Pennsylvania state officials determined that Cabot Oil & Gas was responsible for the contamination, though the EPA complicated this decision by announcing in 2012 that Dimock's water was "safe" to drink. The EPA arrived at this conclusion despite the fact that its investigators—along with the ATSDR—had found "significant damage to the water quality" due to the presence of nearby fracking wells.
"Supremacy, discrimination, and vitriol are not American values...If this is not clear to you, then we call on you to resign your office, too."
In a strong rebuke of President Donald Trump equating white supremacists who gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia last weekend with counter-protesters who demonstrated against bigotry, all members of the president's Committee on the Arts and Humanities announced their resignations Friday—and urged Trump to do the same.
"The false equivalencies you push cannot stand. We cannot sit idly by, the way that your West Wing advisors have, without speaking out against your words and actions," wrote the group of 17 visual artists, writers, musicians, and other influential figures in the arts.
"Ignoring your hateful rhetoric would have made us complicit in your words and actions."—President's Committee on Arts and Humanities
"Elevating any group that threatens and discriminates on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, disability, orientation, background, or identity is un-American," the group's resignation letter continued. "Ignoring your hateful rhetoric would have made us complicit in your words and actions."
The members also noted that the president has undermined the very purpose of the arts committee by threatening to cut funding for the arts and humanities.
"Art is about inclusion. Humanities includes a vibrant free press. You have attacked both," they wrote.
"Especially as many Trump decisions are likely soon to reach the court's docket, a healthy respect for public confidence in the court should have led Justice Gorsuch to demur."
In what critics are calling a blatant violation of "basic ethical principles about conflicts of interest," Trump-appointed Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch has reportedly agreed to headline the "Defending Freedom Luncheon" next month at the Trump International Hotel, which is the subject of numerous lawsuits that could eventually reach the nation's highest court.
"Hmmm... SCOTUS justice who might be asked to hear case related to Trump hotel will headline event at Trump hotel. " —Kenneth Vogel, New York Times
Legal experts immediately sounded alarm upon learning that Gorsuch is set to be the featured speaker at the event, which is hosted by the conservative group The Fund for American Studies.
"It's a terrible signal for this group to be holding their meeting at the Trump International Hotel and for a Supreme Court justice to legitimate it by attending," Stanford law professor Deborah L. Rhode told the New York Times.
New York University ethics expert Stephen Gillers agreed, saying in an interview with the Times: "At this highly divisive political moment, especially as many Trump decisions are likely soon to reach the court's docket, one just days later, a healthy respect for public confidence in the court should have led Justice Gorsuch to demur."
Other commentators and legal observers expressed similar concerns on social media, and MoveOn.org quickly began circulating a petition calling on Gorsuch to withdraw from the event.
The word has become a rhetorical weapon, but it properly names the reigning ideology of our era – one that venerates the logic of the market and strips away the things that make us human.
Friedrich Hayek teaching at the London School of Economics in 1948. Photograph: Paul Popper/Popperfoto/Getty
....Hayek’s Big Idea isn’t much of an idea – until you supersize it. Organic, spontaneous, elegant processes that, like a million fingers on a Ouija board, coordinate to create outcomes that are otherwise unplanned. Applied to an actual market – one for pork bellies or corn futures – this description is little more than a truism. It can be expanded to describe how various markets, in commodities and labour and even money itself, form that part of a society known as “the economy”. This is less banal, but still inconsequential; a Keynesian accepts this description happily. But what if we bump it up one more step? What if we reconceive all of society as a kind of market?
The more Hayek’s idea expands, the more reactionary it gets, the more it hides behind its pretence of scientific neutrality – and the more it allows economics to link up with the major intellectual trend of the west since the 17th century. The rise of modern science generated a problem: if the world is universally obedient to natural laws, what does it mean to be human? Is a human being simply an object in the world, like any other? There appears to be no way to assimilate the subjective, interior human experience into nature as science conceives it – as something objective whose rules we discover by observation.
Everything about the postwar political culture lay in favour of John Maynard Keynes, and an expanded role for the state in managing the economy. But everything about the postwar academic culture lay in favour of Hayek’s Big Idea.
....According to the logic of Hayek’s Big Idea, these expressions of human subjectivity are meaningless without ratification by the market – as Friedman said, they are nothing but relativism, each as good as any other. When the only objective truth is determined by the market, all other values have the status of mere opinions; everything else is relativist hot air. But Friedman’s “relativism” is a charge that can be thrown at any claim based on human reason. It is a nonsense insult, as all humanistic pursuits are “relative” in a way the sciences are not. They are relative to the (private) condition of having a mind, and the (public) need to reason and understand even when we can’t expect scientific proof. When our debates are no longer resolved by deliberation over reasons, then the whimsies of power will determine the outcome.
This is where the triumph of neoliberalism meets the political nightmare we are living through now. “You had one job,” the old joke goes, and Hayek’s grand project, as originally conceived in 30s and 40s, was explicitly designed to prevent a backslide into political chaos and fascism. But the Big Idea was always this abomination waiting to happen. It was, from the beginning, pregnant with the thing it was said to protect against. Society reconceived as a giant market leads to a public life lost to bickering over mere opinions; until the public turns, finally, in frustration to a strongman as a last resort for solving its otherwise intractable problems.
....What began as a new form of intellectual authority, rooted in a devoutly apolitical worldview, nudged easily into an ultra-reactionary politics. What can’t be quantified must not be real, says the economist, and how do you measure the benefits of the core faiths of the enlightenment – namely, critical reasoning, personal autonomy and democratic self-government? When we abandoned, for its embarrassing residue of subjectivity, reason as a form of truth, and made science the sole arbiter of both the real and the true, we created a void that pseudo-science was happy to fill.
The authority of the professor, the reformer, the legislator or the jurist does not derive from the market, but from humanistic values such as public spiritedness, conscience or the longing for justice. Long before the Trump administration started demeaning them, such figures had been drained of salience by an explanatory scheme that can’t explain them. Surely there is a connection between their growing irrelevance and the election of Trump, a creature of pure whim, a man without the principles or conviction to make for a coherent self. A man without a mind, who represents the total absence of reason, is running the world; or at least ruining it. As a Manhattan real estate wiseguy, though, Trump, hey – he knows what he knows: that his sins have yet to be punished in the marketplace.
....Unfortunately, this dream of a quick fix for Trumpism doesn’t address the real despair Jefferson warned of—the despair of ordinary working people suffering from industrial outsourcing, from a plague of killer drugs, from endless wars, from a pathetic minimum wage, from deteriorating schools, and from an increasingly expensive health care system. Among the obnoxious hypocrisies of the anti-Trump media—whose audiences and profits the president’s clownish behavior has caused to grow enormously—the one I find most irritating is the way that soldiers who have been killed or maimed in Iraq and Afghanistan are being exploited to demonstrate journalism’s solidarity with a working class that continues to send its children to meaningless deaths. I’m sick of listening to pious eulogies exalting the “sacrifices” made by these young people (at the moment, I’m thinking about a Marine lieutenant named Michael LiCalzi), who have been dispatched to distant quagmires for the benefit of politicians as ignorant of real war as George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama.
Loathing for Trump makes people forget that, among other horrors, a coalition of Republicans and Democrats has already wasted around $3.7 trillion in Iraq and Afghanistan, sacrificed the lives of nearly 7,000 American soldiers, and wounded more than 52,000. Today, Bush is considered a practically serious portrait painter and Hillary a feminist martyr. Obama, the architect of the famous 2009 so-called surge in Afghanistan—a military intensification that accomplished nothing other than polishing up his image as commander-in-chief—is admired and missed like no other political figure.
Instead of coming to grips with the real American sickness, the media....
State taxpayers could end up paying Foxconn $500,000 per job, or more.
House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, greets Terry Gou, president and chief executive officer of Foxconn, before President Donald Trump announces the first US assembly plant for electronics giant Foxconn, in the East Room of the White House on Wednesday, July 26, 2017.
The Wisconsin Assembly voted 59-30 on Thursday to approve a bill to give incentives worth $3 billion to Taiwan-based Foxconn so that the company would open its first US plant in the state.
Foxconn, best known for supplying parts of Apple's iPhones, will open the $10 billion liquid-crystal display plant in 2020, according to Reuters. The bill still has to be approved by a joint finance committee and the state Senate.
Both houses of Wisconsin's legislature are controlled by Republicans, and the deal is supported by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, a Republican who negotiated the deal.
The vote was largely, but not entirely, along party lines. Three Democrats joined 56 Republicans in supporting the deal. Two Republicans and 28 Democrats voted against it.
Opponents said the deal wasn't a good use of taxpayer funds. The $3 billion incentives package includes about $2.85 billion in cash payments from taxpayers and tax breaks valued at about $150 million. The state is also waiving certain environmental rules.
Supporters, including Walker, say that the deal will be transformational for Wisconsin, pushing its economy toward high-tech manufacturing. Foxconn will spend $10 billion to build the plant. The facility has been planned to employ 3,000 workers, and supporters say that number could grow to 13,000 workers in the future.
The deal was announced last month at a White House event, although it was contingent on Wisconsin approving the massive incentives bill. President Donald Trump praised the deal, saying it was a win for anyone who "believes in the label 'Made in the USA.'"
Democratic opponents of the deal have pointed out that paying $3 billion to get 3,000 jobs means the state subsidy amounts to around $1 million per job.
That's $66,600 per employee for each of the next 15 years, according to an analysis by Prof. Michael Hicks, an economics professor at Ball State University who opposes the deal. Foxconn will pay the workers an average of just over $53,000 per year. (Those numbers are based on the initial count of 3,000 workers.)
Thousands of bags of radiation-contaminated soil and debris wait to be processed inside the exclusion zone, close to the devastated Fukushima nuclear plant on February 26, 2016, in Okuma, Japan. (Photo: Christopher Furlong / Getty Images)
...Recently, TEPCO announced that it would dump 770,000 tons of radioactive tritium water into the Pacific Ocean.
The announcement infuriated local fishermen and environmental groups across Japan. According to Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, an environmental toxicologist and winner of the 2015 Rachel Carson prize, their outrage and alarm is not without merit.
"The release of thousands of tons of radioactive tritium by a giant utility company into our aquatic and natural environments is a blood-chilling prospect," Savabieasfahani told Truthout.
She questions why there is not more outrage from those in the Japanese government who are responsible for safeguarding the health and wellbeing of the general public.
"Where are the defenders of our public's health?" she asked. "If they could pull the plug out of their mouth, they could tell us that tritium is a toxic radioactive isotope of hydrogen, and that, once released, tritium cannot be removed from the environment. Let that sink in."
Fentanyl, which is 50-100 times more potent than morphine, was recently tied to the deaths of 60 people in the UK – and a growing number of deaths in Australia
Since fall 2013, fentanyl has contributed to more than 5,000 overdose deaths in the US. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Efforts to combat the opioid addiction crisis in the US have been weakened by the synthetic opioid fentanyl, which a top UN drug official has warned could infiltrate Europe and Australia in a similar way.
“Other countries with opiate problems should be concerned because fentanyl could quickly be pushed into their supply,” Jeremy Douglas, regional representative of the UN office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to Southeast Asia and the Pacific, told the Guardian.
Fentanyl, which is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, was recently tied to the deaths of 60 people in the UK and there have been a growing number of deaths from the drug in Australia, Douglas said.
Fentanyl presents a lucrative business opportunity for drug traffickers because it is incredibly powerful in small amounts and is easy to produce. Since fall 2013, fentanyl has contributed to more than 5,000 overdose deaths in the US – including the musician Prince, whose death in 2016 was caused by “self-administered fentanyl”. From 2009 to 2014, it contributed to at least 655 deaths in Canada.
The rates of death from synthetic opioids has increased across all demographic groups and regions. And there is currently a higher availability of fentanyl, increased seizures of fentanyl and more known overdose deaths from fentanyl than at any time since the drug was synthesized in 1959, according to US government data.
“What’s occurring in the US and Canada is because of the overprescription of opioids originally, and then the clampdown on the legal supply,” Douglas said. “But there are a lot of markets out there with a significant heroin consumption issue and fentanyl is easy to smuggle and you can mix it into that market.
“If you’re an unscrupulous organized crime guy looking at the benefits of fentanyl for your business, it would make sense that they’re going to start pushing it [in other markets].”
United States PROBLEMS: Corporate and billionaire money—both before and especially after the Citizens United ruling—corrupts state and federal political parties and governments to the public's detriment.
White House aides say Trump lashed out because he felt that the barrage of media criticism for his Saturday remarks was unfair and wrong — that he was fighting back, campaign style.
A veteran of several Republican White Houses told us: "His imprecise and inarticulate speech worked in the campaign. It isn't working as president. It didn't matter until today. Now, it really matters."
Top Republicans, including West Wing sources, tell us Trump can expect to pay a huge price for his self-indulgence, which came at at an event that was supposed to promote his infrastructure plan:
It was a tipping point for repulsed establishment Republicans, with Speaker Ryan, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and many others tweeting their dismay. GOP members and senators used Twitter last night to create real distance from the president.
It puts Trump's tortured staff in a bigger jam: How do they look their African American friends in the eye, and rationalize their support of Trump?
We're told close aides aren't shocked, but mainly dispirited.
Economic adviser Gary Cohn, the longtime #2 at Goldman Sachs, was standing next to Trump in anticipation of questions about infrastructure legislation. We're told Cohn was somewhere between appalled and furious.
A West Wing confidanttells us: "The danger for Trump now is that one senior resignation will start a run on the bank" — as soon as one top staffer quits, several others could follow.
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, exhausted and dismayed, was shown in iconic TV shots with his head hanging during Trump's blast. He's building a more rigorous system for the staff, but it's not taking with the president.
Trump's legislative agenda will suffer: He doesn't have a single real friend in the Senate — 0 for 100. His lack of moral authority, and low approval ratings, will make everything harder.
An "overwhelming majority in the high school auditorium raised their hands" when asked if they support single payer
When Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) took the stage at a scheduled town hall on Tuesday in Greeley, Colorado, he apparently didn't expect to be confronted by a crowd full of enthusiastic supporters of single-payer healthcare.
"Just in general, the stuff Colorado stands for, I feel like Trump and Republicans don't anymore." —Lindsey Lewis, Colorado resident
Angry with his support for legislation that the Congressional Budget Office estimated would strip healthcare from more than 20 million American, Coloradans greeted Gardner with jeers as he arrived at the event.
At one point during the discussion, Gardner asked how many in the audience supported single-payer healthcare.
An "overwhelming majority in the high school auditorium raised their hands," reportsColorado Public Radio.
Gardner responded defiantly, saying: "I do not support single-payer, I do not support socialized medicine."
Judging by recent polls, the Colorado senator's view runs counter to that of a growing majority of Americans. As Common Dreams has reported, the fight over Trumpcare has convinced many Americans—including a significant percentage of Republicans—that single-payer healthcare is the best way to move beyond the current for-profit system.
A recent Associated Press/NORC poll found that 62 percent of Americans believe it is "the federal government's responsibility to make sure that all Americans have healthcare coverage."
This growing support for universal healthcare has been evident at town halls and demonstrations across the country, as thousands have organized and pushed back against the Republican Party's efforts to cut Medicaid, defund Planned Parenthood, and kick millions off their insurance.
As three other advisory boards disband following the president’s response to the Virginia violence, Jerry Falwell Jr tweets support for Trump
Donald Trump was forced to disband two business advisory councils and an infrastructure panel after some of America’s most prominent business leaders fled their posts, protesting against Trump’s statements appeasing white nationalist marchers at the weekend rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
But the president’s religious evangelical advisory board, a mix of radical born-again preachers, televangelists and conservative political influencers, still stands pristine. Not only have members avoided criticism of the president, while occasionally scolding the violence in general – some have been openly supportive of Trump’s statements assigning blame “on many sides” and slamming those who turned up to oppose the militant neo-Nazis.
Jerry Falwell Jr tweeted on Wednesday: “Finally, a leader in the White House. Jobs returning, North Korea backing down, bold truthful statement about Charlottesville tragedy. So proud of Donald Trump.” He did add, on Thursday, again via Twitter: “The truth as stated by Donald Trump is that violent white supremacists, Nazi, KKK and similar hate groups are pure evil and un-American,” but that may have been too little, too late for some.
Council member, preacher and Fox News commentator Robert Jeffress told a Christian TV channel: “Racism comes in all shapes, all sizes and, yes, all colors. If we’re going to denounce some racism, we ought to denounce all racism.”
Here are the members of the president’s panel of ultra-conservative religious cheerleaders.....
It has never been more important to acknowledge the history of fascism and neo-fascism in America
America is currently experiencing a wave of increasingly aggressive far-right and neo-fascist activism. Observers have routinely considered fascism an ideology alien to American society. Yet it has deeper roots in American history than most of us have been willing to acknowledge.
Consider the interwar period. The crisis years of the 1920s and 1930s not only gave rise to fascist movements across Europe – a moment captured in Ernst Nolte’s classic The Three Faces of Fascism – but around the globe. The United States was no exception.
Across the country, fascist and proto-fascist groups sprang up. The most prominent among them was the paramilitary Silver Shirts movement, founded by William Dudley Pelley, a radical journalist from Massachusetts, in 1933.
Obsessed with fantasies about a Jewish-Communist world conspiracy and fears about an African American corruption of American culture, its followers promoted racism, extreme nationalism, violence and the ideal of an aggressive masculinity. They competed against various other militant fringe groups, from the Khaki Shirt movement, which aimed to build a paramilitary force of army veterans to stage a coup, to the paramilitary Black Legion, feared for its assassinations, bombings and acts of arson.
An important role in this history was played by radicalized parts of the Italian and German American community. Inspired by the ascent of Mussolini, some Italian Americans founded numerous fascist groups, which were eventually united under the Fascist League of North America.
Many commentators still feel uneasy speaking about fascism in America. They consider fascism to be foreign to US society
Even bigger was Fritz Julius Kuhn’s German-American Bund, founded in 1936. Its members considered themselves patriotic Americans. At their meetings the American flag stood beside the Swastika banner. At a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York on 20 February 1939, a crowd of 20,000 listened to Kuhn attacking President Franklin D Roosevelt, referring to him as “Frank D Rosenfeld” and calling his New Deal a “Jew Deal”.
The gathering ended in violent clashes between protesters and participants. Similar riots took place on the west coast. The New York Times reported: “Disorders attendant upon Nazi rallies in New York and Los Angeles this week again focused attention upon the Nazi movement in the United States and inspired conjectures as to its strength and influence.”
The third US president has been back under the microscope in the wake of neo-Nazi violence, and his Virginia home reflects the moral ambiguity of his legacy
Steve Light looked at the tourists gathered on the east portico and asked what words come to mind when they think of Thomas Jefferson. “Declaration of Independence,” ventured one. “President,” said another. “Library,” offered a third. No one mentioned slave owner.
But the tour guide, describing Monticello’s grand house on a hill and 5,000-acre plantation that grew mainly tobacco and wheat, did not mince words. “It’s important to remember this house is not possible without enslaved labour that supported Jefferson’s lifestyle. So Jefferson’s a complicated guy. If you want to understand the United States, you probably have to understand Thomas Jefferson.”
Not every country in the world embraces such a self-critique or subtle understanding of founders and heroes. Jefferson has been back under the microscope this week in the wake of neo-Nazi and Ku Klux Klan violence in nearby Charlottesville, Virginia. Donald Trump, decrying the removal of Confederate statues, tweeted: “Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson – who’s next, Washington, Jefferson? So foolish!”
It is true that both Jefferson and Lee owned slave plantations in Virginia. But most historians find the comparison absurd: Jefferson (1743-1826) helped create the United States, whereas Lee was a traitor who took up arms to destroy it. Nevertheless, the third US president’s reputation has risen and fallen over time, and Monticello – the only former home of an American president to be granted UN world heritage status – is a beautiful, living museum that strives to reflect the moral ambiguity of his legacy....
International & Futurism PROBLEMS: Islamist beliefs spread immorality and barbarity. International agencies must become enabled to suppress bad corporate/ religion/ terrorist behavior.
Spanish police say they have shot dead five suspected terrorists in the town of Cambrils in a second vehicle attack, hours after another in Barcelona killed 13 people and injured dozens.
Police said the men were linked to the Barcelona attack, which so-called Islamic State said it had carried out.
Police are still hunting the man who drove his van into crowds on Las Ramblas in Barcelona on Thursday.
Spanish media have named Moussa Oubakir, 18, as the suspect.
He is the brother of Driss Oubakir, whose documentation was allegedly used to rent the van involved in the attack.
Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy has condemned what he called a "jihadist attack". He has announced three days of national mourning and a minute's silence was held at noon (10:00 GMT) on Friday.
Seven people, including a police officer, were wounded when a car was driven into them early on Friday, Catalan emergency services said. One later died in hospital.
The attackers' vehicle overturned and when the men got out they were quickly fired upon by police, media say. One was reportedly brandishing a knife.
The men were wearing what appeared to be explosive belts, police said, and a series of controlled explosions was carried out. The belts proved to be fake, Catalan regional head Carles Puigdemont later told local radio.
Police say the situation in Cambrils - a popular seaside resort 110km (68 miles) south-west of Barcelona - is now under control.
What happened on Las Ramblas?
A rented van was driven down Las Ramblas, a popular street in the centre of the city on Thursday afternoon, mowing down tourists and locals.
Witnesses said the van deliberately targeted people, weaving from side to side.
The driver of the van, believed to be the sole attacker, fled on foot and is still being hunted by police.
Las Ramblas is a central boulevard that runs 1.2km (0.75 miles) through the centre of Barcelona from the city's Plaça de Catalunya (Catalonia Square) to the Christopher Columbus monument at the seafront.
A businessman from New Orleans, who was just arriving in a taxi in Las Ramblas, said: "I heard a crowd screaming. It sounded like they were screaming for a movie star.
"I saw the van. It had already been busted on the front. It was weaving left and right, trying to hit people as fast as possible. There were people lying on the ground."
Kevin Kwast, who is on holiday in Barcelona with his family, said: "I was eating with my family in La Boqueria market very near where the crash occurred.
"Hundreds of people started stampeding through the market... we started running with them going outside right into where casualties were already on the ground.
"Police pushed us into a money transfer shop and we've been sheltering there for over an hour."
Who were the victims?
Citizens of some 24 countries were killed or injured in the Las Ramblas attack, the Catalan government has said.
UNHCR describes ‘overflow situation’ at Spanish ports.
Spain lacks the resources needed to protect a rising number of refugees trying to reach the country by sea, the U.N.’s refugee agency has said.
María Jesús Vega, a spokeswoman for the UNHCR in Spain, told the Guardian that the police are not equipped to deal with the surge in refugees travelling from Morocco. There is also a shortage of interpreters and accommodation, she said.
“The state isn’t prepared and there aren’t even the resources and the means to deal with the usual flow of people arriving by sea,” Vega told the Guardian.
There are significant numbers of women, children and victims of people trafficking among the new arrivals, according to the agency.
“Given the current rise, we’re seeing an overflow situation when it comes to local authorities trying to cope,” Vega said.
The nation of Germany gazed with helpless horror at Trump’s disastrous Tuesday press conference, in which he tried to make a false equivalency between the neo-Nazis and the counter-protesters.
Even before Trump’s wretched performance this week, only 11 percent of Germans said they trusted him to do the right thing. About 25 percent of Germans said that they trust Russian president Vladimir Putin to do the right thing!
That is worth repeating. Germany is one of America’s closest allies, but Germans are twice as likely to trust Putin as to trust Trump. Germans don’t have much confidence either leader, but they have a special distrust of Trump.
German Foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel said that comparing the two sides at the protests instead of clearly distancing himself from the potential for Nazism that had clearly been shown there “was a giant mistake and is also wrong.”
Minister Gabriel added that the violence in Charlottesville demonstrated what happens when you let extremist elements “run free,” and said it should be a wake up call for Europe, as well.
Gabriel concluded that it “just shows how intertwined some of Trump’s base is with the right-radical scene in the United States. His chief ideologist (Steve) Bannon is close to them.”
Gabriel is a leader of the Social Democratic Party, which is in coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union. He has however been critical of her, saying she is overly deferential to Donald Trump.
The German minister of justice, Jeff Sessions’ counterpart, Heiko Maas, said it was “unbearable” for Trump to gloss over the violence that occurred during the march of a “right wing horde” on Charlottesville.
A report published in May by investment bank UBS predicts that the cost of electric vehicles will match that of regular combustion-engine cars by 2018. The cost of making EVs could become cheaper too, which can increase profit for car makers.
Driving Down the Price
Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen a surge in electric vehicle development. Apart from Tesla, there are now over a dozen other startups working on their own electric car concept. Even veteran car makers have jumped on EV trend: Swedish car manufacturer Volvo ditching petrol-fueled cars starting in 2019, and luxury car maker Porsche has promised that half of its new vehicles will be electric by 2023.
Undoubtedly, EVs are starting to take over the automobile market. International investment bank UBS thinks the first step in market dominance of EVs would be in terms of costs. In a report published on May, analysts from the bank’s “evidence lab” predicted that EV prices will soon match those of combustion-engine cars.
According to The Telegraph, the UBS report predicts that the “total cost of consumer [EV] ownership can reach parity with combustion engines from 2018”, a trend which would likely begin in Europe. “This will create an inflection point for demand. We raise our 2025 forecast for EV sales by 50% to 14.2 million — 14% of global car sales.” UBS reached this conclusion after tinkering with a Chevrolet Bolt EV, which it described as “the world’s first mass-market EV, with a range of more than 200 miles.”
Speaking of new vehicles, the recently launched Tesla Model 3 is expected to boost mass adoption of EVs with its relatively affordable price. While it’s currently the cheapest EV out there, Nissan’s 2018 Leaf promises to cost some $5,000 less than the Model 3. This doesn’t mean, however, that electric cars aren’t going to be profitable. “Once total cost of ownership parity is reached, mass-brand EVs should also turn profitable,” the report said.
The UBS report also noted that manufacturing EVs is cheaper than they previously thought — and there’s still more room for cost reduction through strategies like developing cheaper batteries and building more charging infrastructure. These measures will be important, since more and more countries are now opting for EVs. France will ban selling petrol and diesel cars by 2040, while all cars sold in India will be electric by 2030.
Electric cars aren’t the only clean energy tech that’s been getting less costly. Renewable energy sources, like solar and wind, continue to be cheaper than their fossil fuel counterparts. The price of solar panels has, for example, dropped over the last few months. The decreasing cost of EVs seems to be part of a greater revolution towards clean energy.
Tesla's putting a "Tiny House" on tour today in Australia, as it unveiled a project that would demonstrate its solar roof panels and Powerwall home energy storage batteries. Tesla wants to demonstrate how a sustainable energy home could work.
Economics, Crony Capitalism PROBLEMS: Tariff & tax policies, banking/financial deregulation, monopoly/racketeering & antitrust dis-enforcement all help the Very Rich while harming The Public.
Amid rising public anger over the issue, Republican President Donald Trump campaigned for president on a promise to reduce drug prices — and, as recently as Monday, excoriated Merck & Co. CEO Ken Frazier, demanding that he “LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!” Democrats, in the meantime, have long depicted themselves as fight-for-the-little-guy populists crusading against pharmaceutical industry fat cats.
However, key players from both parties have made pivotal decisions at the federal and state levels that have kept drug prices high — and pharmaceutical industry profit margins wide. As part of International Business Times’ ongoing coverage of the fight over drug prices, what follows is a look at six of those individuals, and how their actions have shaped America’s prescription drug market.
How to Hide $400 Million[("Ideal," thinks Trump.) Tax-shelters have evolved into a distributed, international system of deregulation loopholes enabling vast worldwide corruption]
When a wealthy businessman set out to divorce his wife, their fortune vanished. The quest to find it would reveal the depths of an offshore financial system bigger than the U.S. economy.
We're tracking where taxpayer money has gone in the ongoing bailout ofthe financial system. Our database accounts for both the broader $700 billion bill and the separate bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Statues installed on five buses with the support of the Seoul mayor – although use of public space to highlight this wartime atrocity has angered Japan
Buses serving several routes in central Seoul have acquired a new and highly controversial passenger: a barefoot “comfort woman”, wearing a traditional hanbok dress with her hands resting on her knees.
Appearing on the front seat of buses in the South Korean capital earlier this week, the statues were installed by the Dong-A Transit company as a potent reminder of an unresolved wartime atrocity whose roots lie in Japan’s 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean peninsula.
The term “comfort women” is a euphemism for as many as 200,000 girls and young women, mostly from the Korean peninsula, who were coerced into working in Japanese frontline brothels before and during the second world war.
“It is designed to remind South Koreans of suffering the women went through,” said Rim Jin-wook, the head of Dong-A Transit, the bus company behind the statue passengers.
Seoul’s mayor has supported the scheme, which will run to the end of September, by riding on one of the buses and saying it was an “opportunity to pay tribute to the victims”.
However, the use of public spaces to highlight such a controversial issue has sparked criticism in Japan, which claims that the statues contravene the spirit of a 2015 agreement that was supposed to settle the comfort women controversy “finally and irreversibly”.
The US Air Force subjected North Koreans to three years of ‘rain and ruin’. It was a living nightmare – one that still haunts the country to this day
U.S. War on North Korea Never Ended[Revolutionary Reunification of Korea, which—like for Vietnam—Truman had promised to support, was instead met with ‘total war’]
Justice Matters PROBLEMS: Political Judges and States Attorneys, too little enforcement of anti-trust laws and white-collar crimes, over-prosecution of the poor OPED: Commute death sentences and allow assisted suicide.
For years, Indiana has been at the center of the national conversation about opioid addiction, which has ravaged the state since the late 1990s. Between 1999 and 2014, the number of drug overdoses skyrocketed 500 percent. There was also a 60 percent increase in emergency visits for non-fatal overdoses between 2011 and 2015. By and large, the medical community argues that treatment is the best solution to the growing problem, and legislators recently introduced a slate of bills to approach opioid use as a public health matter. In May, Governor Eric Holcomb’s Indiana Drug Prevention, Treatment and Enforcement Task Force revealed a multi-pronged “Preliminary Action Plan” to tackle the crisis via treatment, strategic law enforcement, and “community-based collaborations.”
But there is one group that thinks the medical approach is inadequate: prosecutors who are hellbent on using the criminal justice system to clamp down on the illicit drugs. On behalf of prosecutors statewide, Association of Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys, Inc. (AIPA) President Patricia Baldwin recently argued that “[p]enalties for drug possession and dealing are too low” and that the task force’s comprehensive plan will flop “without a comparable and equivalent improvement on the enforcement side.”
“It is a criminal offense to possess or deliver controlled substances outside of the legitimate medical processes. The aim of the criminal justice system in this area is to discourage participation in the illicit drug industry,” Baldwin wrote. “Since 2014, law enforcement has suffered from a weakened ability to accomplish these two important parts of the equation—holding dealers accountable and encouraging users to get help.” She added that enforcement is one way prosecutors “encourage rehabilitation.”
As the Indiana Lawyer noted, Baldwin also linked the new criminal code to both an increase in murders in two Indiana cities and an uptick in child abuse cases—without providing any evidence to prove causation. “If we excuse or enable an addict to seek opiates through the illicit drug trade, we endorse, then, all of the negative consequences associated with that industry,” Baldwin said. “The less severe the consequences for possession of drugs, the less likely addicts will take corrective action. A robust enforcement effort is absolutely necessary to a functional prevention and treatment effort. ”
But the AIPA president also ignored a major historical fact: locking people up for drug crimes doesn’t work.
Contrary to Baldwin’s statement, the Preliminary Action Plan proposed in May expands mechanisms for law enforcement to tackle the opioid crisis. It creates new crime teams to concentrate on drug trafficking, enhances surveillance, and encourages agency-wide collaboration to weed out suppliers. In other words, police and prosecutors still have a crucial role to play in the fight against a rapidly-increasing problem.
At its core, Baldwin’s argument represents an outdated way of thinking that prosecutors won’t let go of: that drug use is a vice and must be punished. But this tough-on-crime position won’t solve Indiana’s opioid emergency. Based on history, this stance will only add fuel to the fire.....
