Big Oil should be paying big, big reparations

Not just because of their vile behavior. Anything that might help drive Big Filthy Fossil Fuels into the ground, and make way for a government takeover and subsequent rapid phaseout, would be great. I'm well aware that widespread support has yet to be generated for that approach.

The world’s top fossil fuel companies owe at least $209 billion in annual climate reparations to compensate communities most damaged by their polluting business and decades of lies, a new study calculates.

BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, Total, Saudi Arabia’s state oil company and Chevron are among the largest 21 polluters responsible for $5.4 trillion in drought, wildfires, sea level rise, and melting glaciers among other climate catastrophes expected between 2025 and 2050, according to groundbreaking analysis published in the journal One Earth. - Mother Jones

One successful method with which Big Oil drives the "narrative"

It would be a lot harder without corporate media's ready and cheerful (if degraded) compliance.

This practice became the namesake of one of the best-known types of fallacies, the red herring fallacy. As a philosophy professor, this is how I explain the fallacy to my students: If the argument is not going your opponent's way, a common strategy — though a fallacious and dishonorable one — is to divert attention from the real issue by raising an issue that is only tangentially related to the first.

If our collective philosophical literacy were better, we might notice that this fallacy seems to be working spectacularly well for the fossil-fuel industry, the petrochemical industry, and a bunch of other bad actors who would like to throw us off the trail that would lead us fully to grasp their transgressions. We shouldn't keep falling for it. - Salon

More proof that US pressure and sanctions are failed BS

Unfortunately the people in charge just will not learn. Too cowardly to personally face the realities of stupidity and failure, among other things.

This time around, the U.S. had been cut out of the picture, a sea change reflecting not just Chinese initiatives but Washington’s incompetence, arrogance, and double-dealing in the subsequent three decades in the Middle East. An aftershock came in early May as concerns gripped Congress about the covert construction of a Chinese naval base in the United Arab Emirates, a U.S. ally hosting thousands of American troops. The Abu Dhabi facility would be an add-on to the small base at Djibouti on the east coast of Africa used by the People’s Liberation Army-Navy for combating piracy, evacuating noncombatants from conflict zones, and perhaps regional espionage...

China’s interest in bringing to an end the Iranian-Saudi cold war, which constantly threatened to turn hotter, is clear enough, but why did those two countries choose such a diplomatic channel? After all, the United States still styles itself the “indispensable nation.” If that phrase ever had much meaning, however, American indispensability is now visibly in decline, thanks to blunders like allowing Israeli right-wingers to cancel the Oslo peace process, the launching of an illegal invasion of and war in Iraq in 2003, and the grotesque Trumpian mishandling of Iran. - Informed Comment

House-flippers need far tighter regulation

At a minimum, legitimate licensing and reporting. And maybe it would be better if governing agencies had more direct involvement in dealing with problem properties.

Unlike real estate agents, house flippers operate in a largely unregulated space. Real estate agents have a fiduciary responsibility to represent a homeowner’s best interests in negotiations, which is defined in state laws, licensing requirements and an industry code of ethics. But in most states, flippers don’t need a license.

HomeVestors, the self-proclaimed “largest homebuyer in the United States,” goes to great lengths to distinguish itself from the hedge funds and YouTube gurus that have taken over large swaths of the real estate investment market. The company says it helps homeowners out of jams — ugly houses and ugly situations — improving lives and communities by taking on properties no one else would buy. Part of that mission is a promise not to take advantage of anyone who doesn’t understand the true value of their home, even as franchisees pursue rock-bottom prices...

But a ProPublica investigation — based on court documents, property records, company training materials and interviews with 48 former franchise owners and dozens of homeowners who have sold to its franchises — found HomeVestors franchisees that used deception and targeted the elderly, infirm and those so close to poverty that they feared homelessness would be a consequence of selling. - ProPublica

Labor organizing against private equity

It would help if government would pitch in a lot more on behalf of those who do the actual important, necessary work in this world.

The May Day action was the debut of an effort that organizers hope can provide a hub to better unite, educate and coordinate labor’s struggle against the growing power of private equity — in no small part by working with investors who manage workers’ retirement funds to demand that private equity firms abide by the platform’s planks.

Private equity firms invest billions in private companies, often purchasing controlling stakes in those companies, usually with the intention of restructuring and selling them off in several years. Private equity has a reputation for being perhaps the most ruthless arm of Wall Street, with a single-minded focus on stripping and flipping companies to make a profit. - Truthout

Talking climate change in rural areas

This is from a new progressive newsletter that focuses on issues out in the country.

Walton: One of the women you feature, Idaho’s Jennifer Ladino, notes that the very words “climate change” can themselves be a “trigger phrase” among some people in conservative, rural areas. How can effective action arise in communities that aren’t willing to acknowledge the underlying cause of crises like extreme weather?

McDuff: There are communities where you can’t name the problem. But economically, perpetuating a fossil fuel-dependent economy is not viable for rural communities. It’s just not, and it’s also not healthy. Whether we say the phrase “climate change” or not, the reality is that renewables are going to overtake fossil fuels.

And farmers aren’t standing around. They want to be able to grow crops in increasingly unstable weather patterns. So whether we’re saying the phrase “climate change” or not, communities are going to have to respond. - Barn Raiser

Big Plastics goes for ultra-greenwashing

A lot of people don't know that most plastics don't get recycled. Nor is the technology there to really change that, any time soon. And based on long experience I certainly know who I'm going to believe, between industry and environmentalists, in any context.

The newest flashpoint in a political battle between environmental groups and the plastics industry over “chemical” or “advanced” recycling has to do with the kinds of claims that can be made and still be truthful with American consumers.

The Federal Trade Commission is weighing its first changes in 10 years to its Green Guides, which establish guidelines for companies’ environmental advertising and labeling claims. The FTC’s review goes far beyond plastic recycling and includes concepts such as “net zero” related to greenhouse gas emissions, biodegradability, sustainability, and organic products...

The industry says that through advanced recycling a “circular” plastics economy can be created that reduces the need to tap virgin fossil fuels to make its products. Environmentalists say advanced recycling is in many cases tantamount to “greenwashing”—an energy-intensive process with a high carbon footprint that essentially incinerates much of the waste and turns a small percentage into feedstocks for new plastics, or more fossil fuels. - Mother Jones