Big Meat/Dairy had a big presence at COP28

I understand that they're going to look out for their own interests. But in the bigger picture their influence was likely baleful.

Lobbyists from industrial agriculture companies and trade groups have turned out in record numbers at COP28, which this year has a strong focus on tackling emissions from the food sector.

Attendees are present from some of the world’s largest agribusiness firms – such as meatpacker JBS, fertiliser giant Nutrien, food giant Nestlé and pesticide firm Bayer – and powerful industry trade groups.

Meat and dairy interests are especially well represented with 120 delegates in Dubai, triple the number that attended COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

Overall the analysis of the delegates list by DeSmog shows that the total number of people representing the interests of agribusiness has more than doubled since 2022 to reach 340...

The findings of the UN’s climate science body the IPCC show that the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement cannot be met without climate action on food. - DeSmog

AI surveillance is moving fast, and governments seem A-OK with that

You'd think that all over the world, all sides would agree on the need to place strict limits on intrusive AI. After all, everyone, including those in power, is potentially vulnerable to it. But apparently you'd be wrong, at least for now.

By all accounts, the European Union’s AI Act seems like something that would make tech ethicists happy. The landmark artificial intelligence law, which enjoyed a huge legislative win this week, seeks to institute a broad regulatory framework that would tackle the harms posed by the new technology. In its current form, the law would go to some lengths to make AI more transparent, inclusive, and consumer-friendly in the countries where it’s in effect. What’s not to like, right?

...And yet, despite some policy victories, there are major blindspots in the new law—ones that make civil society groups more than a little alarmed...

Indeed, the European Parliament’s own press release on the landmark law admits that “narrow exceptions [exist] for the use of biometric identification systems (RBI)”—police mass surveillance tech, in other words—“in publicly accessible spaces for law enforcement purposes, subject to prior judicial authorisation and for strictly defined lists of crime.” As part of that exemption, the law allows police to use live facial recognition technology—a controversial tool that has been dubbed “Orwellian” for its ability to monitor and catalog members of the public—in cases where it’s used to prevent “a specific and present terrorist threat” or to ID or find someone who is suspected of a crime.

As you might expect, for groups like Amnesty, this seems like a pretty big blind spot. From critics’ perspective, there’s no telling how law enforcement’s use of these technologies could grow in the future. “National security exemptions—as we know from history—are often just a way for governments to implement quite expansive surveillance systems,” said Satija. - Gizmodo

What is with this appalling "triple nuclear" nonsense?

People should know better. Now more than ever.

Climate campaigners scoffed Saturday at a 22-nation pledge to triple nuclear power capacity by mid-century as a way to ward off the increasing damage of warming temperatures, with opponents calling it a costly and “dangerous” distraction from the urgent need for a fossil fuel phaseout alongside a rapid increase in more affordable and scaleable renewable sources such as wind and solar...

“There is no space for dangerous nuclear power to accelerate the decarbonization needed to achieve the Paris climate goal,” said Masayoshi Iyoda, a 350.org campaigner in Japan who cited the 2011 Fukushima disaster as evidence of the inherent dangers of nuclear power.

Nuclear energy, said Iyoda, “is nothing more than a dangerous distraction. The attempt of a ‘nuclear renaissance’ led by nuclear industries’ lobbyists since the 2000s has never been successful—it is simply too costly, too risky, too undemocratic, and too time-consuming. We already have cheaper, safer, democratic, and faster solutions to the climate crisis, and they are renewable energy and energy efficiency.”

When word of the multi-nation pledge emerged last month, Mark Jacobson, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University and co-founder of The Solutions Project which offers a roadmap for 100% renewable energy that excludes nuclear energy, called the proposal the “stupidest policy proposal I’ve ever seen.” - Beyond Nuclear International

Federal oversight of the judiciary has long been a joke

ProPublica does it again. I can't say enough good things about that outfit.

The Judicial Conference, a secretive, century-old council of federal judges led by the chief justice of the Supreme Court, oversees the ethics and financial disclosures for more than 1,700 federal judges, including the nine justices of the high court. Those financial disclosures, submitted yearly as a list of assets and gifts, are often the only window into whether judges with lifetime appointments have conflicts of interest as they rule on the country’s most consequential legal cases.

The judiciary's leaders argue that the conference has been an effective watchdog over America's third branch of government. The conference’s authority plays an important role in judicial controversies and has been at the center of some defenses of the court following ProPublica’s reporting on possible ethical breaches. With its “sound structure of self-governance,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in 2021, “the Judicial Conference has been an enduring success.”

In reality, the Judicial Conference has instead often protected, not policed, the judiciary, according to interviews and previously undisclosed internal documents. For decades, conference officials have repeatedly worked to preserve judges’ most coveted perks while thwarting congressional oversight and targeting “disloyal” figures in the judiciary who argued for reforms. - ProPublica

Profiteering is indeed a big part of inflation

Actually, you'd have had to be awfully gullible to ever believe that it was all about "market forces."

A new report from progressive UK.-based think-tanks IPPR and Common Wealth says profiteering played a major role in jacking up prices far above the rise in costs, reinforcing a previous but narrower study showing such an impact. Among other things, the researchers called for a global corporation tax to curtail unrestrained profits...

Giant energy companies, mining companies, and monopolistic food companies all saw their profits leap ahead of inflation after the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The report noted, “Because energy and food prices feed so significantly into costs across all sectors of the wider economy, this exacerbated the initial price shock—contributing to inflation peaking higher and lasting longer than had there been less market power.”

Technology companies, telecommunications, and banking also raised their profit margins with big price hikes. “Such companies have been able to protect their profit margins or even increase them, generating excess profits through a combination of high market power and global market dynamics,” the report said. - Daily Kos

A big Medicare Advantage loophole is screwing seniors

If you're pushing 65 you probably especially want to know about this before decision time arrives.

Traditional Medicare has no out-of-pocket cap and covers 80 percent of medical expenses. Unlike Medicare Advantage plans, in traditional Medicare, seniors can choose whatever provider they want, and coverage limitations are far less stringent. Consequently, there’s a huge upside to going with traditional Medicare, and the downside is mitigated by the purchase of a Medigap plan, which covers the other 20 percent that Medicare doesn’t pay.

While this coverage is more expensive than most Medicare Advantage plans, nearly everybody in their old age would like to be able to choose their doctor and their hospitals, and everybody would want the security of knowing that they won’t be denied critical treatments. In 46 states, however, Medigap plans are allowed to engage in what’s called underwriting, or medical health screening, after seniors have already chosen a Medicare Advantage plan at age 65.

Only four states—New York, Connecticut, Maine, and Massachusetts—prevent Medigap underwriting for Medicare Advantage patients trying to switch back to traditional Medicare. The millions of Americans not living in those states are trapped in Medicare Advantage, because Medigap plans are legally able to deny them insurance coverage.

Medicare Advantage little resembles Medicare as it was traditionally intended, with tight networks and exorbitant costs that threaten to bankrupt the Medicare trust fund. (A recent estimate from Physicians for a National Health Program found that the program costs Medicare $140 billion annually.) - The American Prospect

Federal food purchasing programs are overdue for change

But it's probably a good election away from happening.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has an array of programs aimed at helping farmers grow food that supports rural communities and the environment, but its own purchasing has long revolved around sourcing the cheapest foods available.

Last week, lawmakers in both the House and Senate introduced legislation that could transform the agency’s food purchasing processes, directing the USDA to seek out not just the most affordable foods but also to consider factors including supply chain resiliency, environmental impact, and labor policies when deciding which companies are on the receiving end of the billions of dollars it spends on food each year...

To date, more than 200 organizations have endorsed the EFFECTIVE Food Procurement Act, while 65 have endorsed the Strengthening Local Meat Economies Act. But the bills are partisan, with no backing from Republicans. - Civil Eats

The pervasive, high-risk realties of AI

Beyond and above the infinite Big Tech/corporate media hype.

OpenAI’s goal of developing AGI has become entwined with the idea of AI acquiring superintelligent capabilities and the need to safeguard against the technology being misused or going rogue. But for now, AGI and its attendant risks are speculative. Task-specific forms of AI, meanwhile, are very real, have become widespread and often fly under the radar...

AI plays a visible part in many people’s daily lives, from face recognition unlocking your phone to speech recognition powering your digital assistant. It also plays roles you might be vaguely aware of – for example, shaping your social media and online shopping sessions, guiding your video-watching choices and matching you with a driver in a ride-sharing service.

AI also affects your life in ways that might completely escape your notice. If you’re applying for a job, many employers use AI in the hiring process. Your bosses might be using it to identify employees who are likely to quit. If you’re applying for a loan, odds are your bank is using AI to decide whether to grant it. If you’re being treated for a medical condition, your health care providers might use it to assess your medical images. And if you know someone caught up in the criminal justice system, AI could well play a role in determining the course of their life. - The Conversation

Majority of top companies are flagrantly greenwashing on climate change

Not a surprise.

The recent InfluenceMap study, assessing the climate commitments of nearly 300 of the world’s largest companies, has uncovered a troubling trend: over half are at risk of ‘net zero greenwashing.’ This finding highlights a significant disconnect between corporate pledges to support the Paris Climate Accord and actual policy actions, casting doubt on the integrity of these commitments.

The analysis focused on the world’s top companies from the Forbes 2000 list, revealing that 58 percent have not aligned their climate policy influencing actions with their public claims. This discrepancy raises concerns about the credibility of corporate commitments to achieving net zero emissions.

Catherine McKenna, chair of the High-Level Expert Group on the Net Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities, emphasizes the urgency for businesses to align their actions with their climate pledges. “We urgently need every business, investor, city, state, and region to walk the talk on their net zero promises. We cannot afford slow movers, fake movers, or any form of greenwashing,” she states. - Nation of Change

Not even close, so far, on emissions cuts

Obviously we can't wait until the greedheads' interests are seriously at risk, to take actions that matter, which is what seems to be happening now worldwide.

A new United Nations Climate Change report says that current climate action plans by nations are not enough to limit the average global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius and meet Paris Agreement targets...

UN Climate Change’s analysis looked at the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) of the 195 Parties to the Paris Agreement, which included 20 updated or new NDCs submitted through September 25 of this year. The report showed that emissions were not showing the fast downward trajectory that science indicates is needed this decade.

“Global ambition stagnated over the past year and national climate plans are strikingly misaligned with the science,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres, as Reuters reported. “The chasm between need and action is more menacing than ever.” - EcoWatch

The hidden costs of industrial ag are mind-blowing

The UN report linked in the quoted story actually covers all agriculture worldwide. But when you look at the second paragraph below, you know almost all the problems are originating with the greedheads of Big Ag.

Food systems are about much more than just food. What’s on your plate or in your bowl is important, of course, but food is linked with everything from labor rights and healthcare to social justice and the climate crisis.

But when consumers buy a cluster of tomatoes on the vine or a carton of eggs, the price does not necessarily consider that inter-tangled web of connections. These external impacts of food production—on human health, animal welfare, workers, biodiversity, waterways, or soil—aren’t always reflected in the market price.

The movement to calculate, value, recognize, and pay down these costs is known as True Cost Accounting (TCA), and we’ve talked about it before. But in a landmark report just published, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization took on the massive task of analyzing virtually the entire world’s food system through the lens of TCA.

This report estimates that the global quantified hidden costs of agrifood systems is approximately US$12.7 trillion.

It’s almost like a debt the food system owes to the world—a debt that, so far, it’s not making payments on. - Food Tank

Big Oil's disgusting plan to deal with protest

Vile.

A new report by Greenpeace USA details the widespread coordination between the public and private sectors to monitor activism, punish protesters both physically and legally, and grease the wheels for proposed anti-protest bills that criminalize civil disobedience.

“Corporate polluters, and their allies in government, have shown they will go to extreme lengths to silence us,” said Greenpeace Senior Research Specialist Andres Chang, one of the authors and editors of the report. “Why? Because a supermajority of Americans support climate action, and our ability to voice our dissent is essential to making climate progress.”

The Greenpeace report combines previously available research with new details about the ongoing collaboration between police officers and private security forces, the strategic use of dissent-chilling lawsuits, and tight-knit relationships between fossil fuel representatives and law enforcement — all of which compromise both the public interest and the First Amendment rights of protesters. - Truthout

An honest look at beef, dairy, and climate change

Most articles I've seen on this topic discuss the problem, then stop. This one gets into just how tough solutions will be. Which doesn't mean they can't happen.

Cattle play a colossal role in climate change: As the single largest agricultural source of methane, a potent planet-warming gas, the world’s 940 million cows spew nearly 10 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions — much of it through belches and droppings.

As such, there’s an astonishing amount of time and money being funneled into emission control. On-farm biodigesters, for example, take a backend approach by harvesting methane wafting from manure pits. A slew of research aims to curb bovine burps by feeding them seaweed, essential oils, and even a bovine Beano of sorts. The latest endeavor, a $70 million effort led by a Nobel laureate, uses gene-editing technology in an effort to eliminate that pollution by reengineering the animals’ gut microbes.

Given the world’s growing appetite for meat and dairy, these novel ventures are crucial to inching us toward international and national climate goals. Yet they beg the question: Wouldn’t it be easier to ditch milk, cheese, and beef for plant-based alternatives? Why fight nature when there’s an easier solution, at least from a scientific perspective?

...Given the scale of the beef and dairy industries, the central role they play in feeding people, and the difficulty of removing them from the economy, cattle clearly aren’t moving on any time soon. - Grist

$10 trillion and counting in handouts to the greedheads

This is common knowledge to many, but unfortunately there are a lot of people who still refuse to face facts.

While much of the reporting on the Treasury figures painted a picture of various and overlapping dynamics to explain the surge in the deficit—including higher payments on debt due to interest rates, tax filing waivers related to extreme weather events, the impact of a student loan forgiveness program that was later rescinded, or a dip in capital gains receipts—progressive tax experts say none of those complexities should act to shield what's at the heart of a budget that brings in less than it spends: tax giveaways to the rich.

Bobby Kogan, senior director for federal budget policy at the Center for American Progress, has argued repeatedly that growing deficits in recent years have a clear and singular chief cause: Republican tax cuts that benefit mostly the wealthy and profitable corporations.

In response to the Treasury figures released Friday, Kogan said that "roughly 75%" of the surge in the deficit and the debt ratio, the amount of federal debt relative to the overall size of the economy, was due to revenue decreases resulting from GOP-approved tax cuts over recent decades. "Of the remaining 25%," he said, "more than half" was higher interest payments on the debt related to Federal Reserve policy. - Common Dreams

Yes, fracking kills

The evidence has become for all practical purposes conclusive.

Hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas is linked to an array of health harms, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, asthma and birth defects, according to the latest compilation of studies on the impact of fracking on human health.

The ninth edition of a “compendium” of scientific, medical, government and media reports on the industry’s health effects, released (October 19), contains references to almost 2,500 papers that add to evidence that fracking has an array of negative impacts on human health, the authors say.

The number of studies collected is now more than six times what it was when the first compendium was published in 2014, but the conclusions are the same, said Dr. Sandra Steingraber, the lead author, and a member of Physicians for Social Responsibility and Concerned Health Professionals of New York, which jointly published the 637-page document. - Inside Climate News

The "Atlas Network" needs to be exposed, far and wide

The referendum in Australia, referenced in the article, didn't pass.

A campaign to deny Indigenous peoples a voice in Australia’s national Parliament is using tactics similar to an earlier conservative legal battle against First Nations communities in Canada, a new research paper argues.

That’s no coincidence, according to the paper’s author Jeremy Walker, because think tanks linked to these efforts in Canada and Australia belong to a secretive U.S. organization called the Atlas Network that’s received support from oil, gas and coal companies and operates in nearly 100 countries.

“The coordinated opposition to Indigenous constitutional recognition by the Australian arm of the Atlas Network we can assume is motivated by the same intentions underlying the permanent Atlas campaign against climate policy [globally],” writes Walker, a senior lecturer in social and political sciences at the University of Technology Sydney in Australia.

“That is, to minimise the possibility of democratic government challenging the ever-expanding frontier of fossil fuel extraction,” he argues, a charge one conservative Australian advocacy group strongly denies. - DeSmog

Too often, conservation programs help bolster industrial ag

There is plenty of both good and bad in this report.

Industrial animal agriculture is a well-documented and significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, water and air pollution, poor animal welfare and environmental injustice.

One way the U.S. Department of Agriculture attempts to address the harms caused by industrial agriculture is with conservation programs funded through the Farm Bill. These programs are intended to “help agricultural producers improve their environmental performance with respect to soil health, water quality, air quality, wildlife habitat, and greenhouse gas emissions.”

However, one of the leading conservation programs, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), also supports the factory farm system of industrial animal agriculture — the very system that impairs rural water and air quality, releases high levels of greenhouse gases and undercuts independent farmers using high animal welfare systems that protect the environment! Since 2002, 50% of total EQIP funding has been required to support livestock operations, including industrial-scale factory farms. These EQIP contracts are often up to six figures and pay for equipment and infrastructure that support and lock in the industrial model, ultimately using limited conservation funds to subsidize factory farms. - IATP

The military-industrial complex is an utterly demented, depraved system

Including the pathological arrogance and shamelessness of it all.

"War is good for business."

That's what one defense executive said at a London arms conference last month, and what the stock market reflected on Monday, as Israel blockaded and bombarded the Gaza Strip—bombing the occupied Palestinian territory's main university, residential buildings, a refugee camp, and a major hospital—in response to Hamas' weekend attack that killed hundreds of Israelis.

The United States, which already gives Israel $3.8 billion in annual military assistance, is now preparing to send additional weaponry and other support. Meanwhile, the stocks of U.S. and European firms that make money off of war soared on Monday.

U.S. companies including Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and RTX—previously known as Raytheon—were all affected, as were top British, French, Germany, and Italian firms, according toThe Wall Street Journal. - Common Dreams

Industrial ag is failing badly in Africa

This is pretty awful, and very, very underreported.

On September 5, the annual Africa Food Systems Forum, organised by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), (launched) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Government officials, experts, policymakers and business leaders will come together to discuss – in their words – “building back better food systems and food sovereignty”.

Sponsored by international philanthropic and bilateral donors and agrochemical and biotech companies such as Yara, Corteva and Bayer, the forum promotes hybrid and genetically modified seeds, chemical fertilisers and pesticides used in the type of industrial-scale agriculture that has failed to deliver “better food systems” or “food sovereignty”.

This approach to growing food, involving problematic practices that harm soils, pollute the environment, and favour large landowners and big agribusiness, has been pushed on Africa in the past few decades. But it has not helped the continent overcome food insecurity.

AGRA’s work is a case in point. It has failed to deliver on its own promises to increase productivity and incomes for 20 million farm households while halving food insecurity by 2020. Of the 13 countries it has primarily worked with, three have reduced the number of malnourished people over the past 15 years: Zambia by 2 percent, Ethiopia by 8 percent and Ghana by 36 percent, still short of the 50 percent target.

In countries like Kenya and Nigeria, both of which have embraced industrial agriculture policies, the number of undernourished people has grown by 44 percent and 247 percent, respectively. Taken together, the population of undernourished people in the 13 states AGRA has primarily worked with has actually risen by 50 percent over the past 15 years. - IATP

Who's eating lots of beef?

I would need to see at least one more independent study that confirms these results, before I totally buy them. That said, it's encouraging data in a way, given beef's environmental/climate impacts among other things. Unfortunately consumption is only likely to keep rising, at least for a while yet, in some other countries like China.

A new study has found that only about 12% of people in the U.S. consume more than half of the beef eaten in the country on any given day. According to the researchers, the highest consumption was more likely to occur with men or people aged 50 to 65...

The survey collected information of what more than 10,000 adults ate within a 24-hour period. The researchers were surprised to find that so much beef consumption was coming from a small percentage of people.

“On one hand, if it’s only 12% accounting for half the beef consumption, you could make some big gains if you get those 12% on board,” Diego Rose, corresponding and senior author of the study and professor and nutrition program director at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, said in a statement. “On the other hand, those 12% may be most resistant to change.” Rose also noted that beef is high in saturated fat, which raises health concerns. - EcoWatch

Will AI create or destroy jobs?

Heck if I know. I consider it impossible to predict with any confidence, at this time. This is from another take on the matter.

A new study by the International Labour Organization (ILO) has concluded that Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) is more likely to increase jobs than destroy them by automating some tasks rather than taking them over entirely...

The study, “Generative AI and Jobs”, argues that most jobs and industries are only partially exposed to automation and are more likely to be complemented than replaced by the latest wave of generative AI, such as chatGPT.

Therefore, he argues that “the biggest impact of this technology is likely to be not job destruction, but rather potential changes in the quality of jobs, in particular work intensity and autonomy”...

The study, released by the ILO from its headquarters in this Swiss city, documents notable differences in the effects on countries at different levels of development, linked to economic structures and existing technology gaps. - Pressenza

Massive fossil fuels subsidies continue, in spite of it all

In theory, what we could use in this country is nationalization of Big Filthy Fossil Fuels. This would help in getting them phased out more rapidly, and in neutering them politically. Forced buyouts actually wouldn't cost us taxpayers much, if they're done in the manner of the sorts of leveraged buyouts beloved of "free marketers." "In theory" because something so sensible is highly unlikely to happen any time soon.

Imagine a bunch of people who are kidnapped and tortured by being put in a hot room, and their tormentors keep turning up the thermostat. So the prisoners stage a revolt and grab control of the thermostat. But they turn it up on themselves, making the room even hotter, and black out from heat stroke.

It isn’t a very satisfying thriller because the prisoners act in a bewildering way, joining in to torture themselves.

It is, however, the thriller we are living, however bizarre the characters’ actions.

The International Monetary Fund reports that the nations of the globe indirectly subsidized fossil fuels, the sources of dangerous greenhouse gases causing global heating, to the tune of $7 trillion in 2022. In other words, we’re acting like we are brain dead. So report Simon Black, Ian Parry, Nate Vernon at the IMF. - Informed Comment

Artificial intelligence and getting public benefits

I’m still an AI skeptic, at least of many of the claims that are out there. Remember how the internet itself was going to totally remake our lives, like “paperless offices,” the total end of traditional retailing, etc., etc? (Though certainly some people made a great deal of money from pronouncements like that being taken very seriously. Other people lost a great deal of money, too.) We will have to deal with AI, of sorts, in some ways, though.

One critical area that will almost certainly see dramatic changes in the years ahead is that of accessing public benefits programs — a realm already fraught with systemic barriers. While AI brings great potential to streamline burdensome processes and expand access to critical services, it also poses significant risks if deployed without care. As we stand at the precipice of an AI revolution, it’s critical that policymakers, tech companies and advocates work collectively to steer these technologies towards empowering people in need, rather than further isolating them. The promise is real, but far from guaranteed.

These developments come at a moment of growing recognition of how critical a robust, accessible safety net is to building and maintaining a prosperous society. Analysis on the expansion of the child tax credit during the Covid-19 pandemic found that increasing the benefit amount and making it available to more people lifted 3.7 million children out of poverty. In contrast, the addition of work requirements to enroll in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps), as proposed by Congressional Republicans early this year, would have reduced enrollment by an estimated 52% if it had been enacted, by making it more difficult for families in need to access the benefits. Given that SNAP is credited with keeping 3.3 million children out of poverty every year, this change would have drastically increased the number of children in poverty. These outcomes have major ramifications, not just for the families involved, but for society at large, as the long-term impact of child poverty has been calculated to cost more than $1 trillion every year. - In These Times

A (probably brief) respite of sorts for the Colorado River water crisis

"A respite of sorts" is far, far from "solved." The latter ain't happening.

The water shortage crisis on the Colorado River is improving, but it’s far from over.

That was the message from the Biden administration on Tuesday, as officials announced they would loosen water restrictions on the river in 2024. Thanks to robust winter snowpack that provided about 33 percent more moisture than the average year, the water levels in the riverʻs two main reservoirs have begun to stabilize after plummeting over three years. This has lessened the need for states in the Southwest to cut their water usage.

The total cuts will be about 20 percent lighter than they were last year, requiring three Southwest states and Mexico to save around 600,000 acre-feet of water — enough to supply roughly 1.2 million homes.

Even so, the administration left some mandatory restrictions in place to account for the fact that the reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, are still emptier than they have been at almost any point in history. That’s due in large part to a millennium-scale drought that researchers believe was made much more likely by climate change. And even as federal officials eased up on mandatory restrictions, they were also preparing to dole out billions of dollars to the region’s farmers and cities in an effort to further reduce water usage on the river. - Grist

Yes, it's past time to start getting rid of the bosses

But making it happen is proving to be very challenging. That's no reason to give up, though.

Do our corporate CEOs deserve all those millions they annually pocket? Can a modern economy somehow survive without the “incentive” these mega millions provide? Do we, in effect, need our top corporate bosses pocketing more in a day than their workers can take home in a year?

We’ve been asking — as a society — questions like these ever since CEO paychecks started soaring in the late 1970s. Back in the 1960s, America’s CEOs averaged about 20 times what their workers were taking home. Today’s CEOs, analysts at the Economic Policy Institute detailed last October, routinely pocket 400 times and more what their workers are making...

But that executive greed — despite the spotlight on it — seems as entrenched as ever. And that reality has some analysts going beyond attacking how much our corporate chiefs execs make. These critics are increasingly wondering whether we need these chiefs at all. - CounterPunch

White people are a lot more likely to get murdered in conservative rural areas

This is handy for when you see scaremongering from right-wing media about the crime-ridden Minnesota metro. Though from their perspective I get why right-wing media here does what it does. What else do they have?

The dirty rural secret shown in the latest Centers for Disease Control death tabulations for 2022-23: White people in small towns are 1.3 times more likely to be murdered, 1.3 times more likely to commit suicide, and 1.2 times more likely to die by violent causes than White people living in a big metro like Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New York, or Houston.

It gets worse. Deadly dangers to White people soar still more if they live in a solid Republican rural area compared to Whites in a solidly Democratic urban one. (Republican and Democrat areas are defined as ones in which one party dominates the governorship and both houses of the legislature and by how counties voted in 2020; “White” refers to non-Hispanic White.)

...Rural White people in Red counties in Red states (no blaming liberals allowed; Republicans run everything) are 1.9 times more likely to be murdered, 2.4 times more likely to be killed by law enforcement (why aren’t rural Whites banding with Black Lives Matter against trigger-happy cops?), and 2.6 times more likely to die by guns than White people living in big-city Blue counties in Blue states run by Democrats at all levels. - Daily Kos

Congress needs to deal with food insecurity in the military

It's no secret that I'm anti-militarist, and that I support massive cuts to the complex, starting with going after waste, fraud, and profiteering. But that doesn't mean servicemembers should get screwed like this.

The military reduced grocery prices at military bases last fall, to an average of 22 percent less than in civilian grocery stores. Bill Moore, director and CEO at DeCA, said the savings for military families should exceed 25 percent for the current fiscal year.

Despite the cuts, many active-duty service members struggle to feed their families. A recent RAND Corporation report found that more than 15 percent of all active-duty military personnel are food insecure...

(Basic Allowance for Subsistence) has risen by 28 percent in the last decade, but accessing healthy and affordable food is still difficult for soldiers, both financially and socially. And while the House and Senate have been debating the limitations of BAS and other military quality-of-life concerns recently, they have yet to make any significant changes. In the meantime, philanthropic charities have been stepping up to respond to the daily needs of military families. - Civil Eats

Death to for-profit health care

This is from the lead article in The American Prospect's current issue, which is devoted to this country's profits way, way before people health care system.

The problem is, because the country essentially lacks any institutions designed to broadly improve public health, our medical advances are funneled through a veritable gauntlet of gatekeepers, distributors, middlemen, subcontractors, loophole-exploiters, conglomerates, and monopolies, all under the watchful eye of Wall Street investors. Managing a hospital or clinic today requires hiring an ever-mushrooming cadre of lobbyists, consultants, and contractors to navigate this confusing new world. The science of health care points to a bright future; the business of health care points directly backwards...

Where is the money for the most expensive health care system in the world going? The cut of gross national health care expenditures commanded by administrative overhead and waste has ballooned to an estimated 30 percent; the portion that pays doctors and nurses has fallen. Experts estimate that fraud comprises at least $10 of every $100 the U.S. government spends each year on health care. And how much does the government spend policing that fraud? In 2021, that figure was two cents, according to the HHS inspector general. Wealth extraction has become so normalized in American health care, it can barely be considered illegal. - The American Prospect

Hospice needs to get back to what it was

This is one of the best examples of how contemptible the for-profit privatizers are.

From the beginning, hospice was as much an ethos as a health care job. The earliest providers were uniformly nonprofit endeavors. With the 1982 advent of full Medicare reimbursement, hospice came to provide exceptional and humane end-of-life ministration, with nurses and counselors prepared for everything from palliative care to bereavement support to spiritual advice for families.

Yet in the last two decades, at first slowly and then in an onslaught, the field of hospice has been transformed. An influx of for-profit operations, drawn to potentially vast profit margins, dominates the field. Now, in some corners, cost-cutting and profiteering are the order of the day, with direct consequences for patients. And of course, Medicare, the public dollar, is underwriting their extraordinary returns.

There are well-operated, humane for-profit hospices, to be sure. But for the more cynical operators — and there are many — compassion, and a peaceful and dignified death, are no longer the care standards; the aim is profit alone. - Truthout

Elements of the Inflation Reduction Act are working

Not to reduce overall inflation, of course, because there is nothing in there sanctioning the corporate greedheads that are causing that. But there is some moderately good news on the climate change front.

The report, the ninth edition of Rhodium’s annual emissions assessment, found that the IRA and state-level climate bills that have been signed into law by governors across the country in recent years will drive emissions down between 29 and 42 percent in 2030, compared to 2005 levels. By 2035, greenhouse gas emissions will decrease between 32 and 51 percent. Prior to the IRA’s passage, the nation was on track to cut emissions by 26 to 41 percent by 2035, according to Rhodium’s estimate from 2022. Rhodium called the overall reductions “a meaningful departure from previous years’ expectations for the U.S. emissions trajectory.”

Thanks to the IRA’s subsidies, solar and wind energy are already becoming a lot cheaper: solar by nearly 40 percent and wind by 55 percent. The legislation will also influence the speed with which electric vehicles replace gas-powered cars. In 2035, electric vehicles will comprise between one-third and two-thirds of all passenger car sales, the report said. That’s meaningful progress, but the emissions reductions aren’t steep enough to get the U.S. fully on track to meet its pledge to reduce emissions 50 to 52 percent by 2030 under the Paris Agreement, the 2015 international treaty on climate change that aims to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). - Grist

Ongoing shortages of essential, basic medications

This article nails it, if you ask me.

Patients and their providers increasingly face limited or nonexistent supplies of drugs, many of which treat essential conditions such as cancer, heart disease and bacterial infections. The American Society of Health System Pharmacists now lists over 300 active shortages, primarily of decades-old generic drugs no longer protected by patents.

While this is not a new problem, the number of drugs in short supply has increased in recent years, and the average shortage is lasting longer, with more than 15 critical drug products in short supply for over a decade. Current shortages include widely known drugs such as the antibiotic amoxicillin; the heart medicine digoxin; the anesthetic lidocaine; and the medicine albuterol, which is critical for treating asthma and other diseases affecting the lungs and airways.

What’s going on?

I’m a health economist who has studied the pharmaceutical industry for the past 15 years. I believe the drug shortage problem illustrates a major shortcoming of capitalism. While costly brand-name drugs often yield high profits to manufacturers, there’s relatively little money to be made in supplying the market with low-cost generics, no matter how vital they may be to patients’ health. - The Conversation

Corporate media's flagrant right-wing propaganda on the economy

This could in part be an indicator of how nervous the greedheads are getting, about the GOP's, and even corporate Dems', electoral prospects in coming cycles. With crap like this their mouthpieces are basically sacrificing any chance of gaining younger, more knowledgeable audiences for the long haul.

If you were a casual consumer of the news over the last couple years, you may not have heard much about these success stories. You may, in fact, think that everything has suddenly gone wrong all at once.

And it would be hard to blame you. In the wake of a historically progressive response to an economic downturn, corporate media have been intently focused on the negative...

In this environment, any discussion of Biden’s poor approval ratings on economic policy has to include consideration of the media’s role in manufacturing those ratings. In the wake of the Covid recession, in May 2020, Trump’s disapproval on this measure hit 51%. Biden’s most recent rating is a full 16 points worse, at 67% disapproval. This despite a much stronger economy than in May of 2020—the unemployment rate, for one, is nearly 10 percentage points lower now.

If we want to understand how progressive policy is undermined by a media owned by the wealthy, the experience of the last several years offers a case study. In the wake of robust government intervention in 2020 and 2021 that cut inequality and boosted incomes, especially for those at the bottom, inflation-mania has taken over in the media. - FAIR

Kicking people off Medicaid for big bucks

All health insurers have people whose job it is to find reasons to deny coverage. That's bad enough, but this seems even worse as most of their victims will have no other realistic options.

As more than seventeen million people stand to lose health insurance in the unfolding Medicaid eligibility review disaster, there’s one company licking its lips: Maximus, a little-known federal contractor that is one of the biggest players in privatizing essential government services previously done by civil servants — in particular, taking over states’ capacity to determine who is eligible for Medicaid and who isn’t.

In a February earnings call for shareholders and Wall Street analysts, Maximus’s CEO Bruce Caswell announced that the current nationwide eligibility review of ninety million people on Medicaid and other government health insurance programs “is unprecedented in its scope,” and will allow Maximus “to gain traction in the market.” As a result of the deluge in Medicaid “redeterminations,” Caswell said, “we expect improvement to operating margin.”

The company has accordingly boosted its earnings estimate by $100 million. Maximus’s share price is closing on its all-time high, up nearly 50 percent since October. Caswell earned $6.3 million in 2022.

Outsourcing Medicaid eligibility reviews to Maximus has major implications beyond the company’s expanding bottom line. It also removes essential government services from the realm of public accountability, while draining resources from governments. - Jacobin

Many colleges weren't making much effort at inclusion and diversity, before

Yes, the decision by the ultra-corrupt, extremist Trump SCOTUS is disgraceful. But here's something of a reality check regarding the status quo.

If there is any hope following the Supreme Court’s decision to gut affirmative action and overturn more than 40 years of precedent last week, it might be this: Selective colleges and universities are suddenly pledging “unwavering commitment” to access and inclusion.

If only many of them had really made that effort in the first place.

I’m still reading through heartfelt statements from college presidents touting the importance of race-conscious admissions and having people from different backgrounds represented on their campuses.

Yet our years of reporting and collecting data on this issue at The Hechinger Report show little evidence they’ve actually done much to diversify their student bodies, even before the affirmative action ruling. Black student enrollment in colleges and universities has been dropping steadily, while many flagship universities lag way behind when it comes to enrolling their state’s Black and Hispanic high school graduates.

And nearly 700 schools have been raising prices paid by their lowest-income students – who are disproportionately Black and Hispanic – more than the prices paid by their highest-income ones. - The Hechinger Report

Fossil fuel investments cost pension funds billions

Information like this needs to be much more widely publicized. Certainly didn't lead the news for any Minnesota corporate media, that I saw.

For U.S. public pension funds, divesting from oil, coal, and gas would result in overall higher financial value.

That is the key takeaway from a new study examining the past decade’s portfolio performance for several of the largest public pension funds in the country. The analysis by researchers at the University of Waterloo, published (June 27) in partnership with the organization Stand.earth, has found that the total cumulative value of six major U.S. public pension funds would have been about 13 percent higher had they divested from fossil fuel holdings ten years ago – equivalent to around $21 (billion) in earnings. - DeSmog

Deep-sea mining is a horrifying idea

And with other battery designs and far better recycling practices (by law if necessary), we won't need the ores anyway. Of course some people may not get as rich as they intend to be, if it doesn't happen, but so be it.

Rising demand for metals like nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese to make batteries used in smartphones and electric vehicles, along with depleting land-based deposits, has led to increased interest in deep-sea mining. But research suggests that the process of extracting mineral deposits from the ocean floor could destroy habitats and decimate species.

According to a new report from British nonprofit financial think tank Planet Tracker, mining the ocean’s depths could cause as much as 25 times more biodiversity loss than terrestrial mining, reported Reuters. And the financial cost of repairing that damage would be twice as much as extracting it. - EcoWatch

Oil demand is slowing, worldwide

Though too slowly. A lot more intervention - like bringing down the pathological greedheads at Big Oil - is needed. "Needed" and "will happen" are different things.

In the coming years, the world’s (increasing) demand for oil is predicted to decline and almost come to a halt by 2028. A new report from the International Energy Agency confirmed that high prices and security of supply concerns caused by the global energy crisis is shifting the world towards renewable energy faster.

The report titled, Oil 2023, forecasts “global oil demand will rise by 6 percent between 2022 and 2028 to reach 105.7 million barrels per day (mb/d),” but despite this cumulative increase, “annual demand growth is expected to shrivel from 2.4 mb/d this year to just 0.4 mb/d in 2028, putting a peak in demand in sight,” a press release from International Energy Agency (IEA) said. - Nation of Change

Renewables installation is speeding up, but needs to speed up faster

A lot faster. Plenty of remaining impediments need to be removed, by any means available.

But whether Earthlings have the political and sociological capability to alter that lethal global warming trajectory remains an unanswered question. The historical record is inauspicious in this regard. Time will tell. And since time is short, the answer will be apparent before long. What we do have is the economic and technological capability to stop well short of that disastrous 4.9° F.

One of the quickest ways to get greenhouse gas emissions reduced is to greatly reduce demand for products that generate them. The progress on renewables is on the cusp of doing just that. Creating and spreading environmentally sound technology is, of course, far from the only thing that must be done to stop the wrecking of our planet. In that regard, there is plenty to talk about. But it’s encouraging to see some elements of the antidote accelerating along with the acceleration of climate impacts. The International Energy Agency’s latest outlook on renewables including energy storage is upbeat in the matter. - Daily Kos

The FTC is trying to deal with some of Big Tech's crap

As best they can, with Congress doing nothing.

The Federal Trade Commission Act only gives the agency the authority to regulate “unfair or deceptive” business practices. For years, privacy experts assumed that meant consumers were out of luck: as long as companies weren’t telling outright lies, they were free to do as they pleased with your data. The FTC reached a $5 billion privacy sentiment with Facebook in 2018, but the case hinged on ways the company misled users — rather than allegations that the unpleasant ways Facebook used data were inherently unlawful.

But under the leadership of Lina Khan, the Biden-appointed FTC chairperson, the commission has taken up data misconduct with unprecedented vigor.

The FTC does have some rule making authority, but it’s a slow, arduous process. In the meantime, it is changing tech policy by stretching existing regulations to places no one believed they could go. - Gizmodo

Corporate bosses basically admit to massive price-fixing

Legally, price "gouging" refers to taking advantage of disasters like hurricanes, epidemics, etc., to run prices way up on items people have no choice but to buy. Which is the only reason that I'm not using "gouging," here.

An analysis released Tuesday shows that executives at some of the top publicly traded companies in the United States aren't exactly being coy about using their pricing power to hike costs for consumers and boost revenues and profits—which are then dished out to wealthy shareholders.

The progressive watchdog group Accountable.US noted in its new report that "some of the largest general consumer S&P 500 companies have admitted to benefiting from increased prices as their net profits increased year-over-year and they rewarded shareholders with billions in handouts."

The report quotes directly from the executives of Kimberly-Clark, PepsiCo, General Mills, Tyson Foods, and other major U.S. companies. - Common Dreams

How many people has SCOTUS marked for death?

Like those behind these decisions, or more to the point their right-wing billionaire string-pullers, care.

Three landmark Supreme Court decisions in 2022 have each been widely criticized by health experts as threats to public health, but a study released Thursday in JAMA Network Open modeled their collective toll. The study found that, by conservative estimates, the decisions will lead to thousands of deaths in the coming years, with tens of thousands more being harmed.

The three decisions included: one from January 13, 2022, that invalidated some COVID-19 workplace protections (National Federation of Independent Business v Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)); one on June 23, 2022, that voided some state laws restricting handgun carry (New York State Rifle and Pistol Association Inc v Superintendent of New York State Police (Bruen)); and one on June 24, 2022, that revoked the constitutional right to abortion (Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization).

A group of health researchers, led by Adam Gaffney at Harvard University, modeled how these decisions would impact Americans' morbidity and mortality in the near future. - ArsTechnica

Exported hay is helping to dry up the Colorado River

I get that cows, people, and everything else living on the other side of Earth have to eat, too. But there are far better options, all around.

Farmers working in unforgiving desert climates have their own reasons for cultivating alfalfa. For one, with enough irrigation, it can handle the ferocious summers in the West better than many fruit and vegetable varieties. It’s also a serious cash crop: Between 2012 and 2021 in California, alfalfa fetched more dollars per ton than any other hay variety for nine years straight. It dominates agriculture in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah, the four driest states in the country, all of which depend on the Colorado River.

In fact, much of the Colorado River is exported as hay. Rising demand for dairy products in the Middle East and skyrocketing beef consumption across the globe are driving up the demand; 40% of the alfalfa grown in California in 2020 was shrink-wrapped, containerized, and shipped to cows on the other side of Earth. - High Country News

The genesis of gun industry radicalism

I found this interview, with a former gun company exec, to be quite informative.

As I write in my book, there was a time not that long ago, maybe about 15 to 20 years ago, when the industry understood a sort of fragile social contract needed to be maintained on something as immensely powerful as the freedom to own guns. And so the industry didn’t do certain things. It didn’t advertise in egregiously irresponsible ways. It didn’t put, you know, growth, company growth, above all other things. There were just these unspoken codes of conduct the industry knew not to violate. And those seem to have broken down. And now it’s kind of a victory at all costs. And sadly, I think there’s a lot of cost...

There were people who agreed with everything I said before the sort of radical shifts started to happen in about 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. But, you know, as with most things, when you earn a paycheck from something, you’re likely to be greatly influenced by it. And so, over time, most of the people in the industry have either converted to a true belief in the sort of radicalized Second Amendment absolutism that now I think is very dangerous, or they have just left the industry. There is only a place for complete, 100% devotion. - ProPublica

Fertilizer companies gouge to the max

Among the most flagrant examples of what our corporate overlords have been up to. You of course have to click to see the graphs.

Last year's financial results from the world's largest fertiliser companies are now in — and it's a shocker. Given the sky high fertilizer prices of 2022, it was anticipated that their revenues would break records, but no one could have predicted this scale of profiteering. As the world grappled with a severe food crisis and farmers saw costs rise, the world’s largest fertiliser firms ramped up their margins and more than tripled their profits from two years ago.

Graph 1 shows the total profits of the big nine fertiliser companies over the past five years. They exponentially grew from an average of around US$14 billion before the COVID-19 pandemic to US$28 billion in 2021 and then to an astounding US$49 billion last year. International agencies like the World Bank blamed the spike in fertiliser prices on the Russian war in Ukraine, resulting in high natural gas prices (used to produce nitrogen fertiliser) from shortages and trade disruptions. But as can be seen in Graph 2, a major part of the story is the monopoly power of the fertiliser companies. These companies increased prices far beyond the increases in production costs and boosted their profit margins to a massive 36% in 2022. - IATP

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

Big Meat copies Big Oil propaganda techniques

And on the public dime, no less.

This technique of using statements that are technically true but omit crucial information and therefore are misleading, is called paltering — and it’s an old favorite of the fossil fuel industry.

In fact, it’s not the only tactic the (National Cattlemen's Beef Association) has borrowed from Big Oil. Increasingly, as NCBA and other agribusiness trade associations like the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) and U.S. Farmers and Ranchers in Action try to convince the public that animal agriculture is sustainable, they are turning to the fossil fuel industry’s tried and true playbook for greenwashing.

Like fossil fuel trade associations, these agribusiness trade associations are financing and promoting the work of third-party academics; fomenting uncertainty and doubt in cases where the evidence is already clear enough to act upon; and using slick PR and ad campaigns to present the industry as part of the solution to climate change, rather than a contributor to it.

At the bottom of each of NCBA’s “Beefing Up Sustainability” ads is a logo with “Beef Checkoff” written on it. This logo marks the biggest difference between the fossil fuel industry’s PR machine and that of animal agriculture: The animal agriculture industry’s efforts to minimize their products’ climate impact are paid for from a pot of public funds to which all beef and pork farmers and ranchers are required to contribute. - DeSmog

Shocking food waste numbers

I've actually seen estimates over the years, from various sources, ranging from 25-40%. If you click on the link below, then on "new estimates" in the first paragraph, and start looking around, you can see that this outfit has clearly done its homework.

ReFED has released new estimates on the extent, causes, and impacts of food loss and waste in the United States, as well as an updated analysis of the solutions needed to fight it. The findings represent a stark call to action for food businesses, funders, policymakers, and other food system stakeholders to dramatically ramp up the investments, operational changes, and policy shifts that are critical to cutting the amount of food going to waste in the country. The new data comes from the ReFED Insights Engine, an online hub for data and solutions that features the most comprehensive examination of food waste in the U.S., now updated to include estimates through 2021.

According to ReFED, in 2021 the U.S. generated 91 million tons of “surplus food,” defined as all food that goes unsold or uneaten. This represents 38% of U.S. food supply and contributes nearly 6% of the country’s annual greenhouse gas emissions – the equivalent of driving 83 million passenger vehicles for one full year. Close to 50% of this surplus was generated by households, with another 20% generated by consumer-facing businesses. And while 80% of total surplus food was edible parts, less than 2% was donated.

Beyond emissions, producing food that goes unsold or uneaten uses 22% of U.S. freshwater and 16% of cropland. Wasted food is also a drain on the economy, since food that goes uneaten still costs money to grow, harvest, transport, cool, prepare, and then ultimately dispose of. ReFED’s analysis places the value of food that went unsold or uneaten at $444 billion in 2021, approximately 2% of U.S. GDP. What’s more, the amount of food that goes uneaten is the equivalent of 149 billion meals’ worth of food that could have gone to the 10% of Americans who struggle with food insecurity. - ReFED

Beating the crap out of Big Oil

The link is to an interview, which covers a lot of aspects of what it will take.

Since the United States is now the biggest oil and gas producer in the world, this uncertainty about the future market matters. If U.S. producers bet on having a strong export market even as the Inflation Reduction Act and the recent EPA guidance diminish domestic gasoline consumption, then they could be disappointed if other countries move away quickly from fossil fuels. In our research we show that, indeed, big importers in Europe, Asia, and the rest of the world have every incentive to quickly jettison fossil fuels. As my co-authors and I calculate in our research, producing energy from domestic renewable sources not only creates energy security, but today and in the future, often a cost advantage. That’s so because the money paid for imported fossil fuels goes abroad and depletes foreign currency reserves...

Between people, the biggest worry is that policies penalizing emission-intensive activities disproportionately hurt the poor. The “yellow vest” movement in France is pointed to as an example that interpersonal inequality even in rich countries would be exacerbated and made unbearable by carbon taxes. For instance, if you can’t afford to rent in a city and you move to the lower-rent countryside, you are more reliant on a greenhouse gas emitting car, and so would be harder hit by a tax. That was the case in France for many people. However, it is entirely feasible to design policies that make them less unequal or even progressive. For instance, if affordable electric transport was provided alongside taxes that increase fossil fuel prices, then it would be easier to switch by swapping your old car for a new electric one at a subsidized price + availability of charging infrastructure. And my colleague Jim Boyce has shown that when combined with progressive (i.e., income inequality-reducing) rebates financed by at least part of the money accruing to the government, carbon taxes or auctioned-off emissions permits can contribute to progressive redistribution. Key is that richer people will pay much more for consuming carbon in absolute terms, which is money that can be redistributed, it just amounts to a lower share of their income. Examples, such as the carbon tax in British Columbia, show that it can be done, and that people come to accept the carbon tax. - Truthout

Where are new ozone-destroying emissions coming from?

Scientists don't know, yet.

Thirty years after countries agreed to ease up on the use of chemicals damaging the ozone layer, there are promising signs that the ozone will be fully recovered by the 2060s. But we’re not out of the woods yet. A study published this month in Nature Geoscience shows that emissions from dangerous gases banned in the 1980s are actually on the rise today—with implications not only for the ozone layer but for climate change as well. Even more worryingly, we’re not sure what, exactly, is causing some of these emissions to creep up...

The research done by Western and his team isn’t able to concretely pin emissions to a specific region or factory—but we can make some guesses. China has, historically, been the world’s largest producer of HFCs. As InsideClimate News reported, outside of China, the largest producer of the HFCs whose byproducts were tracked by the study is a Honeywell factory located in Louisiana. - Earther

Many states can amend to protect reproductive rights

Minnesota is one of them. Obviously you have to click for the referenced map and spreadsheet.

Voters in California, Michigan, and Vermont resoundingly approved amendments to their state constitutions last year that now guarantee the right to an abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Many more states can—and should—follow suit.

Two states, New York and Maryland, in fact, have already placed similar amendments on the ballot, but another 21 could do the same thing, as illustrated in the map at the top of this post and in this companion spreadsheet. Together, these 26 states would cover 58% of the nation’s population—a critical step in the battle to restore abortion rights for the entire nation. - Daily Kos

Republicans are pro-child labor

The crazed stupidity does not end. I get that the right wing is scared and flailing, but that doesn't justify anything.

The New York Times’s recent exposé on child labor in the United States wasn’t about what might be called “child labor lite”: examples, say, of kids working in candy stores, logging long hours as babysitters, or getting up early to do paper-delivery rounds. Instead, it was about truly Dickensian conditions: children, many of whom were unaccompanied migrants, getting mangled while working overnight shifts in meat-packing plants; children working long hours on construction sites; children working into the wee hours in food-processing facilities; children getting chemically burned after working overnight shifts as janitors. These kids were, plain and simple, being labor-trafficked...

I was right that politicians would indeed be goaded into action; I was wrong, however, as to what action they would take. Far from shoring up protections against the exploitation of children by multinational corporations, by temporary employment agencies and by the “guardians” who, like Dickensian villains of yesteryear, send their wards out to work, GOP politicians took it as an opportunity to weaken child labor laws. - Truthout

Economic models are often proved wrong

This isn't generally emphasized in financial media, 90+ percent of which is just the plutocrats' whimpering, simpering, groveling propagandist curs. And of course motivated reasoning, as opposed to rational objectivity, is what drives the development of a lot of models in the first place.

Most of the models that economists currently use ignore the role of market power in today’s economy. And in the gizzards of the models are a variety of other assumptions that affect how the consequences of any policy are calculated, including the macroeconomic consequences that determine the size of the pie and the nature of the trade-offs. The estimated responses to any policy change are claimed to be the most reliable estimates of what will happen, based on past data, using the “best” models and best statistical techniques. Typically, these estimates are not robust—with large variations in the estimates depending on how they are done and the sample period over which they are done. The sample period is in fact critical: The current situation may be markedly different from the one in which the studies were conducted. Applying those results to today leads to faulty conclusions...

Often, simple reasoning can beat out seemingly complex and sophisticated econometric modeling. In 2017, then-President Donald Trump proposed, and Congress adopted, a massive cut in the corporate income tax. The claim was made, supposedly based on models, that it would massively stimulate investment. It did not. It simply stimulated increases in share buybacks and dividends, funneling money to investors. It was, in effect, a big gift to rich corporations and their shareholders. - The American Prospect

California goes after gasoline price-gouging

Presumably court challenges will be filed next week, although they should fail as most states already have general price-gouging laws on the books. What is really needed, though, are tough, even brutal, federal laws dealing with collusion and price-fixing for everything, especially in the commodities markets.

In a swift manner of action, California has passed a law that prohibits companies from price gouging at the gas pump, meaning companies will face civil penalties for hiking up fuel costs. The new bill also establishes an independent watchdog division within the California Energy Commission (CEC) and gives CEC authority to impose penalties as needed.

According to the office of California Governor Gavin Newsom, oil companies hiked state gas prices up to $6.42 per gallon in 2022. This was $2.61 per gallon more than the average cost per gallon nationally. In the same year, oil and gas companies reported record profits in the trillions of dollars. - EcoWatch

An example from France regarding retirement

The potential parallels aren't precise, but they're plenty close enough.

To an American viewer, the current protests over raising France’s retirement age might look a little quaint: the country that once beheaded members of its aristocracy still gets in a tizzy when its president wears an expensive watch. In January, When President Emmanuel Macron revealed his plan to raise France’s minimum retirement age from a relatively young 62 to 64, protests erupted across the nation. Garbage collectors in Paris and other cities have gone on strike, leaving trash to pile up in the streets for more than two weeks.

But this is not a case of petulant Frenchmen failing to see how good they’ve got it. It’s a worker protest against an overbearing president, a demonstration of the power of organized labor, and a warning for the United States, whose retirement system faces similar challenges...

It’s unclear how the protests, and Macron’s policy, will turn out. But French people’s refusal to allow an undemocratic attack on their social safety net should be an inspiration for the US, whose people are bound by the will of an unelected Supreme Court, six of its justices appointed by presidents who lost the popular vote. Raising the retirement age in France isn’t trivial, and French unions are proving it. - Mother Jones

New U.S. bases in the Philippines

This has most definitely been underreported. You can search the “news” option for “us military bases philippines” and see what I mean.

More than a century of systemic human rights violations—including gang rape, indiscriminate shootings and murder—have been committed by the U.S. military in the Philippines since the United States invaded and colonized the country in 1899. These crimes led in part to a nationwide social movement to close the Subic Bay Naval and Clark Air Force bases. By 1991, in an attempt to finally rollback U.S. colonial control, the Philippine Senate chose to not renew the U.S. military bases treaty…

Now, the United States is once again supporting an authoritarian leader by spending lavish sums of money on military aid. And with recent official visits by Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, an agreement to build four new U.S. military locations in the Philippines was solidified. - The Progressive

Getting rich trading your competitors' stock?

Yep, that's how it works, these days.

The Medpace executive is among dozens of top executives who have traded shares of either competitors or other companies with close connections to their own. A Gulf of Mexico oil executive invested in one partner company the day before it announced good news about some of its wells. A paper-industry executive made a 37% return in less than a week by buying shares of a competitor just before it was acquired by another company. And a toy magnate traded hundreds of millions of dollars in stock and options of his main rival, conducting transactions on at least 295 days. He made an 11% return over a recent five-year period, even as the rival’s shares fell by 57%.

These transactions are captured in a vast IRS dataset of stock trades made by the country’s wealthiest people, part of a trove of tax data leaked to ProPublica. ProPublica analyzed millions of those trades, isolated those by corporate executives trading in companies related to their own, then identified transactions that were anomalous — either because of the size of the bets or because individuals were trading a particular stock for the first time or using high-risk, high-return options for the first time.

The records give no indication as to why executives made particular trades or what information they possessed; they may have simply been relying on years of broad industry knowledge to make astute bets at fortuitous moments. Still, the records show many instances where the executives bought and sold with exquisite timing. - ProPublica

The Middle East is kicking the U.S. to the curb

And why not? Of course we don't know how long this Iran-Saudi glad-handing will last. But in any case U.S. influence will still be tanking. Looking at history, the only "surprise" is that it took this long.

In an interview with Al Jazeera English, veteran Washington Iran watcher Hillary Mann Leverett asserted that, in the wake of the reestablishment of Iran-Saudi diplomatic relations in an agreement brokered by Beijing, China is now “the indispensable nation” in the Middle East. She underlined that the United States could not have achieved this accomplishment.

The joint statement issued on Friday, crafted by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and diplomats of the two feuding Middle Eastern states, pledged non-interference in each other’s domestic affairs. Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal Bin Farhan tweeted that the agreement formed part of the Saudi vision for peaceful cooperation in the region toward a common efflorescence...

Now, half a century later, it is China that has 99% of the cards when it comes to relations across the Oil Gulf. The hardest of hard lines taken by the United States against Iran, with the imposition of a de facto global financial and trade embargo on that country’s oil exports, putting the two countries on a war footing, has led to the US utterly lacking influence in Iran or Syria, and to its having alienated most of Iraq. This invisible blockade was imposed on Iran even though it had carefully adhered to the 2015 nuclear deal it signed with the Security Council, a deal from which Trump withdrew and which he more or less destroyed. - Informed Comment

1T+ squirreled away in tax havens

The article says almost $1T in 2019, so it has to be a pretty safe bet that it's above that number now.

About a decade ago, the world’s biggest economies agreed to crack down on multinational corporations’ abusive use of tax havens. This resulted in a 15-point action plan that aimed to curb practices that shielded a large chunk of corporate profits from tax authorities.

But, according to our estimates, it hasn’t worked. Instead of reining in the use of tax havens – countries such as the Bahamas and Cayman Islands with very low or no effective tax rates – the problem has only gotten worse.

By our reckoning, corporations shifted nearly US$1 trillion in profits earned outside of their home countries to tax havens in 2019, up from $616 billion in 2015, the year before the global tax haven plan was implemented by the group of 20 leading economies, also known as the G-20. - The Conversation

Corporations are still abusing NAFTA

I hadn't known about this "legacy" crap.

International investment treaties and investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) play increasingly prominent roles in debates about the climate crisis and government efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Around the world, states and international governance bodies are warming to the understanding that investment treaties threaten progress on decarbonization, sustainable development, and the achievement of human rights. Even in places where countries have taken steps to roll back ISDS, as in North America with the passage of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USCMA), corporate lawsuits against democratically enacted energy and climate policies continue to put a chill on government action.

This report looks at three such cases launched in the past two years against Canada, the United States, and Mexico under the expiring ISDS process in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). These disparate cases include: TC Energy’s $15 billion challenge to the Biden administration’s cancellation of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline; a dispute from Koch Industries involving the cancellation of cap-and-trade in the Canadian province of Ontario; and about a half dozen energy- and mining-related ISDS cases from Canadian and US firms against Mexico, of which we will highlight the Finley Resources case.

What unites these ISDS cases, besides their links to energy and climate policy, is that they should not have been possible to begin with. They can only move forward because of a “legacy” provision that temporarily extended NAFTA’s Chapter 11 investment provisions in the replacement USMCA. - IATP

Big Gas profiteering from Ukraine war

I know that things like this have been going on forever. But it's nonetheless vile and despicable, when unspeakably greedy and selfish people use death and destruction in ways like this to engorge their wealth and power.

Europe’s gas industry has ramped up its messaging since Russia invaded Ukraine, exploiting fears over energy security to justify projects that risk locking the continent into long-term dependence on fossil fuels, DeSmog can reveal.

Four big industry groups began to post many more tweets portraying investments in gas and related infrastructure as the key to secure energy supplies soon after the invasion started — and maintained this strategy throughout last year, an analysis of their social media accounts found.

The lobby groups were Gas Infrastructure Europe; Gas For Climate; Eurogas; and the European branch of the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers, which represent companies operating pipelines, gas storage, and infrastructure to import liquefied natural gas (LNG). Members include oil majors such as Shell, BP, TotalEnergies, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Eni, which have posted record profits off the back of the energy crisis triggered by the invasion. - DeSmog

People aren't doing much about greenhouse gases from agriculture

"Aren't doing much" is probably an understatement.

Half the states in the country have no greenhouse gas reduction goals, which makes it hard to see how the United States is going to reach its economywide target of a 50% reduction below 2005 emissions levels by 2030.

“It’s purely a political decision, right?” said Steven Hall, an associate professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology at Iowa State University. “If there’s no political will to advocate for such goals, it’s not going to happen absent market-based approaches or voluntary efforts.”

The Environmental Protection Agency has been tracking greenhouse gas emissions since 1990. Over that time, the energy and industrial sectors have slashed their combined emissions by nearly 35%, according to an analysis by The Gazette and Investigate Midwest of the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory Data Explorer.

The agriculture and transportation sectors each went up more than 6% between 1990 and 2020, but transportation is poised to plummet as more electric cars hit the roads. Modern agriculture, heavily dependent on fossil fuels and nitrogen fertilizer, doesn’t have a solution on the horizon. - Investigate Midwest

AI weapons "summit" was a joke

This whole issue is getting far too little attention.

When delegates from 50 countries met in the Netherlands (last) week to discuss the future of military artificial intelligence, human rights activists and non-proliferation experts saw an opportunity. For years, rights groups have urged nations to restrict the development of AI weapons and sign a legally binding treaty to restrict the use of them over fears their unrestricted development could mirror last century’s nuclear arms race. Instead, the results of what could have been a historic summit were only “feeble” window dressing, the rights groups said.

After two days of in-depth talks, panels, and presentations produced by around 2,500 AI experts and industry leaders, the REAIM (get it?) summit ended in a non-legally binding “call to action” over the responsible development, deployment and use of military AI. The attendees also agreed to establish a “Global Commission on AI.” That might sound lofty, but in reality, those initiatives are limited to “raise awareness” about how the technology can be manufactured responsibly. Meaningful talks of actually reducing or limiting AI weapons were essentially off the table. - Gizmodo

States look to make the greedheads start to pay up

Yeah, a tough row to hoe, making this happen. But it would be so sweet, in a multitude of ways.

The super-rich have done phenomenally well over the course of the pandemic. Since March 2020, U.S. billionaires have increased their wealth by 50% and the world’s 10 richest men — led by Tesla founder and Twitter owner Elon Musk—doubled their fortunes in the same period.

Now, a coalition of state lawmakers from California, New York, Washington, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota and Hawai’i have announced a coordinated effort to increase taxes on their wealthiest residents.

The push is part of a new effort called Fund Our Future and is supported by the State Revenue Alliance — a group that coordinates political campaigns around tax justice — and SiX Action, a wing of the nonprofit State Innovation Exchange, which provides support to state legislators working to pass progressive policies. - In These Times