The Campbell Soup lobbyist who tweeted that George Soros was helping fund the immigrant caravan streaming toward the U.S. border left the company late last week after his already planned departure was accelerated.
hmm
Category: Money, Class, and Poverty,
Migrant caravan: Pentagon to deploy 5,200 troops to southern border
Migrant caravan: Pentagon to deploy 5,200 troops to southern border
Here’s a thought: wouldn’t it be less expensive to send an army of Immigration officials down their to assess and process these people’s claims for asylum instead?
Trump’s NLRB Just Quietly Ruled to Make Union Pickets Illegal
Trump’s NLRB Just Quietly Ruled to Make Union Pickets Illegal
Aaaaaaaaaaaagggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Census Citizenship Question: Jeff Sessions Told DOJ Not To Discuss Alternatives
The Trump administration is fending off six lawsuits across the country over a citizenship question that has been added to the 2020 census for, officials insist, one primary reason — to get better data on who in the country is and isn’t a U.S. citizen.
…But days after the Census Bureau received the Justice Department’s request, its staff concluded that collecting people’s self-reported information through the census would not be the best way to generate better citizenship data. Instead, compiling existing government records about people’s citizenship status, the bureau found, would not only produce more accurate information but also cost less money.
To top it off, research by the Census Bureau suggests asking about citizenship status in the current political climate could discourage noncitizens …from taking part in the constitutionally-mandated head count of every person living in the U.S. That would harm the accuracy of the information collected through the census, which is used to distribute congressional seats, Electoral College votes and an estimated $800 billion annually in federal funding among the states.
Census Citizenship Question: Jeff Sessions Told DOJ Not To Discuss Alternatives : NPR
hmmm
Meet The Mascot Of Our Broken World: The Plastic Pumpkin
“When you throw away that unnecessary plastic wrapper or dump a fake pumpkin that’s lost its charm, we don’t see the reality of it all ― the mining or drilling that’s gone into the energy it takes to make it, the transportation of it to our local store, the disposal of it to some tip that you probably don’t even know exists, or off onto a barge that then gets shipped abroad,” he said.
Weisman noted the true cost of our resource consumption over the past 50 years is now coming back to bite us.
…They wanted to grab all they could while it lasted, going farther and digging deeper and mining more and harvesting and shipping faster than ever before. Their aim? To create an illusion of abundance that has yet to wane.”
Today, the effects of this ecological exhaustion are stark: Nearly 90 percent of the world’s marine fish stocks are now fully exploited, overexploited or depleted; 9 out of 10 people worldwide breathe polluted air; forests, including precious wildlife habitats, have been ravaged to produce commodities like palm oil for snacks and cosmetics; and drinking water has been contaminated with everything from arsenic to mercury.
Meet The Mascot Of Our Broken World: The Plastic Pumpkin | HuffPost
hmmm
EU lawmakers vote to ban single-use plastics across Europe
The ban includes a full prohibition of plastic plates and utensils, cotton swabs, straws and drink stirrers and calls for reduced use of plastic cups and other similar food packaging products.
…The ban targets pollution from cigarette filters, ordering manufacturers to reduce their plastic inclusion by 80 percent by 2030. And EU member states will be required to recycle 90 percent of plastic bottles by 2025.
EU lawmakers vote to ban single-use plastics across Europe | TheHill
Fishing equipment? B.U.L.L.S.H.I.T.
Ryan Zinke Has Fired the DOI Inspector General
And replaced her with a loyalist political operative who may not need Senate confirmation
Ryan Zinke Has Fired the DOI Inspector General | Outside Online
sigh
Oh, Shit! Study Says Shit Called Microplastics Is In Your Shit
Due to their small size, microplastics are easily consumed by sea creatures, entering the food chain. This study, conducted by researchers from the Medical University of Vienna and the Environment Agency Austria, determined that these particles eventually reach humans.
…Microplastics have been found in seafood, bottled water, and even the air. With the amount of plastic packaging in our everyday lives, it’s difficult to avoid the synthetic material.
…”Plastics ultimately reach the human gut. Of particular concern is what this means to us, and especially patients with gastrointestinal diseases.”
…The smallest microplastic particles are capable of entering the blood stream, lymphatic system and may even reach the liver,” he continued.
Microplastics Were Found in Human Stool for the First Time, Study Says | Fortune
Sigh…
$180bn investment in plastic factories feeds global packaging binge
The global plastic binge which is already causing widespread damage to oceans, habitats and food chains, is set to increase dramatically over the next 10 years after multibillion dollar investments in a new generation of plastics plants in the US.
…The new facilities – being built by corporations like Exxon Mobile Chemical and Shell Chemical – will help fuel a 40% rise in plastic production in the next decade
…“Around 99% of the feedstock for plastics is fossil fuels, so we are looking at the same companies, like Exxon and Shell, that have helped create the climate crisis. There is a deep and pervasive relationship between oil and gas companies and plastics.”
…The huge investment in plastic production has been driven by the shale gas boom in the US. This has resulted in one of the raw materials used to produce plastic resin – natural gas liquids – dropping dramatically in price.
…“There has been a revolution in the US with the shale gas technologies, with the fracking, the horizontal drilling. The cost of our raw material base has gone down by roughly two thirds.”
…“In the US, fossil fuel and petrochemical companies are investing hundreds of billions of dollars to expand plastic production capacity… All this buildout, if allowed to proceed, will flood the global market with even more disposable, unmanageable plastic for decades to come.”
…A million plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute with most ending up in landfill or the sea.
$180bn investment in plastic factories feeds global packaging binge | Environment | The Guardian
Again, straws aren’t really the problem, folks.
Everyone saw the French Quarter attack. Few saw the mental health care failures behind it.
A review of Paul’s UMC medical records by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune raised significant questions. Four hours after he was admitted, a doctor wrote that Paul was “having auditory hallucinations” and that he was “a potential threat to himself and other people as well as gravely disabled.”
This assessment gave the hospital a legal right to involuntarily commit Paul for up to three days for observation and treatment, with the possibility of holding him an additional 12 days following a re-examination by the coroner. And yet doctors still chose to discharge him, just one day later.
Behavioral health experts said this is not uncommon, that people in need of psychiatric treatment are released on a regular basis, a result of the state’s gutting of its mental health care funding and infrastructure.
…Paul is one of hundreds of homeless kids who cycle through Covenant House and other outreach programs every year, Foots said, many suffering from the same mental health disorders as him, some more severe. If the level of care doesn’t improve, and if hospitals continue to turn away people in need because they lack the necessary beds and funding, she fears what happened to Paul and the men he injured could become more commonplace.
“I work with these kids every day and I know they are all very troubled,” Foots said. “I see their mental illness, but they rarely get the help they need. Just like Dejuan. Those damn voices in his head got ahold of him and he just lost it.”
…He paced frantically while hitting himself and repeating, over and over again, that he needed his medicine.
Then, as if someone pulled a string, he slumped to the floor near the kitchen.
Foots knelt down, her face inches from Paul’s, and locked eyes with him. She said he needed to focus, that he was in control of his mind, no one else. Ignore the people in your head, she instructed him. Staff members told Foots to keep her distance. She refused.
…“The police told me when they got him, ‘At least he’s going to emergency. They’re going to give him some medicine. He’s going to be better and everything is going to be good,’” Foots said. “And that’s what I told Dejuan, but that’s not what happened.”
…Paul was given 10 mg of Zyprexa, an antipsychotic typically prescribed to people with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. A toxicology screen came back positive for marijuana. Paul confessed that he smoked marijuana every day since he was 15 and that over the past several weeks he had rarely slept more than four hours a night.
…According to his medical records, Paul told the doctors at UMC he had “racing thoughts about everything and feels stuck in his own head.” If he could get some Vyvanse, a drug prescribed to people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, he said he would feel “much better and everything would be OK.”
…In this case, however, despite receiving confirmation of Paul’s diagnosis and prior care, UMC doctors refused to give him his medication, his medical records show. There was no explanation provided in the records.
…Warden Perry Stagg, who was seated nearby, interjected to ask Paul if he had been given his medication at the prison. When Paul said no, that the nurse said they can’t prescribe it, Stagg said they would try to figure out potential substitutes “to get him back where he needs to be.”
Since former Gov. Bobby Jindal gutted the mental health care system, taking care of people like Paul has become part of the prison’s job, Stagg said.
“Unfortunately, the Department of Corrections has become the de facto mental health hospital for the state,” he said. “We need to get these mental health services back available on the street and try to catch some of these guys before they commit a crime.”
…“I’m an old, conservative Republican, a lock‘em up and throw away the key kind of guy. Until I came to the Department of Corrections and realized that, hey, that’s not always the answer. There are reasons for some of this stuff and some of this stuff can be corrected.”
hmmmm
Trump administration could use military bases to export coal, gas
Zinke said the strategy is being considered as a way to thwart opposition by California, Oregon and Washington leaders to allowing export terminals in their states to sell coal or gas to Asia.
…Zinke said that may involve using “some of our naval facilities, some of our federal facilities on the West Coast.”
In his AP interview, Zinke only mentioned one possible facility for natural gas exports: the Adak Naval Air Facility in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, which closed in 1997.
…They are also working on a plan to keep uneconomical coal and nuclear power plants open, citing national security as the justification.
Trump administration could use military bases to export coal, gas | TheHill
WTF?!
Subverting the rule of law and co-opting the military to prop up failing industries? Not even pretending the Trump WH isn’t bought and paid for anymore….
Hungary’s constitution makes street homelessness a crime
The new provision, which went into effect Monday, bans “habitual residence in a public space” and gives police the authority to remove rough sleepers from the streets and confiscate their belongings.
Under amended Article 22 of the revised constitution, homeless people who refuse to go to shelters will be forced to participate in public work programs, which they can avoid only by paying a fine. If they are unable to pay those fines, they will face time in prison.
…Farha added that there were insufficient emergency shelter spaces to accommodate Hungary’s homeless population, estimated at more than 10,000 people.
…In 2013, the government first adopted a law that made sleeping in a public place a criminal offense and allowed for police to fine those who do so. That 2013 law passed after a law that criminalized homelessness was reversed by Hungary’s Constitutional Court on the ground that it violated the right to human dignity
Hungary’s constitution makes street homelessness a crime – CNN
Jeezus…
Mexico sends federal police to stop caravan of U.S.-bound migrants
Migrants have long streamed out of Central America in large numbers, increasingly as family units, in attempts to flee poverty and violence.
The “Northern Triangle” of Central America — Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador —rank among the most violent in the world, though homicide rates have fallen in recent years. Drug cartels move illegal merchandise through the region and street gangs control neighborhoods and routinely charge residents “rent” (a euphemism for extortion payments).
Caravans of migrants regularly convene as participants seek safety in numbers. Undocumented migrants transiting Mexico often fall victim to crimes such as kidnapping, extortion and rape — often committed by criminal gangs, drug cartels, coyotes and crooked public officials.
Analysts say most migrants are not dissuaded by the risk of the road and ignore admonishments from the U.S. government, or anti-immigrant sentiments that appear to be more prevalent in the country, because the situation is that dire in their own countries.
“Many Hondurans are or were leaving behind gang or domestic violence in marginalized neighborhoods, where government services are lacking and the day to day life may be controlled by the dominant gang,” said Stephanie Leutert director of the Mexico Security Initiative at the Strauss Center at the University of Texas.
Mexico sends federal police to stop caravan of U.S.-bound migrants
hmmm
French Plastic Use: Key facts and figures
The production of plastic packaging has been increasing since the summer of 2013, with growth of 2.4% in 2016, and an acceleration in the first half of 2017: + 3.5%. By comparison, output of manufacturing industries across all sectors stagnated in 2016 (+ 0.3%) and grew by 1.7% year on year in the first half of 2017.
…Packaging is the main plastics user sector with nearly 45.1% consumed in France and 39.9% in Europe (source PlasticsEurope 2017).
Key facts and figures – Elipso
hmmmm
We Depend on Plastic. Now We’re Drowning in It.
Roughly 40 percent of the now more than 448 million tons of plastic produced every year is disposable, much of it used as packaging intended to be discarded within minutes after purchase. Production has grown at such a breakneck pace that virtually half the plastic ever manufactured has been made in the past 15 years. [emphasis: mine] Last year the Coca-Cola Company, perhaps the world’s largest producer of plastic bottles, acknowledged for the first time just how many it makes: 128 billion a year. Nestlé, PepsiCo, and others also churn out torrents of bottles.
…The waste that clogs Manila’s beaches and waterways…. Much of it consists of sachets—tear-off packets that once held a single serving of shampoo, toothpaste, coffee, condiments, or other products. They are sold by the millions to poor people like Siena and his family, who can’t afford to buy more than one serving at a time. Sachets blow around Manila like leaves falling from trees. They’re not recyclable, so no waste picker will retrieve them. Crispian Lao, a member of the National Solid Waste Management Commission, says, “This segment of packaging is growing, and it has become a real challenge for solid waste management.”
…When Greenpeace cleaned the Freedom Island beach, it posted a tally of the brand names of the sachets its volunteers had collected. Nestlé ranked first, Unilever second. Litterbugs aren’t the only ones at fault, says Greenpeace’s Abigail Aguilar: “We believe that the ones producing and promoting the use of single-use plastics have a major role in the whole problem.”
…Johnson & Johnson is switching from plastic back to paper [emphasis: mine] stems on its cotton swabs.
We Depend on Plastic. Now We’re Drowning in It.
Repeat after me: Straws aren’t the problem. The increase in single use plastic products and plastic packaging is.
Deported parents may lose kids to adoption, investigation finds
It had been 10 weeks since Ramos had last held her 2-year-old, Alexa. Ten weeks since she was arrested crossing the border into Texas and U.S. immigration authorities seized her daughter and told her she would never see the girl again.
What followed — one foster family’s initially successful attempt to win full custody of Alexa — reveals what could happen to some of the infants, children and teens taken from their families at the border under a Trump administration policy earlier this year.
…An Associated Press investigation drawing on hundreds of court documents, immigration records and interviews in the U.S. and Central America identified holes in the system that allow state court judges to grant custody of migrant children to American families — without notifying their parents.
And today, with hundreds of those mothers and fathers deported thousands of miles away, the risk has grown exponentially.
…Three days after their separation, court records show, the U.S. government labeled Alexa an “unaccompanied minor,” which meant she entered the bureaucracy for migrant youth, typically teens, who arrive in the U.S. alone. The toddler was issued a notice to appear on “a date to be set, at a time to be set, to show why you should not be removed from the United States.”
…It took 28 minutes for a judge in a rural courthouse near Lake Michigan to grant Alexa’s foster parents, Sherri and Kory Barr, temporary guardianship. Alexa’s mother and the little girl’s immigration attorney were not even notified about the proceedings.
…In Missouri, an American couple managed to permanently adopt a baby whose Guatemalan mother had been picked up in an immigration raid. That seven-year legal battle terminating the mother’s parental rights ended in 2014. In Nebraska, another Guatemalan mother prevailed and got her kids back, but it took five years and over $1 million in donated legal work.
Deported parents may lose kids to adoption, investigation finds
Jeezus…
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