America’s Oldest Mall Now Contains 48 Charming Low-Cost Micro-Apartments

On By peanutgallerynhIn Local Interest,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Starting at an affordable $550 a month, residents can rent an Arcade Providence, one-bedroom unit that’s 225 to 450 square feet in size. Inside, there’s a built-in bed, full bathroom, refrigerator, sink, microwave, dishwasher, seating, and storage. For more amenities, tenants can also use the shared TV room, game room, on-site laundry facility, bike storage area, or parking garage that’s located across the street. The only catch is that there’s a waiting list with about 4,000 people currently on it.

America’s Oldest Mall Now Contains 48 Charming Low-Cost Micro-Apartments

Micro apartments started with such promise but have turned into another expensive yuppie fad. 4000 people on the waiting list? No published prices? You can guarantee yourself that it costs a lot more than $550 a month to get into one of these apartments these days.

Boulder City Council to hold special meeting Monday in response to police incident – Boulder Daily Camera

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Local Interest,, Race,Leave a comment

Last Sunday, more than 600 converged at the March for Boulder Police Oversight to walk from Naropa University to the police station and to call for a civilian oversight board, as well as the removal of rifles from all police cars and the allowance for people to submit anonymous complaints to the department. 

…At the conclusion of the investigation, which is expected to take 60 to 90 days, the police department will publicly release all body camera video and an executive summary of the investigation.

Boulder City Council to hold special meeting Monday in response to police incident – Boulder Daily Camera

An investigation is a good thing but the only thing taht matter is the department’s actions after it is concluded. If those actions do not included publicly making an example out of officers who cross the line, the department has no claim on contributing to law and order.

Muslims and Jewish Men in Ilhan Omar’s district Frustrated with her

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,, Religion,Leave a comment

“I don’t think we were looking into her heart and accusing her of being an anti-Semite,” said Hunegs, who is the executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas (JCRC).

…”We wanted to show her how what she had said was consistent with the statements of anti-Semites and anti-Semitism over time,” Hunegs said.

…Ahmed dismissed the argument that Omar was merely criticizing the Israeli government — something all the men [emphasis: peanut gallery. Why did CNN only interview men for this story?] interviewed by CNN said was her prerogative and not the problem.

…Halverson says all of the circling around Omar over this issue has become a distraction.

But many are worried the distraction will keep Omar from being able to do her job. 

These Muslims and Jews in Ilhan Omar’s district are united in frustration at her – CNNPolitics

Distraction? Really? How many men would have the same things said about them in a similar situation? The peanut gallery cannot think of an article whose author worries that a man in Congress could not do his job because they might be distracted…

And yes, clearly, when David Duke agrees with you you aren’t on the correct track.

Still though…. The peanut gallery cannot un-see the fact that she is being treated differently than a male colleague would be in the same situation.

Reconnecting With Rural America

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Local Interest,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

The importance of speaking to and about rural America remains critically important to the future of the Democratic Party and of Democratic candidates. A failure to do so will continue the losses the party and its candidates have sustained over the last 15 years.

…During that same period, our national party has lost the United States House of Representatives, the United States Senate, a majority of governorships, state legislative chambers, and the presidency. I contend that many of these losses would have been avoided had the party and our candidates truly shown up in rural areas, talked to and about the contributions of rural America to the rest of the country, and outlined a real, well-thought-out plan to rebuild and revive the rural economy.

It is bad enough that we didn’t show up, didn’t talk up the contributions of rural Americans, and didn’t lay out a positive vision for real economic change in rural areas, but we also failed to counteract the negative narrative about government that seeped into those rural areas. 

…If the Democratic Party is the party of effective government, we should say so and make the case to all Americans that government plays a positive role in our country. ….Democrats should make a consistent effort to communicate to rural Americans using local and regional media outlets, those that people in rural areas read and listen to every day to find out what is happening in their part of the world.

…Our elected officials and our candidates also have to show up in rural areas in order to win. And when they do, they need to talk up, not down, to rural Americans. Acknowledging the contributions rural America makes to the rest of the country is a good place to start. Recognizing their frustrations and concerns, as well as their hopes and dreams, is an important part of an effective and winning message.

…The number of people addicted to, or misusing, opioids is staggering. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, more than 90 Americans die every day after overdosing on opioids.

Rural America has been devastated by this epidemic. To begin with, rural Americans have limited access to health care generally, but this is even more acute with the services needed to combat addictions. More than 85 percent of the 1669 federally designated mental health professional shortage areas are in rural areas. 

….To combat this scourge in the short term will require physicians trained to use opioids only in very limited circumstances and to prescribe non-addictive pain treatment in most cases. Drug companies need to provide Naloxone in more convenient and easier-to-administer ways while keeping costs down. MAT and full counseling services need to be more accessible to rural Americans. And, we all need to recognize that addiction is a disease just like cancer or diabetes so we can help remove the stigma attached to addiction disorders. Removing this stigma will help make it easier for those in need of help to seek it. What we don’t need is exactly what the Trump Administration is touting: more law enforcement, harsher penalties, and longer jail sentences.

Over the long haul, the most successful “cure” to the opioid epidemic will be a rebuilt and revived rural economy. If people in rural areas believe, with good reason, that their tomorrow will be better than their today, we will see a sharp decline in today’s unacceptably high levels of lives lost to despair.

…For far too long, we have allowed the rural economy to be an “extraction” economy where everything from crops to coal are being taken from rural areas and transported somewhere else where value is added and opportunity is created. To succeed in rural areas, Democrats also need to offer a “sustainable” alternative to the extraction economy of the past. If not, that extraction economy will continue to slowly bleed rural America of its natural resources and its young people.

…A Democratic-promoted sustainable economy based on partnerships must sustain rural families, communities, and natural resources in a manner consistent with the values and culture of rural places.

…Democrats may find fault with production agriculture, since they often believe it to denote only large-scale, commercial-size operations or “factory farms.” But that is not how it is understood in the countryside, where the history and culture are rooted in production agriculture defined as family farms. Indeed, most large scale commercial-size operations are owned and operated by families.

…In rural America, trade agreements are viewed positively by most in the agricultural sector. Without robust exports, we would have many fewer farm families because exports help to stabilize prices in most major commodities.

…A key to building a sustainable rural economy is supporting and building local and regional markets where small-sized operations not only survive, but thrive.

Democrats must lead the effort to adequately build more local and regional markets and the smaller-scale operations that need them. Democrats must advocate for more money for micro-loans to help beginning farmers get started. Democrats must also advocate for tailored risk-management tools that enable small-sized operations to survive during challenging times. Democrats must demand more conservation resources targeted to small operations served by a local or regional market. Democrats must partner with private investment firms to finance more food hubs where locally produced goods can be aggregated and sold to large-scale purchasers. Democrats must devise tax and regulatory incentives designed to improve opportunities for the success of local and regional markets.

…One immediate benefit from more investment in conservation will be increased opportunities for outdoor recreation. Conservation improves landscape and increases habitat, which increases hunting, fishing, biking, canoeing, and kayaking. Outdoor recreation is a big business—over a $600 billion industry today —and a rural job creator, with many of the 6 million employed by the industry living in rural places.

… The sustainable approach to rural job creation should, in the future, depend more on bio-based inputs in manufacturing. The use of plants, crops, and animal waste to produce a wide variety of materials, chemicals, fabrics, fibers, fuel, and energy can bring sustainable manufacturing back to rural America. The job-creation possibilities for rural America through a sustainable approach are truly endless.

…A foundation of production agriculture and exports, local and regional food systems, ecosystem markets, and bio-based manufacturing can help build an economy that truly works in rural areas. And advocating and supporting such government action that helps create this kind of economy would give Democrats a successful progressive message for reaching rural areas. 

…To help people you have to govern, to govern you have to win elections, and to win elections you have to appeal broadly. For Democrats, that means making a concerted effort to offer a more comprehensive, progressive vision to rural Americans.

Reconnecting With Rural America : Democracy Journal

hmmm

Culturally Competent Messaging

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,, Race,Leave a comment

Our research also shows that Latinos are not voting for a specific candidate or party, but are instead voting for what is best for their families and the greater Latino community. They may be putting a check next to a name, but it isn’t the name on the ballot that is moving Latinos to the voting booths. It’s the ICE raids in their communities, the Planned Parenthoods closing their doors down the street, and their hopes of making a living wage that moves them to vote. So when thinking about how we engage young Latinos, we need organizations, political parties, and candidates to understand the importance of focusing on issue-based messages that move Latinos to action.

…For Latinos, the messenger often matters just as much as the message itself. When it comes to civic engagement, groups that have a deep and extensive understanding of the community itself are among the most trusted voices. 

…The major political parties live and die on the 50 percent-plus-one strategy, where the desired outcome is not to achieve maximum participation, but instead to register and persuade just enough voters to put them over the top. This flawed strategy may bring out a voter for one election, but fails to build lifelong voters.

Latino voters are not a monolith, but there is major potential for investment when it comes to effective and culturally competent messaging.

Culturally Competent Messaging : Democracy Journal

hmmm

Reaching White Women

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,, Race,Leave a comment

Simple mathematics dictates that if we care about Democratic majorities, we should start by winning back white women. If white women are moved either to vote or switch party affiliation by 8 percent in some places, that could secure victory when combined with an already reliable multiethnic coalition.

…First, let’s examine some truths about all women. From food to health care to cars, women make up 85 percent of purchasing decisions in the United States. Most women with kids under the age of 18 are in the workforce. Moms are twice as likely as dads to handle the cooking, and working mothers handle most of the childcare, even women who are primary breadwinners. 

…Anecdotes from this demographic show that most political jargon makes them feel alienated, and even phrases like “economic security” can invoke a sense of insecurity—that they need to be policy experts to participate in the conversation—when nothing could be further from the truth. Women are usually the ones who can calculate to the penny what they need to run the household, and they know intimately what one missed paycheck means in terms of family sacrifice. Until we acknowledge this as valued expertise, we will never be able to set up effective dialogue that draws these women into engaged progressive politics.

…White women report a desire to study and make well-researched decisions about their politics. Our job is to provide easily accessible and digestible information that fits into their daily lives, that they don’t have to venture too far to find.

Reaching White Women : Democracy Journal

hmmmm

POLITICO’s Gushing Portrayal of a Democratic Party Moderate

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

“Frankly, 20 years ago, [Sherrill] would have been a Kean Republican,” referring to Tom Kean, the former New Jersey governor. “She was not an extremist for left-wing causes or right-wing causes. … Put cable news aside. The vast majority of us live in the middle. And that’s where her voice comes from.”

…When I asked Pelosi about Sherrill, the speaker responded with a gracious if flowery statement that amounted to no hard feelings: “This election proved that nothing is more wholesome to our democracy than the increased participation and leadership of women. As a Navy veteran, former Assistant U.S. Attorney and a mother, Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill reflects the beauty, diversity and dynamism of her district and our country.”

New Jersey’s 11th is a mostly staid tangle of subdivisions, interstates and office parks, so Pelosi’s reference to the “dynamism” of Sherrill’s district is a nod not to some edgy vibe but rather its electoral volatility. Everywhere, and every cycle, is different, with myriad factors tipping the scales, of course, but one axiom is that a member of Congress is especially vulnerable in his or her first reelection campaign, before a combination of familiarity, incumbency and inertia set in.

… A month-plus into the 116th Congress, though, the task for Sherrill—and the several dozen other Democratic members like her—inevitably gets harder from here. It’s one thing to tout a résumé—it’s another to defend a record. Votes are choices, and choices have consequences, and she will have to toggle between serving the interests of those to her left who fueled her bid and those to her right who are equally if not even more responsible for her win. How will she vote on issues like defense spending and the use of force? Security on the Mexican border? What about “Medicare for All”? The prospect of impeachment? AOC’s Green New Deal?

…She was asked about the “rift” in the party.

“It’s by no means clear that a rift won’t be coming,” Sherrill said. “I think the fear is what we saw in the Republican Party—people on the Tea Party movement breaking with the party, creating a rift and having some 30-odd members of the Tea Party pretty much control the entire House of Representatives.”

Floating in the air, at least to me, was AOC. Sherrill, it turned out, was thinking it too, so she went there—carefully.

“What I have seen in the party is a group of people who come from very different districts,” she said. “So, you know, there are districts—like Queens, for example, is very different from Morristown.”

Knowing snickers rippled through the crowd.

“There are people who have different ideas, different agendas,” Sherrill said. “But what can happen with that is people kind of breaking paradigms and raising ideas that maybe we just hadn’t thought about …”

The Most Important New Woman in Congress Is Not Who You Think – POLITICO Magazine

The Powerful Role Confusion Plays In American Elections

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Local Interest,Leave a comment

Ahead of the November election, Georgia became what many were calling “ground zero” in the battle over voting rights. In October, the AP reported that Kemp, then the secretary of state, had marked roughly 53,000 voter registration applications as pending because the information on their registration applications didn’t exactly match the information on file with state agencies. Around 70 percent of the pending applications, the AP said, belonged to black voters. Advocates expressed concerns that voters would get to the polls, unaware that they weren’t eligible to vote.

…“Voters were showing up to the polling places and poll workers weren’t even aware that they needed to check a separate list of pending registrations,” Henderson said. As a result, voters had to argue with their poll workers in order to cast a ballot, exacerbating their confusion.

Part of the issue was that even the court ruling was confusing. People whose registrations had previously been purged could cast regular ballots if their ID’s showed a “substantial match” with what was on the state’s voter roles. That term was not defined by the court.

…An unknown number of voters were also forced to cast provisional ballots, including many Atlanta-area students like Perry. Voters, poll workers, and election protections volunteers were all unclear what would happen with provisional ballots. Some voters were told that if they voted out-of-precinct, their votes for statewide office would count, but that turned out to be false.

…He left the church unsure what a provisional ballot was, why he was given one, and whether his vote would count.

…I watched many like her leave polling places in Atlanta with orange papers in their hands — the telltale sign that they were forced to vote provisional (Poll workers gave an orange paper to provisional voters that explained how they could follow up to make sure their votes counted.)

….Across Georgia, tens of thousands of people experienced problems registering to vote and casting a ballot. Georgia’s election laws were complicated, and voting policies were changing right up until the day of the election. Many voters remained unclear whether their ballots had counted. Even more questioned whether the election was legitimate.

…Similar scenarios played out this year in parts of Missouri and Florida. Two of 2018’s most competitive gubernatorial elections may have swung on voter confusion.

…On Election Day, ProPublica and the Huffington Post reported that poll workers incorrectly turned voters away for not providing a photo ID. Signs still hung at polling places with the outdated requirements, and voters said they had to argue with election workers in order to cast ballots. County supervisors reported being understaffed and having minimal time to train poll workers on the changed law.

…In other parts of Georgia, voters had to wait four and a half hours to cast ballots because of broken machines. Some of them left their polling places, expressing concern about the situation and whether the lines would be shorter later in the day.

…“Anything that causes confusion is a form of voter suppression, whether it’s intentional or whether it’s just unintended consequences.” 

…With hurdles to voting come confusion. This has been the case since a very early hurdle, voter registration, was put in place in the second half of the nineteenth century. ….Registration alone was enough to dramatically decrease the participation of racial and ethnic minorities.

In the 21st century, lawmakers — specifically, Republicans crying fraud — have sought to put in place new and creative hurdles to casting a ballot. One of the most popular obstacles used in recent years is voter ID. And with each new hurdle comes incidental, or intentional, confusion.

A total of 34 states have laws requiring voters to show some form of ID when they cast a ballot. Research shows that roughly 11 percent of the U.S. population doesn’t have the necessary ID, and that number is even higher among seniors, people of color, people with disabilities, low-income voters, and students.

…In Georgia and Missouri, voter confusion was caused by lawmakers and elections officials who purposely passed laws making it more difficult for certain voters to cast ballots and the legal battles that followed. In other words, the confusion was intentional.

…In Broward County, Fla., [yes, THAT Broward County, FL] for example, elections officials designed the ballot for the November 2018 election with the Senate race tucked in a corner under the instructions, which many voters overlooked. According to MCI Maps, about 3.7 percent of voters — 30,896 people — skipped voting for U.S. senator. That number is as much as 2.5 percent more than in most other counties.

…The authors noted that in Broward County, more people voted for the commissioner of agriculture and county CFO than for their U.S. senator.

The number of votes separating former Sen. Bill Nelson (D) and Rick Scott, who ultimately won, was far smaller than the number of people who skipped voting in the race. Many questioned whether poor ballot design, and the resulting voter confusion, ended up costing Nelson his seat in the Senate.

 …“This is not rocket science,” she said. “Not only are there knowable conventions — things that more often than not are going to be the right way to handle it — it’s also not impossible to test it.”

Issues like those in Broward County this year point to how many different kinds of problems cause confusion, and how many different kinds of problems need to be addressed.

“There are some that are just straight-up intentional suppressing of certain communities,” Perez said. “There’s mistakes that are made because people are not resourced or they’re not trained or they’re moving too quickly and they don’t have enough fact checks. And then there’s this third category of mistakes that happen when folks are told they’re going to have these types of problems and they don’t invest the resources anyway.”

…Together, it’s resulted in a country where voters have lost faith in elections.

…Still, experts say solutions are possible. One major way to simplify elections, and to create fail-safes for voters who might be confused, is to expand opportunities to cast ballots. That includes lengthening early voting periods and hours and allowing people to register to vote on the same day that they cast a ballot.

…Automatic voter registration provides another way to simplify elections. If eligible citizens are automatically added to the rolls when they turn 18, they no longer will have to worry about figuring out the steps needed to ensure that they are on the rolls.

…He explained that first and foremost, Americans need to recognize that elections can and should be less complicated.

“In what’s supposed to be the greatest democracy in the world. This [type of confusion and all of these obstacles to voting] just shouldn’t exist.”

The Powerful Role Confusion Plays In American Elections – Talking Points Memo

Sigh….

Russians launched pro-Jill Stein social media blitz to help Trump win election, reports say

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

The report was one of two that leaked this week saying the Russian effort to disrupt the election specifically targeted black voters and harnessed America’s top social media platforms. But the reports contained another finding that was largely overlooked — the Russians also focused on boosting Stein’s candidacy through social media posts like the one from @woke_blacks.

Building support for Stein was one of a “roster of themes” the Moscow-sanctioned internet trolls “turned to repeatedly” in their effort to disrupt the election. …The researchers also found that the campaign to bolster Stein gained in intensity in the final days of the presidential campaign and largely targeted African-American voters.

…Russians worked to boost the Stein campaign as part of the effort to siphon support away from Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and tilt the election to Trump.

…Weiss also noted that the Stein campaign parroted the Russian position on Ukraine in 2016 and criticized the U.S. for installing a government in Kiev “hostile to Russia.”

In the closing weeks of the campaign, RT quoted Stein suggesting that Hillary Clinton could lead the U.S. into a nuclear war with Russia and saying Trump was a safer choice.

“On the issue of war and nuclear weapons,” Stein said, according to RT, “it is actually Hillary’s policies which are much scarier than Donald Trump who does not want to go to war with Russia.”

Most famously, Stein was one of two Americans invited to sit with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the head table of the RT 10th anniversary dinner in Dec. 2015. The other was General Michael Flynn, who was advising then candidate Donald J. Trump and is now awaiting sentencing in the special counsel’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

…“Is Stein a fellow traveler or a useful idiot?” Watts asked rhetorically. “I don’t know, but even after the election she played into Russia disinformation by pursuing a recount so heavily and claiming election fraud. This was a post-election coup for Kremlin propagandists.”

Russians launched pro-Jill Stein social media blitz to help Trump win election, reports say

mmmhmmm

Russian Trolls Promoted Anti-Vaccination Propaganda Contributing to Measles Outbreak

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,, Modern Parenting,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

The same Russian trolls who attempted to provoke racial tensions and influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election were also responsible for spreading propaganda against vaccinations.

…”Weaponized Health Communication: Twitter Bots and Russian Trolls Amplify the Vaccine Debate: …Whereas bots that spread malware and unsolicited content disseminated antivaccine messages, Russian trolls promoted discord. Accounts masquerading as legitimate users create false equivalency, eroding public consensus on vaccination,” the report said.

“Health-related misconceptions, misinformation, and disinformation spread over social media, posing a threat to public health. Despite significant potential to enable dissemination of factual information, social media are frequently abused to spread harmful health content, including unverified and erroneous information about vaccines,” it continued. “This potentially reduces vaccine uptake rates and increases the risks of global pandemics, especially among the most vulnerable.”

Russian Trolls Promoted Anti-Vaccination Propaganda That May Have Caused Measles Outbreak, Researcher Claims

Hmmmmm

Ex-Clinton staffers slam Sanders over private jet flights

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Media and Culture,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Many in the party continue to believe the Vermont senator played a role in contributing to Clinton’s defeat in November because of his criticisms of her prior to the general election, and his refusal to concede earlier when it appeared he had little mathematical chance of securing the party nomination.

…Bernie Sanders singled out the fossil fuel industry for criticism, listing it among the special interests he planned to take on. But in the final months of the 2016 campaign, Sanders repeatedly requested and received the use of a carbon-spewing private jet for himself and his traveling staff when he served as a surrogate campaigner for Hillary Clinton.

…Prior to working out the logistics of Sanders’ travel, “our working assumption was that 90 percent of the time it would be commercial,” said another [HRC 2016 person] 

…But that idea did not go over well with the Sanders camp.

…Sanders’ flights — usually on a Gulfstream plane — cost the Clinton-Kaine campaign at least $100,000 in total, according to three people familiar with the cost of the air travel.

……The travel details weren’t the only point of tension with Sanders. At his rallies for Clinton, Sanders sometimes only wanted people who had endorsed him in the primaries to speak when he would appear, a request which frustrated the Clinton campaign.

…“Sure you can have your supporters there, but you can’t exclude the congressman who endorsed Hillary Clinton in the city you are going to,” said the former staffer. “You’re campaigning for us. That was always a battle every single time.”

..In the two years following the presidential election, Sanders continued his frequent private jet travel, spending at least $342,000 on the flights.

…The revelation of Sanders’ penchant for private jet travel, both in 2016 and in the subsequent years, could surface as an issue for him since he often demands the U.S. do its part to fight global climate change — to which CO2 emissions from aviation is a contributor.

Ex-Clinton staffers slam Sanders over private jet flights – POLITICO

The language and tone of the former Sander’s staff strikes the peanut gallery as un-necessarily hostile and confrontational, arrogant, holier-than-thou, and wholly unprofessional. No wonder they didn’t win or make any friends with the party or the nominee’s staff.

‘Moment of reckoning’: US cities burn recyclables after China bans imports

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,Leave a comment

Until recently, China had been taking about 40% of US paper, plastics and other recyclables. 

…Since January 2018, China hasn’t accepted two dozen different recycling materials, such as plastic and mixed paper, unless they meet strict rules around contamination. The imported recycling has to be clean and unmixed – a standard too hard to meet for most American cities.

…The conscientious citizens of Philadelphia continue to put their pizza boxes, plastic bottles, yoghurt containers and other items into recycling bins.

But in the past three months, half of these recyclables have been loaded on to trucks, taken to a hulking incineration facility and burned, according to the city’s government.

…. Nearly four in 10 children in the city have asthma, while the rate of ovarian cancer is 64% higher than the rest of Pennsylvania and lung cancer rates are 24% higher, according to state health statistics.

…The industry that remains emits a cocktail of soot and chemicals upon a population of 34,000 residents, 70% of them black. There’s a waste water treatment plant, a nearby Kimberly-Clark paper mill and a medical waste facility. And then there’s Covanta’s incinerator, one of the largest of its kind in the US.

…The burning of trash releases a host of pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxides and particulate matter, which are tiny fragments of debris that, once inhaled, cause an array of health problems.

…A host of studies have identified possible links between air pollution and ovarian and breast cancers, which are unusually prevalent in Chester. A 1995 report by the EPA found that air pollution from local industry provides a “large component of the cancer and non-cancer risk to the citizens of Chester”.

“There are higher than normal rates of heart disease, stroke and asthma in Chester, which are all endpoints for poor air.” 

…It’s a situation being replicated across the US as cities struggle to adapt to a recent ban by China on the import of items intended for reuse.

The loss of this overseas dumping ground means that plastics, paper and glass set aside for recycling by Americans is being stuffed into domestic landfills or is simply burned in vast volumes. This new reality risks an increase of plumes of toxic pollution that threaten the largely black and Latino communities who live near heavy industry and dumping sites in the US.

…Just 9% of plastic is recycled in the US, with campaigns to push up recycling rates obscuring broader concerns about the environmental impact of mass consumption, whether derived from recycled materials or not.

…The country generates more than 250m tons of waste a year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with about a third of this recycled and composted.

‘Moment of reckoning’: US cities burn recyclables after China bans imports | Cities | The Guardian

sigh…

Whites Contribute More To Air Pollution — Minorities Bear The Burden

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Infrastructure and Transportation,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Scientists and policymakers have long known that black and Hispanic Americans tend to live in neighborhoods with more pollution of all kinds, than white Americans. …A driver of unequal health outcomes across the U.S.

…The researchers found that air pollution is disproportionately caused by white Americans’ consumption of goods and services, but disproportionately inhaled by black and Hispanic Americans.

…The most relevant air pollutant metric for human health is “particulate matter 2.5” or PM2.5. It represents the largest environmental health risk factor in the United States with higher levels linked to more cardiovascular problems, respiratory illness, diabetes and even birth defects. PM2.5 pollution is mostly caused by human activities, like burning fossil fuels or agriculture.

…The researchers generated maps of where different emitters, like agriculture or construction, caused PM2.5 pollution. Coal plants produced pockets of pollution in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, while agricultural emissions were concentrated in the Midwest and California’s central valley. “We then tied in census data to understand where different racial-ethnic groups live to understand exposure patterns,” says Hill.

…After accounting for population size differences, whites experience about 17 percent less air pollution than they produce, through consumption, while blacks and Hispanics bear 56 and 63 percent more air pollution, respectively, than they cause by their consumption, according to the study.

“These patterns didn’t seem to be driven by different kinds of consumption,” says Tessum, “but different overall levels.” In other words, whites were just consuming disproportionately more of the same kinds of goods and services resulting in air pollution than minority communities.

…PM2.5 exposure by all groups has fallen by about 50 percent from 2002 to 2015, driven in part by regulation and population movement away from polluted areas. But the inequity remains mostly unchanged.

Whites Contribute More To Air Pollution — Minorities Bear The Burden : Shots – Health News : NPR

hmmmm

Georgia state lawmaker proposes ‘testicular bill of rights’ in response to anti-abortion legislation

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Domestic Affairs,, Local Interest,Leave a comment

Kendrick’s tweet included an image of her proposed legislation, which would require men to obtain permission from their sex partner before obtaining erectile dysfunction medication and ban vasectomy procedures. 

…The legislation also includes stipulations that would require DNA testing once a woman is six weeks and one day pregnant to “determine the father of the child who shall IMMEDIATELY start paying child support.”

The bill also would make it an aggravated assault crime for a man to have sex without a condom. The final stipulation on Kendrick’s list proposes a 24-hour waiting period for men to purchase any porn or sex toys in Georgia. 

Georgia state lawmaker proposes ‘testicular bill of rights’ in response to anti-abortion legislation | TheHill

hmmmm

Deep sea creatures in the Mariana Trench eat plastic and introduce it into the food chain, study finds

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Amphipods had plastic fibers and particles in their digestive systems, known as the hindgut. The deeper the trench, the more fibers they found.

…Sixty-six percent of the plastic they found was blue fibers. Black, red, and purple fragments were also present, along with blue and pink fragments.

No trench was fiber-free, and more than 80 percent of the amphipods contained them. When tested, the fibers were the same used in textiles, and the study suggests they entered the ocean after leaching from washing machines.

…Amphipods are becoming a vector to transport plastic particles into the food web.

“The amphipods they are finding fibers in are prey for larger fish and those larger fish are prey for even larger predators,” she says. …“And that puts these fibers into the food web. We are finding larger organisms with intestines lined with microfibers. They found a baleen whale that had been beached and when they cut it open, the intestines were lined with these smaller particles.

Deep sea creatures in the Mariana Trench eat plastic, study finds

sigh…

Ramsey Orta filmed the killing of Eric Garner, so the police punished him

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,Leave a comment

Someone will have to pay for this, Orta thought, looking at his phone, not realizing that someone would be him, not knowing that the cops would exact their revenge through a campaign of targeted harassment, that within a year he’d be in prison and facing constant abuse, his enduring punishment for daring to hold the police accountable.

…Orta has reported constant abuse and harassment from correctional officers since he’s been locked up. He claims he’s been threatened, beaten, poisoned.

…Orta is shockingly thin. His cheekbones jut from his pale gray skin. His hair — buzzed short in pictures from before his arrest — sticks wildly from his head in clumps.

The guard who led him out says, “Jesus, Orta, couldn’t find a comb?”

“You won’t let me tie it up!” Orta replies.

…“She always does this,” he tells me. “I won’t eat in here, so she’s worried I’m starving.” The circles around his eyes are so dark, the whites of his eyes shine as if from the bottom of a hole.

…A correctional officer approaches and tells me the microwave is broken. I see its power cord pulled from the wall and jammed behind a toaster. I plug it in, push a few buttons, and it buzzes to life.

“I told you it’s broken,” the CO says.

I’d crossed an invisible line. The door of the microwave reflects back our distorted image. I can see the CO standing behind me, waiting.

When I return with the still-frozen burgers, Orta explains: “They fuck with my food. They know I won’t eat what they give me, not since Rikers.”

…“Eat, inmate,” a CO commanded, banging Orta’s cell with a baton. 

…“We’re not going anywhere until you eat,” a CO said and entered Orta’s cell. He hit Orta with his baton, hurled slurs, promised a citation for refusing orders. “How many days in SHU you want?”

…Later, in depositions, the affected would say their stomachs were on fire. Some felt pain in their chests and worried they were having heart attacks. Others were so dizzy they couldn’t stand. They writhed on the floor of their cells. Some claimed the guards walked by, watching, laughing, flipping them all the bird. The stench of vomit and feces permeated the cell.

No one was taken to the infirmary.

…Orta says he’s been threatened, called racist names, beaten. He talks about these incidents in a measured, almost casual way. He’s been locked up before and possesses fluency in a prison’s violent rhythms. But there’s one form of harassment he describes at length and with visceral anguish. In the process of inspecting his cell, the COs routinely crush to dust his Pop-Tarts, chips, ramen packets. This is the food Deja sends him, the only food he feels safe eating.

…I’m able to review the records of Orta’s citations and grievances filed while he was in custody. The stack follows a conspicuous pattern. Orta is cited for petty offenses until the number of tickets triggers the loss of privileges, including access to phone calls or the commissary, often for 25 or 30 days. As soon as the penalty expires and his privileges are restored, the ticketing cycle begins again.

***

…Vi was supposed to be a solution. If people didn’t believe that police brutality existed, you could record it — the technology was in everybody’s pocket. How could a jury deny proof, an act of killing? And yet they did.

In New York state, a grand jury returns a true bill of indictment if a bare majority — 12 of the 23 sitting jurors — believes there’s enough evidence to proceed to a criminal trial. Daniel Pantaleo’s grand jury sat for nine weeks. Ramsey Orta was the first of 50 witnesses to testify. His video, along with the medical examiner’s report, provided clear evidence that Pantaleo had used an illegal chokehold on Garner. A “chokehold” is defined in the NYPD patrol guide as “any pressure to the throat or windpipe,” which hinders breathing. Orta’s video showed that Pantaleo had continued to apply pressure to Garner’s windpipe after Garner was on the ground, subdued, and had repeatedly said that he couldn’t breathe. Still, the Staten Island grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo.

The ruling further reinforced the reality of the tremendous authority police officers have to determine a necessary use of force.

…Why is video evidence not enough in any of these cases? How is it that we can argue and erase what can be plainly seen with our own eyes? 

…In 1989, the Supreme Court case Graham v. Connor established a “reasonableness standard,”

…Jurors in excessive-force cases now are given explicit instructions to think from “the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene,” keeping in mind that the nature of police work requires these “split-second decisions.” When the officer testifies that they acted out of fear for their lives, the Graham v. Connor decision requires jurors to try on that alleged fear and to view the incident through the eyes of the officer, not the victim. This is a powerfully empathetic, imaginative act.

Humans are inherently, psychologically motivated to reduce the discomfort of cognitive dissonance, and fewer things will create more painful cognitive dissonance than watching those sworn to protect shoot and kill a civilian who posed no threat to them. Our minds protect us, often without our realizing it, by latching on to narratives that can reconcile such tragic opposing facts. It is easier to see the victims as one-dimensional criminals, threatening the fearful police, and therefore deserving of whatever comes their way.

And so it becomes easy — for jurors and the public alike — to trust authority and leave the dead confined to the margins of our imagination. …They can’t testify. They can’t tell us of their fear for their lives.

***

Orta and his supporters are caught in a loop. What he needs, he can’t get. His current lawyer has stopped returning calls but isn’t officially dropped from his pending appeals, making it very difficult for a new lawyer to take up his case. Support from activists, who in 2014 lauded Orta as a hero, has dwindled. In theory, Orta could pursue litigation against the Department of Corrections for mistreatment, but petty abuses don’t count for much legally. They don’t matter enough.

“Even if you could prove the abuse, what injunction could we win?” Lewis says. “The law already states that COs are not to beat people up gratuitously. So what can you say other than: please follow the Constitution.”

De Gennaro sighs. “This is a long way of saying that there really isn’t a lot of recourse for people who are in custody and are sustaining recurrent harassment and retaliation.”

…”Do you wish you could go back and do it differently? Not take the video?”

I’d waited a year, known him a year, before I asked this question. He looks away from me and lowers his head.

Finally he says, “What does it matter?”

Ramsey Orta filmed the killing of Eric Garner, so the police punished him – The Verge

sigh…

Middle Finger Protected By First Amendment, Court Says

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

Cruise-Gulyas sued, arguing she had a First Amendment right to wiggle whatever finger she wanted at the police.

In a ruling this week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit agreed. “Fits of rudeness or lack of gratitude may violate the Golden Rule,” wrote Judge Jeffrey Sutton for the 3-0 panel. “But that doesn’t make them illegal or for that matter punishable.”

…”Cruise-Gulyas did not break any law that would justify the second stop and at most was exercising her free speech rights,” the court wrote.

Middle Finger Protected By First Amendment, Court Says : NPR

hmmmm

Apple’s iCloud was down for several hours today – The Verge

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

[Apple] reported ongoing issues across almost all of its iCloud services beginning at 11AM ET today, which lasted until 3:28pm.

Apple didn’t offer any details about what the issues are, just that “some users are affected,” and “users may be unable to access this service.” But according to the company’s support page, the problem was widespread. iCloud sign in, Backup, Calendar, Contacts, Mail, Keychain, iCloud Drive file storage, iWork, Photos, Notes, Reminders, Find My iPhone, and more were all apparently affected by the issue.

The iCloud outage marks the third major tech outage in as many days, following Gmail and Google Drive issues earlier in the week and yesterday’s widespread Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram outages.

Apple’s iCloud was down for several hours today – The Verge

hmmm

DNA reveals that local men were replaced in Iberian gene pool thousands of years ago

On By peanutgallerynhIn Europe,, Race,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Iberia was also relatively warm during the last Ice Age, between 18,000 and 24,000 years ago, presenting a more welcoming climate for animals and people who retreated from the rest of Europe.

…The researchers also discovered that between 8000 BC and 5500 BC, Iberia’s hunter-gatherers were genetically different from each other. This suggests that they interacted with a different group of hunter-gatherers during the Mesolithic era before Anatolian farmers, or those from what is presently Turkey, moved to Iberia and transformed the area yet again. The farmers also mixed with hunter-gatherers, according to their DNA

…Beginning in 2500 BC, the researchers discovered, Iberians were joined by people from central Europe whose showed genetic ancestry from the Russian steppe. And over a few hundred years, the locals and the central Europeans interbred.

Before this, there is no evidence that locals came into contact with anyone from outside the area. But that changed after 2000 BC, when 40% of Iberian ancestry and 100% of the fathers in the study could be traced back to central Europe.

…The research also sheds light on why the language and culture of present-day Basques are so distinct from those of Iberians. The modern people of Basque Country, in northern Spain, are genetically similar to the Iberian Iron Age people with ancestry from the Russian steppe. While people around them mixed with different groups and changed, the Basques held on to their heritage.

…Genetic data will need a boost from what anthropology and archaeology can show about the underlying causes for why this Y chromosome shift happened, the researchers said.

DNA reveals that local men were replaced in Iberian gene pool thousands of years ago – CNN

hmmm

Men who lived in Spain 4500 years ago left almost no male genetic legacy today

On By peanutgallerynhIn Europe,, Race,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Men who lived on the Iberian Peninsula 4500 years ago …were replaced as new farming cultures swept into the region and drove them out of the gene pool. …The findings suggest that far from being an isolated cul-de-sac of Europe, Iberia experienced massive changes in ancestry, as waves of hunter-gatherers, farmers, Romans, and others mixed with the local population over the course of thousands of years.

…Central Europeans who were descendants of herders from the grasslands of Eastern Europe and Russia, appeared in Iberia, starting in the early Bronze Age 4500 years ago. They probably introduced an early Indo-European language. …At first, the European farmers lived alongside the farmers already in Spain. ….But within a few hundred years, nearly all the Y chromosomes from Iberian farmers were gone—and replaced by the central Europeans farmers’ DNA.

This meant that somehow, the new migrants replaced 40% of genetic heritage of the Spanish and Portuguese. …”The archaeological record gives no clear evidence of a burst of violence in this period.” 

…Still more immigrants came in historical times: first Romans and then Muslim North Africans. At one point 500 years ago, far more people of North African ancestry lived in Spain than today, before Christian kingdoms pushed the Muslim states south and eventually expelled them.

Men who lived in Spain 4500 years ago left almost no male genetic legacy today | Science | AAAS

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