The End Of Plastic Cutlery, Plates And Straws: EU Market Says Goodbye To Single-Use Plastic Products

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

The aim of the directive, which is part of the European Plastics Strategy, is to protect the environment and reduce marine litter by avoiding the emission of 3.4 million tonnes of CO2. However, it should be noted the importance of the economic benefits that the new regulation will bring: the directive may avoid environmental damages which would cost the equivalent of €22 billion ($24.9 billion) by 2030 and save consumers a projected €6.5 billion ($7.38 billion). 

…The measures discussed are closely related to the latest estimates on marine litter, according to the European Commission, plastics make up 85% of beach litter, which is causing catastrophic consequences on the environment. The organization WWF has already pointed out the dramatic effects that the excessive use of plastics, poor management of waste and mass tourism are having in the Mediterranean Sea, the most visited sea in Europe.

…The new rules aim to stop the use of throwaway plastic products and packaging for which alternatives exist and is focused on the most frequently found items polluting European seas: plastic cutlery (forks, knives, spoons, and chopsticks), plastic plates, plastic straws, cotton bud sticks made of plastic, beverage and food containers made of expanded polystyrene (such as fast food and takeaway boxes), and products made from oxo-degradable plastic, which contributes to microplastic pollution.  According to the European Commission, together these products constitute 70% of all marine litter items.

…The global production of plastics has not stopped to increase since 1960. According to the European Commission, in 2015 the global production reached 322 million tonnes and it is expected to double over the next 20 years. In Europe, around 25.8 million tonnes of plastic waste is generated every year and less than 30% of such waste is collected for recycling. 

The End Of Plastic Cutlery, Plates And Straws: EU Market Says Goodbye To Single-Use Plastic Products

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Berkeley City Council unanimously passes disposable foodware and litter ordinance

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Local Interest,Leave a comment

The ordinance’s lead author City Councilmember Sophie Hahn said in a statement, “Single-use disposable foodware is a local and global problem, one with enormous financial and environmental costs.”

….”Most of the single-use plastic foodware has no value in today’s recycling markets. With China’s ban on importing plastic scrap, cities are actually paying to get rid of it.”

Bourque said, “We cannot recycle our way out of the disposable foodware problem. We have to focus on reduction.”

Upstream Policy Director Miriam Gordon said, “Our throw-away culture is leading to a proliferation of plastics in our food, air, and drinking water, which threatens human health and all ocean life. Disposable food packaging is the biggest contributor to the problem.”

Berkeley City Council unanimously passes disposable foodware and litter ordinance | abc7news.com

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First Nations, Inuit an Métis food guides may be coming, Health Canada indicates

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,, The Americas,Leave a comment

But the colourful palette of fresh produce, grains and proteins—like chickpeas and tofu—adorning the guide’s front page doesn’t necessarily represent or reflect Indigenous peoples’ food preferences or the barriers that many face in accessing healthy foods.

Treena Wasonti:io Delormier, an associate professor of human nutrition at McGill University, says the food guide—first developed in 1942—has historically neglected Indigenous peoples’ traditional dietary needs and the social, cultural and historical determinants of food availability and food choices within Indigenous communities.

…Delormier says now that traditional foods have been identified as “important and nutritious,” the next question is: “how do we now make programs, or learn from other programs, that support…communities to access food that is their right to access?”

She says that question directly relates to food sovereignty, which is “the notion that people have control over their food systems.

“But Indigenous food sovereignty then becomes about Indigenous peoples’ self-determination around accessing their foods, and rights and access to land,” she continues.

First Nations, Inuit an Métis food guides may be coming, Health Canada indicates – APTN NewsAPTN News

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Google Urged the U.S. to Limit Protection For Activist Workers

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Privacy,Leave a comment

While Google publicly supported employees who protested company policies, it quietly asked the government to narrow the right to organize over work email.

…Google, whose employees have captured international attention in recent months through high-profile protests of workplace policies, has been quietly urging the U.S. government to narrow legal protection for workers organizing online

…Google has long fostered a culture of employee feedback, allowing open debate in meetings and online forums, where staff have advocated for changes to products and facilities over the company’s 20-year history. But the last year has seen an unprecedented wave of concentrated and forceful advocacy from employees, often at direct odds with the positions of management. After Google was awarded a Pentagon contract for using artificial intelligence to analyze drone footage, thousands of employees signed a petition demanding Google remove itself from “the business of war,” nine software engineers refused to work on a security feature that could help the company win more military contracts, and in June the company said it wouldn’t renew its Department of Defense deal. An employee introduced a shareholder resolution to tie executive compensation to diversity and inclusion, while others wrote a letter to their chief executive officer decrying the treatment of sub-contracted staff as “part of a system of institutional racism, sexism, and discrimination.”

…Google’s objections to the legal protection for employees organizing via employee email came in filings defending itself against allegations brought by a regional director of the NLRB. In a 2017 complaint, the agency had accused Google of violating federal labor law, including by maintaining workplace policies that infringe on workers’ rights and by making threats against employees. The complaint also alleged that Google violated the law in 2015 by issuing a warning to an employee because of comments made via email and on the company forum G+ “regarding workplace diversity and social justice initiatives, workplace policy viewpoints, and regarding employees’ rights to express their opinion on G+.”

…The protection established in Purple Communications is “pretty fundamental” given the centrality of email to modern workplace communications, said Wilma Liebman, who chaired the NLRB during Obama’s first term. Given Google’s rhetoric about “the free exchange of ideas, and itself as a purveyor of mechanisms for communications,” she said, “That’s an irony that Google, of all companies, would take such a narrow position.”

Google Urged the U.S. to Limit Protection For Activist Workers – Bloomberg

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claps back at Sarah Huckabee Sanders – Business Insider

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

The 29-year-old New York Democrat, who was raised Catholic, retweeted a story about Sanders’ remarks and cited the Bible in her counterargument.

“‘Genesis 1: God looked on the world & called it good not once, not twice, but seven times. Genesis 2: God commands all people to “serve and protect” creation. Leviticus: God mandates that not only the people, but the land that sustains them, shall be respected,'” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.

She went on: “You shouldn’t need a Bible to tell you to protect our planet, but it does anyway.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claps back at Sarah Huckabee Sanders – Business Insider

heh

Standing Rock’s Surprising Legacy: A Push for Public Banks

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

Once Seattle had committed to move its money, the city needed somewhere to move it to.

“When we were organizing around getting [Seattle] to divest, the question all along was what to do with the city’s money,” Remle said. “And our philosophy was it’s not going to be a victory to close accounts with Wells Fargo and go to Bank of America.”

Organizers saw public banks as the solution.

A public bank is an institution owned by a governmental body, funded with taxpayer money, and mandated to serve the public interest. In summer 2017, Remle and other Seattleites started advocating for the city to establish a public bank, a process that could take years.

Sawant said a public bank “would be accountable to the people of Seattle in a way that you could never hold a private bank accountable,” adding that the city could better direct the bank’s resources, like loans, to projects that support community-directed goals. Remle noted affordable housing, homelessness services, and funding for higher education as causes the city might fund.

…The next step, the council member said, is to demand that obstacles—such as the inability for credit unions to serve municipalities and the Washington law that bars cities from establishing any type of business entity—are removed so that the city or state can establish a public bank.

…Because proposed banks have unique business plans, market competition, and local economic context, among other factors, the FDIC does not prescribe a minimum of initial capital. But the agency does suggest that organizers examine “the risks inherent in the institution’s business model, the potential variability in earnings projections, and the skill and ability of the management team to carry out the business plan” when planning to apply for insurance.

…There are also legal challenges to establishing public banks in some locations. Many states and cities—including Oregon state, as well as Sante Fe and Los Angeles—have clauses in their constitutions or charters that inhibit the establishment of public banks. There’s movement in some places to overcome institutionalized policy barriers to establishing public banks. In Los Angeles, a measure on the November ballot that would have amended the city’s charter and allow it to explore establishing its own financial institution did not pass. And in San Francisco, a city report recently showed that state laws could not prevent the city from creating a public bank.

…The main obstacle to starting a public bank in Washington is that the state constitution prohibits the state and its cities from loaning money or credit to individuals, associations, or corporations.

Standing Rock’s Surprising Legacy: A Push for Public Banks by Deonna Anderson — YES! Magazine

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Transcript: The Vaccine War

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

The hypotheses continue to shift. The first hypothesis, which, you know, people bought into long and hard, is that the combination measles, mumps, rubella, or MMR vaccine, cause autism. Twelve epidemiological studies showed that that wasn’t true.

Then the hypothesis shifted to thimerosal, an ethylmercury-containing preservative that was in vaccines, that’s no longer in vaccines, except for some multi-dose preparations of flu vaccine, that that caused autism. And that clearly has been shown not to be true.

So now this is classic for pseudo-science, is you just keep moving the goalposts. So now the goalpost is, “No, we didn’t mean actually MMR caused autism or thimerosal caused autism, we just meant vaccines in general cause autism.”

…These students who sat in that room were much more likely to believe something they had seen on YouTube from a Washington Redskins cheerleader than they would have believed something that they would have heard from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the American Academy of Pediatrics. That’s a little frightening.

…If a certain percentage of the population is vaccinated, that will stop infections from spreading because most of the people around that child are vaccinated, so therefore, the virus can’t really spread. However, when a critical number of people aren’t vaccinated, when there’s a critical drop in herd immunity, then the viruses can spread. And not only are those children who aren’t vaccinated at risk, but those who can’t be vaccinated are at risk.

…When enough people don’t vaccinate, herd immunity begins to crumble. The first to suffer are vulnerable populations, those who because of age or illness can’t be vaccinated. 

…The more immunity we have in a community, the better it is. Fifty percent is better than nothing, and 100 percent— it’s like building a brick wall around a city and protecting it against an enemy. It’s excellent protection against something entering our community that could cause illness.

…Parents don’t have unlimited rights with respect to the welfare of their children. You can’t put them at risk of fatal disease. You can’t put them at risk of devastating disability.

You know, the ethics isn’t just on the side of the critics. The ethics is also on the side of those who say, “Do good in the name of children. Do good in the name of public health.”

The Vaccine War – Transcript | FRONTLINE

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What White, Western Audiences Don’t Understand About Marie Kondo’s ‘Tidying Up’

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,Leave a comment

Kami are Shinto spirits present everywhere — in humans, in nature, even in inanimate objects. At an early age, I understood this to mean that all creations were miracles of a sort. I could consider a spatula used to cook my eggs with the wonder and mindful appreciation you’d afford a sculpture; someone had to invent it, many human hands and earthly resources helped get it to me, and now I use it every day. According to Shinto animism, some inanimate objects could gain a soul after 100 years of service ―a concept know as tsukumogami ― so it felt natural to acknowledge them, to express my gratitude for them.

…Treasuring what you have; treating the objects you own as not disposable, but valuable, no matter their actual monetary worth; and creating displays so you can value each individual object are all essentially Shinto ways of living. Even if you don’t have the space for shelves of books or can’t afford a dresser with enough drawers, make what you have work for you, instead of being unhappy that you don’t have more.

What White, Western Audiences Don’t Understand About Marie Kondo’s ‘Tidying Up’ | HuffPost

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Officials rejected Jared Kushner for top secret security clearance, but were overruled

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

Jared Kushner’s application for a top-secret clearance was rejected by two career White House security specialists after an FBI background check raised concerns about potential foreign influence on him — but their supervisor overruled the recommendation.

…[Their supervisor], Carl Kline, is a former Pentagon employee who was installed as director of the personnel security office in the Executive Office of the President in May 2017. Kushner’s was one of at least 30 cases in which Kline overruled career security experts and approved a top-secret clearance for incoming Trump officials despite unfavorable information, the two sources said. They said the number of rejections that were overruled was unprecedented — it had happened only once in the three years preceding Kline’s arrival.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information, said the Trump White House attracted many people with untraditional backgrounds who had complicated financial and personal histories, some of which raised red flags.

Kushner’s FBI background check identified questions about his family’s business, his foreign contacts, his foreign travel and meetings he had during the campaign, the sources said, declining to be more specific.

…Kline left the White House personnel security office at least a week ago and is now back at the Department of Defense, according to the Pentagon press office.

…Kline is the subject of an October 2018 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint viewed by NBC News that was filed by Tricia Newbold, a current employee. Newbold has a rare form of dwarfism and the complaint alleges Kline discriminated against her because of her height.

Her complaint states that, in December 2017, Kline moved security files to a new location that was too high and out of her reach and told her, “You have people, have them get you the files you need; or you can ask me.”

…In a letter to her family obtained by NBC News, Newbold described Kline’s behavior toward her as “aggressive,” involving “emotional and psychological abuse” starting in July 2017, a few months after he took over the office.

In the same letter, Newbold wrote that she also had serious concerns about how Kline “continuously changes policy” and makes “reckless security judgments.” She added that Kline’s decisions “if disclosed, can cause embarrassment and negative attention to the administration.”

Newbold raised concerns about Kline’s behavior with her second level supervisor regarding his “hostility and integrity,” according to the EEOC complaint.

Officials rejected Jared Kushner for top secret security clearance, but were overruled

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Roger Stone arrested in Mueller investigation

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

The seven-count indictment alleges Stone misled lawmakers on the committee about his efforts to communicate with WikiLeaks and his contacts with the Trump campaign. It also accuses Stone of attempting to intimidate another witness: radio host Randy Credico, who was in contact with WikiLeaks head Julian Assange in 2016.

…The Stone indictment marks Mueller’s biggest move yet against a Trump associate on grounds related to the release of stolen emails to sabotage Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016. 

…Mueller’s 24-page indictment against Stone is replete with examples of alleged lies he told, some of them rather brazen. It contends that around Stone’s late September 2017 testimony before the House committee, he “denied having ever sent or received emails or text messages” from Credico when in fact they’d “exchanged over thirty text messages.”

But perhaps the most politically damning and intriguing parts of the indictment are new details about alleged efforts by the Trump campaign and Trump backers to keep abreast of potential new disclosures from WikiLeaks, referred to as “Organization 1” in the document.

…The indictment also says that as the campaign unfolded, Stone was keeping key Trump backers apprised of indications about what WikiLeaks and Assange were up to. “Spoke to my friend in London last night. The payload is still coming,” Stone allegedly assured one Trump campaign-linked supporter by email on October 3, 2016, just four days before WikiLeaks dropped its first batch of internal Clinton campaign emails.

Stone then spoke by phone with the same supporter the following day to say that the upcoming release “would be damaging to the Clinton Campaign.”

…Stone’s witness tampering charge [accuses] the operative of attempting to interfere in the FBI’s Russia probe.

…Mueller also contends that Stone leaned on Credico to deny their interactions during the campaign. The indictment says Stone repeatedly told Credico to “do a ‘Frank Petrangeli,’” a reference to a character in “The Godfather: Part II” who gave false denials to a congressional committee.

Stone peppered Credico with intimidating texts, according to the court document, including “If you turned over anything to the FBI, you’re a fool,” and “I’m not talking to the FBI and if your [sic] smart you won’t either.”

…In a court filing Thursday unsealed after Stone’s indictment went public, Mueller argued that he wanted to keep the charges under wraps until the arrest because of a concern that publicizing the new case “will increase the risk of the defendant fleeing and destroying (or tampering with) evidence.”

Roger Stone arrested in Mueller investigation – POLITICO

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Wilbur Ross doesn’t understand why furloughed federal workers need food banks

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

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says he does not understand why federal employees who are furloughed or have been working without pay during the partial government shutdown would need assistance from food banks.

Wilbur Ross doesn’t understand why furloughed federal workers need food banks

What a fucking moron! How does this pre-Christmas eve Scrooge even get out of bed or cross the street by himself? Total cluelessness and this is who the Cheetoh has in his cabinet. Sad!

Trump gives South Carolina foster agency the right to discriminate against LGBTQ & Jewish people / LGBTQ Nation

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

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the Trump Administration has taken an unusual and alarming step, waiving anti-discrimination requirements for federally-funded child welfare agencies in South Carolina.

The move opens the door for discrimination of non-Christian and LGBTQ people who may be seeking to foster or adopt, and sets a precedent for future waivers in other states and for other reasons.

Trump gives South Carolina foster agency the right to discriminate against LGBTQ & Jewish people / LGBTQ Nation

Unamerican nazi-style bullshit.

Is Elizabeth Warren Unpopular? It Depends on Whom You Ask.

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

Mentioning the right’s attacks on Warren plus her low approval ratings while citing her “very liberal record” and the controversy surrounding her alleged Native American heritage implies a causal relationship between these facts. Warren is a lefty who has made controversial ancestral claims. Ergo, Republicans attack her, and many Americans don’t like her very much.

But that equation is misleading. The better explanation for why Warren attracts disproportionate conservative criticism, and has disproportionately high disapproval ratings, has nothing to do with her progressive economic views or her dalliance with DNA testing. It’s that she’s a woman.

…[Yale professors] showed identical fictional biographies of two state senators—one male and one female—to participants in a study. When they added quotations to the biographies that characterized each as “ambitious” and possessing “a strong will to power,” the male state senator grew more popular. But the female state senator not only lost support among both women and men, but also provoked “moral outrage.”

…The problem is that when journalists ignore what academic research and recent history teach us about gender’s role in shaping those perceptions, they imply—whether they mean to or not—that Warren’s unpopularity can be explained by factors unique to her. 

…What all this ignores is the harsh truth that when women politicians—especially women politicians who embrace a feminist agenda—overtly seek power, many American men, and some American women, react with “moral outrage.” They may not express that outrage in explicitly gendered terms, just as they may not express their anxiety about a black candidate in explicitly racial terms. They may instead cite DNA testing or hidden emails or San Francisco’s cultural liberalism. Or they may simply say they find the candidate’s mannerisms off-putting.

Is Elizabeth Warren Unpopular? It Depends on Whom You Ask. – The Atlantic

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