Category Archives: alternative energy

Law School Named After Scalia Deals With Awkward Acronym

by RooseveltKeeney Posted on April 5, 2016

Mother Jones

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RIP #ASSLaw. RIP #ASSoL.

Last week, George Mason University announced that it was renaming its law school in honor of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Henceforth, students would attend the Antonin Scalia School of Law or, as the internet quickly (and gleefully) pointed out, ASSLaw—or ASSoL

It didn’t take long for the school to tweak the name. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Antonin Scalia School of Law at George Mason University” will be the official name, but the school’s website and promotional materials will refer to the Antonin Scalia Law School. Take that, snarky acronym-mongers!

The decision to rename the school came after it received two major donations: an anonymous donor, who requested the name change to commemorate Scalia, gave $20 million, and the Charles Koch Foundation gave $10 million.

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Law School Named After Scalia Deals With Awkward Acronym

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White Teachers Think Pretty Poorly of Their Black Students

by NatalieHilton6 Posted on April 5, 2016

Mother Jones

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Bob Somerby draws my attention to a new study about the effect of race on teacher evaluations of students. The authors took advantage of a large dataset that included evaluations of students from two teachers each. They then compared the teacher evaluations of each student based on differences in the teachers’ races.

The chart on the right tells the story. White students didn’t suffer from having a teacher of another race. Expectations of dropping out were the same and expectations of getting a college degree were actually higher. Hispanic students were modestly affected. Teachers of other races thought Hispanic students had a slightly higher chance of dropping out and the same chance of completing college.

But black students were enormously affected. Compared to black teachers, teachers of other races thought their black students had a far higher chance of dropping out and a far lower chance of completing college. Since the baseline expectation of dropping out was 31 percent for black students, a change of 12 percentage points represents a whopping 39 percent increase. Likewise, the baseline expectation of a college degree was 37 percent for black students, so a change of 9 percentage points represents 24 percent decrease.

The authors conclude with this:

The general finding of systematic biases in teachers’ expectations for student attainment indicates that the topic of teacher expectations is ripe for future research. Particularly policy relevant areas for future inquiry include how teachers form expectations, what types of interventions can eliminate biases from teacher expectations, and how teacher expectations affect the long-run student outcomes of ultimate import. To the extent that teacher expectations affect student outcomes, the results presented in the current study provide additional support for the hiring of a more diverse and representative teaching force, as nonwhite teachers are underrepresented in U.S. public schools.

Let’s ask all our presidential candidate what, if anything, they think we should do about this.

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White Teachers Think Pretty Poorly of Their Black Students

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This Is Why Sanders Can Stay in the Race Until the Bitter End

by LavonRoyston Posted on April 5, 2016

Mother Jones

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The delegate math is daunting for Bernie Sanders. As numbers-cruncher Nate Silver explained last week, the democratic socialist senator from Vermont has to win handily big states—most notably New York and California—in order to close his gap with Hillary Clinton in the pledged delegate count, and then he must convince hundreds of superdelegates to back him.

But Sanders will be able to fight to the very end, for one simple reason: He has a lot of money. Each month this year, the Sanders campaign has raised more money than the last. In January, he hauled in $20 million; in February, $43.5 million; and in March, $44 million. (Clinton raised $29.5 million in March.) And while Sanders is spending that money at a fast clip, he is collecting enough to sustain the high burn rate. The campaign spent $50 million in February yet ended the month with more cash in the bank ($17.2 million) than at the beginning of the month ($14.7 million). There is no complete data available yet for March.

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This Is Why Sanders Can Stay in the Race Until the Bitter End

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As Wisconsin Goes to the Polls, Sanders and Cruz Have Energy on Their Side

by AlisonNXGA Posted on April 5, 2016

Mother Jones

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On Monday, a political circus arrived in Milwaukee. Over the course of several hours, Bill Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, and the actual Shrine Circus all held events separated by just a few blocks in the city’s downtown. A street vendor hawked glow sticks to circus-going kids next to Trump fans selling Make America Great Again knockoff hats.

The Trump and Sanders rallies shared a parking lot and start time, but all the energy was on Sanders’ side of the street. It was indicative of the mood of the Wisconsin electorate. Ahead of Tuesday’s primaries, the senator from Vermont has aroused a level of excitement—as well as poll numbers—that Hillary Clinton and her husband can’t match. On the Republican side, Trump has found a less receptive audience for his typical bombast, failing to pack venues or to maintain his lead in a state that now looks likely to hand him a stinging defeat.

Sanders sounded a jubilant note at a ballroom in the Wisconsin Center, where just two nights prior he’d spoken before a crowd of Democratic bigwigs more favorably inclined toward Hillary Clinton. “This is like a Greek chorus,” Sanders joked at one point after the crowd booed his mention of Scott Walker, the state’s unpopular Republican governor. “I say a name, and you respond.”

Sanders, who’s used Walker as a punching bag at campaign stops in Wisconsin throughout the past week, sounded confident that he’d add Wisconsin to his list of recent wins. “Let me talk about the momentum that you are feeling and I am feeling in this campaign,” he said. “We have won six out of the last seven caucuses and primaries. Not only have we won them, we’ve won every one by landslide victories. And tomorrow, if there is a good turnout here in Wisconsin, if there is a record-breaking turnout here in Wisconsin, we are going to win here as well.” After his speech, the Sanders campaign blasted out a press release bragging that 38,000 fans had flocked to his events in the Badger State over the past week.

Down the block a few hours earlier, Bill Clinton spoke to a much smaller mid-afternoon crowd at the Turner Ballroom. The contrast in style with Sanders couldn’t have been clearer. Where the Sanders campaign warmed up the audience with the largely forgotten, late-aughts synth band 3OH!3, Clinton was preceded by Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Throughout his speech, Clinton kept returning to a refrain intended to boost his wife’s credentials and rebuke Sanders. He would mention one of Hillary Clinton’s career accomplishments and punctuate it by saying, “That’s leadership, not establishment politics.”

Still, the scene belied that assertion, with the state’s establishment lined up in Clinton’s corner. If the voting bears out recent polls, it looks like the allegiances of the state’s political leaders haven’t done much to sway Democratic voters who live there.

The same dynamic is producing the opposite result on the Republican side. Ted Cruz, the state’s likely Republican winner, spent the day campaigning triumphantly around the state with Walker, who endorsed Cruz last week. The pair hit up the Mars Cheese Castle in Kenosha for some lighthearted fun, with Cruz ducking away from a fan who tried to plop a cheesehead atop his noggin and joking, “When they promise a cheese castle, you sort of expect to be able to eat the castle.”

Things weren’t as cheery for Trump. The candidate who’s filled stadiums in other states barely managed 50 percent occupancy at a 4,000-seat theater next to the circus. Wisconsinites didn’t even bother to show up and protest outside, with Trump becoming an afterthought in the state ahead of Tuesday’s vote.

Unlike on most primary days, when candidates visit their local offices to motivate volunteers and then schedule an evening rally to get prime-time TV coverage, almost everyone is fleeing the state ahead of the vote. Hillary Clinton was already campaigning Monday in New York, which goes to the polls on April 19. Trump has a blank schedule. Sanders is slated to speak with fans in Wyoming, which holds its Democratic caucus this weekend.

Only Cruz is sticking around Tuesday evening, and for good reason. While a Sanders win would help him build momentum, the Democrats’ proportional allocation of delegates means he won’t gain that much on Clinton and will remain a long shot to win at this summer’s party convention. Cruz, meanwhile, is banking on a contested convention—a scenario he discussed with reporters on Monday morning—which could enable him to secure the nomination on the second ballot or later. At this point, he needs to celebrate every minor victory he can eke out, hoping that it will be enough to deny Trump a first-ballot win.

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As Wisconsin Goes to the Polls, Sanders and Cruz Have Energy on Their Side

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Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson Resigns in the Wake of "Panama Papers" Scandal

by AnnetteLorenzo Posted on April 5, 2016

Mother Jones

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Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson announced his resignation on Tuesday amid mounting public anger over evidence that he and his wife owned a secretive offshore company called Wintris that managed millions of dollars of investments in three Icelandic banks that collapsed during the 2008 financial crisis.

Calls to step down were sparked by this weekend’s so-called “Panama Papers” leak, a massive trove of documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonesca that exposed a number of international leaders and their closest confidantes as participating in complex offshore banking arrangements. High-profile leaders linked to the leak include Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

But Gunnlaugsson is the first leader ousted in the international fallout. The public outcry in Iceland is particularly intense due to lasting memories of the 2008 financial crisis, which paralyzed the country’s economy, and sent shock waves around the world. And as our own Kevin Drum noted, Iceland was “ground zero for the European banking crisis.”

Gunnlaugsson had initially insisted on staying in office. When questioned about his ties to Wintris on Monday, the visibly shaken prime minister was unable to properly respond and ended the interview. “You are asking me nonsense,” he is heard telling the reporters conducting the interview.

In the days following the leak, mass demonstrations calling for Gunnlaugsson to step down were held outside Parliament. Some people were seen hurling yogurt at the building in protest:

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Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson Resigns in the Wake of "Panama Papers" Scandal

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Obamacare Notches Another Win. Are You Tired of Winning Yet?

by Maurici0519 Posted on April 5, 2016

Mother Jones

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I’ve mentioned before that one of the reasons Obamacare signup rates are below projections is because employer coverage is above projections. Back in 2010, analysts assumed that employers would steadily drop health coverage and simply pay their employees to buy insurance on the exchanges. But that hasn’t happened—and that’s a good thing.

Now the New York Times has joined the party, so maybe everyone else will start to get this too:

The surprise turnaround adds to an emerging consensus about the contentious health law: It has not upturned the core of the country’s health insurance system, even while insuring millions of low-income people.

….About 155 million Americans have employer-based health insurance coverage in 2016, according to an analysis released by the Congressional Budget Office last month. The number will fall to 152 million people in 2019, the C.B.O. estimates, but will remain stable through 2026. Slightly more than half of people under 65 will be enrolled in employment-based coverage.

Employers seem to be staying the course even more strongly than they did before the law. The percentage of adults under 65 with employer-based insurance held firm for the last five years after steadily declining since 1999, according to an analysis of federal data released last month by the Kaiser Family Foundation, which closely tracks the health insurance market.

The CDC has been tracking health coverage for years, and their numbers show that private coverage (not including exchanges) has gone up since Obamacare went live. These numbers include both employer coverage and private coverage purchased off-exchange, but employer coverage is by far the biggest component and there’s no special reason to think that off-exchange individual coverage has increased much. This provides a very strong indication that the employer market has stayed healthy, and the CBO report confirms this.

If you want to know how Obamacare is doing, don’t look at Obamacare enrollments compared to early projections. Instead, look at the total uninsured rate compared to early projections. That’s the only number that provides a comprehensive look at all forms of health insurance and how they’ve done compared to predictions. When you do that, you’ll find that Obamacare is actually doing a little better than anyone thought it would.

To paraphrase a prominent politician, I wonder if Obamacare’s critics are tired of losing all the time? If so, come on over to the side of light and goodness. You’ll win so much you’ll get tired of winning.

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Obamacare Notches Another Win. Are You Tired of Winning Yet?

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Here’s Something Else Donald Trump Is Totally Wrong About

by TitusJ2088 Posted on April 5, 2016

Mother Jones

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The only way to stop climate change is to drastically reduce, and ultimately eliminate, greenhouse gas emissions. If you want to know how well we’re doing on that goal, a good place to start is the Environmental Protection Agency’s official GHG database. And frankly, the picture isn’t very pretty.

The total level of US emissions in 2014 wasn’t very different than it was 30 years ago:

EPA

However, total emissions is a fairly misleading way to look at progress on climate change. Most of these emissions come from fossil fuels burned to make energy—either electricity from power plants or gas for cars and trucks. So emissions are heavily influenced by economic activity; a downturn in the economy would mean people drive less, factories use less electricity, etc., and the outcome would be lower emissions. At least, that’s the way things used to be.

Over the last few years, the United States and many other countries around the world have seen an unprecedented disconnect between gross domestic product and emissions. Thanks to an increasingly large share of energy coming from renewables and vast improvements to energy efficiency, emissions can now be increasingly “decoupled” from economic activity. In other words, it’s now possible to grow the economy without growing emissions.

A new analysis from the World Resources Institute illustrates how this trend is already playing out around the world. It’s a bit of good news, and a solid rebuttal to anyone who says saving the climate means killing the economy—looking at you, Donald Trump:

WRI

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Here’s Something Else Donald Trump Is Totally Wrong About

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Donald Trump Apparently Wants a Cold War With Mexico

by FaustoMacansh Posted on April 5, 2016

Mother Jones

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Donald Trump has finally explained how he would force Mexico to pay for a border wall, and it’s pretty much what you’d expect. Basically, the idea is to threaten Mexico with financial ruin unless they pay up:

Trump would also threaten to raise tariffs, cancel visas, and raise visa fees. But if Mexico writes us a big check, all the threats go away and we can be friends again.

Trump didn’t threaten to send troops over the border, but otherwise this is a very Roman Empire approach to foreign affairs. In that sense, it’s reminiscent of his threat to pull out troops from other countries unless they pony up big bags of tribute to pay for protection. Trump really does believe that the biggest, richest, most militarily dominant country in the history of the world is just a poor little waif being taken advantage of by everyone else.

Needless to say, anyone with a handful of working brain cells knows that Mexico would never pay this extortion money. Their voters wouldn’t put up with it any more than ours would. If Trump actually went through with this—which is questionable since it would end up in court on day 2—he’d create a permanent enemy on our Southern border. Just what we need. And Mexico would probably retaliate by encouraging even greater illegal immigration into the US.

What a fuckwit. I really don’t know what we did to deserve this.

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Donald Trump Apparently Wants a Cold War With Mexico

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Lingering Lessons from a Cold-War Climate Peril – Nuclear Winter

by Myrna Posted on April 4, 2016

A video report looks back at the nuclear winter theory and ahead at a related type of climate engineering. Originally posted here –  Lingering Lessons from a Cold-War Climate Peril – Nuclear Winter ; ; ;

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Lingering Lessons from a Cold-War Climate Peril – Nuclear Winter

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A Student of ‘Cultural Environmentalism’ Explores the Many Views of Earth’s Anthropocene ‘Age of Us’

by Myrna Posted on April 3, 2016

A writer who explores the meanings of nature takes a tour of the growing array of views of the proposed Anthropocene epoch of Earth history. View original article:   A Student of ‘Cultural Environmentalism’ Explores the Many Views of Earth’s Anthropocene ‘Age of Us’ ; ; ;

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A Student of ‘Cultural Environmentalism’ Explores the Many Views of Earth’s Anthropocene ‘Age of Us’

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