Tag Archives: compared

Judge to Trump: You can’t just ignore pollution rules.

by rmcg7920021988 Posted on March 13, 2018

In Sheridan County, farmers managed to slash irrigation by 20 percent without taking a punch in the wallet, according to a new economic analysis.

The wells in Sheridan County sip from the Ogallala Aquifer, an underground lake that stretches from South Dakota to Texas. It happens to be rapidly depleting.

“I’d rather irrigate 10 inches a year for 30 years than put on 30 inches for 10 years,” farmer Roch Meier told Kansas Agland. “I want it for my grandkids.”

Compared to neighbors who didn’t cut back, Sheridan farmers pumped up 23 percent less water. While they harvested 1.2 percent less than their neighbors, in the end, they had 4.3 percent higher profits.

Using less water, it turns out, just makes good business sense. It takes a lot of expensive electricity to lift tons of water up hundreds of feet through the ground. The farmers frequently checked soil moisture with electronic probes, as Circle of Blue reports. They obsessively watched weather forecasts to avoid irrigating before rain. Some switched from soy to sorghum, which requires less water. Some planted a little less corn.

If farmers in western Kansas sign on and cut water use just a bit more (25 to 35 percent), it might be enough to stabilize the aquifer.

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Judge to Trump: You can’t just ignore pollution rules.

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There’s Only One Big Thing That Matters About the Upcoming Republican Health Care Plan

by GlennaManess Posted on February 25, 2017

Mother Jones

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Politico has gotten its hands on a leaked copy of a Republican health care plan. It’s a discussion draft of a bill that’s a couple of weeks old, but it still provides a good idea of what Republicans are thinking these days. Here’s my summary of Sarah Kliff’s summary:

Good news: Compared to previous plans, it’s better on pre-existing conditions; more generous in its funding of high-risk pools; generally cheaper for young people; and includes bigger tax credits than earlier Republican plans.
Neutral news: Loosens the list of “essential” benefits for all plans. This is generally better for healthy people and worse for sick people.
Bad news: Eliminates Medicaid expansion; cuts Medicaid funding; is terrible for the poor; and is far more expensive for older workers.

There’s other stuff (all Obamacare taxes are repealed, for example, which is great news for the rich), but I submit to you that these are pesky details. There’s really only one big thing that matters: how much the program costs.

Obamacare spends roughly $100 billion per year on subsidies to make health coverage affordable for the poor, and even at that premiums are too high for many people and deductibles are too high for almost everyone. Handwaving aside, there’s no way to produce a plan that’s even remotely useful with any less funding than Obamacare. That’s just reality.

If the funding is sufficient, we can all have a good time arguing over continuous coverage penalties, age ratios, essential benefits, and all that. If the funding is insufficient, it’s all just whistling in the wind.

Rumor has it that an outline of this plan was already submitted to the Congressional Budget Office, and the score they returned was so horrific that it never saw the light of day. So when Republicans do finally release a bill and a CBO score, just turn immediately to the section that estimates the ten-year cost. If it’s substantially less than a trillion dollars, you can skip the rest.

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There’s Only One Big Thing That Matters About the Upcoming Republican Health Care Plan

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This Silicon Valley Giant Is Actually Hiring Women and Minorities

by Laurind7100 Posted on August 12, 2015

Mother Jones

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In January, Intel raised the bar in Silicon Valley by setting concrete targets for hiring women and minorities. While other major tech firms had cut big checks to groups that promote workplace diversity, Intel was the only one to commit to measurable change, pledging to make its workforce reflect the diversity of the tech talent pool by 2020. Some saw the goal as overly optimistic, but Intel’s midyear diversity report, released today, shows that it is largely on track to meet its goals.

Overall, more than 43 percent of the company’s new hires since January have been women or racial minorities such as African-Americans and Hispanics:

These numbers may not seem particularly high—African-Americans, after all, make up 13 percent of the American workforce but just 3.5 percent of Intel’s. But they do compare favorably with the talent pipeline for technical jobs. (Just 4.5 percent of computer science degrees last year went to African-Americans). And the overall demographics in the tech sector are pretty skewed to white dudes:

Compared to those industry-wide numbers, Intel is still falling behind in hiring African-Americans. Yet a comparison of workplace demographics in December and July shows that it’s making progress on several fronts:

Though these shifts aren’t huge in percentage terms, they are notable for a company with tens of thousands of employees. The biggest jumps in minority representation have come within the company’s leadership ranks—which still remain heavily white and male:

Rev. Jesse Jackson, whose Rainbow PUSH Coalition has played a major behind-the-scenes role in Intel’s efforts to diversify, issued a press release praising the company. “Rainbow PUSH argues that companies must set measurable diversity and inclusion goals, targets, and timetables,” he said. “Due to CEO Brian Krzanich’s steady and visionary leadership, Intel is doing that and more.”

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This Silicon Valley Giant Is Actually Hiring Women and Minorities

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GOP Senator: Lindsey Graham Is a "Bro With No Ho"

by VenettaHeist Posted on June 11, 2015

Mother Jones

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After announcing he’d have a “rotating first lady” if elected to the White House, forever bachelor Sen. Lindsey Graham is taking some heat from fellow Republicans. But not for the reasons you might think.

“Did you see that?” Illinois Republican Sen. Mark Kirk said on Thursday, caught forever by a hot mic. “He’s going to have a rotating first lady. He’s a bro with no ho.”

Kirk’s comments, recorded by Huff Post’s Sam Stein, are relatively innocuous. What could possibly be wrong with two male Republican senators in their fifties using words like “rotating” and “ho” to describe their non-game. Compared to them, Mitt Romney’s “binders full of women” looks positively respectful.

Meanwhile in the real world, Graham is “dying” for the debate on abortion rights with his push for a 20-week abortion ban. Slaying it with the ladies, Lindsey.

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GOP Senator: Lindsey Graham Is a "Bro With No Ho"

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