Tag Archives: unfortunately

Donald Trump’s Love Affair With White Supremacists

by MarquisMuirden Posted on July 5, 2016

Mother Jones

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The big Donald Trump news over the holiday weekend was Stargate. This refers not to the TV show, but to the Star of David on top of a pile of money that he retweeted to symbolize how corrupt Hillary Clinton is. At first glance, retweeting this anti-Semitic trope seemed like it was probably due to the fact that Trump’s inner circle is almost exclusively a bunch of white men who just didn’t notice that this might be offensive. In other words, dumb and insular, but not malevolent.

Except for a couple of things. First: Trump deleted the tweet within a few minutes and photoshopped a circle on top of the star. Then he went on offense, claiming that the star was really a sheriff’s star, not a Star of David. This prompted an entire Twitter meme (sample: “I was born a conservative sheriff, but my folks converted to reformed sheriff when I was 12”) but also a serious question: If it was really a sheriff’s star, why delete the tweet?

Second and more important: Trump didn’t create this graphic himself. He retweeted it from the account of an obvious white supremacist who plainly meant this to be a Star of David. Was this just a mistake? Did Trump have no idea who this guy was? Perhaps. And yet, why was he—or someone on his staff—following this account in the first place? And why does this “mistake” seem to happen so often? This is hardly the first time Trump has retweeted something from a white supremacist. Here are Ben Kharakh and Dan Primack a couple of months ago in Fortune:

In late January, Donald Trump did something that would have sunk almost any other presidential campaign: He retweeted an anonymous Nazi sympathizer and white supremacist who goes by the not-so-subtle handle @WhiteGenocideTM. Trump neither explained nor apologized for the retweet and then, three weeks later, he did it again. This subsequent retweet was quickly deleted, but just two days later Trump retweeted a different user named @EustaceFash, whose Twitter header image at the time also included the term “white genocide.”

…It is possible that Trumpâ&#128;&#149;who, according to the campaign, does almost all of his own tweetingâ&#128;&#149;is unfamiliar with the term “white genocide” and doesn’t do even basic vetting of those whose tweets he amplifies to his seven million followers. But the reality is that there are dozens of tweets mentioning @realDonaldTrump each minute, and he has an uncanny ability to surface ones that come from accounts that proudly proclaim their white supremacist leanings.

Kharakh and Primack wanted a more quantitative analysis of this, so they hired a firm to perform a network analysis. They identified the 50 most influential “white genocide” Twitter accounts and then looked at Trump’s tweets. Here’s what they found:

Since the start of his campaign, Donald Trump has retweeted at least 75 users who follow at least three of the top 50 #WhiteGenocide influencers. Moreover, a majority of these retweeted accounts are themselves followed by more than 100 #WhiteGenocide influencers.

But the relationship isn’t limited to retweets. For example, Trump national campaign spokesperson Katrina Pierson (who is black), follows the most influential #WhiteGenocide account, @Genophilia, which is best known for helping to launch a Star Wars boycott after it became known that the new film’s lead character was black. (Below are some recent #WhiteGenocide tweets from @Genophilia.)

…Fortune also used Little Bird software to analyze the top 50 influencers of the Trump campaign slogan #MakeAmericaGreatAgain, and found that 43 of them each follow at least 100 members of the #WhiteGenocide network.

This could be just a coincidence. White supremacists love Trump, and Trump just accidentally happens to retweet a lot of their stuff. Unfortunately for Trump, you’d have to be an idiot to believe that, and he’s running out of idiots. Even Republicans weren’t trying to defend him over the weekend. Paul Ryan just sighed: “I really believe he’s gotta clean up the way his new media works,” he said diplomatically.

But Trump runs his new media himself. It’s one of his biggest claims to fame. To clean it up, he needs to clean himself up. And he shows no signs of being willing to do that.

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Donald Trump’s Love Affair With White Supremacists

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Can Donald Trump Get Away With Proposing to Destroy the US Government?

by FallonPratten Posted on May 15, 2016

Mother Jones

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Today the Wall Street Journal asks a vital question:

Donald Trump’s Plans Don’t Add Up. Do Voters Care?

Oh please. Bernie Sanders’ plans don’t add up and his followers couldn’t care less. Paul Ryan’s plans don’t add up. Republicans don’t care. Mitt Romney’s plans didn’t add up. No one cared. John McCain’s plans didn’t add up. No one cared. George Bush’s plans didn’t add up. No one cared. Ronald Reagan’s plans didn’t add up. No one cared.

Now, I admit that Trump is performing a destruction test on this theory. His tax plan blows a $9.5 trillion hole in the deficit and he plans to increase spending on infrastructure and national defense and he promises not to touch Medicare or Social Security. He claims he’ll make up for this by cutting “waste, fraud, and abuse,” and I suppose one could view this as the ultimate test of just how much waste, fraud, and abuse the public thinks the American government is responsible for. Unfortunately, the historical evidence probably doesn’t favor a rational answer.

So what does Trump’s budget look like? Someone must care, after all. At no small effort, I have created the colorful chart below. I used the CBO’s projections as my baseline. Trump says he wants to balance the budget, so that puts a firm cap on overall spending. He says he wants to spend more on defense, so I added a modest $20 billion per year to the baseline projection. He says he won’t touch Social Security or Medicare, so I left those at their baseline projections. The revenue number comes from TPC’s analysis of Trump’s tax plan. Ditto for the interest number. Trump says he wants to spend a trillion dollars on infrastructure, so I bumped up the current infrastructure budget by $100 billion and carried it through each year.

As you can see, by the end of eight years, not only are we spending zero dollars on nearly every government program, but infrastructure spending is also wiped out and we can make only a fraction of our interest payments:

So yeah, you could say this doesn’t add up. Or you could say it’s more of Trump’s usual buffoonery. Or that Donald Trump couldn’t care less about the federal budget. So why doesn’t this get more attention? Let’s take a series of guesses:

Most people find numbers confusing and boring. One trillion, ten trillion, whatever.
The press shies away from focusing on stuff like this because their readers find it confusing and boring and don’t read it.
Also because they routinely give Republicans a pass on this stuff. They figure it’s mostly just routine pandering, and all politicians do it.
In any case, the public takes tax and budget plans mostly as statements of values, not as things that will ever actually happen.

So there you have it. Trump is testing whether he can get away with literally proposing a tax and budget plan that would bankrupt the country and destroy nearly the entire federal government within just a few years. What do you think?

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Can Donald Trump Get Away With Proposing to Destroy the US Government?

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Friday Cat Blogging – 25 March 2016

by LashundU23 Posted on March 25, 2016

Mother Jones

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The evil dex will be keeping me up all night tonight, but that’s OK. I actually kind of enjoy it. Unfortunately, every silver lining has a cloud, and in this case the cloud is lots of afternoon crashes over the next few days to make up for the lost sleep.

But then again, every cloud has a silver lining, and in this case the silver lining belongs to Hopper, who gets a great place for her afternoon snooze. Hopper thinks dex is a wonder drug that makes humans more like cats, and who’s to say she’s wrong?

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Friday Cat Blogging – 25 March 2016

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Quote of the Day: "Nothing Too Hard, Mika"

by LorriShifflett Posted on February 22, 2016

Mother Jones

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Do you ever wonder what Joe and Mika and Donald Trump talk about during commercial breaks on Morning Joe? Me neither. But we’re finding out anyway. Here’s a snippet of hot mic action from their prime-time town hall with Trump last week:

Trump: I watched your show this morning. You had me almost as a legendary figure. I like that.

More good-natured chatting and joshing until the 30-second on-air warning.

Mika: Do you want me to do the one on deportation?

Joe: We really have to go to some questions.

Trump: That’s right. Nothing too hard, Mika.

The audio comes from Harry Shearer, who jokes, “You can cut the adversarial tension there with a knife—a butter knife.” Unfortunately, the joke is on all of us.

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Quote of the Day: "Nothing Too Hard, Mika"

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Even the Guy With the $100 Million Super-PAC Says Campaign Finance Is Broken

by SondraChesser Posted on February 8, 2016

Mother Jones

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You can’t avoid campaign finance reform in the run-up to Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary. It feels a little weird to type that, given the continuous series of setbacks reformers have suffered on that issue over the last decade, but it’s true. Talk to anyone at a Bernie Sanders rally and it’s the first thing that comes up; on the Republican side, Donald Trump has made his lack of big donors a centerpiece of his campaign.

Even Jeb Bush, whose $100-million super-PAC, Right to Rise, is blanketing the airwaves here in the Granite State (and has a spin-off dark-money group, Right to Rise Policy Solutions), says something needs to be done. Taking questions at a Nashua Rotary Club on Monday afternoon, Bush told voters that it will take a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and stop the glut of dark money entering the political process:

The ideal thing would be to overturn the Supreme Court ruling that allows effectively unregulated money for independent groups, and regulated money for the campaigns. I would turn that on its head if I could. I think campaigns ought to be personally accountable and responsible for the money they receive. I don’t think you need to restrict it—voters will have the ability to say I’m not voting for you because some company gave you money. The key is to just have total transparency about the amounts of money and who gives it, and to have it with 48-hour turnaround. That would be the appropriate thing. Then a candidate will be held accountable for whatever comes to the voters through the campaign. Unfortunately the Supreme Court ruling makes that at least temporarily impossible, so it’s going to take an amendment to the Constitution.

Now, Jeb hasn’t turned into Bernie Sanders. He’d just like unlimited donations that aren’t anonymous, and he’d like whatever is disclosed to be disclosed a lot quicker. The subtext here is that while Bush is benefiting from a nonprofit that accepts anonymous unlimited donations, his backers have expressed a lot of frustration with outside groups supporting Jeb’s rival, Sen. Marco Rubio. Right to Rise chief Mike Murphy said last fall that Rubio is running a “cynical” campaign fueled by “secret dark money, maybe from one person.”

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Even the Guy With the $100 Million Super-PAC Says Campaign Finance Is Broken

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Study Predicts Massive Tree Die-Off in the Southwestern US

by FDXDiane4749 Posted on January 6, 2016

A recent study has warned that the American Southwest may be facing a massive tree die-off as a result of climate change. The study, published in Nature Climate Change, examined the effects of anticipated climate change patterns on the coniferous forests of the Southwest. Unfortunately, researchers found that if global temperatures continue to rise as anticipated by scientists, it could spell disaster for these breathtaking natural landscapes.

Theforecastedtree die-off

Researchers simulated global temperature increases and examined their effects on trees. They simulated both an extreme scenario and a more moderate 2-degree rise in global temperatures, which is the current goal suggested by climate scientists to avoid catastrophic changes to the planetary ecosystem. Unfortunately, their findings showed that even if we do limit temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius, it will only delay tree die-off by about a decade.

The extent to which we may lose our Southwestern forests will be based both on the current drought that is plaguing the region and the temperature increases were expected to face. The Washington Post explains that the drought will cause plants to close their stomata in order to retain water, depriving themselves of carbon.

Plants cant survive in a state of carbon deprivation, nor can they survive without adequate water. Scientists are anticipating that the problem will be detrimental to the health of the forests. According to the paper, 72 percent of Southwestern forests will die off by 2050, a mortality rate that is expected to hit 100 percent by 2100.

Why are trees important?

Trees are beneficial for both human health and that of the planet. A study published in the journal Environmental Pollution found that the presence of trees was responsible for preventing 670,000 annual cases of acute respiratory symptoms in the U.S. alone, primarily because our countrys trees absorbed 17.4 tonnes of air pollution. Based on that figure, scientists predict that investing in treesparticularly in polluted urban areascould save the country about $7 billion in annual health care costs.

However, our own respiratory health isnt the only reason we need trees. Trees, like all plants, sequester carbon and as most of us know by now, we need as much help as we can get when it comes to keeping atmospheric carbon levels balanced. American Forests notes that a single tree can sequester 48 pounds of carbon each year. Considering that the earth is populated by approximately 3 trillion trees, thats a staggering potential for atmospheric carbon reduction.

What can you do to help?

Unfortunately, the predicted tree die-off is bigger than any one of us. If were to prevent these kinds of die-offs from occurring, we need to focus on keeping global temperature increases under the 2-degree mark. Supporting reductions in carbon emissions, reducing our personal carbon footprints and making trees a priority in our communities is the best way to help. Here are a few ideas:

Support policymakers who put climate change action at the top of their priority lists.
Reduce your carbon footprint by using fewer resources in your own life, whether that means taking public transportation, upgrading your home to be more energy-efficient, or downsizing to minimize your households energy usage.
Conservewater. The Southwests current drought is no joke. Conserve water in your own home and throughout your day.
Get involved in your community. Development committees are responsible for deciding upon things like whether or not a new community will be dense and walkable or far-reaching and sprawly. The former reduces the need for carbon-emitting cars while conservingland for trees and wildlife. Your local community could also support the environment by planting more trees, encouraging sustainable landscaping and incentivizing the use of rainwater collection barrels or green rooftops.

Related
Climate Change is Putting Your Favorite Foods at Risk
How to Eat Vegan Without Feeling Deprived
How Do Animals Communicate?

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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Study Predicts Massive Tree Die-Off in the Southwestern US

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Hungry polar bears trap Arctic researchers

by WalkerLetcher30 Posted on September 2, 2015

Hungry polar bears trap Arctic researchers

By on 2 Sep 2015commentsShare

Earlier this summer, we found out that some polar bears like to skip hibernation in order to snack all year like spoiled little divas (blame Coca Cola). So naturally, we took it upon ourselves to fire them from their role as humanity’s climate change mascot — could you imagine the PR nightmare we’d have on our hands if we had gluttons as the face of a sustainable future? Unfortunately, it looks like the polar bears are taking the news a little something like this:

According to the BBC, a group of polar bears has camped out next to a weather station in northern Russia and is preventing scientists at the station from leaving in order to do their work of taking daily ocean measurements. The scientists tried to scare the bears off with flair guns to no avail. The standoff has been going on for about a week now, and authorities are reportedly on their way with more protective gear.

Flairs don’t scare those bears.Victor Nikiforov/WWF Russia

Polar bears don’t usually attack humans, the BBC reports, but that’s mostly because they’re not around humans very much. As climate change brings the bears closer to civilization, attacks are becoming more common.

Listen — we get it, guys. You’re upset. But this is ridiculous. The BBC says you started fighting over some food, and now you’re not even afraid of flair guns. Frankly, we’re starting to worry about you. Pull yourselves together, and give us a call. Maybe we can work something out.

Source:

Polar bears halt Arctic research in north Russia

, BBC.

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How microbes can make plastic from sunshine, carbon, and a little bit of love

by RosalinDeen Posted on August 18, 2015

How microbes can make plastic from sunshine, carbon, and a little bit of love

By on 17 Aug 2015commentsShare

We build with it, eat from it, wear it, let our kids play on it, drive around in it, and decorate our houses with it. It fills our landfills, pollutes our oceans, occasionally leaches toxic chemicals into the environment, and makes your neighbor’s lawn look like toy purgatory. It’s plastic, and like it or not, it’s everywhere. Plastic is as much a part of our identity as humans as that one sweatshirt was a part of your identity as a middle schooler (that sweatshirt, by the way, probably also contained plastic). Unfortunately, a lot of plastic contains ethylene — a chemical made from petroleum and natural gas in a CO2-emitting process.

But fear not! Scientists are working on a greener way to make ethylene using genetically modified algae. Here’s the scoop from Scientific American:

The researchers were able to accomplish this by introducing a gene that coded for an ethylene-producing enzyme—effectively altering the cyanobacteria’s metabolism. This allows the organisms to convert some of the carbon dioxide normally used to make sugars and starches during photosynthesis into ethylene. Because ethylene is a gas, it can easily be collected.

Making ethylene doesn’t require many inputs, either. The basic requirements for cyanobacteria are water, some minerals and light, and a carbon source. In a commercial setting, CO2 could come from a point source like a power plant, Yu said.

But before you go toasting to the wonders of algae with your high fives and your plastic cups (seriously, would it kill you to use a glass?), you should know that taking a something like this from the lab to the market is a long process. And it could very well turn out that using algae to produce plastic will prove untenable on a large scale. Regardless, this is a cool example of scientists trying to use synthetic biology to address environmental concerns.

What’s synthetic biology, you ask? Here — let me explain it to you using legos and skateboards.

Source:
Genetically Modified Algae Could Replace Oil for Plastic

, Scientific American.

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Here’s What the Government Thinks You Should Be Eating in 2015

by PhilomeLoggins Posted on February 20, 2015

Mother Jones

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Earlier this week, I wrote about some of the nutrition controversies surrounding the release of new United States Dietary Guidelines in 2015. The Guidelines, which inform public health initiatives, food labels, and what health-conscious parents decide to make for dinner, are revised every five years, with help from a scientific committee.

Today, that committee released its initial scientific report, an extensive 572-page tome on all the current thinking about healthy diets.

So what are we eating—and what should we be eating—in 2015?

Perhaps the biggest change this year could breathe some life into your breakfast habits: The cholesterol in egg yolks is no longer as much of a health concern. The US Dietary Guidelines used to recommend that you eat no more than 300 milligrams of dietary cholesterol a day, or under two large eggs. But this year, the committee has scrapped that advice as new research suggests that the cholesterol you consume in our diets has little to do with your blood cholesterol. Saturated fats and trans fats, on the other hand, could boost blood your blood cholesterol levels, as could unlucky genes.
The committee found that Americans lack vitamin D, calcium, potassium, and fiber in their diets. We also eat too few whole grains. On the other hand, we eat far too much sodium and saturated fat. Two-thirds of people over age 50, those most at risk for cardiovascular disease, still eat more than the upper limit, or 10 percent of their daily calories from saturated fat.
Gardeners, rejoice: The committee applauds vegetables in its latest report, describing them as “excellent sources of many shortfall nutrients and nutrients of public health concern.” Unfortunately, our veggie intake has declined in recent years, especially for kids. Only 10 percent of toddlers eats the recommended 1 cup of vegetables a day.
Added sugars, which make up 13.4 percent of our calorie intake every day, contribute to obesity, cavities, high blood pressure, and potentially cardiovascular disease. If you are in tip top shape, the committee suggests keeping your added sugar consumption under 10 percent of your daily energy intake, or roughly 12 teaspoons (including fruit juice concentrates and syrups). But for most people, the report adds, the ideal amount of added sugars is between 4.5 to 9.4 teaspoons a day, depending on your BMI.
Most adults are fine to keep drinking alcohol in moderation—one cup a day for women, and up to two for men. “However,” writes the the committee, “it is not recommended that anyone begin drinking or drink more frequently on the basis of potential health benefits.”
Be it máte, espresso, or chai, your caffeine habit is fine in moderation, up to 400 mg a day (3-5 cups of coffee). But before you start handing out the Rockstars: The committee found evidence that high levels of caffeine, such as those found in energy drinks, are harmful to kids and pregnant women. (Plus: See above for the danger of the added sugars found in many of these energy drinks).
Seafood is a pretty healthy thing to eat from a dietary standpoint, and concerns about mercury don’t outweigh the health benefits of eating fish, according to the committee. And yet, the collapse of fisheries due to overfishing “has raised concern about the ability to produce a safe and affordable supply.” The report suggests that both farm-raised and wild caught seafood will be needed to feed us in the future.
The committee found that a diet “higher in plant-based foods…and lower in calories and animal-based foods is more health promoting and is associated with less environmental impact than is the current US diet.” A group of 49 environmental and animal-welfare groups sent a letter to the US Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services to urge them to embrace this sustainability-oriented message in their Dietary Guidelines, which are set to be released later in 2015.

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Here’s What the Government Thinks You Should Be Eating in 2015

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Your electric vehicle might not be as green as you think it is

by ToneyKirschbaum Posted on December 17, 2014

Your electric vehicle might not be as green as you think it is

By on 17 Dec 2014commentsShare

Driving an electric car feels good: You’re not burning gasoline, and you’re avoiding its attendant ills, like poisoning your community and contributing to climate change. But, when you take into account where the electricity that powers your car comes from, it turns out that those warm fuzzies might be baseless.

A new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that if you live in a coal-dependent state, driving an electric vehicle might make your net effect on the environment and public health worse than if you had just stuck with a gas-powered vehicle. A team from the University of Minnesota compared cars powered by 10 different gasoline alternatives. The AP’s Seth Borenstein reports:

The study finds all-electric vehicles cause 86 percent more deaths from air pollution than do cars powered by regular gasoline. Coal produces 39 percent of the country’s electricity, according to the Department of Energy.

But if the power supply comes from natural gas, the all-electric car produces half as many air pollution health problems as gas-powered cars do. And if the power comes from wind, water or wave energy, it produces about one-quarter of the air pollution deaths.

Hybrids and diesel engines are cleaner than gas, causing fewer air pollution deaths and spewing less heat-trapping gas.

But ethanol isn’t, with 80 percent more air pollution mortality, according to the study.

The takeaway? In many parts of the country, electric cars may be … symbolic, at least at the moment. But they will make more and more sense as coal dies out and America’s energy system continues to get greener.

“Unfortunately, when a wire is connected to an electric vehicle at one end and a coal-fired power plant at the other end, the environmental consequences are worse than driving a normal gasoline-powered car,” Ken Caldeira, a climate scientist with the Carnegie Institution for Science, said in an email to Climate Central. Caldeira is unaffiliated with the study, but is working on similar research. “But electric vehicles are still good because they move us down a path toward a future near-zero emissions energy and transportation system,” he said. “Unfortunately, given the way electricity is generated in the U.S. today, the first steps down this path to lower pollution involves increases in pollution.”

Burning coal for electricity is responsible for a huge amount of America’s air pollution, and it’s the single biggest source of climate change — causing CO2 pollution in the country. Recognizing this, the Obama administration has proposed rules to crack down on coal plant pollution, which should have the effect of pushing some utilities toward cleaner energy. Meanwhile, the natural gas boom is already making coal an uneconomical source of power for utilities.

So, coal is already on the decline. And that’s good news for all those aspiring Tesla drivers out there.

Source:
Study: Your all-electric car may not be so green

, The Associated Press.

Electric Cars a Mixed Bag For Health, Climate

, Climate Central.

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Your electric vehicle might not be as green as you think it is

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