A serial accumulation of memory, incident, consideration, reconsideration, personal discovery and attempts at truth.
It is intended for my attention and that of other interested persons
If that changes, I will extensively re-edit.
Warning:
I attempt to use inductive logic.
Growers in California’s Sacramento and San Joaquin river delta
said they would give up a quarter of their water if California promised
not to make further cutbacks.
The administration is to soon announce new executive action that
would restore its authority to limit water pollution. Republicans are
trying to block the president.
Agriculture and Farming; Law and Legislation; Water; Clean Water Act
The proposed rule will do the things the Republicans fear it will do.
A bone fragment found in Siberia suggests that the ancestors of
modern wolves and dogs split into different lineages between 27,000 and
40,000 years ago, scientists say.
Wolves; Dogs; Genetics and Heredity; Research
A bit more evidence against the musings of Bishop Ussher.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s effort to implement tougher standards has been stymied at every turn.
Formaldehyde; Regulation and Deregulation of Industry; Law and Legislation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formaldehyde
"In view of its widespread use, toxicity and volatility, exposure to
formaldehyde is a significant consideration for human health.[7] In 2011, the US National Toxicology Program described formaldehyde as "known to be a human carcinogen".[8][9][10]"
"Formaldehyde is the primary cause of methanol's toxicity, since methanol is metabolised into formaldehyde by alcohol dehydrogenase."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urea-formaldehyde Urea-formaldehyde foam is a fire hazard when dry.
A federal judge ruled that gays and lesbians have the right to
marry in all Alabama counties, but stayed enforcement of her decision
until the Supreme Court issues a ruling on same-sex marriage.
Same-Sex Marriage, Civil Unions and Domestic Partnerships
By I. GLENN COHEN and ELI Y. ADASHI | May 21st 2015
A plan to let gay men give blood after one year of celibacy is better than the current lifetime ban, but not much.
Blood Donation; Homosexuality and Bisexuality; Discrimination
When the rule was written there was no test for H.I.V. then known as GRIDS.
When the heterosexual rule was written there was a test but the conversion period was uncertain.
A generation of hemophiliacs died.
Be patient with the rule makers.
The stigma is fading quickly.
Two readers call for action to improve safety on the job.
Waste Materials and Disposal; Labor and Jobs; Workplace Environment; Accidents and Safety
Operating with defective equipment must be much more expensive than repairs.
An empowered union is an effective enforcement mechanism.
Getting the mobs out of management will keep the haulers solvent.
Congress should provide more support to American workers who have been hurt by foreign competition.
International Trade and World Market; Layoffs and Job Reductions;
Trans-Pacific Partnership; United States Economy; Labor and Jobs; United
States Politics and Government; Vocational Training
The Mis-selling of TPP
"One of the great blog posts of all time was from Daniel Davies, who declared — apropos of Iraq — that
Good ideas do not need lots of lies told about them in order to gain public acceptance.
It’s a good dictum;
and if you see a lot of lies, or at least misdirection, being used to
sell a policy you should be very, very concerned about said policy.
And the selling of TPP just keeps getting worse.
William Daley’s pro-TPP op-ed
in today’s Times is just awful, on multiple levels. No acknowledgment
that the real arguments are not about trade but about intellectual
property and dispute settlement; on top of that a crude mercantilist
claim that trade liberalization is good because it means more exports;
some Dean Baker bait with numbers — $31 billion in trade surplus! All of
0.2 percent of GDP!
But what really annoyed me, even if it’s not necessarily the worst bit, was this:
But today,
of the 40 largest economies, the United States ranks 39th in the share
of our gross domestic product that comes from exports. This is because
our products face very high barriers to entry overseas in the form of
tariffs, quotas and outright discrimination.
Actually, no. We have a
low export share because we’re a big country. Here’s population versus
exports as a percentage of GDP for OECD countries:
Photo
Credit
Population isn’t the
only determinant — geography matters too, as the contrast between
Luxembourg (in the middle of Europe) and Iceland shows. But claiming
that the relatively low US export share says anything at all about trade
barriers makes me want to bang my head against a wall.
If this is the best TPP advocates can come up with, this is not looking like a good idea."
One
of the Obama administration’s underrated virtues is its intellectual
honesty. Yes, Republicans see deception and sinister ulterior motives
everywhere, but they’re just projecting. The truth is that, in the
policy areas I follow, this White House has been remarkably clear and
straightforward about what it’s doing and why.
Every area, that is, except one: international trade and investment.
I
don’t know why the president has chosen to make the proposed
Trans-Pacific Partnership such a policy priority. Still, there is an
argument to be made for such a deal, and some reasonable,
well-intentioned people are supporting the initiative.
But
other reasonable, well-intentioned people have serious questions about
what’s going on. And I would have expected a good-faith effort to answer
those questions. Unfortunately, that’s not at all what has been
happening. Instead, the selling of the 12-nation Pacific Rim pact has
the feel of a snow job. Officials have evaded the main concerns about
the content of a potential deal; they’ve belittled and dismissed the
critics; and they’ve made blithe assurances that turn out not to be
true.
The administration’s main analytical defense of the trade deal came earlier this month, in a report from the Council of Economic Advisers.
Strangely, however, the report didn’t actually analyze the Pacific
trade pact. Instead, it was a paean to the virtues of free trade, which
was irrelevant to the question at hand.
First
of all, whatever you may say about the benefits of free trade, most of
those benefits have already been realized. A series of past trade
agreements, going back almost 70 years, has brought tariffs and other
barriers to trade very low to the point where any effect they may have
on U.S. trade is swamped by other factors, like changes in currency values.
In
any case, the Pacific trade deal isn’t really about trade. Some already
low tariffs would come down, but the main thrust of the proposed deal
involves strengthening intellectual property rights — things like drug
patents and movie copyrights — and changing the way companies and
countries settle disputes. And it’s by no means clear that either of
those changes is good for America.
On
intellectual property: patents and copyrights are how we reward
innovation. But do we need to increase those rewards at consumers’
expense? Big Pharma and Hollywood think so, but you can also see why,
for example, Doctors Without Borders is worried
that the deal would make medicines unaffordable in developing
countries. That’s a serious concern, and it’s one that the pact’s
supporters haven’t addressed in any satisfying way.
On dispute settlement:
a leaked draft chapter shows that the deal would create a system under
which multinational corporations could sue governments over alleged
violations of the agreement, and have the cases judged by partially
privatized tribunals. Critics like Senator Elizabeth Warren warn that
this could compromise the independence of U.S. domestic policy — that
these tribunals could, for example, be used to attack and undermine
financial reform.
Not so, says the Obama administration, with the president declaring that Senator Warren is “absolutely wrong.” But she isn’t.
The Pacific trade pact could force the United States to change policies
or face big fines, and financial regulation is one policy that might be
in the line of fire. As if to illustrate the point, Canada’s finance minister recently declared
that the Volcker Rule, a key provision of the 2010 U.S. financial
reform, violates the existing North American Free Trade Agreement. Even
if he can’t make that claim stick, his remarks demonstrate that there’s
nothing foolish about worrying that trade and investment pacts can
threaten bank regulation.
As I see it, the big problem here is one of trust.
International
economic agreements are, inevitably, complex, and you don’t want to
find out at the last minute — just before an up-or-down, all-or-nothing
vote — that a lot of bad stuff has been incorporated into the text. So
you want reassurance that the people negotiating the deal are listening
to valid concerns, that they are serving the national interest rather
than the interests of well-connected corporations.
Instead
of addressing real concerns, however, the Obama administration has been
dismissive, trying to portray skeptics as uninformed hacks who don’t
understand the virtues of trade. But they’re not: the skeptics have on
balance been more right than wrong about issues like dispute settlement,
and the only really hackish economics I’ve seen in this debate is coming from supporters of the trade pact.
It’s
really disappointing and disheartening to see this kind of thing from a
White House that has, as I said, been quite forthright on other issues.
And the fact that the administration evidently doesn’t feel that it can
make an honest case for the Trans-Pacific Partnership suggests that
this isn’t a deal we should support."
The review found that conditions at the Hinds County Adult
Detention Center in Raymond and the Jackson City Detention Center in
Jackson violated the constitutional rights of prisoners.
Prisons and Prisoners; Assaults
The time has come to order these facilities closed and emptied.
ConAgra Foods agreed to pay $11.2 million to settle a federal
charge that the company shipped Peter Pan peanut butter tainted with
salmonella, sickening more than 600 people and leading to a huge recall
eight years ago.
Food Contamination and Poisoning; Salmonella (Bacteria); Peanut Butter; Recalls and Bans of Products
Nacho Corbella, Eileen Mignoni and Aaron Wolfe | May 19th 2015
Perched on the northernmost tip of Manhattan, Inwood offers parks,
new restaurants and bars, and some of the boroughs more affordable
apartments.
Real Estate and Housing (Residential)
I can't say I know the place but I have been there.
It is about the best that remains on Manhattan.
Taxis are expensive. The trains are crowded. Think Metro North.
Try looking east or north.
Walk about before a lease is signed.
In planned remarks to graduating Coast Guard cadets, the president
describes climate change as an environmental issue with large economic
and security implications.
Global Warming; United States Economy; United States Defense and Military Forces; Commencement Speeches
It was a bully pulpit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bully_pulpit
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