ESSAYS

ART

"The Day the Clown Cried" is a legendary film that was never shown. It was depicted in the documentary "From Darkness to Light” which is a story about comedian Jerry Lewis- a complex man behind a clown face who was driven to do an extraordinary film but couldn’t.

The existence of the film became a myth and an object of curiosity for decades. The documentary featuring splices of the film, where the well-known comedian played a clown who led children to the gas chamber, was shown at the 2024 Venice International Film Festival.

Though he invested a lot in the film both financially and emotionally Jerry Lewis never wanted the film shown.

In The Wrap, Steve Pond writes,  "The Day the Clown Cried...was ahead of its time, it was never finished and it probably wasn't any good."

Lewis said, "It was not a good work...It was a bad work on the part of the writer, the director, the actor...And,"I thought about it a thousand times...where's the comedy in walking children into the gas chamber?"

For many of us, maybe like Jerry Lewis, we wonder with some fear about what might be behind the clown's painted smile.      

CIVIL LIBERTIES

In Nassau County in New York a Republican controlled legislature unanimously approved the ban on face coverings on August 15. County legislator, Howard Kopel, said that the law was made in response to anti-Semitic incidences often perpetuated by those in masks since the October 7 start of the Israel Hamas war. Nassau County Executive, Bruce Blakeman, explained that mask wearing campus protesters were the impetus for the ban.

The law makes it a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and $1000 fine for anyone in Nassau to wear a face covering to hide their identity in public.

On behalf of individuals with disabilities, Disability Rights of New York is seeking temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to immediately stop enforcement of the Act. The organization argues that it is unconstitutional and discriminates against people with disabilities.

As recently as 2019 anti-mask laws were used against occupy Wall Street protesters anti-racism protesters and police violence protesters. In the current climate, according to the ACLU, the increase of anti-mask laws and regulations around the country have already had a chilling effect on the free speech, including the right to protest.

The charges represent a selective enforcement levied against protesters based on the claim that wearing masks is a deliberate act to obstruct law enforcement. They have had a disproportionate effect on pro-Palestine protesters who have been accused of antisemitism and who already face extreme personal and professional consequences for their participation in protests asking for an arms embargo and a ceasefire.

Charges for wearing a face mask in public are increasing in states and universities around the country largely due to the growth of recent protests, particularly the pro-palestinian movement asking for an arms embargo and ceasefire.

This violation of civil liberties says the ACLU poses a serious risk to constitutional freedoms in the digital age, including the emergence of face recognition technology. ”The push to normalize face recognition by security agencies threatens to turn our faces into functional equivalent of license plates.”

HUMAN RIGHTS

File photo RFE/RL's Radio Azadi

Women are held hostage from birth to death in Afghanistan. The Taliban codified this reality at the end of August 2024 in a 114 page document.

Afghan women and women in a number of other countries have had little actionable relief from the international community. For example, during the September session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York little was said about the plight of millions of women in different countries who live under what can fairly be called a form of chronic terrorism.

On a more positive note, on October 4, 2024 The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that, in terms of a common asylum policy that provides international protection, gender and nationality alone are “sufficient” for a country to grant asylum to Afghan women. The ruling is a response to draconian measures that have been applied to women by the Taliban as of 2021 and is based on a concept of active persecution and an assessment of the severe accumulation of measures that discriminate against women.

These measures include no legal protection against gender based domestic violence, forced marriages, the requirement women cover their entire bodies, restricted access to healthcare and freedom of movement, the prohibition against women from engaging and gainful employment or limiting extent to which they can do, and the prohibition against women from receiving an education or taking part in sports, and the exclusion of women from political life.

 

The Paris Olympic Games, held in 2024, was the most glamorous of all the Games; befitting images of French society. It is safe to say that the flamboyant opening lived up to that promise and provided wonderful and wacky scenes for viewers. But there were costs. The question is what are the real costs of cosmetic fixes in the name of legacy development? In The Real News Network - Detractors say the Games have brought a form of social cleansing as the most vulnerable migrants and homeless are swept from the streets exacerbating a displacement problem that was already a Paris problem.

Aside from development concerns, the Games held in Paris brought militarization with a reported 75,000 troops in the street. This brings a new dimension to forced displacement. The claim is that this militarization is temporary. Some are not so sure.

Perhaps the Paris extravaganza should be the last hurrah as more people and countries question the cost and benefits of legacy development. Hosting the Games is expensive. Most of the social promises made by Olympic Game organizers would have to happen and many would happen in any case without the distraction of the Olympic Games. There are other issues to consider such as the Games signifciant contribution to climate change.

Olympic Games are needed, but perhaps not in its current form. Increasingly, there is a call for smaller games held in different regions.

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PUBLIC HEALTH/HEALTHCARE

Reported by UNRWA,,the first phase of the polio campaign kicked off on 1 September 2024. UNRWA, WHO and UNICEF are mobilising teams to reach over 600,000 children under the age of 10 across the Gaza Strip. Humanitarian pauses across specific areas of the Gaza Strip have enabled the first round of the emergency polio vaccination campaign. Between 1 - 2 September, over 160,000 children were reached, according to World Health Organization and the Health Cluster. The Polio vaccination campaign will be done in phases, focusing on one zone at a time - starting in the middle area, shifting to the south, and finally to the northern governorates.

Hotter temperatures can increase aggressive intentions and behaviors, making violence more likely as global temperatures continue to rise. A study using data from 100 US cities shows that hotter-than-normal days correlate with a higher risk of shootings, accounting for nearly 8,000 of the total shootings examined.

Children are shortchanged when it comes to access to health care and their parents are forced to make up the difference by travelling either long miles to see a specialist after months of waiting and/or from financial outlays - if they can.

The problem lies in a 10 year trend that has sharply declined in 2023-2024 where more medical students are opting out of pediatrics due to poor reimbursements given the high costs of their education and low pay compared to other specialities.

Consequently, wait times for an appointment can drag on for months. This means delayed help for special needs, chronic illnesses, public school requirements, and even necessary surgeries.

In a PBS 7/28/24 interview Dr. Sallie Permar, head of pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine, said Medicaid's lower reimbursements compared to Medicare coverage is one barrier. One solution lies in revisiting how Medicare/Medicaid values services.

If a solution isn't found the effects of poor access for the young will impact the entire US population for decades.

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MOVEMENTS

In Worldcrunch - Over the past 30 years El Salvador, Nicaragua, Poland and the United States were the only countries to roll back abortion rights. This election a record 75% of women voted. It was the largest turnout of women in Polish history. It made a difference. Poland's more conservative government was ousted and women in Poland retrieved their reproductive rights.The win didn't happen in a vaccum. They had sustained political pressure on the government for years.    

GOVERNMENT

In the Christian Science Monitor - With all the inner conflicts and divisions in many governments around the world it might be time to take a look at South Africa's coalition hope.

"President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a new government composed of 11 political parties. In May, voters deprived the ruling African National Congress (ANC) of a majority for the first time in 30 years. The new coalition, coming after weeks of negotiations, demonstrates a new phase of constitution-based decision-making.

"The coalition represents the largest and most diverse Cabinet the country has ever seen. Former rivals and outright enemies are figuring out how to share power in provincial and local offices. Those arrangements are reviving a civic spirit of reconciliation that marked the country’s peaceful transition to nonracial democracy in 1994."

In recent interview on Counterspin, July 26, 2024, voting rights journalist Ari Berman, author of Minority Rule addresses constitutional barriers to a more democratic U.S. governance and structure.

Design flaws in the Constitution have metastasized to a degree that undermines the notion of democracy. These flaws continue to act as a centrifugal force to support a history of white elite power. Structural issues regarding the Constitution, regenerated over centuries, have mostly benefited the current Republican ideology and have helped to produce Trumpism.

Despite the fact that the Constitution was a remarkable document for its time, electoral college founding fathers, who were white slave owners, prevented the people from having the direct right to chose a president. For example, though slavery, given as one reason for the formation of the electoral college, was abolished, the electoral college remains in opposition to a majority who want a direct vote. It has created biases about what states count the most and has allowed a minority to dictate to the majority at the expense of more diverse and larger numbers of urban voters.

Berman argues that the law of the land is not bedrock and it is time for citizens to work toward constitutional changes from the ground up to restructure the original document which has allowed institutions to frequently violate principles of inclusion and has effectively blocked the ideal of one person one vote.

 

In Common Dreams, G20 Nations are taking on fair taxation when it comes to the ultra-rich

Despite pushback from the United States there was an agreement among nations to develop a global taxation system. The agreement made on July 25 at a meeting in Rio de Janeiro calls for taxing the richest in the world at a higher rate.

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WAR AND PEACE read full

In Truthout, Gaza, Syria, Sudan, Lebanon, Ukraine, West and Central Africa...children are freezing, starving, maimed, educationally stunted, and dead. "According to Save the Children, about 468 million children — about one of every six young people on this planet — live in areas affected by armed conflict. Verified attacks on children have tripled since 2010. Last year, global conflicts killed three times as many children as in 2022. “Killings and injuries of civilians have become a daily occurrence,” U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk commented in June when he announced the 2023 figures. “Children shot at. Hospitals bombed. Heavy artillery launched on entire communities.”

Two deaths among thousands -

On October 17, Israeli security forces shot a 59-year-old Palestinian woman harvesting olives with her family and other community members in Faqqu’a, Jenin, on land near the Wall in the occupied West Bank. According to information gathered by the UN Human Rights Office, the harvesters were not posing any threat when Israeli security forces fired multiple shots at them without prior warning. Faris Abu Salami, who was with his mother when she was shot, said the local council had negotiated permission from the Israeli army for the family and other villagers to pick olives on their lands providing they stayed at least 100 metres from the wall. Settler violence against farmers in the West Bank, living as an agrarian society, in an effort to destroy their livelihood is common.

The death of Yahya Sinwar the day before on October 16, evidenced by a grainy photograph by the IDF, shows the Hamas leader apparently throwing a stick at an Israeli drone as he sat dying in an old chair in the middle of rubble. He is portrayed by Israel’s leadership as the mastermind behind October 6. Sinwar’s persisting account was that he is part of a rebellion of the people; a protector of people harvesting olives.

The IDF said they killed Sinwar in a random bombing and shooting having missed him as a target. This reporting of an apparent incidental killing of a Hamas leader might also be interpreted as further justification for the country’s horrific killing of thousands of men, women, children, and entire families.

In any case, Israel's publication of the photo of what can be seen as a dying Sinwar's last act did not go well. It is too late for Israel to backtrack its publicized visual boast that will predictably be seen by many as David against Goliath.

It doesn’t matter what horrific pictures emerge from wars grounded in racism and /or ethnicity and territory as a basis for genocide. War is normalized and biases frozen in place.

The reality of this moral failure was apparent in the United States presidential and vice presidential debates held on June 27 and October 1,2024 respectively.

Under the protective cloak of militaristic leanings that assume war, there was no mention of peace. Body counts and lost homes and lands were smothered in rhetoric, and remarkably there was no mention of Palestine in the vice presidential debate.

Accordingly, the media tossed around the question who won the debate rather than report through the lens of a moral failure where there are no winners because the United States is a responsible party in the death of many thousands and the displacement of millions in a war without end and that will live on in history.

Condemnations of Israel's invasions occurring in Lebanon or Gaza or the West Bank, Ukraine, or Sudan, that have been voiced through overwhelming protests around the world despite oppression, ask in the case of Israel, for an arms embargo and peace in the name of ethics, morality, the rule of law, and humanity.

Meantime, Netanyahu and his cadre of political zionists mockingly and disproportionately continue claims of self-defense, deny peace, and indiscriminately kill. They have created a widening cesspool of fear and confusion and gutted the rule of law to the detriment of Israel, the Arab nations, the United States, and the world.

The complicity supporting a war without end must end. The costs to generations are beyond reckoning.

On the Real News Network (shared by Jacobin) -  The Canada Revenue Agency has revoked the status of the Jewish national Fund. Aside from the organization's lack of compliance regarding required documentation, part of its mission is to support Israeli settlements in the West Bank which does not fall under the definition of charitable. Also on RNN, In a video revealing streets filled with sewage, mothers tell of what is happening to their children. There is no way to stop the spread of disease as the war continues. The agency's reasons for revoking the organization's status is found here.  

The organization has one year to wind up its charitable operations and dispose of its $30 million in assets. 

In The Guardian 8/26/24, women must not speak or show their face outside their homes. Women must also not be heard singing or reading aloud even inside of their own homes. In DW, while there is condemnation over the Taliban's gender apartheid actions, the group still has gained some legitimacy on the international front despite open violations of human rights. "Rights groups, meanwhile, say the international community must move beyond rhetoric and take concrete action to support Afghan women and hold the Taliban accountable for their actions."

 

Rabbi Aker Ascherman was arrested by the Israeli army on October 10 in the occupied West Bank. On October 31 in defense of Palestinian lands he went back to work protecting his Palestinian flock from the Settlers' growing violence.

He has done this work for many years.

Many of those Israelis who were once his friends or acquaintances are now serving in the Israeli army. They are enraged, confused, and mourning losses. Everyone is pressured to take sides.

The Rabbi has no sides. He has his work like any good Shepherd. He suspects there are people on both sides who do not want the war to end.

In The Real News Network, Rabbi Arik Ascherman is a Reform rabbi and executive director of the Israeli human rights organization He is a recipient of the Gandhi Peace Prize and the Rabbi David J. Forman Memorial Committee’s Human Rights Award. "He’s deeply respected in the Palestinian world. He is a Zionist, but a Zionist that came from the left, that came from the tradition of those fleeing death at the hands of Antisemites." 

In the July 2 interview with Real News the Rabbi said, "... it is so easy for us to blame the awful government, and we do have the most extreme government we’ve ever had in our history. We blame the settlers, but we have to look at ourselves, the people that inspire these people to do these acts, the people who say that they’re with us, but they sit in their coffee houses and say, isn’t it terrible?" 

In the Intercept, “Find your dream home in Israel,” American real estate companies around the US are marketing Palestine's West Bank.

In Aljazeeraa, dated July 4, 2024, meantime, Israel has approved 5,295 new housing units in its continuing land seizure of the West Bank.

In Counterspin, Phyllis Bennis with the Institute for Policy Studies points to where realistically the hope for Gaza lies.

As of July 27 Israel has not stopped its warfare and has reactively intensified its war against the Palestinian people.

However, greatly thanks to the South Africa initiative (Wikipedia) before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), awareness and resolve in the name of International justice is growing around the world while, despite its rhetoric, the United States remains a significant outlier in the search for justice and has little respect for international law.

Still there is hope. Around the world the public and world leaders are increasingly following South Africa and taking their own initiative in the name of solidarity to an unprecedent degree. Under the banner "the right to life" Bennis says, "people have responded as human beings, which is an amazing thing. It doesn't happen all the time." The unwavering call across the US and the world is ceasefire now.

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LAW read full

In Wired - In a small town in Eastern Kentucky, which has high poverty levels, there is a warehouse purchased by Brandon Smith, a former Kentucky State Senator. He envisioned a plan that would heal the landscape post coal mining and provide jobs.

Smith entered into partnership with HBTPower, a Chinese crypto exchange company. However, the facility, now occupied by computers, lay dormant.

HBT Power sued Mohwak. A key reason was Mohawk's failure to deliver an appropriate power structure to handle a bitcoin operation. There are other suits happening around the country against smaller operators in partnership with China.

Large bitcoin operations have cornered the market. Companies like Mohawk are discovering the hard way that they are way over their heads.

COP City update

The story of COP City in Atlanta Georgia remains a seminal example of a disappearing democracy in the US and supressive tactics aided by an unaccountable broken legal system.

The Atlanta Public Safety Training Center construction is almost completed. It has spawned many similar institutions across the country.

COP City has been defended by militarized police, large corporate interests, ad hoc and constitutionally offensive adjustments to state law, and broad interpretations of terms such as the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), claiming activists, whatever their innocence, to be criminal conspirators.

As reported in Truthout state and federal investigators continue to hunt down members of the Cop City movement. Issuing grand jury summons is one strategy; a fishing expedition where the option is to be either a witness or a possible co-conspirator. This is a venue where procedural protections are lost, defense attorneys are barred from the room, there is no judge, and the rules of evidence don't apply nor do actual facts. Some activists are resisting the subpoenas.

Inside Climate News, In an unprecedented law suit, the owner of the Antina Ranch in Texas, Ashley Watt, is battling multi-national, multi-billion dollar oil companies over leaky oil and gas wells. She filed a lawsuit in the 109th District Court in Crane County against Chevron and other oil companies in December 2022 alleging that the multinational and smaller companies failed to properly plug and abandon wells on the property. She argued that old wells are now leaking, contaminating the groundwater and surface of her ranch. The evidence has shown that scale of the issue involves many hundreds of leaking wells. The trial is expected to start in mid-2025.

/health care/Chevron - In The National Law Review, contributors to a round table discussion offer some legal analyses regarding a post-Chevron world.

There are several important observations. First, overturning the Chevron Doctrine represents a seismic change to the current regulatory structure where in the case of ambiguities Congress deferred to the expertise guiding the formulation administrative laws. The post-Chevron world now cedes this authority to the courts.

As the most regulated agencies in the country the health care sector might be particularly impacted. The round table contributors note that overturning Chevron will potentially have good and bad effects on health care . This particularly applies to the Department of Health and Human series (HHS) Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) which has exercised a broad authority to regulate health care.

Round table participants cite some potential outcomes.

With certainty, there will be an increase in litigation. While some regulatory health care rules with clear language will be less affected, HHS and CMS are ripe for attack in a post-Chevron world.

Some vulnerable areas of health care are open to greater litigation, e.g., mental health parity, surprise billings, or anti discrimination laws. Challenges in these areas might end up delayed for a short term or longer term time and/or changed.

Areas like the codified HIPPA decisions and long term care are less likely to change.

On the other hand, changes to long term care might bring some benefits to consumers and health care organizations.

It is also possible that in the post-Chevron world of increased litigation Congress will be forced to write less ambiguous and to produce legislation that contain more prescriptive laws. CMS will become more diligent in uncovering areas where the law is ambiguous toward clearer policy making with greater engagement and advocacy power. However it is expected that this will slow down the process of rule making with varying long and short term effects.

While a post-Chevron world might allow more effective policy making and better assessments of statutes and rule making, there remains a fundamental reality that overturning Chevron takes the agency authority out of the hands of experts and into the hands of non-experts serving different courts which could lead to chaos.

How much disruption this represents to administrative law remains to be seen. Some litigation has already begun following the Chevron decision.

Stalling by the state of Georgia while construction continues on Cop City is a common practice working against the defense of protesters accused of criminal conspiracy by the state. In The Guardian, lawyers for the accused waited for months for permission to enter the forest. Underscoring why a visit was critical to the defense, the indictment mentions the word, "forest" 310 times in its 109 pages.

On July 23 the lawyers were finally allowed into the forest area only to find that the state could not or would not define where any criminal activities took place in the public park and surrounding area of the alleged crime scene..
While the defense lawyers were not allowed to visit the Cop City construction site, they did observe first hand  the critical loss of  a now lifeless portion of the forest,  which once was a public park that benefited the region.

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TECHNOLOGY

"They cannot cut with scissors. They cannot climb a tree. They can not walk backward because they are sitting with their cell phones", says Jakob Forssmed. The Swedish Minister of Social Affairs and Public Health cites signs of poor health in young people due to lack of physical activity, increased mental health issues, more bullying, and a decreased intellectual capacity.

Sweden had the second highest use of the internet in the EU. In 2017 the country was behind a five-year plan to promote digitalization strategies for schools. But Forssmed says cell phone use has gone to0 far and wants cell phones banned in schools. New legislation is in the works to require schools to ban access to digital devices.

However, one issue to be addressed is special circumstances where cell phone use is more of a necessity.

A.I. is considered either a panacea for world ills or a devil in the making. It is all in the balance. Could AI reduce hunger or deal with climate change or alternatively lead to an entrenched class system?

There is a certain immediacy to these sorts of questions. The reality is AI gobbles up energy at a rate and amount that is already impacting lives and it most certainly challenges initiatives that have been set in terms of climate change goals. In the New York Times, author David Gelles says, "... while it’s too early to draw a definitive conclusion on the issue, a few things are already clear: A.I. is having a profound impact on energy demand around the world, it’s often leading to an uptick in planet-warming emissions, and there’s no end in sight.

The no end in sight observation is troubling. The A.I. trend is a capitalized boon for some companies. It is also a juggernaut with few controls. Investments in infrastructures to support A.I. development are straining power grids that in many cases are already antiquated.

The devil is in the details...

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PEOPLE

Agafia Lykov is shown with her centuries old bible

In 1978, Soviet geologists stumbled upon a family of five in Siberia’ s Taiga. Generations of family had been cut off from almost all human contact since fleeing religious persecution in 1936

Agafia Lykov was the only survivor following the 1978 contact.

They had fled persecution as members of a fundamentalist Russian Orthodox sect. In their isolated existence their traditions remained intact. They had remained unchanged since the 17th century.

Concepts of a city and countries were abstractions for the generations of family. They had no knowledge of the Second World War.

Agafia visited the city five times but opted to return to her family's homestead whatever the harsh conditions. She found too many cars and unclean air.

The family's story reached worldwide media and more visitors came to the site. But for Agafia, her routine of survival alone in the wilderness was a matter of daily routine. Her beliefs, her humor, her ability to adapt and to choose what she adapts to is very much a story of being human.

In Democracy Now, September 3, 2024

Yonatan Zeigen lost his mother , Vivian Silver , during the Hamas attack on October 7. He is a social worker and mediator. His mother, a well known and respected activist, had a plan for peace. He speaks of the challenges to peace which include politicians who won't listen because of self interests. He says, "All the deaths were preventable. "

He shares his thoughts on the path not taken by Israel and the international community. "If we...sought diplomacy and the help of the international community and [had gone] to the PA and Saudi Arabia and the United States and asked, this: “We’re willing to do 1, 2, 3 in order to create a new reality here, and we ask for Hamas to be driven out,” then we would have gotten that and all of the deaths would have been prevented, and the hostages would have been brought home."

However, Zeigen says that the US and the international community has enabled a status quo based on a web of interests.

He shares some of his mother's vision which is a new web of interests that does not rely on weapons and military, but on economy and tourism and trade routes.

With this in play the international community would establish a new international alliance with the authority to provide Israel with incentives, and to inflict sanctions if the country continues on the wrong path.

The alliance would "join hands with players on the ground; civil society in Israel and Palestine, "to create a new roadmap and to incentivize political actors on both sides to understand that we need to tell a new story in the Middle East, one of peace and not of war."

MIGRATIONS/IMMIGRATION

This presidential election season features b0rder issues. Political speech circumvents facts.

Robert Reich, former United States Secretary of Labor, has been working tirelessly to produce videos to shed some light on key election topics. A recent video providing facts about migrant workers covers the sizeable contributions migrants make that keep the country running.

 

In UNHCR US - At the end of 2023, an estimated 117.3 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced due to persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and events seriously disturbing the public order. Based on operational data, UNHCR estimates that forced displacement has continued to increase in the first four months of 2024 and by the end of April 2024 will likely to exceed 120 million.

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ENVIRONMENT

In Pesticide Action Network - The use of conventional pesticides in agriculture on agricultural land will no longer be allowed in the Brussels region as of 2030. The use of synthetic pesticides by others than farmers will be banned in 2025. The new law went into force on the 17th of July (1). While this decision could be considered anecdotal, considering the few 250ha of agricultural land from the region, it creates a precedent as it is the first time a European region has taken such a decision to protect citizens' health and the environment against pesticides.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) E-cigarette monthly unit sales increased by 46.6%—from 15.5 million units in January of 2020, to 22.7 million units in December of 2022. The number of brands increased from 184 to 269 brands.

Of the two types of E-cigarettes, prefilled reusable devices sales increased. Disposable devices sales also increased (helped by appealing flavors such as fruit, candy and desserts) despite FDA market denial warnings.

Sales of E-cigarettes are expected to grow by 5.83% between 2024 and 2029.

E-cigarette waste disposal is a growing environmental threat because it introduces elements that do not decompose well. The waste includes plastic, nicotine salts, heavy metals, lead, mercury, and flammable lithium-ion batteries. Some of the above elements take many years to decompose or never do. The waste from both types of Vapes harms the environment. However this is more true of prefilled disposable E-Cigarettes waste given the frequency of disposal which finds its way into waterways, soil, and it threatens wildlife. There are no restrictions on consumers regarding this disposal.

US Tax payers pay a fortune to replenish beaches while nature relentlessly terraforms as climate changes advance . In Politico, "Americans’ demand for wide and sandy beaches along saltwater coasts is insatiable — even as sea-level rise and intensifying coastal storms erode public beaches at faster rates."

In The New Lede, on July 10, 2024 a Monsanto Roundup trial win was overturned by an Oregon court. Roundup weed killer's has been associated with cancer for decades. In this case, the court found that the trial judge in the case improperly barred key evidence about the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from being presented to the jury.

The Chytrid fungus, one of the most damaging diseases to threaten biodiversity, is deadly to many species of frogs. Chytrid disease has caused the extinction of at least 90 amphibian species worldwide . In Scientific America , Australia is pursuing a low tech idea to reduce decades of species loss - create sauna-like conditions to warm frogs up.

Pinyon-juniper woodlands are home to many big game species, such as elk, mule deer, pronghorn, and white-tailed deer. They also provide critical habitat connectivity that supports seasonal migration patterns. Despite their importance,  more than 1.7 million acres worth of trees were removed from 2017 to 2023 by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The agency now plans to remove 38.5 million additional acres of the trees. Barn Raiser.

Monsanto's win defending its use of Roundup was overturned by an Oregon Court due to the fact that key testimony from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was barred. Monsanto is owned by Bayer. The controversy over Roundup has lasted for decades. Environmental Health News (EHN)

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BASIC NEEDS

In FAIR - Unfairness in housing crosses a broad spectrum when it comes to racism. UC/Santa Barbara research professor emeritus George Lipsitz breaks down the myriad ways housing discrimination takes place. He says that housing discrimination might put "people from aggrieved groups in what Tricia Rose calls “proximity to toxicity,” close to incinerators, toxic waste dumps, diesel fuels, pesticides" or for homeowners he cites low-ball home value appraisals of people owned by black people and artificially high property tax appraisals.

 

Department of Labor Statistics report shows that food prices increased 2.2 percent from February 2023 to February 2024. Predictions are a continued climb in 2024 prices with a drop in 2025 prices. However, forecasts are unclear. For instance, according to a 2023  report  by Senator Bob Casey D-PA) , complaints emerging from grocery store aisles about rising food prices are a response to an overabundance of corporate greed.

In The Atlanta - Crazy yes, but charging for weather reports is yet another thread coming from the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. The weather report is a most basic, most universal concern, and a common denominator for all people. The proposal to charge for the weather and leave things up to the states threatens to upend millions of lives, particularly including farmers. Project 2025 also mentions disbanding the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

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CLIMATE CHANGE

(See Archived Conferences of the Parties (COP)

By Feb. 10, governments are to send fresh COP29 climate change plans to the United Nations. These documents, the backbone of the Paris Agreement, will set out each country’s efforts to cut planet-warming emissions by 2035. 

However, in scanning Politico’s compiled updates, as of 11/13, it is difficult to find solid ground.

Transition remains a loose term. Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, says keep using fossil fuels. Azerbaijan president, Ilham Aliyev lauded fossil fuels in his COP29 opener. Typically, there is a significant corporate fossil fuel presence; many of whom continue to heighten production even as they practice greenwashing, such as heavily selling carbon capture despite the science.

The EU's 27 member countries, beset with disunity about climate finances, along with bureaucratic paralysis, are set to miss global deadlines for EU's 2035 ambitions. Its hoped for leadership given US absence might not happen.

A Politico article by Suzanne Lynch dated 11/13, gives a brief wrap up of Day Three of the COP29 climate talks and cites a recent report from the Global Carbon Project which says, that “global carbon emissions from fossil fuels are projected to reach a record high in 2024 — and warns there’s no sign of them peaking. CO2 emissions grew by 0.8 percent from 2023.” This appears to be what Aliyev described as “a gift from God.”

 

The Conference of the Parties (COP16), is happening in Cali, Columbia from October 21 to November 1. The theme is “Make Peace with Nature”. Around 200 nations are participating in 2024.
The biodiversity COPs have been meeting every two years since 1995. The purpose is to find ways to save nature given the rapid rate of habitat destruction and climate change.
The previous COP15, held in Montreal, fell far short of the hoped for goal of $200 billion to develop national biodiversity plans and the COPs have yet to develop a plan for developing countries that does not drive them into debt.
Two items for consideration on the COP16 agenda are a proposed creation of a permanent body on indigenous issues and the establishment of a global multilateral system for sharing genetic information from plants, animals, and microbes.

 

Following COP16, The United Nations’ Conference of the Parties (COP 29), to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, will take place from November 11 to November 22.
The agenda will include a focus on relationships between war and climate as well as the hope for a more permanent cooperative structure to explore roads to peace given climate change.
The slogan, and the hope, for the 29th cop is reflected in the slogan “ In Solidarity for a Green World.”

However some project that there will be fewer attendees compared to the previous COP28. For one thing there is the distraction of widening wars with no end in sight. It is also likely that the progress made in the previous cops has been inadequate and relatedly commitments by powerful interests have not been kept. The bottom line is that there is no means to effectively assign some accountability.

Finally, the COPs are set as regional rotations. There is a great deal of unhappiness over COP 28 and COP29 both being held in major oil producing countries that also have significant human rights abuses. COP30 will be held in Brazil which is also a heavy producer of fossil fuels.

As in the previous COP's, panel participants have good ideas and there is lots of talk about real concerns, but the COPs as a credible forum has become increasingly questionable. However some forum is required. What shakes out this time around remains to be seen.

Climate change combined with wanton human destruction is destroying cultures and sanctuaries for nature. Hundreds of cemetaries containing centuries of ancestry and evidence of human histories as well as critical habitats for a range of species are being destroyed by wildfires and floods. States are looking for answers. In psm archives, further destruction is caused by increasing vandalism .

 

There are two items missing in the current political discourse as election time in the US grows closer. One is climate change. The other is any mention of future generations, the children...

However, a lot is happening in the legal world in defense of future generations. In an ACLU update - "In 2020, 16 youth plaintiffs represented by Our Children’s Trust sued the state of Montana for not protecting their constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment. In the district court proceeding (held in 2020), the Trust argued that the State of Montana’s energy policy perpetuates a fossil-fuel based system that contributes to climate change and violates the youth plaintiffs’ constitutional right to clean and healthful environment, as well as their right to seek safety, health, and happiness, and to individual dignity." Held v. Montana is the first climate case in the US that addresses a constitutional right to a healthy environment.

In the Journal of Environmental Law, the children won in the lower court by successfully arguing the question of causation. The counsel for the state of Montana filed a notice of appeal. Oral arguments in Held v. Montana came before the Montana Supreme Court on July 10, 2024. A decision is pending.

HUMAN RIGHTS

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PUBLIC HEALTH

GOVERNMENT

EDUCATION

In Truthout - The Third Annual EdWeekResearch Center and Merrimac American Teacher Survey, released to coincide with the opening of the 2024-2025 school year, found that during the 2023-2024 academic year, 48 percent of public school instructors reported that declining mental health (typically experienced as anxiety and depression) harmed their ability to teach, an increase of 6 percent from 2022-2023. Just 18 percent of public school teachers were satisfied with their jobs Around 50% of teachers were leaving the profession within five years. General neglect in terms of resources for education and gun violence were two reasons why - along with low pay, large classes, and excessive administrative demands and paper work.

Wells College located in Aurora, New York, a private liberal arts college for women for over 136 years until 2004, has announced it will close by the end of this year due to financial reasons. The closure will have a large impact on the economic health of the community. 141 staff and faculty will be affected.

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MEDIA

Bias in media reports on the conflict between the Maccabi Tel Aviv and Dutch Club AFC Ajax on November 7 represents a dangerous trend.

Despite lack of evidence as to which side instigated the violence, headlines and leads in all mainstream media were weighted on the side of Israel. This disproportionately reinforced continuing global claims of antisemitism.

For example, The New York Times, "What to know about the attacks on Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam..." The Washington Post, "Attack on Israeli soccer fans..." Associated Press, "Israeli soccer fans were attacked in Amsterdam..." That same bias was also true of CBS News, Reuters, and so on….and even Wikipedia. (Hopefully, this source will revise its account).

Why is this an important story?

Firstly, there is a reason for headlines and lead paragraphs; most people generally have a short attention span. That is more true in today’s media environment. In other words, the headline and the lead is what they will absorb. Any following content , if read at all, will not change that.

In this case, analyses of the content showed a continuation of imbalance in the body of the articles.

Secondly, as reported in a Mehdi Unfiltered interview on the Zeteo website with Dutch photographer, Annet de Graaf, the media took her footage of the conflict and turned it upside down. So far, she has received only one apology.

During her two-hour filming de Graaf had followed around 50 Maccabi tel a viv fans from the time they got off the train and moved towards the site of the soccer games. She did so because she had noticed their apparently aggressive stance, which possibly indicated premeditation. Her filming of this event showed that they were deliberate instigators, at least in this footage. It is bad enough that headlines and leads showed a bias that has become all too common (and dangerous), but this misuse of a source is unconscionable.

(Amsterdam update)

The hole media dug itself into was deep as the Amsterdam event sent politicians and others even deeper into references to the holocaust.

Thanks to those who tracked events on the ground, the media at large then had to then claw its way out of its dishonest, biased, and its outright thievery of the story Annet de Graff, a well-known iphone photographer, had captured.

Her story of premeditation was important to Patrick Lawrence with Consortium News. He wrote on November 12 about recorded events as a reflection of a zionism import (without denying the general existence of antisemitism sans political use ), as another representation of an arena of false equivalencies bred in upside down reporting that continues to fuel fears of anti-semitism

Lawrence wrote, “[T]he reconstruction of events in Amsterdam reveals a differentiated picture: The scenes surrounding the Champions League match between Ajax Amsterdam and Maccabi Tel Aviv went around the world, with top politicians outdoing each other in condemning the anti–Semitic incidents. However, amateur videos show a differentiated picture of the escalation. Maccabi fans were also violent before the anti–Israeli hunts.”

In response to the intentionality that was captured on the ground Lawrence wrote further, “The violence of those protesting the Israeli racists as they exported their nation’s terror to Europe, and the extent of this violence cannot be measured and so not known, is perfectly understandable in my view."

In any case, as the media attempted to retreat from its account, Lawrence lauded “Annnet de Graaf, all the Annnet de Graafs — they won. They spoke the word and spoke for many. They said, “No!” He offered another victory, “Israeli terror did badly when it put its show on the road in the Netherlands last week. Ajax trounced Maccabi Tel Aviv 5 to zip. Zionism’s score was no better.”   

America is holding its presidential election on November 5.

The hardened gloss of political rhetoric and the media’s laziness means that the issues that concern a majority of voters are not at play in mainstream media.

The gap between the most basic and prevalent concerns of voters in the country and time worn sound bytes has never been as large as it is today.

The insult is that Americans are experiencing issues in real life terms; whether it is young men voting for Trump or progressives noting catastrophes that everyday people experience and that hard science has shown to be a causality due to corporate greed and political glad-handing.

These are stories not told by design.

FAIR gives the example of a CBS 60 Minute interview by Bill Whitaker with Democratic nominees Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz held on October 26. Though a majority of polls identify the following key issues of importance to voters there are no questions asked in this interview on climate change, abortion, issues with the health care system, reproductive rights, or gun violence.

Then of course there is the expanding crisis in Gaza and Lebanon indirectly referenced by Whitaker in terms of a Trump accusation against his opponent, “do you hate Israel?”

In general, the dearth of policy related questions which would require candidates to articulate their policies and the lack of the media’s capacity to address issues related to key subjects, e.g., economic issues, was remarkable and unfortunately this condition is viral across the corporate media.

All in all, mainstream media, whether typed as liberal or conservative, apparently considers citizens to be unworthy in terms of fair representation, or perhaps stupid.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, public intellectual and a journalist for 20 years, has a new book out titled The Message. The book contains interwoven essays, which include writings on the Israel-Palestine “conflict. Coates recently appeared on CBS Mornings, hosted by CBS News anchor Tony Dokoupil and co-hosts Gail King and Nate Burleson, to talk about the book.

According to CBS management, Dokoupil committed a no no during the interview by violating CBS Morning’s protocol and journalistic integrity in general.

While the two co-hosts remained silent and did not speak up, Dokoupil took a nose dive into the Israel-Palestine conflict. He baited the author with observations and questions that included: you are sounding like an extremist, why did you leave out Israel being surrounded by Arab countries? Why are you offended by a Jewish State?

The author’s answer was there is already plenty (pro Israel) out there. During the interview he tries to explain a bigger picture e.g., my book was about a critique of nationalism at large. I am writing for writers, for stories not heard and a voice for people who cannot speak.

Some say the interview was bad journalism on Dokoupil’s part, others say it was good journalism. In any case, following condemnation from CBS management for violating protocol the host has become the latest lightening rod perhaps leading to the question, what does “good” journalism mean in different contexts? In this instance, is baiting as a technique okay? What about bias? What about dominating other potential perspectives as in the example of the excluded or silent co-hosts?

As an aside, it seems that the wide coverage resulting from CBS Morning interview has significantly boosted Ta-Nehisi Coate’s book sales!

In Truthout - As reported on September 20, Professor Steven Thrasher was suspended by Northwestern University due to what Lewis Raven Wallace, author of The View from Somewhere: Undoing the Myth of Journalism Objectivity, referred to as "The Palestine Exception." This is a black hole where there is no sense of due process and where "academic freedom" and "diversity and inclusion" have become meaningless phrases.

Over the past year many universities, in their often draconian effort to quell protests over Palestine and arms shipments, have revealed a conservative core that deserves a response.

Journalism's mandate is to follow facts out the window. If there is a power imbalance, that is a fact. If there are false equivalencies that is also a fact.

Perhaps one of the worst travesties as far as academic due process is concerned is to ignore the real question on which judgement rests and justice resides. Were students in the classroom given the opportunity to think; to learn how to explore and freely debate all sides? The fear now prevalent in university administrations, either or both tied by economic interests and/or fueled by congressional biases, does not allow this question.

When it comes to the Palestine Exception journalists like Prof. Steven Thrasher who define facts such as above are under fire like never before even as their contemporaries in the field are killed as they report the facts.

As Wallace reports in Truthout, more than 1900 journalists, health professionals and academics published an open letter to Northwestern University claiming that the university had targeted Dr. Thrasher for "his political speech against Israel's war in Gaza and for defending students who also stand against it."

In freedom forum, one in five local TV stations across the country had news crews attacked on the job during 2020, a local news professional group found that the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker had documented 438 physical attacks on journalists during 2020, and more than 60 through the first half of 2021,In CPJ, The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that an unprecedented number of arrests and assaults of journalists occurred mostly at the hands of law enforcement...On April 1 Israel's parliament passed a law allowing temporary shutdowns of foreign media outlets considered to be a threat to security. Al Jazeera was banned a month later. The media outlet has and is generally considered to be a trusted source reporting on Palestinian and Israeli news as well as comprehensive on the ground reports on Gaza for readers around the globe

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LAW

PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY