Stephan: California becomes the third state where the connection between fracking and earthquakes has been established. And yet the practice continues. A spotlighted example of the power of corporations over the peasants... excuse me ordinary citizens, who actually vote to allow this to happen. We'll see what happens in 2016.
Ask yourself: How will historians describe this 50 years from now?
For the first time, researchers have drawn a connection between wastewater injections and earthquakes in California. Credit: AP Photo/Richard Vogel
Injecting old, used water from oil and gas drilling in California has been tied to earthquakes for the first time, according to a new study released Thursday. Wastewater injections have already been tied to earthquakes in Colorado and Oklahoma.
The study comes as fracking in California is growing in scope — and in attention. During fracking, chemical-laced, saline water is injected at high pressure thousands of meters underground, loosening deposits of oil and gas. The process, as well as other forms of so-called enhanced oil recovery, creates huge amounts of wastewater, which is often disposed of by being injected into storage wells. (It is also occasionally reused in agriculture or dumped in the ocean.)
California’s wastewater injections have already raised concerns and prompted lawsuits, after environmentalists discovered oil and gas companies have received permits […]
Brendan Fischer, Kim Haddow and Mary Bottari, - Truthout
Stephan: The legalization of bribery has corrupted the Federal level of government, almost everyone can see this. The effect of unlimited money at the state level is becoming increasingly apparent, although still much less known. It is now reaching local governance, and very few know this. Here is a good report on the situation.
A demonstrator displays a flag decrying corporate spending in US political elections in front of the Waukesha Convention Center on July, 13, 2015, in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Credit: Juli Hansen / Shutterstock.com
Across America, corporate interests are taking aim at local government.
With Congress gridlocked and a majority of state legislatures controlled by right-wing interests, cities have become laboratories of democracy for progressive policies like a higher minimum wage, LGBTQ protections, or parental leave.
In response, corporate interests and groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) have increasingly been turning to state “preemption” measures – some of them unprecedentedly aggressive – to override an array of progressive policy gains at the city or county level.
“2015 saw more efforts to undermine local control on more issues than any year in history,” said Mark Pertschuk, director of the watchdog group Preemption Watch.
Allan Sloan, - Reader Supported News/The Washington Post
Stephan: I don't think people really appreciate the level of corruption in the United States. Here is what you can do as a corporation if you control how Congress writes the laws. This is what Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are trying to rectify.
This afternoon I saw The Big Short. I think it may be the best movie I have seen all year; a true story almost unbelievable even as fiction. I strongly recommend you watch this movie.
Johnson Controls Inc. of Milwaukee has plans to desert the United States by combining with a previous corporate deserter, Tyco International PLC, and setting up a headquarters in Ireland. Credit: Mauritz Antin/EPA
If you want an example of how bizarre U.S. tax laws can be — and how companies can game the system — look no further than the recently announced deal for Johnson Controls Inc. of Milwaukee to desert our country by combining with a previous corporate deserter, Tyco International PLC.
Tyco is run out of Princeton, N.J., but for tax purposes it is based in Ireland, where the combined Johnson Controls PLC will be based.
This isn’t your standard “corporate inversion,” as polite people call these kinds of tax-avoiding deals. Technically, it’s not even an inversion. Rather, it’s an especially aggressive transaction that, among other things, will let Johnson game the tax […]
Stephan: On the island where I live we have a citizen created social safety network whose purpose is to see that everyone on South Island has dignity, a decent quality of life, and enough to eat. As a result our social demographics and our social outcomes don't match, and the quality of life for everyone is easier, more civil, and more pleasant. The tiny home programs described in this report are another example of this same impulse. The truth is that unless ideology or theology blind you, wellness oriented social policies are always and obviously cheaper, more effective, more efficient, and more productive of a lasting solution.
A tiny house in the Oregon community Credit: Paul Dunn
On a frigid January morning in Portland, Ore., a tour through Dignity Village follows the same path its residents are required to travel. All were, or are, homeless.
Newcomers to this homeless refuge huddle in the warming station, a small portable with photos of smiling former residents and where they are required to stay during a 60-day probationary period.
They hope to graduate to a small makeshift home like Karen, a three-month resident whose boisterous laugh carries through the village.
Should it become a permanent home, they may find themselves in the position of Rick Proudfoot, a longtime resident who works in the site’s main office, keeping track of finances.
If they’re really lucky, they may end up like Lisa Larson, Dignity Village’s CEO.
A peppy forty-something, she’s lived at Dignity Village the last six years after falling into homelessness to escape an abusive husband. She initially thought she’d stay no more than a few months. Today, Larson, who has been in her position for a year, can’t imagine living anywhere […]
Stephan: I would observe two things about this report on the danger posed by White American Theocratic Rightists militias and vigilantes: first, that this article is being published in a British newspaper. This is what the U.S. looks like from the outside looking in. Nothing to be proud of there.
Second, that it confirms the position SR has held for several years: White Theocratic Rightists are far more dangerous to social order than Muslim terrorists.
Militias: Militant organisations are on the rise Credit: Reuters
Far-right militias and racist organisations like the Ku Klux Klan are a greater threat to America than ISIS, it has been reported.
While presidential candidates like Donald Trump are calling for a blanket ban on Muslims entering the country, law enforcement agencies say racist, anti-government and religious fundamentalist groups are the ones they truly fear.
Since 2002, militias have killed more people in the United States than jihadis have.
Figures from Washington think tank New America, Islamists launched nine attacks that murdered 45, while the right-wing extremists struck 18 times, leaving 48 dead, reports Newsweek.
A survey of 382 law enforcement agencies by the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security found that: “Law enforcement agencies in the United States consider anti-government violent extremists, not radicalised Muslims, to be the most severe threat of political violence that they face.
“74 per cent reported anti-government extremism as one of the top three terrorist threats in […]
