Stephan: If you shop at Costco you have probably bought a Costco $4.99 chicken. Ronlyn and I have certainly done so. But no more. Read this story and make up your own mind.
Costco chickenCredit: Sibeko/Reuters
Probably like many of you, I think of Costco as an enlightened company exemplifying capitalism that works. One ranking listed it as the No. 1 company to work at in terms of pay and benefits — a prime example of a business that is both profitable and humane.
Unless, it turns out, you’re a chicken.
Rotisserie chickens selling for just $4.99 each are a Costco hallmark, both delicious and cheap. They are so popular they have their own Facebook page, and the company sells almost 100 million of them a year. But an animal rights group called Mercy for Animals recently sent an investigator under cover to work on a farm in Nebraska that produces millions of these chickens for Costco, and customers might lose their appetite if they saw inside a chicken barn.
“It’s dimly lit, with chicken poop all over,” said the worker, who also secretly shot video there. “It’s like a hot humid cloud of ammonia and poop mixed together.”
Stephan: On 20 March 1854, in Ripon, Wisconsin, former members of the Whig Party opposed to the extension of slavery into the Western territories, gathered to found what they called the Grand Old Party, known today as the GOP or Republican Party. Two months later they gathered again in Jackson, Michigan to choose their first candidates for statewide office. In 1860 the new party was able to win the presidency, in the person of Abraham Lincoln, by which time seven southern states led by the remnants of Whig Party had already seceded beginning the process that became the Civil War.
As this report describes, we may be about to see a similar cataclysmic political change as the Republican Party schisms largely for the same reasons it was created in the first place -- White supremacy racism.
On CNN Saturday, former Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA), a Trump-skeptic conservative who endorsed President Joe Biden, said that Republicans in his circle are debating forming an entirely new conservative party and abandoning the GOP to the far right.
“What are Republican leaders telling you about the trajectory of the party?” asked anchor Fredricka Whitfield.
“It’s not good right now. I think everybody understands that,” said Dent. “In fact, just yesterday I participated in a forum or a summit where we talked about the future of the party, should there be a new party or a new faction. A new faction within the party or one that operates independently of the party? That’s the conversation that many Republicans are having, and we’re united around core principles like democracy, rule of law, measured statements, and we’re against cronyism and this type of ugly populism that we’ve witnessed the last four years under President Trump and folks like [Rep.]Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).”Tired of ads? Want to support our progressive journalism? Click to learn more.
“So it sounds like there’s a consideration of surrendering the party to a fringe element?” said Whitfield.
Stephan: Yesterday I did a story on a growing attempt by Republican state legislators, in a blatantly racist move, to limit the ability of non-Whites to vote. This is part of what is beginning to look like a permanent schism in the GOP. If you live in a state governed by Republicans and are a person of color the Republican Party is trying to cut off your access to democracy. In fact, many Republicans at both the state and national level see democracy as a. threat. Race struggles in the Whig Party are what created the Republican Party and ironically, race is what may split the party again.
Within about 20 years the United States will be a majority-minority nation and, at the same time, male dominance will no longer be culturally acceptable. Whites will no longer be the majority race, and men will no longer be deferred to simply because of their gender. For many Whites, particularly White males, this is simply unacceptable, and that is the reason the Trump base exists and will continue even though Trump is no longer in office. Trump, as I have said many times, has always been a symptom more than a cause.
Gwinnett County election workers handle ballots as part of the recount for the 2020 presidential election at the Beauty P. Baldwin Voter Registrations and Elections Building on November 16, 2020 in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Credit: Megan Varner/Getty
Since former President Donald Trump failed to reverse the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, Republicans in more than two dozen states have introduced over 100 bills to restrict voting access, an alarming development that voting rights advocates have pointed to as yet another reason for Democrats to abolish the filibuster, an anti-democratic tool currently allowing the GOP minority to block the enactment of a suite of popular pro-democracy reforms.
Mother Jones journalist Ari Berman on Thursday reported on the GOP’s ongoing nationwide push to make voting more difficult—particularly for communities of color and other Democratic-leaning constituencies—and in some cases to empower state legislatures to overturn election results. He called state-level Republicans’ efforts “a huge scandal that should be getting as much attention as Trump’s plot to overturn the election.”
“Republicans are taking their assault on voting rights to the next level… trying to accomplish through legislation […]
Stephan: A few days ago I published a piece about General Motors committing to converting all their vehicles from petroleum power to electricity. Now here is more good news, this time from Ford. The transition out of the carbon power era is well underway.
All-electric Ford F-150 Credit: Car and Driver
Ford plans to invest $22 billion in vehicle electrification through 2025, an amount that’s nearly double its prior plans, the company said.
Why it matters: The announcement is the latest sign of how the world’s biggest carmakers are pouring more resources into tech that’s still a tiny slice of the auto market.
“We are accelerating all our plans — breaking constraints, increasing battery capacity, improving costs and getting more electric vehicles into our product cycle plan,” CEO Jim Farley said in a statement Thursday evening.
The intrigue: Ford’s move comes as domestic rival GM is getting more aggressive with its EV plans and now aspires to stop selling internal combustion cars, SUVs and pickups by 2035.
What they’re saying: Wedbush Securities analysts, in a note about the Ford effort, said there’s an “EV arms race” underway.
The note cites GM’s plans, reports that Apple will work with Hyundai on an electric car, new Ford investment targets, Tesla’s expansion and more.
“We believe this speaks to…a golden age of EVs on the horizon with a green tidal wave expected in the […]
Stephan: Here is another new technology offering another option to petroleum. It is going to be very interesting to see how the post-carbon era shapes up. I don't think it is quite clear yet.
This sludgy gray goop is a clean, high-density, safe and easily transportable hydrogen energy fuel called Powerpaste Credit: Fraunhofer
Fraunhofer researchers have presented a magnesium-based “Powerpaste” that stores hydrogen energy at 10 times the density of a lithium battery, offering hydrogen fuel cell vehicles the ability to travel further than gasoline-powered ones, and refuel in minutes.
Typically, of course, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles carry their H2 fuel in gaseous form, stored in tanks at pressures around 700 bar (10,150 psi). These tanks are fairly large and heavy, which counteracts one of hydrogen’s key advantages over today’s lithium batteries – its higher energy density. The high pressures involved also make hydrogen an impractical option for powered two-wheelers like motorcycles and scooters.
But a team based at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM in Dresden have come up with an interesting new way to store and carry hydrogen energy, in the form of a magnesium hydride-based “Powerpaste” that stores the hydrogen in a chemical form, at atmospheric pressure, ready for release when needed.
To produce the paste, magnesium is combined with […]
