IAN JEFFERIES, PRESIDENT AND CEO, THE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN RAILROADS - Politico
Stephan: Even taking into consideration the obvious bias that this is written by a railroad executive, it nonetheless is telling us something important that is true. For the last several months in the professional literature, I have seen papers reporting the pieces that, put together, will achieve what Jan Jefferies is describing. I think the railroad industry realizes that the transition out of the carbon-powered era, offers them an opportunity to prosper in a way railroads have not done since airlines began and gutted their passenger business. It is going to take years to create roadways that charge the vehicles that drive upon them. I think the U.S. going to do the gas station model first, with charging networks. Railroads brought into the 21st century to levels like those in Japan, or the EU, will prosper.
While railroads account for more long-distance freight volume in the U.S. than any other mode of transportation (measured by ton-miles) at 40 percent, they are still only responsible for 1.9 percent of transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Federal Highway Administration. Simply put, freight rail is ahead of all other surface transportation modes when it comes to its total carbon footprint.
This achievement, and many others like it, is possible because railroads have been consistently investing their own capital to make their equipment, infrastructure and operations more sustainable. Simultaneously, they’ve teamed up with experts on cutting-edge energy research to move closer to a low — or even zero — carbon future. Through these collaborations with suppliers, academic institutions and […]
Tony Juniper, Chair of Natural England - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: All life is interconnected and independent, we live in a matrix of consciousness. Realizing that is going to fundamentally transform our culture.
Most plants grown for food are dependent on pollination by wild insects, which also help to hold together complex ecosystems such as rainforests. Credit: Chris Miller / Getty / EyeEm
We must restore our largely broken relationship with nature if we are to ensure the planet’s future – and our own.
Asked to consider the value of animals, many people’s first thought would be about money. During the Covid-19 pandemic, for example, the price of dogs became a popular talking point. Others might think of the less tangible, but also very real, value they place on their relationships with companion animals, especially pets such as cats and dogs. Fewer would immediately consider the ways in which our entire civilisation rests on animals. The fact is, though, that our society and economy are embedded in a natural system that is maintained by the activities of animals, and without them, we would not be here.
Animals are vital to the functioning of the biosphere in innumerable ways. Their interactions with plants, fungi and microbes sustain the conditions on which we, along […]
Meredith Lee, Food and Agriculture Policy Reporter - Politico
Stephan: What kind of country doesn't make feeding its children a priority? The United States. America does not like its children, particularly Republicans in Congress. I have been saying this for years based on the factual data, and I think it is one of the saddest things about this country.
School meal funding, like other government assistance offered during the pandemic, has been at the center of a political battle between Democrats and Republicans. Credit: Jon Cherry / Getty Images
Biden officials are working on a smaller effort to help schools buy select food products as the universal free school meals program Congress authorized during the Covid-19 pandemic approaches its expiration date, according to two people familiar with the plans.
Administration officials are exploring using about $1 billion from an Agriculture Department fund to help schools purchase U.S. commodities for their meal programs. USDA did something similar last December, as districts struggled to find consistent sources of food amid ongoing supply chain disruptions from the pandemic.
A USDA official not authorized to speak publicly on the matter confirmed the department intends to deploy the funds later this month, but final arrangements are still underway.
“USDA is looking at every tool at its disposal to ease the burden the pandemic has caused on school districts, but the magnitude of this problem requires Congressional action,” a […]
Stephan: We are a country with a serious hate problem consuming White men, and the submissive women who support them. Further complicating this trend is America's obsessive gun psychosis, which involves pretty much the same Whites. In my opinion, all of this arises because the United States is becoming a majority-minority nation, and these second-class losers armed with weapons see themselves as soldiers in a war, a fantasy army that tells itself they are the patriots, they are the defenders of the nation and see this nonsense confirmed by the Republican Party and the Murdoch family's propaganda operation, and its smaller manifestations Infowars, Breitbart, Daily Caller and the like.
The only way to repair this -- and yes I know they have lots of problems -- is to vote Democrats into office. I know all their limitations but, at least, the Democrats still support democracy, equality for women, and non-Whites. And they have at least some sense of what needs to be done about climate change. Not perfect. Not even close. But the Republican alternative is the end of democracy, guns, guns, guns, White supremacy, the suppression of women, and nothing of consequence being done about climate change.
Law enforcement detains and arrest 31 members of the white nationalist group Patriot Front on suspicion of conspiracy to riot after they were removed from a U-Haul truck near the LGBTQ community’s Pride in the Park event in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, June 11, 2022. Credit: Jim Urquhart for NPR
COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — Law enforcement arrested 31 members of a white nationalist organization known as the Patriot Front near a Pride event in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, on Saturday, on a charge of conspiracy to riot. The men were packed into a U-Haul truck and detained a short distance away from the gathering, which was being held at public park.
The men, who traveled from at least 10 outside states, are expected to be arraigned Monday on the misdemeanor count.
“It is clear to us based on the gear that the individuals had with them, the stuff they had in their possession and in the U-Haul with them, along with paperwork that was seized from them, that they came to riot downtown,” said Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Lee White.
Stephan: One of the strangest, at least to my mind, aspects of the White christofascist community's hate is their personal sexual insecurity and obsession with non-heterosexual sex. It's not like trans or LGBTQ people are attempting to recruit them into even casual sex. The LGBTQ community just wants to be left alone. So why are the White christofascists in such a fear fugue? Are they tempted? Are they frightened by their own lusts?
Whatever their problem the first step to sorting it out is to put Democrats into office. Universal birthright single-payer healthcare, which Democrats could pass into law, would be a good place to start with helping these White sex-obsessives to find healing.
White christofascist Republican Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis Credit: Gage Skidmore
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration on Thursday moved to ban transition-related care for transgender minors, according to a letter obtained by NBC News.
The Florida Health Department directed the state Board of Medicine, which regulates doctors, to effectively ban certain “pharmaceutical, non-pharmaceutical, and surgical treatments for gender dysphoria” for children and adolescents. The state Agency for Health Care Administrators also issued a 46-page report hours earlier justifying banning Medicaid coverage for transgender youth and adults for puberty blockers, hormone therapies or gender-reassignment surgery.
The moves signaled the latest push in the Republican assault on trans health care and allow DeSantis, a rumored 2024 Republican presidential contender, to ramp up his state’s crackdown without having to go through the legislature.
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo in his letter questioned the science and safety of hormone therapies, puberty blockers and gender-assignment surgery and asked the Board of Medicine to “establish a standard of care.”
“While some professional organizations, such as the American Academy […]
