June 30, 2016

5 Big Meat Companies Produce A Combined 162 Million Tons Of Manure Each Year

5 Big Meat Companies Produce A Combined 162 Million Tons Of Manure Each Year

According to a new report released by Environment America, five major animal agribusinesses — Tyson, JBS, Cargill, Smithfield, and Perdue — produce a combined 162,936,695 tons of manure every year. But it’s not just the manure that is threatening America’s waterways. The report also points to the huge volumes of grain that need to be grown to feed animals in factory farms, noting that the chemical-intensive farming often associated with the production of feed like corn and soy can also create runoff that threatens rivers, lakes, streams, and bays. Moreover, factory farms are some of the largest contributors to water pollution, dumping more toxic pollutants into waterways annually from their processing plants, by volume, than companies like ExxonMobil and Dow Chemical.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/06/30/3794632/factory-farms-manure-pollution-footprint/

June 29, 2016

Thank you Justice Scalia!

The Right­Wing Supreme Court That Wasn’t

By ADAM LIPTAK JUNE 28, 2016
WASHINGTON — Conservatives thought this Supreme Court term would be
different.
Still reeling from losses last year in major cases on health care and same­sex
marriage, they welcomed a new docket in October studded with cases that seemed
poised to move the law to the right.
But then came two unexpected turns of events. Justice Antonin Scalia, the
longest­serving member of the court’s five­justice conservative wing, died. And
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy veered left in two of the term’s biggest cases, joining
the court’s liberals in significant decisions favoring affirmative action and abortion
rights.

- more -

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/29/us/politics/supreme-court-term.html?emc=edit_th_20160629&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=70251688&_r=0

June 28, 2016

Was Trey Gowdy the first Zika victim in the United States?

?ve=1&tl=1

June 27, 2016

Rocky stretch hurts Trump in poll, but race with Clinton still close

Trump, Clinton are near-tied when third party candidates are included, poll finds

Republican Donald Trump emerged relatively unscathed from one of the rockiest phases of his campaign, lagging rival Hillary Clinton by 5 percentage points but essentially tied when third-party candidates are included, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/rocky-stretch-hurts-trump-in-poll-but-race-with-clinton-still-close-2016-06-26

June 24, 2016

Elizabeth Warren Should Stay in the Senate

Warren’s agenda is not Clinton’s agenda. Does anyone think that Hillary Clinton expects Wall Street to look fundamentally different at the end of a Clinton administration? Does she think that JPMorgan Chase should be downsized and broken up so that its current structure will not be recognizable in 2025? Does Clinton expect Wall Street to be doing half the trading volume in 2025 that it does today, so that the high-rollers will have to look to the productive economy to make big bucks? Does she think that some of her campaign’s biggest contributors will be in the jail cell next to Bernie Madoff?

That seems implausible. More likely, in Clinton’s vision Wall Street in 2015 looks pretty much the same as it does today. There may be better consumer and prudential regulation, but no one will have any problem finding JPMorgan.

In the Senate, Warren could force Clinton to alter her vision. Warren’s agenda has enormous power and popular appeal, as demonstrated by the success of the Sanders campaign and by Warren’s own success in pushing for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other reforms. In fact, the popularity of a FTT even led Clinton to endorse a sham FTT that would apply only to high-frequency trading and would likely be avoided by almost everyone.

more at-- https://www.thenation.com/article/elizabeth-warren-should-stay-in-the-senate/