Midweek Reading

The Continuing Phony Debate on “Free Trade”

Job Growth Under Biden and Trump

Mocking anti-vaxxers’ COVID deaths is ghoulish, yes — but may be necessary

Not How I Wanted to Spend NYE

New Climate Maps Show a Transformed United States

The Truth About Prohibition

Could Being Cold Actually Be Good for You?

The latest data on US climate pollution is very bad

Stop calling workers “low skill”

Manchin's Coal Corruption Is So Much Worse Than You Knew

Fauci Caught on Hot Mic Calling Republican Senator a ‘Moron’ After Heated Exchange

Amazon's Warehouse Expansion Includes 171 Sites in Trump-Sponsored Opportunity Zones

Cannabis compounds can stop the virus that causes COVID-19 from entering human cells by binding to the spike protein and blocking it from infecting people

The true cost of Amazon’s low prices

Midweek Reading

Injections of Bleach? Beams of Light? Trump Is Self-Destructing Before Our Eyes

Billionaire Trump Donor is Pushing for Recall of Wisconsin’s Governor Over Stay-at-Home Order

'It's overhyped': Trump Mega-Donor Pushes to End Wisconsin's Stay-at-Home Order
The Junk Science of Robin Vos
The Pandemic Has Led to a Huge, Global Drop in Air Pollution

COVID-19 Coronavirus Epidemic has a Natural Origin

Stunning CNBC Anchor, Venture Capitalist says Let Hedge Funds Fail and Save Main Street

Here's the Reason We Are Still Shut Down Right Now

President’s Intelligence Briefing Book Repeatedly Cited Virus Threat
Tyson Foods Helped Create The Food Crisis It Now Warns Against
The Pandemic Shows What Cars Have Done to Cities

Why the US shouldn’t let states go bankrupt

Scott Walker Loses Again

Sunday Reading

Here’s why the US can afford its high-priced pandemic rescue

What Does The 1918 Flu Reveal About The Economic Impacts Of A Pandemic?

Not Too Soon for Post-Pandemic Planning

Republican Group Asks Americans A Critical Question In Scathing Anti-Trump Ad

Trump Organization Seeking Aid From U.K., Ireland For Golf Resorts

Conservative Groups Twist Coronavirus Facts
Trump Pulls Back Obama-Era Protections For Women Workers
At Least 40 COVID-19 Cases Tied to Election in Milwaukee

Cuomo rips McConnell's 'blue state bailout' by noting 'your state is living on the money that we generate'

Ohio man who disparaged lockdown measures on Facebook dies of coronavirus

States rushing to reopen are likely making a deadly error, coronavirus models and experts warn

40 Policies That Helped Pollute State

Milwaukee’s Coronavirus Racial Divide

More Evidence Of Our Misplaced Priorities & Corrupt-Money Influence

Elena Kagan Calls Out Conservative Justices For Shirking ‘Duty’ In Gerrymandering Decision
Supreme Court OKs Excessive Partisan Gerrymandering
Wisconsin Supreme Court Backs Enbridge In Dane County Case

On 4-3 vote, Wisconsin Supreme Court upholds state's lame-duck laws limiting power of Democratic governor

Trump Is Planning Another Tax Cut For The 1% - Without Congress's Approval

We are precariously close to banana republic status.  Greedy.  Pathetic. Immoral.  Disgraceful.  Heartless.  Embarrassing.

[source]

Two Great Examples Of Why Republicans Suck

Pat Robertson Warns God Will Smite America If Equality Act Passed

Varney Begs For Pity On Poor Monsanto After Massive RoundUp Cancer Verdict

Weekend Reading

Shopko Creditors: $117 Million In Dividends Paid To Owners 'Fraudulent,' 'Illegal'
401(K)s Versus 403(B)s
Sigh....No, Tax Cuts Won't Boost Growth
Supreme Court Sides With Union Giving Milwaukee County Employees $6.8 Million Pension Benefit
Make Corporations Pay For Green New Deal
The Rapid Decline Of The Natural World Is A Crisis Even Bigger Than Climate Change
Study Finds Racial Gap Between Who Causes Air Pollution And Who Breathes It
Here's What Republicans And Billionaires Really Mean When They Talk About 'Freedom'
Wisconsin Judge Blocks Republicans' Lame-Duck Power Grab
Study Cited In Wisconsin Debate On Expanding Medicaid And Taking Federal Money Called 'Garbage'
Make America Great Again By Raising The Minimum Wage

The Last Straw

Chrisitan Schneider, in-house agitator for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, had another nonsensical rant, regarding the recent movement to ban straws, as an avenue to spout worn-out and unfounded right-wing complaints.

According to Schneider, Straw bans are just another bogus eco-fad. Damn environment! It's been holding us all back for far too long!

As Radhika Viswanathan notes, the straw ban is not the answer to all our problems, but it will help in combating plastic pollution in the oceans. Chemotherapy might not cure your cancer, but it's a good start and it's the best option we have right now. Banning straws aren't the end-all-be-all, but it's a good start.

Schneider feels that since the U.S. isn't responsible for the majority of plastic straw pollution, we shouldn't bother changing our behavior. He labels this another eco-fad. 

Saving the planet we all depend on is an "eco-fad" for Republicans. Stupid planet!

Also, does anyone actually have straws in their home? I can't recall ever using a straw in my life at someone's private home. Why does Schneider feel so entitled that private businesses need to provide him a straw? Suddenly when he's out in public he has to drink through a straw? Talk about a snowflake.

Schneider even implies this straw ban will create a black market for straws. Yeah, he really wrote that.

Here's an idea for the drinking-without-a-straw challenged -- carry your own fucking straw around with you if you need it so badly! It's not as though there are no longer any straws available. It's just that restaurants are moving away from providing them. You can still bring your own if you need it that badly. Where's that independent, can-do attitude the Republicans are always blathering on about?

For Further Reading:

The Oceans Are Drowning In Plastic - And No Ones Paying Attention

7 Ways To Reduce Ocean Plastic Pollution Today

The Problem Of Marine Plastic Pollution

Fast Facts About Plastic Pollution

We Made Plastic. We Depend On It. Now We're Drowning In It.

Ocean Plastic Pollution Is Hazardous Waste The U.S. Should Ban

Sunday Reading

Wisconsin Jobs Agency Writes Off $1.1 Million Loan Owed By DePere Businessman Jailed For Defrauding Investors
Three Reason Why The U.S. Is Vulnerable To Big Disasters - And Getting More Vulnerable All The Time
U.S Coal Industry Shows No Signs Of Comeback
High Court Sticks It To Milwaukee
Justice Kennedy Wasn't A Moderate
A Trade Tutorial For Trump
Which Anti-Poverty Programs Work
The Mind-Bendy Weirdness Of The Number Zero, Explained
In Many States, The End Of Roe V. Wade Is Already Here
Growth Benefits Of U.S. Tax Cuts May Be Overestimated: Fed Study
Fresh Proof That Strong Unions Help Reduce Income Inequality
New Study Confirms That American Workers Are Getting Ripped Off
Walker Protected Polluters Who Illegally Dumped Human Waste
How The Koch Brothers Are Killing Public Transit Projects Around The Country

Foxconn Folly Update

Foxconn Industrial Operations Would Represent A Major New Source Of Air Pollution In Region

Emissions from the company’s operations in Mount Pleasant would rank among the highest in southeastern Wisconsin for pollutants that create smog, also known as ozone pollution, state documents show.

Foxconn Keeps Racking Up Taxpayer-Funded Help

Which leads to an obvious question – why do numerous levels of Wisconsin government continue to bend over backward to shovel billions of tax dollars to help this one company, when we could pay to meet many other needs in the state that would benefit far more people for a much lower cost? The insanity of the Fox-con continues to grow with each story you read.

Journal Promotes Phony Foxconn "Report"

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has promoted, without questioning, a “report” on Foxconn by the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce that seems more like a PR piece than a study. With the headline “Foxconn would provide $51 billion boost, report says,” JS reporter Rick Romell regurgitates the MMAC press release as if it were hard news, rather than a transparent attempt to sell the more than $4 billion in government subsidies going to the Taiwanese company. 

Both Romell’s article and the MMAC release refer to a “report” done by it, but there is no link to any report in Romell’s online article (isn’t that a basic requirement for a newspaper story these days?) and the MMAC website reveals the analysis has no named author and consists of a one-page breakout of what it contends is the likely economic impact. 

This is not a study. It’s more like a marketing tool by a Foxconn cheerleader. 

Simply stated, the MMAC’s claims seriously exaggerate Foxconn’s potential impact on the Wisconsin economy.

Foxconn In Choppy Waters Over Plan To Drain The Great Lakes

Perhaps the biggest question, however, is whether the deal violates the Great Lakes Compact, a 2008 deal signed between the eight Great Lakes states and whose governing body includes Ontario and Quebec. The agreement aims to keep Great Lakes water from being diverted to areas far beyond the Great Lakes Basin, but it also requires that any water that is diverted be used to serve mainly the public, not industry.

Scott Walker, Foxconn, And The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation

The money spent on the Foxconn project will affect the state’s economy for the next several decades. The massive amounts of subsidies could create a higher tax burden and could divert resources from other state projects, especially because the deal would not begin to be a net return to the state until around the 2040s.

Even supposing that Foxconn employs the full 13,000 they say they will, if they fully meet capital investment requirements, the deal is far more expensive than is typical for incentives packages negotiated by the WEDC. For economic development programs that require job creation and capital investment, the WEDC, on average, plans to spend around $12,400 for each job created. The Foxconn incentive package would cost around $200,000 per job if only the tax credits are taken into account. That number rises to well over $300,000 if all aspects of the incentive package are included. This number could continue to rise if Foxconn does not follow through on its obligations, or if it continues to extract concessions from the WEDC and Governor Walker’s office (as they have already begun to do). Further, while Foxconn gets a large package of free land, infrastructure subsidies, and tax breaks, local businesses do not get the same. On top of that, Foxconn is not required to source materials from inside the state, so it will potentially bypass in-state suppliers. 

The Foxconn Deal would place unnecessary strain on the local economy. It will give a large foreign corporation a huge subsidy at the expense of everybody else. This unfair transfer of state funds happens as 27% of roads are in need of repairs, and schools need $800 million in additional capital funding. It is important that state economic development programs are transparent in their implementation, and that all contractual obligations are adequately enforced. Further, it is important that the Wisconsin government meet current funding obligations before smokestack chasing.

Weekend Reading

Foxconn Keeps Racking Up The Taxpayer Funded Help
Journal Sentinel Promotes Phony Foxconn "Report"
Scott Walker's Big Lie
Chevron Just Agreed In Court That Humans Cause Climate Change
Despite New Rules To Disclose Corporate Tax Breaks, Just Half Of Local Governments Are
Commuter Rail To Foxconn Proposed
Foxconn Industrial Operations Would Represent A Major New Source Of Air Pollution In Region
Paul Ryan Calls Eminent Domain Takeovers Wrong, But Won't Help Homeowners In Foxconn Case

Trump's Tax Cuts: Reshaping The Economy For The Worse.

We're beginning to see how this giveaway to the rich will destabilize markets, increase deficits/debt, increase borrowing costs, cause a reduction in services and/or an increase in other taxes or fees.

The money has to come from somewhere. This is a society we are running here, people. Polices, road, bridges, air, water, schools, hospitals, buses, trains, airports ... paying for it is the bedrock of living in a society. 

If our current society has benefited a select few with the means to own yachts, jets, multiple homes and on and on, those select few can afford to return the favor to society by paying more in taxes to help the society continue to thrive and flourish. 

We cannot continue to poison the planet and pretend it's going to work out for the better. Continual deregulation only helps polluters and financial swindlers. We cannot continue to believe the mythology that is supply-side economics. Since, Republicans dropped this turd of an idea on society in the late 70s, early 80s, income inequality has risen, workers' rights have declined and wages have stagnated. Power to the people? More like, power taken from the people.

So sad to see a helpless country strong-armed by the will of such ignorance, led by a blow-dried, burnt, slovenly buffoon. 

For Further Reading.

Are Trump's tax cuts backfiring on Wall Street?

TRUMP'S TAX CUTS, FEAR OF EXPLODING DEFICITS AND THE TRUTH ABOUT THE U.S. NATIONAL DEBT

“IT’S A PONZI SCHEME”: WALL STREET FEARS TRUMP’S DERANGED TAX PLAN COULD KICK OFF ECONOMIC EUTHANASIA

How the Trump Tax Cuts Would Reshape (and/or Break) Our Economy

U.S. tax plan could cause sugar high, then economic slump

How The Federal Reserve Could Rain On Trump’s Tax Cut Parade

Tax Cuts, Growth and Debt

IMF chief warns Trump's tax cuts could destabilise global economy

Bait and Switch

To paraphrase Dan Akroyd from a well-known SNL skit, "John, you ignorant slut." John Torinus, business-interest shill and Journal Sentinel "writer", spews forth yet another column of misinformation in his April 11th article, Cap-and-trade bill could devastate manufacturing. As usual, he derides anything regulatory toward business, and lectures about how cap-and-trade will be bad for business.

He is basically defending the do-nothing, status quo protecting, companies that have been too lazy and stupid to get their act together over these last few decades to address the sustainability and environmental challenges that are now at a breaking point.

David Yarnold, in an excellent commentary for McClatchy, discredits all of the lame excuses put forth by Torinus. All the proponents for doing nothing about carbon emissions incessantly scream about the cost and the (fictional) negative economic consequences. Strangely they never mention the negative economic consequences of destroying the planet. As Yarnold reports, the Department of Energy estimates a cap on carbon would cost just ten more cents a day. Roughly thirty-six dollars a year. A small price to pay to save the planet.

Torinus completely ignores that cap-and-trade could be an opportunity for Wisconsin's manufacturing capacity and comparative advantage, a chance to be leaders in the innovation and technology transformation to sustainable industries. This regulatory mandate alongside stimulus-bill infrastructure improvements (like light rail) are an opportunity for Wisconsin to lead in green-innovation, create living-wage jobs, protect the environment, and enable a favorable forward-thinking business environment for Wisconsin to grow and remain competitive into the future.

Energy is a pillar of modern society. It is a public good and should be a public utility. Otherwise, if it must remain in private hands (which have been unable to make advancements nor contain costs) the government should cap profits and rate increases substantially. (We have a hodge-podge system similar to this, but it works horribly and is inefficient.) Government could dictate an allowable profit margin while ensuring maintained infrastructure standards and quality service provision by the private provider.

Torinus then gives a woe-is-me for Serigraph, of which he is CEO, and the fictional costs they would have to endure if cap-and-trade were instituted. But maybe Torinus could use some of the money Serigraph is saving from not paying its fair share of taxes to cover those fictional costs.

He continues with the 'poor Serigraph' routine claiming they could not pass any additional cost onto their customers. But this is the cost of business, which is what business models take into consideration, and what managers are suppose to, well, manage. These considerations should be included in the real price of any service or product, rather than circumventing these costs onto the public through subsidies, exemptions, and loopholes, as is the typical route for most big businesses. Or is government supposed to do nothing, and benefit Serigraph, at the expense of the majority of citizens and the planet?

We're taught to believe that those with Ivy League degrees - John graduated from Yale - are incredibly smart, trained well, and can solve the tough questions our society faces. These are exactly the types of decisions (efficient and sustainable production methods) that CEOs should be making if they want to claim they are worth the millions of dollars they are paid. But, as always, it seems their solution is for government to change the rules for them, subsidize their continued misadventures, and allow these captains of industry to plunder and plod along.

Cap-and-trade will primarily induce sustainable efficiency. It will reward those companies which plan, innovate, and create. It will weed out the antiquated. The days of inefficient - economically, societally and environmentally - destructive business practices being allowed to continue to exist through subsidization and market manipulation is over.

Torinus also takes a jab at environmentalists, "Environmentalists assure us that the economic questions can be worked out. Not to worry." Somewhat reminiscent of how the CEOs and Wall Street executives assured us that they knew what they were doing and had conquered risk? Everything the business community claims to be, all the lofty jargon they emit, is false. Their emperor has no clothes. Thanks, John, but I think we'll listen to some entity other than the business community from now on.

He helps buttress his opposition's case by pointing out that the Midwest is 60 percent dependent on coal. What the hell have our politicians and captains of industry been doing these last thirty years? Then in an amazing show of inflexibility, obtuseness, and treachery, Torinus spouts off about the bogus "clean" coal. This is a finite, heavily-polluting resource. Torinus feels we are going to competitively move forward by investing in yesterday's energy source? And then, of course, he has to mention nuclear. But what do we do with that waste? The business community and their ilk seem to feel the solution to one problem (coal) is another problem (nuclear waste).

If a business can not get by without subsidization, the government manipulating the market in one's favor, exemptions, tax havens, or cooking the books, it should not be in business. We allow business to grow to enormous proportions, so enormous they're allowed to bet over fifty times their value. They are able to leverage billions and put whole communities and the economy in jeopardy. Businesses hire lawyers and buy politicians to write laws and devise tax breaks solidifying this privileged societal position.

It's time we actually have public policy for the public again, by following parameters constructed by government about what is best and how it will be accomplished. That is representative democracy.

For Further Reading:
Does Taxing Pollution Lead to Higher Prices and Lower Aggregate Output?
History of the U.S. Electric Power Industry
Jobs & The Environment: The Myth of a National Trade-Off
Regulation and Competitiveness