Neonicotinoids

Annual sales of neonicotinoids, powerful insecticides, total in the billions. Neonicotinoids are very effective at killing pests.  Unfortunately, bees are one of the insects killed.  Many environmentalists blame this insecticide for “Colony Collapse Disorder,” in which a whole hive can die off in days.

The European Union yesterday banned the substance for two years, though not in the winter when bees are dormant.  At the end of two years scientists will examine the data to see whether a permanent ban is warranted.  To read more about the ban, go to <http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/apr/29/bees-european-neonicotinoids-ban>.

Here in the U.S., where government is sold to the highest bidder and agribusiness reigns supreme, neonicotinoids have not been banned.

S.U.V.s in China

At San Jose State I was a member of the Environmental Studies Department in addition to my teaching duties in Political Science and American Studies.  I taught a course entitled “U.S. Environmental Studies.”  I would explain that the U.S., with five percent of the world’s population, consumed something like 40% of the earth’s resources.  

I would also point out that the only thing that was saving the globe from total environmental degradation was that countries like India and China were dirt poor, depending on bicycles or walking for transportation and living in what we would consider to be primitive conditions.  What would happen if those countries developed advanced consumer tastes like the U.S.along with the ability to satisfy them?

Last week General Motors announced that it would introduce nine S.U.V. models in China over the next five years.  Chrysler plans to start marketing Jeep Cherokees.  Ford is promoting the Lincoln brand.  

The planet is doomed.  It is not a matter of if, but when.

(Info for this post came from an article in the Business section of the Times entitled “Chinese Auto Buyers Grow Hungry for Larger Cars,” April 22, 2013.)

How can American economic policy be so bad?  Here are three examples from the Business page of the Times in just one day--Saturday, April 27.

1.  Austerity during a recession.

Every intelligent economist knows you don’t cut government spending during a recession.  It makes the recession worse.  Yet here’s the headline:  “Federal Cuts Are Concern In Modest U.S. Growth.”  Of course they are.  Austerity isn’t working in Europe, and it certainly isn’t working here.

2.  Internet sales tax.

Here’s the headline:  “Internet Sales Tax Coming Too Late for Some Stores.”  After 18 years of getting a free ride on sales taxes, Amazon may finally be required to collect them because of a bill working its way through Congress.  Unfortunately, many mom and pop stores have already been forced out of business.  By the way, dear readers, if you can only buy it at Wal-Mart or Amazon, you don’t really need it.

3.  The rich get richer.

Here’s the headline:  “Median Pay in U.S. Is Stagnant, but Lower-Paid Workers Lose.”  The top tenth is up 9% from 2000; the bottom tenth is 3% lower than in 2000.  Class divisions are worsening.

Obama caves on sequester

The sequester was supposed to be painful to everyone, right?  All programs would be cut.  No favorites.  

Then some people experienced airport delays and called their congress members.  Congressman Dent from Allentown noted that he had received many calls about this.  He did not say how many calls he had received from people who were not getting Meals on Wheels, but those aren’t the kind of people who call their member of Congress. 

Congressional Republicans, who we all know don’t care an iota about cuts to programs for the poor, proposed legislation to restore FAA funding.  Congressional Democrats, who should have held firm, rushed to join their Republican colleagues.  

President Obama, who could have taken a principled stand and vetoed the measure until cuts were restored to programs to help the poor, caved.  He announced that he would sign the legislation.  The word is out on President Obama.  He caves.  

Flying and Eating

How many of the people who get Meals on Wheels fly?  How many people who fly get Meals on Wheels?

When four million people who get Meals on Wheels were affected by the Sequester, Congress didn’t complain.  When the FAA began its sequester cuts, resulting in flight delays, members of Congress went nuts.

I hope if Congress passes a bill funding the FAA, the President vetoes it unless it has a rider attached restoring funding for health care for military families, Meals on Wheels, and Head Start.  

No New York Times. OMG

Every day Linda and I drive four miles to Kresgeville to buy our New York Times at the Deli on 209.  When we lived in Fairfax, CA, the paper was delivered in a blue bag every morning.  No such luck in Towamensing Township.

For the past two months, the Friday papers have not been available at the Deli.  Evidently there is a dispute over delivery contracts.  Being the resourceful person I am, I found other outlets.  The Sunoco Station on Delaware in Palmerton carries the Times, but not today. I then drove to the gas station at the Mahoning Turnpike Interchange--no Times, but they usually only receive one or two copies, so I wasn’t surprised.

That meant a trip to Dugan’s on Broadway in Jim Thorpe.  They always have extra copies, but not today--no delivery.  That’s it for Carbon County.

Are we at war?  Did Congress pass a bill?  Was the Keystone Pipeline approved?  

If this happens tomorrow I’ll have to drive to New York.  I need that paper.

Publicizing torture

Conservatives were angry that the trial of a doctor in Philadelphia who performed abortions under illegal circumstances was not getting more publicity.  They accused the “liberal media” of not covering the trial and made a big fuss about the supposed lack of reporting.

If the Pennsylvania authorities had been doing their jobs, this doctor would have been stopped years ago.  What he was doing was already illegal under Pennsylvania law.  We didn’t need new legislation on ultrasounds and vaginal probes and clinic requirements, we needed state inspectors to do their jobs.

Now my complaint about news coverage.  In mid-April, an 11-member task force led by Asa Hutchinson, a Republican who was an official in the Bush Administration, and James Jones, ambassador to Mexico under Clinton, issued its report on the treatment of prisoners during the Iraq War. 

The conclusion:  “...the United States engaged in the practice of torture.”  There’s a 22-page appendix that details legal cases in which our country prosecuted others for doing what we did or said it was torture when other countries did it.

Why didn’t that make the news?  And why isn’t the hunger strike by prisoners at Guantanamo in the news?  They are being force-fed through tubes through their noses.  Now.  Under American supervision.  

I know, I sound strident, even shrill, but I can hardly stand some of the things we do.  And we lecture the rest of the world about justice and democracy.