Citizen Cartwright

Good news on resource use, climate

Because I didn’t blog at the end of last week, we have a double shot of good news from Future Crunch this morning. 

 

Among the gems in the Sept. 21 issue:

 

— As e-waste from our electronics has increased, Britain’s Royal Mint has developed a way to recover gold from circuit boards in laptops and phones and is working to help globalize e-waste recycling technology, says the BBC.

 

In Future Crunch's Sept. 27 issue:

 

— Cutting greenhouse gas emissions from the world’s energy sector to net zero and limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius remains possible due to the record growth of key clean energy technologies, though momentum needs to increase rapidly in many areas, according to a new edition of the International Energy Agency’s Net Zero Roadmap.

 

— President Biden used an executive order to create a New Deal-style American Climate Corps. The program will employ more than 20,000 young adults, who will build trails, plant trees, help install solar panels and do other work to boost conservation and help prevent catastrophic wildfires, The Associated Press reports.

Also in the news

House Republicans make their case for Biden impeachment inquiry at first formal hearing

 

New California law raises minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 an hour

 

Biden administration allocating $232 million in grants for suicide prevention, mental health

 

What to know as fall vaccinations against coronavirus, flu and RSV get underway

Takeaways from the second GOP presidential debate

At this point, I watch the Republican debates mainly to be able to assess the most substantive reporting on them.

 

A New York Times article on the proceedings begins: "As he sat in the spin room with the Fox News host Sean Hannity after the second Republican debate on Wednesday night, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida accurately summed up the spectacle he had just participated in."

 

“If I was at home watching that,” DeSantis said, “I would have changed the channel.”

 

I wanted to.

 

This Associated Press article seems about as good as they get.

 

Here is a fact check of the debate, by The Washington Post.

Also in the news

About half of Nagorno-Karabakh population has left for Armenia after reclaim of the region by Azerbaijan

 

Biden administration finalizing new rule to cut federal money to college programs that leave graduates with high debt, low pay

 

AP: What happens if the government shuts down Oct. 1

Bipartisan Ohio commission unanimously approves new maps that favor GOP state legislators

 

California Gov. Newsom signs law to protect doctors who mail abortion pills to other states

Georgia slaves’ descendants seek referendum to veto zoning changes they say threaten their Gullah-Geechee community

 

Judge Chutkan denies Trump request that she recuse herself in federal election subversion case

Right Livelihood Award — known as the 'Alternative Nobel’ — awarded to environmental and human rights activists

 

As coronavirus infections rise, nursing homes are waiting for vaccines

 

FDA updates Ozempic label with potential side effect of blocked intestines, also reported with Wegovy and Mounjaro

 

New study strengthens evidence that stem cell transplants can bring relief, even remission, to some with multiple sclerosis

Federal government, 17 states file antitrust suit against Amazon

The Federal Trade Commission and states allege that Amazon’s anticompetitive action occurs in two markets: the online superstore that serves shoppers and the market for online marketplace services purchased by sellers. The actions include, according to the FTC:

 

— Anti-discounting measures that punish sellers and deter other online retailers from offering prices lower than Amazon's, keeping prices higher for products across the internet. For example, the FTC says, if Amazon discovers that a seller is offering lower-priced goods elsewhere, Amazon can bury discounting sellers so far down in Amazon’s search results that they become effectively invisible.

 

— Conditioning sellers’ ability to obtain “Prime” eligibility for their products — a virtual necessity for doing business on Amazon — on sellers using Amazon’s fulfillment service, which has made it substantially more expensive for sellers on Amazon to also offer their products on other platforms. "This unlawful coercion has in turn limited competitors’ ability to effectively compete against Amazon,” the FTC says.

 

With its amassed power across both the online superstore market and online marketplace services market, Amazon extracts "enormous monopoly rents from everyone within its reach,” the FTC says. And this includes:

 

— Degrading the customer experience by replacing relevant, organic search results with paid ads — and deliberately increasing junk ads that worsen search quality and frustrate both shoppers seeking products and sellers who are promised a return on their ad purchase.

 

— Biasing Amazon’s search results in favor of Amazon’s own products over ones Amazon knows are better quality.

 

— Charging fees on the hundreds of thousands of sellers that currently have no choice but to rely on Amazon to stay in business. These fees range from a monthly fee sellers have to pay for each item sold, to ad fees. Combined, these fees force many sellers to pay nearly 50 percent of their total revenues to Amazon, the FTC says. These fees also harm shoppers, who pay increased prices for thousands of products sold on or off Amazon. 

 

Amazon says the FTC is “wrong on the facts and the law” and has departed from its role of protecting consumers and competition.

“If the FTC gets its way, the result would be fewer products to choose from, higher prices, slower deliveries for consumers, and reduced options for small businesses — the opposite of what antitrust law is designed to do,” said Amazon General Counsel David Zapolsky in a statement.

 

The FTC began investigating Amazon in 2019 under the Trump administration, but the probe significantly expanded after President Biden appointed Lina Khan to be chair of the FTC.

 

Khan became famous as a Yale law student in 2017 when she published a paper arguing that U.S. antitrust laws had failed to adequately stop Amazon from amassing power over its customers, competitors and suppliers. The paper helped kick off a debate about whether America’s antitrust laws needed to be modernized to rein in tech giants, says The New York Times.

 

Prior to becoming FTC chair, Khan was an associate professor of law at Columbia Law School. She also previously served as counsel to the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law; legal adviser to FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra; and legal director at the Open Markets Institute.

Also in the news

Biden joins auto workers on picket line, in unparalleled show of support for organized labor by a modern president

 

House GOP paves the way for consideration of 4 spending bills, plus measure to prevent partial government shutdown

 

Senate leaders unveil measure to extend federal funding levels through Nov. 17, aid Ukraine and disaster victims

 

How to watch the second GOP presidential debate on Wednesday night

 

Judge rules Trump defrauded banks and insurers, orders some of his companies removed from his control, dissolved

 

Supreme Court rejects Alabama attempt to use congressional map with just 1 majority-Black district

 

California governor signs law raising taxes on guns, ammunition to pay for school safety

 

Hollywood writers strike is over, after guild leaders approve contract with studios

In pain but not suffering

Recently, I’ve been getting migraine headaches. They’re not terrible, but I admit to dreading that they’ll start when I’m working on this blog. They can make it hard to see and to read, adding to the deadline adventure, to say the least.

 

One thing that helps me is the Buddhist idea that while pain in this life is inevitable, suffering is not. The Buddha said pain is like being shot with an arrow. And resisting the pain is like shooting oneself with a second arrow.

 

I like this, from Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh:

 

"Breathing in, I smile. I smile to everything, even to my suffering, to my difficulties. Breathing out, I release and let go. This is the practice of freedom. Breathing in, I become aware of any unpleasant feelings. Breathing out, I hold these feelings with kindness.”

 

I’m grateful that a free, online “Buddhist wisdom for life summit” is running today through Oct. 2, with 35 Buddhist teachers and scholars sharing ways to help us meet life’s challenges.

In the news

Biden administration offering a rare $2 billion loan to Poland, a hub for weapons going to Ukraine

 

Biden administration announces $1.4 billion to improve railway safety, boost capacity in 35 states and D.C.

 

Roll Call: Efforts in House and Senate to ‘somehow’ prevent government shutdown Oct. 1

 

Seven candidates qualify for 2nd GOP presidential debate Wednesday. Ex-Arkansas Gov. Hutchinson missed the cut.

 

Free coronavirus test kits are back; here’s how to order them

GOP attacks on misinformation research

My thanks to the reader who alerted me to this article: 

 

Academics, universities and government agencies are overhauling or ending research programs to counter the spread of online misinformation amid a legal effort from conservative politicians and activists who accuse them of colluding with tech companies to censor right-wing views, says The Washington Post.

The escalating effort — led by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and other Republicans in Congress and state government — has cast a pall over programs that study the quality of medical information online, in addition to political falsehoods, the Post says.

 

For example, Stanford University officials who face litigation are discussing how they can continue tracking election-related misinformation through the Election Integrity Partnership, a consortium that flagged social media conspiracies about voting in 2020 and 2022, the Post says.

 

And the National Institutes of Health froze a $150 million program intended to communicate medical information, citing regulatory and legal threats. Doctors told The Post they'd planned to use the grants to fund projects on noncontroversial topics such as nutritional guidelines, not just politically charged issues like vaccines.

 

Meanwhile, social media platforms have pulled back on moderating content even as evidence mounts that Russia and China have intensified covert influence campaigns, the Post says.

 

The most high-profile effort is the lawsuit Missouri v. Biden, the Post says. It’s now before the Supreme Court, where the Biden administration seeks to have the court block a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit that found the White House, FBI and top federal health officials likely violated the First Amendment by improperly influencing tech firms’ decisions to remove or suppress posts on the coronavirus and elections.

 

Jordan has issued subpoenas and demands for researchers’ communications with the government and social media platforms as part of a larger congressional probe of the Biden administration’s alleged collusion with Big Tech.

 

Nadgey Louis-Charles, a spokeswoman for the House Judiciary Committee, which Jordan chairs, says the investigation is focused on “the federal government’s involvement in speech censorship, and the investigation’s purpose is to inform legislative solutions for how to protect free speech.”

 

Many academics, independent scholars and philanthropic funders are discussing ways to collectively defend the disinformation research field, says the Post. One proposal would create a group to collect donations in a central fund to pay for crisis communications and legal support if one of them is sued or subpoenaed in a private case or by Congress. The money also could fund cybersecurity counseling to ward off hackers and stalkers.

Also in the news

At UN, African leaders say they must be partnered with, not sidelined

 

Greece, battered a decade ago, now is one of Europe’s fastest-growing economies

 

The indictment of New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez and wife on federal bribery charges

 

Third party No Labels signed up 15,000 voters in Arizona; Democrats worry that’s enough for a Biden spoiler

 

Judge overseeing case to remove Trump from Colorado ballot agrees to order banning threats, intimidation

 

Writers Guild, Hollywood studios reach tentative deal to end strike; there’s no deal yet for actors

 

Lachlan Murdoch, the new power behind Fox News and the Murdoch empire

 

NASA’s first asteroid samples parachute to Earth after release from spacecraft

 

Biden administration outlines plans to develop rules barring unpaid medical bills from affecting patients’ credit scores

 

RSV vaccine given in pregnancy to help shield newborns gets full U.S. approval