Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

Massachusetts: a right to repair would make it easier for people to fix their broken devices, help independent businesses, and help the environment. Tell your lawmakers to support your right to repair. https://act.eff.org/action/massachusetts-speak-up-for-your-right-to-repair

Why Is Elizabeth Warren Hiring so Many Right Wing Foreign Policy Hacks?

Elizabeth Warren has positioned herself as the progressive alternative to Bernie Sanders. But a list of her foreign policy advisers reads no differently than it would if she were Hillary Clinton.

Less methane released from Arctic Ocean than previously believed

A new study demonstrates that the amount of methane presently leaking to the atmosphere from the Arctic Ocean is much lower than previously claimed in recent studies.

Anthem Grief (Punk) releases new video for “Game, Set, Match, Gas”

Philly punk act Anthem Grief have released a new video for their song “Game, Set, Match, Gas” off of their début album Defense Mechanisms. The video was shot in Brazil and the band had this to say about it: “The lyrics for this particular song are pretty self-explanatory in regards to having issues with drinking. However, a big part […]

'Anonymized' Data Is Meaningless Bullshit
https://gizmodo.com/anonymized-data-is-meaningless-bullshit-1841429952 #privacy #security

Twitter's ad platform MoPub is at the center of a vast, convoluted, opaque ecosystem of personal data collection and sharing that powers modern adtech. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/01/grindr-and-okcupid-sell-your-data-twitters-mopub-real-problem

Democrats’ Wimpy Impeachment Has Made Trump Stronger Than Ever

            “Many Democrats fear that Trump may be laying an impeachment trap,” Stephen Collins wrote for CNN last May. “It’s possible that the wider political divides get, the more Trump benefits. The spectacle would help him charge up the political base he needs to turn out in droves in 2020 with claims their 2016 votes […]

City in a test tube: Researchers simulate urban pollution to show how it damages the heart

A unique study mimicking city centre pollution levels shows how just two hours of bad air adversely affects the heart and blood vessels for a whole day.

Scientists find record warm water in Antarctica, pointing to cause behind troubling glacier melt

A team of scientists has observed, for the first time, the presence of warm water at a vital point underneath a glacier in Antarctica -- an alarming discovery that points to the cause behind the gradual melting of this ice shelf while also raising concerns about sea-level rise around the globe.

Australia’s Devastating Fires Make an Urgent Case for Public Takeover—And Shutdown—of Fossil Fuels

At least 33 people dead. More than a billion animals lost. An estimated 3,000 homes and over 16 million acres of land damaged or destroyed. 

This is the toll, likely underestimated, of Australia’s ongoing megafires. These numbers, together with the horrifying images of thousands of carcasses of beloved Australian animals like koalas and kangaroos, tourists using masks in a smoggy Sydney Opera House, and NASA satellite images of smoke reaching as far as Chile, paint a clear image of how devastating the climate crisis can be even for privileged nations. 

It’s also pushing Australians to face the need to part ways with what they have been told is an essential fuel for their economic growth: coal. The continent’s best—and perhaps only—option for doing so may also be its most radical: Nationalize the coal industry to shut it down.

Australia’s wildfires, already more than six times greater than California’s 2018 fires, have been directly linked to record levels of hotter and drier weather—conditions that are expected to be the new normal as we continue to burn coal in an already carbon-constrained atmosphere. Yet, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been reluctant to recognize the connections between the country’s ravenous coal production and consumption—coal supplies 60 percent of Australia’s electricity and generates 3.5 percent of Australia’s GDP just in exports—and the destruction his nation is facing. Instead, Mr. Morrison keeps putting forward a focus on job security and economic stability that fronts for a pro-coal agenda.

Yet the record-smashing bushfire season is showing that climate inaction is, in fact, the greatest threat to Australia’s decades-long economic boom. The megafire and the drought that preceded it are harming the country’s tourism and agriculture, two major sectors of Australia’s economy. The fires have also started rippling through the insurance industry, with initial claims surpassing a half-billion Australian dollars, a number expected to increase as events continue to unfold. Even Australia’s strong coal industry is, ironically, at risk. BHP, the world’s largest mining company and 19th biggest greenhouse gas contributor, recently reported that smoke and dust from this season’s fires have slowed the coal production of its New South Wales’s power plant and mine by 11 percent.

Financial experts are increasingly worrying that the fires might as well be the event that will push Australia’s economy, which performed relatively strongly during the 2008 financial meltdown, toward the unknown territory of a 21st century economic depression. The mother of all central banks, the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), warned in a new report that the climate emergency is putting worldwide economies’ stabilities at risk and might well be the driver of the “next systemic financial crisis.” The report argues that once that happens, central banks might have no other choice than to act as “climate rescuers of last resort.” Just as during the 2008 financial crisis, when central banks used their monetary power to clean the troublesome balance sheets of systemically critical corporations by injecting money and removing bad assets, these banks might need to intervene once again to get financial toxins—this time in the shape of fossil-fuel assets—out of the economic system. That would mean, in Australia’s case, the country’s climate-change-driving coal mines and generation facilities.

The idea of a 2008-like financial intervention as a way to deal with fossil-fuel stranded assets—assets that won’t be exploitable to provide investors the expected returns—is not a foreign concept. Yet, it still fails to tackle the climate crisis head on. More than saving Australia’s financial system from toxic coal assets through a rerun of 2008 U.S. bailouts, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) should make sure that any rescue is married to the actual wind down of companies’ coal production. This is necessary not only to secure the country’s financial stability, but to address a rapidly expanding demand among Australians for the government to lead on climate action—which must include putting to rest any ambition to expand BHP, Adani, and companies alike dirty coal fleet and retire at least one coal unit per day.

What is happening in Australia should be seen as a cautionary tale for the United States. Both countries share more in common than pro-fossil fuel personnel heading their Administrations, while simultaneously being hit by new realities of destructive storms and wildfires. Over the past four decades Americans experienced 258 weather and climate events that surpassed the billion dollars benchmark, costing Americans over $1.75 trillion. Wildfires in California and Alaska in 2019 accounted for $4.5 billion of those losses. The two countries also share the shameful records of being among the world’s top fossil fuel exporters; Australia as the second leading coal exporter, and the United States on track to compete for the top one oil exporter position within the next five years.

This masterful continued expansion of fossil fuels paired with increasing climate damages make these countries stand as front runners for facing the next financial crisis—this time driven by fossil fuel bad assets. In 2013, London-based organization Carbon Tracker issued a report exposing that Australia could face a 44 percent decrease in its coal revenues under a 2° Celsius scenario; a decline that, according to my assessment, must be even sharper in order to achieve the 1.5° Celsius target. In that same year, Carbon Tracker also pointed to the fact that the United States is in a particularly precarious position, with the New York Stock Exchange ranking as the stock market with the highest concentration of fossil fuels in their exchanges. As the climate emergency becomes more pressing, any event can be the tipping point in exposing the real value of fossil fuel assets and start a shockwave throughout the countries’ markets. 

The chaos Australia is now facing exposes the need for stronger government interventions to avoid the many threats fossil fuel toxic assets now impose on society—in particular the need for the nationalization of the coal industry to rapidly decline its production. Just like the RBA is heading to a point when it will be “the only game in town,” soon will the Federal Reserve be the one as well. Instead of waiting for a catastrophic event and further destruction to act on climate, the U.S. government should take the lead and look at the events unfolding below the Equator line as lessons to why the nationalization of the nation’s oil, gas, and coal industry should be done now; not after companies like ExxonMobil and Chevron have poured another $260 billion in new oil and gas fields. If not for the well-being of its own people, then for the sake of the American and Australian economies.

You Shall Know a System by its Enemies

Establishment politicians and media journalists are increasingly concerned and hysterical about the possibility that the increase of Bernie Sanders’ performance in the Democratic primaries means that he could end up being elected president. Why are they so worried?

U.K. police will soon be able to collect data from the U.S. without a warrant—or any prior judicial approval. It’s a bad deal. But Congress can stop it. https://act.eff.org/action/tell-congress-oppose-the-u-s-u-k-cloud-act-deal

[Full-time] Thunderbird Engineers: Multiple positions in development, infrastructure and support at Mozilla Thunderbird https://www.fossjobs.net/job/10178/thunderbird-engineers-multiple-positions-in-development-infrastructure-and-support-at-mozilla-thunderbird/ #jobs

These Blue-Collar Trump Supporters Think the Economy Is Great. Your Move, Democrats.

MILWAUKEE—The mood inside Panther Arena at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee was euphoric January 14 as Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best” blasted and a crowd of more than 10,000 did the wave—a jubilant sea of red hats, big smiles and arms in the air.

The scene was, at first, reminiscent of the hope, joy and empowerment that swept the country 12 years ago as Barack Obama began his presidential campaign. But as the evening wore on, it became clear that the sentiments permeating the atmosphere were very different from Obama fever: bitterness, resentment and scorn. The crowd’s demographics were likely different as well: predominantly white in one of the most segregated cities in the country, home to a large Black and Latinx population.

This was a rally for President Donald Trump, in the city that will host the 2020 Democratic National Convention in July, in a state that will likely be crucial to the election’s outcome.

Wisconsin’s despair over the loss of good manufacturing jobs, the hardship facing farmers and general malaise helped propel Trump to his unexpected 2016 victory. And if the Milwaukee rally is any indication, Trump is still popular here: Attendees described their growing retirement accounts, their thriving small businesses and greater job security.

In 2016, Trump received fewer than a third of the votes in Milwaukee County but won the surrounding counties. Statewide, Trump garnered 47.2% of the vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton’s 46.5%—a difference of just 22,748 votes.

Democrats now face the challenge of proving to Wisconsinites that Trump’s policies and trade wars are actually hurting working people and that recent market gains mostly benefit the already wealthy—while promoting the idea that true prosperity lies in a social safety net, protective regulations and any number of other measures that Trump derides.

One rallygoer, retired sheet metal worker George Zulas, 73, says his retirement investments are thriving because of Trump and described Democrats as the party of corruption. He pointed to the state of Illinois as an example: Governors often do “two terms [in Illinois]—a term in office and then a term in prison.”

“Union members are supposed to vote Democratic, but [Democrats] haven’t done anything for us,” Zulas says. He thinks many union members will vote for Trump in 2020, but quietly—in fear of retribution in their hiring halls should they openly support Trump.

As In These Times reported, “43% of [2016] voters in union households cast their ballots for Trump.” Compared with past election results, however, it appears the outcome was more from a lack of Clinton enthusiasm than from Trump excitement.

Union or not, many blue-collar workers have clearly been attracted to Trump’s America-first rhetoric and believe Trump is negotiating good international “deals” for American workers.

One former toolmaker from Milwaukee, Roger, 67, lost his iron company job about a decade ago when it moved much of its sourcing overseas. (Roger asked not to use his last name out of fear of harassment.)

“These companies buy from Mexico, Portugal, China—there aren’t tool shops here anymore,” Roger says.

Heart attacks and other health problems have made it impossible for Roger to find work, so he spends time in his sprawling garden, growing pole beans and broccoli. But his confidence in Trump has made him feel like walking into one of the remaining tool shops and asking for work.

“Trump knows how to play the game—he got it from the streets of New York,” Roger says. “He’s the country’s best salesman. He gets up from his four-hour sleep and says, ‘What problem will I solve today?’”

While many of Trump’s claims can be easily debunked, fact-checking the economic landscape is more difficult: The economy is strong by certain metrics. In Milwaukee, Trump expounded upon his supposed economic miracle, telling the crowd that the United States now boasts “the greatest economy in our history.”

Unemployment in Wisconsin is at 3.3%, compared with 4.3% in January 2016. The stock market is hitting highs. Many in southeastern Wisconsin are hoping for a job boom from the massive, in-the-works Foxconn LCD panel plant. In Milwaukee, Trump also crowed that the military-style vehicle manufacturer Humvee is now making parts in Oshkosh, Wis.

But much of this economic recovery started during the Obama years. Humvee, for example, made its announcement about Wisconsin manufacturing in 2015.

A closer look at Wisconsin under Trump reveals a less rosy picture. The total number of jobs in Wisconsin has fallen over the past two years. The total number of Wisconsin manufacturing jobs declined in 2019. Wisconsin employers have been hurt by Trump’s trade wars—the all-American brand Harley-Davidson, for example, shifted its motorcycle production overseas and laid people off because of retaliatory tariffs in the EU, sparked by Trump. Trump’s tariffs on Chinese-made goods are arguably hurting Wisconsin companies.

And the big Foxconn deal (Trump lofted a golden shovel at the plant’s 2018 groundbreaking) is projected to create only 1,500 of the 13,000 promised jobs (but the company will still receive massive tax breaks from the state).

Robert Kraig, executive director of Citizen Action Wisconsin, says the Foxconn “debacle” typifies Trump’s approach.

“It was a predictable disaster … [Trump] makes a big announcement and then doesn’t stick around to make it happen,” Kraig says. In general, “Trump is super-charging the economy, we’re on a sugar high with the tax breaks and pressuring the Fed not to raise interest rates even though they should. He’s extremely selective in the data points to measure what a strong economy is. The stock market doesn’t represent actual prosperity, and unemployment numbers miss all the people who are locked out of the economy and who have given up.”

Nationwide, according to census data released fall 2019, income inequality has ballooned under Trump, reaching its worst point since the Census Bureau started measuring five decades ago. Even with low unemployment numbers, the Economic Policy Institute reports that wage growth has been sluggish.

Regardless, Trump’s Milwaukee rallygoers feel flush about a bright future ahead. Trump’s frequent attacks on socialism will only make it harder for Democratic candidates to convince voters that more fairly sharing the country’s wealth will expand the prosperity they think they already have.

Writing for The New Yorker in June 2019, journalist Peter Slevin explored the complicated attitudes toward socialism in Milwaukee, a city that elected three socialist mayors in the 20th century. Slevin quotes historian John Gurda, noting that Wisconsin’s successful socialist leaders “were as creative as any capitalist, and as aggressive as any capitalist, in trying to create a system that worked for the common man and woman.” It seems Democrats would be wise to emphasize this approach as they campaign in a state known for valuing individuality, a bootstraps mentality and hard work.

But if Democrats are to change the minds of the attendees at Trump’s January rally, they have a long road ahead. “This is a blue-collar boom,” Trump said in Milwaukee, gaining more cheers as he railed against low-flow dishwashers and undocumented immigrant sex offenders while touting the economy.

Democrats will need to convince voters in Wisconsin and beyond that a true blue-collar movement recognizes how regulations protect workers and help fight pollution and climate change, how immigrants contribute to the economy, how wage growth fights income inequality, and the upside of many other things that Trump delights in opposing. Kraig, for one, says this moment is perfect for something like the Green New Deal, with long-term and centralized planning.

“You plan out what would make real shared prosperity, and move the needle on our immense income inequality,” he says. “The modern neoliberal market just won’t do that.”

The EARN IT Act is a serious threat to free speech and security online. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/01/congress-must-stop-graham-blumenthal-anti-security-bill

To make amino acids, just add electricity

By finding the right combination of abundantly available starting materials and catalyst, researchers were able to synthesize amino acids with high efficiency through a reaction driven by electricity. Simpler and less resource intensive than current production methods, processes like this may one day be used in resource-restricted conditions to produce the amino acids necessary for living -- even in space or on other planets.