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Created
Fri, 15/09/2023 - 00:30
Turn slowly and can be pricey Remember Kim Davis? The Guardian: A federal jury has awarded $100,000 to a Kentucky couple who sued the former county clerk Kim Davis over her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Davis, the former Rowan county clerk, drew international attention when she was briefly jailed in 2015 over her refusal, which she based on her belief that marriage should only be between a man and a woman. A jury in Ashland, Kentucky, awarded David Ermold and David Moore each $50,000 after deliberating on Wednesday, according to lawyers for Davis. A second couple who sued, James Yates and Will Smith, were awarded no damages on Wednesday by Judge David Bunning. Bunning sent Davis to jail for five days in 2015 after holding her in contempt of court. She was parodied on Saturday Night Live and embraced by conservative politicians who traveled to Kentucky to support her. Here’s a novel idea: Bunning ruled last year that Davis violated the constitutional rights of the two couples.
Created
Thu, 14/09/2023 - 23:45
If scientific progress in economics — as Robert Lucas and other latter-day followers of Milton Friedman seem to think — lies in our ability to tell ‘better and better stories’ one would of course expect economics journals to be filled with articles supporting the stories with empirical evidence. However, the journals still show a striking […]
Created
Thu, 14/09/2023 - 23:14

The wording in Article IX, Section 1, of Montana’s constitution couldn’t be clearer: “The state and each person shall maintain and improve a clean and healthful environment in Montana for present and future generations.” Accordingly, in April, a district court judge in Yellowstone County voided a permit for a natural-gas-fired power plant under construction there. Over its lifetime, it would have released an estimated 23 million tons of planet-roasting carbon dioxide and that, ruled the judge, was incompatible with a “clean and healthful environment” in Montana or, for that matter, anywhere else. Within a week, the state legislature had voted to reinforce a 2011 law barring the consideration of climate change in policymaking and so allowing the construction of the... Read more

Created
Thu, 14/09/2023 - 22:45
Gary Gardner

It’s been a fascinating experience watching the human family’s response to the emerging sustainability challenges of the past 30 years. Over a career writing on the topic, largely at the Worldwatch Institute, I marveled at the ingenuity displayed by many changemakers. I also bemoaned the blindness and stubborn resistance to change apparent in many sluggards. Here I reflect on sustainability’s ups and downs over three decades.

My perspective is captured well in the thoughts of 45 climate scientists interviewed recently by The Guardian.

The post Reflections on Thirty Years of Worldwatching appeared first on Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy.

Created
Thu, 14/09/2023 - 22:00

When we first met Richard Ballard of Ballard Design & Construction, my wife and I were incredibly excited to get started on a kitchen renovation. After we saw how prompt and professional Richard was in returning a comprehensive estimate, we knew he was the general contractor we wanted to work with. He had every detail covered, from the height of our waterfall island, to the fact that our drainboard needed to be left-handed, to the finish on the pot filler.

Demolition started, and we made good progress. After six months, though, things slowed down. Our kitchen was, at best, half-finished. We had a range but no gas. We had a subfloor but no tile. We had no fridge, although we did have a bucket that Richard filled with ice once a week.

Created
Thu, 14/09/2023 - 22:00
Welcome to the third world At least one Republican congressman told Sen. Mitt Romney (R-outcast), McKay Coppins recounts in The Atlantic, that he “wanted to vote for Trump’s second impeachment, but chose not to out of fear for his family’s safety.” A Republican senator in leadership urged Romney not to vote to convict Trump dujring his second impeachment trial. “You can’t do that, Romney recalled someone saying. Think of your personal safety, said another. Think of your children.” Romney tells Coppins he is paying $5,000 per day out of pocket for security since Jan. 6, 2021. On his way to work with a police excort that day, he recalls: If somebody wants to shoot me, he thought, what good is it to have these guys in a car behind me? Romney is not the only one worried about his security. Along with special prosecutor Jack Smith and Fulton County, Georgia, D.A.
Created
Thu, 14/09/2023 - 21:38

Mark Serwotka has served as the general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union for 23 years. Representing workers across UK Government departments and public bodies, in recent years, the union has faced unrelenting attacks on the pay of its members and frequent confrontations between government ministers and civil servants.   Under Serwotka’s […]

Created
Thu, 14/09/2023 - 19:10

Invited and chaired by Patrick Lovell (director of The Con), in this video Bill Black and I discuss financial corruption in the USA and the EU. Bill Black needs no introduction. As a lawyer he filed over 1700 indictments for financial corruption in the US, from the S&L scandal to this day. He was also the […]

The post Bill Black and Yanis Varoufakis discussing corruption in finance – video appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.

Created
Thu, 14/09/2023 - 18:53

Inglorious procrastination is one of the European Union’s standard responses to major crises. This is not merely due to the difficulty of getting twenty-seven Prime Ministers and Presidents to agree. It is also because of their motivated tendency to ask themselves the wrong questions, thus heading slowly but inexorably to self-harming policy solutions. After the […]

The post Why can’t the EU power ahead with green subsidies like Biden’s? It isn’t just political procrastination – THE GUARDIAN appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.

Created
Thu, 14/09/2023 - 18:39
Modularity is the mark of a type of independence from context. The same functional relationship between variables will hold in a given component of the contributing mechanisms whether or not there is a change in a different component. The total effect may change when different components contribute, but the operation of the modular mechanism will […]