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One of the policies I’ve promoted is criminal charges for environmental crimes, rather than just fines, which are simply treated as a cost of business and don’t take money from the executives responsible. Seems at least one country is doing so.

Violating China’s environmental policies can lead to real punishment. In March 2021, four major steel mills in Hebei were caught falsifying records to evade carbon emission limits; the next year, dozens of executives responsible were sentenced to prison.

It’s worth remembering just how good the media is at making people hate and fear the enemy of the day. They did it to Iraq, to Russia and to China.

https://twitter.com/thecyrusjanssen/status/1685262666313748480

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

With Republicans going insane, it’s an important backstop This article from the indispensable Bolts Magazine about the assault on the ballot in red states is well worth reading: The resounding defeat of Ohio’s Issue 1, a constitutional amendment that would have undercut direct democracy in the state, received wall-to-wall coverage last week because it salvaged the prospect that Ohioans may adopt a ballot measure protecting abortion rights in November.  Abortion advocates rejoiced, but for some organizers watching around the country, the result was especially exhilarating because it spoke to the fight they’re going through in their own backyards to defend direct democracy. South Dakotans last year defeated an amendment similar to Ohio’s, which came on the heels of initiatives to increase the minimum wage and legalize cannabis and would have kneecapped a measure to expand Medicaid. In Arkansas, the GOP repeatedly asked voters to limit the initiative process but lost repeatedly at the polls; this year, they adopted new restrictions anyway.

this is concerning Via Salon: On May 11, 2023, the federal public health emergency declaration for COVID-19 came to an end. Only a few months later, and cases are already starting to surge across the country again . This decision was made despite emerging science surrounding long COVID – a condition in which symptoms of the disease linger for months or even years. While the general public ignores and downplays the risk of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, long COVID may well prove to be one of the biggest health problems of the 21st Century, presenting a real risk that a secondary pandemic of chronic illness will be overlooked. While things seem to be getting back to normal for most people, those with long COVID are still suffering – and this suffering will likely continue on indefinitely if nothing is done to change course.

The conservative group arguing the abortion pill case has made frequent payments to the spouse of James Ho, who just helped threaten access to the medicine.

A stubby holder that was once a vital participant in legendary nights of drinking and carousing has recently been forced to eke out a miserable existence sitting by the computer holding pens and pencils. “I’m meant to be clasping the... Read More ›

I don’t understand why Georgia makes the names of jurors public but they really shouldn’t. Transparency is one thing. This is not that, especially in high profile cases. It’s reckless: Names, photographs, social media profiles and even the home addresses purportedly belonging to members of the Fulton County grand jury that this week voted to indict former President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants are circulating on social media – with experts saying that some anonymous users are calling for violence against them. CNN cannot independently verify if the photographs, social media accounts and the homes addresses being posted actually belong to the grand jurors. However, the names being circulated on these sites appear to match the names of at least 13 of the 26 grand jurors that served on the panel in Fulton County. It’s unclear if those names are the actual grand jurors or just people with the same name. Some addresses appear to be wrong. Unlike the federal system, when someone is indicted in Fulton County, the indictment includes the names of all the grand jurors who served on the 26-member panel that handed up the charges.

By Jeffrey Sterling It doesn’t take much to shock me, but that Donald Trump has been charged with violating the Espionage Act has me unequivocally astonished. I can’t say that I have many, if any commonalities with current or former presidents and I certainly take no pride in the shared tribulation I have with Donald.

Something remarkable happens when this small sun zooms past its larger companion.

The post The Uncanny Sight of Waves Breaking on a Star appeared first on Nautilus.

An anthem is more than a song. An anthem is a representation of a people...

Why people believe their own lies.

The post The George Santos Syndrome appeared first on Nautilus.

That’s Trump pouting about his unflattering pictures. He’s not doing well. But he is strategic in one way. He’getting his racist base riled up about the Atlanta indictment” Huffington Post: Former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin said she believes Donald Trump intentionally used the word “riggers” as a racial dog whistle following his Georgia indictment. Hours after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis released the racketeering indictment charging Trump and 18 allies in a conspiracy to change Georgia’s 2020 election results, Trump raged against the case on his Truth Social platform. The former president claimed to have evidence that would lead to a “complete EXONERATION of him and his allies, adding: “They never went after those that Rigged the Election. They only went after those that fought to find the RIGGERS!” Many of his supporters quickly began using the term on far-right social media sites, some in a derogatory manner alluding to the racist slur.

The federal Coalition’s dissenting report on a Senate inquiry into nuclear power claims that Australia’s “national security” would be put at risk by retaining federal legislation banning nuclear power and that the “decision to purchase nuclear submarines makes it imperative for Australia to drop its ban on nuclear energy.”  The Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Continue reading »

How ever did it come to this! It is familiar to all that Scott Morrison, Prime Minister and Minister for Everything at the time, pulled the AUKUS rabbit out of his Akubra as a wedge issue for the forthcoming 2022 Federal Election. It appears that he did so with only a small inner circle in Continue reading »

Last month, news emerged that two Indian women belonging to the minority Kuki tribe in Manipur had been raped and then paraded naked in public. The rapes were said to have taken place in May in what is claimed to be the world’s biggest democracy, but which nowadays looks more like a dictatorship. It took Continue reading »

The outcome of the Voice referendum will affect Australia’s reputation – a fact voters should consider, writes John McCarthy. Sometime towards the end of the year, we will vote on a referendum about whether to change our Constitution to establish an independent Indigenous voice to our parliament and government on matters which affect the lives Continue reading »

Nine former Attorneys-General, both State and Federal, have voiced their concern about the treatment of Australian citizen, journalist and publisher Julian Assange saying that enough is enough and his on-going detention must come to an end. Former Victorian State Attorney-General Rob Hulls has joined with former Tasmanian Premier and Attorney-General Lara Giddings, another former Tasmanian Continue reading »

The bail reform bill tabled in the Victorian parliament this week seeks to undo some of the worst parts of the Bail Act, which was condemned as a “complete and unmitigated disaster” in the coronial inquest into the passing of Gunditjmara, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta woman Veronica Nelson in 2020. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers Continue reading »

The United States has been going all-out to sanction and isolate Russia ever since the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out in February last year. This, however, did not deter 49 of the 54 African countries from attending the Russia-Africa Summit on July 27. Russia is barely attractive to Africa if only economic factors are considered: Russia Continue reading »

Ruby Freeman resisted Trump, while Misty Hampton embraced him.

The post In Trump’s Georgia Indictment, a Tale of Two Election Workers appeared first on The Intercept.

“Those indictments didn’t happen all by themselves,” the former New York mayor told Fox News. “It took a village, and that village was me.”