Society's Child

In 2018 alone, over 150K shipping containers of US plastic exported to countries ill-equipped to manage the waste

Jan Dell
Plastic Pollution Coalition
Wed, 06 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC

China implemented the National Sword policy at the beginning of 2018 to protect their environment and develop their own domestic recycling capacity by restricting imports of waste. Since exporting plastic waste is a convenient way for the United States (U.S.) and other industrialized countries to count plastic waste as "recycled" and avoid disposal costs and impacts at home, there has been in a significant increase of plastic waste shipments to other countries instead of China. Unfortunately, most of our plastic waste is still shipped to countries that are not equipped to safely and securely manage it.

The U.S. Census Bureau recently published complete 2018 export data for shipments of plastic waste (officially called "waste, paring and scrap") generated in the U.S. and sent to other countries. As shown in Figure 1, 78% (0.83 million metric tonnes) of the 2018 U.S. plastic waste exports were sent to countries with waste "mismanagement rates" greater than 5%. That means about 157,000 large 20-ft (TEU) shipping containers (429 per day) of U.S. plastic waste were sent in 2018 to countries that are now known to be overwhelmed with plastic waste and major sources of plastic pollution to the ocean. The actual amount of U.S. plastic waste that ends in countries with poor waste management may be even higher than 78% since countries like Canada and South Korea may reexport U.S. plastic waste. The data also indicates that the U.S. continued to export about as much plastic waste to countries with poor waste management as we recycle domestically [1].

Plastic pollution activists and the chemical and plastic product industries commonly agree that countries without secure waste management systems are not currently equipped to safely and sufficiently manage plastic waste. So why is the U.S. still adding to the problem by shipping our plastic waste to those countries?

Comment:

In the US college free-speech wars, Palestinian advocacy is caught in a blind spot

Andy Lamey
Quillette
Wed, 18 Sep 2019 14:17 UTC

2015 public display presented by Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine.

In 2015, a group of undergraduates applied to establish Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) as a club at Fordham University in New York City. In accordance with the school's policies, the students submitted paperwork stating that their goal was to "build support in the Fordham community among people of all ethnic and religious backgrounds for the promotion of justice, human rights, liberation and self-determination for the indigenous Palestinian people." The applicants also stated that the club would participate in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. In 2016, Fordham's Dean of Education denied the club's application on the grounds that it would likely be polarizing, singling out its support for BDS. The students took Fordham to court. In August, a New York judge struck down the Dean's decision as "arbitrary and capricious."

The court's verdict was a win for the Fordham students. But the fact that setting up their club required four years and a lawsuit is telling. As the judge noted, Fordham has clear rules about creating clubs, and they don't include a requirement to avoid polarization. In invoking a new standard, the Dean was plainly discriminating against SJP.

Comment:

Kevin Spacey accuser dies in midst of sexual assault lawsuit

Eriq Gardner
The Hollywood Reporter
Wed, 18 Sep 2019 16:05 UTC

An anonymous massage therapist who claims to have been sexually assaulted by Kevin Spacey has died, according to a notice filed in court by the actor's attorneys.

The individual, suing as a "John Doe," filed claims in September 2018 with the allegation of being forced to grab the actor's genitals twice during a massage two years earlier at a private residence in Malibu. In May, a federal judge in California allowed the case to move forward despite Spacey's objection that the plaintiff's identity was being shielded.

Now, just a month after the parties came to a plan for proceeding in the suit that detailed prospective discovery and envisioned a seven- to 11-day trial, the plaintiff's attorney has informed Spacey that the client "recently passed."

No further detail is provided, and a request to the plaintiff's attorney for more information has not been answered.

Breaking The Media Blackout on the Imprisonment of Julian Assange

Mnar Muhawesh
MintPress News
Mon, 26 Aug 2019 13:32 UTC

The role of journalism in a democracy is publishing information that holds the powerful to account — the kind of information that empowers the public to become more engaged citizens in their communities so that we can vote in representatives that work in the interest of "we the people."

There is perhaps no better example of watchdog journalism that holds the powerful to account and exposes their corruption than that of WikiLeaks, which exposed to the world evidence of widespread war crimes the U.S. military was committing in Iraq, including the killing of two Reuters journalists; showed that the U.S. government and large corporations were using private intelligence agencies to spy on activists and protesters; and revealed how the military hid tortured Guantanamo Bay prisoners from Red Cross inspectors.

It's this kind of real journalism that our First Amendment was meant to protect but engaging in it has instead made WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange the target of a massive smear campaign for the last several years — including false claims that Assange is working with Vladimir Putin and the Russians and hackers, as well as open calls by corporate media pundits for him to be assassinated.

Confess your climate change sins! NBC's 'climate confessions' offers more proof eco-activism has become a religious cult

Helen Buyniski
RT
Thu, 19 Sep 2019 15:40 UTC

Want to save the planet, but can't overcome your addiction to steak and air travel? NBC has put out a call for "climate confessions," allowing viewers to unburden themselves of their first-world problems anonymously.

Anyone concerned about their failure to "do their part" in "preventing climate change" can confess their sins to NBC in one of six categories: plastics, meat, energy, transportation, paper and food waste. Previous visitors' climate "sins" are posted anonymously, in case you need inspiration or can't remember how you last violated the trust of Mother Nature.

But NBC's audience doesn't seem to be falling for it. "I run my AC 24/7. I'm not going to sweat to appease this climate religion," reads one confession posted on the site. "I think the climate has always been changing, and I'm not going to stop eating meat because of cult-like manipulation by the left," reads another.

Comment: Let them sail yachts: Why Greta Thunberg and the environmental elite hate you:

The elite don't just want to regulate how you travel and how you heat your home. They want to control what you eat and how you breed, too. Open the pages of any mainstream magazine; turn on your television; scroll through any mainstream news site and you'll see headlines like "To feed the world, why not eat bugs?," "Eating insects is good for you - and the planet!," "To Confront Climate Change, the Modern Automobile Must Die," and "Want to fight climate change? Have fewer children."

Thunberg, her elite backers, and their court scribes - if they're to be taken at their word - want you alone, immobile and, literally, eating insects in the name of environmentalism.

Colorado teen strip-searched at school for vape pens

Robbie Reynold
KKTV
Wed, 18 Sep 2019 21:07 UTC

colorado teen Jesse Boling strip searched vape pen

Jesse Boling spoke to 11 News reporter Robbie Reynold about the alleged incident.

A teenager says he had to take off his underwear while school staff was searching him for vape pens.

School District 11 tells 11 News they are investigating this, but they're not saying much else because it is a personnel matter.

Seventeen-year-old Jesse Boling and his mother Cynthia are both furious. Cynthia Boling met with the Mitchell High School principal Monday morning and says she wants the employee fired.

According to Jesse, he was talking to two of his friends who were vaping in the locker room at Mitchell. He says a school employee saw them and took them to the office.

Backpacks and pockets were searched, but Jesse -- who says he was the only one without vaping tools -- received an extended search.

"This is where it kind of gets weird."

Comment: Totalitarianism at its finest!

Snowden: EVERYONE is on the list, no 'innocents' in a mass surveillance world

RT
Thu, 19 Sep 2019 14:09 UTC

Asked if buying his memoir would get one on a spy list, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden chillingly replied that everyone in the world is on the "list" and there are no innocents in the age of mass surveillance.

Responding to a reader who joked that buying Snowden's book Permanent Record might have put him on a list of people to be spied on, the exiled former intelligence contractor said in all seriousness that everyone is being spied on regardless.

"Systems of mass surveillance strive to record all people, in all places, at all times. The question is no longer 'Am I on the list?' it is 'What's my rank on the list?'," Snowden tweeted on Wednesday.

Comment: Snowden's book deserves to be a best-seller. He still has a voice for those willing to hear, unlike Julian Assange.

Climate change cultists filling their followers with despair: How long before the suicides start?

Graham Dockery
RT
Tue, 17 Sep 2019 18:50 UTC

Until recently, climate change was a phenomenon debated by scientists, policymakers, and Greenpeace crusties. But doomsday prophets pushing climate fear into the mainstream have anxious liberals running for professional help.

As activist groups around the world prepare to stage a global 'climate strike' on Friday, eco-warriors in Washington DC have been staging smaller rallies and outreach events all summer. Behind the drum circles, yoga classes and hacky-sacking that accompanied such events, a cauldron of anxiety bubbled.

According to the Daily Beast, millennial activists -though striving for the same goals as concerned climate scientists worldwide- are losing their minds. Convinced that the world is ending, they're turning to group therapy sessions to deal with "their feelings of despair, depression, and anxiety."

'Are you a journalist?': Frmr Trump campaigner Lewandowski erupts at CNN anchor

Mike Brest
Washington Examiner
Thu, 19 Sep 2019 10:50 UTC

Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski questioned whether or not CNN morning anchor Alisyn Camerota was a journalist during a heated exchange during an interview Wednesday morning.

Lewandowski testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee the day before. While Democrats attempted to get him to shed light on one of the 10 instances Robert Mueller identified as potential obstruction of justice on the part of President Trump, Lewandowski appeared confrontational and refused to answer most questions.

The former Trump campaign manager appeared on CNN's New Day and got into a heated back-and-forth with Camerota.

Camerota repeatedly asked Lewandowski about a specific interaction he had during his testimony with House Judiciary Counsel Barry Berke, in which he was asked about lying to reporters. He responded to the questions saying, "I have no obligation to have a candid conversation with the media whatsoever, just like they have no obligation to cover me honestly, and they do it inaccurately all the time."

Comment: See also:

School shootings as a fashion line and gruesome public service announcement

RT
Wed, 18 Sep 2019 23:59 UTC

Violent scenes of kids running from an armed attacker are publicly applauded when released by a charity working against such tragedies, but what about a fashion show recycling such imagery? Is this fear porn or raising awareness?

Wholesome images of children touting their favorite new-school-year accessory quickly give way to kids repurposing those accessories to try to survive while under attack from a shooter in a new commercial from Sandy Hook Promise. The ad, released on Wednesday, is being alternately embraced by gun control proponents and reviled by gun rights groups - and parents distressed at the rise of sensationalist "fear porn."

Rather than the usual gun-control narratives centered on ripping guns out of the hands of Second Amendment-loving citizens or "cracking down" on the nonviolent mentally ill, Sandy Hook Promise's stated goal is educating families on the warning signs that a person might be planning a violent attack. Its website claims that "in 4 out of 5 school shootings, at least one other person had knowledge of the attacker's plan but failed to report it."

Comment: See also: The best explanation for mass shootings: Social contagion

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Society's Child

In 2018 alone, over 150K shipping containers of US plastic exported to countries ill-equipped to manage the waste

In the US college free-speech wars, Palestinian advocacy is caught in a blind spot

Kevin Spacey accuser dies in midst of sexual assault lawsuit

Breaking The Media Blackout on the Imprisonment of Julian Assange

Confess your climate change sins! NBC's 'climate confessions' offers more proof eco-activism has become a religious cult

Colorado teen strip-searched at school for vape pens

Snowden: EVERYONE is on the list, no 'innocents' in a mass surveillance world

Climate change cultists filling their followers with despair: How long before the suicides start?

'Are you a journalist?': Frmr Trump campaigner Lewandowski erupts at CNN anchor

School shootings as a fashion line and gruesome public service announcement

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