We believe in civil discussion.
In a time when other organizations are content in engaging in polarizing rhetoric, to appeal to the worst in us for the sake of gaining partisan points and your contributions, (and this tactic does work) we are appealing to you because we believe there is another, better, more humane way to explore the issues of the day. We believe in the power of humanity, and in this country, and in the idea that we are truly IN THIS TOGETHER.
But we need your help.
Please consider contributing either by buying a FULL PAID subscription to In Between Times…
…Or by going directly to our In This Together DONATION PAGE AT THE BRIDGE FOUNDATION.
Chaos in The House of Representatives: McCarthy backs Jim Jordan nomination
The sense as of yesterday in Washington (we were there talking with people who would know) was that Scalise was probably going to become Speaker of the House. That did not pan out. Instead former Speaker McCarthy has just endorsed Jim Jordan who is often called a “Trump ally”.
As of this writing it is not a done deal. There are other candidates, but it appears at this moment that things are coalescing around Jordan, especially with McCarthy’s endorsement.
Jim Jordan is the Judiciary Committee Chairman and was a strong critic of the the January 6th hearings convened in the previous Congress.
(From The AP)
Earlier in the week, Jordan had nominally dropped out of the race he initially lost to Scalise, 113-99, during internal balloting.
Scalise had been laboring to peel off more than 100 votes, mostly from those who backed Jordan. But many hard-liners taking their cues from Trump have dug in for a prolonged fight to replace McCarthy after his historic ouster from the job…
The Democrats must watch mostly from the sidelines, but not entirely since the GOP margin in the House is thin.
…“The House Democrats have continued to make clear that we are ready, willing and able to find a bipartisan path forward,” Jeffries said, including doing away with the rule that allows a single lawmaker to force a vote against the speaker. “But we need traditional Republicans to break from the extremists and partner with us.”
For the leader of the Dems in the House to try to define “traditional Republicans” (whatever that means) and then in the same breath to call Jordan and company “extremists” does not bode well for the future.
Click here for the article.
Chaos in Israel
From the American perspective what might be most interesting, and perhaps most impactful domestically, is the split on the left around the now week old war in Israel. We’ve never seen such a split in the US. We’ve seen it in Europe, but open support for Hamas is new in America.
US campuses in uproar as Israel-Palestine conflict exposes divide
To one side, Columbia students stood silently, wrapped in the blue and white of Israel as they gripped pictures of the murdered and abducted. Across the grass and brick divide, a slightly larger cohort of students chanted “Free, free Palestine.”
The faultline between the two ran along the claim by each that the other was pursuing a kind of bloodlust – a charge that has divided university campuses across America in the wake of the bloody Hamas attack on Israeli communities and Israel’s ongoing military assault on Gaza.
The generational rift that explains Democrats’ angst over Israel
The trend among Democrats and younger Americans has been clear over the past few years. A Gallup poll earlier this year — before the war — found support had reached a tipping point: For the first time in Gallup’s 20-plus-year trendline, more Democrats sympathized with Palestinians than Israelis, driven in large part by the younger elements of the party’s membership.
The rapidity of the movement was striking. Democrats sided with the Israelis by a 30-point margin in 2016 — a 41-point margin swing in just seven years.
Then there is this take from The Business Insider.
Israel could eventually divide the left — while Ukraine divides the right
A good, brief primer on the Arab/Israeli conflict
45% of young people have never recycled a phone
Phones are full of nasty (but potentially valuable) stuff. If there is anything that needs to be recycled it is cell phones. And one would think that getting young people to drop them into a recycling bin wouldn’t take that much convincing. But apparently it does.
Come to think of it I have 3 or 4 old phones stowed away somewhere that I haven’t recycled. I should probably get on this. (Not that your editor is a “young person” anymore.) We all should.
(From Circular)
Gavin Ellis, Co-Founder of Hubbub, commented: “Our research suggests 66% of young people are unaware that smartphones contain precious metals. They also replace their phones more often than any other age group.
“They’re savvy and keen to do the right thing, but it’s evident they need much more support to do this, including receiving information on the subject in a tone or format that speaks to them.”
Green Alliance has suggested a series of recommendations aimed at government, manufacturers and local authorities to address e-waste. These include:
Building repairability into devices.
Mandatory warranties and greater consumer rights to enable customers to keep devices for longer.
Better labelling/information for customers e.g. repairability, recyclability and environmental impact.
Tax changes and fiscal incentives to make actions like repair and purchasing second-hand more financially appealing.
Click here for the article.
Sustainability’s Top 10 renewable energy companies
The top global carbon capture projects of 2023
Carbon capture is just getting going. In 2024 this list will be significantly longer as more capital becomes available and as technologies become more efficient.
The industry is feeling some growing pains for sure, but the trajectory for the tech positive.
Will it change the carbon equation? Now? No. In the next 10 years? Maybe.
(From Prescouter)
The Go4Zero Project aims to become the first carbon-neutral cement plant in Belgium.
The Wabash CO2 Sequestration Project aims to capture and store carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from an ammonia production facility in West Terre Haute, Indiana, U.S.
The Oil Sands CCUS Pathways to Net Zero (ALB) (14 facilities). An initiative by six of Canada’s largest oil sands producers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their operations by about 22 million TPA by 2030 in Alberta, Canada.
The CalCC Lhoist Air Liquide Lime Plant Rety Project seeks the decarbonization of Lhoist’s lime production plant in Réty, France. Lime is one of the “hard-to-abate” industries as its production primarily generates CO2 from the decomposition of limestone.
Project Anthemis, Belgium.
Click here for the article and more projects.
Event
October 17 @ 10:00 am - 12:00 pm CDT
JUST Listening Training – Part One: Listening with Ourselves
Though we wake up each morning, we often sleepwalk through our days, unaware of the world around us, each other, and importantly, of the many influences that impact how we interact and communicate with others. Much of our failure to understand what another person is communicating stems from our lack of awareness of several key factors that affect how we perceive and interpret what is said. It is distressingly easy to miscommunicate with another human: our spoken words pass through a treacherous labyrinth of challenges and filters before they land in the listener’s consciousness.