In Between Times 2-23-2023
When Van Jones and Donald Trump got together, Misinformation from a misinformation watchdog?, What actually happened in East Palestine?, Crime has been legalized in San Francisco
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Did Van Jones and Donald Trump leave a blueprint for bipartisanship?
What do some of the isolated valleys of West Virginia and the the isolated tracts in many of America’s cities have in common? Both suffer from widespread drug addiction and despair. People in both places are typically less educated than the average American. Both areas often have widespread dependence on welfare. Both the inner city and the rugged Appalachian valleys often lack places that offer meaningful employment. Detroit’s factories that once employed many “Great Migration” African Americans are largely as gone as many of the coal mines that once employed the hardscrabble Scots-Irish who settled the eastern highlands after they were pushed to the mountains by other settlers. Both areas have suffered for decades and continue to suffer.
It is in this mutual suffering that Van Jones and his team of documentarians thought there was potential opportunity to do some good. Their newly released movie, The First Step, explores the common humanity of people from widely different backgrounds who are challenged in similar ways.
It documents an effort to get real criminal justice reform through Congress during the heart of the Trump years. In a profound achievement, Van, his team, and stakeholders from across the cultural and political spectrum actually succeeded.
We highly encourage our readers to to watch The First Step.
In the trailer which is attached below a vital point is made. If (this effort) at criminal justice reform can be kept in the bi-partisan space, the effort will have a better chance of survival over the long term.
This lesson can be applied to a myriad of difficult issues.
(From Politico)
…Jones convenes community leaders from South Central Los Angeles and McDowell County West Virginia — many of whom have lost loved ones to drugs or drug-related imprisonment.
This results in arresting scenes, such as the one in which Tylo James, a Black, queer activist from South Central Los Angeles who was born addicted to drugs and now runs a community center, respectfully presses Doug Copenhaver, a conservative Republican president of West Virginia’s Berkeley County Council, whose 22-year-old son was addicted to opioids and died by suicide in 2011. “Shouldn’t how we vote reflect our values?” James asks him of his support for Donald Trump. “I think we have values that align but come into question when we vote differently. Things that folks where I come from have fought for decades to secure, he’s undoing it now for us. … How do you respond to those folks?” Copenhaver tells her: “I don’t have the answer.” He pauses. “If it makes a difference, I’d walk with you. In L.A. Shoulder to shoulder.” She grins. “Come out, I invite you out. Come to South L.A. We would love to have you.” They do go to L.A. And then they go to D.C. And with their work and that of others standing shoulder to shoulder, the bill becomes a law.
Click here for the article.
Unknowns swirl around how plastic particles impact the climate
“…skies heavily polluted with plastic will probably make both more high-altitude ice clouds, which tend to warm the Earth’s surface, and more low-altitude water clouds, which tend to cool the Earth.”
What impact do airborne micro-plastics have on the Earth’s climate?
This is an interesting question. There have been those who have openly proposed seeding clouds to reduce climate change. Others have warned that seeding, that is putting particles into the air which then encourage the formation of clouds and rain, may make climate change worse. The truth is we don’t know.
Some believe that micro-plastics might act as cloud seeding agents. If there is more cloud cover more solar radiation is reflected. This in turn cools the planet. At least this is how the theory goes. But again we don’t know.
Regardless, a robust examination and discussion of things like micro-plastics in the atmosphere, kelp forest sequestration of carbon, and all sorts of seemingly “fringey” areas of science are vital to our understanding of climate change. Who knows from where a breakthrough might come?
(We’ll be keeping an eye out.)
(From Science Times)
Revell and her colleagues took a stab at trying to model how microplastics might affect temperature by either reflecting or absorbing sunlight, a calculation of what’s known as “radiative forcing.” For simplicity’s sake, they assumed that plastic is always clear, even though that’s not true (and darker material tends to absorb more sunlight), and that the global concentration is uniformly one particle per cubic meter, which is on the order of 1,000 times lower than concentrations measured in, say, London.
With those assumptions, Revell found that plastic’s direct impact on radiative forcing is “so small as to be insignificant.” But, importantly, if concentrations reach 100 particles per cubic meter (which they already have in many spots), plastics could have about the same magnitude of radiative forcing as some aerosols already included in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessments. In other words, plastics become noteworthy. But whether they would warm, or cool, the Earth is unknown.
Click here for the article.
From The UK: We need sensible plans for net zero – not higher taxes
Misinformation Watch: 'Disinformation risk assessment' lacks transparency, Shows bias against the right
As a longtime writer/editor in the daily news space and as a close observer of the daily news cycle over many years I can tell you that there is clear evidence of left bias from many who purport to be the “fact checkers”. (But certainly not all. There are a number of very fair “fact checking” sites out there.) I have seen it over and over. Certain “fact checking” organizations stake a partisan position and then cast anything that varies from that partisan position as “right-biased” or use the talking point of the day, “misinformation” to characterize stories that particular organization disagrees with.
One example of this sort of thing, widely recognized, is how The New York Times so often uses the term “conspiracy theory” (these days) to characterize many stories that don’t fall within its accepted narrative. It’s a way of flatly dismissing some stories without having to counter them. It’s a time honored tool. But The New York Times is a private entity.
The case of the Global Disinformation Index is much more dangerous to speech (at least potentially). This is because until very recently GDI was funded in part by the US taxpayer. GDI was used to scare advertisers from certain publications, most of which happen to be conservative or libertarian publications. Essentially the GDI acted as a quasi-official censorship tool.
Reason.com (which was targeted by GDI) gets things right when it says;
If a self-described disinformation-tracking organization wants to loudly proclaim, in partisan fashion, that advertisers should only use mainstream and liberal news sites, it has that right. But advertisers should take note of its obvious bias, total lack of transparency in detailing media outlets' scores, and other methodological issues. And the State Department certainly has no business helping to fund it.
(From Allsides.com)
GDI lists the 10 “least risky” news sources as:
The first four on the list are rated as “Minimum” risk. The following six are rated as “Low” risk. In its report, GDI also states that these “ten lowest-risk sites published content that was generally free of Bias, Negative targeting and Sensational language.”
GDI’s 10 “riskiest” are listed as:
Is this to say that every publication listed, or targeted, is a paragon of honesty and integrity? Certainly not. EVERY publication has its failings but we’d argue that the publications in GDI’s “good” category are generally no more virtuous than those listed in the “bad” category (above). We read all of these publications regularly. We’ve read all of these publications for years. All of them are often good. Sometimes they screw up. But targeting and threatening publications just because they stray from an official narrative that you endorse, especially when there are taxpayer dollars flowing to your organization, is not kosher.
After this story broke the State Department severed ties with GDI incidentally.
We highlight the attached story because in these fractious times it is important to see why some people, particularly conservatives in this country, feel under siege. If people feel under siege they are less open to dialogue, and dialogue and good faith is what we need desperately. Everyone needs to know that they can speak freely in the United States. Free speech is a foundational element of this country. Everyone should be free to express their views (and sometimes this can be ugly) without fear of government sanction, quazi or otherwise.
Click here for the article.
NY Times: The wisdom and prophecy of Jimmy Carter’s ‘malaise’ speech
What actually happened in East Palestine?
National Transportation Safety Board official on toxic Ohio train derailment: 'Enough with the politics on this'
Listen to last week’s A Moment of BS from Bill Shireman
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