The unimportant news thread

[Todd]

Italy's fascist past under scrutiny a century after putsch

Kind of an odd headline.

[drogulus]

     How the Fed Causes (Model) Inflation

The good news is the research arms of the Fed and the BLS are aware of this modeling problem and seem to be taking steps to address it. The bad news is, I see no evidence that the Federal Reserve itself has recognized its own role in this inflation complexity.

In the wonderful world of economic modeling, despite falling prices, CPI has remained persistently higher, and we must consider the role of the Federal Reserve as part of the reason why.

Would you have ever guessed that Jerome Powell would turn out to be one of the biggest agents of Inflation?

     I mentioned this before, without the detail because I didn't know it. It just seemed intuitive to me that raising costs on consumers would be inflationary on consumers who have to live somewhere. The added detail about how the CPI is calculated completes the picture.

     Letting inflation subside without double punishment is looking better and better.

[Todd]

With Fossil Fuel Companies Facing Pressure to Reduce Carbon Emissions, Private Equity Is Buying Up Their Aging Oil, Gas and Coal Assets

Environmentalists fear the sell-offs could keep those facilities operating for years into the future, worsening climate change.

All told, private equity firms have invested more than $1 trillion in the energy sector, including renewable energy, since 2010

The trillion dollar number is supposed to be scary, though the scale of energy investment globally is so massive that a trillion per decade ends up being (large) peanuts.  Still, a good article.

[geralmar]

Scientific breakthrough I wasn't anxiously anticipating:

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2022/october/aye-aye-recorded-picking-nose-eating-snot-first-time.html?utm_campaign=mb&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=morning_brew

[Todd]

Lula beats President Bolsonaro to win Brazil election

[Todd]

From EcoWatch: In Clean Energy Backslide, Germany Ditches Wind Farm for Coal Mine Expansion

[Todd]

[Todd]

Dutch authorities allow firing of paintballs to scare 'too tame' wolves

[Todd]

From Inside Climate News:

Countries Want to Plant Trees to Offset Their Carbon Emissions, but There Isn't Enough Land on Earth to Grow Them

Researchers behind the Land Gap Report say we can't plant our way out of global warming—and it's disingenuous to pretend that we can.

[Todd]

COP27: We're on a highway to climate hell, U.N. boss says

Bon Scott approves of this message.

[Karl Henning]

I'll be away for a few days.

[Karl Henning]

Separately, I just saw an ad for a "senior-friendly chainsaw."

[pjme]

[Todd]

Student ordered to stay 500m away from King Charles and not carry eggs in public after egging arrest

The student suspected of egging King Charles has said he has been banned from carrying eggs in public as part of his bail conditions

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

An Iranian man who lived in a Paris airport for 18 years has died.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63612017

[Todd]

Earth's Population Explodes to 8 Billion Humans This Month

Eight billion folks.  Multiple headlines have been generated, with more to come.  This one intrigues because it is used by a putative scientific outlet, but it uses sensationalist, inaccurate language.  Cool.

[SimonNZ]

Rightwing group pushing US states for law blocking 'political boycott' of firms
Lobbying group Alec wrote model legislation to protect oil companies, big ag and gunmakers from economic backlash

"A powerful rightwing pressure group, the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), is pushing states to adopt a new law shielding all US businesses from "political boycotts".

Although primarily aimed at protecting controversial industries such as fossil fuel companies, big agriculture and gun manufacturers, the proposed legislation is written to prevent boycotts by investors, banks and other companies of any US business.

It comes amid rising consumer pressure on firms over whom they do business with, and follows the decision by major retail stores to stop selling MyPillow products after its chief executive allied himself with Donald Trump's false claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

Alec, which is funded by major corporations, intends to press state legislators to adopt the readymade law, the eliminate political boycotts act, at its closed-door States and Nation Policy Summit in Washington DC at the end of this month.

Some Republican-led states have passed hundreds of pieces of Alec's model legislation almost word for word, including laws pushing the conservative agenda on immigration, voting suppression, the environment, guns and energy policy.

The new model legislation requires every "governmental entity", which covers a wide array of bodies from state government to local police departments and public universities, to include a clause in contracts requiring businesses to pledge they "will not engage in economic boycotts".

According to the text of the proposed law, which is written by Alec's lawyers so that all a legislature has to do is fill in the name of its state, it is a response to banks, investment funds and corporations refusing to invest in or do business with industries that damage the environment or are aligned with oppressive laws.

"Corporations are boycotting and sanctioning essential industries, such as fossil fuel and agriculture producers, by refusing to provide them with products or services or imposing undue burdens on them," the proposed law says.

"Banks are increasingly denying financing to creditworthy companies solely for the purpose of marketing their environmental or social justice credentials, to the detriment of their clients and shareholders."

The huge investment company BlackRock is among nearly 400 financial firms to have sold off shares in big oil companies over their failure to pursue sufficiently climate-friendly policies.

Some corporations are increasingly concerned that consumer pressure will cause other companies to boycott them over their funding of rightwing politicians and causes, or social positions.

The model legislation follows an Alec meeting in Atlanta in the summer at which participants launched a push against "woke capitalism", claiming that boycotts may break financial laws.

"The collusion of corporations, and institutions to boycott, divest from, or sanction any industry may violate existing antitrust and fiduciary laws and harms consumers, shareholders, and states," the model legislation states.

The readymade law gives state attorneys general the power to "examine under oath any person" in connection with a boycott, and to require them to file a report about their activities. The attorney general would also be able to "examine any record, book, document, account or paper as he may deem necessary" and to impound them.

The eliminate political boycotts act has its roots in legislation already on the books in more than 30 states to block boycotts of Israel over its oppression of the Palestinians.

For that reason the proposed new law does not extend to individuals after several states were forced to amend legislation when courts ruled that requiring individuals to sign pledges not to boycott Israel intruded on free speech rights.

Kansas revised its law in 2018 after a Wichita teacher brought a federal lawsuit in response to being told to sign a pledge not to boycott Israel in order to keep her job. Similarly, Texas narrowed its law after a speech pathologist lost her contract with a school district.

However, an Arkansas newspaper publisher has asked the supreme court to intervene after a federal appeals court upheld a 2017 state law that cost the publication advertising by the state university after it refused to sign the commitment not to boycott Israel.

The latest model legislation expands on another law written by Alec, the Energy Discrimination Elimination Act, introduced since the beginning of the year and passed by several states to shield big oil from share selloffs and other measures to protest the fossil fuel industry's role in the climate crisis.

Legislation written by Alec has been introduced thousands of times in state legislatures across the country, and passed into law in hundreds of instances. Model laws are written by Alec "taskforces", usually jointly chaired by a state legislator and a representative of an interested industry.

Alec was behind the proliferation of "stand your ground" laws in conservative states, permitting the use of deadly force by any person who feels threatened, which George Zimmerman used as a successful defense for shooting Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012."

[Karl Henning]

An Iranian man who lived in a Paris airport for 18 years has died.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63612017

Deeply sad.

[Todd]

NASA's next-generation Artemis mission heads to moon on debut test flight

A story that truly lives up to the description of "unimportant".

[LKB]

NASA's next-generation Artemis mission heads to moon on debut test flight

A story that truly lives up to the description of "unimportant".

Your comment displays a short-sighted and parochial viewpoint. Unsurprising though.