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Overnight News Digest for September 14, 2022 (Same old story edition) [1]

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Date: 2022-09-14

OND is a regularon Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time.

Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.

Our top story — One billionaire gets it right.

The founder of the outdoor brand Patagonia has relinquished his ownership in the business and directed its profits to fight climate change. Yvon Chouinard, who became famous for alpine climbs in Yosemite National Park and then as a manufacturer of outdoor gear, has transferred his family's ownership of Patagonia to two new entities, one of them a nonprofit organization that will use the businesses' annual profits to fight climate change, the company said in a news release Wednesday. "Instead of extracting value from nature and transforming it into wealth, we are using the wealth Patagonia creates to protect the source. We’re making Earth our only shareholder," Chouinard, 83, said in the statement.

x Hey, friends, we just gave our company to planet Earth. OK, it’s more nuanced than that, but we’re closed today to celebrate this new plan to save our one and only home. We’ll be back online tomorrow.https://t.co/fvRFDgOzVZ — Patagonia (@patagonia) September 14, 2022

Our top story that nobody but DailyKos seems to be talking about: There may be a national rail strike on Friday that would trash the supply chain yet again, solely because management wants to reap vast profits while not paying their workers. And firing them over sick days — in the middle of a pandemic!

x Union president to @LaurenKGurley: “The average American would not know that we get fired for going to the doctor. This one thing has our members most enraged. We have guys who were punished for taking time off for a heart attack and covid. It’s inhumane.”https://t.co/wtMyAfoQcV — Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) September 14, 2022

x Railroad workers have been without a contract for 3 years.



They’re on call 24/7, work 80+ hour weeks, have zero sick days.



Their whole lives are dictated by the whims of the rail carriers. pic.twitter.com/1DIbjtbCsm — More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) September 14, 2022

x The railroad companies are moving towards a LOCKOUT.



There is not a single worker on strike on the US rails right now.



There *are* CEOs shutting down rail lines and withholding goods to shock Congress into forcing a deal on 100,000 workers. https://t.co/HDyEueQvLe — Jonah Furman (@JonahFurman) September 14, 2022

x -The Presidential Emergency Board, which was supposed to propose a fair settlement to avert a strike, ignored key bargaining issues on work rules/quality of life, namely time off



-Rail carriers have effectively begun a lockout this week, before the end of the cooling-off period — Jeff Schuhrke (@JeffSchuhrke) September 14, 2022

Here’s something pretty

x This is one of my favorite data visualizations, especially this time of year (season transitions) - migration patterns of birds varying with air temperature using community science observations. I hope you enjoy it! 😊



[Animation created by @NOAA_SOS at: https://t.co/PtXtHcjFlb] pic.twitter.com/YLtuXuXpFp — Zack Labe (@ZLabe) September 15, 2022

You may be royally sick of hearing about the British Royals... But there’s a good climate angle to the new reign.

As Prince of Wales [Charles] spent decades campaigning, cajoling, and convening meetings to drive action on environmental issues… King Charles' interests have ranged from tropical forests to the ocean depths, from sustainable farming practices to water security. They began long before such concerns became mainstream. Increasingly he has focused on tackling global warming, which he regards as one of the greatest challenges humanity has ever faced. He was a major presence at the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow last year, urging world leaders to work together to save the planet during a speech at the opening ceremony. He even said he understood why some people felt motivated to take to the streets with organisations like Extinction Rebellion, noting "people should really notice how despairing so many young people are". "We need a vast military-style campaign to marshal the strength of the global private sector," Charles said when he opened COP26. One senior British politician told me he could imagine Charles making a similar speech as king. "You won't hear him expressing a view on fracking," he said, "but I can imagine him making a speech on the need to take more urgent action on climate." The Guardian — Private equity still investing billions in dirty energy despite pledge to clean up

Private equity firms pumping billions of dollars into dirty energy projects are exposing investors, including pensioners, to unknown financial risks as the planet burns and governments face escalating pressure to act, new research finds. The first-of-its-kind climate risks scorecard ranks Carlyle, Warburg Pincus and KKR as the worst offenders among eight major private equity companies with significant fossil fuel portfolios. All three continue investing heavily in greenhouse-gas-emitting projects with no adequate plan on transitioning away from oil and gas, according to the analysis by two financial watchdog non-profits of publicly available information. The firms also have scant transparency on political and climate lobbying, the report finds.

Common Dreams — Big oil and big coal are using the courts to SLAPP activists who protest their dirty energy projects “The fossil fuel industry has responded to growing public concern about climate change by retaliating against those who challenge its practices,” said Kirk Herbertson, senior policy adviser for EarthRights and the author of the report. “We cannot let the oil, gas, and mining industries weaponize the legal system to silence their critics.” According to EarthRights, the report—titled The Fossil Fuel Industry’s Use of SLAPPs and Judicial Harassment in the United States—is the first to quantify the lengths fossil fuel companies go to within the judicial system to silence their critics, such as four anti-fracking activists in Colorado and a reporter who filmed their protests in 2018, numerous groups and people who demonstrated against the Dakota Access Pipeline, and a grassroots group that spoke out about public health concerns regarding a coal ash landfill in Alabama. In addition to dozens of SLAPP cases, the report details “abusive subpoenas,” a legal tactic used frequently by oil companies ExxonMobil and Chevron, among others. Although many of the subpoenas sought by fossil fuel giants were dismissed by courts, they can still have “a chilling effect” and discourage campaigners from communicating about their work. Metabolic — Are organic cotton totes really worse than plastic bags?

You may have seen the climate deniers tossing out crazy statistics, like you’d have to re-use a cotton bag 20,000 times for it to have as good a climate impact as a single plastic bag. There’s just one problem with that — it’s based on some spectacularly bullshit assumptions.

The source behind the claims is credible: a study backed by the Government of Denmark into the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of grocery carrier bags, which assesses the environmental impacts of various carrier bag types used in the country, and compares the results. It considers the whole life-cycle of the products, starting from the raw material acquisition until their end-of-life. The study makes a big assumption: that natural gas is used to power irrigation of cotton fields… much of the electricity is assumed to be produced by natural gas. During the transportation of the gas, two fire-suppressing and cooling gases which are known as Halon 1211 & 1311 are used in the gas pipeline distribution system. These gases have very high potential in ozone depletion Procuring cotton fibers from sources that do not use electricity, or use electricity from renewable sources, can substantially lower the impact. As a result, the environmental impact of cotton bags would become much more competitive compared to the LDPE bag. The data is correct but it needs to be accompanied with proper context. It is an intensive farming method using energy from natural gas, rather than the cotton per se, which causes these problems.

There’s an election coming… and while 538 still has the Dems as underdogs in holding on to the House, there may be wider forces at play than a “midterm curse”:

x Do voters want Democrats or Republicans in Congress? https://t.co/4f9XOMeSRu — FiveThirtyEight (@FiveThirtyEight) September 14, 2022

(For one thing, if you drill down from the generic congressional ballot average into the individual polling, you’ll find that while most pollsters are now showing the Dems +2 to +5, there are a couple of GOP pollsters who are flooding the zone with GOP +5 and +7 results. I hate to unskew the polls, but...)

And then there’s this:

x We're excited to have worked with NARAL on this report detailing the first data focused on general election turnout, in this case in GA. It shows a level of Dem engagement, especially among women and Black voters, that exceeds 2020 levels, in context of the overall electorate. https://t.co/NB2K38ndfF — Tom Bonier (@tbonier) September 14, 2022

And Lindsey Graham just gave us a remarkable gift: Rather than dissembling the way Youngkin did to win last November in Virginia, he’s introduced a national abortion ban that lays it all out, exactly what a GOP Congress would mean

Unfortunately, many genetic and physical defects can only be detected after the 15th week of pregnancy. As The 19th reported in August, the earliest point when doctors can detect anomalies is between 15 and 22 weeks, when scans show fetal organ structures. Certain abnormalities detected at this stage, like Trisomy 18 and anencephaly, render fetuses “incompatible with life,” meaning they will die during birth or shortly thereafter. At most, if carried to term, these children will live just for hours or days in immense pain. And continuing the pregnancy often puts the patient at heightened risk of medical complications. The lack of an exception for fetal anomalies in Graham’s bill is intentional. For years, the anti-abortion movement has sought to outlaw abortions due to fetal “disability.” Before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, at least nine states had passed these bans. Three states also gagged doctors from even raising the possibility of termination with patients after diagnosing fetal abnormalities. When, exactly, does a complication become so severe that termination is “necessary” to save the patient’s life? That’s up to the doctor’s “reasonable medical judgment.” If prosecutors disagree with their decision, they can bring federal felony charges. If the doctor fails to persuade a jury of their proper “judgment,” they face five years in prison.

x Holy. Shit. Republicans’ newly-introduced national abortion ban would put doctors in prison for up to 5 years, force women to undergo extremely invasive transvaginal ultrasounds, and keep in place statewide bans that force rape victims to give birth. https://t.co/I0XzUW2HOS — No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) September 14, 2022

Meanwhile, the Repubs continue to go full-bore MAGA, as the mainstream media continues to try to mainstream them...

x It is insane NYT orthodoxy that “the GOP” is made up of reasonable people. So when actual Republican voters vote, it is “bad for the party”. Also note the use of “some Republicans” in lieu of “Republican political strategists we like” pic.twitter.com/YU6NJj3uv3 — Dan Froomkin/PressWatchers.org (@froomkin) September 14, 2022

What does racism look like? How about: Outrage that poor folks might spend their welfare pittance on the wrong things… while looting millions from the welfare program you administer to fill the pockets of your cronies.

x .@JoyAnnReid: "Mississippi is in the midst of the largest fraud investigation in the state's history after investigators found that $70 million that was supposed to go to child welfare was spent on pet projects for the wealthy." #TheReidOut pic.twitter.com/iKkFLzguNR — The ReidOut (@thereidout) September 15, 2022

x Weird how the same party that popularized the derogatory and racist slur “welfare queen” stole $5 million from Mississippi’s welfare funds for a brand-new stadium used by the daughter of Brett Favre, a Republican Party loyalist



Funny how that works 🤔 — Lindy Li (@lindyli) September 14, 2022

So… this trailer dropped, for the new live-action Disney film. And of course, there was outrage in MAGAstan...

x Out of the sea, wish I could be... part of that world.



Disney's The Little Mermaid is coming to theaters May 26, 2023. pic.twitter.com/lUw5BmYRK5 — Walt Disney Studios (@DisneyStudios) September 9, 2022

Can mermaids be Black? Can the Little Mermaid be Black? Can orcs and elves and hobbitses by Black? Ugly minds demand ugly answers!

x Actual scientist here: mermaids apparently possess mammary glands and therefore also lungs. Ergo they would need to breathe air on the surface like all marine mammals, not hang out on the sea floor. Right whales and orcas are black. Sperm whales gray. Seals: gray, brown, black 🙄 pic.twitter.com/kQ63p7BHxJ — Dr. Sandra Steingraber (@ssteingraber1) September 15, 2022

x So after all the Africans yall threw in the ocean yall surprised a mermaid is Black🤔🤔🤔 — DatWitchBitch🔮✨💫❗ (@Darealbigfine1) September 14, 2022

But let’s end this on a happy note

There’s a WHOLE LOT more of them if you head over to the rest of that thread on Twitter.

Tell us how YOU feel about it in the comments… or share your own stories!

[END]
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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/14/2122941/-Overnight-News-Digest-for-September-14-2022-Same-old-story-edition

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