Notices by Chuck Darwin (cdarwin@c.im), page 8

Summer 2024 sweltered to Earth’s #hottest on record, making it even more likely that this year will end up as the warmest humanity has measured, European climate service Copernicus reported Friday.

And if this sounds familiar, that’s because the records the globe shattered were set just last year as human-caused climate change, with a temporary boost from an El Nino, keeps dialing up temperatures and extreme weather, scientists said.

The northern meteorological summer — June, July and August — averaged 16.8 degrees Celsius (62.24 degrees Fahrenheit), according to Copernicus.

That’s 0.03 degrees Celsius (0.05 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the old record in 2023.

Copernicus records go back to 1940, but American, British and Japanese records, which start in the mid-19th century, show the last decade has been the hottest since regular measurements were taken and likely in about 120,000 years, according to some scientists

https://apnews.com/article/heat-climate-change-record-broiling-hot-699026b8e57cc8404bc73d20e223500e

Harris and Biden pitch for steel votes in Pittsburgh in first joint appearance on campaign trail

Kenny Cooper, president of the IBEW union, introduced Biden and Harris,
noting that the passage of the Butch Lewis Act by Harris’s tie-breaking vote
saved the benefits of two million union members.
“They were only tied up for one reason,” he said. “We couldn’t find a Republican senator.”

Between comments about the administration’s support for organized labor and Donald Trump’s attacks on labor organizing,
Harris spoke against the pending purchase of US Steel by Nippon Steel,
arguing that the iconic Pennsylvania steel company should remain in the hands of American owners.

“US Steel is an historic American company and it is vital for our nation to maintain strong American steel companies.
And I couldn’t agree more with President Biden: US Steel should remain American-owned and American-operated.”

The United Steelworkers union, representing about 10,000 US Steel employees, opposes the $14.9bn deal,
taking issue with Nippon Steel’s alleged violations of the union’s rights concerning change of control under their four-year basic labor agreement signed in 2022. The union and the companies are in arbitration talks.

Harris again voiced support for the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) act, a broad basket of labor reforms that would spur union organizing.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/sep/03/kamala-harris-joe-biden-campaign-labor-day-pittsburgh?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

"Actually, but you know the good news ⚠️ it's so crazy that my poll numbers go up.
❓Whoever heard you get indicted for interfering with a presidential election,
❌where you have every right to do it,
❇️you get indicted,
🔥and your poll numbers go up.
✅When people get indicted your poll numbers go down,"
Trump said during a recorded interview that aired Sunday night
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-every-right-interfere-presidential-election-1947342

After a brutal 2023, the vibes around #self-#driving #cars are improving.

#Cruise, the industry leader whose vehicle was involved in a #horrific San Francisco #crash last fall, has #rebooted under new management,

while rival #Waymo is #expanding to serve broader swaths of the Bay Area and Los Angeles
and #Tesla is promising a new #robotaxi service.

Although Americans say they remain #wary of autonomous driving,
boosters insist there is nothing to fear.
In fact, they foresee roads full of self-driving cars that are both #safer and #cleaner than the status quo,
a tantalizing prospect in a country where transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions and residents are several times more likely to die in a crash than those living in other rich nations.

Enticing though they are, such arguments conceal a #logical #flaw.
As a classic 19th-century theory known as a #Jevons #paradox explains,
even if autonomous vehicles eventually work perfectly
— an enormous “if”
— they are🆘 likely to increase total #emissions and crash #deaths,
simply because ⭐️people will use them so much. 

https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/2/24232386/self-driving-car-jevons-paradox-robotaxi-waymo-cruise

Solar energy is the most widely available energy resource on Earth,
and its economic attractiveness is improving fast in a cycle of increasing investments.

Here we use data-driven conditional technology and economic forecasting modelling to establish which zero carbon power sources could become dominant worldwide.

We find that, due to technological trajectories set in motion by past policy,
a global irreversible solar tipping point may have passed where solar energy gradually comes to dominate global electricity markets,
without any further climate policies.

Uncertainties arise, however, over grid stability in a renewables-dominated power system,
the availability of sufficient finance in underdeveloped economies,
the capacity of supply chains and political resistance from regions that lose employment.

Policies resolving these barriers may be more effective than price instruments to accelerate the transition to clean energy

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-41971-7

#Project2025 is a receptacle of many of the GOP policy fantasies,
including regulating IVF, using the Comstock Act to regulate the mailing of abortion pills and abolishing no-fault divorce.
These are policies that make it
less safe to be a pregnant woman,
less safe to be a married woman and
less safe to be a woman generally.

Don’t let the Republican rhetoric scare you, as distasteful as it may be
— but when it comes to Republican policies, we should definitely be very scared
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trumps-misogynistic-attacks-kamala-harris-arent-even-worst-part-rcna169141

Musk’s Twitter investors have lost billions in value

Under Musk, X’s valuation has cratered — as Musk has acknowledged — leaving it worth as little as half of what he paid.

Since late last year, Fidelity has consistently valued the X stake in one of its funds 70 percent below the purchase price, a drop in valuation first reported by Axios.

Figures released Friday show that Fidelity now values that stake about 72 percent lower than when Musk took over X, taking its overall portion of the company from a valuation of around $316 million to $88 million

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/09/01/musk-twitter-investors-underwater/

Texas resident used Apple AirTags to discover plastics taken to Houston recycling centers aren't being recycled

The investigative report shows the facility is funded by #ExxonMobil.

So, O&G is still trying to greenwash their wanton production of virgin plastic through recycling programs?

It’s been decades since O&G’s own researchers (and later suppressed) determined recycling was not commercially viable.

The Public is already aware of this (the woman who started own investigation with AirTags was skeptical of city claims).

A mere 5% of plastic produced is recycled [1]

The real headline here is that Houston (effectively O&G’s backyard) public officials are clueless.

[1] https://www.npr.org/2022/10/24/1131131088/recycling-plastic

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41419400

Religious broadcasters sue IRS over rule limiting political speech for nonprofits

A coalition of religious broadcasters and churches is suing the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over a long-standing rule that forbids certain nonprofits, including churches, from supporting politicians and political campaigns.

The complaint, filed on Wednesday in U.S. district court by the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB), argues that churches “are placed in a unique and discriminatory status” by the Internal Revenue Code.

That code automatically classifies almost all churches as 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations. Since 1954, the Johnson Amendment of the tax code — named after then-Texas Sen. Lyndon Johnson — forbids 501(c)(3) nonprofits from endorsing or opposing political candidates.

Some efforts have been made over the years to repeal or loosen the Johnson Amendment, including a failed effort as part of the 2017 tax reform bill and a religious freedom executive order signed by President Donald Trump that same year.

In their lawsuit, meanwhile, the religious broadcasters — along with two churches and the nonprofit Intercessors for America — argue that the tax code punishes churches by “silenc[ing] their speech while providing no realistic alternative for operating in any other fashion.”

The plaintiffs assert in the suit that the 501(c)(3) rules are applied unevenly and that there is “no apparent rational basis for determining which 501(c)(3) organizations will be permitted to proceed and which will be penalized for violating the Johnson Amendment.”

https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2024/08/29/religious-broadcasters-sue-irs-over-rule-limiting-political-speech-for-nonprofits/

#Leonard #Leo’s Swing-State #Voter #Purge

Lawyers with deep connections to the Supreme Court dark-money operative are attacking voting rights in battleground states in the lead-up to the 2024 election.

https://www.levernews.com/leonard-leos-swing-state-voter-purge/

It's "corporate",
not "mainstream" media

https://www.dworkinsubstack.com/p/time-to-stop-calling-them-mainstream?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

So to recap, the former president

— who remains burdened by a dreadful record related to respecting U.S. troops and veterans

— isn’t just caught up in a controversy about exploiting one of the nation’s most sacred spaces
and ignoring Arlington’s rules against politicization,

his campaign team is simultaneously picking a public fight with the United States Army less than 10 weeks from Election Day.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/new-details-suggest-trumps-arlington-controversy-wont-end-soon-rcna168944

Steve Silberman was a longtime science journalist and author of the 2015 book “NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity.”

His work appeared in many publications, including Wired, The New York Times, the New Yorker, and Scientific American.

His TED Talk “The Forgotten History of Autism” has been viewed nearly 2 million times on the nonprofit’s website.

Silberman was also a diehard Grateful Dead fan who wrote liner notes for the Bay Area-born band’s albums, as well as the 1994 book “Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads,” with fellow Deadhead David Shenk.

Silberman went on to produce the Grateful Dead five-disc box set “So Many Roads (1965-1995)” and worked on liner notes for other box sets as recently as this year.

“My name is Steve Silberman, and I confess I lead a double life,” the author said in an interview on the “Dead Air Radio” program.

Silberman described this “double life” as “interestingly weird,” saying his science writing “pays the rent,”
while his Grateful Dead writing “certainly does not pay the rent but is fun and allows me to listen to a lot of music that I loved seeing when I was a kid.”
https://sfstandard.com/2024/08/29/grateful-dead-autism-writer-steve-silberman-dies/

On August 13 President #Biden toured #cancer #research #facilities at Tulane University in New Orleans and deemed the developments "incredible."

Why it matters:
⭐️He announced about $150 million in federal awards during the visit as part of his #cancer "#moonshot" initiative that aims to ❇️cut the cancer death rate in half by 2047. ❇️

The big picture:

"We are the land of possibilities," the president said, adding that the funding will help get new tools into operating rooms.

Nearly 2 million Americans are diagnosed with solid tumor cancers each year, and #surgical #removal is often the first step in their treatment, the White House said.

Tulane is getting $22.9 million to invent 💥new imaging systems that will allow surgeons to see in real time if they removed all cancer cells while their patients are still under anesthesia.
It currently can take days to weeks for doctors to know if all of a tumor has been removed, according to J. Quincy Brown, the lead researcher on Tulane's project called MAGIC-SCAN.
💥The goal is to get that down to 10 minutes within the next five years, he said.

Zoom out:
Seven other teams are working on additional developments geared at making #tumor-#removal #surgeries more successful.

The awardees are
Dartmouth College,
Johns Hopkins University,
Rice University,
University of California in San Francisco,
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign,
University of Washington and
Cision Vision in California.

Their projects include inventing a #new #microscope and creating #new #imaging #systems to visualize blood vessels and nerves

https://www.axios.com/local/new-orleans/2024/08/13/president-biden-150-million-cancer-fighting-invention-moonshot

This timeline helps to visualize the key dates leading up to and following the 2024 presidential election in the United States.

• Aug. 1: Voting to officially nominate Kamala Harris begins.
• Aug. 2: JD Vance turns 40.
• Aug. 7: Democrats’ target to finalize a nominee.
• Aug. 19-22: Democratic National Convention.
• Sept. 6: North Carolina is the first state to begin mailing ballots.
• Sept. 10: ABC News presidential debate.
• Sept. 18: Possible Donald Trump hush money trial sentencing.
• Sept. 20: Widespread early voting begins in several states.
• Sept. 28: “Saturday Night Live” season premiere.
• Oct. 1: CBS News vice presidential debate.
• Oct. 20: Kamala Harris turns 60.
• Nov. 5: Election Day.
• Nov. 20: Joe Biden turns 82.
• Dec. 11: Deadline for states to issue Certificates of Ascertainment.
• Dec. 17: Electors vote in their states.
• Jan. 3, 2025: New Congress begins.
• Jan. 6, 2025: Congress counts electoral votes.
• Jan. 20, 2025: Inauguration Day.

US pilot who took magic mushrooms and tried to cut engines says his behavior was ‘unfathomable’

An Alaska Airlines pilot who ⚠️attempted to shut off the engines of a passenger plane mid-flight ⚠️after ingesting #magic #mushrooms said his actions were “unfathomable”, in some of his first public remarks
after he was indicted on 83 counts of #reckless #endangerment.

Emerson, who as an off-duty pilot was authorized to ride in the cockpit’s jump seat,
tried to disable the plane’s engines by deploying the fire-suppression system, according to the federal complaint.

The plane, flight number 2059 operated by Horizon Air traveling from Everett, Washington, bound for San Francisco, was diverted to Portland, where it landed safely with more than 80 people on board.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/23/us-pilot-magic-mushrooms-plane-engines?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

It’s Eugene Vindman.

Is there ANYTHING I can say to convince you to donate to my campaign for Congress today?

What if we told you I am one of the Democrats’ best chances of taking the House back from Republicans?

What if I told you my MAGA opponent is SCARED to run against me and has been attacking me non-stop?

And what if we told you that we are pacing behind our fundraising goals and if we don’t catch up, we won’t have the resources to win against our Trump-backed opponent?

Please. Chip in right now:

https://vindmanforcongress.com

https://vindman4va.com/89Shch

The Department of Justice and eight states on Friday
💪🏽sued the maker of rent-setting software that ⚠️critics blame for sending rents soaring in apartment buildings across the country.
The civil lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Greensboro, North Carolina, accuses Texas tech company ❌RealPage of
taking part in an #illegal #price-#fixing scheme to reduce competition among landlords so they can 🔹boost prices — and profits.

It also alleges the company took over the market for such price-setting software, effectively #monopolizing it.

“#RealPage has built a business out of frustrating the natural forces of vigorous competition,” said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter at a news conference Friday with top department officials.

✅“The time has come to stop this illegal conduct.”
The antitrust lawsuit is the latest
— and most dramatic
— development to follow a 2022 ProPublica investigation that examined RealPage’s role in helping landlords set rent prices across the country,
an arrangement that legal experts said could result in #cartel-like behavior.
Since then, senators have introduced legislation seeking to ban such practices,
tenants have filed dozens of ongoing federal lawsuits,
and San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors moved to bar landlords from using similar algorithms to set rents.

https://www.propublica.org/article/realpage-lawsuit-doj-antitrustdoj-files-antitrust-suit-against-maker-of-rent-setting-algorithm

Donald Trump has been #leeching #cash from an eyebrow-raising source: ➡️ his campaign.
According to a CNN analysis of federal campaign finance data, Trump and associated political groups have 💥funneled more than $28 million in campaign donations into his businesses 💥since he first ran for office in 2015.

Other Republicans are reportedly also 🆘using their campaign budgets on Trump’s businesses in order to earn favor with the conservative populist.
Republican candidates and conservative investors, including Bernie Moreno, former Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker, and Arizona Senate hopeful Kari Lake, have spent more on Trump’s businesses this year than at any point since 2016, reported CNN.
Those expenses added up by way of “Mar-a-Lago fundraisers, stays at Trump’s hotels, and flights on the former president’s private jet,” the outlet reported.
❌Federal campaigns and PACs spent nearly $3.2 million on Trump properties in the first half of 2024 alone, ❗️though 80 percent of that came from Trump’s own campaign funds as well as political groups aligned with the Republican presidential nominee, reported CNN.

https://newrepublic.com/post/185228/report-trump-profit-campaign-republicans-mar-a-lago

Concerns around election certification are mounting
as county boards staffed with election deniers try to stall and prolong the process.

In Nevada, for example, the Washoe County Commissioners in July voted to certify the recount for June primary election races after Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar (D) took legal action.

The Nevada Supreme Court dismissed the case after the commission certified the vote,
but didn’t rule definitively on the issue, leaving open the possibility that a similar incident could happen again.

https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/washoe-county-wont-certify-primary-election-results-nevada-secretary-of-state-seeks-court-order/