January 8, 2016

In Age of Extreme Weather, Industrial Farming Threatens Us All

In Age of Extreme Weather, Industrial Farming Threatens Us All
New study reveals even developed nations are on the front lines of food insecurity

by Nadia Prupis, staff writer


Extreme weather is damaging to crop production and threatens food safety worldwide, according to a new study published in Nature on Wednesday.

And the most developed nations like the U.S., which rely heavily on industrial monocultures for food production, are particularly vulnerable.

The study, which evaluated cereal production losses due to extreme weather in 177 countries from 1964-2007, found that "droughts and extreme heat significantly reduced national cereal production by 9–10%....Furthermore, the results highlight ~7% greater production damage from more recent droughts and 8–11% more damage in developed countries than in developing ones."

"That was a surprise to us," Navin Ramankutty, an agricultural geographer at the University of British Columbia and co-author of the study, told Mother Jones on Wednesday. .................(more)

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/01/07/age-extreme-weather-industrial-farming-threatens-us-all

January 8, 2016

Professor Richard Wolff: Debunking the Magnitude of Markets: A Holiday Story

by Richard Wolff.
Published on December 24, 2015


This article originally appeared at Truthout.org

Like all human institutions, markets have strengths and weaknesses. Born in particular historical conditions, they alter over time as conditions change, and eventually die. Just as other institutions - monarchy, slavery, empire, feudalism, tribal society etc. - were sometimes hysterically exalted, depicted as sublimely perfect and eternal, so too were markets. Yet as history produces, develops and extinguishes institutions, it does the same to their exaltations. As institutions lose bigger-than-life pretensions, their weaknesses become visible (and vice versa).

Markets were and are just one mechanism for distributing resources and products among people and enterprises. In markets, prices allocate scarce commodities to the highest bidders for them, to those who can pay the most. Markets differ from manyother, non-market mechanisms that human beings, past and present, have used for those distributions. Religious authorities, community elders, local or regional state authorities, democratically composed collectives, kinship and gift-based organizations developed different, non-market, price mechanisms for distribution. Because recent history exalted markets hysterically, it is time to expose their mixed and often horrific results.

Markets distribute resources and products by means of more or less voluntary, quid-pro-quo exchanges among owners of those resources and products. I offer so many of what I have and you want in exchange for so many of what you have that I want. Capitalism did not invent markets; they coexisted with all the non-capitalist production systems we know of (feudal, slave, individual peasant and so on). Likewise, those different production systems also coexisted with non-market distribution systems.

When capitalists exalted markets, they usually demonized socialism as if it ended markets (something actually existing socialists almost never did). The pre-capitalist slave economic system in the US South grew and spread by means of the markets in slaves as well as slaves' products. In contrast, the early centuries of European feudalism saw a constriction of markets far beyond anything associated with modern socialism. Later European feudalism made more use of markets. The actual history of markets differs from the more ideology-driven renditions of that history.

Despite the pro-market ideology that suffuses capitalist cultures today, inside those cultures markets are sometimes reviled in revealing ways. A typical holiday scene illustrates the point. Some individuals are hosting a dinner; they have purchased, cooked and served the food to friends and relatives gathered at a festive table. All in attendance receive and enjoy their portions, conversation bubbles and solidarity glows. As the meal concludes, one young man is asked to clear the table. He proudly applies the market exaltation brought home from that semester's college economics course. "Sure," he says to all at the table, "that will be $4, please." .............................(more)

http://rdwolff.com/content/debunking-magnitude-markets-holiday-story

January 8, 2016

Chris Hedges and Allan Nairn: America's Death Squads

Published on Jan 5, 2016
In this episode of teleSUR's Days of Revolt, Chris Hedges and investigative journalist Allan Nairn break down the mechanics of U.S. intervention across the globe, and the consequences still unraveling today.

January 8, 2016

Openings and Construction Starts Planned for 2016

[font size="1"]M-1 Rail, Detroit[/font]


[font size="1"]2nd Ave. Subway, New York[/font]


[font size="1"]El Paso Brio bus[/font]

(The Transport Politic) Cities across the country are waking up to new bus and rail lines in droves. In 2016, North American transit agencies are expected to open 245 miles of new fixed-guideway transit lines, including 89 miles of bus rapid transit, 93 miles of commuter rail, 7 miles of heavy rail, 39 miles of light rail, and 18 miles of streetcars. This is more than triple the new mileage of such lines opened in 2015.

Thanks in part to significant expenditures by national governments—such as the Urban Circulator and TIGER grants distributed by the U.S. Department of Transportation—but also due to the allocation of significant new funding from cities and states to transit agencies, 2016 will be a banner year, bringing new rail and bus lines to neighborhood after neighborhood. Projects opening this year, listed in detail below but including nine bus rapid transit lines, eight streetcar routes, seven light rail lines, six commuter rail lines, and two heavy rail extensions, will have cost more than $15 billion to build.* Three of these projects—the Second Avenue Subway in New York, University Link in Seattle, and BART Warm Springs Extension outside of San Francisco—each took more than seven years to build.

In the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, projects costing a total of $70 billion and representing more than 470 miles of new, fixed-guideway transit will be under construction by the end of the year, with completion expected in the coming decade. Much more is in planning.

.....(snip).....

The following new or expanded lines are expected to open to the public in 2016:

• Bus Rapid Transit: Arlington Virginia’s Crystal City-Potomac Yard Transitway; the Bay Area’s Alum Rock/Santa Clara BRT; Denver’s Flatiron Flyer (U.S. 36); El Paso’s Brio Alameda; Jacksonville’s First Coast Flyer Southeast Line; Las Vegas’ Flamingo Corridor; Mexico City’s Línea 6; Toronto’s Viva Highway 7 West/Vaughan; Vancouver Washington’s Vine.

• Commuter Rail: the Bay Area’s SMART Train (Phase 1); Boston’s Wachusett Extension; Denver’s A Line, B Line, and G Line; Los Angeles’ Perris Valley Line.

• Light Rail: Dallas’ South Oak Cliff Blue Line Extension; Denver’s R Line; Los Angeles’ Expo Line (Phase 2) and Gold Line Extension to Azusa; Phoenix’s Northwest Extension (Phase 1); Seattle’s University Link and South 200th Link Extension.

• Heavy Rail: the Bay Area’s BART Warm Springs Extension; New York’s Second Avenue Subway (Phase 1).

• Streetcar: Cincinnati’s Streetcar; Dallas’ Oak Cliff Streetcar Extension; Detroit’s M-1 Rail; Kansas City’s Streetcar; New Orleans’ North Rampart/St. Claude Line; St. Louis’ Loop Trolley; Seattle’s First Hill Streetcar; Washington’s H Street/Benning Road Line.
New stations: Chicago’s Washington/Wabash Station; Los Angeles’ Bob Hope Airport/Hollywood Way Station; Miami’s Central Station; New Jersey’s Westmont Station; New York’s World Trade Center Transportation Center.

.....(snip).....

Looking ahead

One need search no further than the Access to the Region’s Core tunnel proposed to connect New Jersey and New York City to know that even after funding has been secured and construction has begun, changes in estimated costs or new political leadership threaten to derail the completion of transit expansions. In 2015, the Baltimore Red Line, a light rail project that would have run east-west through the city, fell victim to a change in gubernatorial leadership. Several of the projects noted above will also likely be cancelled in the coming months. ...............(more)

http://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2016/01/06/openings-and-construction-starts-planned-for-2016/

January 8, 2016

Rail Shipments Plummet to Recessionary Levels

Rail Shipments Plummet to Recessionary Levels
by Wolf Richter • January 7, 2016


“Weaknesses in energy and manufacturing, as well as world economic softening, had a negative impact on both carload and intermodal traffic in 2015.” Those were the encouraging words of John T. Gray, Senior VP of Policy and Economics at the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

Transportation is a measure of how well the real economy is clicking. Alas rail traffic is getting clobbered.

The deterioration in the second half of 2015 dragged the whole year down from 2014: carloads fell 6.1%, according to the AAR, while intermodal containers and trailers edged up 1.6%, for a total decline of 2.5%. But the deterioration late in the year was a doozie.

In December, total volume dropped 8.9% year over year, with both components down: even intermodal containers and trailers, which had been holding up for much of the year, edged down 0.7%; and carloads (bulk commodities, autos, and the like) plunged 15.6%. ........................(more)

http://wolfstreet.com/2016/01/07/rail-volumes-at-recessionary-levels/

January 8, 2016

“The Sky is Falling” on California Manufacturing, Worst since February 2009

“The Sky is Falling” on California Manufacturing, Worst since February 2009, Might Kick Regional Economy into Recession
by Wolf Richter • January 8, 2016


[font color="blue"]“The wheels have come off this quarter.”[/font]

“The sky is falling” is the perfectly-on-the-mark technical expression by the good folks at the Institute of Applied Research, which publishes the Purchasing Managers’ Index for the Inland Empire – the only manufacturing PMI in California. The Inland Empire is the third-most populous region in California and a big manufacturing and warehousing hub that includes the city of San Bernardino which filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy in 2012.

So the Inland Empire is a good gauge of manufacturing in the rest of California.

Back in 2009, during the depth of the Financial Crisis, the PMI report for February had produced a terrible score of 34.7 (below 50 = contraction). But in March, the index jumped to 45.2, still in a sharp contraction, but less catastrophic than in February. So the Institute of Applied Research endowed its March PMI report with the title, “Perhaps the Sky is not falling.”

Now we’re back – right between these two Financial-Crisis months. Only this time, it’s going in the wrong direction.

The IAR already issued a warning in its September report, with a hesitation. “We are not yet ready to say that ‘the sky is falling.’” .....................(more)

http://wolfstreet.com/2016/01/08/the-sky-is-falling-on-california-manufacturing-worst-since-february-2009-may-drag-regional-economy-into-recession/

January 8, 2016

Keiser Report: Moths to Economic Flames

Published on Jan 7, 2016

Check Keiser Report website for more: http://www.maxkeiser.com/

In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss moths to the flame as corporations, individuals and whole nations self-liquidate on the pyre of bad debts. They look at the incredibly shrinking benefits of massive Japanese money printing and also at the proposal that Western oil giants self-liquidate as the best means of deploying their capital in a newly free oil market where the marginal producer once again sets the price.

January 8, 2016

 This Supreme Court Case Could Make All Public Unions ‘Right to Work’

(The Nation)  On January 11, the Supreme Court will hear argument on Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, a full-bore attack on public-sector unions. The lead Friedrichs plaintiffs, a group of fiercely anti-union California public-school teachers, seek to reverse Abood v. Detroit Board of Education (1977) on First Amendment grounds. Abood has provided the bedrock constitutional analysis and recommended administrative structure for public-sector unionism for nearly 40 years. Its reversal would trigger an earthquake in American labor relations. The legal foundations of thousands of public-sector bargaining agreements, covering millions of workers providing all manner of public services, will disappear. The whole of American public employment, at all levels of government, will become a “right to work” (i.e., right not to pay for service) killing field for unions.

The Court has revisited Abood six times since its first announcement, most recently in last year’s Harris v. Quinn. Strong majorities on the Court have reaffirmed the ruling—five times unanimously—in all of those cases. Every member of the present Court has either authored or joined in at least one of those reaffirmations. But back in Harris, Justice Samuel Alito effectively invited the current challenge: He spent nearly half of his lead opinion attacking Abood on First Amendment grounds before getting to the Court’s decision that it didn’t cover the state-supported homecare workers at issue there.

The right answered this invitation immediately. Friedrichs was thrown together by a variety of business-backed anti-union advocacy groups led by the hard-right Center for Individual Rights. The suit raced through the District Court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals without full evidence or oral argument. (Both courts dismissed it.) With obvious confidence that they would soon be moving up the judicial chain, the Friedrichs lawyers actually asked for this unusual process. And sure enough, despite unanimity among the Circuit Courts against their position, they gained review by the Supreme Court on their first try. There’s an unpleasant, piscine smell to all of this.

Two considerations are important to understanding the substance of Friedrichs. The first is that the First Amendment prohibits “compelled” political speech. This means the government cannot make you pay for advocacy you disagree with. The second is that American labor law requires that any union certified as the exclusive bargaining representative of a group of workers must equally represent and service all of those workers—dues-paying union members and non-paying nonmembers alike. This immediately creates a free-rider problem for unions that, left unattended, will kill their capacity. Why pay for something when you can get its services for free? ...................(more)

http://www.thenation.com/article/this-supreme-court-case-could-make-all-public-unions-right-to-work/

January 8, 2016

The Laquan McDonald Email Dump Shows Rahm Emanuel’s Administration in Crisis Mode

from In These Times:


The Laquan McDonald Email Dump Shows Rahm Emanuel’s Administration in Crisis Mode
A guide to the documents released by City Hall in the aftermath of the Chicago police shooting.

BY REBECCA BURNS


New Year’s Eve in Chicago may lack an iconic midnight ball drop, but this year the city got a massive document drop as it prepared to ring in 2016. On Thursday morning, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office released hundreds of internal emails and other documents related to the October 2014 fatal police shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald. Thirteen months passed before the city released the graphic video showing McDonald’s death, stoking suspicions of a cover-up and fueling calls for Emanuel’s resignation.

The emails were made public in response to open records requests, but some found the timing of the release suspect—Chicagoans headed out to celebrate the new year were unlikely to wade through 3,000 pages split across seven PDFs. Some readers launched an online collaboration to catalog all the emails and their contents for easier reference. The catalog, nearly complete, can be viewed here. Its contributors include Streetsblog Chicago reporter Steven Vance, Chicago Teachers Union member Luke Carman, Twitter user natalie solidarity and numerous others who pitched in after news of the effort began circulating online on New Year’s Eve.

In These Times sifted through the documents and compiled some of the most significant information about City Hall’s handling of the case, annotated for reader reference (the seven files we refer to can be found in chronological order here). The emails show that the McDonald case was on the Emanuel administration’s radar within two months of the fatal shooting.

They also suggest that as the mayor prepared for a tough re-election campaign, his office was often more focused on running damage control than investigating disturbing questions about McDonald’s death and the broader police culture that may have enabled it. Mayor Emanuel’s office did not respond to a request for comment for this article. ................(more)

http://inthesetimes.com/article/18729/laquan-mcdonald-rahm-emanuel-emails-foia

January 7, 2016

Macy's To Cut 4,800 Jobs After Dismal Holiday Sales

Macy's is slashing jobs, a harbinger of hard times for retailers after a holiday season that saw a noticeable shift to online shopping and away from physical stores.

The nation's largest department store chain, which also operates Bloomingdale's, said late Wednesday it is cutting up to 4,800 jobs and trimming its profit outlook after a miserable holiday season.

"I think Macy's is likely to be a canary in a coal mine," said Ken Perkins, president of Retail Metrics, a retail research firm. He said retailers witnessed an acceleration of the shift toward online and mobile holiday spending in 2015.

About 2,110 of the job cuts at Macy's will come from reducing staffing at stores, eliminating duplications in back-office operations and consolidating regional store groups. The remaining 2,710 job cuts will come from the store closings that Macy's announced last fall, spokesman Jim Sluzewski said.

As of Wednesday, Macy's had about 163,000 workers. ....................(more)

http://www.npr.org/2016/01/07/462223321/macys-to-cut-4-800-jobs-after-dismal-holiday-sales