By Slowing Small Solar, Utilities May Miss Technological Wave

In the long run, locally controlled distributed solar energy will always be cheaper than the fossil fuel-based grid – without centrally controlled oil/gas monopolies demanding their cut in the form of shareholder profits and bloated CEO salaries.

Climate Denial Crock of the Week

The overwhelming momentum of solar technology is lower prices, better performance, and, combined with plummeting costs for batteries – it seems inevitable that some utility customers, if not given the option of installing solar on homes or businesses, may eventually decide to drop off the grid, if they are able to self generate sufficient power.

Opportunities would vary by state, but examples might be farmers, business owners with available open space, flat roofs, or parking lots – medium sized customers who, in leaving, increase costs for those consumers who remain on the utility grid.

Sets up utilities for a classic death spiral. Just sayin’.

I’m cheering Utilities as they attempt to change course from a centralized to distributed generation model, and appreciate the “changing course of the aircraft carrier” nature of this problem. DTE is doing some absolutely vital yeoman’s work in deploying wind energy.
But I feel the need…

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1968 Olympics: An Afrikan-Amerikan Summer of Love and Reckoning

Moorbey'z Blog

The 1968 Summer Olympics were 50 years ago this week. Tommie Smith’s and John Carlos’ raised gloved fists were many African Americans’ Summer of Love – and Pride, and Reckoning.

 by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 

Gold medallist Tommie Smith (center) and bronze medalist John Carlos (right) raise their fists at the 1968 Summer Olympics, Wikimedia Commons

In the summer of 1967, 100,000 fashion-forward and social-forward youth gathered in San Francisco in what has famously been called the Summer of Love. Similar gatherings occurred throughout the US, Canada, and Europe, all in an effort to reject the Vietnam War, consumerism, and governments who had proven less than forthright, while promoting the ideals of love, kindness, and compassion. The Summer of Love has been branded and celebrated as a symbol of the 60s. African Americans had another name for that summer: the Long, Hot Summer of 1967. During that time, 150 black communities burned in…

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After Leaked Video, Sanders and Warren Demand Bezos Answer for Amazon’s “Potentially Illegal” Union Busting

Sanders and Warren also demanded that Bezos explain “disturbing allegations” that Amazon has recently fired workers who have raised concerns about the company’s low pay and poor working conditions. Such retaliation violates federal labor law.

 

AGR Daily 60 Second News Bites

After Leaked Video, Sanders and Warren Demand Bezos Answer for Amazon’s “Potentially Illegal” Union Busting

“We write to express our alarm at recent reports that your company is distributing anti-union materials to Whole Foods managers that directs and encourages potentially illegal interference with the rights of thousands of workers.”

After a leaked training video provided a rare glimpse into the aggressive tactics Amazon deploys to prevent its workers from organizing and bargaining for better working conditions, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) sent a letter to CEO Jeff Bezos on Wednesday expressing alarm at his trillion-dollar company’s “potentially illegal anti-union behavior” and demanding a copy of the full video.

via Common Dreams After Leaked Video, Sanders and Warren Demand Bezos Answer for Amazon’s “Potentially Illegal” Union Busting

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Kavanaugh-Starr Coverup In Foster Death Not Going Away.

Vincent Foster’s death under suspicious circumstances in 1993 made his passing that of the highest positioned American government official or public figure since the equally controversial assassinations of United States President John F. Kennedy (JFK) in 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, and Robert F. Kennedy, brother of JFK, also in 1968 – while running for president.

THE ONENESS of HUMANITY

by Jerry Alatalo

“The intention makes the crime.” – ARISTOTLE 

Attorney Allan Favish continues seeking the truth of what happened in 1993 and the death of Vincent Foster, particularly the role played by a then 29-year old attorney and newly sworn-in United States Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

lthough the number of men and women determined to reach the truth about what happened to Bill Clinton White House Deputy Counsel Vincent Foster leading to Foster’s death in July 1993 is very small, they understand the enormous stakes involved in letting go for the future of the country, – so they are staying on in the legal, public awareness battle.

Vincent Foster’s death under suspicious circumstances in 1993 made his passing that of the highest positioned American government official or public figure since the equally controversial assassinations of United States President John F. Kennedy (JFK) in 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. in…

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China and Japan dump US Treasuries

The US relies on selling treasury bonds to other countries to finance its ever growing debt. Russia has dumped 84% of their treasuries this year.

© blogfactory

China and Japan – the two main holders of the US Treasury securities – have trimmed their ownership of notes and bonds in August, according to the latest figures from the US Treasury Department, released on Tuesday.

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China’s holdings of US sovereign debt dropped to $1.165 trillion in August, from $1.171 trillion in July, marking the third consecutive month of declines as the world’s second-largest economy bolsters its national currency amid trade tensions with the US. China remains the biggest foreign holder of US Treasuries, followed by long-time US ally Japan.

US sanctions policy against Russia undermines dollar’s reserve currency position – Goldman Sachs

Tokyo cut its holdings of US securities to $1.029 trillion in August, the lowest since October 2011. In July, Japan’s holdings were at $1.035 trillion. According to the latest figures from the country’s Ministry of Finance, Japanese investors opted to buy British debt in August…

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The Deceptive Promise of Free Trade

A Game of No Rules: The Deceptive Promise of Free Trade

DW (2018)

Film Review

Produced in response to the protective tariffs Trump has enacted, this documentary shows the negative side of globalization and free trade. It maintains that most free trade treaties are one sided and significantly increase inequality. According to the filmmakers, the primary purpose of free trade is to give wealthy countries cheap access to the resources of developing countries.

Most of the film focuses on the  protective (aka “punitive”) tariffs Europe has been using for years to protect their domestic industries from cheap imports. In contrast, most US politicians have rejected protective tariffs in favor of free trade. The result has been the failure of many domestic American industries unable to compete with cheap Asian imports.

The film starts with the example of Germany, which charges punitive tariffs (50%) on imported Chinese bicycle frames. In all, the EU imposes punitive tariffs on 53 Chinese products, including steel, porcelain and ironing boards.

At the same time the EU imposes tough “free trade” treaties on African countries, prohibiting them from enacting protective tariffs to protect their farmers. This allows European countries to dump cheap agricultural surpluses on their economies, putting local farmers out of business when they can’t produce food cheaply enough to compete.

A Game of No Rules argues that local food production should be sheltered (by protective tariffs) in both developing and developed countries and that Third World countries should be allowed to enact protective tariffs while they establish local industries. Prohibiting Third World countries from enacting protective tariffs ultimately creates mass unemployment and a flood of economic refugees to the industrial North.

 

 

Brazil is targeting its black population for death

A report commissioned by the Brazilian Senate concluded that “the Brazilian state, directly or indirectly, perpetrates the genocide of the young black population.”

Moorbey'z Blog

Black people
BY FRANCE FRANCOIS

A black person is murdered in Brazil every 23 minutes. What’s startling about that statistic — and Brazil’s record-high murder rate, in general — is that it that it is all too often the Brazilian police responsible for killing a generation of black mothers, fathers, future doctors, promising artists and composers — and rising politicians like Marielle Franco. In doing so, they deny Brazil of the human potential, talent and diversity of ideas that transform societies into what they are meant to be.

A report commissioned by the Brazilian Senate concluded that “the Brazilian state, directly or indirectly, perpetrates the genocide of the young black population.” That same government provides Brazil’s hyper-militarized police force with the tools to commit some of the worst human-rights atrocities in South America, routinely uses extrajudicial killings to silence opponents and eradicate enemies.

https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article95277267.html

More than half of Brazilians identify…

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