What did Monsanto show Bill Nye to make him fall ‘in love’ with GMOs?

~ susie ~ 4 Comments

150214 Bill Nye 867

Yeah, I’d love to know how they made this happen:

Bill Nye, the bow-tied erstwhile kids’ TV host, onetime dancer with the stars, and tireless champion of evolution and climate science, was never a virulent or wild-eyed critic of genetically modified crops. Back in 2005, he did a pretty nuanced episode of his TV show on it, the takeaway of which was hardly fire-breathing denunciation: “Let’s farm responsibly, let’s require labels on our foods, and let’s carefully test these foods case by case.”

In his book Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation, published just last November, Nye reiterated these points. His concern about GMOs centered mainly on unintended consequences of growing them over large expanses—he cited the example of crops engineered to resist herbicides, which have been linked pretty decisively to the decline of monarch butterflies, which rely on abundant milkweeds, which in turn have been largely wiped out in the Midwest by GMO-enabled herbicide use. Nye praised certain GMOs, such as corn engineered to repel certain insects, but concluded that “if you’re asking me, we should stop introducing genes from one species into another,” because “we just can’t know what will happen to other species in that modified species’ ecosystem.”

Now, Nye’s doubts have evidently fallen away like milkweeds under a fine mist of herbicide. In a February interview filmed backstage on Bill Maher’s HBO show (starting about 3:40 in the below video), Nye volunteered that he was working on a revision of the GMO section of Undeniable. He gave no details, just that he “went to Monsanto and I spent a lot of time with the scientists there.” As a result, he added with a grin, “I have revised my outlook, and am very excited about telling the world. When you’re in love, you want to tell the world!”

Ted Cruz falls flat in firefighter speech

~ susie

https://youtu.be/OWkImxhTFTk

These morons who only speak to the extreme right get a cold dose of reality when they have to speak in front of an audience that’s not comprised of cheerleaders, and that’s why this Ted Cruz video is so funny. Invited to speak at the International Association of Firefighters bipartisan presidential summit, he is so shocked to discover his standard “red meat” lines don’t work. Via Bloomberg:

Yesterday morning, Cruz entered the less friendly climate of the International Association of Firefighters, for its bipartisan presidential summit. Firefighters’ unions are not as solidly Democratic as most labor unions. In 2010, for example, Scott Walker won his first term as Wisconsin’s governor with the backing of the Milwaukee Professional Firefighters Association. (Walker was invited to the IAFF summit but skipped it.)

Still, the firefighters assembled to hear from possible presidents gave Cruz one of the coldest receptions he’s ever given before a camera. The Now This News crew clipped together the highlights, which include some of the CPAC applause lines.

Nothing. Zip. After the speeches, the firefighters I talked to had a few good things to say about South Carolina Lindsey Graham, who discussed homeland security, and Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who stuck largely to a story about his upbringing. No one had anything good to say about Cruz. “I had to take a shower after listening to that,” said Washington state IAFF leader Ricky Walsh.

Of course, Cruz minions in the audience were writing down the names of the traitors who didn’t applaud, so they could visit Godly retribution upon their heads once the anointed leader ascends to his White House throne. Ha ha, just kidding! Sort of.

Pope Frank on campaign finance

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

Pope calls for election campaigns free of backers

Wouldn’t it be loverly if he could pull this off?

Pope Francis has made his opinion known on a variety of hot-button issues like Cuba, gay rights and climate change.

Now he’s sharing his thoughts on campaign finance.

His belief? Separate special interest money from politics.

His comments, reported by Crux, a publication covering the Catholic Church, caught the attention of Ellen Weintraub, a commissioner on the Federal Election Commission, who mentioned it before the panel’s meeting  Tuesday. They joked that maybe the pope would like to come testify at an FEC hearing.

Weintraub assured us Wednesday there are no plans to extend an invitation to Francis.

Discussing the general elections this fall in Argentina, his home country, he called for a “free, unfinanced campaign.”

“In the financing of electoral campaigns, many interests get into the mix, and then they send you the bill,” Francis said.

He also called for transparency in fundraising for political campaigns.

“Perhaps public financing would allow for me, the citizen, to know that I’m financing each candidate with a given amount of money,” he said. “Everything needs to be transparent and clean.”

“I am happy for anyone to recognize campaign finance,” Weintraub told the Loop. “This might be even better than Stephen Colbert.”

The milk of human kindness

~ susie ~ 4 Comments

homeless in portland

Towns will do anything to harass homeless people now. This is one of the more egregious examples I’ve seen, taking place in Portland, Oregon:

This past July, a homeless Portland woman was charged with third-degree theft when she plugged her cellphone charger into an outlet on a sidewalk planter box in Old Town.

Cases in which people are charged with theft for plugging electronic devices into private outlets are uncommon, but defense attorneys say they’re another example of resources wasted for frivolous offenses.

In this case, the theft was first reported by Portland Patrol Inc., and two Portland police officers followed up to issue the woman and her co-defendant, a homeless man who was also charging his cellphone at the planter box outlet, citations to appear in court for third-degree theft of services — a Class C misdemeanor.

According to the Electrical Research Institute, it costs about 25 cents a year to charge the average mobile phone. If the phone in this scenario had gone from zero charge to full charge, the cost would have amounted to mere fractions of a penny.

“Jackie,” (who did not want her real name used), says she was shocked when four uniformed officers all agreed her actions warranted not only their response, but also charges and a court summons.

Jackie has never been convicted of a crime. If this charge led to a conviction, it would mean the difference between checking “no” or “yes” to questions about criminal history on a job or housing application.

Her attorney, Metropolitan Public Defender Stacy Du Clos, says Jackie’s main concern at the time was how this pending case might hurt her chances of getting a roof over her head – she’s homeless and on several waiting lists for affordable housing units.

Additionally, a theft charge is more likely to be associated with shoplifting or taking personal property, not plugging a charger into an electrical outlet. Jackie says the charge would give the wrong impression of what she had done, should someone see her record.

“It’s just my sense of right and wrong, and it just feels so damn wrong,” says Jackie. “The amount of time and money and wasted resources with the judge, the lawyers, the clerks, the police and on and on.”

Jackie’s was not an isolated incident. Public defender Jane Fox says she’s seen similar cases.
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