News bits 'n nits: A bit about plastic; A bit about making babies; Etc.

NPR reports about public attitude toward disposable plastic items:

These poll results come as environmental experts project disastrous levels of plastic that are already permeating the water you drink, the food you eat and the air you breathe. By 2050, the amount of plastic waste produced worldwide is expected to quadruple, according to a 2017 analysis. “The Plastic Problem”, an hour-long PBS NewsHour special report that premieres Nov. 27 at 10 p.m. ET, examines how the plastic we use is creating problems for our entire planet.

“Those items will be with us for centuries,” said Jacqueline Savitz, chief policy officer in North America for Oceana, a nonprofit ocean conservation organization, in an email to the PBS NewsHour.  

More than a third of Americans — 34 percent — oppose a total ban on single-use plastics, such as non-reusable forks and drinking straws, while a quarter of U.S. adults said they support such a measure, according to a PBS NewsHour and Marist poll.

That’s sort of a mixed bag. People need to be willing to give up some convenience for the sake of the environment. For example, about 0% of plastic cutlery and about 0% of plastic coffee pods are recycled. Almost 100% of those items go into the environment in some form or another.

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Here’s a bit of good news from a research paper about the repeal of abortion rights by American radical right Christofascists:

Prevalence of childfree adults before and 

after Dobbs v Jackson in Michigan (USA)

Although there are many reasons one may choose not to have children, recent restrictions on reproductive health care may also contribute to this decision. For example, the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson eliminated a long-standing constitutional protection for abortion access, which reduced patients’ medical autonomy and increased the risks of pregnancy and childbirth, and therefore may have led adults to decide not to have children. In this study, we use representative data on Michigan adults immediately before and after the Dobbs decision to examine changes in the prevalence of childfree adults in this population. We find that 21% of Michigan adults were childfree before the Dobbs decision, but this number rose to nearly 26% after the decision. Controlling for demographic characteristics, a Michigan adult was 32.8% more likely to be childfree after the Dobbs decision than before. We conclude that when access to safe reproductive health care is uncertain or unavailable, adults that do not already have children may decide that they do not want children.

If this is a nationwide thing, it ought to help decrease American overpopulation. If so, that would be a good thing, but for the wrong reason. Hm. One can wonder if this will prompt a spasm of emotion over the Great White Replacement Theory if it gets picked up and distorted into some blood curdling horror by America’s radical right propaganda Leviathan, e.g., Faux News, et al. Hard to tell.  

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From the Trolling the Christians Files: Rapper Lil Nas (Little Nasty?) releases a new single today called J CHRIST. The song is dedicated to “THE MAN WHO HAD THE GREATEST COMEBACK OF ALL TIME!” 

A Lil nas publicity photo promoting the new song is sure to get some blood pressure up.

Lil nas being a little nasty

I like the cute wings

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Some Trump stuff

The Nitter net reports about an unsulting, lies- and slander-laden DJT verbal screed in the courtroom in New York City, from yesterday I think:

Qs: Why the hell do judges not toss DJT's sorry, treasonous, insulting, lying ass in jail for inciting another insurrection, and openly insulting the courts, the legal system and the American people?  What’s a Nitter net?

Newsweek reports about payments to DJT from foreign governments in violation of the emoluments clause of the US Constitution: 

Speaking at a Fox News town hall on Wednesday night, the former president defended himself from accusations made in a recent report from Democrats on the House Oversight Committee which accused him of accepting payments from foreign governments from countries such as China, Saudi Arabia and Qatar while in office.

The report accused Trump of violating the U.S. Constitution's foreign emoluments clause, which prohibits federal officials from accepting money or gifts from foreign governments without permission from Congress, after overseas officials stayed in his real estate company's hotels and apartments during his time in the White House.  

Eric Trump, executive vice president of The Trump Organization, dismissed the report's finding as a "joke" and said that all the company's profits from its business with foreign governments were voluntarily donated to the United States Treasury.

Apparently it is lost on vice president Eric the Corrupt and Clueless that the emoluments clause does not care what a president does with money from a foreign government. All it says is a simple Don’t take the money, stupid! The open contempt and disregard the Trump family has for the rule of law could not be clearer. The Trump family sure has a lot of morally rotted grifters, traitors, crooks and liars in it. Eric himself is a sick, insulting joke.

Q: Has Barron Trump been unleashed on the world yet, or is he still incubating at some ivy league school while he hones his ethics skills?  🤪  (Hey! Who stole my lunch money!)