How Some Oil and Chemical Companies Operate

A plastics-laden waste dump in Nakuru, Kenya

In a New York Times article today, the focus is on a new trade deal with Kenya that the oil industry is pushing hard to get. The oil sector is under enormous economic pressures from low profits and growing social concerns about the environment generally, including awareness of the severity of increasing plastic waste problems. Plastics are profitable and both big oil and chemical companies want to make and sell a lot more plastics than they are now.

In response to the economic pressure, the oil sector has decided to try to force Africa to open itself up as a great place to dump hundreds of millions of tons of plastic waste. The oil and chemical (plastics) sectors have formed a trade group, the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, to deal with the massive and growing plastic waste problem. The solution is to dump the waste in Africa. The companies behind that lobby power include Exxon, Chevron and Dow. The group is lobbying US trade negotiators to demand a reversal of the Kenya’s strict limits on plastics. The NYT writes:

“According to documents reviewed by The New York Times, an industry group representing the world’s largest chemical makers and fossil fuel companies is lobbying to influence United States trade negotiations with Kenya, one of Africa’s biggest economies, to reverse its strict limits on plastics — including a tough plastic-bag ban. It is also pressing for Kenya to continue importing foreign plastic garbage, a practice it has pledged to limit.

Plastics makers are looking well beyond Kenya’s borders. “We anticipate that Kenya could serve in the future as a hub for supplying U.S.-made chemicals and plastics to other markets in Africa through this trade agreement,” Ed Brzytwa, the director of international trade for the American Chemistry Council, wrote in an April 28 letter to the Office of the United States Trade Representative.

The United States and Kenya are in the midst of trade negotiations and the Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta, has made clear he is eager to strike a deal. But the behind-the-scenes lobbying by the petroleum companies has spread concern among environmental groups in Kenya and beyond that have been working to reduce both plastic use and waste.

Kenya, like many countries, has wrestled with the proliferation of plastic. It passed a stringent law against plastic bags in 2017, and last year was one of many nations around the world that signed on to a global agreement to stop importing plastic waste — a pact strongly opposed by the chemical industry.

The plastics proposal reflects an oil industry contemplating its inevitable decline as the world fights climate change. Profits are plunging amid the coronavirus pandemic, and the industry is fearful that climate change will force the world to retreat from burning fossil fuels. Producers are scrambling to find new uses for an oversupply of oil and gas. Wind and solar power are becoming increasingly affordable, and governments are weighing new policies to fight climate change by reducing the burning of fossil fuels.

Pivoting to plastics, the industry has spent more than $200 billion on chemical and manufacturing plants in the United States over the past decade. But the United States already consumes as much as 16 times more plastic than many poor nations, and a backlash against single-use plastics has made it tougher to sell more at home.”

Plastic waste clogs the Narobi River in Kenya

The NYT article goes on to note that American exporters shipped more than 1 billion pounds of plastic waste to 96 countries including Kenya in 2019. In theory the waste was to be recycled, but much of the waste is not recyclable and it ends up in rivers and oceans. China closed its ports to most plastic trash in 2018. Since then, exporters have been looking for new dumping grounds and Africa looks to be the best place.

The NYT article makes this critically important point: The plastics industry’s pro-waste dumping proposals would make it hard to regulate plastics in the United States. That is because the trade deal under negotiation applies to both sides.

Plastic waste mixed with other waste 

This is how it arrogant, corrupt government works

The NYT points out that Kenya was one of the countries that signed a global agreement to stop importing plastic waste. The chemical industry strongly opposed it. The Times reviewed emails showing that industry representatives, including former US trade officials, are worked with US trade negotiators to try to block or stall those rules. The emails show close ties between the trade representatives, administration officials and industry representatives.

In March of 2019, a recycling trade group executive wrote to federal officials including trade negotiators to show them a recent useful statement by environmental activists. The executive wrote: “Hey ladies. This gives us some good fodder to build a strategy.” The chemical industry rationale to oppose bans on plastic waste exports is that they prevent recycling of what plastic there is that is recyclable.

Of course, that rationale ignores the facts that the waste can be recycled in the US and much or most  plastic waste cannot be recycled for practical and/or economic reasons. A 2018 article by National Geographic commented: “Of the 8.3 billion metric tons that has been produced, 6.3 billion metric tons has become plastic waste. Of that, only nine percent has been recycled. The vast majority—79 percent—is accumulating in landfills or sloughing off in the natural environment as litter.” In other words, 91% of plastic waste is not recycled.

Clearly, the Alliance to End Plastic Waste is an alliance to increase plastic waste and spread it throughout the land and the oceans where it will be out of Americans’ sight and minds. It's a win-win for the oil and chemicals sectors and a lose-lose-lose for the environment, the American people and Africa.

The Alliance to End Plastic Waste hates mandatory recycling in Kenya and everywhere else --
the NYT writes: “Kenya’s efforts to restrict plastics and encourage re-use are worrisome for plastics makers, whose leaders see the country as a promising market”
-- Specifically, what is worrisome is the threat to profits that recycling constitutes
Credit...

The Things That Unite Us

 By Best in Moderation

Integration comes in both positive and negative forms, and each relies on a shared set of values. Either we build towards them or we fight to defend them, but in both cases that set of values should be explored, shared and defined. So with that very short introduction, the focus of this piece:
What are the things that Unite the USA?
We're in potentially the most divided period of our nations history since the Civil War, and IMO we are even more divided than then. See, back during the CW most people still believed in the same values on most issues except for race and slavery. People were however divided on which entity was better at building or defending those values. Now, however, I'm not sure we are united in what things we value, or at least we are not defining our values well enough to make a good choice.
The DNC ran a convention on highlighting not policy but values that underscore those policies. The RNC ran a convention on highlighting values they felt were under threat (though most of the focus was on the threat, not the values). But neither was particularly able to separate the political choice from the value, and I think the value is worth exploring.
To that end, I suggest the following set of values that define US unity:
- Bravery
- Righteousness
- Independence
- Resourcefulness
- Curiosity
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Bravery:
The people of the USA admire the brave, the impulsive, people who jump into the fray. Some confuse it with strength, but we've not always been the top nation in terms of strength, and yet the bravery of our people has led us to victory against much more powerful foes. It has also allowed us to take grand steps in innovation and exploration, such as social and technical changes and the space programs, for example. The people of the USA value bravery in the face of adversity, and pride themselves in always taking on a challenge, even when it is not strictly necessary to do so.
Righteousness:
The people of the USA define themselves by being Good. Many conflicts are defined as us fighting for the freedoms and rights of other people, thus that righteousness is not just focused on the self. There is a sense that to do right is very valuable not just as a person but as a nation. Americans pride themselves in an identity as the "good guys."
Independence:
The people of the USA value their independence. Typically one solution does not help all people, so the choice to opt in or not is pretty valued by individual Americans. The opportunity to do something different and choose not to be joined to an existing entity is as valued as our search for entities we do choose to join. Ironically, the value of independence to Americans is one of the prime unifying values.
Resourcefulness:
The people of the USA value resourcefulness, the ability to make much out of little. Whether in pop culture or in legend, the idea that someone can take their bare bones existence and turn it into a flourishing successful business or organization is a staple of American culture. Often we measure our success not only by what we achieved but where we started from, and value the latter more.
Curiosity:
The people of the USA are curious, and skeptical. It's not enough to see something work somewhere else or be told an idea exists; Americans tend to need to explore it themselves. This often leads to new innovations and perspectives, and when we're at our best, Americans value and pursue their curiosities to the best of their abilities.
***********************************************************************************
My hope by highlighting these values is that we can stop the petty and circular arguments of what policies work better than others theoretically, and turn it more to which policy is more likely to support the things we as United Americans value most.
Please discuss your agreement or disagreement with my list, add some of your own, and how we can build up those values in the coming times.

The Influence of Leaders

A Washington Post article discusses how leaders can radically shape opinions of their followers. The article describes how the president has been able to change positive views in the GOP of foreign trade and low tariffs from 56% approval in 2015 to 29% by October 2016. The WaPo writes:

“These trends can seem disconcerting, because they appear to reverse the idealized direction of influence in a democracy, where the views of citizens are supposed to guide their politicians. Leadership surely involves the art of persuasion, but should it really drive such mercurial shifts on core issues?

Political science research shows that this ‘follow the leader’ dynamic is hardly limited to Trump. It occurs throughout history, on both sides of the aisle and in other countries. It happens even when party elites try to stop it. In general, the people who run our political parties — particularly the most prominent and charismatic figures — have the ability to reshape what voters in those parties think. 

‘Leader persuasion’ is a well-documented phenomenon in political science. Before the 2000 election, for instance, more than two-thirds of Americans broadly supported giving workers the option to invest Social Security funds in the stock market. Then GOP nominee George W. Bush promoted the idea and Democrat Al Gore opposed it, and the issue became central to the election. .... Gore voters soured on the policy. 

Nowhere are the consequences of voters’ deference more clear than in the coronavirus pandemic. For months, Trump has downplayed the severity of the contagion, condemned shutdowns that public health experts endorsed, ridiculed mask wearers, and pushed to reopen businesses and schools. Unsurprisingly, the resulting partisan divides on recommended behaviors have undermined our collective response to the crisis. In late April and early May, for example, the rate of mask-wearing among Republicans lagged that of Democrats by more than 20 percentage points, according to one survey.

Some observers have suggested that Trump has “hijacked” his party — and in attempting to explain why Republicans would follow him, they have focused on his distinctive (and unarguable) opportunism and disregard for norms. But the lesson of this vein of research is that all political parties are vulnerable to dramatic shifts and “takeovers” by prominent leaders (perhaps especially in presidential systems, which grant the chief executive inordinate prominence). Long after Trump is gone, American politicians who win top positions will be tugging the views of their partisans much closer to their own, adding yet more instability to an already hostile and polarized system.”

This suggests that maybe some people do not always think for themselves, and instead simply follow the leader. Maybe that is fairly common. 

The age of political tribalism…

 

While it appears that we and the media are a reflection of each other, do the media more control us, or do we more control the media?  Who do you think has the greater influence over the other?  Explain your reasoning.

Thanks for posting and recommending.

"#Unfit" delivers a Trump diagnosis we all know and warns of dire consequences for ignoring it

 

Is Trump mentally unstable? Mental health professionals, historians, George Conway & the Mooch say yes in a new doc.

https://www.salon.com/2020/08/28/unfit-the-psychology-of-donald-trump-review/

‘#Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump’ Review: A Documentary Dissects the President’s Malignant Narcissism

Putting Donald Trump on the couch has become a national pastime, and this movie does it well.

https://variety.com/2020/film/reviews/unfit-the-psychology-of-donald-trump-review-1234744187/#article-comments

For the first time, mental health professionals go on the record, in an eye–opening, science–based assessment of the behavior and stability of Donald J. Trump

https://unfitfilm.com/

Commentary: These Discouraging Times

Dark free speech has great power to create 
an illusion of free will

Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves. -- Eric Hoffer, moral philosopher

“You can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices quicker than you can convince one man by logic.” ― Robert A. Heinlein, Revolt in 2100/Methuselah's Children


During the republican convention, it became clear that it is probably not very useful any more to point out the lies, deceit, dirty tricks, illegality and corruption the president and his propagandists are deploying in this election. The problem is that most minds are made up. The rule of law is broken at the federal level so that's not a factor. There is no pretense at truth any more by the GOP. And, most of the president’s supporters apparently do not care, and/or do not believe the president is doing the bad things he is doing, or if he is doing it, it’s not that bad. This is a tribal thing, not a rational thing.

Dirty tricks and broken laws

In an article today, Fact-checking Trump’s lies is essential. It’s also increasingly fruitless, the Washington Post writes that their fact checker rattled off 21 false or misleading statements in the president's 70 minute acceptance speech. That's about one attack on truth every three minutes. In view of the tidal wave of deceit, Anderson Cooper, “looking bemused, paused for a moment and then deadpanned, ‘Oh, that’s it?’” The speech was a cornucopia of lies and deceit. Apparently, Trump supporters generally believed it and loved it, or were at least OK with it whether they believed it or not.

Also today, the New York Times reports that the Trump campaign tricked three of four New York city residents in low income housing into a video interview about bad conditions in the massive housing project they live in. The three tenants were not told the interview was going to be used to make a campaign video for the president's re-election that aired on the republican convention. One of the three commented: “I am not a Trump supporter. I am not a supporter of his racist policies on immigration. I am a first-generation Honduran. It was my people he was sending back.” The fourth resident was a Trump supporter and was told of the purpose of the interview, and approved of its intended use.

According to the NYT, that was the second time the Trump campaign mislead people in an event involving the federal government that was filmed for the Republican National Convention. The other instance was the convention showed a video of five new American citizens being sworn in at a naturalization ceremony by the president. That stunt gas been criticized as an illegal violation of the Hatch Act. It doesn’t matter because the US Attorney General was hired to protect the president and his campaign staff from breaking laws and that is exactly what he is doing by doing nothing.

Do they really believe the propaganda?

It is not just reputable news sources who report on the scope and depth of the disinformation and illegality in the president's campaign and himself. I experience it directly by engaging with people at radical right sites. Narratives, i.e., verifiable facts, true truths and sound reasoning, that contradict the false dark free speech narratives the president and GOP routinely deploy are instantly rejected. They are attacked as lies. Citing fact sources makes no difference -- they are all liars telling lies. I am told that I should be ashamed of myself for pretending there is any truth in actual facts and truths. Then the ad hominem attacks and insults fly in my direction. I am dehumanized and thus make a comfortable and satisfying target for unfounded insults. Truth and sound reasoning have become lies. Lies and bogus reasoning are now truth. The amazingly poisonous power of dark free speech is on full display.

Of course, the people doing conservative-populist politics online are probably more radical, reality-detached and irrational than the president’s average supporter. It’s just not clear how much more. What passed for truth and reality at the GOP convention is probably what most of the rank and file believe to be mostly or completely true.

Vladimir Putin must be loving this spectacle of American self-destruction and dehumanization. I still believe that the president is working for Putin, willingly or not, knowingly or not, but probably knowing and willing.

The vindictive way of life

One can a person do?

The election is not too far off. The president’s supporters are dug in and probably nothing can dislodge most of them (~99% ?). Hundreds of millions in ads will be spent, but how many minds are left that are still persuadable? What on Earth would it take to persuade someone after 3½ years of the president? What else can one do, if anything?