Record Increase

Although carbon dioxide emissions have been stable, the atmospheric concentration reached 403.3 ppm according to the World Meteorological Organization.

The record increase of 3.3 ppm in CO2 from 2015 to 2016 was larger than the previous record increase, observed from 2012 to 2013, and the average growth rate over the last decade.

Update:  A study published in The Lancet finds that climate change is already having a major impact on health.

[H]eatwaves over the past two decades were hotter and lasted longer, vector-borne diseases increased as warmer temperatures spread insects, and allergies worsened as unseasonable weather prolonged exposure to pollen.

Update (November 6):  I'm not sure if there is a connection to the ppm increase, but a study published in Science documents the impact of degraded tropical forests.

Researchers found that forest areas in South America, Africa and Asia – which have until recently played a key role in absorbing greenhouse gases – are now releasing 425 teragrams of carbon annually, which is more than all the traffic in the United States.

Update (November 26, 2019):  The World Meteorological Organization announced a carbon dioxide concentration of 407.8 ppm for 2018 following 405.5 ppm for 2017. WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas:

It is worth recalling that the last time the Earth experienced a comparable concentration of CO2 was 3-5 million years ago. Back then, the temperature was 2 to 3 degrees [centigrade] warmer, [and] sea level was 10 to 20 meters higher than now.

Loss of Insects

A study published in PLOS ONE finds a massive decline of insect populations.

[U]sing Malaise traps deployed over 27 years in 63 nature protection areas in Germany ..., [o]ur analysis estimates a seasonal decline of 76%, and mid-summer decline of 82% in flying insect biomass.

Explanations are not clear.

Their results align with recently reported declines in vulnerable species such as butterflies, wild bees and moths, but also suggest a severe loss of total flying aerial biomass, suggesting that the entire flying insect community has been decimated over the last few decades. 

The researchers found that this dramatic decline was apparent regardless of habitat type, and changes in weather, land use, and habitat characteristics were not able to explain the overall decline.

The study signals an impending ecosystem collapse.

Loss of insects is certain to have deleterious effects on ecosystem functionality, as insects play a central role in a variety of processes, including pollination, herbivory and detrivory, nutrient cycling, and providing a food source for higher trophic levels such as birds, amphibians, and mammals.

Update (September 26, 2018):  Somehow this seems more depressing that all the political crap we endure day after day.

Monarchs have lost an estimated 165 million acres of breeding habitat in the United States to herbicide spraying and development. The caterpillars only eat milkweed, but the plant has been devastated by increased herbicide spraying in conjunction with corn and soybean crops that have been genetically engineered to tolerate direct spraying with herbicides.

Overall monarchs have declined by more than 80 percent over the past two decades.

Update (October 16, 2018):  A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds large declines of insect populations in Puerto Rico. The magnitude of the loss has been described as "alarming".

Update (December 9, 2018):  Robert Hunziker on the loss of insects.

[S]omething is dreadfully horribly wrong. Beyond doubt, it is not normal for 50%-to-90% of a species to drop dead, but that is happening right now from Germany to Australia to Puerto Rico’s tropical rainforest.

Update (December 14, 2018):  Subhankar Banerjee says a biological annihilation is underway.

Update (January 2, 2019):  While there are several troubling studies, Mary Hoff points out that the overall picture on insects is mixed.

Although these results are disturbing, they’re not definitive. In some cases, they could indicate issues facing specific insect species or characteristics of specific locations rather than an overarching trend.

Update (February 11, 2019):  A review of 73 historical reports published in Biological Conservation finds "dramatic rates of decline that may lead to the extinction of 40 percent of the world's insect species over the next few decades". Total insect mass is declining 2.5 percent per year.

[H]abitat loss because of intensive agriculture is the top driver of insect population declines. The heavy use of pesticides, climate change and invasive species were also pinpointed as significant causes.

Update (February 26, 2019):  Evaggelos Vallianatos promotes agroecology.

[W]e have the knowledge and the tools to return to sustainable farming that will take advantage of the "built-in defenses" in the natural world. Insects are part of this equilibrium and strategy.

Now it’s a matter of political choice to work with nature, in which case, we can probably end the decline and extinction of insects and face, with equal determination, our next nemesis of rising global temperatures.

Update (April 10, 2019):  A report from the Universities of Sydney and Queensland and the China Academy of Agricultural Sciences warns that a massive loss of insects could mean a "catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems".

40 percent of insect species are now threatened with extinction, and the world’s insect biomass is declining at 2.5 percent a year.

Update (November 2, 2019):  Robert Burrowes ruminates on the decimation of insects.

Update (February 7, 2020):  A study published in Science finds that bee populations are declining in areas with more frequent instances of extreme heat.

Update (February 18, 2020):  Out of the million species that are at risk for extinction, about half are insects. Pedro Cardoso says many people don't realize their value.

Such losses lead to the decline of key ecosystem services on which humanity depends. From pollination and decomposition, to being resources for new medicines, habitat quality indication and many others, insects provide essential and irreplaceable services.

Update (July 30, 2021):  Dave Goulson discusses the value of insects. He notes populations are estimated to have declined by 75 percent or more in the past 50 years.

Few people seem to realise how devastating this is, not only for human wellbeing – we need insects to pollinate our crops, recycle dung, leaves and corpses, keep the soil healthy, control pests, and much more – but for larger animals, such as birds, fish and frogs, which rely on insects for food. Wildflowers rely on them for pollination. As insects become more scarce, our world will slowly grind to a halt, for it cannot function without them.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

An annual report finds that while worldwide carbon dioxide emissions have been steady for three years, methane and nitrous oxide emissions are up through 2012.

Nitrous oxide emissions could get much worse as a result of global warming. Arctic permafrost contains roughly 67 billion tons of the gas, and, as that ice layer thaws, up to one-fourth of the region could become a net emitter, according to a study published in July.

The U.S. could be responsible for up to 60 percent of the global spike in human-caused atmospheric methane emissions since 2002, a Harvard University study found last year. The researchers said there was too little data to identify specific sources, but the increase tracked the boom in shale oil and gas production across the country, which leaks large amounts of methane from wells and pipelines.

Update (November 13):  A report to the climate summit projects an increase in emissions from fossil fuels for 2017. Emissions had been roughly stable through 2016.

Police Killings Underreported

A study from Harvard University finds that more than half of deaths due to "legal intervention" in 2015 were misclassified.

This suggests that the statistics regarding the number of American citizens killed by police have been drastically underestimated — in 2015, and likely in other years if the problem proves as systemic as it appears from the study.

Unsurprisingly, the misclassification mistakes appeared disproportionately in low-income areas. The vast majority of police killings occur in neighborhoods with average household incomes under $100,000.

Update (December 7):  A rare conviction in the case of Walter Scott who was killed by former police officer Michael Slager.

Update (December 15):  Vice News reports that police in the 50 largest U.S. cities shoot citizens twice as much as previous estimates.

[L]ocal departments shot at least 3,631 people from 2010 through 2016. ... On more than 700 other occasions, police fired at citizens and missed.

Freedom of the Press

We already know who is more likely to support free speech and it's not like there aren't plenty of problems with corporate news. But this is how little Dear Leader understands the constitution.

With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!

He kept it up during the day.

Network news has become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked. Not fair to public!

And Senator Ben Sasse responds:

Are you recanting of the Oath you took on Jan. 20 to preserve, protect, and defend the 1st Amendment?

Update (October 12):  Referring to the NFL situation, Rush Limbaugh is "very uncomfortable with the president of the United States being able to dictate the behavior and power of anybody."

And Sasse has more:

Question for conservatives:
What will you wish you had said now if someday a President Elizabeth Warren talks about censoring Fox News?

Update (October 14):  Chauncey DeVega  sees this latest attack on the press as just one more sign we have a fascist in office.

To suggest that fascism -- a philosophy viewed by many Americans as anathema to the country's history and best vision of itself -- could take root here is something unfathomable. Moreover, if America's leading voices in the news media, Congress and elsewhere were to label [Fuckface von Clownstick] a fascist then other questions would be summoned by implication.

Update (October 18):  A poll by POLITICO/Morning Consult finds that 46 percent of voters thinks the media makes up stories about Dear Leader. But only 28 percent believes the government should have the power to revoke licences for fabrication of the news.

Update (October 19):  Heather Digby Parton reacts to the poll.

[Von Clownstick's] Big Lie is that the news media is telling the Big Lie.

[I]f nearly half the country believes the fake news that the news is fake, and the other half is being gaslit, we have a bigger problem on our hands than [Fuckface von Clownstick]. It means we're losing our grip on reality itself. This has happened before in history and it didn't end well. That's why it's important to keep your eyes focused and your ears open to what is happening even if it makes you feel crazy. You're not.

Update (October 23):  Bob Cesca points out that Americans trust the media more than the president 52 to 37 percent. And it's important to not let the freak show control the narrative.

The discussion can’t always be about the misshapen orange man playing with his poop-sombrero. The news cycle should ultimately be driven by why he’s doing it, coupled with the negative societal and political consequences.

Update (November 10):  The administration is using a proposed merger between AT&T and Time Warner to pressure them to sell Turner Broadcasting which owns CNN.  Heather Digby Parton:

[Von Clownstick] went on the radio last week and complained that he's being prevented from personally "doing what he would love to do" with the Justice Department because he is president. There is nothing he would "love to do" more than destroy CNN and any other media company that tells the truth about him.

Update (January 17, 2018):  CNN reporter Jim Acosta asked Dear Leader some pointed questions and got kicked out of the Oval Office. Later in the Roosevelt Room, the deputy press secretary yelled at Acosta when he again tried to ask questions.

Senator Jeff Flake has condemned the "unrelenting daily assault on the constitutionally-protected free press" and guess what fellow Republicans decided to whine about?

Update (July 25, 2018):  A reporter was punished for asking "inappropriate" questions.

The White House banned CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins from a press event on Wednesday after she did her job and asked [Fuckface von Clownstick] questions about the most pressing topics of the week in the Oval Office.

Even FOX News condemned the action.

We stand in strong solidarity with CNN for the right to full access for our journalists as part of a free and unfettered press.

Update (November 7, 2018):  After another confrontation with Jim Acosta, Dear Leader had Secret Service deny Acosta access to the White House.

Update (November 13, 2018):  CNN filed a lawsuit over the ban of Acosta.

Update (November 14, 2018):  FOX News supports the CNN suit and the viewers aren't happy.

Update (November 16, 2018):  A federal judge ordered the White House to reinstate Acosta's press pass. The judge's ruling was a matter of due process, not free speech.

Update (July 11, 2019):  In an interview with Andrew O'Hehir, Jim Acosta discusses his book.

[W]e did not have Barack Obama on almost a weekly basis referring to the press as the enemy of the people and accusing reporters of treason and calling legitimate stories fake news. There's an Alice in Wonderland, "Through the Looking Glass" quality to the way this president regards facts and truth.

Tom Tomorrow knows Fuckface isn't the only one at war with the truth.

Also, in an interview with Chris Hedges from earlier in the year, Matt Taibbi explains how Jim Acosta uses theatrics (part 2, 23:45) to generate hate-fueled ratings much like FOX News. "It masks a lack of real inquiry."

Good Question

Bad behavior will come out and those responsible should be held accountable. Ryan Grenoble asks:

What’s the difference between Harvey Weinstein and [Fuckface von Clownstick]?

According to Republican National Committee Chair Ronna Romney, only one of them should be criticized for sexually harassing women, and it’s not the president.

Weinstein has been fired by his board of directors.

Update (October 13):  It really is hard to tell the difference in the accusations.

Women describe a man who coerced them into unwanted physical contact ― and got away with it because ultimately, he was powerful and famous and they were not.

Update (October 17):  Rob Okun quotes Eve Ensler.

I am over the passivity of good men. Where the hell are you? You live with us, make love with us, father us, befriend us, brother us, get nurtured and mothered and eternally supported by us, so why aren’t you standing with us?

Update (October 21):  Andrew O'Hehir attempts a response.

In effect, I have respected the masculine code that protected Harvey Weinstein and thousands or millions of other men who are less famous or perhaps less egregious. I told myself I didn’t approve of it and I assured myself I wasn’t like that, but I didn’t actually do anything about it. And I know — again, with zero fear of being wrong — that I was not alone. That’s what has to end, if we are to begin to unravel the dark pattern in the carpet. I’m not saying I know how to make that happen. It’s not quite like flipping a light switch, is it, guys?

Update (November 12):  Liz Posner describes a PRRI study.

Broken down politically, Republican men are the least interested in domestic violence (33 percent) and Democratic women are the most (57 percent).

Update (November 14):  To their credit, more Republican Senators say they believe the women accusing Roy Moore of sexual misconduct. Just don't ask about you-know-who.

“Look, we’re talking about the situation in Alabama,” McConnell told HuffPost, when asked about [Fuckface's] accusers. “I’d be happy to address that if there are any further questions.”

Update (November 16):  It is disappointing to hear about the accusations against Senator Franken. Was it as bad as what von Clownstick and Moore are accused of? There is a spectrum--it may be hard to say. He may have to take one for the team. Imagine the pressure on Republicans like Fuckface if Franken does resign.

Update (November 19):  The notion that a Franken resignation would pressure Republicans suffers from what Andrew O'Hehir calls "an old-fashioned faith in the shared perception of reality".

[Von Clownstick's] supporters, like Roy Moore’s supporters, either believe the accusations against their hero are lies spread by the “fake news” liberal media or believe that they are true but do not matter, because they reflect deeper truths about the nature of men and women and sexuality. In some sense they may believe both things at once, because they have been conditioned to the idea that nothing is true and nothing matters, and that “reality” is a subjective, emotional phenomenon we create for ourselves. There is no political solution for that.

Update (November 22):  Dear Leader isn't too concerned about allegations against Roy Moore.

I can tell you one thing for sure: We don't need a liberal person in there.

And in response to whether "an accused child molester better than a Democrat?"

Look, he denies it. And by the way, he totally denies it.

So some of the accusations are going to be more serious than others and there were already plenty of reasons not to vote for Moore. In terms of the lengthening list of stories, William Kaufman suggests some sense of proportionality.

So this is not just a moral panic—but a bizarre inversion of values ...

[T]he long-buried, freshly unearthed ego bruises of the privileged identity-politics crowd eclipse mass murder and ecocide on the outrage meters of this country’s opinion shapers. The same solemn cohort ... is so easily roused to near-apoplexy about a naughty lunge of the hand or tongue yet discreetly ignores or openly cheers on unparalleled crimes against humanity.

Update (November 26):  Emily Peck reports that executive orders are making the reporting sexual harassment more difficult for women.

Update (December 6):  Congratulations to Fuckface von Clownstick for inspiring dozens of women to confront sexual harassment and assault.

Update (December 7):  Senator Al Franken has been compelled to resign after more than 30 Democratic Senators called on him to do so in face of additional accusations. But he makes a salient point in his speech to the Senate.

[T]here is some irony in the fact that I am leaving while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the Oval Office and a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls campaigns for the Senate with the full support of his party.

Cenk Uygur agrees there should be no double standard between Democrats and Republicans, but is bothered that Franken didn't either admit to what he did or fight it. As it is, it can be too easily dismissed as a political move. The women deserve to be taken seriously and not just end up as pawns within some partisan strategy.

Update (December 8):  Despite an out-of-the-blue resignation by a Republican member of Congress, Sophia Tesfaye doesn't expect Democrats to immediately benefit from the "morality gap" with Republicans.

Democrats will lose the game of moral high-ground chicken with the unscrupulous — in the short term. Look no further than last year’s presidential election for proof. Doing the right thing will do little to persuade those who have repeatedly demonstrated that they are shameless. Still, Republicans’ bad behavior is not a pass for Democratic indifference. Standing up for what is right and refusing to tolerate sexual harassment is not only the principled position, there’s evidence that it will eventually be a winning electoral strategy.

Update (December 9):  Lucian Truscott responds.

[B]eing able to shame Republicans assumes Republicans are capable of shame, and there is scant evidence of that.

Update (December 10):  Paul Rosenberg argues Senate Democrats made a mistake.

By abandoning the investigative path Franken himself agreed to, and demanding his ouster, they were "virtue-signaling" — which is the GOP's brand — rather than thinking through and laying out a practical problem-solving approach, which is (or at least was, in theory) the Democratic brand.

He cites a tweet from Norman Ornstein:

Franken Standard: no ethics process, same punishment for actions taken before coming to the Senate, w/o coercive action of employer harassing or assaulting staff or interns, all behavior treated same as serial assault. No deliberation, calibration. You might be glad. I am not.

Concluding:

Had the Democratic senators chosen to focus on revising the process as an immediate demand, they could have profoundly engaged with the movement at a crucial point in its growth and evolution. With or without the cooperation of Republicans, they could hold field hearings across the country — in addition to social media engagement — and help stimulate similar processes of fixing broken systems that exist almost everywhere when it comes to sexual harassment. A truly incredible organizing moment has been missed, virtually without anyone even noticing it existed in the first place.

Update (December 12):  This is how Fuckface defends himself against a call to resign due to sexual harassment allegations.

Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a total flunky for Chuck Schumer and someone who would come to my office "begging" for campaign contributions not so long ago (and would do anything for them), is now in the ring fighting against [von Clownstick].

Update (December 13):  A USA Today editorial responds.

A president who’d all but call a senator a whore is unfit to clean toilets in Obama’s presidential library or to shine George W. Bush’s shoes.

Update (May 7, 2018):  It continues to cut both ways--the Democratic New York Attorney General has resigned due to physical abuse allegations.

Update (June 16, 2018):  A study from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine finds that sexual harassment has little to do with individual bad behavior and more to do with "organizational climate".

If employees believe that their organization takes harassment seriously, then harassment is less likely to happen. That faith in fair treatment acts as a deterrent against bad actors and encourages workers to speak up about harassment ― key to keeping bad behavior at bay.  

Update (June 24, 2019):  I have to admit I wasn't sure why the story is coming out now rather than, say, when it could've mattered before the election. But Amanda Marcotte explains why E. Jean Carroll's account of how Fuckface von Clownstick raped her is either ignored or attacked.

[T]here's no number of rape accusations, no number of taped confessions, no amount of evidence against [this fucking asshole] that will turn his base against him. Because they don't believe he's innocent. They just don't care if he's guilty. And they think women who speak out about sexual violence are being spoilsports.

Update (July 13, 2019):  And another storm over an ethically-challenged cabinet secretary who cut an illegal deal with the child rapist Jeffrey Epstein several years ago. But Lucian Truscott sums up the salient point:

I really wonder what everyone is doing getting their dander up about this disgusting sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, when we’ve got one in the White House.

There's just no end to the sleaze of these assholes.

Update (July 14, 2019):  Bob Hennelly suggests the arc of justice bends toward wealth.

These great white men are their own law. They see themselves as the smartest guys in the room. They have the cunning to know how to hollow out others so that they can own their souls.

Update (September 16, 2019):  Amanda Marcotte argues that the fact a Supreme Court justice perjured himself to Congress doesn't matter to Republicans.

The culture wars aren't really about facts and evidence, but about values. Conservatives essentially view sexism as right and good, or at least as an immovable fact that's not worth fussing over.

There's a reason conservatives hide behind false claims that they don't believe accusers: Admitting that they simply don't care about sexual assault can alienate some voters.

Facts are good, but ultimately this is a debate about values. It's about whether we want to be a society where male dominance is so locked in that men can assault women (or other men) without accountability, or whether we want some degree of justice.

Update (October 9, 2019):  A book by Barry Levine and Monique El-Faizy called All the President's Women: [Fuckface von Clownstick] and the Making of a Predator details 43 new accusations of misconduct (26 of which described a "unwanted sexual contact"). The only real question is how many more have been unreported so far.

Divided Nation

Gun ownership correlates strongly with who you voted for last year. Heather Digby Parton reports on a Pew poll showing a growing partisan split.

The poll first started asking 10 specific questions about political values 23 years ago and at the time there was a 15 point difference between the two parties. In 2014 it was 33 points. Today it's up to 36.

Neal Gabler argues that the biggest divide is cultural.

[O]f all the divisions that cleave America today, the single most important one may be not racial, religious, political or economic. It may be cultural. America is deeply divided between those who are considered (and consider themselves) winners, and those who ... are considered by the winners to be losers.

[T]his terrible taxonomy isn’t just bloviating. It cuts across all the other divisions. It eats at the fiber of America. It undermines us psychologically and even physically. It creates a gulf so wide that it is unbridgeable. And it does so while justifying the damage it inflicts, allowing the so-called winners and their fellow travelers to deny assistance to the needy .... After all, never forget that losers deserve what they get.

John Feffer warns that the implications are international.

The power of nation-states is eroding. If this trend continues, with the world continuing to splinter, the only entities left with any global power will be corporations and religious organizations, a world where frightened people pray to Facebook and the gods of Google that the fierce winds of nationalism and the rising waters of climate change and the random fire of lone gunmen will stay away for one more day.

Update (October 28):  Pew divides the United States into nine groups.

And Robert Reich boils it down to six "political parties". Governing depends on a coalition among these groups: establishment Republicans, anti-establishment Republicans, social conservative Republicans, establishment Democrats, anti-establishment Democrats, and the party of von Clownstick.

Update (October 30):  John Boehner has some thoughts about our political divide.

People thought in ’09, ’10, ’11, that the country couldn’t be divided more. And you go back to Obama’s campaign in 2008, you know, he was talking about the divide and healing the country and all of that. And some would argue on the right that he did more to divide the country than to unite it. I kind of reject that notion.

[I]t wasn’t him! It was modern-day media, and social media, that kept pushing people further right and further left. People started to figure out … they could choose where to get their news. And so what do people do? They choose places they agree with, reinforcing the divide.

Now Is Not the Time

Chauncey DeVega observes that white male mass shooters are treated differently.

There will be no "national conversation" about the connection between toxic (white) masculinity and American gun culture. In the mainstream news media and broader public discourse there certainly will be no discussion of the fact that white men are 31 percent of the population but commit 63 percent of mass shootings. Such a fact is forbidden or explosive, because it connects race, gender, guns and death.

And the gun advocates just never get tired of repeating the same old bullshit platitudes.

America's addiction to guns will continue unabated even as it kills tens of thousands of people a year. Somehow the gun fetishists like Bill O'Reilly will mouth such absurdities as "guns are the price of freedom" without soiling themselves from uncontrollable laughter.

The mass shooting in Las Vegas on Sunday night is the 273rd such event in America so far this year. It will not be the last. When the next mass shooting occurs I might just as well take this article and update it. The facts will likely not be much different. America is addicted to guns. The sickness will not be cured until, like an alcoholic or an opioid addict, the country admits it has hit rock bottom.

Update (October 12):  Robert Parry explains the Second Amendment.

To pretend that such carnage was the intent of the Constitution’s Framers, who wrote about achieving “domestic Tranquility,” or the goal of the First Congress, which drafted the Second Amendment to promote “the security of a free State,” is intellectually dishonest and a true threat to the lives of American citizens.

Update (November 12):  Harriet Fraad and Richard Wolff write about alienation and violence.

One out of four Americans has no one to talk to even in the worst emergencies. Most of those people are men. For deeply disconnected and resentful men, social norms can fade; angry shooting at random others becomes possible. This is an especially American phenomenon. In 2017 so far, we have had 152 mass shootings. No other developed nation has had anything remotely like that. Why? One reason is that all other developed nations have gun controls and none have an unchecked gun industry that relentlessly equates guns with manhood. Another reason is that other developed nations have powerful unions and political movements that direct people’s anger about the pain in their lives toward its social causes and especially the inequality and instability of capitalist systems. They connect people to change those social and economic conditions together.

Update (December 16):  Ed Asner and Ed Weinberger argue that the U.S. was founded with gun control in mind.

Here is Madison’s first draft of the Second Amendment:

“The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, a well-armed and well-regulated militia being the best security of a free country; but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person.”

Madison’s intent could not be more obvious: his Second Amendment refers only to state militias. If not, why include that exemption for what we now call “conscientious objectors?”

Update (February 14, 2018):  Meanwhile, I feel guilty for wanting to avoid an all-to-familiar headline.

Update (February 15, 2018):  These shootings must be hard on Republicans. Imagine having to go through the anguish over and over again of pretending to give a shit.

Update (February 19, 2018):  Matthew Sheffield explains why nothing changes.

Agency Fees

The Supreme Court will hear a case on whether public-sector unions can charge non-members fees to cover the expense of representation.

The union fees case presents the question of whether to overturn a 40-year-old ruling. In that case, Abood vs. Detroit, the Supreme Court said it was reasonable to require all employees, not just union members, to pay to support the cost of bargaining because all of them benefited. By law, the unions are required to represent all employees, including by handling their grievances.

Update (October 14):  Sarah Lahm reports on further attacks against teacher's unions.

At the root of [several] cases is a singular claim: tenure and layoff rules protect “ineffective” teachers and deny students equal access to an education.

[The Partnership for Educational Justice] and 50CAN join[ed] forces to fight for state-level change, even though the tenure lawsuits have stalled thus far. ...Media Matters has pegged both PEJ and 50CAN as part of an education reform “echo chamber,” propped up by a “handful of conservative billionaires.” ... Both groups ... belong to a movement pushing for “conservative-backed policies” that “weaken labor unions” and promote school privatization schemes.

Update (November 18):  Bobbi Murray gives some background on the Supreme Court case.

Update (December 24):  Why do agency fees matter?

Florida Republicans are pushing a bill designed to ... decertify any union in which 50 percent of the workers don’t pay dues, thus preventing them from being able to collectively bargain. Despite the fact that unions negotiate for the benefit of all their workers, no employee is forced to pay dues in Florida, because it’s a “Right to Work” state.

Update (January 1, 2018):  Although members-only unions is an idea meant to combat the problem of "free-riders" in the absence of agency fees, Chris Brooks argues it only further weakens unions.

When labor activists imagine a world of competing members-only unions, they typically express hope that it will give rise to more militant, progressive and rank-and-file-led organizations that will challenge unions from the left. The experience in Tennessee, however, shows that this competition can produce further fragmentation as unions face business-aligned challengers from their right.

Update (February 19, 2018):  Dave Jamieson reports that public section unions are already preparing for the loss of agency fees.

The largest public sector unions have undertaken “internal organizing” campaigns to prepare for the case, trying to make committed union members out of the workers they already represent. The hope is that engaging with these workers now will make them much more likely to support the union when they no longer have to.

Update (June 27, 2018):  As expected, the Supreme Court struck down agency fees. The argument is that collective bargaining itself is political and thus "compelled speech". Justice Kagan wrote the dissent.

As Kagan noted, 28 states are “right to work” and do not allow fair share fees, while 22 states are not “right to work” and do allow them. The Janus ruling, she wrote, essentially makes the decision for local governments by banning them, “and it does so by weaponizing the First Amendment, in a way that unleashes judges, now and in the future, to intervene in economic and regulatory policy.” She went so far as to call the majority “black-robed rulers overriding citizens’ choices.”

“The First Amendment was meant for better things.”

Update (June 28, 2018):  Amanda Marcotte is optimistic unions can handle the decision.

[T]his blow is being counterbalanced by good, old-fashioned people power of the sort that created public sector unions in the first place. Wildcat teacher strikes have been erupting across the country, even in states that have done everything possible to outlaw collective bargaining for government workers, and in most places, these teachers have found public support.

The degraded work conditions and pitiful salaries teachers often have -- because of public-sector union breakdown in those states -- have given them leverage, perversely enough: They can't be fired en masse because it would be too difficult to find replacements who will take their jobs. Inducing desperation in workers eventually backfires, by pushing them to the point where they feel have nothing left to lose by standing up for themselves.

Also, Aaron Tang explains that states could simply choose to reimburse unions directly for collective bargaining expenses.

Update (June 30, 2018):  Anthony DiMaggio refutes the Janus argument.

His hypothetical straw man argument that being forced to pay union dues is the equivalent of a state requiring residents to support a political party’s proposals is absurd on the face of it, and it speaks to the blatant intellectual dishonesty of Alito and other members of the court’s majority.

Update (July 6, 2018):  Glenn Sacks explains how weaker unions hurt others.

Teachers unions protect children because they protect a precious resource—teachers’ time. At nonunion schools teachers are often weighed down with taxing, unnecessary labor–yard duty before and after school, nutrition and lunch duty, chaperoning school functions and athletic events, and others. These duties reduce teachers’ ability to spend time helping students and preparing for classes.

Update (July 7, 2018):  How nice of billionaires to try so hard to "rescue" government workers from unions.

Update (August 8, 2018):  Voters in Missouri rejected a right-to-work law, but I'm wondering how much that helps given the Janus decision.

Nomads

I see ads for recreational vehicles on TV. One model was being offered for $99 per month. Another listed features in a way that made me think it was being sold as permanent housing.

Jessica Bruder documents people who are "houseless" to avoid the expense of a mortgage or rent and who travel from job to job.

Linda wondered, not for the first time, how anybody could afford to grow old. Of the many jobs she’d held in her life, none had brought even a modicum of lasting financial stability.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve reports that 38 percent of wealth in the U.S. is owned by the top one percent while the bottom 90 percent own 22.8 percent.