HUMORLESS QUEERS

Financializing Water: Wall Street’s latest bad idea

Wall Street has started traded water futures. What are water futures? And what might it mean for the future of this most basic human right? Then, Kade explains what Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is, which Trump has threatened to veto the military funding bill if it doesn’t contain reforms to Section 230. Kade explains why Section 230 is a foundational law for the internet itself, and why Congress has called Trump’s bluff on Section 230. MENTIONED ON THE SHOW * Bloomberg: California Water Futures Begin Trading Amid Fear of Scarcity [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-06/water-futures-to-start-trading-amid-growing-fears-of-scarcity] * Water: Futures market invites speculators, challenges basic human rights – UN expert [https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26595&LangID=E] * California’s Water Market [https://www.ppic.org/publication/californias-water-market/] * EFF: Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act [https://www.eff.org/issues/cda230] * Background on the National Federal Eviction Moratorium (from the National Low Income Housing Coalition) [https://nlihc.org/coronavirus-and-housing-homelessness/national-eviction-moratorium] The post Financializing Water: Wall Street’s latest bad idea [https://www.humorlessqueers.com/2020/12/14/financializing-water-wall-streets-latest-bad-idea/] appeared first on HUMORLESS QUEERS [https://www.humorlessqueers.com].

Coping with stress during the election and the pandemic

Election week is finally here, and if you’re like us, you’re probably freaking out. We have all already been stressed, experiencing a sort of collective trauma as the nation has lost 220,000 people and counting to the pandemic. This episode, Alexis talks to social worker and researcher Leah Goldstein (her sister) about what the pandemic has done both those she works with in clinical practice, but also to all of us broadly. This episode is full of tips for how to cope in a healthy way with our stress and anxiety — be it community, being kind to ourselves, pausing and breathing, checking the facts, or, giving our inner negative voice a name (like “Denise”), and telling them to shut up. The post Coping with stress during the election and the pandemic [https://www.humorlessqueers.com/2020/11/02/coping-with-stress-during-the-election-and-the-pandemic/] appeared first on HUMORLESS QUEERS [https://www.humorlessqueers.com].

What’s up with oil?

We explain how oil prices went negative. Along the way, we explain what a commodity is, how futures work, and why Russia may have started a price war in order to bankrupt U.S. oil producers. The specifics of how futures for light sweet crude oil work led to the dramatic price collapse, as those holding the futures contract for physical delivery of crude oil in May became increasingly desperate to sell it. MENTIONED ON THE SHOW A Big Oil Bailout Would Be the Opposite of the Green New Deal We Need [https://truthout.org/articles/a-big-oil-bailout-would-be-the-opposite-of-the-green-new-deal-we-need/] – Alexis for Truthout “The ongoing economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic has caused oil demand to plunge worldwide. On March 6, Russia withdrew [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-opec-meeting/opecs-pact-with-russia-falls-apart-sending-oil-into-tailspin-idUSKBN20T0Y2] from its pact with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and began producing more oil, driving the price of oil down even further. Russia may have been motivated, at least in part, by a desire to hurt U.S. shale oil producers [https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-takes-aim-at-u-s-shale-oil-producers-11584052675]. And while some, like Mexico, took steps to protect themselves [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-11/the-secret-weapon-that-gives-mexico-power-in-the-oil-price-war] against just such a price collapse, U.S. oil producers were loaded up with debt and totally vulnerable to a sudden drop in oil prices. By April 1, Whiting Petroleum Corp. became the first [https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-shale-driller-whiting-petroleum-to-file-for-bankruptcy-11585746800] major U.S. fracking company to file for bankruptcy [https://finance.yahoo.com/news/whiting-petroleum-files-bankruptcy-amid-134201703.html] since the pandemic began, with many analysts predicting more bankruptcies [https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/02/business/oil-crash-bankruptcies-whiting/index.html] to come. …Energy companies make up a whopping 13 percent [https://www.ft.com/content/55f74150-4225-11ea-a047-eae9bd51ceba]of the lowest-rated, riskiest kind of corporate debt. And for 10 out of the last 11 years, energy companies accounted for the majority of the junk bond debt [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/20/business/energy-environment/coronavirus-oil-companies-debt.html]. Why should the Fed reward a decade of bad bets by oil companies? Pandemic Crisis, Systemic Decline: Why Exploiting the COVID-19 Crisis Will Not Save the Oil, Gas, and Plastic Industries (April 2020) [https://www.ciel.org/reports/pandemic-crisis-systemic-decline/]– the Center for International Environmental Law The Big Oil Money Pit [https://foe.org/resources/the-big-oil-money-pit/] – Friends of the Earth Russia Takes Aim at U.S. Shale Oil Producers [https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-takes-aim-at-u-s-shale-oil-producers-11584052675] – WSJ What are junk bonds [https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/trading-investing/junk-bonds/] The post What’s up with oil? [https://www.humorlessqueers.com/2020/04/28/whats-up-with-oil/] appeared first on HUMORLESS QUEERS [https://www.humorlessqueers.com].

COVID exacerbates existing disparities

Support independent, queer media! Become a subscriberon Patreon for bonus content and to support the show [https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?c=664374]. Existing health and economic disparities are crushing. The virus is making things a million times worse. Who has to work right now? Who can work from home? Who has lost their jobs? Massive overlap between people of color and service workers. Massive overlap in NYC between neighborhoods with lots of people of color, COVID-19 infected people, and people who work in the service industry. We start off with the EARN IT Act, legislation that would give the government a backdoor to kill encryption.  We also discuss how Congress picked winners and losers in their student debt relief in the third coronavirus package [https://www.studentloanborrowerassistance.org/what-the-cares-act-means-for-repayment-of-federal-student-loans/]. And we put out a call to action to free people from cages during the pandemic. And Alexis discusses Trump manipulating the stock market with lies about oil production cut “deals” between Russia and Saudi Arabia that…didn’t exist. MENTIONED ON THE SHOW New York State Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou’s speech on why she was voting against Cuomo’s budget to cut medicaid during a pandemic: https://twitter.com/NelStamp/status/1246164294867312640. [https://twitter.com/NelStamp/status/1246164294867312640] Chip her $5 here. [http://https://secure.actblue.com/donate/nioudonate]https://twitter.com/NelStamp/status/1246164294867312640 The EARN IT Act Violates the Constitution [https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/03/earn-it-act-violates-constitution] Location Data Says It All: Staying at Home During Coronavirus Is a Luxury [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/03/us/coronavirus-stay-home-rich-poor.html], The New York Times,  By Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, Denise Lu and Gabriel J.X. Dance A barrel of oil is now cheaper than a pint of beer in Canada [https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/30/a-barrel-of-oil-is-now-cheaper-than-a-pint-of-beer-in-canada.html] Organizations nationwide are pushing to free people from ICE and criminal detention. Here are ways you can take action in New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington DC, collated by abolitionist leader Mariame Kaba: * * * Take action in Washington DC — call script & social media kit at http://bit.ly/freedcnow [https://t.co/q6hKPbw1nK?amp=1] * Take action in New York at http://freethemall4publichealth.org [https://t.co/2BjMXK0C0P?amp=1] ; https://twitter.com/RAPPcampaign/status/1245715054420471809?s=20 [https://twitter.com/RAPPcampaign/status/1245715054420471809?s=20]; * Illinois https://twitter.com/endmoneybond/status/1245754631726059520?s=20 [https://twitter.com/endmoneybond/status/1245754631726059520?s=20] and https://t.co/GYQcDrxurM?amp=1 [https://t.co/GYQcDrxurM?amp=1] * Pennsylvania: https://twitter.com/AmistadLaw/status/1245328246364868608/photo/1 [https://twitter.com/AmistadLaw/status/1245328246364868608/photo/1] * Detention Watch’s call for action on immigration detention: https://twitter.com/DetentionWatch/status/1245697633865383936/photo/3 [https://twitter.com/DetentionWatch/status/1245697633865383936/photo/3] * Virginia: https://twitter.com/LaColectiVA703/status/1245712537515167744/photo/1 [https://twitter.com/LaColectiVA703/status/1245712537515167744/photo/1] * Nationwide action to Free Them All: https://twitter.com/ElizaApologist/status/1245729136854867969/photo/1 [https://twitter.com/ElizaApologist/status/1245729136854867969/photo/1] * Ohio: https://twitter.com/freethemall614/status/1245455162099064832/photo/1 [https://twitter.com/freethemall614/status/1245455162099064832/photo/1] The New York State Budget is a Failure, [https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2020/4/3/new-york-states-new-budget-is-a-failure]Data for Progress, by Ricky Silver and Shannon StagmanAndrew Cuomo Exploits Coronavirus Panic to Push Bail Reform Rollback in New York [https://theintercept.com/2020/03/25/coronavirus-andrew-cuomo-new-york-bail-reform/], The Intercept, Nick Pinto Coronavirus: US accused of ‘piracy’ over mask ‘confiscation’ [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-52161995] The Pandemic is  a Portal [https://www.ft.com/content/10d8f5e8-74eb-11ea-95fe-fcd274e920ca]:“Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.” —Arundhati Roy [https://www.ft.com/content/04d1cf6a-da13-11e7-a039-c64b1c09b482]The post COVID exacerbates existing disparities [https://www.humorlessqueers.com/2020/04/05/covid-disparities/] appeared first on HUMORLESS QUEERS [https://www.humorlessqueers.com].

What just happened with the Senate COVID19 vote?

Support independent, queer media! Become a subscriberon Patreon for bonus content and to support the show [https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?c=664374]. We discuss the McConnell 3.0 corporate bailout bonanza bill that failed in the Senate thanks to Democratic opposition. We talk about what happens next on the COVID19 response in the House. And we look at the way support for Cancelling Student Debt as an economic stimulus has been quickly gaining steam. MENTIONED ON THE SHOW Maxine Waters: Proposed Legislative Responses to COVID-19 [https://financialservices.house.gov/uploadedfiles/fsc_covid-19_legislative_package_-_03.18.20.pdf] There are 16 Senate Dems on the record in favor of cancelling student debt as a part of any stimulus, INCLUDING Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. The list is: * Warren, Brown, Durbin, Sanders, Duckworth, Reed, Blumenthal, Gillibrand, Van Hollen, Merkley, Baldwin, Harris, Markey, Booker, Shaheen, Menendez. (These are the folks who signed a Warren/Brown letter) [https://www.warren.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2020.03.21%20Letter%20to%20Congressional%20Negotiators%20re%20student%20loan%20cancellation%20in%20COVID-19%20package.pdf] There are 30 House Dems on the record in favor, INCLUDING House Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters: * Chair Waters including cancelling a minimum of $10,000 in federal student loans are a part of her proposal [https://financialservices.house.gov/uploadedfiles/fsc_covid-19_legislative_package_-_03.18.20.pdf] * A Rep Ayanna Pressley/Ilhan Omar letter [https://pressley.house.gov/media/press-releases/reps-pressley-and-omar-lead-colleagues-urging-house-leadership-include-student] supporting cancelling student debt in the stimulus got 27 signers (29 total). You can send your lawmakers (House and Senate) an email using Student Debt Crisis’ petition: https://studentdebtcrisis.org/cancel-student-debt-stimulate-economy/ [https://studentdebtcrisis.org/cancel-student-debt-stimulate-economy/]The post What just happened with the Senate COVID19 vote? [https://www.humorlessqueers.com/2020/03/23/wtf-just-happened-with-the-senate-covid19-vote/] appeared first on HUMORLESS QUEERS [https://www.humorlessqueers.com].