“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
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New York Times Editorial: The Paris Climate Pact Will Need Strong Follow-Up
Paris is over. The cheering and high-fiving have died down. Now comes the hard part.
On Saturday, after two weeks of talks, 195 nations agreed on a plan that they hope will reduce the greenhouse gases warming the atmosphere and assure future generations of a livable world. Will it? Yes, or probably, or maybe, but only if the countries that promised to reduce their emissions honor those pledges and agree to improve significantly on them in the years to come. [..]
The behavior of individual governments will be critical in determining whether the world moves forward with clean-energy technologies. Much was said about how the agreement sent a strong “signal” to investors, and indeed, Paris was swarming with corporate chieftains and Silicon Valley heavyweights. But the strength of that signal will depend heavily on whether governments are willing to promote such investments while removing the tax subsidies that favor dirtier fossil fuels — perhaps to the point of embracing carbon taxes.
Dean Baker: Holiday Season Giving to Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos, the CEO and founder of Amazon, is routinely touted in the media as an entrepreneurial genius. That assessment may well be correct. After all, Amazon has made huge breakthroughs not only in Internet marketing, but also in promoting the spread of e-books, and more recently as a new source of television shows.
But however brilliant Bezos may be, the public should recognize that his success has come with a huge helping hand from the taxpayers. He has received in the neighborhood of $4 billion in subsidies from taxpayers over the last two decades to help his business grow.
If you missed that line item in the budget, it’s probably because the media have mostly chosen not to give it much attention. The basic point is a simple one: the brick and mortar retailers with whom Amazon competes are required to collect state and local sales taxes on the products they sell. For most of its existence, Amazon was exempted from this requirement in most of the states it did business.
Tom Colicchio: Are You Eating Frankenfish?
THIS month, Congress may decide whether consumers are smart enough to be trusted with their own food choices. Some lawmakers are trying to insert language into must-pass spending legislation that would block states from giving consumers the right to know whether their food contains genetically modified ingredients.
They must be stopped.
Nine out of 10 Americans want G.M.O. disclosure on food packages, according to a 2013 New York Times poll, just like consumers in 64 other nations. But powerful members of the agriculture and appropriations committees, along with their allies in agribusiness corporations like Monsanto, want to keep consumers in the dark. That’s why opponents of this effort have called it the DARK Act — or the Deny Americans the Right to Know Act.
As a chef, I’m proud of the food I serve. The idea that I would try to hide what’s in my food from my customers offends everything I believe in. It’s also really bad for business.
Jessica Valenti: Abortion by wire coat hanger is not a thing of the past in America
For women who lived in the United States before abortion was made legal, there are few images more evocative and distressing than the wire coat hanger. Featured on protest signs for decades, the hanger represents the desperation and horror of a time when, lacking all other options, women took matters into their own hands. A time, it seems, that we are reliving today.
This past September in Tennessee, 31-year-old Anna Yocca allegedly got into her bathtub and tried to end her pregnancy using a wire hanger. When the bleeding became out of control, her boyfriend drove her to a nearby hospital. In a just world, this news would provoke empathetic outrage – Yocca’s desperation and inability to obtain a safe abortion prove that we are shamefully failing women.
But we don’t live in a just world. We live in a world, in a country, where women who want to end their pregnancies are considered contemptible. And so Yocca, after her 24-week fetus was delivered, was arrested for first-degree attempted murder.
Robert Reich: The Revolt of the Anxious Class
The great American middle class has become an anxious class — and it’s in revolt.
Before I explain how that revolt is playing out, you need to understand the sources of the anxiety.
Start with the fact that the middle class is shrinking, according to a new Pew survey.
The odds of falling into poverty are frighteningly high, especially for the majority without college degrees.
Two-thirds of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Most could lose their jobs at any time.
Many are part of a burgeoning “on-demand” workforce — employed as needed, paid whatever they can get whenever they can get it.
Yet if they don’t keep up with rent or mortgage payments, or can’t pay for groceries or utilities, they’ll lose their footing.
The stress is taking a toll. For the first time in history, the lifespans of middle-class whites are dropping.
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