Trader Joe’s Listens To Customer Feedback, Making Big Changes in Packaging Their Produce
I wish I had a dollar for every time I (gently) complained about the packaging, as well as a the sourcing, of TJ’s produce.
There are good reasons to shop at TJs, but produce isn’t one of them. It never comes from local sources, and I understand why: it’s impossible to control. But that means it’s usually flown in from places all over the world, at incredible carbon footprint. And yes, the packaging is obscene as well.
Check out your farmer’s market.
The meme here is a reference to President Trump’s recent conversation with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un about the death by torture of Otto Warmbier, an American college student who died after being jailed by North Korea, in which Trump said, “I don’t believe Kim knew of Warmbier’s mistreatment; I will take him at his word.”
Insofar as the concept of the “Green New Deal” is in the news, it’s worth looking at some of the broad ideas that would serve to support such a concept in general…or that might invalidate it as an unavoidably wasteful and ill-conceived boondoggle. 
When you spend four college years with a class of about 400, you get to know a great many of them, from course work inside and outside your major, dorm life, sports, fraternities, and other social activities. A great many of them will be on your Christmas card list for the rest of your lives, but only a very few will make you genuinely proud. 
Here’s an article that shines another little ray of light on what’s happening in the Trump administration’s EPA.
Question: What key change has the Trump administration’s EPA made in regulating the toxic waste coming from mining operations? What is the impact on the health and safety of the people living in Montana, California, Colorado, Oklahoma, and other states? 
It’s pretty clear what’s happening in the U.S. re: climate change and its mitigation: 
Scottish philosopher David Hume, one of the 18th Century empiricists, told us, “We always disbelieve the greater miracle.” This means that, when confronted with two conflicting but highly improbable statements, one of which is true and the other false, we believe the one that is more probable and discard “the greater miracle.” 
Question: What do the environmental protections listed on the right have in common?
Unremarkably, the Trump administration is a) rolling back MPG and emissions standards for cars and trucks sold in the U.S., degrading both human health and our environment, while b) trying its damndest to make it impossible for the more progressive states, e.g., California, to maintain its own (tougher) standards. 
