#uspolicy — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #uspolicy, aggregated by home.social.
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Chronology: The Three Mysterious Ecuadorian Fishing-Boat Attacks
The story of the January and March attacks on three Ecuadorian fishing boats is getting bigger, uglier, and pointing to U.S. covert operations. Here’s a chronology of some of the excellent reporting that has emerged.
#DrugPolicy #Ecuador #Featured #HumanRights #Intelligence #USPolicy
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This “scary threshold” will be reached this year unless “extraordinary measures” are taken, said Brad Udall, a senior #water & #climate research scientist at Colorado State University. These include reductions in water releases from Lake Powell & upstream, he added.
The most alarming scenario would see Lake Powell reaching “deadpool” levels of below 3,370 feet. At this point water would no longer be able to flow downstream from the dam at all.
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…A major concern is the impact on #energy generation. The force of the #ColoradoRiver turns the Glen Canyon Dam’s 8 huge turbines, producing enough #electricity each year to #power nearly 500,000 households. It’s relied on by Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada & Nebraska.
The #reservoir could now be barreling toward “minimum power pool” — at 3,490 feet — when #water levels will be too low to spin the turbines & generate electricity.
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“We are in uncharted territory,” said Jack Schmidt, director of the Center for #ColoradoRiver Studies at Utah State University.
Lakes Mead & Powell, which are essentially one gigantic #reservoir separated by the Grand Canyon, hold just under 60% of the total #water currently stored in the Colorado River basin. The unprecedented decline of these vast bodies of water, which have been shrinking for >20 years, drives home the perilous state of the river that feeds them.
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The reservoir’s levels dropped to 3519.91 feet on Saturday, breaking the record low of 3,519.92 feet set in April 2023, acc/to data from the US Bureau of Reclamation published Sunday. It is now just under 30 feet away from the point at which its dam will no longer be able to generate #hydropower.
The record comes 9 days after downstream #LakeMead, the US’ biggest #reservoir, dropped to its lowest level since it was first filled 9 decades ago.
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Unprecedented #water decline
Two major #US #reservoirs are at record lows, careening toward a point where they will no longer be able to meet the #power needs for millions of people
#LakePowell, the 2nd-largest reservoir in the US, provides water & #electricity to millions in the West. It has now has shrunk to its lowest level on record, in the latest sign of the alarming crisis unfolding on the #drought stricken #ColoradoRiver.
#ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #USpolicy
https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/16/climate/lake-powell-reservoir-record-low-colorado-river -
$1 Billion for Colombia, More Questions Than Facts
Joint ops, fumigation, Darién Gap, state presence: four big questions raised by the military part of the State Department’s promise of $1 billion in new aid to Colombia.
#Colombia #DariénGap #Featured #IllicitCropEradication #Stabilization #USPolicy
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Building Nine Prisons in Peru?
The Department of Commerce will convene U.S. industry partners in Lima in September to discuss opportunities for U.S. technology providers under President Fujimori’s plans to construct nine new prisons.
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At DHS, Another Step Toward Venezuela-ization
The departure of a careful, credible numbers guy who served under both parties is a severe blow to DHS’s credibility
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This nuclear policy is one that has never gone badly for either country in the past. And will have absolutely no global ramifications at all.
#uspolicy #Nuclear #nuclearpolicy #weaponsgrade #uspol #iran
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The latest July 2026 Anti-Trans National Legal Risk Assessment Map from journalist Erin Reed ( @ErinInTheMorn ) is now available, outlining the current legislative environment across the United States. Key updates in this report include:
• State Reclassifications: Idaho has been moved to the "Do Not Travel" category due to new criminal penalties regarding bathroom usage, and South Carolina's risk tier was raised following expanded restrictions at colleges and universities.
• National Overview: The report examines the impact of recent federal policies and state-level executive orders on healthcare, identification documents, and public accommodation.
• State Categorizations: States continue to be evaluated and sorted into tiers ranging from "Most Protective" (including Washington) to "Do Not Travel" based on qualitative analysis of passed and proposed bills.
#Transgender #LGBTQNews #CurrentEvents #USPolicy #PublicPolicy #StateLegislation
https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/anti-trans-national-legal-risk-assessment-bb2
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I find it interesting the the vast majority of the Democrats are actually to the right of 50's Republicans. Do you know what the top tax rate was back then? 92%
#USPolitics #uspolicy #radicalleftistscum -
Guest post: How US renewable-energy growth persists despite federal policy uncertainty
Despite recent shifts in federal energy policies, our analysis shows that the US transition to renewable energy is…
#NewsBeep #News #Environment #AU #Australia #coal #energydemand #gas #growingenergydemand #RENEWABLEENERGY #renewables #Science #USPolicy #usa
https://www.newsbeep.com/au/769213/ -
Guest post: How US renewable-energy growth persists despite federal policy uncertainty
Despite recent shifts in federal energy policies, our analysis shows that the US transition to renewable energy is…
#NewsBeep #News #Environment #coal #energydemand #environment #Gas #growingenergydemand #renewableenergy #renewables #Science #UK #UnitedKingdom #USpolicy #USA
https://www.newsbeep.com/uk/660634/ -
"Putin and Xi don’t think like we do—and that misread has shaped decades of U.S. policy. Michael McFaul on autocracy, Ukraine, NATO, Taiwan, and why democratic example—not military might—is the real threat to authoritarian regimes."
- Interview with Michael McFaul ( March 2, 2026; 72 min )#Putin #XI #autocracy #Ukraine #Taiwan #NATO #USpolicy
https://www.hoover.org/research/theyre-not-us-michael-mcfaul-autocrats-vs-democrats-and-fight-twenty-first-century -
A Devastating Milestone for Anyone With a Conscience
A devastating milestone for anyone with a conscience. If all unrecovered survivors of these attacks (including 2 from yesterday) are indeed dead, then the known toll of these extrajudicial killings has now reached 200.
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Yet the catastrophic #stupidity of current #U.S.policy shouldn’t be attributed purely to Trump’s personal unfitness to lead. Willful #ignorance and rejection of expert advice have characterized the #U.S. #politicalright for many years.” open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...
The Apotheosis of Willful Igno... -
Is the world facing a looming food crisis?
Yes, and the situation is quite serious — and in some parts of the world, a crisis is not looming but already here. Here’s a comprehensive picture:
## The Current State
An estimated 318 million people currently face acute hunger — double pre-pandemic levels — with 41 million at emergency levels or worse. Two famines have been confirmed simultaneously in Gaza and parts of Sudan, marking the first time this century that famine has struck two countries at once.
Beyond outright hunger, 2.3 billion people are experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity, and over 2.6 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet.
The WFP 2026 Global Outlook reports a 20% increase in the number of people facing acute food insecurity since 2020.
## The Major Drivers
**Conflict** is the single biggest factor. In 2024, conflict was the leading driver of acute food insecurity, affecting nearly 140 million people, followed by climate extremes affecting 96 million, and economic shocks affecting nearly 60 million.
The FAO and WFP have identified six countries at the highest risk of famine or catastrophic hunger: Sudan, Palestine, South Sudan, Mali, Haiti, and Yemen. Countries of very high concern also include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, and Afghanistan.
**Climate change** is now a structural problem, not an occasional one. The Global Hunger Index highlights that climate change is now a constant rather than episodic threat.
**Fertilizer supply** is an emerging and acute crisis in 2026. Governments are rushing to secure supplies of critical crop nutrients ahead of spring planting, as the Middle East war chokes off the flow of commodities. The most significant catalyst has been the near-total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz — with roughly one-third of global seaborne urea and 20% of ammonia trade passing through this chokepoint, the halt in shipping from major producers like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Oman has effectively stranded millions of tons of production.
China has also effectively built a wall of export restrictions on urea and phosphates to ensure domestic food security, with the move removing nearly 40% of global phosphate trade from the international market — signaling a shift where nations no longer view fertilizers as global commodities but as strategic national assets.
## A Paradox at the Heart of It
Even though today’s global food production is enough to feed everyone on the planet, hunger continues to increase in some parts of the world. This is a crucial point — the food crisis is fundamentally one of **distribution, politics, and economics**, not purely of production capacity.
## Some Cautious Good News
An estimated 673 million people experienced hunger in 2024, which represents a decrease of 15 million from 2023 and 22 million from 2022, with notable improvements in southern Asia and Latin America. However, progress has been deeply uneven, and hunger is still rising across Africa and Western Asia.
## The Holmgren Connection
This situation connects directly to what Holmgren warns about — industrial agriculture’s deep dependence on fossil fuels (fertilizers are made from natural gas), global supply chains, and geopolitical stability. The fertilizer crisis unfolding right now is almost a textbook illustration of his energy descent thesis: when geopolitical stress disrupts energy flows, food systems become immediately vulnerable in ways that locally-rooted, lower-input agriculture would not be.
#Food #FoodSecurty #Health #Interbeing #MutualAid #Oppression #Polycrisis #USPolicy
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The White House states: "Peace through strength. This is America's path." #USPolicy #StrengthInPeace
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a limited number of strikes against Iranian-affiliated groups. This incident indicates a potential escalation in US military engagement in the region. #USPolicy #IraqConflict
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U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright asserts that Iran has threatened the Strait of Hormuz for 47 years, attacking neighbors and killing U.S. soldiers. He emphasizes the urgency of action against a nuclear-capable Iran. #IranThreat #USPolicy
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March 19 Webinar on the Dismantling of Internal Oversight at DHS
I’ve been working on a report with colleagues at the Kino Border Initiative in Nogales that will commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Trump administration totally gutting agencies at DHS that are supposed to be handling complaints about civil rights, civil liberties, and detention abuse violations.
#BorderSecurity #Events #Featured #HumanRights #Migration #USPolicy