Sunday, September 29th, 2013
BILL MAHER, - The Huffington Post
Stephan: I'm not a big fan of Bill Maher. Much of his gratuitous snarkiness just seems an add-on cheap shot. But I am leading today with this story because I believe Maher makes an extremely important point that I hope will get the attention of all of my readers. California is a living laboratory that is demonstrating what has been wrong with the country -- the Republican Party. We all remember when California was deemed to be a failed state. Now, as Maher points out, because its citizens finally voted the Republicans out of power, and sensible fact based social policies could be implemented, the state has gone from deficit to surplus, and the quality of life for citizens has improved. It is a lesson each state needs to learn. What is happening in California proves the point I make in SR over and over. As long as the vote exists it is the citizens who are ultimately responsible for what happens in the country. Voting for that which is the most compassionate and life-affirming makes the world better.
New Rule: Conservatives who love to brag about American exceptionalism must come here to California, and see it in person. And then they should be afraid — very afraid. Because while the rest of the country is beset by stories of right-wing takeovers in places like North Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin, California is going in the opposite direction and creating the kind of modern, liberal nation the country as a whole can only dream about. And not only can’t the rest of the country stop us — we’re going to drag you along with us.
It wasn’t that long ago that pundits were calling California a failed state and saying it was ungovernable. But in 2010, when other states were busy electing whatever Tea Partier claimed to hate government the most, we elected a guy who actually liked it, Jerry Brown.
Since then, everything Republicans say can’t or won’t work — gun control, immigration reform, high-speed rail — California is making work. And everything conservatives claim will unravel the fabric of our society — universal healthcare, higher taxes on the rich, gay marriage, medical marijuana — has only made California stronger. And all we had to do to accomplish that was vote […]
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Sunday, September 29th, 2013
HELENA SMITH, - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: Rightist economic theory and policy have proven to be a disaster. Nobel Laureates Paul Krugman, and Joseph Stiglitz, have been saying this would happen since 2008, and now it is clear they are correct.
This story about Greece is heartbreaking. The austerity policies are literally destroying the culture. This did not have to happen to sort Greece out, and get it back on a sound footing.
Internationally mandated austerity measures have pushed universities in Greece to the point of collapse with many of the debt-stricken country’s pre-eminent higher education institutions being forced to suspend operations.
After the University of Athens announced it could no longer function because of lay-offs demanded by the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank, universities in Thessaloniki, Patras, Ioannina and Crete have followed suit. All say that cuts in administrative staff, including guards and archivists, have made it impossible to keep their doors open. Greece is under pressure to streamline its bloated public sector by relocating 25,000 civil servants into a strategic reserve or mobility scheme on reduced pay by the end of the year. Those who cannot find jobs in other government departments will be culled.
In a letter to the prime minister, Antonis Samaras, the president of the Federation of University Teachers, Stathis Efstathopoulos, wrote: ‘With great angst we have ascertained that with the government’s decision to place specialist and much valued administrative staff into the mobility scheme our universities are at risk of collapse. Even if we accept that we have a surplus of personnel we cannot, from one day to the next, operate with 40% less staff.’
Until […]
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Sunday, September 29th, 2013
JOSH DZIEZA, - The Daily Beast
Stephan: Here is some more good news about California. Governor Jerry Brown and the Democratic controlled state legislature, have taken noncarbon energy very seriously. Here is the latest in this trend.
Click through to see the wonderful photos showing the facility, and a video tour, which will surprise you.
The massive solar plant nearing completion in the California’s Mojave desert doesn’t look like the solar plants you might be used to seeing. It has no solar panels, for one thing. Instead, it has mirrors-300,000 of them-all arrayed in rings around three giant towers. The mirrors reflect sunlight onto vats of water sitting on top of the towers, heating them to 500 degrees and powering a steam turbine, providing enough energy for 140,000 homes. When it goes online at the end of the year, it will be one of the biggest solar plants in the world. But the technology at its heart is relatively simple: mirrors, water boilers, and steam turbines.
The plant, called Ivanpah, is funded by Google, NRG, and BrightSource, a company that specializes in what’s called concentrated solar power, or CSP, a method of using focused sunlight to turn a steam generator. The technology isn’t new: a small test plant that uses mirrored troughs to heat oil-filled tubes has been running in California for 20 years. Going back further, you could point to the French inventor Agustin Mouchot, who experimented with solar powered steam engines in the 19th century, thinking we were about to run out of coal. […]
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Sunday, September 29th, 2013
KILEY KROH, - Think Progress
Stephan: I used to live in Virginia Beach, which blends into Norfolk so I know the truth of this story. This is what is coming. If you are like a third of the rest of the American population, and you live along a coast line, you should take this story very seriously. This is your future. This is what is going to create the migration away from the coast, that will accompany the migration out of the Southwest, because of water scarcity and temperature.
For my Virginia readers. I am a Virginia; I grew up in Gloucester County, in Tidewater Virginia just north of Virginia Beach and Norfolk. If you value your state's future do not vote for Cucinelli. This man is train wreck.
Click through to see a very good video, illustrating this story.
We are here to ask for your help,
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Saturday, September 28th, 2013
DAVID FERGUSON, - The Raw Story
Stephan: Red state willful ignorance is becoming a real issue. The Theocratic Right formerly a fringe group has become a major political powerhouse and, as they have become more powerful, they have become increasingly deranged. As the firewall between church and state has been breached in those states the drive to impose willful ignorance on children has grown. I think it is a form of mental illness, and the states where this group has power are veering away from a world of facts to one of bitter hateful fantasies.
Christian groups filed a pair of lawsuits in Federal District Court challenging the Kansas state Board of Education’s decision to implement a state-wide set of science standards. On June 11, the Kansas state Board of Education adopted a universal set of science standards to be taught in classrooms across the state from kindergarten to grade 12. Faith groups are up in arms that their beliefs are not being given more credence in science classes.
According to a statement on the Pacific Justice Institute’s website, the teaching of science in all of the state’s public schools could create ‘a hostile learning environment for those of faith.
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