Thursday, January 9th, 2014
JEFFREY M. JONES, - The Gallup Organization
Stephan: Beneath the political polemics a tectonic movement in the electorate is occurring, as this survey shows. Moderate Republicans are abandoning the party and calling themselves Independents. The Theocratic Right is capturing the Republican Party.
Click through to see the very helpful charts.
PRINCETON, NJ — Forty-two percent of Americans, on average, identified as political independents in 2013, the highest Gallup has measured since it began conducting interviews by telephone 25 years ago. Meanwhile, Republican identification fell to 25%, the lowest over that time span. At 31%, Democratic identification is unchanged from the last four years but down from 36% in 2008.
Party Identification, Yearly Averages, 1988-2013
The results are based on more than 18,000 interviews with Americans from 13 separate Gallup multiple-day polls conducted in 2013.
In each of the last three years, at least 40% of Americans have identified as independents. These are also the only years in Gallup’s records that the percentage of independents has reached that level.
Americans’ increasing shift to independent status has come more at the expense of the Republican Party than the Democratic Party. Republican identification peaked at 34% in 2004, the year George W. Bush won a second term in office. Since then, it has fallen nine percentage points, with most of that decline coming during Bush’s troubled second term. When he left office, Republican identification was down to 28%. It has declined or stagnated since then, improving only slightly to 29% in 2010, the year Republicans “shellacked” Democrats […]
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Thursday, January 9th, 2014
BRYCE COVERT, - Think Progress
Stephan: It is an article of faith by the Theocratic Right that poor people generally abuse social programs. They are drug abusers, who just want to lay around and who squander the government's largesse on booze, and $600 purses. The fascinating thing is that every time they get a chance to prove this the opposite is proved. The urine test that showed significantly lower drug usage -- 2.6% -- than the national average 4.7%. Oops. Now a particularly grotesque version by the tea bagger governor, Maine's Paul LePage who in trying to prove welfare fraud is rampant has produced a study showing it is a tenth of one percent.
What stands out for me is that only affluent people think these things. Poor people know that if you have barely enough money for food and rent for you and your kids, even though you are working, you have no money for liquor -- a bottle of cheap spirits on Whidbey Island is about $30. Your three part-time jobs at minimum wage leave you no time to lie around. Welfare is so complicated and difficult to navigate fraud is not easy to carry off. I know from dealing with social services on behalf of my late severely handicapped (mentally and physically) brother that the paperwork and effort it takes to get a benefit is a nightmare experience. Just consider the problems vets are presently having to get their benefits.
The truth is, as study after study and nation after nation show a decent safety net is an essential component of a healthy democracy.
On Tuesday, Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) released data on purchases made with state welfare benefits that he claimed exposed abuse, but they only add up to less than a percent of all benefit transactions.
The data show that there were more than 3,000 transactions at bars, sports bars, and strip clubs made with EBT (electronic benefit transfer) cards loaded with TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or welfare) and food stamp benefits between January 1, 2011 and November 15, 2013. The state doesn’t track what was actually purchased, and some transactions can be withdrawals from ATMs at those locations. Given that there are about 50,000 of these transactions every month, or nearly 1.8 million in that time frame, as the state’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) spokesman told the Bangor Daily News, they only make up ‘about two-tenths of 1 percent of total purchases and ATM withdrawals,” the paper calculates.
LePage still expressed outrage at this tiny fraction of purchases. ‘This information is eye-opening and indicates a larger problem than initially thought,” he wrote when the data was released. ‘These benefits are supposed to help families, children and our most vulnerable Mainers. Instead, we have discovered welfare benefits are […]
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Wednesday, January 8th, 2014
STERLING D. ALLAN, - Pure Energy Systems News
Stephan: Here is the latest in the LENR trend which the mainstream media ignores but which I still think is going to make a major impact.
Click through to see a very helpful image showing the installation discussed.
I had a brief phone interview December 29 with Robert (Bob) W. George II, CEO of Brillouin Energy Corporation of Berkeley, California, who is one of the leading players in the LENR sector, colloquially referred to as “cold fusion”.
As we have been informed previously, they have a system under test at SRI International (Stanford Research Institute), which testing is being spearheaded by Dr. Michael McKubre, one of the most well-respected scientists in the sector. The HHT (hydrogen hot tube) being tested there is capable of producing high heat in the range of 600ºC, which is ample for electricity generating scenarios.
But the development that Bob said is “the most significant event” they’ve had, and which I could be the first to announce, is that just before Christmas, they signed a multi-million dollar licensing contract with a firm in South Korea, with $750,000 up front, half of which has already been wired, the other half of which is due within 90 days.
This contract came after a year of the firm performing their due diligence.
Bob said that they are entertaining inquiries from other nations for similar licenses.
He hopes that by the end of 2014 they will be ready for roll-out of manufacturing, handing […]
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Wednesday, January 8th, 2014
JAMIE STIEHM, - U.S. News and World Report
Stephan: Few people seem to realize that six of nine Justices on the Supreme Court are Roman Catholics. As this essay explains this has had a significant impact on the Court's decisions concerning women.
Et tu, Justice Sonia Sotomayor? Really, we can’t trust you on women’s health and human rights? The lady from the Bronx just dropped the ball on American women and girls as surely as she did the sparkling ball at midnight on New Year’s Eve in Times Square. Or maybe she’s just a good Catholic girl.
The Supreme Court is now best understood as the Extreme Court. One big reason why is that six out of nine Justices are Catholic. Let’s be forthright about that. (The other three are Jewish.) Sotomayor, appointed by President Obama, is a Catholic who put her religion ahead of her jurisprudence. What a surprise, but that is no small thing.
In a stay order applying to an appeal by a Colorado nunnery, the Little Sisters of the Poor, Justice Sotomayor undermined the new Affordable Care Act’s sensible policy on contraception. She blocked the most simple of rules – lenient rules – that required the Little Sisters to affirm their religious beliefs against making contraception available to its members. They objected to filling out a one-page form. What could be easier than nuns claiming they don’t believe in contraception?
[See a collection of political cartoons on the Catholic contraception controversy.]
Sotomayor’s […]
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Wednesday, January 8th, 2014
JENNY HOPKINSON and HELENA BOTTEMILLER EVICH, - Politico
Stephan: Here is the latest in the GMO struggle. Although Big Food thwarted the labelling movement in both California and Washington by spending tens of millions of dollars -- some sources say in Washington as much as a million dollars a day -- it passed in Connecticut and Maine. Buyers, ordinary people, are increasingly concerned about knowing what is in their food. So now Big Food is going to try another tack, as this report describes.
The giants of the U.S. food industry who have spent millions fighting state-by-state efforts to mandate new labels for genetically modified organisms are taking a page from their opponents and pushing for a federal GMO law.
But the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which represents such food and beverage leaders as ConAgra, PepsiCo and Kraft, isn’t exactly joining the anti-GMO movement. It’s advocating for an industry-friendly, law with a voluntary federal standard – a move that food activists see as a power grab by an industry that has tried to kill GMO labeling initiatives every step of the way.
The most powerful players in the food industry say they are simply trying to find a national solution for GMO labeling, rather than having to navigate a patchwork of dozens of state laws for every packaged food item on the grocery shelf. According to a discussion draft of GMA’s proposed bill obtained by POLITICO, labeling standards would not be mandatory and the industry would submit to more FDA oversight.
(Also on POLITICO: Full agriculture policy coverage)
The draft provides the first concrete look of what the food industry is asking for from Congress.
The push for a softer national standard on GMO labeling comes as consumer interest in […]
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