Monday, September 1st, 2014
KAPYA KAOMA, - Political Research Associates
Stephan: I recently had the great pleasure of meeting and listening to a wonderful young Ugandan musician who is building a significant international reputation, Kinobe. After his concert I spent a good part of the evening talking with him about the role of the American Theocratic Right in his homeland. That conversation is vouchsafed by this essay. This is a very evil trend.
The Uganda Story
For two days in early March 2009, Ugandans flocked to the Kampala Triangle Hotel for the Family Life Network’s “Seminar on Exposing the Homosexuals’ Agenda.” The seminar’s very title revealed its claim: LGBT people and activists are engaged in a well thought-out plan to take over the world. The U.S. culture wars had come to Africa with a vengeance.
To put on the conference, the Uganda-based Family Life Network – led by Stephen Langa with the goal of “restoring” traditional family values and morals in Uganda – teamed with two U.S. hatemongers from the Christian Right, Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively and Dan Schmierer of the ex-gay group Exodus International.[1] Vocal opposition in international circles did not stop the country’s high profile religious leaders, parliamentarians, police officers, teachers, and concerned parents from attending. Indeed, parliamentary action to wage war on gays was on the conference agenda. It was not enough that homosexuality is illegal in Uganda. As someone stated from the podium,
[The parliament] feels it is necessary to draft a new law that deals comprehensively with the issue of homosexuality and …takes […]
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Monday, September 1st, 2014
JULIAN MORGANS, - Vice News
Stephan: The story of Australia is one of the most perverse stories of recent time, and ought to be read as a cautionary tale. Obviously it is being duplicated in some aspects in the U.S.
Note the comments at the end about the grid/local relationship. If a game changer technology like LENR doesn't come along this is what I think is going to happen in both countries. The grid will eventually wither away because the cost of maintenance isn't worth it -- 50 years.
Image via Clean Energy Council
There was a time in the 1980s when Australia led the world in solar technology. To begin with, Australia receives more solar radiation per square foot than anywhere on the planet, and that presents an obvious advantage. But the true catalyst was geography: two thirds of the country consists of uninhabited desert. This posed problems for engineers tasked with constructing a national telephone network in the early 1970s. The solution was to build remote relay stations powered with solar energy, which at the time was a fledgling, expensive technology. Yet by 1978 the national provider, Telecom, had developed reliable solar cells that could be installed affordably across the country and be infrequently maintained. International recognition came in 1983 when Perth was tapped with hosting the Solar World Congress.
Fast-forward to 2014 and Australian solar power is in a very different place. This week a proposed solar farm with 2,000 dishes-capable of powering 30,000 homes-was canceled amid uncertainty about the future of renewable energy. This comes at a time […]
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Monday, September 1st, 2014
SAM WANG, - The New Yorker
Stephan: Sam Wang, and the Princeton Election Consortium, are doing some of the best assessment work of current political trends. Here is an example, a very good databased look at the gubernatorial races. These elections matter, governors can really screw with people's lives, or support and nurture them. Who gets chosen makes a difference, as Wisconsinites have learned to their peril.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, 2013.
CREDIT PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN EHLKE/DAILY NEWS/AP
Scott Walker, the Governor of Wisconsin, is in electoral jeopardy. This may come as a surprise, because for most of 2014 he was considered an odds-on favorite for reëlection against his Democratic challenger, Mary Burke. Recent surveys show that his median lead over Burke has narrowed from seven points, at its peak, to just half a point. The Princeton Election Consortium model (of which I’m a founder)* estimates that Walker’s probability for reëlection is fifty-five per cent, which is barely better than even odds.
Walker achieved prominence in both Republican and Democratic circles when he took away collective-bargaining power from government-employee unions. This was met with angry backlash, leading to massive protests and a recall election, in 2011, which Walker survived, making him a hero to Republicans and leading some to tout him as a potential Presidential candidate. This year, Burke, the C.E.O. of Trek Bicycle Corporation, has run a campaign focussed almost entirely […]
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Monday, September 1st, 2014
GREGORY CLARK, - Foreign Affairs
Stephan: Here is a very impressive essay on the American dream and immigration. I think Clark nails it.
We have got to stop lying to ourselves. And we need to speak out against politicians who do it. You cannot learn what you will not see; whether as an individual or a society.
An entrance sign written in Spanish is seen along the U.S.-Mexico border fence near Brownsville, Texas on August 4, 2014. (Courtesy Reuters)
A combination of cheap transportation and enormous disparities in income across countries has inspired unprecedented numbers of people to uproot: there are now 230 million people around the world living outside the country of their birth, 46 million of them in the United States. Not surprisingly, immigration tends to flow from poor places to rich ones: in the world’s 18 richest countries, immigrants constitute 16 percent of the population. If one includes those who are descendants of recent immigrants, that percentage is significantly larger and is certain to grow, since immigrants generally have more children than domestic populations. Consider that, in 2010, 13 percent of the U.S. population was born outside the country, yet 24 percent of those younger than 18 had foreign-born parents.
Policymakers in rich countries have tended […]
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