Joan McCarter, - Daily Kos
Stephan: The transformation of American democracy to an open oligarchy is really quite amazing; I wonder how the Founders would feel about this development. A handful of uber-rich White men, led by the Koch brothers basically have bought the Republican Party, anointing the candidates they want in office. I wonder if those who register as Republicans fully comprehend what has happened.
Just to be clear. The Democratic Party is also complicit in the sale of democracy to the ultra-rich. My general take away from all of this is: This is what happens when most of the citizens in the country don't vote. We have no one to blame but ourselves and I, for one, have had enough.
Credit: Fox News Radio
The Koch brothers’ takeover of the Republican Party is very nearly complete, and if they have their way, it will be by the end of 2016. They’ve anointed the five presidential candidates that are their finalists and they’ve got their plan in place for getting one of them elected, along with a Republican Senate. Politico got the documents and the interviews with the people who know.
The documents detail plans to beef up the network’s state-of-the-art data system, and pay hundreds of staff embedded in local communities across the country in preparation for get-out-the-vote efforts that are unprecedented from a third-party group.The plan comes with a $125 million 2015 budget for Americans for Prosperity, the most robust arm in the network of small-government advocacy groups helmed by the billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch. That’s the most the group has ever spent in a non-election year and the documents call the plan “beyond the biggest, boldest, broadest effort AFP has ever undertaken.” It calls for the creation of new chapters in Alabama, Idaho, North Dakota […]
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Michael T. Klare, Professor of Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College - Scientific American
Stephan: The transition out of the carbon energy era is one of the most positive trends I see, and I am glad to begin seeing writing by others who similarly recognize this. The social gestalt is changing.
That day will come: the life-changing moment when renewable energy—wind, solar, geothermal and others still in development—replace fossil fuels as the principal source of world energy. Most analysts insist, however, that this day will not arrive for many decades to come—certainly well past the middle of the century. Fossil fuels are too entrenched, it is said, and renewables too costly or impractical to usurp existing systems. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the share of global energy provided by renewables—a mere 14 percent in 2012—will increase only slightly between now and 2040, rising to just 19 percent. But there are good reasons to believe that the transition to renewables will occur much faster than previously assumed, pushing that percentage higher and higher. Indeed, recent increases in wind and solar installations have been running at nearly twice the rate of the IEA’s projections for long-term capacity growth, suggesting that its projections of renewables’ share of global energy are much too low.
It is hardly surprising, of course, that many experts say we will witness a relatively drawn-out transition from fossil fuels […]
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David Edwards, - The Raw Story
Stephan: Here is yet more evidence of the failure of Theocratic Rightist social and economic policies. Everyone agrees education is critical for a successful future... right? Well, not everyone. Not Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal for one. As this report details 16 of 20 campuses in the state, including Louisiana State University, are preparing for the academic institution equivalent of bankruptcy. How's that for planning for the future?
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.
Louisiana State University (LSU) said this week that it had been forced to start planning for bankruptcy in response to Gov. Bobby Jindal’s (R) budget. And it’s just one of as many as 20 campuses that were starting the process.
LSU President and Chancellor F. King Alexander told The Times-Picayune that his administration had begun the process of declaring financial exigency — which is essentially an academic bankruptcy — after the state Legislature and Jindal’s administration had failed to close a budget gap.
“We don’t say that to scare people,” Alexander explained. “Basically, it is how we are going to survive.”
According to the paper, Moody’s Investors Service has already downgraded the university’s credit outlook, meaning that it would have to pay more to borrow money. It was also expected to make it more difficult to recruit staff.
“You’ll never get any more faculty,” Alexander pointed out.
Because Jindal’s budget included $372 million in funding from tax credit rollbacks that the Legislature was never expected to pass — […]
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Stephan: Given the militarization of our law enforcement, the weekly parade of African Americans killed by police thugs, the American gulag, and judges purchased by rich individuals, the American legal system is beginning to look like something out of a Kafka novel. But, even by those bizarre standards, this story is a surreal standout.
The Washington Post published a story so horrifying this weekend that it would stop your breath: “The Justice Department and FBI have formally acknowledged that nearly every examiner in an elite FBI forensic unit gave flawed testimony in almost all trials in which they offered evidence against criminal defendants over more than a two-decade period before 2000.” (emphasis added)
What went wrong? The Post continues: “Of 28 examiners with the FBI Laboratory’s microscopic hair comparison unit, 26 overstated forensic matches in ways that favored prosecutors in more than 95 percent of the 268 trials reviewed so far.” The shameful, horrifying errors were uncovered in a massive, three-year review by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Innocence Project. Following revelations published in recent years, the two groups are helping the government with the country’s largest ever post-conviction review of questioned forensic evidence.Chillingly, as the Post continues, “the cases include those of 32 defendants sentenced to death.” Of these defendants, 14 have already been executed or died in prison.
The massive review raises questions about the veracity of not just expert hair testimony, but also […]
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Thursday, April 23rd, 2015
Helen Briggs, Environment Correspondent - BBC News (U.K.)
Stephan: We get a final warning.
The Earth Statement warns of tipping points in the Earth’s meta-systems.
Credit: Thinkstock
Scientists are calling on world leaders to sign up to an eight-point plan of action at landmark talks in Paris.
The key element is the goal to limit global warming to below 2C by moving to zero carbon emissions by 2050. (emphasis added)
The UN meeting in December is “the last chance” to avert dangerous climate change, according to the Earth League.
Scientific evidence shows this can be achieved, but only with bold action now, says an alliance of climate researchers from 17 institutions.
The statement involves eight calls for action:
- Limiting global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius
- Keeping future CO2 emissions below 1,000 gigatonnes (billion tonnes)
- Creating a zero-carbon society by 2050
- Equity of approach – with richer countries helping poorer ones
- Technological research and innovation
- A global strategy to address loss and damage from climate change
- Safeguarding ecosystems such as […]
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