Eric Bangeman, - arstechnica
Stephan: I want to be clear. Senator James Inhofe is not alone. Here is a story from Australia about an advisor to the Prime Minister that is right up there with Jade Helm 15. This is data point indicating we will not make an appropriate response to climate change around the world.
This is also a geopolitical fulcrum point. It is going to become obvious pretty quickly which countries have made proper preparations and which have not. The water issues, the extreme weather events, the ecosystem break down are going to sort out human societies in a never before experienced way. And that is going to change the world order.
The thing one always has to bear in mind is that one of the great trends is that the 0.01% are no longer geographically bounded, and have only marginal national affliation. Nor are the companies they control. Companies like Monsanto or Apple or Facebook are not American any longer really.
If you were part of the 0.01% think for a moment about how you would see the world. National allegiance might still have a nostalgic emotional pull, in the way one might have an affection for favorite vacation. Then also imagine it becomes linked with the Homo Superior Trend as it will, and a new genetically engineered dominate subspecies Homo Superior emerges. From that perspective of such a person a planetary 21st century feudal system might be very attractive and for many will even seem appropriate — a proportionally tiny global aristocracy and nobility, provincial gentries, a large peasantry, and a proportionally small professional and business middle class. I can already see data points on this trend taking form.
Credit: Australian Bureau of Meterology
The climate-change-as-new-world-order-conspiracy trope is going strong south of the equator, with the chairman of Australia’s Business Advisory Council claiming that climate science is filled with “dud predictions.” Maurice Newman, who previously served as chancellor of Macquarie University and headed up the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, expressed his views in an opinion piece (subscriber only) published Friday in The Australian.
”The real agenda is concentrated political authority,” Newman wrote. “Global warming is the hook. It’s about a new world order under the control of the UN.”
Newman was appointed by Prime Minister Tony Abbott to chair the Business Advisory Council and has been a longtime critic of climate science. Although Australia Environment Minister Greg Hunt said Newman’s views were “not something I would express,” according to the BBC, Prime Minister Abbott famously called climate science “crap” back in 2009. When his Liberal Party came to power in 2013, it immediately repealed the carbon tax enacted by the previous government.
In his editorial, Newman made a number of incorrect assertions, […]
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Eric Zuesse, - Global Research
Stephan: I have held onto this story for more than a week, waiting to see something refuting it, but nothing has emerged. I just did not want to believe it was true because it says something very disappointing about President Obama.
It should also be see as part of the Latin American identity trend, and its anger at what is seen as American meddling.
Bolivian President Evo Morales
Bolivia’s President Evo Morales has blamed U.S. President Barack Obama for the failure of the recent OAS (Organization of American States) Summit of the Americas to issue a final declaration, and he says that a major sticking point for Mr. Obama was Obama’s opposition to a provision in the proposed declaration that would have said that health care is “a human right.” Mr. Obama insisted that it’s instead a privilege, access to which must be based primarily upon an individual’s ability-to-pay, as is the case in the United States.
Said Mr. Morales: “One point (in the drafted declaration) was important: health as a human right, and the U.S. government did not accept that health should be considered a human right … President Obama did not accept” that concept.
The 8-point draft had resulted from four months of negotiations between the participating countries prior to the Summit in Panama, which was held on April 10-11. There was such strong sentiment for declaring health care to be a right, so that this provision was included in the draft […]
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Monica Thunder, - reset.me
Stephan: People run around with their hair on fire over teens and illegal drugs. The real issue, which few in politics or religion want to talk about, is that the real killers are prescription medications. Here is a report and the data to make this point. It makes one wonder why we think it is o.k. to endlessly promote the use pharmaceuticals on television.
Credit: Sabphoto
Combine the number of overdose deaths caused by heroin and cocaine, and you still haven’t matched the number of deaths caused by pharmaceutical prescription medications each year in the United States. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website, pharmaceutical abuse was responsible for about 23,000 deaths in 2013 — that’s more than half of the overdose deaths in the U.S. that year. (emphasis added)
Prescription drugs have a disproportionately large effect on teenagers. A recent study published in Journal of Public Policy and Marketing sheds light on this issue, which the CDC has labeled an “epidemic.”
Over 1,000 teenagers in 40 different regions around the U.S. participated in an online survey that questioned them about their use of alcohol, tobacco, legal drugs and illegal drugs. Participants were asked if they suffer from anxiety, if they have a desire to be “popular,” how often they participate in exciting activities, and whether they consider using drugs risky.
The authors of the study — Richard Netemeyer of University of Virginia, Scot Burton […]
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Alice Ollstein, - Think Progress
Stephan: Here is yet another aspect of the immense corruption and exploitation that is woven into the American gulag. This ought to be a national scandal. Why do you think it isn't? Always remember: The U.S. has five per cent of the world population, and 25 per cent of the world prison population. It raises questions: Are Americans inherently dishonest, vicious, and violent? Is there something in our culture that makes people that way? Or is something else going on?
The thing about this story that really got to me was the realization that there is something nasty in our culture. As a society we like punishing people, particularly poor people. This phone story is a perfect example.
And as a secondary issue: the quality of American sheriffs. Unlike all other law enforcement positions, sheriffs are elected, usually by a few thousand people. The post is a hang over from British Common Law. And there is a chronic frequency of news reports about corruption and poor performance. This may be because there are no standards of training or achievement. In a 21st century. This is how the office is described by Police Magazine, a professional publication in law enforcement:
"Because sheriffs' offices are created by state constitutions, qualifications can vary widely. In Bibb County, Ga., for example, a qualified candidate must be at least 25 years of age, and have been a resident of Bibb County for at least a year. In Jefferson County, Colo., candidates must be able to pass a physical agility test. Livingston Parish, La., doesn't require its sheriff to have a professional policing background. But it does insist that candidates have at least 160 hours of law enforcement training at an accredited law enforcement school. (emphasis added)
How does that strike you as a standard? Send someone to school for four weeks, less time than is spent teaching a child to learn long division. Then give them a gun, a small army, a significant budget, and many toys. For a certain type of person it is irresistible.
Consider the effect on sheriffs produced by the militarization of law enforcement.
And finally, consider the seduction of the toys flooding into the world of sheriffs funded by the federal money the military-industrial law enforcement sector lobbied Congress to make available to make available to sheriffs and other law enforcement departments and agencies. That allure should not be underestimated because it produces quite scary consequences. We have already begun to see what militarized police operations look like, and people have been horrified.
Prisoners on the phone
Credit: Associated Press
With federal action expected this summer to regulate the cost of prison phone calls, the National Sheriffs’ Association announced they may “significantly limit or eliminate altogether” the right of prisoners to make those calls.
Incarcerated people and their families — who are disproportionately low-income — have fought for decades against the often exorbitant rates charged for a phone call home by companies that hold exclusive contracts and provide kickbacks to the jails themselves.
In 2013, they appeared to win a major victory when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) passed an interim rule to cap the cost of calls between states at 25 cents per minute — meaning 15-minute calls that used to be as high as $17 could no longer cost more than $3.25. In announcing the change, the FCC said the current fee structure is “unjust and unreasonable.”
But this reform has sparked a revolt from those who benefited financially from the old system: the […]
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Carrie Dann, Reporter - NBC News
Stephan: This is a very interesting profile poll of the American electorate. It does not bode well for the CTR, which makes the Republican primaries more than a little weird because aligning themselves with the CTR is what all of the candidates are about.
Forget for a moment the names and biographies of the ever-growing array of 2016 White House hopefuls in favor of this question: What kinds of candidates are Americans ready to embrace?
According to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, the American general electorate is most accepting of the idea of a presidential candidate who is African-American, followed by one who is a woman, a person under the age of 50, or a Hispanic.
It’s most sour on the notion of a candidate with no prior political experience, followed by one who is a Tea Party leader or one who lacks a college degree.
And it appears to be more ready for a presidential candidate who is gay or lesbian than for one who is an evangelical Christian.
Here’s how that math works: Our NBC/Wall Street Journal pollsters asked whether specific candidate traits would make a respondent “enthusiastic,” “comfortable,” “have reservations” or “uncomfortable.”
By subtracting the positive responses from the negative ones, we can get a pretty good picture of what the most acceptable and unacceptable traits might be for a presidential candidate.
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