Saturday, July 11th, 2015
Ismat Sarah Mangla , - International Business Times
Stephan: The Theocratic Right has now decided to nakedly go for political power. They have some notable advantages, Masquerading under the cover of religion they have almost no regulatory oversight. They have also tax advantages, recent court decisions like Hobby Lobby that give religion special exemptions, and the collapsing wall between church and state.
TRs have figured out that most Americans don't vote and that those that do are often not well organized. Therefore it is possible for a trained cadre of candidates backed by a committed base of voters all working with a single intention to gain power by running for elective office as pastor-politicians.
Remember these people are science deniers, oppressive towards women, climate deniers, and the frequent tools of the corporate Rightist uber-rich. How would you like to live in the world they create?
I predict their success will come in the Red value states which will, in turn, exacerbate the Great Schism Trend. America is slowly breaking into two different countries with, as was the case in the Civil War, a few "purple" border states.
Credit: www.christianexaminer.com
Some 300 evangelical pastors convened in Orlando, Florida, Friday with a single goal in mind: To learn how to adapt their preaching and outreach skills for the pursuit of political office. Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, himself an ordained Southern Baptist minister, was slated to the give the keynote address.
The event, part of a national workshop series, is an effort to encourage and mobilize at least 1,000 evangelical Christian pastors to seek government office in 2016 in order to promote conservative ideals and traditional biblical values.
Founded by activist David Lane, who describes himself as an evangelical “political operative,” the workshops are called Issachar Trainings, named after an Israelite tribe described in the Bible as one comprising men “who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.” The trainings are just one prong of Lane’s American Renewal Project, which aims to inject American politics with a dose of conservatism through various routes.
“Somebody’s values are going to reign supreme” in the United States, Lane
No Comments
Suzanne Goldenberg, - Mother Jones
Stephan: I became aware of climate change in 1991, through reading a paper in American Scientist. This report, based on documentation says Exxon-Mobil has known about it since 1981. As I read this piece I thought immediately of the tobacco industry, and then I saw the sentence saying the same thing. It really is obvious. This is a story of evil; this is what evil looks like. Exxon Mobil is basically saying: We are willing to trash the planet and degrade all life as long as it keeps our profits up.
We never buy gas from Exxon Mobil and I suggest you do the same. Remember the Quotidian Choice.
Credit: Mike Mozart/flickr
ExxonMobil, the world’s biggest oil company, knew as early as 1981 of climate change—seven years before it became a public issue, according to a newly discovered email from one of the firm’s own scientists. Despite this the firm spent millions over the next 27 years to promote climate denial. (emphasis added)
The email from Exxon’s in-house climate expert provides evidence the company was aware of the connection between fossil fuels and climate change, and the potential for carbon-cutting regulations that could hurt its bottom line, over a generation ago—factoring that knowledge into its decision about an enormous gas field in south-east Asia. The field, off the coast of Indonesia, would have been the single largest source of global warming pollution at the time.
“Exxon first got interested in climate change in 1981 because it was seeking to develop the Natuna gas field off Indonesia,” Lenny Bernstein, a 30-year industry veteran and Exxon’s former in-house climate expert, wrote in the email. “This is an immense reserve of natural gas, but it […]
2 Comments
Dana Nuccitelli, - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: This is more on the Psychophysiology of Politics Trend. The combination of money and neuro and social science is having an enormous effect on on our politics. Political consultants have much more sophisticated and powerful levers than was true a generation ago. The manipulation of fear being key.
The problem is fear ultimately eats itself alive, as we can see happening around us. We are the living demonstration the you cannot order the world successfully with profit as the only priority. You must make wellness the first concern.
Stephan Lewandowsky, professor of cognitive psychology and author of Recurrent Fury.
Credit: University of Bristol
A new study has examined the comments on climate science-denying blogs and found strong evidence of widespread conspiratorial thinking. The study looks at the comments made in response to a previous paper linking science denial and conspiracy theories.
Motivated rejection of science
Three years ago, social scientists Lewandowsky, Oberauer, and Gignac published a paper in the journal Psychological Science titled NASA Faked the Moon Landing—Therefore, (Climate) Science Is a Hoax: An Anatomy of the Motivated Rejection of Science.
The paper detailed the evidence the scientists found that, using survey data provided by visitors to climate blogs, those exhibiting conspiratorial thinking are more likely to be skeptical of scientists’ conclusions about vaccinations, genetically modified foods, and climate change. This result was replicated in a follow-up study using a representative U.S. sample that obtained the same result linking conspiratorial thinking to climate denial.
Of course science denial […]
2 Comments
Phillip Smith, Ediitor - Alternet (U.S.)
Stephan: It is absolutely fascinating to watch the predictions of marijuana prohibitionists blow away like a toxic fog when confronted with what really happens. Their views have proven so wrong, so wildly out of touch with American culture that you would think it would be a big story. Particularly since the marijuana prohibition story is paralleled by the marriage equality story, the teen pregnancy story, and many others. The Theocratic Rightist view that dominates the Republican Party, on the basis of observed data, is simply nonsense. Have you read that story on the front page of your newspaper? Neither have I. With the exception of VICE, POV, or Frontline this disconnect and its failures are hardly acknowledged on television.
Cannibis Cityj, Seattle’s first legal cannibis store
Credit: time.com
Wednesday marked the one-year anniversary of retail marijuana sales in Washington, and, amazingly enough, the state seems to not only have survived legalization, but to have actually benefited from it.
Voters in both Washington and Colorado gave the green light to legalization on election day 2012, and marijuana became legal in Washington on December 6, 2012, 30 days after the election. But Washington trailed Colorado in getting retail sales up and running—its first legal pot shop opened July 8, 2014.
To mark the date, the Drug Policy Alliance has issued a report on what has happened since legalization arrived, and it likes what it sees: “Since adult possession of marijuana became legal eighteen months ago, the state has benefitted from a dramatic decrease in marijuana arrests and convictions, as well as increased tax revenues. During the same period, the state has experienced a decrease in violent crime rates. In addition, rates of youth marijuana use and traffic […]
No Comments
Rachael Rettner, Senior Writer - livescience
Stephan: Read this important wake-up call about fruits and vegetables and adjust your diet accordingly, if you can.
But we must be honest: More and more people cannot afford to eat like this. Organic lemons where I live are $1 a lemon. On the island we have a very creative and effective social safety network concerned with seeing everyone gets enough to eat. Implemented by the women on the island it has made us a distant outlier to most communities. With 17 million children experiencing feed stress and hunger in the U.S., and elderly living on dog food telling someone to eat 2 cups of fruit for all too many is nothing but a taunting fantasy.
Didn’t eat enough fruits and vegetables today? Join the club — 87 percent of Americans don’t meet recommendations for fruit consumption, and 91 percent don’t meet recommendations for vegetable consumption, according to a new U.S. report.
Researchers analyzed a 2013 survey of more than 373,000 American adults in all 50 states who answered questions about how much fruit and vegetables they eat. U.S. federal dietary guidelines recommend that people eat between 1.5 and 2 cups of fruit per day, and 2 to 3 cups of vegetables per day.
Overall, just 13 percent of people consumed enough fruit to meet the guidelines, and 9 percent ate enough vegetables, according to the report released today (July 9) from researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [Map: Fruit & Vegetable Intake in All 50 States]
A majority of the U.S. population isn’t eating the federally recommended amount of fruits and vegetables.
Credit: By Karl Tate, Infographics Artist
When the researchers looked at […]
2 Comments
