Who’s on top? As of this writing, on the Democratic Party side, the ultimate insider, Hillary Clinton, faces off against establishment socialist and theoretically “independent” Bernie Sanders. On the Republican side, the main contest is between two men who have never held political office: rude and crude misogynist and racist Donald Trump, a billionaire by virtue of milking corporate bankruptcy laws, versus Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon and Christian fundamentalist who doesn’t believe in evolution.
Second-tier candidates include everyone from two sons of immigrants who each want to build a bigger and better border wall to a fired Hewlett-Packard CEO who touts her business savvy.
A motley crew indeed, but one that reflects what is happening outside the electoral ring. The crowded debate stages mirror the growing polarization of society as a whole, largely caused by people’s deep uneasiness about the economy and their place in it.
The candidates also personify the sharpening of a trend whereby capitalist democracy, as represented by the electoral process, is becoming less and less democratic all the time.
Divisions Result From the System’s Decline
It’s easy to see how people’s insecurities […]
Daniel S. Loeb, shown with his wife, Margaret, runs the $17 billion Third Point hedge fund. Mr. Loeb, who has owned a home in East Hampton, has contributed to Jeb Bush’s super PAC and given $1 million to the American Unity Super PAC, which supports gay rights.
Credit Left: Patrick McMullan Company; Right: Doug Kuntz
WASHINGTON — The hedge fund magnates Daniel S. Loeb, Louis Moore Bacon and Steven A. Cohen have much in common. They have managed billions of dollars in capital, earning vast fortunes. They have invested large sums in art — and millions more in political candidates.
Moreover, each has exploited […]
Drought plagued California forest Credit: Huffington Post
California’s years-long drought is not only having a distressing impact on humans but also on vegetation, as years of little or no rain is taking a big toll on the state’s forests, a new study revealed.
The new study, conducted by a team of researchers at Stanford University’s Carnegie Institution for Science, estimated that up to 58 million big trees in the state experienced water loss that could be life-threatening since 2011 because of the state’s historic drought.
Water loss coupled with higher temperatures and outbreaks of deadly insects like bark beetle have further increased the risk of the trees’ death. Loss of trees would bring widespread potentially-destructive changes in the ecosystems.
Carnegie’s Gregory Asner, the study’s lead author, said, “The drought put the forests in […]
Donald Trump, Republican Presidential Candidate
Credit: Reuters
Donald Trump could be banned from entering the UK after Theresa May, the Home Secretary, declared that she ‘may exclude’ people who are not ‘conducive to the public good’.
Banning entry to the UK for the US Republican presidential contender, who remains the frontrunner in the heated contest, has been called for by more than 560,000 people in a petition to the Government.
After reaching 100,000 signatures, the Government confirmed that the petition could be discussed in Parliament.
Now a spokesman for Mrs May has responded officially warning that Mr Trump’s comments, in which he called for a ban on Muslims entering the USA in the wake of the Paris terror attacks, were “divisive, unhelpful and wrong”.
The statement said: “The Home Secretary may exclude a non-European Economic Area national from the UK if she considers their presence in the UK to be non-conducive to the public good.
The Home Secretary has said that coming to the UK […]
