Stephan: If you wonder how the U.S. went from being the most popular country in the Middle East to one that was hated, perhaps this is the answer. Too bad it is rarely discussed in the media.
U.S. planes dropping bombs Credit: DVIDSHUB/Flickr
The last year of the presidency of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Barack Obama was marked by heavy bombing throughout the Middle East and South Asia. The United States dropped at least 26,171 bombs in seven Muslim-majority countries in 2016. And, given limitations on available government data, this estimate is “undoubtedly low,” according to the Council on Foreign Relations‘ Micah Zenko and Jennifer Wilson, who conducted the research.
Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan were the countries targeted by U.S. airstrikes. 2016 saw an increase in bombing since 2015, when the U.S. dropped at least 23,144 bombs on six Muslim-majority countries (Libya was the seventh country bombed in 2016).
Most of the bombs, 24,287, used in 2016 were dropped in Iraq and Syria, where the U.S. is leading a coalition to fight the self-declared Islamic State. Afghanistan was hit with at least 1,337 bombs. The war in Afghanistan entered its 15th year in 2016, one of the longest standing wars in U.S. history. President Obama was reelected in […]
Bobby Azarian, PhD, Neuroscientist - The Raw Story
Stephan: With increasing frequency I am seeing research in the neuroscience literature arguing that most of what we call politics is really the manipulation of psychophysical processes -- for instance the strong correlation of conservative religiosity and politics with an overactive right amygdala.
Once one understands this one sees it everywhere, and it explains why Donald Trump was elected. Frankly, I'm not sure a low informati0n fear addled population such as is found in the U.S. can sustain a democracy in the light of this new research.
Donald Trump’s victory shocked political pundits, pollsters, and “experts” of all kinds, who almost unanimously predicted that Trump would get clobbered by Hillary Clinton. Perhaps we shouldn’t be so surprised by their failure; none of them were basing their opinions on the real thing doing the voting and making the decisions—the human brain. If they had been looking at all the science, which is just a cool term for “that which we can measure,” rather than just poll numbers, they may have gotten it right.
According to neuroscientist and VP of Research at SPARK Neuro, Ryan McGarry, PhD, Trump’s win could have been predicted based on the results of a series of political neuroscience studies the company conducted last year. Spark Neuro is a startup from Bethesda, Maryland that uses the tools of neuroscience to measure audience engagement, with clients that range from major brands and TV networks to the U.S. military. Rather than relying only on self-report measures like focus groups and surveys, which are subjective in nature, they go straight to the source by measuring nervous system activity.
In 2016, SPARK Neuro spent six months probing voters’ neural and physiological […]
Stephan: Increasingly I see the United States unravelling, and I suspect that one of the social outcome effects of Trump' presidency, if it runs four years, which I am far from clear is going to be the case, will be to exacerbate the Great Schism Trend.
Even it's untimely termination would produce the same result so, either way, I see a very different country taking form in our immediate future.
The gun issue, the race issue, the immigration issue, the religion issue I think are going to augment the migrations created by climate change to produce a self-sorting population effect. Added to that will be the growing failure of Red value states as their anti-wellbeing policies result in social collapse. Several of the Old South states are already little more than plantation economies.
If I am right within a decade, maybe 15 years, political tensions will be such that the federal forms will remain, but real power will devolve to the states. You can already see both processes at work. The failure of the social structure of Kansas, explicitly run as a study in Republican economics on one side, and Jerry Brown and California leading the way in wellbeing oriented social policies and the transition out of the carbon era, and enjoying growth and prosperity
In its end-of-year issue, Time magazine rather unsurprisingly named Donald Trump
its “Person of the Year.” More surprisingly, there was a subtitle under Trump’s cover p
hoto that stated, “President of the Divided States of America.”
Time ran no such subtitle when it recognized George W. Bush in 2000 or Bill Clinton in 1992 with its Person of the Year designation. Yet those presidents were elected, respectively, by a slim margin in the Electoral College or with less than 50% of the vote.
In fact, the popular-vote margin has been less than three percentage points in three of the past five elections, and it hasn’t come close to the traditional “landslide” threshold of 10 points since 1996, when Clinton beat Bob Dole by nine points.
U.S. Popular Vote for President, 1952-2016 Elections
Winner
Loser
Gap*
%
%
pct. pts.
2016
46.1
48.2
-2
2012
51.1
47.2
4
2008
52.9
45.7
7
2004
50.7
48.3
2
2000
47.9
48.4
-1
1996
49.2
40.7
9
1992
43.0
37.5
6
1988
53.4
45.7
8
1984
58.8
40.6
18
1980
50.5
41.0
10
1976
50.0
48.0
2
1972
60.2
37.2
23
1968
43.4
42.4
1
1964
61.1
38.7
22
1960
49.7
49.5
0
1956
57.4
42.0
15
1952
54.9
44.4
11
* Gap in the popular vote between the major-party candidates
CNN (2016); Roper Center (1952-2012)
Further, the average major-party popular-vote percentage over the last five presidential elections — since the eve of the 21st century — has been 48% for Republican Party candidates and 50% for Democratic Party candidates. So to say the outcomes in recent U.S. elections have […]
Stephan: Given Trump's position, the composition of his administration, the make-up of the Congress and very possibly soon the Supreme Court, I think it is reasonable to foresee that there will be a concerted effort to protect the carbon interests, the industries that prospered in the carbon world. This will have the effect of taking us out of world leadership, and slow the withering of industries that should die or be reordered, like buggy builders, harness makers, manure gathering companies, and the dozens of other businesses tied to the world of horse based transportation.
And I think the vector of attack may be through federal preemption, an arcane part of the law, that can be used to attack state programs. This report brings this obscurity into focus.
The only way this can be stopped in through citizen activism. Using the 8 laws, and the Quotidian Choice, I suggest, is a place to start.
If the moves described in this report are successful it is going to delay our transition, and reduce our influence in the world, which will have significant long-term geopolitical implications. The United States is the second greatest tourist draw in the world. Seventy five million people a year come here as tourists. They watch our television, they see the world around them.
We have a geographically beautiful country, and several hot cities, there will always be tourists. But we no longer look, sound, or act like the leading culture in the world. To people used to universal healthcare, for instance, just dealing with that one issue should something arise brings a foreign visitor into the American reality. And it is a jarring experience.
It is so bizarre to watch a country do this to itself.
The 110-megawatt Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Facility in Nevada is the first utility-scale concentrating solar plant that can provide electricity whenever it’s needed most, even after dark. Credit: SolarReserve
The head of the city department that drafts many of San Francisco’s greenest rules and regulations uses one word to explain her greatest fear for the environment during Trump’s presidency: “preemption.”
If some of the deepest concerns of climate-focused bureaucrats from San Francisco to Massachusetts and New York come true, the Trump administration will preemptively prevent them from acting to slow global warming.
With Trump and Republicans in Congress widely expected to unite to undermine federal environmental protections, progressive states and cities are making plans to fight global warming within their borders without being helped or required to do so by the U.S. government.
“Preemption is probably the progressive cities’ worst nightmare,” said Deborah Raphael, director of San Francisco’s environment department, which has helped city lawmakers craft rules mandating everything from greener buildings to composting and recycling by residents. “It’s also the state of California’s worst nightmare.”
The term “preemption” doesn’t describe a single legislative or regulatory tool. […]
Stephan: This has been an extraordinary day. For me it began with Senator Sessions' hearing wherein he attempted, with the help of the Republican senators on the committee, to do a snowjob on his racist anti-women past -- I was part of the Civil Rights movement, and Jefferson Beauregard Sessions has been a figure in my life for decades.
In the middle of the day we were confronted with the seemingly bottomless vulgarity of Donald Trump via a leaked document -- as much as I dislike Trump I hope it isn't true -- making the claim that the reason Trump seems determined to align himself with Vladimir Putin is that Russia holds material, including personal behavior and business material that it can use to compromise President-elect Trump.
And the day ended with Obama's final speech, an act of such dignity, rationality, and heartfullness that its juxtaposition with the tone set by Trump in recent days left me shocked and dismayed by the difference between what was, and what is coming.
National Public Radio provides a list of the day. What you make of it is up to you.
Tuesday was the opposite of a slow news day. It was a mad scramble of a news day, featuring major developments on President-elect Donald Trump’s ties to Russia, a contentious confirmation hearing, a death sentence in a high-profile hate-crime case, and President Obama’s farewell speech, among other things.
In case you couldn’t keep up — and we can’t blame you — here’s a rundown of some of the biggest news of the day.
1. The Trump-Russia bombshell
Let’s start with the big story. Late on Tuesday, CNN reported on “allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump.” Four top intelligence officers presented the information to Obama and Trump last week, according to CNN, which sourced the information to “multiple U.S. officials with direct knowledge” of those briefings.
CNN did not report on the specifics included in the 35 pages of memos. However, Buzzfeed released what it said was copy of that 35-page dossier on Tuesday. “The document was prepared for political opponents of Trump by a person who is understood to be a former British intelligence agent,” they wrote, also cautioning: “It is not just unconfirmed: […]
Donald Trump’s victory shocked political pundits, pollsters, and “experts” of all kinds, who almost unanimously predicted that Trump would get clobbered by Hillary Clinton. Perhaps we shouldn’t be so surprised by their failure; none of them were basing their opinions on the real thing doing the voting and making the decisions—the human brain. If they had been looking at all the science, which is just a cool term for “that which we can measure,” rather than just poll numbers, they may have gotten it right.
Tuesday was the opposite of a slow news day. It was a mad scramble of a news day, featuring major developments on President-elect Donald Trump’s ties to Russia, a contentious confirmation hearing, a death sentence in a high-profile hate-crime case, and President Obama’s farewell speech, among other things.
