Stephan: For months I have been quietly digging into the attempt by a small group of plutocrats to undermine the world's democracies. The research convinced me that there was a linkage between what happened in Britain, the U.S., and now France.
I fund my research out of my own pocket -- although now with help from some loyal SR readers whose contributions I deeply appreciate -- so I have no budget to hire assistants, and travel. Consequently I have been searching for some news agency that does have the funds and manpower to really dig this out and, once again, the wonderful Guardian in Britain has come through.
If you care about democracy this article is going to outrage you. But truth is the best antiseptic, so take your medicine. It doesn't taste good, but it may cure what ails us.
Credit: James MeLaugh
“The connectivity that is the heart of globalisation can be exploited by states with hostile intent to further their aims.[…] The risks at stake are profound and represent a fundamental threat to our sovereignty.” Alex Younger, head of MI6, December, 2016
“It’s not MI6’s job to warn of internal threats. It was a very strange speech. Was it one branch of the intelligence services sending a shot across the bows of another? Or was it pointed at Theresa May’s government? Does she know something she’s not telling us?” Senior intelligence analyst, April 2017
In June 2013, a young American postgraduate called Sophie was passing through London when she called up the boss of a firm where she’d previously interned. The company, SCL Elections, went on to be bought by Robert Mercer, a secretive hedge fund billionaire, renamed Cambridge Analytica, and achieved a certain notoriety as the data analytics firm that played a role in both Trump and Brexit campaigns. But all of this was still to come. […]
Stephan: We know by their public statements and actions that Trump and his zombies -- as shabby a collection of political hacks as has been assembled in my lifetime -- care not a whit about climate change. But they definitely do care about money. So, on that basis, I see this report as good news.
More than two hundred institutional investors worth the tidy sum of $15 trillion have just put the Trump Administration on notice that climate change has put their assets at risk. The notice comes in the form of a newly published letter to the G7 group of seven industrialized nations and the G20 group of 20 major economies. The letter comes at a time when President Trump could finally make good on his promise to pull the US out of the Paris climate agreement — or not, as the case may be.
Pulling out of the Paris agreement was one of Trump’s campaign promises, though if he fails to deliver on that one it won’t make much of a difference to his core supporters, who already weathered a string of disappointments in the first 100 days of the new Administration.
Money Talks…About Climate Change
The new letter was organized under the umbrella of the sustainable investor group Ceres. It was signed by 214 companies and was published earlier today on the Ceres website.
Though addressed to the whole G7 and G20 groups, the letter aims straight at you-know-who:
…We urge all nations to stand by their commitments to the Agreement and to put in […]
I have been counseling my readers for years now to have your water tested; It is easy to do, and not expensive. The sad truth, as this report spells out, is that it is no longer prudent in America to just assume your water is safe. We have allowed our infrastructure to deteriorate to a point where what was once a given is now a dice roll.
A registered nurse, Brian Jones, drew a blood sample from a student at Eisenhower Elementary School in Flint, Mich., in 2016 to test for lead after the metal was found in the city’s drinking water. Credit Carlos Osorio/Associated Press
If you live in the United States, there is a nearly one-in-four chance your tap water is either unsafe to drink or has not been properly monitored for contaminants in accordance with federal law, a new study has found.
In 2015, nearly 77 million Americans lived in places where the water systems were in some violation of safety regulations, including the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act, according to the report released on Tuesday from the Natural Resources Defense Council, a New York-based environmental advocacy group. (emphasis added)
It’s not only that some tap water has high levels of lead, nitrates, arsenic or other pollutants, said Mae Wu, a senior attorney with the council’s health […]
We cannot seem to muster the courage to tell ourselves the truth about ourselves; it is one of the great tragedies that has befallen America. Since we cannot tell the truth, we can not accurately assess our reality. No where is this clearer than in the Red Value states, where poor health choices, on the basis of the evidence, seem to go with poor political choices.
On both lists were the states with the highest populations of at risk from both factors. These state have populations that are the most likely to suffer from the deprivations from Trumpcare. KentuckyWest VirginiaMississippiOklahomaMissouriLouisianaTennessee These seven states also went for Trump in the election, […]
Stephan: My views on abortion are based on my understanding of consciousness, and my conviction that the most fundamental human right is that one has complete uncontested control over one's body.
I have written about these issues many times, check the SR archives, and we are now seeing data of what happens when a woman's choice is overridden by the state and we return to a modern variant of pre-Roe v Wade.
Last June the U.S. Supreme Court overturned most of a draconian abortion law in Texas that shut down more than half the abortion clinics in the state, reducing the number from 40 to 19. But while the law, known as House Bill 2, that forced clinics to follow costly but medically unnecessary regulations has been wiped off the books by the Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt decision, things are still looking dire for women who seek abortion services in Texas.
Whole Woman’s Health, the clinic behind the federal lawsuit, was only able to reopen its Austin branch last week. It’s just the second clinic to reopen its doors since the high court’s decision, meaning the number of abortion clinics in Texas is about half of the count before the 2013 law went into effect. It costs a lot of money and time to reopen a clinic, and it will be years before legal abortion access in Texas is restored to its old levels, if it ever is.
The States With The Highest (And Lowest) Smoking Rates
Last June the U.S. Supreme Court overturned most of a draconian abortion law in Texas that 
