Madeline Chambers, Emma Thomasson, Andreas Rinke, Michelle Martin and Tom Heneghan, Reporters - Reuters
Stephan: Here you can already see a result of Trump's taking America out of the leadership role in climate change. Trump's decision today to withdraw from the Paris accord -- the negotiation aside he made is just nonsense, other countries have already announced they aren't interested -- will, I think, be seen by historians as one of the most egregiously wrong geopolitical decisions in modern history.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang during news conference at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, June 1, 2017.
Credit: Reuters/Fabrizio Bensch
Germany and China vowed on Thursday to expand their partnership and pledged to continue fighting climate change, sending a signal to Washington hours before U.S. President Donald Trump announces if he will quit a global climate deal.
Berlin was the first stop in Europe for Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, amid growing concern in Germany over some of Trump’s policies, especially on climate change and protectionism. He was due to head later for Brussels.
“China has become a more important and strategic partner,” Merkel said at a news conference with Li, pointing to political, economic, social and cultural ties.
“We are living in times of global uncertainty and see our responsibility to expand our partnership in all the different areas and to push for a world order based on law,” she said.
The two held wide-ranging talks on issues from trade, civil rights, the North Korea crisis and climate change and a multitude of business deals […]
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Jennifer A Dlouhy , - Bloomberg
Stephan: This Paris accord decision by the Trump administration is echoed in this decision by Interior Secretary Zinke, both are so very wrong on so many levels, but so revealing of the administration's views on the environment, climate change, and continuing carbon energy.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.
Credit: Gage Skidmore/flickr
U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke issued a directive aimed at spurring oil and natural gas development in Alaska, including a move to assess just how much crude might be lurking under the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Zinke’s order, signed during a visit to Anchorage, also compels a rewrite of a 2013 plan that limited oil and natural gas development in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. The move responds to complaints from oil companies and state officials that the Obama administration was too restrictive, blocking drilling in promising areas while hampering their ability to build pipelines across the 23-million-acre reserve.
“This is land that was set up with the sole intention of oil and gas production; however, years of politics over policy put roughly half of the NPR-A off-limits,” Zinke said in a statement announcing the move. “Using this land for its original intent will create good-paying jobs and revenue.”
Unlike the petroleum reserve, which was specifically designated for energy development, Congress established the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in […]
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Eliza Collins, - USA TODAY
Stephan: In this statement by the cretinous Michigan Republican Representative Tim Walberg one can see the Republican Party in aggregate. Willfully ignorant, fact-free, mentally captured by the new "christian" cult, and a vassal to corporate interests. As I keep saying Donald Trump is a symptom, a bubo on the body politic, not the disease. He is the manifestation of the Republican Party which, itself, is a manifestation of the consciousness of too many American voters. Way to go America. And Michigan, what were you thinking?
WASHINGTON — Michigan GOP Rep. Tim Walberg isn’t concerned about the effects of climate change — if it exists — because God will “take care of it.”
Walberg was speaking to constituents in Coldwater, Mich., last week when he was asked about climate change.
Walberg, who has previously questioned the existence of global warming, first joked that he could take some global warming at home in Michigan because it was too cold and some global cooling in Washington because of the humidity.
Walberg then conceded that the climate was changing, before adding that wasn’t anything new.
“I believe there’s climate change,” Walberg said, according to a video of the exchange obtained first published by the Huffington Post. “I believe there’s been climate change since the beginning of time. I think there are cycles. Do I think man has some impact? Yeah, of course. Can man change the entire universe? No.”
“Why do I believe that?” he continued. “Well, as a Christian, I believe that there is a creator in God who is much bigger than us. And I’m confident that, if there’s a real problem, he can take care of it.”
On Thursday afternoon, President Trump is expected to announce whether the United States will remain a member of the […]
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Stephan A. Schwartz, Columnist - The Huffington Post
Stephan: I am doing a series of columns for Huffington Post on healthcare, because what I see happening is a lot of debate over how much people are going to pay, and who will be covered, critically important of course, but almost no discussion over what kind of healthcare will actually be provided without bankrupting ordinary people. I think you may be startled if not shocked by the truth of the situation that I discovered with some research.
The Congressional Budget Office has just come out with its scoring for the Republican version of healthcare, which is really less a healthcare bill than a tax cut for the wealthy of quite striking heartlessness. The CBO’s projections, just to give a taste of what its implementation would mean are that as early as 2018 an estimated 14 million people under the age of 65 would be without insurance, and that by 2026 that number would rise to 23 million — the number that is generally getting the most attention. Most of the commentary one reads and hears on healthcare is about who’s covered and how much will it cost. Excruciatingly important to be sure but actually just a piece of the puzzle. Quite apart from the cost to a particularly individual is what kind of healthcare are we really talking about?
In the United States we spend Read the Full Article
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Dave Gershgorn, Artificial Intelligence Reporter - Quartz
Stephan: How would you like to be blessed by a robot, or to make your confession to a robot? Baptism? Would you take communion from a robot? This is one of the weirdest reports I have seen in some time.
BlessU-2 has lights in its palms and a blessing checkout in its touch screen abdomen
Credit: The Sun
Would you believe in a blessing from a robot priest?
The Guardian is raising the question with a story about a robot priest in Wittenberg, Germany. The robot, aptly named BlessU-2, provides blessings in five languages and recite biblical verses, according to the Guardian’s report. It isn’t being implemented as a replacement for priests yet, but in the very town where Martin Luther launched the Protestant Reformation 400 years ago, his mechanical successor is meant to provoke discussion about whether machines have a place within the clergy.
“We wanted people to consider if it is possible to be blessed by a machine, or if a human being is needed,” Stephan Krebs, a member of the Protestant church behind the robot, told the Guardian.
Working the priest is not unlike ordering a meal from a McDonald’s kiosk. Simply select your language and the blessing you require. Then the robot raises its arms, shoots some light from its palms, […]
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