Friday, September 29th, 2017
JACK JENKINS, - Think Progress
Stephan: I have focused two stories on Roy Moore today because he is so explicitly a Christofascist, and he represents a growing trend in American politics. I think because of his success we are going to see more and more candidates for political office in Red value states mirroring Moore's profile. Even more alarming, should another supreme court seat become open, I think this is the kind of individual we can expect Trump to put forward for the seat.
Roy Moore standing on his victory podium waving his gun.
Credit: People
When former judge Roy Moore bounded onto stage Tuesday night to declare victory in the Alabama Republican primary, he was quick to offer his own explanation for his resounding nine-point win.
“There’s one you don’t see up here [on stage], and let me just tell you, He’s done more for my campaign than anybody — and that’s almighty God,” Moore said to a raucous crowd. He then quoted a passage from Isaiah 40 before declaring: “We have to return the knowledge of God and the Constitution of the United States to the United States Congress.”
Moore’s fusion of faith and politics doesn’t fit neatly into any of the well-worn political narratives used by pundits to characterize his path to the Senate. Some framed his primary win as a blow to Donald Trump, who endorsed Moore’s opponent Luther Strange, and a cheeky win for former senior White House adviser Steve Bannon, who backed Moore. Others read it as a sign the GOP establishment that rushed […]
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Friday, September 29th, 2017
Melissa York, - City A.M.
Stephan: Smart people are beginning to think seriously about what real estate will be like in the post carbon energy world. Here is one interesting take on the subject.
A computer impression of life atop The Beacon in Hemel Hempstead, completing in 2018
“Right,” says eco-developer Sam Budhdeo, rubbing his hands together. “We think we have the solution to climate change.”
As openers go, it’s a bold one, but not quite as outlandish as it sounds. The housebuilder who successfully cracks the code to building sustainably – and affordably – would be solving a large part of the planet-warming puzzle.
As things currently stand, energy from fossil fuels consumed in the construction and operation of buildings accounts for about half of the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions; housing alone generates 29 per cent of UK emissions, according to figures from ‘Sustainability: Simple steps to better homes’, a report published last month by global real estate advisors CBRE Residential.
As terrible as this sounds, it used to be worse. Since we swapped hot water tanks for efficient boilers, rattley windows for double glazed ones, and draughty breeze blocks for cavity wall insulation, energy consumption has steadily declined per capita in the UK since the 1970s.
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Friday, September 29th, 2017
Reynard Loki, Environment, Food, and Animal Rights Editor - Alternet
Stephan: If you read SR regularly you know I have been talking about a migration away from the coast that is coming, as well as the trillion dollar real estate collapse that is going to occur, and that will drive this migration. For a long time I would mention this and get laughs or haughty dismissals from climate change deniers. That's now changing, as this article demonstrates.
Paddle boards were better options than cars to get around Houston in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.
Credit: IrinaK/Shutterstock
People love living near the coast. Only two of the world’s top 10 biggest cities—Mexico City and Sáo Paulo—are not coastal. The rest— Tokyo, Mumbai, New York, Shanghai, Lagos, Los Angeles, Calcutta and Buenos Aires—are. Around half of the world’s 7.5 billion people live within 60 miles of a coastline, with about 10 percent of the population living in coastal areas that are less than 10 meters (32 feet) above sea level.
Coastal migration has been steadily trending upward. In the U.S. alone, coastal county populations increased by 39 percent between 1970 to 2010. As the population skyrockets—from 7.5 billion today to 9.8 billion by 2050, and 11.2 billion by 2100, according to a recent United Nations report—the question for sustainability and development experts is, will the world’s coasts bear the burden of all this humanity? But with the rise of both sea levels and extreme weather, perhaps a better question is, will all this humanity […]
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Thursday, September 28th, 2017
Stephan:
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Wednesday, September 27th, 2017
Daniel Wiessner, - Reuters
Stephan: Once again we see, at the operational level, further degradation of American law. It's just despicable but given our Attorney General not really surprising.
Republican Attorney General Jeff Sessions
A Trump administration lawyer on Tuesday urged a U.S. appeals court in Manhattan to rule that federal law does not ban discrimination against gay employees.
The U.S. Department of Justice is supporting a New York skydiving company, Altitude Express Inc, in a lawsuit brought by former instructor Donald Zarda, who accused the company of firing him after he told a customer he was gay and she complained. Zarda died in a BASE-jumping accident after filing the lawsuit, and his estate took over the case.
Judges on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals focused their questions on whether discrimination against gay workers is a form of unlawful sex bias under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That law bans discrimination based on workers’ sex, race, religion and other traits.
Justice Department lawyer Hashim Mooppan told the court that Congress never intended for that law to protect gay workers against bias. And in recent years, he said, lawmakers have repeatedly declined to pass bills […]
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