Stephan: The thing about Trump that affects our lives with particular impact is his uninterest in and contempt for the sinews of government, the operational people that make the American government work in accord with the Constitution and laws.
Trump's appointments are notable for their incompetence, as well as their rigid theological and ideological limitations. Even worse many are former lobbyists who previously worked against the agencies they are now appointed to lead. Many of these inappropriate people are getting appointments that may keep them in power for years, like judges. Here's an example of such a judge nominated by Trump. Consider the damage such a man can do.
Jeff Mateer, the current first assistant attorney general of Texas, was serving at the time as general counsel of the First Liberty Institute, a religious liberty advocacy group known before 2016 as the Liberty Institute. He faced criticism from LGBT rights groups for his work with the organization,
such as opposing the expansion of nondiscrimination protections to LGBT people in the city of Plano. If confirmed by the US Senate, he will serve on the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
In a May 2015
speech, titled “The Church and Homosexuality,” Mateer discussed a Colorado
lawsuit in which the parents of a transgender girl sued […]
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Friday, September 22nd, 2017
Stephan: America's Central Intelligence Agency under the direction of an avowed Christofascist. What could possibly go wrong?
Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA
CIA Director Mike Pompeo is an evangelical and, predictably, when one of these people gets appointed or elected to a post the evangelism frequently bleeds over into the workplace. It’s a basic tenet of evangelism that it must be shared, whether that’s a good idea or not, all things considered. At the CIA, where the work force must reflect not only the nation but the world in order to operate effectively, it’s an insane idea. Pompeo early on took a stance against Islamic terrorism, saying that Islamist terrorists will “continue to press against us until we make sure that we pray and stand and fight and make sure that we know that Jesus Christ is our savior is truly the only solution for our world.” From that auspicious beginning Pompeo is ramping up his efforts to convert the CIA to his version of “Christianity” starting with establishing a chaplaincy. Foreign Policy Magazine:
According to four sources familiar with the matter, Pompeo, who attends weekly […]
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Thursday, September 21st, 2017
Harrison Smith, - The Washington Post
Stephan: Doing the research for
The 8 Laws of Change taught me that one moral person in the right place and acting at the right time can change the course of history in a life affirming way, altering the lives of milllions. Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience changed the history of three countries, Great Britain, India, and the U.S. (You can click through to my
Thinking Allowed interview about
nonviolence to get a sense of my thinking about this.
But perhaps no single individual has saved the lives of more people than Stanislav Petrov. This man should never been forgotten, and if you are building statues to replace the Confederate generals you might consider Petrov. He may be the reason you are alive.
Stanislav Petrov, a former lieutenant colonel for the Soviet Air Defence Forces, at his home in 2015. He was credited with correctly recognizing a false alarm while manning an early-warning missile defense system, thereby averting a Soviet retaliatory strike and nuclear war.
Credit:Pavel Golovkin/AP
When alarms began to ring and a control panel flashed in front of Stanislav Petrov, a 44-year-old lieutenant colonel seated in a secret bunker south of Moscow, it appeared that the world was less than 30 minutes from nuclear war.
“The siren howled,” he later said, “but I just sat there for a few seconds, staring at the big, back-lit, red screen with the word ‘launch’ on it.” His chair, he said, began to feel like “a hot frying pan.”
Col. Petrov, an official with Russia’s early-warning missile system, was charged with determining whether the United States had opened intercontinental fire on the Soviet Union. Just after midnight on Sept. 26, 1983, all signs seemed to point to yes.
The satellite signal Col. Petrov received in his […]
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Thursday, September 21st, 2017
Stephan: A democratic society can only prosper with an educated populace. Everyone since Plato who has thought it through has reached that conclusion. But in a fascist society predicated on the idea it's every person for themselves, profit is the only social priority, and education is an impediment to an oligarchy taking over the democracy you get this.
Average annual tuition fee charged by public institutions at bachelor level
According to a new report, OECD countries have different approaches and methods when it comes to covering the cost of a university education. While public institutions in many countries charge hefty tuition fees, around a third of OECD countries do not charge any fee at bachelor or equivalent level. The OECD’s latestEducation at a Glance report names the United States as having the highest average annual tuition fees of any country worldwide at $8,200 a year in public institutions at bachelor level. As expensive as that may seem, most students do benefit from financial support in the form of loans and scholarships while costs are nearly two and a half times as high in independent private institutions.
In addition to the United States, Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan and South Korea all have annual tuition fees higher than $4,000. Costs in Chile are particularly high at $7,654 a year while Japan is third-highest at $5,229. Southern European countries have far lower tuition fees by comparison […]
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