Stephan: Anyone who lives in a fact based world understands that the Russians attempted in several ways to determine the outcome of the 2016 elections. And they have tried it in other countries as well.
From a geo-political power perspective, being able to manipulate either directly or indirectly the outcome of the elections of your adversaries who use democracy to create government is irresistible. It can achieve more than a war, it's incredibly cheap, it's non-violent in the sense of explosions, bullets, and physical destruction. And it doesn't destroy infrastructure.
The American government doesn't seem to get that. Billions are being spent for old-fashioned war machinery, both offensive and defensive. But, because voting is a state run activity, and because there is no will at the federal level amongst the Republicans to do anything to seriously improve voting, very little is happening.
What should happen? This report presents a very interesting option.
Sierra Leone election
Credit: Reuters/Olivia Acland
On Mar. 7, elections in Sierra Leone marked a global landmark: the world’s first ever blockchain-powered presidential elections.
As president Ernest Bai Koroma leaves office after serving two five-year terms, the maximum allowed constitutionally, Sierra Leoneans have had to pick from a pool of 16 candidates including the ruling party’s Samura Kamara, the erstwhile foreign minister, and Julius Maada Bio, former military head of state and candidate of the main opposition party.
Results released by Sierra Leone’s election commission (NEC) suggest a run-off between Bio and Kamara is likely with neither candidate securing the required 55% of votes so far. Sierra Leone’s new president will be tasked with a continued rebuilding given the country’s recent major disasters. In 2014, an Ebola outbreak led to nearly 4,000 deaths and GDP losses estimated at $1.4 billion—a major loss for one of the world’s poorest countries. Last year Sierra Leone’s capital also suffered devastating flooding and mudslides believed to have claimed more than 1,000 lives.
In Sierra Leone’s Western District, the most […]
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Saturday, March 17th, 2018
Benjamin Hulac, - Scientific American
Stephan: Further confirmation of my now many year prediction that what is going to start the migration away from the coasts, and precipitate a major trillion dollar real estate collapse will be the decision by the insurance industry, particularly the re-insurance component, that insuring coastal property is a losing financial proposition. Here is the latest on this trend.
Damaged furniture in front of a flooded home in Texas after Hurricane Harvey.
Credit: Justin Sullivan
There’s no balancing this ledger.
Insurance companies face greater dangers from climate change, including weather-related catastrophes and court fights, than they do silver linings, according to a report released today by Moody’s Investors Service, the ratings agency.
From payouts after a hurricane, flood or other disaster to lawsuits that could wrap them up in costly litigation, insurers and reinsurers are severely exposed to the perils of climate change, Moody’s said.
“We felt on balance that it was a net negative impact,” said James Eck, the lead author. “There’s a lot of areas where they could be exposed.”
A draft of the report shows insurance losses—from cyclones, storms, floods, extreme temperatures, droughts and fires—have risen in recent decades as natural disasters have grown more common.
The insurance industry is among the most exposed sectors of the global economy to the effects of climate change, and those risks could grow as coastal cities expand.
In a statement, David Kodama, assistant vice president of […]
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Saturday, March 17th, 2018
Stephan: If you read me regularly you know that I have been talking about what I call The Great Schism Trend, which has split the country into two societies. Here is further confirmation of my prediction, as well as important insights into why this is happening.
Rural America
Credit: nreca
Robert Wuthnow, a sociologist at Princeton University, spent eight years interviewing Americans in small towns across the country. He had one goal: to understand why rural America is so angry with Washington.
Wuthnow’s work resulted in a new book, The Left Behind: Decline and Rage in Rural America. He argues that rural Americans are less concerned about economic issues and more concerned about Washington threatening the social fabric of small towns and causing a “moral decline” in the country as a whole. The problem, though, is that it’s never quite clear what that means or how Washington is responsible for it.
So I decided to speak with Wuthnow about what he learned and whether fears about America’s “moral decline” are really just a cover for much deeper fears about race and demographic changes.
A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows.
Sean Illing
When did you conduct the interviews for this book? And where?
Robert Wuthnow
The research was done between 2006 and 2014, and we talked to people […]
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Saturday, March 17th, 2018
Stephan: We continue to destroy the world's ecosystems because we simply can't overcome our psychotic greed. Here's an update. You can't say we weren't warned.
About 41 percent of the world’s amphibian species are threatened with extinction
Credit: AFP
As the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) prepares to unveil a thorough diagnosis of the health of Earth’s plant and animal species, this is what we already know:
— Two species of vertebrate, animals with a backbone, have gone extinct every year, on average, for the past century.
— Scientists say Earth is undergoing a “mass extinction event”, the first since the dinosaurs disappeared some 65 million years ago, and only the sixth in the last half-a-billion years.
— About 41 percent of amphibian species and more than a quarter of mammals are threatened with extinction.
— About half of coral reefs have been lost in the last 30 years.
— The global populations of 3,706 monitored vertebrate species — fish, birds, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles — declined by nearly 60 percent from 1970 to 2012.
— 25,821 species of 91,523 assessed for the 2017 “Red List” update were classified as “threatened”.
— Of these, 5,583 were “critically” endangered, 8,455 […]
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Saturday, March 17th, 2018
ZINN EDUCATION PROJECT, - Raw Story
Stephan: There is something medieval about the Koch brothers. They so blatantly think of most Americans as peasants who can be manipulated, and they believe they have the money to shape the United States in the mold they want. They already know that most members of congress can be bought like hiring hookers. And they know the key to shaping the culture is starting young and controlling education.
Credit: Fox News Radio
Given that the billionaire Charles Koch has poured millions of dollars into eliminating the minimum wage and paid sick leave for workers, and that in 2015 he had the gall to compare his ultra-conservative mission to the anti-slavery movement, he’s probably the last person you’d want educating young people about slavery.
Yet the history-teaching wing of the Koch brothers empire is seeking to promote an alternate narrative to slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. The political goal of these materials is to ensure students see racism and slavery as flaws in an otherwise spotless U.S. record, rather than woven into the fabric of our country from its inception.
