Thursday, March 29th, 2018
Zen Honeycutt, - Alternet
Stephan: Monsanto, in my view, a truly evil corporation knowingingly selling products that disrupt the ecosystem with agriculture poisons, is not just harming birds and bees. If you drink American beer or wine, you need to read this article., and you need to click through to this list of compromised beers and wines.
The past few years have revealed some disturbing news for the alcohol industry. In 2015, CBS news broke the announcement of a lawsuit against 31 brands of wines for high levels of inorganic arsenic. In 2016, beer testing in Germany also revealed residues of glyphosate in every single sample tested, even independent beers. Moms Across America released test results of 12 California wines that were all found to be positive for glyphosate in 2016. We tested further and released new findings last week of glyphosate in all of the most popular brands of wines in the world, the majority of which are from the U.S., and in batch test results in American beer.
What do these events all have in common? Monsanto’s Roundup.
French molecular biologist Gilles-Éric Séralini released shocking findings in January of 2018 that of all the Roundup products they tested, over a dozen had high levels of arsenic—over five times the allowable limit along with dangerous levels of heavy metals.
Roundup […]
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Thursday, March 29th, 2018
Christina Pitt, - News 24
Stephan: Here is the latest on Cape Town, South Africa. I have been following the water crisis in that city because there are so many American cities that could find themselves in similar situations.
A man collects drinking water from taps that are fed by a spring in Newlands on May 15, 2017, in Cape Town.
South Africa’s Western Cape region which includes Cape Town declared a drought disaster on May 22 as the province battled its worst water shortages for 113 years. This dam is the main water source for the city of Cape Town, and there is only 10% of it’s usual capacity left for human consumption, at the last 10% is not useable, due to the silt content.
Credit: AFP/ Rodger BOSCH
Capetonians have managed to get water usage down to 522 million litres per day over the past week – 43 million litres less than the previous week’s water usage.
The City of Cape Town still requires Capetonians to reduce collective usage to 450 million litres per day or 50l per person per day.
“We need to achieve this target in order to stretch the available water supplies through the rest of the year,” said Deputy Mayor Ian Neilson.
“The more water we use, the faster our dam […]
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Wednesday, March 28th, 2018
MICHAEL WINES and EMILY BAUMGAERTNER, - The New York Times
Stephan: The Founders did not require many things in the Constitution: A Navy, a post office system, and every ten years a census. The census for most people is boring and arcane but, in truth, a great deal of what the government does, and how our democracy operates is dependent on the census. It is a very big deal.
Because that is true I guess one should not be surprised that the Republicans are trying to rig the census. It is yet another proof -- again data not polemical bloviation -- that the Republican Party does not support a healthy democracy. Here the story.
New citizens watched a video of President Trump during a citizenship ceremony in New York in 2017. The Trump administration will add a question about citizenship to the 2020 census. Credit Devin Yalkin/The New York Times
WASHINGTON — At least 12 states signaled Tuesday that they would sue to block the Trump administration from adding a question about citizenship to the 2020 census, arguing that the change would cause fewer Americans to be counted and violate the Constitution.
The New York State attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, said he was leading a multistate lawsuit to stop the move, and officials in Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Washington said they would join the effort. The State of California filed a separate lawsuit late Monday night.
“The census is supposed to count everyone,” said Attorney General Maura Healey of Massachusetts. “This is a blatant and illegal attempt by the Trump administration to undermine that goal, which will result […]
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Wednesday, March 28th, 2018
COLIN WOODARD, - Contributing Editor
Stephan: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis in his comment on New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann described the states as the laboratory of democracy. He said, "states may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country."
Maine, is about to put Justice Brandeis' observation to the test. Having elected one of the worse governors in America, Paul LePage, a Republican of course, Maine is about to try a new form of voting, Ranked Choice Voting, to repair what happened earlier. It is going to be very interesting to see how this plays out. This report explains what Maine is planning. If it is successful it could become a powerful trend.
Maine Republican Governor Paul LePage.
Credit: AP
AUGUSTA, MAINE —Maine is about to embark on an unprecedented experiment in American democracy, and Paul LePage—the state’s belligerent, foul-mouthed and polarizing governor—is a big part of the reason why. After eight years of LePage, who made national headlines by telling the NAACP to “kiss my butt” and informed a state senator that he wanted to “give it to the people without Vaseline” while tangling with the leaders of his own party—voters here are willing to try almost anything to improve the political climate, even something no other state has ever tried before.
So in June, Maine will hold the nation’s first statewide primary election using ranked choice voting, a rarely used system championed by political reformers whereby voters get to rank their candidate preferences, rather than simply choosing their favorite. The election is the result of a citizen’s referendum passed nearly two years ago, and a whole lot of wrangling and maneuvering in between, and will even include a ballot question that, […]
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Wednesday, March 28th, 2018
DAVID EDWARDS, - Raw Story
Stephan: The Republicans through operations like ALEC, test ideas in one state then work to roll them out. The anti-choice legislation that is trying to take a woman’s control over her own body being the classic example.
Now, prompted by the NRA, Republicans in Minnesota are trying this little scheme about guns.
A man in a gun shop
Credit: Pål Joakim Olsen/Flickr
Republican-sponsored amendment in the Minnesota state House would give tax breaks to gun owners who purchase safes to store their firearms.
According to Minnesota Public Radio, Republicans on the state tax committee are likely to include the amendment in a larger tax bill. People who purchase gun safes would not be responsible for paying sales tax if the measure is signed into law.
“We’ve heard a lot about gun safety this session and throughout the country in this debate,” Republican state Rep. Chris Swedzinski said. “This bill is pretty straight forward of just encouraging the safe storage of firearms in the state. We all know we’re not going to be banning them due to the Second Amendment.”
The legislation is expected to cost the state $300,000 per year. Gun owners would be free to spend the savings on additional firearms.
“But putting a gun measure in the tax bill could give advocates of gun-control legislation a hook to seek votes through amendments when the bill […]
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