Sunday, October 21st, 2018
Jie Jenny Zou, Center for Public Integrity -
Stephan: I consider the United States policy to emphasize carbon energy and downplay alternatives to be a crime against humanity. Here is a good exegetic essay on how we got to this point.
Trump administration Secretary of Energy Rick Perry Credit: sportsblogs.star-telegram.com
WASHINGTON — Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s keynote speech at the World Gas Conference in June opened with a marching band and ended with an exhibition by the Harlem Globetrotters. It was a spectacle befitting the industry symposium, which kicked off with a reception featuring a violinist perched on a pedestal in a 20-foot-long dress and trumpeters bearing ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips banners on their instruments.
“We’re sharing our energy bounty with the world,” Perry gushed from a stage at the Washington Convention Center. “I wish I could tell you the entire world is on board. There is still this stubborn opposition to natural gas and other fossil fuels.”
Long undervalued, natural gas was once burned off indiscriminately as an unwanted byproduct of oil drilling. But the fuel’s fortunes have changed. Cooled to minus 162 degrees Celsius, natural gas condenses into a liquid marketed as a clean alternative to coal. In just three years, the U.S. has emerged as a top producer of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, selling shiploads of the commodity to countries such as China, which are seeking low-carbon […]
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Sunday, October 21st, 2018
ZACK FORD, - Think Progress
Stephan: American christofascists have three traits which they share with fundamentalists of different faiths. It is couched in religious terms, but that is not what is going on: 1) A sense of moral superiority, 2) A sense of persecution, 3) Male dominance and an obsessive need to control women.
If you talk to a Trump supporter, particularly a man, they will tell you what this report lays out. I see this in right wing media all the time. It is both pathetic and threatening; Nazism only with people of color being the target instead of Jews; although of course the Jews get included anyway.
Supporters stand for the Pledge of Allegiance before a speech by U.S. President Donald Trump
Credit: Jeff Swensen/Getty
A new survey from YouGov and The Economist suggests that people who voted for President Donald Trump are living in a very different United States than those who voted for Hillary Clinton.
In a series of questions about the discrimination they perceive different groups to be experiencing, the respondents were far more concerned with the plight of men and Christians than with just about any other group.
The poll surveyed 1,500 U.S. adults this past Sunday through Tuesday, 28 percent of whom voted for Donald Trump in 2016. Participants were asked to share what they felt were the levels of discrimination against a variety of groups, including various ethnic groups (Arab, Asian, African, and Mexican Americans), religious groups (Christians, Jewish, and Muslim), LGBTQ people, immigrants, and men and women. And while Trump voters certainly acknowledged that various groups experienced some degree of discrimination, they expressed the most concern about men and Christians.
For example, nearly half […]
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Sunday, October 21st, 2018
James Gallagher, - BBC News (U.K.)
Stephan: We are beginning to appreciate, in a way we did not before, that all life including we ourselves, are interconnected in an interdependent matrix of consciousness. When one considers that fundamental in the context of the all too prevalent American diet that is creating such obesity is it any wonder that so many people think as they do?
If anything makes us human it’s our minds, thoughts and emotions.
And yet a controversial new concept is emerging that claims gut bacteria are an invisible hand altering our brains.
Science is piecing together how the trillions of microbes that live on and in all of us – our microbiome – affect our physical health.
But even conditions including depression, autism and neurodegenerative disease are now being linked to these tiny creatures.
We’ve known for centuries that how we feel affects our gut – just think what happens before an exam or a job interview – but now it is being seen as a two-way street.
Groups of researchers believe they are on the cusp of a revolution that uses “mood microbes” or “psychobiotics” to improve mental health.
The study that ignited the whole concept took place at Kyushu University in Japan.
The researchers showed that “germ-free” mice – those that never came into contact with microbes – pumped out twice the amount of stress hormone when distressed than normal mice.
The animals were identical except for their microbes. It was a strong hint that the […]
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Sunday, October 21st, 2018
Barak Ravid, Diplomatic correspondent for Israel's Channel 10 news - Axios
Stephan: The even-handed diplomacy of the Carter administration which fostered peace is long-gone. For the past 27 years America's major foreign policy has been the violent dismantlement of Islamic nations. It has cost a couple of trillion of your money and its killed, wounded, and maimed millions. And here's the latest in this trend.
The U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem.
Credit: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty
The Trump administration announced Thursday that it is downgrading its diplomatic mission to the Palestinian Authority after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statementthat the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem, which was in charge of relations with the Palestinians, will cease to exist and become the “Palestinian Affairs Unit” in the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.
Why it matters: This is a dramatic decision. Pompeo described the move as technical and said it was prompted by operational efficiency, but it has big political consequences and symbolism. The decision wipes out another symbol of Palestinian sovereignty that was recognized by both Republican and Democratic administrations over the last 25 years. The consulate is also considered a symbolic U.S. recognition of the Israeli occupation in the West Bank.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman will now be in charge of relations with the Palestinians and — for the first time since 1967 — will be formally in charge of contacts with Jewish settlements in the occupied […]
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Saturday, October 20th, 2018
Catalin Cimpanu, - ZD Net
Stephan: Every day in the U.S. VIsaNet, the credit card network, safely and securely processes 150 million transactions. Approximately 130 million people voted in 2016. How is it then that the United States can process credit card transactions safely and securely but can't manage to run an honest election?
Partly it is because in 1787 as the Constitutional Convention the states not trusting each other, and because the logistics in the 18th century were so onerous decided that each state would set up its own voting system. The Electoral College was set up because in the 18th century fear of mobs was a major political issue and so the Electoral College was supposed to be the last bulwark against mob rule.
In my opinion, both of these processes should be changed. Voting should be conducted under uniform federal standards assuring anyone over 18 who is a citizen can vote safely and securely, and the president should be elected on a popular vote, and the Electoral College eliminated.
That we can't run an honest election in this country is another example of what I mean when I say that Republicans do not like democracy because their masters don't like democracy, and are doing everything they can to maintain the form but strip away the substance.
Voting machine
Credit: Shutterstock
The voter information for approximately 35 million US citizens is being peddled on a popular hacking forum, two threat intelligence firms have discovered.
“To our knowledge this represents the first reference on the criminal underground of actors selling or distributing lists of 2018 voter registration data,” said researchers from Anomali Labs and Intel471, the two companies who spotted the forum ad.
The two companies said they’ve reviewed a sample of the database records and determined the data to be valid with a “high degree of confidence.”
Researchers say the data contains details such as full name, phone numbers, physical addresses, voting history, and other voting-related information. It is worth noting that some states consider this data public and offer it for download for free, but not all states have this policy.
The supposed data comes from 19 US states. The list and pricing, as advertised by the hacker himself, is as follows below:
- Montana – 1000$
- Louisiana – 5000$ (3 Million Voters)
- Iowa – 1100$
- Utah – 1100$
- Oregon – 500$
- South Carolina – 2500$
- Wisconsin – 12500$ […]
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