When asked on CNBC’s Squawk Box about some employees turning to “homeless shelters to get food,” Ross, who is reported to have assets numbering $700 million, replied: “Well I know they are, and I don’t really quite understand why.”
He said he felt “sorry for the individuals that have hardship cases,” but he downplayed the overall economic impact of the shutdown: “800,000 workers … you’re talking about a third of a percent on our GDP, so it’s not like it’s a gigantic number overall.”
Ross said the unpaid or furloughed workers “will eventually” get their pay, referring to a bill signed by the president last week. (Workers in previous shutdowns have received back pay when the shutdowns ended.)
Because […]
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Friday, January 25th, 2019
DAN GEARINO, - Inside Climate News
Stephan: As I have noted numerous times, nothing wakes up a politician like a disaster in their own back yard. So this is good news.
Climate change is increasingly evident in the extreme weather, heat waves and algae blooms that can hurt agriculture, drinking water and tourism in the region, as the 2018 National Climate Assessment describes. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, ORBIMAGE
Climate change poses risks to the economy and identity of a Great Lakes landscape, much of it defined by bountiful farms, pine forests and clear waters. But political leaders haven’t always treated it that way.
That’s starting to change as a wave of new governors and attorneys general take office across the region with promises—and actions—to address climate change.
The regional changes may signal a new dynamic for national debates, as climate policy advocates broaden their base of support to include some of the country’s hubs of manufacturing and farming. It also is happening at a time of growing urgency for concerted state-level efforts on climate change in response to the federal government’s push to roll back greenhouse gas emissions rules.
“It’s really crucial in this time when there are so many environmental policies going the […]
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Thursday, January 24th, 2019
DAN WITTERS, - The Gallup Organization
Stephan: Every time I hear or read a discussion about universal healthcare inevitably the Republican in the debate raises the cost issue saying basically, "It's too expensive, we can't afford it."
Whenever you heard someone talk like this you know you are hearing either a liar or a moron -- or a lying moron. Every other developed nation in the Western world has universal healthcare and every single one of them -- every single one -- has better-rated healthcare than American does. And everyone of those nations pays a smaller fraction of their GDP than does the United States. In reality, we have the worst-rated healthcare amongst those developed nations; we rank 37th and we pay more of our GDP, 17.6% specifically. We also have higher taxation rates.
The entire discussion about healthcare is really about one thing. Protecting the profits of the healthcare industry. It has nothing -- nothing -- to do with wellbeing. And we are getting worse.
Nationwide, the uninsured rate climbed from 10.9% in the third and fourth quarters of 2016 to 12.2% by the final quarter of 2017; it has risen steadily each quarter since that time. Since Gallup’s measurement began in 2008, the national uninsured rate reached its highest point in the third quarter of 2013 at 18.0%, and thus, the current rate of 13.7% — although it continues a rising trend — remains well below the peak level.
These data, collected as part of the Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index, are based on Americans’ answers to the question, “Do you have health insurance coverage?” Sample sizes of randomly selected adults in 2018 were around 28,000 per quarter.
The ACA marketplace exchanges opened on Oct. 1, 2013, and most new insurance plans purchased during the last quarter of that year began their coverage on Jan. 1, 2014. Medicaid expansion among 24 states (and the District of Columbia) also began at the beginning of 2014, with 12 more states expanding Medicaid since that time. Expanded Medicaid coverage as a part of the ACA broadens […]
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Thursday, January 24th, 2019
STEPHEN LEAHY, - National Geographic
Stephan: Here is the latest on what is happening in Greenland, and a first approximation as to what it means. Remember, of course, that the timeline is always collapsing and the impact is always worse than expected.
Increasingly, I am coming to believe that nothing meaningful is going to be done to address what is taking place and, therefore, America's coastal communities (as well as other areas in the world) are if not doomed, soon to be severely impaired. This will disrupt the lives of hundreds of millions, including millions of Americans, and produce a multi-trillion dollar real estate collapse in this country that may crash the economy. You just can't save stupidity from itself.
Greenland ice melting
Credit: Climate Signals
A new study warns that Greenland’s ice is melting faster than scientists previously thought. But perhaps the biggest surprise is that most of this ice loss is from the land-fast ice sheet itself, not Greenland’s glaciers.
The new study, published January 21 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that the largest sustained ice loss from early 2003 to mid-2013 came from Greenland’s southwest region, which is mostly devoid of large glaciers.
Greenland, the world’s biggest island, appears to have hit a tipping point around 2002-2003 when the ice loss rapidly accelerated, said lead author Michael Bevis, a geoscientist at Ohio State University. By 2012 the annual ice loss was “unprecedented” at nearly four times the rate in 2003, Bevis said in an interview.
Much of this new accelerated ice melt came from southwest Greenland, a part of the island that hadn’t been known to be losing ice that rapidly. Previously, […]
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