Stephan: We were warned just a few months ago by hundreds of scientists who had become the most knowledgable human beings on earth on the subject that we had 12 years to develop and put into place remediation programs to blunt the effects of climate change. If we didn't do this the implications were profound and disastrous.
Well, here's the update, and it tells us we didn't listen, so we are going to have to face the results of our sloth, greed, and stupidity.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks at a joint press conference with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at Government House on May 12, 2019 in Auckland, New Zealand. The two-day visit to New Zealand is part of a broader visit to the Pacific region and is Guterres’ first visit as UN Secretary-General. Credit: Hannah Peters/Getty.
United Nations Secretary General António Guterres warned the world is “not on track” to limit global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Speaking in New Zealand Sunday morning ahead of traveling to Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Fiji — nations among the most vulnerable to climate change — Guterres said: “Climate change is running faster than what we are… the last four years have been the hottest registered.”
Indeed, according to data released in February by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the past five years (2014-2018) have been the hottest years ever recording in NOAA’s 139 years of tracking global temperatures. And with more intense hurricanes, wildfires, droughts, and flooding, the impacts of climate change are […]
Stephan: Everyone who actually knew anything about nuclear power knew from the get go that the only reason civilian nuclear power was developed was that the Navy just wasn't going to buy enough reactors to create a viable industry. To make that possible the country needed to create enough business for Westinghouse, General Electric, and a few smaller companies, so they could keep the technology alive, and employ enough engineers, technicians, welders, and plumbers to be able to build reactors. Everyone knew that no one knew what to do with nuclear waste, and they just hoped that some technology would emerge to handle the problem.
Well, that technology never did emerge in any viable way, so as a result dotted across America, like cancerous tumors on a body, are waste sites and dead reactors that are lethally dangerous, and obscenely expensive to maintain. Anyone who tells you nuclear is a viable option to replace carbon energy is either ignorant of the real facts, or just lying.
Here is the latest on where this all stands.
The progress of a Department of Energy program to clean up the nation’s most dangerous nuclear waste sites appears to be slowing down even though it’s still devouring billions of dollars.
That discouraging picture emerges in the latest report by the federal Government Accountability Office on the long-running cleanup effort. Launched in 1989, it was designed to clean up 107 sites engaged in research or production of enriched uranium or plutonium for making nuclear weapons.
Cleanup work at 91 of the Cold War-era sites is finished. But the remaining 16 pose the greatest health risks – especially those with underground storage tanks leaking highly radioactive waste.
Testifying last week before the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, a GAO official said that for reasons that are unclear, estimated cleanup costs at the 16 ”biggest and scariest sites” have increased by $214 billion despite the Department of Energy (DOE) spending $48 billion since 2011.
David C. Trimble, the GAO’s director for natural resources and the environment, said the soaring costs ”are getting worse as the growth in cleanup liabilities vastly outpaces [the DOE’s] ability to reduce them.”
Mohamed Younis, Editor-in-Chief - The Gallup Organization
Stephan: Racial equality, immigration, socialism, and gender equality are the four issues guaranteed to get the ultra-right frothing at the mouth. Theirs are, in fact, arguments for morons. This report focuses just on socialism, and I am glad to see this data, because it strips away a ton of lies and disinformation.
To begin with, I always find it amusing to hear a rich person arguing against socialism. Why? Because the United States is, on the basis of data, the most socialist nation in the developed world. Let me say that again. The United States is the most socialist nation in the developed world. The distinction is that socialism in America is entirely oriented toward cossetting and giving advantage to the rich through an endless list of tax breaks, subsidies, special arrangements, and political influence. If you think your senator pays as much attention to you as he or she does to a billionaire who calls asking for a meeting, you live in wonderland.
The reality is that on issues like education, medical care, prenatal care, post-natal care, education, and eldercare, social policies that foster wellbeing, it is indisputable that socialism produces better social outcomes than privatization or the market. And, as this report lays out, Americans are beginning to recognize this truth.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans today are more closely divided than they were earlier in the last century when asked whether some form of socialism would be a good or bad thing for the country. While 51% of U.S. adults say socialism would be a bad thing for the country, 43% believe it would be a good thing. Those results contrast with a 1942 Roper/Fortune survey that found 40% describing socialism as a bad thing, 25% a good thing and 34% not having an opinion.
More Americans Now See Socialism as a Good Thing for the Country
Would some form of socialism be a good thing or a bad thing for the country as a whole?
1942
2019
Change
%
%
pct. pts.
Good thing
25
43
+18
Bad thing
40
51
+11
No opinion
34
6
-28
Net “good thing”
-15
-8
+7
Note: 1942 data gathered by Roper Center for Public Opinion Research
GALLUP
The Roper/Fortune survey is one of the oldest trend questions measuring attitudes on socialism in the U.S. Gallup’s update of the question in an April 17-30 survey finds Americans more likely to have an opinion on the matter now, as well as a smaller gap in the percentage calling socialism a bad thing vs. a good thing.
Previous Gallup research shows that Americans’ definition of socialism has changed […]
Stephan: There is a growing trend that is getting almost no attention; this report being a rare exception. I am speaking of the emigration of Americans leaving the U.S. for other countries, in this case, Mexico. The numbers may surprise you.
Americans immigrants in San Miguel De Allende, Mexico. Credit: Luis Antonio Rojas/For The Washington Post
SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE, MEXICO — Spanish friars brought the faith to this colonial city in Mexico’s central highlands.
The silver barons of the 18th century built its mansions.
Now comes the pickleball invasion.
It started with just a few American retirees. These days, two dozen players fill the courts at the municipal sports center most mornings, swinging paddles at plastic balls. There are so many clubs in Mexico dedicated to the U.S. sport that a tournament was held here last year.
“It was a madhouse,” said Victor Guzmán, a 67-year-old entrepreneur from Charlotte who helped pull the event together.
President Trump regularly assails the flow of migrants crossing the Mexican border into the United States. Less noticed has been the surge of people heading in the opposite direction.
Mexico’s statistics institute estimated this month that the U.S.-born population in this country has reached 799,000 — a roughly fourfold increase since 1990. And that is probably an undercount. The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City […]
Stephan: This is what the Republican Party led by Trump and McConnell are doing to your judiciary; these are the men and women they are putting on the court to pass judgment over you, your friends, and your family should you ever need recourse to the courts. These are the people who will interpret how the laws which govern American society are interpreted. How do you feel about this?
Credit: Bill Clark
As you’ve no doubt heard, wildly restrictive abortion laws are currently spreading across the United States, in an effort that is seen as the first step toward setting up a court battle to overturn Roe v. Wade. On Wednesday night, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey effectively banned nearly all abortions in the state, even in cases of rape or incest. On Thursday, Missouri’s State Senate passed a bill outlawing abortion at eight weeks of pregnancy. All of this is in the hopes that once the fight reaches the Supreme Court, Trump appointees like Brett Kavanaugh will return the favor by rolling back a woman’s right to choose. But, of course, the Supreme Court isn’t the only place stacked with Trump judges just licking their lips at the thought of gutting the 1973 decision. The president has installed a whopping 106 judges since his inauguration, and, on Thursday, the Senate confirmed what might be his craziest nominee yet.
That would be Wendy Vitter. Trump nominated her nearly a year and a half ago, and on Thursday, the Senate officially voted to […]
The progress of a Department of Energy program to clean up the nation’s most dangerous nuclear waste sites appears to be slowing down even though it’s still devouring billions of dollars.
