January 2020 - Page 13 of 26

Friday, January 17th, 2020

Australia’s Wallabies, Recovering From Fires, Fed by Carrots Falling From the Sky

Samantha Michaels , Reporter - Mother Jones

Stephan: Such a lovely story, such a conscious response to a catastrophe.

A wallaby eating a carrot dropped from the sky by conservationists.

Thousands of pounds of carrots and sweet potatoes are falling from the sky in Australia, air-dropped to help feed the Brush-tailed Rock wallabies whose habitats have been devastated by massive brushfires.

The wallabies, agile marsupials that use their furred tails for balance while climbing trees and vertical rocks, tend to survive fires. But their vegetation is often destroyed, according to the New South Wales government, which on Sunday announced it was coordinating helicopter drops in the state as part of recovery efforts. New South Wales Environment Minister Matt Kean shared photos of the hungry marsupials on Twitter:

Thursday, January 16th, 2020

U.S. Global Trustworthiness Rating Plunges

Kevin Drew, Assistant Managing Editor - U.S. News and World Report

Stephan: I have been telling my readers for three years, that there was a major geopolitical trend going on that was getting very little coverage on the cable channels and most of the rest of the mainstream media. Specifically, the trust and integrity of the United States once the gold standard of the world was gone, destroyed by criminal Trump and the Republicans enabling him. That was my take away from the stories I was seeing. Now we have hard data. The implications of this precipitous decline will haunt us for a generation, or more, and affect everything from how the world deals with climate change, to how trade with the U.S. is conducted. In New York Trump was known as a grifter and cheat, someone banks would not loan money to, and his reputation like a toxic slime has now spread to cover America.

Trump lying on the West Lawn
Credit: NBC News

The world’s trust in the United States, a country entering an election year with its impeached president facing trial in the Senate and stirring global alarm over the U.S. killing of an Iranian general, has dropped by more than 50% since 2016, the sharpest drop of any country assessed in the 2020 Best Countries report.

Additionally, the United Kingdom has experienced the second-greatest drop in the world’s trust since 2016, according to Best Countries data. Last December’s elections firmly entrenched Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his vow to push forward with Brexit and take the country out of the European Union.

By contrast, America’s neighbor to the north, Canada, is seen as the world’s most trustworthy country, according to the report, a position the nation has held since the annual global survey first released in 2016.

In 2016, the U.S. had a score of 33.5 on a 100-point scale. This year, the country’s score is 16.3, placing the country at No. 24 […]

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Thursday, January 16th, 2020

‘A long time to wait’: Virginia Passes Equal Rights Amendment in Historic Vote

Gregory S. Schneider, Laura Vozzella and Patricia Sullivan , Reporters - The Washington Post

Stephan: Here we see what happens when a state, in this instance Virginia, goes from Republican governance to Democratic governance. And what do we see? We see Republican incompetence, corruption, gerrymandering, and voter suppression replaced by wellbeing oriented social policies, and this good news.

Supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment react to the Senate Privileges and Elections committee vote to report the ERA amendment the floor of the Senate during a Committee hearing at the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, Va., Thursday, Jan. 9, 2020.
Credit: Steve Helber

RICHMOND — Both chambers of Virginia’s General Assembly passed the Equal Rights Amendment Wednesday, fulfilling a promise that helped Democrats seize control of the legislature and marking a watershed moment in the nearly century-long effort to add protections for women to the U.S. Constitution.

The lopsided votes capped an emotional week in which Democrats — particularly female lawmakers, who now hold unprecedented positions of power in Richmond — celebrated history in the making.

The House gallery was packed beyond its 102-seat capacity, with Virginia first lady Pam Northam and her daughter, Aubrey Northam, making a rare appearance to bear witness. ERA supporters attended from around the […]

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Thursday, January 16th, 2020

Russian Government Resigns as Putin Proposes Reforms That Could Extend His Grip on Power

Mary Ilyushina and Sheena McKenzie, - CNN

Stephan: This is getting way too little media coverage; this is a game-changer in Russia, that has enormous geopolitical, as well as internal, implications.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev

MOSCOW, RUSSIA —The entire Russian government is resigning, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced Wednesday, after Vladimir Putin proposed sweeping reforms that could extend his decades-long grip on power beyond the end of his presidency.

Putin thanked members of the government for their work but added that “not everything worked out.” Putin added that in the near future he would meet with each member of the cabinet. The mass resignation includes Medvedev.

The surprise announcement came after Putin proposed constitutional amendments that would strengthen the powers of the prime minister and parliament at the expense of the presidency.

Taking power from the presidency and handing it to parliament could signal a power shift that has been long speculated about in Russia.

Putin’s critics have suggested that he is considering various scenarios to retain control of the country after his presidential term ends in 2024, including the option of becoming prime minister with extended […]

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Thursday, January 16th, 2020

Tesla Is Now Worth More Than Ford and GM—Combined

TIMOTHY B. LEE , Senior Reporter - arsTECHNICA

Stephan: I keep telling my readers that there is no force greater than the collective intention of ordinary people and the decisions flowing from that intention. What, in The 8 Laws of Change, I have called the Quotidian Choice. Here is a wonderful good news example of what I mean. In spite of everything criminal Trump and the Republicans are doing to keep carbon energy alive, an effort motivated by their desire to continue to get the financial support of the carbon industry corporations and its oligarchs, ordinary people are changing the game. You are changing the game.

Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., gestures during the Tesla China-Made Model 3 Delivery Ceremony at the company’s Gigafactory in Shanghai, China, on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2020. Tesla kicked off production in China, marking a major step in Musks global push for electric-vehicle domination and heralding what could be the dawn of real competition in the worlds largest EV market. Credit: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg/Getty

Less than a month after Tesla’s stock first rose above $400, the company’s shares have now soared past $500 per share. As I write this, one share of Tesla stock is worth $516, which means the company as a whole is worth more than $93 billion.

The latest rally was sparked by a new report from Colin Rusch, an analyst at the Wall Street firm of Oppenheimer & Co. He revised his Tesla price target upward from $385 to $612. But more fundamentally, the rising stock price reflects the fact that, after a couple years of near-constant chaos, the company seems to finally be executing smoothly.

Tesla delivered 112,000 cars […]

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