Stephan: I have been waiting for one of the polling research groups to publish hard data on how Americans feel about the debacle in the Senate. Here it is. Note particularly the numbers on Republicans.
Nearly three in five Americans believe President Donald Trump should have been convicted in the Senate impeachment trial, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll that fielded immediately after the trial concluded. A similar number believe the evidence presented in the trial was strong; however, a strong majority believe the senators voted not based on facts in the case, but on partisan politics.
1. Most Americans believe Trump should have been convicted in the second impeachment trial. However, partisans remained as deeply divided as they were before the trial began.
Overall, 58% believe Trump should have been convicted, and a similar number (61%) say the charges were serious enough for him to be impeached and put on trial.
While a vast majority of Democrats (88%) and most independents (64%) believe Trump should have been convicted, just 14% of Republicans agree.
These numbers do not reflect any growth or change in levels of support for impeachment compared to the time period before the trial.
2. While most believe the evidence against Trump was serious, ultimately the American public feels the senators acted from […]
Sarah Kennedy and Chavo Bart, - Yale University Climate Connections
Stephan: This is the first report I have seen that directly addresses the issue of coastal nuclear waste storage facilities and the threat sea rise poses to these vulnerable sites. What could that mean? Imagine a dozen Fukushimas occurring at the same time.
Coastal nuclear plant Credit: GorissM/Flickr
Nuclear power is a source of low-carbon electricity, but producing it creates dangerous radioactive waste that needs to be stored safely and permanently.
Recent research suggests that as seas rise, some nuclear waste storage facilities are at risk of flooding or storm damage.
“We really focused in to say, ‘OK, well, how many plants might actually be subject to these risks?’” says Sarah Jordaan of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
Her team looked at 13 facilities along the U.S. coast.
They found that if seas rise about six feet – which is possible by the end of the century – more than half of the waste storage sites would be directly along the water’s edge or even surrounded by water.
So she says it’s critical to anticipate these long-term vulnerabilities and take action.
“There are certainly ways that those risks can be managed now,” Jordaan says.
For example, after five years, spent fuel can be moved to dry casks. This is a safer long-term storage method than the cooling pools where a lot of spent fuel […]
Stephan: The Trump administration did everything they could to protect the corporations who produce these "forever" chemicals. Now more good news from the Biden administration; they are going to completely reverse this and get these chemicals out of the culture and your body, and the bodies of your children.
Industrial “forever chemicals” found in hundreds of consumer goods and linked to adverse health effects may face new regulations under the Biden administration.
Why it matters: Environmental groups and members of Congress are calling on President Biden to follow through with his promise to designate the long-ignored and largely unregulated synthetic chemicals, which can last for hundreds of years without breaking down, as hazardous substances.
They’re also calling for him to set enforceable limits for the chemicals in the Safe Drinking Water Act and to fund toxicity research on them.
How they work: Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) — dubbed “forever chemicals” for their durability — are a family of nearly 5,000 types of chemicals that resist degradation by repelling oil and water and withstanding high temperatures.
They are commonly found in nonstick, water-repellent and fire-resistant products, including cookware, and some food packaging.
Because of their strength, PFAS can remain in the environment while accumulating in fish, wildlife and humans.
Of note: There are currently no national drinking water standards for PFAS nor […]
Stephan: This is excellent good news. One of the greatest powers ordinary people have in a profit is the only social priority society like America's is to stop buying something, or shopping in a particular store or chain. It is a tactic straight out of The 8 Laws of Change. For instance, my wife and I never go into a Hobby Lobby, or a Chick-Fil-A. We make a point to learn whether a company is owned by fascists, and we never shop there again. You can do the same. When enough of us do that these corporations either change or go out of business.
Florida-based grocery chain operates more than 1,200 stores across seven south-eastern states. Photograph: Larry Marano/REX/Shutterstock
Wendy Mize’s family grew up on Publix, disciples to the giant supermarket chain’s empirical marketing slogan: “Where shopping is a pleasure”. As infants, her three daughters wore diapers bought from the Publix baby club. As children, they munched on free cookies from the bakery. There were even perks for the family’s pets, who are proud members of Publix Paws.
But now the decades-long love affair is over. After a member of Publix’s founding family donated $300,000 to the Donald Trump rally that preceded January’s deadly Capitol riots, Mize is pulling out of what she says has become “an abusive, dysfunctional relationship”, and joining others in a boycott of the Florida-based grocery chain that operates more than 1,200 stores across seven south-eastern states.
“It was the last straw,” said Mize, 57, an advertising copywriter from Orlando whose youngest twin daughters are now 19. “Insurrection at the Capitol, images of the police officer with his head being crushed, individuals dressed as Vikings on the floor of the Senate… we’re not going […]
Stephan: Yet another account of mass murder as a result of Trump policies. Trump is the largest perpetrator of mass murder in American history.
rump signs House Joint Resolution 41, removing some Dodd-Frank regulations on oil and gas companies, on Feb. 14, 2017. Credit: Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty
A new report by a commission of health experts found 22,000 deaths in 2019 were caused by Trump‘s failed environmental policies alone.
The report was published this week by The Lancet, an esteemed medical journal whose “wade into the politics behind health policy is highly unusual,” Bloomberg Green reported. But while the journal’s editor Richard Horton has faced controversy before, the study was co-authored by 33 scientists, signaling “a changing time,” Gretchen Goldman, a research director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told Bloomberg Green.
“If you told me four years ago that scientific journals would be speaking out against Trump, I wouldn’t have believed you,” Goldman told Bloomberg Green. “But since then, there has been quite a shift, reflecting both the severity of what Trump did as well as the changing willingness of the scientific community to engage in policy conversations.”
During his administration, Trump rolled back 84 […]
