Stephan: The impact of sea rise in Florida will not be general, instead, it will be very localized. But it will be devastating.
The Champlain Towers complex in Surfside, Florida, on Tuesday. Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty
Danny Rivero was one of the first reporters on the scene of the Champlain Towers South condo collapse in the town of Surfside, Florida, not too far from Miami Beach. He’s been there almost every day since, chronicling what is still, technically, a search and rescue mission. The death toll now stands at 12, but 149 people are still unaccounted-for. And Rivero says the initial shock of the event is “starting to wear off,” turning to grief—and anger. “This didn’t happen for no reason,” he says. “Even though it came out of nowhere, in a sense, it did not come out of nowhere. There were reasons behind why this happened.”
Florida sea rise projections
On Wednesday’s episode of What Next, I talked to Rivero, a reporter for the local public radio station WLRN, about the decisions that led up to the disaster, the role of climate change, and what it all means for […]
Stephan: History is beginning to render its verdict, about what you would expect, 41st out of 45, and by the time all the criminal cases against Trump are settled he may move further down to the very bottom. He may well be in prison, which I think would be good for the country. We need to restructure ourselves so that wellbeing is our national priority, wellbeing for everyone regardless of race, gender, or any other difference. We are one people or we are going to be nothing.
Former President Donald Trump was ranked near the bottom of a new list by historians surveyed on who they believe the best U.S. presidents are, and received the lowest leadership grades of any commander-in-chief over the past 150 years.
It was Trump’s first appearance on C-SPAN’s Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership, with the one-term president ranked 41st out of America’s 45 former executives.
Rated by a group of over 140 historians, the survey ranks former U.S. presidents on 10 different leadership qualities, such as “public persuasion,” “international relations” and “crisis leadership.” Since 2000, C-SPAN has taken the survey after every change in White House administration.
On Wednesday, C-SPAN tweeted that the 2021 survey saw a 50 percent increase in the number of historians participating, and a big jump in the diversity of respondents — as defined by demographic information such as race, gender, age and philosophy.
The results of this year’s survey indicate the divergence between Trump’s standing among academics and how his followers have viewed his presidency — historians hold him in the lowest regard of any president since Reconstruction, yet he continues to hold an iron grip on leadership […]
Mark Hertsgaard, Executive Director of Covering Climate Now - The Nation
Stephan: In the American oligarchy, the rich can buy justice to suit their needs, or avoid having to be held responsible for the most heinous crimes. Look at Donald Rumsfeld, a man responsible for mass death in multiple countries who died today without ever being held truly accountable for what he had done. Of consider another Donald, Donald Trump. And then there are entire industries who simply buy the kind of governance that suits them. History will see climate change, I believe, as a crime against humanity that was completely avoidable.
Firefighting vessels attempt to extinguish the blaze aboard the supertanker Mega Borg in the Gulf of Mexico in June 1990, near Galveston, Tex. The vessel, which carried more than three times as much oil as the Exxon Valdez, burned uncontrollably for two days. Credit: Paul S. Howell / Liaison
Every person on Earth today is living in a crime scene.
This crime has been going on for decades. We see its effects in the horrific heat and wildfires unfolding this summer in the American West; in the mega-storms that were so numerous in 2020 that scientists ran out of names for them; in the global projections that sea levels are set to rise by at least 20 feet. Our only hope is to slow this inexorable ascent so our children may figure out some way to cope.
This crime threatens today’s young people most of all and calls into question the very survival of civilization. And yet the criminals responsible for this devastation are still at large. Indeed, they continue to perpetrate their crime, and even make money from it, not least […]
Stephan: The level of corruption in the U.S. Congress is gobsmacking, and completely shameless. Here we have an oil industry lobbyist bragging how he has 11 Senators under his control.
Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, one of the Congressional whores owned by Exxon/Mobile
While many oil companies are diversifying with natural gas, it appears ExxonMobil is going all-in battling to keep “big oil” alive and well.
“Did we aggressively fight against some of the science? Yes. Did we hide our science? Absolutely not,” said McCoy on camera. “Did we join some of these shadow groups to work against some of the early efforts? Yes, that’s true. But there’s nothing, there’s nothing illegal about that. We were looking out for our investments. We were looking out for our shareholders.”
McCoy compared his work with elected officials to fishing with ExxonMobil who supplies the “bait” before it “reels in” the official on issues like a carbon tax, electric cars, taxation and infrastructure.
Stephan: Biden is making his calculations based on his years in the Senate. But I think he is making a miscalculation. The Republican Party with which he worked during his time in the Senate is not the Republican Party of today. Biden has the opportunity to become historically significant, but only if he seeks the big program, and creates a new system based on integrity and the fostering of wellbeing. He doesn't have much time, as this Reuters report describes.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – U.S. President Joe Biden has seen an erosion in support since April, mainly from fellow Democrats, as his administration wrestles with Congress to make good on campaign promises and more Americans worry about an uneven economic recovery, Reuters/Ipsos polling shows.
A June 11-17 national opinion poll shows Biden is still more popular than his Republican predecessor Donald Trump ever was: 55% of adults approve of Biden’s performance in office and 65% like his response to the coronavirus pandemic. At this point four years ago, about 36% of adults approved of Trump’s job performance.
However, a growing number of Americans disapprove of Biden’s leadership on the economy, gun violence and taxation, with the biggest decline coming within Biden’s Democratic Party https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-BIDEN/POLL/yxmvjzlmkvr, especially those under the age of 40, non-white Democrats or those who do not have a college degree.
The economy has replaced healthcare and disease as a top concern, with nearly a quarter of adults who were polled calling it the most important problem. A majority of Americans are worried about rising living costs, and the […]
