Bobby Azarian, Neuroscientist affiliated with George Mason University - Raw Story
Stephan: I just saw a poll reporting that 73% of Republicans would like Trump to run again. I find that at once depressing and appalling. But even more I see this poll as further evidence that about a third of Americans really want a christofascist state not a democratic one. That is a recipe for violence unless the other two-thirds of Americans make it absolutely clear that they support democracy. This article should get your attention and make it clear how tenuous American democracy is today.
Leading MAGAt Marjorie Taylor Green Credit: Erin Scott/Pool/AFP
How do we know that it is as serious as I say; that this is not just more fear mongering? Well, for one, people have died. Heather Heyer, a counterprotester protesting the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, was run over by a white supremacist, and 19 others were injured. Last year a man drew a hunting bow on protestors in Salt Lake City before being taken out by the crowd, a chilling moment that was captured on video. On the day of the Capitol riot, a pipe bomb was found a few blocks from the Capitol building. In addition to these troubling events, many others who will go unnamed have been the victims of hate crimes that can be traced to the alt-Right, pro-Trump movement.
Do not be alarmed, but consider this article a prediction and a warning. Actually, it’s okay to be a little alarmed, because recent events—like the storming of the Capitol—are certainly cause for concern. Let’s call it what it is; […]
Stephan: Benjamin Franklin, in Poor Richard's Almanac in 1758, recorded the proverb, "For want of a nail the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe the horse was lost. For want of a horse the rider was lost. For want of a rider, the battle was lost. For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost. And all this for the want of a horsehoe nail. The reality of that proverb's truth is playing out in the 21st century over the want of a computer chip. This story is not getting a lot of attention, it seems so minuscule and mundane, but it is hamstringing a wide spectrum of industries.
New trucks sit next to a race track at the Kentucky Speedway as Ford waits for more semiconductor shipments to arrive. Credit: Jeffrey Scott Dean/Bloomberg/Getty
Starting next week, General Motors is again halting the assembly lines of several pickup truck plants because the company doesn’t have enough computer chips. The plants had been back up and running for just a week following a shutdown in July, which was also caused by the chip shortage.
These production halts may not stop anytime soon. “I do think we’ll continue to see impact this year, and it will have a tail into next year,” warned CEO Mary Barra on Wednesday. And Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger similarly predicted last month that things won’t get back to normal for at least a year or two.
Now, the impact of the supply crunch is spreading to consumer tech. Apple CEO Tim Cook warned last week that a limited supply of semiconductors would hurt sales of iPhones. Microsoft is struggling to make enoughXbox consoles and Surface laptops. Elon Musk told a court last month that the chip shortage meant Tesla […]
Michael Barnard, Chief Strategist with TFIE Strategy Inc - CleanTechnica
Stephan: I have been telling you for a decade now (see SR archives, search on "Migration" that migrations both internally and internationally are going to have a massive impact on the world's nations. Here is a view of what this might be like. Depending on where you live you may end up as one of those migrant refugees.
Syrian refugees
The Syrian Refugee Crisis was climate migration writ small. Based on the literature, I attribute about 10% of the causation of the Syrian Civil War to climate change. It exacerbated the regional drought that made both grazing and small-hold agriculture economically challenging, leading to large numbers of young men migrating to the cities where they were underemployed and ripe for radicalization and revolt. There was a collection of causes, and climate change was one of them. For context, here’s one of the pieces of literature I frequently cite: Climate change in the Fertile Crescent and implications of the recent Syrian drought
“We conclude that human influences on the climate system are implicated in the current Syrian conflict.”
And Europe’s response to the Syrian Refugee Crisis provides insights. Lots of right-wing xenophobic rhetoric. Lots of scared white people worried about the teaming hordes of non-white people coming to Europe (despite the large numbers of non-white people living and contributing peacefully in Europe already). Lots of white nationalism. Lots of Islamaphobia.
Lots of border fences and lots of borders closed […]
Stephan: As always, climate change is coming faster, and the effects will be worse than initially predicted. And we are just not preparing for these changes as we should.
Sea levels are creeping up along the Atlantic coast – from rocky New England shores to sandy Southeastern beaches. And as the climate warms, they’re rising at an increasingly fast pace.
Jennifer Walker of Rutgers University recently studied the rate and causes of sea-level rise at six sites between Connecticut and North Carolina.
“We found that at all of these sites, sea-level has been rising over the past 2,000 years,” she says. “But then in the last century, in the 20th century, the rates are now more than double that of the average over the last 2,000 years.”
She says before the year 1800, most sea-level rise was caused by the natural sinking and settling of the land.
“And that’s due to the land still readjusting from the presence of the Laurentide ice sheet, which is an ice sheet that covered a lot of North America in the last ice age,” Walker says.
That process – called land subsidence – continues. But it is no longer the chief cause of sea-level rise. At the six sites she studied, Walker […]
Mark Berman , Julie Tate and Jennifer Jenkins , Reporter and News Researchers - The Washington Post
Stephan: The police in the United States literally and routinely get away with murder. This is perhaps the best researched article on this topic that I have read. It is a story that is shameful, blatantly racist, and nationally embarrassing. It is perfectly obvious from objective social outcome data like that cited in this piece, that the real issue is not about defunding the police, it is about completely restructuring law enforcement in America, and radically changing training, and expanding it significantly. No other law enforcement in any other developed nation in the world has these kinds of statistics.
On Oct. 27, an Uber driver in Pompano Beach, Fla., reported that he had been carjacked. A passenger attacked him, slashing his hand with a knife and stealing his Mercedes-Benz, the driver said.
The driver had left his cellphone in the car, and police tracked it into Palm Beach County. Sheriff’s deputies found the vehicle and 20-year-old Ryan Fallo. He ignored commands to drop the knife and approached them, the sheriff’s office said, and they shot and killed him. The shooting was later ruled justified.
The Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office released a photo of a knife with what appeared to be blood on the blade and handle. But it did not release the names of the two deputies involved. Instead, it kept their identities confidential under a Florida law billed as a way to protect crime victims. On paperwork invoking the law, both deputies signed their names in the space marked “Signature of Victim.”UNACCOUNTABLE
An examination of policing in America amid the push for reform.
