Stephan: Here is my take on what is happening in the internal combustion engine trend.
In the midst of the chaos, the mass murders, the political corruption, one party attempting to transform our democratic republic into an anocracy, the pandemic, and the crisis it has revealed in American healthcare, in the midst of all that, there is a very positive trend occurring that is not getting the attention it should. Humanity is leaving the carbon era. There are a number of aspects to this transition but, since this is a paper not a book, I am going to focus on just one aspect, arguably the most important component of this transition: the end of the internal combustion vehicle. Like Eisenhower’s creation of the interstate highway system, but even more dramatically, moving out of the carbon era is going to fundamentally change life and health in America and the world. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, sales of internal combustion petroleum powered vehicle sales peaked in 2017 and have been in “permanent decline ever since.”1 Concurrently, sales of plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles (EV) have steadily increased. According to the Bloomberg report sales are projected […]
Stephan: This decision tells us very clearly why the Democrats retaining the Senate majority is so important. Trump and McConnell attempted to restructure the judiciary into a christofascist cabal, and the judges they appointed have attempted to serve their masters. But Biden has appointed more judges than any recent president, and now has a senate that will help him assure over the next two years a multi-racial, gender-equal, democracy-protective judiciary. And if we are very lucky perhaps he will even get to appoint a couple of Supreme Court Justices. Clarence Thomas, for instance, in my opinion, should be impeached and removed from the court.
Transgender rights activist waves a transgender flag at a rally in Washington Square Park in New York, U.S., May 24, 2019. Credit: Demetrius Freeman / Reuters
A federal judge in Texas ruled on Friday that President Joe Biden’s administration had wrongly interpreted an Obamacare provision as barring health care providers from discriminating against gay and transgender people.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo ruled that a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2020 holding that a law barring workplace discrimination protects gay and transgender employees did not apply to the healthcare law.
The ruling by Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former Republican President Donald Trump, came in a class action lawsuit by two doctors represented by the America First Legal Foundation, set up by former Trump White House adviser Stephen Miller.
They sued after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in May 2021 it would interpret Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which bars healthcare providers from discriminating on the basis of sex, as extending to sexual orientation and gender identity.
Stephan: It isn't getting much coverage but the Roman Catholic Church is being devastated by a new scandal. For years now the church has been degraded by the sexual dysfunction of its priesthood -- the French are just now bringing another cardinal to task for his youth sexual molestation, and millions of dollars continue to be paid out to molestation survivors. Now it is facing another huge scandal, the financial corruption of its cardinals. Here are the facts, and I confess if I were a member of that version of Christianity I would find it impossible to remain as such.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano (L), a former Vatican envoy to the United States, says he told Pope Francis of sex abuse allegations against prominent US cardinal Theodore McCarrick in 2013. Credit: Vincenzo Pinto / AFP
Libero Milone was hired to fix the Vatican’s 2015 banking problems but what he allegedly ended up facing was threats and a forced resignation by prickly and paranoid clerics. Now he’s suing for $9.25 million.
The Daily Beast reported that Milone, a former CEO of Deloitte in Italy, was hired to bring the Vatican bank back into “compliance with international norms on money laundering.” Instead, he and his assistant say they were the ones who were falsely investigated, stolen from, harassed and ultimately shoved out, all for doing the work the Pope asked.
“We did the right thing, we never spied, we have been honest, we did what we had to do, but unfortunately what we had to do was very embarrassing,” Milone told Vaticanisti reporters. “I didn’t know that I would find cardinals putting money in their pocket, […]
Stephan: Here is another little-recognized or discussed negative effect arising from climate change. When you add this to the mutation of viruses as a result of their changing environment it is easy to see why, as I have been telling you, Covid is just one of a series of pandemics humanity is going to face. This is why it is essential America change the illness profit system of healthcare to a system of universal birthright, single-payer health care with resource allocation based on fostering wellbeing not making profit.
The defrosted Arctic Credit: Bryan and Cherry Alexander / Science Source
The Arctic — That remote largely undisturbed, 5.5 million square miles of frozen terrain—is heating up fast. In fact, it’s warming nearly four times quicker than the rest of the world, with disastrous consequences for the region and its inhabitants. Many of these impacts you probably know from nature documentaries: ice caps melting, sea levels rising, and polar bears losing their homes. But good news! There is another knock-on effect to worry about: the warming landscape is rewiring viral dynamics, with the potential to unleash new pathogens.
An underappreciated consequence of climate change is how it will exacerbate the spread of infectious disease. As the world heats up, many species are expected to up sticks and meander many miles away from their typical habitat, bringing various pathogens along with them for the ride. This means that previously unacquainted viruses and hosts will meet for the first time, potentially leading to viral spillover—where a virus jumps from one reservoir host to a new one, like our old friend […]
Stephan: As I told you the day of the election I think the 2024 Presidential election is going to hinge on which party does best of climate change remediation, which is almost certainly the Democratic Party. Why do I say this? Because I think a new majority is emerging in the electorate: 18-34s, women, and people of color. Christofascist Whites -- MAGAt world -- is a shrinking minority and by 2024 will be smaller than it is in 2022.
John F. Kerry, the special presidential envoy for climate, speaks during a briefing at the State Department on Wednesday. Credit: Susan Walsh / AP
Climate change is unleashing “far-reaching and worsening” calamities in every region of the United States, and the economic and human toll will only increase unless humans move faster to slow the planet’s warming, according to a sprawling new federal report released Monday.
“The things Americans value most are at risk,” the National Climate Assessment authors, who represent a broad range of federal agencies, write in the draft report. “Many of the harmful impacts that people across the country are already experiencing will worsen as warming increases, and new risks will emerge.”
The congressionally mandated assessment, last issued under the Trump administration in 2018, comes as world leaders gather this week in Egypt for a U.N. Climate Change Conference, known as COP27, aimed at prodding nations to tackle the problem with more urgency.
The report’s authors detail how climate-fueled disasters are becoming more costly and more common, and how […]
