Stephan: Believe it or not, and I find it hard to believe, although I know it to be true, there are still millions of Americans who do not realize climate change is real. Or, if it is, that it is something people are causing. This willful ignorance is one of the reasons we as a country are not doing what needs to be done.
Temperature data showing rapid warming in the past few decades, the latest data going up to 2021. According to NASA, 2016 and 2020 are tied for the warmest year since 1880, continuing a long-term trend of rising global temperatures. The eight most recent years have been the warmest. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies
he scientific consensus that climate change is happening and that it is human-caused is strong. Scientific investigation of global warming began in the 19th century, and by the early 2000s, this research began to coalesce into confidence about the reality, causes, and general range of adverse effects of global warming. This conclusion was drawn from studying air and ocean temperatures, the atmosphere’s composition, satellite records, ice cores, modeling, and more.
In 1988 the United Nations and World Meteorological Organization founded the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, to provide regular updates on the scientific evidence on global warming. In a 2013 report, the IPCC concluded that scientific evidence of warming is “unequivocal” and that […]
Noah Y. Kim, Assistant News and Engagement Write - Mother Jones
Stephan: This is what the Republican christofascist movement to engineer and get control of our democracy has led to. This is not happening by chance, they are trying to do this. If you want to see democracy continue in the U.S., and you have a little time, volunteer to be an election worker. This is where, as they say, the rubber meets the road.
An election worker doing her job. Credit: Brynn Anderson/AP
As Donald Trump and his associates scrambled to overturn the 2020 election, they accused ordinary election workers throughout the United States of engaging in an unprecedented conspiracy to hand the presidency to Joe Biden. For many election administrators, workers, and officials, life became nightmarish. Pro-Trump media outlets (and in some cases Trump lawyers) doxxed them for doing their jobs, leading Trump supporters to inundate them and their family members with death and rape threats. Conspiracy theorists online called for their execution. One Georgia election worker told NPR that two strangers had attempted to force their way into her grandmother’s house—where she used to live—and make a “citizen’s arrest.
A new survey released by the Brennan Center for Justice, a liberal-leaning nonprofit that supports voting rights, suggests that the toxic environment has persisted past Biden’s inauguration and that it’s taking a toll.
One in five election workers reported that they’re “very” or “somewhat” unlikely to stay in their positions before 2024, citing politicians’ attacks on the election administration system […]
Stephan: This is what Trump and the Republican christofascists have done to the census. And you will remember that Trump stopped the census early. Who was not counted? Why, of course, it is Americans of color. This matters because it is upon the basis of the census that the allocation of the House membership is established. Day after day reports come out about how the christofascists are trying to rig democracy, keeping the forms, but destroying the substance. November is eight months away. You better be voting for the democrats, except for Sinema and Manchin, or you are going to be living in an anocracy not a democracy. Don't know the word anocracy? Look it up. You better learn it that is what we will become unless you become an activist advocate for democracy.
Poll workers help voters check in at the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center on the first day of early voting in New York, U.S., October 23, 2021. Credit: Reuters / Caitlin Ochs
The 2020 census undercounted the country’s population by 18.8 million people, the Census Bureau said on Thursday, acknowledging that the count had underrepresented Black, Latino and Indigenous residents.
At the same time, the census overcounted the number of white and Asian residents, the bureau said.
Robert L. Santos, the bureau’s director, said that despite the omissions, the results were consistent with recent censuses.
“This is notable, given the unprecedented challenges of 2020,” he said in a statement. “But the results also include some limitations — the 2020 census undercounted many of the same population groups we have historically undercounted, and it overcounted others.”
The U.S. population grew to 323.2 million, the bureau said on Thursday, a 5 percent increase from 2010.
“We remain proud of the job we accomplished in the face of immense challenges,” Mr. Santos said. “And we are ready to […]
Stephan: Have you noticed the uncanny resemblance of Vladimir Putin's manipulation of disinformation in Russia and propaganda operations in the U.S. such as Fox, Infowars, and Newsmax? This weaponization of disinformation has become a hallmark of the christofascists. Here is an excellent exegetic essay addressing the resemblance. As I have said here many times the problem with America is Americans.
Steve Bannon christofascist agitator and propagandist
Take a good look at the propaganda machine. The total control of information and messages from the airwaves to the internet, the fawning over the infallible leader—it’s all quite impressive.
I’m not talking about Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin. I’m talking about America’s far-right media, on display at two conferences in Orlando last week, and every night on cable TV.
But there’s a deeper connection as well. America’s right-wing partisans wish they had what Putin has: control of the information and messages that flow to the body politic. That’s not an accusation; it is their goal.
In the past few months, we’ve seen just how closely related the two are, Putin’s propaganda and our own. […]
Paul Krugman, Nobel Laureate Economist, Professor & Columnist - The New York Times
Stephan: As usual, Paul Krugman, puts things in their right context.
Valdimir Putin, darling of the American christofascists and the man Donald Trump called a “genius” when he invaded Ukraine Credit: Sasha Mordovets/Getty
Just a few weeks ago many influential figures on the U.S. right loved, just loved Vladimir Putin. In fact, some of them still can’t quit him. For example, Tucker Carlson, while he has grudgingly backed off from full-on Putin support, is still blaming America for the war and promoting Russian disinformation about U.S.-funded bioweapons labs.
For the most part, however, America’s Putin lovers are having a moment of truth. It’s not so much that Putin stands revealed as a tyrant willing to kill large numbers of innocent people — they knew or should have known that already. The problem is that the strongman they admired — whom Donald Trump praised as “savvy” and a “genius” just before he invaded Ukraine — is turning out to be remarkably weak. And that’s not an accident. Russia is facing disaster precisely because it is ruled […]
