Jane Arraf, Baghdad Bureau Chief - The New York Times
Stephan: Putin is setting up Russia for disaster. First, Russia's economy depends on the sale of gas and oil. His war on Ukraine is pushing governments around the world to speed up the transition out of the carbon era. At the same time the young, the bright, the well-educated can't get out of the country fast enough, as this report describes. Combine this with the complete suppression of fact-based news, and the imposition of a self-imposed new iron curtain and it leaves Russia a pariah state with a failing economy. This just as climate change is becoming a major factor influencing the future.
What this should tell everyone is that fascism is a failed system of governance, always inferior to democracy. Whether it is Trump and the MAGAt world he created, or Putin and what he is doing to Russia, fascism never ends well for ordinary people, or for the fascist leaders.
The Lumen cafe in Yerevan, Armenia, has become one of the hangouts for young Russian professionals who left their country after Russia invaded Ukraine. Credit: Daro Sulakauri/The New York Times
YEREVAN, ARMENIA — At the Lumen cafe in the Armenian capital, Russians arrive as soon as the doors open, ordering specialty coffees, opening up their sleek Apple laptops and trying to navigate a dwindling array of options for starting their lives over.
The background music and the sunlit interior are calming counterpoints to the frantic departures from their country, where they left behind parents, pets and the sense of home that all but vanished when Russia invaded Ukraine last month.
“This war was something I thought could never happen,” said Polina Loseva, 29, a web designer from Moscow working with a private Russian I.T. company that she did not want to name. “When it started, I felt that now, everything is possible. Already they are putting people in jail for some harmless words on Facebook. It was safer to leave.”
Stephan: Donald Trump is now openly fascist, and following Hitler's playbook to come back into power. He and the Republicans he leads are openly and actively trying to rig the U.S. electoral system to cheat their way into power. It is a measure of how politically ignorant Americans are that currently he is the most likely Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential election.
Former President and open fascist Donald Trump Credit:Joe Raedle/Getty
Former President Donald Trump has officially endorsed a plan, created by a man who has self-identified with the Oath Keeper militia, that aims to have Trump supporters consolidate control of the Republican Party.
The plan, known as the “precinct strategy,” has been repeatedly promoted on Steve Bannon’s popular podcast. As ProPublica detailed last year, it has already inspired thousands of people to fill positions at the lowest rung of the party ladder. Though these positions are low-profile and often vacant, they hold critical powers: They help elect higher-ranking party officers, influence which candidates appear on the ballot, turn out voters on Election Day and even staff the polling precincts where people vote and the election boards that certify the results.
“Just heard about an incredible effort underway that will strengthen the Republican Party,” Trump said Sunday in a statement emailed to his supporters. “If members of our Great movement start getting involved (that means YOU becoming a precinct committeeman for your voting precinct), we can take back our […]
Jonathan O'Connell and Anu Narayanswamy , Reporters - The Washington Post
Stephan: The Citizens United Supreme Court decision legalized bribery of public officials and has transformed American government. Today corporations and corporate interest groups rent congress members with low morals and ethical standards to see that laws are passed that favor the renter's interests. We call it lobbying and hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each year in such efforts. All of this, of course, is destructive of a well-functioning democracy, and supportive of fascism.
President Biden’s domestic agenda has taken a back seat to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but it drew unprecedented attention from Washington lobbyists and special interest groups last year.
The lobbying industry had a record year in 2021, taking in $3.7 billion in revenue as companies, associations and other organizations pressed Congress and the Biden administration over trillions of dollars in new pandemic spending and rules affecting health care, travel, tourism and other industries.
The revenue figures, compiled in recent weeks from government records by OpenSecrets, show that lobbying spending began steadily growing in 2017, President Donald Trump’s first year in office, before mostly flattening in 2020 as the pandemic began. The jump in 2021, when lobbying spending was about 6 percent higher than 2020, came as the government’s pandemic interventions and record expenditure took center stage, including an additional $1.9 trillion in pandemic relief and a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package.
The surge came as companies and associations aimed to roll back regulations on their industries — many […]
Stephan: The increase in energy costs which we are all noticing I think are going to have the unintended consequence of stimulating the transition out of the carbon era. So short term bad news, but long term good news.
A Consolidated Edison power plant in New York City. Credit: Ingus Kruklitis / iStock / Getty
If you are staring at your energy bill this winter and wondering why it is so high, you’re not alone.
The cost of natural gas went up 24 percent in February compared to the year before and electricity went up by nine percent, The Guardian reported. This means that customers are seeing some of their highest electricity bills in years, The Wall Street Journal reported.
“[Prices are] some of the highest energy prices and electricity prices we’ve seen in recent memory, if not ever, depending on the geography,” Bank of America analyst Julien Dumoulin-Smith told NBC News last month. “That is hitting consumers right now.”
A large part of the price surge has to do with natural gas, as natural gas power plants supply about 40 percent of U.S. power. Gas is in a crunch for a variety of reasons, The Guardian explained. Prices initially fell during 2020 because of lower demand due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, prices began to climb again in 2021 as demand […]
Stephan: No one seems to be talking about it much anymore but on average 1,000 people a day are dying of Covid, overwhelmingly the unvaccinated. Here are the CDC statistics as of 7 March 2022, the latest report I can find:
"The CDC reports demographic characteristics, including race/ethnicity, of people receiving COVID-19 vaccinations at the national level, including both people who have received one dose and people who have been recently vaccinated (initiated within the last 14 days). As of March 7, 2022, CDC reported that race/ethnicity was known for 74% of people who had received at least one dose of the vaccine. White people make up a smaller share of people who have received at least one dose (55%) and people who have recently received a vaccination (31%) compared to their share of the total population (61%). Black people make up 10% of people who have received at least one dose of the vaccine compared to 12% of the total population; their share of people who have received a vaccination in the last fourteen days is higher at 16%. Hispanic people make up a larger share of vaccinated people (21%) and people who recently received a vaccination (38%) compared to their share of the total population (17%). The share of vaccinated people who are Asian is similar to their share of the total population (7%, and 6%, respectively), while they make up a slightly higher share (8%) of people initiating vaccination in the last 14 days."
Now we also have a properly done research protocol of Ivermectin, the favorite drug of MAGAt world and the unvaccinated. And the outcome? It is of no use whatever treating Covid. I don't expect that to have any effect on the choices of the unvaccinated. You just can't cure stupidity with facts.
Ivermectin capsules Credit: Rolex Dela Pena / Shutterstock
Researchers testing repurposed drugs against Covid-19 found that ivermectin didn’t reduce hospital admissions, in the largest trial yet of the effect of the antiparasitic on the disease driving the pandemic.
Ivermectin has received a lot of attention as a potential treatment for Covid-19 including from celebrities such as podcast host Joe Rogan. Most evidence has shown it to be ineffective against Covid-19 or has relied on data of poor quality, infectious-disease researchers said. Public-health authorities and researchers have for months said the drug hasn’t shown any benefit in treating the disease. Taking large doses of the drug is dangerous, the Food and Drug Administration has said.
The latest trial, of nearly 1,400 Covid-19 patients at risk of severe disease, is the largest to show that those who received ivermectin as a treatment didn’t fare better than those who received a placebo.
“There was no indication that ivermectin is clinically useful,” said Edward Mills, one of the study’s lead researchers and a professor of […]
