Stephan: What I see no one connecting is the effect climate change is going to have on the Great Schism Trend. Large parts of Red states particularly are going to be devastated by climate change, and it is the Red states that are not making the necessary preparations they will need to cope with what is going to happen to them -- is already happening. Look at Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arizona, just what is happening there now. Imagine it ten times worse. How are the MAGAts going to deal with any of this?
Water levels are at a historic low at Lake Powell on April 5, 2022 in Page, Arizona. (RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
Already, there are some omens pointing to the Southwest’s harsh future: in particular, Lake Powell, the second largest artificial reservoir in the United States, at least, in terms of its maximum water capacity. Connected to the Colorado River, Lake Powell provides water and electricity (through hydroelectric power) to 4 […]
Bernie Sanders, Democratic Senator from Vermont - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that I was a Washington state delegate for Bernie Sanders. In my view, he has a very clear and accurate take on American society. In this short piece he lays out what he sees as the central problem of our society. He understand that we must make wellbeing our first priority if we are to have a truly functional society; it is a view with which I am in full agreement. The wealth inequality in the U.S. is obscene and dangerous.
‘While the working class falls further behind, multibillionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson are off taking joyrides on rocket ships to outer space, buying $500m super-yachts and living in mansions with 25 bathrooms.’ Credit: Pablo Martínez Monsiváis / AP
Let’s be clear. The most important economic and political issues facing this country are the extraordinary levels of income and wealth inequality, the rapidly growing concentration of ownership, the long-term decline of the American middle class and the evolution of this country into oligarchy.
We know how important these issues are because our ruling class works overtime to prevent them from being seriously discussed. They are barely mentioned in the halls of Congress, where most members are dependent on the campaign contributions of the wealthy and their Super Pacs. They are not much discussed in the corporate media, in which a handful of conglomerates determine what we see, hear and discuss.
So what’s going on?
We now have more income and wealth inequality than at any time in the last hundred years. In the year 2022, three […]
Stephan: I am increasingly concerned that American students score very poorly on various education assessments. This has been going on for many years, but the Covid pandemic has greatly exacerbated this problem, as this article describes. Poorly educated children tend to drop out or, even if they graduate highschool they are less likely to go to college or, again, even if they do to graduate. We also know that the lower one's education level the more likely a person can be made fearful and be easily manipulated, which results in voting Republican. That is one of the reasons the MAGAt Republicans are trying to dismantle public education in the United States. This also leads to other failures and complications. China, for instance, now significantly surpasses the U.S. in technological innovation as measured by the number of patents each country obtains each year.
The declines in the national test scores spanned almost all races and income levels and were markedly worse for the lowest-performing students. Credit: Jim Wilson / The New York Times
National test results released on Thursday showed in stark terms the pandemic’s devastating effects on American schoolchildren, with the performance of 9-year-olds in math and reading dropping to the levels from two decades ago.
This year, for the first time since the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests began tracking student achievement in the 1970s, 9-year-oldslost ground in math, and scores in reading fell by the largest margin in more than 30 years.
The declines spanned almost all races and income levels and were markedly worse for the lowest-performing students. While top performers in the 90th percentile showed a modest drop — three points in math — students in the bottom 10th percentile dropped by 12 points in math, four times the impact.
“I was taken aback by the scope and the magnitude of the decline,” said Peggy G. Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, the […]
Jake Johnson, Staff Writer - Raw Story / Common Dreams
Stephan: The MAGAt Republicans say their opposition to the student loan debt relief Biden's executive action is about money. It is not. This is all about control and power, protecting the interests of the corporations and banks that made the loans, and stopping Democrats from getting an advantage in November's election. The question is whether American voters are so dim they fall for this.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference CPAC held at the Hilton Anatole on July 11, 2021, in Dallas, Texas. Credt: Brandon Bell/Getty / North America / TNS
Republican attorneys general and corporate advocacy groups are exploring ways to sue the Biden administration over its newly announced plan to cancel $10,000 in federal student loan debt for most borrowers, hoping the conservative-packed U.S. judiciary will strike down the executive action and deny badly needed relief to around 40 million people.
“Conservative jurists, and ultimately the justices themselves, will be eager to shred the new program.”
Shortly after President Joe Biden announced his debt forgiveness plan, the Job Creators Network—a dark money organization representing business groups and executives—declared that it is “weighing its legal options to block President Biden’s illegal student loan bailout,” calling the move “executive overreach.”
Americans for Prosperity, an organization founded by billionaire Charles Koch and his late brother David, also expressed outrage at the Biden administration’s plan, wailing that “this shameless handout will only push education […]
Stephan: I see this development in Connecticut, a well-functioning Blue state as excellent good news. Finally, a state is getting serious about climate change and educating its students about what is happening and what can be done about it. Meanwhile, in many Red states, the state government doesn't even acknowledge that climate change exists or, if it does, that it is caused by human activity. This difference in education, I think, is going to become a big part of the Great Schism Trend.
Connecticut public school students studying climate change Credit: Yale Climate Connections
This year, Connecticut public schools will be required to teach students about human-caused climate change. It will be taught as part of their regular science curriculum.
“And it does not get to be a victim of a budget cut or a conservative local board of ed that might think climate change is a hoax, because I’ve certainly heard that,” says state representative Christine Palm.
Palm is vice chair of the environment committee of the Connecticut General Assembly. She worked for years to pass legislation to require the curriculum change.
She says she was motivated in part by the urgency that many young people feel about solving the climate crisis.
So to pass this legislation Palm worked with youth-led environmental advocacy groups. And students testified before lawmakers.
“And the pushback I got from some of the colleagues at the General Assembly was, ‘Well, you’re scaring the kids,’” she says. “I am telling you, they are already terrified. Climate despair is very, very real.”
