MONA ZHANG, PAUL DEMKO and NATALIE FERTIG, - Politico
Stephan:
I am watching the legalization of Marijuana state by state as part of the Great Schism Trend. Here’s where it stands.
Weed legalization advocates are running out of friendly territory.
The movement has swept the country over the last decade: Nearly half of Americans now live in a state where anyone at least 21 years old can legally possess and purchase marijuana.
Legal weed sales are slated to top $35 billion this year — and are expected to surpass $70 billion by 2030, according to New Frontier Data.
Since December, five new recreational markets have launched, including New York, Missouri and Maryland, where sales began on Saturday. Those states alone added 37 million people to the legal weed column.
But that’s left plenty of holdouts — overwhelmingly in more conservative territory, particularly in the deep South. And there are increasing signs of a legalization backlash in deep red America: Voters in four states — Arkansas, Oklahoma, North Dakota and South Dakota — have rejected adult-use referendums in the last nine months. Every county in Oklahoma voted against a March referendum that would have legalized possession and sales for adults.
I have been telling you for years now to get your water tested every year. America’s water system like much of the rest of the country’s infrastructure, from the rail system, to bridges to highways is falling apart. It was built decades ago when fostering wellbeing was still a major focus of government, and has been poorly maintained in the last several decades. The quality of drinking, cooking, and bathing water in the United States can no longer be taken for granted, and your water may be harming the health of you and your family. Get it tested.
Equipment used to test for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known collectively as PFAS, in drinking water is seen at Trident Laboratories in Holland, Mich., June 18, 2018. Drinking water from nearly half of U.S. faucets likely contains “forever chemicals” linked to kidney cancer and other health problems, according to a government study released Wednesday, July 5, 2023. Credit: Cory Morse/The Grand Rapids Press / AP
TRAVERSE CITY, MICHIGAN — Drinking water from nearly half of U.S. faucets likely contains “forever chemicals” that may cause cancer and other health problems, according to a government study released Wednesday.
The synthetic compounds known collectively as PFAS are contaminating drinking water to varying extents in large cities and small towns — and in private wells and public systems, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
Researchers described the study as the first nationwide effort to test for PFAS in tap water from private sources in addition to regulated ones. It builds on previous scientific findings that the chemicals are widespread, showing up in consumer products as diverse as nonstick pans, food packaging and […]
A remarkable spate of historic heat is hitting the planet, raising alarm over looming extreme weather dangers — and an increasing likelihood that this year will be Earth’s warmest on record.
New precedents have been set in recent weeks and months, surprising some scientists with their swift evolution: historically warm oceans, with North Atlantic temperatures already nearing their typical annual peak; unparalleledlow sea ice levels around Antarctica, where global warming impacts had, until now, been slower to appear; and the planet experiencing its warmest June ever charted, according to new data.
“We have never seen anything like this before,” said Carlo Buontempo, director of Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. He said any number of charts and graphs on Earth’s climate are showing, quite literally, that “we are in uncharted territory.”
It is no shock that global warming is accelerating — scientists were anticipating that that would come with the onset of El Niño, the
America’s tax structure is so skewed to benefit the rich that it has created two Americas that have very little in common, the uber-rich and everyone else. The uber-rich travel differently, live differently, eat differently, get different healthcare. They make more per minute than many Americans make in their entire lifetime. These two worlds are so different that the majority cannot really comprehend what the world of the uber-rich is like. The uber-rich similarly can not really comprehend what the world of a typical middle class or poor American family is like. Medical bankruptcy, college debt, mortgage default, have no reality to the uber-rich, just as the majority of Americans cannot imagine flying to Paris for a dinner or London for a play.
Elon Musk Credit: Angela Weiss / AFP
The 500 richest people on the planet collectively added $852 billion to their fortunes in the first half of 2023 due in large part to a record-breaking rally in the U.S. stock market.
According to a Bloomberg analysis of its Billionaires Index, the world’s richest people added an average of $14 million per day to their wealth over the past six months, “the best half-year for billionaires since the back half of 2020, when the economy rebounded from a Covid-induced slump.”
Tesla CEO and Twitter owner Elon Musk saw the largest net worth boost of any global billionaire, adding nearly $97 billion in the first half of the year. Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta, saw his wealth grow by close to $59 billion, the second-largest gain of any billionaire.
“They can afford to pay their fair share in taxes,” Americans for Tax Fairness said Wednesday in response to the Bloomberg analysis.
In the U.S., capital gains are only taxed when they’ve been realized, such […]
This very interesting article, and the study upon which it is based, help explain why a large percentage of fundamentalist Christians are so easily manipulated by conspiracy spewing fascists like criminal Trump and have aligned themselves with Christian Nationalism.
Bible-believing Christians and Christian nationalists are more likely than the general population to embrace conspiracy theories, according to a new study that asked individuals their beliefs on eight conspiracy theories, including ones related to 9/11 and mass shootings.
The study found that Christians who consider themselves “biblical literalists” and believers who hold to Christian nationalism are “more likely” than the general population to believe conspiracy theories. The study defined Christian nationalism as a belief that places “Christianity at the center of the American story.”
“We find that both Christian nationalism and biblical literalism have an impact on an individual’s likelihood of adopting generalized conspiracy thinking,” the authors wrote. “As people express both higher levels of Christian nationalism and higher levels of biblical literalism, they are more likely to express conspiracy thinking.”
The study was based on the 2019 Chapman University Survey of American Fears, which asked individuals their beliefs about seven conspiracy theories and one that was fictional. Specifically, it asked Americans how strongly they agree or disagree that the government is concealing what it […]
