I continue to read Republican websites and publications and what notably stands out for me is the continued climate denialism. Climate change is not a political argument, it is a scientific reality, and whether you believe in it or not it is still happening and is going to change your life. Here is a fact-based overview.
Two people stand in a small patch of road amid floodwaters in Pajaro, California on March 11, 2023. Credit: Joshn Edelson / AFP / Getty
Earlier this week, the U.S. Global Change Research Program released the United States’ Fifth National Climate Assessment, an overview of the effects climate change is having on the country.
The main message of the assessment is clear: Every part of the country will experience weather extremes due to climate change.
“There is not a part of the U.S. that gets a pass on climate impacts,” a Biden administration official said, as Inside Climate News reported.
The assessment is a federal report mandated by Congress that provides a comprehensive overview of climate change effects across the U.S.
All over the country, changes in climate are causing more intense drought, heat waves, wildfires, floods and hurricanes, which are taking an increasing toll on people’s mental health.
Each region of the country will experience its own climate-related disasters. For example, the Northeast has some of the most extreme rainfall and flooding, the Biden administration […]
Jonathan Watts, Ellen Wishart, Rich Cousins, Alessia Amitrano and Pip Burkett, Reporters - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan:
This the latest report on the grotesque wealth inequality currently shaping the world, it is the worst in over a century. In the United States as of 2023, there are a 735 billionaires and 22 million millionaires. In contrast, the average median income in the U.S. is $67,521, but in some Southern Red states it is only $50,000. That means there are people who make more in an hour than most Americans make in a year. And that wealth inequality has direct implications on climate change. To quote this report, “Today, we reveal the main finding of Oxfam’s report: that the richest 1% of the population produced as much carbon pollution in one year as the 5 billion people who make up the poorest two-thirds (combined).” This is becoming an enormous issue that is shaping the cultures of all the nations in the world.
The climate chasm between the world’s carbon-guzzling rich and the heat-vulnerable poor forms a symbolic shape when plotted on a graph. Climate-heating greenhouse gas emissions are so heavily concentrated among a rich minority that the image resembles one of those old-fashioned broad-bowled, saucer-shaped glasses beloved of the gilded age: a champagne coupe.
At the top is the wide, flat, very shallow bowl of the richest 10% of humanity, whose carbon appetite – through personal consumption, investment portfolios, and share of government subsidies and infrastructure benefits – accounts for about 50% of all emissions.
Just below is the epicure, that narrowing joint of the glass where the dregs collect. This is made up of the middle 40%, whose carbon habit is roughly proportionate to its number but still double the average carbon budget that everyone would need to stick to if the world is to have any chance of avoiding more dangerous levels of climate breakdown.
Going further down is the long, slim, fragile stem comprising the remaining 50% of the world’s population, whose carbon use tapers away along with incomes. At the […]
Joseph Boyle and Peter Murphy, Staff Writers - Barron's / Agence France-Presse (France)
Stephan:
Part of the wealth inequality crisis that plagues the world is that corporate interests, which control governments through various kinds of bribery, are increasingly just disregarding fines they incur from breaking the law. Here is an example of what I mean.
Meta Logo
Rarely a month goes by without big tech companies getting fined for price fixing, squashing competitors or misusing data, but it can take years before they pay a penny.
Ireland’s data regulator confirmed to AFP that Meta has not paid any of the two billion euros ($2.2 billion) in fines issued since last September. TikTok also owes hundreds of millions.
Amazon is still appealing against a 746 million euro fine from 2021, Luxembourg’s data regulator told AFP.
Google is still disputing EU fines worth more than eight billion euros for abusing its market position between 2017 and 2019.
Apple has fought for years against a French antitrust fine of 1.1 billion euros and an order to pay 13 billion euros of tax to Ireland.
The problem is constant, global and involves tech companies of all sizes, not just the big four.
This week Australia confirmed that X (formerly Twitter) had not paid a fine imposed for failing to outline its plans to stamp out content depicting child sexual abuse — though X […]
David Reich, Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities - Common Dreams
Stephan:
Here is an excellent assessment of what is happening with Appropriation Bills in Congress and the devastation the Republicans seek to impose on middle class and poor families. It is horrible, and if you vote Republican be prepared to have your life seriously degraded.
House Appropriations chairwoman Kay Granger (R-Texas) leaves a meeting of committee chairs in then-Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy’s office on Tuesday, April 25, 2023. Credit Bill Clark / CQ-Roll Call / Getty
The fiscal year 2024 appropriations bills approved by the House Appropriations Committee make major cuts in a wide range of domestic priorities. Among those hardest hit are programs crucial to the well-being of families with low incomes and their children, to public health, to job training and protection of workers’ rights, to a clean environment, and to fair administration of tax laws. The House bills are highly partisan and deviate sharply from the levels set in the bipartisan agreement to raise the federal debt limit in May.
In contrast, the Senate-passed appropriations bills are lean but include substantially fewer cuts and rescissions (which take back already enacted funding), are largely consistent with agreed-on levels, and have strong bipartisan support. They offer a better path toward funding that meets national needs, although there are some programmatic areas where the Senate levels are […]
Michael Tomasky, in my opinion, has made the correct assessment of Trump. My only difference with Tomasky is that he does not address the deeper issue and that is the large percentage of Americans who are racist, male dominant, christofascists. How else to explain that in spite of his actions, his blatant criminality, and his words, Trump is still the leader of the Republican Party by a high percentage. We have become an ugly nasty country because of these people which is why, I think, we are seeing so much emigration, as other Americans, particularly young Americans, are relocating to other countries.
Trump spoke at a rally in Claremont, New Hampshire, on Saturday, November 11. Credit:Joseph Prezioso / AFP/ Getty
We’ve all often wondered whether Donald Trump understands the historical import of what comes out of his mouth. He’s so ill-informed, so proudly ignorant, that it’s easy to think that when he hurls a historical insult, he just doesn’t know.
I feel pretty safe in saying that we can now stop giving him the benefit of that particular doubt. His use—twice; once on social media and then repeated in a speech—of the word “vermin” to describe his political enemies cannot be an accident. That’s an unusual word choice. It’s not a smear that one just grabs out of the air. And it appears in history chiefly in one context, and one context only.
Before we get to that, let’s just record what he wrote and said. On Saturday at 10:25 a.m., he posted on Truth Social: “In honor of our great Veterans on Veteran’s Day, we […]
