Media Scorn Protestors for Distrust of Corporate Reporters

Stephan: 

This is an interesting insight into the recent college protest movements arising from the Israeli genocide against the Palestinians. It is a rather sad commentary on what is happening in corporate media.

Pro-Palestinian protesters chant at University of Chicago police while being kept from the university’s quad as the student encampment is dismantled Tuesday, May 7, 2024, in Chicago. Credit: Charles Rex Arbogast/ AP

An emerging complaint the corporate media have against the nationwide—and now international—peace encampments is that many student protesters won’t speak to them. The problem, pundits and reporters say, is that these encampments have designated media spokespeople, and other protesters often keep their mouths shut to the press.

Conservative pundit Peggy Noonan (Wall Street Journal, 5/2/24) said of her trip to the Columbia University encampment:

I was at Columbia hours before the police came in and liberated Hamilton Hall from its occupiers. Unlike protesters of the past, who were usually eager to share with others what they thought and why, these demonstrators would generally not speak or make eye contact with members of the press, or, as they say, “corporate media.”

I was on a bench taking notes as a group of young women, all in sunglasses, masks […]

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Divided states of America: From Oregon to Louisiana, campaigns for secession are taking place at local and state levels – and some are succeeding

Stephan: 

The Great Schism Trend is moving into a new phase. I have reported on this before but, as we move towards the election, it is now gathering momentum. Somewhere from 20 to 30% of the population of each state favors some measure of secession. Notice this involves both political and racial issues. Every week it becomes clearer how we are becoming two countries in a single nation. MAGAt world wants this, seeks this.

In an increasingly divided United States of America, a radical solution to resolve fraught political differences is gaining momentum: secession.

Be it the campaign for Texas to quit the US and form its own republic or efforts by red counties in Oregon to join Idaho, movements are gaining support at both local and state levels.

In nearly every case, the campaigns have been formed in conservative areas by voters eager to break away from the progressive leaders who govern them.

Some are a pipe dream. Texas is unlikely to depart the union any time soon, despite the optimism of those leading its ‘Texit’ independence campaign.

But several localized efforts have succeeded – or gained enough support to be taken seriously.

DailyMail.com recently reported that voters in thirteen counties of eastern Oregon now support secession from the state to join Idaho by redrawing state lines.

More than 2,000 miles away in Louisiana, the new city of St George was recently incorporated after wealthy residents controversially voted to separate from Baton Rouge over claims of crime issues and a poor education system.

Here, DailyMail.com explains some of the most prominent and longstanding secession […]

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‘Kitty cat’ storms hitting US heartland are growing threat to home insurance

Stephan: 

Another report on the growing insurance crisis in the United States. This crisis is spreading all over the country has climate change becomes an ever larger factor in local weather. As a country, we need a new nationwide insurance structure, but with our present dysfunctional Congress, I don’t see how it is going to happen.

Damage the day after a deadly tornado struck Greenfield, Iowa, on 22 May 2024. Credit: Scott Morgan / Reuters

The rising cost of homeowner’s insurance is now one of the most prominent symptoms of the climate crisis in the US. Major carriers such as State Farm and Allstate have pulled back from offering fire insurance in California, dropping thousands of homeowners from their books, and dozens of small insurance companies have collapsed or fled from Florida and Louisiana following recent large hurricanes.

The problem is fast becoming a crisis that stretches far beyond the nation’s coastal states. That’s owing to another, less-talked-about disaster that has wreaked havoc on states in the midwest and the Great Plains, causing billions of dollars in damage. In response, insurers have raised premiums higher than ever and dropped customers even in inland states such as Iowa.

These so-called “severe-convective storms” are large and powerful thunderstorms that form and disappear within a few hours or days, often spinning off […]

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Biden has no plan to touch the Alito controversy, even with a 10-foot pole

Stephan: 

I think Biden is making another mistake; he seems to be trapped in a Washington political structure that no longer exists. We a House that is controlled by a cult, where they even dress like their master, and a Supreme Court with a majority cabal at a level of corruption never before seen. In my opinion, Biden needs to speak out in both instances and stand for democracy and honorable ethics. The Democrats need to define themselves as defenders of democracy and fairness, and clearly distinguish themselves from the MAGAts. The voter polls make it explicit this is not happening.

Associate Justice Alito questions DOJ use of “obstruction” in January 6th cases. Credit: Politico

Top Democrats have no plans to investigate reports that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito flew an upside-down American flag outside his home after the 2020 election. And Joe Biden has no desire to even talk about it.

Amid growing demands from the base of the party to call out the actions of several conservative justices and embrace reforms of the court, both the president and the White House have stayed mum.

Biden has publicly warned that Republicans are undermining democratic norms and threatening its institutions. But he is reluctant to extend that argument to the judicial branch, aides say, fearful it could be cast as politically motivated and undermine his broader effort to portray himself as a champion for strengthening democratic institutions. They believe it’s crucial to maintain a clear contrast with Donald Trump, who has readily attacked an independent judiciary for political gain.

“The central pushback should come from the legislative branch, and not the executive branch,” said Anthony Coley, a former senior official in the Biden Justice Department, arguing that Congress has wide-ranging investigatory authority. “That’s the right place where we should be seeing […]

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DeSantis says he’s ‘restoring sanity’ by erasing climate change from Florida laws

Stephan: 

Ron DeSantis has an ego so large that he seems to think he can banish or ignore climate change. Either way he is deliberately and consciously failing to prepare the people of his state for what is coming, and Florida is going to become one of the most severely impacted of all the states

MAGAt Republican Ron DeSantis Credit: Paul Hennessy / SOPA Images / LightRocket / Getty

South Florida suffered through brutal heat and humidity this week when the heat index (the “feels like” temperature) in Key West reached 115 degrees F — matching the record for any time of year. With rising temperatures, flooding on sunny days, and toxic algae blooms, Floridians recognize that something’s amiss. Ninety percent of residents accept that climate change is happening, according to a new survey from Florida Atlantic University, and two-thirds want their state government to do more to address the problem. 

But Governor Ron DeSantis, the former Republican presidential hopeful, is moving in the opposite direction. On Wednesday, as heat records fell, he signed legislation deleting most references to the words “climate change” from the state’s laws and removing emissions reductions as a priority for energy policy. It also bans the construction of offshore wind turbines off Florida’s coasts, weakens regulations on natural gas pipelines, and prevents cities […]

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