To The Economist Limiting temperature rises to 2°C above pre-industrial norms would still leave atmospheric carbon dioxide at well over 450 parts per million (ppm). We evolved – and until less than a century ago, lived – on a 300ppm planet. We need to return the Earth’s climate to its pre-industrial state, without doing the …
Verkhoyansk, Russia The highest temperature ever seen in the Arctic circle – 38°C – has been recorded in a town in Siberia. Scientists had previously predicted that the Arctic circle would not experience temperatures like that until 2100. A small town with a population of 1,000, some 3,000 miles east of Moscow, Verkhoyansk is known …
Continue reading ‘Meanwhile, the world temperatures are rising…….’ »
Not long ago we fondly believed that one thing all nations would have in common was access to the same digital technology, that is (mainly) the internet. We were wrong. Ever since Beijing began building its Great Firewall in 1996, its censored version of the web has diverged from the one used by the rest …
The Black Lives Matter protest movement shows again why America needs to defund bloated and militarized police departments. The brutal videotaped killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020, has pushed Americans to the limit of what they will tolerate from police. While many of the problems can be laid at the feet …
Continue reading ‘Police violence Is enabled by massive spending’ »
Care England, Britain’s largest representative body for care homes, reckons that by the end of April 7,500 residents may have died of the virus. But only those who die in hospital after testing positive are included in the statistics. Elderly sufferers, unseen, disregarded, have gone uncounted. Average life expectancy in nursing homes is only two years anyway, …
Continue reading ‘A moral catastrophe: not just in the United States’ »
“The UK’s new start – let’s get going.” That’s the lame slogan unveiled this week to exhort businesses to prepare for Brexit proper in January. For UK consumers, that “sunny” new start means sky-high phone roaming charges, comprehensive travel insurance to cross the Channel, and the need to visit a vet four months in …
Bet you didn’t know! The Anti Defamation League (ADL), a self-proclaimed Jewish civil rights group, is the largest non-governmental trainer of police in this country, facilitating an exchange of the worst practices between U.S. police, ICE and FBI, and the Israeli police and military. This is kept rather quiet, for obvious reasons. The US government gives billions …
”In two blows to church-state separation, Justices Breyer and Kagan joined the conservative majority on the Supreme Court in granting even more preferential treatment to religious bodies. In one case, the court gave the green light to religious employers to apply the “ministerial exemption” to pretty much any employee; a teacher is a coach is …
The federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program, a massive, multi-billion loan program designed to keep small businesses afloat and retain jobs as part of the CARES Act stimulus package, got a lot of heat for its seemingly opaque application and approval process when it debuted back in March. Now, as reports emerge of multi-million dollar handouts …
The phrase “defund the police” quickly gained popularity, but the term isn’t a call to eliminate the police entirely – it is simply meant to draw attention to the outsized funds that police departments receive from state and local governments, often accounting for more than a third, and sometimes more than half, of an entire …
Letter to The Guardian Now let me see if I’ve got this right. Single people can only be in a bubble with one other household, but bigger households can meet with numerous other households and can stay overnight, but must stay two metres apart. And you can go into a pub as long as you …
The covid-19 pandemic’s impact on hunger around the world could be worse than the calamitous spike in food prices of 2007 and 2008, a leading food security expert warns. Unlike the scarcity of food during the crisis 13 years ago, the big issue this time is the economic downturn hitting the ability of millions of …
Continue reading ‘Covid-19 pandemic risks worst global food crisis in decades’ »
Yesterday I wrote about Tennessee and the attempt to use the corona virus crisis to shut down abortion services. Tennessee is not the only state determined to end abortion. Other states are using the ruse of declaring abortions “elective”, rather than medical, emergencies. Texas, Ohio, Iowa, Oklahoma, Alaska and Alabama have issued bans on abortion …
At around 12.30 p.m on Juneteenth, with the doors of the legislature locked to the public, Tennessee passed one of the country’s most restrictive abortion bans, one that would prohibit abortion before many patients even know they are pregnant. It includes medically unnecessary, anti-science restrictions, including some rooted in racism and misogyny. If Tennessee Governor …
Data on millions of US voters is being illegally traded on the dark web as the US is gearing up for the 2020 presidential election. The data could be used to attempt to influence voters. The dark web is a part of the internet not searchable using normal means. It is encrypted and visible only through …
Continue reading ‘US voting data being traded on the dark web’ »
“In 1997, the Department of Defense set up the 1033 program as part of the National Defense Authorization Act to provide thousands of domestic police forces with “surplus” equipment of almost every imaginable militarized kind. “Since then, thanks to your tax dollars, it has given away $7.4 billion worth of such equipment, some of it …
Democracy being sidelined in th US……. Recent events have exposed the inadequacy of the US democratic checks and balances created over200 years ago. What’s required is a second American revolution – and a fresh constitutional convention that demolishes anachronisms like the electoral college, makes democracy work for all, and refocuses on constructive global engagement. (Guardian …
Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, state and local governments are facing unprecedented revenue shortfalls, forcing them to make tough decisions about their 2020-21 budgets. Stunningly, however, police departments across the country are not facing any budget cuts, with many actually receiving budget increases. As we observe police departments deploy tanks, riot gear, tear gas, rubber …
Continue reading ‘Following on from yesterday……police budgets.’ »
The phrase “defund the police” has quickly gained popularity in the past two weeks, but as this Washington Post piece explains, the term isn’t nearly as radical as it may sound. It isn’t a call to eliminate the police entirely – it is simply meant to draw attention to the outsized funds that police departments …
Continue reading ‘Don’t defund the police; reduce what you spend on them!’ »
It is common knowledge that the Education Department is run by a multi-millionaire devotee of scrapping everything to do with government if she has the power to do it. This includes privatizing the public school system, and de facto making education even more of a distant prospect than ever for minorities. By the way, she …
Continue reading ‘Dismantling the nation’s publicly funded schools.’ »
Below are some of the ideas that have been put forward to deal with gun violence: Background checks There are several major bipartisan bills drawing renewed attention in the Senate at the moment, aiming to expand background checks for gun sales. The Fix NICS Act corrects failures in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, provides …
”Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.” So exclaimed Beto O’Rourke during the recent Democratic primary debate, endorsing the idea of mandatory buy-backs of assault weapons. It has become “the newest purity test” for Democratic candidates, but have they thought about the consequences of enforcing such a policy? “There could be as …
Continue reading ‘Military-style guns – why do they need them?’ »
The Democrat governor of New York has a plan for a “Trump-proof” reopening of the Big Apple. Andrew Cuomo has apparently hired “high-powered consultants” who will scientifically analyse the “key data points” to work out how to free up the region’s economy. And who are these brilliant consultants? McKinsey & Company, of course – a …
Continue reading ‘You should know better than this, Governor’ »
The scientific evidence that has underpinned No 10’s response to Covid-19 will not be made public until the pandemic ends, the government chief science adviser has told MPs. Sir Patrick Vallance said that the minutes of meetings of the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) — the government’s most senior team of expert advisers — …
The Observer (editorial) The World Economic Forum’s annual Davos shindig “became a laughing stock a long time ago”, says The Observer newspaper. All those denunciations of global inequality by “corporate captains clinking champagne glasses” in the snow at shareholders’ expense have long seemed ridiculous. But the penny seems finally to be dropping that the game …
