At America’s court of last resort, a handful of lawyers now dominates the docket

Stephan:  One of the trends that concerns me the most is the corruption of the American judiciary. As empires decay, whether Roman, Burmese, or American one of the processes the failing empire goes through is that their permanent civil service structure becomes increasingly a shop closed to all but a few with special access. This article is lengthy but it spells out as I have seen it no where else what is happening to the American Supreme Court. It is not a reassuring picture.
PILLARS OF JUSTICE: Although the U.S. Supreme Court is the most diverse it has ever been – three of the nine justices are women and two are minorities – the elite bar that comes before it is strikingly homogeneous: Of the 66 top lawyers, 63 are white. Only eight are women.  Credit: REUTERS/Molly Riley

PILLARS OF JUSTICE: Although the U.S. Supreme Court is the most diverse it has ever been – three of the nine justices are women and two are minorities – the elite bar that comes before it is strikingly homogeneous: Of the 66 top lawyers, 63 are white. Only eight are women.
Credit: REUTERS/Molly Riley

Part 1: A cadre of well-connected attorneys has honed the art of getting the Supreme Court to take up cases – and business is capitalizing on their expertise

WASHINGTON – The marble façade of the U.S. Supreme Court building proclaims a high ideal: “Equal Justice Under Law.”

But inside, an elite cadre of lawyers has emerged […]

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Swedish City Of Södertälje Launching Wireless Hybrid Bus Service In 2016

Stephan:  Here is a happy harbinger of things to come. The transition away from carbon fuels is picking up momentum in many quarters and applications. All good news. The question is: As America falls further and further behind other developed nations in terms of infrastructure how long will it take for such systems to be installed here?
Swedish hybrid bus system

Swedish hybrid bus system

The Swedish city of Södertälje will be launching a pilot project in 2016 utilizing a Scania hybrid-electric bus that can be wirelessly recharged in only ~7 minutes, based on a recent press release.

Needless to say, if the technology proves successful, the buses could help cities cut down significantly on their fuel use and costs (with regard to municipal transportation systems, at least).

The potential for reducing carbon emissions is also worth considering — something the Scandinavian countries often seem to take into consideration during policy-making decisions.

“To build an infrastructure and convert bus fleets to vehicles that run exclusively on electricity will provide many advantages for a city,” stated Håkan Sundelin, a research and development coordinator for Scania, while commenting on the project. “With a fleet of 2,000 buses, the city can save up to 50 million litres of fuel each year. This means the fuel costs decrease by up to 90%.”

A 90% cut in fuel use is nothing to sneeze at. That’s real savings there.

GAS2 provides more:

When the project launches, […]

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Tidings of Comfort

Stephan:  Once again, Paul Krugman gets it right.
Paul Krugman Credit: Twitter.com

Paul Krugman
Credit: Twitter.com

Maybe I’m just projecting, but Christmas seemed unusually subdued this year. The malls seemed less crowded than usual, the people glummer. There was even less Muzak in the air. And, in a way, that’s not surprising: All year Americans have been bombarded with dire news reports portraying a world out of control and a clueless government with no idea what to do.

Yet if you look back at what actually happened over the past year, you see something completely different. Amid all the derision, a number of major government policies worked just fine — and the biggest successes involved the most derided policies. You’ll never hear this on Fox News, but 2014 was a year in which the federal government, in particular, showed that it can do some important things very well if it wants to.

Start with Ebola, a subject that has vanished from the headlines so fast it’s hard to remember how pervasive the panic was just a few weeks ago. Judging from […]

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Golf Is Struggling In America

Stephan:  I get asked frequently how I pick up trends. This story is an example of what I look for. A shift in the choices people make is a shift in the collective gestalt, an essential feature in a trend. Stories like this are why I think American society is restructuring as a result of growing income inequity. And I don't think it is going to enhance wellness.
Credit: Business Insider

Credit: Business Insider

On a recent Saturday Matt Owens, the owner of Trenton Street Golf Course in West Monroe, sat indoors facing the entrance to his course and greeted golfers. In this town of 13,000 inhabitants with a love of fried catfish and a reverence for “Duck Dynasty”, a television show about hunters whose stars live nearby, golf used to be a regular indulgence for many, and that mild autumn weekend was ideal golf weather. Yet by the end of the afternoon Mr Owens had taken in only around $200 in green fees, a tenth of what his course earned on Saturdays a few years ago.

On weekends Mr Owens’s 12-year-old course once swelled with golfers, but that ended when the economy sliced into the rough in 2008. He offers prices “affordable for rednecks”, but bargains are not enough to bring back customers. “I sometimes believe that I could give golf away, and they still wouldn’t come,” he says. At the end of December he will close the course, and it will […]

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Pioneering Doctor Working to Reverse Alzheimers Offers 36 Ways Help Avoid the Disease

Stephan:  With the notation that I question whether allopathic hormone replacement is the best choice, I think this is a very important health guidance that should be taken seriously. Print out the 18 steps recommended and put them in your bathroom. And check them off until they become habit.