Sixth mass extinction of wildlife also threatens global food supplies

Stephan:  You may have noticed over the past several months that I have run a number of stories coming from very different angles but all with one message: A trend is building around a coming world food crisis; here is the latest. There is very little coverage of the actual food situation as a world trend. You have to get into specialized websites,  academic journals, or a few mainstream publications like the Guardian. As with climate change, the lack of discussion and preparation is going to make an already difficult situation even more catastrophic. Look at what is happening in Puerto Rico. What do you know about Florida and Texas? If you lived there how do you think you would see things?  It's astonishing to watch a country fail to save itself because its priorities and values are self-destructive instead of wellness oriented.

Farmers evaluating traits of wheat varieties in Ethiopia.
Credit: J.van de Gevel/Bioversity International

The sixth mass extinction of global wildlife already under way is seriously threatening the world’s food supplies, according to experts. (emphasis added) “Huge proportions of the plant and animal species that form the foundation of our food supply are just as endangered [as wildlife] and are getting almost no attention,” said Ann Tutwiler, director general of Bioversity International, a research group that published a new report on Tuesday. “If there is one thing we cannot allow to become extinct, it is the species that provide the food that sustains each and every one of the seven billion people on our planet,” she said in an article for the Guardian. “This ‘agrobiodiversity’ is a precious resource that we are losing, and yet it can also help solve or mitigate many challenges the world is facing. It has a critical yet overlooked role in helping us improve global nutrition, reduce our impact on the environment and adapt to climate change.”

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Stanford scholars say big ideas are getting harder to find

Stephan:  This is one of the most important reports I have published in many months. This is data opening up a trend in an entirely new way that radically alters former conclusions.

Credit: Shutterstock

Modern-day inventors – even those in the league of Steve Jobs – will have a tough time measuring up to the productivity of the Thomas Edisons of the past.

Stanford economists say tremendous continual increases in research and development will be needed to sustain even today’s low rate of economic growth.(Image credit: Shutterstock)

That’s because big ideas are getting harder and harder to find, and innovations have become increasingly massive and costly endeavors, according to new research from economists at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. (emphasis added)

As a result, tremendous continual increases in research and development will be needed to sustain even today’s low rate of economic growth.

Nicholas Bloom, a SIEPR senior fellow and co-author of a paperreleased this week by the National Bureau of Economic Research, contends that so many game-changing inventions have appeared since World War II that it’s become increasingly difficult to come up with the next big idea.

“The thought now of somebody inventing something as revolutionary as the locomotive on […]

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Illinois Republican Governor Signs Controversial Abortion Bill

Stephan:  This is good news on several levels. This is a Republican governor defending the rights of women. It will assure Illinois women continue to have access to a full range of healthcare and, finally, it may portend an early datapoint showing a shift in the anti-female trend that has become so powerful in the Red value states. But of the last only time will tell.

Illinois Republican Governor Bruce Rauner Bruce Rauner
REUTERS/Larry Downing/File Photo Reuters

CHICAGO — Illinois Republican Governor Bruce Rauner signed a controversial bill into law on Thursday to expand state-funded coverage of abortions for low-income residents on Medicaid and state employees.

The bill, approved by the state legislature in May, would also keep abortions legal in Illinois if the U.S. Supreme Court follows President Donald Trump’s call to overturn its landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that made abortions legal 44 years ago.

Illinois’ Medicaid program has previously covered abortions in cases of rape, incest and when a mother’s life or health is threatened.

The expansion would enable poor women to obtain elective abortions. The bill would allow state employees to have the procedures covered under state health insurance.

Rauner, who had earlier suggested he would veto the measure, said in a statement that he had talked to woman around the state before making his decision.

“I understand abortion is […]

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Mike Pence to headline Koch brothers’ network’s strategy session for the midterm elections

Stephan:  If there is any question as to whom the Trump Administration associates itself perhaps this will answer it.

Vice President Mike Pence

WASHINGTON, D.C.  — Vice President Mike Pence will deliver the keynote address next month at a retreat in Manhattan of the conservative Koch network, as wealthy donors gather to plan political and policy strategy ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

The network, founded by billionaire industrialist Koch brothers Charles G. and David H. Koch, has close ties to Pence, which has helped enable it to exert influence in the White House despite not endorsing President Trump in 2016.Pence held a private conversation in June with Charles Koch ahead of the group’s Colorado Springs seminar with donors who pay $100,000 annual dues to attend network events.Trump’s legislative director, Marc Short, previously headed the Koch-backed Freedom Partners, a chamber of commerce-style advocacy organization with an aligned political fundraising committee.

The Manhattan meeting on Oct. 12-13 will be the first in New York for the Koch donors network. Over two days, the group will focus on “shaping strategy for the upcoming Senate, House, and gubernatorial races, as well as plans to achieve important […]

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Roy Moore beliefs: Things the Republican has said

Stephan:  Roy, blatant and unapologetic racist, genderist, and anti-semite, twice removed from his post on the Alabama supreme court for unethical and unlawful behavior is now the Republican candidate for the Alabama senate seat. One might start by asking how such a man could  run for a senate seat? Then go to how is it possible that the Republican Party would even consider such a man? Finally, what does Moore's success say about Alabama voters? Who are these people? How bad is Moore? Here are some of his public statements and positions.

Alabama Republican senatorial candidate Roy Moore
Credit: The Huffington Post

Alabama firebrand Roy Moore has dealt a huge blow to the Republican leadership by winning the party’s nomination for the Senate.

The controversial lawyer has made headlines for a series of incendiary remarks over the years, but beat his Washington-backed opponent with ease.

Here’s a round-up of some of his more extreme beliefs, with some analysis from the BBC’s Anthony Zurcher on why it all matters.

1. Homosexuality should be illegal

He has likened it to bestiality, and called it “abhorrent, immoral, detestable, a crime against nature, and a violation of the laws of nature and of nature’s God upon which this nation and our laws are predicated”. His refusal to issue marriage certificates to gay couples cost him his place on the bench for a second time.

2. God’s wrath is felt on Earth

Moore has suggested that the 11 September 2001 attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were a sign of God’s divine anger. “Sounds a little bit like the Pentagon” […]

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