MARK HAND, - Think Progress
Stephan: The Trumplicans all applaud and cheer for Trump. As they do so the level of corruption in the Trump Reich goes merrily on, as this report describes, and the quality of your life will be negatively impacted.
The complete failure of Republicans in congress to perform their Constitutional duties, their toadying to Trump, placing personal position and party above national wellbeing you would think would provoke massive citizen pushback. And there is some. But no where near what is needed. The election in November is going to determine the the kind of country your children and their children, and you yourself will live in.
Tonight I was told by a woman that she wasn't sure she would vote since "they're all the same." My contempt for what she was saying must have been obvious on my face because she stopped in mid-sentence very quickly changed the subject, said about three words, and scuttled away.
To fill key positions in the renewable energy and energy efficiency office at the Department of Energy (DOE), the Trump administration is lifting people straight from the Koch brothers’ numerous anti-clean energy efforts.
Next week, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will consider the nomination of Daniel Simmons, who spent years working for anti-renewable energy groups funded by the Kochs, to head the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
Simmons was previously the vice president for policy at the Institute for Energy Research (IER). He held the same position at the American Energy Alliance, the advocacy arm of IER. Both are Koch-funded groups. In 2015, AEA, called for Congress to use 2016 budget cuts to “eliminate” EERE. Simmons, who has been leading EERE on a temporary basis since the spring of 2017, has also questioned the value of promoting renewable energy sources.
In keeping with President Trump’s mission to slash regulations, the administration has nominated and hired people whose policy positions directly conflict with the mission of the agency where they serve. As temporary head of EERE, Simmons has been working with many like-minded individuals, including other officials who came from Koch-funded groups.
Earlier this year, DOE hired a longtime policy analyst for Koch-funded groups to serve […]
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Stephan: It was obvious as it was happening, and it is even more obvious now: the North Koreans had taken Trump's measure, and they played him like a cheap fiddle. Here are the facts. What surprises me is how little attention this is getting in the media.
Part of North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear research site, in a satellite image captured on June 21 by Airbus Defence & Space. Credit: Airbus DefenceE & Space/38North
Satellite images from last week show that North Korea is making numerous improvements to the infrastructure at a nuclear research facility, according to a new study
The images, obtained by North Korea analysis outlet 38 North, come just weeks after President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed an agreement that called for a denuclearized Korean Peninsula.
The satellite photos indicate that North Korea is quickly progressing on several adjustments to the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center.
The improvements include a new cooling water pump house, multiple new buildings, completed construction on a cooling water reservoir and an apparently active radiochemical laboratory. It is unclear whether the reactor is still in operation, the report said.
38 North notes that North Korean nuclear officials are expected to proceed with “business as usual” until Kim orders official changes to procedure.
The agreement between Trump and Kim, […]
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Stephan: Do we really want to create another nuclear power in the Middle East? Apparently. This going on supported by the Trump administration, and almost unnoticed by American media.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud
Credit: Mohammed Elshamy/Anadolu Agency]
Western security agencies believe that Israel is selling nuclear information to Saudi Arabia, Arabi21 has reported. According to Israeli writer Ami Dor-on, such information will give the government in Riyadh nuclear weapons capabilities. Writing on the News One website, Dor-on said that the joint intention is to make sure that Iran will not be the only country in the region that possesses such weapons which threaten the security and safety of the Kingdom.
“This information should shock us,” he said, “as we see the world is changing for the worse, following the race for the possession of nuclear weapons that pass right over our heads in the Middle East.” Saudi Arabia no longer conceals its wish to develop nuclear weapons, the writer added.
However, General Amos Yadlin, former chief of Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate, has suggested that the Saudis would not wait to get nuclear capabilities. “They will go to Pakistan, and take whatever they want,” he claimed.
Pakistan is a […]
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Thursday, June 28th, 2018
Stephan: With the retirement of Anthony Kennedy from the Supreme Court the ability of a woman to control her own body hangs by a thread. We are poised to go back nearly half a century to a time when women were viewed by some as chattel. And that's just for starters, the future of unions, freedom of the press, and a host of other issues also stand at the cliff edge.
In my own view it will take millions of people demonstrating all over America, and hundreds of thousands, if not millions filling the mall in Washington, D.C. And it will require every non-Trumplican voter to get out and vote Democratic. No third party votes, no stay at home, "they're all the same" whiners not voting. Can Americans do that? What do you think? What are you willing to do?
Pro-choice demonstrators in front of the Supreme Court
Justice Anthony Kennedy announced on Wednesday that he will be retiring from the Supreme Court at the end of July. His retirement poses a dangerous threat to reproductive rights, as President Donald Trump has vowed to fill his vacant spot with a judge who will work to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that legalized abortion in the country.
“The stakes are incredibly high,” Julie Rikelman, senior director of U.S. litigation at the Center for Reproductive Rights told the Cut. “Kennedy had been the decisive vote in several cases preserving the rights to abortion, and as a result his retirement means the court could shift against the constitutional right to abortion and access to abortion.”
So, what happens next? And what does this mean for reproductive rights? Here, we break it down for you.
Several Pending Cases Could Raise the Question of Abortion in the Supreme Court
In the 1980s, former president […]
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Thursday, June 28th, 2018
Clark Mindock , - The Independent (U.K.)
Stephan: A woman's right to control her own body now hangs in the balance, but the truth is just being a woman in the United States is a danger in its own right. America ranks amongst the top 10 most dangerous countries in the world for a woman. As this report says, "The other countries ranked in the top 10 for danger to women included Pakistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen, and Nigeria." What a lovely group of countries to have as peers.
Did you notice that not a single other developed nation in the world is on the bad nation list? And did you notice that this report is in a British newspaper and has gone almost unmentioned in the U.S.?
America's reputation as a world leader on human rights is in tatters. At this point it is a question of how far our decline will go.
The #MeToo and Time’s Up movements sparked protests around the country
Credit: Getty
The United States is the 10th most dangerous country in the world for women, a new survey of experts shows. (emphasis added)
Thomson Reuters Foundation surveyed 548 experts to determine which countries are seen as the worst for women.
The results make the US the only Western democracy to land in the top 10 of the list, alongside the likes of India, Afghanistan, and Somalia. The US tied with Syria in terms of he risks women face as far as sexual violence, harassment, sexual coercion, and women’s access to justice in cases of rape, according to the survey.
Government scraps proposed women’s ‘community prisons’ in new strategy
“People want to think income means you’re protected from misogyny, and sadly that’s no the case,” Cindy Southworth, he executive vice president of the National Network to End Domestic Violence, told Reuters.
The surprise addition of the United States to the top 10 on the list was a result of the #MeToo and Time’s Up campaigns, […]
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