Stephan: I consider BREXIT a variant of nativist madness that is going to have a major impact not only on the U.K. and the E.U. but the world economy as well. The wellbeing of both, but the U.K. particularly, are going to be severely degraded. Here is the latest.
Is Theresa May’s Brexit deal dead?
Not yet, remarkably. Downing Street was clear after the vote that the prime minister was prepared to bring her deal back to parliament next week. But in a new context.
May will allow the indicative votes process to continue on Monday, which will aim to focus on the most popular options, and this time could produce something that commands majority support – the realistic contenders are a customs union and, or possibly combined with, a second referendum.
The initial indication was that two options might then be put to parliament later next week: May’s deal and a customs union/second referendum variant, or whatever emerges from MPs on Monday. It would amount to a final runoff, a last-ditch attempt to scare or bring rightwing Tory holdouts onboard.
Could May win a fourth time around?
The Commons arithmetic is still formidable. There are three groups who remain opposed to her deal, despite Boris Johnson and others backing it.
There are 28 hard-Brexit MPs – who have dubbed themselves “the Spartans” and who voted against May on Friday – but there are also 10 DUP MPs – and a further six Conservative MPs who support […]
Stephan: The United States, as this story describes, has committed a major geopolitical mistake, as time will reveal. Both Iran and Saudi Arabia are religiously dominated Islamic societies, but by any social outcome measure Iran is by far the healthier. Yet we have chosen a medieval monarchy whose citizens were responsible for 9/11, which they probably financed.
Closed Doors
On six separate occasions, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry authorized U.S. companies to sell technology to Saudi Arabia that would help the country develop nuclear power plants.
According to documents reviewed by Reuters, the Trump Administration obliged the companies’ requests to keep the deals confidential, as similar Department of Energy authorizations have been made public in the past — suggesting that energy companies and White House officials are amenable to controversial nuclear deals if they don’t run the risk of public backlash.
Bidding War
Saudi Arabia has previously announced plans to construct two nuclear power plants, and is currently vetting Russian, South Korean, and American proposals for contracts, Reuters reports.
Perry’s authorizations permit countries to perform preliminary work on nuclear plants, but forbid them from selling or constructing anything that would actually go into the plant itself, an anonymous source familiar with the discussion told Reuters.
Arms Race
Last year, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said that he would pursue nuclear weaponry if Iran did. The country has also pushed back against attempted nuclear regulations, according to Reuters.
While these secretive deals don’t mean that a nuclear standoff is […]
Stephan: Republicans do not like or respect democracy. I don't know how much more they could do to make that clear.
The U.S. House of Representatives is a centuries-old institution with some very specific written and unwritten rules and codes of behavior. These are designed to ensure not only appropriate respect for all Members – and their constituents – regardless of age, or gender, or party, but for the institution, the Constitution, and for the rule of law itself.
House Republicans are increasingly ignoring these rules of decorum, and it seems clear they are doing so intentionally to show their utter disrespect while attempting to appear as if they are not part of the Washington “establishment.”
One of the unwritten rules is that male Members of Congress must be properly attired in a suit – including a jacket and tie. (And, naturally, pants and shoes.)
While it does not seem to be written anywhere, House and party leadership – and the Sergeant at Arms have been known to enforce it, at times vigorously, in years past.
But some Republicans are clearly doing all they can to show their disrespect, and it seems clear it’s aimed at Democrats.
Stephan: Trump and the carbon industry trying to block the development of electric; could they be more transparently corrupt? Your best interests are even a factor. This story reveals the cancer that is eating away at American society as clearly as anything I have seen in, oh, the last 24 hours. There are so many of these stories you would think everyone would get it. But they don't, his ratings have gone up slightly. Willful ignorance is a powerful force, so powerful it overrides self-interest.
President Trump’s proposed budget for 2020 would eliminate the federal tax credit for buyers of electric vehicles. The oil industry is backing the proposal, as well as a bill to impose a “user fee” — that is, a tax — on drivers of electric vehicles and trucks.
Big Oil is panicked by the looming end to the domination of the U.S. transportation system by the internal combustion engine. The fear is justified.
A few years ago, the oil industry was shrugging off the threat of electric vehicles, predicting that EVs would reach only 5 percent of global market share by the mid-2030s. Other analysts were far more bullish, projecting that EVs would have up to a third of the market by that time.
Innovation expects EVs to make up to 75 percent of sales by 2050 — more than 15 million electric cars and trucks a year. Big Oil may be trying to slow the shift but can read the […]
Stephan: In the face of unremitting human greed and stupidity, the elephants are dropping the reason for their genocide; they are evolving to be tuskless, or with tusks too small to be tempting. Here is the story.
Many elephants at the Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique, Africa, are lacking one distinguishable feature that elephants usually have: tusks. Researchers believe the heavy presence of poaching has led elephants here to evolve without tusks, so their human predators have no reason to kill them and steal their tusks for ivory.
It’s not natural selection that is causing elephants to evolve without tusks, says Ryan Long, a researcher who has studied the elephants at Gorongosa National Park. It’s an artificial selection, caused by decades of poaching.
“There’s multiple things that could produce that sort of thing in elephant populations, but the leading hypothesis … is that there’s been a substantial amount of pressure placed on those populations by poachers,” Long told CBS News.
Long, an assistant professor of wildlife sciences University of Idaho, said tusks are usually a necessity, especially for male elephants. Males use their tusks for combat and for breeding rights, among other things. However, in an environment where poachers are a mortal threat, “tusks suddenly become a liability,” Long explained. […]
Closed Doors
The U.S. House of Representatives is a centuries-old institution with some very specific written and unwritten rules and codes of behavior. These are designed to ensure not only appropriate respect for all Members – and their constituents – regardless of age, or gender, or party, but for the institution, the Constitution, and for the rule of law itself.
Many elephants at the Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique, Africa, are lacking one distinguishable feature that elephants usually have: tusks. Researchers believe the heavy presence of poaching has led elephants here to evolve without tusks, so their human predators have no reason to kill them and 
