Even Bloomberg Financial News can see that President Obama’s refusal to send ground troops to Syria isn’t that bad of a plan. President Putin apparently didn’t learn anything from the Russian quagmire in Afghanistan, and is rapidly burning through Russia’s now small checkbook. The Ruble is now breaking through its 2014 lows, which was already essentially at the bottom of a cliff. The Ruble has lost half its value since 2014.
” A loose network of 4,556 individuals with overlapping ties to 164 organizations do the most to dispute climate change in the U.S….
ExxonMobil and the family foundations controlled by Charles and David Koch emerge as the most significant sources of funding for these skeptics.
He examined Internal Revenue Service data showing which groups in the network of climate contrarians accepted funding from ExxonMobil or Koch foundations between 1993 and 2013. Recipients from those two sources tend to occupy central nodes in what he calls a “contrarian network.” Groups funded by ExxonMobil or the Kochs “have greater influence over flows of resources, communication, and the production of contrarian information,” Farrell wrote.
The research was neither easy nor glamorous. One particular element of tedium was making sure that individuals were not represented more than once. Farrell analyzed the individuals, eliminated all middle initials, corrected misspellings, and deleted courtesy titles. “This was completed by hand,” he noted, “on all 4,556 names.” A supplement to the paper lists all 164 of the organizations he identified as promoting climate-change skepticism, a roster that includes the CATO Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and the Heartland Institute.
Once he understood the network, Farrell investigated which organizations were most successful in pushing their view. He found that groups with ties to the two big donors were more likely to see their viewpoints make it into media than those without such ties.
Farrell’s research took him through 40,785 documents from contrarian groups; 14,943 from the New York Times, Washington Times, and USA Today; 1,930 from U.S. presidents; and 7,786 from Congress.
For Robert Brulle, a sociology professor at Drexel University who has conducted research on the topic, Farrell’s research helps define how climate denial works. “Corporate funders create and support conservative think tanks,” which then pass off climate misinformation as valid. The mainstream media pick up on it, which helps shape public opinion.
“This brings up the following question,” Brulle said. “Why is the media picking up and promulgating the central themes of climate misinformation?” “
These are my daughters. If you attack Middle Easterners fleeing persecution, you attack them. Their mother came here from Iran after the revolution, looking for a safer life. America let her in despite our conflict with Iran, because American principles are more important than our fears and disputes. If you don’t believe our principles always come first, then you don’t believe in America.
Make no mistake. When you attack immigrants, you’re attacking America. We’re a nation of immigrants. Of all races. Of all creeds. Anyone who doesn’t believe that, is welcome to leave and find another country. Because if you turn your back on immigrants in need, if you turn your back on freedom of religion, you understand less about what it means to be an American than every immigrant who ever stepped onto our soil.
Being born an American is nothing to be proud of. Being born an American is easy; any idiot can get born here. Immigrants and refugees earned the right to come here. Nobody is more American than the person who came here fleeing repression and seeking freedom.
If you want to be proud of being an American, then you have to support American ideals. Speak out against those who seek to limit speech, limit religion, or turn away people in need. Don’t mute what they say. Don’t let it go for the sake of friendship or family. Speak out.
Silence isn’t just death. Silence is blood on our hands. The blood of those we turned away. And the blood of a country that fell, not because of war or terrorism, but because we were afraid to trust the very principles that made it strong.
“And there’s the rub. Had Merkel not presided over the arrival of nearly one million refugees and migrants in one year (950,000, according to the latest official figures), she would still be the unchallenged empress of Germany and Europe.”
Originally shared by Victor H
After her finest hour, Merkel now needs help from all Europe.
The Stanford Prison experiment and the Milgram experiment are frequently referenced as examples of how through the action of perceived authority people can be twisted to do evil. However, one can imagine similar experiments where the students were conditioned to acts of unusual kindness.
Three corollaries: 1) a saintly society is possible; 2) people in authority, in particular, political figures and news outlets, bear significant responsibility for the bad behavior of their followers; 3) we all bear a responsibility to proselytize goodness.
