Good News on the Clean-Energy Sector
"Three million Americans now work in the clean-energy sector, more than are employed in the oil, gas, and coal industries combined." Moreover, the Paris Agreement "commits the world's governments to leave behind oil, gas, and coal by mid-century -- a historic shift. It commits them to limit the global temperature to 2 degrees Celsius." Some of the greatest change is underway in China, which is rapidly shutting down coal plants and mines, and adding solar and wind plants. Although conservatives like to portray China as a laggard in addressing global warming, it is actually making its manufacturing sector more efficient, leaving behind the United States, hobbled by a global warming denier as its president. (Source: Mark Hartegaard, Enemy of Humanity," The Nation, July 3/10, 2017).
Daring to Dream
"[In] so many ways, Trump is not a rupture at all, but rather the culmination -- the logical end point -- of a great many dangerous stories our culture has been telling for a long time. That greed is good. That money is what matters in life."
"Trump is a mirror, held up not only to the United States but to the world." "A society with extreme inequality, unmasked neofascist tendencies, and an unraveling climate is sick, and neoliberalism, as one of the major drivers of all of these crises, is grossly inadequate medicine." "In the many domains Trump does not control, we need to aim higher in our ambitions and accomplish more with our actions." (Source: Naomi Klein, "Daring to Dream in the Age of Trump," The Nation, July 3/10, 2017).
British Labour's Revival
"The Labour manifest promised, without apology, to raise taxes one the wealthiest to restore Britain's welfare state, including free college tuition -- a magnet for the young. Labour's crucial insight was that the Brexit vote had less to do with Europe than with the state Britain's in: jobs and dignity lost, communities unraveling, education failing, the National Health Service in tatters, nurses depending on food banks, and homelessness on the rise while the wealthy continue to flourish, oblivious and insulated." (Source: Maria Margaronis, "Labour's Revival," The Nation, July 3/10, 2017).
The Neglected Under-Insured
The Commonwealth Fund found that in 2012 there were 31.7 million insured people under age 65 who were under-insured. Together with the 47.3 million who were uninsured, this meant at least 79 million people were at risk of not being able to afford needed care before the major reforms of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA has reduced high medical care costs, while also covering the uninsured. Both the House and Senate GOP healthcare plans have provisions to reduce coverage guarantees, thereby substantially increasing the number of the under-insured.
A More Confrontational Europe
Jan Techau, the director of the Richard Holbrooke Forum at the American Academy in Berlin, said: "There is now a more openly confrontational language with the United States. The European public is already outspoken about Trump but now there is a more outspoken European leadership that won't paper over these divisions anymore." "Trump has no constraint and will say anything, and now the Europeans feel they can do the same, [and] that means less respect for each other, and less mutual confidence."
Francois Heisbourg, a French security analyst, said: "All reticence has gone away." "On an issue-by-issue basis, there is apparently no penalty for playing hardball with Trump without necessarily affecting security, on climate for example."
Treason, or Bordering on It
Richard Painter, head of the Government Ethics Office under President George W. Bush, has called Donald Trump Jr.'s setting up a meeting with a Russian lawyer and others, "treason," or bordering on treason. He said: "This is an effort to get opposition research on an opponent in an American political campaign from the Russians, who were known to be engaged in spying inside the United States." "We do not get opposition research from spies, we do not collaborate with Russian spies, unless we want to be accused of treason."
Breaking the GOP
Walter Shapiro, writing in "The Guardian," said: "In a sense, Republicans fit Colin Powell's Pottery Barn rule about Iraq: 'you break it, you own it.' Republican leaders, from Paul Ryan to Reince Priebus, allowed Trump to break the Republican Party and now they own the consequences. ... Where have you gone Howard Baker? Our nation lifts its lonely eyes to you."
Macron and Netanyahu Disagree on Mideast Peace
In their most recent meeting, French President Emmanuel Macron told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: "The problem is that you're making it more complicated by building more and more in the settlements." Macron told Netanyahu that Trump had told him that there is an opportunity for peace in the Middle East and he supports Trump's efforts. Netanyahu answered: "It will be complicated to move quickly on the American plan." Netanyahu also said that Trump is focusing too much on Abbas, the Palestinian leader, and he needs a parallel process with the Arab states.
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