By Arianna Huffington
Earlier today, (December 7, 2015), the candidate currently leading in the polls for the Republican presidential nomination called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” That was, of course, Donald Trump. As Jeffrey Goldberg just tweeted, “Donald Trump is now an actual threat to national security. He’s providing jihadists ammunition for their campaign to demonize the US.”
“IOTD” is image of the day, a concept I came up with. I teach visual meditative therapy – or in easy terms – a mini mental holiday. For some people it is very difficult for them to get their image right. I post an image a day for people to use in their mini mental vacay. Some are serious, some are silly, and some are just beautiful!”
The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21 or CMP11 is being held in Le Bourget, Paris, from November 30 to December 11.
It is the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 11th session of the Meeting of the Parties to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The conference objective is to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, from all the nations of the world.
2498 academics from 75 countries signed this Open Letter calling for world leaders meeting in Paris to do what is necessary to prevent catastrophic climate change.
Prominent signatories include Noam Chomsky, Naomi Oreskes, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Michael E. Mann, Ursula Oswald Spring, Bill McKibben, David Suzuki, and Peter Singer.
Open Letter from Academics to World Leaders ahead of the Paris Climate Conference 2015
Some issues are of such ethical magnitude that being on the correct side of history becomes a signifier of moral character for generations to come. Global warming is such an issue.
Indigenous peoples and the developing world are least responsible for climate change, least able to adapt to it, and most vulnerable to its impacts. As the United Nations Climate Conference in Paris approaches, the leaders of the industrialized world shoulder a grave responsibility for the consequences of our current and past carbon emissions.
Yet it looks unlikely that the international community will mandate even the greenhouse gas reductions necessary to give us a two thirds chance of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. At the moment, even if countries meet their current non-binding pledges to reduce carbon emissions, we will still be on course to reach 3 degrees Celsius by the end of this century.
This is profoundly shocking, given that any sacrifice involved in making those reductions is far overshadowed by the catastrophes we are likely to face if we do not: more extinctions of species and loss of ecosystems; increasing vulnerability to storm surges; more heatwaves; more intense precipitation; more climate related deaths and disease; more climate refugees; slower poverty reduction; less food security; and more conflicts worsened by these factors.
Given such high stakes, our leaders ought to be mustering planet-wide mobilization, at all societal levels, to limit global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.
~~GRAPHICS SOURCE~~
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We undersigned concerned academics, researchers and scientists from around the world recognize the seriousness of our environmental situation and the special responsibility we owe our communities, future generations, and our fellow species.
We will strive to meet that responsibility in our educational and communicative endeavors.
We call upon our leaders to do what is necessary to prevent catastrophic climate change. With just as much urgency, we call upon our fellow citizens to hold their leaders responsible for vigorously addressing global warming.
For the full list of signatories please see below.
Around the world, people from all walks of life are standing together to demand a strong climate agreement in Paris and a healthy future for the planet. When the world speaks with one voice, our leaders have to listen.
So we’ve put together this Open Letter with one very clear message: DEAR WORLD LEADERS: TAKE CLIMATE ACTION NOW.
People from around the world are affected by climate change today – right now. And they’re calling out to world leaders to demand real action this year at the UN climate talks in Paris.
The legality of cannabis for general or recreational use varies from country to country.
Possession of cannabis is illegal in most countries as a result of the agreement about Indian hemp, also known as hashish, in the International Opium Convention (1925). However, many countries have decriminalized the possession of small quantities of cannabis.
Some states in the US allow use of medical cannabis in state, territorial, Indian reservation, and Federal district laws, although the use is illegal by federal law. Federal agencies claim that federal law comes first.
Black Friday used to be a one-day shopping event for many retailers, but over time, with Cyber Monday and Small Business Saturday coming into the mix, it’s become a big weekend-long shopping event.
With so much buzz around this shopping extravaganza, it’s not hard to buy into the circus of it all. You’ll make impulse purchases and fall into every retailers’ trap to get you to spend your small fortune in their stores. They’ll pull out all the stops to get you in their stores and then, well, I’m sure you know the rest.
Don’t be tempted by all the bold colors in the ads that draw you in and especially the low prices that get your attention. During this year’s biggest shopping event, be a smarter shopper by following some of these rules:
Each year, Americans are spending billions in a matter of days: Black Friday weekend. And while the discounts can be pretty great — how much money are shoppers ultimately saving at the end of the day?
We’ve been around the political block long enough to know that almost all presidential candidates exaggerate, dissemble, take statements out of context and, yes, lie.
But from the start of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign (remember Mexican rapists?), he has taken this to a level we haven’t seen before in American politics.
Consider just these two examples from the weekend.
First, Trump said on Saturday in Alabama:
“I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down. And I watched in Jersey City New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering.”
In fact, as the New York Times writes, “No news reports exist of people cheering in the streets, and both police officials and the mayor of Jersey City have said that it did not happen. An Internet rumor about people cheering in the streets, which said it was in Paterson, not Jersey City, has been denied numerous times by city and police officials.” But when ABC pressed Trump on his statement, he stood his ground.
“It did happen. I saw it … It was on television. I saw it.”
Second, Trump retweeted a graphic claiming — falsely — that African Americans are responsible for the killing of most blacks and whites in America. “That is not true, the Washington Post notes. “According to data from the FBI, most whites are killed by whites, as most blacks are killed by blacks.
There’s an obvious reason for that: Most people are killed by someone they know.”
I do not get it. I simply don’t. It’s not even a matter of which political party anyone is affiliated with or which beliefs anyone holds. I grew up in Puerto Rico, a colony of the United States but never the less “US land”. I was brought up thinking how great the US was …. as a country, as a leader, as an example to the world.
I cannot believe what I’m seeing and hearing now.
Any human with decreased number of brain cells can get what this “person” is doing and saying. There are no limits to his “statements”, nothing is off limits. He’s raised the “idiocy bar” so high that the other presidential hopefuls have no other option but to go along or even come back with more asinine statements. If they don’t, they will be left in his dust.
It’s true … this man isn’t an embarassment of this country. He’s an indictment of it.
The world was shocked when Paris was attacked by extremist on the evening of November 13 and the attacks in Beirut the day before. Humanity weeps for those we have lost in these tragic events, but it we need to look at why this keeps happening.
Russell Brand has published a video of what he thinks we need to do to end terrorism.
His ideas are great.
We must come to the understanding that we are all connected and that we share this planet with each other.
Violence is never the solution to violence, that will only fuel the flames.
If we show nothing but love to each other that will take the power away from the brutality that humans are capable of.
It is time for us to rid ourselves of these wars and unite as one on this planet. When the history of man has reached its closure will it be ridden with acts of hatred .… or will it be the story of a logical and understanding species?
~~Russell Brand Gives The Solutions To Terrorism~~
It’s Time To Wake Up
~~Published on Nov 17, 2015~~
We’ve written about Russell Brand several times on our website, and that’s because he is one celebrity, on an ever-growing list of stars, who is using his tremendous reach in an effort to effect positive change in the world, as well as raise awareness about several key issues that are currently facing our planet.
U.S. corporations — like many Americans — exploit every available rule in the tax code to minimize the taxes they pay. The United States has one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world, at 35 percent (not including any state levies), yet the actual amount in corporate taxes that the government collects (“the effective tax rate”) is lower than those of Germany, Canada, Japan and China, among others.
The reason is confusingly called “tax expenditures,” a doublespeak term designed to legitimize special interest tax breaks and loopholes.
With advice from the Urban Institute’s Eric Toder, one of the country’s foremost authorities on corporate tax policy, we assembled the 10 most costly corporate tax loopholes and who benefits from them.
Graduated Corporate Income
Inventory Property Sales
Research and Experimentation Tax Credit
Deferred Taxes for Financial Firms on Certain Income Earned Overseas
Alcohol Fuel Credit
Credit for Low-Income Housing Investments
Accelerated Depreciation of Machinery and Equipment
Deduction for Domestic Manufacturing
Exclusion of Interest on State and Local Bonds
Deferral of Income from Controlled Foreign Corporations
It Is What It Is 