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Climate Change and Nuclear Power

Following up on our many discussions on climate change (and what to do about it), I thought I’d draw your attention to the attached Op/Ed piece from the New York Times.

Nuclear Power Can Save the World (New York Times Op/Ed)

I agree with them that nuclear power will very likely have a significant role in our electricity generation once we get serious about reducing CO2 emissions.

Two of the authors recently published a book, “xxx,” with a foreword written by the third. I usually try to assess whether Op/Ed authors are “fringy” or not; here are two reviews of the book.

A Bright Future by Joshua Goldstein and Staffan Qvist (Financial Times–Book Review)

A Sensible Climate Change Solution, Borrowed From Sweden (The New York Times–Book Review)

The New York Times one is overall supportive of the nuclear argument; the Financial Times is a bit more reserved, but appears to agree that increased nuclear-powered electricity production will very likely need to be a part of a future CO2 energy production mix. But read them yourselves and form your own view.

Topic for April 8, 2019 Criminality or Sickness?

Psychopaths are 8 times more likely to commit and recommit crimes. In a recent book Kent Kiehl discusses the differences in the brains of “normals” vs. psychopaths. The Psychopath Whisperer covers research findings on criminal psychopaths. The good news, 77% of U.S. psychopaths are incarcerated. For the bad news, read Jon Ronson’s The Psychopath Test, which posits that the “Masters of the Universe” on Wall Street can be diagnosed as psychopaths. [I am told to take Ronson’s book with several grains of salt: it is only book banned by the SSSP psychopathy society.]

For discussion: “Are the hundreds of thousands of criminal psychopaths culpable or sick?” which may segue toward a Tom Cruise “Minority Report” future, and ultimately, what can our health care system do about all of this……

Topic for April 1, 2019

Continuing from this week’s discussion on anti-semitism, next week’s topic is white nationalism.  Is it on the increase?  Are they emboldened by the President?  Are they responsible for hate crimes?  If so, what are the consequences?
(“A hate crime is a prejudice-motivated crime which occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her membership (or perceived membership) in a certain social group or race.  Examples of such groups can include and are almost exclusively limited to: sex, ethnicity, disability, language, nationality, physical appearance, religion, gender identity or sexual orientation.”)

Links:
Hate crimes reportedly jumped by 226 percent in counties that hosted Trump campaign rallies: https://www.vox.com/2019/3/24/18279807/trump-hate-crimes-study-white-nationalism

Hate groups nationwide:  https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map

Hate groups in Maine: https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map?state=ME

Hate group count hits 20-year high amid rise in white supremacy, report says:  https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/02/20/hate-groups-white-power-supremacists-southern-poverty-law-center/2918416002/

“Killings committed by individuals and groups associated with far-right extremist groups have risen significantly. Seventy-one percent of the 387 “extremist related fatalities in the United States” from 2008 to 2017 were committed by members of far-right and white-supremacist groups, according the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism. Islamic extremists were responsible for 26 percent.”  : https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/22/opinion/christopher-hasson-extremism.html

White Nationalism’s Deep American Roots:  https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/04/adam-serwer-madison-grant-white-nationalism/583258/

What Trump Supporters Really Believe – The president’s racist base, by the numbers:  https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/08/trumps-bigoted-base-by-the-numbers.html

White nationalist leader is plotting to ‘take over the GOP’:  https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/white-nationalist-leader-plotting-take-over-gop-n920826

How white supremacist candidates fared in 2018 – Self-described Nazis did poorly, but candidates linked to white supremacist groups did quite well:  https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/11/7/18064670/white-supremacist-candidates-2018-midterm-elections

Study: 11 million white Americans think like the alt-right – The Unite the Right marchers aren’t alone, according to brand new research:  https://www.vox.com/2018/8/10/17670992/study-white-americans-alt-right-racism-white-nationalists

White Nationalist Groups Increase Recruiting And Propaganda Across The West:  https://www.npr.org/2019/03/19/704586335/white-nationalist-groups-increase-recruiting-and-propaganda-across-the-west

White Nationalist. White nationalist groups espouse white supremacist or white separatist ideologies, often focusing on the alleged inferiority of nonwhites. Groups listed in a variety of other categories – Ku Klux Klan, neo-Confederate, neo-Nazi, racist skinhead, and Christian Identity – could also be fairly described as white nationalist:  https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/white-nationalist

White supremacy: Are US right-wing groups on the rise?:  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40915356

Fact-checking Trump’s notion that white nationalism is not a rising threat:  https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/16/politics/fact-checking-trump-on-threat-of-white-nationalism/index.html


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