Republican strategists have warned members of Congress to avoid anti-science statements on climate change. Denying the near-universal conclusion in the scientific community—that human activity is altering the climate—plays well in red states and conservative House districts. But at the national level it’s toxic, and Republicans risk losing a generation of voters. Yet the Republicans California […]

Read more

This special issue of The Washington Spectator coincides with the launch of the Marfa Dialogues/New York project—a citywide public conversation on climate change scheduled for this October and November in New York. More than 30 organizations—leading cultural and academic institutions, arts initiatives and advocacy groups—will present a spectrum of programs that engage climate-related issues over […]

Read more

(Steve Scalise | Source: Washington Post) Like much of the legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, the “Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act” falls into the “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” category. Passed by 232-183 as Congress adjourned for its summer recess in August, the act is a grab […]

Read more

(Source: CSPAN) Right wingers are very big on the fact that the United States is a Republic, not a Democracy. “This is a Republic, not a Democracy. Let’s keep it that way!” the John Birch Society’s Robert Welch famously declared. Of course, they are correct. Constitutionally, only half of the legislative branch of the government […]

Read more

(Source: RIA Novosti) U.S. President Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani have spoken. And they are on the same page. By that I mean not they agree about the issues dividing the two countries but that they are both ready to move forward, to test each other and see if an agreement is possible. […]

Read more