Trump will reportedly turn America into a planet-imperiling rogue state
May 31, 2017 Ryan Cooper
President Trump is prepared to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accords, multiple news outlets are reporting. Though Trump himself has not yet confirmed the news — writing on Twitter that he'll make his decision in the "next few days" — it fits both with his belligerent style and his promises during the campaign.
Politico writes that this is a victory for the "nationalist" wing of the White House. On the contrary, it's a victory for precisely no one. It's a representation of how crack-brained thinking has turned the United States into an enemy of the human race.
It must always be emphasized that climate change is first and foremost a threat to human civilization [
] — contrary to typical centrist media framing of the issue as some sort of boutique environmentalist hobbyhorse. Climate change means more drought, more flooding, more extreme weather, mass extinctions, tremendous disruption of agriculture, and sea levels rising by many meters. Climate change does not threaten America as much as it does India or China, [ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/02/03/the-countries-most-vulnerable-to-climate-change-in-3-maps/?utm_term=.19fed0a68593 ] but neither are we in as good a position as Canada, with its vast tracts of barely-inhabited taiga. But even that country is not secure in the long run if emissions are not ratcheted down quickly, starting now. Procrastination raises the likelihood of triggering one of many potential feedback loops, [ http://www.climatecentral.org/news/melting-arctic-could-supercharge-climate-feedback-20440 ] which could spiral out of control no matter what we do to greenhouse gas emissions, rendering much of the Earth's surface uninhabitable — and leaving wildly dangerous geoengineering schemes as the last Hail Mary chance at rescue.
If things go very wrong, the rapid, uncontrolled collapse of all the delicate world-spanning systems now used to feed and clothe nearly all people could drive human beings to extinction. It's a remote possibility, but it also can't be ruled out.
(imbedded links omitted)
Most Republicans — including President Trump and a large majority of their members of Congress — deny the consensus science behind climate change. When they can't deny the science outright, they deny the possibility of doing anything about it. When they grudgingly admit it might be a problem, they still typically present it as being a net economic harm through which, say, China is going to steal an economic march on us.
In reality, procrastinating on climate is an act of self-harm on the order of Stalin's purges of the Red Army officer corps in the late 1930s, which left Soviet forces drastically weakened for Hitler's surprise attack in 1941.
Witness China, which contrary to yet more idiot babbling, is actually moving forward with tremendously aggressive climate policy — because it is unquestionably in its national interest. America, with its addle-brained president and diseased ruling party, is the only major nation which refuses to see the loaded pistol pointed right at its own face.
At any rate, none of this is much of a surprise. When America elected Trump we forfeited all claim to any global leadership of any kind whatsoever. Under this president, on the most important problem facing human society, we are an enemy of the human race, too powerful to be strong-armed into a bargain and led by people too stupid to be reasoned with. The rest of the world now has no choice but to press forward with the most aggressive climate policy they can muster, and hope that Republicans are thrown out of power soon (and that ongoing green industry upgrades and local action at least contains the damage).
All Democrats must loudly and consistently promise bold climate action — far bolder than anything President Obama did. Blue state and local governments, particularly California and New York, must press ahead with the most aggressive climate policy they can possibly manage. All this gives the world confidence that if Trump is tossed out, America will at least return to the community of rational nations.
It remains to be seen what damage this will do to the Paris accords. It might blow them up altogether — but perhaps it will merely confirm America's new status as essentially a rogue state. Only one thing is for sure: The modern Republican Party will go down with the 19th century Dixiecrats as one of the most horrible political parties in the history of the world.
Texas lawmakers make few moves to address pregnancy deaths
In this March 6, 2017, file photo, Texas Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, front, backed by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, center, and other legislators talks to the media during a news conference to discuss Senate Bill 6 at the Texas Capitol in Austin, Texas. Just months after a high-profile study revealed that Texas has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the developed world, state lawmakers failed to respond by passing comprehensive legislation to combat the crisis during the legislative session. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
By MEREDITH HOFFMAN June 5, 2017
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Lawmakers in Texas largely failed to take any significant action to address the state’s skyrocketing rate of pregnancy-related deaths just months after researchers found it to be the highest in not only the U.S., but the developed world.
Legislators introduced proposals to address the issue after a University of Maryland-led study found that the state’s maternal mortality rate doubled between 2010 and 2012. But several key measures didn’t even make it to a vote, falling victim to Republican infighting over other issues.
“We had a chance to move the needle and we really failed to do so,” said state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, a Republican from the town of Brenham, west of Houston. “Certainly, as we develop in medicine, we can do better to take care of women in today’s society versus past societies. I’m very disappointed.”
Because this year’s session has ended, lawmakers will have to wait until they reconvene in 2019 to address the issue.
Kolkhorst introduced a measure with wide support that would have extended the life of Texas’ maternal mortality task force to 2023 from its current 2019 end date, allowing the committee of doctors and behavioral specialists to analyze more closely the specific causes of pregnancy-related deaths.
The task force formed in 2013 to study and combat what state lawmakers already perceived as a rising maternal mortality rate. Then last summer, the University of Maryland study found that Texas had the highest maternal mortality rate in the U.S. The study also found that the U.S. rate was higher than all other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries reporting maternal mortality data, except for Mexico. That study offered no explanation for the reason.
Further research would help understand, “is it hemorrhaging, is it post-partum depression, is it aftercare?” said Kolkhorst. “Are there things we could do pre-birth that would help with post-birth?”
The extension of the task force is “vital for us to be able to understand the causes and preventive measures” of so many Texas mothers’ fatalities, said Lisa Hollier, the task force’s chairwoman.
“The detailed case reviews we are doing are essential to understanding the actual causes of death,” said Hollier, explaining that even though her committee has found that cardiac problems are a leading cause of pregnancy-related deaths, that alone “doesn’t lead to specific information for appropriate intervention programs.”
State Rep. Shawn Thierry sought to look into one particularly disturbing trend that the Texas task force had found: Black women make up 11 percent of births, but 28 percent of death. Thierry, a Democrat from Houston, wanted to compare the risk of black women in different income brackets.
But Thierry’s bill — which was backed by the Texas Medical Association and American Heart Association — died along with a parade of other proposals after tea party-backed lawmakers, protesting a lack of movement of their own pet issues, used a House procedural maneuver to kill every bill on a legislative calendar that wasn’t supposed to generate debate.
“We haven’t done enough,” Thierry said.
Abortion-rights supporters have put at least some blame on strict state requirements for abortion clinics that prompted closures, though supporters of such laws say they protect women.
“When you do things like making access to abortions almost impossible, the impact that’s going to have on our states most vulnerable population is worse and worse,” said Marsha Jones, executive director of the Afiya Center, a reproductive justice organization founded by and for black women in Texas.
Other failed proposals that could have helped with the problem would have extended Medicaid coverage to low-income adults and to mothers for longer post-partum periods, said Adriana Kohler, a senior health policy associate for Texans Care for Children. Still, Kohler praised lawmakers for passing some measures, including one that will require Texas to post guidelines online for reporting pregnancy-related deaths and another that will allow mothers to be screened for post-partum depression for a year after childbirth.
But Hollier said those small measures may do nothing to stop a continuing catastrophe.
“I am concerned that we had the opportunity for some improvements and that opportunity may have passed us by.”
Texas has highest maternal mortality rate in developed world, study finds About half of Texas lacks ready access to OB-GYN care, making it difficult for women to obtain contraception or for pregnant women to confirm the health of their babies. As the Republican-led state legislature has slashed funding to reproductive healthcare clinics, the maternal mortality rate doubled over just a two-year period 20 August 2016 The rate of Texas women who died from complications related to pregnancy doubled from 2010 to 2014, a new study [ http://journals.lww.com/greenjournal/Abstract/2016/09000/Recent_Increases_in_the_U_S__Maternal_Mortality.6.aspx , http://journals.lww.com/greenjournal/Citation/2017/01000/Recent_Increases_in_the_U_S__Maternal_Mortality.36.aspx , related editorial http://journals.lww.com/greenjournal/Citation/2016/09000/Drilling_Down_on_Maternal_Mortality.2.aspx ] has found, for an estimated maternal mortality rate that is unmatched in any other state and the rest of the developed world. The finding comes from a report, appearing in the September issue of the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, that the maternal mortality rate in the United States increased between 2000 and 2014, even while the rest of the world succeeded in reducing its rate. Excluding California, where maternal mortality declined, and Texas, where it surged, the estimated number of maternal deaths per 100,000 births rose to 23.8 in 2014 from 18.8 in 2000 – or about 27%. But the report singled out Texas for special concern, saying the doubling of mortality rates in a two-year period was hard to explain “in the absence of war, natural disaster, or severe economic upheaval”. From 2000 to the end of 2010, Texas’s estimated maternal mortality rate hovered between 17.7 and 18.6 per 100,000 births. But after 2010, that rate had leaped to 33 deaths per 100,000, and in 2014 it was 35.8. Between 2010 and 2014, more than 600 women died for reasons related to their pregnancies. No other state saw a comparable increase. In the wake of the report, reproductive health advocates are blaming the increase on Republican-led budget cuts that decimated the ranks of Texas’s reproductive healthcare clinics. In 2011, just as the spike began, the Texas state legislature cut $73.6m from the state’s family planning budget of $111.5m. The two-thirds cut forced more than 80 family planning clinics to shut down across the state. The remaining clinics managed to provide services – such as low-cost or free birth control, cancer screenings and well-woman exams – to only half as many women as before. At the same time, Texas eliminated all Planned Parenthood clinics – whether or not they provided abortion services – from the state program that provides poor women with preventive healthcare. Previously, Planned Parenthood clinics in Texas offered cancer screenings and contraception to more than 130,000 women. In 2013, Texas restored funding for the family planning budget to original levels. But the healthcare providers who survived the initial cuts reported struggles to restore services to their original levels. Indeed, the report said it was “puzzling” that Texas’s maternal mortality rate rose only modestly from 2000 to 2010 before doubling between 2011 and 2012. The researchers, hailing from the University of Maryland, Boston University’s school of public health and Stanford University’s medical school, called for further study. But they noted that starting in 2011, Texas drastically reduced the number of women’s health clinics within its borders. [...] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/20/texas-maternal-mortality-rate-health-clinics-funding
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
