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So, there’s constant talk about the problem of declining birth rates and how much of a problem they are. There’s some truth to this, but a lot of it is based on the argument that more people lead to growing economies and that argument is terrible. The part that is reasonable is the rising increase in infertility, including plummeting sperm counts. That’s not bad because it leads to less children, precisely, it’s because it indicates how badly we’ve poisoned ourselves.

But the simple fact of the matter is that the world is well past its carrying capacity for the type of society we have. The Club of Rome predictions from 1968 have almost all tracked the real world, and we’re just past the hump: we’re into decline, but barely.

Gustavo Petro doesn’t just want to transform his own country; he wants to change the world. The new leader of Colombia, who took office last August, is targeting what he calls his nation’s “economy of death.” That means pivoting away from oil, natural gas, coal, and narcotics toward more sustainable economic activities. Given that oil and coal make up half his country’s exports — and Colombia is the world’s leading cocaine producer — that’s not going to be easy. Still, if Colombia were to undertake such a pivot, it would prove to other countries similarly addicted to such powerful substances — including the United States — that radical change is possible. With the latest news that the international community will... Read more

Roger Reeves is an ecstatic poet, a poet of suffering transmuted into higher-order sound. Best Barbarian has the structure of a jazz number. The melody is the first twenty poems—starting with a whirling riff on Grendel and James Baldwin—then “Children Listen,” “Sovereign Silence, or The City,” “Echo: From the Mountain,” “So, Ecstasy” and others, each concerned with the nature of a kind of repeated or formal sound. Then comes the improvisation, the loosening spontaneity, which is section two, made up of two long poems as enriched by the Aeneid, Chaucer, and Dante as they are by the idea of a solo that tells a story. “Domestic Violence” is fierce but inquiring, in its seeing, in its sense of the hell that is a state that shoots down unarmed Black men.

A small, red train packed with toys for the children of a nearby village sat stranded at the base of a steep hill.

“Look!” shouted a toy clown, which wasn’t considered creepy within the context of the time period. The other toys hurried their heads out the windows of the red, marooned train to see a little blue engine puffing down the tracks toward them.

“You there, Engine,” the clown shouted. “We are, sadly, unable to crest this hill. Do you think you would be able to help us get to the other side so that we may bring joy to all of the children of the town?”

“Even though I am small, I think I can,” the Little Blue Engine said as the toys erupted in cheers.

“But I don’t think I’m going to.”

The cheering stopped.

“Why not?” asked a befuddled marionette, which was also a period-appropriate toy for a child and not yet a horrifying closet surprise.

In New York, the real estate industry and the politicians in its pocket both reign supreme. These tenants have a plan to change that forever.

The post The Revolution Against Shady Landlords Has Begun appeared first on scheerpost.com.

By Renuka Rayasam/ Kaiser Health News In 2011, Jeffrey Motts was executed in South Carolina. More than a decade later, the state hasn’t carried out another execution because officials have struggled to obtain the drugs needed for lethal injection. Now, to resume executions, lawmakers are debating a bill that would further shroud the state’s lethal injection […]

The post States Try to Obscure Execution Details as Drugmakers Hinder Lethal Injection appeared first on scheerpost.com.

The United States is a big part of that “extensive use” on both sides of the border.

The post Migrant Deaths in Mexico Put Spotlight on US Policy That Shifted Immigration Enforcement South appeared first on scheerpost.com.

Russia should release Evan Gershkovich; if as part of a prisoner swap it should be speedily concluded. Gershkovich was arrested in Ekaterinburg while investigating the Wagner Group. Ekaterinburg is one of Russia’s grimmest, most mafia dominated and least open cities, which I have myself visited specifically to investigate the murders of local Russian journalists. That […]

The post Evan Gershkovich and the Perils of Journalism Post Assange Persecution appeared first on Craig Murray.

On the floor of Germany’s parliament, Left Party MP Sevim Dağdelen called for the c. 38,000 US soldiers in her country to leave, and to take their nuclear weapons with them. She lamented that Washington “doesn’t actually want allies, just loyal vassals”.

The post German Leftist Lawmaker Says US Soldiers and Nukes Must Leave Her Country appeared first on scheerpost.com.

"Despite internal awareness, the company systematically downplayed the problem to the public, instead promoting more and more fossil fuel use despite the dangers," said one expert. "Now, five decades later, Shell continues to dawdle and delay."

The post Documents Reveal Oil Giant Shell Knew About Climate Impacts Even Earlier appeared first on scheerpost.com.

Their One-Party Rule Will Be Ruinous for the Earth.

The post Tinpot Legislators appeared first on scheerpost.com.

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"This is a devastating day for our state and freedoms," said one Democratic Florida state lawmaker. "This six-week abortion ban is deeply unpopular, dangerous, and un-American."

The post ‘People Are Going to Die’: Florida Senate Republicans Pass Abortion Ban appeared first on scheerpost.com.