Volume 265 | No. 1

Where And How Will You Vote?

Dear Editor: Scientific American magazine, for the first time in its 175 years, has endorsed a presidential candidate—Joe Biden. Trump is so anti-science that the highly-respected magazine feels compelled. It didn’t even endorse Abraham Lincoln, as Steven Colbert pointed out on “The Late Show.” Trump, in regular self-delusion, compares himself to Lincoln. Trump also thinks C.D.C. head Robert Redfield is “confused,” that Redfield publicly disagrees with Trump. Redfield states that a Covid-19 vaccine won’t be available until the 2nd or 3rd quarter of 2021. Trump wistfully wants it here by the Nov. 3rd election, as he projects himself the winner. He even has the soldiers …

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Are We Great Again Yet?

To the Editor: How is President Trump doing on his promise to Make America Great Again? The 2020 Social Progress Index measures quality of life in countries around the world based on the research of Nobel-winning economists. The top 10 countries are: Norway, Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Iceland, and the Netherlands. The U.S. ranks 28th. It ranks No. 1 in the quality of universities, but No. 91 in access to quality basic education. We lead the world in medical technology, but are No. 97 in access to quality health care. The U.S. has the most wealth, but the highest income inequality …

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Experiencing White Privilege

To the Editor: I very much appreciated Curtis Springer’s August 22nd [Portsmouth] Herald letter explaining how he would describe white privilege. A small example from my life is that I was at a yard gathering in Rye a number of weeks ago. I had evidently parked in a place on the road that wasn’t designated as safe for oncoming traffic. Midway into the gathering, I saw the lights of a police car. I knew immediately what the problem was. I moved my car. Incident done. Neither the policeman nor I was threatened by the other. I am a white, graying, middle class woman, and he …

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When the world’s on fire, what should we do?

For millions of people around the globe—especially young people—the pressing issue of our time is this: The world is on fire! On fire with climate change, creating a new and intensifying norm of deadly weather extremes that make a dystopian future a distinct possibility—constant wildfires, rising seas, desertification, global crop failures, widespread hunger, water shortages, &c. Luckily, we are a sentient species with the scientific ability to know that the chief cause of this global destruction is not angry gods, but us—specifically humankind’s massive extraction and burning of oil, gas, coal, and other fossil fuels. So, there’s a rising chorus of people shouting “Fire!” And, …

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Study Shows ‘Stakeholder Capitalism’ Failing to Live Up to Promises as Corporations Continue Putting Profits Over People

by Kenny Stancil, Common Dreams When the Business Roundtable issued a statement on corporate purpose and promised to “deliver value to all of…our stakeholders” in 2019, some applauded the attention paid to social and environmental concerns by 181 CEOs as a significant improvement from neoliberal economist Milton Friedman’s 1970 dictate that “the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits,” which marked the beginning of an era of shareholder primacy. But a study published Tuesday by the Test of Corporate Purpose (TCP) initiative showed that amid 2020’s disastrous public health, economic, social, and environmental challenges—the coronavirus pandemic, massive unemployment and worsening inequality, persistent police …

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