Elias Isquith, Staff Writer - Salon
Stephan: This is what the Republican Party and our democracy has come to. A handful of aging white men with ultra rightist politics audition Presidential candidates assessing them on their ability to first win and, then, give them a good return on their investment improving their balance sheets, whatever it may do to society as a whole.
This is why I support Bernie Sanders. He is the only candidate in either party who I think will seriously take on Citizens United. And until that decision, perhaps the worst Supreme Court ruling in the history of the country, is reversed and money is taken out of politics our democracy is doomed.
Billionaire businessman Foster Friess and Sheldon Adelson who quite straightforwardly are trying to buy the GOP Presidential candidate who will give them the best return on investment.
Credit: Dennis Van Tine /Keith Srakocic
According to a recent batch of polling from the New York Times and CBS, hating the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision is one of the precious few things on which nearly all Americans — Republicans, Democrats, conservatives and liberals — can agree. For example, a whopping 84 percent of Americans believe money has “too much” influence over political campaigns; and while you’d expect to hear that sentiment from Democrats, no fewer than 80 percent of Republicans agree. In our increasingly polarized era, you don’t see unanimity like that very often.
Now, in an ideal representative democracy, that kind of clear and overwhelming majority would lead to some legislative responses. And they wouldn’t be symbolic ones; they’d have real teeth. Since the United States is most certainly not an ideal representative democracy, however, […]
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April Short, - Alternet (U.S.)
Stephan: Almost all the policies of conservatism are lies, fantasies, or myths. Marijuana prohibition, abstinence only sex-ed, marriage equality. austerity economics. All nothing but toxic claptrap. Whenever any of these schemes are put to the test of actual outcome data their inferiority and incorrectness is made glaringly obvious.
Here's another one: if you make contraceptives easily available then STDS will go up, there will be more abortions. This is the latest on the Colorado contraceptive study that SR has been covering since it began. The study tests this very issue and the data has revealed something quite definitive. What happens when contraceptives are made easily available to teens and and low income women is that unwanted pregnancies drop like a rock, and so does the rate of pregnancy termination. And for every dollars the program costs it saves $5.85 in medical and hospital costs. You would think everyone would be happy. You would be wrong.
For the Right science is irrelevant, that isn't the field they are playing on. To understand the Theocratic Right one has to accept that the real issue is not sex, but purity. And ultimately it is about controlling the behavior of that part of the human race with vaginas. .
It is an existential issue arising from the fact that the only way into incarnation is through the uterus of a woman. This is an absolute truth, that all of human society revolves around. Within their bodies women carry the transporter that moves consciousness into matter.
Credit: Shutterstock
If birth control were free, there would be fewer unwanted pregnancies. This is the longstanding hypothesis put forth by women’s health advocates (and correspondingly written into the Affordable Care Act). Over the last six years, a private grant fund from the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation (billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s late wife) has given Colorado a unique opportunity to test this hypothesis. The results are astounding.
When teenagers and poor women in the state were offered free, long-acting contraceptives—i.e. intrauterine devices (IUD) and implants—they overwhelmingly accepted, and the rate of teen pregnancies has plunged. Teen births in Colorado dropped by 40 percent between 2009 and 2013 and the number of abortions in the state decreased by 42 percent, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
The New York Times called the results of the experiment “startling,” in a cover story this week, noting that while teenage births “have been declining nationally, experts say the timing and magnitude of the reductions in Colorado are […]
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Amanda Froelich, - Nation of Change
Stephan: I keep being told there is nothing to worry about concerning GMOs. And then a physician friend sends me a report on a well-executed GMO diet study published in
The Journal of American Science (link will take you to the actual paper) that I don't know about and, after reading both the report and the actual papert, I feel I have to reconsider.
The paper is three years old, 2012. And the question that arises is why hasn't it been replicated? You would think that national health organizations all over the world, would do a study, based on this study, to confirm or disprove it. That is how science is supposed to work. But I see no evidence of that. And I think that is notable. I also think the GMO question is not yet answered.
Credit: True Activist
Whether you question the safety of GMOs or think the public is concerned about nothing, a recent study will definitely cause you to reconsider your stance.
A new study released by Egyptian scientists has concluded that rats fed a GMO diet suffer from infertility, among other health issues.
Researchers from the Food Technology Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Anatomy and Embryology, and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt found that quite a few unappealing changes took place when rats were fed genetically modified corn.
Because the rats’ organs/body weight and serum biochemistry were altered, potential adverse health and toxic effects were recorded.
The report stated:
“GM corn or soybeans leads to significant organ disruptions in rats and mice, particularly in livers and kidneys. In addition they found other organs may be affected too, such as heart and spleen, or blood cells. The kidneys of males fared the worst, with 43.5% of all the changes, the liver of females followed with 30.8%”
It seems there’s legitimate […]
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Stephan: High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) study after study has shown is nasty stuff. Here is the latest research on it.
It’s no mystery that packaged and prepared foods in our grocery stores are full of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Though while more food makers are omitting this ingredient due to health dangers (and consumer demand), some companies are still including this health-damaging ingredient. Now, new troubling scientific studies reveal how high fructose corn syrup-containing foods are causing yet another unwanted side effect – heart failure.The Big Food Sugar Switch
Professor for cell biology at ETH Zurich’s Institute for Molecular Health Sciences, Wilhelm Krek summarizes the problem with today’s nutrition. He explains that fructose was a replacement for glucose, which at one point in time, was believed to be better for consumers.
At first blush, you can see why this was believed. While glucose spikes blood sugar levels and causes insulin secretions, fructose hardly makes them budge. And since it ‘tastes’ sweeter, food manufacturers thought it was an ideal food additive.
Unfortunately, the assumption that fructose (including high fructose corn syrup) was any better, was dead wrong. The liver converts fructose directly into fat. People who consume lots of fructose end up developing high blood pressure, suffering from […]
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Wednesday, July 8th, 2015
Frederick Clarkson, Senior Fellow at Political Research Associates - Political Research Associates/Public Eye
Stephan: I have been waiting for someone in corporate media to adequate present what flows from the Theocratic Right's argument about religious exemption, what it really leads to. No such luck.
The Founders, after considerable thought were very clear there were to be no such exemptions. They wanted a complete separation of church and state. It is always important to remember everyone who signed the Constitution had a direct or at least a familial experience of what happens to society when religion is exempted or is allowed to set social policy.
It is also important to remember that in the U.S. the Theocratic Right is essentially the wolf in the sheep skin of the Republican Party. Getting religious exemptions is a way of getting power.
This essay presents a good discussion of the issues involved.
Protesters gather in Washington, D.C., for the Stand Up For Religious Freedom rally.
Credit: Flickr and the American Life League
When historians recount the history of separation of church and state in our time, one of the signature events may be a federal court case that didn’t even make it to the Supreme Court. It didn’t need to.
The 2014 case of General Synod of the United Church of Christ v. Cooper was a landmark event because, although the case was ostensibly about opposition to marriage equality, the decision upheld foundational notions of religious equality and equal protection under the law that bind this diverse and often fractious nation. It at once affirmed the equal standing under the law of all religious and non-religious points of view and showed that the Christian Right does not represent all of Christianity.
At issue was a 2012 amendment to the North Carolina state constitution that […]
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