Alexandra Jacobo, - Nation of Change
Stephan: Everyday I scour about 80 publications, and several databases looking for reports on trends -- although they are not usually recognized as such by the writers of the reports I find. Some days are more depressing than others, but SR deals in facts not dreams or fantasies. I am always on the lookout for positive trends, and am saddened by their paucity. What I do see with increasing frequency is the corruption, moral and financial, as well as the overweening greed or elected officials at both the state and federal levels. And I am sorry to have to say this, but it is overwhelmingly Republican. Here is an example of exactly what I mean.
Rob Bishop is a Republican of course, as well as the Chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources; it is his committee that oversees the pristine lands that make up our common heritage. His uninterest in preserving them, and his corruption is so obvious it hardly needs to be mentioned. And I am sure the people of Utah who seem to vote on "values" not good judgment will re-elect him.
Republican Representative Rob Bishop of Utah’s First District
Representative Rob Bishop of Utah has authored a new bill to help with Puerto Rico’s debt crisis. The problem is that it includes a provision that would allow the sale and private development of the Vieques National Wildlife Refuge.
Under the bill, 3,100 acres of the refuge to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico who could then sell it off to private interests. This means it could be developed on, threatening the animals that live there, including 12 endangered animals and plants as well as 190 species of migratory and resident birds.
Vieques National Wildlife Refuge was original an area where the U.S. navy conducted live munitions bombings. The bombings were halted in 2001 due to residents’ opposition and was then turned into a refuge. It is currently the fourth most popular refuge in the National Wildlife Refuge system.
It is unclear why Bishop is pushing for the refuge to be part of the debt relief bill. Not only did Puerto Rico not ask for the land to be put up for development, […]
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Stephan: American corporate media can only deal with one "big" story at a time, and right now it is the election treated as a horse race or boxing match. So the story of what is going on in Yemen is more or less completely unknown to Americans. But it is an important story because it tells us exactly why people in the Middle East hate us and terrorism infects our lives.
Do you think the people hit by these American bombs being dropped by the Saudis in American planes don't recognize the weaponry and the delivery system for what it is? How would you feel about someone who just blew up your house and killed your family, including your little girl? Do you think your teenage son, or daughter, yes both, might be inclined to strike back, particularly if it was religiously sanctioned?
This is late Rome fighting the Germanic tribes. We must change our strategy, the geopolitics are against us.
People search for belongings amid the wreckage of the damaged school cafeteria near an amusement park after it was hit by Saudi-led air strikes in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, February 12, 2016.
Credit: Reuters/Mohamed al-Sayaghi
The bombs used by the Saudi-led coalition to carry out one of the worst massacres in the year-long war in Yemen were provided by the U.S., according to a new report by Human Rights Watch.
On March 15, the Saudi-led coalition bombed a market in the town Mastaba, in Yemen’s Hajja province, northwest of the capital Sanaa. At least
119 people were killed in two airstrikes, including 25 children. Another 47 people were wounded.
Human Rights Watch says the Western-backed coalition bombing “caused indiscriminate or foreseeably disproportionate loss of civilian life, in violation of the laws of war.”
In Yemen, the Hajja massacre led to enormous outrage. […]
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Yael T. Abouhalkah, - Kansas City Star
Stephan: Kansas is going to be a case study of the failure of a model for generations. Here is the latest on Governor Sam Brownback and his merry band. What I don't understand is why anyone still takes Republican governance and economic policies seriously. And I don;t mean that as a partisan comment. I mean on the basis of data. How much clearer than this story does it have to get?
Kansas Republican Governor Sam Brownback
Credit: Thad Allton/AP|
Gov. Sam Brownback once pledged that his 2012 tax cuts would lead to a surge of employment on the Kansas side of the state line in the Kansas City area.
The newest jobs report from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that’s not happening. By a long shot.
The data, in fact, are extremely discouraging for Brownback and the few remaining people who thought his tax cuts would act like a jobs magnet for the Sunflower State.
The bottom line: Missouri gained employment almost five times faster than Kansas in the metro region over the full year from February 2015 to February 2016.
And because the Missouri portion of employment is slightly larger than the Kansas side to start with, the actual number of jobs added was more than six times higher in the Show-Me State.
The numbers:
▪ The Missouri portion of the area added 13,900 jobs over that 12-month period, up 2.4 percent.
▪ The Kansas side […]
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Thursday, April 7th, 2016
Caroline Humer, - Scientific American
Stephan: I went out yesterday to refill a med I have been taking for about five years. Until yesterday the cost was $4.00 a month. This time I discovered it had gone up 575% and was now $23. Maybe that's why this report got my attention. We in the United States pay many multiples of what the same drugs cost in the rest of the world. How can this be possible? How do you think? The grotesque corruption of the U.S. Congress. To Big Pharma Americans are like cows to be milked. And the sicker they are the better.
2013 data from the International Federation of Health Plans
Major drug companies took hefty price increases in the U.S., in some cases more than doubling listed charges, for widely used medications over the past five years, a Reuters analysis of proprietary data found.
Prices for four of the nation’s top 10 drugs increased more than 100 percent since 2011, Reuters found. Six others went up more than 50 percent. Together, the price increases on drugs for arthritis, high cholesterol, asthma and other common problems added billions in costs for consumers, employers and government health programs.
Extraordinary price hikes by two small companies, Turing Pharmaceuticals and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc (VRX.TO), drew new attention to drug costs. Turing expected to book $200 million by raising the price of Daraprim, an antiparasitic used for a rare infection, by 5,000 percent, according to company documents released by Congressional investigators.
Routine price increases by bigger players may draw less attention, but they add up. Sales for the top 10 drugs went up […]
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Thursday, April 7th, 2016
, - Agence-France Presse (France)
Stephan: Parallel to the obesity epidemic is a concurrent crisis in diabetes. To eat in a healthy manner today requires real work. Big Food's products are literally killing us.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND — The number of adults estimated to be living with diabetes surged to 422 million by 2014, a nearly four-fold increase on 1980 figures, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday, in its first-ever global report on the disease.
“Globally, an estimated 422 million adults were living with diabetes in 2014, compared to 108 million in 1980,” the UN health agency said, warning that the condition had spread because of worldwide changes “in the way people eat, move and live.”
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