Friday, September 9th, 2016
Stephan: One of the important issues that isn't being covered by corporate media, or mentioned in the election process -- there are so many -- is the growing American Police State Trend, and one of the major components of that story is electronic surveillance. Here is the latest.
Dozens of US businesses, tech companies, and prominent rights groups have filed in support of Microsoft, which is currently suing the Justice Department over its use of gag orders.
The software giant announced that it filed suit against in April in an effort to strike down the government’s use of gag orders, which Microsoft argues is unconstitutional.
The company said in a legal filing that the government should not be allowed to prevent a company from telling a customer when their data has been turned over to investigators. These gag orders can be used in cases where national security is at risk, such as terrorism investigations, but often aren’t.
As of Friday, the deadline for filing amicus briefs in the case, more than 80 signatories have rallied behind the company.
Many of those who signed also include attorneys, law professors, and former law enforcement officials.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed
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Friday, September 9th, 2016
Jeff Nesbit, Executive Director of Climate Nexus - U.S. New & World Report
Stephan: There are times when I read a report and think "What have we become as a country?" This is one of them. I just don't think it is possible today to support the Republican Party and be an ethical person. Just start with the support for Donald Trump. But also consider, as this report does, what the Republican Congress is doing about Zika. It is just so vile, so nasty, so productive of long term suffering, so needlessly expensive, it is hard to believe it is not one of the major stories of the day but, well, it's not.
Like many nasty minded non-wellness oriented Theocratic Rightist social policies at its core the resistance to effectively dealing with Zika, I think, has to do with the patriarchal sex-obsession that is one of the party's hallmarks. Do you let a woman have an abortion who will have a severely physically and mentally handicapped baby? One that will change the entire structure of her family and cost both family and government lifelong expense, while condemning the baby itself to a kind of half-life?
For someone like me who believes consciousness is fundamental and causal and who sees abortion as the death of a thimble-sized fetus but not the enduring soul; and who has been responsible for 30 years for the care of a severely handicapped brother; and who believes that if you don't control your own body you don't really control anything, the answer is "Yes."
But for religious materialists who seem to have no real understanding of a spiritual nonlocal domain, who think women need to be controlled, and that the government should limit access to contraception and abortion the answer is "no."
That I think is why the Congress won't fund Zika research. You won't hear it on the news but that, I think, is what is really going on. You can see the proof of my hypothesis playing out in Catholic countries in Central and South America to horrifying results.
Another day, another failed vote in Congress on the Zika public health crisis. It’s hard to imagine why any voter, anywhere, isn’t outraged by the games being played in Congress on urgently needed federal research funding to deal with the Zika virus threat that’s now starting to ripple through communities in the United States.
For those who’ve forgotten, the White House first asked Congress to deal with the emerging Zika health crisis seven months ago in February. Congress has done nothing.
Congress adjourned for its summer break without any action on Zika. When it returned from its break Tuesday, it picked up right where it had left off, and failed (again) to vote for something that might actually provide a path forward.
Senate Republicans keep adding extraneous riders on hot button issues such as Planned Parenthood funding or Obamacare to bills that would keep federal agencies from running out of funds to address the public health crisis. Rather than just approve Zika research funding on a straight up vote, they keep playing games to pursue […]
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Friday, September 9th, 2016
Stephan: This is what Zika looks like in an patriarchal anti-contraception anti-choice nation. Can you imagine the suffering Brazil's social policies are inflicting on these Zika families, particularly the poor of course.
This stark statistical reality was discovered by a team of researchers from Brazil’s Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, which analyzed hospital records across Brazil from 2008, well before Zika arrived, until the end of February 2016.
The researchers also looked for data on rare, potentially deadly inflammations of the brain and spinal cord such as encephalitis, myelitis, and encephalomyelitis, as well as
Guillain-Barré syndrome, a disorder where the body’s immune system attacks its own nerve cells, causing pain, paralysis and even death.
The results,
published in the Centers for Disease Control […]
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Friday, September 9th, 2016
Dan Nosowitz , - modern farmer
Stephan: The great irony of Zika is that the cure can be as bad as the problem. Not only for humans but for all life forms. South Carolina recently killed millions of bees trying to block a problem which did not, in fact, yet exist in the state.
Zika is the result of the disordered way in which humans live in the matrix of life.
Council worker dusting DDT on mosquito breeding water by using a hand operated machine in Brisbane, 1949.
Sometimes it’s easy to think that banning a harmful product, or cracking down on its disposal, can simply erase any future problems.
But a new study from Drexel University indicates that that might not be the case. Older readers may remember the infamous pesticide DDT, which was banned in 1972, ten years after the publication of Rachel Carson’s seminal book Silent Spring, which detailed the many ways in which DDT was ravaging the environment. (The pesticide might be most infamous for very nearly pushing the bald eagle to extinction.)
DDT is a member of a group of pesticides known as organochlorines, all of which were banned at that same time. In the same general family are polychlorinated biphenyls, usually abbreviated to PCBs, which throughout the 20th century were produced as a byproduct of various manufactured goods and, frequently, dumped […]
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Thursday, September 8th, 2016
Alexis Anderson, - PR Newswire
Stephan: American eating habits as this reports describes are changing to better alternatives. I consider that excellent news.
Nearly one-third of respondents in a recent survey revealed that dairy alternatives rank as their favorite “better-for-you” food. The survey was conducted online by 72 Point Inc. on behalf of Earth Balance.
BOULDER, COLORADO — More grocery shoppers are seeking out and trying “better-for-you” foods, especially dairy- and meat-free alternatives, according to a new national health food study by Earth Balance. Two thousand consumers were polled for the study, which looked at which new foods they’re trying, their top motivators and trends in healthy eating.
While the better-for-you food trend is not new, its growth does not seem to be slowing down anytime soon. In fact, when asked which factors are most important to them when shopping for food, respondents said buying local (37%), organic (33%) and non-GMO (30%) are key. Additionally, Americans are more willing to try better-for-you-foods, with the study showing the most-tried are […]
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