TIM ARANGO, CEYLAN YEGINSU and SAFAK TIMUR, - The New York Times
Stephan: Three years ago I had the opportunity to spend several weeks in Turkey, a country to which I had never been. I had lived in Egypt for almost two years, and had previously traveled through other nations in the middle east when I worked for National Geographic, and I thought I had a pretty good take on what Islamic countries and cities were like. Turkey taught me that my suppositions were wrong. Turkey was a modern country, which treated women fairly, and was a functioning democracy. Attaturk who created the modern Turkish state was very clear about what Turkey was supposed to be like. He banned religious garments, made government workers dress in Western business dress, and saw that the schools actually taught something other than religion.
Now, as this report lays out, all that is coming unraveled and Turkey is reverting to an Islamic dictatorship. I would argue this is yet another manifestation of the complete disruption of the Middle East.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey in Ankara last month. Two months after a failed military coup, a wide-scale purge led by Mr. Erdogan has reached witch-hunt proportions, according to a growing chorus of critics. Credit Turkish Presidential Office, via European Pressphoto Agency
ISTANBUL — Candan Badem teaches history at a university in southern Turkey, is a socialist and does not believe in God. But he lost his job and was hauled in by the police and accused of being a loyalist to a shadowy Islamic cleric who lives in exile in Pennsylvania.
The evidence against him: A book written by the cleric, Fethullah Gulen, was found in his office.
“It was like a bad joke,” said Mr. Badem, who says he believes the real reason he was targeted was that he signed a petition […]
Ed Pilkington and the Guardian US interactive team, - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: The corruption of American democracy as a result of Citizens United is carefully masked so that citizens don't really understand how truly vile the corruption has become. But in the end things come out. This sorry little tale involves Theocratic Rightist Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker who, alone with fellow Republican governors Sam Brownback, Bobby Jindal, and Rick Scott will be remembered by history for his incompetence, failure, and nastiness.
Leaked court documents from ‘John Doe investigation’ in Wisconsin lay bare pervasive influence of corporate cash on modern US election.
Scott Walker was under pressure. It was September 2011, and earlier that year the first-term governor had turned himself into the poster boy of hardline Republican politics by passing the notorious anti-union measure Act 10, stripping public sector unions of collective bargaining rights.
Now he was under attack himself, pursued by progressive groups who planned revenge by forcing him into a recall election. His job was on the line.
He asked his main fundraiser, Kate Doner, to write him a briefing note on how they could raise enough money to win the election. At 6.39am on a Wednesday, she fired off an email to Walker and his top advisers flagged “red”.
“Gentlemen,” she began. “Here are my quick thoughts on raising money for Walker’s possible recall efforts.”
Her advice was bold and to the point. “Corporations,” she said. “Go heavy after them to give.” She continued: “Take Koch’s money. Get on a plane to Vegas and sit down with Sheldon Adelson. Ask for $1m now.”
Her advice must have hit a sweet spot, because […]
Stephan: One of the darkest chapters in the story of Big Pharma is the opioid epidemic. Here is the truth of the story.
Kim Grajcar of West Palm Beach holds a photo of her daughter Samantha, who died of a heroin overdose. CreditBruce R. Bennett/Palm Beach Post/ZUMA
Each year, more than 40,000 Americans die from drug overdoses.(emphasis added) That’s on par with the annual death toll from HIV/AIDS at the peak of the US epidemic, in the late ’80s and early ’90s, and far more than are killed each year from car accidents or gun violence. More than half of those overdose deaths involved opioids, a class of drugs including heroin, Vicodin, OxyContin, and fentanyl.
So dire is the epidemic of opioid addiction that it inspired a rare moment of political bipartisanship earlier this year, when Congress passed the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act to increase accessibility to addiction medications and the overdose reversal drug naloxone. Democrats tried to include $920 million in treatment funding, but Republicans blocked the move, […]
Stephan: GMOS have been mired in controversy since they were first introduced. Here is the latest information on their pluses and minuses. Because of the size of this study I think these conclusions will probably hold up.
THE IMPACT OF GMOs
Genetically-modified crops are a contentious topic in developed societies because of the ongoing debate on the benefits and environmental drawbacks of creating our own versions of naturally occurring organisms.
Now, researchers have conducted a tremendous study in the field — the longest review of genetically modified crops and pesticide use yet.
The team, which included four academics led by economist Federico Ciliberto of the University of Virginia, studied data taken from 5,000 soybean and 5,000 maize farmers in the U.S. And unlike typical studies that look at data from one or two years, this was a 14-year study from 1998 to 2011.
“The fact that we have 14 years of farm-level data from farmers all over the U.S. makes this study very special,” Ciliberto said in a statement. “We have repeated observations of the same farmers and can see when they adopted genetically modified seeds and how that changed their use of chemicals.”
There are two GMO varieties in maize and soybeans: one kills insects and the other tolerates glyphosate, an herbicide commonly used in weed killers.
Stephan: This is a sad story of human suffering, and I think that is the most important point to keep in mind. But it is also yet another case study demonstrating the inferiority of the social policies enacted by the Theocratic Right. As the report documents they always degrade wellness. And yet it should not be forgotten that these policies exist because people in Texas voted for the government that created them.
The Lone Star state is the most dangerous place to give birth in the US. While the maternal mortality rate has been internationally decreasing, a study published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology found the rate in Texas had doubled in two years.
A study from Maryland-based researchers found that Texas not only has the highest maternal mortality rate in the US, but in much of the industrial world. With an estimated 35.8 deaths per 100,000 births in 2014, Texas’ rate of mothers dying during or as a result of childbirth is comparable to Mexico (38 per 100,000), Uzbekistan (36 per 100,000) and Egypt (33 per 100,000), according to the World Bank.
In fact, this is the highest rate in Texas since 1976, when it was 20 per 100,000, according to the Texas State Department of Health.
Leaked court documents from ‘John Doe investigation’ in Wisconsin lay bare pervasive influence of corporate cash on modern US election.
The Lone Star state is the most dangerous place to give birth in the US. While the maternal mortality rate has been internationally decreasing, a study published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology found the rate in Texas had doubled in two years.
What reproductive rights? Okla. governor vetoes bill banning abortions 
