Tuesday, October 18th, 2016
Julie Ray, - The Gallup Organization
Stephan: This Gallup Survey about how the rest of the world looks at the U.S.. I take as good news. People in other countries are horrified by Trump but apparently still see the U.S. in a positive way.
Credit: The Gallup Organization
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Since President Barack Obama took office in 2009, the image of the U.S. has been relatively strong worldwide. Approval ratings of U.S. leadership have not yet returned to the high levels observed when he first took office (49%), but in most years, they have been higher than the ratings for other major global powers — several of whom have had similar continuity in their leadership.
The same is true as Obama prepares to leave office. For the third consecutive year, the leadership of the U.S. earns the highest approval ratings among five major global powers. Median approval of U.S. leadership across 132 countries and areas in 2015 is 45% — unchanged from 2014. The U.S. narrowly tops Germany, which has a median approval rating of 43%. The EU follows closely behind with a rating of 39%.
A sizable gap remains between ratings of the U.S., Germany and the EU and ratings of the leadership of China and Russia. Median approval of China’s leadership has been […]
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Tuesday, October 18th, 2016
Lizette Borreli , - Medical Daily
Stephan: It is my view that the greatest gift you can give yourself in this life is to develop the daily practice of meditation. There are literally thousands of papers in the medical literature showing the many benefits. Here is one of the latest.
Source: Lin Y, Fisher ME, Roberts SMM et al. Deconstructing the Emotion Regulatory Properties of Mindfulness: An Electrophysiological Investigation. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 2016.
Credit: Yoga Journal
Most of us are equipped with the knowledge of how to fix a flat tire, terminate a computer virus, or watch the latest episode of Game of Thrones without HBO. However, when it comes to a crisis, we instinctually panic, and become overridden with anxiety and stress. Now, a recent study published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience suggests meditation can help keep our emotional brain in check, even if we’re not mindful.
When researchers recorded the brain activity of people looking at disturbing pictures shortly after meditating for the first time; those who weren’t mindful were able to tame their negative emotions as well as people who were naturally mindful.
“Our findings not only demonstrate that meditation improves emotional health, but that people can acquire these benefits regardless of their ‘natural’ ability to be mindful,” said Yanli Lin, lead author of the study and a graduate student at Michigan State University, in a statement.
Mindfulness meditation has gained worldwide popularity for its ability to promote awareness of […]
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Monday, October 17th, 2016
David Ferguson, - Reuters
Stephan: When I look at this election what I see at this point is the Great Schism Trend coming to a head. I think Trump is going to lose, deserves to lose, is a psychopathic fraud, but I don't think that is the leverage point issue. That has moved into the short term future. For me the issue now is what happens beginning November 9th.
I think the concerns about Hillary Clinton's institutional centrism have been effectively handled. The Bernie Effect, the Elizabeth Warren Effect supported by the revelations in the emails that are being leaked will require Clinton to take a socially progressive path. Perhaps considerably more than she would have chosen if that option were viable, but it is not. And she is a pragmatist above all.
The next gate we have to get through is whether the Democrats take the Senate. If that happens the Supreme Court will be more compassionate and life-affirming, and will take a proactive view of laws in light of climate change. Taxes will be increased on the utra-wealthy, minimum wage will go up, and health care may finally get handled. That's the wellbeing path. But, and it's a big But...
For me the trend to watch is what happens in the next eight years with the nativist roaring boys of the Caucasian, racist, gun-toting Theocratic Right. I say eight years, two terms because by then the effects of climate change will be clear enough to make denial a comedic position socially condemned. Like using what has come to be called -- a social convention worth noting -- the "N" word. Also the shift to electric power solar and wind generated will be so far along, much as computers were adopted, as to have a majority constituency. But the next eight years...
The problem has been made immeasurably more complicated because of the abysmal performance of corporate media. Part of the meme of "the election is rigged" is that the media is compromised. It has been, but not in the way the way Donald Trump is pedaling it, and the Trumpists believe.
I don't Trump is running for President anymore. I think he knows he is going to lose and the questions is: How do I turn the ≈42% of America that has supported me in spite of everything that has come out, that has made me judgment proof in a way into a political party, supported by interlocking private business and so I can make a lot of money, and bite my thumb at all my critics?" The answer to that question I think will require him to stoke these nativist racist fires; that would put us in a very dangerous place.
This story of the largest and oldest newspaper in Arizona, The Republic, is a cautionary tale to be taken very seriously.
On Sunday, the head of an Arizona newspaper that endorsed Hillary Clinton revealed some of the threats that she and her staff have received from angry Trump supporters and resolved to stand firm.
Republic Media president Mi-Ai Parrish spoke to CNN Money’s Jill Disis about the backlash the Arizona Republic newspaper has weathered since it endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton over Republican nominee Donald Trump.
“We’re being targeted … it’s not the America I know. It’s not the democracy I love,” she said.
“As someone who has spent a career in the business of words, it’s unusual to find myself speechless,” Parrish wrote in an op-ed published this weekend. “What is the correct response, really, to this?”
She then published some of the hateful phrases that have been directed at her and the Republic staff since the traditionally conservative newspaper declined to endorse Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump:
YOU’RE DEAD. WATCH YOUR BACK.
WE WILL BURN YOU DOWN.
YOU SHOULD BE PUT IN FRONT OF A FIRING SQUAD AS A TRAITOR.
The newspaper, said CNN, has been deluged with threatening calls. […]
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Monday, October 17th, 2016
NICHOLAS BAKALAR, - The New York Times
Stephan: Obesity and the Type II diabetes that often accompanies it is literally killing thousands of people. Now a linkage with liver cancer has emerged, as this report explains. Keep your waistline below 40" and your BMI less than 26. Take this very seriously.
General practitioner measuring waist of obese patient
A large study has found that body mass index, waist circumference and diabetes are all associated with an increased risk for liver cancer. Liver cancer is the sixth most common cancer, and its incidence has tripled since the mid-1970s in the United States.
For the study, in Cancer Research, researchers pooled data from 14 prospective studies with more than 1.5 million participants. After controlling for age, sex, alcohol use, smoking and race, they found that being overweight increased the relative risk for liver cancer by between 21 percent and 142 percent as B.M.I. increased. For each 2-inch increase in waist circumference, the risk of liver cancer increased by 8 percent, even after controlling for B.M.I. And those with Type 2 diabetes had more than double the risk of liver cancer, even among the non-obese.
There was no association of B.M.I. with cancer if the patient had hepatitis, a cause of liver cancer […]
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Monday, October 17th, 2016
Will Stewart and Julian Robinson, - Mail (U.K.)
Stephan: While American media milks coverage of our favorite fascist psychopath for all the ratings they can get, something very strange is going on in Russia. My interpretation, although preliminary, is that Putin's economy is in real trouble and he is choosing to use the threat that the West is planning to attack Russia to influence people to rally round the government. I see almost nothing about this in the U.S. press, but in Russia and the U.K. it is getting considerable play.
Credit: Mail
Russian citizens have reacted with fear over reports Moscow has ordered officials to fly home all relatives living abroad – with some residents claiming it is ‘another step towards war’.
The Kremlin is said to have told high ranking officials to bring their loved ones back to the ‘Motherland’ immediately – with any who disobey being overlooked for promotion.
It comes against a backdrop of rapidly deteriorating relations with the West over Russia’s role in the Syria conflict and just days after Putin moved nuclear-ready missiles closer to the border with Poland.
Putin also cancelled a planned visit to France amid a furious row over Moscow’s role in the Syrian conflict and just days after it emerged the Kremlin had moved nuclear-capable missiles near to the Polish border.
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev warned just days ago that the world is at a ‘dangerous point’ due to rising tensions between Russia and the US.
Russian political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky warned yesterday: ‘This is all part of the package of measures to prepare […]
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