Thursday, February 22nd, 2018
Stephan: The corruption of the Trump family is so great, so diverse, and so blatant that the media can't really seem to get their heads around it. It just gets lost in all the other nightmares this monster family has brought to the White House and the Presidency.
The Trumps, however, are quite clear what they are about: Get as much money from as many sources as you can. Parlay your job, and its status to the family's benefit anyway you can. This is what I mean. I haven't even heard it mentioned on any of the cable networks, yet the Trumps have made hundreds of millions of dollars from their new status. The presidency is proving to be very profitable.
Donald Trump, Jr.
Credit: AP Photo/Manish Swarup
Donald Trump Jr. arrived in India on Tuesday for a week-long visit, and his trip has already revealed a couple of things.
First, it’s clear that the Trump administration is still embroiled in huge conflicts of interest. And second, it’s evident that the Trump brand, though toxic at home, commands surprising power in the world’s second most populous country.
President Trump’s eldest son will be spending his time in India promoting Trump-branded luxury apartments across the country. He’ll be meeting with real estate brokers and potential buyers throughout the week in his family business’s biggest market outside the US.
He’s also offering a special reward to Indians who buy property from him: He’ll join them for an intimate meal.
Indian newspapers have been running advertisements that promise homebuyers willing to pay a roughly $38,000 booking fee an opportunity to “join Mr. Donald Trump Jr. for a conversation and dinner.”
Government ethics experts in the US are appalled by that prospect, and say that the arrangement encourages […]
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Thursday, February 22nd, 2018
Alison Snyder, Erin Ross , - AXIOS
Stephan: We make a point of not having any poisons or toxic chemicals in our house, or on our property, and this gets very granular. Down to soaps, toilet paper, and toothpaste, and what we do use is organic, and additive free. If you shop carefully there is not much cost differential. It's more a matter of consciousness.
As I read the research literature I think it is telling us that the miasma of chemicals in which most Americans live is having a very negative effect on their wellbeing.
Make your home an organic island and keep out the chemical, hormonal, and toxic; you will notice the difference.
The research paper in Science referenced in this report can be found at: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6377/760
Common household products like cosmetics, paints, deodorants and cleaners may be a significant source of unhealthy pollutants in U.S. cities. According to a new study published today in the journal Science, chemicals released from these products create as much pollution in the form of ozone and particulate matter as burning fossil fuels.
The bottom line: Overall, air quality in the U.S. has improved due to strict regulations on emissions from cars. And, at the same time, the amount and proportion of other pollutants from consumer products has increased. Addressing that remaining source could further improve human health, according to some experts.
“The main message is that the important sources of air pollution in urban areas are changing. Historically, it was dominated by motor vehicles and over time there has been major success in controlling that source. As a result, other sources are more prominent now as a fraction of the overall problem.”
— Robert Harley, University of California, Berkeley
What’s new: Air pollution measurements have long focused on gasoline-related hydrocarbons. It can be difficult […]
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Thursday, February 22nd, 2018
J. R. Sullivan, Editor, Men's Journal - The New Yorker
Stephan: We don't pay much attention to bats because most people think of them as scary. But like the bees, bats are an important part of the earth's metasystems, critical players in human agriculture and, like the bees, they are in crisis. This excellent article will brief you.
Since white-nose syndrome was first identified, just twelve years ago, it has spread to thirty-one states. The consequences—for bats, humans, and the U.S. economy—could be disastrous.
Credit: Michael Durham / Minden Pictures
Late last summer, the biologist Mark Gumbert began flying over the farmlands of Iowa, looking for bats. As the animals foraged and moved through the night, he followed from above, circling the rivers and fields in his single-engine Cessna 172, trying his best not to lose the signals from their transmitters. Over the past decade or so, Gumbert has pioneered the study of bat migrations using radio telemetry, a method of wildlife tracking typically reserved for caribou, moose, and other big game, which tend to travel at moderate speeds. “A wolf running across the ground can move pretty quick, but they’re not going to run all night,” Gumbert told me recently. A bat, on the other hand, can be nearly impossible to trail on foot or by truck. Gumbert and his team at Copperhead Environmental Consulting were the first to observe […]
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Wednesday, February 21st, 2018
CHARLIE MAY, News writer - Salon
Stephan: "In the past year, almost half the states in the country saw a significant drop in their well-being scores. For the first time since tracking began in 2009, not a single state saw a notable improvement," this Gallup report concludes. What else needs to be said?
And yet. According to fivethirtyeight amongst registered and likely voters Trump's ratings are up, and he is at 43% approval. We voted for this nightmare. That's the hard part to keep in mind.
The Donald Trump era has brought out a lot of emotions, but good feelings are not among them.
In the past year, almost half the states in the country saw a significant drop in their well-being scores. For the first time since tracking began in 2009, not a single state saw a notable improvement. (emphasis added)
A total of 21 states saw their well-being drop in 2017; the previous largest drop was 15 states in 2009 during the middle of the Great Recession, as the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index poll revealed last week. Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of the drop is that perceptions of the job market and consumer economic confidence are much greater now than in 2008, Gallup noted.
In general, states in the South and West suffered the largest declines.
The Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being index is comprised of five components that define well-being: “purpose,” “social,” “financial,” “community” and “physical.” Zero represents the lowest possible score for well-being, while 100 represents the maximum.The average score in the United States for 2017 was 61.5, a dip from 62.1 last year. It’s also the largest year-over-year decline since the polling began. South Dakota and Vermont ranked the highest with a score of 64.1, […]
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Wednesday, February 21st, 2018
SAMANTHA MICHAELS, - Mother Jones
Stephan: Here is the state of the American Gulag, the largest, and one of the most inhumane systems of warehousing human beings on the planet, as it exists in the Trump era. Aren't you proud?
Credit: Getty
Twice in one week, Ray Coleman, a teacher at the Tallahassee Federal Correctional Institution, reluctantly had to drop his lesson plans and go to work as a guard. “You show up in the morning and they say, ‘Hey, by the way, here’s your keys and radio—you’re going to work the compound today,” he says.
Because the low-security prison is short on staff, Coleman and his fellow teachers are regularly assigned to work as correctional officers in the units where inmates live. On those days, they either cancel their courses or leave the classroom open for inmates to fill out worksheets, unsupervised. “For the most part they’re just sitting there,” Coleman says.
Teachers aren’t the only ones assigned to guard duty—so are the prison’s nurses, case workers, and even accountants. And it’s not just happening in Florida. Federal prison employees across the country say staffing cuts made by the Trump administration have crippled their ability to provide services to inmates and keep prisons safe. “It’s very dire,” says Valerie Limon, a drug treatment specialist at […]
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