, - Agence France Presse (France)
Stephan: There is so much about the toxins we spew into the environment that we do not know. Here is the latest example of what I mean. As you read this report please remember what the Trump administration has been doing to serve the interests of polluters to the detriment of the people of America, and the world.
You would think that reports like this would lead to massive citizen outcry. But it doesn't. Why? Perhaps because 43 per cent of Americans approve of what Trump is doing. Why? Perhaps they don't act because they are either too ignorant, simply not smart enough, or are driven by their fears and hates and thus don't recognize or acknowledge what is happening.
PARIS, FRANCE — Air pollution caused one in seven new cases of diabetes in 2016, according to a US study, which found even low levels raised the chances of developing the chronic disease. (emphasis added)
Diabetes has primarily been associated with lifestyle factors like diet and a sedentary lifestyle, but research by the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis said pollution also plays a major role.
The study estimated that pollution contributed to 3.2 million new diabetes cases globally in 2016 — or around 14 percent of all new diabetes cases globally that year.
“Our research shows a significant link between air pollution and diabetes globally,” said Ziyad Al-Aly, the study’s senior author.
Pollution is thought to reduce the body’s insulin production, “preventing the body from converting blood glucose into energy that the body needs to maintain health,” according to the research.
Al-Aly said the research, published in the Lancet Planetary Health, found an increased risk even with levels of air pollution currently considered safe by the […]
No Comments
RYAN KORONOWSKI, - Think Progress
Stephan: Everyday I read the comments of officials in the Trump Reich. The one constant I see is that they are all liars. Almost no one involved with Trump tells the truth about anything, and certainly not Trump himself.
As a result of this endless mendacity, which I believe is a tactic in a deliberate strategy, is it surprising that polls show a majority of Americans have confused and inaccurate perceptions as to what is actually going on in this country? It seems to me that at the most basic level public officials should at least reliably tell the truth.
Larry Kudlow
Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, said that the deficit is “coming down rapidly” in a Friday morning appearance on Fox Business.
The problem for President Trump’s top economic adviser is that the deficit is actually rising.
“As the economy gears up, more people working, better jobs and careers, those revenues come rolling in and the deficit, which was one of the other criticisms, is coming down,” Kudlow told host Maria Bartiromo. “It’s coming down rapidly. Growth solves a lot of problems.”
However, the deficit is actually increasing, and is projected to do so well into the future. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected as of April 2018 that the FY 2018 deficit is $804 billion. Fiscal Year 2017’s deficit was $666 billion, increasing from $586 billion in FY 2016. This leads to an even worse projection for the federal debt. The CBO concluded in a report earlier this week: “At 78 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), federal debt held by the public is now at its highest level since shortly […]
No Comments
Stephan: The dysfunctionality of the Federal government, by which I mean that governance is designed to serve the interests of a tiny group of uber-rich and not the society as a whole, has become consistent and pervasive. As a result something very interesting is happening, social policies that actually help people are shifting to local government. Here is an example of what I mean, as well as the effects this shift is producing.
This transition, in my opinion, is going to create another trend, one with profound long term implications: the rise of states's rights efforts not by conservative Red states, as has been traditional, but by wellbeing oriented Blue states. The disparity that is growing between the Blue state societies and the Red state societies is close to a confrontation point. Red state economies are sputtering, while Blue states are prospering. I am beginning to see commentary asking why the Blue states should underwrite the failures of the Red states.
What could tip this is a change in Roe v Wade, particularly if the change were to allow states to determine whether women have the right to control their own bodies. A change like that might even result in population shifts, migrations out of Red states by young women, and men who support them, which would result in population loss and, thus, a smaller number of representatives.
It is a race now between christofacism and a wellbeing oriented democracy.
Seattle Coffee House
Credit: Chona Kasinger
SEATTLE—On an overcast morning in early April, three members of the Seattle City Council arrived to find their cavernous, titanium- and maple-paneled meeting chambers packed to capacity with a noisy, unwelcoming crowd. Many wore T-shirts bearing the message “I drive, I vote.” When the council president tried to open the hearing, one argumentative man kept interrupting so industriously that security had to escort him from the room.
The confrontation had been orchestrated in part by Uber, the ride-share company, as the latest move in its long-simmering war with the city. Almost from the moment Uber chose Seattle as its third test market, back in 2011, the city has sought to put itself between the company and its drivers: first, there had been an ordinance attempting to cap the number of ride-share drivers here; then, in 2015, the City Council passed a law allowing drivers to bargain collectively. Now, the city was considering a law to force ride-share companies to nearly double the base rate paid […]
No Comments
Mike Ludwig, Staff Reporter - truthout
Stephan: Imagine: you have just turned 16 and you are locked up in your closet. You don't know for how long. The light never goes off, you talk to no one, see no one, your meals, such as they are, are shoved through a mail slot cut in the closet door. What do you think the effect of that would be on you? Read this article.
America is a prison nation. We have five per cent of the world population, and twenty five per cent of the world's prisoners, including children. And now we are starting children concentration camps. America is a very sick country.
Credit: Daniel Schonherr/Eyeem
Despite a growing movement to end the practice of isolating humans in tiny cells for hours and days on end, prisoners are still held in solitary confinement in prisons and jails across the United States — including children. Consider Palm Beach, Florida, where a class-action lawsuit filed in a federal district court last week on behalf of three teenage boys held in the county jail is challenging the practice of placing children in solitary confinement with disturbing allegations against the local sheriff’s department and school board.
According to a complaint filed by human rights lawyers this month, boys aged 16 and 17 are held in solitary confinement at the Palm Beach County Jail for 23 or 24 hours a day, sometimes for weeks and even months on end. They are kept in quiet, tiny cells that contain only “a combined toilet and sink, a stainless steel desk and bolted-down stool, a steel bed with a thin mattress, and an overhead fluorescent light.” The bolted metal doors have two […]
3 Comments
Stephan: The rest of the developed nations are moving as fast as they can into a post-carbon reality. The United States in contrast is moving backwards to satisfy the greed of the neo-feudal lords who own the country. Straight out of the classic fascist playbook it is all being argued on national security terms, as this report describes . The argument will not withstand scrutiny.
The well-ruled nations of the world are investing in, and designing entirely new decentralized power systems, solar roads, charging stations, regional and local solar and wind. Strategically in either war or environmental catastrophe, such systems are better, and cheaper. And then there's the clean-up. What do Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima suggest to you?
U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said on Thursday that bailing out struggling coal and nuclear power plants is as important to national security as keeping the military strong, and that the cost to Americans should not be an issue.
“You cannot put a dollar figure on the cost to keep America free,” he told reporters at a press conference in Washington, when asked about the administration’s effort to extend the lives of the facilities. When asked about the cost of a potential bailout, he said he did not yet know.
“We look at the electricity grid as every bit as important to (national security) as making sure we have the right number of ships, aircraft and personnel,” he said. “What is your freedom worth?”
President Donald Trump ordered the Department of Energy (DOE) to take emergency measures to slow the retirements of coal and nuclear power plants, arguing those kinds of facilities can store months of fuel on site and therefore withstand supply disruptions that could be caused by storms, hacks, or physical attacks.
The effort fits neatly with the administration’s broader agenda to boost U.S. fossil fuels production and to save the coal industry, but has been criticized by an unusual alliance […]
2 Comments
