Wednesday, March 13th, 2019
Liam Stack, - The New York Times
Stephan: Although I have been described on numerous occasions as a deeply spiritual person, I have never been a part of any religious community, nor had the slightest interest in becoming one. Perhaps that is why I find it so hard to imagine how one stays a communicant of a denomination such as Roman Catholicism that is so profoundly sexually dysfunctional.
As described in this article, yet another chapter of this dysfunctionality has opened, and already two bishops have been ensnared in the net and dismissed from their priestly duties. It is really quite amazing, and it never seems to end nor does there seem to be any fundamental thinking about the cause.
Bishop Michael Bransfield served as the highest-ranking Catholic official in West Virginia until his retirement in September. He was accused of sexual harassment and financial improprieties.
Credit; Dale Sparks/AP
Bishop Gordon Bennett was accused of sexually harassing a “young adult” in Jamaica in 2006.
Credit: Eric Castro
The archdiocese of Baltimore said on Monday that it had barred two bishops from performing priestly duties and referred their cases to the Vatican after an internal investigation into allegations that they had sexually harassed adults, including one claim that was dismissed by church investigators a decade ago.
The announcement shined a light on the alleged abuse of adults, an often overlooked corner of the Catholic Church abuse scandal, and drew parallels to the downfall of Theodore E. McCarrick, a former cardinal and archbishop of Washington, who was expelled from the priesthood last month […]
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Tuesday, March 12th, 2019
Stephan: This is the best analysis of what Trump's and the Congressional Republicans' "national emergency" is really about. As usual the fundamental issue is corruption.
Republicans having a laugh over the laws they have been able to pass that screw ordinary Americans.
Credit by Chip Somodevilla/
Congress has offered a number of high-minded reasons for why it’s about to rebuke President Donald Trump over his national emergency declaration. It’s a dangerous precedent, said Senator Lamar Alexander. It violates the separation of powers, said Rep. Justin Amash. The president doesn’t control the money; under the Constitution Congress does, said Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
As principled as those complaints might be, they aren’t the real reason that Republicans in both chambers have joined their Democratic colleagues in decrying Trump’s desperate attempt to fulfill his boldest campaign pledge.
No, this fight is really explosive because it is about military construction funds, one of the tiniest parts of the defense budget—$11 billion swimming in a sea of nearly 700 billion defense dollars. The president wants to move a paltry third ($3.6 billion) of those military construction funds away from the projects to which they were assigned in […]
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Tuesday, March 12th, 2019
Julia Conley, Staff Writer - Common Dreams
Stephan: I can hardly believe I am posting this story, yet another proof of the contempt in which Trump and the Republicans hold the wellbeing of American society. And yet Trump's approval rating today is 49.1%, according to fivethirtyeight.com. How is it possible that tens of millions of American voters continue to support a man who is obviously a crook, a grifter, a liar, and an adulterer; a man who every day does things that debase and degrade the lives of the people of the United States and the world? That, I think, is the important question facing each of us.
The Health and Human Services Department is diverting funds from HIV and cancer prevention programs and other health programs to pay to detain thousands of unaccompanied minors who cross the U.S-Mexico border.
Credit: Shutterstock
Alzheimer’s patients, lower-income preschool children, and HIV and cancer patients are among the Americans whose needs may go unmet so that the Trump administration can afford to detain thousands of migrant children.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar told Congress this week that he plans to divert $385 million from numerous healthcare programs to pay for detention centers across the country where more than 15,000 young undocumented immigrants are currently being held.
“We cannot continue to spend taxpayer dollars on the President’s manufactured crisis at the border, which is government-sanctioned child abuse.” —Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.)
About $286 million will be taken from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and HHS’s programs for children and families, according to The Hill. Programs including HIV prevention and Head Start are expected to be affected.
“The Trump administration […]
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Tuesday, March 12th, 2019
Tiffany Hsu, - The New York Times
Stephan: This is a very disturbing story. A large percentage of Americans eat fastfood not as an occasional meal, but as a regular meal. That is one of the reasons the American population is not just fat but obese, and why Type II diabetes has become a health crisis, particularly amongst the young.
To hear the fast food companies describe what they are doing they are getting more and more health conscious, and their food is getting healthier. As this report states, that is not the truth. The fact is fastfoods are, "bigger, saltier, heavier" than they were in 1986. Here's the data.
“The big picture is that there have been some positive changes,” one researcher said of fast food menus, “but they’re small, and over all, the changes have gotten worse.”
Credit: Gene J. Puskar/AP
Fast food chains have tried for years to woo health-conscious diners by mixing lighter fare like salads and yogurt with the usual burgers, fried chicken and shakes.
But as menus swelled over the past three decades with grilled chicken wraps (McDonald’s) and “fresco”burritos (Taco Bell), many options grew in size and the calories and sodium in them surged, according to new study from researchers at Boston University and Tufts.
The researchers studied 1,787 entrees, sides and desserts at 10 chains — Arby’s, Burger King, Carl’s Jr., Dairy Queen, Hardee’s, Jack in the Box, KFC, Long John Silver’s, McDonald’s and Wendy’s — from 1986 to 2016. In that time, the number of items in those three categories rose 226 percent.
According to the study — published […]
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Tuesday, March 12th, 2019
Rob Davies, - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: Here is some excellent news, not only about its specifics but as a sign that a change of consciousness is underway concerning ending the world's dependence on hydrocarbon energy production. As usual, it is another example of how the Nordic states, which emphasize, social wellbeing are leading the way into the future.
The Troll gas platform off the coast of Norway. The change in strategy will affect 1.2% of the wealth fund’s equity holdings, worth about £5.7bn.
Credit: Marit Hommedal/AP
The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, which manages $1tn (£770bn) of Norway’s assets, is to dump investments in firms that explore for oil and gas, but will still hold stakes in firms such as BP and Shell that have renewable energy divisions.
The Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), whose assets exceed those of rival sovereign wealth funds such as China’s, said it would phase out oil exploration from its “investment universe”.
The strategy shift, on the back of advice from the country’s central Norges Bank, will affect 1.2% of its equity holdings, worth about 66bn Norwegian krone (£5.7bn).
GPFG said the decision was motivated by a desire to protect the Norwegian economy by reducing exposure to oil price falls, rather than climate concerns.
It will retain stakes in fossil fuel companies as long as they have some involvement in renewable energy. Its stakes in large […]
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