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In Dickens’ “Oliver Twist,” children in a 19th century London workhouse are fed the smallest amounts of the cheapest foods to maximize the profit accrued by the owners. In Hansel and Gretel, a witch lures the children into her gingerbread home then works to fatten Hansel up for the dinner table.
The U.S. government has initiated a double-barreled attack on the health and nutrition of our school children using the same sinister strategies previously employed by workhouses and witches. The USDA is trying to deny essential food access to over half a million children by modifying the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Those without SNAP may become non-participants in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). Limiting access to secure healthful meals will promote food insecurity and hunger, and encourage consumption of cheap, calorically dense, processed foods by families for whom every penny counts.
Simultaneously, the USDA and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue are working hard to pack school lunch programs with less healthful, higher calorie, and […]
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New laboratory tests confirm that drinking water in dozens of cities across the United States is contaminated with toxic chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) at levels exceeding what independent experts consider safe for human consumption. The findings suggest that previous studies have dramatically underestimated the number of consumers exposed to PFAS through drinking water and come as the Trump administration continues to gut environmental and clean water protections.
Over the past year, researchers collected tap water samples from 44 locations in 31 states and the District of Columbia ranging from large metropolitan areas to small towns. Water from every location tested positive for PFAS with the exception of Meridian, Mississippi, where drinking water is drawn from wells more than 700 feet deep, according to a study released by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) last week. Some of the highest levels of PFAS were found in major metropolitan areas, including Philadelphia, Miami, New Orleans and a northern New Jersey suburb of New York City.
The positive test results from 43 […]
European Parliament
Credit: Bloomberg
The European Parliament approved Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal, clearing the way for the U.K. to leave the EU on Jan. 31 with an agreement that, for the time being, will avoid a chaotic rupture. Officials on both sides say the fight over the divorce deal was the easy part. Over the next 11 months, the U.K. and the European Union will argue over the terms of their future relationship, which could be even tougher than the negotiations that began after Britain voted to leave in June 2016.
The parliament’s backing in Brussels on Wednesday, a legal requirement for Britain to leave the EU with a deal, means the country will leave the bloc it joined in 1973 with an agreement over the terms of its divorce and a transition phase to soften the blow until the end of the year. While the parliament’s support was ultimately a formality — it voted in favor by 621 votes to 49 — it did have the power to […]
Credit: Pew Research Center[/caption]
Rationally, factually, anti-semitism makes no sense at all. There are fewer Jews in America than atheists; it is really just an expression of hate of the "other." But it is on the rise; we saw that in Charlottesville, "Jews will not replace us!", and we see it being cultivated in the Trump White House. Exhibit A follows. 
The White House granted press credentials to a Christian news site whose founder claimed that President Donald Trump’s impeachment was a “Jew coup” organized by a “Jewish cabal” in anti-Semitic remarks.
Five employees of the Florida-based conservative Christian news outlet TruNews received press credentials from the White House to cover Trump’s trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week, founder Rick Wiles told The New York Times from a ski lodge reserved for press members by the Trump administration. The outlet was not granted special access to Trump, though TruNews’ Edward Szall asked Ivanka Trump a question during a news conference, according to the report.
“We want to thank President Trump and the White House for extending the invitation to be here,” Wiles said in a video. “We are honored to be here representing the kingdom of heaven and our king Jesus Christ.”
This is not the first time the outlet has gained access to the Trumps. Trump took a question from Zsall during a 2018 news conference at the U.N., while Donald Trump Jr. gave an interview to the site after a […]
Credit: fivethirtyeight[/caption]
Credit: Olympus
Neil Chatterjee, head of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, is taking our nation back to pre-Enron days. That is when the commission was so weak it didn’t even explicitly prohibit manipulating energy markets.
Under Chatterjee, a former Mitch McConnell aide, the number of new investigations was 12 in fiscal 2019, compared with 24 the previous year. The commission reached just two settlement agreements for $14 million, a sixth or less of the annual average for penalties since 2007.
“Several recent actions seem to indicate that the commission may not be fully committed to finding, stopping, and punishing manipulative acts that can stifle competition and result in unjust and unreasonable prices,” Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) wrote. The letter to FERC commissioners was joined by four other Democratic senators.
Chatterjee, who previously lobbied for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, told senators annual averages vary and dropped in part because of FERC’s effectiveness. “Our […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
