Thursday, January 23rd, 2020
Stephan: I have been telling you for three years now that criminal Trump, Moscow Mitch, and the Republican majority in the Senate, the same ones who are complicit in Trump's dismantling of our democracy, have been pursuing a long-term christofascist strategy to restructure the American judicial system by appointing ideologues to judgeships. Here you see what the future holds for us.
Hundreds of LGBTQ+ advocates convened in Washington, DC, in October 2019 for a national day of action. Credit: Erik McGregor/LightRocket/Getty
Federal appeals courts hear cases that impact the rights of millions. They decide matters with billions of dollars at stake. They sometimes hear cases where thousands of lives hang in the balance.
United States v. Varner is not one of those cases. The main thing at stake in Varner is whether three judges will treat a woman with courtesy or with needless cruelty.
Two of them chose the latter option.
The case involves Kathrine Nicole Jett, a trans woman who is incarcerated in a federal prison. (Jett does not appear to use the name “Varner,” but for the sake of clarity, this piece will refer to her case as United States v. Varner because that is the only name the courts have assigned to it.) Jett made a couple of requests from the federal judiciary relating to her transition from male to female. She asked that her name be changed on certain court documents from “Norman Keith Varner” […]
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Wednesday, January 22nd, 2020
Jeffrey Toobin, Staff Writer - Vanity Fair
Stephan: Several of you have written me today to ask my reaction to the impeachment trial's first day. So I will answer in two parts. First, my thoughts, followed by this report of the day's events by Bess Levin.
I have watched the proceedings in the Senate today and my takeaway is this: The Democrats are making a fact-based presentation of the utter contempt criminal Trump has for democracy, and his blatant obstruction and misuse of the powers of his office assisted my Moscow Mitch.
The Republicans, in contrast, are doing two things, I think. First, they are committed to carrying out a dismantlement of democracy in presentations that are virtually fact-free and in some cases are outright lies and gaslighting, all with the purpose of hiding the truth of Trump's criminality from the American people and the world. Second, they are seeking to redefine the role and power of the Presidency in governance. They are pursuing the christofascist vision.
But there is something else going on that few are talking about: We are displaying for the people of other countries how the United States has become a degraded democracy that is no longer worthy of respect as a nation of laws. I am embarrassed for America and believe the Founders would be appalled to see the country they labored so hard to create reduced to this.
House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff said he would subpoena Robert Mueller’s report to make his findings public. Credit: Andrew Harrier/Bloomberg.Getty
Hello, and welcome to day one of Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial. (Technically, it started last Thursday, but that was mostly formalities with some light perjury.) Perhaps in an homage to a man who has made 16,241 “false or misleading claims” in his first three years in office, White House counsel Pat Cipollone kicked things off with a series of outright lies, a gesture that presumably brought tears to the big guy’s eyes.
The first whopper was Cipollone’s claim that “not even [House Intelligence Committee chair and impeachment manager Adam] Schiff’s Republican colleagues were allowed into the SCIF,” the secure facility where members of Congress reviewed classified information relevant to the impeachment inquiry. This statement, of course, was not true at all. While some House Republicans tried to pull a publicity stunt at […]
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Wednesday, January 22nd, 2020
Stephan: No one disputes that there has been an enormous increase in the number of Americans who are now highly diabetic, both Type I and Type II. Currently almost 10% of the population, 30.3 million men, women, and children, have diabetes. What is particularly telling is that the overwhelming majority are now non-genetic Type II diabetics.
That is they have diabetes because of some factor in their daily lives. Even more suggestive this increase is not universal across the world, again suggesting that something is going on in the environment or lifestyle of those nations with high rates of diabetes, particularly Type II.
In countries as diverse as Angola and Ukraine only 2.6% are diabetic. In an African country you have probably never even heard of, Benin, the rate is the lowest in the world at only 1.5%.
Here is a new approach to this issue.
Intriguing research into the diabetes epidemic has shed new light on the main drivers behind this disease. Conventional wisdom tells us that sugar consumption, lack of exercise, and obesity are behind the surge in diabetes. While these are contributing factors, new work in this area implicates environmental toxins as a far more important cause of diabetes, including chemicals like BPA (bisphenol A) and phthalates that are found in many everyday consumer goods. And while the evidence mounts demonstrating the toll these chemicals are taking on our health, the government is stubbornly refusing to do anything about it.
Joseph Pizzorno, ND, demonstrates that the rise in sugar consumption predated the diabetes epidemic by four decades, casting doubt on the idea that sugar is a primary causal factor in diabetes. The increased incidence of obesity is another common culprit, but Pizzorno argues that obesity is caused by the same things as diabetes: persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Pizzorno demonstrates that the rise in production of synthetic organic chemicals is closely aligned with the prevalence of diabetes.
Research has
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Wednesday, January 22nd, 2020
Michelle Ma, - University of Washington
Stephan: Maybe because I live on an island, and grew up on a property bordered by Mobjack Bay, and many of the high points of my life that became books and papers have happened in the sea. Or maybe it's because if you are looking at trends affecting the future the state of the earth's world of water is an essential one. More than 1.5 billion people make seafood at least 20 percent of their diet; the wellbeing of the fish ecosystem is a critical trend.
Much of what you think you know about fisheries, based on the recent data, you may now find is incorrect. This is also another example of the Theorem of Wellbeing. You can clearly see the results of policies that foster wellbeing. As always, more productive, more efficient, nicer to live under, and much-much cheaper.
Nearly half of the fish caught worldwide are from stocks that are scientifically monitored and, on average, are increasing in abundance. Effective management appears to be the main reason these stocks are at sustainable levels or successfully rebuilding.
That is the main finding of an international project led by the University of Washington to compile and analyze data from fisheries around the world. The results were published Jan. 13 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“There is a narrative that fish stocks are declining around the world, that fisheries management is failing and we need new solutions — and it’s totally wrong,” said lead author Ray Hilborn, a professor in the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. “Fish stocks are not all declining around the world. They are increasing in many places, and we already know how to solve problems through effective fisheries management.”
The project builds on a decade-long international collaboration to assemble estimates of the status of fish stocks — or distinct populations of fish — around the world. This information helps scientists and managers […]
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Wednesday, January 22nd, 2020
Kat Eschner, - Popular Science
Stephan: This medical research report suggests that something fundamental has changed in our physiology, although exactly what is not clear, nor what it means. This is a first report of a new trend.
Cool as a cucumber, at least compared to your Great Grandpa.
Credit: Deposit Photo
The next time you take your temperature, don’t worry if it’s not exactly what the doctor ordered—98.6 degrees Fahrenheit is just a number. That’s the message of a host of new research that shows human temperature is malleable, unique, and anything but average.
One new study from Stanford University researchers finds that we seem to be colder, on average, than our forebears. The difference they detected isn’t huge—between 1.06 degrees Fahrenheit lower, on average, for men born today compared to those born in the early 1800s, and 0.58 degrees Fahrenheit for women born today compared to those born around 1890—but it adds to a growing body of evidence that body temperature is a lot more flexible than previously thought.
German doctor named Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich set the standard on human body temperature in 1851, deeming 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit the norm. But scientists […]
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