Stephan: According to the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, "The United States ranks 30th out of 33 member nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in public spending on families and children, which includes policies such as child payments and allowances, parental leave benefits, and childcare support." And the cost is more than many families, particularly single mothers can afford, as this report describes. Proving once again, as I have written repeatedly, America does not like or prioritize its children.
A multi-ethnic group of preschool students is sitting with their legs crossed on the floor in their classroom. The mixed-race female teacher is sitting on the floor facing the children. The happy kids are smiling and following the teacher’s instructions. They have their arms raised in the air.Credit: iStock
Inflation is a hot topic these days, but it’s not just the cost of candy that’s rising. Since the start of the pandemic, childcare costs have gone through the roof. Across the U.S., parents are seeing an average annual cost increase of 41% for center-based childcare providers, and spending an average of $14,117 annually, up from $9,977 pre-pandemic, according to data from a recent LendingTree report. Households with children younger than 5 were hit hardest by these increases, the report found.
Using data from the Center for American Progress on the costs facing center-based childcare providers and data from Child Care Aware of America on household childcare expenses, LendingTree quantified the household impact of ensuring kids are cared for while parents are […]
Stephan: It clearly is genetically programmed into the nature of humans to anticipate and defend against attack by others, and it plays out at every level. No sooner does a new technology come along but it is put into play as a weapon, defense or offense. Here is the latest from the arcane world of cyberwarfare.
In June 2019, three Israeli computer engineers arrived at a New Jersey building used by the F.B.I. They unpacked dozens of computer servers, arranging them on tall racks in an isolated room. As they set up the equipment, the engineers made a series of calls to their bosses in Herzliya, a Tel Aviv suburb, at the headquarters for NSO Group, the world’s most notorious maker of spyware. Then, with their equipment in place, they began testing.
The F.B.I. had bought a version of Pegasus, NSO’s premier spying tool. For nearly a decade, the Israeli firm had been selling its surveillance software on a subscription basis to law-enforcement and intelligence agencies around the world, promising that it could do what no one else — not a private company, not even a state intelligence service — could do: consistently and reliably crack the encrypted communications of any iPhone or Android smartphone.
Since NSO had introduced Pegasus to the global market in 2011, it had helped Mexican authorities capture Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the drug lord known as El Chapo. European […]
Stephan: Can there be any doubt that the Republicans speak in the voice of White supremacy? Read this.
Credit: CNN
President Biden has not named his choice to fill Stephen Breyer’s vacancy on the Supreme Court, but the first major talking point against her has already emerged: She is the unqualified product of affirmative action.
“Biden has unwisely limited his options by preemptively declaring during the 2020 campaign that his first Supreme Court nominee would be a black woman,” editorializes National Review. “In a stroke, he disqualified dozens of liberal and progressive jurists for no reason other than their race and gender. This is not a great start in selecting someone sworn to provide equal justice under the law.
he Wall Street Journal editorial page clucks, “Mr. Biden’s campaign promise that he’d appoint a black woman to the Supreme Court is unfortunate because it elevates skin color over qualifications.” Cato’s Ilya Shapiro complained, before deleting the tweet, “Because Biden said he’s only consider black women for SCOTUS, his nominee will always have an asterisk attached.” Even grosser versions of the same basic idea are already emanating from the likes of Tucker Carlson.
Jon Skolnik, Salon Staff Writer - Salon/Commentary/Raw Story
Stephan: There is about a third of the U.S. population who are completely freaked out by what is happening to old prejudices, like assumed White privilege, male dominance, and anything but heterosexual relationships and sex. Equality terrifies them, and they see it only as a loss to themselves.
Their fear and resentment have gotten to a point that book burning seems a good and appropriate thing to do as this report describes. I think it very likely that the 2022 election is going to be unlike anything experienced in the United States, and I am not sure how it is going to come out. Not just in terms of politics, but culturally. I don't think the majority of us quite realized just how freaked out these people are.
Books burning Credit: Shutterstock
Amid the GOP’s national campaign to purge “leftist ideology” from public schools, local officials across the nation are now banning certain books that deal with race, sex, and gender, from school shelves.
On Thursday, a Missouri school board voted 4-3 to formally pull Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” from high school libraries in the district. The book, which tells the story of a young Black girl growing up in the Great Depression, includes passages that describe incest and child molestation. Central to the book’s premise is the narrator’s struggle with society’s white standards of beauty, which cause her to develop an inferiority complex around the color of her skin.
Wentzville School Board member Sandy Garber told the St. Louis Post Dispatch that she voted against the book to shield her children from obscenity. “By all means, go buy the book for your child,” Garber said. “I would not want this book in the school for anyone else to see.”
The decision comes despite pushback from district staff and residents, […]
Stephan: As I said in my commentary on the previous report, about a third of the U.S. population is completely freaked out by the cultural changes they see around them. Corporate news media, as this article describes, doesn't know how to deal with this, but the advertising world certainly does, and reflects the emerging culture. Have you noticed the number of TV ads with mixed race or LGBTQ couples featured?
Supporters gather at a rally by former President Donald Trump at the Canyon Moon Ranch festival grounds on January 15, 2022 in Florence, Arizona. The rally marks Trump’s first of the midterm election year with races for both the U.S. Senate and governor in Arizona this year. Credit:Mario Tama/Getty
Donald Trump is no longer president of the United States. Yet he remains a public menace, and to ignore his words and deeds is a critical error. In many ways, Donald Trump continues to be the most dangerous person in America.
The Republican Party has become a de facto criminal organization, with Donald Trump as its leader. His apparent mental pathologies now define the “conservative” movement, and the coup attempted last January has effectively continued. If Republicans lose another national election, they will likely attempt another coup or engage in other acts of political violence on a significant scale. No significant figure in the Trump regime has been punished for its abundance of criminal acts, including democide resulting from willful and intentional acts of political negligence during the coronavirus pandemic.
