Stephan: As of today, in the United States, 30,418 men, women, and children have died from gunfire. And now, the death merchants who make these weapons are specifically targeting children to increase their profits as this article describes. No other country in the world, not in an active war, has that kind of statistic. And the numbers get worse year by year.
A child inspects an assault rifle during the NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas Credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty
In August, authorities in Hondo, Texas, revoked a permit for an NRA-affiliated group to hold its fundraiser on city property. The event featured a raffle for an AR-15, the same assault rifle that slaughtered 21 people in nearby Uvalde last May. At a city council meeting, families of the victims read the names of the slain, cradled their portraits, and denounced the arms lobby’s audacity. “It is a slap in the face to all of Uvalde,” explained Jazmin Cazares, who lost a sister in the massacre.
As gun ownership in the U.S. declines, arms makers have embraced the youth market to avoid industry contraction. Trade magazines such as Junior Shooters openly market rifles to children. And a recent lawsuit revealed that Remington sales tactics target minors.
The confrontation between Uvalde families and the NRA highlights the polarizing strategy and political heft of arms makers. Yet it also reveals their irreducibly […]
Stephan: America has become such a violent country that it is negatively affecting tourism, and costing us billions of dollars. Here is an assessment as to how bad it has become.
Credit: Karen Bleier/AFP / Getty
At a moment when the United States needs to marshal all its resources to invest in education, worker skills, and building healthier, safer, more sustainable communities, our federal, state, and local governments are spending a combined average of nearly $35 million each day to deal with the aftermath of gun violence across the country.
Put simply, America cannot afford gun violence.
Executive Summary
In an average year, gun violence in America kills 40,000 people, wounds twice as many, and has an economic consequence to our nation of $557 billion.
Without a doubt, the human cost of gun violence—the people who are taken from us and the survivors whose lives are forever altered—is the most devastating. In addition to this human impact, examining the serious economic consequences of gun violence offers a wider lens for understanding just how extensive and expensive this crisis is.
This staggering $557 billion figure is five times the nation’s budget for the Department of Education, which funds preschool through college for millions of Americans.1 If shooting tragedies were prevented from […]
Stephan: Ghost guns. Here we have a perfect example of profit being more important than human wellbeing. It is a measure of American society that such untraceable guns exist at all.
Polymer80’s so-called unfinished frames aren’t required to have serial numbers. Credit: Bing Guan / Bloomberg / Getty
As Nevada lawmakers heard public comment last year on a bill to ban ghost guns and the parts used to make them, a resident of the rural town of Dayton called into the hearing to offer his opinion. The privately made firearms are virtually untraceable because they lack a serial number and can be easily purchased online and assembled by people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to legally buy a gun.
“I do not care if this bill passes or not,” said the man, who identified himself only as Loran Kelley. “I am just informing you that we, as Americans, just will not comply with it no matter what you do.”
What he didn’t mention to the committee is that he owns a company called Polymer80, one of the country’s most prolific manufacturers of ghost gun kits and parts. His vow to defy such regulations is as much about principle as profit, even as thousands of untraceable guns bearing the […]
Stephan: I am increasingly concerned with the health of Americans. When I go out what I see is obese women, and men with guts so big they could not look down in the shower and see their penis because their stomach was in the way. I see longevity declining, men's sperm count decreasing, and birth rates dropping below a sustainable level. I see an increase in a whole range of medical issues, increased diabetes II, for instance. And the fulcrum point in all this trend is the food we eat. Here is some sensible guidance for the development of social poliicies that will reverse what has happened. And vote and support politicians that support these kinds of social programs. Fostering wellbeing is the most efficient, most effective, most productive, most enduring, nicest to live under and by far the least expensive option. We need to be healthy to get through climate change.
The U.S. food system makes junk food plentiful and cheap. Eating a diet based on whole foods like fresh fruit and vegetables can promote health – but can also strain a tight grocery budget. Food leaders are looking for ways to improve how Americans eat. FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images
The data are stark: the typical American diet is shortening the lives of many Americans. Diet-related deaths outrank deaths from smoking, and about half of U.S. deaths from heart disease – nearly 900 deaths a day – are linked to poor diet. The pandemic highlighted the problem, with much worse outcomes for people with obesity and other diet-related diseases.
“We’re really in a nutrition crisis in this country.” says Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University
Stephan: Without bees humanity would probably not survive. That may sound extreme but it is true. Our stupdity, greed, and ignorance is causing their demise. I ask all my readers to study this article and act on its guidance.
Credit: EcoWatch
“Save the bees!”
You’ve heard this call to action before, but what’s the buzz really about? Turns out, bees are incredibly important in nature and in human food production.
✎ EditSign, there are more than 20,000 distinct bee species worldwide. In the U.S., there are native bees (more than 4,000 species) and commercially managed bees (mostly imported European honeybees). Both are vital for different reasons. The former are wild and keep our forests and meadow ecosystems functioning; the latter are managed by big agriculture to pollinate crops that feed the world.
Unfortunately, most bees are in trouble. Colonies around the world are collapsing and many species are edging towards extinction. Their plight has been described as the death of a thousand cuts, and the causes range from widespread pesticide use to disease to climate change.
So, what can we do? How can we save the bees? Here’s everything you need to know.
