Editor’s Note – What I am not leading with

Stephan: 

I am not covering the welcome and fully justified conviction of criminal Trump, nor the indictment of George Santos in today’s news because that is pretty much all media — except the Fox propaganda operation — has covered today. So I am sure you are up to speed on this. But I do want to say something I am not hearing. I think the game changed today. We are still a year and a half out from the election, and I think the convictions of Trump just began today. I can’t get the campaign poster image of Trump behind bars, and a headline reading ARE YOU GOING TO VOTE FOR A SEX MOLESTER FOR PRESIDENT? out of my head. With what I think is coming on top of what has already happened I do not think Trump will be the Republican candidate or, if the MAGAts still back him, I think he will lose and a new third party will emerge.

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When a mass shooter is a white supremacist. Does it even matter?

Stephan: 

I have been telling you for nearly 30 years that based on birth rates and immigration the United States, is going to racially become a nation with no racial — read White — majority. As this has been going on it has driven a subset of the white population into white supremacy madness; it is part of the Great Schism Trend. This is the same group that suffers from an obsessive gun psychosis, and those two things together are what is creating the civil violence we are experiencing every day or two.

People visit the memorial setup near the scene of a mass shooting at the Allen Premium Outlets mall on May 9, 2023 in Allen, Texas. Credit: Joe Raedle / Getty

This is the hate that hate produced.

White supremacy and white racism in their many forms are inherently violent, anti-human and evil.

Last Saturday, a 33-year-old man named Mauricio Garcia attacked a mall in Allen, Texas, killing at least 8 people and wounding 7 others. Children were among the victims. As is common to America’s mass shootings, Garcia used an AR-15 assault-style rifle. He also wore body armor and carried a pistol and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Other guns and ammunition were found in his vehicle outside. A police officer who happened to be at the mall for an unrelated matter was able to shoot and kill Garcia. If a police officer had not been present the death toll would have been much higher.

Social scientists and other experts have repeatedly shown that the number of guns in a community are directly correlated with […]

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‘Outraged’ letter carriers demand action to stop robberies

Stephan: 

Here is yet another aspect of what our national gun psychosis is doing. As the report says, “Robberies of postal carriers have exploded, surging 78% to nearly 500 in 2022, according to data provided by U.S. Postal Inspection Service to The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act.” We are becoming a country that attacks its mailmen. How do you feel about that?

Postal Worker Credit: abcNews

PORTLAND, MAINE — Postal carriers have more worries than snow, rain or the gloom of night keeping them from their appointed rounds. They’re increasingly being robbed, often at gunpoint, from Maine to California.

Robberies of postal carriers have exploded, surging 78% to nearly 500 in 2022, according to data provided by U.S. Postal Inspection Service to The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act.

Letter carriers are demanding action from the U.S. Postal Service.

“The National Association of Letter Carriers is outraged and angered by the assaults, armed robberies and even murders that America’s letter carriers increasingly face as they deliver the mail. These attacks are completely unacceptable,” said Paul Barner, the union’s executive vice president.

The Postal Service said it’s adapting and implementing new measures to address the robberies, which are taking a toll on letter carriers tasked with delivering about 162.1 million pieces of first-class mail each day.

“Every postal employee deserves to work in safety and to be free from targeting by criminals seeking to access the public’s mail,” said Michael Martel, spokesperson for […]

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Japan’s plummeting university enrollment forecasts what could be ahead for the U.S.

Stephan: 

As this article describes Japan is seeing a significant decrease in university enrollment, a trend that is also beginning to happen in the U.S. This trend has all kinds of implications for our country’s universities and colleges.

TOKYO —  The campus of International Christian University was an oasis of quiet in the final week of the winter term, with a handful of undergraduates studying beneath the newly sprouting plum trees that bloom a few weeks before Japan’s familiar cherry blossoms.

The colors of nature are abundant in this nation in the spring. But after decades of a falling birthrate, it has far too few of another important resource: college students like these.

The number of 18-year-olds here has dropped by nearly half in just three decades, from more than 2 million in 1990 to 1.1 million now. It’s projected to further decline to 880,000 by 2040, according to the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

That’s taken a dramatic toll on colleges and universities, with severe consequences for society and economic growth — a situation now also being faced by the United States, where the number of 18-year-olds has begun to drop in some states and soon will fall nationwide.

What’s happening in Japan can offer “clues and implications” for U.S. policymakers […]

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‘They were little’: photos show children illegally working in US slaughterhouse

Stephan: 

This is a story of evil greed, companies that put their profit above human decency. I am going to try and find out the names of these companies and what they sell, so you and I do not buy their products.

Images released by the US labor department show children working illegally for PSSI. 
Credit: US Department of Labor

Harrowing photos released by the US labor department taken at a slaughterhouse plant in Nebraska show the conditions more than 100 children faced while illegally working for Packers Sanitation Services Incorporated (PSSI) before the department cracked down on the company for violating child labor laws.

The pictures show employees covered in protective gear, using chemicals to spray down and sanitize equipment. In some of the pictures, made public on Sunday by the television news show 60 Minutes, some of the employees appear to be young children, wearing protective face glasses and holding buckets.

In February, the labor department fined PSSI $1.5m for employing at least 102 children ages 13 to 17 across 13 meat-packing plants in eight states. The fine amounts to $15,138 for each child, the maximum penalty under federal law. The Wisconsin-based company is one of the largest food sanitation companies in the US and is contracted by meat plants to sanitize facilities. The company says it works with more than […]

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