We are by every calculation I can make in a severe and not properly acknowledged crisis about our young. They are faced with the MAGAt culture war, the recommitment in Red states to male dominance such that women do not have control over their own bodies, enforced heterosexuality, and the fact that you can get murdered going to school, church, or the movies to name just a few of the major trends a young person, particularly a young girl, faces today. In my opinion, this is happening because we are not a nation whose principal social priority is fostering wellbeing. Instead, we have substituted greed, power, and profit. And this is one of the costs.
Nearly a third of female high-school students said they had considered suicide in 2021, a significant increase since 2019 and a strong signal that teenagers need better and broader mental-health support, according to recent data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Historically, men have died by suicide in greater numbers than women. That’s still true. But the CDC’s latest data, which are based on its regular Youth Risk Behavior Survey, show that suicidal thinking and behavior are more […]
Greg Abbott is vulgar, crass, and nasty. He is destroying the wellbeing of the people of Texas by any social outcome measure you choose to pick.
TexasMAGAT Republican Governor Greg Abbott Credit: Eric Gay / AP
On Friday, a man in Cleveland, Texas, killed five of his neighbors after they complained about him firing an AR-15 on his property late at night. On Sunday, with the shooter still at large and “zero leads” as to his whereabouts, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced that the victims weren’t so innocent either.
Law enforcement officers were searching for a “fugitive who is in the country illegally,” Abbott said in a statement promoting a $50,000 reward for any information leading to his capture. The gunman, Francisco Oropeza, had “killed five illegal immigrants in a shooting Friday night.”
That Oropeza is not a legal resident is not the most pertinent detail in a story about a guy shooting a high-powered firearm in his yard, and then shooting the people who asked him to stop. But it’s pretty obvious what Abbott is going for; Republicans and plenty of Democrats have spent years depicting undocumented residents as a violent and criminal class threatening peaceful communities. It is a cheap shot and a […]
In Florida and Texas, and other Republican-controlled Red states the gun policy is to let anyone with no training walk around as they like carrying a concealed weapon. In the Blue states something quite different is going on. Here’s what just happened in Colorado. What do you think the death by gun violence data from each side of the schism is going to look like? My prediction: death in Red states will go up. In Blue states it will go down.
Gov. Jared Polis signed four gun control bills and hands the pen to Sandy and Lonnie Phillips, parents of Aurora theater shooting victim Jessica Ghawi, at the governor’s office in Colorado on Friday. Credit: Hyoung Chang / The Denver Post
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) on Friday signed into law four major gun measures designed to make it harder to obtain firearms.
Why it matters: The new laws follow multiple high-profile shootings in Colorado in recent months, and represent the latest in a series of recent actions by states to restrict firearm access as gun violence grows.
Stefan Gössling and Andreas Humpe, Western Norway Research Institute | Munich University of Applied Sciences - Cleaner Production Letters Journal
Stephan:
Here is yet another peer-reviewed research paper on the effects wealth inequity is have on climate change. I see more and more of these data-based research studies, few receiving any media attention, and all making it clear that the very wealthy by their lifestyles have become a major cause of climate change. Basically the rich are destroying the earth, and the rest of us are going to pay the price for their grotesque overindulgence.
Abstract
Much evidence suggests that the wealthiest individuals contribute disproportionally to climate change. Here we study the implications of a continued growth in the number of millionaires for emissions, and its impact on the depletion of the remaining carbon budget to limit global warming to 1.5 °C (about 400 Gt CO2). To this end, we present a model that extrapolates observed growth in millionaire numbers (1990–2020) and associated changes in emissions to 2050. Our findings suggest that the share of US$2020-millionaires in the world population will grow from 0.7% today to 3.3% in 2050, and cause accumulated emissions of 286 Gt CO2. This is equivalent to 72% of the remaining carbon budget, and significantly reduces the chance of stabilizing climate change at 1.5 °C. Continued growth in emissions at the top makes a low-carbon transition less likely, as the acceleration of energy consumption by the wealthiest is likely beyond the system’s capacity to decarbonize. To this end, we question whether policy designs such as progressive taxes targeting the high emitters will be sufficient.
AMANDA SEITZ and ANITA SNOW, Reporters - Associated Press
Stephan:
Yet another story about a horrible trend in our horrible healthcare system. Because of what the Republicans are doing millions of families with young children are going through the process of losing Medicaid. Because of the corruption of the U.S. Congress, as a result of Citizens United, we are the only nation in the developed world without a healthcare system oriented to fostering wellbeing. Instead, our system is all based on greed and profit.
Alicia Celaya and David Cardenas and their son Adrian who is suffering from cancer. Credit: Associate Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Days out from a surgery and with a young son undergoing chemotherapy, Kyle McHenry was scrambling to figure out if his Florida family will still be covered by Medicaid come Monday.
One form on the state’s website said coverage for their sick 5-year-old son, Ryder, had been denied. But another said the family would remain on Medicaid through next year. Still, a letter from the state said McHenry now makes too much money for him, his wife and their older […]
