You would think that any person whatever their political party would recognize that the future of any nation is inextricably linked to the education and wellbeing of its children. You might think that, but sadly you would be wrong. The United States, once internationally respected for the quality of its schools, is now in crisis, both because public schools are under attack by the MAGAt community, that seeks indoctrination not fact-based education and also because child care is so bad in the U.S. that the mental and emotional wellbeing of American children, as this article describes, is very poor.
The top 10 countries with the best education are:
Christopher Page Jr., the principal at Highlands Ranch High School in Colorado. “We’re definitely supporting more kids in more ways than maybe we could have or would have in the past,” he says. “But is that enough? No. We always want to do more to be better by kids.” Credit: Rachel Woolf for The Washington Post
A few years ago, Christopher Page Jr.’s Colorado high school was rocked by a spate of student deaths, including three by suicide. So the longtime principal was troubled when he couldn’t fill a school psychologist job for an entire year. Nobody had applied. This summer, he finally hired a budding social worker who was still finishing her last two classes.
He helped get her an emergency license, which was not hard, because there is an emergency.
In his area and elsewhere, the student mental health crisis is unfolding as the nation’s schools face a shortage of counselors, psychologists, social workers and therapists — each problem amplified by the other, and all of them worsening since the pandemic began. “There’s just such an […]
Were you aware that the Congressional Republicans were pressing to invade Mexico with the U.S. military? Probably not. Corporate media won’t touch the story. But they are. Here is the story of the Republican desire for war with Mexico.
An aerial view of the Mexican flag over an international bridge as migrants arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border fence to seek asylum on in El Paso, Texas. Credit: John Moore / Getty
As invading Mexico becomes a mainstream Republican Party position, a group of Democratic lawmakers introduced a measure on Thursday that would bar a U.S. president from unilaterally taking military action against the country.
The response to the war powers resolution from the office of Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. — who has led recent efforts to reduce the U.S. military’s foreign entanglements — highlights populist Republicans’ growing pains in their emerging anti-war coalition with progressive Democrats.
At first, Gaetz’s office told The Intercept that he would oppose the amendment. In a follow-up statement attributed to the lawmaker, a spokesperson wrote: “Mexico is a captive narco state. I support the amendment and support passing an Authorized Use of Military Force against Mexico.”
The measure was introduced by Democratic Reps. Jesús “Chuy” García of Illinois; Joaquin Castro of Texas; and Nydia Velázquez of New York as an amendment to the 2024 Department of […]
Anna Massoglia, Researcher at the Center for Responsive Politics - truthout
Stephan:
As I read this story I thought, how will an historian in say the 2080s describe the United States in the year 2023. This is what came to me: In 2023 the United States could be defined as a country in which the leading candidate of one party was a convicted rapist, who had been found guilty of multiple million dollar grifts and scams, with 91 felony indictments pending in four jurisdictions, including for an attempted coup to overthrow the nation’s democracy, and a Supreme Court defined by its utter lack of ethics and its blatant corruption.
Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, conservative activist, insurrectionist, and wife of Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas Credit: Anna Moneymaker / Getty
The new financial disclosure reveals that Crow — who is described in the new filing as “a longtime friend of filer and his wife” —- paid for Thomas’ travel to speak at a conference in Dallas, which was hosted at a venue owned by Crow’s company in May 2022.
Thomas also reported that Crow paid for another return flight from a separate event in Dallas and a trip to the Adirondacks in New York, where Crow has a private resort that Thomas has reportedly visited every summer for several years.
Notes attached to the financial disclosure indicate that Thomas flew privately on the May 2022 trip due to increased security concerns after a draft Supreme Court opinion overturning landmark abortion rights case Roe v. Wade was leaked that month.
How is it possible that Clarence Thomas can sit on the Supreme Court be this corrupt and yet face no consequences.
Clarence Thomas is blaming the Dobbs leak for his taking a private jet. Credit: Olivier Douliery, Celal Gunes / Anadolu Agency / Getty, and Paul Vinten / iStock / Getty
When Justice Samuel Alito responded earlier this year to reporting on his 2008 decision to accept, and not disclose, a seat on a private jet owned by a billionaire with business before the Supreme Court, his defense was that the seat he occupied “would have otherwise been vacant.” At the time, it seemed like the Marie Antoinette–iest legal reasoning ever advanced for taking a costly gift. On Thursday, however, his colleague Clarence Thomas went one better. In filing his delayed 2022 financial disclosure forms, the justice—who has failed to disclosedozens of private flights, luxury vacations, loans, gifts, and several real estate deals for the bulk of his time on the court—belatedly reported three 2022 trips on the private jet of his friend Harlan Crow. The reason for at least one spontaneous outbreak of private jet travel? “Because of increased security risk following the Dobbs opinion leak,” the disclosure notes, […]
I was quite surprised by this study. A tiny proportion of Americans, mostly older White men, consume a disproportionate percentage of the beef eaten. This not only has significant implications about the poor health of these men, it also says something important about global warming. Beef herds are a significant factor in climate change, not only because beef farming often involves cutting down forests, but also the animals themselves.
A new study found that more than half of the beef consumption in the U.S. is done by less than one-eighth of the population. Credit: Westend61 / Getty
A new study has found that only about 12% of people in the U.S. consume more than half of the beef eaten in the country on any given day. According to the researchers, the highest consumption was more likely to occur with men or people aged 50 to 65.
The researchers used the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans as the baseline. These latest guidelines suggest 4 ounces combined of meat, poultry, and eggs for people consuming 2,200 calories per day, so they reviewed people consuming more than this.
Researchers analyzed data collected by the CDC in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and focused on beef consumption, noting that the beef industry in particular had major environmental impacts. The beef industry produces up to 10 times more emissions than chicken and over 50 times more emissions than beans.
The survey collected information of what more than 10,000 adults ate within a […]
