Here is some lovely good news. I am so happy to publish this. This is what I mean when I say that good governments create social policies that foster wellbeing.
Barb Ibrahim, left, drove half an hour to visit Amber and Matt Luman and their new daughter, Esserley. Ibrahim, a nurse of more than 30 years, is part of new program in Oregon that offers free home visits from a registered nurse for any family with a newborn. Credit: Cory Turner / NPR
Barb Ibrahim, a nurse of more than 30 years, unpacks in Matt and Amber Luman’s kitchen, in rural Jefferson County, Ore.
Ibrahim pulls a baby scale from a bottomless, black bag she totes everywhere, like Mary Poppins, and weighs the Lumans’ new daughter, Esserley. Sun lights Esserley, naked but for her diaper, as she wriggles on the smooth, white scale.
A tall window in the kitchen reveals a vertiginous view of the Lumans’ backyard: a rocky cliff’s edge dropping into a steep canyon dotted below by wisps of juniper and a smattering of miniature houses and cars.
Ibrahim drove half an hour to check in on Esserley and her parents. She’s part of a new program, slowly rolling out across Oregon, called Family Connects.
Anne Branigin, Reporter - Microsoft Start / The Washington Post
Stephan:
I have done several stories on the Incel movement of males. It turns out there is a female counterpart, boy sober. Less angry and resentful than Incel, it is still a generational change getting little attention. As I read this what I took away from it was that the internet and social media have affected American culture in ways that alter how men and women interact and relate to one another. I considered this also in terms of couples marrying later in life, and having fewer children. What I don’t see is much understanding of what is happening.
“Men are feeling like they’re not getting what they deserve and women are literally losing their rights — and everyone’s sort of blaming each other,” Woodard said. Credit: Joseph Ross / The Washington Post
Let’s talk about not having sex.
Some of our hottest celebs are not doing it. Julia Fox, Lenny Kravitz and Khloé Kardashian have all come out as celibate in the past three months.
Enough women appeared to stop having sex (or at least, stopped seeking it) that in May, the dating app Bumble launched an anti-celibacy ad campaign aimed at them. One billboard read, “Thou shalt not give up on dating and become a nun.” (Due to intense backlash, the campaign was short-lived. Bumble later acknowledged it had made “a mistake.”)
Not even warmer temperatures could shake the chill. In June, New York Magazine proclaimed it “a summer without sex.” The diagnosis: “Women are sick of dating,” Cosmopolitan UK declared.
It’s a season of celibacy — but not everyone is calling it that. Instead, young people are embracing going “boy sober.”
Criminal Trump and his corrupt partner Vance would gut the U.S. federal government effort to prepare for the climate change that is occuring. What would Kamala Harris do? This seems to me a very important question, indeed a question whose answer should determine for whom you vote. Here is the answer.
After weeks of intense media speculation and sustained pressure from Democratic lawmakers, major donors and senior advisors, President Joe Biden has announced that he is bowing out of the presidential race. He is the first sitting president to step aside so close to Election Day. “I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus entirely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term,” Biden said in a letter on Sunday.
He endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, to take his place. “Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year,” he said in another statement. Not long after, Harris announced via the Biden campaign that she intends to run for president. “I am honored to have the president’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination,” she said.
In contrast to the previous article on what Harris and the Democrats have in mind about the climate, this is what the Trump-Vance Party has in mind, which is to say nothing helpful. This is a big deal which is not getting enough attention in the media. It is something that should shape the thinking of any American who means the country well.
Visitors walk past a sign reading “Stop Extreme Heat Danger” at Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park, near Furnace Creek, during a heatwave impacting southern California on July 7, 2024. Credit: Etienne Laurent / AFP / Getty
2023 WAS THE hottest global year on record; data so far suggests that 2024 will match the trend. This week, more than 130 million Americans are under heat alerts, with numerous cases of death and illness being attributed to the sweltering heat. And amid it all, the 2024 Republican platform does not mention the word “climate” once.
The basic inanity underscores the malign interest driving one of two major American political parties: $300 million of donations to lawmakers from energy and natural resource interest groups (namely, fossil fuel companies) since 1990 — more than double the amount directed to Democrats during that same period.
On Monday, the Republican National Convention announced its platform, which affirmed that the party is wholly Donald Trump’s. “MAKE AMERICA […]
Over half of the American population cannot read past 6th grade level. That’s right they can’t beyond what an 11 year old can read. And one in five adults can’t do fractions or percentage calculations. And thanks to what the MAGAt Republicans are trying to do American history it is being so debased it is about indoctrination not education. What the moneyed class and the uber-rich want is what all fascists want. Docile easily frightened and manipulated peasants. They have only two social priorities, profit and power, and if criminal Trump and his his minion J.D. Vance are elected that is what is going to happen to American education.
Illustration: Shoshana Gordon / Axios
In its political platformadopted earlier this month, the Republican Party pledged to implement universal school choice, boost parental rights and promote “patriotic” standards for civics education.
In other words, under former President Donald Trump, education across the country would look a lot like it does in Florida.
Why it matters: Florida in recent years has been thrust into the national spotlight for its hyper-conservative approach to education, serving as a test kitchen for policies that public education advocates say undermine students’ and teachers’ rights.
Between the lines: The agenda parallels Project 2025, a roadmap for a second Trump presidency written by the Heritage Foundation, a top conservative think tank.
The big picture: If implemented, some education policy experts fear the fallout they’ve […]
