Social crisis? 4 in 10 haven’t made new friends in over a year

Stephan: 

Americans are becoming a society of isolated people. The Covid pandemic changed America in ways that are little discussed in politics or media and show up only in research studies like this one. For over a third of the population It has made us a lonely sad country. How is it going in your life?

Credit: fizkes / Shutterstock

NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Social isolation didn’t stop with the pandemic, and a concerning new poll finds many Americans are still starving for human contact in 2024. Specifically, researchers found that more than a third of Americans feel their social life is “stuck in a rut” (37%).

The survey of 2,000 adults who have traveled with friends in the past also found that 39% haven’t made a new friend in over a year, and a similar percentage haven’t gone to a party in at least six months (38%). For many, it’s also been at least a year since they’ve gone to a concert with a friend (59%) or been on vacation with them (44%).

Conducted by Talker Research for CheapCaribbean Vacations, the poll finds that while most would describe their existing friendships as fun and ever-changing (58%), a quarter of respondents believe their social lives feel repetitive (26%). Thinking about the friends they do have, the average person who said they have a “

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One in Three Young People Don’t Want Children as US Birth Rate Falling

Stephan: 

Gen Zers and Millenials are increasingly not having children, and don’t want to have children. According to this surv ey it is largely about climate change, an effect getting almost no attention. But, I suspect, although this survey didn’t cover this, that women in MGAt Red states aren’t having children because the MAGAt Republican passed laws to control women, put their lives at risk. We need a complete restructuring of American society to foster wellbeing, and Tuesday is going to tell us, whether American voters realize that or not. If Fascist Trump wins that won’t happen and within a year we will have become a kind of Hungary.

Credit: Newsweek / Getty

One in three Gen Zers and millennials do not have and do not want to have children, a new report shows, as birth rates in the United States continue to decline.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced in April that the general fertility rate, which measures the number of live births per 1,000 women of childbearing age, had hit a “historic low.”

Many public figures have expressed concern about falling birth rates, including the billionaire Elon Musk, who wrote on X, formerly Twitter, “A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far.”

Now, polling done by the Independent Center, in association with Newsweek, showed that 30 percent of Gen Zers (people born between 1997 and 2012) and millennials (people born between 1981 and 1996) did not have nor want any children.

Comparatively, 62 percent said they had or wanted to have children, while 9 percent said they were unsure.

The Independent Center, which advocates for “centrist independent voters,” questioned 1,200 likely voters younger than 45 years old between October 18 and 22. […]

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Republicans Are Serious About Cutting People’s Health Care

Stephan: 

All those Americans who have voted, or are planning to vote for fascist Trump just don’t seem to get that the Republicans is they win are going to dismantle the ACA, to make healthcare even more profitable for the oligarchs who own the present system. We need universal birthright single-payer healthcare, like the rest of the developed democracies. Our healthcare social outcome data is horrible, and because of what has happened in the Red states getting worse. But many of us just don’t seem to be able to comprehend that reality.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Republicans would pursue “massive” health care reform if Donald Trump is elected president in 2024.Credit: Joe Raedle / Getty

If you’re confused, it’s not an accident.

Republicans are trying to have it both ways on health care during the 2024 campaign. They boast that they want to deregulate insurance and massively cut government spending, yet they also claim that they would never do anything to endanger people’s coverage.

That two-step keeps getting them into trouble. House Speaker Mike Johnson was recently caught on a tape promising to take “a blow torch to the regulatory state.” Donald Trump, Johnson said, would want to “go big” in his second term because he can’t run for a third one, the speaker told a group of Republican voters in Pennsylvania. And health care, Johnson said, would be “a big part” of the GOP’s agenda.

One attendee directly asked Johnson: No Obamacare? “No Obamacare,” Johnson said.

“The ACA is so deeply ingrained, we […]

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Donald Trump’s Mass Deportation Plans Would Ensnare U.S. Citizens And Tear The Country Apart

Stephan: 

The thing about fascist Trump, that I notice, is that he is completely predictable. His model is Hitler, just as one of his earlier wives told us. If he is elected we are going to see concentration camps with everything but the ovens. We have already seen his earlier family separation version in 2018. If Americans are stupid enough to elect Trump again we are going to see troops in the streets smashing down doors to drag out families tearing the children away and sending them off to deportation camps. I cannot convey to you how disgusting I find Trump. He belongs in prison for the rest of his life.

A temporary detention center for underage immigrants in Tornillo, Texas, on June 18, 2018. It was used during Trump’s family separation program. Credit: Herika Martinez / Getty

Former President Donald Trump’s most significant policy plank in his third presidential campaign is to implement a system of mass deportation to remove up to 20 million noncitizens from the United States, a plan that apparently aims to not only remove people living here illegally but also to chase away ― or accidentally round up ― U.S. citizens as well.

He is promising to deploy the military and deputize local police officers to round up millions of people, detain them in makeshift camps and then ship them off to other countries ― whether or not the destination is the person’s country of origin.

This plan is billed as targeting only those who have come to the country or reside in it illegally, with a special emphasis on supposed migrant gang members. It offers a story of those who deserve to be here and those who don’t. […]

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Texas Banned Abortion in 2022—Here’s How It’s Affecting OB-GYNs and Patient Care

Stephan: 

In their obsessive sick need to control women, Republicans are damaging the entire medical structure of the United States, and particularly sabotaging healthcare in the states they control. To a point where, as I said yesterday, if I were a woman in a Red state like Texas, who did want to get pregnant (note my previous story about how Gen-Zers and Millenials are choosing not to have children)  I would get pregnant and move to live with a family member or friend in a Blue state. And I would do that before anyone knew I was pregnant because the Republicans are going to try and stop pregnant women from leaving the state they control. If you stay in a state the Republicans control and something goes wrong in your pregnancy there may not even be a properly trained physician in your area and, even if there is, they may not be able to treat you. The United States already has the worse maternal mortality (maternal mortality = dead women) in the developed world, and it is becoming dramatically worse.

Credit: JAMA

Everything’s bigger in Texas, residents like to boast, and that includes the number of medical students and residents it trains. Only New York graduates more medical students than Texas, and only New York and California train more resident physicians. Dallas-based UT Southwestern Medical Center touts that its obstetrics and gynecology residency training program is the country’s largest and that 1 out of every 80 US obstetrician-gynecologists is a graduate.

However, applications to Texas obstetrics and gynecology training programs have fallen since the state banned virtually all abortions, and many of their current residents and practicing obstetrician-gynecologists are considering or have already made changes to their practice, such as leaving the state, according to a report released in October by Manatt Health.

The authors of the report, commissioned by a group of Texas foundations, surveyed practicing obstetrician-gynecologists and resident physicians statewide from June to September. Some respondents were interviewed, as were obstetrics and gynecology residency program directors.

“This was confirmatory of what everybody on the ground knew was happening,” lead author Alex Morin, MA, said of the findings. Morin is a managing director at […]

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Record numbers of wealthy Americans are making plans to leave the U.S. after the election

Stephan: 

The rich in the United States are either moving into protected enclaves, as I published the other day, or planning to leave America for residency and citizenship elsewhere. They, and their financial advisors see clearly that the U.S. is no longer a leader in anything but military expenditures, and is becoming increasingly violent. If Kamala Harris is elected Tuesday there will be some improvement and this emigration ay decrease. However, if fascist Trump is elected I think the number of people leaving will significantly increase, and it will involve more than just the rich, even though Trump will explicitly serve their interests.

 

POINTS

  • Attorneys and advisors to family offices and high-net-worth families said they’re seeing strong demand from clients looking for second passports or long-term residencies abroad.
  • The American rich have been increasingly interested in leaving the U.S. since Covid-19, and wealth advisors said this time many of their wealthy clients are taking action.

A growing number of wealthy Americans are making plans to leave the country in the run-up to Tuesday’s election, with many fearing political and social unrest regardless of who wins, according to immigration attorneys.

Attorneys and advisors to family offices and high-net-worth families said they’re seeing record demand from clients looking for second passports or long-term residencies abroad. While talk of moving overseas after an election is common, wealth advisors said this time many of the wealthy are already taking action.

“We’ve never seen demand like we see now,” said Dominic Volek, group head of private clients at Henley & Partners, which advises the wealthy on international migration.

Volek said that for the first time, wealthy Americans are far and away the company’s largest client base, accounting for 20% of its business, or more than any other nationality. He said the number […]

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