The Abortion Fight and the Pretense of Precedent
The New Yorker – May 19, 2019 (May 27 issue) – Jeffrey Toobin
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/05/27/the-abortion-fight-and-the-pretense-of-precedent
State legislators have proposed Draconian new laws on the assumption that, when they come before the Supreme Court, they will be used to vanquish Roe v. Wade once and for all… Just last week, in Franchise Tax Board of California v. Hyatt, the Court’s five conservatives gave a stark preview of how they regard precedents with which they disagree… In [Justice Thomas’s] view, it is fine for the Court to do away with stare decisis, the rule of precedent, if the current majority believes that the precedent represents “an incorrect resolution of an important constitutional question.”
Amid Wave of Anti-Choice Laws Across US, Warren Introduces Plan to Protect Abortion Rights
Common Dreams – May 17, 2019 – Julia Conley
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/05/17/amid-wave-anti-choice-laws-across-us-warren-introduces-plan-protect-abortion-rights
“We must go beyond abortion, to ensure access to contraception, STI prevention and care, comprehensive sex education, care for pregnant moms, safe home and work environments, adequate wages, and so much more,” wrote Warren. “We must build a future that protects the right of all women to have children, the right of all women to not have children, and the right to bring children up in a safe and healthy environment.”
A Remote Australian Archipelago Is Home to Roughly 600 People and 414 Million Pieces of Trash
The Washington Post – May 22, 2019 – Allyson Chiu
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/05/22/literally-drowning-plastic-million-pieces-trash-washed-up-remote-islands/?noredirect=on
About 1,300 miles off the coast of Western Australia, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands are touted as “Australia’s last unspoilt paradise.” But upon further exploration during a 2017 trip, Lavers, a researcher with the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, and her fellow scientists came across a starkly different sight — stretches of beach littered with an estimated 414 million pieces of garbage, a majority of which was buried underneath the sand. Almost all of it consisted of plastic items such as straws, toothbrushes and shoes, according to a study published last week in the journal Scientific Reports… “What the remote island data collection has shown us is that the quantity of plastics in the ocean is going up, and going up very rapidly,” Lavers said.
Nurses are striking. Where are the physicians?
KevinMD – May 11, 2019 – Michael Pappas, MD
https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2019/05/nurses-are-striking-where-are-the-physicians.html
The U.S. health care “system” is completely and utterly broken. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. system ranks 37th in the world, all while spending dramatically more on health care than other wealthy countries… Physicians see first hand every day how our dysfunctional health care system is simply not built to adequately address patient and community health… Those who organize collectively to strike, such as the New York nurses, believe that change comes from masses of individuals standing together against the status quo. This runs counter to the ideology continually drilled into the physician. Subtle psychological methods of coercion keep physicians in line and unknowingly supporting their own oppression and the continual harm of their patients.
What Is the Status of Women’s Health and Health Care in the U.S. Compared to Ten Countries?
The Commonwealth Fund – December 19, 2018 – Munira Z. Gunja, Roosa Tikkanen, Shanoor Seervai and Sara R. Collins
https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2018/dec/womens-health-us-compared-ten-other-countries
American women have long struggled to access the health care they need. The United States spends more on health care than other countries do, but Americans report high rates of not seeking care because of costs, as well as high instances of chronic disease. Prior research has found that poor access to primary care in the United States had led to inadequate management and prevention of diagnoses and diseases.
Why Racial Disparities in Asthma Are an Urban Planning Issue
Next City – May 20, 2019 – M. Sophia Newman
https://nextcity.org/features/view/why-racial-disparities-in-asthma-are-an-urban-planning-issue
African-Americans are three times more likely to die from asthma as whites. In Philadelphia and elsewhere, how can outcomes improve with changes to housing quality and pollution control?
Revealed: 1.6m Americans live near the most polluting incinerators in the US
The Guardian – May 21, 2019 – Oliver Milman
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/21/us-pollution-incinerators-waste-burning-plants-report
Lower-income and minority communities are exposed to majority of the pollution coming from waste-burning plants, report [https://tishmancenter.org/4-4-million-people-in-the-u-s-are-exposed-to-pollution-from-waste-incinerators/] finds… Incinerators have never been just about public health, they have been about, race, power, justice, governance and poverty… The decision we make today based on 30-plus years of environmental justice experiences will say a lot about the evolution of decision-making in our country.”
In the Warming Arctic, a Promising Solution to Climate Change
Grist – May 15, 2019
https://grist.org/article/in-the-warming-arctic-a-promising-solution-to-climate-change/
She began experimenting with tiny, hollow microbeads made mostly of silica, a type of sand made of quartz rock… When spread across ice, these beads become a reflective shield against the sun, enhancing the ice’s natural albedo. They’re buoyant, so they float on melt ponds and slushier patches of sea ice. Spread these beads across strategic areas of Arctic ice, Field thought, and more of it might survive through the summers, keeping reflectivity high and short-circuiting that vicious ice-albedo feedback loop… What if some safe material could replace the lost functionality of that great reflective ice that’s gone? When I started phrasing it like that, it wasn’t exactly a piece of cake, but it became an addressable challenge I could take on.
Sea Levels Could Rise by Much More Than We Predicted
Time Magazine – May 21, 2019 – Ciara Nugent
http://time.com/5592583/sea-levels-rise-higher-study/
According to the authors of the new study [https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/05/14/1817205116], there have been advances in modeling of ice sheets since the IPCC report was released. The world is facing a risk of sea level rise “substantially higher than were in the 2013 assessment report of the IPCC,”
Impunity: Understanding Trump’s Coup d’État
Robert Kuttner’s blog – May 20, 2019
https://robertkuttner.com/2019/05/20/impunity-understanding-trumps-coup-detat/
If the president, as Trump claims, is literally above the law, and by definition cannot be investigated in any legal venue, then this has ceased to be a democracy. We are not quite there yet, but we are close.
We are here because you were there: Refugees at the US-Mexican Border
Informed Comment – May 21, 2019 – H. Patricia Hynes
https://www.juancole.com/2019/05/because-refugees-mexican.html
Why would so many Guatemalans make the arduous journey to the US-Mexican border seeking refuge, knowing the hatred heaped on them by the Trump Administration? A short list of our long history of corporate exploitation and military aggression in that country might explain… Since 1890, the United States has intervened in Latin American elections, civil wars and revolutions at least 56 times according to historian and author Mark Becker, to bolster US corporations’ interests and eliminate democratically elected governments and leftist movements.
Dark Money Reshaping Judiciary
The Washington Post – May 21, 2019 – Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/?utm_term=.976fa32cc317&noredirect=on
At a time when Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are rapidly reshaping federal courts by installing conservative judges and Supreme Court justices, few people outside government have more influence over judicial appointments now than Leo. He is widely known as a confidant to Trump and as executive vice president of the Federalist Society, an influential nonprofit organization for conservative and libertarian lawyers that has close ties to Supreme Court justices. But behind the scenes, Leo is the maestro of a network of interlocking nonprofits working on media campaigns and other initiatives to sway lawmakers by generating public support for conservative judges.
Trump Admin Poverty Line Proposal Would Cut Medicaid, Medicare, & Premium Tax Credits, Causing Millions to Lose Benefits Over Time
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities – May 22, 2019 – Aviva Aron-Dine and Matt Broaddus
https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/poverty-line-proposal-would-cut-medicaid-medicare-and-premium-tax
Importantly, no statute or regulation requires the Administration to revisit the current methodology for updating the poverty line. Rather, the Administration is making an entirely discretionary choice to consider a change that would weaken health coverage programs and increase uninsured rates and other hardship — part of a broader policy agenda of undermining health coverage programs.
Daniel Ellsberg on Julian Assange’s Espionage Charges
The Real News Network – May 23, 2019 – interview by Sharmini Peries
https://therealnews.com/stories/daniel-ellsberg-on-julian-assanges-espionage-charges
The challenge is on as of now, right now. Every journalist in the country now knows for the first time that she or he is subject to prosecution for doing their job as journalists. It cuts out the First Amendment, essentially. That eliminates the First Amendment freedom of the press, which is the cornerstone of our American democracy and of this republic. So there’s an immediate focus, there should be an immediate concern not just for journalists over here and publishers, but for everyone who wants this country to remain a democratic republic… Remember that President Trump’s unprecedented charge here is that the American press, the mainstream press, is the enemy of the people. That’s a phrase that was used under Stalin, and also under Hitler, to describe people who were to be eliminated. It’s a very, very ominous historical phrase.
Julian Assange Charged With Violating Espionage Act and Free Press Advocates See Peril for Journalism
Reader Supported News – NBC News – May 24, 2019 – Alex Johnson
https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/56718-julian-assange-charged-with-violating-espionage-act-and-free-press-advocates-see-peril-for-journalism
Advocates and legal scholars said the indictment seeks to criminalize activity engaged in by journalists every day — publishing news of vital interest that they receive from someone who shouldn’t have given it to them…. Bruce Brown, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said in a statement: “Any government use of the Espionage Act to criminalize the receipt and publication of classified information poses a dire threat to journalists seeking to publish such information in the public interest, irrespective of the Justice Department’s assertion that Assange is not a journalist.”
DowDupont Lavishes Campaign Cash On Politicians Who Voted Against a Ban on its Blockbuster Pesticide
Mother Jones – May 24, 2019 – Tom Philpott
https://www.motherjones.com/food/2019/05/dowdupont-lavishes-campaign-cash-on-politicians-who-voted-against-a-ban-on-its-blockbuster-pesticide/
Chlorpyrifos has been linked to brain damage in kids… California, Hawaii, and New York have all imposed statewide bans on chlorpyrifos. With Republicans in control of the Senate and the White House, passage of the House’s Ban Toxic Pesticides Act, the bill that would outlaw the chemical, is virtually impossible.
There is progressive momentum in America.
Slate – May 22, 2019 – Perry Grossman and Dahlia Lithwick
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/05/progressive-momentum-blue-states.html
In the sea of outrage toward red states’ legislation, don’t overlook what’s happening in blue states… There are pockets of extraordinary forward movement in blue states. The time to scale them up is now.
‘This Is Big’: 76 Retired US Generals and Diplomats Warn Trump Against War With Iran
Common Dreams – May 24, 2019 – Eoin Higgins
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/05/24/big-76-retired-us-generals-and-diplomats-warn-trump-against-war-iran
The letter, which is signed by 76 retired generals, admirals, ambassadors, and diplomats, was published Friday morning by “War on the Rocks.” The letter asks the administration not to pursue war with Iran, mainly for strategic reasons… “As national security professionals with extensive careers in the U.S. armed forces and diplomatic service, we have witnessed first-hand how quickly disputes can spiral out of control,” the letter says. “The lack of direct communication between U.S. and Iranian political and military leaders during a time of heightened rhetoric only increases the possibility of a miscalculation resulting in unintended military conflict.”
Electronic Waste Is Becoming a Global Environmental Problem
Time Magazine – May 23, 2019 – Alana Semuels
http://time.com/5594380/world-electronic-waste-problem/
As a tech-hungry nation flush with cash gets ready to upgrade to the next generation of lightning-fast 5G devices, there is a surprising environmental cost to be reckoned with: a fresh mountain of obsolete gadgets.
This 16-year Old Is Taking the School Climate Strike to the U.S. Capitol
Yes! Magazine – May 24, 2019 – Leanna First-Arai
https://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/climate-strike-american-capitol-student-20190524
May 24 is the second global “Fridays for Future” strike modeled after climate activist Greta Thunberg’s weekly demonstrations outside the Swedish parliament building… In spite of a smaller U.S. strike, youth activists are channeling the global climate strike to make their own climate-related demands from coast-to-coast… in Washington, D.C., one of the things [16 year old Jerome Foster II] and others are advocating for is the Climate Change Education Act—a bill that would mandate climate topics be incorporated into science curriculum for students in kindergarten through twelfth grade, to cultivate a more climate literate population… “Rather than debating whether this crisis is real, we need to be finding solutions to solve it,” Foster says. “We’ve got to be united in how we act as a generation, and how we act as a human species as a whole.”
Banking on the People: Democratizing Money in the Digital Age
Global Research – May 26, 2019 – Ellen Brown
https://www.globalresearch.ca/banking-people-democratizing-money-digital-age/5678520
Today most of our money is created, not by governments, but by banks when they make loans. This book “Banking on the People” takes the reader step by step through the sausage factory of modern money creation, explores improvements made possible by advances in digital technology, and proposes upgrades that could transform our outmoded nineteenth century system into one that is democratic, sustainable, and serves the needs of the twenty-first century.