Prescribing abortion pills without restrictions is safe, effective option for women: Canadian study
(

© trac1 - stock.adobe.com)

DECEMBER 9, 2021

by John Anderer

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Canada removed all restrictions on mifepristone, an abortion pill considered the “gold standard” drug for medical abortion on a global scale, in 2017. Now, researchers from the University of British Columbia report that wide access to the pill resulted in absolutely no increase in abortion-related health complications.

The team analyzed government health data pertaining to 315,000 abortions taking place in Ontario between 2012 and 2020 for this project.

“Complications were already very rare, and we found that abortion continued to be safe and effective when mifepristone was prescribed without restrictions,” says lead study author Dr. Laura Schummers, a postdoctoral fellow in UBC’s department of family practice, in a university release. “This is the strongest evidence yet that it is safe to provide the abortion pill like most other prescriptions—meaning any doctor or nurse practitioner can prescribe, any pharmacist can dispense, and patients can take the pills if, when and where they choose.”

Major abortion shift after policy change

Canada was the first country to remove any and all supplemental restrictions on both dispensing and administering mifepristone. Prior to November 2017, Canadians wanting to use mifepristone could only do so under a doctor’s direct supervision. The drug was also unavailable in pharmacies and only specially trained physicians could administer it to patients. Most countries, including the United States, still restrict access to mifepristone in a similar manner.

“Our study is a signal to other countries that restrictions are not necessary to ensure patient safety,” says Professor Wendy Norman, the study’s senior author and professor in UBC’s department of family practice. “There is no scientific justification for mifepristone restrictions, which only make it harder for people to access the care they need. Canada’s experience offers a roadmap for other countries on how to safely improve access to family planning services.”

The research also shows that more women chose to use mifepristone when having an abortion instead of opting for an abortion surgery once Canada lifted its restrictions. Prior to mifepristone becoming widely available, only 2.2 percent of Canadian abortions involved medication. Once the rules changed, that percentage jumped to 31.4 percent within two years.

Does this mean abortions are increasing in Canada?

Importantly, however, the overall Canadian abortion rate has continued to decline since 2017, dropping from 11.9 to 11.3 abortions per 1,000 female residents between 15 and 49 years-old. So, these changes in mifepristone access haven’t led to more abortions in general, just less surgeries.

“We saw that patients and their health care providers rapidly began choosing medical abortion, which can sometimes be preferred over surgical methods by offering care closer to home and earlier in pregnancy,” notes study co-author Dr. Sheila Dunn, a scientist and family physician at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto. “As other studies have shown, making abortion more accessible does not increase the number of people seeking abortion. We found that abortion rates continued to decrease after mifepristone’s availability as a normal prescription.”

Study authors are confident they’ve produced an accurate picture of mifepristone abortion health outcomes and safety.

“We were able to complete a robust safety profile for the entire province by linking together health records from all practitioner visits, hospital visits and outpatient prescriptions,” concludes study co-author Dr. Elizabeth Darling, assistant dean of midwifery and associate professor at McMaster University and an ICES scientist. “This paints the most comprehensive picture of abortion safety to date, capturing any setting where a complication would present. It demonstrates very clearly that restrictions on the abortion pill are not necessary for safety.”

The study is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Germany moves to scrap ban on 'advertising' abortions

File---In this picture taken Dec.9, 2021 Marco Buschmann, Federal Minister of Justice, gives a statement at the BMJV in Berlin, Germany. (Thomas Trutschel/dpa via AP, file

Wed, December 22, 2021

BERLIN (AP) — Germany's justice minister says he will present legislation next month to remove from the country's criminal code a ban on doctors “advertising” abortions, one of several more liberal social policies that the new government plans.

The three parties that form Chancellor Olaf Scholz 's government have long opposed the current rules, but they were defended by the center-right Union bloc of ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel, which is now in opposition.

Justice Minister Marco Buschmann said in comments to the Funke newspaper group published Wednesday that there is a “huge reform backlog” on social policy. He said the first step will be to scrap a paragraph in Germany's criminal code that bans “advertising” abortions, and which carries a fine or a prison sentence of up to two years.

Under a compromise in 2019, Merkel's government left the ban formally in place but allowed doctors and hospitals for the first time to say on their websites that they perform abortions. They were not, however, allowed to give more detailed information.

Buschmann said the so-called paragraph 219a constitutes a “penal risk” for doctors performing legal abortions who give factual information on the internet, and that is “absurd.”

“Many women who wrestle with themselves on the question of an abortion look for advice on the internet,” he said. “It cannot be that, of all people, the doctors who are professionally best qualified to inform them aren't allowed to provide information there.”

Other changes to social policy planned by the new governing coalition of Scholz's center-left Social Democrats, the Greens and Buschmann's Free Democrats include scrapping a 40-year-old law that requires transsexual people to get a psychological assessment and a court decision before officially changing gender, a process that often involves intimate questions.

The coalition has pledged to replace that with a new “self-determination law.”

Liver disease and early death caused by air pollution, study warns

(Photo by Bence Szemerey from Pexels)

DECEMBER 13, 2021
by Study Finds

CHENGDU, China — Living near a busy road can lead to liver disease, according to new research. A large-scale study has identified a link between the deadly condition and local levels of air pollution. Even small hikes in pollution increased local people’s risk of fatty liver disease by almost a third, according to scientists in China.

An estimated 100 million Americans have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and, according to studies, fumes from traffic and industry are fueling soaring numbers of cases.

“Our findings add to the growing evidence of ambient pollution’s damaging effects on metabolic function and related organs,” says lead investigator Dr. Xing Zhao of the West China School of Public Health and West China Fourth Hospital of Sichuan University in a media release.

The findings come from health and residency records of around 90,000 people in China. Other information the team used included blood, urine, and saliva samples, imaging data, and information on sociodemographic and lifestyle habits.
Air pollution’s link to several diseases

Liver disease incidences have soared in the last four decades, currently affecting a quarter of the global population. NAFLD is the ​​most common form of liver disease in children. The NAFLD mortality rate in the U.S. is also increasing. NAFLD, also called metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD), may trigger cirrhosis or liver cancer. Some patients require a liver transplant.

“The [metabolic-associated fatty liver disease] MAFLD epidemic corresponds to environmental and lifestyle changes that have occurred alongside rapid industrialization worldwide, especially in many Asian countries,” Dr. Zhao explains.

“A growing number of studies have suggested that ambient air pollution, which is the biggest environmental problem caused by industrialization, may increase the risk of metabolic disorders such as insulin resistance and dyslipidemia, and related diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome. However, epidemiologic evidence for the association was limited, so we conducted this research to improve our understanding of the effects of air pollution on human health and also to help reduce the burden of MAFLD.”

Particulate matter significantly increases disease risk

The study found a person’s chances of having the illness rose with greater exposure to particles and gases formed by the burning of fossil fuels. For instance, for every density increase in PM2.5s (fine particulate matter) of 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air, the risk increased by 29 percent. The tiny particles lodge in the lungs and make blood stickier, triggering inflammation. The same small climb in nitrogen dioxide levels — produced mainly by diesel vehicles — made liver disease 15 percent more likely.

Men, smokers, drinkers, and those who consume a high-fat diet appear to be most prone, suggesting unhealthy lifestyles may exacerbate the harmful effects.

“However, physical activity did not seem to modify the associations between air pollution and MAFLD. We suggest that future studies explore whether the timing, intensity, and form of physical activity can mitigate the harmful effects of air pollution,” Dr. Zhao notes.

Apparently, traffic fumes in towns and cities largely wipe out the benefits of walking, jogging, or cycling. The researchers propose that governments should recognize air pollution as a modifiable risk factor for liver disease. Populations at high risk should be aware of the air quality in the areas where they live and plan activities to minimize exposures.

Air pollution continues to be a global health threat

Pollution tops the list in the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) major determinants of mortality. It ranks higher than smoking, drinking, and major infectious diseases and is likely to be responsible for millions of deaths per year. Liver specialists Prof. Massimo Colombo of San Raffaele Hospital in Italy and Prof. Robert Barouki, a biochemist at Paris University, believe pollution should fall into the same category as asthma in terms of health threats.

“Indeed, whereas physical activity together with a healthy diet stand as a primary pillar in the fight against metabolic syndrome associated morbidities, including MAFLD, the findings that ambient pollution could exacerbate MAFLD risk might offer new clues to refining the counseling of these patients, for instance by restricting exposure of risk populations to open air settings at high level of pollution, as is recommended for patients suffering from severe asthma,” Colombo and Barouki say.

“It also constitutes an additional incentive for decision makers to speed up the efforts to conform with the WHO guidelines and limits on air pollution, as many cities in Europe and worldwide are still well above those limits.”

Long-term exposure to pollution is a leading global health concern. Even low concentrations could cause tens of thousands of early deaths every year in the U.S.

The study is published in the Journal of Hepatology. The new findings also confirm animal experiments showing breathing in air pollutants leads to liver disease.

South West News Service writer Mark Waghorn contributed to this report.

Fracking linked to higher heart attack risk, especially among men

(Photo by David Thielen on Unsplash)

DECEMBER 15, 2021

by John Anderer

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Fracking is a controversial practice, mostly because of its environmental implications, but a recent study also finds that drilling for oil and gas may also increase the risk of suffering a heart attack.

Researchers from the University of Rochester note their findings are unique because they are based on research performed at the Marcellus Foundation, which straddles the New York and Pennsylvania state border. New York has banned fracking, but it represents a multi-billion-dollar industry in Pennsylvania.

“Fracking is associated with increased acute myocardial infarction hospitalization rates among middle-aged men, older men and older women as well as with increased heart attack-related mortality among middle-aged men,” says senior study author Elaine Hill, Ph.D., an associate professor in the University of Rochester Medical Center Department of Public Health Sciences, in a university release.

“Our findings lend support for increased awareness about cardiovascular risks of unconventional natural gas development and scaled-up heart attack prevention, as well as suggest that bans on hydraulic fracturing can be protective for public health.”

What makes fracking so controversial?

The extraction of natural gas via hydraulic fracking is a major air pollution contributor, according to researchers. These fracking wells usually run 24 hours a day, constantly releasing organic compounds, nitrogen oxide, and other chemicals or particulate matter into the surrounding air. Additionally, workers have to regularly supple each well with steady shipments of water, equipment, and chemicals, while removing wastewater produced by the fracking process.

These factors worsen air pollution levels. Each of these wells usually stay operational for at least a few years, which means employees and even nearby communities experience prolonged exposure to air pollutants.

In 2014, there were around 8,000 fracking sites in Pennsylvania. Some regions of the state have more fracking than others, though. For example, three counties in particular house over 1,000 sites. Conversely, New York essentially banned all fracking processes in 2010.

Air pollution exposure, especially prolonged and consistent exposure, has a long-standing link to heart and cardiovascular issues. Recent studies even find that the intensity of both local oil and gas production have a positive association with various heart problems. These include reduced vascular functioning, blood pressure, and inflammatory markers linked with stress and short-term air pollution exposure.

There’s also the matter of all the light and noise pollution coming from fracking facilities. Such developments can lead to greater stress among locals, another risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

Middle-aged men in fracking towns at highest risk

To study this topic, study authors analyzed heart attack hospitalization and death rates across 47 counties along the New York-Pennsylvania border. Some were located in New York, while others were in Pennsylvania. According to data spanning 2005 to 2014, heart attack rates were 1.4 to 2.8 percent higher in Pennsylvania. Exact percentages fluctuated according to both age and the level of fracking activity in a given county.

Results show the connections between fracking and heart attack hospitalization or death was most prevalent among men between 45 and 54 years-old. Importantly, men within that age range are also more likely to work in this gas industry.

Study authors note these individuals probably received the heaviest exposure to fracking-related air pollutants and stressors. Death by heart attack increased among this age group as well, jumping by 5.4 percent or more in counties with more fracking sites. It’s also worth noting that both hospitalization and mortality rates increased significantly among women 65 and older.

Fracking towns face greater risks due to less healthcare

Fracking is generally more common in rural communities and study authors say people residing in such areas are already at a medical disadvantage due to limited healthcare access in comparison to more urban areas. The team believes there needs to be more awareness about the dangers of fracking and they hope these findings will help inform policymakers while making future fracking decisions.

“These findings contribute to the growing body of evidence on the adverse health impact of fracking,” concludes first study author Alina Denham, a Ph.D. candidate in Health Policy at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. “Several states, including New York, have taken the precaution of prohibiting hydraulic fracturing until more is known about the health and environmental consequences. If causal mechanisms behind our findings are ascertained, our findings would suggest that bans on hydraulic fracturing can be protective for human health.”

The findings appear in the journal Environmental Research.

More Than 10,000 Studies Debunk Outdated Biological 'Explanation' For Male Success

(Patrick Sheandell O'Carroll/PhotoAlto Agency RF Collections/Getty Images)

MIKE MCRAE
22 DECEMBER 2021

From world politics to top-ranking businesses, to the upper rungs of academia and even Nobel laureates, men outnumber women by a significant margin.

One claim to such disparity has been attributed to biology. The idea there's some kind of 'superdiversity' among male brains has been repeatedly cited in the scientific literature in recent decades; but according to a newly published meta-analysis, this argument for male success is entirely unsupported by evidence.


"Based on our data, if we assume that humans are like other animals, there is equal chance of having a similar number of high-achieving women as there are high-achieving men in this world," says biologist and lead author Lauren Harrison from the Australian National University (ANU).

"Based on this logic, there is also just as great a chance of having a similar number of men and women that are low achievers."

Most research on diversity within various species tends to focus on differences between the sexes. It's not hard to find numerous and extreme examples of dimorphism; even within our own species, contrasts in sex chromosomes are responsible for exaggerating a litany of anatomical characteristics, such as beards or boobs.

Since the late 19th century, with the writings of the famous English sexologist Havelock Ellis, the assumption that larger male brains equal greater potential for cognitive prowess has been used to explain why men 'deserve' positions of influence and command.

Much has since been written on whether statistical differences across the sex divide translate into anything truly significant (short answer - they don't), but few studies have looked into whether anatomical diversity within one sex provides for a greater spectrum of behavior.

Generalizing the assertion towards non-human animals, in this new meta-analysis the team investigated whether equivalents of our own personality traits across 220 species varied to any great extent within either of the sexes.

In spite of a thorough search of some 10,000 studies, the team couldn't find any compelling evidence demonstrating greater richness of variability within the personality traits of males or females of any of the species included.

That's not to say there were no differences across species as a whole. Some select characteristics, such as immunity or certain morphological traits, were also found to vary considerably within sexes in particular species.

But if we're to use nature as a proxy for our own expanse of variation within male brains as suggested in the past, we can only conclude the rich landscape of female brains provides just as much opportunity for genius (and nonsense) as the male's.

"If males are more variable than females, it would mean there are more men than women with either very low or very high IQs," says one of the authors, evolutionary biologist Michael Jennions from ANU.

"But our research in over 200 animal species shows variation in male and female behavior is very similar. Therefore, there is no reason to invoke this argument based on biology to explain why more men than women are Nobel laureates, for example, which we associate with high IQ."

A lack of evidence in favor of behavioral variation among men doesn't rule out other biological explanations for the shatter-proof glass ceiling that permeates so much of modern society.

It does, however, limit arguments for that ceiling being a result of our biological wiring, and thus being something that we can't – or shouldn't – do anything about.

Dismantling notions that male merit is cemented in biology might even help to break down the social structures that are actually responsible for gender biases.

"Instead of using biology to explain why there are more male CEOs or professors, we have to ask what role culture and upbringing play in pushing men and women down different pathways," says Harrison.

This research was published in Biological Reviews.

Brutal Viking Ritual Called 'Blood Eagle' Was Anatomically Possible, Study Shows

Man lying on his belly with another man using a weapon on his back. (Stora Hammar Stone)

LUKE JOHN MURPHY, HEIDI FULLER & MONTE GATES, THE CONVERSATION
20 DECEMBER 2021

Famed for their swift longboats and bloody incursions, Vikings have long been associated with brutal, over-the-top violence. Between the eighth and 11th centuries, these groups left their Nordic homelands to make their fortunes by trading and raiding across Europe.

Particularly infamous is the so-called "blood eagle", a gory ritual these warriors are said to have performed on their most hated enemies. The ritual allegedly involved carving the victim's back open and cutting their ribs away from their spine, before the lungs were pulled out through the resulting wounds.

The final fluttering of the lungs splayed out on the outspread ribs would supposedly resemble the movement of a bird's wings – hence the eagle in the name.

Depictions of the ritual have recently featured in the TV series Vikings and the video game Assassins Creed: Valhalla, as well as the 2019 Swedish horror film Midsommar.

For decades, researchers have dismissed the blood eagle as a legend.

No archaeological evidence of the ritual has ever been found, and the Vikings themselves kept no records, listing their achievements only in spoken poetry and sagas that were first written down centuries later. So the bloody rite has been rejected as improbable, resulting from repeated misunderstandings of complex poetry and a desire by Christian writers to paint their Nordic attackers as barbaric heathens.

However, our new study, takes an entirely new approach on the matter. Our team, made up of medical scientists and a historian, bypassed the long-standing question of "did the blood eagle ever really happen?", asking instead: "Could it have been done?" Our answer is a clear yes.

The anatomical practicalities

Previous scholarship on the blood eagle has only ever focused on the details of medieval textual accounts of the torture, with long-running debates concentrating on the exact terms used to describe the "cutting" or "carving" of the eagle into the victim's back. A widely-held position is that the whole phenomenon is a misunderstanding of some complicated poetry, not something that could actually have been attempted.

Using modern knowledge of anatomy and physiology, alongside painstaking reassessment of the nine medieval accounts of the ritual, we investigated what effect a blood eagle would have had on the human body. What we found was that the procedure itself would be difficult but far from impossible to perform, even with the technology of the time.

We suspect that a particular type of Viking spearhead could have been used as a makeshift tool to "unzip" the rib cage quickly from the back. Such a weapon might even be depicted on a stone monument found on the Swedish island of Gotland, where a scene carved into the stone depicts something that could have been a blood eagle or other execution.

However, we also realized that even if the ritual was carefully performed the victim would have died very quickly. Therefore any attempts to reshape the ribs into "wings" or remove the lungs would have been performed on a corpse. That last "fluttering" would not have happened.

While that might make the blood eagle sound even less likely to modern ears, we also demonstrate that while mutilating corpses and carrying out rituals on dead bodies was unusual, it was not totally out of character for the warrior elite of the Viking Age.
Retrieving lost honor

Drawing on archaeological and historical data, our research has shown that the blood eagle ritual fits with what we know about how the Viking-Age warrior elite behaved. They had no qualms about displaying the dead bodies of humans and animals in special rituals, including during spectacular executions.

Our study specifically examined so-called "deviant burials", like the skeleton of a well-dressed noblewoman who was beheaded in tenth-century Birka and subsequently buried with the remains of her head tucked between her arm and her torso, her missing jawbone (possibly destroyed during her decapitation) replaced by a pig's mandible. Warriors from this layer of society were also obsessed with their reputations, and were willing to go to extreme lengths to protect their image.

The blood eagle seems to have been a more extreme case of this sort of behavior conducted only in exceptional circumstances: on a captured prisoner of war who had earlier subjected the ritual-doer's father (or other male relative) to a shameful death.

In medieval sagas, some of these "trigger killings" include victims being thrown into a pit of snakes, being burned to death in a longhouse without the chance of a fair fight, and even having their guts torn out and nailed to a post. In the sagas, the blood eagle is depicted as a way for the victim's relatives to reclaim their lost honor.

Contrary to established wisdom, we therefore argue that the blood eagle could very well have taken place in the Viking Age. It was physically possible, in line with broader social habits regarding execution and the treatment of corpses, and reflected a cultural obsession with demonstrating your honor and prestige.

What's more, its spectacular brutality would have ensured that everybody who heard about it would be keen to tell the story in all its gory details - just as we're still telling them today.

Luke John Murphy, Postdoctoral Researcher in Archaeology, University of Iceland; Heidi Fuller, Senior Lecturer in Medical Science, Keele University, and Monte Gates, Senior Lecturer in Medicine and Neuroscience, Keele University.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

THE PROLETARIAN PUBLIC

Peter Critchley
This book covers the period of working class socialism between the final years of the nineteenth century up to the 1930s. The book contains chapters on Industrial Unionism, Revolutionary Syndicalism and Council Communism. There are substantial chapters on Tom Mann, James Connolly, Antonio Gramsci and Rosa Luxemburg. The principal concern of the book is to analyse the history of socialism as the proletarian transformation of politics, with a view to conceiving a proletarian public life grounded in the associational space of society.

THE PROLETARIAN PUBLIC
The Practice of Proletarian Self-Emancipation
1996Dr Peter Critchley
Critchley, P. 1996.,
The Proletarian Public : The Practice of Proletarian Self-Emancipation
[e-book]Available through: Academia website http://mmu.academia.edu/PeterCritchley/Books

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr Peter Critchley
is a philosopher, writer and tutor with a first degree in the field of the Social Sciences (History, Economics, Politics and Sociology) and a PhD in the field of Philosophy, Ethics and Politics.

The Proletarian Public was written during the first year of Peter’s period of PhD research. 

Peter works in the tradition of Rational Freedom, a tradition which sees freedom as a common endeavour in which the freedom of each individual is conceived to be co-existent with the freedom of all. In elaborating this concept, Peter has written extensively on a number of the key thinkers in this ‘rational’ tradition (Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Dante, Spinoza, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Habermas). Peter is currently engaged in an ambitious interdisciplinary research project entitled Being and Place.

Thecentral theme of this research concerns the connection of place and identity through thecreation of forms of life which enable human and planetary flourishing in unison. Peter tutorsacross the humanities and social sciences, from A level to postgraduate research. Peterparticularly welcomes interest from those not engaged in formal education, but who wish topursue a course of studies out of intellectual curiosity.

 Peter is committed to bringing philosophy back to its Socratic roots in ethos, in the way of life of people. In this conception,philosophy as self-knowledge is something that human beings do as a condition of living the examined life. As we think, so shall we live. Living up to this philosophical commitment, Peter offers tutoring services both to those in and out of formal education. The subject range that Peter offers in his tutoring activities, as well as contact details, can be seen at http://petercritchley-e-akademeia.yolasite.com

The range of Peter’s research activity can be seen at http://mmu.academia.edu/PeterCritchley Peter sees his e-akademeia project as part of a global grassroots learning experience andencourages students and learners to get in touch, whatever their learning need and level.

THE PROLETARIAN PUBLIC 

INTRODUCTION

INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM AND SYNDICALISM 

The History of British Syndicalism 

TOM MANN.

 JAMES CONNOLLY 

 FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY SYNDICALISM 

Fernand Pelloutier

L’Organisation et l’anarchie

L’Art et la revolte

Georges Sorel 

Hubert Lagardelle 

Revolutionary Syndicalism  conclusions

ROSA LUXEMBURG 

Reform Or Revolution 

Consciousness And Activity 

Mass Strike 

Luxemburg And Lenin

The Split In The SPD 

 

COUNCIL COMMUNISM 

ANTON PANNEKOEK 

THE COUNCIL COMMUNISM OF ANTONIO GRAMSCI 

Gramsci Conclusion 

 CONCLUSIONS 

https://www.academia.edu/1234571/THE_PROLETARIAN_PUBLIC?auto=download&email_work_card=download-paper

Sanders Urges Biden to Demand DeJoy's Resignation Over Postal Service 'Sabotage'

"By any objective measure, Louis DeJoy, a top campaign contributor of Donald Trump, has been, by far and away, the worst postmaster general in the modern history of America."


U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testifies before the House Oversight and Reform Committee in Washington, D.C. on August 24, 2020. (Photo: Tom Brenner/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

JAKE JOHNSON

COMMONDREAMS

December 23, 2021

Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday urged President Joe Biden to immediately request the resignation of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, citing the Republican megadonor's ongoing "sabotage" of the U.S. Postal Service and potential conflicts of interest.

"We need a postmaster general who will strengthen and expand the Postal Service."

In a statement, Sanders (I-Vt.) argued that "by any objective measure, Louis DeJoy, a top campaign contributor of Donald Trump, has been, by far and away, the worst postmaster general in the modern history of America."

Since DeJoy took charge of the USPS in 2020, Sanders said, "the quality of the Postal Service has been severely undermined"—a criticism that other lawmakers and advocates have leveled over the past year and a half as the postmaster general has rushed ahead with sweeping changes to mail operations nationwide.

"Tragically, the situation has only gotten worse since Mr. DeJoy began implementing his disastrous 10-year plan to substantially slow down mail delivery, cut back on post office hours, shut down mail processing plants, and dismantle mail sorting machines," the Vermont senator said Thursday. "Senior citizens have experienced massive delays in receiving the lifesaving prescription drugs they desperately need and working families have been forced to pay late fees because it is taking much longer than normal for the Postal Service to mail their bills."

Sanders went on to warn that the Biden administration's newly announced plan to distribute 500 million free at-home coronavirus tests could be undercut by "the deterioration of the Postal Service under Mr. DeJoy."

"How can anyone have confidence that these life-saving tests will be delivered to the American people in a timely and efficient manner? I think the obvious answer to that question is they cannot," said Sanders. "The United States Postal Service is a vital part of our economy and our way of life. We need a postmaster general who will strengthen and expand the Postal Service, not someone who continues to undermine and sabotage it. It is long past time for Mr. DeJoy to go."

Sanders' demand came weeks after Biden moved to replace Ron Bloom and John Barger, two DeJoy loyalists on the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors—the body with the power to remove the postmaster general.

If the Senate confirms Biden's nominees to replace Bloom and Barger, the president's picks will have a majority on the nine-member postal board and enough votes to oust DeJoy, who is reportedly under FBI investigation in connection to his past fundraising activities.

Despite the firestorm of criticism he's received over his performance as postmaster general and alleged financial conflicts, DeJoy has previously said he has no intention of leaving his position any time soon.

Asked during a February congressional hearing how long he plans to remain postmaster general, DeJoy responded: "A long time. Get used to me."

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

A $778 Billion Pentagon Budget Is Our Lump of Coal


U.S. tanks appear during a military training exercise in May of 2016

 in Vaziani, Georgia. (Photo: Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

As Congress passed a $778 billion war and military budget, about half of which will go to corporate contractors, they failed to pass the Build Back Better plan that costs less than a quarter of that annually, and would have delivered help to millions of people.

LINDSAY KOSHGARIAN

December 23, 2021 

by National Priorities Project


What if you wanted less child poverty, better health care, more help with child care and elder care, and at least a gesture toward a solution to the climate crisis? And what if instead you got a $778 billion check for war profiteering?

That’s the bait and switch we just got, as Congress passed a $778 billion war and military budget, about half of which will go to corporate contractors, and failed to pass the Build Back Better plan that costs less than a quarter of that annually, and would have delivered help to millions of people.

Despite the slash and burn approach taken by Congress to the plan, each and every major provision of Build Back Better is supported by a majority of voters.

This is, in fact, not what Americans want. A large majority of voters support the Build Back Better plan, which would continue to send checks to families with children, expand health care subsidies, make child care and home care more affordable, and invest in clean energy. Despite the slash and burn approach taken by Congress to the plan, each and every major provision of Build Back Better is supported by a majority of voters. And a majority would like to see the Pentagon budget cut by ten percent to fund domestic needs – the exact things that Build Back Better funds.

Much has been made of Senator Joe Manchin’s declared opposition to the Build Back Better plan. But after months of negotiations for help that people desperately need, progressives are not ready to give up that easily.

It’s not over. In case you need some motivation to get involved, here are the facts about what Congress is choosing when it funds a $778 billion Pentagon budget over Build Back Better:

More for Pentagon contracts to a single company (Lockheed Martin, $75 billion in FY 2021) than child care and preschool ($40 billion/year under BBBA)

More for equipment and programs the Pentagon didn’t even ask for ($25 billion) than child and earned income tax credits ($20 billion/year under BBBA)

More on guarding the world’s oil supply ($81 billion/year) than for climate and clean energy initiatives to protect the planet($55 billion/year under BBBA)

More for the Space Force ($17.5 billion) than for healthcare for Americans ($13 billion/year under BBBA)

More than twice as much for military bases in Germany ($7.5 billion) than for Medicare hearing benefits ($3.5 billion/year under BBBA)

More for the wasteful F-35 ($12 billion) than on a better immigration system ($10 billion/year under BBBA)

These are the wrong priorities. And it’s up to movements and grassroots pressure to turn this around.

Copyright © 2021 National Priorities Project / Institute for Policy Studies

Lindsay Koshgarian directs the National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies.

21 Million+ Going Hungry in US as Manchin Tanks Expanded Child Tax Credit

"This program is Social Security for our children, and Democrats must keep it going over the long-term," said Sen. Ron Wyden.

Children draw on top of a "cancelled check" prop during a rally in front of the U.S. Capitol on December 13, 2021 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

JAKE JOHNSON

COMMONDREAMS

December 23, 2021

Data released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau shows that more than 21 million people across the country live in households where there was "sometimes or often not enough to eat in the last seven days," a five-month high.

"We're going to keep pushing for an extension of the CTC until it happens. Child hunger is too high a price to pay."

The new figures come as the expanded child tax credit (CTC)—a program that has helped millions of families afford food and other necessities during the pandemic—is set to lapse due to the opposition of Republican lawmakers and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who reportedly wants to remove the benefit from Democrats' Build Back Better package.

While Manchin has publicly claimed to support the CTC, HuffPost reported earlier this week that the West Virginia Democrat told his Senate colleagues behind closed doors that "he thought parents would waste monthly child tax credit payments on drugs instead of providing for their children"—a narrative that critics decried as insidious and false.

According to the new Census Bureau figures, 9.7% of U.S. households were food insecure in the period between December 1 and 13—a percentage that progressive lawmakers and advocates fear will rise sharply if Congress lets the boosted CTC expire at the end of the year. More than 10% of West Virginia households went without adequate food in early December, the data shows.

"Here's the reality of the situation: If expanded child tax credit payments stop going out, roughly 10 million children could sink into poverty," Friends Committee on National Legislation warned earlier this week. "We're going to keep pushing for an extension of the CTC until it happens. Child hunger is too high a price to pay."

After the first tranche of monthly CTC payments went out in July, the percentage of U.S. families with kids that reported not having enough to eat fell substantially, Census Bureau data showed at the time.

"Families received their sixth child tax credit payment last week, and they have come to depend on these payments to cover the essentials like rent, groceries, heat, and clothing for their children," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), chair of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement on Sunday. "Food insecurity among families dropped by about 25% since these payments began. Child poverty has been cut nearly in half."

"This program is Social Security for our children," he added, "and Democrats must keep it going over the long-term."

The Treasury Department said on December 15—when the final scheduled monthly CTC payment went out—that the families of 61 million U.S. children have benefited from the program, which was implemented as part of the American Rescue Plan.

Related Content

Voters Support Permanent Expansion of 'Critical' Child Tax Credit, New Poll Shows
Julia Conley

In its current form, Democrats' $1.75 trillion Build Back Better Act would extend for another year the monthly CTC payments of up to $300 per child under the age of six and $250 per child between the ages of six and 17.

But the path forward for the social spending and climate legislation remains unclear after Manchin announced his opposition to the bill in a Fox News appearance on Sunday. Last week, Manchin reportedly presented a $1.8 trillion counteroffer to the White House, which declined to accept because the proposal left out the expanded CTC entirely.

The White House has ruled out attempting to extend the boosted CTC with standalone legislation, which would require the support of every Senate Democrat and at least 10 Republicans. Not a single congressional Republican has endorsed Democrats' expanded CTC program.

If Congress allows the current version of the CTC to expire, the program will revert to its previous form, which provided yearly lump-sum payments but excluded the poorest families with its regressive income phase-in.

Eugenia Harper, a 38-year-old mother of two children, told the Washington Post on Wednesday that the monthly CTC payments have "given us that extra help that we're not able to get from friends or family."

"I get child support and the child tax credit, and I've been able to manage on that," said Harper, who reduced her hours working as a home health aide due to coronavirus concerns. "There's no thrills and frills. We need this money just to survive."
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

Crows Are So Smart They Seem to Understand The Concept of Tool Value


(© James St Clair)
NATURE

TESSA KOUMOUNDOUROS
23 DECEMBER 2021

A new study has demonstrated crows can assign value to their tools just like we do.

"Many of us will fuss about a brand-new phone, making sure it does not get scratched, dropped or lost. But we may handle an old phone with a cracked screen quite carelessly," said behavioral ecologist Barbara Klump now at Max Planck Institute, Germany.

New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) are so renowned for their smarts that scientists have been using them as a model species to help puzzle out the evolution of tool use and associated behaviors like planning.

Not only can these clever crows use found objects as tools, they can shape or even build them from multiple parts that are individually useless – something previously only observed before in primates.

In the wild they use these twig tools, carefully held in their beaks, to annoy grubs safely tucked away in tree crevices. The grubs will bite the tool defensively, allowing the birds to withdraw and eat it. But crows have to put down their tools while eating, so they can fall to the ground or even get stolen.

The researchers used 27 wild caught crows for their experimental trials so their results weren't biased by previous training.

Offering the crows a choice between the two tool types, the team confirmed the birds strongly preferred to use hooked stick tools.

Non- (left) and hooked (right) tools and their use. (James St Clair et al, Nat. Ecol. Evol, 2018)

"Hooked tools are not only more costly to obtain, but they are also much more efficient," explained University of St Andrews behavioral ecologist Christian Rutz.

"Depending on the foraging task, crows can extract prey with these tools up to 10 times faster than with bog-standard non-hooked tools."

Seventeen of the birds were then observed during two trials each on separate days. In both, they were presented with logs containing different sized holes baited with meat or spiders. In one treatment they had access to branches appropriate for hooked tool construction and the other with only straight sticks.

"Subjects were significantly more likely to express safekeeping behavior (storing tools underfoot or in holes) when foraging with hooked stick tools they had manufactured… than when foraging with non-hooked stick tools they had sourced from leaf litter," the team wrote in their paper.

This remained true when the hooked tools were supplied by researchers, suggesting the tool itself was the subject of assigned value rather than the time they put into it.

What's more, they used the most secure safekeeping method – storing the tools in holes – far more for hooked tools.

"It was exciting to see that crows are just that bit more careful with tools that are more efficient and more costly to replace," said University of St Andrews ethologist James St Clair.

"This suggests that they have some conception of the relative 'value' of different tool types."

Given corvids, including ravens and New Caledonian crows have also displayed the ability to plan ahead it makes sense they can also assign value to the objects they use to help prioritize them.

The team notes that not all New Caledonian crows make the hooked stick tools, so their findings may only be generalizable across those populations that do. Their sample size was also too low to fully untangle some of the variables, like material choice, they concede.

But at least one other species of crow, the Hawaiian crow (Corvus hawaiiensis) has also demonstrated such safekeeping behavior.

We've long underestimated the abilities of birds given their relatively small brains. But physiological studies have shown the dense packing of their neurons makes up for what they lack in size.

Behavioral studies are continually revealing these modern dinosaurs are capable of behaviors that we once only thought humans were capable of – such as self control – proving, like everything else biological, intelligence is a complicated and messy spectrum that didn't just spontaneously arise with the arrival of our species.

This research was published in eLife.