Reading Scores on National Exam Decline in Half the States

Stephan:  Two trends are converging to the serious detriment of American social wellbeing. I do not believe it is possible to maintain a healthy democracy when a large percentage of the population is functionally illiterate, but that is exactly what is happening. Why is it happening? That is the second trend, the destruction of public education as the Republicans under Trump, Moscow Mitch, and Betsy DeVos attempt to privatize education. Under their plan children become little spigots that allow a small group of rich people, through corporations they create, to tap into the public treasury, drain off billions of taxpayer dollars and turn those dollars into profits.    And the result: America now ranks 125th amongst the nations of the world in terms of literacy. The people of Libya and Botswana are more literate than Americans.

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos
Credit: Michael A. McCoy/The New York Times

WASHINGTON, D.C. — America’s fourth and eighth graders are losing ground in their ability to read literature and academic texts, according to a rigorous national assessment released Wednesday that is likely to fuel concerns over student achievement after decades of tumult on the educational landscape.

Two out of three children did not meet the standards for reading proficiency set by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a test administered by the National Center for Education Statistics, the research arm of the Education Department.

The dismal results reflected the performance of about 600,000 students in reading and math, whose scores made up what is called the “nation’s report card.” The average eighth-grade reading score declined in more than half of the states compared with 2017, the last time the test was given. The average score in fourth-grade reading declined in 17 states. Math scores remained relatively flat in most […]

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Trump promotes far right student organization accused of racial bias and supporting extremism

Stephan:  Donald Trump, like his father before him, is a White racist; the evidence about that is irrefutable. It is interesting to watch as his chances of being impeached increase his racism is becoming more explicit in order to keep the Trumpers who support him, themselves racists, more firmly in his camp. I find this despicable, but then I find Trump criminal and despicable.

Trump addressing Turning Point USA

As he inches closer and closer to being impeached President Donald Trump is working hard to secure his base. One of the most powerful organizations at the president’s disposal is Turning Point USA, which is closely tied to the Trump campaign through Trump family members. TPUSA has been described as a “far-right group” which was originally funded by billionaire donor to Republican and Evangelical Christian causes, Foster Friess.

(Friess may be best-known to most Americans as the man who suggested the best birth control for women is “Bayer aspirin between their knees.”)

TPUSA was founded and is headed by Charlie Kirk, who a USA Today opinion writer says “seems to have a fraught relationship with facts when they get in the way of his worshipful approach to President Donald Trump.” The group claims to have “a presence on over 1,500 […]

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Is A Diet That’s Healthy For Us Also Better For The Planet? Most Of The Time, Yes

Stephan:  Recently, after speaking at a conference in Ft. Collins, Colorado put on by Stephanie James, I sat in the Denver airport for two hours waiting for my flight home. It was very revealing. A minor observation: very few men today wear shoes that have to be polished, perhaps 1%. A major observation: I was stunned once again by how many Americans are obese. As I watched these enormous humans walk through the Delta terminal I looked up the latest figures from the National Center for Health Statistics. This is what I found: For 2015-2016 in the U.S., 39.8% of adults aged 20 and over were obese (including 7.6% with severe obesity) and that another 31.8% were overweightObesity rates have increased for all population groups in the United States over the last several decades. This is not just a matter of personal poor health, it also has significant implications for the planet itself, as this report describes.

Credit: MirageC/Getty

Consider the almond.

Almonds and other nuts are often touted as healthy snacks, because they can help you maintain a healthy weight and are linked to a lower risk of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.

But almonds are grown in drought-stricken California, and the amount of water required to produce them has come under intense scrutiny in recent years. So if you’re an environmentally minded eater who also wants to embrace a healthy diet, are almonds a responsibly green snack?

Relatively speaking, yes, says ecologist David Tilman of the University of Minnesota.

In a vast new analysis published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesTilman and his co-authors looked at the health and environmental impacts of 15 different food groups, including nuts, fruits, vegetables, red meat, dairy, eggs, fish, olive oil, legumes and sugar-sweetened beverages.

The foods were ranked relative to one another based on how they influence the risk of disease and the toll they take on the planet in terms of water and land use, greenhouse gas emissions and how they impact pollution […]

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US business hiring hits 7-year low amid Trump’s trade wars

Stephan:  Yet further evidence, in my estimation, that Trump is trashing the economy he inherited from Obama. By the 2020 election, this may be a major issue; that is the way the trend is going.
  • Credit: Mike Segar/Reuters

    A measure of hiring by US businesses fell to the lowest level in seven years in the third quarter as trade tensions increasingly weighed on the economic outlook.

  • The National Association of Business Economists said in a survey released Monday that just one-fifth of companies hired more workers over the past three months.
  • “Higher tariffs are disrupting business conditions, especially in the goods-producing sector,” one NABE economist said. 
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

A measure of hiring by US businesses fell to the lowest level in seven years in the third quarter as trade tensions increasingly weighed on the economic outlook.

In a survey released Monday, the National Association of Business Economists said one-fifth of companies hired more workers over the past three months. That was compared with one in three in July and brought the gauge to its weakest point since 2012.

The decline was at least partly driven by trade disputes between the Trump administration and major economies, the business economists said. Tariffs have dimmed […]

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70% of millennials say they’d vote for a socialist

Stephan:  Here is some hard data on what I see as one of the major social trends in politics. I take it as good news because it means that the younger generations support the idea that the role of society should be to foster wellbeing. But only an actual election, specifically the election of 2020, will reveal the reality of how these people vote.

Young Americans continue to lose faith in capitalism and embrace socialism, according to a new YouGov/Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation survey of more than 2,000 Americans 16 years and older.

Why it matters: Bernie Sanders, a self-avowed democratic socialist, is one of the top presidential candidates in the 2020 Democratic field. His flagship health care proposal, Medicare for All, has driven the national conversation and moved the Democratic Party significantly to the left — even among candidates like Elizabeth Warren who consider themselves capitalists.

The big picture: 50% of millennials and 51% of Generation Z have a somewhat or very unfavorable view of capitalism — increases of 8 and 6 percentage points from last year. Meanwhile, the share of millennials who say they are “extremely likely” to vote for a candidate who identifies as a socialist doubled.