Middle-aged Whites Dying Faster than Most in US

Two Princeton economists, Angus Deaton (2015 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science winner) Anne Case  concluded that rising annual death rates among middle-aged white Americans have been increasing. Deaths in this group are being driven not by the big killers like heart disease and diabetes but by an epidemic of suicides and afflictions stemming from substance abuse, alcoholic liver disease and overdoses of heroin and prescription opioids.
 
They came to their conclusions by analyzing health and mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and from other sources. Unlike every other age group, unlike every other racial and ethnic group, unlike their counterparts in other rich countries, death rates in middle-aged white Americans  have been rising, not falling.

Primarily, they saw evidence of the declining health and fortunes of poorly educated American whites, which caused the whole group to decline.

Supposedly, these are a similar group of people who support Republican politics more often, which corresponds to the support of hierarchies. Wonder if it relates to stress from the fall of hierarchies, as the causes of death seem to be behavior. Since Republican policies usually hurt the poor, there must be some reason they vote against their best interests.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/03/health/death-rates-rising-for-middle-aged-white-americans-study-finds.html?_r=0

Obama - Great Comments on Weakened Hierarchies

On Tuesday, the Women's World Cup winning USA soccer team visited the White House. As an indication on how far we have come in breaking down the gender and sexual orientation hierarchies in this country, here are some comments from President Obama:

“Abby said that she wanted her final World Cup to be like a fairytale. And I’m not sure she could have written a better ending: a world champion at last, draped in the Stars and Stripes, showing us all how far we’ve come – on and off the field – by sharing a celebratory kiss with her wife.”

“This team taught all America’s children that ‘playing like a girl’ means you’re a badass. (Laughter and applause.) Perhaps I shouldn’t have used that phrase. (Laughter.) Playing like a girl means being the best. It means drawing the largest TV audience for a soccer match –- men or women’s –- in American history. It means wearing our nation’s crest on your jersey, taking yourself and your country to the top of the world. That’s what American women do. That’s what American girls do. That’s why we celebrate this team.”

 http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/obama-explains-what-playing-girl-really-means?cid=sm_fb_maddow

Robert Reich's Questions to Republicans on the Economy

Robert Reich, on his Save Capitalism for the Many, Not the Few Facebook Page posted the following commentary today:

Tonight, the Republican candidates will debate the economy. This is like having a bunch of pick-pockets debate wallets. Here’s what I’d ask them if I was tonight's debate moderator:

Jeb Bush, you’ve proposed a tax plan that would give the biggest share of tax cuts (11.6 percent) to the top 1 percent, and only 2.9 percent to those in the middle. Do you think widening inequality is a problem, and how does your tax plan reverse it?

Marco Rubio, you say you don’t want to raise the minimum wage. The minimum wage is near its historic low, adjusted for inflation. Do you believe in having a minimum wage at all? If not, do you believe in minimum safety standards, minimum health standards, and a 40-hour workweek? By the way, if you’re elected president will you work 40 hours a week or do it as a part-time job, as you’ve done the Senate? 

Donald Trump, your tax plan is even more generous to the top 1 percent than Jeb Bush’s plan, giving them 21.6 percent of the tax cuts. Do you think all young people, on reaching the age of 22, should be given a $1 million loan from their parents?

Carly Fiorina, you have lashed out against ‘crony capitalism.’ Does the fact that Hewlett-Packard under your tenure increased its spending on lobbying and political campaigns, and that your own campaign is underwritten by some of the biggest corporations and banks in America, make you a crony capitalist?

Chris Christie, as governor of New Jersey you’ve presided over a state economy that has recovered only 62% of the jobs lost in the recession while the rest of the country has regained 132%. New Jersey is also 46th out of 50 states in growth. Will you be as bad for the U.S. economy as you’ve been for New Jersey?

Rand Paul, you’ve proposed a “flat” tax, which would lower the tax rates paid by the wealthy and increase the tax rates paid by lower-income Americans. The one deduction you’d keep is the home mortgage interest deduction, three-quarters of whose benefits go to those earning over $100,000. How exactly will your plan reverse inequality?

Ted Cruz, you want to abolish the IRS. How would you collect taxes?

Ben Carson, you have said ‘we live in a Gestapo age,’ that the United States has become ‘very much like Nazi Germany,’ that Hitler couldn’t have accomplish his goals ‘if the people had been armed,’ and that Planned Parenthood is ‘like Nazi Germany.’ What does Nazi Germany have to do with how you’d fix the U.S. economy?

What would you ask the Republican candidates about the economy?

Feel Better About Yourself - Watch G.O.P. Debate

According to an article in The New Yorker magazine, people who watch the Republican debates within three minutes feel better about themselves, if they have low self-esteem.

Is it because most of the Republican platform is based on continuing hierarchies, and other people can see right through the fact that they are clueless at the top? Perhaps so.

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/psychologists-urge-people-with-low-self-esteem-to-watch-g-o-p-debate

Same-Sex Marriage and Guns

Here is a great comparison from Alternet. If claiming top-of-the-hierarchy exemptions from baking a cake for a same-sex marriage because it means participating in the marriage, why doesn't the same logic apply to someone who sells guns in that they are participating in a murder?
         

Wildlife Bridge in Washington

The state of Washington is building its first wildlife bridge, allowing animals to cross I-90 near Snoqualmie Pass. Great to see, as many of us start to dismantle the hierarchies between humans and animals.

"If we prevent them from moving, we're blocking their ability to find food, we're blocking their ability to find places to live when conditions change, like the large wildfires we saw last year, and we're blocking their ability to find new mates and have some genetic diversity in the population. The I-90 wildlife overcrossing and the newly completed undercrossings are monumental step forward for wildlife on the move in our region," remarked Jen Watkins, coordinator for the I-90 Wildlife Bridges Coalition.

Wildlife bridges are common in Europe. In fact, there are over 600 in the Netherlands alone.

 http://www.discovery.com/dscovrd/nature/washington-state-to-construct-first-wildlife-bridge-over-busy-highway/

In U.S. - Toddlers Shoot People Weekly

In 2015 so far, at least 13 toddlers in the United States (aged three and under) have inadvertently killed themselves with firearms, 18 more injured themselves, 10 injured other people, and 2 killed other people.

And the gun lobby, headed mostly by top-of-the-hierarchy white males who are hell bent on keeping our hierarchical society alive at any cost, doesn't care. They want their guns to keep control as they see it, and for them to feel powerful in the old ways of hierarchies. Power over – not power among and between with realistic compassion and caring for everyone.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/10/14/people-are-getting-shot-by-toddlers-on-a-weekly-basis-this-year/?tid=sm_tw