From a comment posted this morning by SKID.
[Just the News] Researchers are warning that the United States is facing its most significant spike in opioid deaths as patients increasingly mix synthetic pain pills with stimulants such as cocaine and methamphetamines.
In a peer-reviewed study in JAMA Network Open, researchers at Northwestern University described the dark consequences of the phenomenon known as polydrug abuse.
"I’m sounding the alarm because, for the first time, there is a convergence and escalation of acceleration rates for every type of rural and urban county," study author Lori Post said Thursday. "Not only is the death rate from an opioid at an all-time high, but the acceleration of that death rate signals explosive exponential growth that is even larger than an already historic high."
The study said the United States has seen three overlapping major waves of opioid overdose deaths: in 2000, 2007 and 2013, the last fueled by the rise of fetanyl.
The current wave, worsened by the pandemic, is poised to be the most lethal yet, researchers fear.
"We have the highest escalation rate for the first time in America, and this fourth wave will be worse than it’s ever been before," Post said. "It’s going to mean mass death."
Toxicology reports examined by the Northwestern team showed overdoses increasingly involve fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that can be 100 times more potent than morphine — and carfentanil, which can be 100 times more potent than fentanyl.
"The only path forward is to increase awareness to prevent opioid use disorders and to provide medication-assisted treatment that is culturally appropriate and non-stigmatizing in rural communities," Post said.
In February, another study said as many as 1.2 million people could die from drug overdoses across North America by the end of the decade.
How soon they forget!
[Breitbart] Amir Adnani, founder and CEO of Uranium Energy Corp., said in an interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Saturday with host Matt Boyle that the United States cannot be energy independent if it relies on hostile nations like Russia and China for resources, including vital minerals like uranium.
Uranium is used to power nuclear plants and the nuclear reactors that power naval ships and submarines.
“[We have to] get off of the Russian uranium import dependency that we have,” Adnani said. ”We’re going to be a world superpower and not have our own uranium? We’re going to be a world superpower and depend for our uranium on Russia. How does any of this make sense?”
Adnani said that the Biden administration energy policies are hampering U.S. energy independence.
“We’ve got to just face the fact that in the real world, and a real energy matrix and policy, we need nuclear power, we need natural gas,” Adnani said. [“We’re a] big energy country and remember energy equals life. And Russia is trying to take life away. Russia is trying to take energy away and leverage it, whether it’s in the battle over Ukraine or when it comes to how it wants to influence and leverage against Europe.”
Andani said that his company is trying to turn the course of uranium production in the U.S.
“The U.S. used to be the biggest producer of uranium in the world,” Andani said.
“There’s no uranium mining domestically and I’m trying to change that,” Andani said.
In another important development in bringing back domestic uranium production Uranium Energy Corp. successfully aquired Uranium One, the world’s fourth largest uranium producer and part of Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation, Rosatom.
[Motley Fool] You might have heard a lot recently about the huge Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) that's on the way. There are some reasons you shouldn't count on a COLA of close to 11%. To answer the question, it's important to first understand how the COLA is calculated.
#1
...Yet another prediction: You're going to see some kind of effort to reduce the raise from whatever the mandatory numbers turn out to be...because the military and GS raises are connected to the inflation rate too.
The Feds dare not stiff the GS's for a single dime, because of A) Government employee political support and B) some of that money eventually comes back to the Party. The Feds will figure that they can blow off the military and SS recipients ("Everyone must make sacrifices in this difficult time")...but the GS's will get more and better.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/31/2022 7:21 Comments ||
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#2
The raise will push more retired people into taxable brackets, where each dollar more is 100% taxed.
Years ago I worked with a lady who was on Social Security, so only worked January-April, as everything she was paid after that reduced what she could get from Social Security by the same amount. It was sad — she enjoyed the work with her friends, but not enough to do it for free.
#4
The increase I got at the start of the year was less than the medicare increase. That coupled with inflation and the rising cost of everything leaves me where I was 6 years ago. Or worse off.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/31/2022 12:04 Comments ||
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#5
Mike
The raise of Fed Govt civilian salaries is not tied to the same COL that determines the Soc Sec adjustment.
The Fed Govt adjustment is based on something called the 'comparability' analysis (explaining this is complicated and it is not worth the time to understand but it is based on a 1990 law which has been amended many times) and almost always adjusted by the President.
For example, for calendar 2022, the GS employees received a 2.2% to 3.4% raise depending on locality (e.g., employees in Washington DC got 3.02%, while the raise in the SocSec benefit was about 5.9%
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
07/31/2022 13:09 Comments ||
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[Intercept] As Twin Mental Health and drug misuse crises kill thousands of people per week, the potential of psychedelic-assisted therapies "must be explored," urges a federal letter on behalf of the U.S. health secretary and shared with The Intercept.
President Joe Biden’s administration "anticipates" that regulators will approve MDMA and psilocybin within the next two years for designated breakthrough therapies for PTSD and depression, respectively. The administration is "exploring the prospect of establishing a federal task force to monitor" the emerging psychedelic treatment ecosystem, according to the letter sent by Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use Miriam Delphin-Rittmon to Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa.
The May correspondence, not shared publicly until now, is the clearest indication yet that top officials are preparing for the approval of psychedelic drugs — demonized for decades after former President Richard Nixon sought means to attack the anti-Vietnam War counterculture in the late 1960s — which was arguably unthinkable even five years ago.
#12
Given all the nonsense pushed by the scientific community in recent years, I think I’ll let others volunteer to be the longitudinal experiments, thankewveddymuch.
[Aljazeera] The case against Julian Assange is as political as it is legal; where does it go from here? Plus, the social media influencers shaping Kenya’s election.
The High Court in the United Kingdom is debating whether Julian Assange can appeal his extradition to the United States. Press freedom advocates say handing him over would put journalists everywhere at risk.
Contributors:
Tariq Ali — Author, In Defence of Julian Assange
Branko Marcetic — Writer, Jacobin
Anna Loll — Freelance journalist
Holly Cullen — Adjunct professor of law, University of Western Australia
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/31/2022 13:41 Comments ||
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#6
Given the FBI is no longer a law enforcement agency but brownshirts, it doesn't really matter. It's becoming my fervent hope that the FBI doesn't exist after 2025
[COMPACTMAG] The people who really run the United States of America have made it clear that they can't, and won't, if they can help it, allow Donald Trump to be president again. In fact, they made this clear in 2020, in a series of public statements. Simply for quoting their words in an essay for The American Mind, I was mercilessly mocked and attacked. But they were quite clear. Trump won't be president at noon, Jan. 20, 2021, even if we have to use the military to drag him out of there.
"Anti-Trump hysteria is in the final analysis not about Trump."
If the regime felt that strongly back then, imagine how they feel now. But you don't have to imagine. They tell you every day. Liz Cheney, Trump's personal Javert, has said that the 45th president is literally the greatest threat facing America today-greater than China, than our crashing economy, than our unraveling civil society.
That's rhetoric, of course, but it isn't merely that. It's safer, and generally more accurate, to assume that your adversaries mean what they say. If you doubt this, ask yourself: When was the last time they acted more moderately than they talk?
Even if it is just rhetoric, the words nonetheless portend turbulence. "He who says A must say B." The logic of statement A inevitably leads to action B, even if the speaker of A didn't really mean it, or did mean it, but still didn't want B. Her followers won’t get the irony and, enthused by A, will insist on B.
Take some time to listen to the mainstream media. It doesn't have to be long; five minutes should do. Then spend another five or so reading the statements of prominent politicians other than Trump. To round it out, sacrifice another five on leading intellectuals. It should become abundantly clear: They all have said A and so must say-and do-B.
And B is that Trump absolutely must not be allowed to take office on Jan. 20, 2025. What follows in the article are potential plans to secure that outcome. Anton lays them out rather succinctly.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/31/2022 07:59 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
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#1
Our self-proclaimed "Betters" are Fucking Idiots and crooks.
There! I spoke the truth!
[BBC] In Yemen's ancient walled city of Sana'a mud skyscrapers soar high into the sky. The towering structures are built entirely out of rammed earth and decorated with striking geometric patterns. The earthen buildings blend into the nearby ochre-coloured mountains.
Sana'a's mud architecture is so unique that the city has been recognised as a Unesco World Heritage site.
"As an outstanding example of a homogeneous architectural ensemble reflecting the spatial characteristics of the early years of Islam, the city in its landscape has an extraordinary artistic and pictorial quality," Unesco writes in its description of Sana'a. "The buildings demonstrate exceptional craftsmanship in the use of local materials and techniques."
Even though the buildings in Sana'a are thousands of years old, they remain "terribly contemporary", says Salma Samar Damluji, co-founder of the Daw'an Mud Brick Architecture Foundation in Yemen and author of The Architecture of Yemen and its Reconstruction. The ancient structures are still inhabited today and most remain private residences.
Damluji says it is easy to see why these mud buildings have not lost their appeal — they are well-insulated, sustainable and extremely adaptable for modern use. "It is the architecture of the future," says Damluji.
Architects around the world are reviving raw-earth construction as they seek to construct sustainable buildings that can withstand extreme weather events such as flash floods and intense heat. Could this ancient form of architecture influence the design of our future homes and cities? Could this back-to-basics technique provide an important solution to the climate crisis?
[IsraelTimes] As Israel prepares for potential conflict over offshore gas extraction, experts say Nasrallah’s threats are mostly an effort to stay relevant, but they also keep him dangerous
By beating war drums and ramping up military provocations, Lebanon Hezbollahstan ...a formerly French, now an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. ... ’s Hezbollah terror group has been doing everything to indicate it is ready to wage war with Israel over offshore gas extraction near a disputed maritime border between the countries.
Israel, meanwhile, has become increasingly concerned by the ever-escalating rhetoric of the Iranian-backed group’s leader, His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah ...The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... , and has been preparing for potential conflict.
But some experts believe Nasrallah’s bluster and threats will not translate into significant action. Rather, they signify Hezbollah’s effort to regain popularity back home as Lebanon faces a major financial and social crisis, as well as to stay relevant as a threat to Israel.
Israel and Lebanon, which do not have diplomatic relations, have been engaged in indirect talks mediated by the US over the rights to the Karish gas field and to demarcate a contested maritime border between the two countries.
US Energy Envoy Amos Hochstein has recently been visiting the region to get Lebanon to come down from its claim to a massive maritime zone that includes Karish, which Israel seeks to develop as it tries to position itself as a natural gas supplier to Europe.
Lebanon’s financial situation, which has been spiraling out of control since 2019, has been branded by the World Bank as one of the world’s worst economic crises since the 1850s. Meanwhile, ...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth ordered the entire 614th quadrant searched. The Green Lensman must be found!... the country faces major political chaos, exacerbated by the deadly 2020 Beirut port explosion.
More of the same at the link, but these are the key points.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Aljazeera] The case against Julian Assange is as political as it is legal; where does it go from here? Plus, the social media influencers shaping Kenya’s election.
...a formerly French, now an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. ...
Hezbollah
