Ultra-Processed Foods: Health Hazards Revealed

Source: Palm Beach Examiner
by Karl Dickey

“New research is out regarding the health effects of eating a lot of ultra-processed foods, and it ain’t good. While we all strive for optimal health, it is difficult when we are bombarded with colorful packaging and instant gratification. A whole food plant-based diet is the best overall way to eat while eating mostly ultra-processed foods is one of the worst. The problem for many Americans is that eating whole foods often requires more time to prepare, while ultra-processed foods are quick, easy, and cheap. Gone are the days when processed foods merely consisted of canned goods and frozen desserts. We are now in a new era of ultra-processed foods, products that undergo a metamorphosis through industrial manipulation, laden with additives ranging from artificial flavors to preservatives to keep them on the shelves longer.” (03/18/24)

https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/ultra-processed-foods-health-hazards

Guilty! … But Not Really Guilty?

Source: American Greatness
by Victor Davis Hanson

“In 2011, then Homeland Security Advisor to President Obama, John Brennan, swore before Congress that drone-targeted assassination missions near the Pakistani border had not led to ‘a single collateral death’. That was an obvious lie with grave consequences, given that Brennan was sworn under oath and was one of the top officials in the US national security community. Yet there were no subsequent repercussions. In fact, the opposite occurred. Brennan was subsequently rewarded with a 2013 appointment as CIA Director. But the next year, once again, Brennan lied to Congress, assuring the Senate Intelligence Committee that his CIA had not secretly accessed senate staffers’ computers. Again, there were no consequences for his repeated lies. Instead, Brennan, upon retirement, went on to be an MSNBC/NBC analyst who helped to promulgate the Russian collusion/laptop disinformation hoaxes.” (03/18/24)

https://amgreatness.com/2024/03/18/guilty-but-not-really-guilty/

TN: Volkswagen workers vote to join United Auto Workers union

Source: United Press International

“Workers at a Tennessee-based Volkswagen plant on Monday took the needed steps to join the United Auto Workers union in what is the last global VW plant to organize. A ‘supermajority’ of the thousands of workers at the Chattanooga, Tenn., auto manufacturing facility filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for a union election vote to join the UAW union after a supermajority of the 4,000 workers over a 100-day period voted ‘yes’ to unionize by signing their union cards.” (03/18/24)

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2024/03/18/UAW-Volkswagon-union-Tennessee/8441710773961/

American Policies Only Make Haiti Worse

Source: Libertarian Institute
by Marcel Gautreau

“Since the end of the Cold War, the U.S. has overthrown Haiti’s government three times. In 1991 to remove President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power. In 1994 to put Aristide back in. In 2004 to remove Jean-Bertrand Aristide again, followed by an invasion of Marines. This, followed by a 15-year United Nations occupation of the country. 20,000 American troops would bolster that occupation after the 2011 earthquake. The multinational occupation of the country introduced novel diseases, both biological and social. The country saw its first ever outbreak of cholera in 2010, resulting in the deaths of thousands. The U.S. NGO-Industrial complex descended upon Haiti.” (03/18/24)

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/american-policies-only-make-haiti-worse/

Landmark Settlement Breaks Up the Real Estate Cartel

Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen

“There are far too many goods and services for which you can say Americans pay the highest prices in the world. One of those outliers was likely put to an end late last week, thanks to a remarkable settlement in a private antitrust case. The outcome shows that too many of America’s high costs are often a function of power, and that the tools to check that power and lower those costs cannot be unilaterally found at the Federal Reserve. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has agreed to end the age-old practice of 6 percent agent commissions for residential home sales, which are six times the level of the U.K. … It’s not going to suddenly make housing affordable, though the collusive arrangement did tend to drive home prices higher.” (03/18/24)

https://prospect.org/justice/2024-03-18-landmark-settlement-breaks-up-real-estate-cartel/

South Korea: Regime suspends the licenses of two senior doctors over doctors’ walkouts

Source: ABC News

“South Korean authorities have suspended the licenses of two senior doctors for allegedly inciting the weekslong walkouts by thousands of medical interns and residents that have disrupted hospital operations, one of the doctors said Monday. The suspensions are the government’s first punitive steps against physicians after doctors-in-training walked off the job last month to protest the government’s plan to sharply increase medical school admissions.” (03/18/24)

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/south-korea-suspends-licenses-2-senior-doctors-punitive-108237150

Where Is Joe Biden’s “Devil’s Advocate?”

Source: The American Conservative
by James W Carden

The phrase ‘the Wise Men’ referring to the American postwar foreign policy elite was popularized by the authors Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas nearly 40 years ago, in a book of the same name. Isaacson and Thomas chronicled the lives of ‘six friends’ who, they claim, shaped American foreign policy in the postwar era. Yet of these 20th century giants, perhaps the wisest of their number received second billing. [George W.] Ball, who came to be known as ‘the Devil’s Advocate’ within the Johnson administration for his tenacious opposition to the American war in Vietnam, deserves another look — especially today, with the Biden administration leading the country into a proxy war against Russia, a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, and military action against the Yemeni Houthis, among other foreign misadventures.” (03/18/24)

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/where-is-bidens-devils-advocate/

Lost and stolen watches more than triple, world’s largest database says

Source: BBC News [UK state media]

“The number of watches recorded as lost or stolen has more than tripled over the last year, according to the world’s largest watch database. The Watch Register says the value of stolen luxury watches has surged in the past year to $1.9bn (£1.5bn). The group has reported a 236% increase in the number of watches registered across its platform. The number of watches listed as lost or stolen now exceeds 100,000 worldwide, the group says. ‘Watch crime has gone from a niche problem to front page news,’ the group says in a new report. Katya Hills, managing director of The Watch Register, said: ‘The incidence of violent street robberies is escalating, with owners afraid to wear their timepieces in public.'” (03/18/24)

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-68596235

The Best Defense

Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders

“‘What is the best defense against violence?’ polymath entrepreneur Chris Rufer once asked me. Though I’m not a gun enthusiast, my thoughts automatically turned to Messrs Smith and Wesson. In the U.S., after all, the Second Amendment is designed to encode our right to self-defense. But then I figured that answer must be too obvious. ‘The police?’ I replied with a chuckle. ‘Morality,’ said Rufer. ‘The best defense against violence is to minimize the number of people in the world willing to use it.’ For a long time, that answer felt off somehow. Some people are just cruel or predatorial in a way that morality won’t change. But I have come around to Rufer’s perspective. I’m not saying people shouldn’t be prepared to defend themselves. Instead, we should give the idea of preemptive moral training due consideration.” (03/18/24)

https://underthrow.substack.com/p/the-best-defense