Rise of mental disorders in children

NY Times - One of the more bewildering aspects of the already high-stress endeavor of 21st-century American parenting is that at some point your child is likely to be identified with a psychiatric diagnosis of one kind or another. Many exist in a gray zone that previous generations of parents never encountered.

A diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is practically a rite of passage in American boyhood, with nearly one in four 17-year-old boys bearing the diagnosis. The numbers have only gone up, and vertiginously: One million more children were diagnosed with A.D.H.D. in 2022 than in 2016.

The numbers on autism are so shocking that they are worth repeating. In the early 1980s, one in 2,500 children had an autism diagnosis. That figure is now one in 31.

Nearly 32 percent of adolescents have been diagnosed at some point with anxiety; the median age of “onset” is 6 years old. More than one in 10 adolescents have experienced a major depressive disorder, according to some estimates. New categories materialize. There is now oppositional defiant disorder, in addition to pathological demand avoidance.

The separate world of the ultra wealtjy

Hartmann Report - In a recent Wall Street Journal report, “The Ultrarich Are Spending a Fortune to Live in Extreme Privacy,” reporter Arian Campo-Flores pulls back the curtain on a disturbing new reality: our country’s wealthiest citizens now inhabit a parallel America of private jets, members-only restaurants, “sky-garage” condos, and luxury wellness centers they can rent out entirely for themselves.

These aren’t just perks; they’re a full-blown escape from public life. The ultrawealthy no longer wait in lines, navigate public institutions, or share community space with ordinary Americans.

And that’s the real danger: once the richest begin living outside the civic sphere, they stop caring whether the rest of society works at all. A nation where the wealthy secede into a private realm is a nation confronting oligarchy.

America has experienced this crisis before. Every few generations, a class of greedy oligarchs rise to power who are so intoxicated by wealth, so determined to hoard more, more, more, that they become a threat not just to our economy but to our democracy itself.

— It happened in the 1850s when the plantation aristocracy rose up, destroyed democracy in the South, and then tried to conquer the entire nation.

— It happened again when the Robber Barons of the Roaring 20s crushed unions and helped trigger the Republican Great Depression.

— And it’s happening today in the aftermath of the Reagan/Bush/Trump Revolution, as billionaire fortunes have exploded over the past 44 years and the American middle class has collapsed.

What’s different now is that modern oligarchs aren’t just accumulating money; they’re disappearing into a privatized world where only the ultrawealthy (and their servants) exist.

The WSJ article shows us how: private jet portals that bypass public airports and the TSA, restaurants where only the chosen enter, wellness centers rentable like personal playgrounds, condos where your car rides up the elevator with you, curated social clubs guaranteeing you never encounter an unfamiliar (or less wealthy) face.

This isn’t luxury. This is withdrawal, an intentional retreat from democratic society.

But beneath the marble floors and private butlers lies something even more sinister: wealth hoarding as a form of pathology. As I’ve argued before, extreme wealth accumulation often mirrors a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder called “hoarding disorder” in the DSM-5.

Ordinary hoarders afflicted with this mental illness fill their homes with newspapers and empty tin cans; billionaire hoarders fill offshore accounts and investment portfolios with billions they can never use, driven by the same compulsive “more, more, more” impulse.

Historian Michael Parenti described this perfectly: wealth becomes an addictive, monomaniacal hunger that consumes every other human concern.

When people suffering from this pathology then also use their wealth to seize vast political power, society pays the price. And thanks to Supreme Court decisions like Bellotti and Citizens United (as I lay out in The Hidden History of the Supreme Court and the Betrayal of America), these damaged hoarders can now use their fortunes to buy politicians, distort laws, functionally stop paying taxes to support the public good, and reshape our entire society just to serve their addiction.

They construct or acquire vast media properties solely to convince ordinary people that deregulating toxic businesses and cutting taxes on billionaires will somehow benefit them. They then invest millions in politicians who repay them with billions in tax cuts, deregulation, and subsidies.

As a result, Americans suffer the consequences: collapsing wages, millions without healthcare, skyrocketing poverty, underfunded schools, rampant gun violence, crumbling infrastructure, deadly pollution, poisons and chemicals in our food and water, and a middle class that’s been gutted and left gasping.

The WSJ article then reveals the final stage of this sickness: once the morbidly rich have extracted so much from society that it begins to crumble, they abandon society entirely.

When the richest Americans want nothing to do with public spaces, those spaces begin to deteriorate. Public airports, public hospitals. Public lines. Public restaurants. Public parks and neighborhoods. Public transportation. Public institutions of any kind.

A democracy can’t survive when its wealthiest citizens refuse to share a common world with the people they govern.

Key congressional Republicans demand answers on Hegseth, new boat strikes allegations

MS NOW - After three months of deadly U.S. military strikes against civilian boats in international waters, the Trump administration has generated a great many questions, though a simple one has hovered near the top of the list: Are these operations legal?

A great many experts have argued that the White House policy of extrajudicial killings is plainly illegal. Evidently, the senior military lawyer for the combatant command overseeing the lethal strikes came to the same conclusion, as did a variety of other legal voices within the administration.

These questions grew considerably louder late last week, with striking reporting from The Washington Post. In an article published on the day after Thanksgiving, the Post reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken directive to military personnel to kill everybody on a vessel carrying 11 people. From the piece:

A missile screamed off the Trinidad coast, striking the vessel and igniting a blaze from bow to stern. For minutes, commanders watched the boat burning on a live drone feed. As the smoke cleared, they got a jolt: Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack … ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, two people familiar with the matter said. The two men were blown apart in the water.

The Post’s report, which has not been independently verified by MS NOW, emphasized the fact that the men targeted in the second strike posed “no imminent threat of attack” and were not in an “armed conflict” with the United States.

Hegseth has struggled for months with leaks from within the Defense Department, with insiders who have appeared eager to undermine the former Fox News host, but this takes matters to a new level.

Todd Huntley, a former military lawyer who advised special operations forces for seven years at the height of the U.S. counterterrorism campaign, told the Post that this second deadly strike “amounts to murder.” This is not an uncommon reaction to the allegations.

Ryan Goodman, a former special counsel at the Pentagon, described the allegations as a “textbook” example of a war crime. Jack Goldsmith, who led the Office of Legal Counsel under George W. Bush, added that if the Post’s reporting is accurate, “it appears that Special Operations Forces committed murder.” A group of former military lawyers issued a joint statement that concluded that the allegations raised in the Post’s report “constitute war crimes, murder, or both.”

This, among other things, also adds fresh context to the hyperaggressive response to Democratic veterans who advised service members not to follow illegal orders.

Complicating matters for the White House, some congressional Republicans have raised related concerns.

Smartphones not good for preteens

NPR - Preteens who own smartphones are likelier to have depression, obesity and insufficient sleep than their peers, according to a new University of Pennsylvania-led study.Roughly half of American kids now own a smartphone by the time they turn 11.

Pediatric health groups have recommended appropriate screen time for youths, but there are no public health guidelines on the appropriate age for kids to first get a smartphone, the study says. 

What they found: Kids who owned a smartphone at age 12 were found to have about 31% higher odds of depression, 40% higher odds of obesity and 62% higher odds of insufficient sleep than their peers who didn't have one.

The researchers analyzed data from the NIH-supported Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study assessments conducted between 2016 and 2022. The study included responses from 10,588 youths.
  Kids who had smartphones were more likely to be female, Black or Hispanic, and from lower-income households. The findings will be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal Pediatrics.   

Health

Global measles cases fell 71% in 24 years and vaccination prevented nearly 59 million deaths related to the virus, the WHO reported. (Reuters)

Via allcanadianmom

Via Annie

Meanwhile. . .

Reuters - Speaking to reporters on an aircraft traveling from Turkey to Lebanon, Pope Leo said that the Holy See endorses a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict 

Man Who Founded Assisted Suicide Nonprofit Dies at One of His Own Clinics at Age 92, Days Before His Birthday

Dogs can learn everything

CEO trickle down economics

Robert Reich

• CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1965: 20-1
• CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1990: 75-1
• CEO-to-worker pay ratio today: 280-to-1 

Nothing has ever trickled down.

Most sinful cities

 

 WalletHub - Las Vegas isn’t the only “Sin City” in America. In other cities, bad things happen and stay there, too. From beer-loving Milwaukee to decadent New Orleans, the U.S. is filled with people behaving illicitly. No place is innocent - we all have flaws, and at some point, we all have to pay for our vices. Gambling addiction, for instance, leads to over $100 billion in losses for U.S. consumers every year, while smoking burns an over $600 billion hole in Uncle Sam’s wallet annually.

Luckily for the saints among us, all American sins are not created or distributed equally. To identify the darkest corners of America, WalletHub compared more than 180 U.S. cities across 37 key indicators of vices and illicit behavior. Our data set ranges from violent crimes per capita to excessive drinking and adult entertainment establishments per capita.

Polls

 Newsweek -  Five newly released polls highlight mounting issues for Trump and his party:

    Politico Poll: Fragmented Trump Coalition 

Over one-third of Trump’s 2024 voters do not identify as MAGA Republicans, according to a Politico poll. These voters are less likely to support GOP candidates down-ballot and are increasingly critical of Trump’s handling of the economy and cost of living. Just 63 percent trust Republicans on economic issues, compared to 88 percent of MAGA supporters

    Gallup Poll: Trump Approval Hits New Low 

Trump’s second-term approval rating has fallen to 36 percent, with disapproval at 60 percent, according to a poll by Gallup. Republican support dropped 7 points to 84 percent, while independents fell 8 points to 25%. Trump scores positive marks only on crime—as party confidence in his handling of the economy, immigration, and the federal budget continues to fall.

    Emerson College/The Hill Poll: Deep-Red Seats in Trouble 

An Emerson College/The Hill poll shows the race in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District—where Trump won by 22 points in 2024—has narrowed to a statistical tie. Democrat Aftyn Behn trails her Republican opponent Matt Van Epps by just 2 percentage points, within the margin of error.

    Pew Research Center Poll: Hispanic Voter Discontent Increases Over Immigration Concerns 

Recent Pew Research Center polls indicate that two-thirds of Hispanic adults disapprove of Trump’s handling of immigration, and 61 percent say his economic policies have worsened their conditions. Although Trump gained Hispanic voters in 2024, these polls show eroding support; just 25 percent of Hispanic adults now hold a favorable opinion, down from 44 percent before he began his second term.

    Ballotpedia Poll: Universal Trump Disapproval

Ballotpedia’s polling index—which aggregates recent national polls from major sources including YouGov, CBS News, Fox News, Reuters, and The Associated Press—shows that Trump’s approval averages 42 percent, with disapproval at 55 percent, leaving his net rating underwater across all major national polls.

Newsweek - President Donald Trump's approval rating among Gen Z Americans has improved, according to a new poll.  Polling by The Economist/YouGov shows that while it is still underwater, Trump's net approval among adults ages 18 to 29 has increased from -55 percentage points to -34 points in November.

Under Trump’s Regime Only Obedience is Legal and Even Discussing Defiance is a Crime?

Hartmnn Report -  Under Trump’s neofascist worldview, the only “legal” act is obedience, while defiance of his whims and illegal orders is a crime. We saw this when Trump lashed out at lawmakers who reminded our military that their sworn oath is to the Constitution and not to him personally.

He posted a rant about those six CIA and military veterans/lawmakers and wrote “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” in response to their message that both history and law — including military law — require soldiers to refuse illegal orders. Then he reposted a message calling for them to be hanged.

That wasn’t a rhetorical flourish: it was Trump’s declaration of war on the rule of law, something so essential that it’s the basis of every democracy and civilized society in history throughout the world. Instead of respecting American ideals, he’s sounding more like his “good friend,” the murderous dictator of Saudi Arabia (who’s given Trump’s family billions, with more billions on their way).

You’d think that after the My Lai massacre, the horrors committed at Abu Ghraib, and the Nuremberg trials, Americans — and Trump and those around him — would have gotten the message, but over at the Fox propaganda channel and on other rightwing media they’re actually defending this obscene behavior.

It’s also criminal behavior: 18 U.S. Code § 610 makes it a crime for any federal official — including the president — to use their authority to intimidate, threaten, or punish citizens for their political expression, voting behavior, or dissent. Threatening members of Congress with execution for following the law is an extreme, textbook violation.

100 Most Polluted Cities in The World 2025

Trump's controversial healthcare plan

New Republic -  Donald Trump has a health care plan. Or so we’ve been led to believe.

The president was set to unveil it at the White House on Monday, but then postponed the event, after details of the plan leaked to the media and rank-and-file Republicans—who felt blindsided, having not been briefed—revolted.

One provision in particular raised their ire: a two-year extension of the Obamacare subsidies that expire at year’s end, albeit with a few strings attached. Speaker Mike Johnson reportedly told Trump that the House GOP was opposed to the idea. “I wasn’t expecting the proposal to be Obamacare-lite,” a House Republican anonymously griped to MS NOW. “I don’t see how a proposal like this has any chance of getting majority Republican support. We need to be focused on health care, but extending Obamacare isn’t even serious.”

According to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, Trump has not given up his proposal but the details are still in flux. We can be reasonably confident of this much, though: Trump is not going to do a clean extension of the expiring subsidies, as that was not even the case in the plan that he is now presumably watering down to satisfy House Republicans. And that means chaos is assured for Americans who are shopping for—or already have chosen—a 2026 plan in the Affordable Care Act marketplaces.

America running out of pennies faster than expected

Axios - America is running out of pennies far faster than expected — and retailers are scrambling with rounding rules, cash-register math headaches and what some call a "legal minefield." 

Ending penny production was supposed to simplify cash payments. Instead, it's colliding with the holiday rush and legions of math-averse Americans.Many shoppers don't understand what happens when $4.73 becomes $4.75.

"The growth of stores that are out of pennies is exponential," Austen Jensen of the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) tells Axios. Some businesses have posted signs explaining the rounding tax. 

Stores are posting signs, retraining cashiers, spending millions on tech fixes and — in many cases — rounding down to avoid disputes, thus eating the cost.

The Food Industry Association says the shortage creates legal and compliance challenges, especially for SNAP transactions that require exact pricing. That makes rounding legally tricky. The burden falls hardest on low-income and older Americans.  More

Americans not moving as much

Reproduced from a Point2Homes report. Map: Axios Visuals

Axios -  America saw fewer moves than ever in 2024, Axios' Sami Sparber writes from an industry analysis of census data.  Only 1 in 9 people (11%) changed residences last year — a record low in data going back to 1948.

New Jersey (8%) and New York (9%) had the lowest shares of movers in 2024, according to Point2Homes, an online house-rental platform.

Residents moved most in Alaska, Oklahoma, and Colorado, each around 14%.

19% of movers in 2024 changed states. 71% relocated to a different city. 

The gadfly thing

From our overstocked archives

Sam Smith, 2015 - I was recently described in an otherwise kind article in Washington's City Paper as a "political gadfly." This was neither the first time nor will it be the last. It has happened to me so often that I was able to tell the writer where the word came from (a fly that bites and annoys cattle). In fact, it has happened to me so often that I once had a dinghy named the Gadfly.

Gadflies are only barely further along in the evolutionary chain of things than maggots and slugs. They are frequently found resting placidly on a pile of excrement. As readers well know, I never am at rest sitting on a pile of shit.

Being called a gadfly is a little like being bitten by one. It's also, notes Jon Rowe, like Ralph Nader being called a "self-styled consumer advocate." Where, Rowe wonders, does one go to get a license to become an properly appointed consumer advocate? To the Washington Post Style Section?

People in Washington who call other people gadflies tend to be either players or people who wish they were. A player is someone trying to be Assistant Secretary of HUD, someone who represents a major polluter and claims to practice environmental law, someone who is paid large sums of money to shout down Eleanor Clift on national TV or who pays large sums of money to get politicians to wrestle with -- and ultimately defeat -- their own conscience. Players are annoyed by gadflies because they won't play according to the players' rules. On the other hand, gadflies don't clutter up the bureaucracy making dull speeches, and they don't create toxic waste sites or corrupt the political system. They tend to eat Mr. Tyson's chicken rather than fly on his planes. And at the end of the day, they have less explaining to do to their children.

Players consider themselves serious; gadflies not. Russell Baker, a serious man, addressed this matter best in a column in which he pointed out the difference between being serious and being solemn. Baker observed that children are almost always serious, but that they start to lose the trait in adolescence. Washington is the capital of solemnity and few of its elite are truly serious.

Gadflies, on the other hand, are usually serious. A gadfly tends to be someone with ideas, energy and a modicum of talent but who lacks a PR firm, ghostwriter and a proper flair for networking. A gadfly is someone who actually wants to get something done, but often can't -- largely because of all the players in the way.

EF Schumacher once said, "We must do what we conceive to be the right thing, and not bother our heads or burden our souls with whether we are going to be successful. Because if we don't do the right thing, we'll be doing the wrong thing, and we will just be part of the disease, and not a part of the cure."

Gadflies would agree. They think for themselves. But in Washington thought is something players purchase, just like they purchase gas, condoms or political access. People who think are considered part of the service industry with commensurate compensation and social regard.

When gadflies feel like using a bovine analogy, they think of themselves as mavericks -- animals whose only sin has been to wander off from their colleagues. Mavericks also, as they say in Texas, drink upstream from the herd, which if you know anything about cattle is not a bad idea.

Take a run-of-the-mill gadfly such as myself and then some average players -- say the editorial board the Washington Post -- and compare their records over a couple of decades. The gadfly approach to freeways, urban policy, Vietnam, the environment and Bill Clinton will, I think, hold up pretty well. The problem gadflies face is not that they are irrelevant or wrong but that their timing is a bit off. The FBI used to categorize members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade as "premature anti-fascists." Similarly, many gadflies are just moderates of an age that has not yet arrived.

Afghan Facts

Via Brad

Polls

 

 CIVIQS - According to a new state-by-state breakdown, Trump's approval ratings remain positive in several Republican-dominated states, with the highest net approvals in Wyoming (+34 percent), West Virginia (+27 percent), Idaho (+23 percent), North Dakota (+18 percent), Montana (+17 percent), and Oklahoma (+17 percent). 

In these states, Trump's base remains strong, continuing the trend seen in earlier periods of his presidency. 

Other states posting positive net ratings include Alabama (+16 percent), South Dakota (+16 percent), Arkansas (+14 percent), Kentucky (+12 percent), and Utah (+12 percent).

Conversely, the president is experiencing significant disapproval in historically Democratic states, according to the polling.

Hawaii reports a net approval of -55 percent, Vermont sits at -50 percent, Maryland at -44 percent, Massachusetts at -42 percent, California and Rhode Island at -40 percent, and Washington and Oregon at -36 percent. 

In populous states such as New York (-32 percent) and Illinois (-29 percent), the figures further reinforce national partisan divides.

Donald Trump participates in a video call with military service members from Mar-a-Lago on November 27, 2025.

The battleground states that determined the 2024 election present a challenging landscape for the administration. 

Trump's net approval stands at -12 percent in Arizona, -13 percent in Pennsylvania, -15 percent in Michigan and Nevada, -14 percent in Georgia, -11 percent in Wisconsin, and -8 percent in North Carolina. 

Florida, Texas, and Ohio are all at -6 percent, maintaining the pattern of net-negative standings in all major swing states.

 

Study Finds -  Eighty-one percent of dog owners genuinely believe it was fate that matched them with their pet, according to a Talker Research survey of 2,000 dog owners conducted in September 2025. The data backs up this feeling. Three out of four pet parents say their dog’s personality mirrors their own, particularly when it comes to energy levels, how they interact socially, and emotional sensitivity.

The connection between owner and dog personalities appears strongest along the introvert-extrovert spectrum. People who identify as extroverts were more than twice as likely to have outgoing dogs compared to introverts (38% versus 19%). Meanwhile, introverts were far more likely to describe their pets as shy, cautious, or quiet.

Extroverted owners were more likely to describe their dogs as friendly, affectionate, and energetic. They were also more than twice as likely to say their dog has an outgoing personality. Introverted owners more often described their pets as stubborn, calm, and easygoing. They were also more likely to characterize their dogs as shy, cautious, or quiet.

 

How capitalism really works

ProudSocialist posted: The average American household owes:

$10,000 in credit card debt
$18,660 in medical debt
$22,612 in auto loans
$58,957 in student loan debt
$241,840 in mortgage debt

If only men voted in our elections

Just wondering

Sam Smith -  When will Donald Trump force the deportation of Mrs. Trump as part of his war on dangerous immigrants?

Making Granola Helps Refugees Learn Job Skills and Find Community

 

Nice News - For most, granola is simply a snack, enjoyed atop a morning bowl of yogurt or when the midday munchies hit. For refugees working with Beautiful Day, though, it’s a pathway to a better life. By teaching these individuals to make and package granola, the Rhode Island-based nonprofit helps equip them with the skills they need to find steady employment.
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Eighty million people are displaced worldwide, according to Beautiful Day. Many U.S. refugees face significant challenges integrating into civilian life: minimal transferable skills, potential trauma from their home countries, and the inability to speak English well.
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Through its Kitchen/Production Program, Beautiful Day pays adults to work in its Providence kitchen for four months, preparing and packaging granola as well as other specialty foods. This helps teach them English along with essential job and life skills, like confidence and teamwork, with resounding success: Over 70% of graduates have found permanent employment. Since Beautiful Day became a nonprofit in 2012, it’s trained more than 400 refugees from 14 countries.
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“Beautiful Day is not an ‘us-them’ endeavor. We’re in it together,” Executive Director Keith Cooper tells Nice News. “We’re providing job training, job skills, and an introduction to the American workplace culture. Our trainees, who are mostly recent arrivals, bring determination and grit, an eagerness to learn, and a critical need to get a job. The result is pretty fun.”

Meanwhile. . .

About 46 million people remain under winter weather alerts, as two weather systems threaten to disrupt post-Thanksgiving travel with chilly temperatures, heavy snow and dangerous driving conditions.

Donald Trump

The Guardian - Trump says he plans to cancel most of Biden’s executive orders

Photos of newsrooms

 

Trump regime halts visas for Afghan nationals

The Hill -  The State Department has paused visas for Afghan nationals after two National Guard members from West Virginia were shot close to the White House.

“The Department of State has IMMEDIATELY paused visa issuance for individuals traveling on Afghan passports. The Department is taking all necessary steps to protect U.S. national security and public safety,” the State Department said in a post on the social platform X Friday evening.

ICE Terrorizing Chicago’s Working Class

In These Times -  When federal immigration agents thread through her Chicago neighborhood and circle above her home in a helicopter, Araceli hides with her husband. ?“You hear the whistles,” she says through an interpreter. ?“You hear the people yelling, ?‘Don’t go out! Stay inside! There’s immigration here!’ ” 

Sometimes they are forced to hide for days. 

“It’s alarming, it’s not normal, it’s like being in a crisis,” explains Araceli, who is 55 and originally from Mexico City, though she has lived in Chicago for 30 years. That means Araceli often misses work as an apartment cleaner and her husband misses work in construction.

When it’s not safe to leave, she and her husband rely on their two adult children to bring them food. And then, when missed work means missed pay, they rely on their children to help with the rent.

“What harm have we caused in this country?” asks Araceli, who is using a pseudonym to protect her safety, tears streaming down her face. ?“Do we really deserve this?”

Trump regime says nursing isn't a professional degree amid new limits on loans

NBC News  -  The Trump administration’s plan to redefine what constitutes a professional degree would exclude nursing and limit access to student loans — outraging national health care groups and leaving nursing students questioning how they will pay for graduate degrees.

Previously, graduate students could borrow federal loans up to the cost of their degree, but under the new proposal, there would be caps on loans based on whether students are enrolled in a program that is considered professional or not.

The change stems from President Donald Trump’s “one big beautiful bill,” the U.S. Department of Education said in a Nov. 6 news release. Students in graduate programs will now be capped at $20,500 per year with a lifetime limit of $100,000.

For students seeking a professional degree, loan limits are higher, at $50,000 per year, with a lifetime limit of $200,000, the news release states. The Education Department’s list of professional degrees includes pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary medicine, chiropractic, law, medicine, optometry, osteopathic medicine, podiatry and theology.

Undergraduate students will not be affected by the new lending limits.