Screen Use Linked to Teen Suicide

By David Arnett

A recent study by researchers at Cornell, Columbia, and University of California- Berkeley links addictive screen use by adolescents to an increase in suicidal behaviors. The study followed 4,285 U.S. adolescents over a four-year period, and the results imply overwhelmingly that the key element driving risk of suicidal behavior is not total time but rather addictive use of social media, mobile phones, and video games. 

“This is the first study to identify that addictive use is important, and is actually the root cause, instead of time,” said lead author Yunyu Xiao, assistant professor of psychiatry and population health sciences at Weill Cornell Medical College.

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Corona to Ukraine: New Mass Formation

By Mattias Desmet

Dear friends, followers, and critics,

We are at a pivotal moment. On one hand, we are witnessing the collapse of the corona narrative; on the other, we are seeing a new mass formation arising around the story of the war in Ukraine. These two phenomena are not occurring by chance at the same time.

What everyone who wanted to know had already long known, is now slowly seeping through to newspapers and news programs: we can stop blaming the bats from Wuhan. The coronavirus came from a lab in Wuhan, where, indeed, they were experimenting with coronaviruses. What is now emerging in the mainstream media is even worse than just the fact that the virus came from a lab. It is also becoming clear that (some of) those who promoted the measures always knew it came from a lab.

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Congress: Don’t Take Away the Care

By Johnnie Miller-Retired Teacher

It’s Kept Me Going

Retirement isn’t always a breeze, especially as you get older. As we age, health problems can get worse, income becomes more limited, and it seems like access to high-quality, affordable health care gets harder and harder to come by. That’s why, for me at least, Medicare Advantage has been a godsend.

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Responsible Forest Management

By David Arnett

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced during a meeting of the Western Governors’ Association in New Mexico, June 23, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is rescinding the 2001 Roadless Rule. This outdated administrative rule contradicts the will of Congress and goes against the mandate of the USDA Forest Service to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation’s forests and grasslands. Rescinding this rule will remove prohibitions on road construction, reconstruction, and timber harvest on nearly 59 million acres of the National Forest System, allowing for fire prevention and responsible timber production.

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Social Security’s Go-Broke Date

By Truth in Accounting

The recent analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget regarding the 2025 Medicare Trustees’ Report highlights the looming challenges with Medicare and Social Security, but it only scratches the surface of the deeper fiscal issues our country faces. To understand the full financial reality, we must go beyond trust fund “solvency” and examine the actual commitments the federal government has made—and continues to make—without fully accounting for them. As the Congressional Budget Office has noted:

“In the public debate, ‘solvency’ means keeping the trust funds from exhausting their balances and ensuring the ability of the funds to finance promised benefits. Defined that way, however, trust fund solvency is not a meaningful measure of the government’s ability to meet its future obligations.”

In other words, solvency in this context is more of a political or legal benchmark than an actual measure of financial health.

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