Ellen McCarty, Mindful Youth

It’s time to understand the connection between neurotoxic pollution, neurodevelopmental disabilities and violence in America. Read full article here: https://www.ellenmccarty.com/research/toxins

Ms. McCarty analyzed research and data from the following institutions in the USA: Harvard University, Columbia University, Princeton University, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Duke University, Northwestern University, Johns Hopkins University, Indiana University, Pennsylvania State University, University of Minnesota, Michigan State University, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, George Washington University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, East Carolina University, Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, University of Florida, Baylor College of Medicine, University of Texas at El Paso, Texas A&M University, University of Utah, University of Nevada, Arizona State University, University of Washington, University of Denver, University of California San Francisco, UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Case Western Reserve University, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Brown University, University of Southern California, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, State University of New York, Loyola Law School, Center for Disease Control (CDC), National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Union of Concerned Scientists, W.G. Hefner Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Economic Policy Institute, United States Government Accountability Office, Lundbeck, LLC, National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), Heartland Health Research Alliance, Ltd., US Public Health Service, California Department of Toxic Substances Control, California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, Center for Human Experimental Therapeutics, Brookings Institute, Environmental Systems Research Institute, The American Lung Association, National Association of Clean Air Agencies, Association of Air Pollution Control Agencies, United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Vertex Pharmaceuticals, AMF Consulting, Inc., and Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation; and in Europe: European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Imperial College London (UK), Oxford (UK), King's College London (UK), Université Montpellier (France), University of Bordeaux (France), Université Versailles Saint-Quentin (France), University of Southern Denmark, Mental Health Services in the Region of Southern Denmark, Copenhagen University Hospital (Denmark), University of Copenhagen (Denmark), Odense University Hospital (Denmark), The Lundbeck Foundation Initiative for Integrative Psychiatric Research (Denmark), Aarhus University (Denmark), University of Oslo (Norway), Norwegian Institute of Public Health (Norway), Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (Spain); and in Canada: Université de Poitiers, University of British Columbia, Laboratoire de Physiologie Humaine, University of Montreal, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia Children’s Hospital; and in South Korea: Seoul National University College of Medicine, Inje University College of Medicine, Gachon University of Medicine and Science, Eulji University, Seoul National University College of Medicine and Institute of Environmental Medicine; and in China: Southern University of Science and Technology and Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University.

President Biden reminded us what presidential language sounds like. He modeled prosocial behavior for our elementary school children and everyone else. When Trump tore this country apart, Biden brought us together. Uniting this country is what worthy presidents do. Thank you for supporting unity, decency and democracy. Stay in power until January 2025 because we still need you. VP Harris has your back. As does Biden's brilliant Obama-era administration and the US military. Biden doesn't need to be the strongest person in this country because he is not alone. The People of the USA are strong and we are all pillars upholding our US Constitution and keeping the beacon of democracy burning. This November, whatever individual priorities we have need to be on the backburner while we save this country from a President Trump who is now immune and above The Law with the intention to be a dictator on day one. The center must hold. This looks like a great middle way forward to me:

The US Supreme Court already ended the Rule of Law for presidents, paving the way for any president to become a dictator. Big Brother "been verified"-style face recognition technology is already being used to track and control citizens in Asia - monitoring their every location to massacre resistance to dictatorships there. Don't let predatory tech and its supporters anywhere near the White House. JD Vance is in Congress right now and could vote to protect us from predatory AI but he's a Republican and right now Republicans protect Billionaires not The People. If Vance really was concerned about tech giants, he could join Democrats and pass new anti-trust legislation to break apart insanely large tech companies like Alphabet, Inc which owns everything from Google to Waymo, both of which are replacing human workers with AI. But Vance is doing NOTHING to protect American workers from Big Tech, which just empowers Big Tech at the expense of everyone else. We need a tsunami of blue voters to overcome billionaires' insatiable GREED. They are strangling our economy and our democracy with the aim to end all freedoms and rights so they can have Even. More. Global. Resources. Including. Your. Income. VOTE BLUE, for Congress, for president. Abortion is important and Gaza is important but there will be No Life on earth if these billionaires are not governed by laws and can do whatever they want. Corporate lawlessness is not the answer. A hillbilly end to the Rule of Law and our Bill of Rights is just the K*K in a suit. https://www.axios.com/pro/tech-policy/2024/07/15/where-jd-vance-stands-on-tech-policy

To protect our right to privacy from Big Brother facial tracking and our right to the pursuit of happiness, we need to protect human work from predatory AI development. Trump Republicans in our US Congress are refusing to protect human workers from AI bot and robot development because, like their counterparts on the US Supreme Court, Trump Republicans serve billionaires not The People. VOTE for a blue (majority Democrat) Congress to pass national bills like this one that is just sitting there, waiting for Republicans to stop blocking protections for human workers and govern corporations with laws. Regulation = laws. Corporations need laws just like people do. https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/6881
In the meantime, states are acting to protect workers:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/10/technology/california-ai-regulation.html

States Take Up A.I. Regulation Amid Federal Standstill California legislators have made the biggest push to pass new laws to rein in the technology. Colorado passed one protecting consumers.

During this 248th birthday week of the USA, our US Supreme Court just set an expiration date of 2025 for our Democracy. This why voting for one issue, whether it is "abortion" or "Gaza" is wrong. If you only see one issue and don't see the big picture, you lose ALL your freedoms and rights. REMEMBER: In 2025, the moment our 1st Amendment right to free media, freedom of religion and freedom to organize, protest and criticize our leaders ends, that automatically invokes the 2nd Amendment right (and obligation) to bear arms to restore democracy. As long as we have freedom of speech, there is no greater weapon than the pen and our voices. We choose non-violent expression until that expression is muzzled: then we must use violence. Americans live free or die, but it is a lot easier to VOTE for Democrats in Nov. 2024, our last free election if Trump wins. If we do have to bear arms in 2025, aim for billionaires too. They funded Trump's pathway to dictatorship.

The US Supreme Court justices deciding that a president is above The Law would be a betrayal of their oaths to protect our Constitution that could only be reversed peacefully with 2/3 majority in Congress. The president is just an average citizen who serves 4-8 years and then passes the baton to the next citizen. Our Constitution makes the president below The Law to make sure the president is ruled by The People, not the other way around.

During 1000 years of Catholic Rule in Europe (800s-1800s), a few rich families owned everything, enslaved the entire world and created serfdom (a form of slavery where families were allowed to stay together) in Europe. The Catholic Church burned all historical records of Democracy including the works of the Greek philosophers, which only survived because they were preserved in Arabic and the Muslims - who had some of the greatest universities in the world at the time - guarded them as Catholic Europe burned its history and its people. When Jewish merchants translated the Greek and Roman historical records from Arabic back into Latin and shared them on their trade routes in the 1500s, it started the Renaissance, which means *Rebirth* of Greek and Roman ideals.

For 1000 years, the Catholic Church served super-rich families instead of the poor and it looks like it is doing that again., doesn't it. Got billionaires? Dictator Trump would serve them, not us. He already announced during the debates that he wants to reduce their taxes (billionaires pay a mere 8%, which is already nothing). Biden argued that Congress should increase that tax rate to 24% for billionaires. We need to VOTE for a 2/3 BLUE CONGRESS to protect our Democracy and our Economy.

Organizing like-minded people is a first step, but that is limited power. Uniting people from vastly different backgrounds and viewpoints is true political power. If Republicans are NOT willing to tax billionaires (which Trump confirmed last night), then we need to Take Back Congress 2024 - and really we need 2/3 majority not just a simple majority - to tax billionaires, protect human work and restore our Middle Class not just locally but globally.

Democracy Unites. Dictatorship Divides.

Biden's administration has already started to bring wealth back to this country for American workers instead of billionaires:
https://www.npr.org/2024/06/12/1197959267/graphite-batteries-tariffs-china Biden's super power is that he spent a political lifetime uniting people from different backgrounds and representing and supporting all Americans, including our first African-American president which was a huge political risk for him in 2008. That's why voters like me trust him and are loyal to him until he dies: because he has stood with all Americans, not just one group, and we know he would give his last breath for our democracy. Trump would sell our Constitution to Putin for a dime. Also the president is not just one person; the president is an administration in the executive branch and unlike Trump who struggles to attract and retain talented people, Biden has attracted the best humans to work in his administration including VP Kamala Harris. Trump's administration will probably just be ChatBot and himself. Dictators act alone. In democracy, we act together. Ironically, one of the best ways to get people to sympathize with your political needs is to listen to *their* political needs. Training as a journalist teaches you to pause your own ego and cultural beliefs, visit different neighborhoods and states and listen to others who inevitably stretch us and round out our limited perception of reality. We realize how complicated reality is but also how rich with options we are.

Vote for African-Americans, if not for yourself.

For young people not inspired to vote, I encourage you to reach out to an African-American who has lost their civil rights protections to vote under Republican leadership in Congress. Reach out to African-American churches this summer and listen to their needs. In states like Wisconsin, Republicans have changed state constitutions to forbid volunteers from working at election polling stations which will mean huge lines in cities like Milwaukee. To any elderly African-Americans who faint waiting in 11-hour lines this November: May Gen-Z pick you up and carry you to freedom. Please think of them before you choose not to vote. Also please think of Russians, Ukrainians and Burmese, who have lost their democracies. Don't take the VOTE for granted. This November is now or never for the next generation. Don't give up your power to the far-right. You won't get it back.

Billionaires v. Tiger Salamander. May the best salamander win. Billionaires want us to think that we're in a recession caused by the pandemic. It's not a recession. It's billionaire hoarding: of our land, our commercial spaces, our housing and our global resources. A few billionaires bought 55,000 acres to build a high-tech city on California farmland that would drain water resources from our existing farms. Voting for politicians who believe in "no new taxes for anyone, anywhere" and "no laws for corporations" is how we got here. If Republicans who control Congress now want to allow billionaires to hoard everything, price gouge and give nothing back, then let's VOTE BLUE for Democrats in a US Congress willing to pass new laws to end price gouging, tax billionaires and take back our economy. If we want to pass on an American middle class to the next generation, there should be a limit to how much land any corporation, family or person can own. We need a 2/3 majority in our national US Congress (vote for your US Senator + US House Representative).

We're in the Guilded Age Part 2. Unlike the HBO series, The Guilded Age in the 1890s was not wonderful. It was a predatory age without any worker rights: a time before the 40-hour work week, sick pay and minimum wage when a few families owned everything. Everyone else lived in cramped tenement housing and were worked into the ground until they died. Solano's 55,000 acres is equal to about 275,000 family homes. A few billionaires in California think they have the right to hoard that much land for themselves and charge a fortune to the rest of us to live in their city so they can make *even more* money. Their wealth doesn't trickle down. They will suck up our prosperity until it is bone dry. It's time to give billionaires a reality check and remind them where true power lies: with The People. Articles about the Solano city proposal and The Gilded Ages (1890s) are posted in the comments. With The Law, we ended the first Gilded Age and created the American Middle Class. We can do it again now if we have the right politicians willing to create the right laws.

Before you protest, contemplate how to create positive attention for your movement.

CHANGE = CONGRESS, not the PRESIDENT. To change this country, we should watch debates of bills in Congress that will become the laws that govern human behavior and change human history. We over-focus on the president when we should be watching weekly debates in Congress. If you want change, focus on your US Senators and US House of Representatives: https://www.congress.gov/help/find-bills-by-subject and judge them based on how they vote for new laws, not by what they say. It doesn't matter if President Biden is old. He would give his last breath for democracy. VP Harris is ready to lead as a prosecutor defending our US Constitution. Their platform is very simple: Democracy, period. If you want to change anything within this country, change the laws. Change Congress. Also follow your State Legislature to change state-specific laws. Here's CA: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/ LEGISLATION = LAWS (by the people for the people).

During Juneteenth 2024 week, I invite all citizens to recognize that our attention is our power. I invite you to Pay Attention and lend Power to the Global Workers movement to end slavery overseas. When one human being is enslaved, the freedom of all humanity is endangered. On LinkedIn, please follow IndustriALL Global Union and subscribe to its newsletters documenting the global push for Worker Rights for the Global Poor on All Continents here:https://www.industriall-union.org/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/industriall-leaflet-en-web.pdf

I will continue to advocate for the workers of Burma-Myanmar because they are among the poorest people in the world and they are slaves today. When, via their new Democracy, the Burmese began to organize a union at Chevron, their 2021 military coup leader was sponsored by Chevron, undermining a global boycott to defund the dictatorship and restore democracy. Today 700 billionaires in this world are undermining democracy, worker rights and the environment on a global scale. It's time to Pay Attention and reverse this trend. The Burmese say: "Any problem we face, We overcome." This is the power of our attention, of true mindfulness.

When I lived in Burma-Myanmar, it was the second poorest country in the world -- more poor than all of Latin America and all of Africa except Sierra Leone. Right now much of central Burma is under inhumane military rule sponsored by Chevron, and their sacred lands bombed by military-grade force are being filled with plastic garbage. They are victims of forced labor and they are starving. I will continue to advocate for the Burmese until my last breath because I know that when Burmese workers in Myanmar are treated with dignity, the whole world will be treated with dignity.

Our US history of slavery today: When Jim Crow laws in the US ended, "jobs" were shipped overseas to other continents like Asia where global corporations were allowed under international law to continue systemic slavery out of the Western public eye, away from our Attention, away from our Power. The new plantation owners today are billionaires who hoard the wealth of entire continents. Oracle's Larry Ellison is the slave master of India. His "workers" in India have no days off while the school district of Oracle's tax-free headquarters in the US doesn't have enough money to hire the needed number of special education staff. When American jobs are shipped overseas without restriction, and when we are too extreme about "no new taxes" for anyone, we lose too much here in the US, too. Everyone suffers globally. Modern Plantation Owner Elon Musk, who hoards the equivalent wealth of what was the entire American middle class, locks his Asian workers in factories and does not let them leave except one day a week. That's not a job. That's a prison; that's a plantation.

There are three ways evil enters the world via our individual hearts: 1) greed, 2) hatred or 3) the delusion that there are times when greed/hatred is morally acceptable. Billionaires who say they will give their money away when they die are allowing the starvation and exploitation of the global poor today moment after moment after moment of horrific suffering. I hear you, Global Poor. I see you. Billionaires' hoarding must end globally and their wealth must be redistributed back to the global poor from whom it was stolen. When available, The Law is a better weapon than violence because it delivers justice without ending sacred life. The workers' union of Burma-Myanmar is begging for Article 33 to be invoked against its dictator so that greater sanctions can be enforced globally against companies like Chevron. Unfortunately, peace without human rights does not exist. Peace without human rights is just forced silence. Allow these oppressed workers to be heard: Pay Attention to the work of global unions this week and sign up for their newsletters, organized by IndustriALL in Switzerland. To The People of Burma-Myanmar: May you be free. May you be Empowered by Global Mindfulness and our Global Attention to your suffering. May all human workers be respected, safe and protected by a higher mindset than the greed and hatred that now controls too much of our global economy. Humanity first.

Xi is funding and empowering the rise of white supremacy in the two largest nuclear powers on earth: by arming Putin, he supports Trump's re-election. In arming Russia against Ukraine, Xi is supplying a far-right white supremacist Putin with weapons that can be used against Asians in the future. If Xi thinks Putin and Trump will include him as equals in "white supremacy" if Trump is re-elected, Xi does not understand western history. White supremacists will always manipulate and use other people - whether it is "Hindus first" or Chinese nationalism - to advance their own cause and then, like Hi**er, once they have enough power, they will turn against all people who are not a very narrow definition of "white and superior." Since he is not blond and blue-eyed, Xi is arming and funding the future subjugation of his own people and all other people who have diverse genetic heritage. There is a reason Putin has few friends in the West: we remember what fascism is and that "white supremacy" is an abomination: an evil that should never be empowered by anyone on earth. Xi is funding the return of white imperialism against Biden's defense of equality. It's shocking how far China has evolved from its Communist dogma of equality and dignity for workers back to supporting the global enslavement of all workers by dictators and billionaires. It's time for China to remember and recommit to dignity and equality for all workers not just in China but for all human workers on earth. That is the call that all nations must hear and and support together.

Chinese outraged as Putin ally vows to "subjugate" Russia's neighbors Some negative comments remain on Chinese social media, where comments critical of Russia have been heavily censored since its invasion of Ukraine.

Only Putin abstained from the UN vote of course because he and Netanyahu are on the same side: far-right "unlimited bombs" and destruction of civilian lives. Praying for both Hamas and Netanyahu to see reason and finally return all hostages and get Palestinian civilians the urgent care they need. It is up to Hamas and Israel to find the middle way so that civilians of all faiths get relief in Gaza.

UN security council endorses US-backed hostages-for-ceasefire Gaza deal Only Russia abstains in vote on plan calling for hostage and prisoner swap in six-week ceasefire leading to wider deal

Netanyahu is successfully using a military tactic called "divide and conquer" created by absolute rulers in Europe to ensure their uninterrupted power for thousands of years. If you can divide the public against itself, you can disempower The People. A group of American Muslims and American Jews protesting Netanyahu TOGETHER will be what ends this war. As long as the war in Gaza hurts Biden, Netanyahu has no reason to end it. Netanyahu wants Trump to win and he is successfully dividing the American left to ensure that end.

Power requires alliances with all kinds of people. As citizens, if we allow ourselves to hate an entire group of people rather than see each human being as an individual and a potential political ally, we are missing opportunities for political alliances and political power. Netanyahu knows that if he can divide the American left and cost Biden the election, under Trump Republican absolute rule, Israel will be allowed to destroy Palestine completely with the support of Putin and Trump, who openly says he wants to start an apocalypse WWIII in the Middle East. Those are the words of a convicted felon, but one who can still become president.

Don't just protest Biden, who is fulfilling the legal obligation of a military agreement with Israel. Also ask yourselves how you will align with ALL other people in this country to change the US Congress that makes these military agreements (laws are made in the legislative branch - the House of Reps and the Senate - which has far more power than the president to effect change). By VOTING for new members of Congress and changing the laws together we can shape more humane conditions for military support in this new era of unregulated, militarized AI and the rise of authoritarianism. The degree to which Netanyahu crosses the red line - which is a moral line drawn by Biden - is the degree to which Netanyahu destroys himself and his own people and future military support of Israel... unless the USA becomes a dictatorship under Trump, in which case this horrific behavior by Netanyahu will be rewarded. That is what Netanyahu is banking on: extremism and division in America. We cannot allow him to receive that reward. The center must hold.

Israeli peaceniks in the US didn’t find a home in the Gaza protests. So they started their own Israeli leftists, who say opposition to the war is support for Israel, are rejected by pro-Palestinian and pro-war camps

It's also *Disability Pride Month.* As Waymo extends its driverless cars into more cities in 2024, it is important to realize that the jobs AI robotics are targeting now are blue collar, working class jobs that people with learning differences and special needs can do in order to live independent, fulfilling lives. AI technology is not just about replacing one type of job. It's about replacing ALL jobs without an economic plan or safety net for workers who are displaced by this technology. Decades ago, Google promised to Do No Evil. Creating technology that takes income from the poor and working class and gives it to billionaires at Alphabet Inc (which owns Google and Waymo) is evil. Until we elect a blue Congress that is willing to regulate these corporations, it's time for WAY LESS Waymo.

The billionaires who seek to replace Americans jobs with robots have never met the American working class they seek to replace. It's time for an introduction. This July, let's show the world our pride and dignity as human workers and PROTEST Waymo in Mountain View, Calif. In addition to protest, we need to make smart choices. It is critically important to CHOOSE a human worker over a machine every time you can. Don't destroy the economic future of students in special education. Protect our working class. AI is coming for white-collar jobs next. Until there is an economic plan for Alphabet Inc (and all AI tech companies) to redistribute excessive wealth to the global working class, BOYCOTT Waymo and any restaurants and stores that replace human workers with cold-hearted tech. The world deserves better. People with disabilities deserve better.

The Good, Bad and Annoying as Autonomous Vehicle Services Expand | KQED We’ll speak with a research engineer who has been studying the promise of autonomous vehicles for half a century, and an investigative reporter tracking the data and the blindspots of these robots on our roads.

Draft-dodger Trump, who has never served his country, announced his shocking intention to "be a dictator on day one" the same year we honor the 80th Anniversary of D-Day. Trump wants to erase the memory of that D-Day sacrifice and, via his three appointments on the US Supreme Court, declare himself immune to the Rule of Law and our US Constitution so that he can become the dictatorship now that D-Day ended then. Disney+ is airing shows this week about African-Americans who served on D-Day despite the hypocrisy of Jim Crow laws in the South. These soldiers were willing to serve and die for the ideals in our US Constitution. That is what they fought for. Humans are imperfect. That is why we fight for our Constitution, not individual leaders. We fight and die for liberty, equality and justice for all (with ALL under the Rule of Law by The People for The People) so these ideals don't perish from the earth. That kind of sacrifice is eternal. War is not the worst cloud a human can face, especially if it is fought in a spirit of self-defense of our ideals. The worst cloud is a dictatorship without end.

Veterans gather for last big D-Day anniversary under cloud of new war in Europe “I believe that freedom and democracy are definitely under threat,” D-Day veteran Harold Terens, 100, told NBC News ahead of 80th anniversary commemorations in France.

Thank you to President Biden and the Israelis who protested Netanyahu's excessive force in Gaza and to all the leaders in the Middle East who assisted with this peace process. The war will end, Gaza will be rebuilt and Palestinian civilians will be returned to their homes and Jewish hostages (including their remains) will be returned to Israel.
A Palestinian state needs to be created so that injustice can be addressed with words through an equal and non-violent system of justice. Such a state would create hope, economy and greater well-being, a lesson we learned from World War II's Marshall Plan and the UN peace plan established after the Bosnian War in the former Yugoslavia. Hope and economic well-being ends violence and genocide. Instead of two leaders deciding the fate of the two-state solution, ALL the people of Palestine and ALL the people of Israel should have an EQUAL vote and decide on their two-state solution together. Leaders need to save face. The People can be more practical. Most people on earth just want to work and take care of themselves happily.
Sometimes you have to treat people with dignity before they can act with dignity. In this sign from a protest in Israel, Israelis are begging Biden to save the hostages from their far-right leader Netanyahu. Biden is an ordinary "Joe" American citizen but he is able to reflect to the world that the value of the USA is when we are a beacon of freedom from tyranny and when we are a reminder that we do not serve God by being great. We serve God by being good. Praying for everyone who is in a state of profound suffering in the Middle East. May you all be healed in all ways.

Netanyahu aide says Israel agreed to Biden's cease-fire plan for Gaza Ophir Falk, chief foreign policy adviser to Netanyahu, said that it was “a deal we agreed to — it’s not a good deal but we dearly want the hostages released, all of them.”