*WHO IS THAT? 40% OF AMERICANS DON’T RECOGNIZE THEMSELVES IN THE MIRROR:
Who’s that in the mirror? While many people haven’t seen their friends during the coronavirus pandemic, some believe they haven’t even seen themselves recently. Two in five Americans say that they’ve passed a mirror and not recognized their reflection at least once during COVID-19. A national survey of 2,000 American consumers examines the evolution of respondents’ relationships with their bodies since the pandemic started last year. Over half the poll (51%) believe the pandemic has negatively affected how they feel about their body. Another 42 percent confessed to not feeling “at home” in their bodies anymore. About one in two people (49%) say they don’t have the same level of confidence as they did prior to COVID-19. The survey, conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Massage Envy, also examined consumer confidence and discovered there are a few things that respondents said they would need in order to regain the level of confidence they had before the pandemic.
For 52 percent, a vacation would help regain their confidence. A haircut (33%), a night out (37%), and a massage (37%) all top the list as well. For some, confidence involves more than just the physical, with three in ten consumers (31%) saying they would like to start mental health therapy. Researchers find the pandemic has taken more out of us than our confidence. According to the results, 47 percent of Americans say their body has been aching in brand new ways since last March. After everyone’s daily routine was upended, the new daily ritual has started to take its toll. Nearly three in five (58%) admit their daily routine since the start of the pandemic is inflicting major wear and tear on their bodies. Half the poll admitted to feeling physically drained on a daily basis from the general stress of COVID alone. Another 46 percent blame the general “sameness” of the passing days for feeling drained. Almost two in five people (39%) feel physically drained without in-person interactions and nearly a third (32%) feel tired from practicing safety precautions while out and about.
These daily stressors have also had an intense physical impact on those respondents who experienced chronic pain before the pandemic began (45%). Of those with chronic pain, two in three (66%) reveal their pain has increased since the pandemic’s start. Meanwhile, among those who have never experienced chronic pain before (55%), nearly a third of them say the stress from the pandemic has given them chronic pain for the first time in their lives. Many of these Americans (40%) feel they’re going to need professional help to get their body feeling like its pre-pandemic self.
*NIKE AND DOZENS OF OTHER COMPANIES PAID NO FEDERAL TAXES FOR THE LAST THREE YEARS:
Nike is one of several enormous and profitable U.S. companies that paid no federal taxes in the past three years, according to a study released Friday. Other well-known names included Duke Energy, FedEx, and Salesforce, though dozens more businesses in sectors like energy and industrial chemicals made the list. Nike, which took in $4.1 billion in profits in the same time period, paid what the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy tabulated to be a -18 percent tax rate, meaning tax credits and rebates from the federal government amounted to more than the company paid. Former President Donald Trump slashed the corporate tax rate in a sweeping bill in 2017, and President Joe Biden has pushed to raise it.
*75% OF ALL U.S VOTERS, 69% OF BLACK VOTERS SUPPORT VOTER ID LAWS:
The subject of voter ID laws is one of the sources of contentious debate in our modern political arena. Here’s everything you need to know about the pivotal set of policies which could help decide future elections. According to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey, the vast majority of likely U.S. voters believe that some form of photo identification should be required before voters are able to cast a ballot. According to the survey results, which polled 1,000 likely voters:
- 75% of likely U.S. voters believe photo identification should be required to vote.
- 89% of Republicans support voter identification requirements.
- 60% of Democrats support voter identification requirements.
- 77% of politically unaffiliated voters support identification requirements.
*SHARON STONE SAYS SURGEON GAVE HER LARGER BREASTS WITHOUT CONSENT:
‘HE THOUGHT I WOULD LOOK BETTER’:
Sharon Stone says that a plastic surgeon gave her larger breast implants without her consent, telling her that they would “go better” with her body, she writes in her new memoir. The Basic Instinct star, 63, explains in her memoir, The Beauty of Living Twice, that she was undergoing breast reconstruction surgery to repair her chest after doctors had to remove benign tumors that were “gigantic, bigger than my breast alone,” in 2001. But when Stone woke up from the reconstructive surgery, she discovered that the surgeon gave her large breast implants, The Times reported in an interview with the actress. “When I was unbandaged, I discovered that I had a full cup-size bigger breasts, ones that he said ‘go better with your hip size’ ” Stone said. “He had changed my body without my knowledge or consent.” And when Stone questioned her surgeon on her breast size, she said he told her that he “thought that I would look better with bigger, ‘better’ boobs.”
Stone also writes in her memoir, out on March 30, about the stroke and cerebral hemorrhage she experienced in 2001, at age 43. Speaking about that harrowing health scare with Willie Geist on Sunday Today, Stone said that she was lying in a hospital bed as a doctor told her that she was close to death. “The room was so silent,” she said. “When the room is so silent and no one’s running around trying to fix you, that’s when you realize how near death is and how serious everything is.” Stone recovered and took a two-year break from acting as she rebuilt her health, but said in a 2019 interview with Variety that the stroke stunted her career. She went from being at the top of her game following 1992’s Basic Instinct and 1995’s Casino to struggling to find work for seven years, while also losing primary custody of her adopted son Roan. “People treated me in a way that was brutally unkind,” Stone said.
“From other women in my own business to the female judge who handled my custody case, I don’t think anyone grasps how dangerous a stroke is for women and what it takes to recover. “I had to remortgage my house. I lost everything I had. I lost my place in the business,” she continued. “I was like the hottest movie star, you know? It was like Miss Princess Diana and I were so famous, and she died and I had a stroke. And we were forgotten.” Stone has since reconciled with Roan, who is now 20, and lives with him and her two sons, whom she later adopted, Laird, 15, and Quinn, 14. “I’m in a really grateful place,” she told Geist. “When I was a kid, I always wanted to have a house full of kids running and screaming and dogs, and I got it. And I feel very blessed and happy about the life I got. We’re happy together, and what’s better than that?”
*U.S CHURCH MEMBERSHIP FALLS BELOW MAJORITY FOR THE FIRST TIME:
Americans’ membership in houses of worship continued to decline last year, dropping below 50% for the first time in Gallup’s eight-decade trend. In 2020, 47% of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque, down from 50% in 2018 and 70% in 1999. Line graph. U.S. church membership was 73% in 1937 when Gallup first measured it. It stayed near 70% through 2000 before beginning to decline, to 61% in 2010 and 47% in 2020.
U.S. church membership was 73% when Gallup first measured it in 1937 and remained near 70% for the next six decades, before beginning a steady decline around the turn of the 21st century. As many Americans celebrate Easter and Passover this week, Gallup updates a 2019 analysis that examined the decline in church membership over the past 20 years. Gallup asks Americans a battery of questions on their religious attitudes and practices twice each year. The following analysis of declines in church membership relies on three-year aggregates from 1998-2000 (when church membership averaged 69%), 2008-2010 (62%), and 2018-2020 (49%). The aggregates allow for reliable estimates by subgroup, with each three-year period consisting of data from more than 6,000 U.S. adults.
*POLL: 64% OF AMERICANS SEE ‘CANCEL CULTURE’ AS A THREAT TO THEIR FREEDOM:
A poll released by The Hill on Monday showed that 64% of Americans believe that “cancel culture” is a threat to their freedom. The information comes from a Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey released exclusively to The Hill showing that 64% of the respondents to the survey stated “that there is ‘a growing cancel culture’ that is a threat to their freedom, while 36 percent said they did not view it as a threat to their freedom.” The poll also showed that 36% of respondents said that cancel culture is a “big problem.” Thirty-two percent said it was a “moderate problem,” and 20% said it was a “small problem.” Thirteen percent said it is “not a problem.”
Merriam-Webster defines “cancel culture” as “the practice or tendency of engaging in mass canceling … as a way of expressing disapproval and exerting social pressure.” The results of the survey reveal a potential growing sense of people being unnerved by recent “cancellations” in the press and culture. Several high-profile “cancellations” have brought the topic up as a main conversation in America, whether it is through the banning of books, such as the decision of Dr. Seuss Enterprises to stop publishing several of Dr. Seuss children’s books earlier this month or the most recent act of Scholastic to pull the “Captain Underpants” spinoff due to its alleged “passive racism.”
*CANDACE OWENS RIPS LIL NAS X’S ‘SATAN SHOES’: ‘NOBODY HAS THE COURAGE TO TELL BLACK AMERICA THE TRUTH’:
Candace Owens on Sunday ripped into the media and corporations for promoting a “sick culture” that’s crippling future generations, particularly black Americans, whom the conservative argued are being “used” to promulgate such unhealthy messages. Owens’ criticism was sparked by so-called “Satan shoes” promoted by hip-hop artist Lil Nas X, though the Daily Wire talk show host emphasized that she believes the performer is merely a “pawn in a larger game” and “does not understand what’s happening.”Nas sparked backlash this weekend over the shoes. He designed a pair of Nike sneakers with the company MSCHF that apparently include a drop of human blood mixed with ink, of which only 666 pairs are available for purchase, staying inline with the satanic theme. Nike said Sunday that the company has nothing to do with the release or the design of the shoes, but the company stopped short of denouncing the Satan-themed kicks. The sneakers coincide with a new hellish music video from Nas, wherein the singer gives Satan a lap dance.
*ACCLAIMED LITIGATION ATTORNEY, ZEIN E. OBAGI JR., EXAMINES AMAZON’S PRACTICE MAKING THEIR DRIVERS PEE IN BOTTLES:
E-commerce giant Amazon has apologized to a US lawmaker after falsely denying that some of its drivers are forced at times to urinate in plastic bottles. The flap started last week with a tweet from Mark Pocan, a Democrat from Wisconsin. Acclaimed litigation attorney, Zein E. Obagi Jr., had much to say on the matter and was quick to criticize this unethical employer practice. “The Ninth Circuit has found it inhumane for municipalities to criminalize natural conduct that our homeless population must undertake, such as urination, defecation and sleeping,” states Zein Obagi. “These are natural processes that human dignity requires us to permit all people to equally do. That an employer, let alone one of the most wealthy and technologically advanced in the world, has not come up with anything better than a plastic bottle for its drivers to use to urinate demonstrates a real abandonment of occupational safety principles.”
US lawmaker Mark Pocan also had much to say on this subject stating, “Paying workers $15/hr doesn’t make you a ‘progressive workplace’ when you union-bust & make workers urinate in water bottles,” Pocan tweeted, in an apparent reference to Amazon’s opposition to efforts to unionize a major facility in Alabama. Amazon’s official account quickly responded, saying: “You don’t really believe the peeing in bottles thing, do you? If that were true, nobody would work for us.” Zein Obagi concludes, “I can only imagine the lack of hygiene afforded to a driver that needs to move her bowels, or change a feminine product. Employees in California should know their complaints about unhealthy or unsafe practices at work by Cal. Lab. Code § 6310. As always, these complaints should be made in writing to a superior so the employer cannot deny that they were made.”
*EXAMINER – INVESTIGATES:
10.7% of adolescents aged 12 to 17 became addicted to marijuana within a year of trying it for the first time, according to a new study published yesterday in JAMA Pediatrics. That’s comparable to the same age group’s addiction rate (11.2%) for prescription opioids.
*EXAMINER – MEET: DAVID YURMAN
The co-founder and C.E.O. of the American jewelry brand.
Airline: Emirates.
Airport: Charles de Gaulle, in Paris.
App: DuckDuckGo.
Bag: Tom Bihn.
Bedtime: Whenever my eyes can’t stay open.
Birthday: Sybil’s party.
Breakfast, weekday: Homemade muesli.
Car: Range Rover.
Diet: No sugar.
Dinner, weekend: The Inn at Pound Ridge by Jean-Georges.
Dress: Cowboy casual.
Drive: Highway 1 through Big Sur.
Escape: Our cottage in Bedford, New York.
Fit: Loose.
Flaw: Taking on too much.
Hotel: San Ysidro Ranch, in Montecito, California.
Jacket: Barbour.
Neighbor: Richard Barrett, our friend, and colleague.
Nonfiction book:Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman, by Yvon Chouinard.
Pants: Paige black jeans.
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WHAT’S UP: BY SARAH GARCIA
*** I have taken notice of the decline in religion occurring in the USA. A new survey says just 48% of Americans actually participate in an organized religion – that is the lowest number ever recorded in this country.
*** Unthinkable that a President of the US would suggest boycotting a state. Democrats continue to think minorities are stupid. We are perfectly capable of getting a photo ID the same way we do when we need to get on a plane or to buy Sudafed.
*** According to new FBI data, there was a 23-year high of over 20,000 murders in 2020. This shouldn’t surprise anyone. When you defund and villainize the police for nearly a year, criminals are emboldened and our cities are less safe.
*EXAMINER – LENS:
Demi Moore and Bruce Willis’ youngest daughter, Tallulah, posted a stunning photo recently. The picture, taken by photographer Tyler Shields, shows the 27-year-old fashion designer curled up in a ball with her eyes closed as she lies on verdant grass. *THINK FREELY – BE INDEPENDENT – MAKE UP YOUR OWN (DAMN) MIND: READ LBN EXAMINER
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*EXAMINER – MARKETS:
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*EXAMINER – A DIFFERENT VIEW:….
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