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When I began Schwartzreport my purpose was to produce an entirely fact-based daily publication in favor of the earth, the inter-connectedness and interdependence of all life, democracy, equality for all, liberty, and things that are life-affirming. Also, to warn my readers about actions, events, and trends that threaten those values. Our country now stands at a crossroads, indeed, the world stands at a crossroads where those values are very much at risk and it is up to each of us who care about wellbeing to do what we can to defend those principles. I want to thank all of you who have contributed to SR, particularly those of you who have scheduled an ongoing monthly contribution. It makes a big difference and is much appreciated. It is one thing to put in the hours each day and to do the work for free, but another to have to cover the rising out-of-pocket costs. For those of you who haven’t done so, but read SR regularly, I ask that you consider supporting it.
Robert Reich, Carmel P. Friesen Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California - AlterNet
Stephan:
It has always surprised me that so many working-class men and women vote Republican. Anyone who takes some time to do a few Google’s quickly discovers that the two things that created the middle class in the United States were the unionization of workers, and the federal programs after WWII that allowed veterans (mostly working-class men) to get financing to go to college, and to buy homes. And then particularly starting during the Reagan administration the Republican Party gutted those programs and restructured the tax system to grossly favor the rich who rented them as needed. The result is the grotesque wealth inequality that now plagues American society. Like everything else it is all going to get down to voting.
Members of the United Auto Workers in 2014. Credit: Creative Commons
On Friday, Volkswagen employees in Chattanooga, Tennessee, voted overwhelmingly to join the United Auto Workers union.
This is a truly big deal. The mainstream media — most of whom no longer have labor reporters — have barely mentioned it, but I believe it marks a major turning point for organized labor.
The victory in Chattanooga is the first successful organizing drive of an automaker outside of Detroit’s Big Three and the first major union victory in the South.
Volkswagen had told workers — in a very conservative Republican area — that the “UAW = Biden” and that the union would “turn Chattanooga into Detroit.” Six southern state governors attacked the union as a threat to “liberty and freedoms” and in a joint statement condemned the UAW’s push to organize in their states.
But the union and the workers triumphed anyway.
We are witnessing a historic rebirth of the labor union movement in America. Labor unions are not just an interest […]
Here is yet another example of how profit, no matter the damage it does is the defining priority of most of today’s human cultures. Here also is a possible solution to that damage. This, of course, is what the U.S. Congress ought to be working on, instead of the nonsense they now waste their time and our social wellbeing on.
People collecting plastic waste at Dandora dumpsite, in Nairobi, Kenya. Credit: Simone Boccaccio / SOPA Images/ LightRocket / Getty
Countries could slash plastic pollution by 80% in less than two decades, according to a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme.
It’s even changing ecosystems. Scientists recently found rocks made from plastic on a remote Brazilian island, and there is now so much plastic swirling in parts of the Pacific Ocean that communities of coastal creatures are thriving on it, thousands of miles from their home.
Dan Milmo, Global Technology Editor - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan:
I have been tracking the trend of using AI to create fake porn that is used to humiliate or blackmail children, and sharing with you my outrage that the media is not properly covering this crisis, nor is the U.S. Congress even talking about it. This disgusting trend is going to affect an entire generation of children and is one of the many reasons I think parents should not allow children access to the internet. When I was a young boy, I went out in the morning and played with my friends, came back for lunch, and went out again coming back when the street lights came on and it was time for dinner. Or I walked to the library and read or borrowed books. Today most children from 3 to 4 in age on through their teens spend 4 to 6 hours a day staring at their phones or tablets, and it is having all kinds of negative social and psychological consequences. I think laws should be passed about doing things with AI like what is reported in this article (British by the way not an American source), and parents need to step up to control children’s access to social media.
According to the IWF, criminals are advising each other on how to use artificial intelligence to create images that can be used to extort pictures from children. Credit: Elise Amendola / AP
Paedophiles are being urged to use artificial intelligence to create nude images of children to extort more extreme material from them, according to a child abuse charity.
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said a manual found on the dark web contained a section encouraging criminals to use “nudifying” tools to remove clothing from underwear shots sent by a child. The manipulated image could then be used against the child to blackmail them into sending more graphic content, the IWF said.
“This is the first evidence we have seen that perpetrators are advising and encouraging each other to use AI technology for these ends,” said the IWF.
The charity, which finds and removes child sexual abuse material online, warned last year of a rise in sextortion cases, where victims are manipulated into sending graphic images of themselves and are then threatened with the release of those images unless they hand over money. It […]
JULIE RAY, Managing Editor for World News - The Gallup Organization
Stephan:
Here is well-conducted research on global leadership. For the seventh year in a row Germany receives the highest approval rating. That’s one thing that stood out for me. The other is that Biden is finally improving the world’s assessment of the U.S.. The third is how really poorly criminal Trump was rated by the other countries of the world.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Joe Biden may not have fully restored the image of the U.S. abroad, but it is in better condition now than it was under his predecessor and likely rival in the November election.
A new Gallup report based on surveys in over 130 countries and territories shows that the median global approval rating of U.S. leadership stood at 41% in 2023, down from 45% during Biden’s first year in office but unchanged from his second.
Historically, the 41% approval rating is lower than all but one of the ratings under President Barack Obama but is higher than any of those under Presidents Donald Trump and George W. Bush.
Biden began his term with strong approval ratings that rivaled Obama’s when he first took office. Median approval of U.S. leadership stood at 49% until the often-criticized U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. The United States’ overall rating slipped after that, and Biden ended his first full year in office with a 45% global approval rating and a 33% disapproval rating.
Approval ratings declined further in Biden’s second year, and since then, […]
I have been telling readers for years that sheriffs, an office that is a remnant of medieval England, should be eliminated countrywide because it is becoming a network of MAGAt christofascists with the powers of law enforcement. Here is an article that makes my point very clearly. These people are gearing up to create violence in November.
Mike Gannuscio (left) is running to be a sheriff in Mohave County, NevadaCredit: Daily Mail
A recent CSPOA conference in Las Vegas drew attention for its controversial mix of attendees, including felons, disgraced politicians and sheriffs
The event aimed to address extremism allegations within the group and outline plans for upcoming elections, such as investigating alleged voter fraud
Critics raised concerns about potential election interference and misinformation
A right-wing sheriffs’ group that challenges federal law held a bizarre rally in Las Vegas last week featuring felons and conspiracy theorists as the country’s presidential election is just months away.
The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, founded in 2011 by former Arizona sheriff Richard Mack, held its annual conference in Las Vegas last week at the Ahern Luxury Boutique Hotel conference center.
The group, known as CSPOA, teaches that elected sheriffs must ‘protect their citizens from the overreach of an out-of-control federal government’ by refusing to enforce any law they deem unconstitutional or ‘unjust.’
The right-wing ‘constitutional sheriffs,’ claim legal power in their jurisdictions that exceeds U.S. federal government and state authorities.
Two things stand out for me about this story, and the trend it represents, which is why I am putting it in SR. First, it is yet another story reporting Elon Musk’s lack of patriotism. I think his citizenship should be revoked, and he should not be allowed to do business in the U.S. Second, this is yet another account, one of hundreds describing the weaponization of lies by fascists. I don’t participate in social media, except there are several versions on SR Beth, my wonderful webmaster, posts on various sites — although not on X. But I think millions are influenced by what they read on social media and that ought to be realized and people made knowledgable that what they are frequently reading is crap whether liberal or fascist. I think this ought to be a training course in schools.
Policies that could apply to pro-Nazi content on X don’t appear to be applied consistently. Credit: Leila Register / NBC News; Getty / X
Elon Musk’s X is a thriving hub for Nazi support and propaganda, with paid subscribers sharing speeches by Adolf Hitler or content praising his genocidal regime.
NBC News found that at least 150 paid “Premium” subscriber X accounts and thousands of unpaid accounts have posted or amplified pro-Nazi content on X in recent months, often in apparent violation of X’s rules. The paid accounts posting the content all consistently posted antisemitic or pro-Nazi material. Examples included praise of Nazi soldiers, sharing of Nazi symbols and denials of the Holocaust.
The pro-Nazi content is not confined to the fringes of the platform. During one seven-day period in March, seven of the most widely shared pro-Nazi posts on X accrued 4.5 million views in total. One post with 1.9 million views promoted a false and long-debunked conspiracy theory that 6 million Jews did not die […]
I know that many of you are converting to solar, or in an area where wind-generated power is becoming a major factor. These are still developing technologies and here is some good news about that.
Credit: iStock
Solar panels and wind turbines are already providing tons of clean, renewable energy for people worldwide and helping to reduce reliance on dirty fuel for power — but the technology around both is still evolving.
Scientists at Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea developed a device that combines wind and solar to harvest clean energy more efficiently.
The device, a wind-powered electrodynamic screen, allowed the scientists to create a self-cleaning solar panel.
A self-cleaning solar panel is a big deal. Because solar panels work by absorbing sunlight, they must be kept free of dust and dirt or else the light will be blocked from getting in. That requires regular cleaning, which can be expensive, difficult, and depending on where the panels are installed, even dangerous. Few solar panels are installed in places where they can be easily reached and wiped down (with some exceptions).
College debt people know because they experience it, or know someone who does. But few seem to realize how the universities and the pharmaceutical industries are linked in greed. This is a part of the American Illness Profit System that few Americans seem to know about. This is also an aspect of the transition of universities in this country from education centers to profit operations.
Credit: Rick Bowmer / Jae C. Hong / AP
Research universities, many of them public, have joined forces with pharmaceutical companies and Wall Street firms to fight new government efforts to curtail out-of-control drug prices, saying the regulations could stifle innovation.
But these universities are also likely concerned that drug-price reforms would hamper their profits. Case in point: the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has quietly reaped more than a billion dollars in payouts from Xtandi, a lifesaving cancer drug that it developed with the help of government funding and now costs U.S. patients $200,000 a year.
The university is among those working to block the government from lowering the cost of prescription drugs like Xtandi that have been developed with taxpayer money.
Since this first-of-its-kind prostate cancer drug was approved for use in 2012, UCLA has received $1.6 billion in royalty fees, patent income, and reimbursement payments thanks to its development of Xtandi, according to information obtained through the California Public Records Act by The Lever.
