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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.
Zoë Richards and Megan Lebowitz, Politics Reporters - NBC News
Stephan:
Normally, I would not feature something so well-covered by all manner of media, as President Biden’s final national address, but these comments by the President are not getting the kind of coverage they should. We are on the edge of becoming an electoral autocracy, and I think this is going to be obvious to anyone with an IQ above their waist size by next week. What is happening is the same thing that caused the Civil War. When people talk about the Civil War the focus is always on slavery and that is correct, but only the partial reason the Confederacy formed. White oligarchs controlled the South, and owning other humans was the bulk of their wealth. Ending slavery meant the end of their wealth, since without slaves all they had was land with no one to work it without pay. To maintain their control the White Southern oligarchs manipulated culture so the low IQ, low education, working-class Whites would defend the oligarchs’ interests, to the point of giving up their lives. In my opinion, that is exactly what the oligarchs, led by a man who normally couldn’t get a job as a janitor, are doing. The Southern poor Whites worked against their own wellbeing, just as the White MAGAt voters, have worked and voted against their best interests.
Credit: Screen capture NBC News
President Joe Biden‘s farewell address Wednesday came with a series of warnings for the future of the country,among them that a rising “oligarchy taking shape” threatens American democracy.
“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead,” Biden said.
Biden’s comments, delivered from the Oval Office, seemed clearly aimed at billionaire Elon Musk, who has been at the side of President-elect Donald Trump since his election win, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Biden recalled former President Dwight Eisenhower’s warning against a “military-industrial complex” in which he used his 1961 farewell address to caution against “the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power.”
“Six decades later, I’m equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech-industrial complex,” Biden said. “It could pose real dangers for our country as well.”
Biden also launched into a sharp criticism of social media platforms, arguing they are neglecting to fact-check.
Can the oligarchs buy control of the United States? They already control many of the levers of power, corporations, media, and influence in government. I think we are going to get our answer in the first 100 days of criminal Trump’s presidency.
Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk reacts next to Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. president Donald Trump during a campaign rally, at the site of the July assassination attempt against Trump, in Butler, Pennsylvania. Credit: Brian Snyder / Reuters
They increasingly own everything from access to space to how we get news on Earth and now outgoing President Joe Biden warns America’s new breed of Donald Trump-allied oligarchs could gobble up U.S. democracy itself.
Biden used his farewell speech to the nation to deliver a shockingly dark message: that a nation which has always revered its entrepreneurs may now be at their mercy.
“An oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms,” Biden said.
He named no names, but his targets were clear: men like Elon Musk — the world’s richest person — who surround incoming Republican president Trump.
That “dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people” will have “dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left […]
J. Dylan Sandifer, Instructor in Sociology at the University of the District of Columbia and Founder and Chief Strategist of Sandifer Strategies - The New Republic
Stephan:
This is one of the main reasons the Republican oligarchs and Trump find it so easy to manipulate lower IQ, lower education, and poorer White people. As the report says, “Their toxic fear of ideas is shaping the modern censorship movement.” I see all of this as a component of what I have called the great schism trend. This is why we are becoming two countries in a single nation.
Banned books chained to a table in “JD Vance’s living room”
Growing up in the evangelical church in the piney woods of east Texas, the world felt circumscribed by an ever-present fear—not just of sin but of ideas that might challenge the worldview handed down to those of us in the pews. Everything outside the Christian framework—including secular music, television, and books—was discouraged. Just as I signed multiple purity pledges throughout my preteen and teen years, promising to avoid not just sex but even impure thoughts, we were taught to practice absolute abstinence from dangerous ideas. Not that those dangerous ideas necessarily always came from the annals of great historical thinkers or even figures from the contemporary political climate. As it happens, the most famous of these examples was a widespread prohibition on Harry Potter. To read about witches and wizards, I was told, was to open oneself to the occult and risk spiritual ruin.
This concept of heterodoxy isn’t simply that these works contain themes or ideas counter to Christian teaching; the central belief about ideas […]
Jocelyn Solis-Moreira , Contributing Writer - Scientific American
Stephan:
This is a report on some important new research on the dramatic increase in the occurrence of dementia, both because we are an aging population and for previously unrecognized genetic reasons.
To read the research study upon which this report is based see: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-03340-9.epdf
Around one million Americans may develop some form of dementia every year by 2060, according to a study published on Monday in Nature Medicine. The latest forecast suggests a massive and harrowing increase from annual cases predicted for 2020, in which approximately 514,000 adults in the U.S. were estimated to be diagnosed with dementia—an umbrella term that describes several neurological conditions that affect memory and cognition.
The new study also showed the lifetime risk of dementia increased progressively with older age. They estimated that after age 55, the lifetime risk of dementia is 42 percent, and continues to rise sharply to 56 percent after age 85. Groups that showed greater lifetime risks (between 44 and 59 percent after age 55) were Black adults, women and people who carried the allele APOE e4: this variation of the gene APOE, which codes for the protein apolipoprotein E, increases the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of dementia, but the study focused on all forms.
“I knew the total lifetime risk would be higher than previous 20-year-old estimates,” says Josef Coresh, senior author […]
While the incoming Trump administration is committed to “drill baby drill” continuation of the carbon era the Chinese are moving to exit the carbon era, as the extraordinary project to beam power down from space described in this report illustrates.
A Chinese Long March 5 rocket launches the China National Space Administration’s Tianwen-1 Mars rover, lander and orbiter from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan Island on July 23, 2020. Credit: CCTV / China National Space Agency
China has announced plans to build a giant solar power space station, which will be lifted into orbit piece by piece using the nation’s brand-new heavy lift rockets.
Chinese scientists have announced a plan to build an enormous, 0.6 mile (1 kilometer) wide solar power station in space that will beam continuous energy back to Earth via microwaves.
The project, which will see its components lofted to a geostationary orbit above Earth using super-heavy rockets, has been dubbed “another Three Gorges Dam project above the Earth.”
The Three Gorges Dam, located in the middle of the Yangtze river in central China, is the world’s largest hydropower project and generates 100 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year. According to one NASA scientist, the dam is so large that, if completely filled, the mass of the water contained within would lengthen Earth’s days by 0.06 microseconds.
In contrast to what the Chinese are doing, felon Trump’s administration is moving in the opposite direction. Chris Wright, Trump’s pick of Secretary of Energy has a long history of being an evangelist for ramping up carbon energy production. HIs personal financial interests are entwined with fossil fuels. You would think that what has happened in Asheville, North Carolina and, now, Los Angeles would be warning enough. But apparently not. The United States under Trump’s administration it is becoming clear simply will make choices about energy that will not properly prepare the country for what climate change is going to do.
Felon Trump’s pick for Energy Secretary, Chris wright, an evangalist for fossil fuels Credit: The New York Times
Fracking CEO Chris Wright is on track to be the nation’s next energy secretary despite a few tense moments during his confirmation hearing.
Nevertheless, even some Democrats expressed support for his nomination, including Sen. John Hickenlooper (Colo), who introduced Wright at the start of the hearing.
“He’s a scientist who has invested his life around energy. He is indeed an unrestrained enthusiast for fossil fuels in almost every regard, but he studied nuclear,” Hickenlooper said. “His first years of working were in solar. He has experience in wind. He is a practitioner and a key innovator around geothermal.”
“I have high optimism we can work together,” Hickenlooper added.
Wright is the CEO of Liberty Energy, a fracking technology company. He’s poised to run the Energy Department, which oversees energy research and loans, as well as the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal.
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) posed tough questions to Wright over some of […]
Susie Coen, U.S. Correspondent - The Telegraph (U.K.)
Stephan:
We have what I see as a serious negative cultural trend going on in the United States. Young single, mostly White, men don’t seem to understand what the role of manhood is about. They are frightened and resentful about gender equality. This is strongly reflected in what is happening to religious affiliation in America. On the one hand, hundreds of thousands are leaving any church affiliation. On the other hand, young, single, mostly White men, as I said, are moving from Protestant churches to affiliate, as this article describes, with highly orthodox Catholic sects thinking they are more masculine. It’s pathetic but true.
Seraphim Holland, a priest at the St Nicholas Orthodox Church in McKinney, Texas, has witnessed a surge of converts in recent years Credit: James Breeden / Breeden Media LLC
Young, single men are flocking to the Orthodox church after discovering the “masculine” Christian religion through online influencers.
Some converts said they felt disillusioned with the “feminisation” of the Protestant church and were attracted to the “authenticity” of Orthodoxy, which they claim pushes them physically and mentally.
Priests are now planning to open new parishes to accommodate the “tsunami” of young men who have converted since the pandemic.
They say that most of the new converts found the Orthodox church by watching YouTube videos or listening to podcasts.
Matthew Ryan, a former atheist, found Orthodoxy after he saw a comment about good and evil on YouTube after “hitting rock bottom”.
The science teacher, 41, who had moved to Salt Lake City in 2022 to escape New York’s “draconian” Covid rules, began researching the Bible.
This eventually led him to a one-hour YouTube video in which a Protestant visits an Orthodox church and speaks to a priest.
In the final moments of his Presidency Joe Biden has made the first intelligent move about Cuba any President has made in nearly 50 years, and taken Cuba off the list of state sponsors of terrorism. Cuba has become essentially a failed state that its population has been unable to change largely because the United States has done everything it can to keep it a failed state. If Trump doesn’t reverse what Biden has done, we may finally see the Cuban people force a change.
President Joe Biden speaks about foreign policy during a speech at the State Department in Washington. Credit: Susan Walsh / AP
President Joe Biden is removing Cuba from a U.S. government list of state sponsors of terrorism on Tuesday, according to administration officials.
That move, and a number of other conciliatory actions, are being taken in the hope of securing the release of political prisoners on the island, the officials told reporters in a briefing ahead of the announcement.
It could be a significant breakthrough in the bilateral relationship between the U.S. and Cuba, though President-elect Donald Trump may choose to reverse the decisions.
The officials said the White House also will suspend a provision of the Helms-Burton Act which has allowed Cuban exiles living in the United States to file claims against Havana in court and seek compensation for assets expropriated following the 1959 Cuban Revolution. The administration will also eliminate a list of restricted Cuban entities barred from certain financial transactions during the first Trump administration.
The Biden administration has long wanted to see Cuba release hundreds of political prisoners in […]
