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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.
Derek Thompson , Contributing Writer - The Atlantic Magazine
Stephan:
The Americans who need chaos is the title of this article, and I chose it because finally I am beginning to see open discussion in the media about what is happening to our culture, as about a third of the Whites, particularly men, but women as well, have given themselves over to hate, resentment, anger, and fear fueled by misinformation. This is all correlated with the rise of social media and the MAGAt propaganda media. When I was a journalist you had to be able to demonstrate to your editor that your story was factually accurate, and the same was true of television media. In 1989 when I produced Psychic Detectives as a prime-time special for ABC, the vice president of the network for standards and practices demanded that we also produce over 2,000 pages of documentation on every statement we made in the special, and would only accept sworn testimony, on-camera interviews with relevant police and prosecutors, and court documents. That world has disappeared as the CPAC show I watched today made clear to me.
Illustration by The Atlantic
Several years ago, the political scientist Michael Bang Petersen, who is based in Denmark, wanted to understand why people share conspiracy theories on the Internet. He and other researchers designed a study that involved showing American participants blatantly false stories about Democratic and Republican politicians, such as Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz, Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump. The subjects were asked: Would you share these stories online?
The results seemed to defy the logic of modern politics or polarization. “There were many people who seemed willing to share any conspiracy theory, regardless of the party it hurt,” Petersen told me. These participants didn’t seem like stable partisans of the left or right. They weren’t even negative partisans, who hated one side without feeling allegiance to the other. Above all, they seemed drawn to stories that undermined trust in every system of power.
Petersen felt as though he’d tapped a new vein of nihilism in modern politics—a desire to rip down the Elites, whatever that might mean. He wanted to know more about what these people were thinking.
I spent part of the afternoon watching the CPAC meeting. I don’t think I have ever heard a public political meeting like this that was essentially nothing but lies designed to provoke the audience into resentment, anger, and fear. Rapist criminal Trump has changed American culture into something I barely recognize, and you may feel the same. This is a good article, which is why I picked it, because it addresses both the problem and the solution.
Encouraging speaking up is important in many contexts, but more vocal people online means more opportunity for conflict. Credit: Shutterstock
“Outrage culture” is pervasive in the digital age. It refers to our collective tendency to react, often with intense negativity, to developments around us.
Usually, this ire is directed at perceived transgressions. The internet wasted no time in raging at Taylor Swift when she received Album of The Year at the Grammys, seemingly frustrated by her lack of acknowledgment of Celine Dion, who presented the award.
Whether or not Swift’s behavior could be considered rude isn’t the point. The point is the backlash arguably wasn’t proportionate to the crime. This so-called “snub” incident is, therefore, a good example of how quickly and easily people will jump on the online hate train.
Modern outrage culture, which is also known as call-out culture and is linked to cancel culture, often devolves into a toxic spiral. People wanting clout compete to produce the meanest and most over-the-top commentary, stifling open dialogue and demonizing those who make mistakes.
ALEXANDER WARD and HEIDI PRZYBYLA, Staff Writers - Politico
Stephan:
This is where the United States is headed if Trump is elected. If you listen to almost anyone in the Republican cult they make their intentions about this clear. And although I would like to say it won’t happen as the christofascists wish, to be honest, I am not sure. Americans don’t seem to be clear about what society would be like if Trump were to win.
Russell Vought is president of The Center for Renewing America think tank, a leading group in a conservative consortium preparing for a second Trump term. Credit: Francis Chung /Politico
An influential think tank close to Donald Trump is developing plans to infuse Christian nationalist ideas in his administration should the former president return to power, according to documents obtained by POLITICO.
Spearheading the effort is Russell Vought, who served as Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget during his first term and has remained close to him. Vought, who is frequently cited as a potential chief of staff in a second Trump White House, is president of The Center for Renewing America think tank, a leading group in a conservative consortium preparing for a second Trump term.
Christian nationalists in America believe that the country was founded as a Christian nation and that Christian values should be prioritized throughout government and public life. As the country has become less religious and more diverse, Vought has embraced the idea that Christians are under assault and has […]
Jessica Corbett, Staff Writer - Raw Story / Common Dreams
Stephan:
I keep looking for positive good news trends in the United States, but I don’t see very many. Here, for instance, is the latest on climate change. Although President Biden is creating positive policies to deal with climate change, the truth is neither the Democrats nor the Republican cultists are doing anything like what is needed, either nationally, or as an influence internationally. This is where we are today, and what it costs. Now multiply that by 1,000 and you begin to see what is going to happen in this country, and throughout the world. The clock is ticking, and both parties are playing political games.
Woman on a flooded street Credit: Shutterstock
After an unprecedented number of billion-dollar extreme weather disasters across the United States last year, advocacy groups on Friday released an updated “Cost of Inaction Ticker” estimating the price of not tackling the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency.
Launched by the Climate Action Campaign and other groups in 2022, the ticker is based on data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which found that 2023 was the hottest year on record and the 28 disasters that caused at least $1 billion in damage collectively cost Americans at least $92.9 billion, or $2,945.84 per second.
To put that $2,945.84 into perspective, the coalition behind the ticker noted on its webpage that the per-second cost is comparable to about two months of rent, four months of childcare, or seven months of car or health insurance payments.
“Every day that goes by without climate action is estimated to cost at least $254 million, based on recent trends, […]
Here is something Americans don’t seem to know, and that the Republican cult that does know. They demonstrate their indifference to the wellbeing of American workers by blocking support for Ukraine. What’s the secret? The money given to support Ukraine actually goes to American and European defense companies which, in turn, employ and pay American and European workers. Here are some facts. CNN did this short piece and it is the only one I have seen in major corporate media.
LONDON, U.K. — Western defense companies have been riding high since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago, and a proliferation of geopolitical threats is likely to keep the industry booming despite doubts about further US military aid for Kyiv.
Since February 23, 2022, the day before Moscow began bombing several Ukrainian cities, the stocks of five of the top US and European defense contractors have all risen. The companies — Europe’s BAE Systems, Thales and Rheinmetall, and Lockheed Martin (LMT) and Northrop Grumman (NOC) in the United States — have all either provided weapons for the battlefield in Ukraine or signed agreements to do so.
Governments have donated ammunition, tanks, and fighter jets to Ukraine, are replenishing their own depleted stockpiles, and have committed billions more to their defense budgets.
Canada and the European members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which make up the bulk of NATO’s membership, spent 11% more on defense in 2023 than the previous year. That’s an “unprecedented rise,” according to NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg. The military […]
I am following what is happening in the Supreme Court closely because the corrupt christofascist cabal that controls the court is having a serious impact on the quality of healthcare for women and LGBTQ folk. As this article describes Alito is making it clear where he stands, and it is not good news.
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. on Tuesday renewed his criticisms of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision recognizing the right to same-sex marriage, saying that people who oppose homosexuality risk being unfairly “labeled as bigots and treated as such.”
The justice included his warning in a five-page statement explaining why the court had rejected a request to hear a Missouri case about people removed from a jury after voicing religious objections to gay relationships. The case, Justice Alito added, “exemplifies the danger” from the court’s 2015 decision, Obergefell v. Hodges.
The ruling, he added, shows how “Americans who do not hide their adherence to traditional religious beliefs about homosexual conduct will be ‘labeled as bigots and treated as such’ by the government.”
The statement appeared to offer a glimpse into Justice Alito’s continued discontent with Obergefell v. Hodges, in which the court, by a 5-to-4 vote, guaranteed a right to same-sex marriage, a long-sought victory in the gay rights movement.
In the years since, Justice Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas, who both dissented from the 2015 […]
Here is a very interesting development that could significantly affect America’s gun psychosis. The Mexican government is doing what the corrupt U.S. Congress has never had the integrity to do, hold gun companies responsible for the death and injuries they cause. I’m not sure most Americans know that the gun makers were uniquely protected from being sued or held responsible the murders, suicides, and injuries their products cause. But the courts have rule Mexico’s suit for $10 billion is not effected by that Congressional protection. There is almost no coverage of this in the media, particularly the television news, but I think this may work, and a judgment of that size would significantly change the murder industry. So potentially excellent good news.
A seized gun with a decorative grip is displayed to the press in Tijuana, Mexico. Credit: Guillermo Arias / AP
The lawsuit seeks US$10 billion in damages and a court order to force the companies named in the lawsuit – including Smith & Wesson, Colt, Glock, Beretta and Ruger – to change the way they do business. In January, a federal appeals court in Boston decided that the industry’s immunity shield, which so far has protected gun-makers from civil liability, does not apply to Mexico’s lawsuit.
As a legal scholar who has analyzed lawsuits against the gun industry for more than 25 years, I believe this decision to allow Mexico’s lawsuit to proceed could be a game changer. To understand why, let’s begin with some background about the federal law that protects the gun industry from civil lawsuits.
Robert Reich, Carmel P. Friesen Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, - AlterNet
Stephan:
About a third of White Americans, about half the Republican voters, have destroyed Christianity in the United States, and are driving people away from evangelical churches all over the country. These people are low IQ, low education, frightened White racist men and women and they see Trump as their new Jesus and want to turn America into a christofascist theocracy. If you don’t want that to happen you better vote a straight Democrat ticket and get everyone you know to do likewise. This is not about political partisanship, this is about whether you want America to remain a democracy.
White Nationalist Trumpers gather in support of their new Jesus Credit: Nicole Glass / Shutterstock.
In a case centering on wrongful-death claims for frozen embryos that were destroyed in a mishap at a fertility clinic, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled last Friday that frozen embryos are “children” under state law. As a result, Alabama in-vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics are ceasing services, afraid to store or destroy any embryos.
The underlying issue is whether government can interfere in the most intimate aspects of people’s lives — not only barring people from obtaining IVF services but also forbidding them from entering into gay marriage, utilizing contraception, having out-of-wedlock births, ending their pregnancies, changing their genders, checking out whatever books they want from the library, and worshipping God in whatever way they wish (or not worshipping at all).
All of these private freedoms are under increasing assault from Republican legislators and judges who want to impose their own morality on everyone else. Republicans are increasingly at war with America’s fundamental separation of church and state.
