IF YOU ENJOY SR AND FIND IT USEFUL WOULD YOU PLEASE DONATE
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.
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 in […]
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.
America’s horrible illness profit system that passes for healthcare in this country is the worst and most expensive in the developed world. And, as this article describes, it has been made even worse in states where Republicans are in control, relegating pregnant women in those states to second-class status. Now the matter has gone to the Supreme Court. What do you think the Republican christofascist majority will decide? I don’t know how a woman likely to get pregnant lives in states like Idaho and Texas. It is potentially very dangerous.
A sign reading “My body, my choice” taped to a streetlight in front of the Idaho Capitol on May 3, 2022. Credit: Sarah A. Miller / Idaho Statesman / AP
In the early 1980s, doctors at Chicago’s Cook County Hospital faced an alarming trend: Thousands of patients from across the city were being transferred to the county facility, including patients whose conditions were unstable, making the transfers medically risky. Many patients ended up in the intensive care unit; others died.
Several years later, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study confirming that transfers had skyrocketed from roughly 1,300 in 1980 to nearly 7,000 in 1983. The study supported what doctors had observed, according to the Chicago Tribune: “that private hospitals in the area are shirking their duty to provide care to the needy.” Reviewing some 500 transfers from private medical facilities to the Cook County hospital over a one-month period, the study found that the vast majority […]
I have been telling my readers for years about the Matrix of Consciousness, and that all living beings have a measure of consciousness (See SR Archive and search on “Science slowly Accepts the Matrix of Consciousness.) I used to have fellow scientists, including parapsychologists tell me I was nuts; I was just anthropomorphizing. Well, times have changed.
A cleaner Wrasse fish. Credit: cdascher / Getty / iStockphoto
All three of these discoveries came in the last five years — indications that the more scientists test animals, the more they find that many species may have inner lives and be sentient. A surprising range of creatures have shown evidence of conscious thought or experience, including insects, fish and some crustaceans.
That has prompted a group of top researchers on animal cognition to publish a new pronouncement that they hope will transform how scientists and society view — and care — for animals.
On my Seaview expedition, at sea diving every day in the Caribbean, I developed a relationship with an octopus, one might even call it a friendship. I have never forgotten our interactions, and it was one of the things that made me recognize the reality of the Matrix of Consciousness. Once humanity accepts the Matrix it is going to require a very profound revision in how we view, and interact, with the other beings in the Matrix. This is why I am so focused and place such emphasis on fostering wellbeing of every part of earth’s ecosystem.
Dr Norman says the sea creature should not be underestimated. Credit: ABC News / RTV
Octopus Paul may very well have psychic powers and an ability to predict the future.
Museum Victoria’s head of science, Dr Mark Norman, has been studying octopuses, squids, cuttlefishes and nautiluses – otherwise known as the cephalopods – for more than two decades.
While Dr Nornam admits to being an Octopus Paul sceptic, he says the sea creature should not be underestimated.
“They’re clever animals with big brains and they do amazing things,” he said.
“It’s very impressive what Paul has done and I don’t know if it’s psychic or not, but they’re animals that are capable of amazing things, so who can tell.
“I’m not going to burst other people’s bubbles because I don’t believe in it personally.”
Octopus Paul has become a World Cup sensation by correctly forecasting the results of Germany’s seven games in South Africa and finishing the tournament in style by predicting a Spanish victory in the final.
The eight-limbed mediterranean octopus would make his prediction by choosing between two containers […]
Stephen Humphries , Staff Writer - Christian Science Moniitor
Stephan:
The TCP Republicans are so pathetically and nastily stupid about immigration. The facts are that our economy would be in shambles were it not for immigrants. Read some facts. Oh, and do I need to say every human being in the United States without exception is either an immigrant or the descendant of an immigrant?
Are immigrants a boon to the U.S. economy or a drag on it?
For urban centers that have experienced a surge of immigrants, the costs are staggering. For instance, the office of the mayor of New York predicted that the city will spend north of $12 billion through fiscal year 2025 to accommodate more than 100,000 migrants. But that’s a microcosm. The macro picture tells a different story.
The United States is experiencing a labor shortage, according to Dhaval Joshi, chief strategist at BCA Research, an economic analysis firm. Blame the pandemic. It led many older workers to retire early. Plus, an estimated 1.7 million native-born workers ages 25 to 55 have dropped out of the workforce since the pandemic. The surge of people who have immigrated to the U.S. legally or illegally since 2022 has helped fill those job vacancies. That’s helped stave off a recession.
“One important way to reduce inflation is to increase the production of goods and services,” says David Bier, associate director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank […]
Listen to Marjorie Taylor Greene and you can hear a sitting Republican Congress member openly spew Russian propaganda on the House floor and in her interviews. The TCP/Republican Party has become a band of agents in Putin’s attempt to influence the American election.
Jesse Benton Credit: Gage Skidmore
A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction of a Republican operative who had been pardoned by Donald Trump in the waning days of his presidency.
The District of Columbia Circuit Court rejected an appeal by Jesse Benton, a former senior aide to Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Rand Paul, of his November 2022 conviction for orchestrating a scheme to conceal a $100,000 donation from a Russian national to his GOP consulting firm — and pocketing most of it.
Russian businessman Roman Vasilenko wired the money under his own name to the consulting firm, but Benton kept $75,000 for himself and gave $25,000 under his name to the presidential campaign for Trump, who posed for a photo with Vasilenko. Benton then filed a false report with the Federal Election Commission to conceal the source of the funds, the court found.
The Trump campaign was not aware of the true source of that donation.
Benton had appealed the conviction, saying Trump’s 2020 […]
