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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.
James Temple, Staff Writer - MIT Technology Review
Stephan:
This is yet another example of the subtle complexities humanity faces as we attempt to deal with the processes of climate change we have set in motion that threaten our existence. It is becoming ever more clear as well that you don’t want to live in a state controlled by the TCP (former Republican Party). The TCPs are deeply committed to taking their state back the 19th century, where women were dominated, White supremacy was in power, and people were less educated and more easily manipulated. I understand now why the remote viewers in my 2050-2060 projects describe the United States as still existing but with real power having devolved down to the states, and groups of states, and America being no longer the world leader of democracy.
Credit: Getty
Usually when we talk about climate change, the focus is squarely on the role that greenhouse-gas emissions play in driving up global temperatures, and rightly so. But another important, less-known phenomenon is also heating up the planet: reductions in other types of pollution.
In particular, the world’s power plants, factories, and ships are pumping much less sulfur dioxide into the air, thanks to an increasingly strictset of globalpollution regulations. Sulfur dioxide creates aerosol particles in the atmosphere that can directly reflect sunlight back into space or act as the “condensation nuclei” around which cloud droplets form. More or thicker clouds, in turn, also cast away more sunlight. So when we clean up pollution, we also ease this cooling effect.
Before we go any further, let me stress: cutting air pollution is smart public policy that has unequivocally saved lives and prevented terrible suffering.
The fine particulate matter produced by burning coal, gas, wood, and other biomatter is responsible for millions of premature deaths every year through cardiovascular disease, […]
In yesterday’s SR I tried to give you a sense of the growing zeitgeist of civil violence I am seeing in a wide spectrum of media. This is particularly a White male Republican (what I now call TCP) phenomenon, and it is getting worse each day as we move closer to the November election. Here is an example of what I mean.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman Credit: screengrab / X
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman last week, according to the report, was asked by Donald Trump to hold an umbrella over the former president’s head during the wake for former New York City police officer Jonathan Diller.
Per the the Daily Beast, Blakeman and Nassau County Sheriff Anthony LaRocco last month “put an ad on the county’s website for residents to apply to be ‘Provisional Emergency Special Deputy Sheriffs,’” and the ad notes, “the deputized civilians must be ‘skilled in the use of firearms,’ and ‘within 45 days of appointment must be trained and qualified on service weapon and complete basic training at the Academy in the NYS Penal law and Use of Force.’”
Furthermore, The deputized citizens would be paid a $150 stipend each day they’re on duty.
According to Long Island News 12, the New York GOP leader “says he wants to deputize pre-screened citizens with gun licenses so they can be called upon in cases of ‘significant emergency’ to protect government buildings, […]
The price of stamps is going to go up for a second time in a year even as mailings are going down. This is all part of the Dejoy plan to make the USPS a profit-making organization instead of a public service.
Forever stamp Credit: USPS
When it comes to stamps, the word “forever” on first-class mail doesn’t apply to prices.
The U.S. Postal Service is signaling that the price of a First-Class Mail Forever stamp will increase to 73 cents on July 14, 2024, up by a nickel from the 68 cents one currently costs.
When first introduced in 2007, a Forever stamp was 41 cents. The stamps were named as such so one knew they could use the stamp “forever,” regardless of when it was purchased.
The latest proposed changes — to be reviewed and approved by the governors of the Postal Service — also include a nickel hike to the price to mail a 1-ounce metered letter, to 69 cents, the postal service said Tuesday in a news release.
Mailing a postcard domestically will run you 56 cents, a 3-cent increase, while the price of mailing postcards and letters internationally are both rising by a dime to $1.65.
All told, the proposed changes represent a roughly 7.8% increase in the price of sending mail through the agency.
Notably, the price of renting a Post Office Box is not going up, […]
One of the major mistakes the Biden administration has made during Biden’s tenure, one that has surprised me since it is so obviously a problem, is what Louis Dejoy, a Trumper, has done to the U.S. Post Office. What has happened to America’s oldest national institution is a scandal you rarely hear or read about. But, as this report describes, the damage Dejoy has done may have a negative effect on our being able to hold a fair election.
U.S. Postal Service trucks outside a post office in Wheeling, Ill. Credit: Nam Y. Huh / AP
In Virginia, hundreds of veterans had their colon cancer screening tests invalidated after the results took months to arrive by mail. An Atlanta college student missed an academic trip to Ghana when their passport with two-day shipping took a month to show up. A bride in Texas had to rent a dress for her wedding after hers spent weeks stuck in a Houston postal facility.
Across the country, residents and businesses have been reporting widespread slowdowns in mail and package delivery by the U.S. Postal Service. The delays have become so persistent that members of Congress have gotten involved, urging the Postal Service to drastically correct course and raising concern about what impact the disruptions could have on mail-in ballots in the upcoming election.
The delays appear to largely stem from a new system the Postal Service began rolling out last fall that will eventually funnel all the nation’s letters and […]
The rich are laying plans to abandon the country their wealth and their funding of christofascist politicians and policies has driven into a crisis that may end what the United States has been for over two centuries. I think that should be taken as a very significant alarm bell.
The wealthy are building “passport portfolios” — collections of second, and even third or fourth, citizenships — in case they need to flee their home country.
Recent high-profile examples of second citizenships include billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel, who added a citizenship in New Zealand, and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who applied for citizenship in Cyprus.
The top destinations for supplemental passports among Americans are Portugal, Malta, Greece and Italy, according to Henley & Partners.
Wealthy U.S. families are increasingly applying for second citizenships and national residences as a way to hedge their financial risk, according to a leading law firm.
The wealthy are building these “passport portfolios” — collections of second, and even third or fourth, citizenships — in case they need to flee their home country. Henley & Partners, a law firm that specializes in high-net-worth citizenships, said Americans now outnumber every other nationality when it comes to securing alternative residences or added citizenships.
“The U.S. is still a great country, it’s still an amazing passport,” said Dominic Volek, group head of private clients at Henley […]
I am very concerned about AI, and I think you should be as well. I don’t think we are headed down the road of The Matrix movies, but I do think AI is a major threat working to end our democracy. AI has become the key to the weaponization of misinformation in a nation where a majority of the population is only marginally literate and gets what news they do get from social media which has become a cesspool of lies, resentment, racism, and hate.
The “Posthuman” movement in tech has been normalized, but not everyone really understands what it would mean for humanity. Credit: Adobe
A long with inflation and the state of democracy, Americans are increasingly worried about human extinction. A survey from 2017 found that roughly 40% of the U.S. public thinks “the odds that global warming will cause humans to become extinct are 50% or higher.” Another survey published last year reports that 55% of us are either “very worried” or “somewhat worried” that advanced artificial intelligence “could eventually pose a threat to the existence of the human race.”
These concerns are not irrational. After all, the overwhelming consensus among climate scientists is that climate change will have catastrophic consequences in the coming decades. The people running artificial intelligence companies like OpenAI, meanwhile, are explicit that the technologies they’re building could lead to the annihilation of our species. In a 2023 interview, the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, said that “the bad case — and I […]
The people who actually study climate change, who know the facts, are getting more and more alarmed. Here is an example of what I mean. We are about to have a national election that will define our state and federal governments. Do you see climate change as a major discussion amongst the candidates? You do not. We are going to pay a fearful price for this.
UNFCCC Executive Secretary Simon Stiell speaks during the Closing Plenary at the UN Climate Change Conference at Expo City Dubai in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Dec. 13, 2023. Credit: COP28 / Christophe Viseux
We are running out of time to take action on climate change, says Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
In a speech titled “Two Years to Save the World,” Stiell emphasized that governments, development banks and business leaders must take steps to avert much more serious impacts of the climate crisis within that time frame, reported Reuters.
“For those who say that climate change is only one of many priorities, like ending poverty, ending hunger, ending pandemics, or improving education, I simply say this: none of these crucial tasks — indeed none of the Sustainable Development Goals — will be possible unless we get the climate crisis under control,” Stiell said in the speech, delivered at London thinktank Chatham House.
You probably noticed there was no Tuesday edition of SR. Actually, I did produce one but those who are attacking SR deleted it. For two weeks now Beth Alexander my wonderfully skillful webmaster and I have been struggling to keep SR operational. It has been incredibly time-consuming and it has become expensive. I don’t really understand how the attacks are carried out, but they have been constant. I do understand why people are trying to stop SR, but it is not going to work. We are about to make a major transition which, hopefully, will change the equation.
