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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.
Here is yet another report on what I consider to be an increasingly alarming trend in the United States. In Republican controlled states, legislatures and Trump appointed judges are increasingly creating two tiered healthcare systems, one for men, and a second, inferior one, for women. If Trump were to be re-elected I think it would be a disaster for women.
Abortion-rights activists march to the US Supreme Court on June 24, 2023, in Washington, DC. Credit: Anna Rose Layden / Getty
The case is Texas v. Becerra, and all three of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s judges who joined this opinion were appointed by Republicans. Two, including Kurt Engelhardt, the opinion’s author, were appointed by former President Donald Trump.
The case involves the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), a federal statute requiring hospitals that accept Medicare funds to provide “such treatment as may be required to stabilize the medical condition” of “any individual” who arrives at the hospital’s ER with an “emergency medical condition.” (In limited circumstances, the hospital may transfer the patient to a different facility that will provide this stabilizing treatment.)
NEIL G. RUIZ, CAROLYNE IM and ZIYAO TIAN, Researchers - Pew Research Center
Stephan:
Racism in the United States, which means basically passionate hatred by about a third of Whites for non-Whites, has become a dangerous and nasty inflammation, a kind of cancer, in the national character. There is a lot of conversation about anti-Black racism, but not much about anti-Asian hate. There should be much more because this version of racism is becoming a major problem that is doing great harm to the wellbeing of the country. Here are the facts.
The spike in incidents of anti-Asian discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic sparked national conversations about race and racial discrimination concerning Asian Americans.1 But discrimination against Asian Americans is not new.2 From the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, to denial of the right to become naturalized U.S. citizens until the 1940s, to the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, to backlash against Muslims, Sikhs and South Asians after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, most Asian Americans have faced discrimination and exclusion while being treated as foreigners throughout their long history in the United States.
At the same time, Asian Americans have often been upheld as a model for how other racial and ethnic minorities should behave – especially in comparison with Black Americans and Latinos.3 Despite the socioeconomic diversity among U.S. Asians, they are commonly portrayed as educationally and economically successful, hardworking, deferential to authority, unemotional and lacking in creativity.4 This “model minority” stereotype has placed Asian Americans […]
According to Forbes Magazine, “As of 2023, there are…735 billionaires in the U.S. The millionaires are more plentiful -— almost 22 million…” The United States has the worst wealth inequality of any developed democracy. The entire taxation system starting with the Reagan administration has been very deliberately rigged by Republican Congress members to favor the rich in service to their masters, who can legally bribe them. It is one of the major trends tearing the American culture apart.
The wealthiest families in most states are paying lower tax rates than everyone else, a new analysis found.
The new study conducted by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy analyzed the tax systems across all 50 states and Washington, D.C., by looking into how each of seven different income groups pays state and local tax rates.
The study ultimately found that the lower someone’s income is, the higher their overall effective state and local tax rate is.
“On average, the lowest-income 20 percent of taxpayers face a state and local tax rate nearly 60 percent higher than the top 1 percent of households,” the analysis states.
In 41 states, the top 1 percent of families have a lower tax rate than everyone else, according to the analysis. In 42 states, the top 1 percent of earners pay less than the bottom 20 percent, and in 46 states the top 1 percent are taxed at a lower rate than the middle 60 percent, the study found.
The bottom 20 percent are taxed the lowest rate among income […]
The police in the United States are dangerous. Particularly, if you are a person of color, you don’t want to get involved with them. As this report describes they kill more people than law enforcement in any other democracy in the world. Police and sheriffs are also the worst trained, least educated, law enforcement amongst all the democracies in the world. And although the murder rate is going down in the U.S., there is one exception, the murder rate of law enforcement; it averages three people a day. And because we cannot stop lying to ourselves about the reality of U.S. society nothing serious is being done about this.
People protest the death of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, Tennessee, on 28 January 2023. Credit: Scott Olson / Getty
Police in the US killed at least 1,232 people last year, making 2023 the deadliest year for homicides committed by law enforcement in more than a decade, according to newly released data.
Mapping Police Violence, a non-profit research group, catalogs deaths at the hands of police and last year recorded the highest number of killings since its national tracking began in 2013. The data suggests a systemic crisis and a remarkably consistent pattern, with an average of roughly three people killed by officers each day, with slight upticks in recent years.
The group recorded 30 more deaths in 2023 than the previous year, with 1,202 people killed in 2022; 1,148 in 2021; 1,160 in 2020; and 1,098 in 2019. The numbers include shooting victims, as well as people fatally shocked by a stun gun, beaten or restrained. The 2023 count is preliminary, and cases could be added as the database is updated.
I find criminal Trump the most loathsome public figure not just in the present day but in the history of the United States. I think of him as a villain out of a Marvel comic book, and can only wonder what the Founders would have thought of him. The fact that millions of Americans worship him I think is one of the most depressing aspects of modern American society.
Criminal Trump’s mug shot
Former President Trump said in an interview that aired Monday that he predicts the U.S. economy will crash and that he hopes it does so within the next year.
In the interview with Lou Dobbs, Trump, the current front-runner in the GOP presidential primary race, explained that, if he were elected again, he would not want to serve a term similar to President Hoover’s — who took office when the economy was stable but later oversaw the start of the Great Depression.
Trump railed against the economy but conceded that there were some good aspects of it and took credit for those successes.
“We have an economy that’s so fragile, and the only reason it’s running now is it’s running off the fumes of what we did,” Trump said. “It’s just running off the fumes.”
Trump added: “And when there’s a crash — I hope it’s going to be during this next 12 months because I don’t want to be Herbert Hoover. The one president I just don’t want to be, Herbert Hoover.”
Betsy Woodruff Swan, National Correspondent - Politico
Stephan:
The United States is in a kind of low key civil war, and I do not understand why it is not a felony crime for Trump to provoke these threats and attacks, and why the people who make these threatening calls and emails are not also charged. It is sabotaging the wellbeing of the entire government that this goes on day after day.
Special ProsecutorJack Smith is overseeing two cases against Trump. Credit: Jacquelyn Martin / AP
Security costs for special counsel Jack Smith, the prosecutor leading the two federal criminal cases against Donald Trump, have risen dramatically in recent months, with nearly a third of the expenses on his investigations being security-related over the latest reporting period.
Between April and September of last year, the Justice Department spent more than $14.6 million on Smith’s work, according to a spending report released Friday. More than $4.4 million of that money covered the U.S. Marshals Service, which provides security for Smith and his team, a Justice Department spokesperson told POLITICO.
The new data represents a jump from Smith’s security costs in the first four-and-a-half months of his tenure. During that initial period — Nov. 18, 2022 through March 31, 2023 — nearly $2 million went to U.S. Marshals protection, according to a person familiar with the data.
The increase comes as the special counsel has alleged in court papers that Trump’s frequent rhetorical […]
The sleaziness and moral hypocrisy of the Republican Party is so clearly illustrated by the Ziegler story. I don’t care if Bridget Ziegler wants to make porn with another woman. What I care about is her moral posturing and attempt to censure public school libraries and control what children are taught in public schools. It is so typical of the MAGAts.
Sarasota School Board member, porn actress, and founder of Moms for Liberty.Credit: AP
Police have reportedly obtained a second sex video involving Sarasota School Board member Bridget Ziegler and an unidentified woman. Ziegler is the co-founder of the far-right organization Moms for Liberty, and her husband, Christian Ziegler, is the chair of the Florida Republican Party. Police obtained the video as part of its ongoing investigation into allegations that Christian sexually assaulted a woman.
According to the Florida Center for Government Accountability, the second video was obtained during a search of Christian Ziegler’s cell phone and Google account, and will not be released to the public. It is not known whether this video involves the same woman who filed the complaint against Christian Ziegler reportedly confirmed to police.
Co-founded by Bridget Ziegler in 2021, Moms for Liberty is a conspicuously conservative “parental rights” group that rose to fame for opposing COVID-19 precautions in schools. It’s more recently known for attacking school curricula that are inclusive of race and LGBTQ+ identity.
I want to thank all the SR readers who have sent me something to help with this hacking mess so that I can make sure it does not happen again because it is going to cost several thousand dollars to sort out. I have already transferred to a new more secure and expensive internet provider and subscribed to two new security services, and then there is the computer. I really want you to know how much I appreciate this support. SR will continue. It will not be intimidated or stopped by assaults and hate.
