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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.
Yet another report describes how a tiny group of oligarchs increased their control over the American economy. Seven tech companies alone, as this report describes, would by themselves be the second largest stock market in the world. The wealth of the individuals who control these companies is only possible because of what the Republicans have done to rig the tax structure to favor the rich.
The so-called “Magnificent 7” U.S. tech behemoths encompass Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla.
In a research note Tuesday, Deutsche Bank analysts highlighted that the Magnificent 7′s combined market cap alone would make it the second-largest country stock exchange in the world.
However, this level of concentration has led some analysts to voice concerns over related risks in the U.S. and global stock markets.
The so-called “Magnificent 7” now wields greater financial might than almost every other major country in the world, according to new Deutsche Bank research.
The meteoric rise in the profits and market capitalizations of the Magnificent 7 U.S. tech behemoths — Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla — outstrip those of all listed companies in almost every G20 country, the bank said in a research note Tuesday. Of the non-U.S. G20 countries, only China and Japan (and the latter, only just) have greater profits when their listed companies are combined.
Deutsche Bank analysts highlighted that the Magnificent 7′s combined market cap alone would make it the second-largest country stock exchange in the world, double that of Japan in fourth. Microsoft and Apple, individually, have similar market caps to all combined listed companies in each of France, Saudi Arabia […]
Oliver Laughland, Southern Bureau Chief9 - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan:
Republican voters put Jeff Landry into office as governor. Now he is moving Louisiana, which is basically except for New Orleans a third-world country, further into christofascism. The state already has horrible social wellbeing stats, and they will now get worse. It amazes me to watch people vote into office fascists who destroy their democracy, healthcare, education, and general wellbeing. And to observe evangelicals say and actually believe that criminal Trump is God’s choice for president. IS the UNited States going to survive as a democracy with racial and religious equality? I’d say the answer to that question is far from settled.
Jeff Landry became governor of Louisiana last month. Credit: Evan Vucci / AP
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA — Louisiana’s Republican-dominated state legislature is poised to enact a swathe of new criminal justice measures as a special legislative session convenes on Monday, leaving reform advocates concerned about soaring rates of incarceration that may follow.
The session, called by the state’s new far-right governor, Jeff Landry, will consider two dozen items including broad restrictions on parole eligibility, measures to resume executions, the lowering of the age limit for adult prosecutions, and changes to post-conviction procedures often used to remedy wrongful convictions or excessive sentences.
Landry, the state’s former attorney general, came to office in January after a campaign centered on hardline law and order. A former sheriff’s deputy, he was sworn into office in a ceremony lined […]
Abdullah H. Hammoud, Mayor of Dearborn, Mich., and a Democrat. - The New York Times
Stephan:
This is bad news for the Democrats and I am not surprised. I think President Biden is making major mistakes in his policies about Israel. It was a mistake to keep sending to Netanyahu the bombs that were used to kill thousands of Palestinians, also a mistake to veto the U.N. attempt to end the violence. And his failure to work out a way to support Ukraine is of concern. His age today is not an issue for me. I am older than he is and feel quite competent to work. My problem is that he will be 86 by the end of his second term, and I think that is too big a risk for the country. I think Biden should step aside and retire, and let a new generation of Democrats run against criminal Trump, and campaign for them. My ticket would be Gavin Newsom and Gretchen Whitmer. I feel like I am being forced to vote between a decent but aging Democrat, and an aging and utterly criminal Republican.
Protesters in Dearborn, Mich., earlier this month. Credit: Nick Hagen / The New York Times
“Dearborn doesn’t sleep,” I recently told an out-of-state visitor to my hometown.
It was a reference to the celebratory time of Ramadan, when our city breaks bread together for iftar at sunset and suhoor, before sunrise, each day. For a month, Dearborn is bustling around the clock: Business districts buzz during the day, and residents and visitors flock to break the fast together every night, gathering over hot, heaping plates filled with some of the best food in the country, surrounded by neighbors of all backgrounds.
I have always spoken these words with warmth and pride for my community, but after 130 days of genocide in Gaza, the phrase has taken on new meaning.
Dearborn does not sleep. We have not slept. Our entire city is haunted by the images, videos and stories streaming out of Gaza. Life seems heavily veiled in a haze of shared grief, fear, helplessness and even guilt as we try to understand how our tax dollars could […]
Mira Rojanasakul and Marco Hernandez, - The New York Times
Stephan:
Two things are going on in the coastal states of the U.S. as this report describes. The seas are rising and, because of overpumping of ground water the land is siinking. The result is an ongoing disaster that will disrupt the wellbeing of milllions. It is another example of the failure of our corrupt government, particularly the MAGAt Republicans, but also the Democrats to develop the national policies and programs we are going to need to maintain national wellbeing. I don’t think it is going to happen so, as I have predicted, I think we are going to see a massive internal migration away from the coasts.
East Coast of U.S. Credit: New York Times
New satellite-based research reveals how land along the coast is slumping into the ocean, compounding the danger from global sea level rise.
A major culprit: overpumping of groundwater.
The most vulnerable areas of Boston have been sinking up to 3.8 centimeters per decade, which adds up to nearly 10 centimeters by 2050, based on the analysis of satellite data from 2007 to 2020.
Parts of New York City and Long Island are sinking over 3 centimeters per decade.
Atlantic City is sinking up to 4 centimeters per decade. Nearby groundwater pumping has caused soils to compact.
Several hotspots in Maryland are sinking over 10 centimeters per decade, while other areas are rising. Adjacent land moving at different rates can put infrastructure at risk.
IRFAN GALARIA, Physician and Reconstructive Surgeon - Los Angeles Times
Stephan:
A little history. Israel exists because at the end of WWII with millions of Jews displaced and migrants and the European nations themselves deeply damaged the Christian Europeans did not want a large influx of Jews into their countries. At the same time, the Zionists saw an opportunity to create their own country in the Middle East where The Muslims were a primitive local population that had no particular political power. From these two directions, the British who controlled Palestine agreed to give control over to the Jews and, thus, Israel came to be. From the beginning, not surprisingly, the Muslims resisted and the Israelis to my surprise the Israelis reverted to the same mentality that for centuries was inflicted on them. For hundreds of years, the Christians ghettoized and persecuted the Jews. One would think the Israelis having experienced that for so long would have from the beginning of Israel made working out a way to get on with the Muslims a priority. They didn’t, and now they are led by Netanyahu a Jewish Trump just as fascist and as corrupt. So far 30,000 Gazans, largely women and children have been murdered by the Israelis, and the ground attack they are planning could result in thousands more deaths. When this finally resolves I predict a new generation of Muslims will seek revenge by creating some new version of Hamas.
Displaced Palestinian children wait to receive food in Rafah, Gaza, on Feb. 9. Credit: Abed Rahim Khatib / Anadolu / Getty
In late January, I left my home in Virginia, where I work as a plastic and reconstructive surgeon and joined a group of physicians and nurses traveling to Egypt with the humanitarian aid group MedGlobal to volunteer in Gaza.
I have worked in other war zones. But what I witnessed during the next 10 days in Gaza was not war — it was annihilation. At least 28,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. From Cairo, Egypt’s capital, we drove 12 hours east to the Rafah border. We passed miles of parked humanitarian aid trucks because they weren’t allowed into Gaza. Aside from my team and other envoy members from the United Nations and World Health Organization, there were very few others there.
Entering southern Gaza on Jan. 29, where many have fled from the north, felt like the first pages of a dystopian novel. Our ears were numb with the constant […]
Will Sommer , Reporter - Microsoft Start / The Washington Post
Stephan:
The United States is becoming an increasingly dangerous country, particularly for judges, prosecutors, election workers, and journalists, the White supremacy MAGAt neo-nazis become more violent. You would think that, as in the civil rights era, the President and Congress would respond to this growing violence, just as Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent the US Army to Arkansas after Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus refused to let 9 African American kids enter and attend a Little Rock high school. But don’t hold your breath. Neo-nazis, fully tricked out with masks and swastika flags were marching in Nashville, Tennessee yesterday.
A reporter investigated neo-Nazis. Then they came to his house in masks. Credit: Jordan Green
Jordan Green reports on extremists for the news website Raw Story, where his stories have included alleged neo-Nazis joining the U.S. military or protesting at drag shows. For the past few months, he has worked on an investigation into a teenage gang that local police had linked to a spate of racist vandalism, including a brick attack on a Jewish center in Pensacola, Fla.
As Green prepared to publish his story, neo-Nazis came to his house.
Green’s reporting had found that the Pensacola gang was part of a larger online network known as 2119 Blood and Soil Crew, with members operating in several states. On Feb. 10, five people connected to 2119 appeared outside his home in Greensboro, N.C., according to Green, as well as photos the group itself shared on social media.
Some wore skull face masks, a common accessory for violent neo-Nazi groups, according to the photos they posted on Telegram, a […]
Here are the facts on the increasing White supremacy christofascist racist anti-semitic violence that is making America a very dangerous nation and one that is getting worse. And what is being done? Read the report and learn how dysfunctional our government has become.
A mother is comforted as she visits a cross that bears the name of one of her children’s best friends at the memorial set up near the scene of a mass shooting at the Allen Premium Outlets mall on May 9, 2023, in Allen, Texas. Credit: Joe Raedle / Getty
Homicides connected to extremism declined in 2023 for the second year in a row, but risks for extremist violence remain high asantisemitism and domestic terror threats have risen, according to new data.
The ADL Center on Extremism’s annual Murder and Extremism report also found that right-wing extremism was connected to all extremist-related killings of 2023.
White supremacists were tied to the overwhelming majority (88%) of extremist-related murders last year.
Details: Extremists were involved in the killing of at least 17 people in 2023 in seven separate incidents — a significant drop from the 27 […]
Here is some good news and clear evidence of what we should be doing as a national program. The problem with the American government is that they are more interested in playing their political power games than actually governing. Look at what our yo-yo Speaker of the House and his MAGA gang are doing by blocking aid to Ukraine, and what that is prompting Putin to do. Look at our education system, and our healthcare system. Do I need to go on? I hope not.
Trees provide innumerable benefits to the world, from food to shelter to oxygen, but researchers have now found their dramatic rebound in the eastern US has delivered a further, stunning feat – the curtailing of the soaring temperatures caused by the climate crisis.
While the US, like the rest of the world, has heated up since industrial times due to the burning of fossil fuels, scientists have long been puzzled by a so-called “warming hole” over parts of the US south-east where temperatures have flatlined, or even cooled, despite the unmistakable broader warming trend.
A major reason for this anomaly, the new study finds, is the vast reforestation of much of the eastern US following the initial loss of large numbers of trees in the wake of European settlement in America. Such large expanses have been reforested in the past century – with enough trees sprouting back to cover an area larger than England – that it has helped stall the affect of global heating.
“The reforestation has been remarkable and we have shown this has translated […]
