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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.
Thom Hartmann, in my opinion, is absolutely correct. The Republican Party wants to turn America into an anocracy, what Viktor Orbán has done to Hungary. That should disgust and anger you. It is time for Americans who care about the United States remaining a democracy stand up and call these scum out, and vote them out. If you care about democracy get out in whatever way you can vote Republicans out of office. Otherwise this is going to become a country you wont recognize or like.
Image by Pete Linforth / Pixabay
Want to know what Republicans have in mind for America’s future? Just visit Hungary.
While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was meeting with President Biden this week to ask our help defending his democracy against the brutal, violent aggression of Russia, Republican lawmakers in DC were meeting behind closed doors at a Heritage Foundation event with representatives of Hungary’s strongman president Viktor Orbán. It got almost no press coverage at all, other than The Guardian.
Orbán has been cozying up to Putin for years and is now blocking EU aid to Ukraine on Putin’s behalf (the EU is meeting today about the crisis he’s provoking); his representatives were reportedly trying this week to get Republicans in Congress to join them so, together, they can hand Europe’s largest country over to Russia.
At the same time, Orbán himself was overseeing a new round of laws in Hungary criminalizing any sort of free press in that nation. Under the rubric of “defense of national sovereignty,” Orbán’s new law, as Barron’s reported Tuesday, “could be used to crack down on dissent against […]
Robert Reich, Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley - Raw Story
Stephan:
I have been telling you, my readers, about the legalization of bribery as a result of the Citizens United decision, and what it has done to the country. Now Robert Reich confirms that he views this in the same way I do. We need to have a Congress that passes a publicly funded election system, and that it should be illegal for corporations or uber-rich individuals to influence the election system and Congress’s performance with their money. The Citizens United decision, as Reich spells out, is why our democracy is in danger and the United States no long make fostering wellbeing a priority.
Trump supporters and protesters gather outside a campaign rally (and accompanying anti-Trump protest) for President Trump and US Senate candidate Martha McSally. Credit: Eric Rosenwald / Shutterstock
Today I want to suggest why so many working-class Americans are attracted to a sociopathic liar who advocates neofascism.
IN 2010, A MAJORITY OF THE SUPREME COURT decided in Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission that corporations are people under the First Amendment, entitled to freedom of speech. Therefore, said the court, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (commonly referred to as the McCain-Feingold Act), which had limited spending by corporations on political advertisements, violated the Constitution and was no longer the law of the land.
Yet as a practical matter, freedom of speech is the freedom to be heard, and most citizens’ freedom to be heard has been reduced as big corporations with deep pockets get the loudest political voice.
Nowhere did the five members in the majority acknowledge the imbalance of power between ordinary citizens and big corporations able to bribe politicians with campaign donations. In practice, […]
One of the biggest scare factors used by Republicans to manipulate their MAGAt world is fear of immigrants. Like almost everything Republican officials say it is a lie. But what it is resulting in is their attempt to allow child labor to be legal once again. The Republicans, I think, realize that by creating this immigrant crisis to frighten and enrage their base, assuming that Biden would not be able to get the economy sorted out they have created a labor shortage as this article describes. Their solution is to legalize child labor. And as you see in the article they are setting it up so a child can work without their parent’s permission. They don’t care or want educated MAGAt peasants, because the more educated people become the more likely it is they will vote Democrat.
Historical American child laborers
In late August Hurricane Idalia, the strongest tropical storm to hit northern Florida since 1896, killed four people and caused up to $20 billion in damage. In September, thanks to Governor Ron DeSantis’ anti-immigrant law that has been called “draconian,” clean-up and rebuilding has been hard. Migrant workers have been fleeing north, to Georgia and other states, terrified of being arrested.
Nationwide, Republicans have been attacking President Joe Biden for what they call the “border crisis,” an influx of undocumented immigrants that not only started before the Biden administration, but was worsened by President Donald Trump according to former top national security, border security, and customs officials. House and Senate Republicans are now demanding any funds to help Ukraine and Israel be tied to funds to “fix” the border.
At the state level, Republicans including Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Florida governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, have been shipping undocumented immigrants out of their states to […]
The Gallup Organization gives us, sadly, more bad news about the health trends in the United States. These are the facts, and we need to face them. As I wrote yesterday we have become a sick country, and I think this in large measure because our Congress and the Red state legislatures are under the control of the Republican MAGAt cult and are doing virtually nothing to foster wellbeing. Instead, they are focused on white supremacy, replacement theory conspiracies, suppressing the rights of women to control their own bodies, America’s gun psychosis, and the threats to our democracy. As I keep saying the only thing that is going to change this is citizens voting Democrats into office. As a party they are far from perfect, but compared to the Republicans, it is night and day.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Key physical health metrics have notably worsened since before the COVID-19 pandemic, including obesity, diabetes and eating habits. The percentage of U.S. adults whom Gallup classifies as obese has reached an estimated 38.4%, up 6.0 percentage points since 2019 and just shy of the record high of 39.9% measured in 2022. A new high of 13.6% of respondents say they have been diagnosed by a medical professional with diabetes, up 1.1 points since 2019.
The most recent results, obtained Aug. 30-Sept. 8, 2023, are based on 5,316 U.S. adults surveyed by web as part of the Gallup Panel, a probability-based panel of about 100,000 adults across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Unlike some government estimates of obesity, Gallup uses respondents’ self-reported height and weight to calculate body mass index (BMI) and subsequent weight classes. It does not involve randomized clinical measurements that typically result in higher obesity estimates. A BMI of 30 or higher is considered obese. Additionally, Gallup does not discern between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes but rather asks: “Has a doctor […]
Again, here are the facts. What little that got done in the present Congress happened because of the Democrats. I don’t understand why this seems to be so hard for people to understand.
Republicans may hold the House majority, but Democratic yeas outnumbered GOP votes on every major bill that landed on President Biden’s desk this year.
Why it matters: A divided government, slim congressional majorities and a fractured House GOP caucus forced significant bipartisanship on measures to raise the debt ceiling, keep the government running and set U.S. defense policy.
Driving the news: The House passed the sprawling National Defense Authorization Act on Wednesday, with 162 Democrats voting with 146 Republicans.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) drew criticism from more conservative voices for both the content of the bill and the process for bringing it to the floor.
By the numbers: The bipartisanship is not a new dynamic. Every major piece of legislation to pass both chambers this year had a majority of House “yea’ votes coming from Democrats.
It’s how Congress raised the debt ceiling in June and avoided a government shutdown — twice.
Nine less-significant bills — not including resolutions — made it to […]
It is hard to tell whether MAGAt Republican Representative James Comer of Kentucky is as stupid as he sounds, or whether he knows better and just lies. This is what the Republicans are focused on instead of actually doing their jobs for the people who voted them into office. Either way I do wish the people of Kentucky would awaken to the fact that Comer is doing nothing to foster wellbeing for them and the country as a whole.
The day after the House GOP voted unanimously to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, with some congressional Republicans admitting there is no evidence of impeachable offenses, the lead investigator declared their most damning evidence is a long-ago widely-debunked conspiracy theory.
Republican Oversight Chairman Jim Comer, head of one of the three most-powerful House committees and the top promoter of the push to impeach President Biden, Thursday morning was asked by Fox News Business host Maria Bartiromo to name his “most damning” evidence.
“What can you tell us about the evidence?” she asked.
Comer claimed “over $24 million” has been run through a “series” of shell companies. “And then they laundered the money down to the Biden family members, 10 Biden family members.”
He defends his money-laundering claim because banks, he says, filed suspicious activity reports (SARs). According […]
No sooner had I read the previous article on Comer than I came across this one. Like criminal Trump, Comer apparently has used his own criminal schemes as the basis for his projection onto the Bidens.
MAGAT Republican Representative James Comer of Kentucky Credit: Kevin Dietsch / Getty
A new report claims Rep. James Comer (R-KY) has engaged in some of the same questionable business tactics he has accused President Joe Biden of conducting.
The Kentucky Republican who’s leading the impeachment inquiry into the president co-owns six acres of land with a longtime campaign contributor. The Associated Press reported he transferred ownership of that property that he bought in 2015 to Farm Team Properties, a shell company he co-owns with his wife that has exploded in value.
“Those records describe Farm Team Properties as his wife’s ‘land management and real estate speculation’ company without providing further details.”
It’s not clear why the lawmaker placed those six acres in the shell company, which he created in 2017, or what other assets might be held by Farm Team Properties, whose value Comer listed as being as much as $1 million — a substantial increase over the $50,000 to $100,000 value he listed in 2016.
Comer bought the land eight years ago with construction contractor and […]
Lauryn Jiles, Staff Writer - U.S. News & World Report
Stephan:
As I look at stories like this it becomes ever clearer to me that we are a very stressed and unhealthy society. And very few in Congress either know about this, or seem to care about it. Instead, we have what is almost the worst Congress in two centuries. Each of member gets very impressive perks, lots of status, a six figure income, and they are supposed to foster the wellbeing of their constituents And they don’t do any of that. And so America is in severe decline leader of nothing but corporations that make things to kill people. For goodness sake, we must all vote and vote Democratic. They aren’t that impressive but, compared with the Republicans, they are the only real option to preserve democracy.
Research indicates 28.8 million Americans alive as of 2018-2019 will have an eating disorder at some point in their lifetime. Credit: Getty
For Hannah Mayderry, the COVID-19 pandemic felt like “someone pressed the pause button
“I’d been rushing through life, and suddenly, I had all this time on my hands,” Mayderry, a licensed mental health counselor and therapist, says in an email. “I thought it was going to be great at first, but then, old demons resurfaced.”
Mayderry, 27, has struggled in the past with disordered eating and body dysmorphia, constantly counting calories and going on multiple diets, including intermittent fasting and hormone-regulating regimens. During the pandemic, her negative thoughts returned, and old patterns again started to take form.
“The quiet moments were filled with critical thoughts about my body and analyzing everything I ate,” says Mayderry, who has dealt with these types of issues since she was 12 years old. “It’s almost as if my brain was trying to find something to keep itself occupied, and this was its twisted way of doing so.”
