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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.
I got an email today from a reader in Estonia, who has only been to the United States once to present at a science conference. He asked me how it is possible in America for politicians and media people to tell lies about the hurricanes that result in people being put at risk of dying? And maybe some did die. How can that be legal? I have thought about this all day because I think that is a very reasonable question. If I told you arsenic was a tasty aperitif and you believed me, prepared to drink it and as you lifted the glass I told you don’t drink it, would I be arrested and prosecuted if you reported that? I am pretty sure I would. So how then is it possible to spread the kind of lies with malicious intent that we are hearing from MAGAt Republicans putting some at great risk, and no one is being held accountable?
Credit: Infowars / The Alex Jones Show / screen grab
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones accused Vice President Kamala Harris of having the ability to control hurricanes through so-called “weather weapons.”
Jones kicked off his Tuesday broadcast by promising to explain how he knew the government could control the weather.
“I’m going to be covering today, and I’ve sent the crew over 20 clips, and I’ve got over a hundred documents right here,” he explained. “I’m gonna do a big presentation for everybody on what’s really going on with weather weapons.”
Jones claimed to have interviews and government documents that would prove his point.
“Then we have the bold headlines that I put up on X that the Kamala Harris, you know, the Biden-Harris administration is in control of this hurricane,” he said of Hurricane Milton.
“So they have the power certified easily with just five or six big aircraft,” he opined. “And that’s the old technology, not the lasers that […]
Live near an old small dam? You better check on its status. As this article describes many of these old dams have not been properly maintained and are likely to break as climate change advances. Large numbers of MAGAt Republicans, both voters and politicians do not believe yet in climate change, and think Helene and Milton were created and aimed at Republican voting areas. The MAGAt Earth II delusions are even stupider than I thought but I want my readers to be as prepared as possible.
A small rural dam in Dunn County, Wisconsin, part of the country’s aging infrastructure Credit: Moment / Getty
SHELDON AUTO Wrecking is a local institution in southwestern Wisconsin’s Vernon County. It’s tucked in a lush valley in Viroqua, Wisconsin, just downstream of a 50-foot earthen dam, locally known as “Maple Dale.”
The salvage yard, which buys used vehicles and farm machinery in this rural area to sell for parts, has been in business for nearly 70 years. For most of those years, the dam — less than a half-mile up the road — has protected its yard of hundreds of old cars and broken-down equipment from frequent and sometimes severe flooding in the area.
The dam “was put in place for a reason,” said owner Greg Sheldon.
But it might soon go away.
Maple Dale is one of thousands of dams constructed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, beginning in the mid-20th century, for the purposes of flood control.
Edward Carver, Staff Writer - truthout | Common Dreams
Stephan:
If you or someone you know or some family member is in one of the areas Hurricane Helene impacted, or that Milton is about to impact, pass this along to them. I have not seen much in the media about this and it is, potentially, a very big deal. Toxic water can be very dangerous.
A person bicycles through floodwaters remaining from Hurricane Helene on October 4, 2024, in Swannanoa, North Carolina. Credit: Mario Tama / Getty
Local officials, academic researchers, and volunteer responders have raised concerns about chemical and biological contamination brought by the floodwaters of Hurricane Helene in the southeastern U.S. last week, which potentially threaten the safety not only of drinking water but also the quality of soil — leading experts to call for tighter regulations on stored pollutants.
Helene struck Florida as a Category 4 hurricane on September 26 and swept through a number of states in the days that followed. Most of the damage came from extreme rainfall that triggered flooding. The storm killed at least 232 people.
The biological and chemical threats posed by floodwaters are typically manifold, often containing, for example, e. coli from overflowing sewage systems.
While it’s not yet clear what bacteria or chemicals Helene’s floodwaters may have contained, the storm passed through hundreds of industrial sites with toxic pollutants, including […]
Isaac Stanley-Becker, Reporter - Microsoft Start | The Washington Post
Stephan:
While Donald Trump was recommending you inject bleach into your body, and Americans were searching, often unsuccessfully, to find Covid-19 test kits, traitor Trump was sending them secretly to Russia for Putin, as this article describes. Trump is scum, and if you know someone who is going to vote for him, tell them not to come whining to you when he destroys their lives as he will. I just don’t understand how such a man could be put forward as a Presidential candidate, and why he is not in prison.
Traitor Trump and his puppet master Vladimir Putin. Credit: Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP
As the coronavirus tore through the world in 2020, and the United States and other countries confronted a shortage of tests designed to detect the illness, then-President Donald Trump secretly sent coveted tests to Russian President Vladimir Putin for his personal use.
Putin, petrified of the virus, accepted the supplies but took pains to prevent political fallout — not for him, but for his American counterpart. He cautioned Trump not to reveal that he had dispatched the scarce medical equipment to Moscow, according to a new book by Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward.
Putin, according to the book, told Trump, “I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me.”
Four years later, the personal relationship between the two men appears to have persisted, Woodward reports, as Trump campaigns to return to the White House and Putin orchestrates his bloody assault on Ukraine. In early 2024, the former president ordered an […]
Do you live on a weekly or monthly salary? Do you live on Social Security? If you do and you vote for Traitor Trump or any of his minions be prepared for your life to be downgraded, and to have greater financial stress.
Economists estimated that under the GOP nominee’s proposal, the “share of national income going to the top 5% would increase by around 1.6%, while the share of the bottom 50% would fall by roughly 4.8%.”
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s proposal to further reduce the U.S. corporate tax rate from 21% to 15% would make the bottom half of the nation’s income distribution poorer while boosting the fortunes of those at the very top, according to an analysis published Thursday by economists at American University.
The analysis, released just over a month before the high-stakes November 5 election, projects the hypothetical macroeconomic and distributional impacts of corporate tax rate plans put forth by Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee. Harris has called for increasing the corporate tax rate to 28%.
If implemented, the economists found, Trump’s plan would “modestly reduce” the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), decrease government revenue, and “significantly increase inequality,” given that wealthier households “are the primary owners of corporate stocks” that would benefit from the former president’s tax […]
As you are reading this it is very likely Hurricane Milton is about to devastate another section of Florida. Yet MAGAt Republican Governor Ron Desantis has declined to talk to the Vice President or meet with the President as this article describes. He says it is too political. It is all a part of the weird lies and deceit spewing out of traitor Trump, his frankenstein, and Republicans in Congress. In my entire life I have never seen an environmental catastrophe politicized to the detriment of the millions of Americans impacted by such events. It is evil.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has not spoken with Vice President Kamala Harris or President Joe Biden about the hurricane response. Credit: Jared C. Tilton / Getty
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is not taking calls from Vice President Kamala Harris about storm recovery just over a week after Hurricane Helene hammered parts of his state.
A source familiar with the situation said he was dodging the Democratic presidential nominee’s calls because they “seemed political,” according to a DeSantis aide.
“Kamala was trying to reach out, and we didn’t answer,” the DeSantis aide told NBC News.
The same person said “not to my knowledge” when asked if DeSantis had spoken to President Joe Biden.
Last week, DeSantis said Biden had called him, but he was flying at the time so could not take the call. Biden was in north Florida last week to survey storm damage, but DeSantis was holding a news press conference that had already been scheduled in another part of the state so they did not meet. A source familiar with […]
If you go to any MAGAt website from newspapers, to podcasts, to social media you see evil, evil lies and weaponized misinformation about FEMA and what the Biden administration is doing to harm people who sustained damage from the climate crisis. The United States is being attacked by the modern equivalent of Nazis just as voting is starting.
Bat Cave, North Carolina, September 30, 2024. Credit: Reuters / Marco Bello
In the wake of the devastation of Hurricane Helene in the United States this week, a new storm emerged on social media – false rumors about how disaster funds have been used, and even claims that officials control the weather.
Local and national government officials say they are trying to combat the rumors, including one spread by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
One of the more far-fetched rumors is that Helene was an engineered storm to allow corporations to mine regional lithium deposits. Others accuse the administration of President Joe Biden of using federal disaster funds to help migrants in the country illegally, or suggest officials are deliberately abandoning bodies in the cleanup.
Republican Congress member Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on X Thursday night: “Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”
The conspiracy theories come at a pivotal time for rescue and recovery efforts following the storm, one of the deadliest U.S. hurricanes this century. And the presidential […]
CHANTAL ALLAM, JOE MARUSAK and JOSH SHAFFER, Reporters - The Charlotte Observer
Stephan:
The editors and editorial staff of The Charlotte Observer in North Carolina were so appalled that on their front page they published a fact check on the horrible lies the MAGAt Republicans are spreading. Read it, this is so evil. This is all a modern recreation of Hitler’s Nazis. Trump is in essence a modern Hitler. I do not understand how any patriotic American can vote for this man who what used to be the Republican Party.
Editor’s note: NC Reality Check investigating the rumors and misinformation, some of it from official sources, inundating social media about relief efforts in Western North Carolina. If you encounter a rumor that you would like us to check out, email realitycheck@newsobserver.com This file will be updated. Emergency officials responding to the Hurricane Helene disaster in Western North Carolina say false rumors on social media are impeding their efforts to help tens of thousands of people in need.
“False information is being widely shared on social media channels, including AI-generated content and images,” N.C. Department of Public Safety officials said in a statement. ”Nefarious actors and those with ill intent may be taking advantage of this situation by spreading false information.” False rumors even spread claiming the government had created the hurricane.
The public should find and share information from trusted sources and discourage others from spreading information from unverified sources, NCDPS officials said.
On social media Friday, the American Red Cross said misinformation is hurting its Hurricane Helene relief efforts.
