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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.
Could it be any clearer? On the christofascist side we have the corruption of Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito and their wives, on the Democratic side we have Elena Kagan calling out for ethical standards. Here is the story. Can their be any doubt as to which side of the Supreme Court is honorable and ethical?
Even as Justice Elena Kagan leaned into her call for an enforcement mechanism, she retreated from a suggestion she made last year that Congress’ power to dictate ethics rules for the court was well established. Credit: Rich Pedroncelli / AP
NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Justice Elena Kagan is keeping up her public drive for an enforcement mechanism for the Supreme Court’s ethics code despite strident criticism from some voices on the right and skepticism about it among some legal ethics scholars.
“It seems like a good idea in terms of ensuring that we comply with our own code of conduct going forward in the future. It seems like a good idea in terms of ensuring that people have confidence that we’re doing exactly that,” Kagan said during an appearance Monday at New York University School of Law. “So, it seems like a salutary thing for the court.”
Humanity cannot seem to overcome our specie’s greed. We are allowing a small group of humans to feed like vampires on the wellbeing of humanity and Earth’s matrix of life. It is so very sad.
Gas flaring at an oil refinery. Credit: HHakim / E+ / Getty
While 155 countries have committed to reducing methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030 under the Global Methane Pledge, new research reveals that the world’s methane emissions have been rising at a record pace over the last five years.
In a new perspective article published in Environmental Research Letters, the researchers warn this dire pattern “cannot continue if we are to maintain a habitable climate.” The article was published with corresponding figures in Earth System Science Data.
Concentrations of methane in the atmosphere have grown to more than 2.6 times what they were during pre-industrial times and the highest the planet has seen in 800,000-plus years.
The IRS harasses middle class and working class tax payers endless over a few hundred dollars, but billionaires and millionaires with their lawyers and accountants rig their reports so that they cheat the country out of literally trillions of dollars. Here are the facts from someone who knows. It is just another part of the enormous corruption that shapes U.S. society.
Martin O’Malley, commissioner of the Social Security Administration, talks with Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on September 11, 2024. Credit: Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call /.Getty
The Democratic chair of the Senate Finance Committee said during a hearing Wednesday that instead of tossing Social Security’s sacred guarantee “in the trash” by cutting benefits, lawmakers should crack down on mega-rich tax dodgers as a way to keep the New Deal program fully solvent for decades to come.
“The ultra-wealthy are avoiding nearly $2 trillion in taxes every 10 years,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said during a Senate Budget Committee hearing. “That is enough to keep Social Security whole till the end of this century.”
“That’s where we ought to go to start making progress,” Wyden added.
The senator’s remarks came during a hearing titled “Social Security Forever: Delivering Benefits and Protecting Retirement Security,” which featured testimony from Social Security Administration Commissioner Martin O’Malley and several expert witnesses.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who presided over the hearing, used […]
I have hung on to this story for a few days to see what else might happen, but nothing seems to have changed, except the scheme by MAGAt Republicans to defund the government; but I do not think that is going to happen. So if you are one of my readers on Medicare pay attention to this. It may affect you.
You can thank the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 for some of the biggest Medicare changes in the past few years — including a welcome reprieve from the high costs of prescription drugs.
Among the changes:
In 2023, Medicare capped covered insulin costs in Part D prescription drug plans at $35 a month and eliminated out-of-pocket costs for recommended vaccines.
In 2024, the government expanded eligibility for financial assistance from the Part D Extra Help program and announced results Aug. 15 of negotiations to reduce the costs of 10 of Medicare’s most expensive drugs. Those prices will take effect in 2026.
PRRI Staff, - Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI)
Stephan:
As I watched traitor Trump’s performance in the debate Tuesday night I kept thinking: what is it about this incompetent psychopathic criminal that millions of Americans still support him? Here, I think, is the answer. It says something very sade about America, but he was so bad last night that I think Harris is going to win the popular vote. However, there is still the Electoral College, and I am not sure how that will come out. The Electoral College should be eliminated in my opinion. It has become a threat to U.S. democracy.
Executive Summary
Growing concerns about the appeal of an authoritarian leader in the United States led PRRI to conduct a new survey of more than 5,000 Americans that revisits long-established measures of authoritarianism and their relationships to Christian nationalism, examines Americans’ commitment to democratic values and willingness to accept political violence, and explores how authoritarian attitudes are linked to views about immigrants and immigration, cultural change, gender roles, and patriarchy.
Relying on two classic approaches to measure authoritarianism, PRRI finds that most Americans do not hold highly authoritarian views.
Revisiting work first developed in The Authoritarian Personality (1950) and later adapted into the Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale (RWAS), PRRI finds that 43% of Americans score high on the RWAS, compared with 37% who score low; two in ten Americans qualify as having mixed opinions (20%).
Around four in ten Americans (41%) score high on an alternative measure of authoritarianism (CRAS) that relies on child-rearing preferences and is less closely associated with conservative political ideology. This is a drop from 57% of Americans who scored high on the CRAS in […]
ROBERT P. JONES, President and Founder of PRRI - Time
Stephan:
Here is the other side of the equation described in the previous article. This is why millions of Americans still support traitor Trump. This is why it is so important that those of us who support racial and gender equality and want us to remain a democracy, and foster wellbeing for all must turn out and vote for the Democrats. They are far from perfect, but if we do not win the United States we have known will disappear.
Courtesy of Robert P. Jones—PRRI/Simon & Schuster
Donald Trump’s ambivalence on abortion is back in the news because of his recent flip-flopping on a November referendum in his home state of Florida. On August 29, Trump said he suggested he would vote for the referendum, which would expand abortion rights and overturn the state’s current six-week abortion ban. After intense blowback from anti-abortion activists, Trump walked back his support the next day.
While Trump’s about face on this referendum shows that the activist class still has some pull, it remains true that Trump has done something unimaginable in modern Republican politics. He has bullied the GOP into abandoning four decades of support for a national ban on abortion. Even more surprising, there’s no evidence that Trump’s renegotiation of the allegedly nonnegotiable has hurt him among the rank and file of the party.
This perplexing outcome is revelatory. Trump’s cavalier treatment of this supposedly sacred issue has exposed the Republican Party’s best kept secret: The connection between Republican voters and their leaders was never primarily about abortion. Rather, as Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) transformation of the party reveals, Trump’s bond with his supporters is forged from different […]
The CNN fact checkers latest report is that Trump lied 33 times and Harris once. My personal take was that the ABC moderators were not very good. Trump kept speaking out of turn and, I timed it, for longer than he was allocated on almost every occasion. They never cut him off, never muted his mike. He also gave almost no specifics in answer to any question he was asked. I thought Harris should have been more confrontational about his lies. But of the two I don’t see how honorable person can vote for Trump.
A countdown clock over debate moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis shows how much time former President Donald Trump has left to answer a question during Tuesday’s debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are facing off for the first time Tuesday during ABC’s presidential debate.
CNN’s Facts First team is evaluating the candidate’s claims here. This story will be updated throughout the event.
Harris on Trump’s tariff plan
Former Vice President Kamala Harris said during Tuesday night’s debate that former President Donald Trump’s policies would result in a “Trump sales tax” that would raise prices for middle class families by about $4,000 a year.
Facts First:The claim is reasonable enough, but it’s worth explaining that Harris is referring to Trump’s proposal to implement new tariffs if he returns to the White House.
Trump has called for adding a tariff of 10% to 20% on all imports from all countries, as well as another tariff upward of 60% on all Chinese imports.
Together, a 20% across-the-board tariff with a 60% tariff on Chinese-made goods would amount […]
This is a story of how dysfunctional the U.S. government has become. You would think that both parties would think that it was in the best interests of the country to get rural Americans online at the highest speed possible, just as earlier governments got them electricity. But we no longer have a government in which both parties have made a commitment to fostering wellbeing. One doesn’t even care about assuring we are a democracy. Last night’s debate made that very clear. It is all going to turn on how this election comes out.
President Joe Biden’s 2021 infrastructure law promised to help Virginia expand broadband internet to hard-to-reach corners of the commonwealth — investing nearly $1.5 billion to improve a key service across a swing state crucial to Democrats’ hopes in the November election.
But so far, Virginia, like many states, hasn’t seen a cent of that money put to use. The state got news only in July that it was approved for funding — more than 10 months after completing its application to Washington, and nearly three years after the law was signed.
Virginia’s story is just one thread of the messy, delayed rollout of a $42 billion national program championed by Democrats in particular, but with big potential payoffs in Republican districts as well.
In his speech last month at the Democratic National Convention, Biden trumpeted his broadband program in historic terms, calling it a national build-out “not unlike what Roosevelt did with electricity.” Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris helped create and promote the program as vice president, and on the campaign trail it could offer a way to show how the […]
