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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.
The endless vomiting of lies by criminal Trump and his Frankenstein Vance about the rising crime rate under Biden are, in my view not only completely untrue, these lies are also dangerous to the social wellbeing of America society. Here is the actual data, and crime is going down.
Illustration: Maura Losch / Axios
New preliminary data from major U.S. cities shows a sharp drop in violent crime in the first half of the year — more than 25% in some communities — as the COVID-era crime wave recedes.
Why it matters: The drop in violent crime puts a serious dent in one of the most frequently used lines of attack by former President Trump and his allies, who have sought to tie Democrats to the issue since 2020.
It also gives Vice President Kamala Harris, a former prosecutor in San Francisco and California attorney general, a potent defense against attacks from the right on crime.
By the numbers: An Axios analysis of data from the Major Cities Chiefs Association found an overall 6% decline in violent crime among 69 cities during the first six months of 2024 compared to the same period last year.
54 of the 69 major cities in the report saw drops in violent crime — defined as homicide, rape, […]
As a research scientist who has published several hundred papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals, I take this article quite personally. If AI, and personal corruption of scientists, destroys the integrity of scientific publications where does truth and integrity go? What kind of world would we have if facts no longer matter? Neo-medievalism would reign.
Scientific sleuth Elisabeth Bik fears that a flood of AI-generated images and text in academic papers could weaken trust in science Credit: Amy Osborne / AFP
An infographic of a rat with a preposterously large penis. Another showing human legs with way too many bones. An introduction that starts: “Certainly, here is a possible introduction for your topic”.
These are a few of the most egregious examples of artificial intelligence that have recently made their way into scientific journals, shining a light on the wave of AI-generated text and images washing over the academic publishing industry.
Several experts who track down problems in studies told AFP that the rise of AI has turbocharged the existing problems in the multi-billion-dollar sector.
All the experts emphasised that AI programmes such as ChatGPT can be a helpful tool for writing or translating papers — if thoroughly checked and disclosed.
But that was not the case for several recent cases that somehow snuck […]
More AI evil. The fact is American society is being altered in a way that is degrading the wellbeing of Americans to the benefit of the rich. I thought it was very interesting to hear the good things Kamala Harris is proposing to do about the U.S. housing crisis that is so negatively impacting average middle class Americans, particularly younger couples. She didn’t mention the role AI is playing in this, too deep in the weeds I suspect. But to do what she is proposing she is going to have to deal with the use of AI described in this article.
Illustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani
If you rent your home, there’s a good chance your landlord uses RealPage to set your monthly payment. The company describes itself as merely helping landlords set the most profitable price. But a series of lawsuits says it’s something else: an AI-enabled price-fixing conspiracy.
The classic image of price-fixing involves the executives of rival companies gathering behind closed doors and secretly agreeing to charge the same inflated price for whatever they’re selling. This type of collusion is one of the gravest sins you can commit against a free-market economy; the late Justice Antonin Scalia once called price-fixing the “supreme evil” of antitrust law. Agreeing to fix prices is punishable with up to 10 years in prison and a $100 million fine.
But, as the RealPage example suggests, technology may offer a workaround. Instead of getting together with your rivals and agreeing not to compete on price, you can all independently rely on a third party to set your prices for you. Property owners feed RealPage’s “property management software” their data, including […]
Given their own experience living through the Holocaust, I find it very hard to understand, how the Jews of Israeli have brought to power a fascist authoritarian, and his ultra-right cohort of minions who have authorized the murder of well over 40,000 Palestinians, mostly children, women, and the elderly. Or how their leadership can authorize torture of Palestinians as part of their governmental policy. Frankly, I think we should cut off all aid to Israel until the people of Israel wake up to what they have become, an inhumane fascist state.
A screenshot from the video that appears to show sexual assault of a Palestinian prisoner at Sde Teiman prison in Israel, as it aired on Israel’s Channel 12. Screenshot: Channel 12
As early as the first month of Israel’s war on Gaza, Sde Teiman, a secretive Israeli military prison in the Negev desert, had been raising alarm bells for Israeli human rights attorney Roni Pelli and other rights advocates.
Pelli and her colleagues started to hear reports from whistleblowers about poor conditions for Palestinians imprisoned inside Sde Teiman. They heard of instances of violence committed by soldiers against detained Palestinians, and, in one case, a Palestinian who died there.
Since then, media reports about the prison have mounted, quoting formerly detained Palestinians and Israeli whistleblowers, who spoke in more detail of the harrowing conditions inside the prison. A CNN investigation in May revealed that Palestinian detainees were restrained and blindfolded, forced to sit and sometimes stand throughout the night beneath flood lights; wounded Palestinians were strapped down onto beds, forced to wear diapers, and fed through straws; soldiers beat detainees motivated by revenge for the October 7 attacks; and prisoners’ limbs were amputated due to untreated […]
If you know anyone who is planning to vote for Trump or a MAGAt senator or representative candidate please tell them they are voting to destroy the earth’s ecosystems, and their own wellbeing. The media is simply not covering this election correctly. They are treating the candidates and parties in the usual horserace equivalents manner. The MAGAts and the Democrats from top to bottom are in no way equivalents. Project 2025 should be seen as a screaming alarm that if MAGAts are elected the world is going to change in very nasty ways that will degrade the lives of individuals Americans tragically.
Then-President Donald Trump delivers remarks at Double Eagle Energy oil rig in Midland, Texas, United States on June 29, 2020. Credit: Kyle Mazza/ Anadolu Agency / Getty
The California-based think tank Energy Innovation on Wednesday published a report showing that the right-wing Project 2025 manifesto, if implemented by a Republican administration, would increase U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2.7 billion metric tons by 2030 and cause there to be 1.7 million fewer jobs in that year, compared to the current trajectory.
The analysis illustrates the stakes of the 2024 presidential election. Project 2025 includes a 922-page plan of action written by right-wing groups, covering a wide array of public policy areas including energy and climate. Republican nominee Donald Trump has tried to distance himself from the plan, which has been the subject of extensive scrutiny over the last two months and has proven unpopular with the American public, but it’s broadly in keeping with his agenda, observers say.
The Energy Innovation report assesses the Project 2025 scenario against both current policies and a […]
The United States is funding the Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people, and here is the proof. The Israelis fly American fighter jets, their tanks fire American cartridges, their mortars fire American rounds, and it is all carted around in American military cargo vehicles. Over 40,000 Palestinians, largely women, children, and the elderly have died as a result of these American weapons. Why are we doing this? I don’t understand President Biden’s thinking, and will be glad to see him leave office, but I do understand that all of this is mind-booglingly profitable for the military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned us about.
Credit: Agence France-Presse
The sale comes as Biden has pressed Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire after 10 months of bloodshed, although the weapons would take years to reach Israel.
In a notification to Congress, the State Department said it had approved a sale of 50 F-15 fighter jets to Israel for $18.82 billion.
Israel will also buy nearly 33,000 tank cartridges, up to 50,000 explosive mortar cartridges and new military cargo vehicles.
The F-15 aircraft, which will begin to be delivered in 2029, will upgrade Israel’s current fleet and include radar and secure communications equipment.
“The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to US national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability,” the State Department said in its notice on the F-15s, which are made by Boeing.
On the tank cartridges, the United States said the sale “will improve Israel’s capability to meet current and future enemy […]
Medea Benjamin, Co-founder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK: Women for Peace. - Common Dreams
Stephan:
We are not only sending weapons to Israel, now we are sending them again to Saudi Arabia. Basically, the U.S. military-industrial complex and the oligarchs who control it are now funding both sides of a regional conflict to their great profit. Biden should be ashamed of himself, and I am so glad Kamala Harris will replace him, becauses I do not think, based on her past, they she will continue to kneel down as Biden has and kiss the feet of the oligarchs who run this evil industry. Really, funding both sides of a potential war.
U.S. President Joe Biden greets Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with a fist-bump at the Al Salam Royal Palace in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on July 15, 2022. Credit: Saudi Press Agency
One issue that has slipped beneath the radar in terms of news coverage is the recent decision by the Biden administration to resume the sale of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia. For starters, the U.S. will be sending a shipment of bombs worth $750 million in the coming months.
These weapons were cut off by the Biden administration in 2021 because the Saudis were using them in Yemen in their war against the Houthis, killing thousands of civilians.
The resumption of the sale of offensive weapons is part of U.S. efforts to push the Saudis to normalize relations with Israel. In 2020, Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed normalization agreements that are collectively known as the Abraham Accords. These deals were brokered primarily by the […]
It gets even worse, as this report describes. We have poured billions of dollars of military aid into Lebanon, to the immense profit of the U.S. oligarchs and the military-industrial complex of industries they control. Basically we are now providing the weapons used by all sides in these the Middle East conflicts. What do you think would happen if we told all of them that the United States is not sending another dime’s worth of military aid to anyone in the Middle East, and all promises of such aid are now rescinded?
Attacks between Israel and Hezbollah, the militia and political party based just across Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, are fueling fears that a wider regional conflict may erupt any day.
Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Shia group loosely allied with Hamas, has been in a low-level war with Israel since the conflict in Gaza began last October. Hezbollah, which is believed to have an arsenal of more than 150,000 rockets and missiles, has repeatedly emphasized that attacks will continue as long as the war persists.
Over the weekend, a rocket attack that the U.S. and Israel said originated in Lebanon killed at least 12 civilians in the Israel-controlled Golan Heights. The Israeli foreign minister said that the attack “crossed all red lines,” and said “the moment of all-out war against Hezbollah and Lebanon” is approaching. Hezbollah denied responsibility for the strike.
On Monday, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken cautioned Israeli President Isaac Herzog about ramping up its war with Hezbollah in response on a […]
