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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.
This is the first and only article I have ever run across that gives the real picture of natural springs and their role in the Matrix of Life. Like so many ecology stories it is a sad story.
A spring in a forest in Bavaria, Germany. Credit: Imagebroker.com / GMHH / Alamy
Strong winds sweep over the Rhön, a vast region of rolling, forested hills and pastureland in central Germany. Undeterred, Stefan Zaenker, leading a group of four volunteers, runs through his checklist alongside a forest road. Are rubber boots disinfected to prevent introducing potentially harmful microorganisms into the wetland? Are the team app and GPS functioning correctly? Have enough flags been packed?
When all is in order, Zaenker, 56, leads the group into a soggy alder forest. Its mission for the day: to locate and map as-yet-undiscovered springs and document any species inhabiting them.
A senior conservation official for the state of Hesse, Zaenker considers springs so important for human life and biodiversity that he — along with volunteers from the Hesse Association for Cave and Karst Research — spends much of his spare time conducting large-scale searches for them in the Rhön, which includes the German states of Bavaria, Thuringia, and Hesse, and in a nearby […]
Suzanne Blake, Consumer & Social Trends Reporter - Newsweek
Stephan:
Think about this story. What it is telling us is that the United States has such grotesque wealth inequality that large number of Americans have become shoplifters out of necessity. I hate reporting these trends, and I hate what it says about our country. PLease vote only for Democrats. They are far from perfect but the alternative is Project 2025 and that is despicable. We need a Democratic President and Vice President, and a strong majority of Democrats in both the Senate and the House. This is not about partisan politics. It is about saving democracy in the U.S., and cleaning up the mess we have become. They won’t do it perfectly but they will make it much better.
Locked-up deodorant to prevent shoplifting are seen at a Duane Reade drugstore and pharmacy on August 24, 2023, in New York City. More than one in five Americans said they had shoplifted, according to a new report Credit: Angela Weiss / Getty
Shoplifting has reached staggering levels as inflation continues to force Americans to pinch pennies and forgo necessities.
Shoplifting increased by 24 percent in the first half of 2024, according to the Council on Criminal Justice’s mid-year report, even as other crime levels decreased.
In many cases, shoplifting is seen as a “crime of necessity” for low-income Americans. As inflation continues to impact both businesses and families, shoplifting rates have surged even higher.
“Shoplifting as such a widespread crime during a time of high inflation is actually quite common when you look at similar times from other countries in the past,” Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor at the University of Tennessee at Martin, told Newsweek. “The one-two punch that consumers face is not just higher prices, but also a drawback of additional […]
I confess I do not understand what has happened to Israel. Fascism. Genocide of little children and women. Deliberately destroying the schools, which is to say the Palestinian next generation’s future. And the Israeli population. What has happened to them? I understand about the hostages, and I do not in anyway excuse Hamas. But this is about to not only be a genocide it is on the verge of a regional war that is going to involve millions of people, and untold misery and death. A two-state solution could have avoided all of this.
Palestinian living in the area inspect the rubbles of the destroyed school building following an Israeli attack on Haditha School, in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on July 28, 2024. Credit: Abed Rahim Khatib / Anadolu / Getty
In just the last 10 months of its genocide, Israel has damaged or destroyed nearly 9 out of 10 schools in Gaza, the UN has reported.
According to assessments by the UN-backed Global Education Cluster, almost 85 percent of school buildings in Gaza have been directly hit or damaged, as the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) highlighted on Friday.
“Some of these schools will need full reconstruction. The war is destroying the present and the future of Palestinian children,” the agency wrote, calling for a ceasefire.
This is an astonishing proportion of school buildings in Gaza, and is emblematic of Israel’s campaign to destroy all sense of structure and community for Palestinian children — in addition to blowing off their limbs, orphaning them, and killing them through bombs,
Fred C. Trump, Donald Trump's Nephew - Time Magazine
Stephan:
Day after day we learn another yet another story about the loathsome criminal Trump. This a first person account from his nephew Fred. And yet millions of Americans worship this man no matter what he does. It is one of the most notable things about Americans, and our society. I confess I do not fully understand it and, from a continuity of consciousness perspective, Trump has been one of the luckiest men in history. One can only wonder what he did and has squandered from prior lives, and what he is going to face in lives to come.
Fred Trump and then-President Donald Trump in the Oval Office in 2018. Credit: Gallery Books, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, LLC
(Editor’s note: TIME reached out to former President Trump for a response to the description of events in this piece and did not receive a reply.)
When my uncle was elected President, I recognized what a highly privileged position I would be in. I would have some access to the White House. And as long as that was true, I wanted to make sure I used that access for something positive. I was eager to champion something my wife, Lisa, and I were deeply passionate about, something we lived every day: the challenges for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families.
Our son William, our third child, was born on June 30, 1999. Within 24 hours, he went from seemingly healthy to fighting for his life in the NICU. Raising him was different from the start. William was diagnosed at three months with infantile spasms, a rare seizure disorder which in William’s case […]
Kathleen Culliton, Assistant Managing Editor - Raw Story
Stephan:
Saturday I covered the $10 million dollar bribe the dictator of Egypt gave to criminal Trump in the form of 200 pounds of $100 bills (the image sticks in my mind) which resulted in a significant change in U.S. policy toward Egypt, and hundreds of millions of dollars of aid. But that is just a part of the the massive criminality ot Trump during his run for and term as President. Criminal Trump is the most dishonest and corrupt man to ever serve in the office of President. It amazes me that such a man would be considered for the Presidency for even a moment; he is like a cartoon figure. Yet, he is adored by the MAGAt voters who seem to accept and tolerate his vulgar dishonesty, which says a great deal about them personally.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump appears with his legal team Todd Blanche (L) ahead of the start of jury selection at Manhattan criminal court on April 15, 2024 in New York City. Credit: Jabin Botsford-Pool / Getty
Donald Trump’s refusal to give up his business when he entered the White House in 2016 ensured he earned more money as commander-in-chief than any other in U.S. history, a Forbes financial analysis revealed Monday.
Trump’s massive yet elusive earnings between 2016 and 2020 amounted to more than $250 million, according to Forbes’ analysis of his tax returns, bond filings and credit reports, writes senior editor Dan Alexander.
“For Trump, who earned even more before becoming president, the money was critical,” Alexander writes, “allowing him to service his debts, improve his properties, pay his kids and live like a king — all while governing the nation.”
Alexander breaks down the gains and losses of each of the four years Trump held […]
Laurel Williams, Staff - The Pew Charitable Trust Conservation Project - Pew Research Center
Stephan:
Here is some more good news from the Biden administration about preparing the United States for reducing the dynamics creating climate change. It isn’t even being covered by most of the media, nor is much else about climate change. We’re having an election in which most of the news is about Criminal Trump’s lies and corruption.
The best locations for large-scale solar farms are flat areas with a high percentage of sunny, clear days and with straightforward access to transmission lines to ensure the solar power can move to the U.S. energy grid, according to the Department of Energy. Credit: BLM Nevada / Flickr
Faced with growing urgency over the need to address climate change, coupled with technological advances that will enable solar energy development in more places, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is working to balance solar development and conservation in the U.S. West.
The BLM, which stewards more than 245 million acres across the country, announced in late 2022 that it would be updating its Western solar plan. The previous plan, completed in 2012, covered Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah. The current planning effort has been expanded to cover those six states plus Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming. After conducting an extensive public scoping process, the BLM released a draft […]
This is the Israeli government’s mindset. I don’t think there is anything else to say.
Israeli Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich is pictured outside Damascus gate in Jerusalem on June 5, 2024. Credit: Eyal Warshavsky / Sopa Images / Lightrocket / Getty
A top Israeli official suggested on Monday that he believes it is “morally justified” for Israel to wipe out Gaza’s population through famine and starvation, in chilling statements that pro-Palestine advocates say openly indicate genocidal intent.
Speaking at a conference hosted by the far right Israel Hayom newspaper, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich complained about having to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, saying that international norms are stopping Israel from taking what he claims is the “moral” path of starving 2 million Palestinians to death.
“We are bringing in aid because there is no choice,” Smotrich said, Israeli outlets reported. “We can’t, in the current global reality, manage a war. Nobody will let us cause 2 million civilians to die of hunger even though it might be justified and moral until our hostages are returned.”
“Humanitarian in exchange for humanitarian is morally justified, but […]
This is the latest evil from The Heritage Foundation. Fascists liked the Cold War, it created the military-industrial industries President Eisenhower warned us about, and for a small group of fascists it was astonishingly profitable. The people who fund The Heritage Foundation would like another run down that profit street. Criminal Trump would be only to happy to help them make it happen.
Credit: AdobeStock
At a time when all three major nuclear powers are upgrading their nuclear arsenals, when Russian leader Vladimir Putin has threatened that there are circumstances in which he would consider using such weapons in Ukraine, and when the one remaining U.S.-Russian nuclear arms control agreement is hanging by a thread, the last thing the world needs is an accelerated nuclear arms race.
But someone forgot to tell the Heritage Foundation, which just issued a report that, if implemented, would spark a nuclear competition that would rival the worst days of the Cold War.
The Heritage report summarizes its proposed nuclear buildup as follows:
“These expansions will include a larger ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) force, additional warheads on America’s ground-based strategic deterrent, and a modest road-mobile variant of the ground-based strategic deterrent. In the immediate term, the United States will upload non-strategic nuclear warheads from the ready reserve stockpile to existing theater capabilities.”
Beyond its jargon-laced call for more nuclear weapons, the Heritage report makes the […]
